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THE
AMERICAN
ECLECTIC  DISPENSATORY.
BY
JOHN KING, M. D.
PEOFESSOE OF OBSTETEICS AND THE DISEASES OF WOMEN AND CHILDEEN, IN THE CINCINNATI

 ECLECTIC MEDICAL INSTITUTE J FOEMEELY PEOFESSOE OF MATEEIA MEDICA, THEEA-

    PEUTICS, AND MEDICAL JUEISPEUDENCE IN THE MEMPHIS INSTITUTE.
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     CINCINNATI:

0 0 RE, W1LSTACH & KEYS,

  2 5 WEST FOURTH STREET.

       18 5 4. 
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   Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by



            MOOKE,  WILSTACH  AND KEYS,



In the Clerk's Office of  the District Court for the District of Ohio.
   C. A. MORGAN *: CO.,



BTHRKOTYPERS AND PUBLISHERS,



      BiUUOKD BTRMT.
# 
         ALL TRUE FRIENDS
                 OF
     ECLECTIC REFORM

THROUGHOUT  THE UNION,

            Cbh Sffotk
      IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED
                 BY
                    THE AUTHOR. 
ABBREVIATIONS,  ETC.
  The Abbreviations employed in the work, both where credit is given or for other
purposes, are as follows:
      Nat. Ord.,..........Natural Order.
      Sex. Syst.,..........  Sexual System of Linnseus.
      U. S.,...........United States Pharmacopoeia.
      U. S. Disp.,.........United States Dispensatory.
      Dub.,............Dublin Pharmacopoeia.
      W.S.M.,..........Mr. Wm. S. Merrell.
      T.V.M.,..........Professor T.V. Morrow.
      R.S.N.,..........      "    R. S. Newton.
      Z.F.,...........     "    Z. Freeman.
      J.K.,...........     "    J.King.

  In a few places, in speaking of doses, they are given "from half to three grains,"
instead of " from half a grain to three grains ;" also, in speaking of liquids, when
measured by fluidounces or fluidrachms, the term "fluid" is occasionally omitted.
The reader will please observe and rectify the  omissions, as well as any other that
may not have been observed by us. 
PREFACE.
   In laying before  the public  the  AMERICAN ECLECTIC DISPENSA-
 TORY, we are fully aware that the profession have been abundantly supplied
 with similar works of a high scientific character, which would leave no excuse
 for the publication of another, unless it should present important information
 not contained in the standard works.
   It may not be known to some of the readers of this work, that a great amount
 of highly important knowledge, in reference to the Therapeutic value of remedies,
 and especially of our native-American plants, has been accumulated by liberal-
 minded physicians in America; which knowledge, owing to various causes, has
 never yet been sufficiently  brought  before the medical  profession generally,
 and has not been embodied in the  voluminous  standard works  of Pereira,
 Wood and Bache, Dunglison, etc.  This knowledge being especially American
 in its origin, and having produced a marked  peculiarity in the practice of  a
 large number of American physicians, we deem it proper to  style this work the
 " American Eclectic Dispensatory,"  to distinguish it  from other works, which
 contain only the ideas or views which are common  to both  American and
 European physicians.
   Another urgent reason for the  publication of  this work, lies in the fact, that
 the important improvements and discoveries of American  Eclectic physicians
 have not only been, to a great extent, overlooked by authors, but have already
 begun to find their way into  medical works without any reference whatever to
 their paternity ; and  in some instances, articles  familiarly known and used for
 twenty years past by Medical Reformers, have been gravely brought  forward
 as new discoveries.
  The use of the term Eclectic,  in our title, implies something  more than
 what we usually associate with that word as a common adjective.   It refers to
 the existence of a large class of physicians in America, who believe that the
 profession has been too much trammeled by the influence of authority,  and by
 the disposition to impose upon the young members of the profession, certain
 scientific and ethical doctrines which their seniors have sanctioned ; thus reduc-
 ing a noble profession, with a comprehensive science, to the  character of a sect,
 with certain cherished dogmas.   American Eclecticism is thus opposed to
 medical sectarianism, and especially to that most oppressive form of secta-
 rianism, which, like the Roman Hierarchy, denying that it is sectarian, assumes
 to be an embodiment of unquestionable  truth, and pronounces the medical
 system which may be sanctioned by the majority of the present generation, a
standard  of scientific truth, from  which any deviation,  or even the  expression
of dissent, should be condemned and punished by professional and even social
ostracism.
                                                         (iii) 
•                              Preface.
  This assumption of infallibility, in the existing and prevalent system of the
rapeutics, or rather, of the right  to  enforce its acceptance, by dishonoring al
who dissent from its  doctrines, is too  extravagant to  bear the test of serious
examination.  No one who is familiar with  medical  history who  recollects
the incessant changes in medical doctrines and practice from  the  days of tra-
in's infallibility  to  the present time, and who remembers  how sternly the
main body of the profession have rejected and condemned the doctrines which
their successors were compelled to adopt, can suppose that a  profession  so
very fallible in  all past time, has even yet acquired infallibility;  nor can any
one  seriously believe it, when he  observes in  the doctrines and practice of
the present day the  same slow, steady, progressive change as in past times.
And if the idea of doctrinal infallibility as to Therapeutics, either in the mass
of the profession or in its most gifted  leaders, be, in fact, too absurd for serious
argument, what possible foundation can there be for the assumption that truth-
fulness and professional respectability  belong exclusively to the  majority, and
to their transitory doctrines,  and that  any different scientific  doctrines should
be branded as empirical and disreputable?
   Such assumptions, being essentially absurd  and groundless, are based now,
as they always  have  been, on that arrogant and intolerant  element of human
nature, which leads all large masses of men to attempt to  enforce conformity
to their own sentiments, and to dishonor all that opposes them—as an Egyptian
rabble hoot at a passing Christian.   The liberal and humane  spirit of the age
is opposed to such intolerance, and demands that sectarians in theology and in
science shall extend  mutual toleration to  each  other.
   This toleration is demanded not only by sound morals, by the  spirit of hu-
manity and the amenities of social life, but by justice to truth ; for as  no sect
or doctrine can be based exclusively upon falsehood, and as  it is certain that
whatever has been received by any considerable number of men must contain
an appreciable amount  of  truth,  true  philosophy dictates  that we should
receive and examine with candor all medical doctrines, not only through cour-
tesy to their supporters, but for  the sake of profiting by their  truths.  This
duty is especially urgent when the supporters of such doctrines claim to have
achieved much good by their medical practice;  and if their claims are well-
grounded, we should be culpable indeed, in neglecting  to avail  ourselves  of
the instruction  which they proffer for the sake of humanity.
   Those physicians who, in America, have been most zealous in maintaining
these liberal  principles,  have been called  Eclectics, and the principal school
in which such doctrines have been taught has been called the " Eclectic Med-
ical Institute."   It  is true, that many physicians have contended  that  the
whole profession should be  Eclectic, and that some even maintain that it is at
present Eclectic,  and liberally examines or adopts  whatever may be presented
that is new and true.  It is true, that the profession is not totally destitute  of
the spirit of Eclecticism, for such destitution would imply a total destitution
of liberality, but we cannot recognize Eclectic liberality  in  those who treat
with bitter scorn the personal and  professional  characters of scientific physi-
cians whose  doctrines differ from  the more  prevalent views of therapeutics,
and who, instead of recommending, endeavor  to discourage or prevent the free
examination of what they consider heretical doctrines, and who attach profes-
sional penalties to the avowal of what they deem heretical sentiments.   If the 
Preface.
v
investigation of different medical doctrines is to be carried on under the threat
of professional excommunication, unless certain conclusions are adopted and if
as has been recently arranged in certain medical colleges, the young practitioner
shall be entitled to hold  his  diploma only so long as he adheres to certain
opinions, there is no more freedom of investigation conceded on medical  sub-
jects than there would be freedom of suffrage when the polls were  overawed
by the bayonets of one of the candidates.
   In extending our personal courtesy and professional liberality to the followers
of Hahnemann, Priessnitz, and minor leaders of medical parties, we are merely
obeying the  positive  dictates of morality and religion, which forbid unkind,
illiberal sentiments; and as the time must come when all that has been devel-
oped by the labors of medical sectarians shall be incorporated with  the estab-
lished mass of recognized science, it  is unwise  and injurious to the progress
of the profession to delay such incorporation by encouraging animosities and
isolation among the cultivators of medical science.
   Such is the kindly and harmonious spirit which American Eclectics desire
to see introduced into the profession ;  but in addition to these ethical improve-
ments,  they desire a more faithful  and prompt adherence to the dictates  of
 Clinical experience. There are many  changes in the details  of medical  prac-
tice, the value of  which has been amply demonstrated by experience, in the
various climates of the United States, but which  have not yet  been adopted
by the  profession  generally, because  they are not yet sufficiently known and
understood by those who  have not been pupils of the Eclectic Medical  Insti-
tute.   For the nature of  these improvements, and  their gratifying  results in
the treatment of disease, we must refer to  the "American Eclectic  Practice,
by Professors Jones and  Morrow," the  " Eclectic  Practice of  Medicine,  by
Professors Newton and Powell," as well as the "Lectures on the  American
Eclectic System of Surgery, by Professor Hill," and the forthcoming system
of Eclectic Obstetrics, by  the author of the  present volume.
   For further information of the Eclectic system, we would refer to the prac-
tice of Eclectic physicians, and to the Lectures of the Institute.  This College,
chartered in 1845, has been for some years the leading Medicai College  of the
West, in point of numerical attendance ;  the whole number of matriculants in
1852-3, and 1853-4, was six  hundred, and the  whole number of graduates
amounted to one hundred and thirty-three.   We make this reference  because
the highest  evidence of the value of Eclecticism is found in the  successful
treatment of disease by Eclectic physicians ;  in the treatment of 1503 cases of
cholera in Cincinnati,  in 1849, with a mortality of only 65, and many analogous
facts, which will hereafter be more fully authenticated.  These great practical
improvements are simply the fruits of patient and faithful attention by numerous
physicians to the  results  of experience, and the liberal  spirit of the Faculty
of the Institute, who have not disdained to gather knowledge from any source.
We should not overlook, in our  passing  reference, the distinguished services
of individuals who, if they were not like Hahnemann or Dixon, the authors
of a special and exclusive  theory of therapeutics, have the more  exemplary
merit of faithful scientific observation in a liberal and candid spirit of improve-
ment, and the honor of arranging and presenting before the public, with untiring
energy  and unshrinking moral courage, a mass of science much in advance  of
prevalent ideas, and consequently greatly embarrassed by the habitual, resolute 
vi
Preface.
opposition of conservative minds.  We allude  especially to Dr. Thomas V.
Morrow, to whose reputation as a practitioner, and untiring zeal as a med-
ical professor, we are mainly indebted for the establishment and maintenance
of a school devoted to the Eclectic system of medicine at Worthington, Ohio,
and the subsequent successful establishment of the  Eclectic Medical Institute
of Cincinnati.  This reference to Professor Morrow is especially demanded by
the fact that so little has been left from his pen  to  bear witness  to  the  value
of his services as a medical teacher and pioneer  laborer in medical reform  and
improvement.  His distinguished co-laborers, Professors J. R. Buchanan  and
I. G. Jones, have already, by their pens, made known to medical readers their
conspicuous agency in medical progress.
   We are greatly indebted to  Professor Buchanan, the  present Dean of  the
Institute, for his able and zealous services, especially since 1846, in  maintain-
ing the success, the reputation and unity of the  Institute,  and shaping its pol-
icy, while at the same time he has been  known as a  peculiarly original and
philosophic teacher of medicine, and most distinguished  exponent, before  the
public, of the philosophy  of Eclecticism.
   To Professor I. G. Jones, we are greatly indebted as an  early co-laborer  of
Professor Morrow, at Worthington ;  as an eminent and veteran practitioner ;  an
able teacher of medical  practice, and a successful author, whose writings will
contribute much to  the diffusion and adoption of  the improved system of thera-
peutics, the value of which has been so well displayed  in his own practice.
If the Eclectic improvements  in  medicine are even one  half  of what is  be-
lieved by those who have  personally  tested them, they  who  have devoted
their best energies and risked  the entire  loss of reputation  for the  sake  of
such truths, will  be gratefully remembered by  posterity,  and  the  names  of
Morrow, Buchanan and Jones,  with  their coadjutors and successors in the
labor of scientific reform, will be held in distinguished honor.
   To this cause, the author of the present volume has been  devoted for about
twenty years as a medical practitioner, and latterly as a medical professor and
author, and he wishes no higher honor  than to be recognized as one of  those
who, at the commencement of the Eclectic movement, have participated in the
labors of its pioneers.
  An important characteristic  of  American Eclecticism, which may be  illus-
trated by this volume, is the superior zeal displayed by Eclectic physicians  in
making important and much needed improvements in the Materia Medica, and
especially in developing the medicinal value of our native plants.   There are
many results  attainable in practice, by the use of these new resources, which
could not be  satisfactorily realized by the agents in ordinary use.   One  of
these important results is the ability to  dispense  partially, if not wholly, with
various unsafe or deleterious agents, and accomplish the purposes  for which
they are used by safer and more scientific treatment.  We say more scientific,
because that  is certainly the most scientific prescription  which accomplishes
the object desired without incidentally inflicting unnecessary injury. The many
inconveniences and dangers attending the use  of mercurial medicines  have
produced a strong desire to find some safe  and efficient substitute.   There is
no single remedy ever known to man which has produced a greater amount of
mischief  by its indiscriminate use than  Mercury;  nor is there any other  drug
which has  done  one-hundredth part as much to create a  prejudice  against 
Preface.
vii
scientific medicine, to destroy the confidence of the community in its practition-
ers, and to repel them from the physician to the nostrum-dealer.   But with
the mass of the profession, the desire to find a substitute for Mercury has been
rather an idle fancy than a positive desire or purpose, and  has produced no
result whatever.  Indeed, the conviction still prevails, that  no substitute for
mercury can be found, and we regret to record the fact, in the year 1854, that
medical schools and medical authors generally, still regard mercury as the only
powerful and reliable cholagogue, simply because they are not acquainted with
the powers of other agents ; the most specific cholagogue known, Leptandrin,
not having obtained a place in any but the Eclectic Dispensatory, and Leptandra
itself having  been excluded from the U. S. Pharmacopoeia and the officinal part
of the U. S.  Dispensatory, on account of its supposed worthlessness.  Leptan-
drin, Podophyllin,  Apocynin,  and Iridin, with Sanguinaria,  Taraxacum, Ber-
beris, and Euonymus, and  occasional combinations of other articles, accomplish
far more than Mercury performs, in  the way of arousing the liver, affecting the
secretions generally,  and even producing  salivation of a  harmless  character.
It is not merely in  substitutes for mercurials, and for various prescriptions
which the physician uses with caution, and without entire satisfaction, that the
improvement of the Eclectic  Materia Medica consists, but also in the intro-
duction of agents and powers of a  novel character, or the extensive applica-
tion  of articles previously little known and seldom used.   Of articles, pre-
viously little known or used by the profession, which are extensively used by
Eclectic physicians, we may enumerate:
Achillea,	Cypripedium,	Leonurus,	Pteris,
Actaea,	Daucus,	Leptandra,	Pterospora,
Adiantum,	Diervilla,	Liatris,	Pycnanthemum,
Aletris,	Dioscorea,	Ligustrum,	Pyrola,
Alnus,	Epigsea,	Liquidambar,	Rhus,
Althaea,	Erechthites,	Liriodendron,	Uobinia,
Amaranthus,	Erigeron,	Lobelia,	Rubus,
Ampelopsis,	Eryngium,	Lycopus,	Rudbeckia,
Apocynum,	Erythronium,	Lythrum,	Rumex,
Aralia 's,	Euonymus,	Marrubium,	Sabbatia,
Arum,	Eupatorium,	Menispermum,	Salix,
Asarum,	Euphorbia,	Menyanthes,	Sanicula,
Asclepias,	Frasera,	Mitchella,	Saponaria,
Aster,	Fraxinus,	Monotropa,	Scutellaria,
Baptisia,	Galium,	Myrica,	Senecio,
Berberis,	Gelseminum,	Nymphsea,	Silphium,
Betula,	Geranium,	Onosmodium,	Solidago,
Bidens,	Gerardia,	Orobanche,	Spiraea,
Buxus,	Geum,	Osmunda,	Spirit Vapor Bath.
Capsicum,	Gillenia,	Ostrya,	Stillingia,
Caulophyllum,	Hamamelis,	Paeonia,	Symphytum,
Ceanothus,	Helianthemum,	Panax,	Trifolium,
Celastrus,	Helonias,	Parthenium.	Trillium,
Chelidonium,	Heracleum,	Phytolacca,	Ulmus,
Chelone,	Heuchera,	Plantago,	Urtica,
Chimaphila,	Hieracium,	Podophyllum,	UTaria,
Cimicifuga,	Hydrastis,	Polemonium,	Uvularia,
Clematis,	Hypericum,	Polypodium,	Verbascum,
Cochlearia,	Inula,	Polytriohum,	Verbena,
Ccimptonia,	Iris,	Populns,	Vernon ia,
Oonvallaria,	Jeffersonia,	Prinos,	Viburnum,
Corydallis,	Kalmia,	Ptelea,	Xanthoxylum.
Together with numerous others not herein referred to. 
Vlll
It is true, that
                 Preface.

a number of the foregoing articles have  been referred to  by
medical writers, and a few have been occasionally used in practice, but in gene-
ral, they have been located at the extreme verge of the visible horizon  of the
profession—in the outside regions of empiricism unknown to the mass of phy-
sicians, and but slightly known  to  any who were not  especially addicted to
botanical pursuits.   The honor of their introduction into regular medical prac-
tice, belongs to the Medical Reformers of America, through whom their virtues
have been°made known; and by whom  articles  have  been made  prominent
and important  agents in the Materia  Medica, which were previously treated
with so much contempt, that a  physician felt  almost ashamed to investigate
their virtues, or acknowledge any acquaintance with them.
  Of the above articles, or their  concentrated principles, which  are  absolutely
     and at present confined  to the circle of practice of Medical Reformers, by
new
whom they were introduced, we may mention:
Aletridin,
Alnuine,
Ampelopsis,
Antennaria,
Apocynin,
Asclepias Incar.
Asclepidin,
Aster,
Baptisin,
Bidens,
Buxus,
Caulophyllum,
Caulophyllin,
Ceanothus,
Ceanothine,
Chelone,
Cimicifugin,
Diervilla,
Dioscorea,
Dioscorein,
Echinospermum,
Epigaea,
Equisetum,
Erechthites,
Erechthites, oil of,
Euonymus,
Euonymine,
Eupatorin,
Eupatorium Purp.,
Eupurpurin,
Galium,
Gelseminum,
Geraniin,
Gerardia,
Cornu cervinae calcinatumGoodyera,
Corydalis,            Helonine,
Corydalia,            Hieracium,
Cypripedin,          Hierochloa,
Hydrastin,
Iridin,
Jeffersonia,
Juglandin,
Leptandrin,
Lobelia, oil of,
Menisperine,
Mitchella,
Monotropa,
Myricin,
Onosmodium,
Osmunda,
Ostrya,
Parthenium,
Phytolaccin,
Podophyllin,
Polemonium,
Polytrichum,
Prunin,
Ptelea,
Ptelein,
Pteris Atrop.,
Pterospora,
Pycnanthemum,
Rhusine,
Robinia,
Rudbeckia,
Scutellarin,
Senecin,
Sesquicarbonate of potassa
Silphium,
Spirit vapor bath,
Staphylea,
Stellaria,
Stillingia, oil of,
Uvaria,
Uvularia,
Vernonia,
Viburnum,
Viburine,
Xanthoxylin, and oil of
Xanthoxylum, etc
  The extensive use of the foregoing articles, and their consequent substitu-
tion, on many occasions, for the favorite remedies formerly in  use, constitutes
a practical improvement,  the value of which can scarcely be estimated, and
the simplest statement of what we believe and know  to  be true, as  regards
the superior success in practice resulting from these improvements in the  Ma-
teria Medica, would be regarded, by those entirely unacquainted with the facts,
as the language of extravagant enthusiasm.   For their truth, however, we can
but appeal to the final tribunal, universal experience; and it  is partly with the
view of facilitating this appeal by candid  physicians, that this  volume is laid
before the public, in which, we trust, every medical reader will find  sufficient
information,  in  reference  to the favorite  remedies of Eclectic  physicians,  to
enable him to enjoy in  practice what we deem the richest fruits of modern
clinical  experience, constituting the most recent and  important practical im-
provements in the healing art.
  It will  be seen that the work is divided into three parts:
  Part  I, is devoted to an explanation of the  Natural  Orders of the  various
Medicinal Plants named in the work, and which will prove a valuable reference
for  the  practitioner in collecting them;  indeed, without  this reference the 
Preface.
ix
work would  have  been very imperfect, especially for those who  practice as
Medical Reformers.
  Part  II, is devoted to the Materia Medica; the  various  plants are arranged
alphabetically, and their Botanical characters are given with sufficient accuracy
to enable the medical botanist to select and determine  them  when  met with.
The Natural and Artificial classifications of each are mentioned, together with
the Vulgar names by which they are known in different sections of our country.
A brief reference is likewise  made to their general History, with a statement
of such Chemical relations and  incompatibilities, medically considered,  as  will
be necessary for practical purposes; and  as far as known,  the  Therapeutic
influence of each agent is fully but concisely presented.  Since the introduction
of our  new remedies, some of which were discovered and introduced  to the
profession  by the author, as  Podophyllin,* Irijjin, Cimicifugin, etc.,  a  great
improvement has taken place in Eclectic treatment, and the  successful results
have been so well marked  and undisputed  as to have recently invited the
investigation of  the more  liberal old school physicians ; and it is with no little
pleasure  we state, that already hundreds of them, notwithstanding arbitrary
prejudices, are adopting our  new remedies, and are gratified by finding them
greatly superior to the agents for which they have been substituted.
   Part III, is occupied principally with Eclectic Pharmacy, and those Prepara-
tions only have  been described, which  an  enlarged and successful experience
has justly entitled to the rank of officinal;  many others might have  been men-
tioned, but further investigations are required to test  their permanent  utility.
Indeed, the Pharmacy of Eclectic Practice may be said to be almost  endless,
as a vast amount of agents, both  simple and compound, are in  constant  use,
which would require a volume  equal in size to  the present for their thorough
consideration ; and to select from these the more common and successful  pre-
parations has been  a task of no ordinary labor.   Our Resinoids, Oleo-resins, etc.,
which some might deem to be in their proper  place  only in this part of the
work, we preferred to arrange in Part II, accompanying the history, etc., of the
plants  from which they  are obtained.  Decoctions and  Infusions  which are
largely used in practice,  have  been briefly noticed,  without any special list,
although the general rules for their preparation are laid down ;  and wherever
there is a departure from these in any article required in infusion or decoction,
it will be ascertained under the  description of the  article in Part  II.

  * Many of our most valuable therapeutical agents have from time to time found tfcoir way into the
Old School text-books without due credit having been given to their origin, thus lea'liug many to be-
lieve that these agents were  discovered and introduced to the profession by Old School physicians;
when in truth they were merely transferred from the various reformed publications, to the pag;es of
these text-books at different periods, as  Reformers made them  known.  Our Podophyllin, since  its
value and usefulness have been demonstrated, is about to have the same course pursued with it, as
various means are being adopted to bring the credit of its origin into  the Old  School ranks. In the
new edition of (jriffith's Universal Formulary, edited by Dr. Robt. P. Thomas. J. P.. Lewis' method of
preparing this retinoid, (a method adopted long after its discovery by the author.) is given, in which
it is presented, by imputation, as a pure article; for the editor remarks—''An impure podophyllin has
been prepared by VV. S. Merrell, by precipitating the resin from a concentrated alcoholic tincture  by
the addition of water."  But unfortunately for the purity and medicinal activity of Lewis' Podophyl-
lin, it requires six grains to act as an ordinary cathartic, while that of Merrell's requires only from
half a grain to a grain and a half, thus proving the latter to contain three or four times as  much of
the medicinal activity of the root as the  former.  The medical reader will, therefore, please bear in
mind the difference between Eclectic Podophyllin, and that claimed by the Old  School, as well as the
difference in their modes of preparation. 
X
Preface.
   In the Appendix will be found an amount of selected matter of a valuable
 character, consisting  of Medical Abbreviations and Latin  terms; Tables  of
 Weights and Measures ; of Mineral Waters ; Specific Gravities ; Solubility of
 Salts, etc., which will be of much utility to the  chemist and pharmaceutist,
 and which, we hope, will  prove acceptable to all.
   The Index has been rendered as full and complete as possible, that no  diffi-
 culty may be experienced  in readily finding any subject contained  in the work.
   In scientific matters, to  write a purely original work is out of the question;
 authors have to avail themselves of  the  information and discoveries promul-
 gated by each other, and in the endeavor to present a complete practical knowl-
 edge.of medicines, we have not hesitated to consult many excellent authorities ;
 and though considerable information is introduced not to be had in other publi-
 cations, yet the only originality claimed is the introduction of New Medicinal
 Plants; of Concentrated Remedies — their Preparations and uses ; of valuable
 and Officinal Eclectic Pharmaceutic Preparations ; the selection and disposition
 of the matter, and the endeavor to systematically methodize the hitherto crude
 material floating among Eclectics, as well as to rectify the irregular classification
 of many valuable remedies, thus preserving for Eclecticism the proper credit
 for all to which  it is justly entitled.   And as Eclecticism has heretofore, by
 silence, lost much of the credit to which it was justly entitled, it is hoped that
 this work, by a systematic  presentation of its ample and original resources,  may
 serve to secure the honor of medical improvements to their true sources.
   We acknowledge our indebtedness to the following authorities, which have
 been freely consulted  and selected from,  viz : United States Pharmacopoeia,
 United States Dispensatory, Christison's Materia Medica, Griffith's Medical Bot-
 any, Edwards' and Vavasseur's Materia Medica, Mitchell's Therapeutics, Dun-
 glison's  New  Remedies,  Barton's Collections, Eberie's Practice, Thatcher's
 Practice, London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical  Magazine,  Southern
 Journal of Medicine and  Pharmacy, Silliman's Journal, Boston Medical  and
 Surgical  Journal, Dublin  Journal  of Medical  Science, Brande's  Manual of
 Pharmacy, Dublin Pharmacopoeia, London Dispensatory, Gray's Botany  of the
 Northern United States, Mohr and Redwood's  Pharmacy by Procter, Journal
 de Pharmacie, Philosophical Magazine, Pereira's Materia^Medica, Medicul  Ex-
 aminer, Chemical Gazette, Wood's Class-Book of Botany, Woodville's Medical
 Botany, Bigelow's Vegetable Materia Medica, American Journal of Pharmacy
American Journal of Medical Sciences, Braithwaite's Retrospect, London Lan-
 cet, Eaton's Botany, Lindley's Medical Flora  and Vegetable  Kingdom,  Merat
and De Len's Dictionnaire de  Matiere Medicale, Rafinesque's Medical  Flora
 Smith's Botanic  Physician, Howard's  Botanic Practice, Western Medical  Re-
former, Eclectic Medical Journal, Jones and Morrow's American Eclectic Prac-
tice  Newton and Powell's Eclectic Practice, Hill's Eclectic Surgen  etc  eV
  We are likewise under many obligations to Mr. W. S. Merrell, and Drs  F
D  Hil & Co, of Cincinnati, for several pharmaceutical communication of a
valuable character, also to  Professor J. Milton Sanders for the formula of sev-
eral new salts  recently discovered by him, and some  of which have bo,n suc-
cessfully employed as remedial agents. We likewise return our thanks to those
members of the profession who have  imparted to us new  and useful  medica
inflation, or who have in any way contributed to aid us in the  pre]^Zt 
                             THE

                 AMERICAN

ECLECTIC    DISPENSATORY
PAR  T   I,
            DESCRIPTION
                    OF THE

NATURAL    ORDERS
                      OF
        MEDICINAL   PLANTS.
  The study of Botany is  an important part of the Physician's educa-
tion, especially the Eclectic  Physician, whose Materia Medica is, for the
greater part, derived from the Vegetable Kingdom.  In order, therefore,
to invite attention to the science of Botany, as well as to assist the prac-
titioner in  the Botanical  investigation of the various  Medicinal Plants
referred to in the body of this work, a departure from the usual course
pursued in the preparation of Dispensatories has been taken, and as full
a description of their  Natural Orders, as could be obtained from the
various authors consulted, given in the following pages. These, together
with the individual characters related under the head of each article of
the  Materia Medica, Part II, will  enable the Practitioner to select with
accuracy,  our  various indigenous Medicinal Plants, from those  not yet
recognized as such.  This will, undoubtedly, be viewed as a most import-
ant  acquisition to the work, one which must materially enhance its value,
in a practical sense, when it  is remembered, that for want of a reference
of this kind, many efficacious Remedial Plants, have remained unnoticed,
or been entirely forgotten.

  Botanists have divided the Vegetable Kingdom into two great natural
divisions,  viz; 1. Ph^enogamous  or Flowering  Plants,  which are also
called  Vasctjlares, from their  abounding with ligneous and  vascular
tissue ; 2.  Cryptogamia or  Flowerless Plants,  also called Cellulares
from consisting chiefly of cellular tissue.   These have  again been  divi-
ded into Orders, Classes, Genus, Species, etc., to enter into a detail of
which is out of the province  of this work. 
12
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
                        PHJ1N0GAMIA,

                      Or Flowering  Plants.

   Are plants consisting of a regular axis of growth, with leafy append-
ages ;  composed of a cellular, vascular,  and ligneous  structure; devel-
oping flowers and producing seeds.

                        SUBDIVISION  I.
               Exogens, or, Dicotyledonous  Plants.
   Stems  with a distinct pith and bark, between which  are  layers  of
woody fiber and  vessels.    Growth  by  annual,  concentric,  external
zones or  layers, and traversed by rays,  Leaves mostly with reticulated
veins,  and falling off by an articulation.  Sepals and Petals in fives and
fours,  much oftener than in  threes.   Seeds in  a pericarp.   Embryo
with two or more opposite cotyledons.

                     CLASS I.  Angiosperms.
   Ovules produced within an ovary and  fertilized by the pollen through
the medium of the pistil, becoming seeds inclosed in & pericarp.   Cotyle-
dons, only two, opposite.

              SUB-CLASS I.  Polypetalous Plants.
   Floral  envelops   usually consisting of both  calyx  and  corolla; the
latter composed of  distinct petals, (occasionally absent.)

             ORDER I.  Ranunculace^e.   Crowfoots.
   Herbs, (or woody vines) with  a colorless acrid juice.   Leaves mostly
alternate and  much  divided, with  half-clasping  petioles.  Calyx  of
mosily five sepals,  sometimes three, four, or six, mostly deciduous, and
imbricated  in  aestivation.   Corolla with from  three  to  fifteen  petals,
sometimes irregular, or wanting.  Stamens many, distinct,  hypogynous.
Anthers adnate or  innate.   Ovaries many, occasionally few or  solitary
distinct, seated  on the torus.   Fruit either  dry  achenia,  or baccate  or
follicular.  Embryo minute, at the base of horny or fleshy albumen.

   1. Clematis.  Sepals four, colored, pubescent,  the  valvate  margins
more or less bent inwards in the  bud.   Petals none, or shorter than the
sepals.   Filaments  numerous, shorter than the sepals.  Anthers linear
extror e.    Ovaries from four to twenty.  Styles  longer than the stamens!
Achenia numerous in a head, bearing the persistent styles  mostly  as
hairy or plumose tails.—Perennial herbs or vines, a little  woody, with
opposite and mostly compound leaves. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
13
  2. Anemone.   Involucre  of three divided leaves,  distant from  the
flower, its  leaflets incised.    Calyx regular,  of five to fifteen colored
sepals, petaloid.   Corolla none.  Stamens numerous, much shorter than
the sepals.   Ovaries many, free, collected into a roundish or oval head.
Achenia many, mucronate  or caudate.—Perennials with radical leaves,
and scapes with leaf-like involucres.

  3. Hepatica.   Involucre of three entire, ovate, obtuse bracts, calyci-
form, very near the flower, persistent.   Calyx  of five to  nine  petaloid
sepals, disposed in two or three rows.   Corolla none.   Stamina many,
short.   Achenia  awnless.—Leaves all radical, thick, and persistent;
flowers single.

  4. Ranunculus.  Sepals  five.   Petals five,  occasionally  ten, with a
nectariferous  scale or pore  at the base inside.   Stamens  and ovaries
numerous.  Achenia  numerous in  a head,  ovate, flattened,  pointed.
Seed erect.—Annuals or  perennials, with  alternate  stem-leaves,  and
flowers solitary or somewhat corymbed, yellow, rarely white.

  5. Coptis.   Sepals  five or six, oblong,  concave,  colored, deciduous.
Petals five or six, small, cucullate,  obconic.   Stamens twenty to twenty-
five, hypogynous.  Pistils from three to seven, on slender stalks.  Cap-
sules, many, stipitate, rostrate, diverging in a stellate manner, and from
four to six seeded.—Low smooth perennials, with  ternately divided root-
leaves, a long, slender, creeping rhizoma, and  small  white flowers on
scapes.

  6. Helleborus.   Sepals five, petaloid, greenish, rounded, persistent
Petals,  from  eight  to ten,  very short,  tubular, two-lipped.   Stamens
numerous.   Stigmas from three to ten, orbicular, terminal.   Follicles
coriaceous,  many-seeded, nearly erect.  Seeds arranged  in two rows,
elliptical, umbilicated.—Perennials  with divided, coriaceous  leaves,  and
large nodding flowers.

  7. Delphinium.   Sepals five, colored, the upper one spurred, decidu-
ous.  Petals four, irregular,  the two upper ones terminating behind in
a tubular, nectariferous spur,  inclosed in the spur of the calyx.   Styles
one to five, mostly three.   Follicles one to five, many-seeded.—Plants
with leaves  much divided,  flowers in terminal racemes,  blue, red or
purple, never yellow.

  8. Aconitum.   Sepals five, very irregular, petaloid, deciduous,  the
upper one helmet-shaped, larger than the others.   Petals five, the three
lower very minute or wanting, the  upper two on long claws, concealed
beneath the helmet-shaped  sepal,  recurved, and nectariferous at  the 
14
Natural  Orders of Plants.
 apex.—Perennials, with  digitate or palmate leaves, and flowers in ter-
 minal spikes.

   9. Act^ea.   Sepals  four, roundish, deciduous.  Petals four to eight,
 spatulate,  unguiculate.   Stamens  numerous,  dilated above.   Anthers
 two  lobed,  introrse.   Stigma  sessile,  depressed, two-lobed.   Ovary
 ovoid.  Fruit  globose, with a lateral furrow, one-celled.  Seeds many,
 smooth, compressed,  horizontal. — Perennials  with  ternately divided
 leaves, and a thick terminal raceme of white flowers.

   10. Cimicifuga.  Sepals  four  or five, deciduous.   Petals  three  to
 five,  concave  or unguiculate,  sometimes  wanting.   Stamens many.
 Anthers introrse.  Style short.  Stigma simple.  Follicles, one to eight,
 oblong, many-seeded.—Perennials  with  ternately divided  leaves, the
 leaflets cut-serrate, and white fetid flowers in long slender racemes.

   11. Xanthoriza.   Sepals five, regular, spreading, deciduous.  Petals
 five, much smaller than the sepals, concave,  two-lobed, and raised  on a
 claw.   Stamens five or  ten.   Pistils and ovaries five  or ten.   Ovaries
 beaked with  the styles, two or  three  ovuled.   Follicles  oblong, mostly
 one-seeded.  Seed suspended.—Low suffruticose plants ; stem and bark
 yellow and bitter ; leaves pinnately divided ;  flowers small, dark purple,
 often polygamous, in axillary, compound, drooping racemes.

   12.  Hydrastis.   Sepals three,  ovate, petaloid, equal, falling away
 when the flower opens.   Petals  none.   Stamens and ovaries numerous.
 Anthers innate.  Pistils  many, two-ovuled.    Stigma flat,  two-lipped.
 Fruit baccate,  compound, terminated by a style, one celled, one or two
 seeded.  Seeds obovate,  polished.—Perennials  with  two  leaves,  and
 one flower.

   13.  P^eonia.   Sepals five, unequal, leafy, persistent.   Petals, five to
 ten, roundish.   Stamens many, mostly changed  to petals by cultivation.
 Ovaries from two to five, surrounded by the fleshy disk.  Style none.
 Stigmas double, persistent, sessile.  Follicles fleshy, many-seeded.  Seeds
 dry,  round,  numerous. — Perennials with fasciculate  roots, biternate
 leaves,  and large, terminal, solitary flowers.

         ORDER II.   Magnoliaceje.  Magnoliads.
   Trees or shrubs, with  alternate, coriaceous, simple, entire or lobed
never serrate, minutely  punctate leaves, and deciduous, membranaceous
stipules, either  convolute in the  leaf-bud, or  placed  face  to face.   The
flowers are large, solitary, showy, perfect, and fragrant.  The calyx is
deciduous, of three to six sepals, and colored like the petals; the corolla
consists of from three to thirty petals in several rows.  Stamens numer-
ous,  hypogynous, distinct,  with short filaments, and adnate  anthers. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
15
Ovaries several, in many rows upon an elongated torus; style short, with
a simple stigma.  Fruit various, of numerous one or two-seeded follicu-
lar  or baccate  carpels, woody or fleshy, and aggregated in a cone-like
form.   Seeds anatropous, suspended or ascending, with a fleshy albumen
containing a small embryo at base.

  1.  Magnolia.   Calyx with five  sepals, often none or petaloid.  Petals
six  to twelve, caducous.   Stamens with very short filaments, and long
anthers opening  inward.   Pistils  aggregated and coherent in a mass,
together forming a fleshy and rather woody cone'like  fruit; each carpel
opening on the back at maturity, from which the one  or two berry-like
seeds  hang by  an  extensile stalk composed  of  a fine web of unrolled
spiral vessels.  Inner seed coat bony.—Mostly trees with luxuriant foliage
and large fragrant flowers ; buds conical, formed of the  successive pairs
of stipules rolled up, each pair enveloping the leaf next above, which is
folded  lengthwise,  and  applied  straight against the side of  the next
stipular sheath, and so on.

  2. Liriodendron.   Sepals  three,  refiexed,   caducous.  Petals six,
spreading, in two rows, making a bell-shaped corolla.  Anthers linear,
opening outward.  Pistils flat and scale-form, long and narrow, imbri-
cated and cohering together in an oblong  cone, dry, separating from
each other, and from the prolonged slender axis in the fruit, and falling
away whole, like a samara or key, indehiscent, one or two-seeded in
the  small cavity at the base.  Buds flattish, sheathed by the  successive
pairs of flat stipules joined at their edges, the folded  leaves bent down
on  the petiole so that their apex points to the base of the bud.—Trees
with large and fragrant flowers.

   3. Drimys.    Calyx two or  three-cleft, or with  two or  three deep
divisions.   Corolla with two or three petals, sometimes  more.   Stamens
numerous,  with the filaments  thickened at the  summit, and anthers
having two cells.  Ovaries four to eight.  Carpels  congested, baccate,
many seeded.

            ORDER III.  Anonacejs.  Custard Apples.
   Trees or shrubs, with alternate, simple, entire leaves, no stipules, naked
duds, and flowers usually green  or brown, axillary,  large, shorter than
the leaves.  The sepals  are three or  four, persistent, often  united at
base   Petals six,  in  two rows, coriaceous,  hypogynous,  sestivation
valvate   Stamens numerous, densely  crowded, with  extrorse adnate
anthers.  Filaments very  short.   Pistils several or  many, separate or
cohering  in a mass.  Style short  or none.   Stigma simple.   Fruit  dry
or  succulent, from one to many seeded, distinct, or aggregated.  Seeds 
16
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
anatropous, large, with a crustaceous seed-coat,  and a minute embryo
at the base of the ruminated albumen.

   1.  Uvaria.  Sepals three, united at  base.   Petals  six, in two rows,
their  margins in each set slightly overlapping in the bud ; the outer set
larger.   Stamens  numerous in  a globular  mass.   Pistils  few.  Fruit
oblong, baccate, often torulose,  pulpy within.   Seeds several.—Shrubs
or small trees, of an unpleasant odor when bruised; flowers dull-colored,
axillary and solitary.

            ORDER. IV.  Menispermace^e.  Moonseed.
   Twinino- or climbing shrubs,  with  alternate, entire  leaves, and small
flowers in panicles or racemes, usually dioecious.   Sepals  from three to
eio-ht, in a double  series, from two to four in each, imbricated in sestiva-
tion,  hypogynous, deciduous.  Petals from one  to eight, hypogynous,
usually as many as  the  sepals.  Stamens  distinct or monadelphous,
equal  in number to  the petals, and  opposite to them, or three or four
times as many.   Anthers innate, and consisting of four globose lobes.
Fruit  a  one-seeded drupe, with  a  large  curved  embryo.   Albumen
sparing.

   1.  Cocculus.  Flowers unisexual, dioecious.  Sepals six, in two rows.
Petals six, distinct.   Stamens six, opposite, free.   Ovaries from three to
six.   Drupes one  to six,  one-celled, one-seeded.   Racemes  axillary,
rarely lateral.—Flexible or twining plants.

   2.  Menisperiium.  Sepals four to eight, in a double row.  Petals four
to seven, minute, retuse.   Flowers dioecious.   Stamens twelve to twenty.
Anthers four-celled.   Ovaries and styles two to four.  Drupes round, one-
seeded.  Seeds lunate and compressed.—Twining or climbing plants.

   3.  Anamirta.   Flowers  dioecious.   Sepals six, in a  double series,
with two closely-pressed bracteoles.   Stamens united.   Columns dilated
at the apex.  Anthers numerous, covering  the whole globose apex of
the column.  Female flowers unknown.  Drupes one to three, one-celled,
one-seeded.  Seed globose, deeply excavated at  the hilum.   Albumen
fleshy ; cotyledons  very thin, diverging.—Twining plants  with a corky
bark, leaves more or less cordate-ovate, and  flowers in lateral compound
racemes.

   4.  Cissampelos. Flowers dioecious. Male flowers, with four sepals in a
double series.  Petals four, united into a cup-shaped corolla.   Stamens
five ;  anthers connate.  Fertile flowers, with one,, rounded  sepal, and one
petal.  Fruit a one-seeded berry. 
Natural Orders of Plants.
17
               ORDER V.  Myristicace^e.   Nutmeg.
   Trees with alternate, exstipulate, not dotted, entire, petiolate, coria-
ceous leaves.   Flowers in axillary or terminal racemes or panicles, very
small,  often each  with one short,  cucullate bract.   Calyx  coriaceous,
usually tomentose outside, trifid or rarely quadrifid, with a valvate aesti-
vation.   Unisexual;  male flowers with the filaments separate or united
in a cylinder.  Anthers from three to twelve or more,  extrorse,  with a
longitudinal dehiscence, connate or distinct.  Female flowers, with a deci-
duous  calyx;  carpels solitary or many,  with a single  erect anatropal
ovule ;  style very  short;  stigma somewhat lobed.   Fruit baccate ;  albu-
men ruminate, between  fleshy  and fatty ; embryo small;  cotyledons
diverging.  Radicle inferior.

   1. Myristica.    Flowers  dioecious.   Calyx urceolate, three-toothed.
Male, stamens united into a columnar tube ;  anthers from  six  to ten,
cohering.  Female, ovary simple ;  style none ;  stigma two-lobed.   Peri-
carp fleshy, two-valved,  one-seeded.   Seed  inclosed  in a  coriaceous,
many-cleft arillus.—Aromatic and  stimulant trees.

              ORDER VI.  Berberidacejs.  Barberry.
   Herbs  or  shrubs with  alternate, usually exstipulate, simple or  com-
pound leaves.   Flowers solitary, racemose, or panicled, perfect.   Calyx
of three to six sepals, imbricate in  two rows, often  reinforced by peta-
loid scales, deciduous.   Corolla  hypogynous, with  one  to three times as
many petals as sepals, and opposite to them.  Stamens as many or twice
as many as the petals and opposite to them. Filaments short.  Anthers
generally opening by recurved  valves,  adnate, extrorse.   Ovary one-
celled, solitary, simple.   Style sometimes  lateral or oblique, sometimes
wanting.  Stigma orbicular or peltate.  Fruit baccate or capsular. Seeds
one  or  few, attached to the bottom of the cell; or many,  attached to
lateral placentae.   Embryo in the axis or near the base of the fleshy or
horny  albumen.

   1. Berberis.   Sepals  six, obovate, spreading, colored, with  two or
three bractlets outside.   Petals six, suborbicular,  biglandular at base.
Stamens six, without denticulations, and with flattened filaments.  An-
thers two separate lobes on opposite  edges of the connectile.   Stigma
orbicular, nearly  sessile.   Fruit a fleshy, one-celled berry, oblong, two
or three-seeded.   Seeds erect, oblong, with a crustaceous integument.—
Shrubs, with  yellow wood and  inner bark, yellow flowers in drooping
racemes, and sour berries and leaves ; stamens irritable.
       2 
18                 Natural Orders of  Plants.

  2. Leontice.   (Caulophyllum.)   Calyx free  from the  ovary,  and
consists of from three to six green sepals, with two, three or more fuga-
cious bractlets at base, ovate-oblong.  Petals six, gland-like, somewhat
kidney-shaped or  hooded bodies with short claws, much smaller than the
sepals, one at the base of each of them.   Stamens six, opposite the
petals ;  anthers oblong ; the face of each cell opening like a lid or valve,
hinged at the top.   Pistil gibbous;  style short; stigma minute; ovary
bursting at  an early stage by the pressure of the two erect enlarging
seeds, soon withering  away.   Pericarp  membranaceous, caducous, two
to four-seeded.  Seeds erect,  globose, naked on their thick seed-stalks,
looking like drupes; the fleshy  integument  blue ; the  solid albumen
horny.

  3. Podophyllum.   Sepals  three, oval,  obtuse,  concave,  deciduous.
Petals six  to  nine,  obovate,  concave.   Stamens  six to eighteen,  with
linear  anthers, not opening by perfect uplifted valves.   Ovary ovoid;
stigma large.  Fruit  a large fleshy berry, ovoid, one-celled, many-seed-
ed, crowned by the solitary,  crenated, sessile stigma.  Seeds covering
the thick lateral placenta, inclosed in  pulpy arils, all forming a mass
which fills the cavity of the fruit.—Perennials with creeping rootstocks
and thick  fibrous roots,  acrid and purgative ; stems two-leaved, one-
flowered.

   4. Jeffersonia.  Sepals four, colored, deciduous.  Petals eight, oblong,
flat, spreading, incurved.  Stamens eight, with oblong-linear anthers,
on  slender filaments.   Ovary ovoid, soon gibbous, pointed; stigma  two-
lobed, peltate.  Capsule obovate, stipitate,  opening half-way round  hori-
zontally, making  a lid.   Seeds  many on  the  lateral placenta, with  a
fleshy lacerate aril on one side.—Perennial glabrous herbs, with matted
fibrous roots,  long-petioled root-leaves, bearing two half-ovate  leaflets,
and simple naked one-flowered scapes.

              ORDER VI.   Nymphace^e.   Water-Lily.
   Aquatic herbs, with peltate or cordate floating leaves from a prostrate
rhizoma.   The flowers are large, showy,  solitary, often  sweet-scented.
 Sepals  and petals  numerous, imbricated, gradually passing into  each
other;  sepals persistent;  petals  inserted upon the  disk which surrounds
the pistil.   Stamens  numerous,  in  several  rows upon  the disk,  with
petaloid filaments,  and  adnate,  introrse  anthers.  Fruit  a pod-like
berry ripening under water,  crowned with the radiate  stigmas, many-
 celled,  many-seeded ;  seeds anatropous, attached to the spongy placentae,
 and enveloped in a gelatinous aril; embryo small, inclosed in a little bag
 at  the end of the farinaceous albumen, next the hilum, with a distinct
 plumule, inclosed by the two cotyledons. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
19
   I.  Nymph.ea.   Sepals  four, arising from the side of the ovary, green
outside.   Petals numerous in many rows, perigynous, the inner narrower
and  gradually passing into numerous  perigynous stamens.  Fruit a
depressed-globular pericarp, dry, indehiscent, many-celled, with a ses-
sile, linear, separate, peltate stigma surrounded with rays ;  covered over
by the withered sepals and petals ; a papilla in the center of the stigma.
Seeds numerous, inclosed in a sac-like aril.—Perennial  aquatic plants,
with white, blue or rose-colored flowers.

   2.  Nuphar.  Sepals five or six, oblong, concave, colored within, pe-
taloid, hypogynous,  permanent.  Petals, ten to eighteen,  hypogynous,
much smaller than the  sepals and  stamen-like, furrowed  externally,
inserted with  the stamens  on  the torus, and secreting honey from  their
back.  Stamens numerous, truncated, linear, springing with elasticity
from  the  ovary about the time of flowering.   Fruit a dry, indehiscent,
many-celled,  many-seeded pericarp,  ovoid, naked, and crowned by a
stellate, peltate, sessile, compound stigma; aril none.—Perennial, aqua-
tic plants with yellow flowers; the root in infusion with milk said to kill
cockroaches;  also reputed anti-aphrodisiac.

         ORDER VII.   Sarraceniace^e.  Water Pitchers.
   Perennial bog-plants with fibrous roots, and hollow pitcher-form, or
trumpet-shaped radical leaves.   The flowers are large, solitary, or seve-
ral on scapes.  Sepals five, persistent, with a three-leaved involucel at
base;  aestivation imbricate.  Petals five, unguiculate, hypogynous, con-
cave.  Stamens numerous, hypogynous, with  oblong, adnate,  introrse
anthers.    Ovaries five-celled, placentae central.   Style single, petaloid,
umbrella-shaped.   Stigma dilated, peltate, five-angled.   Fruit capsular,
five-celled,  five-valved,  crowned with  the persistent  stigma.   Seeds
numerous, minute.

   1.  Sarracenia.  Sepals five, with three small bracts at base, colored,
persistent.  Petals five, oblong or obovate, incurved, deciduous.   Sta-
mens  numerous, hypogynous.  Ovary compound, globose, crowned  with
a  short style, which is  expanded at the summit  into a very broad and
petal-like  five-angled and five-rayed  umbrella-shaped body; the five
delicate rays terminating under the angles in as many little hooked  stig-
mas.   Capsule with a granular surface, protected by the persistent style,
five-celled, with many-seeded  placentae in the axis, five-valved.   Seeds
anatropous, with  a small embryo at the base of fleshy albumen.—Per-
ennials, yellowish-green and purplish; the hollow leaves having a wing
on one side, and a rounded, arching hood at the apex.

              ORDER VIII.  Papaveracejs.   Poppy.
   Herbaceous plants, with milky or colored juice, and alternate simple
or divided leaves, without stipules.   The flowers  are solitary, on long 
20
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
 peduncles, never blue.   Sepals two, rarely three, deciduous, imbricated
 in  aestivation.   Petals  four  to twelve, hypogynous, spreading, imbri-
 cated  in the bud,  deciduous.  Stamens  distinct,  numerous,  but some
 multiple of four, rarely polyadelphous, with innate anthers.   Ovary of
 one or more united carpels;  style very short or none; stigmas two, or
 if more, stellate upon  the flat apex of the ovary.  Fruit either  pod-
 shaped, with two parietal placentae, or a one-celled capsule, opening by
 valves, holes, or pores under the  permanent stigma.  Seeds numerous,
 anatropous, minute, often crested with a  minute embryo at the base of
 fleshy or oily albumen.

   1. Papaver.  Sepals two,  convex, deciduous.  Petals four.  Stamens
 numerous.  Style wanting; stigmas  united in a flat four to twenty radi-
 ate crown  resting on the summit of the ovary and capsule.   Capsule
 superior, short,  turgid, spheroidal, one-celled,  with many-seeded pla-
 centae, forming  incomplete septa, opening by many pores  beneath  the
 lobes of the broad, persistent stigma.—Exotic herbs,  mostly biennial,
 with white juice, and nodding flower-buds.

  2. Sanguinaria.   Sepals  two,  caducous.  Petals eight to  twelve,
 spatulate-oblong, the inner  narrower.    Stamens  twenty-four.   Style
 short.  Stigmas  two, sessile, one or two-lobed, connate.   Capsule pod-
like, oblong, acute  at each end,  one-celled, two-valved, many-seeded.
 Seeds obovate, with a large crest.—Perennials, with thick prostrate root-
stocks  containing a red-orange acrid juice, with  white flowers.

  3. Chelidonium.   Sepals two, suborbicular.  Petals four, suborbicu-
lar, contracted at base.  Stamens numerous, shorter than the petals.
 Style  nearly wanting.    Stigmas  small,  sessile,   two-lobed.  Capsule
silique-form, linear, slender, smooth, two-valved, one-celled, the valves
opening from  the bottom.  Seeds  numerous, with  a glandular cristate
raphe.—Perennials, with brittle stems,  saffron-colored  acrid juice, and
small yellow flowers in umbel-like clusters.

              ORDER IX.   Fumariace^e.  Fumitory.
  Herbaceous plants with brittle stems and a watery juice.  Leaves usu-
ally alternate, multifid, often furnished with tendrils.  Flowers irregular,
purple, white, or yellow.  Sepals two, small and scale-like, deciduous.
 Petals four, hypogynous, parallel, one or both of the outer saccate, two
inner cohering at apex.  Stamens six,  diadelphous, with dilated fila-
ments,  and adnate,  extrorse anthers, the  two outer one-celled, middle
 one two-celled.   Ovary superior, one-celled;  ovules horizontal, amphi-
tropal; style filiform; stigma with one or more points, flattened at  rio-ht
 angles with the ovary.  Fruit either an indehiscent, one or two-seeded 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
21
nut, or a two-valved, or succulent indehiscent, polyspermous pod.  Seeds
horizontal, shining, arilled.  Albumen fleshy.  Embryo minute, out of the
axis;  straight where  the  fruit  is  indehiscent,  and  somewhat  curved
where it dehisces.

   1. Dielytra.   (Corydallis Formosa.)  Sepals  two, small; Petals four,
the two  outer equally spurred or gibbous at the base, deciduous.   Sta-
mens united in two sets of  three each.   Stigma  two-crested and some-
times two-horned.  Pod two-valved, ten to twenty-seeded.  Seeds with
a  lateral crest.—Low, stemless perennials, with  ternately  compound
and dissected leaves  and  simple  scapes,  bearing racemose  nodding
flowers.   Pedicels two-bracted.

   2. Fumaria.   Sepals two,  caducous.   Petals four, unequal, one of
them  spurred at the  base.  Filaments  in  two  sets each with  three
anthers.   Style deciduous.   Fruit, an ovoid or globose achenium, small,
one-seeded, and valveless.   Seeds crestless.

       ORDER  X.   Brassicace^e,  or Crucifer^:.  Mustard.
   Herbaceous plants, with a  pungent, watery juice, very rarely suffru-
ticose, with alternate leaves and no stipules.  The flowers are  yellow or
white, rarely purple, without bracts,  generally in racemes.  Sepals four,
deciduous.  Petals four, hypogynous, alternate with the sepals, cruciate,
regular,  nearly equal.  Stamens six, two  of  them inserted lower  down
and shorter than  the others, which are in pairs.  Anthers  introrse.
Torus with two  or more glands, between the stamens  and the ovary.
Ovary generally of two cells, with a membranaceous false dissepiment.
Style  short or none, with a two-lobed, or double stigma.  Fruit a silique
or silicle, usually two-celled, many seeded,  opening by  the two valves
separating from the permanent placenta;  rarely  one-celled, and  indehis-
cent.  Seeds campylotropous, mostly pendulous, attached in single rows
to each edge of the placenta, with no albumen.   Embryo  with the cotyle-
dons variously folded on the radicle.

                      SECTION I.  Siliculosjl
   1.  Cochlearia.   Calyx equal at the base, spreading;  sepals concave.
Petals obovate,  obtuse, entire.  Stamens not toothed.   Style short, or
none.   Silicle sessile, oblong or ovoid-globose ;  dissepiment thin; valves
ventricose thickish;   cells  seldom   two-seeded,   usually  many-seeded.
Seeds not margined.  Cotyledons flat, accumbent.—White flowers; leaves
usually fleshy.

   2.  Iberis.  The two outside petals larger than the two  inner.   Silkies
compressed, truncate, emarginate;  cells one-seeded.—Exotic. 
22
Natural  Orders of Plants.
                      SECTION  II.  Siliquos^e.
   3.  Cardamine.  Calyx closed, or somewhat spreading, equal at the
 base.   Petals unguiculate, entire.  Stamens distinct, not toothed.   Pod
 or silique sessile, linear, compressed, with  flat nerveless valves rather
 narrower than the thickened dissepiment, and often separating with elas-
 ticity.  Style short or wanting.   Stigma nearly simple.  Seeds ovate, in
 one row, not bordered, with a slender funiculus.  Cotyledons accumbent.—
 Mostly perennials, with white or purple flowers.

  4.  Sisymbrium.  Calyx mostly spreading, equal  at base.  Petals un-
 guiculate, entire.  Silique subterete ;  valves concave ;  style very short;
 seeds in a single series, ovoid ; cotyledons incumbent, sometimes oblique.—
 Flowers small, white or yellow.

  5.  Sinapis.   Sepals equal at base, spreading.   Petals obovate, with
 straight claws.  Stamens  distinct, entire.  Silique subterete, with a short
 beak,  two-celled, two-valved; cells  many-seeded; valves  concave, or
 keeled with a central  nerve.   Style short and acute, or ensiform, or ros-
 trate  subulate conical ;  seedless or  one-seeded.    Seeds  globose, one
 rowed ; cotyledons conduplicate.—Annuals  or biennials, with the lower
 leaves lyrate, incised or pinnatifid ; flowers always yellow.

              ORDER XL  Polygalaceje.  Milkwort.
  Herbaceous or shrubby plants, sometimes twining, with alternate, or
 rarely opposite,  mostly simple leaves, without stipules.   The flowers are
 perfect, unsymmetrical.   Pedicels  with three bracts.  Sepals five, often
 irregular and unequal, green, somewhat united at base; three exterior,
 of which one is  superior,  and two interior.   Petals usually three,  hypo-
 gynous, deciduous,  one anterior and larger than the others, which are
 alternate with the upper  and lateral sepals, sometimes united at  base ;
 or when five petals, the two additional ones are very small.   Stamens six
to eight, united  by the  anthers into two fasciculi; anthers innate, one-
 celled, opening  at the  apex.   Ovary  superior, compressed, two-celled,
 each  cell with one pendulous ovule,  rarely two to  six, one cell  often
 abortive.   Style curved and often cucullate.   Fruit a loculicidal,  or in-
 dehiscent small capsule.  Seeds pendulous with a fleshy albumen.

  1.  Polygala.  Sepals five, persistent, two of them wing-shaped and
 petaloid.   Petals three, cohering by  their claws to the filaments, the
 lower one  carinate, the two  additional ones abortive.   Stamens united
 into a tube at base, which is  cleft in  front; anthers opening by a pore.
 Capsule obcordate,  compressed,  two-celled, two-valved,  two-seeded.
 Seeds pendulous, pubescent, with  a carunculate arillus at the hilum;
 albumen abundant, fleshy ; embryo  large ;  cotyledons flat  and broad.—
 Bitter plants, with the lower petal mostly tipped with a crest. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
23
              SUB-ORDER.   Krameriace^e.   Rhatany.
  2. Krameria.   Sepals four  or five, irregular, colored, spreading, de-
ciduous.  Petals,  four  or five, hypogynous,  smaller  than the sepals;
two or  three  superior  ones  unguiculate;  two lower ones small, scale-
like.  Stamens one, three, or  four, hypogynous, unequal.   Ovary one-
celled, or incompletely two-celled ; style terminal;  stigma simple ; ovules
in pairs, suspended.  Fruit between hairy and leathery, globose, covered
with hooked prickles, by abortion one-seeded, indehiscent.  Seeds round-
ish-ovate ;  albumen none.—Exotic.

                 ORDER XII.  Violace^e.   Violet.
  Herbaceous or  shrubby plants, with simple, alternate, sometimes op-
posite,  stipulate leaves,  involute in vernation.  Sepals  five,  persistent,
slightly united, elongated  at base,  the two lateral interior.  Petals five,
alternate with the  sepals, hypogynous, usually unequal, the  upper one
generally spurred  or saccate  at base ;  twisted-imbricate in the bud.
Stamens five, usually inserted on the hypogynous disk, alternate with the
petals ; filaments dilated and projecting beyond the anthers, and more or
less coherent over the stigma,  two  of them usually with  a gland at base.
Anthers two-celled, introrse, opening longitudinally.   Ovary one-celled,
of three united  carpels, with  three parietal  placentae ; style one, club-
shaped, sometimes declined or curved, with an oblique cucullate stigma.
Fruit a three-valved capsule, one-celled, many-seeded.   Seeds often with
a tumor at base, and a  horny testa; embryo  straight  in the axis of a
fleshy albumen ; cotyledons flat.

   1.  Viola.   Sepals five, oblong, acute, unequal, auricular  at  base.
Petals five, unequal, the upper one (by resupination the lower,) broad-
est,  spurred  at base ;  the two lateral equal, opposite.   Stamens  five,
approximate ; filaments distinct; the two anterior having anthers that are
often spurred; anthers  connate,  the lobes diverging at base.   Capsule
many-seeded, three-valved,  bursting  with elasticity,  seeds  attached to
the valves.—Low herbaceous perennials, acaulescent or caulescent, with
angular peduncles, and solitary flowers in a resupinate position.

               ORDER XIII.   Cistace^.  Rock-Rose.
   Herbs or low shrubs, often with viscid branches, having  opposite or
alternate,  simple, entire, usually  feather-veined  leaves;  generally the
lower are  opposite, and the upper alternate.   Flowers white, yellow, or
red, very  fugacious,  in one-sided  racemes.   Sepals five,  unequal, per-
sistent, the three  inner with a  twisted aestivation;  the two external small
like bracts, sometimes  wanting.  Petals five,  or by abortion three, fuga-
cious  hypogynous, convolute  in the  opposite direction from the sepals
in  aestivation.   Stamens  indefinite, seldom few,  distinct, hypogynous: 
24
Natural  Orders of Plants.
anthers short, innate.   Ovary of three to five connected  carpels ;  styles
and stigmas, single  or none,  generally united.   Fruit, capsular,  either
one-celled  with parietal placentae, or imperfectly  three  to  five-celled,
with dissepiments proceeding from the middle of  the valves.   Seeds few
or numerous, on  slender  stalks,  with the  orifice at  the  apex; embryo
slender, nearly  straight or spirally convolute, in mealy albumen.

   1. Helianthemum.   Sepals  five, the two outer smaller.   Petals five,
or rarely three by abortion, fugacious, crumpled in the  bud.  Stamens
numerous.   Stigmas three, scarcely distinct; style short or none.   Cap-
sule triangular, one-celled, three-valved, opening at  top.   Seeds angular;
embryo curved like the letter S.—The flowers are  yellow, open in sun-
shine, and  cast their petals by the next day; roots  perennial.

         ORDER XIV.  Hypericace^e.   St.  John's Wort.
   Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with a resinous and  acrid  juice, and  often
with angular  branches.  Leaves opposite, entire, mostly  sessile  and
punctate with pellucid dots, and black glands ; no stipules.   The flowers
are perfect, mostly yellow, with cymose  inflorescence.   Sepals four or
five, distinct or united at base, persistent, unequal, dotted, imbricated in
aestivation.   Petals  four  or  five, hypogynous,  veins  oblique, dotted,
twisted in aestivation, mostly deciduous. Stamens numerous, hypogynous,
in three or more parcels.  Anthers  versatile, introrse.    Ovary single,
superior; style  slender, persistent; stigma  simple.   Fruit a capsule or
berry, two  to five, rarely six or seven-lobed, many  celled, with as many
styles as lobes, which  are sometimes united.  Seeds  numerous, minute,
anatropous, with little or no albumen.

   1. Hypericum.   Sepals five,  united at base,  sub-equal,  leaf-like.
Petals  five, oblique.   Stamens few or numerous,  united at base  into
three or  five parcels, with no  glands between  them.   Styles three to
five, distinct or rarely united  at base, persistent.   Capsules unilocular,
or with several  cells, membranaceous,  three to five-valved, many-seeded.
Seeds roundish ;  seed-coat double ; albumen none;  embryo with semicy-
lindrical cotyledons.—Herbaceous or shrubby plants, with opposite, entire,
pellucid, punctate leaves,  and yellow, solitary  flowers, or in cymose
panicles.
              ORDER XV.   Caryophyllace^e.   Pink.
   Herbs with the stems swelling at the joints or nodes,  with  opposite,
entire leaves, the  uppermost rarely  alternate, and  destitute  of stipules.
Flowers regular.  Sepals  four or five, distinct,  or  cohering in a tube
continuous  with the peduncle, persistent.   Petals  four or five, sometimes
none, either unguiculate and inserted upon  the  pedicel of the ovary, or
without claws and  inserted on the outside of a fleshy disk.  Stamens 
Natural Orders of Plants.
25
twice as many as the petals,  rarely equal  or few ; filaments subulate,
sometimes monadelphous ;  anthers innate, two-celled, with a longitudinal
dehiscence.   Ovary often stipitate ; styles stigmatic the whole length of
their  inner surface ; stigmas two  to five,  filiform.  Fruit a one-celled
capsule, rarely two to five-celled,  opening at the apex by twice as many
teeth as there are stigmas.   Seeds numerous, campylotropous ;  albumen
mealy; embryo  external,  curved round  the  albumen, or sometimes
straight.
                        TRIBE I.   Alsine^e.
   Sepals distinct or nearly  so.   Petals without claws  inserted on the
outside of the disk.  Stamens inserted on the margin of the disk.

   1.  Stellaria.   Sepals  five,  connected  at base.    Petals  two  to
five parted.   Stamens  ten, rarely fewer; styles three, sometimes four.
 Capsule superior, one-celled, three-valved, many-seeded.—Small  grass-
like herbs, in moist, shady places, witli white flowers  in forked cymes.

                        TRIBE II.   Silene^e.
   Sepals  united into a cylindrical tube.  Petals clawed, inserted with
the stamens  upon the stipe of the ovary.

   2.  Saponaria.  Calyx tubular, five-toothed, without scales.   Petals
five,   unguiculate.  Stumens ten;  styles two;  capsule  short-stalked,
obloncr, one-celled, or partly two-celled at the  base,  four-toothed at  the
apex.  Embryo coiled into  a ring.—Perennials with a  mucilaginous
 juice, flowers in cymose clusters, petals often crowned.

                  ORDER XVI.  Linacejs.   Flax.
   Herbaceous or shrubby plants with  sessile, entire,  alternate,  some-
 times nearly opposite leaves, without  stipules.  Flowers terminal, usu-
 ally in corymbs or panicles, regular and symmetrical.   Sepals three, four,
 or oenerally five, distinct,  or more or  less united, persistent; aestivation
 strongly  imbricated.   Petals  as  many as  sepals,  and alternate  with
 them, hypogynous,  unguiculate,  caducous,  twisted in  aestivation.
 Stamens equal  in number  to the petals, united at base into  a hypogy-
 nous ring, which is often toothed, often with an abortive filament between
 each; anthers innate.   Ovary with  as many  cells  as there are  sepals
 and styles, with capitate stigmas.  Fruit a globose capsule, with  three,
 four,  or five cells, containing two seeds in each cell.   Seeds suspended,
 compressed.  Albumen none, or very thin; testa mucilaginous ;  embryo
 flat, oily.

    1.  Linum.   Sepals,  petals, stamens and  styles five, the latter  rarely
 three.   Capsule globose, five-celled;  cells  nearly  divided by  a false 
26
Natural  Orders of Plants.
dissepiment.   Seeds  ovate, compressed, anatropous,  mucilaginous,  con-
taining a  large embryo with plano-convex  cotyledons.—Herbs with a
fibrous bark, and terminal, corymbose or panicled flowers.

            ORDER  XVII.   Geraniace^e.   Geranium.
  Plants with  herbaceous or shrubby  stems, tumid and separable at the
nodes, with opposite or alternate foaws,petiolate,palmately-veined, mostly
stipulate.   Flowers on terminal peduncles, or opposite  the leaves, some-
times axillary.  Sepals five, persistent, veined, one sometimes  saccate
or spurred at the base, with an imbricate aestivation.   Petals five, or by
abortion  four, hypogynous, or perigynous, unguiculate, with a  twisted
aestivation.  Stamens usually monadelphous, hypogynous, twice or thrice
as many as the petals ; anthers fixed by the middle, introrse.   Ovary of
five lobes, each one or two-celled, placed alternate with the sepals, round
an  elongated, elevated  axis ; styles five,  persistent, cohering round the
axis.  Fruit five carpels, united to the central axis, membranaceous, and
when mature separating by the twisting of the style.   Seeds solitary, ex-
albuminous, with a lateral hilum ;  radicle straight; cotyledons convolute,
plaited.

   1.  Geranium.   Sepals and petals each  five, equal.   Stamens  ten, fer-
tile, the five alternate ones longer, and each with a nectariferous gland
at its base.  Fruit rostrate, at length separating into five  long-styled,
one-seeded carpels; styles smooth inside, at length recurved from the
base  upward  and adhering by the point  to the summit of the axis.—
Perennial herbs, with forking stems, rarely shrubby at base  ; peduncles
one to three-flowered.

           ORDER  XVIII.   Oxalidace^e.   Wood-Sorrel.
   Plants  with sour juice, low,  herbaceous stems,  alternate and  com-
pound leaves; stipules rarely present.  Flowers regular and symmetri-
cal.  Sepals five,  persistent,  equal, sometimes slightly cohering at  base,
imbricated in  aestivation.  Petals five, hypogynous,  deciduous, equal,
unguiculate, twisted  in aestivation.   Stamens ten, hypogynous, more or
less monadelphous,  those  opposite the petals longest.  Ovary of five
united carpels, opposite the petals ; styles five, distinct.  Fruit capsular,
usually membranaceous, five-lobed, five-celled ; carpels one to twelve-
seeded.   Seeds anatropous ;  embryo straight;   cotyledons  broad and
 foliaceous.

    1. Oxalis.   Sepals five, distinct or united at base, persistent. Petals
 five, withering after expansion.   Slam.ens ten ; filaments slightly mona-
 delphous.  Styles five, capitate.   Capsule oblong or subglobose  ; carpels
 five, one to several-seeded.  Seeds with an elastic testa, pendulous from 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
27
the axis, their outer coat loose and separating; albumen fleshy.—Peren-
nials, mostly with trifoliate leaves.

         ORDER XIX.   Balsaminace^e.   Jewel Weeds.
  Annual herbs with succulent stems and a bland watery juice. Leaves
simple,  without stipules.   Flowers  very irregular and unsymmetrical.
Sepals five, deciduous, the two  upper connate,  the lowest spurred or
gibbous.  Petals four, hypogynous, united by pairs, or rarely  five, dis-
tinct.   Stamens  five,  hypogynous;  filaments  subulate;   anthers two-
celled.   Ovary five-celled, compound.  Stigmas sessile.  Fruit capsular,
five-celled, bursting elastically by five valves.   Seeds anatropous, several
in each cell ; embryo straight; albumen none.

   1.  Impatiens.   Calyx and corolla colored  alike and confounded, im-
bricated in the bud.   Sepals apparently but  four; the  two upper being
united, with a notch at the apex, the lowest  gibbous and  spurred.
Petals apparently two, each of the lower being united to the two lateral
ones.  Anthers cohering at the apex,  and opening on the inner face.
Capsule often  one-celled  by the obliteration of  the dissepiments, five
valved, bursting elastically.—Annuals, with tender, smooth, juicy, and
sub-pellucid stems with tumid joints.

          ORDER XX.    Xanthoxylace^e.   Prickly Ash.
   Trees or shrubs, pungent and bitter-aromatic, with alternate or op-
posite pinnate, rarely simple leaves, with pellucid dots  and no stipules.
The flowers are regular, gray, green, or pink, dioecious, or polygamous
by abortion.   Sepals three to five, rarely six to nine, connected at base.
Petals as  many as sepals, and  longer, sometimes wanting, twisted  in
aestivation.   Stamens  alternate with the petals,  of  the  same  number,
seldom twice as many;  in the pistillate flowers either wanting or imper-
fect ; anthers introrse.   Ovaries usually of the same number as sepals,
stipitate, distinct or united ; ovules two to four in each carpel;  styles dis-
tinct, or connate when the ovaries  are separate, and combined  when
these are  united.   Fruit  baccate,  membranaceous, or  drupaceous, of
one to five drupes or  two-valved  capsules.   Seeds solitary or  in pairs,
pendulous ; embryo within  a fleshy  albumen ; cotyledons oval, flat.

   1. Xanthoxylum.   Flowers dioecious.   Calyx  inferior.  Sepals three
to five, petaloid when there are no  petals.  Petals as many and longer
than the sepals, sometimes wanting.   Male flowers ;  stamens  as many
as the sepals, equal to them or longer, inserted  round the  base of the
gynophore.  Pistils rudimentary, simple or compound.  Female flowers ;
 stamens usually wanting,  sometimes very  short, and  either with  or
without abortive anthers.   Pistils three to five,  raised  on  a  short 
28                 Natural Orders of Plants.

base or stalk, distinct ;  styles, one from the apex of  each ovary, distinct
or united at the apex ; sometimes very short or scarcely any.   Ovaries
one to five, on  a globose or cylindrical  gynophore ;  ovules two in each
cell, suspended, collateral.    Capsules one to five, sessile, or stalked on
the gynophore (receptacle,) two-valved, one or two-seeded. Seeds black
and shining ; when solitary globose,  when in pairs  hemispherical:  em-
bryo straight or slightly  curved.—Trees or shrubs, usually with prickles
on the branches,  petioles, and  nerves of the leaves ;  leaves pinnately
three  to five-foliate.

  2. Ptelea.   Flowers polygamous.  Sepals three to six, mostly four,
much shorter than  the three  to six, spreading petals.    Male flowers ;
stamens three  to six, longer than the petals and alternate with them, in-
serted round a receptacle bearing a sterile pistil.  Female flowers ; sta-
mens  very short and  imperfect.   Ovary on a convex receptacle, com-
pressed, two-celled, formed of  two united carpels ;  styles short, united,
or wanting ; stigmas two.   Fruit a two-celled, two-seeded samara, com-
pressed, membranous, indehiscent, winged all round, nearly orbicular.—
Shrubs with three  to five foliate leaves, and greenish-white small flowers
in compound terminal cymes.

              ORDER XXI.   Simarubace^e.   Quassia.
  Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual.   Calyx  four or five-sepaled, per-
sistent.  Petals four or five, hypogynous, deciduous, aestivation twisted.
Stamens equal  or twice as many as the petals, placed on  a hypogynous
disk.   Ovary four to  five-lobed, containing one suspended ovule in  each
cell ;  style single,  filiform, larger at  base.   Carpels as many as  petals,
capsular,  bivalved, opening inwardly, monospermous.  Seeds pendulous,
exalbuminous,  with two  thick cotyledons, and a short, superior radicle.

   1.   Simaruba.    Flowers unisexual.   Calyx  small, cup-shaped, five-
parted.   Petals five, longer,  spreading.   Male  flowers ; stamens nearly
as long as the  petals, arranged round a receptacle, having five  minute
lobes  at  its apex,  (rudiments  of ovaries,)  sometimes  none.   Female
flowers ;  ovaries  five, placed on an even disk, surrounded at the base
by ten short hairy scales, (rudiments of stamens).    Styles five, short,
 distinct at the base, united at  apex  and crowned by a broad five-lobed
 stigma.   Fruit five drupes.

   2.  Quassia. Flowers hermaphrodite.  Sepals five. Petals five, longer
 than the  sepals, and arranged  in a tubular form.   Stamens ten, longer
 than the  petals ;  anthers transverse.   Ovaries five, placed on a receptacle
 broader than themselves ; styles five, distinct at base, united at apex, and
 terminating in a nearly equal  five-furrowed stigma. Fruit drupaceous. 
Natural  Orders of  Plants.
29
   3. Picr.ena.   Flowers  polygamous.    Sepals five, minute.   Petals
 five, longer than the sepals.   Stamens five, about as long as the petals,
 rather  shaggy;  anthers  roundish.   Ovaries three,  seated  on a round,
 tumid  receptacle.   Style three-cornered, trifid ;  stigmas simple, spread-
 ing.  Fruit three drupes, globose,  one-celled, two-valved,  distant from
 each other, and placed on a broad, hemispherical receptacle.

              ORDER XXII.  Anacardiace,e.  Sumach.
   Trees  or shrubs with a resinous,  gummy,  caustic, or  even  milky
 juice, with dotless, alternate, simple,  or ternate, or unequally pinnate
 leaves.   Flowers terminal  or  axillary, commonly dioecious, with bracts.
 Sepals  three  to seven, usually five and persistent.  Petals as many as
 sepals or wanting;  aestivation imbricated.  Stamens  as many as sepals,
 alternate with the petals, distinct, on the base of the calyx; anthers in-
 trorse.    Ovary solitary, free, one-celled, with  a solitary ovule; styles
 three to five,  or wanting; stigmas three.   Fruit indehiscent, commonly
 drupaceous, one-seeded.   Seeds erect or  suspended,  exalbuminous ;  em-
 bryo more or  less curved;  cotyledons very thick and fleshy, sometimes
 foliaceous.

   1.  Rhus.  Flowers  polygamous or  hermaphrodite.   Sepals  five,
 united at base, persistent.   Petals five, ovate, spreading.  Stamens five,
 rarely ten, equal, free.   Disk orbicular.   Styles three, short, distinct,
 or united.  Stigmas three, capitate.  Fruit almost a dry drupe, sub-
 globose, one-seeded.   Seed solitary, suspended on a funiculus, arising
 from the base of the nut; embryo inverted ;  cotyledons foliaceous; radicle
 opposite to the hilum, bent  downward  along the margin of the cotyle-
 dons.—Small  shrubs or trees,  with  alternate, mostly compound leaves ;
 peduncles axillary or terminal.

   2. Pistacia.   Flowers dioecious, apetalous.   Males ;  sepals five ; sta-
 mens five ; anthers sub-sessile, four-cornered.   Females ; calyx three or
 four-cleft; styles three ; stigmas three.  Drupe, dry, ovate,  one-seeded;
 seeds solitary,  erect,  exalbuminous;  cotyledons thick,  fleshy, oily, with a
 superior lateral radicle.

                 ORDER XXIII.   Rutace^e.   Rue.
  Herbs, shrubs, or  trees, with punctate leaves  and no stipules.  Flowers
perfect.   Sepals and  petals four or five,  the latter  rarely  wanting;
aestivation  a little twisted, sometimes valvular.   Stamens as  many, or
twice or thrice  as many as the  petals, or fewer by abortion, hypogy-
nous, on the outside  of a cup-like disk  surrounding the ovary, and free
or combined with  the base  of  the  corolla.   Ovary,  sessile or stipitate, 
30                 Natural Orders of Plants.

its lobes equal in number to the petals, or fewer;. styles united or dis-
tinct only at base ; stigma simple or dilated.  Fruit of several capsules,
either  firmly united, or more or less distinct.   Seeds two  or  solitary,
with a testaceous integument; embryo with or without albumen ;  cotyle-
dons variable.

  1. Ruta.   Sepals four or five, united at base, at  length  deciduous.
Petals equal in  number to  sepals,  concave,  obovate, distinct,  longer
than  the calyx,  unguiculate ; the  limb vaulted, usually waved or jag-
ged.   Stamens  twice  as many as  the petals; filaments  subulate,  gla-
brous ; anthers ovate,  obtuse.   Torus surrounded with as many nectari-
ferous pores or glands as there are stamens.   Styles four, distinct  at
the base,  united above;  stigma four-furrowed.    Capsules somewhat
globose, four-lobed, dehiscing internally at the apex.   Seeds dotted.—
Exotic.

  2. Barosma.   Sepals  five, united at base, dotted.   Disk at the base
of calyx with a  small rim.   Petals five, unguiculate.   Stamens ten, the
five opposite the petals are sterile,  petaloid, sessile, ciliated, and obscure-
ly glandular at base ;  the other five longer, smooth, or hispid, subulate ;
anthers with  a  minute gland at the apex.   Style as  long as the  petals;
stigma minute, five-lobed.  Fruit five cocci covered with glandular dots
at the back.

   3.  Galipea.    Calyx short,  cup-shaped, five-toothed.   Petals five,
longer than the  calyx, somewhat  unequal, united at base  into  a short
tube, bell-shaped.   Stamens five to eight, adhering to the tube of the
corolla, of which two to four are sterile, or five  all fertile ; anthers ob-
long, sometimes revolute after flowering.    Style one, bearing a  four or
five-grooved stigma.   Capsides five, sometimes by abortion fewer; seeds
solitary by abortion.

             ORDER XXIV.  Aurantiace.e.   Orange.
   Trees or  shrubs glabrous, abounding in little transparent receptacles
of  volatile oil, with alternate leaves, articulated with the petioles, which
 are frequently  winged.  Sepals three to five, united into a short urceo-
 late or campanulate cup, marescent.   Petals  three to  five, broad  at
 base, slightly imbricated in aestivation, inserted on the outside of a hy-
 pogynous  disk.    Stamens  as many as  the petals, or some multiple of
 their number,  in a single row, hypogynous ;  filaments flattened below,
 distinct or united ; anthers  terminal, innate.  . Ovary many-celled, com-
 posed of  several united carpels ;  style  one, cylindrical; stigma  sliohtly
 divided, somewhat lobed.  Fruit globular, large, baccate,  pulpy, many-
 celled, covered with  a leathery  indehiscent  rind,  abounding with 
Natural Orders of  Plants.
31
vesicles of volatile oil.  Seeds solitary or  many, attached to the inner
angle of each cell, usually pendulous;  raphe and chalaza usually very
distinctly  marked, exalbuminous;  embryo  straight;  cotyledons thick
and  fleshy.

   1. Citrus.   Calyx three to five-cleft, urceolate.   Petals three to eight,
oblong.  Stamens twenty to  sixty; filaments dilated at base, polyadel-
phous ;  anthers oblong.  Style terete; stigma hemispherical.   Fruit bac-
cate, seven to twelve or  eighteen-celled; cells with  several seeds,  filled
with a fleshy substance composed of numerous irregular pulpy bags or
vesicles, which are mere  cellular  extensions of the sides of the carpels.—
Trees  or shrubs  with  axillary solitary spines, simple leaves articulated
with the petiole, or pinnate leaves reduced to one terminal leaflet, odorif-
erous flowers, and delicious fruit.

              ORDER  XXV.    Ternstromiace^e.   Tea.
   Trees or  shrubs with alternate, coriaceous, exstipulate leaves.   The
fiowers axillary or terminal, white, rarely red or  pink.   Sepals three to
seven,  concave,  coriaceous, deciduous, the inner often the largest;
imbricate in aestivation.  Petals mostly five,  but  sometimes six or  nine,
hypogynous, alternate  with the sepals, often  united at base.    Stamens
numerous, inserted on  the petals ; filaments distinct, or usually united in
one or more sets  at base  ; anthers adnate or  versatile.   Ovary superior,
two  to seven-celled, usually sessile  on  a  discoid torus ; ovules two or
more in each cell; styles two to seven, distinct or united.  Fruit two to
seven-celled, capsular,  baccate, or coriaceous  and indehiscent.  Seeds com-
monly few and large, somewhat  reniform, downy, albuminous, or  exal-
buminous ; embryo curved or straight;  cotyledons often  large, and con-
taining oil.

   1.  Thea.   Calyx without  bracts; sepals five or  six,  rounded, imbri-
cated, equal.   Petals  five to nine,  sessile, unequal, the outer shorter.
Stamens numerous, smooth, adhering to the very  base of the petals;
style  simple  at the  base, trifid  upward.    Capsule spheroidal, three-
celled,  often by abortion one-celled; cells  opening  at the  apex, one or
rarely two-seeded.  Seeds  spheroidal, wingless.

            ORDER XXVI.  Zygophyllace^e.   Guaiacum.
   Flowers regular.  Sepals five, distinct, or scarcely cohering at  base.
Petals five,  alternate with the sepals, unguiculate, inserted on the recep-
tacle.   Stamens twice  as many as the petals, hypogynous; anthers fixed
near their middle.  Ovary of four or five united carpels, surrounded at
base with five scales  on a sinuate  disk.  Styles five, united into  one.
Fruit  a capsule  of five  carpels, four  or five-seeded, dehiscent at the 
32
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
superior  angle.  Seeds albuminous or exalbuminous; albumen cartilagin-
ous or horny ;  embryo green, straight;  cotyledons foliaceous.

   1. Guaiacum.    Calyx deeply five-parted, unequal, obtuse.    Petals
five, longer than the sepals, equal, unguiculate.    Stamens ten, without
scales.   Ovary stipitate with two  to five angles, two to five  cells, and
about eight suspended ovules in a cell.    Styles short, acute, and united.
Capsule,  on a very  short  stalk, somewhat  fleshy,  angular.   Seeds
solitary by abortion, smooth, pendulous.

             ORDER XXVII.   Malvaceae.   Mallows.
   Herbs, shrubs or trees with  alternate, stipulate and divided leaves;
hairs stellate or none.   The fiowers are axillary, showy, regular, often
with an involucel at base.   Sepals five, seldom three or four,  united at
base, persistent, valvate in aestivation.   Petals five, hypogynous, valvate
in aestivation.   Stamens as many as the petals, or some multiple of them,
hypogynous, monadelphous;   anthers  reniform,  one-celled,   opening
transversely.   Ovary of several carpels, arranged in one or more rows
around a common axis,  distinct or coherent.   Styles as many as carpels,
united or distinct.   Stigmas as many, or twice as many as styles.  Fruit
capsular  or baccate  ; carpels one or many-seeded, distinct or united, the
dehiscence septicidal or  loculicidal.   Seeds sometimes hairy, exalbumin-
ous ; embryo curved ; cotyledons foliaceous, twisted.

   1.  Malva.   Calyx five-cleft, the involucel mostly three-leaved,  some-
what like an  outer calyx.   Styles  and  carpels  numerous.   Fruit de-
pressed,  separating at  maturity into as many one-seeded,  and usually
indehiscent  reniform little pods as there are  styles, arranged circularly.
Radicle pointing downward.—Perennials, with perfect flowers.

   2.  Althaea.  Calyx  surrounded at base by a six to nine-cleft invo-
lucel.    Carpels numerous, capsular,  closely and  circularly  arranged
round the axis.

   3. Gossypium.   Calyx cup-shaped,  obtusely five-toothed, surrounded
by an involucel  of three cordate leaves, deeply and incisely toothed.
Stigmas  three to five.   Capsules  three to five-celled, loculicidal.  Seeds
numerous, imbedded in cotton.—Plants with yellow flowers.

   4. Abelmoschus.  Hibiscus.  Calyx five-toothed, spathaceous, decid-
uous, surrounded by a five to ten-leaved involucel, often very caducous.
 Ovarium five-celled ;  cells with  many ovules.   Style one, five-cleft  at
the apex.   Stigmas five.   Capsule five-celled, five-valved, loculicidal
polyspermous.  Seeds naked. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
33
           ORDER  XXVIII.  Vitacejs.   Grape-Vines.
  Shrubs climbing by tendrils, with  tumid, separable  joints.    Leaves
simple or compound,  the lower opposite, upper alternate.   The flowers
are racemose,  often  polygamous  or  dioecious.   Calyx minute,  nearly
entire or five-toothed.   Corolla with  four or five petals inserted on the
outside of a hypogynous disk,  valvate and  in flexed in  aestivation, often
cohering above and caducous.  Stamens four or five, opposite the petals,
inserted on  the disk  ; anthers  ovate, versatile.    Ovary superior, two-
celled, with  two erect, collateral ovules in  each cell.    Style one, very
short, with a simple stigma.   Fruit a globose, pulpy berry, two celled,
four-seeded, often from abortion one-celled.   Seeds with a hard, bony
testa, and a cartilaginous,  or fleshy albumen ; embryo shorter  than the
albumen ; radicle slender ;  cotyledons  lanceolate or subulate.

   1. Vitis.   Calyx nearly entire, somewhat five-toothed.  Petals four
or five, united at apex, distinct at base, deciduous.  Disk  elevated in
the center, and bearing the stamens at base.   Stamens  five.   Ovary
partly inclosed within  the torus, two-celled ; cells two-ovuled ; style short,
or none ; stigma capitate.   Berry one  to  four-seeded,  cells and seeds
often  abortive.—Peduncles often changed into tendrils.

  2. Ampelopsis.   Calyx entire or slightly five-toothed.    Petals five,
concave, distinct,  spreading, deciduous after  expansion.   Ovary two-
celled.  No five-lobed ring around the ovary.  Style very short; berry
two-celled ;  cells one  or two  seeded.— Vine with digitate leaves having
five leaflets and flowers in cymose-clusters.

   ORDER XXIX.  HlPPOCASTANACEJE.   JESCULACE^E.  BUCKEYE.
  Trees or  shrubs,  with  opposite, rarely alternate, compound leaves,
without stipules.   Flowers  showy, with the pedicels articulated.   Calyx
campanulate, of five united sepals.   Petals five, one of  them sometimes
abortive, unequal,  hypogynous.   Stamens six to eight, distinct, unequal,
inserted upon a disk with  the petals.    Ovary roundish, three-cornered,
three-celled,  crowned with a single, filiform,  conical  style ; cells  two
ovules in  each, only  one of  which,  or one in each  cell,  ripens into a
seed.  Fruit roundish, coriaceous, with  one  to  three  large, roundish,
smooth seeds.   Seeds with a thick and shining coat and a large round
pale scar, without albumen ;  cotyledons very thick and fleshy, somewhat
crumpled and united, remaining under ground in germination ; plumule
two-leaved ; radicle conical, curved.

                   ORDER XXX.   Sapindacfms.
   Trees, shrubs, or herbs, the latter furnished with tendrils.    Leaves
alternate, usually compound,  and without stipules. Flowers small, usually
        3 
34
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
polygamous.   Sepals four or five, imbricated in aestivation.   Petals four
or five, sometimes wanting, alternate with the sepals, hypogynous, some-
times naked, sometimes with a doubled appendage on the  inside.  Disk
fleshy, regular, expanded between  the  petals and stamens, sometimes
glandular, the glands between  the  stamens and petals.  Stamens eight
to ten, seldom twenty, inserted on the disk, or on the receptacle ; fila-
ments free, or connected at base ;  anthers introrse.   Ovary  three-celled,
rarely two or four-celled; cells containing  one to  three, seldom more,
ovules.   Style simple, or two or three-cleft.  Fruit sometimes capsular,
two or three-valved,  sometimes a samara, sometimes fleshy  and indehis-
cent.   Seeds  one to  three  in each  cell, usually arilled,  exalbuminous;
the outer integument crustaceous,  or membranous, the inner pellucid;
embryo curved or spiral, seldom straight.

   1. .iEscuLus.   Calyx campanulate, or tubular, five-lobed.  Petals four
or five, irregular, unequal, expanded, with an ovate limb.  Filaments
curved  inward.   Capsules  prickly. — Trees with palmately five  or
seven-foliate  leaves,  leaflets sessile or nearly so; flowers in thyrse-like
panicles.

          ORDER  XXXI.  Celastrace^e.   Spindle-Tree.

   Shrubs, or rarely  trees, with opposite or alternate  leaves, and flowers
not always perfect.  Sepals four or five, united at  base, imbricated, and
inserted in the edge of an expanded disk.   Petals as many as sepals,
inserted by a broad  base under the margin of the flat, expanded disk,
which surrounds the ovary.   Stamens as  many as petals, and alternate
with them, inserted on the margin, or within the edge of the  disk ; anthers
innate.   Ovary superior, immersed in and adhering to the disk.  Fruit
drupaceous or capsular, two to five-celled.   Seeds  solitary  or few, ana:
tropous, either arillate or the reverse; embryo large; albumen fleshy;
cotyledons broad and  leaf-like.

                       TRIBE I.   Staphyle^e.

   Leaves pinnate, opposite.  Seeds bony, not arilled.   Cotyledons thick.
Ovary many-ovuled, free from the cup-shaped disk.

   1.  Staphylea.  Flowers perfect.  Sepals five, colored, erect, persis-
tent.   Petals  five, with short claws.  Stamens five.  Pistil  of  three
carpels united in the axis,  their long styles cohering, but separating as
the ovary enlarges  into the membranaceous, inflated, three-lobed and
three-celled pod.  Seeds two  or  three  in each cell, naked  and bony.__
Upright shrubs with opposite  pinnate leaves, and white flowers in ter-
minal,  drooping, raceme-like clusters. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
35
                      TRIBE II.  Euonymejs.
   Leaves simple.   Ovules  two in each  cell; style one ; stigma three-
lobed.  Disk adhering to the bottom of the  calyx.  Seeds with pulpy
arils.  Cotyledons leafy.

   2.  Celastrus.   Flowers sometimes polygamous.  Calyx flat, of five
united sepals.   Corolla spreading, of five  sessile petals.   Disk fleshy,
orbicular.   Stamens five, inserted into or under the margin of the cup-
shaped disk ; anthers opening longitudinally.   Ovary two or three-celled;
ovules usually in pairs, rarely five or six in each cell.   Styles thick, en-
tire, or two-cleft.   Capsule subglobose, or three-angled, three-celled, the
dissepiments sometimes incomplete or evanescent.  Seeds one or two in
each cell, inclosed  by  a pulpy scarlet aril.—Climbing shrubs with alter-
nate, deciduous leaves ; minute, deciduous  stipules, and small, greenish
flowers, in terminal or axillary raceme-like clusters.

   3. Euonymus.  Calyx flat, of five, sometimes four or six, united sepals.
Petals four or five, rounded, spreading, inserted on the outer margin of a
glandular disk.   Stamens  five, with  short filaments,  inserted on the
upper face of a broad  and flat four or five-angled disk, which coheres
with the calyx  and is  stretched over the ovary.  Style short  or none.
Capsule colored, five-angled, five-celled, five-valved, loculicidal.   Seeds
one or two in each cell, inclosed in a red aril.— Shrubs  erect or trailing,
with four-sided branchlets, opposite serrate leaves, and loose cymes of
small green, or dark purple flowers,  on axillary peduncles.

           ORDER XXXII.  Rhamnace^e.  Buckthorn.
   Shrubs or trees often spiny, with simple, alternate leaves, and minute
or no stipules.  Flowers small, axillary or terminal, greenish, sometimes
dioecious. Sepals four or five, united at base, valvate in aestivation. Petals
four or five,  sometimes wanting, distinct,  cucullate or convolute, inserted
into the orifice of the calyx.   Stamens as many as the petals, opposite to
them; anthers introrse, or versatile.    Ovary superior, or half-superior,
two to four-celled,  with a solitary, erect ovule in each cell.  Styles more
or less united.   Stigmas usually distinct, simple.  Fruit sometimes dry
and capsular, dehiscing by three valves, sometimes fleshy and indehis-
cent.   Seed erect, not arilled ; albumen fleshy ; embryo large, erect;
radicle short; cotyledons large, flat.

   1. Rhamnus.  Calyx urceolate, four or five-cleft, often circumscissile
after flowering, the lower part permanent.   Petals four or five, or none,
emarginate  at  the  apex and slightly convolute, or nearly flat, inserted 
36
Natural  Orders of Plants.
upon the calyx.   Stamens opposite the petals ; anthers ovate, two-celled.
Torus thin, lining the tube of the calyx.   Ovary free from the calyx, not
immersed in the  torus, two to four-celled.   Styles two to four, more or
less  connected, or  distinct.   Fruit drupaceous, two to  four-celled, con-
taining two to four indehiscent, cartilaginous seeds, one of them occasion-
ally  abortive.   Seeds  with a deep groove. — Shrubs or small trees with
leaves mostly alternate, and minute  flowers in short axillary clusters,
often polygamous.

  2.  Ceanothus.    Calyx tubular,  campanulate, five-cleft, separating
transversely after flowering, the lower part permanent.  Petals five, hood-
form, unguiculate.   Stamens five, exserted.   Styles two or three, united
to the middle, diverging above. Capsule obtusely triangular, three-celled,
three-seeded, surrounded at base by the persistent tube  of the  calyx;
dry and splitting into  its three carpels when ripe; valves papery; cells
one-seeded, opening by the  inner suture.— Shrubby plants, unarmed,
with alternate leaves, and white, blue, or yellowish flowers, in umbel-like
clusters.

        ORDER  XXXIII.  Amyridace^e.   Balsamic Trees.
  Trees or shrubs abounding in a balsamic juice, with alternate or oppo-
site leaves, which are  ternate or unequally pinnate, sometimes with sti-
pules, and occasionally with  pellucid dots.   The flowers are hermaphro-
dite, or sometimes unisexual by abortion.   Sepals two to five, persistent.
Petals three to five, inserted below a disk, arising from  the calyx, with a
valvate and occasionally an imbricate aestivation.   Stamens two or four
times as many as the petals, all fertile. Disk orbicular or annular.   Ovary
one to five-celled, superior, sessile in or on the  disk.  Style solitary and
compound ;  stigmas equal in number to the cells.   Fruit hard and dry,
one to five-celled, with its outer part often valvular. Seeds  exalbuminous.
Cotyledons wrinkled, plaited or amygdaloid.  Radicle straight.

  1. Balsamodendron.  Flov;ers irregular.    Calyx four-toothed, per-
sistent.  Petals four, oblong-linear.   Stamens eight, with elevated warts
between them.  Ovary single  supporting  a short, obtuse style.  Drupe
ovate, acute, with four sutures, one or two-celled.  Cells one-seeded.

  2.  Boswellia.   (Nat. Ord. Burseraceae of Lindley.   Terebintaceae,
of Kunth.)  Flowers  bisexual.   Calyx small, five-toothed, persistent.
Petals five,  obovaie-oblong,  acute  at base.    Stamens ten, inserted
under a torus.  Torus a crenate ring around the base of the ovary.  Style
one, caducous.   Capsule  triangular,  three-valved, three-celled.   Seeds
Bolitary, winged.   (See Copai/era and  Myrospermum, under Fubacece.) 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
37
              ORDER  XXXIV.  Meliace^e.   Canellje.
   Trees and  shrubs with  alternate or occasionally somewhat opposite
leaves, which are simple or pinnate, and without stipules.  Sepals three
to five, somewhat united at  base.  Petals three to five, hypogynous,
uniting at  base, sometimes unequal, imbricate in aestivation.  Stamens
as many or twice as  many as the petals, monadelphous at base, inserted
on  the outside of the  torus.   Anthers  sessile, within  the ring of fila-
ments.   Ovary three  to five-celled,  each cell containing one or two
ovules.  Styles and  stigmas usually united into one, three  to five-lobed.
Fruit drupaceous, baccate, or capsular, three  to five-celled, each one or
two-seeded, when dehiscent, loculicidal.   Seeds never winged or flat;
albumen scanty or none.

   1. Melia.   Calyx small,  five-parted, sepals united  below.   Petals
five, oblong, spreading.   Stamens ten, united into a tube,  bearing ten
anthers in  the orifice ; segments,  two or three-parted ; anthers opposite to
the segments and a little  shorter, oblong, slightly  apiculate.   Ovary
seated on a short disk, five-celled; cells with two superposed ovules each.
Style columnar, breaking off from  the top of the ovary, with a  five-
lobed stigma.   Fruit a  drupe, ovate, with a five-celled bony nut; cells
one-seeded.   Cotyledons foliaceous.

  2.  Canella.    Sepals  five.   Petals   five,  somewhat  coriaceous,
glaucous, twisted in  aestivation.   Stamens fifteen, connected, with fifteen
furrowed anthers.   Stigmas three.   Berry three-celled, or by abortion
one ; cells  one or  two-seeded ;  embryo  surrounded by fleshy albumen,
curved, with linear cotyledons.

      ORDER XXXV.  Clusiace.e or Guttifer^e.  Gamboge.
  Trees or shrubs,  some of  which are  parasitical.   Leaves opposite,
rarely  alternate, coriaceous, with a strong midrib and numerous lateral
veins, and  without stipules.   Flowers  axillary or  terminal, and articu-
lated with  their peduncle; hermaphrodite or unisexual.  Sepals two  or
six, usually persistent, aestivation  imbricated.   Petals hypogynous, four
to ten.   Stamens numerous, distinct, or  united in  one or more parcels ;
filaments unequal; anthers adnate, introrse or extrorse.   Torus fleshy,
sometimes  five-lobed.   Ovary solitary, superior, one  or  many-celled.
Ovules  solitary, erect.  Style none  or  very  short.   Stigma peltate  or
radiate.    Fruit dry  or succulent,  one or many-celled, one  or many-
seeded, dehiscent or  indehiscent.  Seeds  immersed in a pulp, apterous,
often  with  an arillus.  Testa  thin and membranaceous, exalbuminous.
Embryo straight. —Abounding in a viscid, acrid, yellow, and purgative
gum-resinous juice ;  tropicaL 
38
Natural Orders  of Plants.
   1.  Hebradendron.   Flowers unisexual.   Males; sepals four, mem-
 branous,  persistent.  Petals four.    Stamens  monadelphous,  with  a
 quadrangular column ;  anthers terminal,  with an umbilicate,  circum-
 scissile operculum.  Females unknown.   Berry many or four-celled;
 cells  one-seeded, surrounded by a few abortive  distinct stamens and
 crowned by  a  sessile-lobed muricated stigma.   Cotyledons thick, con-
 solidated.  Radicle central, filiform.

 ORDER XXXVI.  Fabace^e or Leguminos^e.  Leguminous Plants.
   Herbs, shrubs,  or trees, with alternate,  usually compound leaves,
 margins entire, sometimes reduced to a single leaflet.  Stipules two  at
 the tumid base of the petiole; stipels  commonly two.   Flowers are most
 generally papilionaceous, solitary,  in racemes or panicles, usually with
 articulated  peduncles,  and often with two bracts under  each flower.
 Sepals generally five, more  or less united, often unequal.  Petals five,
 perigynous or hypogynous, irregular and unequal,  or regular, distinct
 or cohering, the odd petal superior.   Stamens definite or  indefinite, dis-
 tinct,  monadelphous,  or diadelphous, inserted with the petals ; anthers
 versatile.   Ovary  superior, solitary,  distinct from the calyx ;  ovules one
 or several; style and stigma simple.   Fruit a legume or drupe.   Seeds
 solitary or  many, sometimes with an  aril or large  caruncle, exalbumin-
 ous.  Embryo straight, or  with the  radicle bent back along the  edge
 of the cotyledons;  cotyledons thick and fleshy,  or thin and  somewhat
 foliaceous.
                   SUB-ORDER  I.   Papilionace^e.
   Petals truly papilionaceous, imbricate  in aestivation, the upper one
 external.   Stamens  mostly  ten and  diadelphous.   Flowers  usually
perfect.

   1. Robinia.   Calyx short, campanulate, five-cleft, the two upper seg-
ments more  or less  coherent.   Vexillum large and  rounded, turned
back,  scarcely longer than  the wings and keel.   Stamens diadelphous,
nine and one.  Style bearded inside.    Legume linear, compressed, elon-
gated, many-seeded, margined on the seed-bearing edge.    Seeds small,
compressed.—Trees and shrubs often with  prickly spines for stipules ;
leaves unequally pinnate;  flowers showy, in axillary racemes.

   2.  Trifolium.   Calyx tubular or campanulate, five-toothed, persist-
 ent.  Petals more  or less united at base, withering or persistent.   Vex-
illum  reflexed, longer than the oblong alae ;  carina shorter than the
 alae.   Stamens ten, diadelphous.  Legume small, membranous, often in-
 cluded in the calyx, one to  six-seeded, indehiscent, or opening by one of
 the sutures ;  seeds roundish.—Tufted or diffuse herbs with leaves mostly 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
39
palmately  trifoliate ;  leaflets with straight, scarcely reticulated veins,
toothed ; flowers in dense heads or spikes.

   3. Mellilotus.   Calyx tubular, five-toothed, persistent.   Corolla de-
ciduous, keel petals completely united, shorter than the alae or vexillum.
Stamens diadelphous.   Legume  ovoid, rugose, coriaceous, longer  than
the calyx, scarcely dehiscent, one or  two-seeded.—Herbs  fragrant in
drying ; leaves pinnately trifoliate ; leaflets with simple or forked veins ;
flowers  in racemes.

   4. Baptisia.  Calyx four or five-cleft half way, two-lipped, persistent.
Petals  of  about equal  length,  somewhat  united;  vexillum orbicular,
emarginate, reflected  laterally,  not  longer  than the alae ;  keel-petals
somewhat  united.   Stamens ten, distinct, deciduous.  Legume ventri-
cose, stipitate, many, or by abortion,  few-seeded.—Perennial herbs with
palmately  trifoliate, rarely  simple leaves,  which become blackish  on
drying; flowers generally yellow, rarely white or blue, in racemes.

   5. Cytisus.   Calyx bilabiate, upper lip generally entire, lower some-
what three-toothed.   Vexillum ovate, broad ; carina very obtuse, inclos-
ing the  stamens.   Stamens monadelphous.  Legume  piano-compressed,
many-seeded, not glandular.—Shrubs or small trees with ternate leaves,
no spines, and yellow, purple, or white flowers.

   6. Indigofera.   Calyx five-cleft,  lobes  acute.   Vexillum roundish,
emarginate ;  carina with  a subulate spur on both sides, at length bending
back elastically.  Stamens diadelphous.  Legume linear, small, terete or
quadrangular, one or more  seeded,  two-valved.   Seeds usually trunca-
ted, separated by cellular spurious partitions.—Herbs or shrubs,  with
various  leaves, stipules small and free from the petiole ; all more or less
tomentose or hirsute,  with purple, blue, or white racemose flowers.

   7. Glycyrrhiza.    Calyx tubular, naked, five-cleft, bilabiate, with the
two upper lobes united more  than the  others.   Vexillum ovate-lanceo-
late, straight; carina bipetalous or two-parted, straight, acute.  Stamens
diadelphous.   Style filiform.   Legume ovate or oblong, compressed, one-
celled, one to four-seeded.—Perennial herbaceous  plants,  generally with
sweet roots, unequally pinnated leaves, and blue, white, or violet flowers
in axillary racemes.

   8. Astragalus.   Calyx five-toothed.   Corolla with an obtuse carina.
Stamens diadelphous.   Legume gibbous, of two longitudinal cells or half
cells ; lower  suture turned  inward.   Plants with pinnate  leaves, sti-
pules, and axillary or terminal, often glomerate or spiked flowers. 
40
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
   9. Mucuna.   Calyx campanulate, bilabiate, the  lower lip trifid, the
upper  entire.   Vexillum  cordate, ascending, shorter than  the carina or
alae ; carina oblong,  straight, acute ; alas  oblong,  the length  of the
carina.   Stamens diadelphous ; anthers  twenty, five oblong, linear, and
five ovate, hirsute.   Legume oblong, two-valved, with  cellular partitions.
Seeds  oval, roundish,  or reniform,  with  a  narrow  oblong or linear
hilum.—Twining plants, with pinnately trifoliate leaves, axillary racemes,
and legumes densely covered with sharp, rigid and  brittle hairs.

   10.  Pterocarpus.    Calyx  five-cleft,  somewhat  bilabiate.    Petals
five ; keel-petals  disiinct  or slightly cohering.   Stamens  ten, variously
combined.  Ovary long stalked.   Legume indehiscent, irregular, some-
what orbicular, surrounded by a wing, woody, and  often  rugose in the
middle, one to three-celled.   Seeds one in each cell, reniform.—Unarmed
trees or shrubs ; leaves unequally pinnated ; racemes terminal or axil-
lary ;  abounding in a red-colored resinous  juice, and having an  astrin-
gent bark.

   11. Andira.  Calyx urceolate,  five-toothed  or entire; teeth  nearly
equal,  acute,  erect.   Vexillum  roundish  emarginate, longer  than the
carina.   Ovary containing three ovules.   Legume stipitate, roundish,
hard, one-celled, one-seeded.

   12.  Myrospermum.    Calyx  campanulate,  five-toothed,  persistent.
Petals  five, the  upper  one largest.   Stamens ten, distinct.   Ovary
oblong, stipitate, membranous, with  two to six ovules, and a  filiform,
lateral  style.  Legume with the stalk naked at  base, but winged  above,
terminating in an oblique,  indehiscent, one-celled, one or two-seeded
samara.   Seeds covered with a  balsamic juice.—Trees with unequally
pinnate dotted leaves, and compressed, membranous legumes.

                   SUB-ORDER  II.   CESALPiNiE.
   Corolla not papilionaceous, irregular ;  petals  imbricated in aestivation ;
the uppermost interior.    Stamens ten or fewer, all  distinct, perigynous.

   13. Cassia.   Sepals  five,  scarcely  united  at base,  more  or less
unequal.    Petals  five, unequal.   Stamens  ten, distinct, unequal, and
some of them imperfect, spreading ; anthers opening at apex by two pores
or clefts, or by an  opening at base; three upper ones  often sterile, three
lower  ones beaked.   Ovary pedicellate.   Legume compressed,  many-
seeded.—Trees, shrubs  or  herbs, with simply abrupt  pinnate  leaves •
leaflets opposite ; petioles  often bearing  glands; flowers mostly yellow.

   14.  Tamarindus.   Calyx tubular at  base ; limb  bilabiate,  reflexed ■
upper  lip three-parted; lower broad, two-toothed.   Petals three, alter- 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
41
nating with  the  segments of the  upper lip of the calyx;  two of them
ovate, the middle one cucullate.   Stamens nine or ten ;  seven very short
and  sterile ; the others longer, monadelphous, bearing anthers.   Style
subulate.   Legume  stalked, linear, more or  less curved, slightly com-
pressed, one-celled, three to twelve-seeded, the endocarp pulpy.  Seeds
compressed, bluntly four-angled,  obliquely truncated  at the hilum.—
Trees with abruptly pinnated leaves, and racemose flowers.

   15.  Copaifera.   Calyx with four sepals united at base, ebracteolate ;
segments diverging, the lowest the narrowest.   Petals none.   Stamens
ten,  distinct, declinate.   Ovary roundish, compressed,  with two ovules.
Fruit  pedicellate,  oblique,  obovate,  rounded,  compressed,  between
woody and  leathery, two-valved, one-seeded.  Seed inclosed in a one-
sided aril.—Trees or shrubs having abruptly pinnate leaves, alternate ;
leaflets coriaceous, ovate, opposite  or  alternate, dotted  or  not,  and
abounding in a balsamic juice.

   16.  H^ematoxylon.    Sepals five, united at base into a permanent
tube; lobes caducous.   Petals five, not much longer than the sepals.
Stamens ten, diadelphous ; filaments hairy at  the base; anthers without
glands.   Style capillary.  Legume compressed, flat, lanceolate, acumi-
nate  at  each end,  two-seeded;  the  sutures indehiscent, the valves
bursting longitudinally.—Trees with  the  heart-wood of a blood-red
color.
                    SUB-ORDER III.  Mimosejs.
   Sepals and petals valvate in aestivation, subregular.   Stamens five to
many.  Embryo straight.  Leaves abruptly pinnate or bipinnate.

   17. Acacia.   Flowers polygamous, bisexual, and male.   Calyx four
or five-toothed.  Petals four or five, distinct, or uniting to form a gamo-
petalous, four or five-cleft corolla.   Stamens  from five to two hundred.
Legume continuous,  dry,  two-valved ; seeds without pulp.—Trees  and
shrubs unarmed, or armed with  stipular thorns  or  scattered prickles;
flowers yellow, white, or rarely red, in globular heads or longish spikes.
An ill-defined species, requiring revision.

               ORDER  XXXVII.  Rosacea.   Rose.
   Herbs,  shrubs or trees, with alternate leaves, and  usually large or
conspicuous stipules, sometimes  none.   Flowers  regular,  commonly
showy, rarely dioecious.   Sepals  five, rarely fewer, united, often  rein-
forced by as many bracts;  the tube  lined with  a  disk, or the orifice
surrounded  by it.    Petals five, perigynous, rarely wanting.    Stamens
usually numerous, arising from the calyx, distinct; anthers  innate,  two-
celled, dehiscing  longitudinally.   Ovaries  superior,  one  or  several, 
42
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
distinct, one-celled, sometimes forming a many-celled pistil; ovules two
or  more, anatropal,  suspended,  rarely  erect; styles  lateral;  stigmas
usually simple.   Fruit either one-seeded, nuts, acini, or follicles  con-
taining several seeds.   Seeds anatropous, exalbuminous.

                    SUB-ORDER I.   Rosacea.
  Ovaries solitary or several, distinct;  fruit achenia or follicular.

  1. Rosa.   Calyx-tube, urceolate, fleshy, contracted at the orifice, limb
five-cleft, the segments somewhat imbricated in aestivation, and mostly
with a leafy appendage.  Petals five, multiplied by cultivation, inversely
heart-shaped,  as  long  as the calyx  and attached to the rim of  its tube
by  broad claws, deciduous.   Filaments  numerous,  capillary,  shorter
than the  petals.   Carpels numerous, oblong, lining the tube of the calyx,
interspersed with dense silky hairs; styles one to  each, lateral, smooth
or hairy, all passing through the contracted mouth of the calyx;  in some
cases united into a cylinder; stigmas obtuse.  Fruit globular or ovate,
formed of the permanent,  pulpy, colored tube of the  calyx, closed at
the  summit, and  containing numerous, oblong,  angular,  hard, bristly
achenia,  interspersed with rigid  hairs.—Shrubs  with pinnated leaves,
and large showy flowers ;  stipules mostly  adnate to the  petiole;  prickly.

  2. Rubus.  Calyx concave or flatfish  at  base, five-parted,  without
bractlets.  Petals five, deciduous.   Stamens numerous, inserted in the
calyx.    Ovaries many, with two ovules, one of them abortive.   Achenia
numerous, collected on a conical or oblong, spongy or succulent, recep-
tacle, becoming small drupes; styles nearly terminal.  Radicle superior.—
Perennial suffruticose  herbs, stems  usually biennial,  generally  prickly;
leaves  petioled, pinnate, palmate, or simple ; fruit edible.

  3. Potentilla.  Calyx concave, deeply four or five-cleft, with four
or five bractlets.   Petals  four  or  five, obcordate, deciduous.   Stamens
many; filaments slender.   Ovaries collected into a head on a small, dry
receptacle;  styles lateral or terminal,  deciduous.  Achenia  numerous;
seeds suspended.—Herbs or  rarely shrubs with pinnately or palmately
compound leaves; flowers solitary or racemose, white or yellow, rarely red.

  4. Fragaria.   Same as in  Potentilla.   Receptacle in fruit  much
enlarged and  conical,  becoming pulpy and  scarlet, bearing the minute,
dry achenia scattered  over its surface.—Low perennials with runners;
stems  stoloniferous;   leaves radical,  trifoliate;  flowers  on a scaDe'
white.                                                            F '
  5. Geum.  Calyx sub-campanulate, deeply five-cleft, permanent, with
five  small  alternate  bractlets.   Petals  five,  obtuse  or emareinatP 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
43
attached by  their claws to the calyx-rim.  Filaments numerous,  awl-
shaped, from the rim  of the calyx, shorter  than  the corolla.   Carpels
superior, ovate, compressed, very numerous,  in  a round head ; styles
long, lateral, with  a joint above  the middle;  lower part permanent;
upper  deciduous ; stigmas  simple.  Achenia hairy,  each with a  long
lateral tail,  terminating  in a hook.   Receptacle dry, cylindrical, hairy,
seated on the permanent reflexed calyx.   Seed erect.—Perennial herbs,
with pinnate or lyrate leaves, white, yellow,  or purplish flowers,  and
somewhat aromatic roots.

  6. Agrimonia.   Calyx-tube turbinate, contracted at the throat, armed
with hooked bristles above, indurated and inclosing the  fruit;  the limb
five-cleft, closed after flowering.  Petals five, flat, spreading, notched,
attached to the rim of the calyx with a small narrow claw.   Stamens
twelve to fifteen ; filaments capillary, shorter than the corolla.  Styles
lateral, simple, terminal.  Achenia two, occasionally one or three, ovate,
smooth, compressed, pointed, erect, inclosed in the  indurated  tube of
the calyx.  Seed suspended.—Perennial herbs with interruptedly pin-
nate leaves, and yellow flowers in long, slender racemes ; bracts three-
cleft.

  7. Spiraea.   Calyx inferior, nearly flat at the base, five-cleft, persist-
ent.   Petals five,  roundish,  or oblong, equal.   Stamens ten  to fifty,
exscrted ; filaments capillary.   Carpels five, distinct, rarely coherent at
base,  sessile,  rarely  stipitate.    Styles terminal;  stigmas  spreading,
obtuse.  Capsules five, oblong, pointed, more or less compressed, each
of one or two rather membranous valves, one-celled,  one  to ten-seeded.
Seeds small, oblong, pendulous from  the  outer margin  of each valve,
exalbuminous.—Unarmed herbs or shrubs, with alternate branches  and
leaves ; flowers white or rose-color, rarely yellow or dioecious.

  8. Gillenia.   Calyx tubular-campanulate, contracted  at the orifice,
five-cleft; teeth erect.   Petals  five, linear-lanceolate, very long, rather
unequal, inserted in  the throat of the calyx.   Stamens  ten to twenty,
very short; inclosed  in the tube.   Carpels five,  connate at base ;  styles
terminal, filiform, erect, capitate.   Follicles five, two-valved, two to four
seeded.—Perennial herbs with almost sessile,  trifoliate,  doubly serrate
leaves ; flowers white or pale rose-color,  loosely paniculate-corymbed.

  9. Brayera.  Calyx campanulate;  limb ten-parted,  membranous;
half the  segments with pinnate veins, and  thrice  as  large as the other
five, with three veins each.  Petals minute, subulate, opposite the larger
segments of the calyx.   Stamens twelve to twenty, short, inserted into
the  throat of the calyx.  Disk conical, projecting from the throat of  the
calyx, and pierced  at  the apex  to allow the  styles to  pass through. 
44
Natural  Orders of Plants.
 Ovaries two, stipitate, each with  one suspended ovule ; stigmas dilated,
slightly lacerated.

             ORDER XXXVIII.   Drupace^e.  Almond.
   Trees and shrubs with simple, alternate leaves, glandular  toward the
base, usually  with glandular stipules.   Calyx five-toothed,  deciduous,
lined with a disk.   Petals  five, perigynous.   Stamens fifteen to thirty,
inserted  on the throat of the calyx.  Anthers innate,  two-celled, de-
hiscing longitudinally.   Ovary  superior, solitary, simple,  one-celled.
 Ovules two, suspended.  Styles terminal, with a furrow on one side, ter-
minating in  a reniform stigma.   Fruit a drupe, with the putamen some-
times separating spontaneously from the sarcocarp.  Seeds usually soli-
tary, suspended.   Embryo straight; albumen none.

   1. Amygdalus.   Calyx tubular or campanulate,  five-cleft, deciduous.
Petals five,  spreading.  Drupe  velvety, compressed,  with a separable
fleshy  epicarp; stone or nucleus perforate, furrowed, ovate, compressed,
one edge acute, the other  broad-obtuse.—Trees or shrubs, with leaves
conduplicate in aestivation; flowers subsessile,  solitary or in pairs, earlier
than the leaves, proceeding from scaly buds.

   2. Prunus.  Calyx inferior, bell-shaped,  deciduous, with  five obtuse
concave segments.    Petals five, roundish, concave,  spreading, larger
than the segments of the calyx.  Filaments twenty to thirty, awl-shaped,
nearly as long as  the  petals;  anthers short, of two round lobes.   Ovary
superior, roundish, glabrous, with two pendulous ovules.   Style filiform,
terminal,  as long  as the stamens;  stigma orbicular, peltate.   Drupe
ovoid or oblong, fleshy, usually covered with a glaucous bloom.  Kucleus
hard, compressed, smooth, acute, smooth, margins somewhat  grooved,
of one  cell, and two more or less distinct sutures.—Small trees or shrubs,
having simple leaves,  which are convolute in vernation; fruit  edible, and
many parts of the tree yielding hydrocyanic  acid.

   3. Cerasus.   Same as Prunus.   Fruit globose, destitute  of bloom;
stone globose, smooth; leaves  conduplicate in aestivation.

               ORDER XXXIX.   Pomaces.  Pear.
   Trees or shrubs with alternate, simple or compound, stipulate leaves,
with edible fruit, and  bitter tonic barks.  Calyx adherent, five-toothed!
Petals  five,  unguiculate, inserted in the throat  of the calyx; the odd one
anterior.    Stamens indefinite, inserted in  a ring  in the  throat  of the
calyx.  Disk thin; ovaries one  to  live, adhering  more or less  to  the
sides of the calyx, and to each  other; ovules  usually two,  collateral
ascending, rarely solitary,  sometimes none ;  styles  one to five ; stigma's 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
45
 simple.  Fruit a pome, one to five-celled,  seldom spuriously ten-celled;
 the  endocarp either cartilaginous,  spongy, or  bony.   Seeds ascending,
 solitary, exalbuminous ;  embryo erect.

   1. Pyrus.   Calyx-tube urceolate, superior; limb five-cleft, permanent.
 Petals five, roundish, concave,  larger than the  calyx,  and proceeding
 from its rim, with short  claws.   Filaments twenty,  awl-shaped, shorter
 than the petals, arising from the rim of the calyx; anthers oblong, two-
 lobed.   Ovary inferior;  styles two or three to  five, filiform, about the
 length of  the stamens;  stigmas simple,  bluntish.   Pome roundish or
 somewhat  oblong,  umbilicated,  fleshy, with as many  cartilaginous or
 membranous  cells  as there  are  styles.  Seeds two in each cell, ascend-
 ing, obovate,  flattened at one side; testa chartaceous or cartilaginous.

   2. Cydonia.   Same as Pyrus.   Cells of the fruit many-seeded, carti-
 laginous ; seeds enveloped in a thick mucilaginous pulp.

            ORDER XL.   Myrtace^e.   Myrtle-blooms.
   Trees  and  shrubs with opposite or alternate entire leaves, generally
 with  transparent dots, and  a vein  running parallel  to their margin;  no
 stipules.  Flowers red, white, or yellow, never blue. Calyx adherent below
 to the compound ovary, valvate, limb four  or five-cleft.  Petals as many
 as the  calyx-segments,  with  a quincuncial aestivation;  rarely  none.
 Stamens  indefinite, or twice as many as the  petals, rarely equal  to
 them in number; filaments distinct, or united in several parcels; anthers
 ovate, two-celled, small, introrse, with a longitudinal dehiscence.   Ovary
 inferior, one to six-celled; style  simple, springing directly  from  the pla-
 centa ; stigma  simple; ovules usually pendulous,  or erect and anatropal;
 occasionally peltate and  amphitropal, always inserted into a central or
 axile placenta.   Fruit dry  or fleshy, dehiscent  or indehiscent.   Seeds
 numerous,  variable in  form;  embryo  straight  or  curved,  with no
 albumen.

   1.  Punica.   Tube of the calyx turbinate ;  limb five to seven-cleft, coria-
 ceous; valvate in aestivation.  Petals five to seven.   Stamens numerous;
 filaments distinct; anthers anteriorly two-celled,  dehiscing  by a double
 chink.  Style  filiform; Smyrna capitate.  Fruit large, spherical, crowned
 with the limb  of the calyx,  baccate, indehiscent, coated  with the calyx-
 tube, unequally divided into two  parts by a horizontal  diaphragm;  the
 lower division  three-celled, the upper five  to nine-celled;  dissepiments
membranous;  placentae of  upper  chamber  fleshy,  spreading  from its
sides to the center;  those of the  lower chamber in  irregular processes
from its base.   Seeds  very numerous, mixed with a pellucid pulp, exal-
buminous;  embryo oblong; radicle short; cotyledons straight, foliaceous, 
46
Natural  Orders of Plants.
 spirally  convolute.—Small trees or shrubs with spinescent branchlets,
 deciduous leaves, and flowers usually scarlet.

   2.  Myrtus.   Calyx-tube somewhat globose;  limb five or very rarely
 four-cleft.   Petals five or very rarely four.  Stamens distinct.   Berry
 two or three-celled, somewhat  globose, crowned with the segments of
 the calyx.   Seeds, when ripe several in each cell, or very rarely solitary,
 reniform ; testa bony.  Embryo curved;  cotyledons semicylindrical, very
 short; radicle twice the length of the cotyledons.—Shrubs with opposite,
 entire, pellucid-dotted, evergreen  leaves;  peduncles  axillary,  one or
 rarely three-flowered.

   3.  Eugenia.  Calyx-tube roundish;  limb four-cleft.  Petals four.  Sta-
 mens  numerous,  distinct.  Berry nearly globular, crowned by the per-
 sistent calyx; one or two-celled, one  or two-seeded.

   4.  Melaleuca.   Calyx-tube  nearly hemispherical;  limb five-cleft.
 Petals five.  Stamens  numerous, very long, in five bundles which alter-
 nate  with  the petals;  anthers incumbent.  Styles  filiform.  Stigmas
 obtuse.   Capsule connate with and inclosed in the thickened tube of the
 calyx, which is  sessile on and  adnate at its base to the flower-bearing
 branch;  three-celled, many-seeded.   Seeds angular.—Trees or  shrubs
 with  entire, alternate,  or opposite  leaves; flowers white, yellowish, or
 purplish, in spikes or heads;  trees  furnishing an aromatic volatile oil.

   5.  Caryophyllus.   Calyx-tube cylindrical; limb  four-parted.  Petals
 four,  adhering by their ends in a sort  of calyptra.  Stamens distinct, in
 four parcels, inserted  in a quadrangular fleshy hollow near the calyx-
 teeth.   Ovary two-celled ; ovules about twenty in each  cell.  Berry one
 or two-celled, one or two-seeded.  Seeds cylindrical, or half ovate; coty-
ledons thick, fleshy, convex externally, sinuous  internally.—Trees with
opposite, rigid, dotted leaves, and  cymose, somewhat corymbose, termi-
nal and  axillary flowers.

   6. Eucalyptus.  Calyx-tube obovate or globose, cup-shaped, perma-
nent; limb entire, resembling a lid, cut all  round the base, and decidu-
 ous.  Petals none.   Stamens numerous, distinct.   Capsule four-celled,
 or by abortion three-celled, many-seeded, opening at  the apex.—New
 Holland trees with simple, entire, glaucous leaves, and apetalous flowers;
 the leaves dotted with  numerous vesicles of oil.

             ORDER  XLI.  Lythrace^e.  Loosestrife.
   Herbs,  rarely  shrubs, frequently  with  four-angled branches  and
 opposite, verticillate,  or  alternate, entire,  not dotted  leaves, without 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
47
stipules or glands.  Calyx tubular, persistent;  limb four to seven-lobed,
sometimes with as many intermediate teeth.  Petals inserted into the calyx
between the lobes, deciduous, sometimes wanting.  Stamens as many, or
two or  four times  as many as the petals,  and inserted  below them.
Styles  united  into  one;  stigma capitate or  rarely  two-lobed.   Ovary
superior, inclosed in the  calyx-tube, two to four-celled.  Fruit,  a mem-
branous capsule, enveloped in the calyx, usually one-celled by abortion.
Seeds small, numerous,  attached  to  a central placenta,  anatropous,
exalbuminous.

   1. Lythrum.   Calyx cylindrical, striate; limb four to six broad teeth,
with as  many minute  intermediate  teeth or  processes.   Petals  four to
six, equal, alternate with the erect teeth of the calyx.  Stamens as many
or twice as many as the petals, inserted at  the middle or near the  base
of the  calyx,  nearly  equal.   Style filiform; stigma  capitate.   Capsule
oblong,  inclosed in the calyx, two-celled, many-seeded.   Placenta thick,
adhering to  the dissepiment.—Mostly perennials with entire leaves, and
white or purple axillary flowers.

         ORDER XLII.  Onagrace^e.   Evening Primrose.
   Herbs,  sometimes  shrubby, with  alternate or opposite  leaves, not
dotted and without  stipules.   Flowers axillary, or in terminal spikes or
racemes.  Sepals four, sometimes two  or  six, united below into a tube,
valvate  in aestivation.   Petals four, sometimes two or six, and, with the
four or  eight,  sometimes one to four stamens, inserted into the throat of
the calyx; pollen triangular, often cohering by threads.   Ovary usually
four-celled;  placenta  in the  axis.   Styles united ; stigmas four, or united
into  one.  Fruit generally  capsular, sometimes baccate,  two  to  four-
celled, many-seeded,  exalbuminous.

                     SUB-ORDER  I.   Onagre^e.
   Flowers  perfect, the parts arranged  in fours, rarely threes; pollen
connected by threads.

   1. Epilobium.   Calyx-tube  not  prolonged beyond the ovary;  limb
deeply  four-cleft, four-parted, and deciduous.   Petals  four.   Stamens
eight;   anthers short, fixed near the  middle ; stigma  often with  four
spreading lobes.   Ovary and  capsule linear, four-cornered, four-celled,
four-valved, many-seeded;  seeds comose, with a tuft  of long hairs at the
end.—Perennials with  nearly sessile  leaves, and   violet,  purple,  or
white flowers.

   2. Oenothera.   Calyx-tube prolonged beyond the ovary,  deciduous;
segments four, reflexed.   Petals four,  equal,  obcordate or obovate, 
48
Natural  Orders of Plants.
inserted into the top of the tube.   Stamens eight, nearly equal.   Ovary
four-celled, with numerous horizontal or ascending ovules.   Stigma four-
lobed or capitate.   Capsule various in  form, four-celled,  four-valved,
many-seeded ;  seeds naked.  Herbs with alternate leaves.

             ORDER XLIII.  Cucurbitace^e.  Gourd.
   Succulent herbs  creeping or climbing by  tendrils, with rough, alter-
nate, and palmately-veined leaves.   Flowers  monoecious or polygamous,
often monadelphous, never blue.   Calyx four or five, rarely six, sepals
united in a tube, and in the fertile flowers adherent to the ovary.  Petals as
many as sepals, more or less united into a monopetalous corolla which
coheres to the calyx, very cellular, and strongly marked  with reticu-
lated  veins.  Stamens five, rarely three, inserted  into the  base of the
corolla or calyx, either distinct, or  variously united by their filaments
and  long, contorted  anthers.   Ovary inferior,  two to  five-celled, the
thick and fleshy placentae often filling the cells,  or carried back so as to
reach the walls of  the  pericarp, the dissepiments often disappearing
during its growth.   Stigmas thick,  dilated, or  fringed.   Fruit a pepo,
usually fleshy,  with a hard rind;  sometimes membranous;  often one-
celled by obliteration.   Seeds  large, flat, often arilled, anatropous, exal-
buminous.   Cotyledons foliaceous.

   1.  Momordica.   Flowers  monoecious, yellow or  white.   Males;
calyx  five-cleft, with a very short tube; petals five, united  at  base;
stamens five,  triadelphous;  anthers   connate.   Females;   calyx  and
corolla as in the males;  filaments three,  sterile; style  three-cleft; ovary
three-celled.   Pepo fleshy, bursting elastically, three-valved ;  seeds com-
pressed, reticulated, with a fleshy arillus.

   2. Cucumis.   Flowers monoecious or perfect.  Calyx tubular-campanu-
late, with  subulate  segments  scarcely the  length  of the tube.   Petals
scarcely adhering to each other, five.  Males ; stamens five ;  triadelph-
ous.   Females; style short;  stigmas  three, thick,  two-lobed.    Pepo
fleshy, indehiscent,  three to six  celled; seeds compressed, ovate, acute,
not margined at the edge.—Creeping or climbing plants with axillary,'
solitary, yellow flowers.

   3.  Cucurbita.   Flowers  monoecious;  corolla campanulate;  petals
united and coherent with the calyx.   Males ;  calyx five-toothed ; 'stamens
five, triadelphous;  anthers syngenecious, straight, parallel.   Females-
calyx  five-toothed,  upper  part  deciduous   after  flowerino-•  sti'
three,  thick,  two-lobed.  Pepo  fleshy or ligneous, three to "five-celled
Seeds  thickened  at  margin,  obovate, compressed. — Flowers  mostlv
yellow.                                                             * 
Natural Orders of  Plants.
49
  4. Citrullus.  Corolla persistent,  five-parted, sub-rotate.  Anthers
triadelphous, bilocular.  Style trifid.   Stigma obcordate, convex.   Fruit
a fleshy, or dry and fibrous, many-seeded peponida.

  5. Ecbalium.   Corolla five or six-cleft;  anthers triadelphous; ovules
in two rows in each  cell.  Stigmas three, two-horned.  Fruit an elastic-
ally and irregularly-bursting peponida.

  6. Bryonia.  Flowers  monoecious or dioecious.  Petals hardly united
at the base.    Males ; calyx five-toothed ; stamens triadelphous ; anthers
flexuose.   Females  ; style mostly three-cleft.   Fruit an ovate or globose,
smooth berry, generally few-seeded.   Seeds ovate, scarcely compressed,
more or less edged.   Tendrils simple, seldom forked.

            ORDER XLIV.  Grossulace^e.   Currants.
  Unarmed or spiny shrubs, with alternate, lobed leaves, plaited  in ver-
nation.  Flowers  in axillary racemes with bracts at  their base.   Calyx
superior, four or  five  cleft, regular,  colored, marescent, imbricate  in
aestivation.  Petals  inserted in the  throat of the calyx, small, distinct,
as many as sepals.  Stamens as many as petals and alternate with them,
very short;  anthers introrse.   Ovary one-celled, with two parietal pla-
centae ; ovules numerous; styles two.   Fruit a one-celled berry, pulpy,
crowned with  the remains of the flower.  Seeds anatropous, the embryo
minute, radicle next the micropyle.

   1. Ribes.  Calyx five-lobed, the segments more or  less colored. Petals
five, minute, scale-like.   Stamens five, distinct, inserted in the throat of
the calyx.   Styles one to four-cleft.   Berry one-celled, succulent, with
narrow parietal placentae.  Seeds oblong, slightly compressed.

            ORDER XLV.   Crassulace^e.   Houseleek.
   Succulent  herbaceous  or  shrubby plants, with entire or  pinnatifid
leaves, without stipules.   Flowers sessile,  usually  in  cymes.  Sepals
three to twenty, persistent,  more or less united at base.   Petals as many
as  the sepals, distinct, rarely cohering, inserted with  the distinct sta-
mens on the  base of the calyx ; imbricated  in aestivation.   Stamens as
many, or  twice as many as the petals, and alternate  with them ;  anthers
two-celled, bursting lengthwise.   Ovaries as many as the petals and
opposite to them.   Fruit follicles, as  many as ovaries, each  opening  by
the ventral suture, many-seeded.  Seeds anatropous ; embryo surrounded
by thin albumen.

   1.  Sempervivum.   Calyx  concave, permanent,  with from  six  to
twenty, more or less deep, uniform, fleshy, rather  acute segments.
         4




                                    Ornr 
50                 Natural Orders of Plants.

Petals  as  many as calyx-segments, larger, lanceolate,  acute, channeled,
equal,  spreading, withering.   A  small  lacerated scale at the base  of
each carpel.   Filaments  as  many or twice as many as the  petals, but
shorter, awl-shaped, compressed, each terminating in  a spreading style,
with a  blunt stigma;  when ripe bursting along their  inner margins.
Perennial  herbaceous plants  or shrubs, propagated by axillary offsets,
with thick, fleshy leaves.

           ORDER  XLVI.  Saxifragace^e.   Saxifrage.
  Herbs or shrubs with  alternate or  opposite leaves,  sometimes stipu-
late.  Sepals four or  five, more  or less united, persistent.   Petals  as
many as the sepals,  inserted between the lobes of the calyx;  rarely
wanting.   Stamens mostly five or  ten ; anthers three-celled, opening
longitudinally.    Ovaries  inferior, usually of two, sometimes three  or
four carpels,  cohering at base, distinct  and  divergent  above.  Fruit
generally capsular, one or two celled, many-seeded.   Seeds small, ana-
tropous, with a slender embryo in the albumen.

                  SUB-ORDER I.  Saxifrages.
  Petals imbricate in aestivation ; carpels united, the  summits distinct,
forming a  beaked capsule.  Herbs.

  1. Heuchera.   Calyx campanulate, cohering at the  base with the
ovary,  five-cleft, segments obtuse. Corolla inferior, of  five small, entire,
erect, spatulate petals, inserted with the  five  stamens  on the throat  of
the  calyx.   Styles two.   Capsule one-celled, with two parietal  adnate
placentae ;  many-seeded, two-beaked, opening between the beaks.—Per-
ennials, with round cordate, long-petioled, principally radical leaves ;
those on  the  scapes, if  any, alternate; flowers in  panicles on long
scapes, greenish-white, tinged with purple ; roots  astringent.

                  SUB-ORDER  II.   Hydrangea.
  Petals valvate  in the bud; leaves opposite,  exstipulate ;  calyx-tube
coherent with the ovary ;  capsules two-celled.   Shrubs.

  2. Hydrangea. Marginal fiowers usually sterile and radiant, consist-
ing of  a broad, rotate, membranaceous, four or five-cleft, colored calyx,
with neither petals, stamens, nor styles.  Fertile flowers; calyx-tube hemi-
spherical,  adherent to the ovary,  eight or ten ribbed,  limb four or five-
toothed, persistent.   Petals four or  five, ovate, sessile.   Stamens eioht
or ten, slender.   Capsule crowned by  the two diverging  styles, opening
by  a foramen between them, two-celled  below, many-seeded.__Shrubs
with opposite petioled leaves,  and numerous flowers  in  compound
cymes.
'>«■( f-8 
Natural  Orders of  Plants.
51
         ORDER  XLVII.   Hamamelaces.  Witch Hazel.
   Shrubs  with  alternate,  simple, dentate leaves, the veinlets  running
 direct from the mid-vein to the margin, and deciduous stipules.  Flowers
 clustered,  often  polygamous.   Calyx cohering with the  base of the
 ovary,  four or  five-cleft.   Petals,  when  present, four or five, linear,
 with an imbricate aestivation.   Stamens eight, of which four are altern-
 ate with the petals, those opposite barren ; or many,  and all fertile with
 no petals ; anthers  introrse,  two-celled.   Ovary inferior,  two-celled.
 Ovules solitary or several, pendulous or suspended ;  styles two.  Fruit
 semi-inferior, capsular, coriaceous,  two-beaked, two-celled ; cells one-
 seeded.    Seeds  pendulous ;  embryo  surrounded by fleshy  or horny
 albumen.

   1.  Hamamelis.  Calyx  four-parted, persistent, with an involucel of
 two or three bractlets at base.  Petals four, ligulate, long and  narrow.
 Stamens eight, very short; four alternate with the petals  are fertile, the
 others imperfect and  scale-like ; anthers  introrse, two-celled ; each  cell
 with  an operculate valve.  Styles two,  short.   Capsule coriaceous or
 bony, two-celled, two-lobed ;  apex two-valved ; valves cleft.  The cap-
 sule opens  loculicidally from  the  top; the outer coat separating from
 the inner, which  incloses the  seeds,  but soon bursts elastically into  two
 pieces.  Seeds two, arillate.—Tall shrubs or small trees with short peti-
 oled,  straight-veined leaves, and yellow flowers.

      ORDER XLVIII.   Apiace^e  or Umbellifers.  Parsley.
   Plants with herbaceous,  hollow, furrowed stems, and mostly alternate
 and much divided leaves, with sheathing or dilated petioles at the base.
 Flowers arranged in  umbels,  mostly white, often yellow, pink,  blue, or
 greenish.    Umbels  usually compound, when the secondary ones  are
 termed umbellets ; both often subtended by a whorl of bracts, {involucre
 and involucels).   Calyx adhering  to the ovary, entire, five-toothed, or
 obsolete.   Petals five, usually  inflected at the point, imbricate in aestiva-
 tion.  Stamens five, alternate with the petals, and with them inserted on
 the disk that crowns  the ovary, and surrounds the base of the two styles;
 styles  sometimes united and dilated at base (stylopodium).   Ovary infe-
 rior, two-celled.   Stigmas simple.  Fruit dry, consisting of two  indehis-
cent carpels,  (called  mericarps,)  cohering by  their  inner  face, (the
commissure,) and when ripe separating from each other into two halves,
and usually suspended from the summit of  a slender prolongation of the
axis (carpophore) ; each carpel marked lengthwise with five large ridges,
(primary ribs,) and   often with  five  intermediate and  smaller  ones,
 (secondary ribs);  in the interstices, or intervals between the ribs, as well
as the commissure, are sometimes contained the (vittoe) oil-tubes, which
# 
52
Natural  Orders of  Plants.
 are little linear canals or receptacles of colored volatile oil.   Seeds soli-
 tary and suspended  from the summit of each cell, anatropous,  with a
 minute embryo in hard horn-like albumen.

                   SUB-ORDER I.  Orthosperms.
   The inner surface of the seeds and albumen flat or nearly so; vittae
 often wanting.

   1.  Sanicula.  Flowers polygamous.   Calyx-tube echinate ; segments
 acute, leafy,  persistent.   Petals obovate, erect, with  a long, inflected
 point.   Fruit subglobose, the carpels not separating spontaneously, rib-
 less, thickly clothed  with hooked prickles, each  with five  oil-tubes  or
 vittae.—Perennial  herbs  with palmately-lobed or parted  leaves, those
 from the root long-petioled.   Umbels irregular or compound, the green-
 ish or yellowish flowers capitate in the umbellets, perfect, with staminate
 ones  intermixed;  involucre  of few, often cleft leaflets;  involucel  of
 several, entire.

   2. Eryngium.   Flowers sessile, collected in dense heads.   Calyx-tube
 rough with scales and vesicles ;  teeth five, leafy.  Petals erect, connivent,
 oblong, emarginate, with a long inflexed  point.  Styles filiform.   Fruit
 top-shaped, terete,  covered with little scales or tubercles, without ribs or
 vittae; carpophore  adnate with the carpels.—Herbaceous or suffruticose
 plants, chiefly perennials, with coriaceous, toothed, cut,  or prickly leaves,
blue or white flowers, bracetate;  lower  bracts involucrate,  the  others
 smaller and paleaceous.

   3. Cicuta.  Calyx-margin  five-toothed, foliaceous.   Petals obcordate,
points  inflected.   Fruit roundish, double,  contracted laterally, didymous.
 Carpels with five flattish, equal ribs ;  the  lateral ones marginal; intervals
filled  with single vittae;  commissure with two vittae;  carpophore two-
parted; seeds  terete.—Perennial, aquatic, smooth, and  poisonous  herbs,
with  taper,  fistular  stems,   and  tripinnately  or  ternately  compound
leaves; the veins of the  lanceolate  leaves terminating in the notches;
umbels perfect;  involucre few-leaved or none; involucels many-leaved;
 fiowers white.

   4. Carum.   Calyx-margin obsolete.  Petals obovate, emarginate, the
 point inflexed.   Disk and stylopodium depressed.   Fruit contracted  at
 the side, ovate or oblong.  Mericarps with five equal  ridges, of which
 the lateral form the  border.   Intervals  with  single vittae;  commissure
 wi h two; carpophore free, bifid at apex.—Smooth and often perennial
 herbs, with tuberous, edible   roots;  leaves pinnated with multifid seg-
 ments ; umbels perfect;  involucre various; flowers white.
• 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
53
   5.  Pimpinella.   Calyx-margin obsolete.   Petals obcordate, emargi-
nate, with an inflexed lobe.  Flowers perfect or  diclinous.   Fruit con-
tracted from the side, crowned by a cushion-like disk, and the reflexed,
capillary, somewhat capitate styles.   Mericarps with five, filiform, equal
ribs, the lateral of which are on the edge.   Intervals trivittate; carpo-
phore  bifid,  free; seed  convex,  anteriorly flattish.—European smooth
herbs, often perennial, with compound umbels, white flowers, sometimes
pink or yellow, and no involucre.

   6. Apium.   Calyx-margin obsolete.  Petals roundish, entire, with a
small, inflexed point.   Disk depressed.  Fruit roundish, laterally con-
tracted, double.  Mericarps with five filiform equal ribs, the lateral  ribs
marginal;  dorsal intervals with single vittae, lateral with two or three;
carpophore undivided.—European herbaceous plants with the root thick-
ened at the neck;  stem furrowed and branched;  leaves pinnated, with
wedge-shaped cut segments; umbels perfect, naked;  flowers greenish-
white.

   7. Petroselinum.  Calyx-margin obsolete.  Petals roundish, incurved,
scarcely emarginate, with a narrow, inflexed  point.   Disk  short, coni-
cal, somewhat  crenulate.  Styles diverging.   Fruit ovate,  compressed
at the sides.  Mericarps with five filiform equal ribs, of  which the late-
ral ones form the margin.  Intervals with single vittae; commissure with
two;  carpophore biparted.  Involucre  few-leaved;  involucels many-
leaved.—Smooth branching European herbs, with decompound leaves,
stamens longer than the corolla, and uniform, white or greenish flowers;
those of the disk often sterile.

   8. Selinum,  or Conioselinum.  Calyx-teeth obsolete.   Petals obovate,
with an inflected point.   Fruit oval, compressed on the back.  Mericarps
with five  winged ribs,  lateral  ones  marginal  and much the broadest.
Intervals with one to three vittae ;  commissure with four to eight.—Smooth
biennials, with  leaves on very large inflated petioles, and white flowers;
involucre scarcely any; involucels five to seven-leaved, awl-shaped.

   9. Fosniculum.   Margin of calyx  tumid, toothless.   Petals roundish,
entire, involute, with a broad, retuse apex.   Fruit elliptic-oblong, late-
rally  subcompressed.   Mericarps with five prominent, bluntly-keeled
ribs,  the  lateral ones   broader  and  marginal.   Intervals  univittate;
commissure bivittate.   Seed nearly semi-terete.—Biennials or perennials
with pinnated, decompound leaves, and yellow flowers; no involucre nor
involucels.

   10.  Angelica.   Calyx-margin obsolete.   Petals lanceolate,  entire,
acuminate, with the point straight or curved inward.  Fruit  compressed 
54
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
at the back, with a central raphe, two-winged on each side.   Mericarps
with three filiform dorsal elevated  ribs, the  two lateral dilated  into a
membranous wing.  Intervals univittate. — Perennials or biennials, with
bipinnate  leaves,  and white  flowers; involucre  none  or  few-leaved;
involucel many-leaved.

  11. Archangelica.  Calyx-teeth short.   Petals elliptical, entire, acu-
minate, with the point incurved.  Fruit dorsally compressed.  Mericarps
with three rather thick, carinated, dorsal  ribs;  lateral ribs dilated into
marginal wings.   Seed not adhering to the integument, covered all over
with vittce.—Perennials, with greenish or white flowers.

  12. Heracleum.   Calyx-limb  of five,  small  acute teeth.    Petals
obovate,  emarginate, with an inflected lobe; the outer often radiating
and bifid.  Fruit flattened at  the  back,  surrounded by  a  broad flat
border.   Mericarps  with very fine  ribs; the three  dorsal equidistant,
the two lateral distant  from the others, and contiguous to the dilated
margin.   Viltm solitary in the interstices,  generally two on the commis-
sure, all shorter than the fruit,  and mostly clavellate.—Large, coarse,
herbaceous  plants, with many-rayed umbels, large  sheathing petioles,
and few, deciduous, involucral leaves.

   13.  Daucus.   Calyx-margin five-toothed.    Petals  obovate, emargi.-
nate, with an  inflexed point, the outer usually radiating and bifid.   Fruit
somewhat compressed from the back, ovate  or oblong.   Mericarps with
five filiform and bristly primary ribs;  the three middle ones at the back,
the lateral on the plane of the commissure; the four secondary equal,
more prominent,  winged, and divided  into  a single row  of  prickles.
Intervals univittate below the secondary ribs; carpophore entire, free.—
Mostly biennials,  with bipinnate leaves ; bracts of the involucre multifid
and leafy ;  flowers  white or yellowish, the  central  one  usually dark-
purple, fleshy and sterile.

   14. Cuminum.    Calyx-teeth five, lanceolate, setaceous, unequal, per-
sistent.   Petals oblong, emarginate, erect, spreading, with an inflexed
lobe.  Fruit contracted at  the side.  Mericarps with wingless ribs, the
five primary filiform, minutely muricated,  the laterals forming a border ;
the four secondary  more prominent and aculeated.   Intervals under the
secondary ridges with one vitta in each ; carpophore bipartite.—Annuals,
with multifid leaves having setaceous segments;  flowers white or pink.

    15 Opoponax.   Calyx-margin obsolete.   Petals  roundish,  entire
involute.   Stylopodium broad, thick; styles very short.   Fruit elliptical
compressed, with a dilated margin.  Mericarps  with the  three   dorsal 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
55
ribs thin, prominent, and no distinct, lateral ones.   Vittae three to  each
interval; six to ten to each commissure.—Perennials, with a thick  root,
and rough stem;  leaves bipinnate ; flowers yellow.

   16. Ferula.   Calyx-margin with  five  short  teeth.  Petals ovate,
entire, acuminate, with an incurved point.   Fruit flattened at the back,
with a dilated flat border.  Mericarps with three dorsal filiform ribs, the
two lateral obsolete and lost in the dilated margin.   Vittaz in the dorsal
intervals three or more ;  in the commissure four or more.   Seeds flat.
Carpophore bipartite.—Herbaceous plants with fleshy roots, tall smooth
stems, and supra-decompound leaves ;  flowers yellow.

   17. Narthex.  Calyx-margin obsolete.  Petals?  Stylopodium plicate-
urceolate.  Styles filiform, finally reflexed.   Fruit plano-convex, with a
dilated border.   Mericarps with five primary ribs ; the three  interme-
diate ones filiform, the two lateral obsolete, immersed in the contiguous
margin.   Vittce in the dorsal intervals usually single ; in  the commis-
sure four to  six, unequal and variable.   Seeds flat.   Carpophore bi-
partite.
   18. Dorema.  Disk epigynous,  cup-shaped.   Fruit  slightly  com-
pressed from the  back, edged ; with three distinct, filiform, primary ribs
near  the  middle, and  four  obtuse secondary  ridges  alternating  with
them ; the whole tomentose.    Vittce, one to each secondary ridge, one to
each primary marginal ridge, and four to the commissure of which two
are very small.

   19. Galbanum.   Fruit compressed at  the  back,  elliptical; ridges
seven, elevated,  compressed,  bluntly keeled, not winged ; the lateral
distinct, next the margin.  Channels broadish,  concave, without vittae  ;
commissure flat, dilated,  with two broad curved  vittae.  Don.

   20. Anethum.    Calyx-margin  obsolete.   Petals  roundish,  entire,
involute, with a squarish  refuse lobe.   Fruit lenticular, flattened  from
the back, surrounded by a flattened border.  Mericarps with equidistant
filiform ridges, the  three dorsal acutely  keeled, the  two lateral more
obsolete, losing themselves in the border.    Vittai  broad, solitary, filling
the intervals, two on the commissure.—Upright  smooth  annuals,  with
decompound leaves having setaceous linear segments, and yellow flowers.

   21. GSnanthe.  Calyx  permanent, growing rather larger after flower-
ing.   Petals obovate, emarginate, with an inflexed lobe.  Disk conical.
Fruit cylindrical-ovate, surmounted by long erect styles.   Mericarps
with  five convex obtuse  ridges,  of  which the marginal  ones are a
little  the  broadest.—Usually aquatic  herbs with compound  umbels, 
56                 Natural Orders  of Plants.

and white petals ; flowers of the ray long stalked, abortive ;  of the disk
sessile or nearly so, and fertile.

  22. Peucedanum.  Calyx-margin five-toothed.   Petals obovate, con-
tracted into an inflexed segment, emarginate  or nearly entire.   Fruit
flattened  at the back, surrounded by a dilated flat border.    Mericarps
with equidistant ridges; the  three  dorsal  filiform, the  lateral more
obsolete,  next the lateral border, or lost in it.   Vittai single in the chan-
nels, or in the lateral  ones,  one and a half to two ; usually two  on the
commissure.—Perennials, generally smooth, with pinnated leaves, more
or less compound ; umbels  compound, terminal; flowers white,  yellow
or yellowish-green.

                SUB-ORDER II.   Campylospermjs.
  The inner surface  of  the  seed deeply furrowed,  or with involute
margins.

  23. Osmorrhiza.   Calyx-margin  obsolete.   Petals  oblong,  nearly
entire, the cuspidate point inflexed ; styles conical at base.  Fruit linear-
oblong, clavate, attenuate  at base, crowned with the styles.    Carpels
with five  equal, acute, bristly ribs; intervals without vittae ; commissure
with a deep, bristly channel.—Perennials, with thick aromatic roots, and
large two or three ternately compound leaves, with the umbels opposite;
involucre  and involucels few-leaved ; flowers white.

  24. Conium.  Calyx-margin obsolete.  Petals obcordate, somewhat
emarginate, with a very short inflexed lobe.   Fruit ovate laterally com-
pressed.   Mericarps with five prominent, acute, equal,  undulate-crenu-
late  ribs,  the  lateral ones marginal.   Intervals without vittae, but with
many striae ;  seeds with a deep, narrow groove  on the face.—Biennials,
with fusiform  roots, decompound leaves, and white flowers, all fertile.
Poisonous herbs.

                 SUB-ORDER  III.   Ccelosperms.
  Seeds incurved at base and apex.

  25.  Coriandrum.    Calyx-teeth  five, acute,  unequal,  permanent.
Petals obovate, emarginate, with  an  inflexed segment,  the   exterior
radiating  and bifid.  Fruit globose, with ten ribs, scarcely separating.
Mericarps with five depressed, primary ribs, wavy, and  four secondary
ones, beside  the marginals, more  prominent and  keeled.  Intervals
without vittae ; commissure  with two.    Seed excavated in front, with a
loose skin.—A smooth annual, with multifid  leaves, three to five-rayed
umbels, and no involucre;  involucels three-leaved, unilateral. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
57
             ORDER XLiX.   Araliace^e.  Spikenard.
  Herbs, shrubs or trees, with the habit of umbellifers.  Leaves exstipu-
late, simple, or compound,  the petioles thickened and  dilated at  base.
Flowers usually  umbellate.   Calyx adherent to the ovary, entire  or
toothed.   Petals five to  ten, deciduous, rarely wanting, valvate in aesti-
vation.  Stamens  equal  in number  to the  petals, rarely double  the
number, alternate with them, and inserted with them on the top of  the
ovary.  Anthers introrse.   Ovaries crowned with a disk, two or many-
celled; ovules solitary ;  styles as many as cells;  stigmas simple.    Fruit
baccate or drupaceous,  sometimes nearly  dry, but the carpels adherent.
Seed solitary in each  cell.   Embryo short, at the base of the copious,
fleshy albumen.

   1.  Aralia.  Flowers  mostly perfect;  calyx-limb short, entire, or five
toothed.   Petals  five, spreading,  apex not inflexed.   Stamens five or
ten, alternate with the petals; filaments short.   Styles five, spreading.
Fruit a berry or drupe, five-lobed, five-celled, five-seeded, crowned with
the remains of the calyx and styles.   Stones  papery.—Shrubs, low trees
or perennial  herbs, with compound leaves, and  greenish-white flowers,
in simple, solitary or racemose panicles.

  2. Panax.   Flowers  diceciously polygamous.   Perfect  flowers ; calyx
adnate to  the  ovary, limb  short, obsoletely five-toothed; petals five ;
stamens five,  alternate with the petals ; styles two or three, short; fruit
baccate,  succulent,  compressed,  orbicular,  two or  three-celled; cells
one-seeded, leathery.   Sterile flowers ; calyx-limb nearly entire ;  petals
and stamens five.—Chiefly perennial  herbs with greenish-white flowers,
in a solitary,  simple umbel; only three stem  leaves in a whorl, in  the
herbaceous.

   3.  Hedera.   Calyx an  elevated  or five-toothed edge.   Petals  not
five,  not  calyptrate and cohering,  dilated  at the  base.   Stamens  and
styles five  to  ten, the latter converging or  consolidated.   Berry five-
seeded, crowned  by the persistent calyx.—European  shrubby plants,
climbing or erect, with simple, evergreen leaves,  and green flowers.

                ORDER  L.  Cornace^e.   Dogwood.
   Trees and shrubs,  rarely herbs, with a bitter bark, and  simple, mostly
opposite  and  entire  leaves, with pinnate veinlets,  exstipulate ;  in  one
species alternate.    Hairs  fixed  by the center.   Flowers cymose  and
sometimes involucrate.   Sepals  adherent to the  ovary ;  the limb minute,
four or live-toothed or lobed.  Petals four or five, distinct, alternate with
the calyx-teeth ;  aestivation valvate.   Stamens four or five, inserted with 
58                  Natural Orders of  Plants.

the petals and alternate with them.   Ovary one or two-celled.    Styles
single.  Fruit a  baccate  drupe, with a one  or two-celled nucleus,
crowned  with the calyx.   Seeds two, anatropous;  embryo nearly the
length of the fleshy albumen.

   1. Cornus.  Calyx-limb minutely four-toothed.   Petals four, oblong,
sessile, spreading.  Stamens  four; filaments slender.   Style  one, sub-
clavate;  stigma obtuse or capitate.  Drupes baccate, not connate, with
a two or three-celled nut.   Seeds solitary, pendulous.  Albumen fleshy;
radicle of the embryo shorter than the  cotyledons.—Trees, shrubs, or
perennial herbs, with entire, mostly opposite leaves,  and whitish flowers
in cymes.

             ORDER LI.   Loranthace^e.  Mistletoe.
   Shrubby plants with parasitical, dichotomous stems,  and coriaceous,
opposite, fleshy, evergreen leaves, without stipules.   Flowers small and
dioecious,  whitish  or  greenish-yellow,  sometimes perfect and brilliant.
Calyx adnate to the ovary in perfect flower;  limb  three  to five-cleft or
obsolete.   Petals  three, four, or eight,  united in a tube,  sometimes dis-
tinct, inserted into the epigynous disk.    Stamens as  many as the petals
and opposite  to  them, or to the sepals when  the  petals are wanting.
Ovary one-celled, with a single, suspended ovule; style simple or  none.
Fruit baccate, with one anatropous seed.

   1. Viscum.  Flowers monoecious or dioecious.   Males ;  calyx with
from three to five,  usually four triangular, erect segments, valvate in
aestivation.  Anthers  as many as the  sepals,  and  inserted  on them.
Petals none.   Females ; calyx-limb  obsolete.   Petals four, fleshy, epi-
gynous.   Stamens none; stigma sessile.   Berry  fleshy, one-seeded.—
Leaves very rarely alternate  or scale-like.

              SUB-CLASS  II.   Monopktalous Plants.
   Floral envelops consisting  of both calyx  and  corolla;  the latter com-
posed of petals more or less united, or  monopetalous.

           ORDER LII.  Caprifoliace^e.  Honeysuckle.
   Shrubs,  rarely herbs,  often twining,  with  opposite   leaves  and no
stipules.   Flowers cymose and  often  fragrant.   Calyx adherent to  the
ovary; limb five,  rarely four-toothed.   Corolla  tubular  or rotate, regu-
lar or irregular,  imbricate in aestivation.   Stamens as many, or one less
than the lobes of the corolla, alternate with them, and  inserted  into the
tube.  Anthers introrse,  versatile.   Ovary three, rarely four or five-
celled, with one to several pendulous ovules in each cell.   Style  one
filiform,  with a somewhat capitate stigma,  or wanting.   Sticrmas  one to 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
59
four.   Fruit baccate, fleshy, or sometimes dry, sometimes one-celled by
abortion.  Seeds anatropous.   Embryo in the axis of the fleshy albumen.

                   SUB-ORDER I.  Lonicere.e.
   Corolla tubular; the  limb often irregular;  style  filiform;  stigma
capitate.

   1. Diervilla.   Calyx-tabe oblong, tapering at the summit; limb five-
cleft ; lobes slender, awl-shaped, persistent.  Corolla  twice as  long as
the calyx, funnel-form, five-lobed, almost regular.   Stamens five.  Pod
ovoid-oblong, pointed, two-celled, two-valved, septicidal, many-seeded.—
Low upright shrubs with opposite, serrate, deciduous leaves, and flowers
in axillary or terminal cymose peduncles.

   2. Triosteum.  Calyx-tube ovoid; limb five-parted; lobes linear, nearly
as long as the corolla, persistent.  Corolla tubular, gibbous at base, five-
lobed,  sub-equal, scarcely longer than the calyx. Stamens five, included.
Stigma capitate, lobed.  Fruit drupaceous, rather drj', crowned with
the calyx, three-celled, three-seeded;  seeds ribbed and  bony.—Coarse
hairy perennial herbs, leafy to  the top, with  the  ample  entire  pointed
leaves tapering to the base, but connate round the simple stem; flower
sessile, and solitary, or clustered in the axils.

                   SUB-ORDER II.  Sambucejs.
   Corolla regular, rotate, deeply five-lobed.   Stigmas  three, rarely five,
sessile.  Flowers in cymes.

   3. Sambucus.   Calyx-limb small,  five-cleft.   Corolla rotate or urceo-
late, five-cleft, segments obtuse.   Stamens five.  Stigmas three, sessile,
obtuse, small.  Fruit baccate, pulpy, subglobose,  three or four-seeded,
hardly crowned by the remains of the calyx.—Shrubs or perennial herbs
with opposite pinnate or bipinnate leaves,  and numerous, small, white
or reddish flowers in compound  cymes.

   4. Viburnum.   Calyx small, five-toothed, persistent.   Corolla spread-
ing ;  limb five-lobed, segments obtuse.   Stamens  five, equal, longer
than the corolla.   Stigmas three, mostly sessile.  Drupe one-celled, one-
seeded, with thin pulp,  and a crustaceous flattened stone.—Shrubs with
simple  petioled leaves,  and white  sessile  flowers  in flat, compound
cymes, sometimes radiant.

               ORDER. LIII.   Rubiaceje.  Madder.
   Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with  angular stems and  opposite, entire,
sometimes verticillate leaves;  stipules between  the  petioles, somewhat 
60
Natural  Orders of Plants.
resembling  the  leaves.  Calyx-tube more  or less adherent;  limb  five-
cleft.   Corolla monopetalous, valvate, rotate, or tubular, inserted on the
calyx; lobes equal in number to those of the calyx.   Stamens as many
as corolla-segments, alternate with them, and inserted upon the corolla-
tube.   Ovary peltate,  or two-celled.   Ovules  solitary, erect.   Styles
two ;  stigma simple.   Fruit various.   Seeds anatropous or amphitropous,
with copious hard albumen.

                    SUB-ORDER I.   Stellate.
   Calyx wholly adherent to the ovary, which is two-celled, two-seeded.
Leaves verticillate, with apparently no stipules.  Calyx valvate in  aesti-
vation.

   1. Rubia.   Calyx-tube ovate, globose ; limb almost wanting.   Corolla
rotate, five-parted.   Stamens  five, short.   Styles two, short.   Fruit
didymous, globose, baccate, juicy.—Herbaceous or shrubby plants with
square stems, verticillate leaves, and  small,  white,  or  ochroleucous
flowers.

   2. Galium.   Calyx minute, four-toothed.  Corolla rotate, four-parted,
rarely three.   Stamens  four, rarely three, short.   Styles  two.   Fruit
dry, or a little fleshy, globular, twin, separating when ripe into the two
seed-like, indehiscent, one-seeded carpels.—Slender  herbs with  square
stems, whorled leaves, and small cymose flowers.


          SUB-ORDER II.   Cinchone^e, or Mitchellejs.
   Calyx adherent to the ovary.   Leaves  opposite,  rarely verticillate,
with stipules between the petioles, often united with them into a  sheath.

   3. Mitchella.  Flowers  two  on  each  double  ovary.  Calyx  four-
parted.   Corolla funnel-form,  four-lobed;  lobes  spreading,  densely
bearded within.   Stamens four, short, inserted  on the corolla.    Style
slender ; stigmas four.   Fruit  a  dry berry-like double drupe, crowned
with the calyx-teeth  of the two flowers, each  containing four  small and
seed-like bony  nutlets. — Smooth and  creeping evergreen herbs, with
round-ovate, petiolate leaves,  minute stipules,  white  fragrant  flowers
often tinged with red, and bright scarlet dry berries, which remain over
winter.   Parts of the flower occasionally in threes, fives, or sixes.

   4. Cephalanthus.   Calyx-tube inversely-pyramidal; limb four-tooth-
ed.  Corolla tubular,  slender, four-cleft ; lobes erect, with  a  valvate
aestivation.   Stamens four, somewhat exserted.   Style  filiform, very  long, 
Natural  Orders of  Plants.
61
with a capitate stigma.  Fruit dry and hard, inversely pyramidal, two to
four-celled, separating from the base upward into two to four closed one-
seeded portions.   Seeds with a rind or corky arillus.—Shrubs with oval
or lanceolate,  opposite or ternate leaves, furnished  with short stipules,
and white flowers densely aggregated in spherical peduncled heads.

            SUB-ORDER III.  Spigelie^e or Loganie^e.
  Calyx persistent, almost entirely  free from the ovary; corolla not con-
volute in aestivation.  Leaves opposite, with intermediate stipules, united
with the petioles.

  5.  Spigelia.  This is placed by some authors in the order Gentian-
aceae, and by others  in  Loganiaceae.   Calyx inferior, deeply five-cleft,
persistent; segments linear-subulate.  Corolla tubular-funnel form, much
longer than  the  calyx,  narrowed  at  base; limb  spreading, five-cleft;
segments broad, acuminate; valvate  in  aestivation.  Stamens five, simple;
anthers  simple, linear, converging.   Ovary  superior; style single, slen-
der,  hairy above, as long as the corolla, jointed near the middle; stigma
simple.    Capsule didymous,  two-celled, four-valved.   Seeds  few  or
many, minute.—Shrubs or chiefly herbs with opposite and  often connate
leaves on the  lower part of the stem, and quaternate above; flowers  of
a blue or red color, mostly sessile, and in one-sided terminal cymes  or
spikes.

              ORDER LIV.   CiNCHONACEiE.  Cinchona.
  The plants which I have  placed under this order, are  arranged by
many authors in the preceding one, in Cinchoneae;  but as others have
arranged them again in several different orders, I  have deemed it best
to make the present division, especially as it  is in  accordance with the
views of  several eminent botanists, among whom may be named Lindley.
In many respects it resembles the preceding order.

  A very extensive order of trees, shrubs, or herbs,  with simple, entire,
opposite  or  verticillate leaves having interpetiolary stipules.   Flowers
usually in corymbs or panicles.  Calyx adherent, with a definite number
of divisions, or none.   Corolla superior, regular, tubular; divisions defi-
nite ;  aestivation valvate or imbricate.   Stamens inserted on the corolla,
and  alternate  with its lobes.   Ovary inferior, crowned with a disk, usu-
ally two-celled, sometimes with several; ovules numerous,  attached to a
central placenta, or  few and  erect, or ascending.   Style  single, some-
times partly divided.   Stigma commonly simple, occasionally divided.
Fruit inferior, either  dividing into  two cocci, or indehiscent and dry or
succulent, sometimes  with  several  cells.   Seeds definite  or numerous.
Embryo small, oblong, surrounded  by  a horny  albumen. 
62
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
                   SUB-ORDER  I.  Cinchone^e.
   Leaves opposite;  stipules interpetiolar;  fruit capsular,  two-celled;
 cells many-seeded; seeds winged; albumen fleshy.   Trees or shrubs.

   1.  Cinchona.   Calyx  persistent, five-toothed.   Corolla with a terete
 tube; limb hypocrateriform, five-parted, valvate in aestivation.  Stamens
 inserted in the  middle of the  tube; filaments short;  anthers linear, in-
 cluded.   Capsule ovate or oblong, dividing along the dissepiment into
 two  carpels, open at the commissure,  and crowned by the  persistent
 calyx.  Seeds many,  with a membranaceous lacerated wing or margin;
 albumen fleshy.—Trees and shrubs with white or reddish flowers.  South
 American.  Variously arranged by botanists, according to the character
 of the corolla-limb, and leaves.

   2.  Uncaria.   Limb of calyx short,  urceolate, five-cleft.   Corolla
 funnel-shaped;  tube slender; throat naked; lobes five, spreading,  oval-
 oblong.  Anthers  inclosed or  protruded.   Style filiform,  protruded;
 stigma tumid, undivided.   Capsules pedicellate, clavate, tapering to the
 base.  Seeds numerous, imbricated, winged.—Climbing shrubs.  Exotics.

                    SUB-ORDER II.   Coffee.
   Fruit two-celled, berried, with two  bony or  crustaceous  one-sided
nuts,  which  are flat  and furrowed in  the inside; or  occasionally by
 abortion, having but one nut, and  then  the seeds are erect,  depressed,
 or laterally  adherent.   Albumen horny.   Leaves opposite.  Stipules
interpetiolar, united or distinct.

   3.  Chiococca.   Calyx-limb five-toothed.   Corolla   funnel-shaped,
with an obconical tube or throat, and a five-lobed acute  limb.   Stamens
five, downy, hardly adnate to  the base of the corolla;  anthers linear,
included.  Style single, with the apex sub-clavate or sub-bilobed.  Berry
somewhat didymous,  small, roundish,  compressed,  crowned with the
persistent  calyx; two-celled, two-seeded.  Seeds pendulous, compressed,
roundish.—Shrubby,  somewhat  climbing plants, with  yellowish-white
flowers.   Exotic.

   4. Coffea.  Calyx-tube ovate, globose or turbinate; limb small,  four
or five-toothed.   Corolla tubular, funnel-form, with  a  dilated four or
five-parted limb, with  oblong  lobes.  Stamens four or five, included or
exserted.  Style bifid at the apex.  Berry umbilicate, naked, or crowned
with the calyx, containing two seeds inclosed in a parchment-like puta-
men.   Seed convex above, flat beneath, with a longitudinal  furrow.—
Shrubs or trees with opposite, stipulate leaves. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
63
   5.  Cephaelis.  Heads of flowers inclosed in  a large two  to  ei<rht-
leaved  involucre.   Calyx-tube obovate;  limb  very short,  five-toothed.
 Corolla somewhat funnel-shaped, five-parted;  segments small, obtuse.
Anthers  included.   Stigma bifid, often  exserted.  Fruit  an obovate-
oblong berry, crowned with the  remains of the  calyx, two-celled, two-
seeded.—Shrubs and herbs of S. America; imperfectly  known.

             ORDER LV.   VALERIANACEiE.  VALERIAN.
   Herbs with  opposite  leaves and  no stipules.   Flowers  generally in
cymes or panicles.   Calyx-tube  coherent with the ovary; limb two to
four-toothed, obsolete, or else either membranous, or resembling a pap-
pus.  Corolla  tubular or funnel-form, sometimes with  a spur  at base,
four or five-lobed.   Stamens distinct, usually fewer than  the lobes of the
corolla, alternate with them and inserted into the corolla-tube.   Ovary
inferior, with one perfect cell, and two  abortive ones.  Seeds  solitary,
pendulous,  in  a dry, indehiscent  pericarp, anatropous, with  a large
embryo, and no albumen.

   1.  Valeriana.   Calyx-limb involute during flowering, then unrolled
into a deciduous, feathery pappus, consisting of many plumose  bristles.
Corolla-tube  obconical or cylindrical, equal  at the base or  gibbous, but
without a  spur; limb bluntly five,  rarely  three-cleft.   Stamens  three.
Fruit indehiscent, one-celled,  one-seeded.—Perennial herbs with  deep
and thickened, strong-scented roots,  and  opposite, simple or pinnate
leaves;  flowers in close cymes.

        ORDER LVI.  Asteraceje or  Composite.  Asters.
   Herbaceous  or shrubby plants  with alternate or opposite  leaves, with-
out stipules, simple though often much divided.   Flowers collected  into
a dense head (capitulum), upon a common receptacle, surrounded  by an
involucre of  many bracts or  scales, (paleai).   Calyx-limb  obsolete, or
membranaceous, consisting of bristles, awns, scales, teeth, hairs, etc., called
pappus; tube  adherent  to the ovary.   Corolla  mostly of five united
petals, superior, ligulate or tubular, valvate in aestivation, the veins bor-
dering the margins of the lobes.   Stamens five, rarely four, inserted on
the corolla, and  alternate with its  lobes; filaments distinct,  or united
above; anthers linear, cohering into a cylinder, (syngenesious).   Ovary
inferior, one-celled,  one-ovuled.   Style two-cleft  at the apex, usually
undivided in sterile flowers; the inner margins of the branches occupied
by  the stigmas.  Fruit a dry, indehiscent, one-seeded  pericarp (ache-
nium), crowned with the  limb  of the  calyx or pappus.  Seed erect, ana-
tropous, without albumen. — A very extensive family, chiefly herbs in
temperate regions, with  perfect,  polygamous, monoecious,  or  dioecious
flowers. 
64
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
                  SUB-ORDER I.   Tubuliflou^e.
  Corolla of the perfect or disk flowers tubular, regular, the limb five-
lobed,  rarely four; the ligulate or ray  flowers, when present,  either
pistillate only, or neutral (with neither stamens nor pistil), and  occupy-
ing the border.

               TRIBE I.  Vernoniacejs.  Ironweed.
  Heads discoid; the  flowers all alike, perfect, tubular.  Branches of
the style slender,  filiform,  acute, hairy all over, the  stigmatic lines only
on the lower part.   Corolla often slightly irregular.

   1. Vernonia.  Flowers all tubular; heads few or many-flowered, in
corymbose cymes.  Involucre semicylindric,  of ovate, imbricated scales,
shorter than the florets, with the inner scales longest.  Receptacle naked,
or rarely honeycombed and fringed.   Corolla regular, five-cleft with the
lobes in  the entire part nearly equal.   Filaments  smooth.  Achenium
with a cartilaginous callus  at  the base,  and a large  epigynous disk.
Pappus usually in  two rows, of which the inner is bristly, and much
longer than the outer which is paleaceous or chaffy; rarely in two equal
rows.—Perennial herbs or shrubs, mostly with alternate leaves.

             TRIBE  II.   EuPATORIACEiE.  Eupatorium.
   Heads discoid  or radiate.  Branches  of the style  much elongated,
obtuse, or club-shaped, minutely pubescent above  on  the outside; the
stigmatic lines obscure Avithin, below the middle.  Anthers not caudate.
Leaves mostly  opposite.

                    SUB-TRIBE I.  Eupatorie^e.
   Heads discoid, homogamous; flowers seldom yellow.

   2. Liatris.  Floivers all tubular; heads five to thirty-flowered. Scales
of involucre few  or numerous,  oblong, imbricate, appressed.   Receptacle
naked.  Corolla  five-lobed, lobes all slender,  long.   Branches of style
much exserted, cylindrical, obtuse.   Achenium about ten-ribbed, nearly
 terete, tapering to the  base.   Pappus in one to  three rows  of  fifteen to
 forty plumose  or barbellate bristles. — Perennial  herbs  with tuberous
 roots, simple wand-like stems,  alternate  leaves,  and cyanic flowers.

    3. Eupatorium.  Corolla tubular, five-toothed.  Heads  three to many-
 flowered.   Involucre cylindrical or campanulate, the  scales imbricated
 in  two, three, or more  series, equal  or  unequal, loosely  or closely
 imbricated;  sometimes only in a single series. Receptacle flat, naked.
 Anthers included.  Branches  of style mostly exserted and  elongated 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
65
cylindrical,  obtuse.  Achenia five-angled, without  intermediate  striae.
Pappus a single row  of  slender, capillary, barely roughish bristles.—
Perennial herbs with opposite or verticillate  leaves, often covered with
resinous dots, and cyanic  flowers in corymbose heads.

                  SUB-TRIBE  II.   TUSSILAGINE.E.
  Head-flowers dissimilar or dioecious ; the pistillate often ligulate.

  4. Tussilago.  Heads  many-flowered, heterogamous;  ray-florets in
many rows,  pistillate, narrowly ligulate; disk-florets  tubular, few, stami-
nate, with  a five-toothed limb.   Receptacle  naked.  Anthers  scarcely
caudate.   Scales of involucre oblong,  obtuse, nearly in  a single row.
Styles  of the  disk  included, sterile;  of the rays  bifid, with  terete
branches.   Achenia of the ray oblong, cylindrical, smooth; of the disk
abortive.  Pappus of the  ray-florets in  several rows; of the disk,  in one
series, capillary.—Perennials with radical leaves, and yellow flowers with
narrow rays.

                 TRIBE  III.  Asteroide^e.  Aster.
  Heads radiate, rarely discoid.  Style of perfect  flowers cylindrical;
branches more  or  less flattened;  mostly linear or lanceolate above,
equally pubescent above outside; conspicuous stigmatic lines,  terminat-
ing where the exterior pubescence commences,  not confluent.  Leaves
alternate, rarely opposite.

                    SUB-TRIBE I.   Asterine^e.
  Heads with the flowers  all alike and perfect, or with  ligulate rays;
receptacle not chaffy;  anthers without tails at base.

  5. Aster.  Heads many-flowered; ray-flowers in a single series, fer-
tile.  Involucre  oblong, imbricate ; scales loose, often with  green leaf-
like tips, the outer  spreading; disk-flowers tubular,  perfect.   Receptacle
flat, alveolate.   Achenia usually more or less compressed.   Pappus sim-
ple, of rough, capillary bristles.—A large genus  of perennial, rarely an-
nual herbs,  with alternate leaves, and  corymbed-panicled, or  racemose
heads.  Ray-flowers white, purple, or  blue ;  those  of the disk yellow,
often changing to purple.

  6. Erigeron.  Heads many-flowered,  subhemispherical ; ray-flowers
numerous, in several series, narrow, linear, pistillate ; disk-florets tubular,
perfect; some of the external ones filiform-tubular and truncate,  pistil-
late.  Receptacle flat, naked, dotted with  the sockets of the florets fringed.
Scales of the involucre nearly equal, narrow,  in  almost a  double series.
Appendages of the style short and obtuse.  Achenia compressed, usually
pubescent and two-nerved.  Pappus a single row of capillary bristles,
         5 
QG                 Natural Orders of  Plants.

with minuter ones intermixed, or with a  distinct short outer pappus of
little bristles  or  chaffy scales.—Herbs with alternate  leaves  and cyanic
ray-flowers.

                   SUB-TRIBE II.  Solidage^e.
  Heads radiate ; rays yellow, rarely yellowish-white.

  7. Solidauo.   Heads few, many-flowered, radiate ;  ray-flowers about
five, pistillate, in one row, often wide apart; disk-florets tubular, five-
toothed, perfect.  Scales of the  oblong involucre imbricated, appressed,
without foliaceous or herbaceous tips. Receptacle narrow, usually alveo-
late.  Achenia many-ribbed, rather terete.  Pappus  simple, of numer-
ous scabrous capillary bristles.—Perennial herbs, with erect wand-like
stems, alternate, subsessile cauline leaves, the radical ones never cordate,
and yellow flowers in terminal or axillary racemes or clusters.   In one
species the flowers are whitish.

  8. Inula.  Heads many-flowered, heterogamous;  ray-florets  in one
row, pistillate,  sometimes  sterile by abortion, usually ligulate, rarely
somewhat tubular and trifid ; disk-flowers perfect,  tubular, five-toothed.
Involucre imbricated in several rows.  Receptacle flat, or somewhat con-
cave, naked.   Anthers with two setae at the base.   Achenium without  a
beak, tapering or angled.   Pappus  uniform, in one  row, composed of
scabrous, capillary bristles.—Perennial herbs with alternate leaves and
yellow flowers.

              TRIBE IV.  Senecionide^e.  Groundsel.
  Heads radiate or discoid.  Branches  of the style linear, hairy, or
hispid at the apex, which is either truncated, or produced into a conical
or elongated  appendage.   Leaves opposite or alternate.

                   SUB-TRIBE  I.  Senecione^e.
  Pappus  soft and capillary.  Anthers  not caudate;  receptacle naked.
Heads radiate or discoid.

   9. Arnica.  Heads many-flowered, radiate; ray-florets pistillate and
often furnished  with  sterile  stamens; disk-florets  tubular, perfect, five-
toothed.  Scales of the  bell-shaped involucre lanceolate, equal, some-
what in two series.   Receptacle  flat, fringed or hairy.   Corolla-tube
shaggy ; style of the disk with long pubescent branches, either truncated
or terminated by a short one.  Achenia terete, fusiform, somewhat ribbed
and hairy.   Pappus a single row of rather rigid barbellate, or strongly
scabrous capillary bristles.—Perennial herbs, chiefly of  cold regions or
mountains, with simple stems, opposite leaves, and yellow flowers. 
Natural  Orders of  Plants.
67
   10. Silphium.   Heads many-flowered ; ray-florets numerous, pistillate,
fertile, their broad flat ovaries imbricated in two  or  three  rows ; disk-
florets perfect, but sterile.   Involucre campanulate ; scales in several
series, imbricated, leafy and spreading at the summit, except the inner-
most, which are small and resemble the linear chaff of the flat receptacle.
Achenia broad, flat, parallel with the  involucral scales, surrounded by a
wing which is notched at the top, destitute of pappus, or with two teeth
confluent with the winged margin ;  achenia of the disk sterile and stalk-
like.—Stout,  coarse, and  tall  perennial herbs, with a  copious resinous
juice, and large corymbose-panicled,  yellow-flowered heads.

   11. Parthenium.  Heads many-flowered; ray-florets five, somewhat
ligulate, fertile ; disk-florets tubular,  sterile.  Involucre hemispherical ;
scales in two series, outer  ones  ovate, inner orbicular.  Receptacle coni-
cal, chaffy.  Achenia five,  compressed, cohering with two contiguous
paleae.—American perennial herbs with alternate  leaves.

   12. Rudbeckia.   Heads many-flowered ; ray-florets neutral.  Scales
of the involucre nearly equal, leafy, in two rows of six each, spreading.
Disk-florets perfect.   Receptacle conical or  columnar, with short,  un-
armed, concave chaff.  Achenia quadrangular, smooth, not margined,
flat at  the  top, with no  pappus, or a minute  crown-like border, four-
toothed.—Chiefly perennial herbs,  with alternate leaves, large terminal
heads, and  generally drooping, yellow rays.

   13. Echinacea.   Heads many-flowered; ray-florets very  long, droop-
ing, pistillate, but sterile; disk-flowers perfect, fertile.   Scales of the in-
volucre imbricated in two rows, lanceolate, spreading.  Receptacle coni-
cal ;  the lanceolate chaff tipped with a cartilaginous point, longer than
the disk-flowers.   Achenia thick and short, four-sided.  Pappus a small
crown-form toothed border.—Perennials with  stout  and nearly simple
stems, leaves  three to five-nerved, chiefly  alternate;  ray-flowers rose-
purple, pendulous, rather persistent;  disk-flowers purplish.

   14. Helianthus.  Heads many-flowered; ray-flowers several or many,
neutral;  disk-flowers perfect, fertile.  Scales of the involucre imbricated
in several series ; receptacle flatfish  or convex, the chaff persistent,  em-
bracing the achenia.  Pappus very deciduous, of two thin chaffy-awned
scales on  the principal angles of the achenium, and often  two or more
little intermediate scales.   Achenia compressed  laterally, or four-sided,
neither winged nor margined.—Coarse and rough herbs, mostly peren-
nial, often exuding a resin, with opposite leaves, the  upper often  alter-
nate, mostly tripli-veined, with solitary or  corymbed  heads and yellow
rays; disk yellow or purple.   H. Annuus  is annual. 
68                 Natural Orders  of Plants.

   15.   Helenium.   Heads many-flowered, radiate ; ray-florets in a sin-
gle series, pistillate, cuneiform, ligulate,  three to five-cleft at summit,
with scarcely any tube, fertile ; disk-florets with a short tube, and an in-
flated, cylindrical, four or five-toothed limb.  Scales of the involucre in a
double series ;  the  outer linear or subulate, foliaceous, spreading or re-
laxed ; the inner few and shorter, chaffy.  Receptacle convex, globose,
or oblong, naked in the disk, and chaffy  in the ray only.  Branches  of
the style a little dilated and obtuse at tip.   Achenia obovate-turbinate or
top-shaped, striate or ribbed, villous on the ribs.  Pappus of five to eight
membranous, apiculate, or awned  scales.—Plants  with alternate, decur-
rent leaves, minutely punctate, and yellow ray-flowers.

   16. Anthemis.   Heads many-flowered ; florets of the ray in one row,
ligulate, fertile, rarely  none  or somewhat tubular;  disk-florets  perfect,
tubular, five-toothed.   Scales of the involucre imbricated in a few series.
Receptacle convex, oblong, or conical;  covered with  membranous chaff
between the flowers.   Branches of the style without  appendages  at  the
apex.  Achenia terete, or obtusely quadrangular, striate, smooth.   Pap-
pus either wanting, or a very minute entire or halved membrane, some-
times auriculate at the  inside.

   17.  Maruta.  Heads many-flowered;  ray-florets ligulate,  neutral;
disk-florets five-toothed, perfect, fertile.  Involucre hemispherical, shorter
than the disk;  scales imbricated in  a  few series.   Receptacle conical  or
convex, more or less chaffy between the flowers, or only at the summit.
Tube  of corolla flat, obcompressed, two-winged, without appendage at
the base ;  that  of the ray continuous with the sterile ovary, and with  an
oblong ray.   Style  of the disk with branches destitute  of appendages.
Achenia obovoid  or obpyramidal, ribbed, smooth, bald, with a small
epigynous disk, and a terminal  areola.—Annual  acrid  herbs, with  a
strong odor, alternate  and much divided leaves, white rays,  turned
down, and yellow disk.

   18. Achillea.   Heads many-flowered; rays few, fertile.  Involucre
ovoid; scales unequal,  imbricated.  Receptacle flat, sometimes elongated,
chaffy.   Achenia  oblong,  obcompressed, margined, destitute  of pap-
pus. — Perennial  herbs, with much divided, alternate leaves and small
corymbose heads.

   19.  Anacyclus.   Heads many-flowered ; ray-florets pistillate,  sterile,
somewhat ligulate,  rarely tubular;  disk-florets  perfect,  five-toothed.
Receptacle conical or convex,  chaffy.  Involucre in few rows, subcampan-
ulate, shorter than the disk.   All the  florets with an  obcompressed, two-
winged, exappendiculate tube.   Style of the disk with  exappendiculate 
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
69
 branches.   Achenia flat, obcompressed, with broad, entire wings.   Pap-
 pus  short, irregular, toothed, somewhat continuous with the wings on
 the inner side.—A small genus separated from Anthemis, to which it is
 very closely allied.

   20. Leucanthemum.   Heads many-flowered ; the rays numerous, fer-
 tile ;  disk-corollas with a flattened tube.   Scales  of  the broad and flat
 involucre imbricated, with scarious margins.   Receptacle flatfish, naked.
 Achenia. of the disk and ray similar, striate, destitute of pappus.—Peren-
 nial herbs, with alternate, toothed or pinnatifid leaves, and large, terminal
 single heads ; rays white, disk yellow.

   21. Chrysanthemum.  Involucre  hemispherical, imbricate; the  scales
 with  membranous margins.   Receptacle naked ; pappus none.—Chinese
 ornamental plants, with alternate, lobed leaves.

   22. Pyrethrum.   Involucre  hemispherical, imbricate;  scales   with
 membranous margins.  Receptacle naked.  Pappus a membranous mar-
 gin crowning the achenia.—Chiefly perennial herbs with alternate leaves.

   23.  Bidens.  Heads many-flowered ; either homogamous and discoi-
 dal, or more frequently both the one and the other in the same species.
 Ray-florets, few or  none, pistillate, ligulate,  neuter;  disk-florets perfect.
 Involucral scales in two rows, the outer commonly large and foliaceous.
 Receptacle flatfish ;  the concave chaff deciduous with the fruit.  Branches
 of the style terminated by a short cone.   Achenia flattened parallel with
 the scales of the involucre ;  or slender and four-sided, crowned with two
 or more rigid  and persistent awns which are barbed downwardly.—An-
 nuals  or  perennials with  opposite various  leaves, and mostly yellow
 flowers.

   24.  Senecio.   Heads  many-flowered, discoid, with  the  flowers all
 perfect and tubular, or mostly  radiate, the rays pistillate.  Scales of the
 involucre in a single row, withered at the points, or with a few bractlets
at the base.  Receptacle flat, not chaffy.  Pappus of  numerous very soft
 and slender capillary bristles.—A vast genus, embracing 600 species of
herbs and shrubs, with alternate leaves, and  solitary or corymbed heads.
Flowers chiefly yellow.

                  SUB-TRIBE  II.   Gnaphaline^e.
  Heads all discoid.

  25. Artemisia.   Heads discoid, few or many-flowered, heterogamous,
with the central flowers  perfect and  five-toothed;  and  the marginal
pistillate in a single series with  a tubular,   three-toothed corolla;  or 
70
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
 sometimes homogamous, with the flowers all  perfect.   Involucral scales
 imbricated, mostly dry, with scarious  margins.   Receptacle small, with-
 out paleae, flattish or convex, naked or fringed with hairs.   Achenia
 obovoid, bald, with a minute epigynous disk, and destitute of pappus.—
 Herbs or shrubby plants, bitter and aromatic, with alternate leaves, and
 yellowish or purplish flowers in small spicate or racemosed heads.

   26.  Tanacetum.   Heads discoid, homogamous,  with the flowers all
 tubular and perfect, or heterogamous;  the marginal flowers chiefly pistil-
 late, in a single series, usually three or four-toothed, forming a kind of
 ray.  Involucral scales minute, dry, imbricated ;  involucre hemispherical.
 Corollas  of  the disk four to five-toothed.  Receptacle naked, convex.
 Achenia sessile, angular or ribbed, smooth, with a large epigynous disk.
 Pappus either wanting, or  minute, membranous, entire or toothed, often
 unequal; coronet-shaped.—Bitter and acrid strong-scented plants, with
 alternate  and much divided leaves, and solitary or corymbosed heads of
 yellow flowers.

   27.  Gnaphalium.  Heads discoid, heterogamous ; the flowers all tub-
 ular ; the outer pistillate and very slender,  the central perfect.  Involu-
 cral scales dry and scarious, white or  colored, imbricated in several
 rows.   Receptacle flat, naked.  Pappus a single row of rough, capillary
 bristles.—Woolly herbs, with  sessile  or  decurrent leaves, alternate,
 entire, and clustered or corymbed heads.

   28.  Antennaria.  Heads many-flowered, dioecious or nearly so; the
 flowers all tubular; pistillate corollas filiform.  Involucral scales imbri-
 cated,  appressed, scarious  and dry, white  or  colored.   Receptacle sub-
 convex or nearly flat, not chaffy, alveolate.   Achenia somewhat terete.
 Pappus  a single row of bristles,  which in  the fertile flowers are capil-
 lary, and in the sterile thickened and  club-shaped  or barbellate at the
 summit.—Perennial tomentose herbs, with  alternate, entire  leaves,  and
corymbose heads ; corolla yellowish.

   29. Erechthites.   Heads  many-flowered, discoid,  the  flowers  all
tubular and fertile ; the marginal pistillate with a slender corolla.   Invo-
lucre cylindrical, simple, slightly calculate ; scales in a single  row linear
acute, with a few small bractlets at the base. Receptacle naked. Achenia
oblong, tapering at the end.  Pappus copious, of very fine  and white
soft hairs.-Erect and coarse annuals, with simple, alternate leaves  and
whitish flowers  m paniculate-corymbed heads.

   30. Ambrosia.  Heads heterocephalous; sterile  and  fertile fl.
 occupying different heads  on the same plant; the/^fo^toZI 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
71
together, and sessile in the axil of the leaves or bracts  at  the base of
the racemes, or spikes of sterile heads.  Sterile involucres flattish or top-
shaped, composed of seven to twelve scales united into a cup, containing
five to twenty funnel-form staminate flowers;  anthers approximate, but
distinct; receptacle  naked.   Fertile  involucres  oblong or  top-shaped,
closed, pointed, and usually with four to eight tubercles or horns near
the top  in one row,  inclosing a single flower  which is  composed of a
pistil only and no corolla ; styles two; branches  of the style elongated.
Achenia ovoid ; pappus none.—Coarse annual weeds, with mostly opposite
leaves,  or alternate and lobed, and  inconspicuous greenish or whitish
flowers.

                       TRIBE V.   Cynarejs.
   Heads ovoid, discoid, rarely radiate, homogamous,  rarely dioecious,
or heterogamous, with the marginal flowers in a single series.  Style in
the perfect flowers  often tumid near  the summit;  the branches distinct
or concreted, minutely pubescent externally ;  the  stigmatic lines reach-
ing their apex and  there confluent.

   31.  Centaurea.  Heads many-flowered,  discoid;  the flowers all
tubular, the marginal mostly falsely radiate and larger, sterile.   Recep-
tacle bristly.   Involucre imbricated, the scales margined or appendaged.
Achenia compressed, with a lateral hilum in front.  Pappus wanting, or
composed of filiform scabrous  bristles in several rows, the inner row
being smaller and converging.—Herbs with alternate leaves and single
heads.

   32.  Calendula.   Heads  many-flowered, radiate; florets of the ray
ligulate, pistillate ;   disk-florets tubular and  sterile; the corolla of all
hispid at the base.   Involucre of many equal leaves, in few rows, with
distinct scales.   Receptacle  naked,  flat.   Anthers caudate,  subulate,
short.   Style ending in a knotty hispid cone, bifid at the point; that  of
the ray short, with two long, slender stigmas, smooth below, glandular
above.    Ovary  arcuate, fertile.   Achenia  produced  by  the  ligulate
florets, all without  pappus, usually arranged in two or three rows ; the
outer  more or less rostrate ;  the intermediate truncate at the  apex,
prickly at the back, more or less curved, with their sides extended into
an entire concave or flat incised membrane ;  the  innermost annular  or
incurved, muricated at the  back, all  fertile,  especially the innermost.
Achenia of the disk membranous.—Annual herbs  with alternate  leaves.

   33.  Carthamus. Heads discoid.   Involucre dilated at base;  scales
imbricated,  closely applied to each other below, but separated and folia-
ceous  above.  Flowers all  tubular  and perfect.  Filaments  smooth. 
72
Natural  Orders of Plants.
Receptacle  silky;  achenia four-angled,  destitute of a  pappus.—Herbs
with alternate leaves and yellow flowers.

   34.  Cnicus.  Heads  many-flowered ; the ray-flowers sterile, slender,
nearly equal to the disk.  Involucre ovoid, ventricose ;  scales coriaceous,
appressed, produced into a long and  rigid pinnated spinose appendage.
Receptacle  densely clothed with  capillary  bristles.   Achenia  terete,
smooth,  strongly striate, with  a large, lateral  basilar  areola.  Pappus
triple, the outer being the horny crenated  margin of the fruit;  the
middle  one of ten  long stiff hairs ; the inner of the  same  number of
short bristles.—An annual, somewhat woolly herb, with clasping leaves,
and yellow flowers in bracteate heads.

   35.  Cynara.  Heads discoid, homogamous.   Involucre dilated, imbri-
cate  ; scales fleshy, emarginate, pointed.  Receptacle setaceous.  Pappus
plumose ; achenia not beaked.—Exotics.

   36.  Cirsium.  Heads many-flowered ; the flowers all tubular, perfect
and  similar,  or rarely imperfectly dioecious.   Involucre subglobose, of
many rows of spinose-pointed, imbricated scales.  Receptacle clothed
with  soft bristles  or hairs ; style  scarcely  divided.   Achenia oblong,
smooth, flattish, not ribbed.   Pappus of numerous bristles united into a
ring  at the base, plumose to the middle.—Herbs with  sessile,  alternate
leaves, the margins  and teeth  prickly,  and cyanic flowers in large  ter-
minal heads.

   37. Lappa.  Heads many-flowered ; flowers  all  perfect and similar.
Involucre globose ;  scales imbricated,  coriaceous, appressed  at the base,
then subulate, with a horny, hooked, inflexed  point.   Receptacle rather
fleshy, flat, with stiff, subulate fringes.  Corollas five-cleft, regular, with
a ten-nerved tube.   Stamens with papillose filaments ;  the  anthers  ter-
minated  by filiform appendages, and with subulate tails  at. the base.
Stigmas few at the apex, diverging, curved outward.   Fruit or achenia
oblong, laterally compressed, smooth,  transversely wrinkled ; the areola
at their base hardly oblique.   Pappus  short, in many rows; the hairs
deciduous, filiform, rough, not  collected into a ring.—Coarse biennials,
with large cordate, petiolate and alternate  leaves, and purple flowers,
varying to white, in small, solitary, or somewhat corymbosed heads.

             SUB-ORDER  II. Liguliflorjs.  Succory.

   Flowers all perfect, ligulate,  in a radiatiform or radiant head.  Pollen
scabrous and many-sided, usually dodecahedral. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
73
                     TRIBE  VI.   Cichoraceje.
   Style cylindraceous above ;  the branches uniformly pubescent; stig-
 matic  lines  terminating  below or  near the middle  of  the branches.
 Plants with  a  milky juice.   Leaves alternate.

   38.  Cichorium.   Heads  many-flowered.   Involucral  scales  in  two
 rows, the outer of five short, leafy,  spreading scales,  the  inner of about
 eight or  more,  linear,  equal,  converging scales.   Receptacle naked.
 Achenia beakless, obscurely five-sided, turbinate, striate.  Pappus equal,
 composed of numerous very small chaffy scales, forming a short crown.—
 Branching perennials, with the root-leaves toothed or  pinnatifid ; flowers
 showy, bright blue in sessile axillary and terminal heads.

    39.  Lactuca.   Heads few to several flowered.  Involucre cylindrical,
 calyculate-imbricated  with  two  or  more  series of scales  of  unequal
 lengths, membranous  at the margin.  Receptacle naked.  Achenia  ob-
 compressed, parallel to  the scales  of the  involucre,  wingless,  abruptly
 contracted into a long thread-form beak, bearing a copious and fugacious
 pappus  of  very soft  and  white capillary bristles.—Caulescent herbs,
 with entire or pinnatifid leaves, and  variable-colored flowers in  panicled
 heads.

    40.  Hieracium.   Heads many-flowered.  Scales of involucre imbri-
 cated, or only in two series ;  the outer short and somewhat calyculate.
 Receptacle scrobiculate or somewhat  areolar, fimbriate.  Achenia  oblong
 or  columnar,  often  subclavate,  rarely fusiform, striate or ribbed,  not
- rostrate.   Pap>pus a single  row of persistent, tawny, fragile,  capillary
 bristles.—Perennial herbs, with alternate,  entire or toothed leaves, and
 mostly yellow flowers, single or in panicled heads.

    41.  Nabalus.   Heads few or  many-flowered.  Involucre cylindrical,
 of  five to fourteen linear scales in a single row, calyculate, with a  few
 short, appressed bractlets at  base.   Receptacle naked.  Achenia linear-
 oblong,  striate,  or grooved, smooth,  not  beaked.   Pappus of copious
 straw-color  or brownish, persistent, capillary,  roughish  bristles  in  two
 rows.—Perennial  herbs  with thick, tuberous, bitter roots, very variable
 leaves, and greenish-white  or cream-colored flowers, often tinged with
 purple, in racemose-panicled mostly nodding heads.

    42.  Taraxacum.  Heads many-flowered.  Involucre double,  the outer
 of  short  scales,  appressed, the  upper of long linear  scales, erect in a
 single  row.  Receptacle naked.   Achenia oblong,  ribbed or  angled,
 roughened  on the ribs, the apex prolonged into a very slender thread-
 like beak,  bearing  the pappus of copious soft and white  capillary 
74
Natural  Orders  of Plaists.
bristles.—Perennial  acaulescent  plants,  with  pinnatifid  or  runcmate
leaves, and yellow flowers.

              ORDER LV1I.  Lobeliacejg.  Lobelia.
   Herbs or shrubs often with milky juice.  Leaves  alternate,  without
stipules.  Flowers axillary and terminal.   Calyx more or less adherent
to the ovary; limb five-lobed or entire.   Corolla persistent, irregularly
five-cleft, usually appearing bilabiate, cleft on one side nearly or quite
to the base, the tube  inserted into the calyx.   Stamens five, alternate
with the corolla lobes ; the upper part of  the filaments,  and the anthers
coherent into a  tube; pollen ovoid.   Ovary inferior or semi-superior,
supporting  a single style with a fringed stigma.   Fruit capsular, two or
three, rarely one-celled, usually dehiscing at the apex.   Seeds numer-
ous, anatropous, with a fleshy albumen and straight embryo.

   1. Lobelia.   Calyx five-lobed, with a short  ovoid or hemispherical
tube.  Corolla  with a straight tube, split  down on  the  upper side; the
limb somewhat bilabiate;  the upper lip  of- two  rather  erect lobes, the
lower spreading and three-cleft. Anthers  united,  all bearded, or the two
lower only; stigma two-lobed.  Pod capsular, two-celled, many-seeded,
opening at  the  top; seeds  minute.—Herbaceous plants, possessing acrid,
emetic and relaxant  properties; not poisonous,  nor properly narcotic.
The flowers are axillary and solitary, or in terminal, bracted racemes.

               ORDER  LVIII.  Ericaceae.   Heath.
   Herbs or shrubs with simple,  alternate  or opposite, entire  or  toothed,
mostly evergreen leaves, without stipules.   Inflorescence various.   Calyx
inferior or superior, five-cleft, seldom four or six, rarely entire, persist-
ent.  Corolla monopetalous, lobed like  the calyx, with an imbricated
aestivation.   Stamens  generally distinct, equal in  number to the lobes of
the  corolla, or twice  as many.  Anthers two-celled, generally opening
by pores, often appendaged.   Ovary superior or inferior, many-celled.
Style solitary, simple; stigma  simple, toothed, or  three-cleft.  Fruit
capsular or baccate, four to many-celled.  Seeds numerous, small,  ana-
tropous.   Embryo straight in the axis of  a fleshy albumen.

                    SUB-ORDER I.  Vaccines.
   Calyx-tube adherent to the ovary, becoming a berry or berry-like fruit,
crowned with the calyx-teeth.   Shrubs with scattered leaves.

   1. Vaccinium.   Limb of calyx  four  or five-toothed.   Corolla  urceo-
late, campanulate, or  cylindric; limb four or five-cleft, reflexed.   Sta-
mens eight or ten, generally included ; anthers sometimes two-awned on
 the back;  the cells separate and prolonged into a tube above, opening 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
75
by  a hole at the  apex.    Berry four or  five-celled, globose,  many-
seeded, surmounted by the remains of the calyx.—Shrubs or undershrubs
with white or reddish, solitary or racemose flowers;  fruit edible.

  2. Oxycoccus.   Calyx superior, four-cleft.   Corolla four-parted, with
sublinear,  revolute  segments.   Stamens   eight,  convergent;  anthers
tubular, two-parted, opening by  oblique pores.  Berry globose, many-
seeded.— Slender,  prostrate shrubs, with  alternate,  coriaceous leaves,
and edible fruit.

                    SUB-ORDER II.  Ericine^e.
  Ovary free from  the calyx.  Testa conformed to  the nucleus of the
seed.  Fruit capsular or  baccate.  Leaves often evergreen.  Mostly
shrubs.

  3. Arctostaphylos.  Calyx  five-parted,  persistent.   Corolla  ovate
and urn-shaped, with a short, revolute, five-toothed limb.  Stamens ten,
included; anthers with two reflexed  awns  on  the back near the apex,
opening by terminal  pores.   Ovary globose, depressed, surrounded by
three scales;  style  short;  stigma obtuse.   Fruit globose,  drupaceous,
five  to ten-celled,  cells one-seeded. — Trailing shrubs with alternate
leaves, and scaly-bracted nearly white  flowers in terminal racemes or
clusters.

  4.  Andromeda.    Calyx  minute,  five-parted, persistent.   Corolla
ovoid-cylindric, the limb five, rarely four-cleft, reflexed.  Stamens ten,
rarely  eight;  anthers awned or awnless,  short,  opening  by terminal
pores or slits.   Capsule five-celled, five-valved, the dissepiments pro-
duced  from the middle of the valves, many-seeded.—Erect or prostrate
shrubs, with  evergreen  or  deciduous alternate leaves,  and  mostly
racemed or clustered flowrers.

  5. Gaultheria.   Calyx campanulate,  five-cleft,  with two bracts at
the  base.  Corolla ovoid-tubular; limb with five, small, revolute lobes.
Stamens ten, included; filaments hairy; anther-cells each two-awned at
the summit, opening by a terminal pore.  Capsule  depressed, five-lobed,
five-celled, five-valved, many-seeded,  inclosed when ripe  by the calyx
which  thickens  and  becomes a  globular, fleshy red berry. — Scarcely
shrubby plants, with  alternate, evergreen leaves, and axillary, nearly
white flowers ; pedicels bibracteolate.

  6. Epig^ea.   Calyx  large, five parted,  with three  bracts  at  base.
Corolla hypocrateriform; tube villous within, as long as the  ovate-lance-
olate,  pointed, and scale-like nearly  distinct sepals; limb five-parted,
spreading.  Stamens  ten; filaments  filiform;  anthers  oblong, awnless, 
76
Natural  Orders of Plants.
opening lengthwise.  Capsule depressed-globular, five-lobed, five-celled,
many-seeded.—Prostrate or trailing scarcely shrubby plants, bristly with
rusty hairs, with evergreen and  reticulated  rounded alternate  leaves,
and rose-colored flowers in small  axillary clusters, subtended by scaly
bracts.

  7. Kalmia.    Calyx  minute,  five-parted,  small,  equal,  herbaceous.
Corolla between rotate  and  campanulate, five-lobed, furnished  on the
underside with ten cornute  prominences and as many cavities, in which
the anthers are concealed until they begin to shed their pollen ;  filaments
filiform, elastic.   Capsule globose, five-celled, many-seeded, with a sep-
ticidal  dehiscence.—Mostly smooth evergreen shrubs, with  alternate or
opposite entire coriaceous leaves, and white or red flowers in umbel-like
corymbs; pedicels bracted; flowers naked.   Poisonous to some animals.

  8. Rhododendron.  Calyx deeply five-parted, persistent, small, equal,
herbaceous.  Corolla campanulate, or  sub-infundibuliform, rather  un-
equal,  five-cleft.  Stamens  ten, rarely fewer, commonly declinate  and
exserted; anthers without appendages, opening by two  terminal pores.
Capsule  five-celled, five-valved, opening  at  the  summit;  dissepiments
introflexed from the  margin  of the valves.—Shrubs with evergreen or
deciduous, entire, alternate leaves  ; flowers variously shaded from blue
through purple to white, and mostly in terminal corymbose clusters.

  9. Ledum.   Calyx minute, five-toothed.    Corolla, of five obovate and
spreading distinct petals.   Stamens five to ten, exserted ; anthers open-
ing by two terminal pores.   Capsule  five-celled, five-valved, splitting
from  the base  upward, many-seeded. — Low evergreen  shrubs with
alternate, evergreen, entire, ferruginous-tomentose  beneath, and coria-
ceous leaves, the margins revolute, and slightly fragrant when bruised.
Flowers white,  in terminal corymbs.

                   SUB-ORDER III.  Pyrole^e.
  Ovary free from the calyx.  Petals nearly distinct.  Fruit a capsule.
Mostly herbaceous.  (Pyrolacece of Lindley.)

   10.  Pyrola.   Calyx five-parted, persistent.  Petals five, concave and
more or less converging, deciduous.   Stamens ten ; filaments awl-shaped,
naked; anthers  large,  turned outward and  inverted in the  bud, soon
erect,  opening by two pores at the scarcely, if at all two-horned apex,
more or less four-celled.  Style long, thick, and generally turned to one
side ; stigmas five, either projecting or confluent  with  the  rino- which
surrounds  them.  Capsule five-celled,  five-valved, from  the  base up-
ward,  opening  at the  angles, many-seeded; the valves woolly on the
edges.—Low and smooth perennial  herbs, with  running subterranean 
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
77
shoots, bearing rounded and petioled evergreen root-leaves, and a simple
raceme of nodding flowers, on an upright scaly-bracted scape.

   11.  Chimaphila.   Calyx five -parted.  Petals five, spreading.   Sta-
mens  ten;  filaments  dilated  and  hairy in the  middle ;  anthers  as  in
Pyrola.  Style short, inversely conical, immersed in the depressed sum-
mit of the globular ovary; stigma broad  and orbicular, the  border ob-
tusely five-toothed.    Capsule   five-celled,  opening from the  apex
downward ;  valves bearing the  dissepiments in the middle, not  united
by a connecting web, and not woolly on the edges.—Low, nearly herba-
ceous  plants, with  running underground shoots, and cauline, serrate,
evergreen, opposite or irregularly-whorled leaves, and white  or purplish,
fragrant flowers, terminal.

                  SUB-ORDER IV.  Monotbopejs.
   Ovary free from the calyx.  Leafless herbs,  destitute of verdure.

   12.  Monotropa.   Calyx represented by one  to four scale-like decidu-
ous bracts, the lowest rather distant from the corolla.  Corolla of five
distinct,  erect, fleshy  petals, which  are  narrowed  below and have  a
small nectariferous pit at the base.   Stamens ten ; filaments persistent,
alternating with ten reflexed appendages of the torus; anthers short on
the thickened apex of the hairy filament, two-celled, opening by trans-
verse chinks.   Stigma orbicular, five-crenate, beardless.   Capsule five-
celled, and seeds as in Pyrola.—A singular fleshy and scentless  herb,
white  throughout, the low stems rising in a cluster from a matted mass
of fibrous roots, with scales like the petals in place of leaves, bearing a
solitary terminal flower, which is at first  nodding, but becomes upright
in fruit.

   13.  Pterospora.    Calyx  five-parted.    Corolla  ovate,  urn-shaped,
five-toothed,  reflexed,  and  persistent.  Stamens ten; anthers peltate,
two-celled, two-awned on the back, opening lengthwise.   Style  short;
stigma five-lobed.  Capsule  globose,  depressed, five-lobed, five-celled,
loculicidal.   Seeds very numerous, ovoid, minute, tapering to each end,
the apex expanded into a broad  reticulated wing, many times larger than
the nucleus.—A stout and  simple  purplish-brown  clammy-pubescent,
perennial herb; leafless, the  wand-like stem furnished toward the base
with scattered lanceolate scales in place of leaves, bearing above many
nodding white  flowers,  like those of Andromeda,  in a long bracted
raceme.

               ORDER LIX.   Aquifoliace^e.   Holly.
   Shrubs or trees with evergreen, alternate or  opposite, simple, coria-
ceous, exstipulate leaves.  Flowers small, white or greenish, axillary, soli- 
78
Natural  Orders of  Plants.
tary or clustered, sometimes dioecious.   Sepals four to six, imbricate m
aestivation.  Corolla regular, four to six-parted, hypogynous, imbricate in
aestivation.  Stamens inserted into the tube of the corolla, and  alternate
with its segments; filaments erect;  anthers  adnate, two-celled,  with  a
longitudinal dehiscence.   Disk none.   Ovary  fleshy, superior,  a  little
truncated, with  two  to  six  or  more cells;  ovules  solitary, pendulous,
often from a cup-shaped funiculus ; stigma subsessile, lobed.  Fruit dru-
paceous, fleshy, indehiscent, with from two to six or  more  stony seeds.
Seeds  suspended and solitary in each cell,  nearly sessile, anatropous,
with a minute embryo in a large fleshy albumen.

   1. Ilex.   Calyx  small,  four or  five-toothed,  persistent.   Corolla
larger  than the calyx, sub-rotate,  four or five-parted;  petals oval, or
obovate, obtuse.   Stamens four or  five, alternate with the petals;  fila-
ments  awl-shaped,  shorter than the corolla; anthers small, two-lobed.
 Ovary roundish, four-celled, each with one ovule; style  none ;  stigmas
four, sessile, obtuse,  permanent.  Fruit a  berry, globular, four-celled ;
seeds solitary in each cell, oblong, pointed, angular at the  inside, rounded
externally.—Shrubs and trees with alternate and spinose-dentate leaves;
flowers often dioecious by abortion.

   2. Prinos.   Flowers  often dioecious or  polygamous.   Calyx  mostly
six-cleft,  small,  persistent.   Corolla  deeply  six-cleft, rotate.  Stamens
six; filaments subulate,  erect, shorter than the corolla;  anthers oblong,
obtuse.   Ovary superior, ovate, bearing a  single style with an  obtuse
stigma.   Fruit a berry, with six stones or bony seeds, which are  convex
on one side, and angular at the other.—Shrubs with alternate leaves, and
axillary or terminal flowers.

                 ORDER LX.   Ebenace^e.   Ebony.
   Trees or shrubs without a milky  juice, and with a heavy wood.  Leaves
alternate, exstipulate, coriaceous, entire.  Inflorescence axillary. Flowers
by abortion dioecious, seldom perfect.   Calyx free, monopetalous, three
to seven-lobed, persistent.  Corolla regular, monopetalous, three to seven-
lobed,  deciduous, sericeous, imbricate in aestivation.   Stamens twice  to
four times as many as the lobes of  the corolla, unequal; filaments short;
anthers free, introrse, two-celled, dehiscing longitudinally.   Ovary free,
three to  twelve-celled,  usually hispid.  Styles usually with  as many
divisions as cells in ovary.    Stigmas  small, terminating the styles or the
divisions of the  style.  Fruit a fleshy, oval, or globose  berry, three  to
many-celled and seeded ; or, by abortion, one-celled and  seeded.   Seeds
usually  compressed  laterally, with a  smooth coriaceous testa,  anatro-
pous ;  the embryo shorter than  the hard albumen.

   1. Diospyros.  Flowers dioecious.  Calyx four to  six-cleft.   Corolla
tubular or campanulate, four to six-cleft, convolute in aestivation.   Males • 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
79
 stamens eight to many, mostly sixteen, inserted  into the  base of the
 corolla; filaments shorter than the anthers,  sometimes everv other one
 bearing two anthers ;  anthers subulate, fixed by the base.   Ovary abor-
 tive ;  style none.   Females;  stamens mostly  eight,  without anthers.
 Style two to four-parted; stigmas four or five.  Fruit an ovoid or globose
 berry, succulent, four to twelve,  mostly eight-celled ;  cells one-seeded ;
 seeds compressed.—Fertile  flowers  axillary and  solitary;  the  sterile
 smaller and often clustered.

                ORDER LXI.  Styracace^e.  Styrax.

   Trees  or shrubs with alternate,  simple,  exstipulate  leaves,  becom-
 ing yellow on drying.   Flowers or racemes solitary, axillary,  bracteate.
 Calyx inferior or superior, five-parted, persistent.  Corolla monopetalous,
 often differing in the number of its divisions  from those of the  calyx;
 imbricated in aestivation.   Stamens unequal, more or less coherent;  an-
 thers innate, two-celled.   Ovary superior,  or  adhering  to the calyx, two
 to five-celled, the partitions sometimes hardly reaching the center ;  style
 simple ;  stigma somewhat capitate.   Fruit drupaceous, surmounted by
 or inclosed in the calyx, with one  to five cells, and seeds.

   1.  Styrax.   Calyx  sub-campanulate, nearly entire  or five-toothed.
 Corolla campanulate at the base,  deeply three  to seven-cleft.   Stamens
 six to sixteen, exserted ; filaments  united to the tube of the corolla, some-
 times adhering at the base  into a  ring; anthers  linear,  two-celled, open-
 ing by internal longitudinal slits.  Style simple, with an obtuse, some-
 what lobed stigma.  Fruit a dry drupe, splitting imperfectly into two or
 three valves, with  one  to  three  stones.   Seeds  solitary, erect, with a
 large, leafy thin embryo  lying in the midst  of  fleshy albumen, with an
 inferior radicle.—Abounding in a fragrant juice.

            ORDER LXII.   Sapotace^e.   Gutta-Percha.

  Trees or shrubs often  abounding in a milky juice, and having alter-
 nate,  or sometimes almost verticillate leaves, entire, coriaceous, and ex-
 stipulate.   Calyx regular, persistent,  five or four to eight-lobed, valvate
 or imbricate in aestivation.  Corolla monopetalous, hypogynous, regular,
 deciduous ;  segments usually  equal in number  to those  of the calyx,
 sometimes twice or thrice as many ; imbricate in  aestivation.  Stamens
 arising from the corolla,  definite, distinct; fertile ones  equal in number
 to segments of calyx ; anthers usually extrorse ; sterile stamens as nu-
 merous as, and alternate  with, the  fertile.   Ovary superior, many-celled,
 each containing a single ascending or pendulous ovule ; style one ; stigma
undivided, or sometimes  lobed.  Fruit fleshy, with several one-seeded
 cells, or by abortion with one cell only.   Seeds  nut-like ; with a bony 
80
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
 shining  testa,  having a large hilum ; embryo  erect, large,  in  a fleshy
 albumen.  (Isonandra Gutta.)

             ORDER LXHI.  Primulace.e.   Primrose.
   Herbaceous, sometimes suffruticose plants, annual or perennial.  Leaves
 usually radical, otherwise mostly opposite, exstipulated.   Flowers on
 the scapes and in umbels or variously arranged in the axils of the leaves.
 Calyx free  from the ovary,  or partly coherent, five, rarely four-cleft,
 regular, persistent.   Corolla five, rarely four-cleft,  regular.   Stamens
 inserted on the tube of the corolla, as many as its lobes,  and opposite to
 them.  Ovary  one-celled, with a free central placenta.  Style and stigma
 simple.  Fruit  a one-celled, many-seeded capsule, the  fleshy  placenta
 attached only to the  base  of the  cell.   Seeds with a  small embryo in
 fleshy albumen, amphitropous and  fixed  by the middle, except in Hot-
 tonieae.

   1.  Anagallis.   Calyx  in five, deep,  spreading, acute,  keeled seg-
 ments, permanent.   Corolla  rotate, with almost  no  tube;  limb nearly
 flat, in five  deep,  roundish-ovate segments,  contracted at their base.
 Stamens five; filaments erect, slender, shorter  than the  corolla, clothed
 with  prominent glandular hairs,  more especially in the middle ;  anthers
 cordate, introrse.   Style thread-shaped;  stigma capitate, or sometimes
 simple.    Capsule  globose,  membranaceous,  circumscissile, one-celled,
 many-seeded.   Seeds angular, abrupt, covering a large,  central, orbicu-
 lar,  pitted, unconnected  receptacle.—Small,  spreading  or  procumbent
 herbs, with square stems, and whorled or mostly opposite leaves ; flowers
 solitary on axillary peduncles.

            ORDER LXIV.   Plantaginace^e.  Plantain.

   Herbaceous,  usually acaulescent plants, with mostly  rosulate leaves,
 and fiowers in  spikes.   Calyx four-cleft,  persistent.   Corolla dry, mem-
 branaceous,  veinless; the limb four-parted, persistent.  Stamens four,
 inserted into the corolla-tube, alternate with its segments;  anthers ver-
 satile.  Ovary  two-celled, sessile.   Style  single.   Fruit  a  pyxis, mem-
 branaceous, two-celled ; cells one  to several-seeded.

   1.  Plantago.  Calyx of  four, rarely three,  imbricated, persistent
sepals, with dry, membranaceous margins.   Corolla tubular, marescent,
 with a four-parted, reflected  border.  Stamens four, generally with long
 and weak filaments,  and fugacious anthers.  Style simple ;  stigma uni-
lateral.  Capsule ovoid, two-celled, circumscissile, few or many-seeded.
—Acaulescent  herbs, with all radical v;kk«j "i         i     .....
spicate flowers.                      ' nbbed WeS' and sma11' whitish 
Natural  Orders of  Plants.
81
           ORDER LXV.   Plumbaginace^e.  Leadwort.
    Herbaceous  or  suffruticose plants,  variable in  appearance.   Leaves
 undivided, alternate, or  sometimes all radical, and  the  flowers  on a
 scape.  Calyx tubular, five-toothed, plaited, persistent.  Corolla, regular,
 hypocrateriform, of five petals united at base, sometimes nearly distinct.
 Stamens five, hypogynous, and opposite the  petals, or inserted  on their
 claws.  Ovary superior, one-celled ; ovule pendulous,  attached to the
 apex of a filiform  podosperm which rises  from the bottom  of  the cell.
 Styles five, seldom three or four, partially united  or distinct.  Fruit an
 utricle,  indehiscent, or opening by valves; seed inverted; testa simple ;
 embryo straight; radicle superior.

    1. Statice.  Flowers scattered or loosely spiked on the branches of a
 compound corymb, one-sided, two or three-bracted.  Calyx funnel-form,
 plaited, dry  and  membranaceous, persistent.   Corolla of five, nearly
 or quite distinct petals, with long claws, the five stamens attached to their
 bases.   Styles  five, separate; ovary superior.  Fruit  membranous and
 indehiscent, one-seeded, in the bottom  of the calyx.  Embryo  straight
 in mealy albumen.—Sea-side, or  salt-marsh  perennials,  with thick and
 stalked leaves, radical or cauline.

           ORDER LXVI.   Orobanchaceje.  Broom-rape.
   Herbaceous leafless plants, growing parasitically upon  the  roots  of
 other  plants ; the  stems furnished  with  scales, and bearing solitary or
 spicate flowers.   Calyx four or five-toothed, inferior, persistent.   Corolla
 monopetalous, hypogynous, persistent, imbricate in aestivation ; more or
 less bilabiate, the  upper lip  entire or  bilobed, the lower  three-lobed.
 Stamens four, didynamous, inserted on the tube of the corolla; anthers
 two-celled, persistent, the  cells distinct, parallel, often mucronate  or
 bearded at base.  Ovary superior, one-celled, seated  in a fleshy disk,
 with two or four parietal polyspermous placentae ; style one ; stigma two-
 lobed.   Fruit capsular,  inclosed within the withered corolla, one-celled,
 two-valved, each valve bearing one  or two placentae in the middle.  Seeds
 very numerous and minute ; embryo minute, inverted, at the  apex of a
 fleshy albumen.

   1. Orobanche, or Conopholis.    Calyx two to five-cleft, the segments
often unequal.    Corolla  ringent,  withering; limb four or five- lobed ;
upper Up concave, notched, the  lower reflexed in  three unequal wavy
lobes.   Ovary seated  in a  fleshy disk.    Stamens protruded ;  anthers
sagittate, with the lobes pointed at  the base; filaments almost as long as
the tube of the corolla, downy and glandular.  Capsule ovoid, acute, one-
celled, two-valved,  many-seeded, with four parietal parallel placentae.—
       6 
82
Natural  Orders of Plants.
Perennials with mostly  simple stems  ;  upper scales forming bracts to
the flowers.

   2. Epiphegus.  Perfect flowers sterile ; imperfect fertile.   Calyx short,
five-toothed.   Perfect corolla two-lipped ; the upper lip emarginate, the
lower three-toothed ;  imperfect corolla minute, four-toothed, deciduous.
Stamens as long as  the corolla; filaments  smooth ;  anthers two-lobed,
acute at the base,  valveless, dehiscent in the middle.   Stigma capitate,
somewhat emarginate.    Capsule gibbous, compressed, half two-valved,
with four diverging placentae.—Perennials, with virgate, simple branches
which are floriferous their whole length.

          ORDER LXVII.   SCROPHULARIACE^E.  FlGWORT.
   Herbs undershrubs, or rarely shrubs, scentless or fetid, rarely  aroma-
tic, with opposite,  verticillate,  or alternate leaves.   Flowers axillary or
racemose, rarely spiked.    Calyx,  sepals four or five, unequal, more or
less united at base, inferior, persistent.    Corolla bilabiate,  personate or
otherwise irregular, the lobes  imbricate  in  aestivation.   Stamens  four,
didynamous, rarely with  the rudiment of the fifth ;  sometimes two only,
the three others either rudimentary or wholly wanting.   Ovary free, two-
celled.    Style simple  or rarely shortly bifid ; stigma generally  simple,
entire, emarginate, or bifid.    Fruit capsular, two-celled,  two-valved,
with central placentae.   Seeds indefinite, albuminous ; embryo straight.

   1. Verbascum.   Calyx five-parted.    Corolla rotate, five-lobed, open
or concave ; the lobes  broad  and rounded, a little unequal.   Stamens
five, declinate, all perfect; all the filaments, or the  three upper, woolly.
Style flattened at the apex.  Capsule ovoid-globose, two-valved,  many-
seeded.—Tall and usually woolly biennial  herbs, with alternate  leaves,
those of the stem sessile or  decurrent; flowers in terminal racemes,
ephemeral.

   2. Scrophularia.   Calyx  in  five  acute,  nearly  equal  segments.
Corolla  subglobose, with a short five-lobed  limb, the segments of which
are rounded, and  the  uppermost  united into  an upper lip.   Stamens
didynamous, declinate, with transverse, one-celled anthers ;  a fifth rudi-
mentary stamen with  a  lamelliform  anther,  often  present.    Stigma
emarginate.   Capsule  roundish, often acuminate, with  the valves entire
or just  bifid.—Rank  herbs,  with  mostly opposite  leaves,  and small
greenish-purple or lurid flowers in loose cymes, forming a terminal nar-
row panicle.

   3. Chelone.    Calyx  deeply five-parted, with three bracts at base.
Corolla  inflated-tubular, with the  mouth a little open ;  the upper-lip
broad and  arched, keeled in the middle,  notched at the apex ; the lower 
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
83
woolly-bearded in the throat, three-lobed at  the apex, the middle lobe
smallest.   Stamens four, with woolly filaments, and very woolly heart-
shaped anthers; and a fifth sterile filament,  smooth above, and shorter
than the others.   Capsule two-celled, with entire valves.    Seeds many,
broadly  membranaceous, winged. — Smooth  perennials,  with  upright
branching stems, opposite serrate leaves, and large white or purple-rose-
colored flowers, which are nearly  sessile in spikes or  clusters,  and
closely imbricated with round-ovate concave bracts and bractlets.

   4. Digitalis.  Calyx  five-parted,  sepals  rounded or acute,  perma-
nent, much shorter than the corolla ; the uppermost narrowest.   Corolla
campanulate, ventricose, contracted  at  the base with an oblique limb ;
upper  lip emarginate, lower trifid with the middle  lobe the largest.
Stamens four, didynamous, inserted into the base of the corolla; anthers
acute,  naked.   Stigma bilamellate.  Capsule  ovate, two-celled, two-
valved, with a  septicidal  dehiscence.—Herbs  or shrubs, exotic, with
lower  leaves  crowded, petiolate, upper alternate; flowers in showy
racemes.

   5. Veronica. Leptandra.   Calyx five-parted.  Corolla sub-rotate,
deeply four-cleft, lower  segments mostly narrow.  Stamens two, one
each side of the upper lobe of the corolla, exserted ; anther-cells confluent
at the apex.  Style entire ;  stigma single.  Capsule compressed, usually
obtuse or notched at the apex, two-celled, few to many-seeded.—Chiefly
herbs with various  foliage ; leaves opposite ; blue, flesh-color or white
flowers in axillary or terminal racemes.

   6.  Gerardia.   Calyx campanulate,  five-cleft or toothed.    Corolla
campanulate-tubular, swelling above, with five more  or less  unequal
spreading lobes, the two upper usually rather smaller and more united.
Stamens four, strongly didynamous, included, hairy ; anthers approach-
ing by pairs, two-celled ;  the cells parallel, often pointed  at the base.
Style elongated, mostly enlarged and flattened  at the apex.   Capsule
ovate,  pointed, many-seeded.—Erect branching herbs, with the stem-
leaves opposite, the upper  often  alternate; the uppermost reduced to
bracts  and  subtending one-flowered peduncles, which  often  form  a
raceme or spike ; flowers  showy, purple or yellow.

   7. Dasystoma.   Calyx campanulate,  half five-cleft, the lobes often
toothed, imbricate in aestivation.   Corolla-tube elongated, dilated, woolly
inside, as well as the anthers and filaments.   Stamens included, didyna-
mous ; anthers all equal, awned at the base.   Capsule ovate, acute, two
valves bearing the septum in the middle ; seeds numerous.—Erect per-
ennial herbs, with large, yellow flowers,  and leaves similar to Gerardia,
pinnatifid or toothed. 
84
Natural  Orders of Plants.
  8. Euphrasia.  Calyx tubular or campanulate, four-cleft.   Upper Up
of the corolla  scarcely arched, two-lobed, the lobes broad and spread-
ing ; lower lip spreading, three-cleft, the lobes obtuse or notched ; palate
not plaited.   Stamens four,  fertile,  under  the upper lip; anther-cells
equal, spurred or pointed at the base.  Capsule oblong-ovate, compressed,
emarginate, with entire valves ; seeds  few or numerous, oblong, grooved
lengthwise.—Herbs with branching stems, and opposite  toothed or cut
leaves;  flowers small, in one-sided terminal spikes.

             ORDER XLVIII.   Verbenace^e.  Vervain.
  Trees and shrubs, sometimes  herbs, with usually opposite, simple or
compound, exstipulate leaves.   Flowers in  axillary corymbs  or  dense
heads, or alternate-spicate.  Calyx tubular, four or five-toothed, inferior,
persistent. Corolla tubular, the limb bilabiate or irregularly four or five-
cleft, deciduous.   Stamens four, didynamous, seldom equal, occasionally
only two.   Ovary two or four-celled ; ovules erect or pendulous, solitary
or twin ;  style one ; stigma bifid or undivided.  Fruit drupaceous, bac-
cate, or dry, dividing into two or four one-seeded portions.   Seeds erect
or pendulous, exalbuminous, with an  erect embryo.

   1. Verbena.   Calyx  five-toothed, with one of the teeth often trun-
cate and shorter than the others.  Corolla  funnel-form, often curved,
salver-form, the limb unequally five-cleft.  Stamens four, included ;  the
upper  pair  occasionally without  anthers.   Style  slender; stigma capi-
tate.  Fruit or pericarp, splitting into four seed-like nutlets, thin, evan-
escent.—Herbs with opposite leaves;  flowers mostly alternate-spicate,
sessile, bracted.

           ORDER  LXIX.  Labiate  or Lamiace^e.   Mint.
    Herbs or undershrubs with four-cornered stems and opposite branches.
 Leaves  opposite, without stipules, replete with receptacles of aromatic
 oil.  Flowers in  opposite, nearly sessile, axillary verticillasters,  some-
 times as if in whorls, spikes or heads ;  color  almost always of the cya-
 nic series, blue, purple, red, white,  etc.   Calyx tubular,  inferior, per-
 sistent, the odd tooth being next to the axis ; regular five or ten-toothed,
 or  irregular bilabiate, or three to ten-toothed.   Corolla monopetalous,
 hypogynous, bilabiate ; the upper  lip  bifid or entire, overlapping the
 lower  which  is  larger and three-lobed.   Stamens  four, didynamous,
 inserted on  the  corolla, alternately  with the  lobes of the  lower lip, the
 two upper  stamens  often  abortive ; anthers mostly two-celled.   Ovary
 deeply four-lobed, seated in a fleshy hypogynous disk, each lobe with a
 single erect ovule;  style one, proceeding from the base of the lobes of
  the ovary; stigma bifid, usually acute.   Fruit one to four small nuts or 
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
85
achenia included in the persistent calyx.   Seeds erect, with little or no
albumen ;  embryo  erect;  cotyledons  flat; radicle at the base  of the
fruit.
                      TRIBE I.  Ocimoide^:.
  Corolla sub-bilabiate, the four upper lobes nearly equal, the lower one
declinate, flat or concave, carinate or saccate.  Stamens four, declined.

  1.  Lavandula.    Calyx tubular,  nearly  equal,  thirteen or  rarely
fifteen-ribbed, shortly five-toothed,  with the  four lower teeth nearly
equal, or the  two lower narrower;  the upper either but little broader
than the lateral ones, or expanded into a dilated appendage.   Upper lip
of corolla two-lobed, lower three-lobed ;  all  the divisions nearly equal;
the throat somewhat dilated.   Stamens didynamous, declining ; filaments
smooth,  distinct,  not toothed ; anthers  reniform, one-celled.—Odorifer-
ous,  suffruticose  plants,  with  narrow rigid  leaves,  and small  whitish
flowers.
                     TRIBE II.  Menthoide^e.
  Corolla somewhat campanulate or funnel-form ; tube scarcely exserted,
limb  subequally four or  five lobed.   Stamens four,  sometimes  two,
distant, straight, diverging.

  2.  Mentha.   Calyx campanulate  or tubular, five-toothed, equal  or
somewhat two-lipped, with the throat naked inside, or villous.   Corolla
with  the  tube inclosed, the limb campanulate, nearly equal, four-cleft;
the upper segment broader, nearly entire or emarginate.  Stamens four,
equal, erect, distant; filaments smooth, naked ; anthers with two parallel
cells.   Style shortly bifid, with the lobes bearing stigmas at  the points.
Fruit dry,  smooth.—Odoriferous herbs, with small  whitish  or pale-
purple flowers in close clusters.

   3.  Lycopus.  Calyx oblong-campanulate, equal, four  or five-toothed,
with  the throat naked inside.  Corolla campanulate, scarcely longer than
the  calyx,  nearly equal four-lobed ;  upper segment broadest,  emargi-
nate.   Stamens  two, rather  projecting,  distant; the upper  pair  either
sterile rudiments  or wanting ; anthers  two-celled, with nearly  parallel
distinct cells.   Seeds four, smooth,  retuse.—Perennial  low herbs, with
sharply-toothed or pinnatifid  leaves, and mostly white  flowers in  dense
axillary whorls.
                      TRIBE III.   Monarde^e.
   Corolla bilabiate; tube exserted.   Stamens two,  fertile,  ascending,
the upper pair abortive; anthers linear with the two cells contiguous, or
halved with the two cells widely separated on  opposite  ends of a long,
transverse connectile. 
86
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
   8.  Monarda.  Calyx tubular, elongated, fifteen-nerved, nearly equal-
 ly five-toothed, usually hairy in the throat.   Corolla with an elongated
 tube, a slightly expanded  throat, and a strongly two-lipped  limb;  the
 lips  linear or  oblong, subequal;  the  upper erect,  entire or  slightly
 notched ;  the lower spreading, three-lobed at the apex, the lateral lobes
 ovate and obtuse, the  middle one narrower and  slightly notched.   Sta-
 mens  two, fertile, elongated, ascending, exserted, inserted  in  the throat
 of the corolla; anthers linear, the  cells divaricate at base, connate at
 apex.  Style one, with a  lateral stigma.—Odoriferous  erect perennial
 herbs, with entire or toothed leaves, and flowers in a few  capitate whorls,
 closely surrounded with bracts.

  5. Salvia.   Calyx sub-campanulate, striate, bilabiate ;  the upper lip
 mostly three-toothed, the lower bifid.  Corolla scarcely  longer than the
 calyx, deeply two-lipped,  ringent;  the upper  lip straight  or scythe-
 shaped, entire or barely notched ; the lower spreading or pendent, three-
 lobed, the middle lobe  larger.   Stamens two,  fertile, on short filaments,
 jointed  with the elongated transverse connective,  one end of which
 ascending under the upper lip, bears a linear, one-celled, (half) anther,
 the other usually descending and  bearing  an imperfect or  deformed,
 (half) anther.   Achenia four.—The transverse connectile constitutes the
 essential   character of  this genus.   The flowers  are usually large  and
 showy, in spiked, racemed, or panicled whorls.

  6. Rosmarinus.  Calyx ovate-campanulate, two-lipped ; the upper one
 entire, the lower bifid.   Corolla with the tube smooth, not ringed in the
 inside, somewhat inflated in the throat; limb bilabiate; lips nearly equal,
 the upper one erect and emarginate, the lower spreading, trifid, with the
 lateral lobes erect, but somewhat  twisted;  the  middle  one large, con-
 cave,  declining.   Stamens  two, ascending,  inferior, exserted ; no rudi-
 ments of  superior stamens ; filaments toothed at base; anthers linear,
 with two divaricating confluent cells.   Upper lobe of the style very short;
stigmas minute, terminal.—Exotic.

                      TRIBE IV.   Satureine^.
  Calyx  five-toothed  and  equal, or bilabiate, with  the  upper lip trifid,
 and the lower bifid.   Corolla  sub-bilabiate, upper lip erect,  flat,  entire
 or bifid ;  lower spreading, tripid, lobes subequal ; tube about  as lono- as
 the calyx.  Stamens two or four, distant, straight, diverging.

  7. Pycnanthemum.   Calyx ovate-oblong, or tubular,  about thirteen-
 nerved, equally five-toothed,  or the  three upper teeth more or  less
 united, naked  in the throat.   Corolla with  a short tube,  and a some-
 what  two-lipped, border; the upper  lip nearly  flat,  entire,  or slightly
 notched; the lower three-cleft; middle lobe longest; all the lobes ovate 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
87
and obtuse.  Stamens four, distant, the lower pair rather longer;  anther-
cells parallel.—Perennial upright herbs, with a pungent mint-like flavor,
corymbosely branched  above; the floral leaves often whitish ;  corolla
whitish or  flesh-color,  the  lower lip  mostly dotted with  purple;  the
many-flowered whorls dense, crowded with bracts, and usually forming
terminal heads or  close cymes.

  8.  Origanum.   Calyx  ovate-tubular, hairy  in  the  throat,  ten to
thirteen-nerved, nearly  equally five-toothed;  throat  villous  within.  Co-
rolla-tube about the length of the  calyx, slightly two-lipped;  the upper
lip  rather  erect and slightly notched ;  the lower one  of  three nearly
equal, spreading lobes.   Stamens four, exserted, didynamous, the lower
ones longer.  Style bifid at the point.  Achenia, dry, somewhat smooth.—
Herbs with nearly entire leaves,  and purplish flowers crowded in cylin-
drical or oblong spikes, which are imbricated with colored  bracts.

  9.  Thymus.   Flowers capitate  or  verticillate.  Calyx sub-campanu-
late, bilabiate, thirteen-nerved, hairy in the throat;  the upper  lip three-
toothed, spreading; the lower two-cleft, with the  awl-shaped divisions
ciliate.   Corolla short,  slightly  bilabiate ;  the upper  lip  straight  and
flattish, notched at the apex; the lower spreading, equally three-cleft,
or the middle lobe longest.    Stamens four,  straight and distant,  usually
exserted.—Low, mostly prostrate  and diffuse perennials, with small and
entire veiny leaves, and purplish or whitish flowers.

  10. Satureja.   Calyx tubular, ten-ribbed.   Corolla  bilabiate ;  seg-
ments nearly equal.  Stamens diverging,  scarcely exserted.—Perennials.

  11. Hyssopus.   Calyx tubular, fifteen-nerved, equal or oblique, with
five equal teeth ; naked inside.   Corolla with  the tube  as  long  as  the
calyx; the upper lip flat, erect,  emarginate;  the lower spreading trifid,
and the  middle  segment the largest.   Stamens four,  didynamous, ex-
serted, diverging ; anthers with linear divaricating cells.—Perennial.

  12.  Collinsonia.  Calyx  ovate, declined in fruit, two-lipped; upper
lip truncate, three-toothed, the lower two-toothed.   Corolla elongated,
expanded at the throat, somewhat two-lipped, with the four upper lobes
nearly equal, but the  lower larger and longer, pendent, toothed or lace-
rated.   Stamens twTo, rarely three or four, much  exserted, diverging;
anther-cells  divergent. — Strong-scented perennials,  with  large  ovate
leaves, and yellowish flowers on  slender pedicels, in loose  and panicled
terminal racemes.

  13. Cunila.  Calyx  ovate-tubular, ten-ribbed, equally  five-toothed,
hairy  in the throat.  Corolla two-lipped ; upper lip erect, flattish,  mostly 
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
emarginate ; the  lower  spreading, somewhat equally three-cleft.  Sta-
mens two,  erect,  exserted,  distant; no sterile  filaments.—Perennials
with small white, or purplish flowers, in  corymbed cymes or  close
clusters.

                     TRIBE V.   Melissineje.

  Calyx bilabiate ; corolla bilabiate; upper lip straight, lower lip  spread-
ing, cleft into three flat lobes, of which  the middle one is often broadest.
Stamens four, sometimes two, ascending.

  14.  Hedeoma.  Calyx ovoid  or tubular, gibbous  on the lower side
near the base, two-lipped, thirteen-ribbed,  throat hairy ; the upper lip
three-toothed, the lower two-cleft.   Corolla two-lipped; the upper lip
erect, flat,  notched at the  apex; the  lower spreading, three-cleft, the
lobes nearly equal.   Fertile stamens two, ascending; the two upper mere
sterile filaments or wanting.—Low odorous plants with small leaves, and
loose axillary clusters of flowers, somewhat approximated in terminal
leafy racemes.

  15. Melissa.  Calyx  slightly  gibbous at the base, thirteen-ribbed,
open, more or  less hairy in  the throat; the  upper lip three-toothed, the
lower bifid.   Corolla with  a recur ved-ascending  tube, the  upper lip
erect, flattish, lower lip spreading,  three-lobed,  the middle lobe mostly
broadest.—Stamens  four, ascending ; anther-cells  divergent.—Fragrant
plants, with loose, one-sided, few-flowered clusters, with few and mostly
ovate bracts, resembling the leaves.

                    TRIBE VI.  SCUTELLARINEJS.
   Calyx  bilabiate,  upper  lip truncate.   Corolla  bilabiate,  upper  lip
vaulted, tube ascending, exserted.  Stamens four, ascending beneath the
upper lip of the corolla.

   16.  Scutellaria.   Calyx  campanulate,  gibbous,  bilabiate,  the  lips
 entire ;  upper  one consisting of the two  lateral sepals, deciduous after
 flowering, when the calyx is closed by the arched  and separate upper
 sepal applied to the lower lip like a lid.   Corolla with an elongated tube,
 dilated at the throat;  the upper  lip  arched,  entire or nearly so; the
 middle  lobe of the lower dilated and spreading, convex, its lateral lobes
 often connected with the upper lip.  Stamens four, ascending under the
 upper lip ; anthers approximate in pairs, ciliate; those of  the lower sta-
 mens  halved, of the upper, two-celled  and heart-shaped.—Perennial
 bitter herbs, not aromatic, with axillary,  or else  spiked or  racemed
 flowers;  the  short peduncles chiefly opposite, one-flowered, often one-
 sided. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
89
                      TRIBE  VII.  Nepete^e.
  Calyx oblique, upper teeth longer.  Corolla bilabiate, upper lip vaulted,
lower spreading, throat mostly inflated.   Stamens ascending  or  diverg-
ing, the upper pair longer.

  17. Nepeta.  Calyx tubular, often incurved, arid, thirteen to fifteen-
nerved, obliquely five-toothed, seldom equal at the orifice.  Corolla with
the tube slender at the base, naked and dilated in the throat; the upper
lip erect,  rather  concave,  notched  or two-cleft; the lower  spreading,
three-cleft, the middle lobe largest, and crenate.   Stamens four, didyna-
mous, ascending under the upper lip, the lower  pair  shorter; anthers
usually approximate in pairs, the cells divergent  and finally divaricat-
ing.—Perennial herbs.

                     TRIBE VIII.  Stachyde^e.
   Calyx oblique or rarely sub-bilabiate, three to ten-toothed.   Corolla
bilabiate, upper lip galeate or flat, lower lip unequally three-lobed.  Sta-
mens ascending, upper pair shorter.

  18. Leonurus.   Calyx turbinate, five-nerved, the mouth truncated,
with nearly five equal teeth which are awl-shaped, and when old rather
spiny at the point and spreading.  Corolla with the tube inclosed, naked,
or obliquely ringed inside;  upper lip oblong, entire,  hairy, somewhat
arched ; the lower spreading, three-lobed; the middle lobe larger,  broad
and inversely  heart-shaped;  the lateral oblong.   Stamens four, didyna-
mous, ascending under the upper lip; anthers approximate in pairs, with
parallel transverse and naked valves,  sprinkled with  shining  dots.
Achenia truncate at the apex.—Upright herbs, with  cut-lobed leaves,
and close whorls of flowers in their axils.

   19.  Marrubium.   Calyx tubular, five  to ten-nerved, with  five or ten
subequal acute spiny teeth.   Upper lip of the corolla erect, flattish or
concave, entire or bifid;  lower  lip spreading, trifid  ; middle  lobe broad-
est, and generally emarginate.   Stamens four, included in the tube  of
the corolla, didynamous ;  anther-cells divergent and somewhat confluent.
Achenia, obtuse.—Whitish-woolly, bitter-aromatic  perennials, branched
at the  base, with  rugose and  crenate or cut leaves, the floral nearly
similar, and exceeding the whorls.

   20.  Ajuga.  Corolla upper lip very short, and two-toothed, or rarely
erect and vaulted, lower lip longer.  Stamens ascending, much exserted;
anthers all reniform, one-celled.  Achenia reticulately rugose. 
90
Natural  Orders of Plants.
              ORDER  LXX.  Pedaliace^e.   Oil-Seed.
   Herbs mostly strong-scented and glandular hirsute.  Leaves opposite
 or  alternate, undivided, angular  or  lobed, exstipulated.   Flowers  axil-
 lary,  solitary,  large, each  with  two  bracts.   Calyx five-cleft, nearly
 equal.  Corolla monopetalous, hypogynous, irregular; the throat ven-
 tricose, the  limb  bilabiate, the lobes somewhat valvate  in  aestivation.
 Disk  hypogynous, fleshy, sometimes glandular.   Stamens four, with the
 rudiment of a fifth, didynamous,  included;  anthers two-celled; the con-
 nective articulated with the filament,  a little  prolonged beyond the cells,
 terminated by a gland.   Ovary seated in the disk, unilocular or bilocu-
 lar, sometimes with several one or two-seeded spurious cells, formed by
 the splitting of two placentas and the divergence of their lobes; ovules
 either erect or pendulous, or horizontal, solitary or several;  style  one,
 stigma divided.  Fruit drupaceous or capsular, valvular, or indehiscent,
 with from two to eight  cells, which,  when numerous are usually oligo-
 spermous, and  polyspermous, when  only two.   Seeds few, large, wing-
 less ;  albumen none ; embryo straight.

   1.  Sesamum.   Calyx five-parted, persistent, upper lobe the  smallest.
 Corolla campanulate;  tube  large;  limb  plicate, somewhat  bilabiate;
 upper lobe emarginate, lower the longest, slightly trifid.  Anthers ovate-
 oblong; stigma lanceolate, bilamellate.   Capsule oblong, obtusely four-
 angled, four-grooved, two-celled, two-valved,  valves recurved.   Seeds
numerous, thick, apterous.—Exotics with mucilaginous leaves, and  oily
 seeds.

            ORDER  LXXI.  Boraginace^e.  Borage.
  Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with  round  stems  and  branches.    Leaves
 alternate,  often rough  with  stiff  hairs,  which  are  scale-like and indu-
rated  at base ;  stipules none.   Spikes, racemes, or  corymbs  generally
 secund, and circinate before flowering, evolving as  the flowers expand.
Flowers of  the  cyanic  series.   Calyx persistent, with four or  five  divi-
sions.    Corolla hypogynous, generally regular,  five, rarely four-cleft,
with an imbricate aestivation.  Stamens  inserted upon the petals, equal
to the number of lobes of the corolla, and alternate with them.  Ovary
four-parted, four-seeded; ovules attached to the lowest point  of  the
cavity.  Style simple,  arising from  the base of the lobes of the ovary;
stigma simple or bifid.   Fruit nuts or achenia, four, distinct, one-seeded.
 Seeds separable from the pericarp, destitute of albumen ; embryo with a
superior radicle; cotyledons parallel with the axis,  plano-convex, some-
 times  four.

  1. Symphytum.    Calyx five-parted.   Corolla  tubular-campanulate,
 inflated above, five-toothed, the short teeth spreading ; the throat closed 
Natural  Orders  of Plants.                 91
with five  linear awl-shaped scales, converging into a cone.   Stamens
included ; anthers sagittate, acute, concealed by the valves.   Style fili-
form.  Achenia smooth, ovate, fixed by a large  excavated (perforate)
base.—Coarse perennial herbs, with thickened mucilaginous roots, and
one-sided  nodding racemes, either single or in pairs.

  2. Onosmodium.   Calyx  deeply five-parted, with  linear segments.
Corolla longer than  the  calyx,  subcampanulate, having  a ventricose,
half five-cleft limb, with the segments converging and  the  orifice open
and  naked ;  the  sinuses  minutely hooded-inflexed.  Anthers included,
almost sessile,  sagittate,  apiculate.    Style  much exserted,  smooth.
Achenia ovoid,  smooth, shining, fixed by a flat base, closed.—Perennial
herbs with oblong,  sessile, nerved leaves, and yellowish-white flowers in
terminal and one-sided, at length elongated, erect, spiked racemes, leafy -
bracted.

  3. Lithospermum.    Calyx five-parted, persistent,  smaller than the
corolla.   Corolla funnel-form or  salver-form; the throat  open,  mostly
furnished  with five  small  folds or gibbous  projections;  lobes rounded.
Stamens included;  anthers oblong, almost sessile;  stigma  obtuse, bifid.
Achenia ovate,  bony,  smooth or rugose, fixed by a small truncate base,
closed.—Herbs, usually with thickish roots yielding a  red-coloring mat-
ter, more  or less roughish-hairy or downy, and usually sessile  leaves,
and spiked or racemed leafy-bracted flowers.

  4.  Mertensia.    Calyx  short, five-cleft.  Corolla  trumpet-shaped,
much longer than the calyx, five-cleft;  throat naked, or oftener with five
small folds or  ridges between  the insertion  of the stamens.  Stamens
inserted at top of the  tube, protruding ; anthers subsagittate ; style long
and  filiform.   Achenia  ovoid,  smooth or  reticulated, rather  fleshy,
obliquely  attached by the prominent internal angle, closed.—Perennials
usually smooth, with pale and entire, pellucid-punctate leaves, and hand-
some purplish-blue, rarely white, flowers  in terminal racemes, bractlets
above, but one or  two leaves  at base.   Radical leaves many-veined,
cauline ones sessile.

  5. Cynoglossum.  Calyx five-parted.  Corolla funnel-form, about  as
long as the calyx, vaulted ; the throat closed by five converging, convex,
obtuse  scales;  the   lobes  rounded.    Stamens  included.   Achenia
depressed or convex, fixed laterally to the  base  of the style, covered
with short hooked  prickles.—Coarse herbs, with a strong, unpleasant
scent, and mostly panicled racemes which are naked above but usually
bracted at the  base; lower leaves petioled.   Flowers blue, purple  or
white. 
92
Natural  Orders of Plants.
        ORDER  LXXII.  Polemoniacejs.  Greek Valerian.
  Herbs with  opposite,  occasionally  alternate,  compound, or  simple
leaves; stem occasionally climbing.   Calyx five  united sepals, inferior,
persistent, sometimes irregular.   Corolla  five united  petals,  regular,
the lobes imbricate or twisted in aestivation.   Stamens five, inserted into
the middle of the corolla tube, and alternate with its lobes.   Ovary free,
three-celled, with few or many ovules ; styles united  into  one ; stigma
trifid;  ovules ascending or peltate.   Capsule three-celled, three-valved,
few or many-seeded,  with  a loculicidal  or  septicidal dehiscence ; the
valves  separating from the axis.   Seeds  angular  or  oval, or winged,
often enveloped in mucus, ascending ;  albumen horny ;  embryo straight;
cotyledons elliptical, foliaceous.

  1. Polemonium. Calyx campanulate, five-cleft.  Corolla rotate-campan-
ulate; limb five-lobed, erect; tube short, closed at the base by five stameni-
ferous valves.  Stamens equally inserted at the summit of the very short
corolla-tube; filaments slender, declined, hairy-appendaged  at  the base.
Capsule few to many-seeded.—Low branching herbs, with alternate, pin-
nate leaves, the upper leaflets sometimes  confluent; the blue  or white,
terminal, corymbose flowers nearly bractless.


          ORDER LXXIII.  Convulvulace^e.   Bindweed.
  Herbs or shrubs, mostly twining,  sometimes erect, smooth or with a
simple pubescence, with a milky juice.  Leaves  alternate, undivided or
lobed,  seldom pinnatifid, without  stipules.   Flowers showy, axillary or
terminal.   Calyx of  five sepals,  usually united at base, much  imbri-
cated,  as  if in more whorls  than one,  often very unequal, persistent.
Corolla hypogynous, regular, deciduous ;  the limb five-lobed  or entire,
plaited, twisted in aestivation.   Stamens five, inserted into  the base of
the corolla, and alternate with  its lobes.   Ovary simple,  with  two or
four cells, seldom one ; the ovules definite and  erect, when more than
one collateral.  Styles united into one ; stigmas  obtuse or acute.  Disk
annular, hypogynous.  Fruit  a capsule, one to four-celled, valves with
septifragal dehiscence.   Seeds few, large, with thin mucilaginous albu-
men ; embryo curved ; cotyledons shriveled ; radicle inferior.

   1. Convolvulus.   Calyx five-parted, naked or with two  small bracts
near the base.   Corolla  campanulate or funnel-form,  with  a spreading,
nearly entire or five-lobed border.  Stamens shorter  than  the corolla-
limb, rarely a little longer, included.   Style simple ; stigmas two, linear-
cylindrical, often revolute.  Capsule valvate, two to four-celled,  four to
six-seeded.— Chiefly twining  or  trailing  plants,  with  the axillary
peduncles  one or many-flowered. 
                    Natural Orders of Plants.                  93

   S. Ipom^ea.   Sepals five.   Corolla campanulate.  Stamens included.
Style one.   Stigma capitate,  often bilobate.  Ovary bilocular; ce^swith
two ovules.  Capsule two-celled.

            ORDER LXXIV.   Solanacejs.  Nightshade.
   Herbaceous plants or shrubs, with a  colorless juice,  and alternate,
undivided  or lobed, sometimes  collateral leaves; the floral  ones some-
times double, and  placed  near each other.  Inflorescence often supra-
axillary ; pedicels bractless.  Calyx five, seldom  four-parted, more  or
less united, mostly  persistent.   Corolla  regular, hypogynous ; the limb
five-cleft, seldom four, deciduous, plaited in aestivation, sometimes imbri-
cated.   Stamens four or five, sometimes one abortive, inserted  on the
corolla, as many as the segments of the  limb, and  alternate with them ;
anthers  bursting longitudinally, rarely by pores  at the  apex.    Ovary
superior, two-celled, rarely four or many-celled, with the placenta in the
axis; styles and stigmas united into one.   Fruit a capsule with a double
dissepiment parallel with the valves, or a berry with the placentae adher-
ing to the dissepiment.   Seeds numerous, sessile; embryo straight or
curved, often out of the center, lying in a fleshy albumen ;  radicle next
the hilum.

   1. Nicotiana.   Calyx tubular-campanulate,  five-cleft.   Corolla fun-
nel-form,  usually with a long  tube, regular, the  plaited  border five-
lobed.   Stamens five,  declinate.   Stigma  capitate, emarginate.   Cap-
sule  two-celled, two or four-valved from  the  apex, opening by four
points. — Rank  acrid-narcotic herbs,  mostly clammy-pubescent,  with
large, entire leaves, and  lurid, racemed  or  panicled  flowers, white,
tinged with green or purple.

   2. Datura.    Calyx  large,  tubular,   ventricose, five-angled,  five-
toothed, separating transversely above the  persistent,  orbicular,  peltate
base in fruit.   Corolla funnel-form,  with a large  and  spreading five-
toothed plaited border.  Stamens five, equal; stigma  thick, obtuse, bi-
lamellar.   Capsule globular,  smooth or prickly,  four-valved, two-celled,
with two thick placentae projected from the  axis into the middle of the
cells, thence connected with the walls by an imperfect false partition, so
that the pod is four-celled except near the top, with the placentae seem-
ingly borne on the middle of the alternate partitions.  Seeds numerous,
black, rather large.—Rank narcotic annual weeds,  with an unpleasant
odor when bruised, bearing  ovate,  angular-toothed leaves,  and large
bluish-white or purple,  solitary,  axillary flowers, on short peduncles.

   3. Hyoscyamus.    Calyx campanulate  or urceolate,  five-lobed,  per-
sistent.   Corolla  funnel-form; limb  spreading, oblique, five-lobed, une- 
94
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
qual, one of the lobes larger.  Stamens five, declinate ; stigma capitate,
Capsule ovate, compressed, two-celled, covered by the persistent calyx,
furrowed on each side; opening transversely  all round  near the apex
which  falls  off like  a lid.—Coarse, clammy-pubescent,  rank, narcotic
herbs,  with lurid flowers in the axils of angled or toothed leaves.

  4. Physalis.   Calyx five-cleft, persistent,  reticulated and  enlarging
after flowering, at length much inflated and inclosing the berry.  Corolla
rotate-campanuiate ;  tube very short, marked with five concave spots at
the base ; limb plaited, obscurely five-lobed.   Stamens five, connivent;
anthers opening  longitudinally.    Stigma capitate.   Berry  globular,
smooth, two-celled, covered with the five-angular, membranous, inflated,
colored calyx.—Herbs, rarely  shrubs, with  axillary or supra-axillary
flowers.

  5. Capsicum.   Calyx erect, five-cleft, persistent.  Corolla rotate ; tube
very short; limb   plaited, five-lobed.   Stamens five, with converging
anthers, which are  two-celled, dehiscing by fissures, longitudinally.
Fruit a dry, coriaceous berry, two to four-celled, inflated, many-seeded.
Seeds flat, naked,  very acrid.—A large genus of herbaceous or shrubby
plants, pervaded  by a heating, acrid  principle;  leaves  often in pairs;
peduncles axillary, solitary.

  6. Solanum.   Calyx chiefly five-parted, sometimes  ten, spreading,
persistent.    Corolla rotate, subcampanulate ;  tube  very  short;  limb
plicate, five to ten-lobed.    Stamens  exserted, converging around the
style;  filaments very short; anthers  erect, slightly cohering or conni-
vent, opening at the apex by two pores.  Berry subglobose or depressed,
often torose, two  to six-celled, many-seeded.—Herbs or shrubs, unarmed
or  prickly.     Leaves  sometimes  geminate,  pinnatifid  or undivided.
Peduncles solitary or several, one or many-flowered.

   7. Atropa.  Calyx campanulate, five-cleft,  persistent,  nearly  equal.
 Corolla campanulate, twice as  long as the calyx ; tube short;  limb with
five shallow nearly equal segments.   Stamens five, distant; filaments,
filiform, incurved, nearly  as long  as the tube of the  corolla; anthers
cordate, four-lobed.    Stigma  capitate.   Berry two-celled, globular,
many-seeded,  subtended  by the  enlarged  calyx. — Narcotic   herbs,
 shrubs or trees.   Exotics.

                  LXXV.  Gentianace^e.  Gentians.
   Herbs rarely  shrubs, generally smooth, sometimes  twining, with a
 watery juice.   Leaves  opposite, entire,  smooth, exstipulated, sessile, or
having their petioles confluent in a little sheath, in most cases three to 
Natural  Orders of  Plants.
95
five-ribbed ; very rarely brown, scale-like, or alternate.    Flowers con-
spicuous, terminal or axillary, regular, or sometimes irregular.    Calyx
monophyllous,  four to. ten-cleft, united  at  base,  persistent.   Corolla
usually regular and  persistent,  hypogynous; the limb divided into as
many lobes as  there are sepals, with an  imbricated twisted aestivation.
Stamens inserted on the tube of the corolla, alternate with its segments,
and  equal  in  number to them; some of them occasionally  abortive.
Pollen three-lobed or triple.   Ovary  single,  one-celled, sometimes
rendered apparently two-celled by the introflexed placentae.   Style one,
continuous or  none ;  stigmas  one  or two.   Capsule  or berry many-
seeded, with one or two cells,  usually two-valved; the margins of the
valves turned  inward,  and  in  the genera  with one cell, bearing the
seeds ; in the two-celled genera inserted into a central placenta.   Seeds
small; testa single ; embryo minute, straight in  the axis of soft fleshy
albumen ;  radicle next the hilum.

              SUB-ORDER I.  Gentiane^e.  Gentian.
   Corolla imbricate from right to left in aestivation.   Testa of the seed
membranaceous.   Leaves opposite.

   1. Sabbatia.  Calyx five to twelve-parted, rarely five-cleft, the divi-
sions slender.    Corolla rotate, regular, five to twelve-parted, withering
on the capsule.  Stamens five to twelve, inserted in the  throat of the
tube; anthers erect, at length recurved, two-celled, spirally twisted after
shedding  the pollen.    Ovary superior, ovate; style  distinct, declining,
bifid;  stigmas capitate, ascending, with two  arms which become spirally
twisted.    Capsule bivalve,  septicidal, somewhat  two-celled ; valves  a
little introflexed ; seeds numerous, small.—Biennials with slender stems,
and  cymose-panicled, white or rose-purple flowers.

   2.  Gentiana.  Calyx four or five-cleft or parted.   Corolla marescent,
funnel-shaped, or campanulate,  tubular at base ; limb four or five or six
to eight-parted, regular, usually with  intermediate plaited  folds which
bear appendages  at  the sinuses ;  segments  either spreading, erect,  or
convergent, entire or  ciliated.    Stamens five,  inserted on  the  corolla
tube ; filaments equal  at the base; anthers sometimes  connate.    Style
short, two-parted, or wanting;  stigmas two persistent, revolute or erect.
 Capsule oblong, two-valved, one-celled,  many-seeded; placentae  united
with the endocarp, and overspreading the valves of the capsule.—Herbs
of various habit, with  opposite  leaves, and terminal  or  cymose flowers.

   3. Frasera.  Flowers  mostly  tetramerous.   Calyx deeply  four-
parted ;  segments  connected  at base,  persistent.    Corolla deciduous,
rotate, deeply  four-parted; segments  elliptical, each with a bearded and 
96
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
 orbicular gland or pit on the upper side.   Stamens four; filaments awl-
 shaped, usually somewhat connected at base;  anthers oblong, versatile.
 Ovary one-celled, with a single, persistent style, .and two, short, distinct
 stigmas.   Capsule  oval, compressed, bivalved, one-celled, partly  mar-
 gined ; seeds few, large, flat, imbricated,  elliptical, with a membranous
 margin.—Biennials  or perennials,  tall  and  showy,  with opposite  or
 verticillate leaves, and numerous peduncled flowers in open cymes.

            SUB-ORDER II.   Menyanthe^e.  Buckbean.
   ^Estivation of the  corolla induplicate.   Aquatic  or marsh herbs.
 Sheaths of the leaves  alternate.

   4.  Menyanthes.  Calyx five-parted,  tubular below.   Corolla  short
 funnel-form, fleshy,  deciduous, the whole upper surface white-bearded;
 limb spreading,  five-lobed, equal.  Stamens five, inserted on the corolla;
 filaments distinct; anthers erect.   Ovary surrounded by five hypogynous
 glands; style filiform,  persistent;  stigma capitate  bifid.   Capsule one-
 celled, somewhat one-valved, many-seeded,  bursting  somewhat irregu-
 larly; testa hard, smooth, and  shining. — Perennial, with  a thickish,
 creeping  rootstock,  sheathed by  the membranous bases of the  long
 petioles, which bear three oval or  oblong  leaflets at the summit; flowers
 white  or slightly reddish, racemed on the naked scape.

             ORDER  LXXVI.  Apocynaceje.  Dogbane.
   Trees, shrubs, and herbs, usually with a milky juice.  Leaves oppo-
 site, sometimes whorled, seldom  scattered, quite  entire,  often  having
 ciliae or glands upon the petioles, but without stipules.   Calyx free, per-
 sistent, five-parted.  Corolla hypogynous, regular, five-lobed, often with
 scales at the  mouth,  deciduous;  aestivation twisted.   Stamens  five,
 arising from  the corolla and  alternate with its segments; filaments dis-
 tinct ;  anthers three-celled, opening  lengthwise, sometimes slightly con-
 nected.  Pollen granular, globose, or three-lobed, immediately applied
 to the stigma.   Ovaries two, distinct or rarely united;  styles two  or
 united; stigmas  united into one which is common to both styles.  Fruit
 a follicle, capsule, drupe, or berry, double or  single.   Seeds numerous,
 pendulous, with  fleshy or cartilaginous  albumen; embryo foliaceous;
 plumule inconspicuous; radicle turned toward the hilum.

   1. Apocynum.  Calyx five-parted,  lobes acute.  Corolla campanulate,
short, with five revolute lobes,  furnished  at  base  with five  glandular
teeth alternating with the stamens.   Stamens inserted  at the base of the
corolla; filaments ligulate; anthers sagittate, connivent, longer than the
filaments, and slightly  cohering by their inner face to the stigma- their
posterior lobes destitute of pollen.  Hypogynous  scales five    Ovaries
 two; stigma sessile, dilated, with a conical and bilobiate apex   Foil I 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
97
long,  slender,  distinct.  Seeds provided with a long  tuft of silky down
at the apex, (comose).—Perennial herbs, not climbing, with  mucronate-
pointed,  opposite  leaves, a  tough fibrous bark, and  small and pale
cymose flowers on short pedicels.

  2. Strychnos.  Some authors place this in order, Loganiaceae,  and
sub-order, Strychneae.  Calyx four or five-parted.  Corolla tubular, with
a spreading, four or five-parted limb, and a valvate aestivation.  Stamens
four or five, inserted  on the throat of the corolla, which is either  naked
or bearded.   Ovary  two-celled;  style single;  stigma capitate;  ovules
indefinite, attached to a central placenta.   Berry corticated, one-celled,
many-seeded, or by  abortion  one-seeded.  Seeds nidulant, discoidal;
albumen  large, cartilaginous, almost divided into two  plates.  Embryo
with leafy cotyledons.—Exotic.

  3.  Gelseminum.   Calyx  very small,  five-sepalled.   Corolla funnel-
form ; limb  spreading, five-lobed, nearly  equal.   Capsule compressed,
flat, two-partible,  two-celled; seeds  flat, attached to the margins  of the
valves.—Southern perennial twining herbs, with smooth stems, opposite,
entire, lanceolate leaves, and short petioles.   It is nearly allied to Big-
nonia, and probably should  be placed in Bignoniaceae.

         ORDER  LXXVII.  Asclepiadace^e.   Milk-weed.
  Herbs or  shrubs,  with a milky juice,  and  often twining.  Leaves
entire, mostly opposite, exstipulate, rarely alternate or whorled, having
ciliae  between their petioles.  Flowers sub-umbelled, fascicled, or race-
mose, proceeding  from between  the petioles.   Calyx five-divided, per-
sistent.  Corolla hypogynous,  five-lobed,  regular, deciduous, generally
with imbricate aestivation.   Stamens five, inserted into the base of the
corolla,  and alternate  with its  segments; filaments usually connate;
anthers two-celled, sometimes almost four-celled in consequence of their
dissepiments being nearly complete.  Pollen at the period of the  dehis-
cence of the anther cohering in masses equal in  number to the cells, or
occasionally cohering in pairs and sticking  to the five processes  of the
stigma, either by twos, by fours,  or singly.   Ovaries  two;  styles two,
approximate, often short; stigma  common  to both  styles, dilated, five-
angled, with corpusculiferous corners.  Follicles two, one often abortive.
Placenta attached to  the suture, but finally separating.  Seeds nume-
rous,  pendulous, imbricated, almost always  comose at the hilum.  Albu-
men thin; embryo straight; cotyledons foliaceous; radicle superior; plumule
inconspicuous.

  1. Asclepias.  Calyx five-parted, persistent, the divisions small, spread-
ing.  Corolla rotate, deeply five-cleft, valvate in the bud, finally reflexed,
deciduous.  Staminal crown of five-lobes, seated on the tube of stamens;
       7 
98
Natural  Orders of Plants.
 leaflets cucullate, fleshy, erect, opposite  the  anthers, with an  averted,
 horn-like  process from the base, curved toward the stigma.  Filaments
 united in a tube (gynostegium) which  incloses the pistil;  anthendium
 (connate mass of anthers) five-angled,  truncate, opening by five longi-
 tudinal fissures.   Pollinia (masses of pollen)  five distinct pairs, fixed by
 the attenuated apex, pendulous.  Follicles two, one often abortive,  soft,
 ovate or lanceolate ; seeds comose.—Perennial upright herbs with thick
 and  deep roots ; leaves  opposite,  verticillate,  rarely alternate, usually
 transversely veiny; umbels between the petioles.

  2. Hemidesmus.   Calyx five-parted.   Corolla rotate, with coriaceous
 segments, and five rounded, thick scales in the throat of the tube below
the  sinuses.   Filaments connate at base, inserted  in  the tube,  dis-
tinct above ; anthers cohering separate from the stigma, beardless, simple
at the point.   Pollen-masses twenty, granular, attached in fours  to a
solitary reniform appendage of each corpuscle.   Stigma flattish, point-
less, pentagonal, stellate.   Follicles  cylindrical, very much  divaricating,
smooth.   Seeds  comose.—Exotic twining plants.

              ORDER LXXVIII.   Oleace,e.   Olives.
  Trees and  shrubs, with branches  usually  dichotomous,  and ending
abruptly  by a conspicuous  bud.   Leaves opposite, simple, sometimes
pinnate.   Flowers perfect, sometimes dioecious, in terminal or axillary
racemes or  panicles ; the pedicels opposite, with  single bracts.  Calyx
inferior, generally divided into four parts,  persistent.   Corolla  monope-
talous, hypogynous, four-cleft, sometimes distinct but connected in pairs
by the filaments, occasionally apetalous, valvate in aestivation.   Stamens
two, alternate  with the  petals or segments ; anthers two-celled, opening
longitudinally.  Ovary  simple, without any hypogynous disk, two-celled ;
cells two-seeded;  ovules in pairs,  pendulous, collateral ;  style one or
wanting ;  stigma entire  or bifid.  Fruit drupaceous, berried or capsular,
often one-seeded by abortion.  Seeds with dense, fleshy, abundant albu-
men ; embryo  about half its length, straight;  cotyledons foliaceous, partly
asunder ;  radicle superior ; plumule inconspicuous.

  1. Ligustrum.   Calyx short, tubular, minutely four-toothed, decidu-
ous.   Corolla  funnel-form,  four-lobed, the  lobes ovate, obtuse;  tube
short.  Stamens two, on the tube of the  corolla,  included.   Style very
short; stigma two-cleft.  Berry spherical, two-celled, two to  four-seeded;
seeds convex  on one side, angular  on  the other.—Shrubs with  entire
 leaves on short petioles,  and small white flowers in terminal  thyrsoid
panicles.

  2. Olea.   Calyx short, four-toothed.   Corolla short, rotate or hypo-
 crateriform, with a flat four-parted limb.  Stamens two, rather projecting. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
99
 Ovary bilocular; style very short;  stigma bifid, with emarginate  seg-
ments.   Drupe baccate, oleo-carneous,  two-celled, one  of the  cells
usually abortive.

   3. Ornus.   Calyx very small, four-cleft.  Corolla divided to the  base
into linear segments.   Pericarp a winged key not dehiscing.

   4. Fraxinus.  Flowers polygamous  or dioecious.   Calyx  small  and
four-cleft, or wanting.   Petals four, slightly cohering in  pairs at  the
base, or  only  two, oblong  or linear, or wanting.  Stamens two, some-
times  three, rarely four.  Style single ;  stigma  bifid.  Fruit a one or
two-celled samara, or key, orbicular, compressed, winged  at the apex,
one or two-seeded, not dehiscing; cotyledons elliptical;  radicle slender.—
Light  timber trees,  with petioled unequally pinnate leaves, and small
flowers in crowded panicles or racemes, from the axils of the last year's
leaves.
               SUB-CLASS  III.   Apetalous  Plants.
   Corolla none ; the floral envelopes consisting  of a  single series of
organs (calyx) only; or sometimes wholly wanting.

         ORDER LXXIX.   Aristolochiace^e.  Birthwort.
   Herbaceous or shrubby plants, the latter  often climbing;  wood with-
out concentric  layers.  Leaves alternate, simple, petiolate, often with a
stipule opposite the leaf, or  exstipulate.   Flowers perfect, axillary,  soli-
tary, brown, or of some dull color.  Calyx superior, tubular, segments
three, valvate in aestivation, sometimes regular, sometimes very unequal.
Corolla wanting.   Stamens six to twelve, epigynous, distinct or adher-
ing to the style and stigmas.   Ovary inferior, three or six-celled; ovules
numerous, horizontally attached to the axis; style simple ;  stigmas radi-
ating, as numerous as the cells of the  ovary.  Fruit capsule or berry,
three  or  six-celled,  many-seeded.   Seeds with  a very minute embryo
placed in the base of fleshy albumen, anatropous.

   1. Asarum.   Calyx  campanulate,  coriaceous,  colored,  permanent;
limb in three rather deep, upright segments, with incurved points.   Sta-
mens  twelve, inserted on  the ovary;  filaments awl-shaped, half  the
length of the calyx ; anthers short, each of  two  round, separated cells,
adnate  to the  middle of the  filaments  on the inner side.    Ovary tur-
binate ;  styles columnar, furrowed, nearly as  long as the stamens; stigma
in six deep,  stellate, recurved  segments.   Capsule coriaceous, globular,
six-celled, crowned with the calyx; seeds several in  each cell, obovate,
with a pale longitudinal crest.—Stemless herbs, with aromatic-pungent,
creeping, matted rootstocks, bearing a terminal nodding flower  close to
the ground, between the long petioles of a pair of cordate-reniform, and
veiny, deciduous leaves. 
100
Natural  Orders of Plants.
   2. Aristolochia.   Calyx  superior,  tubular, colored,  permanent;
tumid and nearly globose, at the  base ;  limb  dilated;  either lobed and
equally spreading, or unilateral and undivided.   Stamens six; filaments
consolidated into a notched cup, crowning  the ovary within the  calyx;
anthers  six, sessile on the outer surface of the cup, each of two oblong,
separated, parallel, bivalve  cells.    Ovary  inferior,  oblong,  angular.
Style scarcely any.   Stigma nearly globular, with six  deep lobes ;  the
summit concave.   Capsule with  six  angles, six cells, and six valves,
with double partitions from their inflexed margins.   Seeds numerous in
each cell, depressed, horizontal, lying over each other, triangular, with
a dilated  or  thickened winged margin.—Twining, climbing,  or erect
perennial  herbs  or shrubs, with alternate leaves, and lateral or axillary
greenish or lurid-purple flowers.

          ORDER LXXX.   Chenopodiace^e.  Goosefoot.

  Herbs or undershrubs, with  alternate,  occasionally opposite  leaves,
without stipules.  Flowers small, perfect, often dioecious or polygamous.
Calyx deeply divided, sometimes tubular at base,  persistent, imbricate
in aestivation.   Stamens inserted into the base of the calyx, opposite  its
segments, and equal to them in number, or fewer.   Ovary single, supe-
rior, or occasionally adhering to the  tube of  the calyx, with one ovule
attached to the base of the cavity;  style in two or four divisions, rarely
simple ; stigmas  undivided.   Fruit a utricle.  Embryo  curved round
farinaceous albumen,  or spiral, or doubled together without albumen;
radicle next the  hilum ; plumule inconspicuous.

  1. Chenopodium.   Flowers perfect, all bractless.   Calyx five-parted,
obtusely five-angled ; segments ovate,  concave, persistent, membranous
at the edges ;  not appendaged or becoming  succulent, more or less en-
veloping the depressed fruit.  Stamens five, opposite the calyx-lobes; fila-
ments subulate ; anthers of two round lobes.   Ovary orbicular, depressed ;
styles two, rarely three, short.; stigmas obtuse.   Seed solitary, lenticular,
horizontal, crustaceous, enveloped  in a very  thin,  membranous,  close
utricle, and covered by the permanent calyx.—Smooth  weeds, mostly an-
nual, and  more or less covered with a white mealiness; the  leaves alter-
nate, petioled, triangular or rhombic,  toothed  or entire.  Flowers sessile
in small clusters collected in spiked panicles.

          ORDER LXXXI.  Amaranthace^e.  Amaranth.

  Herbs or shrubs with opposite or alternate, exstipulate, leaves.  Flowers
in heads or  spikes, usually colored, generally perfect.   Pubescence sim-
ple, the hairs divided by internal partitions.   Calyx three or five-leaved,
hypogynous, scarious, persistent, occasionally  with two bractlets at the 
Natural  Orders of  Plants.
101
base, and generally immersed in dry colored bracts.   Stamens hypogyn-
ous, either five, or  some multiple of that  number, distinct or monadel-
phous, occasionally abortive ; anthers two or one-celled.   Ovary superior,
single, one or few-seeded; the ovules hanging from a  free central fu-
niculus ;  style  one or  none;  stigma simple or  compound.   Fruit  a
membranous utricle.    Seeds  lentiform, pendulous;  testa crustaceous ;
albumen central, farinaceous; embryo curved round the  circumference;
radicle next the hilum ;  plumule inconspicuous.

   1. Amaranthus.  Flowers   monoecious  or polygamous, rarely  dioe-
cious, three-bracted.   Calyx deeply three to five-parted, mostly colored,
persistent; segments lanceolate, acute.  Stamens three to five, separate ;
anthers two-celled.  Styles or stigmas two or  three, occasionally  four,
thread-like.   Utricle  one-celled,  one-seeded, circumscissile  or  inde-
hiscent.—Chiefly annual herbs, with alternate and entire, petioled leaves,
and minute spiked-clustered flowers, axillary and terminal; bracts and
calyx green or purple.

          ORDER LXXXII.   Polygonace^e.  Buckwheat.
   Herbs  rarely shrubs, with alternate leaves.   Stipules of that remark-
able kind called Ochreae, cohering round the stem in the form of a sheath
above the base of the leaf-stalks ; occasionally wanting.   Flowers mostly
perfect, and in racemes.  Calyx inferior, divided; sepals united at base,
imbricate in aestivation.  Stamens definite, inserted on the calyx  near
the  base;  anthers  dehiscing  longitudinally.   Ovary  superior, with  a
single erect ovule ;  styles or stigmas several.  Fruit an achenium, usually
triangular, naked, or protected  by the calyx.   Seed solitary, erect, ortho-
tropous ;  embryo  curved or straightish, on the outside of  the albumen,
or rarely in its center ;  radicle pointing from  the hilum and toward the
apex of the dry seed-like fruit; plumule inconspicuous.

   1. Rheum.   Calyx petaloid, six-parted,  marescent.   Stamens about
nine, inserted  on the base of the calyx.  Styles three,  reflexed.  Stigmas
peltate, entire.  Fruit a triangular, winged achenium, with the withered
calyx at  the base.  Embryo in the center of the albumen.—Perennials,
with flowers fasciculate, in  racemose panicles.

   2. Polygonum.   Calyx turbinate, colored,  with  five  deep, ovate,
obtuse, persistent segments. Stamens four to nine, very short, subulate ;
anthers roundish, incumbent.   Ovary  roundish, either  triangular or com-
pressed ;  styles usually  three ;  in  those with a compressed ovary  only
two, filiform, short, in  some species partly combined;  stigmas simple.
JSrul or achenium  solitary,  triangular  or  compressed,  pointed.  Embryo
placed in a groove on the outside of the albumen, and curved half-way 
102
Natural Orders  of Plants.
around it; radicle and usually the cotyledons slender.—Herbs, with joint-
ed  stems and  pedicels ; flowers  in  axillary and terminal fascicles, and
spikes or paniculate racemes.

  3. Rumex.   Calyx of three, obtuse,  spreading, persistent, external
sepals, more or less combined at the bottom, and of three ovate, larger,
internal ones, similar in  color, but thinner in  texture, and more veiny;
subsequently enlarged, converging round the fruit, and permanent, bear-
ing, in some species, a dorsal grain or tubercle.   Stamens six ; filaments
capillary, very  short;  anthers erect, oblong,  of  two-lobes.   Ovary tri-
angular, rather turbinate ; sometimes in a separate flower.  Styles capil.
lary, spreading, protruding between the petals.  Stigmas large, in many
fine tufted segments.   Nut inclosed within the interior, enlarged, closed
sepals, triangular, polished, with  three  sharp edges.  Embryo slightly
curved, lying along  one side  of  the albumen, slender.—Coarse herbs
with small  homely (mostly green) flowers, commonly whorled in pan-
icled racemes ;  petioles somewhat sheathing at the base.

         ORDER LXXXIII.  Phytolaccace^e.   Pokeweed.
  Herbs  or  undershrubs, with alternate, entire, exstipulate leaves, often
with pellucid dots.   Flowers racemose, perfect.   Calyx of four or five
petaloid  leaves, imbricated.  Stamens  four or five, and  alternate with
the sepals, or indefinite; anthers two-celled with a longitudinal dehiscence.
Ovary one  or  several-celled, each cell containing  one  ascending ovule,
either  amphitropal or  campylotropal;  styles and stigmas equal in num-
ber to the  cells.   Fruit baccate  or dry, entire or deeply-lobed,  one or
many-celled, indehiscent.   Seeds  solitary, ascending, with a cylindrical
embryo, curved round mealy albumen ; radicle next the hilum.

  1. Phytolacca.   Calyx of five-rounded,  petaloid  sepals.   Stamens
five to thirty, usually ten.  Ovary of  five to twelve  cells or carpels,
united in a ring, with as many short separate styles ; in fruit forming a
depressed, globose, furrowed, five to twelve-celled berry, covered with
a succulent  pulp, and with  a single  vertical seed in each cell.  Embryo
curved in a  ring round the albumen.—Tall and  stout perennial  herbs,
with large petioled leaves, and flowers in racemes which, by the axillary
prolongation of the stem,  become lateral and opposite the leaves.

             ORDER  LXXXIV.   Laurace^e.  Laurels.
  Trees and shrubs with alternate, exstipulate, seldom opposite,  entire,
or very rarely lobed leaves; fiowers umbelled  or panicled.   Calyx four
to  six-cleft, with imbricated aestivation, the  limb sometimes  wanting
Stamens  definite, perigynous, opposite  the segments  of the  calyx, and
generally twice as numerous;  the three innermost sterile or wanting; 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
103
the six outermost scarcely ever abortive; anthers  adnate, two to four-
celled ; the cells bursting by a longitudinal persistent valve from the base
to the apex;  the outer anthers valved inward; the inner valved either
outward  or inward.   Glands  usually present at  the  base of the inner
filaments.  Ovary single, superior, with one  or  two single  pendulous
ovules; style simple ;  stigma obtuse, two or three-lobed.   Fruit  berry
or drupe, naked or covered, often on a thickened pedicel.   Seeds exal-
buminous ;  embryo inverted; cotyledons large, plano-convex, peltate near
the base;  radicle  very short,  included, superior; plumule conspicuous,
two-leaved.

   1. Benzoin.   Flowers polygamous, involucrated.   Males ;  calyx six-
parted, with  equal, permanent segments.   Stamens nine, in three rows,
fertile ; anthers ovate, two-celled, introrse.   Glands six .to nine in  two or
three rows, with a reniform, compressed  head, alternate either with  the
stamens  of the  second and third row, or with  those  of the first and
second  row, added  obliquely to the  third  row.   Females;  flowers
smaller than the male, with twelve  to eighteen sterile  stamens,  among
which  spathulate bodies are dispersed.  Style short and thick.   Drupe
obovoid, succulent, one-seeded, seated on the permanent six-cleft calyx,
the pedicel not thickened.—Shrubs with entire, deciduous leaves, and
honey-yellow flowers in almost  sessile,  lateral,  umbel-like clusters,
appearing before the  leaves; the clusters composed of  smaller clusters
or umbels of four or six  flowers, surrounded by an  involucre of decidu-
ous scales.

   2. Sassafras.   Flowers dioecious.  Calyx  six-parted, membranous;
segments  equal, permanent at the base.  Males  ; stamens nine,  fertile,
inserted  on the  base of the calyx in three rows, the three inner with
double-stalked distinct glands at the base of eaeh ; anthers linear, four-
celled, four-valved, cells looking inward.   Females ;  with as many sta-
mens as  the  male, or fewer, sterile ; the inner often confluent.   Style
filiform.   Drupe superior, ovoid, succulent, one-seeded, supported on a
club-shaped, fleshy pedicel.—Trees with spicy-aromatic bark, very mu-
cilaginous  twigs and foliage,  the  latter  deciduous  and  often  lobed.
Flowers greenish-yellow, in clustered and peduncled corymbed racemes,
appearing with the leaves.

   3. Laurus.  Flowers dioecious,  or perfect, involucrated.   Calyx four-
parted ; segments equal,  deciduous.   Males ;  stamens fertile, twelve in
three rows ;  the  outermost alternate with  the segments of the  calyx;
all with two glands in  the middle or above it; anthers oblong, two-celled,
all looking inward.  Females ;  with  two to four  sterile stamens  around
the ovary  ; stigma capitate.   Fruit succulent, seated in the irregular 
104
Natural  Orders of Plants.
base of the  calyx.—Evergreen  shrubs with axillary, stalked umbels ;
leaf-buds with valvate papery scales.

  4. Camphora.   Flowers perfect,  panicled,. naked.   Calyx six-cleft,
papery, with a deciduous limb.   Fertile stamens nine, in three rows;
the inner with two-stalked, compressed glands at base ;  anthers four-
celled ; the  outer introrse, the  inner  extrorse.  Sterile stamens three,
shaped like the first, placed  in  a whorl, and alternating with  the  sta-
mens of the second row ; three others, stalked, with an ovate-glandular
head.  Fruit placed on the obconical  base of the  calyx.—Large trees
with triple-nerved leaves,  having glands in the axils of the principal
veins ;  leaf-buds scaly.

  5. Cinnamomum.  Flowers perfect  or polygamous, panicled or  fas-
cicled,  naked.   Calyx  six-cleft;  the limb deciduous.  Fertile stamens
nine, in three rows; the three inner with two sessile glands at the base;
anthers four-celled, the three inner extrorse.   Three capitate abortive
stamens next the  center.   Fruit seated  in  a cup-like  calyx.—Plants
having strongly-ribbed leaves ; leaf-buds not scaly.

  6. Nectandra.  Flowers perfect.   Calyx six-parted, rotate ; segments
deciduous, the  three outer rather the  broadest.  Anthers nine, ovate,
nearly  sessile, with four cells arranged in a curve, and distinct from the
tip  of  the anther; cells  of the  interior  anthers  inverted.   Glands  in
pairs, globose, sessile,  at the base of  the three interior  stamens  next
their back.  Sterile stamens either tooth-shaped and  biglandular at the
base, or eglandular and then with a small oval head.  Fruit succulent,
more or less immersed in the tube  of the calyx changed into a trun-
cated cup.—Flowers panicled or corymbose, axillary, lax, pretty ample.


          ORDER  LXXXV.   Thymelace^e.   Mezereum.

  Shrubs with a  very tenacious  bark, and entire, opposite  or alternate,
exstipulate leaves.  Flowers perfect, capitate or spiked, terminal or axil-
lary, occasionally solitary.   Calyx tubular, colored ; the limb four, sel-
dom five-cleft, with  an imbricated aestivation.   Corolla none, or some-
times  scale-like petals  in  the orifice  of the calyx.   Stamens definite,
inserted in the tube, generally eight, sometimes four,  rarely two ; when
equal  in  number to the segments of the calyx or  fewer,  opposite to
them ; anthers two-celled, dehiscing lengthwise in the middle.   Ovary
solitary, with one pendulous ovule ;  style one ; stigma undivided.  Fruit
hard,  dry, and  nut-like,  or drupaceous.   Albumen  none, or thin and
fleshy  ; embryo straight; cotyledons plano-convex ; radicle short, superior;
 plumule inconspicuous. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
105
   1.  Dirca.    Calyx petaloid,  tubular-funnel-shaped,  truncate,  the
border wavy, or obscurely about four-toothed.  Stamens eight, unequal,
inserted  on the calyx above the middle, exserted ; filaments capillary,
the alternate ones longer.   Style filiform, incurved at the apex ; stigma
capitate.   Drupe oval, reddish, one-seeded.—A much branched  bush,
with jointed branchlets, oval-obovate, alternate leaves, at length smooth,
deciduous, on very short petioles, the bases  of which conceal the buds
of the next season.   Flowers light-yellow, preceding the leaves, three
in a cluster from  a dark-hairy bud, from which soon  after proceeds  a
leafy branch.

   2. Daphne.   Calyx tubular, marescent;  tube cylindrical, coriaceous,
longer than the limb, imperforate at the base,  containing the stamens ;
limb in four deep, ovate, spreading, colored segments.   Stamens eight;
filaments  short,  in  two rows, inserted on  the calyx-tube about  the
middle;  anthers roundish, oblong, two-celled, simple, included.   Ovary
ovate ; style short, terminal ; stigma capitate, depressed,  entire.  Berry
oval, one-celled, one-seeded; seed suspended, large, oval,  with  a thin,
brittle skin.—Mostly evergreen shrubs, with leaves generally from the
terminal buds, and flowers from the lateral.   Exotic.

                ORDER LXXXVI.  Ulmace^e.  Elm.
   Trees and shrubs, with  scabrous, alternate,  simple, deciduous leaves,
and two  deciduous  stipules at the base of  each  leaf.  Flowers some-
times by abortion, dicecious, in loose clusters, never in catkins.   Calyx
inferior, campanulate, four or five-cleft, irregular,  imbricate  in aestiva-
tion.   Stamens definite, inserted on the base  of the calyx, as many as
its lobes and opposite to them ; erect in aestivation.   Ovary superior,  one
or  two-celled,  with a single  suspended ovule ;  stigmas two, distinct.
Fruit  one-celled and one-seeded, either a  samara or a drupe, indehis-
cent.  Seed solitary, pendulous; albumen none, or in very  small  quan-
tity ; embryo straight or curved, with foliaceous cotyledons ;  radicle
superior.

   1. Ulmus. Flowers perfect.   Calyx  campanulate,  shriveled, persist-
ent, four to nine-cleft, segments colored on the inner side.  Stamens four
to nine ; filaments twice as  long as the segments of the  calyx, slender,
inserted into the tube opposite each segment ; anthers erect, short, with
four furrows, and two cells, bursting lengthwise  externally.  Ovary
flat, two-celled, with a single anatropous ovule  suspended from the sum-
mit of each  cell; styles  two,  short;  stigmas two,  terminal, spreading,
downy, shorter than the calyx, finally inflexed.  Fruit (by  obliteration)
a  one-celled, one-seeded  membranaceous  samara,  compressed,  and
winged all around.   Seeds roundish, slightly compressed.—Trees, rarely 
106
Natural  Orders of Plants.
shrubs, with flowers, sometimes polygamous, purplish or yellowish, in
lateral clusters, preceding the leaves, which are strongly straight-veined,
short-petioled, and oblique, or unequally cordate at the base.

           ORDER  LXXXVII.   Euphorbiace^:.  Spurge.
  Trees, shrubs, or herbs, often abounding  in an  acrid milky juice.
Leaves opposite  or  alternate,  simple,  rarely compound,  usually  with
stipules.   Flowers  monoecious,  or  dioecious  axillary  or  terminal,
usually with  bracts,  and sometimes  inclosed  within  an involucre.
Calyx lobed, inferior, with various glandular, or scaly internal appendages;
sometimes  wanting.    Corolla either consisting of  petals or scales equal
in number  to,  or more than the sepals, or monopetalous, or wanting.
Males;  stamens definite  or  indefinite, distinct or monadelphous ; anthers
two-celled,  sometimes  opening by  pores.   Females ;  ovary  free,  of
two  to nine more or less united carpels, usually stalked ;  ovules solitary
or twin, suspended  from the inner angle of the cell ; styles as many as
carpels, distinct, cohering or wanting, often two-cleft; stigma compound,
or single with many  lobes.  Fruit usually tricoccous, of three carpels,
usually opening elastically by one or both sutures, sometimes fleshy and
indehiscent.  Seeds  solitary or  twin,  suspended,  with an aril; embryo
large, inclosed in fleshy  albumen ;  cotyledons flat; radicle superior.

   1. Euphorbia.   Flowers in  monoecious  clusters,  surrounded  by a
cup-shaped involucrum, consisting of one leaf with four or five divisions,
resembling a calyx  or  corolla,  usually bearing large  and thick glands
externally  at its sinuses.   Sterile flowers, naked,  twelve  or more, and
lining the base of the involucre, each from the axil of a little bract, and
consisting merely of a single stamen jointed on a pedicel like the filament;
anther-cells globular, separate.    Fertile flower solitary,  naked, in  the
middle of the involucre, soon protruded on  a long pedicel, consisting of
a three-lobed,  three-celled ovary,  with  no  calyx or a  mere vestige.
Styles three, but two-cleft  ; stigmas  six.   Fruit hanging out of the invo-
lucrum, three-lobed, three-celled, bursting at  the  back with  elasticity,
and each cell containing one suspended seed, which is often caruncled.—
Herbs with a milky  juice,  shrubs or trees abroad ;  the uppermost leaves
often in whorls or pairs.    Peduncles lateral or terminal, often umbel-
late-clustered.

   2.  Ricinus.   Flowers  monoecious.    Calyx  three to five-parted,
valvate.   Sterile ; stamens numerous,  unequally polyadelphous ; anther-
cells distinct,  below the  apex  of  the filament.  Fertile; style short;
stigmas three,  deeply   bipartite, oblong,  feathery,  colored.    Ovary
globose, three-celled, with an ovule in each cell.   Fruit mostly aculeate,
capsular, tricoccous.—Trees, shrubs, or herbs, with alternate,  stipulate' 
Natural  Orders of  Plants.
107
palmate, peltate leaves, with glands at the apex of the petiole.  Flowers
in terminal panicles, the lower  male, the  upper  female; all  articulate
with their peduncles, and sometimes  augmented by biglandular bracts.

   3.  Croton.   Flowers monoecious, rarely dicecious.    Calyx cylindri-
cal, five-parted.   Corolla of five petals or none.   Sterile ; petals  five.
Stamens ten or more, distinct.   Fertile ; petals wanting.   Styles three
or six, divided into two or  more divisions.   Capsule tricoccous.—Tropi-
cal plants with stipulate, alternate, rarely opposite leaves, with a stellate
pubescence.

   4.  Buxus.   Flowers monoecious, clustered or racemose.   Sepals four,
bracteate.  Sterile ;  stamens four, with the rudiment of an ovary.  Petals
two or wanting.   Fertile ; sepals four; petals  three ;  styles  and stigmas
three.   Capsule with three beaks,  three-cells ; cells two-seeded each.—
Evergreen shrubs or trees, with opposite leaves.

   5.  Jatropha.   Flowers monoecious.    Calyx  five-parted  or  lobed.
 Corolla five-parted or none.   Sterile  ; stamens  eight or ten, with unequal
monadelphous  filaments.    Fertile ;  styles two,  bifid  or dichotomous.
 Capsule tricoccous.—Exotic.

   6.  Janipha.  Flowers monoecious.   Calyx campanulate, five-parted.
Petals none.   Sterile ;  stamens  ten ; filaments unequal, distinct, arranged
around a  disk.  Fertile ;  style  one ;  stigmas  three, consolidated  into a
rugose mass.   Capsule tricoccous.—Exotic.

   7.  Hevea.  Flowers monoecious.   Calyx five-cleft or parted.  Petals
none.  Sterile; stamens five to ten, columnar, with the  anthers below
the apex.  Fertile ; stigmas three, two-lobed.  Fruit  somewhat fleshy,
 tricoccous.—Exotic.

           ORDER LXXXVIII.   Juglandace^e.  Walnut.
   Trees with alternate and unequally pinnate leaves, without pellucid
 dots   or stipules.    Flowers green, inconspicuous,  usually  monoecious ;
 sterile in aments; fertile in small clusters.  Sterile flowers;  calyx with
 membranous, oblique, and irregular  bracts.  Stamens indefinite, (three
 to thirty-six) hypogynous ;  filaments very short, distinct; anthers thick,
 two-celled,  innate,  bursting  longitudinally.    Fertile  flowers;  calyx
 superior, limb three to five-parted, which are  sometimes permanent and
 leafy.   Corolla occasionally present,  and  three  to five-parted,  petals
 arising from between the calyx and the styles, and cohering at the base.
  Ovary  inferior, one-celled,  partially  two to  four-celled ;  ovule  erect,
 solitary ; styles one or  two, and  very short,  or  none; stigmas much 
108
Natural  Orders of  Plants.
dilated, either two and lacerated, or discoid and four-lobed.  Fruit drupa-
ceous, one-celled, with four imperfect  partitions ;  endocarp bony.  Seed
two  to  four-lobed,  oily, exalbuminous ;  embryo shaped  like the seed;
cotyledons fleshy, two-lobed, wrinkled  ; radicle short, superior.

   1. Juglans.  Flowers monoecious.  Sterile in long and simple lateral
catkins, imbricated.   Calyx adherent to the entire bracts or scales, une-
qually three to six-cleft.   Stamens eighteen to thirty-six; filaments very
6hort; anthers with a broad connective, opening longitudinally.  Fertile
flowers solitary, or several together on  a  peduncle  at  the end of the
branches, with  a four-toothed calyx,  bearing four small petals at the
sinuses.   Styles two, very  short; stigmas two, somewhat club-shaped
and  fringed.   Fruit a drupe, inferior, with a fibrous-fleshy indehiscent
epicarp, and a rough irregularly-furrowed endocarp or nut-shell.  Seed
erect, with deeply corrugated cotyledons.—Trees  with strong-scented or
resinous-aromatic bark,  naked buds,  and odd-pinnate  leaves of many
serrate leaflets.   Pith in plates.


 ORDER LXXXIX.  Cupulifer^e, or  Corylacfle.  Oak or  Mast.
  Trees and shrubs, with  alternate, stipulate, simple leaves, often with
the veins  proceeding straight from the midrib to  the margin.  Flowers
generally  monoecious.  Sterile flowers in aments, with  a scale-like, or
regular and membranaceous calyx, and from one to three times as many
stamens as sepals, inserted into their  bases, generally distinct.  Fertile
flowers solitary, or  two or three together, or  in  fascicles.   Ovaries
crowned by the rudiments of the adherent  calyx, seated within  a coria-
ceous involucre (cupule), two to seven-celled,  with one or two pendulous
anatropous ovules in each cell; all the cells and ovules,  except one, dis-
appearing in the fruit, by abortion.  Stigmas several, subsessile,  distinct.
Fruit a bony or coriaceous one-celled nut, more or less inclosed in the
involucre.   Seeds solitary, or one, two,  or  three, pendulous, exalbumi-
nous;  embryo large; cotyledons fleshy,  plano-convex;  radicle  minute,
superior.

  1.  Quercus.   Flowers monoecious.   Sterile floioers  in  aments,  lax,
deciduous.  Bracts,  four, five, or more cleft.   Stamens five to ten; flla-
ments short, awl-shaped ; anthers two-celled.  Fertile fiowers; involucre
hemispherical,  imbricated, coriaceous, one-flowered, entire, much en-
larged in the fruit, and  externally scaly or tuberculated.   Calyx in six
minute, deep,  sharp, downy segments, closely surrounding the  base of
the style.   Ovary globose, three-celled, with two ovules in each, two of
the cells  abortive;  style solitary,  short,  and conical;  stigmas three,
obtuse, recurved.  Xul  (acorn) solitary, oval, coriaceous, indehiscent,
one-celled, one-seeded, surrounded at the base by the enlarged,  cup- 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
109
 shaped, scaly cupule. — Trees, rarely shrubs, with evergreen or decidu-
 ous leaves,  entire  or sinuately  lobed;  aments  axillary, pendulous,
 filiform; flowers distinct.

   2. Carpinus.   Sterile flowers in drooping cylindrical aments, consist-
 ing of about twelve stamens in the axil of a simple and entire scale-like
 bract,  destitute of a proper calyx; filaments  very short; anthers one-
 celled, slightly bearded at the  apex.  Fertile fiowers several, spiked in
 a sort of loose terminal  ament, with small deciduous bracts, each sub-
 tending  a pair of flowers, consisting of a two-celled, two-ovuled ovary
 terminated  by  two  thread-like  stigmas.   Nut small,  ovoid,  ribbed,
 stalked, each with  a simple,  one-sided,  enlarged,  open and  leaf-like
 involucre. — Trees with  a smooth gray bark, and  slender buds; leaves
 appearing later than the flowers.  Not bitter.

   3. Ostrya. Sterile flowers nearly as in Carpinus; filaments irregularly
 somewhat  united;  anthers conspicuously bearded at the  summit.  Fer-
 tile flowers numerous, in  a short  terminal ament,  with small deciduous
 bracts; each inclosed in a membranous sac-like involucre which enlarges
 and forms a bladdery closed  bag in fruit, these imbricated to form a sort
 of  strobile, appearing like that of  the  Hop.   Ovary two-celled, two-
 ovuled, crowned  with the entire and bearded border of the calyx, form-
 ing  a small and  seed-like smooth nut. — Slender trees  with  brownish
 finely-furrowed bark;  leaves appearing with the flowers.   Bitter.

                 ORDER XC.  Piperace^e.  Pepper.
   Shrubs  or herbs  with articulated stems, and  opposite, verticillate
 leaves or alternate in consequence of the  abortion of one pair; stipules
 none, or in pairs, or single and opposite  the  leaf.   Flowers naked, per-
 fect, with a bract on the outside ; usually sessile, sometimes pedicellate,
 in spikes which  are either terminal or axillary, or opposite the leaves.
 Stamens two or more, arranged on one side of,  or  all round the ovary,
 to which they adhere  more  or less;  anthers one or two-celled, with or
 without a fleshy connective ;  pollen smooth, roundish.  Ovary superior,
 simple, one-celled, with a solitary, erect, orthotropal  ovule; stigma ses-
 sile, simple, rather oblique.   Fruit superior, somewhat fleshy, indehis-
cent, one-celled, one-seeded.   Seed erect, with  the  embryo lying in a
fleshy sac placed  at the  end of the seed which is opposite the hilum,
on the outside of  the albumen.

  1. Piper.   Spike wholly  covered with flowers.  Flowers  perfect,
rarely dicecious, each  supported by a bracteole.   Stamens varying from
one  to ten.   Ovary with  a  single, erect ovule.   Stigma  punctiform,
obtuse, or cleft.   Berry one-seeded;  embryo inverted. 
110
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
        ORDER XCI.   Betulaceje  or Amentace^e.   Birch.
   Trees  or  shrubs with  alternate,  simple  leaves, the veinlets  often
running straight from the midrib  to  the  margin;  stipules  deciduous
Flowers monoecious, amentaceous, mostly achlamydeous, ternate in the
middle of a three-lobed  bract.  Perianth wanting, or  of several small
scales, sometimes  resembling a real  calyx.   Sterile flowers; stamens
distinct, scarcely ever monadelphous; anthers two-celled.  Fertile flowers ;
ovary superior, two-celled; ovules  two, pendulous; style one, or  none ;
stigmas  two.   Fruit membranous,  indehiscent,  by abortion one-celled
and  one-seeded.   Seeds  pendulous, naked,   exalbuminous;  embryo
straight; radicle superior; cotyledons flattish, oblong.

   1. Betula.  Sterile flowers; aments cylindrical, lax, imbricated all
round,  with  ternate,  concave  scales; the middle one  largest,  ovate.
Stamens ten or twelve; filaments shorter than the middle scale to which
they are attached; anthers one-celled.  Fertile flowers;  aments similar,
but more dense; scales horizontal,  peltate, dilated  outward, three-lobed,
three-flowered.   Ovary compressed, bordered, of two cells;  styles  two,
awl-shaped, downy; stigma simple.  Nut  oblong, compressed, decidu-
ous, winged on each side, of one cell,  with a  solitary seed,—Trees and
shrubs, mostly with the  outer bark laminated and horizontally fibrous,
that of  the branchlets dotted.  Leaves ovate,  serrate and alternate.

   2. Alnus.  Sterile catkins elongated and drooping, with five bractlets,
and one to three flowers under each  scale, each  flower usually with a
four-parted tubular calyx and four  stamens; filaments  four, opposite the
lobes of the calyx; anthers two-celled.  Fertile catkins ovoid or oblong,
composed of two-flowered, simple scales, with a calyx of four little scales
coherent with  the  scales or bracts of the catkin, which are thick and
woody  in fruit, all coherent below, and persistent,  Ovary two-celled,
with two, parallel,  tapering,  deciduous styles.   Nut ovate, bony, angu-
lar, not winged, two-celled, two-seeded.—Shrubs  or small trees arising
from large  and strong  roots;  buds pedunculate;  leaves plicate   in
vernation, alternate, simple,  deciduous.

             ORDER XCII.  Myricace^e.   Sweet-gale.

   Shrubs covered with resinous glands or dots, the leaves alternate, sim-
 ple, with or without  stipules.   Flowers monoecious or dioecious, amen-
 taceous, each  axillary to a  bract.  Males; stamens  two to  six,  rarely
 eight,  somewhat  monadelphous;  anthers two or four-celled, opening
 lengthwise.   Females ;  ovary one-celled, surrounded  by several hypo-
 gynous scales ;  ovule solitary, erect, with a foramen in its apex ;  stigmas
 two, subulate, or dilated and petaloid.  Fruit drupaceous, often covered 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
Ill
with waxy secretions, and, with the hypogynous scales of the ovary, be-
come fleshy and adherent; or dry and dehiscent, with the scales distinct.
Seed solitary,  erect,  exalbuminous ; cotyledons two, plano-convex ;  radi-
cle short, superior.

   1. Myrica.   Flowers dicecious.   Sterile aments oblong or cylindrical,
consisting of bracts loosely imbricated in every direction.   Calyx one or
two  subulate  scales.  Bracts  ovate, bluntish, concave, each containing
four, rarely more, short, capillary, erect filaments, somewhat united be-
low ; anthers vertical, large, two-lobed, four-valved.  Fertile aments in
ovoid catkins, closely imbricated.   Sepals two, ovate, acute, scale-like.
 Ovary ovate,  flattish, superior; stigmas two, filiform,  spreading, longer
than the sepals'.  Fruit baccate, one-celled, various in substance, studded
with resinous  grains or wax.   Seed one, erect.—Aromatic  shrubs and
small trees, with stipules very fugacious, or none.

   2. Comptonia.  Flowers monoecious.  Sterile flowers in  cylindrical,
loosely-imbricated aments, with  deciduous, one-flowered, cordate-reni-
form, pointed  scale-like bracts ; sepals two.  Stamens six, adhering in
pairs.  Fertile flowers in globular, burr-like, densely-imbricated aments,
with one-flowered bracts.   Ovary surrounded by five or six  linear, awl-
shaped  scales or sepals, longer than  the bracts ; styles two,  capillary..
Nut ovoid-oblong,   smooth, one-celled. — Low shrubs, with long  and
narrow leaves, pinnatifid-lobed, with small stipules.

              ORDER XCIII.   Salicace^e.   Willow.
   Trees or shrubs with alternate, simple leaves, with deliquescent pri-
mary veins, and frequently with  glands, and  deciduous or persistent
stipules.    Flowers dioecious,  amentaceous,  achlamydeous,  axillary to
one-flowered bracts.   Sterile ; stamens two to several, distinct or mona-
delphous ; anthers two-celled.   Fertile; ovary superior,  one  or  two-
celled ;  ovules numerous, erect, at the  base of the cell, or  adhering to
the lower part of the sides;  styles or  stigmas  two.  Fruit  coriaceous,
one or two-celled, two-valved, or  to the base of the cell, comose ;  seeds
numerous, ascending, covered with long, silky hairs, exalbuminous ; em-
bryo erect; radicle inferior ; cotyledons flattened.

   I. Salix.   Flowers dicecious; rarely monoecious, amentaceous, each
with a single flexible bract; a  nectariferous gland around  the stamens
or ovary.   Male; stamens two to six, rarely single ; filaments longer than
the bract;  in some  partly  combined; anthers  two-lobed, with a longitu-
dinal dehiscence.  Female ; ovary ovate, one-celled, many-seeded ; style
terminal, permanent; stigmas  two, notched and obtuse,  or  cloven and
acute, spreading.  Capsule ovate,  one-celled, with two revolute, concave
valves.   Seeds numerous, minute,  oval, tufted with soft, simple, upright 
112
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
hairs.—Leaves  usually narrow and elongated, each with two conspicu-
ous stipules;  aments terminal or lateral, appearing before or with the
leaves.

  2. Populus.   Male; ament oblong, cylindrical,  loosely imbricated,
many-flowered.  Bract single-flowered, wedge-shaped, flat,  lacerately
fringed  at  the  summit.  Calyx turbinate  and tubular below; dilated,
undivided,  and  obliquely cup-shaped in the border.  Stamens eight or
more ;  filaments very short, capillary, distinct; anthers drooping, large,
quadrangular.  Female ; calkin as in the male  but generally shorter;
bract and calyx  as  in the male.   Ovary ovate, pointed ; stigmas  four or
eio-ht, subulate.   Capsule ovate,  one-celled, with two concave  valves.
Seeds numerous, small, ovate, each crowned with a tuft of fine hairs.—
Leaves  broad ovate, or  cordate ; petioles long, often compressed ver-
tically, and glandular.   Aments lateral, preceding the leaves.

   ORDER XCIV.  Altingiace^e or  Balsamacejs.  Liquidambar.
  Trees yielding balsam, with alternate, simple  or  lobed  leaves, having
glandular serratures, and deciduous stipules.  Aments monoecious, round-
ish,  with achlamydeous flowers ; female  aments on longer peduncles
than the males,  and below them.   Male ; anthers  numerous, oblong,
subsessile,  destitute of calyx, but intermixed with  a few minute scales
and covering the common receptacle.  Female ; ovaries two-celled, col-
lected into  a globe, each surrounded by a few scales ; styles two, long;
ovules indefinite, attached to the dissepiment, amphitropal.  Fruit a kind
of strobile, composed of indurated, connected scales, in  the  cavities of
which  lie obconical, two-lobed,  two-celled capsules.  Seeds  numerous,
or solitary  by abortion, compressed, membranous, winged, attached in-
ternally to  the middle of the dissepiments in a peltate manner.  Embryo
inverted in the midst of  fleshy albumen;  radicle short, superior.

   1. Liquidambar.   Aments of distinct sexes, monoecious,  having a
common four-leaved deciduous involucre.  Sterile catkins conical or glo-
bose, composed of extremely numerous subsessile anthers.  Fertile cat-
kins globose, composed  of small scales,  which  surround the ovaries,
grow together,  and gradually enlarge.   Styles two, subulate.  Capsules
oblong, two-lobed, immersed in sockets formed by the scales, two-celled,
opening at the  apex between the styles, many-seeded.   Seeds, same as
above.—Tall trees.

                ORDER XCV.  Urticace^e.  Nettle.
   Trees and shrubs with  a milky juice,  or herbs with a watery juice.
Leaves alternate or opposite, rough or covered with stinging hairs, with
membranous stipules,  which are deciduous or  convolute in vernation. 
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
113
 Floivers monoecious, dioecious, or polygamous, scattered or clustered, or
 in catkins, or close heads.  Calyx membranous, lobed, persistent.   Sta-
 mens definite, distinct, inserted into the base of the calyx, and opposite
 its lobes ; anthers curved  inward in aestivation,  turned backward elas-
 tically when bursting at maturity.   Ovary superior, simple ;  ovule soli-
 tary, erect, or  suspended ; stigma  simple, fringed.   Fruit a  simple in-
 dehiscent  nut, surrounded by the  membranous  or  fleshy calyx; or  a
 fleshy receptacle, either covered by  numerous  nuts, lying  along  the
 persistent  fleshy calyxes, or  inclosing them within its cavity ; occasion-
 ally consisting of a single nut, covered by a succulent involucre. Embryo
 straight,  curved or spiral, with or  without  albumen; cotyledons flat;
 radicle always pointing to the hilum.

                SUB-ORDER  I.   More;e.  Mulberry.
   Shrubs  or trees with a milky juice.  Fruit fleshy, composed  of the
 fleshy calyx or receptacle.

   1. Morus.   Flowers monoecious or dioecious ;  the two  kinds in sepa-
 rate axillary catkin-like spikes.   Calyx four-parted, spreading, membra-
 nous, the  sepals ovate.   Male ; stamens four, longer than  the  calyx,
 with the rudiment of an ovary between their bases ;  filaments expanding
 elastically.   Female ; sepals four, scale-like, imbricating each  other;
 two being opposite and external to  the  other two.   Stigmas two,  linear,
 glandular;  ovule solitary,  suspended.  Fruit consisting  of the  female
 flowers becoming fleshy and grown together, each inclosing a dry, mem-
 branous  pericarp.   Seed pendulous ;  embryo curved like  a horse-shoe,
 among fleshy albumen, with  the radicle directed to the hilum.—Trees
 with alternate,  generally lobed leaves, with large,  deciduous stipules ;
 flowers inconspicuous.

   2. Ficus.  Flowers monoecious, placed all over the inside of a large
 fleshy hollow receptacle, which  is  closed  up with  a few scales.   Male
 flowers irregular, of several unequal membranous segments.   Stamens
 one to five. Fertile flowers ;  calyx five-parted, membranous, converging
 over a simple carpel, containing one suspended ovule, and terminated by
 a  subulate  style and  bifid stigma.   Achenium  lenticular,  hard, dry.
 Embryo curved,  in the  middle of fleshy albumen.

  3.  Dorstenia.  Monoecious; flowers on  a  fleshy receptacle, usually
 flat and expanded, and extremely variable in form.  Sterile; on the sur-
 face of the receptacle, two-lobed, fleshy, diandrous.  Fertile; immersed
 in the receptacle, mostly two-lobed.  Ovary one  or two-celled, with a
single, suspended ovule  in  each  cell ; style  one ;  stigma two-lobed.
 Achenia lenticular, imbedded in the fleshy receptacle ;  from which they 
114
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
 are projected  elastically,  when ripe.—Dwarf herbaceous plants with
 scaly  rhizomata.

               SUB-ORDER II.  Urtice^e.  Nettle.
   Herbs, in cool climates,  with  a watery juice.  Flowers spicate or pan-
 iculate, with a membranaceous calyx.

   4. Urtica.  Flowers monoecious or dicecious.  Sterile ;  calyx of four
 roundish,  concave,  obtuse,  equal sepals.   Stamens four,  awl-shaped,
 spreading, opposite the sepals, and about as long ; surrounding the rudi-
 ment  of an  ovary.  Fertile ; calyx of  two, equal,  roundish,  concave
 sepals.  Ovary superior,  ovate  ; stigma sessile, downy.  Achenia ovate
 or oblong,  flattish, polished, embraced by the permanent calyx.—Herbs
 often with  stinging hairs; leaves accompanied with  stipules ; flowers
 green, in axillary or subterminal clusters ;  bark yielding  strong  fibers
 like hemp.

             SUB-ORDER III.   Cannabine^e.   Hemp.
  Herbs erect or twining, with a watery juice.   Staminate flowers race-
 mose or paniculate ;  pistillate in a cone-like  ament.   Albumen none.

  5.   Cannabis.   Flowers dicecious.  Male flowers racemose.    Calyx
 five-parted, imbricated.    Stamens  five ;   anthers  large,   pendulous.
 Female flowers in  spikes.   Bract or calyx  entire,  oblong-acuminate,
 rolled  round the ovary.  Ovary roundish, with one pendulous ovule, and
 two long filiform glandular stigmas.  Achenia ovate, one-seeded ; embryo
 doubled up, with the radicle  parallel with the  plano-convex cotyledons,
 and separated from  them by  a small quantity  of albumen.—A tall
 roughish annual, with  digitate  leaves of five to seven  linear-lanceolate
 coarsely-toothed  leaflets, the upper alternate ; the  inner bark  of very
 tough fibers.

  6. Humulus.  Flowers  dicecious ; males with five  oblong,  concave,
obtuse  sepals ; stamens  five ; filaments capillary, very short ;  anthers ver-
tical, oblong, of two cells, opening by two lateral slits.  Female flowers
in short axillary and solitary catkins, composed of numerous, membra-
nous, imbricated, foliaceous, concave bracts, one to each floret.  Calyx
none, except a bractlet which  embraces the ovary and grows with it
 after flowering.  Stigmas two, subulate, spreading, downy.  Achenium
attached to the base of each enlarged, membranous, dry scale of the
catkin, roundish ; pericarp  hard, brittle,  covered by roundish  aromatic
superficial  glands, or lupulin.—A rough perennial herb, twining with
the sun ; leaves opposite,  cordate, three to  five-lobed, with persistent,
ovate  stipules between the petioles; flowers in axillary panicles, and
strobile-like aments. 
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
115
                     CLASS  II.   Gymnosperms.
   Ovules not inclosed in an ovary, fertilized by the pollen without the
intervention of a pistil, and becoming truly naked seeds, the carpel being
represented by a flat open scale, or entirely wanting.  Embryo with two
opposite, or several whorled cotyledons.

           ORDER XCVI.  Conifers  or  Pinace^e.   Fir.
  Trees  or evergreen shrubs  with branching trunks, abounding in a
resinous  juice. Leaves scattered or fascicled, linear, acerose, or lanceo-
late, parallel-veined, rigid.  Flowers monoecious  or dicecious, destitute
of calyx or corolla.   Sterile flowers monandrous or monadelphous ; each
floret consisting of a single stamen, or of  a few united, and collected in a
deciduous ament around a common rachis ; anthers two, or many-lobed,
with  a longitudinal dehiscence, often tipped by  a crest, which is an
unconverted portion of the scale out of which each  stamen is formed;
pollen large,  usually compound.   Female flowers  in  cones.    Ovary
spread open, and having the appearance  of a flat  scale destitute of style
or stigmas, and arising from the  axil of a membranous bract.   Ovule
naked ; in  pairs on the face of the ovary, having an inverted position,
and  consisting of one or two  membranes open at  the apex, and of a
nucleus.  Fruit consisting of  a strobile or  cone  formed  of  the scale-
shaped  ovaries, becomes  enlarged and  indurated, and occasionally of
the bracts also, which are sometimes obliterated, and sometimes extend
beyond the scales in the form of a lobed appendage.  Seed with a hard
crustaceous integument; embryo in the  midst  of fleshy,  oily albumen,
with two or many opposite cotyledons ; the radicle next the apex  of the
seed, and having an organic connection with the albumen.

                SUB-ORDER I.   Abietinejs.  Pine.
  Sterile aments numerous,  deciduous.  Scales  peltate,  each  bearing
two  sessile, one-celled anthers;  pollen oval-curved.   Fertile  aments
formed of  carpellary  scales closely imbricated, each bearing a  pair of
ovules adhering to  the  base inside, and subtended  by a bract  outside.
Strobile  ovoid ;  seeds winged  ;  integument of  seed coriaceous  and
woody ;  more or less adherent to the scale.   Embryo in the  axis of
fleshy and oily albumen, with two to fifteen cotyledons.

  1. Pinus.  Flowers monoecious.   Sterile catkins racemose, consisting
of numerous stamens inserted on the axis, with very short filaments, and
a scale-like connective ; anthers  two-celled,  opening longitudinally or
irregularly  in  a transverse  direction.   Pollen of three united  grains.
Fertile catkins terminal, solitary, or clustered, consisting  of imbricated,
carpellary scales, each in the axil of a deciduous bract, bearing a pair 
116
Natural  Orders of Plants.
of collateral inverted  ovules at the base,  their points lacerated  and
directed downward.  Fruit a cone consisting of hard, woody, truncated
scales, imbricated, and usually thickened at the apex, persistent, spread-
ing when ripe and dry ; excavated at  the base for the  reception of the
seeds.   Seeds extended  at the base into a membranous wing.   Cotyle-
dons three  to twelve,  linear.—Trees  often very lofty, with evergreen,
acerose leaves, in fascicles  of  two to  five, each being  invested with a
membranous, tubular sheath at base.

  2. Abies.   Characters the same as  Pinus, except that the leaves are
solitary and distinct at base, never sheathed ;  and the scales of the cones
are attenuated to a thin, even edge, and usually coriaceous  or membra-
nous.—Leaves all scattered, short, frequently  two-ranked.

  3. Larix.   Catkins  lateral  and  scattered, bud-like.  Sterile-flowers
nearly as in Pinus, but the pollen of simple, spherical grains.  Cones
ovoid,  erect; the bracts and scales persistent; otherwise as in Abies.—
Leaves soft, deciduous, very many in a fascicle developed in early spring
from lateral, scaly, and globular buds, which produce (the  same or the
second year) growing  shoots on which the leaves are scattered.  Fertile
catkins crimson or red in flower.

             SUB-ORDER II.   Cupressine^e.  Cypress.
  Carpellary scales not bracteate, each with  one to eight  erect ovules
at base inside,  becoming concreted and fleshy in  a  drupe-like  fruit.
Anthers of several cells.

  4. Thuja.  Flowers monoecious on different branches, in very small,
terminal, ovoid catkins.  Stamens with a scale-like filament or connective,
bearing four anther-cells.  Fertile-catkins of few, imbricated scales, fixed
by the base, each bearing two erect ovules, dry and spreading  at matu-
rity.  Seed winged ;  integument membranous ; cotyledons two or more.—
Small evergreen trees, with very flat, two-ranked  spray,  on which the
minute and appressed, scale-like and  persistent leaves are very closely
imbricated.

   5.  Juniperus.   Flowers dicecious,  occasionally monoecious,  upon
different branches.  Sterile catkins axillary or subterminal,  globose, very
small ; anthers  three  to  six cells, attached  to the lower  edge of the
shield-shaped  scale.  Fertile  catkins axillary, ovate,  imbricated,  with
bracts at the base.  Scales three to six, united  at the base, and contain-
ing  one to three ovules,  which are erect, perforated  at the apex, and
bottle-shaped. Fruit a sort of drupe or berry, consisting of the enlarged,
fleshy scales; scaly-bracted underneath.   Seeds  one  to  three, bony. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
117
 Cotyledons two.—Evergreen trees or shrubs, with  awl-shaped or scale-
like, rigid leaves, opposite or in whorls of three.

                         SUBDIVISION II.

              Endogens or Monocotyledonous Plants.
   Stem not distinguishable into bark, pith, and concentric zones or layers
of wood.   Growth by irregular, internal accretions, consisting of bundles
of woody fiber  and vessels,  successively descending from the  leaves
above, through the cellular tissue  already formed.  Leaves mostly with
simple, parallel veins, alternate, entire, frequently sheathing at base, and
seldom falling off by an articulation.  Sepals and  petals when present,
commonly in threes.   Ovules produced within an  ovary.  Embryo with
one  cotyledon, rarely with two, the second being much  smaller than,
and  alternate with, the first.

               CLASS III.   Aglumaceous Endogens.
   Flowers without glumes.  Organs developed on  the usual and normal
plan, consisting  of  stamens and pistils,  either  or  both, surrounded by
verticillate, floral envelopes; or the latter are wanting,  and the stamens
and  pistils are achlamydeous.

     ORDER  XCVII.  Zingiberace^e  or Scitamine^e.  Ginger.
   Aromatic, tropical, herbaceous plants,  with a creeping rhizoma, often
jointed.   Stem  formed of the  cohering bases of  the leaves, never
branching.  Leaves simple, sheathing, their lamina often separated from
the sheath by a taper neck, and having a single midrib,  from which very
numerous, simple, crowded veins diverge at  an  acute  angle.   Inflo-
rescence either a dense spike, or a raceme, or a sort of panicle, terminal or
radical.  Flowers arising from among spathaceous, membranous  bracts,
in which  they usually lie in pairs.   Calyx superior,  tubular,  three-
lobed, short.   Corolla tubular, irregular with six segments in two whorls;
the  outer three-parted, nearly equal, or with the odd  segment, some-
times differently shaped ;  the inner (sterile stamens) three-parted, with
the  intermediate segment (labellum)  larger  than the  rest,  and often
three-lobed, the lateral segments sometimes imperfectly abortive.  Sta-
mens three, distinct,  of which the two lateral are abortive, and the inter-
mediate one fertile;  this is placed opposite the labellum, and arises from
the base of the  middle  segment of  the true,  or  outer series  of  the
corolla.  Filament often projecting beyond the anther in the shape of a
lobed or not entire appendage, not petaloid.  Anther two-celled opening
longitudinally, its lobes often embracing the  upper part of the style.
Pollen  globose,  smooth.    Ovaries three-celled, sometimes imperfectly
so; ovules several, anatropal,  attached to a placenta in  the axis; style
filiform; stigma dilated, hollow.  Fruit generally capsular, three-celled, 
118
Natural  Orders of Plants.
many-seeded, sometimes berried ;  sometimes  by abortion one-celled.
Seeds roundish or angular, with or without an arillus ; albumen mealy;
embryo in a vitellus.

   1. Zingiber.   Corolla with  the  outer limb  three-parted, inner  one-
lipped.   Filament projecting beyond the  anther in  a simple,  incurved
beak. Capsule three-celled, three-valved.  Seeds numerous, with arils.—
Tropical plants.

   2. Curcuma.   Tube of the corolla  gradually enlarged upward ;  limb
two-lipped, each three-parted.  Filament broad ; anther incumbent, with
two  spurs at base.   Style capillary.   Capsule three-celled.  Seeds
numerous, arillate.—Stemless plants, with palmated tuberous roots, and
bifarious, sheathing  leaves; scape  simple, lateral or central, with dull
yellow flowers.

   3. Amomum.   Inner limb of  the corolla one-lipped.  Filament dilated
beyond the anther, with an entire or lobed crest.  Capsule often berried,
three-celled,  three-valved.   Seeds   numerous, arillate. — Herbaceous
perennials, tropical,  with  leaves  in two rows,  and having articulated,
creeping rhizomes.

   4. Elettaria.   Characters similar to those of Amomum, except that
the tube of the corolla is filiform, and the anther naked.

   5. Alpinia.   Corolla-tube short; inner limb  one-lipped, either tooth-
less, or with a small  tooth at base on each side.   Filament linear, scarce-
ly prolonged beyond the emarginate anther.   Capsule berried, three-
seeded.   Seeds few  or numerous arilled.—Plants with thick,  tuberous,
horizontal roots, producing many,  perennial stems; leaves,  bifarious
lanceolate, having a slit, ligulate sheath.   Inflorescence panicled, or in
loose racemes or spikes, terminal.   Tropicals.

                ORDER XCVIII.   Arace^e.   Arum.
   Herbs or tropical  shrubs, with a fleshy rhizoma  or cormus;  stemless
or arborescent, or climbing by  means of aerial  roots.   Leaves sheathing
at base, convolute in the bud, either with parallel or branching veins;
sometimes compound; often cordate.  Spadix generally  inclosed in a
spathe.   Flowers mostly monoecious  and  achlamydeous, arranged  upon
a naked  or  spathaceous spadix.  Perianth  wanting, or when present,
consisting of four to six  parts.  Males; stamens definite  or indefinite,
hypogynous,  very  short;  anthers  one,  two,   or  many-celled, ovate,
extrorse.  Females; ovary free, one-celled, seldom  three-celled,  and
many-seeded;  ovules erect,  or pendulous, or  parietal; stigma sessile.
Fruit berry succulent or dry.   Seeds solitary or several, pulpy ; embryo 
                   Natural  Orders of Plants.                 119

in the axis of fleshy or mealy albumen, straight, taper, with a cleft in
one side, in which  the  plumule lies; radicle  obtuse, usually next the
hilum, occasionally at the  opposite  extremity.  Albumen  sometimes
wanting.—An acrid, volatile principle pervades  the  order, which is, in
some  instances, so concentrated as to become poisonous; the corms and
rhizomas abound also in starch, which in some cases, when the volatile
acridity is expelled  in drying or cooking is edible and nutritious.

   1.  Arum.  Flowers monoecious, the upper  sterile and the lower fertile;
or sometimes  polygamo-dicecious, on the base of an elongated  spadix
which is naked above, interruptedly unisexual at the bottom, and sur-
rounded by a spathe which is  convolute below.   Floral envelopes none.
Rudimentary  organs  beneath,  and  occasionally above  the stamens.
Anthers crowded and somewhat whorled on the spadix, distinct or vari-
ously consolidated,  almost sessile, with two to four lateral cells opening
by a  partial slit.   Ovaries free, one-celled, with  two to six orthotropoua
ovules attached to the inner-lining; stigmas  sessile, obtuse.  Berries dis-
tinct, one  to  several-seeded.  Embryo in the axis  of the  albumen.—
Low  perennial herbs, with a  tuberous  rootstock or conn, sending up a
simple scape sheathed with the petioles of the simple or compound veiny
leaves, as if caulescent.

   2.  Aris^ema.   Spathe convolute at base.   Spadix naked at the point,
unisexual or dicecious below;  rudimentary organs placed above  the fer-
tile flowers, or altogether absent.  Anthers on distinct filaments, whorled,
with  the cells either disjointed  or approximated, opening by a pore or
transverse  cleft.  Ovaries distinct, one-celled; ovules two to six, seldom
more, at  the base, erect; styles absent or short;  stigmas  undivided.
Berry one or few-seeded; seeds albuminous.

   3.  Acorus.  In  Acoracece  of  some authors.   Spadix naked,  lateral,
sessile, emerging from the side of a scape which resembles  the leaves,
densely covered  with perfect flowers.   Sepals  or scales six,  concave.
Stamens six; filaments  linear;  anthers reniform,  one-celled,  opening
across.   Ovary two or three-celled, with about six suspended orthotro-
pous  ovules in each cell; stigma minute.  Fruit at length dry, gelatinous
inside, one or few-seeded.  Embryo in the axis of the  albumen.—Pun-
gent  aromatic plants, especially the thick, creeping, perennial rootstocks,
which send up two-edged sword-like leaves, and  scapes similar to them,
bearing the spadix  on  one edge ;  the upper and  more foliaceous prolon-
gation sometimes considered as an open spathe.   Flowers yellow.

   4.  Symplocarpus.   Spathe hooded-shell form, pointed, fleshy, decay-
ing in fruit.   Spadix on a short  peduncle, entirely covered with  perfect
flowers, which are thickly crowded;  Sepals four, hooded.  Stamens 
120
Natural  Orders of Plants.
four, opposite  the  sepals; filaments short;  anthers  extrorse, two-celled,
opening lengthwise.   Ovaries one-celled, or abortively  two-celled, im-
mersed in the fleshy receptacle.  Style four-angled;  stigma  minute.
Ovule  solitary, orthotropous, suspended.   Fruit a large globular or oval
mass, composed of the enlarged and spongy spadix, inclosing the sphe-
rical seeds just beneath  the  surface, which  is roughened with  the per-
sistent  and fleshy sepals, and pyramidal styles.  Seed filled by the  large,
globular,  and  fleshy  corm-like  embryo, which bears one  or several
plumules at the end next the base of the ovary, exalbuminous.—Peren-
nial, aquatic,  acaulescent herbs,  with a strong unpleasant alliaceous
odor, a thick descending rootstock  bearing coarse  fibrous  roots,  and a
cluster of very large and entire, veiny leaves, preceded by the nearly
sessile  spathes.

              ORDER XC1X.   Typhace^e.   Cat-tail.
  Herbs growing  in marshes or ditches.  Stems without joints;  leaves
rigid, ensiform, with parallel veins.  Flowers monoecious,  arranged upon
a spadix without a spathe.  Sepals three or  more, sometimes a mere
bundle of hairs.   Petals  wanting.  Males; stamens three  or  six; fila-
ments long and slender; anthers cuneiform, erect.  Females ; ovary single,
superior, one-celled; ovule, solitary, pendulous ; style short;  stigmas one
or two, linear.  Fruit a dry,  indehiscent utricle, one-celled, one-seeded.
Embryo in the center of  the  albumen,  straight, taper, with a cleft  in one
side in which the plumule lies;  radicle next the hilum.

   1. Typiia.   Flowers in a  long  and very dense cylindrical spike ter-
minating the stem; the upper or sterile part consisting of stamens only,
about  three together, united  into  a common filament, intermixed with
simple hairs, and  inserted directly on the  axis.   The  lower  or  fertile
part consisting of pedicellate  ovaries, surrounded at base by club-shaped
bristles, which  form the copious down of the fruit.   Nutlets minute, very
long-stalked.   Rootstocks creeping, perennial.   Spathes very deciduous
bracts  or none.   Leaves sheathing the base of  the simple,  jointless
stems, erect, thickish.

            ORDER C.  Alismace^e.  Water-Plantain.
   Aquatic herbs,  with  parallel-veined leaves.  Flowers  racemose or
paniculate; perfect or monoecious,  regular, not on a  spadix.   Perianth
of three,  green,  herbaceous sepals.   Corolla  of three,  colored  petals.
Stamens definite or indefinite, hypogynous; anthers extrorse, two-celled.
 Ovaries superior, several, one-celled; ovules erect or ascending, solitary,
or two attached to the suture at a distance from each other.   Styles and
stigmas of the same number as the  ovaries.   Fruit  dry, indehiscent, one
or two-seeded.  Seeds straight or  curved, exalbuminous; embryo undi-
vided,  horseshoe-shape, with the same directions as the  seeds. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
121
   1. Alisma.   Flowers perfect.   Petals involute in the bud.   Stamens
six.   Ovaries  and styles many, in a simple circle  on a flattened recep-
tacle, forming  flattened coriaceous achenia in fruit. — Caulescent  peren-
nials with fibrous  roots; leaves radical, several-ribbed, with connected
veinlets; scape with whorled panicled  branches.  Flowers small, white,
or pale rose-color.

            ORDER  CI.   Marantace^e.  Arrow-root.
   Tropical herbs with creeping rhizoma abounding in  nutritive fecula;
stem often branching; leaves, inflorescence, and fiowers, same as in Zingibe-
raceae.  Calyx  superior, tbree-sepalled, short.  Corolla tubular, irregular,
with the segments in  two whorls; the outer three-parted, nearly  equal;
the inner very irregular; one  of  the  lateral segments  usually colored,
and formed differently from the rest; sometimes by abortion fewer than
three.   Stamens three, petaloid,  distinct, only one lateral, one fertile;
filament petaloid, entire  or two-lobed, one of the lobes  bearing  the
anther on  its  edge; anther one-celled, opening longitudinally.   Pollen
round.   Ovary one to three-celled; ovules  solitary, erect  and  campylo-
tropal, or numerous and  anatropal;  style petaloid or  swollen;  stigma
either  the  mere naked end of the  style,  or  hollow, cucullate, and in-
curved.  Fruit  capsular.    Seeds  round, without  aril; albumen  hard,
somewhat floury;  embryo naked,  straight,  its  radicle lying against the
hilum.

   1. Maranta.  Corolla unequal, one  of the inner segments in the form
of a lip.  Stamens petaloid, one  fertile, with  an  anther  on  its  edge.
Style hooded,  adhering to the edge of a sterile filament.   Ovary three-
celled, smooth; ovules  solitary.   Fruit even,  dry,  one-seeded. — Cau-
lescent plants  with fleshy rhizomata or  tubers ; stems  branched, often
dichotomous;  inflorescence  terminal, panicled, jointed, with glumaceous
deciduous bracts.

   2. Canna.   Corolla unequal,  variable  in the number of  its  parts,
scarcely lip-shaped in any segment.  Stamens petaloid,  one with half an
anther on its edge. Style flat, straight, nearly free.   Ovary three-celled,
with many ovules, granular.  Fruit membranous,  three-valved,  with a
deciduous granular surface.   Seeds round, smooth.—Rhizomas creeping,
tuberous, or wanting;  stems erect, with distant sheathing leaves; inflo-
rescence terminal  spiked  or racemose; flowers invested with gluma-
ceous bracts.

               ORDER CII.  Orchidace^e.   Orchis.
   Perennial herbs, often acaulesent, with fleshy corms,  or  tuberous fas-
ciculated roots.  Leaves simple, parallel-veined, entire, often articulated
with the stem.  Flowers  in  terminal  or  radical  racemes, spikes or 
122
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
panicles  rarely  solitary;  very  irregular,  with  an  adherent,  ringent
perianth  of six parts.  Calyx of  three  sepals,  usually colored,  the odd
one  usually uppermost in consequence of  the  twisting ot the  ovary.
Corolla of three petals, or two, and sometimes absent;  usually colored,
of which two are uppermost in consequence  of the twisting of the ovary,
and  one, called the lip, undermost; this latter is frequently lobed, of a
different  form from the  others, and very often spurred at  the base.
Stamens  three,  united in a central column,  the two lateral abortive,
the centra] perfect, or the central abortive, and the two lateral perfect;
anther persistent  or  deciduous,  two,  four, or  eight-celled.     Pollen
powdery, or else cohering in waxy or mealy masses  which are free, or
connected to  the anther by a caudicle.   Ovary adherent, one-celled,  of
six carpels ;  style  forming part of the column of the  stamens, rarely
distinct; stigmas usually confluent in a mucous disk ;  impregnation being
effected  by absorption from  the pollen masses  through the gland into
the stigmatic  canal.    Capsule inferior, rarely fleshy, indehiscent, pod-
shaped, separating into six dry, rigid valves, with horizontal cells three
of which only contain  seeds.   Seeds parietal, very numerous,  minute;
testa loose, reticulated, contracted at  each end ;  albumen none ;  embryo
a solid, undivided, fleshy mass.

   1.  Goodyera.   Perianth ringent.   Lateral sepals not oblique at the
base ;  upper  sepal vaulted,  the two  lower ones  beneath the  lip.   Lip
saccate at base,  sessile, without callosities, contracted at the apex into a
pointed and  channeled recurved termination.     Column free, small,
straight.   Pollen-masses two, consisting of angular grains loosely cohering
by a manifest web.  Stigma prominent, roundish.—Root of thick fibers
from a fleshy, somewhat  creeping rootstock, bearing  a  tuft of  thickish
petioled  leaves  next the ground.  Scape and spike with the greenish-
white small flowers, usually glandular-downy.

   2.  Cypripedium.   Sepals spreading; the two anterior  distinct,  or
commonly united into one under the lip.   Petals similar, but usually
narrower,  spreading.   Lip a  large,  inflated  sac, somewhat  slipper-
shaped.   Column  short,  three-lobed, the lateral lobes bearing  a  two-
celled  anther under each of them ; the middle lobe (sterile stamen)
dilated and petaloid, thickish, incurved.  Pollen pulpy-granular.  Stigma
terminal.—Root of many  tufted fibers ; leaves large, many-nerved and
plaited, sheathing at the base.   Flowers solitary or few, large and showy.

              ORDER CHI.  Vanillace^e.   Vanilla.
   Herbs with broad leaves, sessile,  and often  strongly veined ; stem
mostly climbing; flowers large and succulent.  Perianth articulated with
the ovary, sometimes with  an external calycine cup.    Sepals three.
Petals three,  of which one is unlike the  others, and forms a lip.  Stamen 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
123
one, consolidated with the style into a column ;  anther terminal, opercu-
lar ; pollen granular.   Ovary one-celled, with three parietal placentae.
Fruit  succulent,  indehiscent, one-celled.   Seeds either with a  smooth
testa tightly adhering to them, or with a thin membranous wing sur-
rounding a firm nucleus.

   1. Vanilla.  Sepals spreading or erect, distinct.  Petals of a similar
form and texture.    Labellum connate with the  columna, crested, mem-
branous, convolute,  undivided.   Anther  terminal,  opercular.   Pollen
granular.  Fruit a fleshy cylindrical silique.  Seeds round, destitute of
a loose tunic.— Climbing plants with a slender stem, emitting numerous
simple roots.

            ORDER CIV.   Amaryllidace^e.   Narcissus.
   Perennial herbs, with bulbous roots, sometimes fibrous, and occasion-
ally with a tall, cylindrical,  woody stem.   Leaves ensiform, with  parallel
veins.   Flowers usually with spathaceous bracts, and often  on  scapes,
almost always either yellow or white.  Perianth mostly regular, adherent
to  the ovary, colored, consisting  of  three  sepals, and three  petals.
Stamens six, arising from the perianth  segments, sometimes cohering by
their dilated bases into a kind of cup ;  sometimes an additional series of
barren stamens is present, often forming a  cup which  surmounts  the
tube of the perianth ;  anthers bursting inwardly.    Ovary three-celled,
the cells one or many-ovuled;  style  one ; stigma three-lobed.    Fruit a
three-celled,  three-valved  capsule,  with  loculicidal  dehiscence,  or a
berry,  one to three-seeded.   Seeds with either a thin and membranous,
or a brittle and black, or a thick and fleshy  testa ; albumen fleshy or
corneous; embryo nearly straight,  with its radicle turned  toward  the
hilum.

   1. Agave.   Perianth tubular-funnel-form, persistent, six-parted ;  the
divisions nearly equal, narrow.  Stamens six, soon exserted ;  anthers
linear,  versatile.   Capsule ovate,  coriaceous,  alternate  at  each end,
obtusely triangular,  three-celled, many-seeded.   Seeds flattened.—Root
sometimes ligneous;  stem herbaceous;  leaves mostly  radical, rigid,
channeled, fleshy, often spiny; panicle  large,  pyramidal.

                  ORDER  CV.   Liliace^e.   Lily.
  Herbs with  fibrous or fasciculate roots ;  stem  none, except a bulb ; or
tuberous, or creeping,  or erect, or arborescent.  Leaves with parallel
veins,  membranous,  not articulated with the stem ; either sessile, or
with a narrow leafy  petiole.   Flowers  hermaphrodite.    Calyx  and
corolla,  colored  alike, regular or nearly so,  sometimes cohering in a tube.
Stamens six, inserted into the sepals and petals ; anthers introrse.   Ovary
superior, three-celled, many-seeded  ; style one; stigma simple, or three- 
124
Natural  Orders of Plants.
lobed ;  ovules anatropal pr amphitropal.   Fruit succulent, or  dry and
capsular ; three-celled.  Seeds imbricated in  one or two rows ; embryo
with the same direction as  the seed, in the axis of  the  fleshy albumen;
or uncertain in direction and position.

                       TRIBE I.   Tulipacfmj.
  Bulbous.   Sepals and petals scarcely  adhering  in  a tube.  Integu-
ments of the seed soft and pale.

  1. Lilium.   Perianth campanulate,  or funnel-form,  colored,  of six
distinct sepals, spreading or recurved above, with a honey-bearing fur-
row at the base, deciduous ;  the six stamens somewhat adhering to their
bases, shorter than  the style ; anthers linear, versatile.  Style  elongated,
somewhat club-shaped ; stigma three-lobed.   Capsule oblong, sub-trian-
gular,  the valves connected  with  latticed hairs, containing numerous,
flat, soft-coated seeds, densely packed in two rows in each cell.—Peren-
nial herbs with scaly bulbs, producing  simple stems, with numerous,
alternate-scattered,  or whorled, short,  and sessile  leaves, and one to
several  large,  terminal flowers.

  2. Erythronium.   Perianth  lily-like, of six distinct, lanceolate sepals,
recurved or spreading above, deciduous, the three  inner usually with  a
callous tooth on each  side of  the erect base, and a groove in the middle.
Stamens six, inserted  in the base of the perianth, shorter than the pistil;
filaments  subulate ; anthers oblong-linear.  Style furrowed,  three-cor-
nered,  elongated ;  stigma  either  triangular, or  consisting of  three
spreading, channeled  plates.   Capsule  turbinate-globose,  erect, con-
tracted  at the  base, three-valved,  with the valves bearing the placentae.
Seeds rather  numerous, ovoid,  with a loose membranaceous  tip.—Per-
ennial, nearly stemless  herbs, with two  smooth and shining flat leaves
tapering into petioles, and sheathing the base  of the one-flowered scape,
rising from a deep solid-scaly bulb.  Flowers  nodding, vernal.

                       TRIBE II.  Scille^e.
  Bulbous.   Flowers usually small.  Integument of the seed black and
brittle.

  3. Allium.   Flowers  in a dense umbel, with a membranous, two-
leaved spathe.   Perianth of  six entirely colored sepals, which  are  dis-
tinct or united at the very base, one-nerved, equal, becoming  dry and
more or less persistent.  Stamens inserted on  the base of  the perianth ;
filaments  either all alike,  or the  alternate ones  tricuspidate;  anthers
incumbent.   Ovary angular,  three-celled ; style subulate ;  stigma acute,
simple.    Capsule  usually  obtusely  three-cornered   or  three-lobed,
depressed, three-celled, bursting into three valves through the  dissepi- 
Natural  Orders of  Plants.
125
 ments, and containing one or two ovoid-kidney-shaped, campylotropous
 black seeds in each cell, affixed to the base.  Embryo falcate, not in the
 axis.—Strong-scented and pungent stemless herbs ; the leaves and scape
 from a coated bulb ;  flowers in a simple  umbel, some of them frequently
 changed to bulblets; spathe one or two-valved.

   4.  Squilla, or Scilla.   Sepals three, colored, blue or purple, spread-
 ing.   Petals similar, a  little  broader.   Stamens six, shorter than the
 perianth ; filaments  smooth, somewhat dilated at the base,  acuminate,
 entire.  Ovary  three-parted, glandular, and melliferous  at  the apex ;
 style  smooth, simple ; stigma obscurely three-lobed, papillose.  Capsule
 rounded, three-cornered,  three-celled.   Seeds numerous, in two rows,
 flattened, with a membranous testa.—Bulbous-rooted plants,  abounding
 in an acrid emetic principle.

                   TRIBE  III.   CONVALLARINE^E.
   Stem arising from a horizontal rhizoma or tuber.

   5.  Convallaria, or Smilacina.   Perianth four to six-parted, spread-
 ing, deciduous,  white, with as many stamens inserted at the base of the
 divisions.   Filaments slender; anthers  short.    Ovary two  or three-
 celled, with two orthotropous ovules in each cell ;  style short  and thick ;
 stigma  obscurely two or  three-lobed.  Fruit a  globular, one  or  twro-
 seeded berry.—Perennial herbs, with simple stems from creeping or
 thickish rootstocks ; alternate, nerved leaves ;  and white, often fragrant
 flowers in a terminal, simple or compound raceme.

   6.  Uvdlaria.  This  is placed by some authors in  order Melanthaceo2.
 Perianth nearly  campanulate, lily-like ; the six sepals spatulate-lanceo-
 late, with a nectariferous  cavity  at the erect contracted base, much
 longer than the  stamens, which barely adhere to their base.   Filaments
 very  short; anthers long,  linear, and adnate.   Style  deeply three-cleft;
 the  divisions  stigmatic along the  inner  side.    Capsule triangular, or
 three-lobed, three-celled, three-valved from the top.  Seeds few in  each
 cell, obovoid,  with a  tumid  or fungous raphe.—Rootstock  creeping ;
 leaves alternate; flowers  pale-yellow, nodding, solitary, or in pairs, on
 terminal and axillary peduncles.

  7. Polygonatum.   Perianth  tubular,  cylindrical, six-lobed  at  the
 summit; stamens six, inserted near the  summit  of the tube, included.
 Ovary three-celled, with two to six orthotropous  ovules in  each  cell;
style slender; stigm.a  capitate or  triangular.  Berry globular, black or
blue,  three-celled; cells  one or  two-seeded. — Perennial  herbs,  with
simple, erect or curving stems  from creeping, thick  and knotted root- 
126
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
stocks, chiefly alternate and sessile, or half-clasping nerved leaves, and
axillary, nodding, greenish flowers.

                     TRIBE IV.   Asparagejs.
   Stem usually fully developed, or if not, the leaves are coriaceous and
permanent.

   8. Asparagus.   Perianth six-parted, spreading above ;  the  six sta-
mens  at their base, erect.   Ovary  turbinate ; style very short; stigma
three-lobed.  Berry spherical, three-celled ;  cells two-seeded.—Perenni-
als, with much branched  stems from thick and matted rootstocks, nar-
row leaves in clusters, and small, greenish-yellow axillary flowers.

                        TRIBE V.  Aloinje.
   Stem  usually  fully  developed,  sometimes  arborescent.   Leaves
succulent.

   9. Aloe.   Perianth tubular, six-cleft,  nectariferous  at the  base;
sepals resembling the petals, and closely covering them in an imbricate
manner.   Stamens  hypogynous, as  long as the perianth, or sometimes
longer.    Capsule  membranous, scarious, three-cornered, three-celled,
three-valved, with  a loculicidal dehiscence.    Seeds numerous, in two
rows, roundish or angular.—Succulent, mostly herbaceous plants, natives
of warm climates.

          ORDER  CVI.   H^emodorace^e.   Bloodwort.
   Herbs with fibrous, perennial roots, and perfect flowers.   Leaves per-
manent, ensiform, equitant, usually in two ranks.  Perianth more or less
woolly, adherent, the sepals and  petals often indistinguishable, and
united  into  a  cylindrical  tube.   Stamens inserted  on the  tube, either
three,  and  opposite the  petals, or six;  anthers  dehiscing  inwardly.
Ovary one or three-celled ;  cells one or two, or many-ovuled, with a
placenta at one point of the  axis ; style simple; stigma undivided; ovules
amphitropal.   Fruit capsular, covered with the withered perianth, val-
vular, seldom  indehiscent.   Seeds definite, or indefinite, fixed  by the
base or peltate, winged or wrinkled, and angular; embryo short, straight,
in cartilaginous albumen.

   1. Aletris.  Perianth  semi-inferior, tubular, with a six-cleft spread-
ing limb; obscurely hexagonal, not woolly, but wrinkled  and roughened
externally by thickly-set frosted points, which  look like scurfy mealiness.
Stamens six, inserted at the base of the segments ; filaments flat; an-
thers  somewhat sagittate.    Ovary  three-lobed, pyramidal; style  awl-
shaped, composed of three connate bristles; stigma simple, minutely two-
lobed.   Capsule inclosed in  the perianth, pyramidal, tricoccous, opening
at the apex in three directions.  Seeds numerous, very minute, striated.__ 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
127
 Perennial and smooth stemless herbs, very bitter, with fibrous roots, and
 a spreading cluster of thin and flat lanceolate leaves ; the small flowers
 in  a wand-like  spiked raceme, terminating  a long and  naked  slender
 scape.  Bracts awl-shaped, minute.  Placed by some authors in Liliacea:.

               ORDER  CVII.   Iridace^e.   Cornflag.
   Perennial  herbs, rarely undershrubs, usually smooth, arising from
 bulbs, corms, or rhizomas, rarely from fibrous  roots.   Leaves  equitant,
 mostly distichous.  Flowers with spathaceous bracts.  Calyx and corolla
 adherent, colored ;  their divisions either partially cohering, or entirely
 separate, sometimes irregular, the three petals  being occasionally very
 short.   Stamens three, inserted at the base of the sepals ; filaments dis-
 tinct or connate ; anthers fixed by their  base, two-celled, with  an exter-
 nal  longitudinal dehiscence.   Ovary three-celled,  cells  many-ovuled ;
 ovules anatropal;  style one ; stigmas three, often petaloid, sometimes
 two-lipped.    Capsule three-celled, three-valved, with a  loculicidal de-
 hiscence.   Seeds numerous,  spheroidal,  angular, oblong or  winged,
 attached to the  inner angle of the cell, sometimes to a central column,
 becoming loose; albumen  horny or densely fleshy; embryo straight, in-
 closed in it.

   1.  Iris.   Perianth tubular, with  a petaloid  membranous limb; se-
paloid segments revolute, often bearded ;  the  -petaloid erect and converg-
ing.  Stamens three, distinct, placed  before  the outer  divisions of the
perianth, and concealed by the  lobes  of the style.   Style three-parted
near the upper end, with  petaloid segments  covering the anthers, and
having  a  two-lipped transverse  stigma below  their  apices.   Capsule
three-celled,   three-valved, with a  loculicidal  dehiscence,  coriaceous,
with numerous flat or round and fleshy seeds.—Perennials with creep-
ing, often tuberous (acrid)  rootstocks, ensiform leaves, and large showy
flowers.

   2. Crocus. Perianth funnel-form, colored, tube slender, twice as long
as the limb, expanding only in the sunshine; limb six-parted, segments
equal, erect.   Stamens three, inserted on  the  tube ;  anthers sagittate.
 Stigmas three,  thick,  long,  usually  crested;  style filiform.    Capsule
at first subterranean,  but by the gradual prolongation of the pedun-
cle  finally emerging,  three-celled,  many-seeded;  seeds  roundish.—
Bulbous-rooted plants, with a  radicle spathe, one or two-leaved,  thin,
transparent.    Flower-tube  nearly or quite sessile upon the bulb.   After
flowering, the  ovary arises  from the ground by the growth of the scape,
to ripen its seeds in the sun.

              ORDER CVIII.  Dioscoreace^e.  Yam.
  Twining  shrubs,  usually with  alternate,  reticulately-veined  leaves,
sometimes opposite.  Flowers small,  spiked, with from  one  to three 
128
Natural  Orders of Plants.
 bracts each, dicecious.   Calyx and corolla alike, herbaceous.   Males;
 stamens six, inserted into the  base  of the sepals and petals ; anthers in-
 trorse with  a longitudinal dehiscence.  Females; ovary adherent, three-
 celled ; crlh with one or  two suspended, anatropal ovules; style deeply
 trifid; stigmas undivided.  Fruit  leafy, compressed, with  two of the
 cells sometimes abortive; occasionally succulent.  Seeds one or two in
 each cell, compressed, winged, or wingless ; embryo small, near the hilum,
 lying in a large cavity of  cartilaginous albumen.

   1.  Dioscorea.   Flowers very small, in  axillary panicles or racemes.
 Stamens six,  at  the base of the divisions of the six-parted  perianth.
 Styles of the fertile flowers three.   Capsules three-celled, three-winged,
 loculicidally three-valved  by splitting through the winged angles.  Seeds
 one  or two in each  cell, flat, with  a membranaceous wing.—Slender,
 shrubby climbers, twining with the sun; leaves simple and  palmately
 veined, or palmately divided.   Flowers green, inconspicuous, in axillary
 spikes or panicles.

              ORDER  CIX.  Smilace^e.   Sarsaparilla.
   Herbs or undershrubs, with  a  tendency  to climb.   Stems  woody.
 Leaves reticulately-veined.   Flowers dicecious  or perfect.  Calyx  and
 corolla very similar, inferior, six-parted.  Stamens six, inserted  on  the
perianth  near the base, seldom hypogynous ; anthers introrse.   Ovary
 three-celled ; cells one  or many-ovuled ;  style usually trifid ;  stigmas
three; ovules orthotropal.   Fruit  a roundish-berry.   Seeds  few or
many ; albumen between  fleshy  and  cartilaginous ;  embryo very small,
distant from the hilum.

   1.  Smilax.   Flowers  dicecious.   Perianth  six-parted, nearly equal,
spreading.   Males ; stamens six ;  filaments short; anthers erect, linear,
fixed  by the base.  Females;  perianth permanent.   Ovary three-celled,
the cells one-seeded ; style very short; stigmas three, thick and spread-
ing, almost  sessile.   Berry globular,  one to three-celled, one to three-
seeded.   Seeds globular,  orthotropous, suspended.—Shrubs, or rarely
perennial  herbs,  often evergreen  and prickly, climbing by tendrils on
the petioles, with yellowish-green stems, cordate or ovate leaves,  and
small flowers in axillary peduncled umbels.

             ORDER CX.  Melanthace^e.  Colchicum.
  Perennial herbs, with  bulbs, rhizomas,  corms, or fasciculated roots.
 Stem  simple, often scapiform.  Leaves sheathing  at the base with parallel
veins.  Flowers  either arising from under the surface of the ground, or
arranged upon tall leafy stems in large panicles, or  disposed in spikes
or racemes  upon  a naked scape; perfect, or  by abortion, polygamous. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
129
 Calyx and  corolla  alike, inferior, petaloid,  in  six  segments, or from
 cohesion tubular; usually involute in aestivation.  Stamens six; anthers
 mostly extrorse.   Ovary three-celled, many-seeded; style three-parted;
 stigmas undivided.   Capsule usually separable into three pieces; some-
 times with a loculicidal  dehiscence.  Seeds with a  membranous testa;
 albumen dense, fleshy, or cartilaginous ; embryo very minute.


   1. Asagr^ea.  Flowers  polygamous,  naked.    Perianth six-parted;
 segments linear, veinless, almost equal, with a nectariferous pit at base,
 equal  to  the stamens.  Stamens  alternately longer;  anthers cordate,
 after  dehiscence  scutiform.   Ovaries  three,  simple,  tapering  into an
 obscure stigma.   Fruit three follicles, acuminate, chartaceous.  Seeds
 scimetar-shaped,  wrinkled, winged.

   2.  Veratrum.   Flowers polygamous.  Perianth six-parted ; segments
 broad, concave, imbricating, nearly equal, striated, without a pit at  the
 base, spreading, sessile.   Stamens six, equal, inserted at the base of the
 segments ; filaments subulate ;  anthers reniform, with  confluent cells.
 Ovary with three divaricating stigmas.   Capsule three-horned, separat-
 ing into three,  many-seeded follicles.   Seeds compressed, winged at the
 apex.—Somewhat pubescent perennials, with simple  stems from a thick-
 ened base producing coarse fibrous roots, plaited three-ranked leaves,
 and raceme-panicled flowers.

   3. Helonias.  Flowers  perfect.   Perianth  of six  spatulate-oblong
 sepals, rather unequal, obtuse, not striated or herbaceous, nor imbricat-
 ing, persistent, and shorter than the filaments.   Stamens six, inserted at
 the base of the segments, unequal; filaments subulate  ;  anthers reni-
 form, with confluent  cells, blue.   Styles revolute, stigmatic  down  the
 inner side.   Capsules separating into three many-celled follicles.  Seeds
 linear, compressed, winged at the apex, or wingless.—A smooth peren-
 nial, with many inversely  lanceolate, or  oblong-spatulate  flat  leaves,
 from a tuberous rootstock, producing  in  early spring  a  hollow naked
scape, sheathed with broad bracts at the base, and terminated by a sim-
 ple and short dense raceme.

   4.  Colchicum.  Perianth colored, funnel-shaped, with a  very long
 subterranean slender tube, and  a somewhat campanulate,  six-parted
limb.   Slumens six, inserted on the  throat of the tube.   Ovary three-
celled; ovules numerous, in two or four rows; styles  three, filiform,
long;  stigmas somewhat clavate.  Capsule three-celled, partible in three,
opening inwardly.   Seeds numerous, roundish, with  a  corrugated testa.
       9 
130
Natural  Orders of Plants.
              ORDER  CXI.  Trilliace*:.  Trillium.
   Herbs with simple stems, tuberous roots, and  verticillate, net-veined
leaves.   Floivers  large,  terminal, solitary, perfect,  trimerous, rarely
tetramerous.   Sepals and petals  three, herbaceous,  the  latter longest.
Stamens six  to  ten; filaments subulate ;  anthers linear, with  cells  on
their  edges, and the connectile extended.   Ovary  free, three to five-
celled;  style distinct; stigmas small ;  ovules many, in two rows, ascend-
ing.   Fruit succulent, three  to five-celled.   Seeds  numerous; embryo
minute, in fleshy albumen.

   1. Trillium.  Flowers  perfect;  sepals three, lanceolate, spreading,
herbaceous, persistent.   Petals three, larger, colored, withering in age.
Stamens six;  anthers linear,  adnate,  on short  filaments.   Styles (or
rather  stigmas) three,  awl-shaped  or slender, spreading  or  recurved
above,  persistent,  stigmatic  down the inner  side.   Berry three-sided,
ovate, three-celled, purple;  seeds horizontal, several in each cell.—Low
perennial herbs, with a stout simple stem rising from  a short and abrupt
tuberous rootstock, bearing  at the  summit a whorl of three  ample,
broadly ovate leaves, and a large, terminal flower.

                ORDER CXII.   Palmace^.   Palm.
   Plants with arborescent, simple stems, sometimes shrubby, and  occa-
sionally branched.   Leaves  clustered,  terminal,  very large, pinnate or
flabelliform, plaited  in  vernation.   Spadix terminal, often  branched,
inclosed in  a  one or many-valved spatha.  Flowers  small, hermaphro-
dite, frequently polygamous, supported by scaly bracts.   Perianth six-
parted,  in two series, persistent; the  three  outer  segments  (sepals)
colorless, fleshy or leathery ; the inner (petals) sometimes deeply connate.
Stamens inserted on the  base of  the  perianth, usually definite, opposite
the segments, to which they  are equal in number, seldom three ; some-
times indefinite.    Ovary free, one to three-celled, or deeply three-lobed,
the lobes or cells one or two-ovuled; ovules  erect, orthotropal, or ana-
tropal.   Styles continuous with the carpels.   Fruit drupaceous, or nut-
like, or berried, often with a fibrous rind.   Seed filling the  cavity, often
reticulated.   Albumen cartilaginous, often  ruminated, frequently with a
centra]  or ventral  cavity ; embryo lodged in a particular cavity of the
albumen, usually at a distance from the hilum, dorsal and  indicated by
a little nipple, taper or pulley-shaped ;  plumule included, scarcely visible;
the cotyledonous  extremity becoming thickened  in germination, and
either tilling  up a pre-existing cavity, or one formed  by the liquefaction
.of the albumen in the center.

   1.  Areca.   Flowers monoecious. Males; calyx three-parted; corolla
three-petaled.    Females;   calyx three-leaved;  corolla  three-petaled. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
131
Nectary six-toothed.   Ovary superior, one-celled, one-seeded.  Drupe
coriaceous, containing a single seed, with a ruminated albumen, with the
embryo at the base.

  2.  Sagus.   Flowers monoecious.   Sterile;  calyx  three-toothed;
petals three.  Stamens six  to twelve;  filaments  distinct, compressed.
Fertile; calyx three-toothed.  Corolla campanulate, trifid.  Cup of sta-
mens  six-toothed, with abortive, sagittate anthers.   Ovary three-celled.
Stigmas  three,  subulate,  connate.   Fruit   one-seeded,  coated  with
reversed scales.   Albumen ruminated.  Embryo dorsal, on an umbilical
pit.—Leaves pinnated.

                CLASS IV.  Glumaceous Endogens.
  Flowers with glumes; or floral organs inclosed in imbricated bracts,
and arranged in spikelets, having no proper perianth (calyx or corolla).
 Ovary with one cell  containing a solitary ovule and becoming a one-
seeded fruit (achenium or caryopsis).

             ORDER CXIII.  Graminace^e.  Grasses.
  Perennial herbs with  fibrous  or bulbous rhizomas, often annual or
biennial.  Stems  (culms) cylindrical, fistular, closed  at the joints or
nodes, covered with a coat of silex, often solid.  Leaves narrow and
undivided,  parallel-veined,  alternate, with a  sheath  split down to the
nodes, and a membranous ligula or stipule at the juncture of the blade
and  sheath.   Inflorescence  arranged in  spikes,  racemes, or  panicles.
Flowers generally perfect, in little spikelets (locustai) composed of bracts
imbricated  in two rows, of which the  most exterior are called glumes, the
interior immediately inclosing  the stamens paleae, and the  innermost at
the base of the  ovarium scales.   Glumes mostly two, alternate, some-
times single, usually unequal.  Paleo3 two, alternate ;  the lower or  exte-
rior simple, the upper or interior composed of  two united by their conti-
guous margins,  and  generally  with two keels, forming a  kind of
dislocated  calyx.   Scales two or three,  sometimes none; if two, collat-
eral, alternate with the paleae, and next the lower of them;  either dis-
tinct or united,  Stamens hypogynous, one to six, or more, one of which
alternates with the  two hypogynous  scales, and  is,  therefore,  next the
lower paleae; anthers versatile.   Ovary simple  ; styles two, rarely one or
three ; stigmas feathery or hairy ; ovule  ascending, anatropal.   Pericarp
usually indistinguishable from  the seed,  membranous.  Albumen farina-
ceous ; embryo lying on one  side of the albumen at the base, lenticular,
with a broad cotyledon and a developed plumula;  and occasionally with
a second cotyledon on the outside of the plumula, and alternate with
the  usual cotyledon. 
132
Natural Orders of  Plants.
                       TRIBE  I.   Phalare,e.
   Inflorescence in a contracted  panicle.   Spikelets solitary,  with one
 perfect flower, and one or two imperfect ones.   Lower  palea  awned or
 mucronate, upper with two keels.

    1.  Hierochloa.   Spikelets  plainly  three-flowered,  panicled ;  the
 flowers all with two paleae; the two lateral  flowers staminate only, tri-
 androus, sessile, often awned; the uppermost (central) one perfect, short-
 pedicelled, scarcely as long as the others, diandrous, awnless.  Glumes
 two, scarious.—Leaves linear, or lanceolate, flat.

                       TRIBE II.   Avenejs.
   Inflorescence paniculate.  Spikelets solitary,  few-flowered.  Glumes
 and paleae of similar texture.  Upper flowers generally pedicellate, with
 awn-like processes, or abortive rudiments  between the upper and the
 lower ones.  Upper palea with two keels.

   2. Avena.  Spikelets two to five-flowered,  panicled, commonly large;
 the flowers herbaceo-chartaceous, or  becoming harder, of firmer texture
 than the large and  mostly unequal  glumes; the uppermost imperfect.
 Lower  palea  rounded on  the back  or keeled, seven  to eleven-nerved,
 bearing a long, usually bent or twisted awn on the back, or below the
 two-cleft  tip, proceeding  from  the  mid-nerve  only.   Stamens three.
 Grain  oblong-linear, grooved on one  side, usually hairy,  free, but mostly
 invested by the upper palea.

                      TRIBE  III.  ORYZE.E.
   Spikelets one-flowered; the flowers often monoecious, in branched
panicles.   Glumes  frequently  wanting.   Inner  palea three-nerved.
Squamulae two.  Stamens  one to six.

   3. Oryza.   Glumes two, one-flowered.   Paleae two, subequal, adher-
ing to the ovary.   Stamens six.   Styles two.

   4. Zea.  By some authors this is  placed in order Phalarea?, and by
others  in Olyrece.  Flowers monoecious;  sterile ones in terminal, panicu-
late racemes; spikelets two-flowered; glumes two,  herbaceous, obtuse,
subequal; paleai membranaceous, awnless, obtuse.  Fertile flowers late-
ral, axillary, on a spadix  inclosed  in a spathe of  numerous bracts;
spikelets  two-flowered,  one flower abortive; glumes two, very obtuse;
 palea  awnless; style one, filiform, very long, pendulous; caryopsis com-
pressed ; seeds immersed in an oblong receptacle. 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
133
                 TRIBE IV.  Tritice^e or Horded.
    Inflorescence spiked.  Spikelets solitary, in pairs, or several together,
 one, few, or  many-flowered.  Glumes mostly two, equal and opposite,
 rarely unequal and  alternate.   Lower  palea awned  or awnless, upper
 one with two keels.

    5. Triticum.   Spikelets three, many-flowered ;  the fructiferous rachis
 generally articulated; flowers distichous.   Glumes two, nearly opposite,
 almost  equal, awnless or  awned.  Palea: two, herbaceous; the lower
 awnless, mucronate or aristate at the tip; the upper bicarinate; the keels
 more or  less ciliated with  aculei.  Stamens three.   Ovary pyriform,
 hairy at the  point.  Stigmas two,  terminal, subsessile,  feathery; with
 long, simple finely-toothed  hairs.  Scales two, usually entire and ciliated.
 Caryopsis externally convex, internally concave, and marked by a deep
 furrow, distinct, or adhering to the  paleae.

    6.  Hordeum.   Spikelets  three  together, the  lateral ones usually
 withered, two-flowered, with  an intermediate floret  reduced to a subulate
 rudiment.  Glumes  two, lanceolate-linear, with subulate  awns, flattish,
 unequal-sided, at right angles with  the paleae, almost on  one side, and
 that  the  outer side,  herbaceous, rigid.   Palea? two,  herbaceous; the
 lower one concave, ending  in an  awn ; the  upper  bicarinate.   Stamens
 three.   Ovary hairy at the apex.   Stigmas  two, sessile, somewhat ter-
 minal, feathery.   Scales  two, entire, or  furnished with  a lateral  lobe,
 usually hairy or ciliated.   Caryopsis hairy at apex, oblong, furrowed on
 the inside, adhering  to the paleae, rarely naked.

   7.  Secale.   Spikelets two-flowered.   Florets sessile, distichous, with
 a rudiment of a  terminal  one.   Glumes  two, herbaceous,  carinated,
 almost opposite, awnless or awned.  Paleae two, herbaceous;  the  lower
 one awned at  the point, keeled, and  unequal-sided, broadest and thick-
 est on the outer side; the upper shorter and bicarinate.   Stamens three.
 Ovary pyriform,  pilose.   Stigmas two,  subsessile, terminal, feathery,
 with  long, simple, finely-toothed hairs.   Scales  two, entire, ciliated.
 Caryopsis hairy at the point and loose.

                      TRIBE V.   Sacchare^e.
   Fertile paleae membranaceous or scarious, always of thinner and more
delicate  texture than the  (often  indurated)  glumes, frequently awned
from the tip.   Spikelets usually in pairs or threes, panicled, or spiked,
some of  them entirely sterile (heterogamous).

   8. Saccharum.   Placed by some botanists in Tribe Rottbozlle.  Spike-
lets all fertile,  in pairs, the one sessile, the other stalked, articulated  at 
134
Natural  Orders  of Plants.
the base, two-flowered;  the  lower floret neuter, with one  palea;  the
upper fertile floret with two paleae.   Glumes two, membranous.  Palece
transparent, awnless.  Stamens three.  Ovary smooth.  Styles two, long;
stigmas feathered, with simple, denticulated hairs. Scales two, obscurely
two or three-lobed at the  tip,  distinct.  Caryopsis smooth ? loose ?
                        CRYPTOGAMIA,

                      Or Flowerless  Plants,

   Are plants chiefly composed of cellular tissue, without spiral vessels,
 destitute of true flowers, and producing spores instead of seeds.

                       CLASS V.  Acrogens.
   Flowerless  plants with a proper stem or  axis, often with a vascular
 system composed chiefly of annular ducts, usually furnished with leaves.
 Growth by the extension of the apex, without subsequent increase  in
 diameter.  Spores with a proper integument, and contained in a vessel
 analogous to an ovary, called Theca or Sporangium.

            ORDER CXIV.   Equisetace^e.  Horsetail.
   Leafless plants, with  simple  or  verticillate  branches; stems striate-
sulcate, jointed,  fistular  between the  joints and separable  at them.
 Sheaths dentate, crowning the summit  of each  internode.  Inflorescence
(by analogy) a dense, cylindric, terminal spike or strobile.  Scales of the
strobile peltate, hexagonal, subverticillate.  Thecce four to seven, attached
to the under  surface  of the  scales,  with lateral  dehiscence.  Spores
numerous, globose, surrounded by minute granules.   Elaters,  bodies of
Unknown use,  consisting of four elastic, clavate  filaments involving the
spores in a spiral  manner.

   1. Equisetum.    Character  the  same as that of the order.—Stems
striate-grooved, rigid, the hard cuticle  abounding in  grains  of silex,
hollow, and also with an  outer circle of smaller air-cavities corresponding
with the grooves ; the  joints closed and  solid, each bearing instead of
leaves a sheath, which surrounds the base of the internode above, and
is split into teeth corresponding in  number and position with  the  prin-
cipal  ridges of the stem; the stomata always occupying  the  principal
grooves.

                 ORDER CXV.   Filices.   Ferns.
  Ferns, usually  with  a creeping rhizome; sometimes with  an erect,
arborescent  stem.  The leaves (fronds) variously divided, rarely entire,
 with forked veins, mostly circinate in vernation.   Inflorescence occupying 
Natural  Orders of Plants.
135
 the back  or margin of the fronds  arising from  the veins.    Thecal  or
 sporangia,  of one kind only in the same plant, one-celled, dehiscing irre-
 gularly, containing innumerable spores.  Sori somewhat regular collec-
 tions  or clusters of  thecae ; or the thecae  are  isolated and  scattered.
 Indusium  a scale investing each sorus ; or the sori are covered with the
 revolute margin of the frond.

                      TRIBE  I.  POLYPODIACE.E.
   Thecae  furnished with a vertical, jointed, elastic, and usually incom-
 plete ring, and bursting transversely and irregularly.

   1. Polypodium. Sori roundish, naked, variously or irregularly scattered
 over the back of the  flat and expanded leaf-like frond.   Indusium none.
 Veins simple, forked or pinnate, free, not connected  by cross-branches
 or anastomosing.—Rootstocks  creeping, often covered with  wool-like
 chaff, and with tufted branches.

   2. Aspidium.   Sori roundish or elliptical, scattered ; indusium orbicu-
 lar and umbilicate, fastened at the center  and opening all around,  or
 reniform,  fastened on one  side and  opening  on the other.—Frond
 pinnate or  bipinnate.

   3. Nephrodium.    Thecal placed  in the  middle of a vein, forming
 roundish sori placed  in two rows.   Indusium reniform, fixed by the
 sinus.
   4. Asplenium.   Sori linear  or oblong, oblique, or somewhat trans-
 verse, separate, not in pairs, all attached lengthwise to the upper side
 of the  simple, forked  or  pinnate, free veins.  Indusium arising from the
 lateral veins, and opening longitudinally, usually toward  the midvein.

   5. Pteris.    Sori  linear,  confluent laterally in a line which borders
 the divisions of the frond, the  continuous indusium fixed  at  the very
 margin,  the inner edge free.   Veins  forked and free,  bearing the
 sporangia at their apex.—Fronds one to three  pinnate  or decompound,
 rather coriaceous.

  6. Adiantum.   Sori roundish or crescent-shaped, occupying the edge
of the lobes of the frond, the indusium appearing  as a reflexed edge of
it, and bearing the sporangia on its  under side on the free ends of seve-
ral simply  forking veins.   Midrib  none,  or lateral.—Stalk  and rachis
purplish-black, polished.

                     TRIBE II.  Osmundiace^:.
  Thecae destitute of  a ring, reticulated, striated with  rays at the apex,
opening lengthwise, and usually externally. 
136
Natural  Orders of  Plants.
   7.  Osmunda.   Sporangia globose, short-pedicelled,  naked, entirely
 covering the fertile fronds or pinnae (which are contracted  to  the  mere
 rachis), thin and reticulated, not striate-rayed at the apex, opening by a
 slit  into two valves across the apparent top  (opposite the  pedicel).
 Spores green.   Fronds tall and upright, from thickened rootstocks, one
 or two pinnate ; the veins forking and free.

                      CLASS  VI.   Anophytes.
   Cryptogamous acrogenous  plants, growing upward by an  axis or
 stem, and usually furnished with distinct leaves  composed of.  cellular
 tissue alone; sometimes the stem and foliage confluent into a frond.

            ORDER CXVI.   Musci or Bryace^e.  Moss.
   Erect  or  creeping,  terrestrial or  aquatic, cellular plants,  having a
 distinct axis of growth, destitute of a vascular system and covered with
 minute, sessile, imbricated, entire,  or seriated  leaves, producing spore-
 cases which open by a terminal lid, and  contain  simple  spores alone.
 Reproductive organs of two kinds:  1.  The sterile flower  consisting of
 from four to twenty or more minute cylindrical or fusiform stalked sacs,
 (anlheridia) which  discharge from their apex,  upon the application of
 water, a mucous fluid filled with oval  particles, and then perish.  2.
 The fertile flower composed of from four to twenty or more flask-like
 bodies (pistillidia), each having a  membranous covering (calyptra) ter-
 minated by a long cylindrical funnel-mouthed tube (style).   The  ripened
pistillidium  (seldom more than one  in a flower maturing) becomes  the
 capsule, which is rarely indehiscent, or splitting  by four longitudinal
 slits, but usually opens by a lid (operculum) ;  beneath the operculum
 and  arising from  the mouth of  the capsule,  are commonally either one
 or two rows of rigid  processes (collectively, the peristome), which  are
 always some multiple of four ;  those of the outer row are called teeth, of
 the inner cilia.  An elastic ring of cells (annulus) lies between  the rim
 of the  capsule and operculum.   The powdery particles filling the capsule
 are spores.   The thread-like stalk (pedicel) supporting the  capsule is
 inserted into the  elongated  torus (vaginula)  of the flower. - The pedicel
 continued  through  the  capsule, (or hollow urn-like  case)  forms  the
 columella ; enlarged under the capsule it sometimes forms an apophysis.
 The calyptra separating early at its base is carried up on the apex of the
 capsule ; if it splits on one  side it is hoodshaped or cuculliform, if not, it
 is mitre-shaped or  mitriform.   Intermixed with the reproductive organs
 are cellular jointed filaments (paraphyses).  The leayes surrounding the
 antheridia are called the perigonial leaves, those around  the  pisiillidia
 or pedicel the perichwtial leaves.

   Polytrichum.    Calyptra densely hairy.  Capsule four  to  six-sided,
 with a discoidal apophysis. Peristome  single, of sixty-four  teeth,  ad- 
Natural  Orders of  Plants.                 137
herentby their summits to the membranous-dilated apex of the columella.
Lid beaked.  Inflorescence dicecious ; sterile flowers terminal, cup-shaped.

      ORDER  CXVII.  Algace^e or Ceramiace^e.   Sea-weed.
   Sea-weeds, usually of a rose or purplish color.  Cells long and tubular,
or round  and short,  or polygonal,  sometimes arranged  in a single row ;
sometimes disposed in several parallel rows, forming an articulated frond,
or if  of unequal lengths,  forming a  cellular frond.   Their propaga-
tion is by spores (sphaerospores and tetraspores) collected in  fours or
threes within a  transparent  perispore, in bodies  of  different  forms  and
structure.

   1.  Fucus.  Frond plane compressed  or  cylindrical, linear,  dichoto-
mous, coriaceous.   Air-vessels when present, innate in the frond, simple,
large.  Receptacles terminal, turgid,  containing  tubercles imbedded in
mucus, and discharging their spores (sporangia)  by  conspicuous spores.

   2.  Chondrus.   Frond  cartilaginous,  dilating upward  into a flat,
nerveless, dichotomously divided frond, of a purplish, or livid-red color.
Fructification, subspherical capsules in the substance of the frond, (rarely
supported on little stalks) and containing a mass  of minute  free seeds.

   3.  Gigartina.  Frond horny or cartilaginous,  filiform, cylindrical,
irrefrularlv branched.  Fructification uniform ; spherical sessile  capsules
containing a globose mass  of seeds.

             ORDER  CXVIII.  Lichenace^e.  Lichen.
   Perennial plants,  often spreading over  the  surface  of the earth, on
rocks or trees in dry places, in the form  of a lobed and foliaceous, or
hard  and crustaceous,  or  leprous substance  called a thallus.   This
thallus is formed of a cortical and  medullary layer, of which the former
is simply cellular, the latter  both cellular  and filamentous ; in the crus-
taceous species the cortical and medullary layer differ chiefly in texture,
and in the former being colored, the latter  colorless ; but in the fruticu-
lose or foliaceous species, the medulla is distinctly floccose, in the latter
occupying the lower half of the  thallus, in the former inclosed all round
by the  cortical layer.  Reproductive  matter of  two kinds:  1,  sporules
lying  in membranous tubes (thecce) immersed in nuclei of the  medullary
substance, which burst through the cortical  layer, and color and harden
by exposure to the air in the form of little  disks  called shields; 2,  the
separated cellules of the medullary layer of the thallus.

   1.  Cetraria.   Thallus foliaceous, cartilagino-membranaceous, ascend-
ing and spreading, lobed and laciniated, smooth and naked on each side. 
138
Natural Orders of Plants.
Shields  orbicular, obliquely adnate with the margin  of the thallus, the
lower portion being free, (not united with the thallus);  the disk colored,
plano-concave,  with  a border formed of the thallus and inflexed.

            ORDER  CXIX.  Fungace^e.   Mushroom.
  Plants consisting  of  a congeries of cellules, among which  filaments
are occasionally  intermixed,  increasing in size by addition to their in-
side, their outside undergoing no change after its first formation, chiefly
growing upon decayed  substances, frequently ephemeral, and variously
colored.   Sporules lying  either loose  among  the tissue, or inclosed in
membranous cases called sporidia.

  Agaricus, Boletus,  and Spermcedia, belong to this order.
     SEXUAL  OR  ARTIFICIAL  SYSTEM  OF  LINN^US.
  As the Sexual System of Linnaeus is still followed by many, and espe-
cially by those who are commencing the study of Botany, the following
brief sketch of  it  is  here  introduced, as  an  aid  to  the  Physician  in
determining medicinal  plants, herein described.  At the present day,
the eleventh, eighteenth, and twenty-third classes of the following table,
have usually been omitted, and distributed among the other classes.

                          CLASSES.
  Based upon the number or variations and modifications of the Stamens.
  1. Monandria ;  one stamen to each flower.
  2. Diandria ; two stamens       do.
  3. Triandria ;  three stamens     do.
  4. Tetrandria ; four stamens     do.
  5. Pentandria ; five stamens     do.
  6. Hexandria ; six stamens       do.
  7. Heptandria ; seven stamens   do.
  8. Octandria ; eight stamens     do.
  9. Enneandria ; nine stamens     do.
  10. Decandria ;  ten stamens      do.
  11. Dodecandria ;  twelve to nineteen  stamens to each flower.
  12. Icosandria ;  more than ten stamens on  the calyx, (perigynous).
  13. Polyandria ; more than ten stamens on the receptacle,  (hypogy-
        nous).
  14. Didynamia ; four stamens,  of which two are long and two short;
        usually labiate flowers.
  15. Tetradynamia ; six  stamens, of  which  four are long and two
        short; usually cruciform flowers. 
Natural  Orders of  Plants.
139
 16. Monadelphia ;  filaments united into a single set, tube, or column.
 17. Diadelphia ; filaments  united into two  sets ;  usually papiliona-
        ceous flowers.
 18. Polyadelphia ; filaments united in more than three sets.
 19. Syngenesia; stamens united by their anthers into a ring or tube ;
        usually compound flowers.
 20. Gynandria ; stamens consolidated with the pistil or style.
 21. Moncecia ;  stamens and pistils in separate flowers,  but  on the
        same plant.
 22. Dicecia ; stamens and pistils in  separate  flowers, and  on different
        plants.
 23. Polygamia  ; stamens and pistils, in the same or separate flowers,
        and on the same or on different plants; varying.
 24. Cryptogamia ;  stamens  and pistils wanting or invisible.

                             ORDERS.
   Founded upon  the modifications of various parts of the flowers, as the
Styles,  or  where these  are  wanting, the Stigmas,  also  the Seeds,
Pods, etc.
   1. Monogynia ; includes all the genera of plants in  either of the first
        thirteen classes, with one style or stigma to the flower.
   2. Digynia;    do.   with two styles or stigmas.
   3. Trigynia ;   do.   with three styles   do.
   4. Tetragynia ; do.  with four styles   do.
   5. Pentagynia ; do.  with five styles     do.
   6. Hexagynia ; do.   with six  styles     do.
   7. Heptagynia ; do.   with seven styles   do.
   8. Octagynia ; do.   with  eight styles   do.
   9. Enneagynia; do.   with nine styles     do.
 10. Decagynia ;  do.   with ten styles     do.
 11. Dodecagynia ; do. with  eleven or twelve styles do.
 12. Polygynia;    do. with more than twelve styles do.
   The fourteenth  class has two orders, viz :
   Gymnospermia  ; with seeds naked, or apparently so.
   Angiospermia ; with seeds in a seed-vessel, or pericarp.
   The fifteenth class  has  also two orders, viz :
   Siliculosa ; the fruit a silicle or short pod.
   Siliquosa ;  the fruit a  silique or long pod.
   The sixteenth,  seventeenth, eighteenth, twentieth,  twenty-first, and
twenty-second classes, have their orders founded on the number of sta-
mens to the  flower,  the  order bearing the name of  the first thirteen
classes; thus the sixteenth class flower with three stamens would be named
Monadelphia Triandria, etc. 
140               Natural Orders of Plants.

  The nineteenth class has its orders founded upon the character of its
flowers, thus :
  Polygamia .equalis ; flowers in heads, and all perfect.
  Polygamia superflua ; florets of the rays, or margin of the head
       pistillate ; the rest perfect.
  Polygamia  frustranea ; florets of the  margin neutral,  the  rest
       perfect.
  Polygamia necessaria ; florets of the  margin pistillate  and fertile,
       the rest or disk-flowers staminate and sterile.
  Polygamia segregata ;  each flower having its own proper calyx or
       involucre.
  Monogamia ; flowers solitary, but with united anthers.
  The twenty-third class has its orders founded on the characters of the
two preceding  classes,  thus ;—
  Monoscia ;  where both separated and perfect flowers are found on the
       same plant.
  Dicecia ; where the different  flowers are found on different plants.
  Trkecia ; where perfect flowers  are found on one plant, staminate on
       another, and pistillate on still another.
  The twenty-fourth class has  its  orders, based upon the natural  cha-
racter of the plants ; they are :—
  Filices; ferns.
  Musci ;  Mosses.
  Hepatic^e ; liverworts.
  Alg/e ;  seaweeds.
  Lichenes ; lichens.
  Fungi ;  mushrooms or toad-stools. 
PART   II.
MATERIA     MEDICA.
                 ABELMOSCHUS ESCULENTUS.

                               Okra.

       Nat. Ord.—Malvacese.  Sex. Syst.—Monadelphia Polyandria.

                               FRUIT.
   Description.  This is an Annual  plant, known also by the name  of
 Gombo, and is the Hibiscus Esculentus of some authors.   The stems are
somewhat woody toward the base, erect, branched, round, from  three to
six feet in hight, and three or four inches in diameter.  The herbaceous
part is covered with sharp bristles, and often bears purplish spots.  The
leaves are alternate, petioled; the lower  ones being angular, the  central
ones palmate, and the  upper ones subdigitate,  the divisions being lan-
ceolate-oblong; all  are serrate  and somewhat bristly.  The petioles are
round, bristly, and as long as the leaves.   The flowers  are very large,
axillary,  solitary, on short peduncles, of  a pale-yellow color, with a dark-
crimson bottom.  Involucre one,  from six to twelve-leaved ; leaflets linear,
bristly, deciduous.  The calyx spathiform, of a  very soft  texture, burst-
ing lengthwise on one side ; stigmas equal to the  cells in the capsule.
 Capsule six to twelve inches in length, about one inch in diameter, some-
what bristly, especially the ridges, equal in number to  the cells and
valves, with a single row of round, smooth seeds in each cell.
   History.   This plant is a native of the West Indies, and is also culti-
vated in the Southern  States, where the capsule is much employed in
soups, and  for pickles.   The capsule is the part employed, and abounds
in mucilage.  The  Hibiscus Abelmoschus, or  Abelmoschus moschatus, a
foreign evergreen shrub, grows  in various parts  of the world, in  Egypt,
the East  and West Indies, etc.,  and affords the seeds known under  the
names of  Semen Abelmoschi,  alceae  ^Egypticae, and grana moschata.
These are about the size of flaxseed, reniform, striated,  of  a  grayish-
                                                         CHI) 
142                     Materia Medica.

brown color, a musk odor, and a warm rather spicy taste, and are used
by the Arabs to flavor their coffee.
  Properties and Uses.—Qk™ is mucilaginous, and may be employed
wherever emollients and demulcents are indicated ; the leaves are occa-
sionally employed for preparing emollient poultices.   The  seeds of the
foreign plant were formerly considered stimulant and antispasmodic ;  but
are at present only used in perfumery.

                       ABIES BALSAMEA.

                          Balm of Gilead.

         Nat. Ord.—Pinacese.   Sex.  Syst.—Moncecia Monadelphia.

                   JUICE, OR RESINOUS  EXUDATION.
  Description.—This is an elegant tree, rising from twenty to forty feet
in bight, and of  a pyramidal  form.  It is  also known  by  the name of
American Silver Fir.  The leaves are from six  to eight lines in length,
solitary,  flat,  either acute or  emarginate, entire,  glaucous,  silvery-white
beneath, and  on their upper surface, glaucous, shining, dark-green ;
somewhat pectinate, suberect above, sometimes curved to one side, and
spreading more or less perfectly in two rows on the sides and tops of
the branches.   The male flowers are yellow, numerous,  axillary,  solitary,
and about as long  as the leaves ; the female  catkins are  lateral, cylin-
drical, erect,  and green ; the bracts abbreviate, obovate, mucronate, and
subserrulate.  The cones are large, cylindrical, erect, of a  purplish
color, and covered with a resinous exudation, which gives them a glossy,
rich and elegant appearance.
  History.—This tree inhabits Canada, Nova-Scotia, Maine, and moun-
tainous regions further to the South.   It furnishes the Canada  Balsam,
also called Balsam  of Fir, or Canada Turpentine.  The vesicles which
naturally form upon the trunk and branches  are broken, and their liquid
contents received into a bottle.
   Canada Balsam is a transparent fluid, or nearly so,  colorless, or of a
pale-yellow tint, tenacious, of the consistence of thin hone}', of a strong,
agreeable, terebinthine odor, of a slightly bitter and not very acrid taste,
and very slow to  consolidate.  On  exposure  to the  air,  it gradually
becomes concrete, owing partly to the escape of volatile oil, and  partly
to  its conversion into resin.  A  moderate  heat renders  it completely
liquid; a higher heat gives  off volatile oil, leaving  behind resin some-
what empyreumatised.  The same result  takes  place when boiled with
water, and the remaining unevaporated water holds a little succinic acid
in  solution.   It is  readily inflammable, burning with a dense reddish
 flame, and much black smoke.  It is partially  soluble in alcohol; and a
 part of its resin forms a soluble soap with solution of potassa.  It has not 
Abies  Canadensis.
143
been satisfactorily analyzed.  Bonastre obtained from 100 parts, 18.6 of
volatile oil,  40.0  of resin soluble in alcohol, 33.4 of  sub-resin,  nearly
insoluble in  alcohol, 4.0 of  caoutchouc, 4.9 of bitter extractive and salts,
and traces of acetic acid.   Its therapeutical influence upon the system is
owing  to its  essential oil.  The name balsam is improperly applied to it,
as it consists chiefly of resin and essential oil, and contains no cinnamic
acid, nor benzoin.
  Properties and Uses.—Canada Balsam is stimulant, diuretic, anthel-
mintic, and  in  large doses, cathartic ; it acts  more  especially on  the
mucous tissues of the system, and if its use  be  continued too long, or in
too large doses, it will  irritate these tissues more or less, especially those
of the  urinary organs, producing strangury; if, however,  it  should  act
as a laxative, this irritation is not apt  to follow.  It has been advanta-
geously employed internally in gonorrhea, gleet,  leucorrhea, piles, chronic
urinary difficulties, chronic inflammations or ulcerations  of the  bowels,
chronic catarrhal affections, and rheumatism.   In gonorrhea, where  the
use of copaiba is not  desirable, I  have found  the Canada Balsam  an
excellent substitute in the following combination, viz: Take  of  Canada
Balsam two fluidounces, Oil of Turpentine  four fluidrachms, Spirits of
Nitric  Ether eight fluidounces, Pulverized Camphor, two drachms ; mix
these together.  The dose  is a fluidrachm three times  a day.  In cases
where  the inflammatory symptoms have been subdued, pulverized Kino,
two drachms, may also be added.
  Externally, Canada Balsam acts  as  a rubefacient, and  is  frequently
employed as a  stimulant to wounds and ulcers ;  it likewise enters into  the
composition  of  several  salves and irritating plasters.   Dose, from ten to
twenty grains two or three times a day, in pills  or in emulsion.
                      ABIES CANADENSIS.

                          Hemlock Spruce.

         Nat.  Ord.—Pinaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Monadelphia.

     THE PREPARED CONCRETE  JUICE, CANADA PITCH, GUM  HEMLOCK.
   Description.—This  tree sometimes attains the bight of eighty feet, with
a trunk two or three feet  in diameter.  The leaves are very numerous,
about half an  inch in  length, linear, flat, obtuse, denticulate, and irregu-
larly arranged  in two rows.  The cones  or  strobiles, are oval, of few
scales, pendulous, about three-quarters  of an inch long, and terminal or
at the ends of  the branches.
   History.—The foliage of this tree is delicate, bright green above, and
silvery-white underneath.   Hemlock Spruce is abundant in  Canada, Nova
Scotia, and the elevated and mountainous regions of New England and the
Middle States.  Its timber is very coarse-grained, and its bark contains an 
144
Materia Medica.
astringent principle, and is much used for tanning purposes.  The pitch or
juice exudes  spontaneously, and hardens upon the bark, from which it
is  obtained by boiling fragments of the bark thus incrusted, in water,
and  skimming  off the pitch  which  rises to  the  surface.   A  second
boiling still further purifies it.
   Canada Pitch  is  hard,  brittle,  quite  opake,  of a  dark  yellowish
brown color,  which becomes still darker by exposure  to the air; of a
weak, peculiar  odor,  and scarcely any taste.  It  softens and becomes
adhesive with a moderate  heat, and  melts  at 198° F.   It  consists of
resin, and a small portion of essential oil.
   Properties and Uses.—Gum Hemlock  is a  gentle rubefacient, and  is
sometimes employed for the same purposes as Burgundy pitch, which it
resembles in its  properties.    The  tincture  of the  hemlock pitch  is
diuretic and  stimulant.  The volatile oil, oil  of hemlock, has been used
to  produce abortion, but it is dangerous.  As a  liniment, this oil has
been used in croup, rheumatism, and other affections requiring a stimu-
lating local application.   The essence of hemlock  is diuretic  and stimu-
lant; Dr. W. K. Everson states it  to be  a  superior remedy in gastric
irritation, to allay  vomiting in cholera-morbus, etc.; the  dose is five or
ten drops in water, every ten or twenty  minutes, until relief is afforded.
I have  found the  following preparation very beneficial as an internal
agent, in rheumatism, colic, flatulency, acid-stomach, pains  or soreness
of the chest or stomach, languor, depression of spirits, hysterics, pyro-
sis, and many other chronic and painful affections.   Take  of Balsam
Tolu, Gum Guaiacum, Gum Hemlock, Gum Myrrh,  of each, coarsely
powdered, two ounces, Oil of Hemlock three ounces, Oil of Wintergreen
two ounces,  Alcohol one gallon.  Mix and  allow  them to macerate for
two weeks, frequently agitating. The dose is a lluidrachm in half a wine-
glass of sweetened water;  or in severe cases, it  may be increased to
half an  ounce.   I  have employed this preparation  for several years, and
can confidently recommend it to the profession as  an effectual agent in
the above disorders.   A strong decoction of the bark of  this tree is
beneficial in leucorrhea, prolapsus-uteri, diarrhea,  etc., administered in-
ternally, and used in enema; it is likewise of service, as a local applica-
tion, in gangrene.
                        ABIES EXCELSA.

                          Norway Pine.

        Nat. Ord.—Pinaceaj.  Sex. S7/^.—Moncecia Monadelphia.

              THE CONCRETE JUICE.  BURGUNDY PITCH.

  Description.—This tree, also called Norway Spruce Fir, has a trunk
from three to five feet in diameter, and sometimes attains the hight of 
Abies  Excelsa.
145
one hundred and fifty feet.  The leaves are short, obscurely four-cornered,
often curved, of a dusky green color,  shining on the upper surface, and
stand thickly upon  the  branches.   The  male catkins are  purple, axil-
lary, and solitary, scales staminiferous at the apex ; the female catkins are
usually  purple, terminal, and simple; ovaries two; stigmas  glandular;
cones, with imbricated scales, which are  thin at the apex, and rounded,
pendent and purple.
  History.—The Norway Pine is a native of Europe and Northern Asia;
and, as  well as  the Abies  Picea, or  European  silver fir-tree, furnishes
the Burgundy pitch of  commerce.   The pitch is obtained by allowing
the turpentine, which flows from incisions, to harden on  the bark, and
then purifying it by melting it in water, and passing it through  a cloth.
  Pure Burgundy pitch is  hard, brittle, quite opake, of a yellowish  or
brownish  color, and a sweet, perfumed,  weak,  terebinthinate  taste,
without bitterness,   and a  strong, peculiar, balsamic odor.  It is very
fusible, and at the  heat of the body softens  and becomes adhesive.   It
contains a minute proportion of essential oil.  As brought to this country,
it is generally mixed with impurities ; the true pitch is seldom met with,
spurious sorts  being substituted, made by melting together pitch, resin,
and turpentine, and agitating  the  mixture  with water.  The  spurious
kind may  be  known by their  different odor, their  bright yellow  color,
their  numerous vesicles, and by  the aqueous  vapor  they yield  when
heated.
  The resinous exudation from this tree,  in the form of concrete tears, is
the Thus  or Frankincense of commerce,  or Abietis  Resina.
  Frankincense is in solid, brittle tears, externally brownish-yellow, paler
internally, and emitting an  agreeable  odor when burned ;  at the temper-
ature of the body,  it softens and  becomes adhesive.  It is used only as
an ingredient in plasters.
  Properties and Uses.—A gentle rubefacient,  similar to the  Canada
pitch.   It is  applied externally in form of  a plaster,  and produces a
slight degree  of inflammation  and serous  effusion, without  separating
the cuticle.  Sometimes it  excites  a papillary or vesicular eruption, and
has been known to  create  excessive pain, tumefaction, and redness,  fol-
lowed by  vesication and even ulceration.  Used chiefly in chronic rheu-
matic pains, and chronic  affections of the  chest or abdominal  viscera.
It enters into several salves and plasters.

   Off. Prep.—Emplastrum Picis Compositum ; Emplast. Resinae Com-
posite Linimentum Olei Composit.; Liniment. Cajuputi  Composit.; Lini-
ment. Camphor. Composit.
        10 
146
Materia  Medica.
                          ABIES LARIX.

                               Larch.

        Nat. Or A.—Pinaceas.   Sex. Syst.— Moncecia Monadelphia.

resinous  exudation.  Venice turpentine.   (See Oleum Terebinthinai.)
   Description.—The Larch is a tree of straight  and lofty growth, with
wide-spreading branches, whose extremities droop in the most graceful
manner.   The buds  are  alternate,  perennial, cup-shaped, scaly, pro-
ducing annually a pencil-like tuft of very numerous, spreading, linear,
bluntish, entire, smooth, tender, bright-green,  deciduous leaves, about
an inch long.   Male flowers, drooping, about half an inch long, yellow;
female  catkins, erect, larger  than the male flowers, and variegated with
green  and pink;  cones, erect, ovate, about an inch  long, purple when
youno-,  reddish-brown when ripe,  their  scales  spreading,  orbicular,
slightly reflexed,  and cracked  at the  margin.  It is  a native of the
mountainous regions of the north and middle of Europe.
  History.—The trunk of the tree furnishes Venice Turpentine ; and a
peculiar saccharine substance  exudes from  the branches, called Manna
of Briancon.   When the larch forests in Russia  take fire, a gum issues
from the trees during their combustion, which is termed "Gum Orenberg,"
and which is wholly soluble in water like Gum Arabic.
  Genuine Venice Turpentine is a viscid liquid,  of  the consistence of
honey, of  a yellowish or slightly-greenish color, and imperfectly trans-
parent ; it flows with difficulty, has a strong, not disagreeable odor, and
a warm, bitterish,  and very acrid taste.   It is wholly soluble in  alcohol.
The factitious Venice turpentine  is of a  brownish color, and is made by
dissolving resin in  oil of turpentine.
  Properties and  Uses.—(See Oil of Turpentine.)
   Off. Prep.—Unguentum Stramonii Compositum.
                         ABIES  NIGRA.

                   Black Spruce.  Double Spruce.

        Nat. Ord-—Pinaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Monadelphia.

            DECOCTION OF BRANCHES.   ESSENCE OF  SPRUCE.

  Description.—This tree grows in  the northern parts of this continent,
and in elevated situations in the Middle States.  It attains the hight of
from  forty to  seventy feet, having  very dark-green leaves, short, erect,
rigid, and the cones one or two  inches long, reddish-brown,  ovate  and
their scales wavy and toothed at the apex. 
Abies  Nigra — Abies Picea.
147
  Properties.—The extract or Essence of Spruce is made from the young
branches, by boiling them  in water, straining and  evaporating.  From
this Spruce Beer  is made ; an agreeable and not unwholesome summer
drink.   It is made as follows :  Take of essence of spruce half a pint,
bruised ginger, pimento, and hops, of each, four ounces, water three gal-
lons.   Boil for ten or fifteen  minutes, then strain, add of warm water,
eleven gallons, molasses, six pints, and yeast, a pint; mix, and allow the
mixture to ferment for twenty-four hours.
                          ABIES PICEA.

                             Silver Pine.

        Nat. Ord.—Pinaceae.  Sex.  Syst.—Monoecia Monadelphia.

                      STRASBURGH TURPENTINE.

  Description.—This tree, also known as Silver Fir, grows in the moun-
tains of south and  central  Europe, and resembles the Abies Balsamea,
but differs in not having its bracts so sharp pointed, its cones less acute
at each end, and the crest of its anthers pointed.  It affords the "Stras-
burgh Turpentine."

  Properties  and Uses.—(See Oil of Turpentine.)
               ACACIA ARABIC A.   (Acacia  Vera.)

                             Acacia.

  Nat. Ord.—Fabaceas, or Leguminosae.  Tribe.—Mimoseas.  Sex. Syst.—Poly-
gamia  Moncecia.

                 THE CONCRETE JUICE.   GUM ARABIC.
  Description.—Acacia Arabica, also known by the  name of Egyptian
Thorn, or Egyptian Gum Arabic is a small tree  or shrub, but which
sometimes attains the hight of forty feet, with a trunk  from twelve to
sixteen inches in diameter.  The leaves are alternate and doubly pinnate,
with four or six pairs of pinnae, each being composed of from  ten  to
twenty pairs of minute, smooth, oblong, linear leaflets, with a gland on
the common petiole, below the first, and generally one between  the last
pair of pinnae.   Spines straight and in pairs.   Flowers yellow, in globose,
pedunculated,  axillary, subternate heads.   The Legume is  moniliform.
  Acacia Vera is a tree of middling size, with a crooked stem covered
with a smooth gray bark, numerous scattered branches  covered with a
yellowish-green or purplish bark.   The leaves are alternate, bipinnate, 
148
Materia  Medica.
and composed of two pairs  of opposite pinnae, with  numerous, small,
oblong, linear, and smooth leaflets, supported on  very short footstalks ;
on  the  common  petiole, and  between each  pair of pinnae, is  a gland.
The flowers are bright yellow, inodorous, small, and collected in globular
heads about two together, and supported on slender, axillary peduncles,
and furnished with two  small bracts.   The branches  and petioles are
glabrous ; the spines are in pairs, sharp, and from three to six lines long,
and are situated at the insertion of each leaf, being united at their base.
The legume is four or five inches long, moniliform, smooth, flat,  of a pale-
brown  color, and divided  into several orbicular  portions,  in  each  of
which is contained a  single, flattish seed.    The  best  quality of Gum
Arabic is obtained from this tree.
  History.—These trees grow  in upper and  lower Egypt, Senegal, and
other parts of  Africa, also  flourish in Arabia, and in Hindostan, where
their gum is used for  food  by  the  natives.  The A. Arabica is the most
widely  diffused of the  gum-bearing  trees.     Gum Arabic is  likewise
obtained from  several other species of Acacia, but  not so largely as from
the two above-named.    The gum of the Acacias exudes spontaneously
from the bark  of the trunk  and branches, and hardens on exposure ; but
incisions are sometimes made  in order  to facilitate the  exudation.   It
exudes  from the trees in the form of a thick and somewhat frothy juice,
soon after the  rainy season has softened their bark, and rendered it apt
to split during the hot weather that succeeds.   It is secreted in greatest
abundance  by  old stunted trees, and in dry, hot seasons, and is thought
by some to be the result of disease.
  The best quality of Gum Arabic has a very  pale, straw color, breaks
with a  vitreous fracture, is  transparent,  inodorous,  insipid,  and feels
quite viscid in the  mouth.     It is generally in small, round,  irregular
lumps, of easy fracture.  Its colored varieties are bleached by  exposure
to the light of  the sun.   Its specific gravity varies from 1.3 to 1.4.  In
powder it is always white.
  Gum Arabic is soluble  in cold or  hot  water, forming a viscid solu-
tion called mucilage, which, when evaporated, yields the gum unchanged.
It is insoluble  in alcohol, ether, and the oils,  and is precipitated from its
aqueous solution by alcohol.    Concentrated acids  decompose it.    A
soliuion of  borax  coagulates it.  It unites with sugar in solution, which
when evaporated  yields an  uncrystallizable, transparent, solid substance.
It is also soluble in dilute acids, solutions of the pure alkalies, and lime-
water.
  A concentrated aqueous solution of Gum Arabic may be kept a long
while, unless the weather  be  very hot,  in which event it will  ferment.
A weak solution  ferments speedily, and  acetous acid is developed.
Nitric acid changes pure gum into mucic or saccho-lactic acid.   Analysis
shows it to contain bi-malate, and  muriate of lime, muriate and acetate
of potassa,  and some other  matters. 
Acacia Catechu.
149
  Properties and Uses.—Nutritive and  demulcent.   Used in irritations
or inflammations of mucous surfaces; as, hoarseness, sore-throat, cough,
gonorrhea, catarrh of the urinary bladder, dysentery,  diarrhea,  stran-
gury, and tenesmus.  It may be given, ad libitum, in the form of solution
or lozenge; as an article of diet in cases requiring a rigid regimen, as in
fevers, it is superior  to any other  substance; it  maybe  used for  this
purpose by. dissolving the gum  in powder, half an ounce, in  five ounces
of water, and sweetening with loaf-sugar, of which a tablespoonful may
be given every two or three hours ; in low stages of fever, in typhoid
fever, and wherever a mild stimulant is required, one ounce of  a satu-
rated solution of camphor in sulphuric ether may be added to the above,
and administered in the same way ;  it is diuretic, promotes the action of
the absorbents, and does not materially increase arterial action.   Equal
parts of pulverized alum and Gum  Arabic form a good preparation to
check hemorrhages from small cuts, wounds, etc.
  Externally, the  application of its  solution to  burns and  scalds  has
proved serviceable, repeating it until a complete coating is secured.  It
is likewise  much used for compounding pills, lozenges, mixtures  and
emulsions ; also for administering insoluble substances in water,  as oils,
resins, balsams, camphor, musk, etc.
  Mucilage of Gum Arabic—To  four ounces of  finely  pulverized
Gum Arabic, add, very gradually, a pint of boiling water, and rub  the
whole until perfectly blended.    Dose, ad libitum.   When Gum  Arabic
is adulterated with cherry gum, it is not easy to form a good mucilage ;
the cerasin of the cherry gum will cause it to be ropy.
                       ACACIA CATECHU.

           Catechu.  (Cutch.   Gambeer.  Terra Japonica.)

  Nat. Ord.—Fabaceas, or Leguminosaa. Tribe.—Mimosese.  Sex. Syst.—Poly-
gamia Moncecia.
                       EXTRACT OF THE  WOOD.
  Description.—The Acacia Catechu is a small tree, seldom more than
twelve feet high, and with a trunk one foot in diameter.  The bark of
the tree is  thick, scabrous, ferruginous, red within, very astringent  and
somewhat bitter.   The branches are spreading  and irregular, and when
young, pubescent;  the older ones have many stipular prickles, in pairs
and recurved.  The leaves  are alternate,  and  consist of ten to  thirty
pairs of pinnae  about two inches long, each  having many small,  linear
leaflets, covered with short hairs, and of a pale-green color. At the base
of each pair of pinnae is a small gland upon the common petiole,  and
attached to the stem at the base of each leaf,  are two  short, recurved
spines.  The flowers are numerous, axillary, in slender cylindrical spikes, 
150
Materia  Medica.
about four or five  inches long, and of a pale-yellow color.  The calyx
tubular, hairy, and five-toothed.  The corolla is composed of five petals,
united into a tube at the  base, and is  longer than the calyx.  Stamens
numerous, distinct, with roundish anthers.  The ovary is green, oval,
glabrous, supporting a slender style, and terminated by a simple stigma.
The legume is lanceolate, flat, straight, smooth,  and brown, with  an
undulated thin margin, containing six or eight roundish, flattened seeds,
which emit a nauseous odor when chewed.
  History.—This species of Acacia is a native of the East  Indies, grow-
ing abundantly in  Hindostan and in the Burman empire.  The officinal
catechu is prepared by boiling the leaves or wood in water, then evapo-
rating to the proper consistence, and pouring into quadrangular earthen
molds.   Catechu is likewise obtained from the Areca Catechu and Unca-
ria Gambir.  There are several kinds of it met with in commerce,  but the
best is  that which possesses the most astringency, and which  can  be
determined by the taste.
   Catechu varies in its color and appearance, being from pale to a dark-
brown, in square, round, and irregular pieces, friable, specific  gravity
1.2 to 1.3, inodorous, astringent, and succeeded by an agreeable sweet
taste.  That which is preferred is of a dark  color, easily broken into
small angular fragments, with  a smooth, glossy surface, bearing some
resemblance to Kino.  It is soluble in hot water, which deposits a red-
dish matter  on cooling.   Cold water partially dissolves it.  Alcohol or
proof spirit  dissolves it readily.   It contains tannin, extractive, and mu-
cilage.   Ether dissolves  its tannin and catechuic  acids.    The dark-
colored catechu is the most astringent.
   It is incompatible with solutions of the pure earths, with sulphuric acid
or muriatic  acids, salts of alumina, lead, copper, and of the sesquioxide
of iron, also with gelatin, opium, cinchona, and those salts of the veget-
able alkaloids, which form insoluble salts with tannin.
   Properties and Uses.—Catechu is a pure and powerful astringent, and
slightly tonic.  It is used  for arresting mucous  discharges when exces-
sive,  for removing relaxation or congestion of mucous membranes, and
for checking hemorrhages.   In chronic diarrhea, chronic  catarrh, colli-
quative diarrhea, and chronic dysentery, it has  proved beneficial espe-
cially when combined with opium.  As a local application it is a valuable
agent for removing  cynanche  tonsillaris,  aphthous ulcerations of  the
mouth, elongation of the  uvula, and relaxation and  congestion of  the
mucous membrane of  the fauces, especially of the kind to which public
singers are  subject; it is also useful in congestion, tenderness and spongi-
ness  of the gums, particularly  when the  result of mercurial  ptyalism.
The  tincture  of catechu is often useful in fissure  of the  nipples, when
applied twice  a day with a fine  hair pencil.  Catechu is likewise benefi-
cial as a topical application to ulcers  of a  phagedenic character, and to
indolent ulcers.  An infusion of catechu may be used as an injection in 
Acacia Catechu — Acetum.
151
obstinate gonorrhea, gleet, and leucorrhea; and thrown up  the  nostrils
is beneficial in epistaxis.   The dose of powdered  catechu is  from ten to
thirty grains, frequently repeated, and is  best given  with  sugar, gum
arabic, and water ; dose of the tincture from one drachm to half a fluid-
ounce.
                             ACETUM.

                              Vinegar.

   IMPURE DILUTE  ACETIC ACID, PREPARED  BY FERMENTATION OF CIDER,
 MALT, OR WINE.

   Acetum Britannicum.—Common British made Vinegar, from infusion
 of malt.  Density, 1006 to 1019.

   Acetum Destillatum.—Distilled Vinegar.

   Acetum Gallicum.—French Vinegar ; density,  1014 to 1022.

   Acetum Vini.—Wine Vinegar.—Impure Dilute  Acetic Acid.
   History.—Sugar and water, and all saccharine vegetable juices, infu-
 sion of malt, wine, cider, and all liquors susceptible of vinous fermenta-
 tion, may be converted into vinegar, by being exposed to  a temperature
 between 75° and 90° F. with access of air, in which they undergo  an
 action called acetous fermentation, and which is developed under a mi-
 croscopic fungus influence, termed torula aceti.   The  several  changes
 which occur during this fermentation, are included in the term acetiflca-
 tion;  during the  progress of which, heat  is disengaged, the liquid
 becomes turbid, and filaments are formed, which move  in numerous
 directions, and finally,  the liquid becomes transparent, with a pultaceous
 deposit of the filaments, its  alcohol  has disappeared, and vinegar now
 occupies its place.
   This change is supposed to take place, in consequence  of the forma-
 tion  of a new substance called Aldehyd, the result of the  loss of a part
 of the oxygen of  the alcohol.  Alcohol consists of four equivalents  of
 carbon, six of hydrogen, and two  of oxygen, through the  action of the
 atmosphere, it loses two equivalents of hydrogen, and becomes aldehyd.
 This, absorbing two equivalents  of  oxygen, becomes  hydrated acetic
 acid, consisting of  four equivalents each of carbon, hydrogen, and oxy-
gen.   Aldehyd is an ethereal fluid, very inflammable, colorless, with a
pungent taste and smell; its density is 0.79.   It absorbs  oxygen with
avidity.   Its  name has reference to its character, alcohol  dehydroge-
nated.  Aldehyd resin, a soft, light-brown mass, giving a nauseous soapy
smell when heated to 212°, and is formed by decomposing the aqueous
solution of aldehyd by eaustic potassa. 
152                      Materia  Medica.
   Different liquors are employed in the manufacture of vinegar, in dif-
ferent countries ; in wine countries, wine is used;  in Britain, infusion of
malt ; in the United  States,  cider  is  principally  used.   The  cider  is
placed in barrels with their bung-holes  open, and which are then exposed
to the heat of the sun, during summer, and the acetification is perfected
in about two years.   This  fermentation must be watched during its pro-
gress, and as soon  as  the vinegar is formed, it must be racked  off  into
clean barrels, otherwise it will become spoiled by running into the putre-
factive fermentation.
   Vineoar is also made by  various Other methods, many of which require
a  comparatively short time for  its  formation.   A  tumbler full  of boil-
ing  milk  added  to  fifty gallons of  vinegar, and stirred  into  it,  will
clarify it, without injuring  its aroma, and will also render red vinegar
pale.
   Good vinegar is of an agreeable, penetrating odor, and  pleasant acid
taste; its color varies  from pale-yellow to red, and when  long  kept,  it
becomes turbid and ropy, putrefies, becomes fetid,  and  loses its acidity,
more especially if exposed to the air.   Malt vinegar is usually of a yel-
lowish red color ; containing from 4 to 5 per cent,  of acetic acid ; wine
vinegar is white or red, according to the wine it is  prepared from, and is
about one-sixth stronger  than malt vinegar.   White wine vinegar is pre-
ferred to the red, which last may be rendered pale by passing it through
animal charcoal.
   Vinegar may contain sulphuric acid, copper, and lead, which are its
most dangerous impurities.   The  want of  action of  acetate  of lead
proves it free from the first; the second may be detected by the addition
of ammonia in  excess, which  renders the acid blue, if copper be pre-
sent ; and  iodide of potassium will  detect lead by throwing down  the
yellow iodide of lead.
   Properties  and Uses. — Refrigerant,  diuretic, astringent,  and  tonic.
Useful  in febrile and inflammatory complaints,  especially  when  the
tongue is coated dark or brown ; also in typhus and scurvy, as an anti-
septic.  In urinary affections,  attended with a white sediment, consisting
mainly of phosphate  of  lime, and  ammoniaco-magnesian  phosphate, it
has been recommended.  In dysentery  and scarlatina, vinegar saturated
with common house salt, has been very beneficial.  A large tablespoon-
ful of the mixture must be added to four of hot water, of which  a table-
spoonful is to be taken, as  hot as may  be, every two or three minutes,
till the whole is consumed.   A similar preparation  was found very effec-
tual in the treatment of  Asiatic cholera, in  Cincinnati, during 1849-50,
and  is also asserted to have proved  a  useful local application in external
inflammations,  sprains, bruises,  swellings, etc.  The vapor of  vinegar
inhaled into the lungs, is useful in diseases of these organs, dryness and
irritation of the pulmonary tubes during measles and  other exanthema-
tous and febrile diseases, also in sore-throat; and  diffused  through  the 
Achillea Millefolium.
153
rooms of the sick, it is both agreeable and wholesome to the patient and
attendants.
   Vinegar has been used as a gargle, or its vapor inhaled, in putrid sore-
throat, ulceration of the fauces, hoarseness, etc.; it has also been applied
locally in some cases of ophthalmia, in epistaxis, several cutaneous dis-
eases, and, diluted with water, has been used  as  an injection into the
rectum in  hemorrhoidal affections,  and into the uterus in cases of uterine
hemorrhage.   It forms a valuable adjuvant to cooling lotions. The dose
internally is from one to four fluidrachms ; as  an injection, one or two
fluidounces diluted with twice or thrice its bulk of water.
   Distilled Vinegar is  used for  the  same purposes as above, and  is the
solvent to  be employed in making  the various medicated vinegars of
opium, squill, colchicum, etc.   Care  must be  taken, when using vinegar
medicinally, not to obtain the spurious and adulterated articles, contain-
ing sulphuric acid, muriatic acid, nitric  acid, copper, lead, etc.  One
part of acetic acid to five of distilled water, forms a very good vinegar,
for culinary and medicinal purposes.
   Off. Prep.—Acetum Emeticum; Acetum  Lobelias; Acetum Sangui-
nariae; Acetum  Scillae; Tinctura  Opii Acetata;  Tinctura Sanguinariae
Acetata; Lotio  Refrigerans;  Lotio Lobeliae Compositum.
                   ACHILLEA MILLEFOLIUM.

                              Yarrow.

        Nat. Ord.—Asteraceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Superflua.

                              THE herb.
   Description.—Yarrow, also called Milfoil, is from twelve to eighteen
inches high, with simple stems,,branching at top.  The leaves are doubly
pinnate, crowded, alternate, with linear, dentate,  mucronate  segments.
The flowers are white or rose-cplored, and are arranged in a dense, flat-
topped, compound corymb; involucre oblong and imbricated.  Rays four
or five, short;  receptacle chaffy, small,  flattish.  Achenium  oblong, flat-
tened, margined.
   History.—Yarrow is a perennial herb, common to Europe and North
America, growing in fields, woods, pastures,  etc., and flowering  nearly
the whole  summer.  The  American  plant  is  the most active.   The
flowers and leaves have an agreeable, but feeble  aromatic odor, and a
bitter, astringent, pungent taste.  It contains  a volatile oil, bitter extrac-
tive, tannin,  and achilleic acid.   The active  principles  are  extracted
both by water and alcohol.
  According to M. Zanon, the active principle  of this plant, Achilleine,
has been  used as  a substitute for  sulphate  of quinia  in  intermittent 
154
Materia Medica.
fevers, in the south of Europe.   It is prepared by boiling five pounds
of the dried plant with  sixteen  pounds  of  rain-water for about two
hours.  The residue  is  again boiled  twice with smaller quantities  of
water, the decoctions are then  filtered  and mixed.   These are  then
clarified  with white of egg, and evaporated at a  gentle  heat until a
whitish pellicle is formed on the  surface.   After twenty-four hours the
cold liquid  deposits a mass consisting for the most  part  of vegetable
fiber, green coloring substance, with some coagulated albumen, extractive
matter insoluble in alcohol, lime-salts, and  traces of silica.   The bitter
and acid liquid is  filtered, and then treated with an  excess of  hydrate
of lime,  which produces a white precipitate;  upon  this  the  liquid is
treated with  acetate of lead as  long as any precipitate is formed.   This
precipitate is collected on a filter, and the solution saturated with sul-
phureted hydrogen, after which it still possesses a  yellowish color and
a very bitter taste.  On evaporation it yields nearly half a  pound of dry
extract, which, as well as the previously-filtered sulphuret of lead, are
exhausted with  alcohol.   The two, mixed and evaporated, yield about
seven ounces of achilleine.
   The achilleine obtained in this manner,  contains some acetate of lime,
resin, etc., but which  may be avoided by treating the  neutralized decoc-
tion  (above, by hydrate of lime) with animal charcoal, then evaporating
to dryness, and finally extracting with boiling absolute alcohol.
   The color of achilleine is  instantly destroyed by  chlorine;  it is not
precipitated  by tincture  of galls nor acetate of lead, but it is thrown
down  by basic acetate of lead;  it is  soluble in ammonia,  and the  solu-
tion, when exposed to the air until the ammoniacal odor has disappeared,
deposits  brown flakes, which are less soluble than achilleine; the slight
trace of  resin in achilleine may be removed by solution in  water.
   Achilleic acid  is obtained  by treating  the decoction  of Yarrow with
acetate of lead as long as any precipitate  is formed, this is suspended in
water,  and  decomposed with   sulphureted  hydrogen.   The liquid
obtained will be very acid, and  contain some lime and green  coloring
substance;  to  precipitate the lime, supersaturate it  with  carbonate of
potassa,  and then treat  it with animal charcoal.   The potassa-salt may
be precipitated with acetate  of lead,  and the  precipitate decomposed
with sulphureted hydrogen.
   Achilleic acid is not volatile at 212° F.; its solution  can therefore be
concentrated by evaporation in the water-bath.   The  greatest concentra-
tion to which it can be brought is 1.014825.  In this  state it is perfectly
colorless, but on further evaporation it becomes straw-colored.   Exposed
to the air in a  glass or porcelain dish, it crystallizes in perfectly colorless
quadrilateral prisms.   The crystallized acid requires  at 56° F. two  parts
of cold water  for  solution;  the solution  is very acid, makes the  teeth
rough, has no odor, and strongly reddens litmus paper.  Added by
drops to a clear solution of acetate of lead, it  does not render it in  the 
AciDUM  AcETICUM.
155
least turbid; but in a solution  of basic acetate of lead it immediately
produces a white precipitate, which is very slightly soluble.
  Achilleic acid forms salts with carbonates of potassa and  soda, am-
monia, lime, magnesia,  and quinia,  which may become  useful thera-
peutical agents.  The  achilleate of quinia is very soluble, and may be
found superior to the sulphate of quinia; it may be made by dissolving
quinia  in very slightly-diluted acid,  allowing  the substances  to  act  on
each other for several days, stirring them frequently, until the liquid no
longer reddens litmus paper.  Then filter,  and add some alcohol;  heat
it nearly to boiling, and allow it  to cool, when nearly the whole liquid is
converted into very beautiful radiate-grouped prismatic crystals, which
are very bitter, and readily soluble in water or alcohol.
  Properties and  Uses.—Yarrow is  a tonic, astringent, and  alterative.
It has  been used  in intermittent  fever, hemoptysis,  hematuria, incon-
tinence of urine, diabetes, hemorrhoids, and  dysentery ; also in leucorrhea,
amenorrhea, flatulent colic, and  some nervous affections.  In menorrha-
gia, half a fluidounce of the saturated  tincture, repeated three or four
times daily, has been found advantageous; a few drops of oil of anise
will cover its unpleasant  taste.  The late Prof. T. V. Morrow made much
use of  an infusion of this herb in dysentery.  Dose of the infusion,  from
four to six fluidounces,  three or  four times daily; of the volatile oil,
from ten to thirty drops.
   Achillea Ptarmica or Sneezewort, grows  in  hedges and thickets, and
in moist places in various parts of the country.   It is about  two feet in
hight,  with the leaves sessile, linear or slightly lanceolate,  acuminate,
equally and sharply serrate, with  appressed teeth, and smooth.   The
flowers are white, and arranged at the top of the plant in a diffuse corymb.
The leaves are remarkably distinct from the Yarrow.  The whole plant
is pungent, exciting an  increased flow of  saliva.  The powder of the
dried leaves when  snuffed into the nostrils, produces sneezing, which is
supposed to be owing to  their small,  sharp, and  marginal teeth.
                      ACIDUM ACETICUM.

                            Acetic Acid.
  Preparation.—Take of acetate of soda, in powder, a pound; sulphuric
acid half a pound.    Pour the sulphuric acid  into  a glass  retort,  and
gradually add the acetate of soda ; then, by means of a sand-bath, distil
the acetic acid with a gentle heat, till the residuum  becomes dry.   The
specific gravity of this acid  is 1.0634;  and one hundred  grains of  it
saturate 83.5 grains of crystallized bicarbonate  of potassa.
   Chemical Properties.—The acetic acid  of the pharmacopoeias is  a
limpid and colorless liquid, possessing a  very sour and acrid taste, and a 
156
Materia  Medica.
 fragrant, pungent smell.   It unites in all  proportions with water, and
 dissolves to a certain extent in alcohol.  It possesses the property of dis-
 solving a  number of  substances, such  as the  volatile  oils,  camphor,
 gluten, resins and gum resins, fibrin, albumen, etc.   It is incompatible
 with the alkalies and  alkaline earths, both  pure and  carbonated, with
 metallic oxides, and most  substances acted  on  by other acids.   When
 well prepared, it should not  form a precipitate with the soluble salts of
 baryta, and should evaporate completely in a glass or platinum capsule,
 without leaving any residue.
   The concentrated acid, or  radical vinegar,  protohydrated acetic acid,
 is a colorless, volatile liquid  at  the  temperature of 60°, with a  strong
 acid and corrosive taste, and an acid, pungent, and refreshing smell.  Its
 specific gravity is 1.063.  It volatilizes without decomposition, and burns
 with a blue flame when boiled in open vessels ; it attracts humidity from
 the atmosphere, and should be kept in well-stopped vessels.
   Properties and Uses.—Acetic Acid is stimulant, rubefacient, vesicant,
 and escharotic ; and is considerably employed to produce counter-irrita-
 tion in croup, sore-throat, and other cases of internal inflammation.  It
 may be used by moistening blotting paper or cambric with it, and  apply-
 ing it  to the parts to be vesicated.  It frequently destroys warts and
 corns when applied to  them, and has been found effectual as  an appli-
 cation to scald-head.   In syncope, asphyxia, and headache, its vapor is
 frequently  applied to the nostrils as  an excitant.   It is only used as an
 external agent.   M. Ricord speaks highly of this acid as a local appli-
 cation to venereal ulcers in the primary stage, to be applied as freely as
 any other caustic, and repeated as often as the condition of the chancres
 may require.   Under its influence the ulcer speedily assumes a healthy
 aspect and  promptly heals.   He believes that it neutralizes the venereal
 poison,  and thus obviates all danger of constitutional  symptoms.  We
 believe  the same may be truly said of other acids, as the nitric, muriatic,
tincture of chloride, iron, etc.   Half a pint of acetic acid, added  to five
pints of distilled water ; is a valuable substitute for distilled vinegar, in
all formulae requiring nicety.
   Off. Prep.—Linimentum Terebinthinae.
    ACIDUM ACETICUM EMPYREUMATICUM.  ACIDUM
                         PYROLIGNEUM.

                         Pyroligneous Acid.

     IMPURE ACETIC  ACID, OBTAINED FROM WOOD BY DISTILLATION.
  History.—Pyroligneous acid is a  brown, transparent liquid, having a
strong, smoky smell.  It consists of acetic acid, with more or less water, 
Acidum  Benzoicum.
157
and holding in solution tar  and empyreumatic oil.  It may be purified
by repeated distillation, and then neutralizing it with lime or carbonate
of soda.

  Properties and Uses.—Stimulant  and  antiseptic.    Used  as a  local
application for arresting or preventing sloughing, for cleansing old sores,
abscesses, and burns, scalds, ringworm, tinea capitis, excoriated nipples,
etc., and as a gargle in inflamed and ulcerated  throat,  and scarlatina
maligna.   Internally, in doses of from ten to thirty drops, it is useful in
all cases  where an antiseptic is indicated.  The pyroligneous tar forms a
valuable  irritating plaster.   Hams or beef, salted, and dipped into the
crude pyroligneous acid, and then dried, have the smoky flavor imparted
to them,  as perfectly as if  they were smoked  by the  ordinary process,
and are likewise  preserved from "skippers."
   Off. Prep.—Linimentum Terebinthinae.
                      ACIDUM BENZOICUM.

                           Benzoic Acid.

   Preparation.—Take of  coarsely  powdered  Benzoin,  any  quantity.
Put the benzoin, previously well mixed with an equal weight of fine sand,
into a glass vessel, placed in a sand-bath, and with a  heat  of 300° gra-
dually  increased, sublime  until nothing more  ascends.   Wrap the
sublimed matter in bibulous paper, and press it, that it may be  separated
from the oily part;  then again sublime, with a heat not exceeding 400°.

   Chemical History.—Benzoic acid is in soft, white, feathery crystals,  of
a silky luster, and not  pulverulent.   When pure, it is inodorous, but
when prepared by sublimation, it has a peculiar agreeable aromatic odor,
which  is owing to the  presence of an  oil.  It has a warm, acrid  and
acidulous taste ;  is soluble in alcohol, concentrated nitric and  sulphuric
acids, solution of potassa, and fixed oils.  It  is a  characteristic consti-
tuent of the balsams.

  Properties and Uses.—Stimulant, and perhaps expectorant.   Said by
Dr. Ure to  convert the  uric acid, when in excess, into hippuric  acid.
Used  in the phosphatic form of gravel; also  in gout and  rheumatism,
combined with carbonate of potassa.  Used externally  in some cutaneous
diseases, and enters into some cosmetic  washes.  Dose,  10  to 30 grains.

   Off.  Prep. — Tinctura  Opii  Camphorata.  Unguentum  Sulphuris
Compositum. 
158
Materia  Medica.
                     ACIDUM  CHROMICUM.

                           Chromic Acid.

   Preparation.—To  one volume  of a cold saturated solution of bichro-
mate of potassa add one volume and a half of pure sulphuric acid, and
allow the mixture to cool in a covered capsule, or in a flask, when it de-
posits beautiful deep-red needles of chromic  acid.  The liquid  being
drained off, these are laid on a porous brick to dry, covered with a glass
bell-jar.  They must be preserved in very tightly-stoppered vials.
   Chemical Properties.—Chromic Acid  is a strong acid, isomorphous
with sulphuric, selenic, and manganic acids.  It is very soluble in water,
and  is highly deliquescent in the  air.  It destroys  the  color of indigo,
and  of most vegetable  and animal coloring matters.  It  is a powerful
oxidizing agent, yielding  half its oxygen readily to oxidizable  bodies,
and  being  reduced to sesquioxide.
   Properties and Uses.—Recommended  in the treatment of piles;  the
acid  is to be applied  freely over the whole of  the diseased surface, and
when properly managed it will  not spread beyond the prescribed  limits.
It occasions uneasiness for  some hours,  and  sometimes acute burning
pain—a slough passes away, and the tumor  shrinks and becomes in-
sensible.   As  soon  as its erosive operation  is finished, the acid passes
into  a state of inert pulverulent sesquioxide.   It may likewise be found
advantageous in cancer, malignant tumors, ulcers, etc.
   The Bichromate of Potassa in saturated solution has been recommend-
ed as a  local application to warts, excrescences, and tubercular  eleva-
tions ; it  causes but little  pain,  and often removes these growths by
absorption without any slough; or if a slough has  formed, it serves  to
expedite the cure, and is not followed by deep, unmanageable ulcers.
  When  this  salt is applied in solution  to the skin, habitually, it first
produces an eruption of papulae, which become pustular,  and, provided
the exposure be continued, form deep sloughs under the  pustules, of a
peculiarly penetrating character.
  A green  ink  may be made by dissolving 180 grains of bichromate  of
potassa in  one fluidounce  of water;  add  to the solution  while warm,
half  a fluidounce of  spirit of wine,  then decompose the mixture with
strong  sulphuric acid  until  it assumes a brown color.   Evaporate  the
liquor to one-half, let it cool, dilute  it with two fluidounces of distilled
water and filter it, then add  half a fluidounce of  spirit of wine,  and a
few drops of strong sulphuric acid, and let it stand.  After  some time
the  ink assumes a  beautiful green color, and is rendered fit for use by
the addition of a small quantity of  Gum  Arabic.
   A very cheap ink, costing about two or three cents a gallon, may  be
made by neutralizing  a solution  of bichromate of potassa with salt  of 
ACIDUM  ClTRICUM --AdDUM GALLICUM.
159
tartar, (or until effervescence ceases).  Then  add a sufficient quantity
of this to an infusion of logwood, to give it the desired color.  This ink,
however, is apt to  fade, and precipitates  from the slightest causes;  the
smallest proportion  of common  black  ink will cause a precipitate.  To
render the above ink perfectly permanent, and of a more  intense black
color, add to it a few drops of a solution of corrosive sublimate.
                      ACIDUM ClTRICUM.

                            Citric  Acid.

  Preparation.—Citric Acid is  present in the juices of many fruits, but
it is  principally obtained from lemon or lime-juice, which is saturated
with prepared chalk, the precipitated citrate of lime is repeatedly washed,
and then decomposed with a slight excess of dilute sulphuric  acid ;  then
strained, carefully concentrated by boiling,  and crystallized.
   Chemical Properties.—Citric acid is a white crystallized solid, often in
large crystals, having the form of rhomboidal prisms with dihedral sum-
mits.  It  is  permanent in dry air.   Specific gravity, 1.6.   Its taste is
strongly acid, and almost  caustic.   It  dissolves  in  three-fourths of its
weight  of cold, and half its weight of boiling water.  A weak solution
has an agreeable taste, but soon  undergoes spontaneous decomposition.
It is also soluble in alcohol.
  Properties and Uses.—Citric acid is refrigerant and antiscorbutic.  It
may be used in fevers, in the form of lemonade, made by dissolving the
acid in water, sweetening sufficiently, and adding a few drops of essence
of lemon ; it is likewise beneficial in scurvy, acidity of the stomach,  and
some peculiar forms of  sick-headache.  A mixture  for making good
lemonade, and which will keep  for years if preserved dry, is  to combine
together, one and a  half  ounces  of powdered citric acid, one pound of
powdered white sugar, and five drops of oil  of lemon.   A  teaspoonful
of this to a pint of water, forms an agreeable and beneficial draught for
patients with febrile diseases, especially when the tongue is coated brown
or black.
                      ACIDUM  GALLICUM.

                             Gallic Acid.

   Preparation. — Take  of Galls  in  powder,  three  pounds;  distilled
water, purified  animal charcoal,  of  each a  sufficient quantity.   Mix
the galls with sufficient distilled water to form a thin paste, and expose
the mixture to the air, in a shallow glass or porcelain  vessel, in a warm 
160
Materia  Medica.
place, for a month, occasionally stirring it with a glass  rod, and adding
from time  to  time sufficient distilled water to  preserve the  semi-fluid
consistence.  Then submit  the  paste to expression, and  rejecting the
expressed  liquor,  boil the residue in a gallon of distilled water for a few
minutes, and  filter while hot  through animal  charcoal.   Set the hot
liquor  aside that  crystals may form, which  may be dried on  bibulous
paper.   If the crystals be  not sufficiently free from color, they may be
purified by dissolving them in boiling distilled  water, filtering  through
a fresh portion of animal charcoal, and crystallizing.
  This  is  the process recommended by the U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia, and
is based upon  the  fact, that  galls in decoction or moistened, and exposed
to the air, gradually have their tannic acid converted  into gallic  acid,
oxyo-en being absorbed, with the escape of an  equivalent  amount of
carbonic acid.   The smallest quantity of sesquioxide  of iron, will pre-
vent the bleaching of the acid,  so  that  the  animal  charcoal  should  be
purified, and the filtering-paper examined.   As the first crop of crystals
obtained by the above method, retains  a large  quantity of water, they
should be subjected to strong expression between  two  folds of  bibulous
paper.
  Mr.  C. Wetherill, upon the belief that  gallic  acid differs from tannic,
wholly in containing water,  endeavored to prepare the  former from the
latter, by the fixation of the  water, and succeeded  by means of sulphuric
acid.   He mixed  thirteen drachms of tannic acid with  twenty-two fluid
ounces  of sulphuric acid and four times that bulk of water,  and heated
the mixture to the boiling  point, and then allowed it to stand.   In a
few days an abundant precipitate of white gallic  acid took place, amount-
ing to 87.4 per cent, of the  tannic acid.

  History.—Gallic acid  is in  delicate,  silky,  acicular  crystals, slightly
brownish, but colorless when  pure.  It is inodorous, and of a sourish
astringent taste.   It is soluble in 100 parts of  cold water, and 3 of boil-
ing water, very soluble  in  alcohol,  and only slightly so in  ether.  On
exposure to the air it undergoes spontaneous decomposition.   Heated to
420°, it gives  out carbonic acid, and is converted into pyro-gallic acid;
thrown  on red-hot iron, it is entirely dissipated.   It  does not  precipitate
gelatin  like tannic acid, nor a solution  of sulphate of protoxide of iron,
but occasions a deep bluish-black precipitate with  a  solution of  the salts
of sesquioxide of iron.  Its formula  is CT H3 05, and its  combining
number 85.
  Properties and Uses.—Gallic acid is a valuable astringent, and is used
principally as  an internal astringent.  As such it has been found benefi-
cial in  hemorrhages from the kidneys, uterus, and lungs.  Menorrhagia
has promptly ceased under its use.   It is also useful in chronic mucous
discharges from the bowels  or bladder, and has  some  reputation in
arresting the excretion  of albumen  in  Bright's disease of the Kidney. 
        Acidum Hydriodicum — Acidum Hydrochloricum.       161

It is believed to be more efficient than  tannic acid, in cases of hemor-
rhage, where the bleeding vessels must be reached through the  circula-
tion, as its chemical affinities do not afford the same impediment to its
absorption  as  those  of the  tannic acid.  It is  said  not to constipate.
Dose of gallic acid, is from five to fifteen grains, three or  four  times a
day, in the form of pill or powder.
  Off. Prep.—Liquor Potassae Citratis ; Ferri et Quiniae Citras;  Ferri
Citras; Quiaiae Citras.
                  ACIDUM  HYDRIODICUM.

                          Hydriodic Acid.

  Preparation.—Take of iodide of potassium 330  grains, tartaric  acid
264 grains.   Dissolve these salts, separately, each in a fluidounce and a
naif of distilled water, and mix the solutions.  Filter the liquor, in order
to separate  the bitartrate  of potassa which precipitates, and  add to it
sufficient distilled water to make the  whole measure fifty fluidrachms.
  History.—This solution is sufficiently pure for medicinal use, although
it contains a little cream  of  tartar ;  each fluidrachm of it  contains five
grains of iodine.   At first it is limpid, or has only a slight  yellow tinge,
but becomes a wine-yellow on keeping, and finally a beautiful red, in
consequence of the disengagement of iodine.
  Properties and Uses.—Hydriodic Acid is supposed to possess all  the
virtues of iodine, without any of its irritant properties, and may be em-
ployed in all cases where iodine is indicated.   The dose  is five drops
gradually increased to a  fluidrachm,  and repeated two or three times a
day.  It should be sufficiently diluted with water, when given, to reduce
it to an agreeable acidity.  Hydriodic acid has been combined with
several  of  the  new organic alkalies, for the  purpose of  forming  new
medicinal agents.
                 ACIDUM  HYDROCHLORICUM.

                  Muriatic Acid.  Spirit of Sea Salt.

  Preparation.—Hydrochloric Acid is prepared from muriate of soda, by
the decomposing power of sulphuric acid, which liberates the acid in the
form of gas ;  and this passing into vessels containing water, is readily
absorbed by that fluid.
  Chemical Properties.—When pure, hydrochloric acid is a transparent,
colorless liquid,  of a corrosive taste and suffocating  odor.   The  yellow
tinge  often  seen in the medicinal acid is owing to the presence of iron,
or some organic  matter.   Its specific gravity is 1.21  ; that of the medi-
            11 
162
Materia Medica.
 cmal acid is  1.16.  It is incompatible with alkalies and most earths, with
 oxides and their carbonates, and with sulphuret of potassium, tartrate
 of potassa, tartar emetic, tartarized iron, nitrate of silver, and  solution
 of subacetate of  lead.
   Properties and Uses.—Diluted  hydrochloric  acid is Ijpnic, refrigerant,
 and  antiseptic.  Used in fevers, some forms of syphilis, and to counter-
 act phosphatic deposits in urine.   It has also been beneficial in malignant
 cases of typhus  and scarlatina,  given in a strong infusion of quassia.
 Likewise said to prevent the formation of worms.   It is also valuable as
 a gargle in various ulcers of the  mouth and throat, and elongated uvula.
 The  dose is five to  twenty drops,  in a wineglassful of water; it ought to
be sucked through  a quill or glass tube, to prevent its injuring the teeth.
The  dilute  acid is made by adding  four ounces of pure  acid  to  twelve
ounces of water.
  It is sometimes used, in the concentrated form, as an  application  to
cancrum oris, some obstinate ulcers of the  tongue, in  certain  syphilitic
and mercurio-syphilitic diseases,  and in phagedenic ulceration ;  also,  in
chilblains or  frost-bites.
  When swallowed internally, in  its pure state, magnesia, chalk, or soap
dissolved in water, are the antidotes, together with the free use of bland
and mucilaginous drinks.
   Off. Prep.—Acidum Nitro-muriaticum; Acidum Muriaticum  Dilutum;
Calcii  Chloridum ;  Morphia Murias ; Quiniae  Murias; Tinctura  Ferri
Chloridi; Unguentum Acidi Muriatici; Potassii Cyanuretum.
                  ACIDUM  HYDROCYANICUM.

        Hydrocyanic Acid.   Prussic Acid.   Cyano-hydric Acid.
   Preparation.—Take of  sulphuric acid, one and a half ounces; water
four fluidounces;  mix, and when cool, put them into a tubulated glass
retort, and  add ferrocyanuret  of  potassium,  two ounces, dissolved in
distilled water, ten fluidounces.  Pour eight fluidounces of distilled water
into a cooled receiver, and having attached this to the retort, distil six
fluidounces with a gentle heat.  Lastly,  add to this product five  fluid-
ounces of distilled water, or a sufficient quantity, so, that 12.7 grs. of
nitrate of silver, dissolved  in  water, may be  accurately saturated by 100
grs. of the acid, indicating two per cent, of real acid.
   Hydrocyanic Acid, when wanted for immediate use,  may be prepared
as  follows : Add  together  one fluidounce of distilled water, forty-one
grs. of muriatic acid, and fifty and a half  grs. of cyanuret  of silver;
shake the mixture in a stopped vial, and when the precipitate has  sub-
sided, pour  off the clear liquid.  The acid  should always be kept in a
cool, dark place, and in closely stopped vials. 
AfJIDUM LACTICUM.
163
   Chemical History.—The dilute, or medicinal hydrocyanic  acid, is a
transparent, colorless, volatile liquid, possessing a taste at first cooling,
afterward somewhat irritating, and  a peculiar smell.   By exposure  to
light, it undergoes decomposition, and the bottles containing it  should be
covered with black  paint or  dark paper.   Its  constituents are carbon,
nitrogen and hydrogen.
  Properties and Uses.—Hydrocyanic acid  is the most  deadly poison
known, but  is employed  in medicine as a sedative  and antispasmodic.
It has been recommended  in  asthma, pertussis, spasmodic coughs,
hypertrophy of the heart, neuralgia  of stomach  and bowels, and  dys-
pepsia, connected with  morbid  irritability of the  stomach.  Locally, it
has been used in some cutaneous diseases, to allay the itching.  Dose,
half, to one  drop, in gum-water or syrup.   Much care  must be used  in
its administration.  Five drops have been safely given, by carefully and
gradually increasing the dose.
  In cases where large doses do not  prove immediately fatal, the anti-
dotes most to be relied upon, are chlorine, diluted ammonia,  cold affu-
sion, and artificial respiration.
                      ACIDUM LACTICUM.

                            Lactic Acid.

  Preparation.—To  six pints of milk, add eight  ounces of bicarbonate
of soda.   Expose it to the air for some days, till it becomes sour, and
saturate it with more soda.   Repeat this as often  as it  becomes acid.
Boil, filter, and evaporate to the  consistence  of  syrup, and digest with
alcohol.  Filter the solution, and add  sulphuric acid as long as it occa-
sions a precipitate.  Again filter, and  concentrate the  clear solution by
evaporation, till its density is 1.215.
  Another mode of preparing  this acid is, according to A. Beusch, to
dissolve cane-sugar six pounds, and tartaric acid half an ounce, in boil-
ing water twenty-six pounds,  and set  it aside  for some  days ; upon
this, old stinking cheese eight ounces, well diffused  in curdled acid milk
from which the cream has been removed, are to  be added to the above
mixture along with finely-powdered chalk three pounds, the whole to be
kept in a warm place, so that the temperature  of the liquor shall be from
86° to 95°.  It must be well stirred several times every day ;  in the
course of  from eight  to ten days the entire mass will solidify to a stiff
paste of lactate  of lime ; to this paste  are to be  added, boiling water
twenty pounds, and caustic  lime half an ounce, then boil for  half an
hour, and filter through a linen bag.   The liquid is then to be evapo-
rated to the consistency of a syrup, and set aside for four days, in which
time the lactate of lime will separate  in a granular  crystalline form ;  it 
164
Materia  Medica.
must then be expressed, agitated with one-tenth its weight of cold water,
again submitted  to pressure, and this operation to  be repeated  two or
three times.
  The lactate of  lime, after being expressed as well as possible, is dis-
solved  in twice its weight of boiling water ; and for every pound of ex-
pressed lactate of lime, three and a half ounces of sulphuric acid previ-
ously diluted with its weight of water, must  be added to the solution.
The hot  liquid  is to  be immediately filtered  from  the precipitated
gypsum, through a conical bag, and then  boiled with carbonate of zinc
one and three-eighth pounds for every pound of sulphuric acid which
has been used ; it must not be boiled longer than a quarter of an hour,
if over this  time, a very insoluble basic salt  is  formed.  The solution,
filtered boiling hot, soon deposits  perfectly colorless lactate  of zinc in
crystalline crusts, which may be obtained perfectly free  from sulphuric
acid by rinsing with cold water.  The  mother-ley is to be again boiled
with any of the salt which may have remained on the strainer, or con-
centrated  by evaporation.   It yields nearly to the last drop, perfectly
white lactate of zinc.
  To separate the lactic acid from this salt, dissolve it in seven and one-
half parts  of boiling  water, pass  a current of  sulphureted  hydrogen
into the hot liquid until it has become cold and no further separation  of
sulphuret of zinc can be  perceived.   The liquid filtered  from the sul-
phui et of zinc is  to be boiled to expel the excess of sulphureted  hydro-
gen, and then evaporated in a water-bath to the consistence of a syrup.
Eight parts of lactate  of zinc yield, in this manner, five parts of perfectly
pure lactic acid.
  The  separation of  the  lactic acid may  likewise be  accomplished by
adding barytic water, which produces lactate of baryta, and precipitates
the oxide of zinc ; the addition of  sulphuric  acid  removes the baryta,
and the filtered liquid is pure diluted lactic acid, which must  be concen-
trated by  evaporation, in  vacuo.
  The  acid of sour crout is lactic acid, and by boiling it with carbonate
of zinc, lactate of zinc may be obtained.

  Chemical Properties.—Hydrated  lactic  acid  is a  syrupy liquid, of a
very strong but pleasant  acid taste; its  specific gravity is 1.215.  At
482° the hydrate is decomposed and yields a solid crystalline sublimate
called  anhydrous, or  sublimed lactic acid,  lactide,  which readily dis-
solves in hot water, and if the solution  be  evaporated yields the original
hydrate.  The hydrated acid is inodorous, attracts  moisture when  ex-
posed to the air,  and is dissolved in  all proportions by water or alcohol.
It quickly dissolves oxalate  of  lime, and  phosphate of lime, especially
that which is contained in the bones, and hence has been recommended
in oxalic and phosphatic urinary deposits.   It is not employed in  medi-
cine in  ics uucombined state,  but is used in the preparation of  Lactate of 
Acidum  Nitricum.
165
Iron, and Lactate of Quinia.   Albumen is coagulated by it.   The for-
mula of the hydrated acid is Ce H-, Oo+ HC.   Magendie has proposed
it as a remedy in  certain forms of dyspepsia, and for the removal of
phosphatic deposits in the urine.  It may  be taken in doses of from  one
to three drachms in the course of the day, and is best given in solution,
sweetened with sugar.
                      ACIDUM NITRICUM.

                     Nitric  Acid.  Aqua Fortis.

  Preparation.—Nitric  Acid is made from  nitrate of potassa, by the
agency of sulphuric acid—sulphate of potassa being formed, and nitric
acid liberated in the form  of gas.  The acid gas is passed into a vessel
of water, which absorbs it, and acquires acid properties.
   Chemical History.—The pure acid  is transparent  and colorless, and
emits  gray fumes of an irritating, peculiar  odor, and has an  intensely
acid, corrosive taste.  It stains the skin yellow,  and corrodes  and  dis-
solves  all soft animal textures.  The  strongest acid has a specific gra-
vity  of 1.5 ;  the ordinary acid of commerce, 1.3.  It changes morphia
to a  red  or yellow color, and is itself changed to a blood-red by the
addition of brucia.   Exposure of the acid to  light, changes  it more or
less; and when left open to  the air, it absorbs moisture and becomes
weakened.
  When the  acid  is of a straw color, it is owing to the presence of
nitrous acid.   Most animal  and  vegetable  bodies are converted  into
malic,  carbonic, or oxalic acids, by  the action  of nitric  acid diluted.
This acid, acidifies sulphur  and phosphorus,  and oxidizes  all metals,
except gold, platinum, iridium,  chromium,  osmium, rhodium, cerium,
columbium, and titanium;  but when mixed with muriatic acid, a mutual
decomposition  takes place,  and aqua regia or  nitro-muriatic acid is
formed, which is capable of dissolving gold.
  Nitric  acid is often rendered impure by the presence of sulphuric acid,
or chlorine ; a few drops  of the solution of chloride of barium to the
nitric acid, diluted with three or four  parts of distilled water,  will pro-
duce a cloud, if sulphuric acid be present; and a similar application of
a few drops of a solution  of nitrate  of silver, will produce  a cloud if
chlorine be present.  The acid of commerce sometimes  contains iodine,
which  may be  detected  by saturating the suspected acid with a carbon-
ated  alkali, then pouring in a little clear solution  of starch, and finally,
adding a few drops of sulphuric acid.   If iodine be present, the sulphu-
ric acid will set it free, and the starch solution will become blue.
  When  nitric acid  is  added to a solution of glue,  it prevents it from
forming a jelly, and makes what is called a " liquid glue," which is very 
166                     Materia  Medica.

convenient for cabinet-makers, joiners, pasteboard-workers, toy-makers,
etc., inasmuch as it is applied cold.  This liquid glue is made by taking
two and one-fifth pounds of good glue,  and dissolving it in two and one-
ninth pints of water, in a glazed pot over a gentle fire, or still better, m
the water-bath, stirring it from  time  to time.  When  all  the  glue is
melted, pour in, in small quantities  at a  time,  of nitric  acid  specific
gravity 1.32, seven ounces avoirdupois.  This addition produces an effer-
vescence, owing to the disengagement  of hypo-nitrous acid.   When all
the acid is added, remove the vessel from the fire, and allow it  to cool.
This preparation preserves nearly all the primitive qualities of the glue,
may be kept in an open vessel for years, without undergoing any change,
and will be  found very convenient in  chemical operations ; gases may
be preserved by it, by covering strips of linen with it.
   Properties and Uses.—Escharotic, epispastic, tonic, refrigerant, expec-
torant, antiseptic, and syphilitic.  Largely diluted with water, it forms a
good acid drink in febrile  diseases, especially where there is a disposi-
tion to prostration or putrescency.   It has also been serviceable in some
forms of syphilis and chronic hepatitis.  Externally it has been applied,
in a dilute form, say twelve  or  fifteen  minims to the pint of water, to
ulcers of an indolent or phagedenic character,  and in various chronic
eruptions, porrigo  of the  scalp, etc. ;  and has likewise been  used for
destroying warts, and cauterizing  poisoned  wounds.
   In the treatment of piles,  nitric  acid, is said to be very efficacious;
the small tumors may be  destroyed by a single application of it, while
the larger may require  two or three applications.   If the tumors cannot
be extruded from the anus, a speculum must be used.  The acid may be
applied by a bit of sponge not larger than a grain of wheat, attached to
a gold or glass probe.   The severe pain which usually follows may be
relieved by morphine exhibited internally, and lard, or opiate supposito-
ries applied locally.  If too much  acid has been applied, extending to
contiguous  parts, and causing  unnecessary pain, it may be neutralized
by applying a piece of  sponge or cotton, saturated with soda or potassa.
Dr. Dixon  expresses a hope, grounded on the successful  results of its
application, that all cases of  piles may thus be cured, with greater cer-
tainty than  by excision or ligation.
   For several years past I have used nitric acid as a local application to
chancre in hundreds of instances, and  have not yet heard of any return
of the disease,  either  in  a secondary or  tertiary form.   It  must be
applied while the chancre is in the pustular form, and  unbroken,  and
before the virus  is acted upon by  the  oxygen of the atmosphere,  and
consequently, previous to its  absorption in  the system.   As soon as the
pustule is discovered, the physician will open it, and apply several drops
of undiluted nitric acid to  it, thus destroying the virus  at  once,  and
curing the  disease in  a few minutes.    The pain  occasioned  is  hardly 
Acidum  Nitrohydrochloricum.
167
noticed  by some  patients.   Sometimes, I subsequently wash  the  ulcer
with the muriated tincture of iron, which is one of the  best local appli-
cations to  a chancre with which  I am acquainted.  No other  treatment
is required, unless for the purpose of allaying the patient's fears.  Since
having introduced this employment of the acid to the profession, many
have employed it, and uniformly with successful results.
  The dose of nitric acid is from five to twenty minims,  given two or
three times a day;  the  diluted  acid, which is the most convenient for
prescription, may be  made by adding one  fluidounce  of nitric acid to
nine fluidounces  of distilled water.   The dose of which is from twenty
to forty drops, in two or three fluidounces of water.
  When swallowed internally, without dilution, nitric acid almost always
proves  fatal;  the same means may be employed to counteract its effects
as named for hydrochloric  acid.
   Off. Prep.—Acidum Nitro-muriaticum ; Acidum  Nitricum Dilutum ;
Spiritus ^Etheris  Nitrici; Unguentum Acidi Nitrici.
             ACIDUM NITROHYDROCHLORICUM.

                       Nitrohydrochloric Acid.

                 nitromuriatic  acid,   aqua  regia.
  Preparation. — The usual form for preparing this acid is to combine
one part, by measure, of nitric acid, with two parts of hydrochloric acid;
but as I introduce it here merely  because it  enters into the formula for
the White Liquid Physic, given below, I will state that in this instance it
should be made of equal parts of nitric and muriatic acids.
  This acid  promptly dissolves  gold, and  as  it readily parts with its
chlorine, it, together with its preparations, should always be preserved
in close bottles.
   Properties  and Uses.—Similar  to the above  mineral acids.  Bathing
with a dilute  solution  of  this acid, say one part of acid to  six of water,
is asserted to have cured several  cases of obstinate constipation.  Dose,
three or four drops, sufficiently diluted.
  A preparation has been highly recommended,  called White  Liquid
Physic, or  Dow's Physic.  It is made as follows:  Take sulphate of soda,
half a pound; water, one  and a half pnnts;  dissolve,  and then  add,
nitromuriatic  acid,  two fluidounces,  powdered  alum,  one  drachm and
eight grains.
  This preparation is used as a cooling purgative, also to allay nausea
and vomiting—for colic,  hepatic diseases, diarrhea, etc.  Given by some
as a substitute for  mercury.   In intermittent  fever, given in laxative
doses,  it has proved  highly  beneficial,  especially when  occurring in 
168
Materia Medica.
broken-down constitutions, and  has cured the most obstinate cases of
dysentery.  Dose, one  tablespoonful in a gill of water, three times a
day—or, in dysentery, given every  hour, until it slightly operates on the
bowels, after which,  every three or four hours.  The above is the origi-
nal recipe, and  the additions of sanguinaria, etc., are uncalled for.
  A preparation which is highly recommended for the cure  of corns,
warts, cancers,  etc.,  Dr. Bleeker's remedy, is said to be a compound of
nitro-muriatic acid and cobalt.
                      ACIDUM  OXALICUM.

                             Oxalic  Acid.

   History.—Oxalic Acid is found in  animals and  in  vegetables;  it is
 formed sometimes during abnormal conditions  of  the kidneys,  and is
 deposited in the bladder as oxalate of lime, giving rise to the mulberry
 calculus.   It is also found combined with potassa in the common  sorrel,
 and wood-sorrel, and united with lime in the  roots of rhubarb, valerian,
 and other plants.
   Preparation.—It is usually obtained  by the decomposition of sugar
 with nitric  acid.  Four parts of sugar  are acted upon by twenty-four
 parts of nitric  acid  of specific gravity 1.22,  and the  mixture is heated
 so long as any  nitric oxide is disengaged.  A part of the carbon  of the
 sugar is converted into carbonic acid, by oxygen derived from the nitric
 acid, which is thereby partially converted  into nitric oxide.   The  unde-
 composed nitric acid, reacting on the remaining elements of the sugar,
 generates oxalic and malic acids, the former of which crystallizes  as the
 materials cool,  while the latter remains in solution.  The crystals  being
 removed, a  fresh  crop may be obtained by  further evaporation.   The
 thick mother-water which now remains is a mixture of malic, nitric,  and
 oxalic acids; and by treatment with six  times its weight of nitric acid,
 the  greater part of  the  malic acid will be converted  into  oxalic acid.
 The new crop of crystals, however, will have a yellow color,  and contain
 a portion of nitric  acid, the greater part of which may be got rid of by
 allowing them to effloresce in  a warm place.
  Many substances beside sugar yield oxalic, by the action of nitric acid ;
 as for example, starch, gum, wool, hair,  silk,  and many vegetable  acids.
 In every case in which it is thus  generated, the proportional excess of
 oxygen  which it contains, compared with  every other organic compound,
 is furnished  by  the nitric acid.   Organic substances yield oxalic acid also,
 when heated with potassa.  Thus shavings  of wood,  if mixed with a
 solution of caustic  potassa, and exposed  to a heat considerably higher
than 212°, will be  partially decomposed and converted into  oxalic acid,
which then combines with the  alkali.  This process constitutes, perhaps,
the  cheapest method of obtaining oxalic acid. 
                  Acidum  Phosphoricum Dilutum.               169

   Chemical Properties. — Oxalic acid  is a colorless crystallized solid,
possessing considerable volatility, and  a strong sour taste.   Its crystals
have the shape of slender, flattened,  four or six-sided prisms, with two-
sided summits;  and, when  exposed to a very dry atmosphere,  undergo
a slidit efflorescence.  It dissolves in about nine times its weight of cold,
and in  about its own weight of boiling water.   i*The  solution of the
crystals takes place with slight crepitation.   It dissolves also, but not to
the same extent, in alcohol.   The presence of nitric acid renders it more
soluble  in water.   It combines  with salifiable bases, and  forms salts
called oxalates.   The most  interesting  of these are the three  oxalates
of potassa,  severally called oxalate,  binoxalate, and quadroxalate, and
the oxalate of lime.   The  binoxalate of potassa or salt of sorrel,  some-
times improperly  called the  essential  salt  of lemons,  is employed for
removing iron-molds from  linen, and acts by its excess of acid  which
forms a  soluble salt with  the  sesquioxide  of  iron  constituting  the
stain.   Oxalic acid is used for removing  ink stains  and iron-molds,
for  cleaning the  leather of boot-tops, and  for  discharging colors in
calico-printing.
   Properties and Uses.—This article is  a poison, and an unfit agent for
internal administration.  Externally, a saturated aqueous solution of it
is  useful in cutaneous cancer, acne, and several forms of cutaneous  dis-
ease.  The saturated  solution  neutralized by caustic potassa, forms an
excellent  application to discuss indolent tumors.
   In cases, where  this article has been taken internally, it has produced
death in a short time.   The  antidotes are chalk or magnesia, mixed with
water, and followed by emetics.
             ACIDUM  PHOSPHORICUM  DILUTUM.

                      Diluted  Phosphoric  Acid.

   Preparation.—Take of Phosphorus, an ounce ; Nitric acid four fluid-
ounces; Distilled Water ten fluidounces,  (imperial measure).   Add the
phosphorus to the- nitric acid, mixed with the water in a glass retort
placed in a sand-bath;  then  apply  heat until  eight fluidounces  are
distilled.  Put these again into  the  retort, that eight fluidounces  may
distil, which are to be rejected.  Evaporate the remaining liquor  in a
platinum capsule until only two ounces and six drachms remain.  Lastly,
add to the acid, when it  is  cold, as much distilled water as may be suf-
ficient to  make it accurately measure twenty-eight fluidounces.  The
specific gravity of  this acid is 1.064.   One hundred  grains of it saturate
forty-two grains of carbonate of  soda.
   Chemical Properties.—Diluted Phosphoric Acid is a colorless, inodor-
ous, sour liquid, acting strongly on litmus and possessing  powerful  acid 
170
Materia Medica.
properties.  If it be saturated by ammonia, nitrate of silver occasions a
yellow precipitate  of phosphate of silver.   Arsenious acid is the only
acid similarly acted on; and it may be determined from phosphoric acid
by the action  of sulphureted hydrogen, which causes a yellow precipi-
tate with the arsenious acid, while it has no effect at all upon  the  phos-
phoric.   When concentrated till  the  temperature attains 300°, diluted
phosphoric acid acquires its greatest state of concentration, and presents
the appearance of a brown oily liquid, which consists of one equivalent
of acid,  and three of water.   Although evaporated so as  to become
dense, it does not act upon animal and vegetable matter like sulphuric
acid.   The  acid may be obtained in crystals, by evaporating the brown
oily  liquid,  mentioned  above,  in vacuo.  From its  saturating power,
diluted phosphoric acid is  shown to contain  10.5 per cent, of real  phos-
phoric acid.  If the brown oily liquid be deprived of its water by a long
continued heat of 415°, one equivalent of its water is disengaged, and
the acid acquires new properties,  and a yellow precipitate will no longer
be occasioned  by nitrate of silver.   When the diluted acid is evaporated
to dryness,  and heated to redness,  it  becomes a  transparent, white,
brittle, fusible solid, formerly named  Glacial Phosphoric Acid, but now
termed Metaphosphoric Acid.
  Properties and Uses.—Diluted  phosphoric acid is tonic  and refriger-
ant, and is asserted to prevent the morbid secretion of bony matter, cor-
rect urinary phosphatic deposits  and  to allay pain and  spasm.  It has
likewise  been  recommended in hysteria, diabetes,  and leucorrhea.  It
is very useful  in cases  of  impotency from masturbation, to improve the
condition of the sexual ogans. Externally,  it has  been applied  to tedious
and obstinate ulcers.   Dose, from ten to thirty drops, two or three times
a day, diluted with a few  ounces  of water.
   Off. Prep.—Ammoniae Phosphas ;  Ferri Phosphas; Sodae Phosphas.
           ACIDUM  SULPHURICUM  AROMATICUM.

            Aromatic Sulphuric Acid.   Elixir of Vitriol.

  Preparation.—Take  of sulphuric  acid, three fluidounces and a half;
ginger,  bruised, an  ounce; cinnamon,  bruised, an ounce and a half;
drop the  acid gradually into  the alcohol, and  digest in a close vessel
for three days; then add the ginger and  cinnamon, and macerate for a
week ; lastly,  filter through paper.
  History.—This is a reddish-brown liquid, of a peculiar aromatic odor,
and  when sufficiently diluted,  of  a  grateful acid taste.  It  consists  of
sulphuric  acid diluted with alcohol, and containing the essential oils of
Cinnamon and Ginger. 
Acidum  Sulphuricum  Dilutum.
171
  Properties and Uses.—It possesses the same properties as sulphuric acid,
for which it is generally substituted  in this country.  The dose is from
ten to thirty drops in sweetened water;  care must be taken that it does
not injure the teeth.
             ACIDUM SULPHURICUM DILUTUM.

               Diluted Sulphuric Acid.   Oil of Vitriol.

  Preparation.—Take of sulphuric acid, one fluidounce; distilled water,
thirteen fluidounces.  Gradually add the  acid  to the water, in a glass
vessel, and mix them.   The specific gravity of this acid is 1.09.

  History.—Sulphuric Acid is obtained by burning sulphur, mixed with
one-eiafhth  its weiaht of nitre, over a stratum of water, contained in  a
chamber lined with sheet-lead.  It is a dense, colorless, inodorous liquid,
of an oleaginous appearance, and possessing strong corrosive  qualities.
When pure its sp. gr. is 1.845.  It acts powerfully on organic bodies,
whether animal or vegetable, depriving them  of the elements  of water,
developing charcoal, and turning them black.   On the living fiber it acts
as a powerful caustic.   The density of the commercial acid varies be-
tween 1.835 and 1.840 or upward.  If greater  than 1.845, it indicates
an unusual  amount of  impurity.  It freezes about 36° below zero, and
boils a little above 600°.  It  has a powerful affinity for water, so as to
attract it quickly from the  atmosphere, and also from many other bodies
through  the  medium  of the atmosphere,  if confined together in a cir-
cumscribed  place.  It  unites with water in all  proportions, with some
condensation of  volume,  and the  evolution  of much  heat,  which is
apt to crack glass vessels, which may  be avoided by adding the acid
gradually.
  Properties  and  Uses.—Diluted Sulphuric Acid is tonic, refrigerant,
and astringent.   It has  been  used in low  typhoid fevers, and  in conva-
lescence from protracted fevers, as a tonic.   As an astringent, it has been
employed in colliquative  sweats, passive   hemorrhages,  and  diarrhea.
Likewise used in  phosphatic calculous affections.  Externally,  employed
in gargles for ulcerated  sore-throat, to check excessive ptyalism, and as
a wash for cutaneous eruptions, and  ill-conditioned ulcers.  Dose, from
ten to  thirty drops, three times a  day, in a wineglassful of plain or
sweetened water.   To  preserve  the teeth, it  were  better to  suck  it
through a quill or glass tube.
   Off. Prep.—Acidum Sulphuricum Aromaticum ; Acidum Sulphuricum
Dilutum; Ferri   Sulphas  ; Linimentum  Nigrum;  Morphiae  Sulphas;
Quiniae Sulphas;  Unguentum  Acidi Sulphurici;  Zinci Sulphas. 
172                      Materia  Medica.
                       ACIDUM  TANNICUM.

                        Tannic Acid.   Tannin.
   Preparation.—Cause sulphuric  ether  to percolate through any quan-
 tity of powdered galls, in a glass  adapter, having the lower end loosely
 closed with carded cotton.  The liquor obtained in the receiver separates
 into two parts, and the ether must be allowed  to percolate through the
 galls until the lower stratum of liquid in the receiver no longer increases.
 Pour  off the upper layer, and evaporate the lower portion with a moder-
 ate heat, to dryness.
   M.  Sandrock states that a much larger quantity of Tannic Acid may
 be obtained by employing a mixture of sixteen parts of ether  and one
 part of alcohol.  The percolated liquid separates into two layers.   The
 lower  one  contains  the tannic  acid, which may be obtained perfectly
 pure on evaporation; the upper layer  contains the gallic  acid,  coloring
 matter, and some tannic  acid.   The tannic acid in  the upper layer may
 be had by  evaporating the liquid  to dryness, treating the residue with
 pure ether, until the lower of the  two layers into which  the liquid sepa-
 rates,  no longer presents a green color ; and then separating it, adding
 if necessary a little alcohol, and evaporating.
   Chemical Properties.—Pure  Tannic Acid is solid, uncrystallizable,
 white,  or   very  slightly  yellowish,  inodorous, strongly  astringent to
 the taste, without bitterness, very soluble  in  water, much less  soluble
 in alcohol  and  ether, especially  when  anhydrous,  and  insoluble in
 the fixed and volatile oils.  It may be  kept unchanged in the solid
 state.   Exposed to  heat, it partly melts, swells  up, blackens, takes
 fire, and burns with a brilliant flame.   The  aqueous solution, when
 exposed to  the air,  gradually becomes turbid, and deposits  a  crystal-
 line  mattei^ consisting chiefly  of gallic acid.  During the  change,
 oxygen  is   absorbed, and an equal  volume  of carbonic acid disen-
 gaged.  Tannic  acid has an affinity for  acids, and when  in  solution
 affords precipitates with the  sulphuric, nitric,  muriatic, phosphoric,  and
 arsenic acids, but not with the oxalic, tartaric, lactic, acetic, or citric.
 The precipitates are compounds of tannic acid with the respective acids,
 and  are soluble in pure water, but insoluble in water with an excess of
 acid.   Hence, in  order to insure precipitation, it is necessary to  add the
 acid in excess to the solution of tannic acid.   This principle also unites
 with most of  the salifiable bases.  With potassa, it forms a compound
 but slightly soluble,  and is therefore precipitated by this alkali, or its
 carbonates,  from  a solution which is not too dilute, though a certain ex-
 cess of alkali will cause the precipitate to be re-dissolved.  Its combin-
 ation with soda is much more soluble, and this alkali affords no  precipi-
tate, unless with  a very  concentrated  solution of tannic  acid.    With
ammonia, its relations are  similar to  those with potassa.   Many of  the 
Acidum  Tannicum.
173
metallic salts are precipitated by tannic acid even in the uncombined state,
especially those of lead, copper,  silver, uranium, chromium, mercury,
and the protosalts of tin.   With the sesquisalts of iron it forms a black
precipitate, which is a  compound of tannic  acid and the sesquioxide of
iron, and is the basis of ink.   It does  not  disturb the solutions  of the
pure protosalts of iron.  Several of the alkaline salts precipitate tannic
acid from its aqueous solution,  either by the formation of insoluble com-
pounds, or by simply extracting the solvent.   Tannic acid unites with
all  the vegetable  alkalies,  forming compounds  which are for the  most
part of a whitish  color, and but very slightly soluble in water,  though
they are soluble in the vegetable acids  and in alcohol, and in  this latter
respect differ from most of the compounds which tannic acid  forms with
other vegetable principles.   On account of this property of tannic acid,
it has  been employed  as a test of the vegetable alkalies;  and it is so
delicate  that  it will throw  down a  precipitate from their solution even
when they are too feeble to be disturbed by  ammonia.   It precipitates
also solutions of  starch, albumen, and gluten, and forms with gelatin an
insoluble compound, which is the basis of leather.   Its ultimate con-
stituents are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.— U.  S. Disp.
  Properties and  Uses.—A pure astringent.   Used in chronic dysentery
and diarrhea, and in uterine  and other passive  hemorrhages, and as a
wash or  injection to remove chronic  mucous  discharges, as in bronchial
catarrh,  gonorrhea,  gleet, leucorrhea, etc.  It has likewise been  recom-
mended  in diabetes, combined with opium, and to arrest excessive per-
spiration— also  in conjunction with morphia, in Asiatic Cholera.   Ex-
ternally, it has been successfully used in excoriation, prolapsus ani, piles,
fissure of the  anus or rectum,  sore nipples, phagedenic ulcers, aphthous
ulceration of  the  mouth, sore-throat, severe salivation, and  in  tooth-
aches,  in solution with ether.  It may be employed in form of  a wash, by
adding five grains to a fluidounce  of water; or  in ointment, one  part of
the acid  to fifteen  of lard.   It  is a valuable remedy, the only disadvan-
tage being its tendency to  produce constipation, which may be avoided
by  the addition of a small quantity of podophyllin, in cases where this
resin is not contra-indicated.
  Tannic acid should not be given during the presence of active inflamma-
tion.   Several  cases of  cholera in the collapsed stage, have been cured
by  Prof.  R. S.  Newton,  by  doses of  ten or fifteen grains of Tannic Acid,
repeated every ten or fifteen minutes, until the  discharges ceased ; and
continuing it afterward  at longer intervals, with other appropriate treat-
ment.  The Geraniin is now usually preferred  by Eclectic practitioners
to the Tannic  acid, as it does not leave the tissues upon which it acts so
harsh and dry, as is the  case with the latter agent.  Dose of Tannic acid,
from half a grain to five grains.
  Off.  Prep.—'Ferri Tannas ;  Quiniae Tannas. 
174
Materia Medica.
                    ACIDUM TARTARICUM.

                            Tartaric Acid.

  Preparation.—Saturate the excess of acid in bitartrate of potassa with
carbonate of lime ;  decompose the resulting insoluble tartrate of lime by
sulphuric acid;  then decompose the remaining neutral tartrate of potassa
by chloride  of  calcium  in excess ; finally,  decompose the resulting  tar-
trate of lime by sulphuric acid, as at first; then strain off the liquid,
and crystallize  by evaporation.
   Chemical Properties.—Tartaric Acid is  a white, crystallized  solid, in
the form of irregular six-sided prisms.  Sometimes two opposite sides
of the prism become very much enlarged, so as to cause the crystals to
present the  appearance  of tables.   It is unalterable in the  air, and pos-
sesses a strong acid taste, which becomes agreeable when the acid is
sufficiently  diluted  with water.  It is soluble in five  or  six times  its
weight of cold, and twice its weight of boiling water.   It is also soluble
in alcohol.  A  weak solution undergoes spontaneous decomposition by
keeping, becoming  covered with a moldy pellicle.   In the  form of crys-
tals it always contains combined water, from which it cannot be separated
without previous combination with  a  base.   Its most  usual impurity is
sulphuric acid, which may be detected by the solution affording, with
acetate of lead, a precipitate only partially soluble in nitric acid.
   Tartaric acid is incompatible with salifiable bases and  their carbonates,
with salts of potassa, and with the salts of lime, and of lead.  It consists,
when dry, of two equivalents of hydrogen 2, four equivalents of carbon
24.48,  and five equivalents  of oxygen 40=66.48; and when crystal-
lyzed, of one equivalent of dry acid 66.48, and one equivalent of water
9=75.48.
   Properties and Uses.—Tartaric acid is refrigerant, antiseptic, and anti-
scorbutic.  It is used as a drink in febrile and inflammatory diseases ; being
cheaper than citric  acid, it forms, when dissolved in water and sweetened,
a good substitute for lemonade.   It  is very much used in medicine, to
form acid refrigerant drinks  and effervescing draughts.   What are called
Soda powders  consist of twenty-five  grains of tartaric acid, and half  a
drachm of  bicarbonate of soda, put up in separate papers.   When used,
the  acid and  salt  are  dissolved in separate portions of water, and the
solutions mixed and drank in a state of effervescence.   These  powders
furnish a good substitute for soda  water.  Tartaric acid is also a consti-
tuent in the gentle aperient called  Seidlitz powders.  These consist of  a
mixture of  two drachms of tartrate of potassa and soda, (Rochelle salt,)
 and two scruples of bicarbonate of soda, put up  in a  white paper, and
thirty-five grains of tartaric acid, contained in a blue one.   The contents
of the white paper are dissolved in about  half a pint of water, to which 
ACONITUM NAPELLUS.
175
those of the blue paper are added ;  and the whole is taken in a state of
effervescence.   A colorless solution of sulphate of quinia has long been
employed by Eclectics; it may be made by adding equal parts of tar-
taric acid  and sulphate of quinia to  as much water as may be desired.
   Off. Prep. — Ferri et  Morphiae Tartras ;  Ferri  et Quinise Tartras;
Quiniae  et  Morphiae Tartras;  Quiniae et  Saliciniae Tartras;  Potassae
Bitartras ; Potassae Tartras.
                     ACONITUM NAPELLUS.

                            Monkshood.

       Nat. Ord.—Ranunculacese.   Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Trigynia.

                         LEAVES AND ROOT.
  Description.—This is a perennial herbaceous plant, also known by the
name of Wolfsbane; it has a turnip-shaped or fusiform root, from three
to six lines in diameter, and three or four inches long;  externally brown-
ish,  internally  whitish and fleshy,  and  sending  off many long,  thick,
fleshy fibers.   When the plant has> arrived at maturity, there are usual-
ly two roots united, the older of which is dark-brown, and supports the
stem; the younger is of a light yellowish-brown, and is destined to  fur-
nish the stem of the following year.   The stems are simple, erect, round
and smooth ;  the leaves are alternate, petiolate, divided to the base  into
five wedge-shaped lobes,  which are  called trifid, deep green upon their
upper  surface,  light green beneath, and smooth and shining on both
sides.   The flowers are of a dark violet-blue color, large, in a terminal
raceme, short pedicels ; the raceme is simple and cylindrical.  The peta-
loid sepals are five; the upper being helmet-shaped and concealing the
petals ;  the lateral broad  and rounded ;  the lower oblong and deflected.
The petals not more  than two,  supported on  a peduncle or claw, and
have a  hooked  spur, and a bifid and revolute lip.   The stamens are fili-
form, converging, with whitish anthers.   The ovaries are from three to
five, smooth,  with simple reflected stigmas.  The capsules correspond in
number with the ovaries, and contain many wrinkled and angular seeds.
  History.—Monkshood  or Aconite is a native of most parts of Europe,
growing in mountain forests  and plains, and is  cultivated  as an orna-
mental plant  in the gardens of Europe and this country.  It grows from
two to six feet high, and bears  a long, dense spike of beautiful, deep-
blue flowers,  which make their appearance in May and June.  The root,
which consists of numerous slender radicles, is  the most powerful  part
of the plant, but every portion  of it is possessed of highly deleterious
properties.   There are  several  varieties, but the A. Napellus and A.
Panicidatum  are the  only officinal ones.  The  dried leaves  and  root
retain  their  acridity  and  narcotic  virtues;  and  the expressed  juice 
176                     Materia Medtca.

possesses  the  properties of the plant.   Its medicinal virtues  are best
extracted  by alcohol,  and the  alcoholic extract  is the most convenient
and energetic  preparation.  It contains an  alkaloidal  principle, termed
Aconita, or  Aconitina, a  black oily matter, albumen, muriate  and sul-
phate of lime, starch, etc.  The smell of the plant is feeble but nauseous,
and its taste acrid and bitter, leaving  in  the mouth  a  sensation of heat
and pungency, and a degree of numbness.
  Properties and Uses.—Aconite is an energetic acro-narcotic poison  in
improper  doses, occasioning  symptoms of gastric irritation, a peculiar
tino-ling and numbness of the mouth,  followed by loss of sensation, and
paralvsis  of the voluntary muscles, but without coma or  convulsions.
With these symptoms will  be  thirst, nausea, vomiting, purging, spasms
of the  stomach  and  intestines, headache, dimness of vision, the pupils
beino- either dilated or contracted, excessive prostration,  pallid  coun-
tenance, cold extremities, very feeble pulse, and  delirium.   Death ensues
from paralysis of the respiratory muscles.  All the above effects are not
experienced in every case, though several of them will always be pre-
sent.   On dissection,  inflammation of the stomach and bowels is  found,
with engorgement of  the brain and lungs.   There is no antidote  known
for poisoning with monkshood, yet a timely  and thorough evacuation  of
the stomach, with the  internal and  external  use  of stimulants, have
restored persons in imminent danger to perfect health.
  In maximum medicinal doses, it warms the stomach and general sys-
tem, and  sometimes occasions nausea, with tingling and  numbness  in
the lips and fingers, debility of the muscles,  force and  frequency  of
pulse diminished, as well as a diminution of  the  frequency  of respiration.
Sometimes  the tingling  and numbness  extend  over the  whole  body,
with headache,  vertigo, neuralgic pains, and  general prostration.  It
should  never  be given in sufficient  quantity to produce  these  effects.
Applied to the eye, Aconitum causes contraction of  the pupil.
   In anaemical  headaches, and in all  cases attended with  a  torpid or
paralytic  condition of the muscular  system, its use is  contra-indicated.
It is a very useful antiphlogistic remedy, and  possesses anodyne, seda-
tive, diaphoretic and diuretic qualities.  It is especially useful in febrile and
inflammatory  diseases, gout, rheumatism, epilepsy,  and neuralgic affec-
tions.   In scarlatina, inflammatory fever, acute rheumatism, pneumonia,
peritonitis, gastritis,  and many other acute  disorders, it has been used
with the most decided advantage.  Its action is more especially displayed
in  the higher grades of fever and inflammation.  The best preparation
is  the  alcoholic extract, formed by  evaporating  a  tincture made of  a
pound  of aconite  and  a quart of  alcohol.  The dose is one-eighth of  a
grain.  One  part of the extract, with two of  lard, forms an excellent
ointment for  painful affections.   The  powdered  root or  leaves may be
 given in  one or two  grain doses, gradually increased.   The  tincture, 
ACONITINA.
177
made by macerating one ounce of the powdered root with six ounces of
alcohol, for two or three weeks, may be  given in doses of eight  or  ten
drops, three times a  day, gradually increased, until its effects are  ob-
vious.   Its continued use sometimes produces vomiting and diarrhea.

   Off. Prep.—Extract. Aconiti  Alcoholicum ;  Tinctura  Aconiti; Em-
plastrum Extracti Aconiti Radicis.
                            ACONITINA.

                              Aconitina.

   Preparation.—Take of Aconite root, dried and bruised, two pounds;
 rectified spirit,  three gallons; diluted sulphuric acid,  solution of am-
 monia, (Water  of  Ammonia,  U.  S.,)  purified  animal charcoal, each  a
 sufficient quantity.    Boil  the aconite with a gallon of the spirit,  for  an
 hour, in a retort with a receiver fitted to it.    Pour off the liquor, and
 again  boil the  residue with another gallon of the  spirit and with  the
 spirit recently distilled, and  pour off the liquor also.   Let the same be
 done a third time.    Then press  the aconite, and having mixed all the
 liquors and filtered  them, distil the  spirit.   Evaporate the remainder to
 the proper consistence of an extract.   Dissolve this in water and filter.
 Evaporate the solution with  a gentle heat, so  that it may thicken like
 syrup.   To this add of diluted sulphuric acid, mixed with distilled water,
 sufficient to dissolve  the  aconitina.   Next drop  in solution of ammonia,
 and dissolve the precipitated Aconitina in diluted sulphuric acid, mixed,
 as before, with water.  Then mix in the  animal charcoal, occasionally
 shaking for  a  quarter of an hour.    Lastly,  filter, and  having  again
 dropped in solution of ammonia, so as  to precipitate  the aconitina, wash
 and dry it.
   Chemical Properties.—Aconitina, when freshly precipitated, is said to
 be white, and in the form of a hydrate ;  but it  speedily parts with  its
 water, and  forms a  brownish, brittle  mass.   It is  thought not to be
 crystallizable.   When obtained  by evaporating its alcoholic solution, it
 is described as being in the form  of a transparent, colorless mass, having
 a glassy luster.   In powder, it is white, with a yellowish tinge.   It is
 inodorous, and of a bitter and acrid taste, producing a benumbing im-
 pression on the tongue.   It is unalterable  in  the air, and fusible by a
 gentle  heat.   It is sparingly soluble in water, requiring for solution 150
parts of cold,  and  50 of boiling water ;  alcohol or ether  dissolves it
readily.   It neutralizes the  acids ; but its salts  are not  crystallizable.
 That it contains nitrogen is  proved  by the evolution of  ammonia, when
it is decomposed by  heat.  It is incompatible with tinctures of iodine, and
galls.
         12 
178
Materia Medica.
  Properties and  Uses.—Aconitina is too powerful a poison to be used
as an internal medicine, yet as an external application, Dr. Turnbull
has found it useful in  gout, rheumatism, neuralgia, and  diseases of  the
heart.   He employed  it in the form of  tincture  or ointment—one grain
to one fluidrachm of alcohol, gradually increased to even eight  grains;
or two grains  rubbed  first with six drops of alcohol, and  then with a
drachm of lard, applied by friction three or four times a  day; and to be
of service, it must produce a sensation of heat  and prickling, followed
by numbness and a feeling of constriction.  It  should not be applied to
an abraded surface, or to  a mucous membrane,  lest it prove dangerous.
                      ACORUS  CALAMUS.

                             Calamus.

   Nat. Ord.—Araceas.  Acoraceas.  Sex. Syst.—Hexandria  Monogynia.

                           the rhizoma.
  Description.—Calamus, sometimes called Sweet Flag, has a perennial,
horizontal, jointed, and compressed root or rhizome, from  six to twelve
lines thick,  and several  feet in length, and which sends off numerous,
long, round, and slender radicles, of a whitish  or yellowish color, also
bunches of  brown  fibers from its joints,  which  resemble coarse hair;
internally the root is white and spongy, externally whitish with a tinge
of green, and the joints  are from half an  inch to an inch in length, and
are variously  shaded with different tints of white and red.   The  leaves
are radical, sheathing at the  base,  long, sword-shaped, smooth, green
above, but  of a reddish color below, variegated with green and white.
The scape or flower-stem  resembles the leaves, is usually longer, and from
one side near its middle it sends out a  naked, solitary, oblique, and
cylindrical spadix,  tapering at each end, about two inches in length, and
closely covered with small, pale or yellowish-green flowers, which have
no scent except when bruised.   These are without calyx, and have six
equal truncated scales, inclosing six stamens, having thick filaments and
bilobate anthers.  The ovary is sessile, three-celled, with a pointed stigma.
The capsule is several-seeded.
  History.—Calamus is  found in most parts of the world, growing on the
borders of small streams, ponds, wet meadows,  swamps, etc., and flow-
ering in May and June.   The part used is  the root or  rhizome.   It
should be collected late  in the autumn, or in the spring, washed, deprived
of its  fibers, and dried with a moderate heat.   The dried roots of the
shops are of various  lengths, somewhat flattened, of a  yellowish-brown
color  externally and wrinkled, internally whitish, or yellowish-white, and 
ACT^EA.
m
of light and spongy texture.   Water or alcohol take  up its virtues.    It
has a strong and fragrant odor, and a warm bitterish aromatic taste.   It
contains volatile oil, resin, extractive, etc.;  the oil is  lighter than water,
and is pale-yellow, very odorous and pungent.
  Properties and  Uses.—A stimulating tonic, and aromatic.   Useful in
flatulent colic, dyspepsia, atonic conditions of the stomach, various affec-
tions of the alimentary canal, and as an adjuvant to quinia and  bark in
intermittents.   It forms an  excellent substitute in syrup for Godfrey's
Cordial.   Externally, it is a valuable application to indolent ulcers, and
to keep up the discharge from blistered surfaces and issues.   Dose of
the infusion, made by scalding an ounce of the root in a  pint of water,
from four to six fluid  ounces ; of the root, from a scruple to a drachm.
In flatulent colic of infants, it is best combined with magnesia.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Acorus;  Infus. Acorus.
                             ACTAEA.

   Actaea Alba.—White Cohosh.

   Actaea Rubra.—Red Cohosh.

   Actaea Spicata.—Baneberry.

          Nat. Ord.—Actasa.  Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Monogynia.

                            THE RHIZOMA.
   Description.—Actaea Alba, sometimes called White Baneberry, is about
two  feet  high,  with  large,  decompound leaves;  raceme oblong, with
pedicels as large as the general  peduncle; petals  truncate at the apex,
and equaling the stamens; berries milk-white; flowers white and appear-
ing late in May.
   Actaea  Rubra or Red Baneberry,  is about two feet high, with large
decompound leaves; raceme  ovoid or hemispherical, petals acutish and
shorter than the stamens ; pedicels of the hemispheric raceme, slender and
less than the full grown peduncles ; berries oval, ripe in summer,  cherry
red, and forming a raceme three to four inches long ; flowers white, and
appearing in April and May.  The above two plants are natives of this
country,  they are perennial, herbaceous, and found  in the  rich deep
mold of shady and rocky woods, from Canada to Virginia.
   Actaea Spicata,  sometimes called  Herb-Christopher, is a European
plant, generally  found in mountainous woods, and attaining the hight of
two or three feet.   The  stem  is erect,  leafy, triangular, and  but little
branched; the root is creeping and perennial: the leaves are petiolated, 
180
Materia  Medica.
twice or thrice ternate ; leaflets ovate, lobed, unequally serrate ; flowers
white, in a terminal, solitary ovate spike ; pedicels simple, downy, brac-
teate at the base. Sepals four, deciduous ; petals spatulate ; stamens sub-
ulate ; ovary ovate, with a round, sessile stigma; berries purplish black,
succulent.
  History.—The root is of a dark-brown color, with a sweetish, nauseous
odor,  but which is greatly dissipated  by drying ;  the  taste  is bitterish
and acrid.   The berries are poisonous, causing delirium and death, or a
species  of intoxication accompanied with  derangement of  the cerebral
functions, and irritation of the digestive organs.
  Properties and Uses.—The recent  root of Actaea Spicata is a violent
purgative, resembling that of the  black hellebore in  its action;  when
dried  it is not so active.   It is seldom employed internally.  A decoction
used locally is said to cure the  itch,  and to destroy lice.
  The A. Alba and A. Rubra, possess similar qualities; they are said to
possess purgative and emmenagogue properties, and are viewed as substi-
tutes for the Cimicifuga Racemosa, and Caulophyllum Thalictroides; but
this is undoubtedly an error.
                              ADEPS.

           (Axungia, Ed.   Adeps Suillus Preparatus, Dub.)

  LARD.   THE  PREPARED FAT OF THE  SUS SCROFA OR COMMON HOG, FREE
FROM SALT.

  History.—Good lard is white, inodorous, granular in appearance, of a
sweetish taste, smooth  to  the  touch,  of  a soft  consistency at  ordinary
temperatures,  fusible  at about  100° F.,  insoluble in water, sparingly
soluble in alcohol, more so in ether and the volatile oils, is dissolved and
decomposed by the stronger acids,  and  is converted  into soap  when
boiled with caustic  alkaline solutions.  When melted  it readily unites
with resins and wax, on which account it is extensively used in making
ointments and liniments.   When heated in close vessels, it undergoes a
species of  destructive distillation, by which margaric, oleic, acetic, and
probably benzoic acids are formed, together with other less important
modifications of its constituent  fatty principles.   It  consists  of three
neutral  fatty principles, called  olein,  stearin and  margarin, which  are
found in most animal-oils and fats, and upon the relative proportions  of
which depends their consistence respectively.
   Olein, is  the liquid principle of oils ;  when pure it is colorless, has a
sweetish taste,  little odor, is insoluble in water, soluble in boiling alco-
hol,  readily soluble  in  ether, and congeals  at 20° F.  It is convertible
by saponification into glycerin, margaric  acid, and oleic acid, and con- 
Adiantum  Pedantum.
181
sists of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.   Lard  contains 62 per cent, of
olein, which is extensively used for burning in lamps.
   Stearin is white, concrete, of a crystalline appearance like spermaceti,
pulverizable, fusible at 144°, soluble in boiling alcohol or  ether, inso-
luble in either of these fluids when cold, and convertible by saponifica-
tion into a  peculiar fatty acid, named  stearic  acid,  and glycerin.   It
consists also of carbon, hydrogen, and  oxygen, and may be separated
from the  concrete matter  of lard, by treating this with cold ether so
long as anything is dissolved ; the stearin is left behind, and  the ethe-
real solution yields margarin by evaporation.
   Margarin very closely resembles stearin, but is more  fusible; one
variety, obtained from animal fats melting  at 118°, and being soluble in
cold  ether; another variety, from vegetable oils, melts at  82°.   Lard
should be kept in well closed vessels, as  if exposed to the air it absorbs
oxygen, and becomes  rancid, and consequently  unfit for medicinal use.
When pure it  consists  of 62  per cent, of olein, and 38 per cent, of stea-
rin and margarin together.
   Properties and  Uses.—Lard is emollient.  It  is sometimes used  alone
in frictions,  and is frequently added to laxative enemata; but its  chief
use is as an ingredient for  cerates and ointments.  When applied to
blistered surfaces, care must be taken that  it be not rancid,  as it is then
apt to cause ulceration.
                     ADIANTUM  PEDATUM.

                             Maidenhair.

   Nat. Ord.—Filices, or Polypodiaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Cryptogamia Monogynia.

                             THE herb.
   Description.—Adiantum Pedatum  is a  delicate and most  graceful
 fern, growing from twelve to fifteen inches  high, with the stipe or stalk
 and rachis, slender, polished, and black or dark-purplish, very glabrous;
 the frond or leaf pedate, with pinnate branches ;  the pinnae halved, tri-
 angular-oblong, entire on the lower margin  from which the veins all pro-
 ceed, and incised at the upper and fruit-bearing margin ; the barren seg-
 ments are toothed, the fertile ones entire.   Nonlinear, oblong ; arranged
 along the margin  of the frond;  involucre formed by turning back the
 margin of the  frond  over the  sori, and  it opens  inward.   Petiole
 smooth.
   History.—This plant is perennial, and is found in deep woods on moist,
rich soil, throughout  the United States.   The leaves  are bitterish and
somewhat aromatic, and yield their properties to boiling  water. 
182
Materia  Medica.
  Properties and Uses.—Maidenhair  is refrigerant,  expectorant, tonic,
and sub-astringent.   In decoction it forms an elegant refrigerant drink in
febrile diseases, and in erysipelas, and is also beneficial in coughs, chro-
nic  catarrh, hoarseness,  influenza, asthma, etc.   It  is likewise reputed
efficacious in pleurisy, and in jaundice.  The decoction or syrup may be
used  freely.   This  plant is highly valued  by some practitioners, and
deserves investigation.
  Off. Prep.—Decoctum Adiantum ; Infusum Adiantum.
                 ^ESCULUS  HIPPO CASTANUM.

                          Horse-chestnut.

  Nat. Ord.—Hippocastanaceae—Sapindaceaa,  and  iEsculaceae.  Sex. Syst.—
Heptandria Monogynia.
                          bark and fruit.

  Description.—The ^Esculus Hippocastanum  is  a  beautiful and lofty
tree, with numerous, spreading branches, covered with a rough, brown
bark.  The wood is white  and soft, and is very liable to decay.   The
leaves are large, on long footstalks, and  are  composed of seven  leaflets
arising from a common  center, the middle one being the largest; they
are of a spathulate form,  acuminate, serrate,  much  varied, and of a
bright-green color.   The flowers are in thyrsoid racemes or panicles, at
the extremity of the branches.   Calyx pale-green,  five-toothed,  and
spreading.  The corolla is formed of five petals, which  are irregular,
unequal, spreading, inserted  into the calyx by narrow claws, waved at
the edges, of a white color,  marked below with  a  yellowish-red spot.
The stamens are seven, with  awl-shaped filaments,  supporting reddish,
oblong, double anthers.  The ovary is roundish, and  furnished with a
short style and pointed stigma.  The fruit is prickly, coriaceous, round-
ish, three-celled, and usually  containing two seeds, which  are exalbumi-
nous, with a brown, shining testa, and a large, paler  hilum.
  History.—This plant  is  a  native of Asia, and was introduced into
Europe and this country, about the middle of the sixteenth century.  It
is of rapid growth,  flowers in May and June, and ripens its fruit late in
autumn.  The bark has little odor, and an astringent, bitter, not disa-
greeable taste.   It contains tannin.
  The jEscuIus Glabra, or Buckeye, common to Ohio, and other West-
ern States, is said to be useful as a substitute for the ^Esculus Hippocas-
tanum.

  Properties  and   Uses. — Horse-chestnut  Bark  is tonic,  astringent,
febrifuge, narcotic,  and  antiseptic.   It has been  found very efficacious in 
Agaric.
183
the treatment of intermittent fever, given in doses of from half an ounce
to an ounce of the bark, in the course of twenty-four hours.   It is infe-
rior, however, to  cinchona.  Ten grains of the powder of the rind of
the nuts, have been found equivalent, in narcotic power, to three grains of
opium.  A strong decoction of the  bark  has been  recommended as a
lotion to gangrenous ulcers.   The powdered kernel of the fruit produces
sneezing, and has been used as a  sternutatory in complaints of the head
and eyes.
                             AGARIC.

                    Touchwood.  Spunk.   Tinder.

   Nat. Ord.—Fungales, or Fungaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Cryptogamia Fungi.

   History.—This is the product of different species of a genus of mush-
 rooms, denominated  Boletus.  The  Boletus Laricis which grows upon
 the larch of the old  world, is the white agaric,  or purging agaric of medi-
 cal writers.  It is of various sizes, from  that of the fist, to that  of a
 child's head, is hard, spongy, brownish or  reddish externally, and inter-
 nally of a light, white, spongy, somewhat farinaceous, friable mass,
 which, though  capable of being rubbed into powder upon a sieve, is not
 easily pulverized in  the ordinary mode, as it flattens under the pestle.
 It has a  sweetish, very bitter taste.
   The Boletus ignarius, or agaric of the oak,  is compared in shape to
 the horse's hoof.   Its diameter  is from six to ten inches  when young, it
 is soft like velvet, but subsequently becomes hard and ligneous.   On the
 upper surface,  it is smooth, but marked with circular ridges of different
 colors, more or less  brown or blackish ; on the under, it is whitish or
 yellowish, and  full of small  pores;  internally it is  tough and  fibrous,
 and of a  tawny-brown color.   It is composed of short  tubular fibers
 compactly arranged  in layers, one of  which  is added every year.   It
 has neither taste nor  smell.   The best is that which grows on the  oak,
 and collected  in August or September.   It  is  prepared for  use  by
 removing the exterior rind or bark, cutting  the inner  part into thin slices,
 and beating these with a hammer until they become soft, pliable, and
easily torn by the fingers.

   Properties and Uses.—The White Agaric has  been found useful  in
 checking the night-sweats of phthisis, and  other diseases, in the dose of
eight  grains, and gradually increased to a drachm during the day, and
produces no inconvenience to  the digestive functions.   It is said to act
as a cathartic with some persons, in doses of from six to thirty grains.
   The agaric of the oak, is principally used for arresting hemorrhage from
wounds,  leech-bites,  etc., it  is  immediately applied to  the  part with 
184
Materia  Medica.
pressure, and acts probably mechanically, by absorbing the blood and
causing it to  coagulate.  In severe cases it is  not to  be relied  upon.
It has sometimes been applied to the purposes of moxa.   Steeped in a
solution of nitre, and dried, it becomes very inflammable, and is used as
a tinder under the name of  Spunk or Punk.
                      AGAVE  VIRGINICA.

                            False Aloe.

      Nat. Ord.  Amaryllidaceas.   Sex. Syst.   Hexandria Monogynia.

                             THE root.

  Description. — This  is  a perennial, herbaceous,  stemless  or  scape-
bearing plant, with a premorse, tuberous root.   The leaves are linear-
lanceolate, fleshy,  glabrous, radical, with cartilaginous serratures on the
margin.   The scape is simple, glabrous, with leaf-like scales and sessile
flowers, terete,  and from  three  to six  feet in hight.   The flowers are
scattered  in  a  loose, wand-like spike, very fragrant,  greenish-yellow,
with the  tube  longer  than the  acute segments.  The  corolla is  erect,
superior, tubular or funnel-form ; filaments erect, longer  than the corolla;
anthers introrse.  Capsule roundish, obscurely triangular, three-furrowed,
three-valved, three-celled, and many-seeded.
  History.—This plant is  common to Pennsylvania and the Southern
States, growing on dry or rocky banks, and  flowering in August and
September.   In South Carolina, it is  known by the name of Rattlesnake's
Master, and is considered  an antidote to the bite of that reptile.   The
root is the  part  used, it is very bitter, and yields its properties to
alcohol.
  Properties and Uses.—False aloe is reputed laxative and carminative,
and  has been  beneficially employed  in flatulent colic,  and in obstinate
diarrhea.   It is also said to be a valuable counter-poison to the bites of
snakes.
  The Agave Americana, or American Aloe, also called American Agave,
and  Century Plant, is an  evergreen succulent plant,  growing in Florida,
Mexico, and other parts of tropical  America; it bears a strong resem-
blance to the plants of the genus Aloe, with which it is sometimes con-
founded.   The root and  leaves when cut furnish a saccharine  juice,
which  may  be converted  into  syrup or  sugar by evaporation, and
into a vinous  liquor by  fermentation.   When  evaporated to the con-
sistence of a soft extract,  it forms a lather with water, and is  sometimes
employed as a substitute for soap.  The fresh juice is said to be diuretic,
laxative,  and emmenagogue.   G. Perrin, M. D., of U. S. A., strongly 
           Ajuga  Cham.epitys — Agrimonia  Eupatoria.        185

recommends the juice of the Am. Aloe, as a remedy in scorbutus, superior
to all others.  The  juice is  prepared  by cutting  the leaves off close to
the root, then placing them  in hot ashes until thoroughly cooked, when
they are removed, and the juice expressed and strained.   It is not dis-
agreeable to take, agrees with the stomach  and bowels  and may  be
given in doses of from one to three ounces daily.
                     AJUGA  CHAM.EPITYS.

                           Ground Pine.

      Nat. Ord.—Lamiaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.

                            THE LEAVES.
  Description.—Ground-Pine has an  annual diffused stem, with three-
cleft leaves; and the flowers solitary and axillary, shorter than the leaves.
 Corolla with the upper  lip minute  and two-toothed.   Stamens longer
than the upper lip ; anthers all  reniform, one-celled.
  History.—This  is a  low-creeping plant, a native of Europe, but found
also in some parts  of the United States, and  known sometimes under
the  names of Bugle or Germander.  The leaves, which are the parts used,
bear some resemblance  to those of the pine in shape, and possess a
strong, peculiar, resinous, not disagreeable  odor, and a bitter, balsamic
taste.  By distillation with water, they yield a small proportion of vola-
tile  oil, resembling  that  of turpentine.   Their  virtues are imparted to
diluted alcohol.
  Properties and Uses.—Ground-pine is  stimulant,  tonic, diuretic,  and
aperient;  it has been  successfully employed in palsy, gout, rheumatism,
and amenorrhea.   It  is said to be especially useful  in uterine diseases,
and paralytic disorders ; also  in dropsy, jaundice,  strangury,  and  all
visceral obstructions.   Externally, the decoction forms an excellent wash
for  old and indolent ulcers.  Dose of the leaves in powder, one or  two
drachms;  but the vinous infusion is considered  the best preparation  ; its
dose is from half  a fluidrachm to two fluidrachms.
                   AGRIMONIA EUPATORIA.

                             Agrimony.

          Nat. Ord.—Rosaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Icosandria Digynia.

                       THE ROOT  AND LEAVES.

  Description.—Agrimony is a perennial herb, with a reddish, tapering,
not creeping root, branched at the  summit.  The stems  are  from one to 
186
Materia  Medica.
three feet  in  hight, leafy,  scarcely branched,  and covered  with soft,
silky hairs.   The leaves are alternate, nearly smooth beneath, interrupt-
edly pinnate, and consist of three, five, or seven oblong-obovate, or oval-
lanceolate  leaflets, from  one to  three  inches  long, and  about one-third
as wide,  sessile, coarsely serrated, almost glabrous, with various minute
intermediate ones;  the terminal leaflet with a short petiolule.   Stipules
of the upper leaves, large, rounded, dentate or palmate.   Flowers very
numerous,  subsessile,  yellow, in a  dense  tapering  spike, with  lobed
bracts; they are about four lines in diameter.  Racemes six to twelve
inches long, spicate.  Petals five, rarely twice the length  of the  calyx.
Calyx  inferior, five-cleft, invested with an  outer lobed  one ; calyx-tube
curiously fluted with  ten  ribs, and surmounted with  reddish-hooked
bristles.  Stamens twelve ;  carpels two ; fruit  hispid.

  History.—Agrimony inhabits  Asia,  Europe, and North America.  In
this country it is found  in  fields, on the borders of woods, and along
the roadsides, bearing a yellow flower in July and August.  It is some-
times known by the name of Cockle-burr, Stickwort, etc.   It has an agree-
able aromatic odor, which  is strongest in  the  flowers, and a rough,
bitterish, aromatic taste, which is more powerful in the  root.   It  yields
its properties to  water.

  Properties and Uses.—Agrimony is a mild tonic, alterative and astrin-
gent.   A decoction of it is highly recommended in bowel-complaints,
passive hemorrhages, gonorrhea, leucorrhea, and chronic affections of
the mucous membranes ; likewise in jaundice, and visceral obstructions,
and as an alterative in cutaneous diseases.  A strong decoction, sweetened
with honey, is reputed an invariable cure for  scrofula, if its use be per-
sisted in for a length of time; and  it  has  also been  highly extolled in
the treatment of gravel, asthma, coughs, and obstructed  menstruation.
Dr. D. C. Payne speaks highly  of a continued use of a decoction  of this
plant in  the treatment of erysipelas, and  scrofulous affections,  to  be
used freely in connection with diet  and regularity of  the bowels.   As a
gargle, the decoction is  useful in ulcerations of the mouth and throat.
Dose of the powdered leaves, one  or two  drachms ; of  the decoction
from one to three fluidounces.  The root is very astringent, and may be
used wherever this class of agents is indicated.  The plant has been also
celebrated as a vermifuge.

   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Agrimoniae ; Infusum Agrimonise. 
Alcohol.
187
                             ALCOHOL.

    Absolute Alcohol.—Hydrate of oxide of Ethyle.   Specific gravity,
 0.794-6.

    Spiritus Rectificatus.—Rectified spirit.  Specific gravity, 0.835.

    Alcohol Dilutum.—Proof Spirit.   Diluted Alcohol.  Specific gra-
 vity, 0.935.

    Preparation.—Alcohol is a peculiar liquid, generated  for the  most
 part in vegetable juices and infusions, by a fermentation called the vinous
 or alcoholic.  The liquids which  have undergone it  are  called vinous
 liquors, and are  of various kinds; thus, the fermented  juice of the grape
 is  called Wine ; of the apple, Cider; the fermented infusion of malt, Beer.
 This fermentation is owing to the presence of sugar in these liquids, and
 in other instances, to the conversion of starch  into sugar,  by some un-
 known spontaneous change.
    In vinous liquors, the  alcohol  is diluted with abundance of water, and
 associated with coloring matter, volatile oil, extractive,  and  various acids
 and salts.   In purifying it we  take advantage of its volatility, which
 enables us to separate it  by distillation, combined with some of the prin-
 ciples of the vinous liquors employed, and more  or less  water.   The
 distilled product of  vinous liquors forms the different varieties of ardent
 spirit of commerce.  When obtained  from wine, it  is  called Brandy;
 from fermented molasses, Rum ;  from cider, malted  barley,  or  rye,
 Whisky ; from malted barley and rye-meal with hops, and rectified from
 juniper berries, Holland  Gin ;  from malted barley, rye or potatoes, rec-
 tified with turpentine, Common Gin ; and from fermented  rice, Arrack.
 These spirits are of different strengths,  that is, contain different  propor-
 tionate  quantities of alcohol, • and have various peculiarities by which
 they are distinguished  by  the  palate.  Their strength is  accurately
 judged of by the specific gravity, which is always inversely proportion-
 ate to their concentration.  When they have a sp. gr. of 0.920 they are
 designated in commerce by the term  Proof Spirit.   If  lighter than  this,
 they are said to be above proof;  if heavier, below proof.   Proof spirit
 may be considered as corresponding with  the average strength of  the
 weaker alcohol used in  pharmacy.
  Proof spirit is still very far from being pure ; being  a  dilute  alcohol,
 containing about  half its  weight of water, together with essential oil and
 other foreign matters.   It may be further purified and  strengthened by
re-distillation, or rectification as it is called.   Whisky is the spirit  usually
employed for this purpose, and  from every hundred  gallons, between
fifty-seven and fifty-eight will be obtained, of the average  strength of
rectified spirit, (sp. gr. 0.835,) corresponding to the alcohol of the  United
States' Pharm., and  the Spiritus Rectificatus of the London  and  Dublin 
188
Materia  Medica.
Colleges.   When this is once more cautiously distilled, it will be further
purified from water, and  attain the sp. gr. of about 0.825, which is the
lightest spirit which can  be  obtained by ordinary distillation.   It  still,
however,  contains eleven per  cent, of water.  In the  meanwhile, the
spirit, by these repeated distillations, becomes more and more freed from
essential oil, called Grain, or Fusel Oil.
  If it be desired  to obtain alcohol of still greater concentration, (Abso-
lute  alcohol), it  is necessary to  avail  ourselves  of  certain  substances
which have a powerful affinity  for water.   Of this nature, are lime, car-
bonate of potassa, and  chloride of calcium.   These, being mixed  with
the rectified spirit, unite with water and sink, while the purer spirit floats
above, and may be separated by decantation  or distillation.   By availing
themselves of  substances of this nature, the London and Dublin Colleges
are enabled to produce their strongest spirit, which they denomm&teAlcohol.
  Souberain recommends  the following as an easy method for obtaining
alcohol  free from water,  abundantly and economically:—"1st.  Rectify
alcohol, marking 86° of the  centesimal  alcoholmeter of Gay-Lussac (rec-
tified spirit) by distilling it from  carbonate of potassa.  This  operation
raises its strength to 94° or  95°.   2d. Raise this alcohol to 97°, by dis-
tilling it with fused chloride of calcium, or  by digesting it with quick-
lime, from which it must  be afterward poured off, in the proportion of a
pint of the alcohol to 1^ ounces of the chloride, or 2\ ounces of the lime.
3d. Distil  the product  of this operation  slowly with quicklime, in  the
proportion of 3| ounces to the  pint.  The product will be  absolute alco-
hol.  The operation may be shortened to two steps, by distilling  the
alcohol of 94° or  95°, with  an excess of quicklime (7£ ounces to  the
pint).   In all cases, before decanting  or distilling, the alcohol  must be
digested for two or three days with the lime, at a temperature between
95° and 100° F.  Lime will not answer as  a substance to  be distilled
from, unless it be in sufficient  excess;  for otherwise,  toward the end of
the distillation, the hydrate  of  lime formed, will yield up its water to the
alcohol, and weaken the distilled product."
  Although freed  from water by the  processes named, alcohol may still
be impregnated with a portion  of  the essential oil, called grain or fusel
oil.  This is usually removed by digesting the spirit with charcoal, espe-
cially animal charcoal.  The same end may be attained  on a small scale,
by  adding a little  of the  solution of nitrate of silver to the spirit, and
exposing  it to  a bright light.   By the action of the oxide of silver on
the oil, it is converted into  a  black powder, and by a  new distillation,
the spirit  is obtained pure.
  With the exception of alcohol and  whisky, but  very little pure liquors
are to be  had  in this country,  as  they are superseded by the domestic
articles manufactured by liquor dealers.  The following formulae for the
manufacturing of domestic liquors, are from  an  old dealer and manufac-
turer. 
Alcohol.
189
  Domestic Gin is made of neutral spirits forty gallons, good Holland
gin four gallons, oil of Juniper three ounces, oil  of Anise one ounce;
mix  together.  Domestic brandy consists  of  neutral spirits one gallon,
good brandy one pint, molasses, q. s. to color, sweet spirits of nitre eight
ounces.
  History.—Alcohol  is a  colorless,  transparent, volatile liquid,  of a
penetrating, agreeable odor, and strong burning taste.   When free from
water  of dilution, it is called anhydrous or absolute alcohol, and has the
specific gravity  of  0.793  at  the temperature of  60°.  If a piece  of
anhydrous  baryta be dropped into the liquid, if any water be present it
will fall to  powder ; otherwise, it will not.   Alcohol is inflammable, and
burns  without smoke or residue, the products being water and carbonic
acid.   When strong, the flame is bluish,  but yellowish when weak.   It
combines with water and  ether in all proportions, and is capable of dis-
solving a  great number of substances, as sulphur, phosphorus, iodine,
ammonia,  caustic potassa, soda, and  lithia ;  also  the  organic vegetable
alkalies, urea, tannic acid, sugar, mannite,  camphor, resins, balsams,
soap, castor  oil, and volatile oils ;  also most of the  chlorides that  are
readily soluble in water; some nitrates, none of the metallic sulphates,
nor the  insoluble  efflorescent  salts.   It  dissolves fixed  oils sparingly,
acts on most acids,  forming ethers with some, and effecting the solution
of others,  and  dissolves all  deliquescent salts,  except carbonate of  po-
tassa.   Alcohol is represented by  C4 Hi + 2HO—equivalent 46.

   Properties and  Uses.—A powerful, diffusible stimulant, and  is  the
intoxicating ingredient in all malt, spiritous, and vinous liquors.   It is
never  used in its pure state in medicine, but when diluted forms a men-
struum for many remedies.   In the form of brandy, it is useful in  all
cases of prostration or sinking, especially in typhus.   Brandy is said to
be cordial and stomachic; rum, heating and sudorific ; gin and whisky,
diuretic.   The danger of manufacturing drunkards  by the administra-
tion of wine or brandy,  bitters, cordials, and  the like, which  was  so
common a few years since, we are glad to say,  has now almost entirely
ceased ; and although alcoholic tinctures are sometimes prescribed, yet
it is in such small  doses,  and so well diluted with water, that no fear of
intemperance can arise in the  mind  of the  physician.  There  are very
few cases  in which alcoholic stimulants are  given, and  those are never
of a  chronic  character, or in which these fluids  have to be used longer
than a few days.   The discovery of  our  concentrated preparations,  and
improved  modes of treating disease, have done much to set aside  this
dangerous and unscientific practice.
   Externally, alcohol is  sometimes applied  to produce cold by evapora-
tion, or to stimulate where its evaporation is repressed ; and enters into
many  discutient and  stimulating  lotions.   A mixture of equal parts of
white  of egg and rectified spirit, is said  to  be  an excellent application 
190
Materia Medica.
to excoriations from pressure, during their early stage, occurring in pro-
tracted diseases.   To be applied frequently with a fine brush or feather,
and renewed as it dries, until an albuminous coating is formed over the
excoriated surface.
  Alcohol  is extensively employed  in  pharmacy, either rectified  or
diluted, for the  manufacture of tinctures, spirits, ether, essences, resin-
ous and alcoholic extracts, and for many other purposes.
                     ALCOHOL  AMYLICUM.

                          Amylic Alcohol.

  Preparation.—Take of the light liquid, which may be obtained at any
large distillery, by continuing  the  distillation for  some  time after the
pure spirit has all been drawn off,  any quantity.    Introduce it into a
small still or retort connected with a condenser, and apply heat so as to
cause distillation; as soon  as the oil begins to come over unmixed with
water, the receiver should  be changed, and the distillation being resumed
and  carried  nearly to dryness, the desired product  will be  obtained.
The  liquid drawn over during the first part of the distillation will consist
of an aqueous fluid, surmounted by a stratum of  the Amylic Alcohol.
This latter, though impregnated with a minute quantity of water, should
be separated and preserved, as being sufficiently pure  for use.
  History.—This oil has various names, as Fusel oil,  Grain oil,  Corn-spirit
oil, Potato-spirit oil, and Hydrated oxide of amyle.   It is  always present
in the products of the alcoholic fermentation, and is an ingredient in the
ardent spirit  obtained from various kinds of grain, but is  most abundant
in that procured from fermented potatos.   It is present in grain spirit in
the proportion of about one part in five hundred by measure.   If the
whisky procured from grain or potato is distilled to  obtain  its alcohol,
the pure spirit will come over for a certain time, after which, if the dis-
tillation  be  continued, a  milky liquid will be obtained, which,  upon
standing, will be covered with  a stratum of this peculiar oil.   Subjected
to distillation, the milky liquid will at first boil at a comparatively low
temperature, and yield water, and a little of the oil; but after a time the
boiling point will rise to 269°,  when the oil will come over pure.   By
changing the receiver when the oil  begins to distil free from water, the
pure oil is collected,  separate from the watery part.— U. S. Disp.
  Fusel  oil  is a  colorless, oily liquid, very mobile, of a  strong and
nauseous odor which produces  stupefying effects, and an acrid, burning,
very disagreeable  taste.   Its  vapor when inhaled, causes  cough and
spasmodic dyspnoea,  resembling asthma,  often followed by  vomiting.
As usually prepared its color  is pale-yellow.   Its specific  gravity  is 
Aletris Farinosa.
191
0.818 ; that of its vapor 3.15.   It boils at 269°,  and at — 4° it crystal-
lizes in shining scales.  It is soluble in all proportions in alcohol or ether,
but is very sparingly so in  water.    It dissolves iodine,  sulphur, and
phosphorus, and forms a good solvent for fats, resins, and camphor.  It
does not leave a greasy stain upon paper, nor take  fire by contact with
flame, but begins to burn only when heated to about 130°.   It consists
of ten equivalents of  carbon  60, twelve of hydrogen 12, and  two of
oxygen  16=88.    When heated with dry hydrate of potassa it  is oxi-
dized, two  equivalents of hydrogen  are given off,  and two of oxygen
absorbed, and the potassa is found combined with valerianic acid Cio Ho
03.   It is generally considered to be a hydrated oxide of amyle, its
formula being Cio Hn  0+HO=Ayl O HO.
   Properties and Uses.—Fusel oil is used  in the preparation of valeri-
anic acid,  valerianate of soda, etc.
                       ALETRIS  FARINOSA.

                            Unicorn Root.

  Nat.  Ord.—Liliaceas, Lindley.  Haemodoraceaa, Brown.—Sex.  Syst.   Hex-
andria Monogynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—Aletris Farinosa, also known by the  several names of
Star-grass, Colic-root, Ague-root,  Crow-corn, etc., has apremorse, perennial
root, with radicle leaves, spreading on the ground like  a star, sessile,
ribbed,  broad-lanceolate, entire, smooth,  of a  pale-green or glaucous
color, veined longitudinally,  and of unequal size, the largest being about
four inches long, and one-fourth  as wide.  From the center of the leaves
arises the scape  or flower-stem, which is from one to three feet high, erect,
simple,  with remote scales or bracts, which sometimes expand into small
subulate leaves.  Spike slender,  scattered,  each flower with  a short
pedicel and a minute  bract.    Calyx wanting.    Perianth white, of an
oblong  bell-shape, divided in the limb into six acute, spreading segments;
the outside, especially as the  flower grows old, has a wrinkled, roughish,
or mealy appearance.   Stamens six, short, inserted near the mouth of the
perianth at the base  of the segments; ovary  three-lobed, pyramidal,
tapering, semi-inferior ;  style triangular, separable into three.   Capsule
triangular, invested with the permanent  perianth, three-celled,  three-
valved at top.    Seeds numerous, minute, fixed to a central receptacle.
  History.—Unicorn Root is  found in most parts of the United States,
usually  in  dry  sandy  soils and  barrens.   Its  flowers  are white  and
appear  in June  and July.   The root is the  officinal  portion, which is
small, crooked, blackish externally, brown or Avhitish within, and intensely
bitter.   Alcohol is its best solvent.   (See Helonias Dioica.) 
192
Materia Medica.
   Properties and Uses.—Unicorn Root, in  the  recent  state and in large
doses,  is considerably narcotic, with  emetic  and cathartic properties.
When  dried these properties are destroyed, and it becomes a bitter tonic.
It has  been used in decoction or tincture, in flatulent colic, hysteria, and
to increase the tone of the stomach.    It is of  much utility in dyspepsia,
as well as in cases of general or local  debility.    But  its most valuable
property consists in the tonic influence it exerts upon the female genera-
tive  organs, giving a normal energy  to the uterus, and thus proving
useful  in cases where there is an habitual tendency to  miscarriage.   In
chlorosis,  amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea,  and engorged  conditions  of the
uterus, as well as in prolapsus of that organ, it is  one of our best vegeta-
ble agents.  The alcoholic extract is an elegant form in which to employ
it, in the above  affections.   In uterine diseases  it may be given  alone
with advantage, or employed in combination  with asclepidin, senecin,
caulophyllin, or  cimicifugin.   In flatulent colic and borborygmi, a mix-
ture  of dioscorein two grains, ginger four  grains, and alcoholic extract
of aletris two grains, may be divided into two pills, of which one may be
given every two or three hours with decided benefit.   (See asclepidin).
The  resinous  extract of the root, aletrin,  is  not  so much employed at
present, as the alcoholic  extract aletridin, although it possesses  active
properties.   Dose of the powdered root, from five to ten grains, three
times  a day;  of  the saturated tincture, from  five  to fifteen  drops, in
water.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Aletridis Alcoholicum.
                      ALISMA PLANTAGO.

                          Water Plantain.

        Nat.  Ord.—Alismaceae.  Sex.  Syst.—Hexandria Polygynia.

                            the  leaves.
  Description.—This  is a perennial, caulescent herb, sometimes called
Mad-dog weed.  The  leaves  are radical, oval, oblong or lanceolate, sub-
cordate at the base,  cuspidate or  abruptly acuminate,  five to nine-
nerved, from four to  six inches in length, about two-thirds as wide, and
on  long radical  petioles.   The  scape is  one or  two  feet high, with
whorled panicled  branches; the panicles are loose, compound, many-
flowered; branches of the  panicle  with  bracts at the base.   Carpels
fifteen  to twenty, obliquely obovate, forming  an  obtusely-triangular
whorl in fruit.  The flowers  are small, white, whorled, and numerous;
petals three, tinged with purple,  roundish, deciduous, larger than the
green, ovate,  persistent sepals.  Stamens six;  achenia  obtusely three-
cornered.  Root fibrous. 
Allium Sativum.
193
  History.—Water  Plantain  is  common  to Europe and  the  United
States, being  a smooth, handsome inhabitant of ponds, ditches, streams,
etc., flowering in July.  At one time the root was in great repute as a
cure for hydrophobia, but subsequent experiments have  proved it ineffi-
cacious.  The leaves are the parts used.
  Properties  and Uses.—When the fresh  leaves of water-plantain  are
bruised and  applied to  the skin, they produce a rubefacient effect, and
will  even vesicate.   When dried and powdered, and taken in the dose
of one or two drachms two  or three times a day, they have been suc-
cessfully employed in gravel  and other urinary affections.
                       ALLIUM SATIVUM.

                               Garlic.

         Nat. Ord.—Liliacea?.  Sex.  Syst.—Hexandria Monogynia.

                             the bulb.
  Description.—This is a very  extensive genus,  including over  sixty
species.  • The Allium Sativum is officinal; it is a perennial plant, bulb-
ous.  The  bulbs are numerous,  and inclosed in a common membranous
covering, from the base of which the fibers that constitute  the proper
root descend.  The  stem  is simple, and is  about two feet high.  The
leaves  are  long,  acute,  flat,  distichous,  glaucous, channeled above,
sheathing the lower half of the stem.  At the termination of the  stem
is a cluster of flowers  and bulbs  mingled  together, and  inclosed in a
calyptriform, horned spathe,  which  opens  on  one side  and  withers.
Umbels bulbiferous.   The flowers, if any,  are  pink,  red, or whitish,
rather longer than the stamens and appear in July.   Perianth, deeply
six-parted,  segments mostly spreading,  permanent, equal; ovary angu-
lar; stigma simple, acute; capsule three-lobed.   It is a native of Sicily,
but cultivated in various sections of the  country.
  History.—The  part employed is the  bulb, which is usually dug up,
with a portion of  the stem attached, and after having been dried in the
sun, are tied together  in  bunches.  They lose nine parts in weight by
drying, while their sensible properties are but little diminished.  They
possess a disagreeable,  pungent odor, and an acrid, bitter taste, both  of
which are owing to the presence of an essential  oil which is  very  vola-
tile.   The oil is of a yellow color, exceedingly pungent odor, and strong
acrid taste; is heavier than water, contains sulphur, and irritates or even
vesicates the skin when  applied to it.  Water,  alcohol, or  vinegar,
extract the  virtues of garlic.
  Properties  and  Uses.—Stimulant,  diuretic, expectorant, and rubefa-
cient.  Used as a medicine, and  for culinary purposes.  When taken
       13 
194
Materia Medica.
internally, the active principle is speedily absorbed, and, penetrating the
system, becomes  sensible in  the breath and various secretions, and is
said to produce  the same effects,  when  applied  externally.   Taken
internally, garlic quickens  the  circulation,  excites the nervous  system,
promotes expectoration in a debilitated state of the vessels of the lungs,
produces diuresis or diaphoresis according  as the patient is kept cool or
warm, and acts as a tonic and carminative to the stomach.   It has been
beneficially used in coughs, catarrhs, hooping-cough, hoarseness, worms,
and calculous affections during  the absence of  inflammation.  It is very
useful in the nervous and spasmodic coughs  of children.  The juice,
given in the dose  of a few drops, is said to check nervous vomiting; and
mixed with  olive or sweet-almond oil, is recommended in atonic deaf-
ness.   Garlic juice, sweet oil of almonds,  and glycerin, of each, equal
parts, mixed, and  dropped in the ear, has cured several cases  of deaf-
ness.   Externally, the bruised  bulbs, applied  as a poultice  above the
pubes, has restored the action of the bladder, in cases of retention of
urine, from  debility  of  that organ.   In the same shape, it  may be
applied to the spine and chest of infants in  pneumonia;  to the feet and
legs, as a revulsive, in disorders of the  head,  and febrile complaints of
children; and has  been employed as  a resolvent in indolent  tumors,
stimulating  the absorbents to action.   It may be taken  whole, or the
juice  may be  administered mixed with  sugar.   The  dose of the  fresh
bulb  is from half  a  drachm  to two  drachms;  of the juice, half a
drachm.   If used too largely,  or in  excited states  of the system, it is
apt to produce flatulence, gastric irritation, hemorrhoids, headache, and
fever.
                         ALLIUM CEPA.

                              Onion.

 Nat.  Ord.—Liliaceaa.  Tribe—Scillese.  Sex. Syst.—Hexandria Monogynia.

                             THE  BULB.
  Description.—The onion is  a biennial plant, the root bearing a tuni-
cated  bulb, compressed, or round, or oblong in  figure, invested with a
shining, thin,  dry membrane.  The scape,  which appears the second
year,  is from two to four feet high, straight,  naked, smooth, stout,  fistu-
lous, bearing at the top a large, round umbel of  greenish-white flowers,
and swelling toward its base.   The leaves are fistulous, terete, distichous,
glaucous,  acute,  shorter  than the  stem.   Spathe reflexed,  generally
longer than the lower flowers.  Umbels large, regular,  compact, many-
flowered, not bulbiferous.  Pedicels about an inch long, thickened at the
point.   Stamens nearly twice as long as the perianth. 
Alnus Rubra.
195
  History.—The  onion  is supposed to be a native of Hungary, but is
now found  over the whole civilized world.   The  bulbs are of various
shapes and sizes,  are composed of concentric fleshy and succulent  lay-
ers, and according to the variety are reddish, yellowish, or white.  They
have, in a high degree,  the peculiar pungent  odor of the plant, with a
sweetish  and acrid taste.  It contains a white acrid volatile oil holding
sulphur in solution, albumen, much uncrystallizable sugar and  mucilage,
phosphoric acid both free and  combined with lime, acetic  acid, citrate
of lime, and lignin.   The expressed juice is  susceptible of the vinous
fermentation.
  Properties and Uses.—The onion  is stimulant,  diuretic, expectorant,
and rubefacient; used moderately it increases the appetite, and promotes
digestion, but in large quantities it is  apt to occasion flatulence, gastric
uneasiness, and febrile excitement.  The juice, mixed with sugar, forms
a pleasant syrup, useful in  coughs,  catarrhs, and  croup, to be given in
the  absence of much inflammatory action.   Roasted and split, it is occa-
sionally employed as an emollient cataplasm to boils and other suppu-
rating tumors.   In dropsy and gravel, a saturated tincture made with good
gin, has been recommended.   Boiling deprives the onion of  its essential
oil,  and it then  becomes a mild esculent, much used as  food.
                         ALNUS RUBRA.

                             Tag Alder.

  Nat. Ord.—Betulaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Tetrandria.

                             THE BARK.
  Description.—This plant is the Alnus  Serrulata of Aiton and Willde-
now, and is known by the names of Smooth Alder, and Common Alder. It
is a well-known shrub growing in clumps, and forming thickets  on the
borders of ponds and rivers, and in swamps.  The stems are numerous,
rather straight, and  from six  to fifteen  feet in hight.   The leaves are
obovate,  acuminate, dorbly  serrulate with  minute  teeth,  thickish,
smooth and green on both sides, strongly  veined, the veins and their
axils being hairy  beneath, from two to four inches long, by two-thirds as
wide, and on petioles one-half or one-third of an  inch long.  The sti-
pules are elliptical and obtuse.  Aments two or three inches long, slender,
pendulous, fascicled  at the  ends of the  branches; fertile aments short,
thick,  dark-brown,  persistent, ovoid-oblong,  several  together  a little
below the sterile one.  Stamens four.   Fruit ovate.
  History.—This  shrub blossoms in  March and April, bearing flowers
of a reddish-green  color.   The bark is the part used and imparts its
properties to boiling water. 
196
Materia Medica.
  Properties  and Uses. —Tag Alder  Bark is alterative,  emetic,  and
astringent.  A decoction or extract of it is useful in scrofula, secondary
syphilis, and  several forms of cutaneous disease.  The inner bark of the
root is emetic ; and a decoction of the cones is said to be astringent, and
useful in hematuria, and other hemorrhages.   An excellent ophthalmic
powder is  made by boring a hole from half an inch to an inch in diame-
ter, lengthwise, through  a stout piece of a limb of tag  alder.  Fill the
opening with finely-powdered salt, and close it at each end.   Put it into
hot ashes, and let it  remain till the tag is almost all charred, (three or
four days,) then split it open, take out the salt, powder, and keep it in a
vial.  To  use it, blow some of  the powder in  the eye,  through  a quill.
An article named Alnuine is said to have been obtained  from this plant,
which possesses alterative, tonic, and astringent properties, and is recom-
mended in herpes, syphilis, scorbutus, scrofula, impetigo, etc., in doses
of one to  three grains, three  or four times a day.  Likewise an  essen-
tial agent, Alnuin, for the same purpose.   We have not been advised of
the manner in which these  agents are  prepared,  and therefore can say
but little concerning them.
   Off.  Prep.—Decoctum Alnus . Infusum Alnus.
                        ALOE  SPICATA.

                              Aloes.

  Nat.  Ord.—Liliacese.  Sex. Syst.—Hexandria Monogynia.

                 inspissated  juice of the  leaves.

  Description.—The Aloe Spicata, or Spiked  Aloe, is a native of South
Africa, growing near the Cape of Good Hope, in sandy soil.   The stem
is woody, round, from three to four feet high, about five inches in diam-
eter, and leafy at  the  summit; the leaves are thick, fleshy,  spreading,
subverticillate,  about two feet  long,  broad  at the  base, gradually narrow-
ing to the point, channeled or grooved on their upper  surface, remotely
teethed upon their edges ;  their parenchyma almost  colorless.  Spike a
foot long, very compact, with horizontal and campanulate flowers, of a
scarlet color, which contain  a large  quantity of purplish honey juice.
Beneath  each flower is a broad, ovate, acute bracte, of a white color,
with three green streaks, and  nearly as long as the  corolla.  The three
inner  petals are  ovate,  obtuse, white, with a  triple green line,  and
broader than the three outer, which otherwise resemble them.  The sta-
mens are much longer than the perianth.
  Aloe Socotrina, is said to be a native of the island of Socotra; its stem
is erect,  woody, a foot  and a half high,  or more, naked below,  where it 
Aloe Spicata.
197
is strono-ly marked with the scars of former leaves ; the leaves are at the
summit of the  stem,  amplexicaul,  green,  ascending, ensiform, rather
concave on their upper surface,  convex beneath, and curved inward at
the point, and marked with numerous small, white marginal  serratures ;
the parenchyma abounding in a  bright  brownish-yellow juice.   Raceme
cylindrical, unbranched ; the flowers are scarlet at the base, pale in the
center, and greenish  at the point.  The stamens  are unequal, three of
them being longer than the corolla.
  Aloe Vulgaris, is a native of south-eastern Europe, and north Africa,
and is cultivated in Italy, Sicily, Malta, and the West  Indies.   It has a
short, simple, cylindrical and woody stem ;  the leaves  being  fleshy, am-
plexicaul, first  spreading, then  ascending, lanceolate, glaucous-green, a
little  mottled with  darker spots,  flat  on  the  upper  surface, convex
beneath, and armed  with hard  reddish spines, distant from  each other,
and perpendicular  to the margin;  the parenchyma is slightly colored
brown, and very distinct from the tough leathery  cuticle.  The scape is
axillary,   glaucous-reddish, branched;  spike  cylindrical-ovate.   The
flowers at first erect, then spreading, afterward  pendulous,  yellow and
not longer than the stamens.
   The juice  obtained by expression from the parenchyma is mucilagi-
nous, and possesses but little medicinal virtue; the proper aloetic juice
is obtained from the inter-cellular passages found between the longitu-
dinal vessels  which are situated beneath the epidermis  of  the leaves,
and which juice may be readily  obtained by cutting these in a transverse
direction.
  History.—There  are several species of Aloe, from which the officinal
drug  is  obtained—the  A. Spicata, A.  Socotrina,  A.  Vulgaris,  etc.,
which grow in various parts of the world, the first at the Cape of Good
Hope, furnishing the  Cape Aloes ;  the  second in the island  of  Socotra,
from  whence is taken the Socotrine Aloes; and the third, in  the East
and West Indies, Italy, Spain,  Barbary coast, etc., which   furnish the
Barbadoes Aloes.
   Cape Aloes, when freshly broken, has a  very dark olive  or greenish
color, approaching  to black, with a smooth, bright surface, and translu-
cent edges.   The powder is  of  a fine greenish-yellow color.  It  has a
strong, disagreeable,  but not nauseous odor, and a peculiar bitter taste.
It  is sometimes confounded with the Socotrine  Aloes,  especially the
finer  sorts.   Socotrine Aloes,  is in pieces of a  yellowish,  or reddish-
brown color ; its interior surface lighter than its  exterior, but rendered
darker by exposure to the  air.   Its surface is somewhat glossy, and  its
fracture smooth and conchoidal,  with sharp, semi-transparent edges.  Its
powder is bright-yellow.  The odor is  peculiar, not unpleasant, with a
bitter, disagreeable, but aromatic taste.  It is the  best  article for medi-
cinal  purposes.   Barbadoes Aloes,  is very little used, except in veteri- 
198
Materia Medica.
nary practice.  Beside these, we have several other varieties, useless to
name here.
  Aloes yields its active matter to  cold water, and when good, is almost
wholly dissolved by boiling water ; but the inert portion, or apothime of
Berzelius, is deposited as the  solution cools.  It is also soluble in  alco-
hol, rectified or diluted.   Long boiling impairs  its  purgative properties,
by converting the aloesin into insoluble  apothtme.   The  alkalies, their
carbonates, and soap, alter, in some measure, its chemical nature, and
render it of  easier solution.  It is inflammable, swelling up and decrepi-
tating when it burns, and giving out a thick smoke which has  the odor
of the drug.   Those substances only are incompatible with aloes, which
alter or precipitate the aloesin, as  the insoluble  portion is without action
upon  the  system.  Its aqueous solution keeps a long time, even  for
several months,  without  exhibiting moldiness  or putrescency; but it
becomes ropy, and acquires the character, which it did  not previously pos-
sess,  of  affording  an abundant precipitate with  the infusion  of galls.
Analysis has detected  in aloes, 85 parts in  100 of bitter extractive,
called  aloesin, 2  of ulmate  of potassa, 2 of sulphate  of lime, 0.25 of
gallic acid, 8 of albumen, and traces of carbonates of potassa and  lime,
and phosphate of  lime.

  Properties and  Uses.—Tonic, purgative,  emmenagogue, and anthel-
mintic.  In doses of from half  a grain to a grain, two or three times a
day, it exerts  a decided tonic influence, but is  seldom resorted to for this
purpose. As a laxative and purgative, its applications are unbounded ; it
acts more especially on the muscular coat of the large intestines, rather
increasing their peristaltic motion,  than effecting copious thin or watery
discharges ;  and from  its tendency to  irritate  the  rectum, especially
when frequently repeated, it is apt to give rise to hemorrhoids, or aggra-
vate them when already existing.  When applied endermically to an
ulcer or blistered surface, it purges as effectually and promptly as when
taken into the stomach ;  ten grains  used thus, will purge in from six to
ten hours.   It is  commonly supposed to have no action on the jejunum
or ileum; and some imagine it to influence the duodenum, and especially
the mouths  of the biliary  ducts,  causing an increased flow of bile;  stim-
ulating the intestinal canal, when  that secretion is suspended  as in jaun-
dice.  Its emmenagogue influence is attributed by some to a sympathetic
extension of this  irritation from the rectum to the uterus ; but there is no
doubt that it exerts a direct influence on this  organ,  independent of  the
intestinal irritability.  It is said  that one to three grains of extract of
hyoscyamus,  or  hops, or two  grains of ipecacuanha, mixed  with  the
aloetic dose, will prevent its irritating effect on the lower intestines.  An
increase of the quantity of aloes beyond the medium dose, is not attended
by a corresponding increase  of effect.  Aloes  has been efficacious  in
constipation, dyspepsia, and ascarides ;  in this last instance, being used 
Aloesin.
199
 in form  of injection, ten grains to  three ounces of water, for children.
 In chlorosis and amenorrhea it has often proved serviceable, and is used
 for this purpose, in various combinations.  In cases of delicate  females,
 with loss of appetite, torpor of the bowels, and suffering with suppres-
 sion of the menses, the  following has been recommended for the pur-
 pose of exciting proper ovarian or uterine action:  Take of best aloes,
 pulverized,  asafcetida, pulverized,  of each, half a drachm, cantharides,
 pulverized, twenty grains; mix and rub well together with a little soap,
 and  divide into twenty pills.   Of  these give  from one to three, three
 times  a  day.   If  the  patient be very feeble, some of the salts  of iron
 may also be added.  Injections of aloes, composed of from ten to thirty
 grains dissolved in two or three fluidounces of water, and thrown up the
 rectum daily, and  continued for a week previous to the menstrual period,
 have sometimes proved effectual.
  Aloes should never be given  in inflammatory diseases, in irritable,
 plethoric habits, in gastritis, enteritis, where piles are present, to females
 liable  to sudden uterine evacuations, nor during pregnancy.  In hemor-
 rhoids it may  be  given when modified by combination.  Soap, or an
 alkaline  carbonate, lessens its irritant action.  The union of other purga-
 tives with aloes, often modifies its tendency to irritate the rectum.  One
 grain of aloes  with two or three grains of sulphate of iron, will also
 modify this action, and will produce as much effect as two or three grains
 of aloes.   As a cathartic, aloes will be found useful in habitual constipa-
 tion from intestinal torpor, jaundice, scrofula, hypochondriasis, and where
 there is a tendency to  cerebral congestion.  Dose of aloes, is from two
to ten, or even twenty grains; and  the  most convenient form of admin-
istration  is that of  pill.  It enters as a constituent into a great number
of useful compound remedies.

  Off. Prep.—Decoctum Aloes Compositum; Enema Aloes Composita;
 Extractum Colocynthidis Compositum; Pilulae Aloes Composites ; Tinc-
tura  Aloes ; Tinctura Aloes et Myrrhae.
                             ALOESIN.

                     Bitter Extractive of Aloes.

  Preparation.—Exhaust powdered Aloes with cold water;  evaporate
the infusion one-half; add an excess of acetate of lead, which precipitates
the gallate, ulmate and albuminate  of that metal; pour into the clear
liquor solution of ammonia,  which gives a yellowish-orange colored pre-
cipitate, consisting of oxide of lead combined with Aloesin, and which
must be separated and washed with boiling water, and then decomposed 
200
Materia  Medica.
by a  current of sulphureted hydrogen, but out  of contact with atmos-
pheric air.   Sulphuret of lead  is deposited, and a colorless liquid floats
above it, which must be decanted, and evaporated in vacuo.
  History.—Thus prepared, Aloesin is in colorless, or pale-yellow scales,
like a varnish, without any sign of crystallization, of a powerful aloetic
taste, soluble in cold water, alcohol, and especially weak spirit, sparing-
ly soluble in ether, and not at all in fixed or volatile oils.  Its aqueous
solution, when exposed  to the air, owing to oxidation, becomes dark-red;
it is not precipitated by iron salts, acetate of lead, isinglass solution, or
infusion of galls.   Heat,  exposure, and moisture convert it into an in-
soluble, inert oxygenated extract.
  Properties and  Uses.—Same as aloes.   Eight grains of aloesin being
equal to ten of Socotrine, and fifty of  Cape aloes.
                             ALOINE.

             The Purgative Principle  of  Barbadoes Aloes.

  Preparation.—Pulverize the  aloes with sand, and  then treat it with
cold water ; strain off the liquid, and  evaporate  it in vacuo to a syrupy
consistence—set it aside for  a few days, when  it will be filled with a
mass of brownish-yellow granular crystals.   This  is  impure Aloine.
To remove the brown matter associated with it, re-crystallize it repeated-
ly from  warm water, until  the crystals  are  of  a sulphur-yellow.  In
making these solutions, the temperature of the water should not exceed
150° F.   At 212° Aloine oxidizes rapidly, and is decomposed.
  History.—When pure, it crystallizes in stellated groups of small pris-
matic  needles, whose purity  is shown by the color,  which should  not
deepen by exposure to the air in desiccation.  It is completely neutral,
sparingly soluble  in  cold water, but readily  in  warm, with a taste, at
first  sweetish, but  soon becoming intensely bitter.  Its  solutions in  the
alkalies and their carbonates is  of an orange-yellow,  and the  liquid
absorbs oxygen upon  contact with the atmosphere, which rapidly deepens
its color.  Boiled with alkalies or acids, it is speedily transformed into a
brown resin.  Corrosive sublimate, nitrate of silver, or neutral acetate
of lead, do not cause  its precipitation  ; concentrated subacetate of lead
produces a precipitate of an  intense yellow, soluble in excess of water,
and becoming deeper colored on exposure.  Cold fuming nitric acid dis-
solves  it, without disengaging gas, forming  a reddish-brown liquid ; to
which, if  sulphuric acid be added in great excess, a  yellow pulverulent
body is thrown down, which explodes when heated.   By dry distillation,
aloine  furnishes a slightly aromatic, volatile oil, and a quantity of resin-
ous substance.   It forms crystallized compounds with bromine, but  not 
Alpinia  Cardamomum.
201
with chlorine,  although it combines equally well with this latter.  Bro-
mine, added to a cold aqueous solution of aloine, instantly forms a yellow
precipitate, while the supernatant  liquid assumes  a very acid  reaction,
consequent upon the formation of hydrobromic acid.  By dissolving the
precipitate in warm alcohol, and cooling the solution, bromated aloine is
obtained in brilliant yellow  needles, grouped  in stars.
   Properties and Uses.—Same as aloes.  Dose of alo'ine, one-fourth of
a grain to a grain.
                   ALPINIA  CARDAMOMUM.

                             Cardamom.

   Nat.  Ord.—Zingiberaceae, Lindley.  Scitamineas, Brown.   Sex. Syst.—
Monandria Monogynia.

                    THE  FRUIT.   CARDAMOM SEED.

   Description.—Alpinia Cardamomum has a tuberous horizontal root or
rhizoma, with numerous  fleshy fibers, and  sending up  from eight to
twenty erect, simple, smooth, jointed, green and shining, perennial stems,
which rise from  six  to  ten feet  in hight, and bear alternate, spongy,
sheathing, leaves.   The leaves are bifarious,  subsessile on their sheaths,
elliptical-lanceolate, fine-pointed, somewhat villous above, sericeous un-
derneath, entire, with  strong midribs, and  short footstalks, from  one
to two  feet long, and  from  one to five  inches  broad.    The shecdhs
are slightly villous, with a rounded  ligula  rising above the mouth.
There are  from three to five scapes proceeding from  the base  of the
stem, which  are  from  one to two  feet long, lying  upon  the ground,
flexuose and jointed; the branches or racemes alternate,  one from each
joint  of the scape, sub-erect, and two or three inches long.   Bracts soli-
tary,  oblong, smooth, membranous, striated, sheathing, one at each joint
of the scape.  Flowers  alternate, short-stalked, solitary at each joint of
the racemes,  opening in succession  as the  racemes lengthen.   Calyx
monophyllous, funnel-shaped, three-toothed  at the  mouth, about three
quarters of an inch  long, striated with fine veins, permanent.  Tube of
corolla slender, as long  as the  calyx ; limb  double,  exterior of  three,
oblong, concave,  nearly equal, pale greenish-white divisions; inner-lip
obovate, much longer than the exterior divisions, somewhat curled at
the edge, with the  apex slightly three-lobed,  marked chiefly in  the
center with purple violet stripes.  Filament short, erect.  Anther double,
emarginate.    Ovary  oval,  smooth.   Style  slender.   Stigma funnel-
shaped.   Capsule oval,  somewhat three-sided,  size of  a  small  nut-
meg,  three-celled, and three-valved; seeds pale-brown, coriaceous,  nu-
merous. 
202
Materia  Medica.
  History.—This plant is a native of the mountains  of Malabar, grow-
ing spontaneously in the forests after the removal  of the  undergrowth.
The fruit, which is the officinal part, is not obtained until at the end of
the fourth year; it is a three-celled  capsule, containing numerous seeds.
The seeds constitute about 74 parts by weight in the hundred of the
fruit or capsules received in commerce.  They are small,  irregular, an-
gular, rough, of a brown color, and are easily pulverized ;  their odor is
fragrant, and their taste  warm,  slightly pungent, and highly aromatic.
The capsules are from three to nine lines long, three-sided with rounded
angles, ovate-oblong, of a yellowish-white color, and three or four lines
in thickness ; they are commonly rejected, although they  are slightly
aromatic.  Water or alcohol extracts the virtues of the seed, which con-
tain a volatile  oil, of  an  agreeable, penetrating odor,  and a strong
aromatic,  camphoraceous,  slightly bitter  taste.  Its specific  gravity is
0.945.   It undergoes a change, soon becoming deprived of its odor and
taste.  The  oil  obtained  by percolation of ether through the powdered
seeds, and evaporation of the ether, is of  a light greenish-brown color,
consists of volatile and fixed oils, and keeps better than the oil procured
by  distillation.   The seeds should be allowed to remain in  the  capsules
until wanted, as by this  means  their aromatic properties  are  the best
preserved.
  Properties and Uses.—Cardamom seeds are aromatic, stomachic, and
carminative, chiefly used in flatulency, and as an adjuvant or corrective
in compound preparations.   Dose from ten grains to two drachms.
   Off. Prep. — Syrupus  Stillingiae  Compositus; Tinctura Cardamomi;
Tinctura Cardamomi Composita.
                    ALTHAEA OFFICINALIS.

                           Marsh-Mallow.

       Nat.  Ord.—Malvaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Monadelphia Polyandria.

                             THE ROOT.
  Description. — Althaea  officinalis  is a  herbaceous, perennial, hoary
green herb,  peculiarly soft and downy, with fine starry pubescence, and
having a tap-shaped, rather  woody, perpendicular branching root.   The
stems are several, erect, from  two to  five feet  in hight, simple, round,
branched  and leafy toward the  summit, and tough  and pliant.   The
leaves are alternate, petiolate, nearly  cordate at the base, oblong-ovate
and obscurely three to five-lobed above, various in breadth, plaited, five-
ribbed,  unequally serrated, somewhat  angular, soft  and pliable, and
clothed on both sides with a soft velvety down.   The flowers  are termi-
nal, in very  short, dense  axillary panicles, rarely solitary, and of a deli-
cate, uniform, blush color.   The coi'dlla has five spreading, obcordate 
Althaea Officinalis.
203
 petals, of a pale-purplish color ; the fruit consists of numerous capsules
 united in a compact circular form, each containing a single seed.
   History.—This plant grows in salt marshes and wet situations in many
 parts of Europe, and has been cultivated in several parts of this country.
 It  flowers from July to September.  Our shops  are supplied nearly ex-
 clusively from Europe.   The whole plant abounds  in  mucilage.  The
 root is in pieces of three,  four or more inches in length, round, nearly
 as  thick as the finger, sometimes split, white, downy, with a peculiar
 faint smell, a  mild, mucilaginous,  sweetish taste,  and a short, somewhat
 fibrous fracture.   It contains a large proportion of mucilage, which is
 extracted by  cold or hot water, and the solution  decomposes if allowed
 to stand any great length of time.  Those pieces which are  plump and
 but slightly fibrous should be preferred, while  those should be rejected
 which are woody,  moldy, discolored, of a sour or musty smell,  or of a
 sourish  taste.
   The Hibiscus Palustris,  (or H Moscheutos) Marsh Hibiscus,  of this
 country, has  a root very much resembling  that of the Marsh-mallow,
 possesses exactly the same  properties, and may  be as effectually used.
 It  is a tall, showy, perennial plant, growing in  salt marshes, near salt
 springs, and on wet prairies, and flowers in August.   The stem is sim-
 ple, erect, herbaceous,  round, downy, and from four to six feet in hight.
 The leaves are from four to six inches, by  three to four inches, often
 with  two lateral lobes, ovate, obtusely dentate, and  hoary-toraento&e
 beneath.   The flowers  are larger than those  of the hollyhock,  rose-col-
 ored, purple in the center.  Peduncles long,  axillary, or connected with
 the petiole, usually distinct from  it, but sometimes  united with  it, and
 jointed above the middle.   Styles one inch longer than the stamens.
   Properties and Uses.—The  roots of each of  the  above  plants are
 demulcent and diuretic, and may be used indiscriminately, the one  for
 the other.  They will be found valuable, in the form  of decoction,  in
 diseases  of the mucous membranes, as hoarseness, catarrh, pneumonia,
 gonorrhea, vesical catarrh, renal irritation, acute dysentery and diarrhea.
 In strangury,  inflammation of the bladder, hematuria,  retention of urine,
 some forms of gravel, and indeed in nearly every affection of the kidney
 and bladder, their use will be found advantageous.   I make much use
 of them  combined  with equal parts of spearmint, in urinary derange-
 ments.   They are likewise efficacious in gastro-intestinal irritation and
 inflammation.  Externally, they are very useful in the form of poultice,
 to discuss  painful  inflammatory tumors, and  swellings  of every kind,
 whether  the consequence of  wounds, bruises, burns,  scalds, or  poisons;
 and have, when thus applied, a happy effect in preventing the occurrence
 of gangrene.  As a mucilaginous demulcent  only, the Althaea Rosea, or
hollyhock may be substituted.
  Off.  Prep.—Decoctum Altheeee ; Infusum Althaeae. 
204
Materia  Medica.
                             ALUMEN.

              Alum.  Sulphate of Alumina and Potassa.

  History.—Officinal Alum is a double salt, consisting of the tersulphate
of alumina, united with  sulphate  of potassa.  It is occasionally manu-
factured from earths which contain it ready formed, but most  generally
from minerals called Alum Ores, the principal of which is the alum-stone.
This is calcined and exposed to the air for three months, being frequently
sprinkled  with water, in  order to  soften it.   Then  it is lixiviated, and
crystallized by evaporation.
  Alum is a white, slightly efflorescent salt, crystallized in regular octo-
hedrons, with a sweetish astringent taste.   It  dissolves in fourteen or
fifteen times its weight of cold water, and three-fourths  of its weight of
boiling.   It reddens  litmus.  When heated above  212°, it undergoes
the aqueous fusion ;  and if the heat  be continued, it  loses its water,
swells up, becomes a white, opaque, porous mass, and is converted into
the officinal preparation called Dried Alum, (Ah/men Exsiccatum).  It
is  incompatible with  the  alkalies and their  carbonates,  lime and  lime-
water, magnesia and its carbonates, tartrate of potassa,  and acetate of
lead.  Its specific gravity is 1.71.
  Properties and Uses.—In ordinary doses of ten to twenty grains every
three or four hours,  in solution, syrup  or molasses, it  is astringent and
antispasmodic.  In larger doses of thirty to sixty grains every three or
four hours, it is purgative, and every  ten or  fifteen minutes,  emetic.
As  an astringent, it is used  in passive hemorrhages, colliquative  sweats,
diarrhea  attending  typhoid fever,  diabetes and chronic  diarrhea and
dysentery.  Also,  in gleet and  leucorrhea, and by some  during the
inflammatory stage of gonorrhea,  in solution with an infusion  of  marsh-
mallow.   In colica pictonum it has been highly extolled as a purgative;
and is recommended as an emetic  in pseudo-membranous croup.   As an
antispasmodic, it has been  found  useful in hooping-cough.  In  various
anginose affections it has been successfully applied locally, in powder or
solution, also as a gargle in sore-throat and  relaxation of the uvula, as a
wash for ptyalism, and as an  injection in gleet and leucorrhea, alone or
conjoined  with sulphate of zinc.   It has likewise  proved very useful in
purulent ophthalmia of infants, and in the  latter  stages of conjunctival
inflammation.   In colica  pictonum  it  may be  given in doses of from
thirty to sixty grains, every three hours ; in this disease  it allays nausea
and vomiting, relieves pain and flatulence, and  opens the bowels with
more certainty than  any  other medicine.  It is  frequently applied as a
local styptic either in powder  or solution, in epistaxis, menorrhagia, and
to check the bleeding from  cut surfaces ;  it may be applied on  lint, or
on a small piece of sponge if  used in solution.   From four to ten grains
of alum to the ounce of water, is of sufficient strength  for a collyrium. 
Amaranthus Hypochondriacus.
205
I have found much advantage from the use of the following preparation
in troublesome cough, especially when attended with tickling or irritation
of the fauces, larynx, etc.:—Take of a saturated solution of alum, syrup
of balsam of Tolu, each two fluidounces,  camphorated tincture of opium
one fluidounce ; mix.   The dose for an adult is a tablespoonful three or
four times a day, or whenever the cough is very troublesome.   Several
practitioners to whom I have recommended the preparation, have found
it very efficacious.
  Alumen Exsiccatum.—Dried or Burnt Alum, sometimes called Alu-
men Ustum, is  prepared by heating alum, until ebullition ceases, and it
becomes dry.  It is principally used as a mild escharotic, to destroy fun-
gous flesh.  It differs from alum only in the absence of  water.
  Alum Whey, is made by boiling two or three drachms of powdered
alum  in a pint of  milk, and then straining off the thin  liquor.  It may
be given internally, in diarrheas, etc., in doses of from half an ounce to
one or two ounces.   Externally, applied over the eye as a poultice, it is
very serviceable in inflammations of that  organ.
   Off. Prep.—Alumen Exsiccatum ;  Cataplasma Aluminis; Lotio Zinci
Compositum; Pulvis Stypticus.
            AMARANTHUS HYPOCHONDRIACUS.

                             Amaranth.

       Nat. Ord.—Amaranthaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Pentandria.

                            the leaves.
   Description.—Amaranthus  Hypochondriacus is an annual herb, with
a stout, upright stem, and growing from three to four  feet high.  The
leaves  are oblong, lanceolate, mucronate, green with a red-purple spot,
or tinged with purple; flowers clustered in racemes, and of  a bright-red
purple, as well as  the awl-shaped bracts.   Racemes pentandrous, com-
pound, erect, compact.   Stamens five.   The whole plant is  dark-red, or
reddish-purple, with long plume-like clusters.
  History.—This  plant,  also known by the  names  of Fiances' Feather,
Lovely Bleeding, Red Cocks-comb, etc., is a native of the Middle States, and
is cultivated as an ornamental plant in gardens.   It bears  deep bright-
red flowers in August.   The leaves, which are the  parts used, are also
red, and yield  their virtues to water.
  Properties and  Uses.—Amaranth is astringent.   The decoction  drank
freely is highly recommended in severe menorrhagia, and has also been
found  beneficial in diarrhea, dysentery,  and  hemorrhage  from  the 
206
Materia  Medica.
bowels.  It has likewise  been used as a local application in ulceration
of the mouth and throat, in leucorrhea, and as a wash to foul, indolent
ulcers.
                      AMBROSIA  TRIFIDA.

                           Tall  Ambrosia.

         Nat. Ord— Asteraceaa.  Sex. Syst—Moncecia Pentandria.

                             THE  LEAVES.
  Description. — Ambrosia Trifida is  variously  known by  the  names
Horseweed, Bitter-weed, Great Rag-weed, Horse-cane, Rich-weed, etc.  It is a
rough, hairy, herbaceous, annual plant, with an  erect,  branching, fur-
rowed stem, from five to ten feet in hight.  The leaves are opposite, from
four to seven inches broad, scabrous  and hairy, with three large, deep
lobes which  are oval, lanceolate, acuminate and  closely serrated;  the
lower leaves  are often five-lobed.   Petioles narrowly-winged, ciliate;
racemes often paniculate.   Flowers mean  and obscure, in long leafless
spikes,  axillary and  terminal.   Fruit  (fertile  involucre)  turbinate-
obovoid, with a short conical pointed  apex, six-ribbed, the ribs terminat-
ing in as many cristate tubercles.
  History.—This plant grows in low grounds and  along streams, from
Canada to Georgia, and west to Louisiana and Arkansas, bearing green-
ish-yellow flowers  in August.   It is much in use among farmers,  for the
"slabbers" in horses, effecting a cure  in  a  few hours.   It has a spicy,
pleasant,  aromatic taste, slightly resembling  ginger, and imparts its pro-
perties to water.
  Properties and Uses.—This plant is slightly stimulant, astringent,  and
antiseptic.  Useful in decoction as an  injection in leucorrhea, prolapsus
uteri, chronic gonorrhea,  and gleet;  also valuable as  a collyrium, in
ophthalmia, and as a wash or gargle—with its internal use also—in the
sore mouth of nurses.  It will be found an excellent application to mer-
curial, and all other ulcers of a  fetid  or gangrenous character.   As a
remedy for mercurial salivation, used  every half hour  as a wash, it is
said to he prompt  and efficacious.  Internally, the decoction  is useful in
fevers, attended with a disposition to putrescency, diarrhea,  and  dysen-
tery.  Dose of the decoction from one to two ounces.  Two preparations
are said to have been obtained  from  this plant, called Ambrosine  and
Elatine.   The former, it is stated, is found associated with elatine, and
forms beautiful  and brilliant, pearl-like, prismatic crystals with sulphuric
acid; it  is tasteless  and inodorous,  and can be retained on the  most
sensitive  stomach.  It is  recommended as  a tonic, diuretic, and altera-
tive in dropsical affections  with  great loss of vitality;  in  nephritis  and 
Ammoniacum.
207
albuminuria; likewise  in diabetes,  consumption, scrofula, etc.   Dose,
one to three grains, three to six times a day.  If this  agent  is as effec-
tual as its manufacturers state, it will become one of the most valuable
in the Materia Medica.—Elatine is obtained in the form of a  white, floc-
culent precipitate.  Properties and dose similar to ambrosine.  We have
not been able to learn the mode of preparing these articles.
  The  Ambrosia Artemisi^efolia (A. Elatior), Roman Wormwood, or
Rag-weed, has a slender stem, rising from one to three feet high, much
branched, and  pubescent when young;  the  leaves are opposite, and the
upper  alternate,  twice pinnatifid,  smoothish  above,  paler or  hoary
beneath;  barren flowers small,  green,  in terminal racemes, or  spikes
loosely  panicled;  the fertile ones sessile about  the  axils of the  upper
leaves; fruit obovoid,  or globular, pointed,  armed with about six short
acute teeth or spines.  It is sometimes called Hog-weed.  It is very com-
mon in all our fields,  and  would probably prove fully as efficacious, if
not more so than the A. Triflda.  It is highly recommended  as a fomen-
tation  in  recent inflammation  from wounds or  injuries  of  any  kind.
Made  into a salve by bruising the green leaves,  and simmering them in
spirits  and cream, it is very useful in  hemorrhoidal  tumors, and  some
forms of ulcer.
                         AMMONIACUM.

                         Gum Ammoniac.

          Nat.  Ord.—Apiaceaa.   Sex. Syst.  Pentandria Digynia.

            the concrete juice of dorema ammoniacum.
   Description.—The Dorema Ammoniacum has a large, perennial root,
with stems rising from seven to ten feet high, about four inches in cir-
cumference at the base, clothed with a glandular down, smooth, glaucous,
resembling Opoponax.  The leaves are large, petiolate, somewhat two-
pinnate.    Pinnae in three pairs, each pair somewhat  remote.    Leaflets
inciso-pinnatifid, with  oblong, mucronulate, entire,  or  slightly-lobed
segments, coriaceous.  Petiole downy, very large, and sheathing at the
base.   Umbels  proliferous, racemose; partial umbels  globose, on  short
stalks, often arranged in a spiked manner.   General and partial involucre
wanting.   Flowers sessile, immersed  in  wool.   Petals  white,  ovate,
reflexed at the point.  Margin  of calyx with  five minute, acute, mem-
branous teeth.    Disk large,  fleshy, cupshaped.   Stamens and  styles
yellow,  the latter complanate, recurved  at apex.    Stigmas truncate.
Ovary very woolly.  Fruit elliptical, compressed, with a broad flat edge;
mericarps with  three distinct, filiform, primary, dorsal  ridges, and alter-
nating with them are four obtuse, secondary ridges.   Vittce, one beneath
each secondary ridge, one beneath each of the broad  marginal primary 
208
Materia  Medica.
 ridges, and two on each side of the suture of the commissure, the exter-
 nal ones being very minute.   The  above description is gathered from
 those given by Don, Fontannier, and others.
   History.—For a long time a knowledge of the  plant which furnishes
 the Gum Ammoniac was a matter  of  doubt and uncertainty, but from
 specimens obtained in Persia, by Colonel Wright,  and examined by Dr.
 David Don, it was ascertained to belong to a genus, Dorema, and not to
 the Ferula, as was formerly supposed,  although somewhat  allied  to  it.
 The Dorema Ammoniacum is an umbelliferous  plant,  growing spontane-
 ously in various Persian provinces,  in dry plains and gravelly soils.  In
 the month of May, or in the early part of summer, it abounds in a milky
 juice, which flows out upon the slightest puncture.   M. Fontannier states
 that it exudes spontaneously, and that the harvest is about the middle of
 June ; but Captain Hart says that when the  plant is mature, it is pierced
 in all  directions by an insect of the beetle kind ;  the juice exudes through
 the punctures thus  made, hardens  upon the surface, and  when  dry is
 collected by the natives. It is still supposed, however, to be sometimes fur-
 nished by other and dissimilar plants of Asiatic as well as African growth.
   Gum Ammoniac is not a  pure gum, but a gum-resin ; it  comes to us
 in tears, or in  aggregate masses, and is frequently mixed with  foreign
 matters.  The tears are the preferable parts  to use ; the purest are irreg-
 ular in shape, more or less globular, opake, yellowish  externally, whitish
 internally, compact, homogeneous, brittle when  cold, and breaking with
 a  conchoidal  shining  fracture.   The  masses  are  darker,  and of less
 uniform structure, and appear when broken, to be composed of numer-
 ous tears imbedded  in a grayish or brownish  substance.   Ammoniac
 has a  peculiar smell, which is stronger  in the masses than in the tears ;
 the taste is bitter, slightly  sweetish, and somewhat acrid.   Its specific
 gravity is 1.207.   It softens by heat,  and becomes adhesive, but does
 not melt; and when burned, it swells up, with  a white flame, and emits
 a  smoke of a strong,  resinous, slightly alliaceous odor.   It forms  an
opake  milky emulsion  when  triturated with  water, but which becomes
 clear upon standing.   It is  partly soluble in  alcohol, ether,  vinegar, and
 alkaline solutions ; the alcoholic solution is clear, but  becomes milky on
the addition of water.
   Properties and  Uses.—Stimulant and expectorant, and in  large doses
 cathartic.   Used in chronic  catarrh,  asthma,  cough, and chronic pulmo-
 nary affections, where  from debility of the vessels there is  too large a
 secretion from the bronchial mucous membrane, or where expectoration
 is  deficient.   It has likewise been advised in chronic amenorrhea, espe-
cially when attended by hysterical or chlorotic conditions of the system. It
is  unsuited to inflammatory affections.  Dose, ten to thirty grains in pill
 or emulsion.   Externally, used in the form of plaster, as a  discutient or
resolvent in scrofulous tumors, tumors of the  joints, indolent tumors, etc. 
Ammonia.
209
  Gum Ammoniac enters into a cement for mending  glass, china, etc.,
and which is useful to druggists, physicians, chemists, and  others ; it is
called  Armenian  Cement, and Diamond Cement, and on account  of its
utility we give its mode of preparation.  Take of isinglass two drachms,
sprinkle it with water, and allow it to stand until softened, then add as
much proof  spirit as will  rather more than cover it, and dissolve it with
a moderate heat.  Take of gum mastic one drachm, and dissolve it  in two
or three drachms  of rectified spirit.  Mix these -two solutions, and stir in
one drachm  of gum ammoniac, which  has been  previously reduced to
fine powder, and  rubbed  down with a little water.  If necessary, evapo-
rate in a water-bath to about  the consistence of thick molasses, and keep
it in a bottle.   When required for use place the bottle  in warm water,
and  allow the cement to soften, then  apply it with a stick, or a small
hard brush to the  china or glass previously warmed.  Compress the pieces
firmly  together until cold, taking care to make  the contact  perfect, and
using a very thin layer of cement.  When properly applied the cement
is almost, if not quite, as strong as the china itself, unless exposed to the
combined action of heat and moisture.
                            AMMONIA.

                             Ammonia.
   History.—Ammonia was unknown to the ancients; it was discovered
in a state  of solution by Black in 1756,  and in the pure gaseous condition
by Priestley in 1774.  All  the  ammoniacal  compounds  owe their dis-
tinctive properties to the presence of this gas, which is composed of one
equivalent of nitrogen 14, and three of hydrogen 3,=17.   Its symbol is
NH3 ;  its  specific gravity is 0.59.
   Ammonia may be obtained from any one of its salts by the process of
single  decomposition ; but on account of its cheapness it is most generally
obtained  from the  muriate  of ammonia or sal-ammoniac, acted on  by
lime.   The chemical changes that occur  are  disengagement of the am-
monia, and a union of  the lime with the hydrochloric acid,  forming
chloride of calcium and water.   Under  ordinary atmospheric  temper-
atures  and pressures ammoniacal gas is  permanent; but  at  50°, and
under  a pressure of six atmospheres,  it is condensed into a colorless,
very mobile liquid of the density of 760.  It is transparent and colorless,
like common air, but possesses a hot, acrid taste, and a highly pungent, suf-
focating odor; it  is irrespirable, spasmodically closing the  glottis when
an attempt is made to inhale it, and irritates  and  inflames  animal tex-
tures.  It  has a powerful alkaline reaction, turning reddened litmus paper
purple, turmeric brown, and blue cabbage  green.    It combines  readily
with acid, forming crystallizable salts which are  either  sublimed or
           14 
210                     Materia  Medica.
decomposed by heat,—those with volatile acids being sublimed without
change, while those with fixed  acids  part with their  ammonia.   In
contact with a gaseous acid, the two gases unite, and solidify, forming a
white powder.  It is absorbed by alcohol, but more especially by  water.
Water of 59° F, at the atmospheric  pressure of thirty inches absorbs 670
times its volume of  ammonia.   The salts of ammonia are divided into
hydracid salts,  in which it  is supposed the  hydrogen  of the  acid is
transferred to the elements of the ammonia during the act of uniting;
and oxacid salts, in which the acids combine with oxide of ammonium ;
this oxide is supposed to be formed by the union of the elements  of one
equivalent of water, (.which is always contained  in the  oxacid salts of
ammonia, and  which cannot  be  separated  without  destroying their
nature,) with the elements of one equivalent of ammonia.
   Off. Prep.—Liquor Ammoniae;  Liquor Ammoniae Acetatis; Liquor
Ammoniae Fortior ;  Linimentum Ammoniae ;  Tinctura Castorei Ammo-
niata; Tinctura Guaiaci  Ammoniati; Tinctura Valerianae Ammoniata;
Ammoniae Carbonas ; Ammoniae Hydrochloras ; Ammoniae Phosphas.
     AMMONITE  HYDROCHLORAS.   (Ammoniae Murias.)

              Chlorohydrate, or  Muriate of Ammonia.

                          sal ammoniac.
  History.—Formerly, Sal-ammoniac was obtained from  Egypt, where
it was manufactured by subliming the soot resulting from the burning of
camel's dung, which is used there as fuel.   At present it is  prepared in
various ways, for instance, by the union of hydrochloric acid gas and
ammoniacal gas ;  or by the double decomposition of sulphate of ammo-
nia and muriate  of soda.  The sulphate of ammonia is  obtained from
various sources ;  sometimes by  lixiviating the soot of coal, sometimes by
decomposing with sulphuric acid the ammoniacal  salts contained in  the
watery fluid which is formed in manufacturing coal gas, and sometimes by
decomposing with sulphate of lime or sulphate  of iron the  impure car-
bonate of  ammonia produced by the destructive distillation of animal
refuse, but more  especially in the preparation of animal  charcoal from
bones.
   The hydrochlorate of  ammonia which  is consumed  in  the United
 States, is  of foreign  manufacture ;  the crude  variety being imported
from Calcutta; the refined from  England.   It is usually sold in thick
cakes, convex on one surface,  concave  on the other, white, translucid,
tough, fibrous, permanent in the air, no  odor, but possessing a pungent,
saline, acrid taste.   It  is composed of one equivalent of  hydrochloric
acid 36.42, and one of ammonia 17=53.42 ;  or, in ultimate constituents, 
Ammonite Hydrochlqras.
211
of one equivalent of chlorine, one of nitrogen,  and four of hydrogen.
According, however, to the new view taken of the constitution of ammo-
niacal  salts, it is the protochloride of ammonium, (NUi CL).   Its spe-
cific gravity is 1.45.  Three parts of cold,  and one  of boiling water,
dissolves it, and cold is produced during its solution.   Alcohol partially
dissolves it.  It is difficult to pulverize, which, however,  may be effected
by stirring a boiling  saturated solution of the salt;  as  it cools, it granu-
lates, and after being dried, is readily pulverizable.  In a  damp atmos-
phere it becomes  moist.  Heat  sublimes without decomposing it.  It is
incompatible with the mineral acids, potassa and its carbonates,  soda,
lime, magnesia,  acetate of lead, nitrate  of silver, and most metallic salts
whose  base forms insoluble salts with muriatic acid.
  Properties and Uses.—Internally, it is refrigerant, laxative, diaphoretic
and diuretic ; being purgative in large  doses, but  constipating in  small
ones.  Its primary  influence is  exerted on  the alimentary canal; its
secondary, on the capillary, glandular, and  lymphatic systems, as well
as on the mucous, serous, and fibrous tissues, on all of which  it acts as
a stimulating alterative.  In very large doses, it acts  as a narcotic irri-
tant, producing inflammation of the alimentary canal, and also coma and
tetanic convulsions.  It has been recommended internally in all tubercu-
lous diseases, in  chronic pulmonary  affections,  rheumatic face-ache,
hemicrania, ischuria, chronic dysentery,  amenorrhea the result of defi-
cient uterine action,  and in all chronic diseases of  mucous  or serous tis-
sues.  The dose is from five to thirty grains, every two or three hours,
in powder, mixed with powdered gum, or sugar, or dissolved in syrup or
mucilage.
  Externally, muriate of ammonia employed in solution, has been  found
valuable as a stimulant and resolvent, in contusions, chilblains, indolent
tumors and ulcers ; and is of benefit in chronic  ophthalmia, some  forms
of headache, itch, and  many  cutaneous affections.  In erysipelas and
erysipelatous  inflammations, I have found  the  following mixture an
excellent local application :  Take  of muriate of ammonia, one ounce,
distilled water,  half a pint; mix,  and  dissolve,  then  add tincture of
camphor, four ounces, tincture of lobelia,  four ounces.  To be shaken
each time  previous  to bathing with  it.   It allays the  burning heat and
itching, and in many instances assists in preventing the further develop-
ment or extension of the disease.  As a gargle, in the chronic form  of
cynanche tonsillaris, it is often serviceable, in solution ; about one  ounce
of the  salt to nine fluidounces of  water,  and one of alcohol, is of conve-
nient strength.  As  a wash for ulcers, or as an injection in leucorrhea,
the solution must be  still further diluted,—say from one to  four drachms
of the  salt to a pint of water.

   Off. Prep.—Ammoniae Carbonas; Liquor Ammoniae. 
212
Materia Medica.
                AMPELOPSIS  QUINQUEFOLIA.

                           American Ivy.

         Nat. Ord.— Yit&cese.   Sex. fl^rf.—Pentandria Monogynia.

                         BARK AND  TWIGS.
  Description.—This is a woody vine, with  a rooting, climbing stem,—
quinate and  digitate leaves; leaflets, oblong, acuminate,  petiolate, den-
tate, smooth, and turn  crimson in autumn ; flowers inconspicuous, green-
ish, or white, in dichotomous clusters ;  calyx entire ; petals five, distinct,
spreading; ovary two-celled,  cells  two-ovuled ;  style very short; berries
dark-blue,  acid, smaller than peas, and two-celled, cells  one or two-
seeded.
  History.—The American Ivy is a common and familiar shrubby vine,
climbing extensively, and, by means of its radicating tendrils, supporting
itself firmly upon trees, ascending to the hight of fifty feet; in the same
manner it ascends and  overspreads walls and buildings ; its large leaves
constituting a luxuriant foliage of dark glossy green.  It is found in wild
woods and thickets  throughout the United States, and blossoms in July,
ripening its small blackish berries in October.  In various sections it has
different names, as  Woodbine, Virginian Creeper, Five Leaves,  False
Grape,  Wild Wood Vine, etc.  The bark and twigs are the parts used.
It is considered a valuable remedy.
  Properties  and Uses.—Alterative, tonic, astringent, and  expectorant.
Used principally in  form of  syrup in  scrofula, syphilitic  affections,  and
wherever an alterative  is required.  It has  also been recommended in
bronchitis and  other  pulmonary  complaints.  Dose of the syrup or
decoction, two to four ounces, three times a day.
  Off. Prep.—Decoctum Ampelopsis; Infusum Ampelopsis.
                   AMYGDALA  COMMUNIS.

                          Almond  Tree.

  Nat. Ord.—Drupaceae, (Be Candolle) Rosaceae.  Suborder, Amygdalere. Sex.
Syst.—Icosandria Monogynia.
                             KERNELS.

  Amygdala Amara.   Bitter Almonds.

  Amygdala Dulcis.   Sweet Almonds.
  Description.—The Amygdalus Communis  or Almond tree is a tree
from fifteen to twenty feet high, with  a pale-brown rugged bark, and 
Amygdala Communis.
213
dividing into numerous spreading branches.  The leaves  are upon short
footstalks, are about three inches long, and  three  quarters of an inch
broad, lanceolate,  acuminate,  thin, veined, minutely serrated, with the
lower  serratures  and petioles glandular,  and of a bright  light-green
color.  The flowers are large, pink or white, sessile, in pairs, and appear-
ing before the leaves.   Calyx reddish,  with blunt segments.   Petals
variable in size, always much larger  than the calyx, ovate, concave,
irregularly notched.   Stamens  spreading, about half the length  of the
petals.  Ovary woolly ;  style simple.  Fruit a leathery, hoary  drupe,
with the sarcocarp spontaneously cracking and dropping off the puta-
men.   Stone oblong, or  ovate, acute,  hard in  various degrees,   always
rugged, and pitted  with irregular holes.   Seed oblong, compressed,
ovate, with a brown testa, at the apex of which there  is a broad round
brown chalaza.   Cotyledons very large, plano-convex.  Both the sweet
and bitter almonds are taken from this tree, of which there  are  several
varieties,—the sweet almond is obtained  from the A. Dulcis, and the
bitter almond from the A. Amara.

   History.—The Almond tree is a native  of  most of the warm parts  of
Asia, and Barbary, and is cultivated in many parts  of  southern Europe.
The best  of the  sweet kind  come from  Malaga.   The  kernel  of the
sweet almond is inodorous, farinaceous, and of  an agreeable taste ; that
of the bitter almond is also inodorous when entire ; but when triturated
with water, has the  odor  of prussic acid, and the taste  resembles that
of the peach kernel.   Both varieties of kernel contain oil;  the sweet, a
fixed oil;  the bitter a fixed  oil, and an  essential  oil impregnated with
hydrocyanic acid.   The fixed oil maybe obtained by expression; it is
colorless or slightly yellowish, sweet and bland to the taste.   The essen-
tial oil may be obtained from  the bitter almonds  by distillation with
water, after having  deprived  them of their  fixed oil.  This oil, called
Oil of Bitter Almonds, is  of a yellowish  color,  heavier than water, with
an acrid, bitter, burning,  taste, and the odor of hydrocyanic acid ; it is
soluble in alcohol or  ether, slightly soluble in water, and  deposits on
standing,  crystals of benzoic  acid.  This oil does  not pre-exist  in the
almond, but is formed by  the action of water  on some of its constituents,
termed emulsin, and amygdalin; the  latter is  a crystalline substance
peculiar only to the bitter  almond.  Oil of bitter almonds  is a most active
poison, acting as rapidly as hydrocyanic acid, and giving rise to the same
symptoms.  It is seldom  used as a medicine, but is  largely employed by
perfumers, confectioners,  and cooks, who prepare  from  it an " essence
of  almonds," which is a solution of two  drachms of  the oil  in six
drachms  of alcohol.
   A potassa  soft  soap, made with lard and  perfumed with essential  oil
of almonds is sold as  a shaving soap, under the name of Saponaceous
Cream of Almonds.   It  is made  by melting fine  clarified  lard, seven 
214                     Materia  Medica.
 pounds, in a porcelain vessel, by means of a salt-water bath, or a steam
 heat under fifteen pounds pressure; then run into it, very slowly, potassa
 ley, containing about twenty-six per cent, of caustic potassa, three pounds
 and twelve  ounces,  agitating continually from right to left during the
 whole time.   When about half the ley is run in, the mixture begins to
 curdle; it will, however, finally become so firm and compact that it can-
 not be stirred, if the operation is successful.   The soap is now finished,
 but is not pearly ;  it  will, however, assume that appearance by long
 trituration in a mortar, gradually adding rectified spirit two ounces, in
 which has been dissolved, essential oil of almonds two drachms.
   Properties and Uses.—Sweet almonds are  demulcent, and are chiefly
 used in emulsion, and as a vehicle for other medicines.  The oil or emul-
 sion has been employed  in cough, diseases attended with intestinal irri-
 tation, and for mitigating the acrimony of the urine in calculous affec-
 tions, cystitis, gonorrhea, etc.  Externally, the oil is sometimes  used in
 lotions and  cosmetics.   Dose of  the  oil, one  to  two drachms.   Bitter
 almonds are  sedative,  and in large doses  poisonous.   The oil of bitter
 almonds, or bitter almond water, is  commonly employed, and  may be
 used as a  substitute for hydrocyanic acid.  Dose  of the oil, one quarter
of a drop to  one drop, gradually and cautiously  increased.   Seldom
used.
   Off. Prep.—Aqua Amygdalae  Amara; Mistura Copaibee Composita;
 Oleum Amygdalae.
                     AMYGDALUS PERSICA.

                               Peach.

  Not. Ord. — Rosaceae.  Drupaceae, De Candolle.  Sex.  Syst. — Icosandria
Monogynia.
                        LEAVES AND KERNELS.

  Description.—Amygdalus Persica, or Peach tree, is farailar to almost
every one.  It is  supposed to be originally a  native of Persia.   The
leaves are lanceolate, serrate, with all the serratures acute ; flowers soli-
tary, subsessile, appearing before the leaves, rose-color, with the odor of
hydrocyanic acid; drupe fleshy, tomentose, yellowish, tinged with pur-
ple ; calyx five-cleft, tubular, deciduous; petals  five; nucleus  somewhat
compressed,  ovate, acute,  rugosely  furrowed,  and perforated on  the
surface.

  History. — The  peach tree  is  cultivated  in  all parts of the United
States, where the  character of its fruit attains to greater perfection than
in any other country.   Its hight is from eight to fifteen feet, its fruit is 
Amylum.
215
large, being from  one to three  inches  in diameter, juicy, abounding in
saccharine matter, and of a delicious flavor.  The leaves are from three
to five inches long, about one-third as wide, smooth,  green,  petioles
short, with one or two glands.   There are about two hundred varieties
of this fruit, of which, probably, one-third are clingstones, the flesh ad-
hering to the stone, and the remainder freestones or clearstones, the flesh
free, or separating from  the stone.  The kernels of the fruit bear  a
strong resemblance to bitter almonds, in appearance, properties, and
probably  chemical nature; and, together with the leaves, flowers, and
bark, have also their peculiar  odor and  taste, and would  very likely
yield hydrocyanic acid.   The leaves afford a volatile oil by distillation.
   Properties and  Uses.—Peach  leaves are sedative,  laxative,  and re-
puted anthelmintic.   In all inflammations of the stomach and abdomen,
they exert a decidedly beneficial influence when  used in cold infusion,
a tablespoonful every hour or two.   In hooping-cough, irritable bladder,
sick stomach, ischuria, hematuria, and dysentery, they have been found
useful.   The kernels are similarly employed in the form of tincture, in-
fusion, or syrup ;  four ounces of the kernels to a quart of brandy is as-
serted to form a powerful tonic in intermittent fever, and to  be remark-
ably efficacious in curing leucorrhea; dose, a  teaspoonful three or four
times a day.  Both leaves and kernels are said to contain hydrocyanic
acid.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum  Persicee.
                             AMYLUM.

                               Starch.

          THE FECULA OF  THE SEEDS OF TRITICUM VULGARE.

   History.—Starch is  a  principle  contained in various organs of many
plants, as wheat, rye,  barley, oats, rice, peas, beans, chestnuts, acorns,
potato, etc.; and is extracted from many of them for dietetic and medi-
cinal purposes, under the several names of Starch, Arrow-root, Tapioca,
Tous-les-mois, and Sago.   It abounds especially in the different kinds of
grain, among which, wheat,  yields one of  its purest varieties, and from
which an average of  about from  fifty to  sixty per cent, is  to be had.
In preparing starch from wheat-flour, the flour, which consists of starch,
gluten, mucilage, albumen, several salts, and some bran, is kneaded in
a cloth with successive portions of cold water.   The gluten and bran re-
main in the cloth; the mucilage, albumen, and salts dissolve in the water ;
and  the  starch  passing away with the water in  a  state of suspension,
gradually falls to the  bottom. By allowing the albumino-mucilaginous
water, from which it has subsided, to undergo fermentation, the starch is 
216
Materia  Medica.
thereby purified from the gluten; for the acetic acid formed during this
process, dissolves the gluten.
  Starch is of the purest white, pulverulent, opake,  nearly  inodorous,
and tasteless, and is usually had in small, columnar, irregular prisms.
Its specific gravity is 1.53.  In dry air  it is permanent; in moist air it
absorbs about twenty-four per  cent, of water, without losing its dry ap-
pearance, and which may be driven off  by a gentle heat.  In its ordin-
ary state it contains about twelve per cent, of moisture.  It is insoluble
in alcohol, ether,  oils, and cold water.   Alcohol removes from it a trace
of essential oil, on which  its odor and taste depends.   Diluted sulphuric
acid resolves  it into sugar; nitric  acid into malic and oxalic acids.  When
starch has been triturated or agitated with water, a  dark  purple com-
pound is formed; a solution of starch  made  with hot water, and sub-
sequently cooled, yields on the addition of iodine, an immediate deep-
blue precipitate of iodide  of starch ; thus iodine is the most delicate test
of its presence in  any mixture.  The  color varies with  the proportions
employed; when the two substances are  about  equal, the  compound is
of a beautiful indigo-blue; if the iodine  is in excess, it is blackish-blue;
if the starch, violet-blue.   A  solution of iodide of starch,  when heated
to 200°, becomes colorless, but on cooling recovers  its blue color; boil-
ing permanently destroys the color.  Alkalies form soluble compounds
with starch, from which  it may be precipitated by  acids.  Lime-water,
and baryta-water, precipitate it from its  solution, forming insoluble com-
pounds.  When starch is roasted, it is converted into a substance soluble
in cold water, called British Gum, which may be applied in the  arts to
the same purposes as gum.
  Starch consists of organized granules, of various form and size, being
small, globular, oval, or angular.   These granules have each a thin ex-
terior pellicle or  tegument, insoluble in water,  and an  interior, soluble
substance.    Amylin is the  name applied to the  external  tegument;
amidin, to  the interior  mucilaginous portion.   Dextrin is  amidin ren-
dered  impure with variable proportions  of starch-sugar, and starch-gum
—and may be prepared by boiling  the  starch  for a  long time in dilute
sulphuric, muriatic,  or  oxalic  acid; and if the  boiling be still further
continued, a  saccharine substance is produced, similar  to  the  sugar of
grapes.  Diastase is a principle developed in the seeds of barley, oats,
wheat, etc., by germination.   Starch consists  of carbon, 44, hydrogen,
6.22, and oxygen, 49.78 ;  its formula is  C12 Hio  Oio.

   Properties and Uses.—Starch  is demulcent and nutritive.  It is used
in mucilage, or in emulsion, for suspending drugs, when to be given in-
ternally or by injection.   The  powder is dusted upon the skin to absorb
irritating secretions; to prevent excoriation; to  soothe the pain of erysi-
pelas, and  to prevent intertrigo in  infants.   Starch  may be used as an
antidote to iodine. 
          Anacyclus  Pyrethrum — Anagallis  Arvensis.       217

                  ANACYCLUS  PYRETHRUM.

                         Pellitory of Spain.

  Nat.  Ord. — Compositaa,  (Decandolle) Asteraceaa, (Lindley).   Sex. Syst.—
Syngenesia  Superflua.
                               ROOT.

  Description.—This is the Anthemis Pyrethrum of Willdenow, and of
the U.  S. Dispensatory, the name  of which  has been changed by De
Candolle, and the plant placed into a new genus on account of a differ-
ence in the structure of its seeds.   Its stems are numerous, procumbent,
somewhat  branched, pubescent.   Radical  leaves spreading,  petiolated,
smoothish, pinnately divided;  the segments much cleft into linear, subu-
late lobes ; cauline leaves sessile.   Branches one-flowered.  Receptacle
convex, with  oblong-obovate, obtuse paleae.   Florets of the  disk are
yellow ; the rays are white on their upper surface, and reddish or purple
beneath and at their edges.
   History.—Pellitory of Spain, or Spanish Chamomile is a  native of the
Levant, Arabia, Syria, and the South of Europe.   The root  is the offi-
cinal part,  and  as found in the shops it is about  the size of the  little
finger, cylindrical, straight, or but slightly  curved, wrinkled longitudi-
nally, of an ash-brown color externally, whitish within, hard and brittle,
and sometimes furnished with a few radicles.   It is  inodorous, though
when recent it  possesses  a very disagreeable  smell; when chewed it
produces a peculiar sense of heat,  pungency and tingling in the mouth,
which lasts for some time,  and which is attended with a copious flow of
saliva.   Analysis gives a brown, very acrid substance, of a resinous ap-
pearance, which is insoluble in caustic potassa; a dark brown, very acrid,
fixed oil, soluble in potassa, a yellow acrid  oil, traces of  tannin,  gum,
inulin, and various salts.   Alcohol or ether dissolves its active principle.
   Properties and  Uses.—Irritant  and sialagogue.   Used  in  neuralgic
affections of the head and face, toothache, paralysis of the tongue, and
of  the muscles of deglutition.   The tincture makes a good rubefacient
and odontalgic remedy.
                    ANAGALLIS ARVENSIS.

                          Red Chickweed.

       Nat. Ord.—Primulaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.

                            THE LEAVES.
  Description.—Anagallis Arvensis is a beautiful annual trailing plant,
in fields, roadsides, etc., introduced into this country from Europe.   Its 
218
Materia Medica.
stem grows from six to twenty inches long, with elongated branches, or
simple, often dotted with purple, square, and more or less procumbent.
The leaves are sessile, ovate, many-ribbed, opposite or ternate,  dotted
with purple at the back ; peduncles longer than the leaves; sepals linear-
lanceolate, about equaling  the  petals; petals obovate,  obtuse,  longer
than the stamens, crenate-glandular.  Flowers opposite, small but beau-
tiful, with  scarlet  petals, opening at 8  o'clock, a. m., and  closing at
2, p. m.; in damp weather not  open  at all.   Stamens  purple,  hairy,
dilated, and smooth at the base.  Anthers yellow, heart-shaped.   Style
purple, permanent.   Stigma capitate.   Capsule pale and transparent,
the  size  of a pea,  separating all round, the  valves marked with some
indications of longitudinal separations which seldom take  effect.   Seeds
roughish, abrupt externally, each with a central dot.
  History.—This plant has several names, as Red Pimpernel, Poor Man's
 Weather Glass, Scarlet Pimpernel, etc. It blossoms in June  and July.  The
leaves are the parts used, they are inodorous, but have a bitter, some-
what acrid taste.  Water extracts their virtues.  The plant appears to
possess energetic properties, for Orfila destroyed a dog by making  him
swallow three  drachms  of  the  extract; it inflamed  the  mucous mem-
brane of  the stomach.   Grenier obtained a similar result.
   Properties and  Uses.—The  precise properties of  this  plant are not
fully known.   It was formerly esteemed as a counter poison, and has
been used as a preventive of hydrophobia.   Its internal  use has been
recommended in visceral obstructions, dropsy, mania, epilepsy, delirium,
and other nervous diseases; also  in febrile delirium.  But too  little is
known of its action to warrant its indiscriminate employment in these
diseases.   It may, however, be used in  form of poultice,  as  a local
application to old and ill-conditioned ulcers.
                    ANAMIRTA COCCULUS.

                         Cocculus Indicus.

       Nat. Ord.—Menispermacese.  Sex. Syst.—Dicecia Dodecandria.

                             THE FRUIT.
  Description.—Anamirta Cocculus, formerly called according to  Lin-
naeus, Menispermum  Cocculus, is a strong, climbing shrub, with a corky,
ash-colored  bark, with  deep  cracks or  fissures;  the leaves are thick,
smooth, shining, coriaceous, roundish, acute, very slightly cordate,  if at
all, sometimes  truncate at the base,  with five digitate  ribs,  about six
inches long, and as many broad; stalks a little shorter than the  leaves,
tumid at  both  ends, especially the lower.   Flowers  dicecious; female 
Andira Inermis.
219
flowers in lateral compound racemes.   Calyx of six  sepals in a  double
series, with  two closely-pressed  bractioles.    Corolla none.   Stamens
united into a central column dilated at the apex.   Anthers numerous,
covering the whole globose apex of the column.  Drupes, one to three,
globose,  one-celled, one-seeded.  Seed globose, deeply excavated at the
hilum.   Albumen fleshy.   Cotyledons very thin, linear-oblong, distant,
diverging, very membranous.
  History.—This plant is a native of the Malabar coast, and  of eastern
insular and  continental India.  The parts used are  the berries or fruit,
which, as found in the shops, are round, subreniform, about the size of a
pea, inodorous, of  a grayish-black color, and  composed of an external,
thin, hard,  brittle shell, covering another, which  is white, and  still
denser, and contains  a  white nucleus divided by  a central placenta.
They are inodorous, but have an intensely and permanently bitter taste.
They contain picrotoxin,  or picrotoxic acid, which is a very bitter, poison-
ous principle, menispermin,  an alkaline principle, paramenispermin, hy-
popicrotoxic acid, fixed oil, etc.
   Properties and  Uses.—Poison.  Given to animals it acts on the cere-
brospinal system, causing nervous tremors, convulsions, and  tetanus;  it
 also acts on the stomach as a local irritant.   It is never used  internally,
but has  been applied externally in form of powder or ointment,  in some
obstinate cutaneous affections, tinea capitis, and for the  destruction of
vermin in the hair.   It is sometimes used to stupefy fish in  order  that
they may be caught, and it is asserted that the fish thus taken are not
poisonous.   It is likewise added to malt liquors to render them bitter and
intoxicating, but which is highly improper and dangerous.
                       ANDIRA INERMIS.

                         Cabbage-tree Bark.

         Nat. Ord.—Fabaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Diadelphia Decandria.

                             THE BARK.
   Description.—Andira Inermis, ( Geoffroya Inermis), is a tree of mode
rate hight, branched toward the top, and  covered with  a smooth gray
bark ;  the  branches  are suberect  at their extremities, terete, glabrous,
ash-colored.  The leaves are about a foot in length, alternate, unequally
pinnate, consisting of five  to eight pairs of  oblong-lanceolate, acuminate,
veined, smooth leaflets, of a dark-green color, on  short roundish ferru-
ginous downy stalks, with a terminal  one on a longer footstalk.  The
flowers are rose-colored,  large, branched, and arranged  in  erect, axil-
lary, terminal downy panicles, with very short pedicels.   The  calyx is
turbinate-campanulate, covered with ferruginous down, of a dark-purple 
220
Materia  Medica.
color, and divided into five obtuse segments.   The corolla is of a pale-
rose color, papilionaceous, having a concave vexillum, emarginate at the
top,  and longer than the carina.   The stamens are purple, diadelphous,
with roundish anthers.  The ovary is oval, with a tapering, curved style,
and hooked stigma.   The fruit resembles a small plum, is  pulpy, and
contains a hard nut,  or legume.
  History.—This tree is  a native  of  Jamaica  and other of the West
India Islands.  The bark is the officinal part; it is in long, thick, fibrous
pieces, externally of a brownish-ash color,  and generally covered with
lichens, and internally yellowish.  It has a resinous fracture, a disagree-
able smell, and a sweetish, mucilaginous, bitterish taste.
  Properties and  Uses.—Cabbage-tree Bark is  emetic, purgative, and
anthelmintic.   It is thought by some to be a dangerous acro-narcotic in
large doses, causing troublesome sickness, fever, and delirium; on which
account it is not much used in practice, although it has  proved effectual
in removing the lumbricoid worms.   Dose of the powdered bark, from
a scruple  to  a drachm ;  of the  extract three grains;  of the  syrup or
decoction, a teaspoonful two or three  times  a day.  If any narcotic or
other unpleasant effects arise,  a dose of castor-oil must  be administered,
and  the patient must take freely of  lime-juice.
                   ANDROMEDA ARBOREA.

                            Sorrel Tree.

        Nat. Ord.—Ericaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.

                            THE LEAVES.
  Description.—Andromeda Arborea is a tree growing from forty to fifty
feet high, with a trunk from ten to fifteen inches in diameter.  The leaves
are oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, serrate, petiolate, deciduous, from five
to six inches long, and from one to two inches broad, villous when young,
at length smooth, with a distinctly acid taste, and early in autumn they
turn  bright scarlet.   The flowers are pedicellate, secund, spreading, at
length  reflexed;  panicles  terminal, consisting of  numerous spicate
racemes.   Calyx without bractlets.   Corolla ovate-oblong, narrowed at
the summit, five-toothed, pubescent  externally.  Filaments  thickened;
anthers awnless, the cells long and pointed; capsule pyramidal, pentan-
gular ; seeds ascending  from the base, linear, with a  loose coat taper-
pointed at both ends ;  bracts and bractlets minute, deciduous.
   History.—This is a beautiful tree, growing in the valleys of the Alle-
ghany mountains, from  Pennsylvania to  Florida, and  bearing white
flowers in July.   The leaves are the  parts used ; they  have a very plea-
sant  acid taste, and yield their properties to water. 
Anemone Nemorosa.
221
  Properties and Uses.—Sorrel  Tree leaves are tonic, refrigerant and
diuretic.   A decoction of the  leaves is a grateful  refrigerant  drink  in
fevers, and will also produce diuresis.  Some species of the Andromeda
are poisonous, as the A. Ovalifolia, A.  Polifolia, A. Mariana, A. Nitida,
and A. Angustifolia;  the powder upon the leaves and buds of the A.
Speciosa, and A. Pulverulenta, is a powerful errhine.
                    ANEMONE NEMOROSA.

                          Wood Anemone.

      Nat. Ord.—Ranunculaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Polygyria.

                            THE  PLANT.

   Description.—Anemone Nemorosa,  sometimes called Windflower, is a
delicate and pretty plant, with a creeping root, and a simple, erect stem,
with  a  single flower on a naked peduncle, and from six to nine inches
high.  The leaves are radical and ternate,  and the leaflets undivided, or
with  the  middle one  three-cleft, and lateral ones  two-parted,  incisely
dentate; involucre at the base of the flower-stalks, long petioled, divided
into  three, toothed, and  cut:  sepals four  to six, oval, white, sometimes
tinged with purple outside ; carpels fifteen or twenty, ovate, with a short
style, hooked.   Stamens numerous,  much shorter  than the  sepals;
ovaries numerous, free, collected into a roundish or oval  head.
  History. — This plant is common to  Europe  and the United States,
bearing purplish-white  flowers in April and May.   There  are several
varieties of it, which possess similar properties, as the A. Patens, of this
country,  the  A.  Pratensis  and A.  Pulsatilla, or Meadow Anemone of
Europe.   The last is probably the most active among them.   The her-
baceous part of the plant is employed in medicine.   A volatile, crystal-
lizable solid, called Anemonine is obtained from the various species of
anemone, by distilling  the  plants with water,  and  setting the  product
aside; it crystallizes in brilliant white needles.   Its formula is Cj H2 O2.
Alkalies convert it into anemonic acid.  A solution of it has been used
externally in scaldhead, ulcers, caries, indurated glands, venereal nodes,
serpiginous affections, paralysis, amaurosis, cataract,  and opake cornea.
Its internal use is questionable.
  Properties and Uses.—These plants are acrid  and poisonous.   They
have  been recommended in  amaurosis and  other  diseases of the eye,
secondary syphilis, cutaneous diseases,  and hooping-cough, in doses of
one or two grains  daily.  When  applied  to the head, it is  said to be a
speedy cure for tinea capitis.   In the recent state, the leaves bruised and
applied to the skin are rubefacient.  In large doses, this article  produces 
222
Materia  Medica.
nausea, vomiting, looseness of the bowels, and bloody urine.   It is very
seldom applied in practice, except among the Homeopaths, who use the
A. Pulsatilla.
                 ANGELICA  ATROPURPUREA.

                          Purple Angelica.

   Nat.  Ord.—Umbelliferse or Apiaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.

                       ROOT, HERB  AND SEED.

  Description.—Angelica Atropurpurea, sometimes called  Masterwort,
High Angelica,  etc., has a perennial,  purplish root, and a smooth, herba-
ceous stem, hollow, glaucous, from one to two inches in diameter, and
risino- from three to six feet high; its dark purple color has given rise to
its specific name.   The leaves are ternate, and supported by very  large
inflated petioles.  The leaflets are pinnate, five to seven, sharply cut-ser-
rate, acute,  pale beneath, the terminal one sometimes  three-lobed, the
lateral ones of the upper division decurrent.   Umbels three, large, ter-
minal, many-rayed, spreading, spherical, six to eight inches in diameter,
without the  involucre.   Umbellets dense,  subhemispheric,  on angular
stalks, and  with  involucels of  subulate bracts longer than the  rays.
Calyx five-toothed ; petals equal, entire, with the point inflected.   Invo-
lucels short, about eight-leaved.  Fruit smooth, compressed, somewhat
solid and corticate, elliptic.

  History.—This  plant  grows from five  to eight feet high, throughout
the United States, in meadows and marshy woods,  and flowers in  June
and July; the flowers are greenish-white.   The whole plant has a strong
odor, and a warm aromatie taste.  The juice of the recent root is acrid,
and  is said  to be poisonous;  drying dissipates  much  of this   acri-
mony.

  Properties and Uses.—Aromatic, stimulant, carminative, diaphoretic, ex-
pectorant, diuretic, and emmenagogue.  Used in flatulent colic and cardial-
gia.  It is said to promote the menstrual discharge.  In diseases of the uri-
nary organs, calculi and passive dropsy, it is used as a diuretic, in decoction
with uva ursi and eupatoreumpurpureum.   Dose of  the powder, thirty to
sixty grains; of the decoction, two to four ounces,  three or four times a
day.  The Angelica Archangelica, A.  Triquinati and A. Lucida, may be
substituted for  the above. 
         Antennaria Margaritaceum—Anthemis Nobilis.      223

              ANTENNARIA  MARGARITACEUM.

                 Pearl Flowered Life  Everlasting.

  Nat.  Ord.—Composites or Asteracese.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Superflua.

                            THE LEAVES.
  Description.—Antennaria Margaritaceum  is a perennial  plant, with a
simple, erect stem, corymbosely branched above ; the leaves are linear-
lanceolate,  acute, three-veined,  sessile, and beneath the  stem woolly;
corymbs many-flowered,  fastigiate ; scales of the hemispheric  involucre
elliptic, obtuse,  opake,  pearl-white, the outer  ones only  tomentose at
the base.  Heads dicecious ;  the pistillate flowers very slender ;  pappus
simple, bristly, capillary in the  fertile flowers, and  in the sterile club-
shaped or barbellate at the summit.   Corolla yellowish.

   History.—The name Antennaria is from the resemblance of the sterile
pappus to the  antennce of many insects.  The plant is slightly fragrant,
and grows  in dry hills and woods in various parts of the United  States ;
it is from one to two feet in hight, and bears yellow  and white flowers in
July.   The leaves are the parts  used.

   Properties and Uses.—Anodyne, astringent and  pectoral.   A decoc-
tion has proved beneficial in diarrhea  and dysentery, and  in pulmonary
affections.   Used externally as a cataplasm  in painful tumors, contusions
and sprains, and is  certainly very efficacious in relieving  pain and  dis-
posing to sleep, often succeeding where the  hop poultice has proved inef-
fectual.  The A. Plantagineum, and A. Dioicum, or white plantain, are
supposed to be beneficial in snake-bites.
                      ANTHEMIS NOBILIS.

                  Chamomile.  Roman Chamomile.

  Nat. Ord.—Compositae Senecionideas, or Asteraceas.   Sex. Syst.—Syngene-
sia  Superflua,
                             FLOWERS.
  Description. — This  is a herbaceous  plant with  a strong, perennial
root,  having long fibers.  The stems in  a wild state are  prostrate, in
gardens more upright,  from six  to twelve inches long, branched, leafy,
round, slender, hollow, furrowed, downy.   The leaves  are pale-green,
bipinnate, sessile, with  small, thread-like leaflets which are rather flat or
channeled above, convex beneath, somewhat pubescent, acute, and gen-
erally divided into three segments.  The flower-heads are terminal, soli- 
224
Materia Medica.
tary, rather larger than a daisy, with a convex yellow disk, and numer-
ous white, spreading, or reflexed rays.  The calyx is common to all  the
florets, of a hemispherical form, and composed of several small imbri-
cated hairy scales, with thin, membranous edges.   The receptacle is coni-
cal or  convex, prominent,  and  furnished with  rigid bristle-like  paleae,
one to each floret; the scales of the receptacle do not appear till the florets
of the disk are turned to one side, and the innermost are gradually nar-
rowest.   The florets of the ray are usually about eighteen, narrow, ligu-
late, white, spreading, three-toothed;  the disk florets are numerous, yel-
low, perfect, tubular, divided into five lobes. The stamens are five, very
short.   The ovary is obovate, and supports a slender style, with a bifid,
reflexed stigma.   The seeds   are   ovate,  compressed,  and  slightly
crowned.

   History.—Chamomile is  a native of Europe, and is  extensively culti-
vated for medicinal  purposes;  by cultivation the flowers become double,
but the properties are  not so  great  in these as in the single flowers,
because  the disk contains the  virtues in the greatest degree.   The
flowers  which  are the whitest  are the best; the  seeds  yield  a fixed oil
by expression.  As found  in the shops,  chamomile flowers  are large,
almost spherical, of a dull-white color, a fragrant odor, and  a warmish,
bitter, aromatic taste.  By distillation they yield  a volatile oil, at first of
a pale,  blue color, but which changes to yellow or brownish; its stimu-
lant properties depend  on  this  oil, and  a resin ; the tonic,  on its bitter
extractive; it  also contains a small quantity of  tannin.  Schendler  has
obtained from the flowers a volatile acid in minute proportion,  much
resembling  valerianic  acid.   Water  or alcohol  extracts  their virtues;
boiling  water extracts nearly one-fourth of their weight.

   Properties  and  Uses.—In small  doses  tonic,  and  in  large, emetic.
Used in cold infusion in dyspepsia,  and in all cases of weak or irritable
stomach; also in intermittent and  typhus.  A  strong  infusion,  warm,
and taken  freely, acts as an emetic.   The oil is carminative and  anti-
spasmodic.  Used in flatulency, colic,  cramp in the  stomach, hysteria,
nervous diseases, and in painful dysmenorrhea.   Dose of  the oil, five to
fifteen drops,  on sugar;  of extract, prepared in vacuo, which is the best
form for internal administration,  one to three grains.  The flowers of the
Matricaria Chamomilla, or German chamomile, possess similar properties
to the anthemis, but are rarely used  in this country, except by German
practitioners.

   Off. Prep.—Extractum Anthemidis;  Extractum Anthemidis Fluidum;
Infusum Anthemidis; Oleum Anthemidis ; Vinum Symphytii Compo-
situm. 
Apium Petroselinum.
225
                   APIUM PETROSELINUM.

                             Parsley.

  Nat. Ord.—Apiaceee or Umbelliferae.  Sex.  Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.

                               ROOT.
  Description.—Apium Petroselinum, Willdenow, or Petroselinum Sati-
vum,  Hoffman, has a biennial,  fleshy,  fusiform  root, with an annual,
round, furrowed, joint, erect,  branching stem, striate with green and
yellow lines, and rising  from two to  four feet in  hight.  The radical
leaves are compound, pinnated in ternaries, on  long channeled stalks;
the leaflets  are  rhomboidal-ovate,  wedge-shaped at the  base, deeply
incised, with the segments mucronate, and  sometimes rounded.   Upper
leaves  gradually become more entire and  narrower, till the uppermost
are simply  ternate with linear  segments.    Umbels terminal,  axillary,
pedunculated, and with five to eight rays.   General involucre  none,  or
one to two subulate minute bracts; partial involucre with  six  or  eight
setaceous bracts, much shorter  than the pedicels, erect, forming a per-
fect  whorl.  Flowers  white  or greenish; petals  rounded, incurved,
scarcely emarginate;  calyx with the limb  obsolete; disk short, conical,
somewhat crenulate;  styles diverging.   Fruit ovate, about a line long,
compressed, pale greenish-brown, flat on one side,  convex on the other,
and  marked with five longitudinal ridges.   Stamens longer  than the
corolla.
  History.—This plant is a native  of Europe, but  is cultivated in gar-
dens  throughout the civilized world.  The whole plant has an  aromatic
odor, and the leaves are used for culinary purposes.   The root, which
is officinal, is fusiform  and fleshy, with a pleasant smell,  and  sweetish
taste; it should be used in the recent state.   Its properties depend upon
an essential oil,  and are taken up by water, wine, alcohol,  or ether.
   Properties and Uses.—Diuretic.   Very  useful in  dropsy, especially
that following scarlatina, and other exanthematous diseases.  Also, used
in retention of  urine, strangury, and gonorrhea.   The seeds have  a
strong, terebinthinate odor, and  a warm  aromatic taste, and have  been
used  as carminatives, and for the same  purposes as the root—they are
said to be a deadly poison to the parrot.   The seeds, as well as the
leaves, sprinkled on the hair, in powder, or in the form of  an ointment,
will effectually destroy vermin; the leaves, applied as a fomentation, will,
it is asserted, cure the bites or stings  of insects.  The leaves, bruised,
are a good  application  to contusions,  swelled  breasts, and  enlarged
glands—reputed to "dry up the milk" of wet-nurses.  The oil is effica-
cious as a diuretic, in doses of three or  four drops a  day; dose of the
infusion, two to  four ounces, three or four times a day.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Petroselini.
        15 
226
Materia  Medica.
                 APOCYNUM ANDROSJSMIFOLIUM.

                                Bitter-root.

           Nat. Ord.—Apocynacea?.  Sex. Syst—Pentandria Digynia.

                                  ROOT.
     Description.—Apocynum Androsaemifolium  is an  indigenous, peren-
   nial, herbaceous plant, with a large and bitter root,  and an erect, smooth
   stem which rises from three to six  feet  high; it is simple below, repeat-
   edly branching  above, usually red on the side  exposed to the sun,
   lactescent, and covered with  a tough, fibrous  bark.  The leaves are
   opposite, petiolate, ovate, acute, entire, smooth on both sides, paler and
   very slightly pilose beneath, and  two or three inches long.  Flowers in
.*■• loose,  nodding,  terminal or axillary  cymes,  white, tinged with red,
   monopetalous, campanulate, with five  acute spreading segments.  The
   peduncles are furnished with minute, acute bracts.   Calyx small, five-
   cleft, much  shorter  than the tube of the  corolla.   Stamens five, with
   very short filaments,  and long, sagittate,  connivent anthers, cohering
   with the stigma about  their middle, and often holding  fast such insects
   as may thrust their proboscis between them.   The nectary consists of
   five oblong glandular bodies, alternating with the stamens.  Ovaries two,
   ovate,  concealed  by the  anthers  and  supporting  two thick, roundish,
   sessile stigmas.   The  fruit is  in  the  form of a pair of slender, linear-
   lanceolate, drooping  follicles,  containing numerous  oblong,  imbricated
   seeds attached to a slender central torus, and each crowned with a long,
   downy pappus.   Every part of the plant is lactescent.
     History.—This  plant,  likewise  called  Dogsbane,  Milk-weed,  etc., is
   found in nearly all parts of the United States, from Canada to Carolina,
   growing in dry, sandy soil, on hill-sides, or in woods, flowering in June
   and  July; when any part of it is wounded, a milky juice exudes.  The
   root is the officinal portion, it is large, lactescent, and of a  disagreeably
   bitter  taste;  the  bark, which forms nearly  two-thirds of it, is the active
   part.  Analysis  has discovered it to  contain a  bitter extractive, a red
   coloring matter  soluble in water  and not in alcohol, caoutchouc and
   volatile oil.   It yields its properties to alcohol, but  especially to water.
   Age impairs its virtues.
     Properties and Uses. — Emetic, diaphoretic,  tonic, and laxative; it
   has  been  found very valuable  in the treatment of chronic hepatic affec-
   tions, and in conjunction with  Menispermum in dyspepsia and  amenor-
   rhea.   In doses of forty to sixty grains it promptly induces emesis, with
   scarcely any previous  nausea,  and hence is useful  where it is desired to
   evacuate  the stomach, without producing that muscular relaxation inci-
   dent to a long-continued  nausea; however, it  is  said to  occasion  a 
Apocynum  Cannabinum.
227
subsequent weakness or languor, from which the patient is some time in
recovering.   As a laxative, it is useful in cases of constipation, and in
hepatic derangements.  As a tonic, ten or twenty grains may be given
to stimulate the digestive apparatus, and thus effect a corresponding im-
pression on the general system.  As a diaphoretic it must  be combined
with opium, in the proportion of one grain of the  latter to forty of the
former, and divided into three  or four doses;  however, as a diaphoretic,
it is inferior.   Also  reputed useful as an alterative  in rheumatism, scro-
fula, and syphilis.  Prof. Gregory  speaks of Apocynine as the active
agent of the A. Androsaemifolium, but has given no method of preparing
it.  It is said  to be  very bitter, and of a dark  orange color.  Used as an
alterative in syphilitic and scrofulous affections, in doses of half a grain
to a grain; as a purgative, one grain to two grains.  It has been bene-
ficially employed in liver and stomach  affections, intermittents,  and  the
low stage of typhoid fevers.
   I have used a preparation called Apocynin, prepared from this plant
by Mr. J. B. Robinson of Cincinnati, Ohio, in jaundice, combined with
leptandrin  and myricin,  with excellent  effect,  as well  as  in  hepatic
torpor, and constipation.  It is a powder of a dark-brown color, posses-
sing an odor similar to the root, and a bitter, nauseous, unpleasant taste.
Mr. Robinson  prepares it by neutralizing  the  saturated tincture of the
root by ammonia, then filtering and precipitating the  apocynin by sul-
phuric acid, which must be added  gradually;  when obtained it is to be
washed in one or two waters, and then  dried.   One pound of the  root
yields about half  an ounce of the  dried apocynin,  and much care must
be taken in the operation, lest the whole be spoiled.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Apocyni; Extractum Apocyni Hydro-Alco-
holicum; Apocynin.
                  APOCYNUM  CANNABINUM.

                           Indian Hemp.

        Nat. Ord.—Apocynaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.

                               ROOT.
  Description. — In general appearance  and character the  Apocynum
Cannabinum bears a close resemblance to the Apoc. Androsaemifolium.
The  root is perennial  and creeping; the stems  are  erect, herbaceous,
branching,  of a brown color, and two or three feet in hight.   The leaves
are opposite, oblong-ovate, acute at  both ends,  and somewhat  downy
beneath.   The cymes  are  many-flowered, terminal and lateral,  panicu-
late,  smooth.  The corolla is small,  of a greenish or yellowish-white
externally,  with  a tinge of pink  or purple within, with a campanulate 
228
Materia Medica.
tube not longer  than the calyx.   The calyx is about as long  as  the
corolla, with subulate segments, lanceolate.   Follicles long and slender.
Fruit similar to A. Androsaemifolium.
  History.—This plant is indigenous and grows in similar situations with
the Apoc.  Androsaem., flowering  about  the same time.  It likewise
abounds in  a milky juice, and has a tough, fibrous bark, which, by mace-
ration,  affords a substitute for hemp, but of  a whiter color, and superior
in strength  and durability.   A decoction of the plant affords a permanent
brown  or black dye, according to the mordant used.  The root is  the
officinal part; when fresh it is of a dark-chestnut color, with a nauseous,
somewhat  acrid, and permanently bitter taste, and a strong, unpleasant
odor.  When  dried it is brittle  and readily pulverized,  affording a
powder somewhat  resembling  Ipecacuanha.  The ligneous portion is
yellowish-white, with some odor, and a decided bitter taste; the cortical
part is  brown  externally, and  white within, of a very bitter, nauseous
taste.   Analysis has ascertained it to contain tannin, gallic acid, gum,
resin, wax, fecula, a coloring matter, caoutchouc, lignin, and a peculiar
bitter principle to which the  name of Apocynin has been proposed. The
root yields  its properties to alcohol, and more readily  to water;  its vir-
tues are impaired  with age.   Every part  of this  plant, in  the  recent
state, exudes a milky juice when wounded.

  Properties and Uses.—Emeto-cathartic, diuretic, and diaphoretic.  In
a full dose it occasions much  nausea, diminishes the  frequency of  the
pulse,  and has a tendency to  produce drowsiness independent  of  the
exhaustion  consequent upon vomiting; copious vomiting soon  ensues,
and subsequently large and feculent watery  stools.   A  general per-
spiration almost  always follows.  Its diuretic  effects  vary in  different
individuals, being very manifest in some and less so in others.   Snuffed
into the nostrils, the powder will excite sneezing.
  As a hydragogue cathartic, and also as a diuretic  in those instances
where  this  effect is displayed, it has been found most useful in dropsy.
In diaphoretic doses it has proved  beneficial in intermittent and remit-
tent fevers, and pneumonic affections.   As an emetic, from fifteen to
thirty grains of the powder, is the dose ;  as a  hydragogue or diuretic,
the decoction is the best form in which  to employ it,—one ounce of the
root may be boiled in a pint of water, of which  a  wineglassful may be
given two or three times a day, or oftener if required.   Smaller quan-
tities of the  decoction, given warm, will  cause diaphoresis; as a purg-
ative, the  aqueous extract may be given  in doses of from three to six
grains.  The apocynin obtained from this plant will probably be found
identical in virtue  and chemical  constitution with that  from  the A,
Androsaemifolium.   Further investigations with it are required, before
anything positive and satisfactory can be made known. 
Aqua.
229
                             AQUA.

                               Water.
   History.—From the almost universal solvent powers of water, it is the
most extensive pharmaceutical  agent that we possess, beside  being,
when properly employed, a most valuable remedy for a large number of
diseases.   The purest water that can be obtained is distilled water, which
when properly prepared in clean, glass vessels, is  colorless, transparent,
tasteless and inodorous, with the assumed specific gravity  of unity, and
with which as a  standard, the specific gravities of all solids and liquids
are compared.    It is the only  admissible water  for pharmaceutic and
chemical tests, as the presence of organic or saline substances in it, may
decompose the articles to be dissolved, or impair its  solvent power.  At
a  temperature  of 32°  or lower it  becomes  ice; at 212° or  above, it
forms steam, in  which its bulk is augmented to nearly 1700 fold, and its
specific gravity   reduced to about  half that of atmospheric air ; it is
likewise compressible to a certain extent.   It is capable of  absorbing or
dissolving to a greater or less amount, all of the gases ; and even in  the
driest weather,  it constantly exists in the atmosphere, in  the  form of
invisible vapor.   Pure water consists  of one equivalent of  hydrogen,  1,
and  one of oxygen,  8=9=HO.   It is perfectly  neutral,  exhibiting
neither  acid nor basic properties, though capable of combining with each,
and increasing their activity.   It should always be kept in  glass vessels.
The  solvent power of water is increased by heat.
  Water is known as  Soft- Water, Hard- Water, and Mineral- Water ;  the
soft are always preferred to hard-waters in pharmaceutical  preparations,
and may be known by their forming a lather with  soap, notwithstanding
they may contain considerable impurities.   Hard-water, contains one or
several  salts of lime,  with other impurities, curdles soap, and is unfit for
internal use, or domestic purposes.    An excellent test for determining
the quality of water is the tincture of soap ; in distilled water it produces
no effect; in soft water, only a slight  opalescence ; and in hard  water, a
milky appearance.   We have several varieties of water, as rain, snow,
spring,  river, well, lake, and marsh water ; the first two are the purest,
the following three come next in order, and the  last  is unwholesome,
and ought never  to be employed for domestic  or medicinal purposes.
Good water is limpid, without smell, and  does not curdle soap ; and its
transparency is but little affected by nitrate of baryta, nitrate of silver,
or oxalate of ammonia.
  Rain  and snow-waters, are distinguished from distilled water, chiefly
by their holding  in solution an  unusual  amount of atmospheric gases.
To obtain  either of them pure, they must be  collected in  large clean
vessels as  the rain or snow falls toward the earth; and  this  should  be
done  at some distance  from houses, commencing some time after they 
230
Materia  Medica.
 have fallen, in order to avoid the contamination of dust and other impu-
 rities in  the atmosphere, which is usually present with the first fall of
 the rain or snow.
   Rain-water,  (aqua pluvia)  may  by  proper precautions  be obtained
 tolerably pure from the roofs of houses on which it falls, by allowing
 the impurities to be washed away in the commencement of a heavy rain.
 In large  cities the rain-water contains nitrogenized  organic  matter.
 Both rain and  snow-waters may be  applied  to every domestic purpose,
 as well as to most chemical and pharmaceutical operations.   But no
 water should  ever be used which comes in  contact with lead—for the
 lead  becomes  oxydized by the oxygen  of  the  water, which oxide is
 reduced to a carbonate by  the action of the carbonic  acid derived  from
 the air, and the water thus containing lead may produce the poisonous
 effects of that  metal upon  the system.    The more  soft  and pure the
 water, the greater the risk.
   Spring-water, (aqua  fontana,) is that which springs from the earth,
 free from  large amounts of carbonic acid, or salts, and  not possessing
 elevated temperatures ; it  is the general beverage of mankind,  and is
 applicable to all domestic purposes.  Its quality depends entirely on the
 strata through which  it flows ; those springs arising from traprocks,
 sandstones, transition rocks, and primitive rocks are  the  purest;  those
 from  alluvial strata, limestone, and coal  formations are the least  pure.
 All however contain variable traces of the salts of lime, soda, or magnesia,
 which vary according to the locality  of the spring.
   River-water,  (aqua fluvialis) especially when passing through alluvial
 countries and near great cities, contains  suspended in it more  or less
 earthy, and vegeto-animal impurities,  which  impair its transparency,
 but which in a short time will purify itself during its  downward course.
 In  countries  where  the rivers  pass chiefly over primitive rocks, the
 waters are found  to  be almost perfectly pure.    When  moderately
 pure it is fit for all ordinary purposes, though if it contain much vegeto-
 animal matter,  it is apt to occasion dysentery, and other affections of the
bowels, and then becomes inadmissible in pharmacy.   The Croton water
 of New York, the Schuylkill water of Philadelphia, and  the Ohio river
 water, are, when filtered, sufficiently pure for all the purposes of phar-
 macy, where distilled water is not expressly required.   Lake-water, in
 the United States, is generally a pure  and wholesome water; in  other
instances it is similar to the river-water.
   Well-water,  very much  resembles spring-water in its  qualities, its
purity being proportioned  to its depth  and  amount  of use.  In  large
cities well-water always contains nitrates, owing to the rapid oxidation of
nitrogenized organic matter,  which  filters  through  the  soil.   These
nitrates prevent the formation of any vegetable matter  in water, even
 when long kept.   A very pure water is  usually obtained from the Arte-
sian or overflowing wells. 
Aqua.
231
  Marsh-water being commonly stagnant, and containing vegetable mat-
ters in the  process of decomposition, is unwholesome,  and should never
be employed for domestic or medicinal purposes.
  The Journal of Pharmacy of March, 1848, gives the following pro-
cess of Dupasquier to ascertain whether there is an amount of organic
matter held  in  solution  in  water,  above the minute  quantity usually
present in good water:   Place  into a small flask one or two fluidounces
of the water to be tested, and to it add  a few drops of solution of chloride
of gold, free from excess of muriatic acid,  enough  to  give the water  a
slight yellow tint; then boil it.   If the yellow tint  remains unchanged,
the ordinary proportion of organic  matter  is present;  but if the liquor
becomes at first brownish and afterward violet or bluish, in consequence
of the reduction of the gold, the water  holds a greater amount of organic
matter than usual.   This organic matter is  of the  nature of  ulmin or
gein.
   Prof. Faraday states, that "one grain of water will require for decom-
position an electric current equal to a very  powerful flash of lightning."
The chemical action of  a grain of  water upon four grains of  zinc,  can
evolve electricity equal  in quantity to that  of a powerful thunderstorm ;
and he states, that from his experiments it would appear, that 800,000
such charges of the  Leyden battery would be necessary to supply elec-
tricity sufficient to decompose  a single grain of water.   The Leyden
battery of which he speaks, consists of fifteen jars, containing 3510 square
inches,  or  about twenty-four and a half square feet of coated  glass,
charged by thirty turns  of a plate electrical machine, the plate  being
fifty inches  in diameter, and of immense power, giving ten or  twelve
sparks an inch long for each revolution.  In relation to this an author in
the Philosophical Magazine remarks,  that "the estimate that 800,000
discharges  of the  battery of fifteen jars, equal to  a powerful flash of
lightning, would be  necessary to resolve a single grain of water into its
elements, is certainly astounding, when it  is recollected that, according
to Prof. Faraday, the quantity of electricity that decomposes a body, is
the equivalent  quantity of electricity that  had previously held the  ele-
ments of that body in combination; for he, with Davy and others, con-
ceives that electricity and chemical  affinity are identical powers.  Hence,
in one grain, that is, one drop of water, there must be naturally existing,
and constituting the affinity between its oxygen and hydrogen, no  less
a quantity of electricity, than 800,000 charges of a battery, containing
3510  square inches of coated glass, or  the equivalent of a very  powerful
flash  of lightning.   If this  quantity of electricity  were  converted into
one spark,  it would  be  4166 miles in length,  taking Prof. Faraday's
mean estimate  of one  charge of  his  battery as  the basis  of calcu-
lation."
  Mineral waters, are those which present a large proportion of carbonic
acid, with or without saline, alkaline, metallic, earthy and other foreign 
232
Materia  Medica.
 substances, and which exert an  appreciable therapeutical  influence on
 the animal  economy.  For all practical purposes, they may be conve-
 niently arranged into carbonated,  sulphureted, chalybeate, and saline min-
 eral waters, for  an account and list of each  of  which, see Appendix.
 When the water  is elevated in temperature they are called  Hot or Ther-
 mal springs; when of ordinary  temperature or lower, they are  called
 Cold Mineral Springs.

   Properties and  Uses.—As a remedial agent, apart from its natural
 necessitous  use, water internally  is a tonic, diuretic, or sudorific, accord-
 ing to  its mode of administration.  Small quantities, taken cold, between
 45° and 60°, and occasionally repeated, act as  a tonic ;  in larger doses
 it produces  diuresis, and diaphoresis, the latter effect  more especially, if
 the patient be kept warmly covered, and it is  extensively used for  this
 purpose in  many acute diseases.   Warm water, between  60° and 100°,
 relaxes the  fibers of  the  stomach, and, particularly if given in large
 quantities, is  apt to provoke nausea and vomiting.   In fevers, water is
 a grateful drink, allaying thirst,  moderating the fever, often producing
 sleep and relief from  restlessness ;  and is  sufficient, unaided by other
means, to effect a rapid solution  of the disease, in  many instances.  It
should never be withheld from patients laboring under febrile or inflam-
matory complaints, who crave it.   During the operation  of  a vegetable
emetic, cool water at 60°, is  more  agreeable, and  fully as  beneficial in
assisting the emesis, as warm.
  Externally, water is frequently applied as a  sedative in  local inflam-
mations, as  quinsies, sore-throats,  ophthalmia,  sprains and contusions,
and as a means of restraining hemorrhage.   Cloths wet with cold water
and applied to the abdomen, have relieved severe  pain in  the bowels,
retention of urine, etc.  The cold dash or douche, has been successfully
employed in  delirium tremens,  apoplexy,  tetanus,  hysteria, convul-
sions, obstinate constipation, congestive, bilious and  typhoid fevers.  The
wet sheet is much used to allay febrile and inflammatory conditions,  and
to promote diaphoresis.  As an injection it has  been efficient in habitual
constipation, and excessive tympanitic distension, as well  as dvsentery.
Applied warm it is an  excellent application to  erysipelatous inflamma-
tions.  Ice and iced water, as a  local application,  are said to be very
useful in burns and scalds,  also in many cerebral affections.
  As a bath, water is also an important remedy.  The vapor-bath accele-
 rates the circulation, produces profuse sweating,  and softens and re-
laxes the skin, and may be employed  in  a variety of cases.  The hot
 bath has a similar effect, but is apt to be dangerous in  some constitutions.
 The warm  bath  diminishes the frequency  of the pulse, lessens the fre-
 quency of respiration and  the heat of the body, and  relaxes  the  skin.
 It acts as a soothing  remedy, producing a disposition to sleep.   It is
useful  in febrile  and inflammatory  diseases, characterized  by frequent 
Aqua.
233
 pulse, preternaturally hot and dry skin, and much restlessness ; also  in
 spasms and convulsions  of children, retention  of urine, nephritic pains,
 and the like.   It  is contra-indicated in diseases  of the  head and chest.
 The cold bath acts according to its temperature and mode of application,
 as a stimulant, tonic, and sedative.
   The following are the temperatures at which  baths  are usually ap-
 plied :—
    Water, cold,.......................................  50° to  75° F.
      do    temperate,.................................  75  to  85  "
      do    tepid,.....................................  85  to  92  "
      do    warm,.....................................  92  to  98  "
      do    hot,.......................................  98  to 112  "
    Vapor, if breathed, tepid,...........................  90  to 100  "
      do       do    warm,.......................... 100  to 110  "
      do       do    hot,............................. 110  to 130  "
      do if not breathed, tepid,..........................  96  to 106  "
      do         do   warm,........................ 106  to 120  "
      do         do   hot,........................... 120  to 160   "
    Hot air, as a sudorific,..............................  85  to 100  "
      do    as a stimulant,............................. 100  to 130  "
   In addition to the above uses of water, it has likewise other employ-
 ments, as follows :—
   The Wet Sheet Packing, or Lien Tuch of the Germans.  A mattress
 of cotton, hair, or straw, has spread  over it three  or four large,  thick
 comfortables,  and over these one  or two soft  flannels.   A linen sheet
 having been previously dipped in cold water, or for very  delicate persons
 in tepid or even warm water, is lightly wrung out, so as not to drip, and
 spread over the whole, having under it one or  two pillows for the head.
 The patient is made to lie upon  these  on his back, and is quickly and
 snugly enveloped in the  wet sheet, over which is  placed the flannels and
 blankets, or a light feather-bed may be  thrown  over the  top, in case
 comfortables are not plenty.   Care should always be taken to  turn the
 clothing snugly and smoothly around the feet and neck;  and if the feet
 remain cold, bottles of cold water should be placed to them.  Headache
 is prevented or removed  by the application of cold wet cloths applied to
 the head.
   The time for remaining  thus  "packed," varies  in  different cases,
 averaging from half an hour to  an hour, depending  on  the effect; the
 body should become comfortably warm before  being removed.   A dis-
 agreeable sensation of cold is first  experienced, which is soon  followed
 by a pleasurable warmth  over the whole surface, and sometimes copious
perspiration, though this last is not always indicated.   On coming out
of  the "pack," the plunge, the douche, rubbing wet sheet, or  towel-
washing are to be  employed as  the case may require.  If the patient
experiences  a  chill  after coming out, a thorough rubbing, followed by
fifteen or twenty minutes' dry packing, will usually obviate all injurious 
234
Materia Medica.
consequences.  The process  of packing  should never be continued  so
long as to cause headache, languor, muscular debility or giddiness.
   This  is said to  act as a sedative, reducing the heat of the body, and
excessive arterial action, and as  an alterative, correcting morbid secre-
tions  and restoring  healthy  ones.  In fevers,  and all acute inflamma-
tory disorders, it may be frequently renewed according to the degree  of
fever or inflammation, until the temperature and circulation are reduced
to the natural standard, and the skin  becomes  soft and perspirable.
Much sweating  is not usually to  be desired.   In chronic  diseases, it
removes internal congestions, develops external circulation, produces a
healthy condition of the  skin, and may be used in many forms of this
class  of  maladies.   If carelessly attended to, the wet sheet may give
rise to serious difficulties.
   When the wet sheet is applied to the  trunk of the body only, as  in
cases of  feeble persons, where there is not sufficient vitality for the whole
sheet, or for other purposes, it is termed  the "Half Pack Sheet."
   The Douche (doosh) is  the application of a stream of cold, tepid  or
warm water, from a greater or lesser hight, and continued for a time indi-
cated by its effects.  The force of the stream,  and time of  application
should be carefully adapted to the strength of the patient.   Very nerv-
ous persons,  and those subject  to determinations to the brain, should
resort to it with extreme caution.  A strong douche should never be
applied to  the head, nor should it be long continued on any one spot
along the vertebral column.  A douche  may be vertical, oblique, hori-
zontal, or ascending.   The most common are in perpendicular streams
one or two inches  in diameter.  Its effect is to arouse the  activity  of
the absorbent system, and is hence  very useful  in gout,  rheumatism.
paralysis, chronic  enlargements of the viscera, tumors, etc.
   The ascending douche will be  found beneficial in piles, uterine dis-
placements, prolapsus ani, constipation from debility, chronic  enlarge-
ment of  the prostate gland, impotency, etc.  The stream may be half
an inch to an inch, and should not be forcible enough to cause  absolute
pain nor serious inconvenience.  Warm water douches are  for the pur-
pose of producing  relaxation  of the muscles of  the part acted upon, and
are hence useful in rigidity of the muscles, painful swellings, chronic
inflammation  of the  joints, neuralgia, spasmodic and bilious colic, reten-
tion of urine, amenorrhea, uterine  rigidity, etc.   In some cases it should
be followed by a momentary cold dash.
   The Rubbing Wet Sheet is a large sheet dipped in water, and wrung
out so as not  to drip.   It is then suddenly thrown around the patient's
body, enveloping him closely from the neck to the feet, and the body is
then rubbed for about five minutes by the hands of the attendant on the
outside of the sheet.  It is to be  followed by rubbing with  dry towels.
This produces a strong and general determination  to the whole  surface, 
Aqua.
235
and is applicable in all cases where  a strong determination  is desired
from internal organs or surfaces to the skin.  It will be  found valuable
in the early stages of bowel complaints, diarrhea, dysentery, colic, fevers,
etc.; it is likewise useful for exhaustion following mental exertion, many
forms of insanity, delirium  tremens,  nightsweats, wakefulness, night-
mare, etc.  When the sheet  is employed drippingly wet, (the dripping
sheet) a large tub or  pan is necessary for the patient to stand in, to avoid
wetting the floor.
  The Hip or Sitz Bath is a common tub, in which the patient sits  so
as to have the water cover the hips and lower part of the abdomen.   A
vessel made for the purpose,  with a back to rest against is more conve-
nient.  The water may be of any temperature, and the time of applica-
tion varies from  five to thirty minutes.   According to its  application it is
tonic, derivative, or  sedative.   Tonic  when applied from  five  to fifteen
minutes ;  derivative when extended from fifteen to  thirty minutes ; and
sedative  according to its  effects.   Derivative hip baths should not  be
earned to the point of producing paleness or lividity of the  lips, shiver-
ings, nausea, faintness, or headache, and according to the effect desired,
and  the  coldness, torpor,  and debility of the patient,  indicate that the
quantity of water should be lessened, or its temperature  elevated.  It is
useful  in debility, irregularity, obstruction, and torpor of the organs  of
the pelvis and lower part of the abdomen.  A blanket is generally thrown
around the patient during this bath.
  The Shallow Bath  is a  circular, or oval tub,  raised about  twelve
inches from the floor, and with water in it from four to six  inches deep.
The patient sits in this, while the attendant sprinkles his head, and rubs
his chest, abdomen,  and back.  It may be employed from one to thirty
minutes,  and should be followed by a good  dry rubbing.   It is used at a
temperature from 60° to 75°, and is  excellent in cutaneous  affections,
and other cases where a mild derivative, or  moderately-sedative  influ-
ence is desired.
  The Plunge Bath may be any vessel or place, the water being from
55° to 65°, which will allow the patient  to plunge into it, head, or feet
foremost as he fancies, or to  quickly immerse the whole  body up to the
neck.  The time for remaining in it, varies from a few seconds to two  or
three minutes, or in high fever, to ten or fifteen minutes.  It is generally
taken  after the  sweating process,  and after the wet  sheet, when the
patient can bear  the exertion; in these cases the sheet  is  not  to  be
removed  until at the plunge.   It is very useful in all febrile  and chronic
affections, but should be employed with care, or avoided altogether  in
consumptive, and dropsical patients, and those  laboring under organic
diseases of the heart.
  These are the principal  applications of water in Hydropathic practice ;
yet  there  are several others of a  useful character, as the Foot Bath, 
236
Materia  Medica.
 the  Head  Bath, the  Shower Bath, the Vapor  Bath, etc., the mode  of
 application  of which are generally well understood, as well  as their
 effects.  Cold water may likewise be used in form of a bandage or girdle,
 by applying one or more  folds of linen wet in cold water, to the  part
 affected, or around the abdomen,  and covering it with  a  dry cloth  or
 other material to retain the heat.   The wet girdle or abdominal wrapper
 or compress, is applied around the abdomen in all acute  diseases  of the
 abdominal viscera.  The bandages are  applied warm or cold, according
 to the indications they are  intended to fulfill.
   Mineral waters  vary in  their effects upon the system, according  to
 their constituent combination.   The acidulous waters are powerful and
 diffusive stimulants of the nervous  and circulatory systems, likewise
 diuretic.  Generally useful in dyspepsia, passive  dropsy, chronic diseases,
 chlorosis, and phosphatic gravel ;  contra-indicated in recent palsy, apo-
 plexy and active hemorrhages and  inflammations.
   Alkaline waters are  antacid, antilithic, and diuretic.  Useful in gout,
 gravel and stone.   Purgative waters also possess diuretic  properties, and
 are useful in all cases where laxatives are required.   Chalybeate waters
 are tonic, and used in dyspepsia, all  kinds of chronic cachexies, gout,
 and  chronic diseases generally.   Sulphurous waters are  stimulant, dia-
 phoretic,  diuretic   and  emmenagogue, and  are found beneficial in
 chlorosis, rheumatism, dysmenorrhea, secondary syphilis, chronic cuta-
 neous diseases, and deranged conditions of the stomach and liver.  They
 are contra-indicated in plethora, determination to the head, and  active
 hemorrhages  and  inflammations.   Waters which contain iodine or bro-
 mine, have been found of some  use in goitre and scrofula.  Sea-water
 internally is an emetic  and purgative;  as a bath it has all the effects of
 an ordinary  cold bath, with the addition of  exerting a more  stimulant
 action on the skin  than fresh water, owing to its saline contents.  It has
been found serviceable in rickets, enlargement of glands, or joints, some
chronic cutaneous eruptions, scrofula, and many chronic diseases.
                        ARALIA HISPIDA.

                            Dwarf Elder.

        Nat. Ord.—Araliaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Pentagynia.

                        bark of  the root.
  Description.—Aralia  Hispid a is  a perennial  plant, with a low  stem,
from  one to two feet high,  the  lower part woody and shrubby,  and
thickly beset with sharp, stiff bristles, the  upper part herbaceous  and
branching.  The leaves  are bipinnate ; the leaflets  oblong-ovate, acute,
cut-serrate; umbels many, simple, globose, axillary and terminal, on long 
Aralia Nudicaulis.
237
peduncles, followed by bunches of dark-colored, nauseous  berries.   It
flowers from June to September.   The whole plant exhales  an unpleas-
ant odor.
  History.—This is  a low undershrub, growing  from New England  to
Virginia, in fields, hedges, rocky places, and along the roadsides.   The
fruit is  round, black, and  one-celled, containing three irregular-shaped
seeds.   The bark of the plant is employed in medicine, but that of the
root is the most active.   It yields its virtues to water.  It is known  in
various sections of the country by the names of Wild Elder, Bristlestem-
Sarsaparilla, etc.
  Properties and Uses.—The  leaves in warm infusion are sudorific.  The
bark is diuretic and alterative.  Very valuable in dropsy,  gravel, sup-
pression of urine, and other urinary disorders.   The juice and decoction
of the fresh roots are said to be emetic and hydragogue, and have been
found efficacious in  dropsy.   Dose  of  decoction, two  to four  ounces,
three times a day.
    Off.  Prep.—Decoctum Araliae.
                     ARALIA NUDICAULIS.

                          Small Spikenard.

        Nat.  Ord.—Araliaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Pentagynia.

                             THE  ROOT.
   Description. — Aralia Nudicaulis is an  indigenous  perennial plant,
with one  leaf and  one flower-stem, springing together from the root,
or from a very short stalk, and seldom rising  two feet in hight.   The
root is  large  and fleshy.   The leaf,  which stands upon a long foot-
stalk, is  either tri-ternate, or tri-quinate, with  oblong-oval, acuminate
leaflets, rounded at the base, serrate on the margin, and smooth on both
surfaces.   The flower-stem or scape is naked, shorter  than the leaf, and
terminating by three small umbels, each  consisting of from  twelve  to
thirty yellowish  or greenish flowers.  The fruit consists of small round
berries, about the size of  the common elder.   The  root is horizontal,
creeping, several feet in length, more or less twisted, as thick as the little
finger, and of a yellowish-brown color externally.
  History.—This plant, sometimes known as American, Wild, or False
Sarsaparilla,  is indigenous, growing in rocky woods and rich soils in the
northern and middle States.   The root, which is the officinal  part, pos-
sesses a fragrant balsamic  odor, and  a warm, aromatic, sweetish taste.
It yields  its virtues to water or alcohol.
  Properties  and Uses. — Alterative,  and  gently  stimulant.   Used  in
decoction or syrup as a substitute for Smilax Sarsaparilla, in cutaneous, 
238                      Materia Medica.
rheumatic and syphilitic affections ;  also in pulmonary diseases.   Exter-
nally, a  strong  decoction  of it  is  useful  as an  application  to zona
(shingles) and as a stimulant wash to old ulcers.
  The Aralia Racemosa, Pettymorrel, or Spikenard, has  a herbaceous,
widely-branched, smooth stem, three or four feet in hight, dark-green,
or reddish, and arising from a thick aromatic root; the leaves are decom-
pound ;  the leaf-stalks divide into three partitions, each of which bears
three or  five large, ovate,  pointed,  serrate,  slightly downy leaflets.
Umbels numerous, small, arranged  in branching racemes from the axils
of the leaves or  branches.   It flowers in July, and grows in rich  wood-
lands.  The root is  large,  spicy, and aromatic, and possesses properties
similar to that of the A.  Nudicaulis;  it is much  used in pulmonary
affections, and enters into the compound syrup of spikenard.
   Off. Prep.—Syrupus Araliae Compositus.


                        ARALIA  SPINOSA.

                           Prickly Elder.

        Nat. Ord.—Araliaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Pentandria Pentagynia.

                               BARK.
  Description.—The  Aralia  Spinosa, sometimes called Toothache Tree,
Southern Prickly Ash, and Angelica  Tree, is  an indigenous arborescent
shrub, with a  crooked, shrubby, unbranched  stem,  which is naked and
prickly below, with  the  leaves crowded  at the  summit of the  stems,
somewhat like the palms ; it is generally not more than ten to  twenty
feet high, but in the south  it sometimes attains to even sixty feet.  The
petioles are very long and  prickly;  the leaves are bipinnately compound,
composed  of  ovate-acuminate, serrate,  mostly glabrous leaflets, which
are  somewhat  glaucous  beneath.    The  umbels  are in  large, much
branched panicles, with  small, few-leaved involucres.  The flowers are
small, white, with connivent styles, and appear in August and Septem-
ber ; sometimes they are polygamous, as the number of berries bears no
proportion to the flowers.   The fruit is a blackish, juicy berry.
   History. — The Prickly Elder is found  chiefly in the southern  and
western  States,  and is  much cultivated  in  gardens  as an ornamental
plant:  It  grows in  low,  damp,  fertile woods.   The  bark, root,  and
berries are medicinal, but  the first is principally employed; it  yields its
properties to alcohol or water.  It is thin, of a grayish color  externally,
and a yellowish white within, with a peculiar but aromatic odor, and a
bitterish, pungent, acrid taste.
   Properties and Uses.—Aromatic, stimulant, diaphoretic and alterative;
the fresh bark  is emetic and cathartic.  The tincture has been  used in 
Arctium  Lappa.                      239
chronic  rheumatism, syphilis,  and in some  cutaneous diseases.   The
warm infusion will vomit, unless made very weak.   The tincture of the
berries has been found advantageous  in violent colic, and rheumatism,
and from their  pungency, have been found beneficial in relieving tooth-
ache.   Much use was made of this  bark by the Eclectics in Cincinnati,
during the cholera of  1849-50, in cases where cathartics were required,
but where the action  of every purgative was  very difficult  to  control;
the preparation was  composed  of  one drachm compound  powder  of
Jalap, one  drachm Aralia Spinosa,  and two drachms compound powder
of Rhubarb.   Given in powder, in half  teaspoonful doses ;  or the pow-
der was infused in half a pint of boiling water, of  which infusion, when
cold, a tablespoonful was given every half hour.   In no case in which
it was given, did it  produce  a tendency to looseness or choleraic dis-
charges.
   It is a  powerful sialagogue,  and is valuable in diseases where the
mouth and throat are dry and parched, as  a very small portion of the
powder will  produce a moisture and relieve difficult breathing; also
useful in sore-throat.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Araliae Spinosa ; Tinctura Araliae Spinosa.
                       ARCTIUM LAPPA.

                             Burdock.

  Nat Ord.—Asteraceas; Cynaraceas, (Lindley).   Sex. Syst.— Syngenesia
.(Equalis.
                           ROOT AND  SEEDS.

  Description.—By De Candolle this plant is named Lappa Minor, and
by Gaertner, Lappa Major.   It is a biennial plant, with a fleshy, tapering
root, a foot or more in length, of a brown color externally, white inter-
nally, furnished with thread-like fibers, and having withered scales near
the summit.  The stem is erect, three or four feet high, succulent, pubes-
cent,  branching, bearing very large, cordate,  denticulate leaves,  of a
dark-green color above,  whitish and tomentose beneath, and standing on
long footstalks.   The flowers  are  purple,  globose, in panicled heads.
The  involucre consists of imbricated scales, with a horny, hooked ex-
tremity, by which they can attach themselves to clothes, and the hair or
wool of animals.   The florets are all perfect, five-cleft, with a ten-nerved
tube.   The stamens have papillose filaments,  and  their anthers are ter-
minated by filiform  appendages, and have subulate tails  at the base.
The stigmas are free at the apex, diverging and curved  outward.  The
receptacle is  somewhat fleshy, flat, and  furnished  with  stiff subulate
fringes.  The achenia are oblong, smooth, with  a rough, prickly pappus.
The seeds are quadrangular. 
240
Materia Medica.
  History.—Burdock is a  native of Europe, and grows  abundantly in
this  country,  among rubbish, on road-sides,  and  cultivated grounds.
The root and  seeds  are  the officinal parts ; the  first loses about four-
fifths of its weight by desiccation ; it should be collected in the spring.
The odor of the root  is weak and unpleasant, the taste sweetish, mucila-
ginous,  slightly  bitter and  astringent.  It contains sugar,  gummy  ex-
tractive, a large quantity of inulin, some salts, etc.  Water  or  diluted
alcohol  extracts its properties.  The  seeds  are aromatic, bitterish, and
somewhat acrid.
  Properties and  Uses.—Alterative, diaphoretic, diuretic, and aperient.
Useful in  scorbutic, syphilitic, scrofulous, gouty,  leprous, and nephritic
diseases.  To  prove effectual its use must be persevered in for a long
time.  The  seeds  are more diuretic  than the root, and  are said to be
likewise a more useful alterative; they  are principally used in nephritic
complaints.  Externally the leaves or their juice in the form of an oint-
ment, have been employed with advantage in cutaneous diseases, and
obstinate ulcers.  Dose, of a decoction or syrup, half a pint three times
a day.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum  Arctii; Extractum Arctii; Syrupus  Sarsaparillae
Compositus.
                ARCTOSTAPHYLOS UVA  URSI.

                             Uva Ursi.

         Nat. Ord.—Ericaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.

                               LEAVES.

  Description.—This plant, known also  as Bearberry,  Upland Cranberry,
etc., is a low, evergreen shrub, with a perennial, long, fibrous root; the
stems are procumbent,  round, wood)',  and  branched, covered  with a
smooth, deciduous bark. The leaves are numerous, alternate, evergreen,
obtuse,  obovate,  entire, coriaceous, smooth,  dark-green and wrinkled
above, reticulated and  paler  beneath, acute at  base, and  supported on
short petioles.  The flowers grow in small clusters at the extremities of
the branches, each on a short, red, reflexed peduncle, furnished with
several  minute bracts;  they are usually six to twelve on each  branch,
drooping, and of a pale rose color.   The calyx is small, obtusely five-
toothed,  persistent, and of  a reddish color.  The corolla  is ovate or
urceolate, smooth, white with a reddish tinge, transparent  at the base,
contracted at the  mouth, hairy inside, with five short, reflexed segments.
The stamens are ten, with subulate downy filaments inserted at the base
of the corolla, and reddish incumbent anthers, of two oval cells, opening
by two terminal pores, and furnished with a pair of short horns or spurs. 
Arctostaphtlos  Uva Ursi.
241
The ovary is roundish, bearing a cylindrical erect style, with a simple
stigma.  Disk  a black indented ring.   Fruit small,  globose,  smooth,
depressed, scarlet, containing a mealy pulp of an  austere  or insipid
taste, and five almost united angular seeds.  This plant is the  Arbutus
Uva Ursi of Linnaeus, and Willdenow,  from which it was separated by
Sprengel, principally  on account of the difference of its berry.

   History.—The Uva  Ursi is a perennial evergreen, common in the
northern  part  of Europe,  Asia,  and  America,  growing  on barren,
gravelly hills, and elevated sandy plains.  It flowers from June to Sep-
tember, and  ripens its berries during the winter.  The leaves are the
only part used in medicine, they should be collected in autumn, and the
green leaves only selected.   They are about an inch long,  and two to
three lines wide, often spatulate in  form.  They are  sometimes adul-
terated with the leaves  of  the whortleberry or cowberry,  Vaccinium
 Vitis Idcea, from which they  may be  detected, by the  rounder shape,
and the revolute edges of the  Vaccinium,  and by their being dotted
beneath instead of reticulated as in the genuine leaves.   Leaves of the
 Chimaphila Umbellata may be determined by their greater length, their
cuneiform  lanceolate  shape, and their serrate edges.
   The leaves of Uva Ursi when dried have a faint odor  like hay, and
a  bitterish, strongly  astringent taste,  which becomes  finally sweetish.
Their powder is of a yellowish-brown  color.   Analysis has  discovered
in them gallic and tannic acids, resin, gum, bitter extractive, some salts,
volatile  and  fixed oils, lignin,  and a  peculiar principle,  called ursin,
which contains  its diuretic power.  The leaves yield their properties to
water or alcohol.
   Ursin, is said by J. C. C. Hughes,  to be prepared as  follows  ; mace-
rate one pound of the leaves of Uva Ursi in water for twelve hours,  and
displace until two quarts  of liquor are obtained.  Then precipitate the
tannin with a solution of gelatin, and filter.  Evaporate the filtered liquor
to dryness, and dissolve the  remaining extract in  strong alcohol,  and
treat it with purified animal charcoal for twenty-four hours.  Again filter,
evaporate, and redissolve in absolute alcohol, and treat again  with puri-
fied animal charcoal  for  twenty-four  hours; filter  and crystallize by
spontaneous  evaporation.   Press the  crystals,  redissolve  in absolute
alcohol, treat with animal charcoal,  filter, and again crystallize by spon-
taneous evaporation.    The crystals are  colorless, transparent, needle-
shaped prisms, soluble  in alcohol, ether, and dilute acid, but insoluble
in fixed and essential  oils.  Subacetate  of lead and carbonate of potassa
precipitate its aqueous solution ; lime-water, and tincture of chloride of
iron do not affect it.   It is neutral to test-paper, and combustible.  One
grain acted as  a powerful  diuretic.    Arbutin and Arctuvin have also
been obtained from the leaves  by Kawalier, but their therapeutical influ-
ences are not positively known.
       16 
242
Materia  Medica.
  Properties and Uses.—Uva Ursi  is an astringent, tonic, and diuretic.
As an astringent it is applicable to all the purposes for which astringents
are used, as in chronic diarrhea and dysentery, diabetes, and menorrha-
gia.   Its principal  use however is in chronic affections of the kidneys
and urinary passages, in vesical catarrh, chronic gonorrhea, gleet, leucor-
rhea,  incontinence  of urine, strangury, and  in  excessive mucous  dis-
charges.   It changes the color  of the urine, and  its astringent principle
has been detected in  that secretion, also reputed  efficacious as an anti-
lithic in calculous affections.  In gonorrhea, with bloody and mucous dis-
charges,  and pain  in the  vesical  region,  it speedily allays  all these
unpleasant symptoms.   Dose  of the  powder ten to sixty grains ;  of the
decoction, one to three fluidounces, made  by boiling  one ounce of Uva
Ursi with a pint and a half of distilled water to a pint; of the extract
five to fifteen grains.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Uvae Ursi.
                       ARGENTI NITRAS.

                  Nitrate of Silver.  Lunar Caustic.
   Preparation.—Mix Nitric Acid, five fluidrachms with  distilled water
two fluidounces, and dissolve  silver, in  small pieces, one ounce, in the
mixture on a sand-bath;  then gradually increase the heat, so that the
resulting salt may be dried.    Melt this in a crucible over a gentle fire,
and continue the  heat until ebullition ceases ; then immediately pour it
into suitable molds.  It  should be kept in bottles with  glass stoppers,
as  corks quickly decompose it—especially its solution.   If the heat be
raised to too high a temperature, the salt decomposes aud turns  black.
   Chemical Properties. — If the solution  be allowed to  crystallize  by
evaporation  and  cooling, it assumes various forms,  as  hexangular or
rhombic tables, or right  rhombic  prisms, of a transparent or colorless
appearance, which turn black when exposed to the light,  or to the direct
rays of the sun.   The stick or rods of the salt, are  at  first white, but
from  the action of light, become grayish, and when broken they present
a  crystalline texture  with a  radiated surface.   They differ from the
crystallized nitrate only in form and color, and do not contain any water
of crystallization,  as has been supposed.
   Nitrate of silver is a very heavy salt, having an intense,  persistent,
and bitter metallic taste ; it fuses at 426°, and undergoes decomposition
at about 600°, parting with its oxygen  and nitrous acid, and leaving the
metal in a state of purity.   It is soluble in its own  weight of cold-water,
and in  four parts of alcohol.   It stains the skin, and almost  all  organic
substances of a dark or black color, and corrodes the soft  tissues.  These
spots may be removed by placing on  them a few drops  of  tincture of 
Argenti Nitras.
243
iodine, which converts  the  salt into  an iodide of silver ;  this is to be
dissolved by a solution of hyposulphite of soda, made of the strength of
half a drachm to  a  fluidounce of water, after which the  spots may be
washed out with warm water.
  Indelible ink for marking linen, etc., owes its character to this salt; the
common formula for this preparation is as follows: take of nitrate of silver
five scruples, gum arabic two  scruples, sap-green one scruple, distilled
water one fluidounce ; mix together ; with this the linen is to be marked,
having  had the following  preparation or mordant previously applied;
take of carbonate  of  soda  half an ounce, distilled water four ounces.
    An ink has, however,  been recently used, which does  not  require a
mordant, flows freely from  the  pen, does  not require a strong or long
continued heat to  develop the black mark, and which will not destroy
the texture of the finest cambric.   It is prepared  thus ; dissolve nitrate
of  silver one ounce,  in  a  sufficient  quantity of distilled water;  also
dissolve crystallized carbonate of soda one ounce and a half, in sufficient
distilled water.  Mix the  two solutions; a precipitate ensues which must
be collected  and washed on a filter.   Introduce the washed precipitate,
still moist, into a Wedgewood's-ware  mortar,  and add to it tartaric acid
eight scruples, rubbing them together until  effervescence has ceased;
add strong liquor  ammonia in sufficient quantity to dissolve the tartrate
of silver  (about two ounces) ;  then  mix in  archil, half  a fluidounce,
white sugar four drachms,  powdered gum arabic  twelve  drachms, and
add distilled water sufficient, if required, to make six fluidounces of the
whole mixture.
  Nitrate of  silver, especially  in  solution, should  always  be kept in
bottles with  glass  stoppers, as  cork  quickly decomposes it.  It is  an
anhydrous salt, and is composed of 116 parts or one equivalent of pro-
toxide of silver, and 54.15 parts, or one equivalent of nitric  acid, (AgO+
NOa),  and is incompatible with almost all spring and river-water,  on
account  of the common  salt usually  contained in  them, with soluble
chlorides, sulphuric, hydro-sulphuric, muriatic, and tartaric acids,  and
their salts, with the alkalies and their carbonates, lime-water, and astrin-
gent vegetable infusions.
  This  salt is liable  to adulterations, among the principal  of which are
the nitrates of lead, copper, zinc,  and potassa; or it  may contain free
silver, by having been  exposed to too high  a heat during fusion.  It
almost always contains a small proportion of  free silver when in  sticks,
which  may be known by the undissolved black powder  present  in  its
solution in distilled water.   Precipitate a solution of nitrate of  silver by
an excess of  chloride of sodium ; if this precipitate is entirely soluble in
ammonia the salt is pure ;  if not, lead is present.  Sulphureted hydrogen
passed through the liquid, after having removed the above precipitate,
gives a white  precipitate if  zinc be present, and black if  there be any
copper.   Nitrate of potassa  may be suspected when a colorless fracture 
244
Materia Medica.
is presented upon breaking the sticks, and when the salt is entirely soluble
without the black powder sediment.   It may be detected by precipitating
a solution of the suspected salt with an  excess  of muriatic  acid; pass
sulphureted hydrogen to  remove any metals present, filter the solution,
and evaporate,—if pure it will all evaporate—if nitre be present, it will
be left, and easily recognized by its properties.   Impurities,  without
regard to their character, may be ascertained by dissolving 29 grains of
the salt in a fluidounce of distilled water, to which 9.12 grains of muriate
of ammonia are  to be added; briskly agitate the mixture for a few
seconds, and then allow it  to rest, until precipitation has ceased; then
if, on the addition of  more  muriate of ammonia, no farther precipitation
ensues, the salt is impure.
  Properties and Uses.—A  certain class  of practitioners, consider this
salt as a tonic and  antispasmodic, and employ it to fulfill these indica-
tions, in epilepsy, chorea, angina pectoris, etc., as  well as administering
it in intestinal ulceration during typhoid fever,  diarrhea, etc.   However,
it is never used as an  internal agent  by Eclectics,  but as an escharotic,
either dissolved in distilled  water, or in the solid form.   When employed
in solution, its strength is varied, according  to the  condition of the parts
to be acted upon, and the character of the affection—from five grains to
eighty to  the fluidounce  of water.   It  has been beneficially applied to
ulcers, warts  and other excrescences,  fungous flesh, chancres, and in
ulcers of the cornea, some forms of ophthalmia, fetid discharges from the
ear,  aphthous affections of  the mouth, and  spongy gums.   It has like-
wise been  recommended as a topical remedy in erysipelas  and various
other external inflammations, leucorrhea, gonorrhea, uterine ulcerations,
granulations, and excoriations, and stricture  of the  urethra;  also in ring-
worm, and some other forms of chronic cutaneous  diseases.   A  solution
of it is highly recommended in chronic laryngitis, pharyngitis, pertussis,
asthma, and venereal ulceration of the throat,  applied by means of a
sponge fastened to one end of a piece of whalebone.  The solid stick is
sometimes used in ulcerations of the  throat, and chilblains.   If the pain
be  excessive from the  application of the  nitrate, it  may  be at once
relieved by washing  the parts with  a solution  of common  salt, which
decomposes it, and converts it into the insoluble chloride of silver.  The
same article is an antidote  to its poisonous effects when taken internally
in too large doses.
                ARISTOLOCHIA  SERPENT ARIA.
                        Virginia Snakeroot.
      Nat.  Ord.—Aristolochiaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Gynandria Hexandria.
                               ROOT.
  Description. — Aristolochia Serpentaria, also  called  Snakeroot,  and
Snakeweed, is a perennial  herbaceous plant,  with a short, horizontal, 
Aristolochia  Serpentaria.
245
knotty, brown caudex, which sends out numerous, slender  fibers.   The
stems are erect, flexuous, round,  jointed, slender, about  eight or  ten
inches in hight, of a reddish or purple color near the  base,  and rise
singly or severally from the  same root.   The leaves are alternate, petio-
late,  oblong, entire, acuminate  at  apex,  cordate, and three-nerved at
base, surface  more  or less  pubescent, and of a pale yellowish-green
color.  The flowers proceed from  the joints near the root, and stand
singly on long, slender, round, jointed peduncles, which are somewhat
scaly, and curve downward so as nearly to bury the flower in the earth,
or among the  decayed leaves ; they have a stiff, leathery texture, and a
dull brownish-purple color.   The peduncle which supports them has one
or more  bracts, and gradually enlarges into a furrowed  obovate ovary.
The calyx is of a dull-purplish, or reddish color, with a long, contorted
tube, bent in  the  form of the letter  S, swelling at its two extremities,
having its throat surrounded by an elevated edge or brim, and its border
expanded into a broad, irregular margin, forming an under and Upper
lip, which are closed in a triangular manner  in the bud.   Corolla none.
Anthers  six or twelve in number and sessile, oblong, obtuse, and attached
to  the sides  or under part of a large, round, sessile stigma, which  is
divided  into six  parts, and supported by a short fleshy style upon an
oblong,  angular, hairy, inferior germ.   The  fruit is an obovate, hexan-
gular, six-celled capsule, with numerous small, flat seeds.

   History.—Several species of Aristolochia are confounded in  the  drug
market with the above, but  as  they are  all nearly identical in medical
properties, it is of but little importance; still a brief notice of them may
be proper:

   A. Hirsuta.—Stem flexuous, jointed, erect, pubescent;  leaves alternate,
 large, cordate,  rounded, obtuse,  upper ones abruptly acuminate,  very
 pubescent, with  prominent veins; peduncles  sub-radical,  scaly,  one-
 flowered, hirsute.  Calyx  also pubescent.   This  species  grows in the
 Southern States, to which  market it is more common,  being seldom
 brought to the  north;  the roots  resemble in taste  and  color, the A.
 Serpentaria.

    A. Hastala, of Nuttall, or A. Sagittata, of Muhlenberg.—Stem flexu-
 ous, simple, erect; leaves mostly subcordate, hastate, acute, or attenu-
 ated, sublanceolate, auriculate ; peduncles  nearly all  radical;  lip of the
 corolla ovate.  Some doubt has been expressed about viewing this as a
 distinct  species ;  it grows in the Southern States, and is frequently found
 mixed with the officinal plant.
   A. Reticulata. — Stems numerous,  short, slender, round,  flexuous,
 jointed,  simple, but sometimes branched near the root; when young very
 pubescent, but slightly villous when  old.  Leaves on short, villous peti-
 oles, oblong, cordate, large,  obtuse, reticulated with  very prominent 
246
Materia  Medica.
veins, and villous on  both sides, especially upon the veins.   Peduncles
subradical, hairy, scaly, several-flowered.  Flowers on short pedicels,
small, purplish, very pubescent.    Capsule hexagonal,  deeply sulcate,
somewhat hirsute.  This species is one  of recent introduction, and is
much in use;  it is derived from Louisiana,  Arkansas, and other south-
western locations; it  differs  from the  officinal root,  in having larger
fibers and which  are  less  interlaced,  but is fully  equal to it  as  a
medicine.
  A. Tomentosa.—Stem twining, ascending to the tops of the tallest
trees; leaves roundish, cordate, villous beneath; peduncles solitary,  axil-
lary,  ebracteate;  calyx densely villous;   limb trifid,  greenish-yellow,
orifice oblique and gaping;  margin elevated, dark-purple, rugose; inner
part of tube  white, with  purple spots ;  stigmas three.  This species is
found in  Carolina and the south-western States ; its root is thick, creep-
ing,  and coarser than  the officinal, and is less aromatic than that of the
other species just named.
  The Aristolochia Serpentaria is  found in the middle, southern, and
western States, growing on hill sides, and  in  rich, shady woods; it
flowers in May and June.  As found in the shops,  the root is in tufts of
slender, long, matty brittle fibers, attached to  a short, knotted, rugged
head.  The color of the recent root  is yellowish, but becomes brown by
age ; its powder is grayish.   The odor is pungent,  camphoraceous,  and
agreeable, and the taste warm, bitter, and also camphoraceous.  Water,
alcohol, or  proof  spirit,  extracts  the medical principles ;  its alcoholic
tincture being greenish, its aqueous infusion yellowish-brown.  Analysis
has found in it, a green, fragrant oil, a yellowish-green resin, extractive,
gum, albumen, lignin and some salts.  The  oil exists more largely in
the A. Reticulata, which is the most powerful of this family  of plants.
  Virginia Snakeroot is sometimes adulterated with the roots of Spigelia
Marilandica, and the  young roots of Polygala Senega ; the first may be
known by their want of the bitter taste, as well as by the difference in
the stem and leaves, when present; the latter, by their difference in odor
and  taste, by  being single, and by the projecting line running from one
end  of the root to the other.

  Properties and Uses.—Stimulant tonic, diaphoretic, or  diuretic, accord-
ing to the manner of its  administration.   In warm infusion it produces
diaphoresis,  and is beneficial  in adynamic eruptive fevers,  where the
eruption is tardy, or has receded.   In typhoid  febrile conditions, in cases
where active stimulation cannot be borne, it will be found very available.
It has been employed successfully in periodic fevers in conjunction  with
sulphate of quinia.   As a gargle the  infusion  is sometimes valuable in
malignant sore-throat.   In dyspepsia it has been  employed as a tonic,
and  has  proved useful  in amenorrhea.   If taken  too long  it occasions
gripings,  nausea,  vomiting, and  dysenteric tenesmus.   Long boiling 
Arnica Montana.
247
impairs its virtues.  A cold infusion is useful in convalescence from fevers.
Dose of the powder, ten to thirty grains; of the  decoction,  one to two
fluidounces ;  tincture, one to two fluidrachms.

   Off. Prep.—Infusum Serpentariae ;  Extractum  Serpentariae Fluidum;
Tinctura Serpentariae Composita.
                      ARNICA MONTANA.

                            Leopardsbane.

         Nat.  Ord.—Asteraceae.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Superflua.

                        THE ROOT AND HERB.

   Description.—Arnica Montana, is a perennial, herbaceous plant, with
a  horizontal,  woody, blackish  or  brownish root,  which  terminates
abruptly at the lower end,  and  which is furnished with many long,
slender, dark-colored fibers.  The stem rises about  a foot in hight, is
simple, obscurely-angled, striated, rough, hairy,  and terminates  in one,
two, or three upright peduncles, each bearing one very large flower of a
deep yellow color, somewhat tinged with brown.   The radical  leaves are
ovate, entire, ciliated, and obtuse ; the cauline ones are lanceolate, and
in  opposite pairs ; both are bright-green, and slightly pubescent on their
upper surface.   The involucre is cylindrical, and  composed of  fifteen  or
sixteen rough, hairy, lanceolate scales, of a dingy-green color, but purple
at  the points.   The disk florets are very numerous, tubular, with a five-
lobed limb ; those of the  radius, about fourteen, ligulate, striated, three-
toothed, and hairy at the base. The achenia are oblong, blackish, hairy,
and crowned with a straw-colored capillary pappus.

   History. — This plant  is  a native of  the  mountainous districts  of
Europe  and Siberia, in moist,  shady situations, flowering in June  and
July; it is likewise found in the northern regions of this continent, west
of the  Mississippi.   The flowers,  leaves,  and root, have  been used  in
medicine, but the flowers are generally  preferred.   When fresh, the
whole plant has a disagreeable odor, very strong when fresh, and excit-
ing sneezing; the taste is acrid,  bitterish, and permanent.  Its  virtues
are extracted  by water.   Analysis has detected  in  the flowers, gallic
acid, gum,  albumen, yellow coloring matter,  an  odorous  resin, a blue
volatile oil, some salts, and a bitter, acrid  matter, supposed to be iden-
tical with cytisin, the bitter principle of  Cytisus Laburnum.   Cytisin is a
yellow substance, of a bitter, nauseous taste, deliquescent, readily soluble
in  water and dilute alcohol, less soluble in  strong alcohol, and  insoluble
in  ether.   Five grains of it are powerfully emetic and cathartic. 
248
Materia  Medica.
   Arnicina is obtained from the flowers, by subjecting them to a process
similar to that by which  lobelina is extracted from lobelia inflata.  It has
a decided alkaline reaction, and combines with acids, forming a series of
salts.  It has a slightly bitter, but not acrid taste, with an odor of castor,
and  from the aqueous solutions of its salts, it  is precipitated by tincture
of galls in somewhat dense flocks ; it is more readily soluble in alcohol
and  ether, than in  water.   A high temperature decomposes  it,  which
also  obtains when subjected to the action of caustic alkalies.   It has not
yet been employed  in medicine, though it probably possesses  the  active
principles of  the Arnica  in a concentrated form.

   Properties  and Uses.—In large doses,  it causes  heat in  the throat,
nausea, vomiting, spasmodic contractions of the limbs, difficulty of res-
piration, and sometimes inflammation of the alimentary canal, and coma.
Its poisonous effects are best counteracted  by the free use of vinegar, or
other dilute vegetable acid.
   In small doses,  it accelerates  the pulse, increases  the perspiration,
excites a flow of urine, and is said occasionally to cause headache and
giddiness.  In Germany, it is  esteemed as a stimulant in typhoid fever
and  other adynamic febrile diseases, in chronic palsy, and amenorrhea;
also, as a tonic in chronic rheumatism, and as a tonic and diuretic  in the
asthenic forms of dropsy.  In intermittent fever it has proved very suc-
cessful, also, in nyctalopia and amaurosis; and is reputed to be highly
serviceable in that  disordered condition of the system which succeeds
concussion of the brain, from falls, blows, etc.  It has also been recom-
mended  in diarrhea, dysentery, nephritis,  gout, chlorosis, and almost
every disease where there is  debility,  torpor,  or  inactivity of function.
Externally, it is used in the form of a fomentation, or diluted tincture of
the  flowers,  both  to prevent and discuss  local inflammations, and to
remove ecchymosis.
   Dose of the powder,  five to  ten grains, two to four times a day;  of
the infusion,  made  by adding  half an ounce of the flowers to a pint of
water,  from  half an ounce to an ounce ;  of the extract, which  is  an
excellent  form of administration, from  five to ten grains, four or five
times a day.   In preparing an  infusion of the flowers, they should  be
loosely tied in a bag, in  order to prevent  the down  or fine fibers  from
getting into the infusion,  or else they will cause troublesome irritation of
the throat, nausea,  and vomiting.

   Off. Prep.—Infusum Arnicas ;  Tinctura Arnicse. 
Artemisia Absinthium.
249
                   ARTEMISIA ABSINTHIUM.

                            Wormwood.

         Nat. Ord-—Asteracea?.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Superflua.

                         tops and  leaves.
  Description.—Artemisia Absinthium is a perennial suffruticose  plant,
with a woody root branched at the crown, and having numerous  fibers
below.  The whole herb is covered with close, silky hoariness ;  the stems
are numerous, bushy, growing from  one to two feet in hight, round  fur-
rowed, and panicled at  their summit.   The  lower portion  of  the stem
lives  several years, and annually sends up herbaceous  shoots,  which
perish in the winter.  The radical leaves are  doubly or triply pinnatifid,
with  lanceolate,  obtuse, dentate  divisions; the cauline  ones, doubly or
simply pinnatifid, with lanceolate, somewhat acute divisions ; floral leaves
lanceolate;  all are canescent.   The flowers are of  a brownish-yellow
color, hemispherical, pedicelled, nodding, and in erect racemes ; florets
of the disk numerous ; those of the ray few.   External scales of  involucre,
linear or lanceolate, silky;  the inner broad,  rounded  and  scarious.
Styles very deeply cloven.    Receptacle convex, clothed with  fine  up-
right hairs.
  History.—A  native  of Europe, but cultivated  in this country.   It
flowers  in July and August.  The  whole plant has a strong, fragrant
odor, and an intensely bitter, aromatic taste.  Alcohol, or water, takes
up its active principles.   It contains  a  volatile, bitter, acrid oil, absinthic
acid, several salts, etc.
  Absinthine, the bitter principle  of A. Absinthium, may  be obtained as
follows :  Exhaust the  dry herb, with  alcohol of 0.863, and  distil  the
clear liquid to  the  consistence of a syrup, transfer  the  residue  into a
glass-stoppered bottle, and shake it well with ether.   After some time
this separates with  a yellowish-brown color ;  and this  treatment with
ether is to be repeated until it no  longer has a very bitter taste.   The
ethereal liquid  is  to be distilled in a water bath ; the residue will consist
of a viscid  mixture of a blackish-brown acid resin, and absinthine.
Treat it with water to which a few drops of ammonia have been added,
and the black smeary resin will be principally taken up, and the greater
portion of the absinthine be left behind.  In proportion  as  it  becomes
purer it acquires  a pulverulent form.   On adding a further quantity of
ammonia, the absinthine is also dissolved ;  but on triturating with con-
centrated  ammonia, far less passes into solution, because the compound
of ammonia with  absinthine is very sparingly soluble in  ammonia.  To
remove the ammonia, digest it with dilute hydrochloric acid, then wash
it with water, dissolve it in alcohol, and add solution of acetate of lead
to it as long  as any turbidity results, then filter, and pass sulphureted 
250
Materia Medica.
hydrogen into the liquid to decompose the excess of the lead salt.  The
alcoholic solution is to be filtered from the sulphide of lead, mixed with
a small quantity of water, and allowed to  evaporate slowly in a warm
place when  the  absinthine separates in yellow resinous drops.   These
are soft, and when mixed with water,  become  coated with  an  opake
membrane, and  in the course of some weeks all the drops  become con-
verted into hard masses, which are jagged  and rough externally, and
internally are radiate and indistinctly crystalline.
  Absinthine thus obtained is yellow, or brownish -yellow;  its powder is
yellowish, of a faint, disagreeable, bitter odor of wormwood, an intensely
bitter taste, and dissolves  readily in alcohol, concentrated acetic acid,
solutions  of ammonia, and caustic  potassa, sulphuric  and hydrochloric
acids.   It is less soluble in ether,  hardly at all in water, but melts  in
boiling water.   It has not been much used in medicine,  but probably
possesses the medicinal principles of the plant, and may be found tonic,
hepatic and anthelmintic.
  Properties and  Uses. — Anthelmintic, tonic, and narcotic.  Used  in
intermittent fever, jaundice, and worms.  It is also used to promote the
appetite in atonic dyspepsia, amenorrhea, chronic leucorrhea, obstinate
diarrhea, etc.  Combined with  a fixed alkaline salt, it proves powerfully
diuretic.  Externally it is very useful in fomentations  for  bruises and
local inflammations, and has also been advised as an external application
in chronic affections of the abdominal viscera, either in  the form of
tincture, infusion, or poultice.   In large doses, wormwood produces gas-
tric irritation, and excitement of the circulation.   Dose of the powder,
ten to twenty grains; infusion,  one  to two ounces.
  The Artemisia Abrotanum (southernwood) A. Santonica, and A. Vul-
garis, (mugwort) possess similar properties.   The A. Vulgaris, has been
reputed beneficial in epilepsy, hysteria, and  amenorrhea.   Santonin,  or
Santonicin, is a peculiar white crystallizable principle,  derived from the
A. Santonica, and some other species; it is soluble in ether and alcohol,
and is very efficacious as a vermifuge, given in doses  of three or four
grains, twice a day.   The high price  of  santonin, and  the  difficulty
experienced in obtaining it pure, has induced M. Gaffard to endeavor to
obtain from the  wormseed a product which may possess the advantages
of the former, and at the same time be free  from  the  objections to the
use of the latter.  This product he calls Brown or Impure Santonin; it
is obtained as follows :  Take  of Aleppo wormseed three  ounces ; car-
bonate of potassa one ounce;  slaked lime, sifted, half  an ounce; water
from  three to three and a  half pints.  Place  the mixture on the fire,
stirring occasionally with a wooden spatula; let it boil for half an hour; on
removing it from the fire, pass it with expression through a linen cloth;
let it settle, decant and  add hydrochloric or nitric acid until  it reddens
litmus without being sensibly acid to the tongue.  Allow it to rest, pass
it through  a  filter  previously moistened, or through  a piece of close 
Artemisia Absinthium.                  251
canvas, and allow the product which remains on the filter to  dry in the
open air, until it acquires the consistence of firm butter.   This product,
which  is a mixture of santonin, resin,  and essential oil,  will  answer for
the various  pharmaceutic forms  in which the practitioner  may wish to
exhibit it.  M.  G. gives it in the  form of  lozenges, composed as follows :
Place  in a  marble mortar,  brown  santonin  three  drachms; add  by
degrees, and with constant trituration,  powdered sugar thirteen ounces,
mixed  with  powdered gum  one ounce  and a half, and oil  of  lemon
twenty-five drops, so as to make a homogeneous powder.   Form  with a
sufficient quantity of water  a mass of the desired consistence,  and divide
into lozenges, each of which shall weigh, when dried, fifteen grains; each
lozenge will then contain somewhat more than one-third of a grain of
brown  santonin.   For infants under six  months, the dose is one lozenge
night and morning; from six months to a year, two lozenges; from one
to two years, three lozenges; from  two to four years, four, night and
morning ; for those older,  an extra lozenge for each year,  to be given
night and morning, and continued until the desired  effects are produced,
in every instance.
   M. Lecocq obtains  santonin by taking one part  of semen-contra of
Aleppo reduced to coarse powder, and  boiling it for  a quarter of an hour
with ten parts of  water, after which a  sufficient quantity  of slaked lime
is added to render the liquor slightly alkaline ; it is again boiled for ten
minutes, then strained through a cloth, and the residue  pressed.  If it
is not considered  sufficiently exhausted, which may be ascertained by its
leaving in the mouth  the hot and pungent taste of semen-contra, it is
boiled  again with five quarts  of water and a little slaked  lime; it  is then
strained, and the  residue submitted to pressure.  The united liquors are
evaporated until they  do not weigh more  than the semen-contra employ-
ed ; they are then placed into a stone-ware pot, allowed to cool, and then
treated with an excess of hydrochloric acid.  A fatty and resinous mat-
ter instantly separates, in thick  flakes, which float,  and santonin  is pre-
cipitated as an impalpable powder ; it is  strained through a fine  cloth  ;
the santonin passes with the liquor, and  the  resinous matters remain on
the cloth.   Th's substance, which  contains only very little santonin is
rejected.  After a day's repose,  the impure santonin is deposited  at the
bottom of the vessel.   It is washed with distilled water, and purified by
combining it anew with lime.   For that purpose, it is put  into a porcelain
capsule, with about two quarts of distilled water, and boiled.   A certain
quantity (50 to 60 grammes) of pulverized quicklime is  then  added to
it, and  the combination is effected in a  short time.  The liquor is filtered
and decolorized with  animal charcoal, and then treated with  hydro-
chloric  acid, which immediately precipitates  the santonin; collect  this
on a paper filter, and wash it with distilled water until the washing water
does not redden  litmus  paper,  and dry in a stove secured  from the
light.   Thus obtained, santonin occurs in pearly-white bracteae, of great 
252
Materia Medica.
brilliancy, and promptly becomes colored by light; it is therefore essen-
tial to keep it in a black glass flask and well corked.
  It  is important for the success  of the above operation not to add an
excess of lime in combining the impure  santonin with  this base, for the
bibasic salt of santonin is very sparingly soluble  in water; it is better
to leave a slight excess of santonin;  which will remain on the filter and
which may be treated anew with lime.
   Off. Prep.—Absinthine ; Infusum Absynthii.
                      ARUM  TRIPHYLLUM.

                            Dragonroot.

          Nat. Ord.—Araceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Polyandria.

                          CORMUS OR  ROOT.
  Description. — Arum Triphyllum  (Ariscema Triphylla) is  variously
called  Wake Robin, Indian  Turnip, Jack-in-the-pulpit,  etc.  It has a
round, flattened, perennial  root or cormus, the upper part  of which is
tunicated like the onion, and the lower and larger portion tuberous and
fleshy, giving off numerous, long white  radicles  in a circle, from its
upper edge; the under side is covered with a dark, loose, wrinkled epi-
dermis.  Early in the spring a large  spathe grows up,  which is ovate,
acuminate, convoluted into  a tube at  the bottom, flattened and bent over
at the top like  a  hood, varying in color internally, being green,  dark-
purple, black, or variegated, with pale-greenish stripes on a dark ground,
and  supported  by an erect, round, green, purple, or variegated scape,
invested at the base by the petioles and their acute sheaths.  Within the
spathe is a club-shaped spadix,  shorter than the spathe, rounded at  the
end, green, purple,  black, or variegated, contracted into  a narrow neck
at the base, where it is surrounded by the stamens  or germs.  In  the
fertile plants, it is invested with roundish crowded ovaries  each tipped
with a stigma; in  the barren, its base  is covered with  conical, fleshy
filaments, each bearing from two to four circular anthers.   Plants which
are perfectly monoecious, and which are the least common, have stamens
below the ovaries.  The upper  portion of  the spadix gradually decays,
together with the spathe,  while the ovaries are converted into a large
compact bunch  of shining,  scarlet berries.   The leaves  are usually  one
or two in number,  standing  on long sheathing footstalks, ternate;  the
leaflets oval, mostly entire,  acuminate,  smooth, paler on the under-side,
becoming glaucous as the plant grows, and the two lateral  ones some-
what rhomboidal.
  History.—This  plant is  common to North and South America, grow-
ing in all moist and damp  situations, and  flowering from May  to July. 
Asarum  Europium.
253
The whole plant is acrid, but the root is the only part employed;  it is
about an inch  or two in diameter, turnip-shaped, dark  externally, and
white, fleshy, and solid internally.   When fresh, it is very acrid, causing
when chewed, an intense burning and biting sensation in the mouth and
fauces, which  is persistent, and leaves  a subsequent  soreness;  milk
relieves this sensation, considerably modifying its  intensity.  It exerts
no such influence upon the external skin except upon long and continued
application.  The acrid principle  is highly volatile, is not  taken up by
water, alcohol, the acids, or  oil, and  is wholly dissipated by heat.  It
becomes inert by age, and should always be used in the  recent state, or
when but partially dried; if buried in sand,  its activity may  be  pre-
served for twelve or fifteen months.   In addition to its acrid  principle, it
contains  albumen, gum, sugar, starch, extractive lignin,  and salts of
potassa and lime.  A very  white,  delicate and  nutritive  amylaceous
substance can  be prepared  from it, resembling  the finest arrowroot.  It
is too acrid for use when taken immediately from the ground.
  Properties and Uses.—Acrid, expectorant, and  diaphoretic.  Recom-
mended in flatulence, asthma, pertussis, chronic  catarrh, chronic rheu-
matism, bronchitis, pains in the  chest, aphthous sore-mouth, colic, low
stage of typhus, and various  affections connected with a cachectic  state
of the system.  Externally it has been used in scrofulous tumors, tinea
capitis, and other cutaneous diseases.   Dose, of the powder, ten grains
two or three times a day, gradually increased; it may be  taken in syrup,
honey, or gum arabic emulsion.
   Off. Prep.—Emplastrum Picis Compositum.
                     ASARUM EUROPIUM.

                             Asarabacca.

     Nat. Ord.—Aristolochiaceae.  Sex.  Syst.—Dodecandria Monogynia.

                         ROOT  AND LEAVES.
   Description.—This plant, sometimes called Hazelwort, or  Wild Nard,
has  a creeping' root  or rhizoma,  entangled, with  numerous,  stout,
branching fibers.   The stems are very short, simple, round, herbaceous,
pubescent,  each  bearing two  dark-green,  shining,  reniform, obtuse,
entire, somewhat downy leaves, which are opposite,  two inches  wide,
and  on long, downy footstalks; also one  drooping flower, not an inch
long, fleshy, of a dusky-purple  color, and placed upon a short terminal
peduncle.  The calyx is campanulate, greenish at the  base, divided into
three pointed purplish segments, which are erect, and turned inward at
their extremity.   Corolla wanting.   The filaments are twelve, and pro-
longed beyond  the anthers into a small hook.  The style is surmounted 
254
Materia Medica.
 by a six-parted reddish stigma.  The fruit is a six-celled capsule, coria-
 ceous, and crowned with the persistent calyx.
   History.—This is a European plant, growing in woods and shady
 places.   It  flowers  in  May.   The  whole  plant is usually employed,
 which, when recent, is quite  acrid.  The root is  about the size  of a
 goosequill, quadrangular, knotted, grayish, and occasionally with fibers
 at each  joint.  Its  odor  resembles pepper, and  its taste is acrid; the
 leaves are bitter, acrid, nauseous, and slightly aromatic.   The  powder
 of  the root  is grayish, of  the leaves yellowish-green.   Their virtues
 are taken up by water or alcohol, but dissipated by boiling, and impaired
 by age.   Analysis has found  in the root, a liquid volatile oil, two  con-
 crete volatile  substances  called Asarum  Camphor  or  Asarone,  and
 Asarite,  a peculiar bitter principle  called Asarin,  tannin, extractive,
 resin, starch, gluten, albumen, lignin, citric acid, and  various salts;  in
 the  leaves are asarin, tannin,  extractive, chlorophylle, albumen, citric
 acid, and lignin.   The volatile oil is yellow, of  an acrid, burning taste,
 valerian-like odor, glutinous, and lighter than water; the asarin is soluble
 in alcohol, and is probably identical  with cytisin.  The roofe and  leaves
 of this plant should  always be carefully dried for preservation.
   Properties and  Uses.—Emetic, cathartic, and errhine.  Used princi-
 pally as  an  errhine in headache,  chronic ophthalmia, rheumatic  and
 paralytic  affections  of the face, mouth  and throat.   Internally, it is a
 stimulant in doses of ten or twelve  grains; and emetic in half drachm
 or drachm doses.   Said to be used in France by drunkards to produce
 vomiting.

                     ASARUM CANADENSE.

                           Wild Ginger.

     Nat. Ord.—Aristolochiaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Dodecandria Monogynia.

                                ROOT.
  Description. — Asarum  Canadense,  likewise  called Indian  Ginger,
 Coltsfoot,  Canada  Snakeroot, has a  close resemblance  to  the A.  Euro-
paeum.  The  rhizoma is long,  creeping, fleshy, jointed,  yellowish, and
furnished with radicles  of a  similar  color.  The stem is  very  short,
dividing before it emerges from the  ground into two long round hairy
leafstalks, each of which bears a broad, reniform leaf, pubescent on both
sides, light-green and shining  above, veined  and pale or bluish below.
The flower is solitary, growing from the fork of the stem, upon  a pen-
dulous,  hairy peduncle, being often  concealed by the  loose soil, or
decayed vegetable matter around it.   The calyx is very woolly, consisting
of three broad concave, acuminate segments, of a brownish,  dull-purple
or greenish  color on the inside, at top  and  bottom, depending on the 
ASCLEPIAS  INCARNATA.
255
amount of light which  the  plant  enjoys, and terminated by a lono-,
spreading, inflected point, with reflexed sides.  Corolla wanting   Fila-
ments twelve, unequal in length, inserted upon the ovary, and  rise with
a slender point above the anthers, which are attached to their sides just
below the extremity.   Ovary inferior, somewhat hexagonal; style coni-
cal,  striated, and parted at top into six  recurved,  radiating stigmas.
Capsule six-celled, coriaceous,  and crowned with the adhering  calyx.
  History.—Wild Ginger is a  native of the United States, growing in
woods and shady places, and flowering from April to July.   The whole
plant has a grateful  aromatic  odor, and bitter, but agreeably aromatic
taste.  The root is the officinal part,  and yields its active principles to
alcohol, and partially to water.  It is in long, contorted pieces, varying
in thickness from a line to four or five lines in diameter, brownish and
wrinkled  externally, internally hard,  brittle,  and whitish.  It contains
a light-colored, pungent,  and fragrant essential oil, a reddish, bitter
resinous  matter, starch, gum, fatty matter, chlorophylle, and salts  of
potassa, lime, and iron.
  Properties  and Uses. — Aromatic stimulant, tonic,  diaphoretic,  and
expectorant.  Used in colic and other painful affections of the  stomach
and  bowels where  no inflammation  exists, and  in chronic pulmonary
affections. Used also as an errhine. Dose of the powder, half a drachm;
of the  tincture  half a drachm to two  drachms.   It  may be  advanta-
geously added  to tonic infusions and tinctures.
  Off.  Prep.—Tinctura Lobeliae Coinposita.
                    ASCLEPIAS  INCARNATA.

                         Swamp Milkweed.

        Nat. Ord.—Asclepiadaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.

                               ROOT.

   Description.—This plant is known by various names, as Swamp Silk-
weed, Flesh-colored Asclepias, Rose-colored Silkiveed, White Indian Hemp,
etc.   It has  a  smooth, erect stem,  with  two downy lines above and on
the branches and  peduncles, branching  above, and about two or three
feet high.  The leaves are opposite, oblong-lanceolate, acute, or pointed,
obtuse at the  base,  on short  petioles,  and  slightly  tomentose.   The
floioers are red  or reddish-purple, sweet-scented, and disposed in numer-
ous umbels which  are crowded,  erect, mostly terminal,  and  often in
opposite pairs.  Hoods of the crown entire, horns exsert, subulate.   The
leaves are four to seven inches  long, and from  one half an inch to an
inch and a half wide ; umbels  are from two to  six, on a peduncle two 
256                     Materia  Medica.

inches long,  and consist of from ten to twenty small flowers.   There
are several varieties of this plant, the A. Pulchra, which is more hairy,
with  broader and shorter  petioled  leaves ;  the  A.  Glabra,  which  is
almost glabrous, with two opposite longitudinal hairy lines on the stem,
and leaves glabrous, with rough margins, midrib  glandular below ;  and
the A. Alba which has white flowers.
   History.—This  plant grows in  damp and wet  soils  throughout  the
United States, and bears red flowers  from June to August.  It emits a
milky juice on being wounded.  The root is the officinal part; it varies
in thickness from one to six lines, and is of a light-yellowish or brown-
ish color.   It imparts its properties to water.

   Properties and  Uses.—Anthelmintic,  for which purpose the  powder
may be used in doses of ten to twenty grains, three times a day ; or the
decoction two to four ounces.  Prof. Tully  recommends it in catarrh,
asthma, syphilis,  rheumatism, and worms.  Reputed to  be emetic  and
cathartic.  It is  undoubtedly  a valuable agent, and worthy  further
investigation.
                     ASCLEPIAS SYRIACA.

                        Common  Silkweed.

       Nat.  Ord.—Asclepiadaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.

                            THE ROOT.
  Description.—Asclepias Syriaca, (the Asclepias Cornuti of Decaisne,)
known as Milkweed in  many parts of the country, has a large, stout,
simple, somewhat  branched stem, growing from two to five  feet high.
The leaves are opposite, oblong-lanceolate, petiolate, gradually acute, and
tomentose beneath.  The flowers  are large, and sweet-scented, arranged
on several umbels,  which are  axillary, subterminal, nodding, dense, glo-
bose,  each  of twenty  or  more  flowers.   Calyx segments  lanceolate.
Corolla pale or greenish-purple, reflexed, leaving the  corona, which is
of nearly the same hue, quite conspicuous.   But few of the  flowers
prove fertile, producing  oblong, pointed pods or follicles covered with
sharp prickles, which contain  a  mass of long,  silky fibers with seeds
attached, and which fibers have been used for beds, pillows,  and in the
place  of  fur in manufacturing hats.

  History.—Very common to the  United States, growing in sandy fields,
on roadsides, and  on banks of  streams.  It bears whitish-purple flowers
in July  and August.   The  plant  also  gives out a  milky juice when
wounded.   It contains  water, wax-like fatty matter,  caoutchouc, gum,
sugar, with various salts.   A  crystalline resinous  substance, allied to 
Asclepias  Tuberosa.
257
lactucone, has been obtained from the juice of the A. Syriaca, to which
the name of Asclepione has been given.  To obtain it, the juice must be
coagulated by heat, then filtered, to  separate the liquid portion, and then
digested with ether, which dissolves the asclepione, and yields  it by
evaporation.   To purify it, treat the residue repeatedly with  anhydrous
ether, which leaves another substance undissolved.  Asclepione is white,
crystalline, tasteless, inodorous, fusible, insoluble  in water  or  alcohol,
soluble in  ether, oil of turpentine, or concentrated acetic  acid;  potassa
in a hot strong solution does not affect it.
   Properties  and Uses.—Anodyne,  emmenagogue, diuretic  and altera-
tive.   Useful in amenorrhea,  dropsy, retention  of urine,  dyspepsia,
asthma, cough, dyspnoea, also, in  scrofulous and rheumatic disorders.
Both the  root and inspissated milky juice possess  anodyne properties.
Dose of the  powder, ten to twenty  grains; of the decoction, two to four
ounces ; of the tincture,  ten to sixty minims.
                    ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA.

                           Pleurisy Root.

       Nat.  Ord.—Asclepiadaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.

                            the root.
  Description.—This plant has several  names by which it is known in
various parts of the country, as Bidterfly-weed,  Windroot, Tuber-root,
Asclepias, etc.; but it is most commonly described as Pleurisy-root.  It
has a  perennial,  large, fleshy, branching, white, and sometimes fusi-
form-like  root, from which numerous stems  arise, growing from one to
three feet high ; these are erect, or more or  less procumbent, round,
hairy,  green or red, and growing in bunches from the root.   The leaves
are alternate, the lower ones pedunculated, the upper sessile, vary from
linear  to  oblong-lanceolate,  hairy, dark-green  above, paler beneath,
waved on the edge, and in the old plants sometimes revolute.  The
flowers are numerous, erect, of a beautifully r bright-orange color, and
are disposed  in terminal, rarely lateral, corymbose umbels, with an invo-
lucre  of numerous, linear,  subulate bracts.  The calyx is  much smaller
than the corolla, five-parted ; the segments  subulate, reflexed, and con-
cealed by the corolla.   Corolla rotate,  five-parted, the segments oblong
and reflexed.   The stamineal crown has  five  erect,  cucullate leaves or
cups,  with an oblique mouth, having a small, incurved, acute appendage
or horn, proceeding from the base of each, and meeting at the center of
the flower.  The mass  of stamens  is a tough, horny, somewhat pyra-
midal substance, separable into five anthers; each two-celled, bordered
by membranous,  reflected  edges contiguous to those of  the next, and
          17 
258
Materia Medica.
terminated by  a membranous,  reflected summit.   Pollen masses ten,
distinct, yellowish,  transparent,  flat and  spathulate, ending  in  curved
stalks, which unite  them by pairs to a minute dark tubercle at top ; each
pair is suspended in the cells of two adjoining anthers, so that if a needle
be inserted between the membranous edges of two  anthers and forced
out at top, it carries with it a pair of the pollen  masses.  Carpels two,
completely concealed beneath the  stigma and anthers, ovate, with erect
styles, terminated by a flat, pentagonal disk-like  stigma.   Follicles two,
often  one  or both abortive, long,  narrow, acuminated, green, with a red-
dish tinge and downy.  Seeds ovate, flat, margined, and terminated by
long silken hairs.
  History.—This is an indigenous  plant, growing in gravelly and sandy
soils,  but  most abundant in the south, and flowering in July and August.
Unlike the other species of Asclepias, this plant does not emit a milky
juice  when wounded.   The root is the  officinal part, which when fresh
has a subacrid, nauseous taste, but when dried  it  is easily pulverized,
and has a bitterish but not  disagreeable taste.   Boiling water or alcohol
extracts its virtues.

  Properties  and Uses.—Diaphoretic  and  expectorant, without stimu-
lating ; likewise said  to be carminative, diuretic,  tonic, and antispasmo-
dic.   Principally used in decoction or infusion in pleurisy, pneumonia,
catarrh, febrile diseases, acute rheumatism, and dysentery; in which it
is administered  warm to promote diaphoresis, without increasing  the
temperature of the  body.   In flatulency and  indigestion, it is efficient,
and when combined with the Dioscorea Villosa, it is very beneficial in all
cases  of flatus in adults and children.  A number of cases of prolapsus
uteri have been cured under the use of one ounce of pleurisy-root mixed
with half  an ounce  of the root of Aletris Farinosa, and given in  drachm
doses, three  times  a day.   In  uterine difficulties  this  plant deserves
further investigation.   It is, undoubtedly, one of  our most useful agents.
Dose  of the powder,  one scruple  to one drachm, three  or four  times a
day;  of the decoction or infusion,  a teacupful, every hour or two, until
diaphoresis is produced.
  Two concentrated preparations are  obtained from this article, termed
Asclepidin and Ascletine. The former was first manufactured by Mr. W.
S. Merrell, the latter by some chemists in N. York; of the particular
method of preparing the latter, we have been unable to get any account
The asclepidin is a dark, semiliquid mass, and is prepared  by evapora-
tion or distillation of the saturated tincture in  water, similar to the  plan
pursued  for obtaining cimicifugin.  It may be  used for all purposes to
which the crude article  is applied  in doses of from  one to five grains,
three  or four times  a  day, or as  may be indicated.
  A pill composed  of equal parts of asclepidin  and dioscorein, will be
found very beneficial in flatulency, borborygmi, and where persons are 
Asparagus Officinalis.                  289
subject to flatulent and bilious colic.  In some cases, especially of long
standing, the addition of pulverized African ginger will much improve
its efficacy.
  Ascletine is said to be the active principle of the plant; it is a beauti-
ful, white powder, with but little taste  or odor, soluble in water,  but
insoluble in alcohol.   It is recommended in the same diseases in which
the root is employed, to fulfill similar indications, in doses of from one to
three grains, three or four times a day.

   Off.  Prep. — Extractum  Asclepidis  Hydro-alcoholicum ;  Infusum
Asclepidis ;  Pulvis Asclepiae Compositus ;  Pulvis Ipecacuanhae  Compo-
situs ; Tinctura Lobelias Composita; Asclepidin.
                   ASPARAGUS OFFICINALIS.

                            Asparagus.

         Nat. Ord.—Liliaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Hexandria Monogynia.

                        THE TOUNG SHOOTS.

  Description.—Asparagus officinalis is a perennial plant, with an erect,
herbaceous, unarmed, terete, very branching stem, from  two to four feet
high.  The leaves are  setaceous, flexible, fasciculate, filiform, of a pale
pea-green color and from  half an  inch  to one and a half inches long;
flowers axillary, solitary, or in pairs.  Berries globose, red, three-celled.
Cells two-seeded.

  History.—This plant is a  native of Europe and is extensively cultivated
there, as well as in the United States, as  an article  of diet.  The root is
inodorous, and  has a weak  sweetish taste ;  when dried it is inert.   The
young shoots or turiones, which are much used as food, have a disagree-
able taste, which is removed by boiling with water ; their juice contains
a crystallizable  principle called Asparagin or Asparamide.

  Properties and  Uses. —  Diuretic.   A  syrup  or an extract prepared
from the young shoots, in doses of one or two fluidounces of the former,
or from half a  drachm  to  a drachm  of the latter, is  said  to  greatly
increase the quantity of urine, and is reputed very beneficial in repres-
sing an undue excitement of the  circulatory system, and recommended
for this purpose in hypertrophy of the  heart, and other  diseases of that
organ,  attended with excessive  action,  and without phlogosis of the
Btomach.
* 
260
Materia Medica.
                      ASPIDIUM FILIX  MAS.

                             Male Fern.

  Nat. Ord.—Filices or Filicaceae.—Polypodiaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Cryptogamia
Filices.
                              RHIZOMA.

  Description.—Male fern has a large, perennial, horizontal, scaly root
or rhizoma,  from which numerous  fronds or leaves arise, forming tufts
from a foot  to four feet in  hight.   The fronds  are erect, disposed in a
circle,  oval, lanceolate, acute, pinnate,  bright-green, and leafy nearly to
the bottom ;  their stalks and  midribs having tough, brown, transparent
scales throughout; divisions alternate, taper-pointed, pinnate; the pinna
or leaflets numerous,  crowded, sessile,  for the most part distinct, occa-
sionally somewhat combined at the  base, oblong, obtuse, crenate through-
out, the  lateral notches broadest and  most shallow, the terminal ones
more crowded  and  acute, without any terminal bristles;  both sides
smooth, and,destitute of glandular globules, but a depression on the upper
one  over trie insertion of each sorus.   Sori circular, tawny, ranged in
simple, close, short rows, near the partial midrib, and scarcely occupying
more than the  lower  half  of  each  leaflet.   Indusium  circular, durable,
crenate,  tumid, with  a cleft terminating  in  the  central depression.
Theca?  numerous, shining-brown, prominent  all round for a little beyond
the indusium.
  History.—Found growing  in  all  parts of Europe, and indigenous,
growing  in  shady pine forests, from New York to Virginia.  The root
or rhizoma is the officinal part; the best are about six inches long, and
an inch broad ;  externally it is of a brown color, internally yellowish or
reddish-white, with a peculiar, but  not very  strong odor, and a sweetish,
bitter, nauseous and  astringent taste.  It should  be collected between
the  end   of  May and middle of September ; cleansed, without being
washed;  then dried  quickly in the shade and  open  air without heat,
those parts selected which are greenish,  internally, immediately pulver-
ized, and then  kept in well-closed bottles.   The  powder is  of a pale
greenish-yellow color, and has a peculiar, earthy, disagreeable odor, and
a nauseously sweet taste, followed  by some  bitterness and astringency.
It loses its virtues in  two  years.   An ethereal oil is obtained by evapo-
rating or distilling off the ether from an ethereal tincture.
  It is a thick,  dark,  liquid, with the odor and taste of the root, though
somewhat acrid, and contains volatile  oil,  resin,  coloring matter, etc.
The purer the  ether used, the less resin is taken up.  Male fern root
contains a volatile oil, a fixed  oil, resin, gallic and acetic acids,  uncrys-
tallizable  sugar, tannin, starch, a gelatinous matter  insoluble in water
and  alcohol,  lignin, and various earthy and saline matters. 
Astragalus  Verus.
261
  Properties and  Uses.—Anthelmintic.   Used  solely for the removal of
worms, especially the tapeworm.   It  is said to be  more  effectual in
removing the tapeworm of Switzerland (Boihriocephalus lotus) than the
Taenia solium, the  most frequent variety in France and  England.  The
best mode of administration is the ethereal  oil or  extract, of which
eighteen grains, or from twelve to twenty-four  drops may be given in
the form of pill or emulsion, at night, and again in the morning; two
hours after the  administration of the last dose,  a purgative dose of castor
oil is to be taken, and the worm is  discharged  dead, without any severe
or unpleasant symptoms.  Dose of the  powder, one to four drachms; of
the  ethereal tincture  of the buds,  eight to  thirty drops, and which is
made by digesting one part of the  buds, in eight parts of ether.
                     ASTRAGALUS VERUS.

                            Tragacanth.

        Nat. Ord.—Fabacea?.  Sex. Syst. — Diadelphia Decandria.

                        THE CONCRETE JUICE.

  Description. — This is a small shrub about two or three feet in hight,
with  a stem about  an inch in thickness,  and numerous,  very closely
crowded branches, covered with imbricated scales, and spines which are
the remains of former petioles.   The leaves are  a little more than half
an inch long, and consist of from  sixteen to eighteen opposite, villous,
stiff, pointed, linear, hispid leaflets, with a midrib  terminating in a sharp
yellowish point; stipules at first downy, afterward smooth.  The flowers
are small,  yellow,  axillary, in clusters  of from two to  five,  sessile,
papilionaceous,  and  furnished with cottony bracts.   Calyx tomentose,
obscurely five-toothed.
  History. — Tragacantha  or  Tragacanth is obtained  from  several
species of plants, belonging to the genus Astragalus.   The A.  Traga-
cantha of Linnaeus,  now the A. Massiliensis of Lamarck,  a tree growing
in southern Europe  and  northern Africa,  and which yields no gum, was
formerly referred to as affording the drug, but this is  now known to  be
incorrect.   The  greater portion  of the species from which tragacanth is
obtained, are natives of Asia, having rigidly persistent petioles, forming-
spines.  Most of the spinous species,  furnish the  peculiar exudation,
which  is known in  commerce, as  Gum Tragacanth, especially those in-
habiting warm regions, but Botanists have  not positively determined as
to the particular plants.   The A.  Verus, a low and very hispid shrub, is
stated  by Olivier to afford the  largest proportion of  the  gum sent to
Europe.  It is  found growing naturally  in Persia, Armenia and Asia
Minor.  The gum  exudes from  the stem  naturally, or after  incisions, 
262
Materia  Medica.
 hardening as it exudes ; and is gathered from July till September.   It is
 forwarded to India through  Bagdad and  Bassoro, then to Russia, and
 from thence  to Aleppo.   The other species which are admitted to fur-
 nish  the  gum, are A.  Gummifer,  a native  of  Syria and  Koordistan,
 which is said to yield the white or best variety;  A. Crelicus, growing in
 Crete, and A.  Aristatus, a  native of Greece  and the south of Europe,
 and reputed  to afford some of the tragacanth imported from Smyrna and
 Marseilles.   Professor Lindley has  likewise  described another species,
 the A. Strobiliferus, growing in Koordistan, and  furnishing the dark-
 colored, or inferior gum, which is mingled with the commercial article;
 but  this requires  confirmation.   The plants which  yield  tragacanth,
 resemble each  other  so  closely, that much confusion has existed among
 Botanists in distinguishing them.
   Tragacanth  presents  the  appearance of very thin, pale-grayish, or
 grayish-yellow, almost parchment-like plates or scales, marked by spiral
 or circular  ridges.   It  is semitransparent, or translucent, resembling
 horn in appearance, hard, more or less fragile, but difficult of pulveriza-
 tion, unless exposed to a freezing temperature, or thoroughly dried,  and
 powdered in a heated mortar, tasteless and inodorous.   Its powder is
 very fine  and white.   Sometimes pieces of a slightly reddish color are
 met with, of a roundish or irregularly oblong shape. The specific gravity
 of tragacanth is 1.384.   Cold or boiling water converts it into mucilage;
 introduced into cold water, it absorbs a portion of that fluid, swells very
much, and forms a paste without being dissolved.  By boiling, its solu-
tion is nearly completed. The mucilage  is  changed to a blue color by
 the addition of iodine, owing  to  the presence of a small  proportion of
 starch.  Tragacanth is insoluble in alcohol, and  is composed of a sub-
 stance soluble in water,  and a substance not soluble, but which swells
when placed  in water.   The soluble  portion resembles gum arabic,  but
 differs from it by not yielding any precipitate with silicate of potassa or
 sesquichloride of iron ; the insoluble portion is called Tragacanthin, con-
stitutes 43 per  cent, of the  drugs, and is supposed to be  identical with
 bassorin, with a small quantity of insoluble  starch.  The composition of
 tragacanth is not satisfactorily settled by chemists ; M. Guerin considers
it to be a  compound of 53.3  parts  of arabin or  soluble gum, 33.1 of
bassorin and  insoluble starch,  11.1  of water, and  when burned 2.5 of
ashes.

   Properties  and  Uses.—Tragacanth is nutritive and demulcent; seldom
 used except for the suspension of heavy, insoluble powders, to impart
 consistence to troches and lozenges,  and to form paste for the druggists,
 with which to label their prescriptions. 
Assafcetida.
263
                          ASSAFQ3TIDA.

                            Assafcetida.

   Nat. Ord.—Apiacese, or Umbellifera.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.

        CONCRETE  JUICE OF THE ROOT OF  FERULA  ASSAFCETIDA.
  Description.—Ferula Assafcetida,  Linnaeus, or  Narthex  Assafcetida,
Falconer, is described by Kcempfer, who wrote from actual observation. It
has a  perennial, fleshy, tapering root, with a coarse hairy, or fibrous
summit, about  the size of a man's leg  when full-grown, either simple
like a parsnep, or with one  or more forks ; externally it is blackish, inter-
nally  white, and  abounding in a very fetid, opake, milky  juice.  The
leaves are radical,  six or seven in number,  nearly two feet long, shining,
coriaceous, deep-green, pinnated, with pinnatifid segments whose lobes
are oblong and  obtuse; petiole terete, amplexicaul, channeled only at the
base.   The leaves grow vigorously through the winter, and wither at
the termination of spring.  From the midst of the leaves, rises a luxu-
riant, herbaceous stem, from six to ten feet high, two inches in  diameter
at the base, solid, simple, erect, round, smooth,  striated, the spongy
medulla  traversed  by bundles  of  tough,  fibrous  vessels,  the  surface
clothed with the remains of persistent  leafless petioles,  and  terminating
in large  plano-convex umbels with numerous radii.   The flowers are
pale-yellow ; the fruit is flat, oval, thin, reddish-brown, slightly hairy
or rough.  The plant varies in its appearance, according to  its situation
and soil.
  History.—This plant is a  native of  Persia.  The gum-resin is prepared
from incisions into the upper portion of the root, or by taking successive
slices from it; plants under four years are not made use of, as they yield
but little, if any, of the juice.   At the time the  leaves begin to fade, the
root-leaves and stem are twisted off close  to the  root, and the soil is
removed from its crown.   About forty days afterward, a thin slice is cut
off transversely from its summit, and a milky juice of a fetid, alliaceous
odor gradually exudes.  In about two days, or when this exudation has
become hardened, it is scraped off,  and  another thin slice  removed as
before, from which juice again flows, and this process is repeated until
no more juice can be obtained ; while this collection is going on, the root
is constantly protected from  the solar rays.  The concrete juice from
several plants, are then put together, further hardened, and disposed of
for home use or foreign exportation.   The assafcetida in this country is
either  from India, or  Great  Britain, in  mats, cases or  casks, of from
eighty pounds to several hundreds each.
  This gum-resin as met with in the shops is in masses of different sizes,
rather  soft, varying in color, becoming reddish, and finally a dull yellow-
ish-brown on exposure to the atmosphere ; on being broken it presents 
264
Materia Medica.
a  shining, whitish surface, and changes color as it becomes exposed.
The masses have an irregular, amygdaloid appearance, being composed
of whitish tears agglutinated together.   Sometimes the tears are to be
had separate; they are oval, irregular, of the size of a pea or larger,
brownish externally, white internally, and of weaker odor than that of
the masses.   The better the  article is  in  the  masses, the  greater the
quantity of tears, with but a small portion of the dark, soft, agglutinat-
ing material in which they are imbedded.  Assafcetida  has a fetid, tena-
cious and  alliaceous odor, and  a  strong,  peculiar, persistent, bitterish,
and rather acrid taste.   Age  hardens it  and renders  it brittle,  beside
diminishing its taste and odor.   It can only be pulverized at a low tem-
perature, as  in  frosty  weather; in warm  weather it softens under the
pestle.   Moderate heat softens it so far that it may be squeezed through
a coarse cloth, and  freed  from impurities  of a  mechanical  nature;  a
stronger heat causes it to froth up, and  at a red heat it  burns with
clear, lively flame.   Its specific gravity is  1.327.   Rubbed with cold or
warm water, the gum is  dissolved, forming a  smooth white  or  pink-
colored persistent emulsion, in which the resin and volatile oil  are sus-
pended.  With rectified alcohol it forms a  clear tincture, which is its
best menstruum.  Spirit dissolves the resin and  oil, but is  too feeble a
solvent.  Sulphuric ether dissolves the volatile oil and a portion of  resin ;
solution of caustic potassa dissolves it almost entirely, forming an  emul-
sion when  the alkali is neutralized; and solution of ammonia dissolves
the gum and oil, with part of the resin.   It readily unites with other
resins, gum-resins, and wax; and  is best preserved in  bladders kept in
tin boxes.
  Assafoetida contains volatile oil,  resin soluble in ether, a tasteless resin
insoluble in  ether, gum, bassorin,  sulphate of lime, carbonate  of lime,
oxide of iron and alumina, malate of lime, etc.   The volatile oil may be
procured by  distillation with water or alcohol, at first  it is  pale-green,
but becomes yellowish-brown by age, is lighter than water, of a power-
fully offensive odor,  and a taste peculiar to the gum-resin ; it  contains
sulphur.   This and the bitter resin are the  active principles.

   Properties  and Uses.—Stimulant, antispasmodic, expectorant, emmen-
agogue, and  feebly laxative.   Improper in inflammatory conditions of
the system.   Used  in  hysteria, hypochondria,  convulsions, spasmodic
nervous diseases of females, spasm of the stomach and bowels, various
irregular  nervous disorders which accompany debility of the  nervous
system, and, in  combination with  morphia and quinia,  in sick or  nerv-
ous headache.   With podophyllin and cunicifugin it is beneficial in chorea.
Also useful in pertussis,  asthma,  infantile coughs and  catarrhs,  croup,
measles, etc., whenever there is a  want of nervous energy, or disposition
to sink.  Likewise efficient in amenorrhea  and dysmenorrhea, and as an
injection in tympanitic abdomen,  lumbricus and ascarides.  Dose, in 
                         Aster  Puniceus.                      265

powder or pill, from five to  ten grains ;  of the tincture, from half a
drachm to two drachms.
   Off.  Prep.—Enema Assafcetidae Composita; Tinctura  Assafcetidee ;
Tinctura Castorei Ammoniata.
                       ASTER PUNICEUS.

                         Red-stalked Aster.

  Nat. Ord.—Asteraceae, or Compositae.  Sex. Syst. —Syngenesia Superflua.

                             THE  ROOT.
  Description.—The root of this plant is perennial and fibrous ;  the stem
is hispid, paniculate  above, furrowed, generally red, or  at  least on the
south side, stout and tall, growing from three to six feet in hight.  The
leaves are oblong-lanceolate, amplexicaul, and  more or less auriculate at
base, sparingly serrate in the middle with appressed teeth, rough above,
nearly smooth underneath, pointed ; lower leaves with remote serratures,
rough edged, and rough on the upper surface, all  acuminate and nar-
rowed at  the  base.   Involucre loose, longer than the disk ; the scales
linear-lanceolate, long, revolute, nearly equal, and in two rows.  Flowers
large, showy, and of a pale purple  or lilac-blue color.  Rays from fifty
to eighty, long and narrow.
  History.—This plant is found growing in various parts of the United
States, in swamps,  ditches,  along  the  borders  of  small  streams,  and
sometimes in dry soils.  It flowers from July to October.   The radicles
or fibers of the root, are  the parts used ; they are about the  size of a
pipestem, having a pungent, aromatic odor and taste, with some bitter-
ness and astringency.  Water or alcohol extracts  their active properties.
This plant is variously known by the names of Cocash, Meadow Scabisk,
Squaw-weed, etc.
  Properties and Uses.—Stimulant and diaphoretic.   The warm infusion
may be used  freely in colds, rheumatism, nervous debility, headache,
pains in the  stomach, dizziness,  and  menstrual irregularities.   This,
together with  the A. Cordifolius are probably equivalents of valerian.
  The Aster ^Estivus, named Rheumatic-weed, also  Sampson Snakeroot,
Star-flower,  etc., resembles the above plant, having lanceolate, sub-clasp-
ing leaves, tapering to the apex; margin rough  ; stem  branching from
its  base, erect, hispid ; branchlets  pilose;  involucre scaly ;  scales  lax,
linear, acute, equal.   Flowers middle sized, and blue.   It is found more
abundantly  west of  the Alleghany mountains, and  is recommended as
an  antispasmodic and alterative.   Principally used in the cure of  rheu-
matism  in the  form of infusion or  tincture ; recommended, however, in
hysteria, chorea, epilepsy,  spasms, irregular menstruation, etc., internally; 
266                     Materia  Medica.

and  used both externally and  internally in many cutaneous  diseases,
the eruption occasioned by the poison rhus, and in the bites of venomous
snakes.  Dose of the  infusion, one to  four ounces ; of a saturated tinc-
ture  half a drachm to two drachms.   This plant deserves further inves-
tigation.
                     ATROPA BELLADONNA.

                             Belladonna.

        Nat. Ord.—Solanaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.

                              LEAVES.
  Description. — Atropa Belladonna,  also known as Deadly Nightshade,
Dwale, Black Cherry, etc., is a herbaceous, perennial plant, with a thick,
branched, fleshy, creeping root, from which rise several erect, cylindri-
cal, herbaceous, annual, hirsute, purplish stems, to the hight of three or
four feet.   The branches are dichotomous, with  ovate, entire, somewhat
soft leaves, acuminate at both ends, of a dull-green color, mostly in pairs
of unequal  size,  and on  short petioles.    The  flowers are  imperfectly
axillary, solitary, stalked, and drooping.   The calyx is green, persistent,
and divided into five ovate segments.   The corolla is monopetalous, cam-
panulate, with the limb divided into five lobes, dark dull purple in the
border, paler downward.   Stamens five, shorter than  the corolla, bear-
ing cordate, four-lobed anthers.   Ovary spheroidal, with a nectariferous
gland beneath, and  supporting a  long,  simple  style, with  a two-lobed
stigma.  The fruit is  a round, two-celled berry, bearing  some resem-
blance  to  a cherry, with  a  transverse  furrow on each side,  shining,
smooth, at first green, then red, and  finally of a deep purple color,  and
containing numerous reniform seeds,  imbedded in  a  soft pulp, with a
sweetish, violet-colored juice.  When bruised, the whole plant exhales
a fetid odor.
  History.—This plant is a native of  Europe, growing  in shady places,
flowering in June and July, and ripening its fruit in September;  all parts
of it are active.   The  leaves are  the officinal  part, and should be col-
lected  in  June or July;  when dry,  they are of a brownish-green, or
grayish-green color,  scarcely any odor, and a faint, sweetish, slightly
nauseous taste, and  yield their  properties readily to alcohol or water.
The  root is long, round, varying in thickness from one to several inches,
fibrous, branched, reddish-brown  externally, whitish internally, scarcely
any odor, and a slightly sweetish taste.  It should be  collected early in
the spring, or in the autumn, from plants at least three years old; water
or alcohol is its menstruum.  The  extract is  more commonly used than
any other form.   Belladonna contains atropia  with excess of malic acid,
pseudotoxin, phytocolla, chlorophylle, gum, starch, etc. 
Atropia.                           267
  Properties  and Uses.—An energetic narcotic poison.   When taken in
large doses it exerts an influence  over the cerebro-spinal system,  as
manifested by dilation of the pupils, dimness or loss  of vision, vertigo,
partial deafness, confusion of ideas, constriction in the  throat, difficulty
of swallowing and articulating, thirst, nausea, and often the appearance
of a red eruption; if the dose  be excessive, all these symptoms will  be
greatly  aggravated, with delirium, excessive laughter, violent gestures,
and  finally coma;  when it  causes death, convulsions often precede this
result.  Medicinally, it  is anodyne, antispasmodic, and  calmative, with
some diaphoretic and diuretic properties.   It is exceedingly valuable and
useful in convulsions, spasms, epilepsy, puerperal convulsions, neuralgia,
hooping-cough, chorea,  mania,  paralysis, amaurosis, rheumatism, gout,
dysmenorrhea, obstinate intermittents, rigidity  of  os uteri, and all  dis-
eases in which the nervous system is involved.   It is much in use  as a
prophylactic  in scarlatina.   Used externally, for dilating the pupil of the
eye in various operations on that organ, to remove spasmodic stricture
of urethra, neck of the bladder, and sphincter  ani.  Recommended,
also, in strangulated hernia, asthma, and paraphimosis.   The following
has been recommended  in  neuralgia  of the  uterus: Mix together  one
grain and  a  half of alcoholic extract  of belladonna, and three-fourths
of a grain of opium.  Place the two  extracts  in  the center of a little
pledget of carded cotton, and fold it up so as to inclose the extract; tie it
up with a very strong thread, and leave a double thread eight inches long
attached to it.   The plug is to  be introduced into the vagina by the
physician or patient, and placed upon the neck  of the uterus,  where it is
to be retained from twelve to twenty-four hours.   In very painful men-
struation accompanied  by  leucorrhea,  from  eight to fifteen grains of
tannic  acid, or geraniin  may be added to  the tampon.  Dose of the
powdered leaves, one to two grains, once or  twice a day, and gradually
increased till the peculiar effects of  the  medicine are  produced; of the
extract one-fourth of a grain to two grains.
  The  remedies  in cases of poisoning by  it,  are the  stomach-pump,
emetics and purgatives, cold to the head, and in the  comatose  stage,
ammonia internally, with external stimulants.                        *
   Off. Prep. — Atropia; Emplastrum  Belladonnae; Emplastrum Bella-
donnas Compositum; Extractum Belladonnae Alcoholicum ; Tinctura Bel-
ladonnae ; Unguentum Belladonnae.
                            ATROPIA.

             THE ALKALINE PRINCIPLE OF A. BELLADONNA.

  Preparation.—The following is the process employed by Mein.  The
roots of plants two or three years old were selected.  Of these, reduced 
268
Materia  Medica.
 to an extremely fine  powder, 24 parts were digested, for several days,
 with 60 parts of alcohol of 86 or 90 per cent.   The liquid having been
 separated  by strong  expression, the residue was treated anew with an
 equal quantity of alcohol; and the tinctures, poured together and filtered,
 were mixed with one part of hydrate of lime, and frequently shaken for
 twenty-four  hours.   The  copious  precipitate  which  now formed  was
 separated by  filtering;  and diluted sulphuric  acid was added  drop by
 drop to the filtered liquor, till slightly in excess.  The sulphate of lime
 having been  separated by a  new filtration,  the  alcoholic liquid  was
 distilled to one-half, then mixed with six or eight parts  of pure water,
 and evaporated with a gentle heat till  the whole of the alcohol  was
 driven  off.   The  residual liquid was filtered, cautiously evaporated to
 one-third, and allowed to cool.   A  concentrated aqueous solution of car-
 bonate of potassa  was then gradually added, so long as the liquid con-
 tinued to be rendered turbid; and  the  mixture was afterward  suffered
 to rest some hours.   A yellowish resinous substance which opposes the
 crystallization of the atropia was thus precipitated.  From this the liquid
 was carefully  decanted, and a small additional  quantity of the  solution
 of the  carbonate was dropped into it, till it no longer became turbid.
 A gelatinous mass now gradually formed, which, at the  end of twelve
 or twenty-four hours, was  agitated in order  to separate  the  mother-
 waters,  then thrown upon a filter, and dried by folds of unsized paper.
 The substance thus obtained, which was atropia in an impure state, was
 dissolved  in five times  its weight  of alcohol;  and the solution, having
been filtered, was  mixed with six or eight times its bulk of water.   The
liquor soon became milky, or was rendered so by evaporating the excess
of alcohol, and, in the course of twelve or twenty-four  hours, deposited
the atropia in the form of light yellow  crystals, which were rendered
entirely pure and colorless by washing with a few drops of water,  dry-
ing on blotting paper, and again treating with alcohol as before. From
twelve  ounces of  the root,  Mein obtained by this process twenty grains
of the pure alkali.—Jour, de Pharm. xx,  87.

. History.—Thus  prepared, atropia crystallizes in white silky prisms, is
inodorous, and of  a bitter  taste; dissolves  in ether or absolute  alcohol,
and  slightly in water; it melts above 212°, and forms soluble salts with
sulphuric, nitric, muriatic, and  acetic acids.  At  an  ordinary tempera-
ture, water dissolves about ^^h, but  aided  by heat  a much larger
portion is taken up; the solution has a  bitter, disagreeable taste.   Dr.
A. von Planta found atropia prepared by  Merck to possess the following
properties: It dissolved in 299 parts of  water  at the ordinary tempera-
ture; alcohol  dissolved  it in almost every proportion, ether less  readily.
Its  solubility in  all these fluids was increased by heat.  At  194°  F. it
fused to a clear transparent mass,, which became brittle  on cooling; on
the reapplication of heat, and again allowing it to cool, it was converted 
Avenge  Farina.
269
 into stellate groups  of crystals.  At  284° F. the  greater  portion  is
 destroyed.  Heated  upon platinum  foil, it melts, puffs up, gives off
 white  fumes, and burns with a  bright flame, leaving a shining black
 cinder, which  finally disappears entirely.   It has  a  strong  alkaline
 reaction,  and  combines  with  acids  forming  uncrystallizable  salts,
 soluble in water and alcohol, but sparingly so in  ether.  Its formula  is
 C34 H25 N Oe = 289.
   Properties and  Uses.—Same as Belladonna.  Internally from one-twen-
 tieth to one-tenth of a grain  may be  given; and  for external use it  is
 preferred on account  of its quicker action, more uniform strength, and
 greater cleanliness.   One grain  dissolved in four fluidrachms of distilled
 water by means of a  few drops of acetic acid, will, on the application of
 one drop of this solution to the inner surface of the lower lid, cause
 dilatation of the  pupil  in fifteen or twenty minutes.   In neuralgia, one
 grain may be mixed with a drachm of lard, and rubbed on the affected
 part.   Dr. Lusanna  has  used it successfully  in  this affection by  the
 endermic and iatraleptic method.  The skin being previously removed
 by a blister, or, what is still better, because more speedy, the ammonia-
 cal pomade of Goudret, when the atropia is dissolved in a small quantity
 of alcohol, then mixed with simple ointment and applied to the denuded
 surface.   In this way, a half grain to  a grain may be employed in the
 twenty-four or forty-eight hours.   Iatraleptically, he uses the following
 ointment in  the form of frictions over the  part  affected every two or
three hours, consuming a portion the  size of a pea each time :  R-. Atro-
pia, 5  centigrammes, Alcohol at 36, q. s.   Dissolve.  Add axungia,
 12 grammes.
                        AVENGE FARINA.

                              Oatmeal.

          Nat. Ord.—Graminaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Triandria Digynia.

                  seeds of  avena sativa,  ground.
   Description.—Avena Sativa, or the common oat, is too well known to
 require a minute description; it has a smooth stem, from two to four feet
 high,  with  linear lanceolate, veined, rough leaves, with  loose,  striate
 sheaths;  stipules lacerate; panicle equal,  loose;  spikelets pedunculate,
 pendulous,  two-flowered, both flowers perfect, the lower one mostly
 awned ; paleae somewhat cartilaginous, closely embracing the caryopsis ;
 root fibrous, annual.
  History.—Oats were  known  to the ancient Greeks and are at present
cultivated in all civilized countries, principally as food for horses.  They
have  been naturalized  in Sicily, and  have been found in the island of 
270
Materia Medica.
Juan  Fernandez.  Their native country is unknown.   In the north of
England, Scotland,  and Ireland, in some parts  of France,  and other
countries, oats form a large portion  of the nutriment of the inhabitants.
The meal, which is prepared by grinding the seeds, is made into a gruel,
and is very nutritious and digestible, beside being somewhat laxative; it
forms an excellent diet for the sick in many cases.   The British colleges
direct groats, which are the seeds deprived of their husks; and these,
when ground into fine meal or flour, are prepared groats.
  Oats contain, according to  the analysis of Vogel, 66 per cent, of meal,
and 34 per cent, of husk; the dried  meal consists of starch 59, saccharo-
mucilaginous extract 10.75, albumen 4.3, oleaginous matter 2, ligneous
fiber and moisture  24.   Other analyses have been made, which vary
from the above in quantity and elements, showing  oats to consist of a
large  proportion  of starch, some sugar,  gum, oil,  albumen, gluten, a
nitrogenous body, epidermis, alkaline salts, etc.
  Oatmeal is inodorous, slightly bitter, insoluble  in alcohol,  ether, and
the oils; but alcohol and ether remove an oleo-resinous matter from it;
it  yields its nutritive properties freely to boiling water.
  Properties and Uses.—Nutritive  and  demulcent.  Good in habitual
constipation, but not in dyspepsia, accompanied with acidity of stomach.
In the form of gruel, either  salted or seasoned  with  sugar,  honey, or
the pulp of fruit, it is  an agreeable nutritive during convalescence from
acute diseases, in the puerperal woman, and in some  chronic diseases.
Oatmeal made into a cake with water, baked and browned like  coffee,
then pulverized and made into a coffee, or infusion,  forms a drink which
will allay nausea and check  vomiting, in a  majority of cases, when all
other means fail, and used  thus is very useful in  diarrhea,  dysentery,
cholera-morbus, and irritable  conditions of the stomach.  Oatmeal gruel
may be prepared by boiling  an  ounce of the meal with three pints of
water to a  quart, straining the decoction, allowing it to  stand till it cools,
and then pouring off the clear liquor from the sediment.  Sugar, raisins,
or lemon-juice are frequently added to improve its flavor.
                BALSAMODENDRON  MYRRHA.

                              Myrrh.

 Nat. Ord.—Amyridaceae, or Burseraceae.  Sex. Syst.—Octandria Monogynia.

          CONCRETE JUICE OR GUMMY RESINOUS EXUDATION.

  Description.—The Balsamodendron Myrrha,  is a small shrubby tree,
covered with a pale gray or whitish gray bark, and with squarrose and
spinose branches.   The leaves are ternate, on short petioles, and consist 
Balsamodendron Myrrha.
271
of obovate, obtuse, smooth leaflets, somewhat  denticulate at the apex.
The flowers are unknown.   The fruit is oval, lanceolate, pointed, smooth,
longitudinally furrowed, of a brown color, a little larger than a pea, sup-
ported on a very short peduncle, and surrounded at its base by the per-
sistent calyx.
  History.—The myrrh tree grows in Arabia, and  in the neighborhood
of Abyssinia and  the  Red sea.    The juice exudes spontaneously and
concretes  upon the bark, which when collected  is the medicinal gum
myrrh.  The best kind of myrrh is in irregular pieces, somewhat  resem-
bling tears, often  tuberculated,  varying  in size from  a  pea to a large
walnut, or even larger, of a bright reddish-brown color becoming  clearer
red when breathed upon.   Myrrh is brittle and pulverizable, and has a
peculiar, agreeable, balsamic odor, and a bitter, aromatic, not unpleasant
taste.   When heated it softens, then froths up, and at length inflames
and burns with difficulty.   Its active constituents are oil and resin, and
its proper solvent is rectified spirit.  It is only partially soluble in water,
proof  spirit,  and ether;  water  dissolves its arabin,  and the mucilage
retains the oil and part of the resin in the state  of emulsion ; proof spirit
dissolves some of the resin. Water added to its  alcoholic tincture renders
it opake, but without any precipitation.   Alkaline solutions dissolve the
gum resin.   Myrrh consists of volatile  oil 2.6, bitter resin 23, soluble
gum  46, insoluble  gum  12.   Ruickholdt has obtained  in  100  parts,
volatile oil 2.183, resin 44.760, arabin 40.818,  water  1.475, and various
salts, etc., 3.650.  He calls the resin myrrhin ; it is neutral, but by being
kept in a state of fusion for a short time  acquires acid properties, which
state he proposes to term Myrrhic Acid.
  Myrrh  added to nitric acid, produces  a transparent, dirty-yellowish
liquid; false  myrrh produces a bright yellow liquid, and bdellium is not
dissolved by  it, but  becomes  whitish and opake.   M.  Righini  states
that if myrrh in powder, be rubbed  for ten or fifteen minutes with  an
equal  weight of muriate of ammonia,  and fifteen times its  weight of
water gradually added, it  may be considered pure, if it dissolves quickly
and wholly.

  Properties and  Uses.—Stimulant  tonic, antiseptic,  expectorant, em-
menagogue,  and by some considered  anthelmintic.   Used in debilitated
states  of the  system, in chronic catarrh, phthisis, humoral asthma, other
pectoral affections in  which mucus  secretion though  abundant  is  not
easily  expectorated, chlorosis,  amenorrhea, etc.   Also reputed useful in
chronic gonorrhea, gleet, and other excessive chronic mucous discharges.
As  a local application it is useful in spongy gums, aphthous sore  mouth
of children, indolent and gangrenous ulcers.  It is sometimes combined
with hydrastis and capsicum, in aphthae, and with  tincture of castor as
an emmenagogue.  Dose of  the powder,  ten  to thirty grains ;  of the
tincture, one  to  two drachms. 
272
Materia  Medica.
   Off. Prep.—Mistura Chenopodii Composita ;  Pulvis Nigrum ;  Pilulae
Copaibae Compositae ; Tinctura Myrrhae ;  Tinctura Myrrhae Composita;
Tinctura Aloes et Myrrhae ;  Lotio Myrrhae Compositae.
                     BAPTISIA  TINCTORIA.

                            Wild  Indigo.

         Nat. Ord.—Fabaceaa.   Sex.  Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.

                   BARK OF  THE ROOT AND  LEAVES.
   Description.—Baptisia Tinctoria, also known as Horse-fly weed, Rattle-
bush, etc., has a large and woody perennial root,  very irregular, blackish
externally, and yellowish within, with numerous, lighter-colored radicles.
The stem is round, yellowish-green, smooth, marked with black dots,
much branched, and growing from two to three  feet high; the branches
are slender, and of  a yellowish color.   The leaves are small, alternate,
and formed of three sessile, obovate,  smooth, bluish-green leaflets, with
minute,  evanescent  stipules.   Racemes loose,  terminal,  few-flowered.
Flowers yellow, in small  loose spikes at the ends of the branches, six,
twelve  or more in each raceme.   Calyx campanulate,  bilabiate, upper
lip entire or  emarginate, lower trifid.   Stamina included, deciduous.
 Ovary stipitate, bearing a minute stigma.   Legume bluish-black, about
as large as a pea, on a long  stipe, inflated, oblong, with a row of small
subreniform seeds.
   History.—This is a small  shrub, found in most parts of the  United
States in dry situations, though occasionally  it is to be met with  in low,
marshy ground.  It flowers in July and August, having bright  yellow
flowers, in small loose clusters at the end of the branches.  The  fruit is
an oblong pod, of a bluish-black color.   It  contains  indigo, tannin, an
acid, and baptism.   When the whole plant, or any portion of it is dried,
it becomes black, and affords a blue dye, inferior to indigo.   In some
parts of the country the  young shoots are used  as a substitute for aspa-
ragus, to which  they bear  some  resemblance,  and  they occasionally
cause drastic  purgation,  especially if used after they assume a green
color.   Alcohol, or water will take  up its  active  properties.   Both the
root and leaves are medicinal, and deserve further investigation.   The
root is  inodorous, and of a nauseous, somewhat  acrid  taste ;  its  virtues
appear to reside chiefly in the bark.
  Properties  and  Uses. — Purgative, emetic, stimulant,  astringent and
antiseptic.   Principally  used  on  account  of  its  antiseptic  virtues.   A
decoction of the bark of the root is an excellent application as  a wash  or
gargle to all  species of ulcers, as malignant ulcerous sore mouth and 
Baptisia  Tinctoria.
273
 throat, mercurial sore mouth, scrofulous,  or syphilitic  ophthalmia, ery-
 sipelatous ulcers, gangrenous ulcers, sore  nipples, etc. ; or it may be
 made into an ointment for external application.  As a poultice  or fomen-
 tation it  is highly useful in all ulcers, tumors, or inflammations tending
 to gangrene.   In fetid leucorrhea, fetid discharges from the  ears, etc.,
 the decoction will be found  efficient, if injected into the  parts with a
 suitable  syringe.  The leaves applied in fomentations, have  discussed
 tumors and swelling of the female breast, resembling scirrhus.
   Internally, it may be used in  the form of decoction or syrup, in scar-
 latina, typhus, and  all cases  where there  is a tendency  to  putrescency.
 It acts powerfully on the glandular  and nervous systems, increasing all
 the glandular secretions,  and arousing the  liver especially to a normal
 action ;  and is very efficient in the atonic varieties  of acute rheumatism
 and pneumonia.
   I make much use of the dried alcoholic  extract of the root-bark in the
 low stage of typhoid, and typhoid  conditions generally in conjunction
 with leptandrin ; and  have  used  it extensively for the last ten years,
 and with very excellent effect in all diseases of a tuberculous character.
 I take pleasure  in introducing to the profession, the active principle of
 this plant.   Baptisin, prepared similarly to Aletrin, or it may be  pre-
 cipitated by an acid, or by acetate of lead from the saturated  tincture :
 I have found it to exert a  powerful influence on the glandular system in
 doses of from one-fourth to one  half  a grain ; if given in large doses it
 produces a very  disagreeable prostration of the whole system.   It is also
 an  excellent application to gangrenous and erysipelatous ulcerations,
 malignant and fetid  ulcerations of the cervix uteri.   Combined with lep-
 tandrin, podophyllin, quinia,  or cimicifugin, in diseases where  these
 agents  are  indicated, it will be  found valuable  in  typhus and typhoid
 fevers, and  all diseases of a typhoid character, when administered inter-
 nally.
   Baptisin is of a yellowish-brown color,  a  strong  odor, similar to  that
 of the powdered root, and  of a rather bitter, not very disagreeable taste,
 persistent in its  character.  It is insoluble in water, ether, the mineral
 acids, acetic acid, also in volatile oils, oil of  turpentine, and chloroform,
 floating  on  the surface of this last.  Ammonia added  to  it  in water,
 causes  it to be nearly completely dissolved, and  gives  a  dense, light
bluish-yellow solution.  Liquor potassa, likewise causes it to imperfectly
dissolve  in water, giving a dark-yellow precipitate,  and  a light yellow
saponaceous solution.  It  is partially  soluble in alcohol, and on  the
addition of ammonia becomes entirely dissolved, but gives a precipitate
on standing.   Sulphuric acid turns it a dark yellowish-red color; nitric
acid yellowish-green ; and muriatic acid affects no  change in its color.
  Dose,  of the decoction, made  by boiling one ounce of the powdered
bark in two pints of water, down to  one pint—one tablespoonful every
       18 
274
Materia Medica.
1,2, or 4 hours as required—if it purge, produce nausea, or a disagree-
able relaxation of the nervous system, lessen the dose, or omit its use
entirely, for a time;  of the hydro-alcoholic extract, 1 to  4 grains every
2, 3, or 4 hours.
   The Baptisia Alba, or Prairie Indigo of the western prairies, with the
flowers white, may be substituted for the above.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Baptisiae Hydro-Alcoholicum ; Pilulae Baptisiae
Compositae ;  Unguentum Baptisiae.
           BAROSMA CRENATA.  (Diosma  Crenata.)
                              Buchu.

        Nat.  Ord.—Rutaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.

                            the leaves.
  Description.—This plant formerly belonged to the genus Diosma,, but
has been  transferred by Botanists to that of Barosma.   It is a slender,
smooth, upright, perennial  shrub, between two and three feet in hight,
with twiggy, somewhat angular  branches, of a brownish-purple color.
The leaves are opposite, spreading, about an inch long, ovate, acute, on
very short petioles, very obtuse, delicately and minutely crenated, quite
glabrous,  rigid, darkish-green and quite smooth above, with a very few
obscure,  oblique  nerves, beneath  paler, dotted with glands which are
scarcely pellucid, while at every crenature is a conspicuous pellucid gland.
The flowers are whitish, or of a  pale-reddish color,  solitary, on short
pedicels at the ends of short  lateral shoots.   The calyx has five ovate-
acuminate, persistent sepals, green, tinged with purple, beneath which
are two or three  pairs of  small imbricated bracteas.   The corolla has
five elliptic,  oblong,  bluntish petals,  somewhat spreading,  which are
purple when in bud, and blush-colored when fully expanded.  The sta-
mens are five, subulate, and bearing ovate, incumbent anthers ; filaments
slightly villous.   The ovary is superior, turbinate, supporting an erect
style crowned with a minute, five-lobed stigma.  The  capsule is ovate,
containing a single, oblong, black, shining seed,  with an elastic testa.
  History.—This  plant is a native  of  southern Africa, the officinal part
of which is the leaf.  There are several varieties from which the  leaves
are obtained, as the Barosma Crenata, B. Crenulata, B. Serratifolia, etc.
The leaves are odoriferous, and when powdered are termed by the Hot-
tentots, Booko or  Buchu, and are used by them to rub upon their  greasy
bodies.   They likewise prepare a Buchu Brandy by distilling the leaves
with wine, and which they  employ as an efficient remedy in all affections
of the  stomach, bowels, and bladder; they also  apply a decoction of the
leaves  to wounds. 
Benzoin Odoriferum.
275
  As found in our markets, the leaves  are  from three-quarters of an
inch to an inch in length, from three to five lines broad, elliptical, lance-
olate-ovate, or obovate, sometimes slightly pointed, sometimes blunt at
the apex, very finely notched and glandular at the edges, smooth, green
on their upper surface, dotted and paler beneath, and  of a firm consist-
ence.  They have a strong, diffusive, aromatic odor, with very faint bit-
terness ; the taste and odor  being somewhat allied to pennyroyal, and
which will serve to distinguish them from senna leaves. If they be pre-
served with ordinary  care, their odor will remain for some years.  The
leaves  of the  B. Serratifolia  may be  known by their linear-lanceolate
form, and serrulate edges ; and those of the B. Crenulata much resemble
those of the B. Crenata, but are oblong-ovate, and have a narrow pellu-
cid margin around the whole leaf.  They all possess similar properties.
Analysis has  detected in them,  a light, yellowish-brown, and  highly
odorous volatile oil, gum, extractive, which is precipitated by infusion of
galls, chlorophylle and resin.  Water or alcohol extracts their virtues,
which are chiefly dependent on the volatile oil  and extractive.
   Properties and Uses.—Buchu is a stimulant, diuretic, antispasmodic,
and tonic.  Useful in all  diseases of the urinary organs attended with
increased uric acid; in irritation of the bladder and urethra attending
gravel,  in catarrh of the  urinary bladder, and incontinence  connected
with diseased  prostate.   It  has also been  recommended in dyspepsia,
dropsy, cutaneous  affections, and chronic rheumatism.  I  do not, how-
ever, think it equal  to many of our indigenous remedies, which  are
sadly neglected by the profession, in their eagerness for something at a
distance from home.   Were our native  plants more  closely investigated,
there would be  but  little use for foreign, and  consequently expensive
agents.  Under  favorable circumstances a warm infusion  of  Buchu
leaves, will cause  diaphoresis.   Dose  of the  powder, from  twenty to
thirty grains, two  or  three times a  day;  of the infusion,  two to four
ounces, three  or  four  times a  day;  of the tincture,  one  to  two
fluidrachms.
   Off.  Prep. — Extractum  Barosmae  vel  Buchu Fluidum; Infusum
Barosmae.
                    BENZOIN ODORIFERUM.

                            Spice wood.

        Nat. Ord.—Lauraceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Enneandria Monogynia.

                      THE BARK AND BERRIES.
  Description.—Benzoin Odoriferum, or the Laurus Benzoin of Linnaeus,
is sometimes known as Spicebush, Feverbush, Wild Allspice, Benjamin- 
276
Materia Medica.
Bush, etc. ; it is a shrub growing from five to twelve feet in hight, with
obovate-lanceolate, veinless, entire,  deciduous  leaves, green on  each
side,  and slightly pubescent beneath; flowers  yellow,  in  little naked
umbels on the naked branches, often dicecious; buds and pedicels smooth;
fruit the size of an olive, bright-red, in clusters, containing an ovate,
pointed nut.   Calyx six-cleft, with oblong segments.
   History.—This shrub grows in moist, shady places, in all parts of the
United  States; it bears greenish-yellow flowers in April, which are suc-
ceeded  by small clusters of oval berries, and which  in the latter part of
September,  when ripe, are of a shining crimson color.   The whole plant
has a spicy, agreeable flavor, which is strongest in the bark and berries,
and which is communicated to boiling water, or proof spirit.
  Properties and  Uses.—Aromatic, tonic, and stimulant.   An infusion
or decoction has been successfully used in the treatment of intermittents,
and low forms  of fever, also as an  anthelmintic.  The berries afford a
stimulant oil, much esteemed as an  application to bruises, chronic rheu-
matism, itch, etc., and has some reputation as a carminative in flatulence,
flatulent colic, etc.  The bark, in decoction,  is said to be refrigerant and
exhilarating, and exceedingly useful in all  kinds of fever,  for allaying
excessive heat and uneasiness; a warm decoction is employed to produce
diaphoresis.  The decoction may be drank freely.
                           BENZOINUM.

                              Benzoin.

        Nat. Ord.—Styracaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.

              THE concrete  juice of styrax benzoin.
  Description. — Styrax  Benzoin is a tall tree of quick growth,  with
many strong,  round branches, covered with a hoary and  fine whitish
downy bark.   Its leaves are alternate, on short petioles, ovate-acuminate,
entire, smooth above, and tomentose beneath.  The petioles are  round,
striated, channeled, tomentose.  The flowers are in compound axillary
racemes, nearly the length of  the leaves, usually hang all on the same
side,  with  angular  downy  peduncles,  and  a  few,  tomentose,  oblong,
deciduous bracts.  The calyx is campanulate, downy, and minutely  five-
toothed ; the corolla  is longer  than  the calyx and is five-cleft, the seg-
ments are  linear, and obtuse, somewhat silky rather than tomentose.
Stamens ten ; filaments  connected  below into  a  tube  almost as long as
the calyx,  and bearing linear, erect anthers.   The ovary  is superior,
ovate-tomentose, with a filiform style and simple stigma.   The fruit is a
drupe of a globose form containing  one or two angular nuts, convex  on
one side, and concave on the other. 
Benzoinum.
277
  History.—This tree is a native of  Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Siam, etc.,
where  it is cultivated;  it is called Benzoin Tree or Benjamin Tree, and
furnishes the benzoin of commerce.  This resinous balsam is  obtained
by making incisions into the bark of trees six or seven years old, from
which the  balsam  exudes in the form of a thick, white, resinous juice,
which is allowed to remain for three  months before it is collected, when
new incisions  are  made.  There  are several varieties of benzoin, the
best of which  are  in tears of a whitish color, and united by a reddish-
brown  connecting  medium;  the  brown  or  blackish masses, which are
more common, usually contain  many impurities, and are inferior to the
tears.
  Benzoin is  firm, brittle, pulverizable,  of an  agreeable balsamic  odor
when rubbed, and of a sweetish, balsamic, somewhat acrid taste.  When
pure, it is wholly  soluble in alcohol or ether.   When heated, thick,
white, pungent fumes of benzoic acid are given out, which cause cough-
ing  when  inhaled.  In pulverizing  it, sneezing  is apt to  be  induced.
Water added to its alcoholic solution, precipitates it, rendering the liquor
milky, and which  has been  heretofore much used as  a cosmetic, under
the name of Virgin's Milk.   Its specific gravity is from 1.06 to 1.09.
It contains volatile oil, resin, a balsamic matter, aromatic extractive, with
a large proportion  of benzoic acid.

  Properties and  Uses.—Stimulant  and  expectorant, and has  some in-
fluence on  the sexual organs.  It enters  into the manufacture of elixir
paregoric,  and constitutes  the basis of Turlington's  and  many other
balsams, which exert a salutary influence in healing wounds; the tincture
is also employed to form a coating over the adhesive preparation so well
known as Court Plaster.   The fumes or vapor  inhaled  into the lungs,
has been strongly  recommended in chronic  laryngitis.  But principally
used to prepare benzoie acid, to improve the taste and odor  of other
medicines,  and in perfumery.
  A preparation has been recently used with some degree  of success in
hemorrhages, called Pagliari's Haimostatic  or Styptic.   It  is made by
boiling together for six hours in a glazed  earthen  vessel, Alum one
pound, Tincture of Benzoin eight ounces,  Water ten  pounds.   As the
water evaporates it must be constantly replaced by hot water, so as not
to interrupt the  ebullition, and stir the resinous mass  round constantly.
Then filter the fluid and keep in stoppered bottles.   It is limpid, color  of
champagne, styptic in taste, and  aromatic  in  odor.   White resin has
been successfully substituted for the benzoin.  Every  drop  of this fluid
poured into a glass containing human blood produces an instantaneous
magma; and by increasing the proportion of the styptic to the quantity of
the  blood, a dense, homogeneous, blackish mass results.  It is said to be
useful in all arterial and venous hemorrhages.  In applying it, lint and
bandages should be used to prevent the coagula which  forms from being 
278
Materia  Medica.
removed from the mouths of the  vessels ; an  application of them  for
twenty-four or forty-eight hours is sufficient.
   Off. Prep. — Acidum  Benzoicum ; Tinctura  Benzoini  Composita;
Unguentum Benzoini.
                      BERBERIS VULGARIS.

                             Barberry.

      Nat. Ord.—Berberidaceas.    Sex. Syst.—Hexandria Monogynia.

                         BARK AND BERRIES.

  Description.—Berberis  Vulgaris  is an erect,  deciduous shrub, from
three to eight feet high, with long,  bending branches which  are  dotted
with triple spines.   The leaves are  obovate-oval,  simple, closely serru-
late, crowded, forming fan-like groups, alternate, from one and a half to
two inches long, and about one-third as wide, tapering at their base into
the petioles, with small thorns at  their base, which are a transformation
of the primary leaves.  The fiowers are many, on slender and pendulous
racemes, yellow,  small, and succeeded by loose branches of bright-red
berries, of an oblong form, of a pleasant acidulous taste.
  History. — This shrub  is found  from Canada to Virginia, on hills,
mountains, and among rocks; it is rare in the west and in rich soils.  It
flowers in April and May, and ripens its fruit in June.  Berberine is its
active alkaline principle.
   Properties and Uses. — Tonic  and laxative.   Used extensively by
practitioners in the New England States, in all  cases where  tonics are
indicated, also  in jaundice, and  chronic diarrhea  and dysentery.   The
berries form  an agreeable acidulous draught, useful  as a refrigerant in
fevers,  also  beneficial in  dysentery,  cholera-infantum,  diarrhea,  etc.
The bark  is bitter and  astringent, and has been used with advantage as
a tonic, and has proved efficacious in the treatment of jaundice.   The
bark of the root is  the  most active; a teaspoonful of  the powder will
act  as  a purgative.   A decoction  of the bark or berries, has been found
of service as a wash or gargle  in aphthous sore-mouth, and in chronic
ophthalmia.
                           BERBERINA.

               THE ALKALINE PRINCIPLE OF  BARBERRY.

  Preparation.—An alcoholic extract  of the  Berberis Vulgaris is pre-
pared, to which water is added.  This throws down a pulverulent brown
substance; the  fluid is then poured off, and the substance dried; it  is 
Betula  Lenta.
279
then treated with alcohol, which takes up the Berberine, leaving a small
portion undissolved.  By evaporating the alcohol the berberine remains.
It resembles an extract,  and is of a brownish-yellow color, translucent,
with  the  smell of the root, and a  pure,  bitter taste; it becomes soft
in the  air.   It is  soluble in alcohol.  Berberine  may be obtained in
crystals.
   Properties and Uses.—Tonic and laxative, operating similar to a com-
bination of rhei and hydrastis.   Used  in  the  same cases  as  the root.
Dose, two to ten or even twenty  grains.  This article is not sufficiently
used by Eclectics.


                         BETULA LENTA.

                            Black  Birch.

          Nat. Ord.—Betulaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Monoscia Polyandria.

                                BARK.

   Description.—Betula Lenta, also known as Cherry Birch, Sweet Birch,
Mahogany Birch, etc., is  a  large tree growing from fifty to seventy feet
in hight,  with  a diameter of from two to three feet.  The leaves are
cordate-ovate, acuminate, acutely and finely doubly serrate, hairy on the
veins beneath, and on the petioles.   Fertile aments erect, elliptical, thick,
somewhat hairy;  sterile  aments  two to three inches long, longer than
the fertile, and  not so thick; lobes of the veiny scales nearly equal, obtuse,
diverging.

   History.—This is a well  known tree, growing in various parts of the
United  States.   The  trunk  is invested with a dark-brown or reddish
bark, which  becomes  rough  in  old  trees, and has, together with the
leaves,  an aromatic flavor  and  taste,  somewhat similar to Gaultheria
Procumbens.   The wood is of a reddish color,  strong, compact, and
takes a fine polish ; it  is much used in cabinet work.   The cambium is
used in the spring by boys, as a delicious morsel.   The bark is the part
used, and yields its properties to water.

   Properties  and  Uses.—Gently  stimulant, diaphoretic, and  astringent.
Used in warm  infusion wherever a stimulating diaphoretic is required,
also  in  diarrhea,  dysentery, cholera-infantum, etc.  In decoction or
syrup, it forms  an excellent tonic  to restore the tone of the bowels, after
an attack  of dysentery.   Said to  have been useful in gravel, and  female
obstructions. 
280
Materia  Medica.
                      BIDENS BIPINNATA.

                          Spanish Needles.

        Nat.  Ord.—Asteraceas.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Frustranea,

                          ROOT AND  SEEDS.

   Description.—Bidens Bipinnata is  an annual plant,  with a smooth,
branched stem growing from one to four feet high ;  the leaves are bipin-
nately parted, nearly smooth, petioled ;  the leaflets are ovate-lanceolate,
pinnatifid, mostly wedge-shaped at the base; heads of flowers on slender
peduncles, each with three or  four obscure, obovate, yellow rays;  outer
involucre of linear scales as long as the inner, and nearly as long as the
short, pale,  yellow rays ; achenia long  and slender, four-grooved and
angled,  nearly smooth, three or four awned, which  adhere to the  dress
and to the fleece of animals.
   History.—This is a  common  plant, growing in waste places  on dry
soils, flowering from July to September, and found from Connecticut to
Pennsylvania, and westward.

   The Bidens Frondosa, common Beggar-Tick, has a smooth, branching,
rather hairy stem, from two to six feet high; the leaves are three  to five,
divided; leaflets lanceolate,  pointed,  coarsely toothed,  mostly stalked;
outer  leafy involucre much longer than the  head,  ciliate below ;  rays
none ; flowers in  clusters at the end of the branches,  yellow;  achenia
wedge-obovate, two-awned, the margins ciliate with  upward bristles,
except near the summit.  This is a  common,  very troublesome weed,
growing in moist, cultivated fields throughout the United  States; the
achenia, as in  the other species, adhering  by their retrorsely-barbed
awns to clothes, etc.  It flowers from July to September.

   The Bidens Connata  (Bidens tripartita,)  Cuckold, or Swamp Beggar's
Tick,  has a  smooth stem, four-furrowed, with  opposite branches, and
grows from one to three  feet high.  The leaves are  lanceolate, opposite,
serrate,  acuminate, slightly connate at the  base, the lower ones mostly
trifid ; the  lateral divisions united at the  base, and decurrent on the
petiole ;  scales of the outer involucre longer  than the head, leafy, mostly
obtuse,  scarcely ciliate ; rays none ; achenia narrowly wedge-form, two,
three, or four-awned, and with downwardly-barbed margins.   Flowers
terminal, solitary, consisting only of  the  tubular,  yellow florets,  sur-
rounded by a leafy involucre.   This is  likewise a common weed found
in wet grounds, rich fields, swamps and ditches, from New England to
Missouri. It flowers in August.   The root and seeds of all these plants
are employed medicinally, and  may  be used in  decoction, infusion, or
tincture. 
Brayera  Anthelmintica.
281
  Properties and Uses.—Emmenagogue and expectorant;  the  seeds in
powder or tincture  have been successfully used in amenorrhea,  dysmen-
orrhea, and some other uterine  derangements; and an infusion of the
root has proved  beneficial in severe cough.  The Bidens Connata has
likewise been recommended in the above affections, also in palpitation of
the heart,  in which the infusion or decoction, drank freely through the
day, has been found effectual.   The Bidens Frondosa in infusion has
cured  several  severe cases of croup, even where they have been con-
sidered beyond aid.   A strong  infusion  of the plant, sweetened with
honey, was administered to the children, warm, in doses of a tablespoon-
ful or more every ten or fifteen  minutes, until it vomited.   A quantity
of mucous and membranous shreds were ejected, followed by immediate
relief; the children passed into a sleep, from which they awakened per-
fectly well.  In a few hours after the emetic operation  of the warm infu-
sion, it acted  as a cathartic.  The  leaves from which the infusion was
made, were, at the same time, placed in a piece  of flannel  with some
brandy added to them,  and laid over the chest and throat.  This plan is
also beneficial in colds,  acute bronchial and laryngeal attacks from expo-
sures  to cold, etc.
                 BRAYERA  ANTHELMINTICA.

                          Kousso.   Cossoo.

                  Nat. Ord.—Rosacea?.  Sex. Syst.—

                           THE FLOWERS.
   Description.—This  is a  tree growing  about twenty feet  high, with
round, rusty, tomentose-villose branches, marked  by the annular cica-
trices of the fallen leaves.  The leaves are crowded, alternate, interrupt-
edly imparipinnate, and sheathing at the  base ; leaflets  oblong, or ellip-
tical-lanceolate, acute, serrate, villose at the margin  and on the nerves
of the under surface.   Stipules adnate to the petiole, which is dilated at
the base, and amplexicaul.   Flowers dicecious,  small, greenish,  and
becoming purple ;  repeatedly dichotomous; the pedicles with an ovate
bract at the base.  The so-called male flowers may be regarded as her-
maphrodite flowers, inasmuch as the carpels are well developed.  The
female flowers are somewhat different in their structure.   The outer seg-
ments of the calyx are much more developed than  in the female flowers,
and are four or five times larger than those of the inner row, and are
placed somewhat below them ; the petals are entirely wanting; the sta-
mina are rudimentary and sterile.  The ripe fruits are unknown.

  History.—This plant was introduced into notice  by a  pharmacien of
Paris,  and its properties as an anthelmintic were investigated by the 
282
Materia  Medica.
Academy of Medicine, as early as  1847 ; who, with the Academy  of
Sciences, made a favorable report.   It grows in Abyssinia, the flowers
being the parts of the  plant  used;  they are  reduced to  a fine powder,
which is brownish, like jalap,  bitter, somewhat nauseous, and an odor
similar to scammony.   The plant is  named in honor to Dr. Brayer, who
first made its virtues known in Europe.   Bruce, in his travels, vol. vii,
appendix, gives a minute description of the plant, and calls it, in testi-
mony of esteem for a friend, " Banksia Abyssinica."  Dr. Kirk, in  the
appendix to the second volume of the " Highlands of Ethiopia," by Sir
W. C. Harris, calls it " Hagenia  Abyssinica,"  and states "that a cold
infusion of the dried flowers and capsules, constitutes the famous drasti-
cum purgans and anthelminticum of the Abyssinians."
  Properties and  Uses. — Purgative and anthelmintic.  Used by  the
Abyssinians for tapeworm, to which they are very subject, and it  is said
they will not travel without having some of the Kousso with them. The
dose of  the flowers in powder is a small handful, or about four drachms
and a half, which is to be macerated in  about  three gills of lukewarm
water for fifteen minutes.  The infusion,  with the powder suspended in
it, is taken  either in  one, two or three doses, quickly  following each
other.   It is recommended that lemon-juice,  or tamarind water, should
be taken freely before and after the  Kousso.   The patient must be pre-
pared by low diet for one or two days previously, and by a dose of castor
oil, or  other purgative, and  the  Kousso is  to  be taken on an empty
stomach before breakfast.  The clear infusion has the color, and a  some-
what similar taste, to very weak senna tea. Its operation is safe, speedy,
and most effectual, rarely causing any annoyance or uneasiness, except
a slight nausea,  and this but seldom ; occasionally emesis takes  place,
or diuresis.   A gentle cathartic after its operation is also advisable. As
far as it has been used, it has not failed to kill and expel the  worm.


                   BUXUS  SEMPERVIRENS.

                                Box.

      Nat Ord. — Euphorbiaceas.  Sex. Syst. — Moncecia Tetrandria,

                            THE LEAVES.
  Description. — Buxus Sempervirens  is  a small, dense-leaved,  hard-
wooded, evergreen tree.  The  leaves are  ovate, opposite, deep shining
green, becoming red in the autumn, quite smooth and entire, with the
cuticle of the underside readily stripping off; petioles and young branches
slightly downy; flowers aggregate, axillary, pale-yellow.  Capsule glob-
ular,  three-horned, tricoccous, six-seeded, bursting elastically.   Seeds
parallel, oblong, slightly  compressed, externally rounded. 
Calendula  Officinalis.
283
  History.—This is an exotic though generally well-known plant, grow-
ing on dry chalky hills in Europe, and the west of Asia.  One variety
of it,  the B. Suffruticosa, Dwarf-box, with obovate leaves, and a stem
scarcely woody, and which is much  esteemed for borders along the
walks of gardens, possesses similar medical virtues.   It is of very slow
growth, a  tree eight feet  high  must be  one hundred years old.   The
wood is yellow, very hard, and much used by wood-engravers for wood-
cuts, also for other purposes.  The leaves, which are the parts used, are
bitter and nauseous,  and impart their properties to water  or alcohol.

  Properties  and Uses. — Cathartic,  sudorific, alterative, and anthel-
mintic.  It may be used  in syrup or  extract, in all diseases where an
alterative  is required ;  said to be an equivalent of  Stillingia in  syphilis,
but I have used the  plant somewhat extensively, and do  not consider it
near as effectual.   In  doses of ten or twenty grains of the powdered
leaves, it proves an  excellent vermifuge.   The dose of a strong  decoc-
tion or syrup, is from half an ounce to an ounce,  three or four times a
day.   And in combination with the  Stillingia and Corydallis, in  the form
of syrup,  it forms one of  the best antisyphilitic remedies  known in prac-
tice.  Reputed to possess antispasmodic virtues, and to have been bene-
ficially used in  epilepsy, chorea, hysteria, etc.,  but requires further
corroboration.   Chips of the wood are said to  have the same properties,
and have been prescribed in syphilitic diseases, and chronic rheumatism.
A fetid empyreumatic oil, oleum buxi was formerly prepared, but the use
of which has become superseded by the preparations of Guaiacum; it
has, however, been successfully used in  toothache.  Camels  who  eat
the leaves are said to become poisoned.
                   CALENDULA  OFFICINALIS.

                         Garden Mary gold.

        Nat.  Ord.—Asteracea?.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Necessaria.

                      THE LEAVES AND FLOWERS.

  Description.—Calendula Officinalis has a fibrous, annual root, with a
stem about a foot high, having  many patent dichotomous, or sometimes
trichotomous branches, striated, green, succulent, hispido-pubescent. The
leaves are alternate, oblong, acute, mucronate, sessile, somewhat succu-
lent, broad, and a little cordate at the base, the margins quite entire, and
often scabrous-ciliate.   Flower-heads large,  terminal, solitary upon each
branch, of a rich, full golden yellow, deeper  and brighter previous to
their full expansion.   Involucre of many nearly equal, appressed, linear-
subulate,  pilose-hispid leaves or scales, not one-third  so  long as  the 
284
Materia  Medica.
radiant florets, the apices a little recurved.   Achenia carinate, muricate,
incurved.   Corollas of the ray ligulate, female tridentate, broadly linear,
the lower tubular portion hairy.  Ovary singularly boat-shaped, curved
like a horse-shoe, large, green, downy within, having a thickened mar-
gin, more  or less  tuberculated  on  the back.  Florets of the center all
tubular, small, male, and consequently sterile ; the mouth five-cleft, base
hairy.   Abortive ovaries cylindrical, downy, green.   Receptacle dotted.
  History.—This is a well-known garden plant, with a feeble, aromatic,
not very unpleasant smell,  and a bitter, rough, saline taste.   The leaves
and flowers are generally used, and impart their active properties to alco-
hol, or boiling water.
  Properties and  Uses.—Slightly stimulant and diaphoretic.  Used for
similar purposes with saffron,  but less active.  Has been reputed anti-
spasmodic,  deobstruent, and  emmenagogue, and  recommended in low
forms of fever,  scrofula, jaundice, amenorrhea,  cancer,  etc.   Used in
infusion, or in the form of  extract,  from four to six grains, three or four
times a day ; also applied  locally to cancerous and  other ulcers.   Pro-
bably over-estimated.   Dr. Wm. J. Clary of Monroeville,  Ohio, writes
me as follows, in relation to this plant:  "As a local remedy, after sur-
gical operations, it has no equal in  the  Materia Medica.  Its forte is its
influence on lacerated wounds, without regard to the general health of
the patient, or  the weather.   If applied  constantly, gangrene will not
follow, and I might say there will be but little,  if  any danger of tetanus.
When applied to a wound, it is seldom that any suppuration follows, the
wound healing by replacement or first intention.   It has been tested by
several practitioners, and by one, is used  after every surgical operation
with the happiest effect.  You need not fear to use it in wounds, and  I
would not  be without it, for a hundred  times its cost.   It is to be made
into a saturated tincture with  whisky diluted with one-third its  quantity
of water ;  lint is saturated with this,  applied to the parts, and  renewed
as often as it becomes dry."
                              CALX.

                               Lime.

  Preparation.—Lime does not exist in the pure or caustic state in nature,
but is  obtained  from some form of the native carbonate, which is cal-
cined by an exposure to strong heat; the carbonic acid is thus driven
off, and the lime  remains.   It  is usually procured from common lime-
stone,  which, however, contains several impurities.  A purer lime  may
be obtained from chalk;  and when intended for nice chemical operations
white marble or oyster-shells should be used.   These  may be  reduced
to small fragments, placed  in  a covered crucible, and  exposed to a full 
Calx.
285
red heat for three hours; after the lime has become cool, it should be at
once secured in well-closed vessels, to prevent it from absorbing carbonic
acid from the atmosphere,  which it does very speedily.
   History.—Lime is a grayish-white, brittle, earthy-like substance, of a
strong, alkaline,  caustic taste, infusible, except under  the  compound
blow-pipe, of the specific gravity  2.3.   It rapidly absorbs moisture and
carbonic acid from the atmosphere, reducing the air to a state of perfect
dryness, and falls into a white powder, which is a mixture  of carbonate
and hydrate.  It has an alkaline reaction.   If carbonic acid be present,
the effervescence will take place on dissolving the lime in muriatic acid,
but not without.  Lime is not readily soluble in water, it requiring about
seven hundred times its weight of temperate water for  entire solution ;
hot water dissolves it less readily.   A thick liquid, called Milk of Lime
is made by mixing lime with an excess of water.  When water is added
to lime, it cracks and becomes reduced to powder, with the evolution of
heat.  Hydrate  of lime  or slaked lime is prepared  by adding water to
quicklime, by small  quantities at a time, until it falls to powder;  it is
white, pulverulent, and much less caustic than lime ;  it  is  used princi-
pally for preparing chlorinated lime.
   Lime  is the oxide of calcium, and consists of one  equivalent of cal-
cium 20.5, and one of oxygen 8, = 28.5.  It forms a  very deliquescent
salt by reaction with muriatic acid, and a sparingly soluble one with sul-
phuric, by which  it  may be  determined from other alkaline earths.  It
is incompatible with all acids, acidulous, metallic, and  ammoniacal salts,
borates, alkaline carbonates,  and astringent vegetable  infusions.
   Properties and Uses.—Internally, see Aqua Calais.  Externally, as an
escharotic.   Mixed with caustic potassa it forms the Potassa cum Calce,
a powerful caustic, for cauterizing the neck of the uterus, or other parts.
This caustic, also known as Vienna powder or paste, is made by reducing
caustic potassa one ounce  and a half, and  quicklime  two  ounces, each
separately, to powder in a heated mortar;  then mix them carefully and
rapidly, and keep the mixture in a wide-mouthed bottle with a ground
stopper.   In using this  caustic, the powder must  be moistened with a
little  alcohol, so as to reduce it to a soft paste, which  is to be applied to
the part to be cauterized.    In  this  case, the potassa  only acts  upon
a  circumscribed  portion  of  skin, instead  of spreading, as  common
caustic potassa generally does:  but to bound the space still more accu-
rately, it may be surrounded by a ring of diachylon plaster.   Dr. Filhos
has prepared a caustic of the same agents, which is more easily used, it
is  called the Caustic of Filhos.  It is made by fusing together six ounces
of caustic  potassa, and three ounces of quicklime ; the  mixture is poured
into leaden cylinders inclosed in glass tubes, and which are to be sealed
afterward at each end.
   In cases where diaphoresis is desirable, without disturbing the patient,
it may be effected as follows: Take a piece of lime about the size of a 
286
Materia Medica.
Sicily orange, wrap around it a wet rag, but not too wet.   Around this
wrap  several thicknesses  of dry muslin  or  cloth.  Place one thus pre-
pared on each side of the patient, and by both thighs ; it will soon induce
copious perspiration.
   Off. Prep.—Aqua Calcis ;  Liquor Calcis ; Potassa Cum Calce.
                           CAMPHORA.

                             Camphor.

       Nat. Ord.—Lauraceas.   Sex. Syst.—Enneandria Monogynia.

  Camphor is a peculiar concrete substance derived from Laurus Cam-
phora and purified by sublimation.  It is chiefly brought to this country
from Canton, in the crude state, and undergoes purification before it can
be used for medicinal purposes.
  Description.—Laurus Camphora is an evergreen  tree of considerable
size, with a trunk straight below,  but divided above into many drooping,
smooth branches,  covered with a greenish  bark.   The leaves are alter-
nate, on long footstalks, ovate-lanceolate, somewhat  coriaceous, entire,
smooth,  bright-green and shining  above, paler beneath, triple-nerved,
with a depressed gland  opening by a pore at the axils  of the principal
lateral veins beneath, and  two or three inches in length.   Petioles an inch
to an inch and a half long, slender, smooth.  Panicles axillary and ter-
minal, corymbose, naked.   Leaf-buds scaly.   Flowers small,  white,
smooth externally, pedicelled, and in  clusters.
   History.—The Camphor  tree is a  native of Japan,  China, the East
Indies, etc.  It is  an aromatic tree, all parts of it yielding the odor of
camphor.  Camphor is  obtained in Japan by cutting the wood, roots, etc.,
of the tree in  small pieces, boiling them in water,  in large iron vessels,
over which are placed earthen capitals, containing rice-straw cones.  The
heat sublimes the  camphor, which rises into the capital and  condenses
upon the straw.  In China, the process is somewhat different; the pieces
of the tree are boiled  in water until  the  camphor concretes upon the
stick used in stirring; the liquor is then strained and  allowed  to cool,
when the camphor hardens.  This is then  placed in alternate layers with
finely  powdered dry earth, in a  copper  basin, on  which  another  is
inverted, and heat being  applied, the camphor sublimes and  adheres  to
the upper vessel.  In this state it is impure, and of  a dirty-grayish color,
being known as Crude  Camphor; it  is re-sublimed for pharmaceutical
and other uses.
   Camphor  has a crystalline texture; white, translucent and  shining,
brittle, but somewhat elastic, of  a powerful, penetrating, diffusible odor,
and of a pungent, bitter,  cooling taste.  It cannot  be pulverized alone, 
Camphora.
287
but is easily so by the aid of a few drops of alcohol.  It slowly evapor-
ates when exposed to the air, and is soluble in alcohol, ether, fixed and
volatile oils, and acetic, nitric, and sulphuric acids.   Nitric acid converts
it into camphoric acid and oil of camphor;  sulphuric, into artificial  tan-
nin and charcoal.  Resins and fats, when heated with it, unite in all pro-
portions.  By the application of polarized light, the smallest portion of
natural camphor may be distinguished from the artificial camphor (hy-
drochlorate of camphene).  If  small  fragments of each be placed sepa-
rately on glass slides, and a drop of alcohol added to each, they dissolve
and speedily re-crystallize.  If the crystallization of the natural camphor
is watched by means  of the microscope and  polarized  light, a most
beautiful display of colored crystals is seen, while with the artificial cam-
phor nothing of the kind is witnessed.   Camphor is lighter than  water,
and keeps up a constant rotatory motion when small fragments are  placed
on that fluid.  It volatilizes at ordinary temperatures, melts at 288°, and
boils at 400°.   It is considered to be an oxide of  camphogene, or cam-
phene, which is composed  of ten equivalents  of  carbon  60, and eight
of hydrogen 8=68.  With one  equivalent  of oxygen,  (Cio Hs 0) cam-
phene forms camphor;  with four, hydrated camphoric acid;  and with
half an equivalent of hydrochloric acid, artificial camphor.
   When camphor is triturated with dragon's blood,  guaiacum, galbanum,
or assafcetida, the mixture preserves  the pilular consistence indefinitely.
With benzoin, tolu, mastic, and ammoniac, the mixture becomes soft, by
exposure  to  the air.   With olibanum, gamboge,  euphorbium,  amber,
and myrrh, the mixture remains pulverulent, though grumous.   Assafce-
tida, galbanum,  sagapenum, tolu,  dragon's blood, olibanum, mastic,
benzoin, tacamahac, guaiacum, and ammoniac, destroy to a greater or
less extent the odor of camphor.
   Properties and Uses.—In large doses camphor is a  narcotic and irri-
tant ; in small ones, sedative, anodyne, antispasmodic, diaphoretic, and
anthelmintic.  It appears to influence chiefly the cerebral and nervous
systems, through the agency of which it affects the circulation.  Mucous
membranes with which  it comes in contact are irritated directly, and
acceleration of the circulation may ensue  as a secondary effect.   It is
used to allay nervous excitement, subdue pain, arrest spasm, and some-
times  to induce  sleep.   In the delirium,   watchfulness,  tremors,  and
starting of the tendons in typhoid conditions, it is  of much utility as a
nervo-stimulant.   In inflammatory affections, as remittent and intermit-
tent fevers,  acute rheumatism, etc., it acts  beneficially as a diaphoretic
and sedative ;  and is  also  valuable  in gout,  neuralgia, dysmenorrhea,
after-pains, puerperal convulsions, and painful diseases of  the urinary
organs, acting as  a sedative, anodyne, and antispasmodic.  It is often
advantageously combined with opium in chordee, and hysteric nympho-
mania, and all irritations of the  sexual organs.   By some physicians it is
said to act as an aphrodisiac,  exciting the urinary and genital organs 
288
Materia Medica.
causing a burning sensation along the urethra, and voluptuous dreams ,
by others again, it is used as an antaphrodisiac, and to allay urinary and
genital irritations.   It is said to be an antidote to poisoning by strychnia.
An oleaginous injection of camphor in the early stage of gonorrhea, often
allays urethral  irritation;  also, the tenesmus from ascarides and dysen-
tery, when injected  into the rectum.   It enters into many embrocations
and liniments for rheumatic, neuralgic, and deep-seated pains, cynanche
tonsillaris, contusions from blows, sprains, chilblains, chronic cutaneous
diseases, and as a stimulant  for indolent and  gangrenous ulcers.  The
vapor of camphor, inhaled into the lungs has been found beneficial  in
asthma  and spasmodic cough ;  and the powder may be used as a snuff
for the relief of nervous headache, and catarrh in its commencing stage.
The best form of using this agent is the aqua- camphorae.  The admin-
istration  of opium will best counteract the injurious effects of an over-
dose of  camphor.   Dose of the powder, one to ten grains. When given
in the  solid form, it is  capable of producing ulceration of  the  gastric
mucous membrane.
   Off. Prep. — Aqua  Camphorae;  Emplastrum  Plumbi  Compositum;
Emplastrum Resinae Compositum ; Emplastrum Calefaciens ; Linimen-
tum Camphori  Compositum ; Linimentum Saponis Camphoratum ; Lini-
mentum  Olei Compositum ; Linimentum Capsici Compositum ; Linimen-
tum Opii ;  Mistura  Camphorae Composita ; Mistura Copaibae  Composita;
Pulvis Ipecacuanhae et Opii; Pilulae Camphorae Compositae ; Tinctura
Camphorae;  Tinctura  Camphorae  Composita;   Tinctura  Serpentariae
Composita; Tinctura Opii Acetata; Unguentum Plumbi Compositum.
                        CANELLA  ALBA.

                              Canella.

  Nat.  Ord.—Meliaceas or Canelleaa.  Sex. Syst.—Dodecandria Monogynia.

                               BARK.
  Description.—Canella Alba is a tree with a very straight  and upright
stem, growing from ten  to fifty feet in hight, and branched only near the
top.  It is covered with a whitish bark; the inner bark is thick, smooth,
pale, with a  pungent, aromatic taste, dry and crumbling between the
teeth.  The branches are erect and spreading; the leaves are petiolated,
irregularly alternate, oblong, obtuse,  entire, of a  dark-green color,
shining and  coriaceous,  dotted when  young, opake when old.  The
flowers grow at the extremities of the branches in clusters, they are
small,  of a violet color, and  are seldom  fully expanded.   The calyx is
five-leaved and  persistent; the  sepals  are  roundish, smooth,  concave,
and membranous.  The petals are much longer than the sepals, oblong, 
Canna.
289
erect, concave,  thick, deciduous, two somewhat  narrower  than the
others.   Stamens monadelphous, forming an urceolate tube, to the outer-
side of which the  anthers adhere.  The ovary is superior, ovate, three-
celled, bearing a  cylindrical  style with  three  convex,  blunt stigmas.
The fruit is  an oblong,  fleshy, smooth,  black  berry, which is three-
seeded, or by abortion one-celled, and one or  two-seeded.  The seeds
are exalbuminous,  with linear  cotyledons.
  History.—A South American  tree; the bark is  of  a pale orange
yellow color  externally, and yellowish white on the inner surface, with
an  aromatic  odor, and a warm, bitterish, very pungent taste.  Alcohol
extracts  its active  properties,  giving  a bright-yellow tincture, which is
rendered milky by the addition of water.  It pulverizes readily, yielding
a yellowish-white  powder.  By distillation with water, a large  propor-
tion of a fragrant, essential  oil is  obtained, of a reddish or  yellowish
color.   It  contains  two oils,  mannite,  bitter  extractive, resin,  gum,
starch, albumen, and various saline substances.
   Properties and  Uses.—Aromatic stimulant and gentle tonic.   Useful
in  debilitated conditions of the digestive  organs;  generally prescribed
in  combination.  In the West Indies it is used as a condiment, and has
been advised in scurvy.   Some smokers add this bark to their smoking-
tobacco to remove the unpleasant odor from the tobacco, and  to  impart
a degree of fragrance to their smoking-rooms.
                             CANNA.

                           Canna Starch.

  History.—Canna Starch, called by the French " Tous les Mois," is the
fecula of an undetermined species  of  Canna.   Some suppose  it to be
obtained from the root or rhizome  of the Canna Coccinea, and others of
the Canna  Edulis.  Both suppositions, however, are very uncertain.
   Canna Starch  comes  from the  West  India  island, St. Kitts.  Be its
origin what it may, it is an excellent arrowroot.   It is in the form of a
light, beautifully  white powder, with a  satiny appearance, very unlike
the ordinary forms of fecula; it looks more like potato-starch than any
other variety  of fecula,  and its granules  are  larger, being  from the
300th to the 200th of an inch in length.  Under the microscope these
granules are oval or oblong, usually more or less ovate,  with numerous,
regular, closely set, and unequally distant concentric rings, and a circu-
lar  hilum,  usually  at  the smaller  extremity, and occasionally double,
from which proceed the cracks observable in some of the larger grains.
This starch has the ordinary chemical properties of common starch, and
forms, when prepared with boiling water, a stiff jelly.
           19 
290
Materia  Medica.
  Properties and Uses.—Canna starch forms a nutritious and wholesome
food for infants and invalids.   It may be pi»epared in the  same manner
as arrowroot, and may be used in the same cases.   By many it is pre-
ferred to any other kind of arrowroot.
                       CANNABIS  SATIVA.

                               Hemp.

  Nat. Ord.—UrticaceaB or Cannabinaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Dioecia Pentandria.

                     the dried tops and  resin.
  Description.—Cannabis Sativa is an annual plant, growing about three
feet  high, covered with a very fine, rough  pubescence, scarcely visible
to the naked  eye.   The stem is erect, branched, bright-green, angular.
The  leaves are  alternate or opposite,  on long,  lax petioles, digitate,
scabrous, with linear-lanceolate, sharply-serrated leaflets, tapering into a
long, smooth, entire  point; stipules subulate.   Flowers in axillary clus-
ters,  with subulate bracts; the males lax and  drooping, branched and leaf-
less  at  the base; females erect, simple,  and leafy at the base.  Calyx
of male, downy;  of female, covered with short brownish glands.  Ache-
nium ovate, one-seeded;  seeds roundish-ovate,  somewhat compressed,
about the eighth of an inch long, of a shining gray color, inodorous, and
of a  disagreeable, oily, sweetish taste.

  History.—Hemp is a native of Persia and the northern parts of India,
whence it has been introduced into many other  countries.   The hemp
of this country is  identical with the eastern plant in its botanical charac-
ters,  but differs  somewhat from it in its physical qualities, the  India
plant being more powerful  in  its action on the system, and which is
probably owing  to  the  influence  of  climate,  cultivation, etc.   In  the
eastern countries  an  infusion of hemp is much employed as an intoxicat-
ing  drink; and  it is smoked  the same  as tobacco,  with  which it is
frequently mixed.  An alcoholic extract of the dried tops  is the form
employed in medicine, which is made  by passing the vapor of boiling
alcohol from the boiler of a still into the dried plant contained in a con-
venient  receptacle, and evaporating the condensed liquor at  a tempera-
ture  not exceeding  150° F.    The concrete resinous exudation of  the
plant is known in India by the name of Churrus.

  Properties and Uses.—Narcotic, and may be used in  place of opium
in all cases where that drug disagrees with the patient.   The churrus is
said  to alleviate  pain, exhilarate the  spirits, increase the appetite, pro-
duce decided aphrodisia, and  cause sleep; and in large doses, to occasion
intoxication, a peculiar kind of delirium and  catalepsy.   The preparation 
Cantharis Vesica toria.                   291
most used is the alcoholic extract; if of good quality, half a grain or a grain
will affect the system, while that of the shops will require from ten grains
to half an ounce.   Alarming effects have been produced by over-doses.
Very favorable reports have been made of its effects in cholera, neural-
gia, rheumatism, tetanus, and insanity.   A tincture of the extract, made
by dissolving three grains in a fluidrachm of proof spirit has likewise
been  used with advantage — the dose to correspond  with  that of  the
extract.  Ten  drops  of it every half hour have been administered in
cholera;  and have been successfully employed in menorrhagia, which
had resisted all ordinary means for months;  it has also proved service-
able in uterine hemorrhage.  The following is said to be a certain cure
for  gonorrhea: take, while  in blossom, equal parts of tops of the male
and female hemp,  Cannabis Sativa, bruise them in a mortar, and express
the juice, to this add an equal  portion  of alcohol.   Dose, from one to
three drops every  two or three hours.  The green plant collected in  the
spring, and  two or  three twigs placed in or between beds, will, it is
asserted,  certainly and effectually cause  bedbugs to remove from  the
room in which they are used.
                  CANTHARIS VESICATORIA.

                             Cantharides.

  Cantharis.   Class Insecta.  Order Coleoptera, Linn.—Family Trachelides.
 Tribe Cantharideas, Latreille.

   Gen. Ch.  Tarsi entire ; nails bifid ; head not produced into a rostrum ;
 elytra flexible, covering the whole abdomen, linear semicylindric ;  wings
 perfect; maxillce with two membranaceous laciniae, the external one acute
 within, subuncinate ;  antennae longer  than the  head and thorax, recti-
 linear ; first joint largest,  the second transverse, very short; maxillary
 palpi larger at tip.—Say.
  History.—There are a number of insects inhabiting various sections
 of the world which possess  acrid properties, and which, when applied
 to  the  skin  produce vesication; the most common in use  are  those
 under present consideration, Spanish Flies,  or Cantharides, the Cantharis
 Vesicaloria of Latreille, Meloe Vesicatorius  of Linnaeus, or Lytta Vesica-
 toria, and Cantharis officinalis of other naturalists.  At what period they
 were introduced into the practice of medicine is a matter of uncertainty.
 The Spanish fly is a native of Europe, and is imported into this country
 from Messina and St. Petersburg.   Those from Russia are the best,
 and may be known by their  greater size,  and somewhat copper color.
 This insect may be distinguished from other analogous ones, by present-
ing  two wing covers of a shining-green color, long and  flexible, which
cover two membranous wings of a brownish color; the head is  large 
292
Materia Medica.
and heart-shaped, having two thread-like, black, jointed  antennae ;  the
thorax  is short and  quadrilateral, and  along the head  and chest  is a
longitudinal furrow.   The fly is about six or ten lines long, and weighs
about two grains and a half.   They have a peculiar, disagreeable odor,
and a faint resinous taste, followed  by acridity.   In  the countries which
they inhabit they are found  on certain  trees as  the elder, plum, rose,
white poplar, privet, elm, lilac, ash,  and honeysuckle, the leaves of which
serve them as food.   In the  state  of larva, they inhabit  the earth,  and
prey upon the roots of plants.  In  the  months  of May and June, they
come forth in swarms in the  form of flies, and fill those trees and shrubs
which they prefer.  At this season they are collected, which is attempted
at dawn, when they are torpid from the cold of the night; to undertake
their removal in the  day-time would be a serious measure.   Those who
gather them being protected with masks and gloves, shake them from
the trees and receive them into  sheets  spread below;  they are then
immersed in vinegar or exposed to the vapor of boiling vinegar, spirit,
or turpentine, for the purpose of  killing them,  after which  they  are
quickly dried in the  sun, or  in  heated apartments, and when perfectly
dried, are put into casks or boxes lined with paper, and  closed so as to
exclude as much as  possible the atmospheric moisture.  It abounds  the
most  in  Spain, Italy, Southern France, Southern Russia, Sicily, and is
found to some extent in all the South of Europe  and in Western Asia.
  When dried the  flies present  the form and color above  described,
together with the disagreeble odor of the  living insect,  and an acrid,
burning, and  urinous taste.   They  are  easily pulverized, the powder
presenting a  dirty grayish-brown color, interspersed with  numerous
shining-green  particles, the fragments of the feet, head, and wing covers.
And as these particles resist the process of putrefaction for a longtime,
they may consequently be detected in the  stomach many months after
death occurring  from the internal administration of cantharides.  When
kept perfectly dry, and well  closed, the vesicating property of the flies
may be preserved for many  years.  Hence  they should  always be kept
in well stoppered bottles, and powdered only as  required.   If purchased
in powder they may have lost their activity, or  suffered  from  adultera-
tion with euphorbium, or some other insects.   To preserve  them from
insects, various means have  been  advised, as the introduction of  a  few
lumps of camphor into the   vessel  containing them, or the  addition of
carbonate of  ammonia, or a  few drops of  strong acetic acid.  Exposing
them for half an  hour in glass bottles,  to the  heat  of  boiling water,
destroys the insects and eggs, without impairing  the virtues of the flies;
of course they must not be allowed to come in  contact with the water.
The properties of the fly are much  diminished by the insects which feed
upon them.
  Cantharides powder yields its active properties to boiling water, acetic
acid, alcohol, proof spirit, ether, the fixed and volatile oils.  The active 
Cantharis Vesicatoria.
293
 principle is a white, crystalline substance, termed Cantharidin, which is
 soluble in ether, acetic acid, fixed and volatile oils, and in alkaline solu-
 tions.  It is in small, white, pearly prisms, which are neutral, insoluble
 in water  and cold alcohol, but soluble in ether, alkaline solutions, acetic
 acid, the oils, and  in  boiling  alcohol which  deposits it upon coolino-; it
 fuses at 210°, volatilizes at  a higher heat without  decomposition, and
 evaporates slowly at atmospheric temperatures.  It is said to exist prin-
 cipally in the trunk and soft parts of  the body, and may be obtained by
 exhausting powdered cantharides with cold  rectified spirit, by percola-
 tion, concentrating the tincture till most of the alcohol is expelled, and
 allowing  the residue to rest for a long time until crystals form.   It may
 be freed from impurities by elutriation with  a  little cold  rectified spirit,
 which scarcely acts on crystallized cantharidin; and  it may be obtained
 quite pure by re-dissolving them  in boiling rectified spirit, adding animal
 charcoal, and re-crystallizing them by rest and cooling.   Ether is, how-
 ever, preferred to alcohol in preparing these crystals, as it dissolves less
 of the green oil, which is very difficult to separate.  The composition
 of cantharidin  is carbon  61.68 per  cent., hydrogen  6.04, and oxygen
 32.28, or Cio He Oi.
   Cantharides are found to contain in addition to their active principle, a
 green oil, insoluble  in water, soluble  in alcohol, and  inert as a vesica-
 tory ; a black matter, soluble in water, insoluble in alcohol, and inert; a
 yellow viscid matter, soluble in  water and alcohol, and  inert as a vesicant;
 a fatty matter insoluble  in  alcohol; phosphates of lime and  magnesia,
 acetic acid, etc.  Although  cantharidin is insoluble  in water and cold
 alcohol, yet  the decoction and tincture of cantharides possess the active
 properties of the insect, which is owing to the presence  of the yellow
 matter combined with it.  The best  menstruum for  cantharides  is sul-
 phuric ether, which dissolves only the active constituents.

   Properties and Uses.—In large doses, narcotic and irritant; in medi-
 cinal doses, stimulant and diuretic.  In large doses, its use is dangerous,
 being attended  often by violent inflammation of the alimentary canal and
 urinary organs, strangury, irritation of the sexual organs,  in the female,
 abortion ;  also,  headache, delirium, convulsions and coma. Twenty-four
 grains of the powder or one ounce of the tincture have produced alarm-
 ing  symptoms.   There  is  no known  antidote to its poisonous effects,
 which must be  treated on general principles.  Medicinally,  they are
 sometimes given in chronic gonorrhea, gleet, leucorrhea,  seminal weak-
 ness, paralysis and  chronic inflammation of the  bladder.  They  have
 also been  reputed useful in  the anasarcous  swellings  succeeding scarla-
 tina, diabetes, scaly  cutaneous eruptions,  chronic eczema, incontinence
of urine,  amenorrhea, etc.   Thirty drops of solution  of potassa,  given
every hour, is said to be an effectual remedy in  cantharidal strangury. 
294
Materia Medica.
Dose, of powdered cantharides, half a grain to two grains.  (See Tinc-
tura Cantharidis.)
   Externally,  cantharides  cause redness,  vesication,  suppuration  or
sloughing,  according to  the length of  contact with the integuments.
Their most general use is to produce vesication.  Blisters are sometimes
beneficial in tic-douloreux, sciatica, local chronic inflammations, diseases
of the brain, chest and abdomen, to excite the languid action of vessels,
in recession  of exanthematous affections,  and to  rouse  from general
defective sensibility, as in typhoid fever.  In their application to children,
much care  should be  observed, especially in typhoid conditions, exan-
thema, and where a tendency to  sloughing exists.   A piece of white
paper soaked with the Cantharidin, which  is greenish and liquid, laid
on the part, and covered with a compress, and confined by means of a
bandage, will vesicate in three or four hours.  A vesicating oil has been
recommended  by E.  Dupuy,  prepared  as follows: To  one  part of
pulverized  cantharides add in a close vessel, a mixture of chloroform
and  castor oil  of each, by weight, one and a half parts; after some
hours transfer  the ingredients  to  a glass  apparatus, and  displace the
liquid in the usual way;  it will  amount  to about  two-thirds of the
original bulk of the liquid employed.   A few drops of this vesicating oil
applied  to  the arm of an adult will produce a perfect blister  in about
eight hours.  It is easy of  application on any surface, holds the vesicat-
ing agent free  from the disagreeable concomitants of the ordinary fly-
blister, and  retains the cantharidin in  a soluble  state.   Its action will
probably be  favored by the  use of oil-silk over the application of it to
the skin.
   Off. Prep.—Tinctura Cantharidis; Emplastrum Cantharidis.
                     CANTHARIS VITTATA.

                             Potato Fly.

   Description.—The Potato Fly is found principally in the middle and
southern States; it makes its appearance in July and August, and feeds
upon the potato plant.  Some seasons the fly exists in great numbers.  It
resembles the Spanish Fly, though  somewhat smaller, being about five
or six lines in length.  Its head is of a light-red color, with dark spots
upon  the top ;  the antennae are  black;  the elytra or wing covers are
also black, with  a central yellow longitudinal line, and  yellow margins;
the thorax is black, with three  yellow lines; and the abdomen and legs
are covered  with  an ash-colored down.    During the  season  of  their
appearance, they may be found on the plant in the morning and evening,
but during the  heat of the day, they descend into the soil.   They may 
Caoutchouc
295
be collected by shaking them from the plant into hot water,  after which
they should be carefully dried in the sun.
  History. — The Potato Fly, though not  so  much employed as the
Spanish Fly, is fully equal, if not superior to it as a vesicant; indeed, its
effects are found to take place more promptly than with the foreign insect,
which may, probably, be owing to its greater freshness.
  There are several other species  of blistering fly in the United States,
which are, probably, not at all inferior to cantharides ; as the Cantharis
Cinerea, or ash-colored cantharis which inhabits  the northern and middle
States ;  the  C. Atrata, or  black cantharis, common to the northern and
middle States, and likewise  found in Barbary; the C. Marginata of the
middle  and  eastern States, and which feeds on the various species of
clematis, and also  on the cimicifuga; and likewise  the C. Alvida, C.
Nuttalli, etc.
  Properties and  Uses.—The vesicating property of  all these insects, is
very likely owing to the presence  of the  same proximate principle, and
therefore  they may be applied to  the  same purposes, and administered
in the same doses and preparations as the Spanish  Cantharis.
                          CAOUTCHOUC.

                    Gum Elastic.  Indian Rubber.

  Nat. Ord.—Euphorbiaceas.  Urticaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Syngenesia.

                              the gum.
  Description.—The  tree (Ficus Elastica) from which Caoutchouc is
obtained has a trunk from two feet  to two-and-a-half in diameter, and
from forty to sixty feet high.  The leaves  are alternate, approximated,
three foliolate,  articulated at the top of a long slendf: stalk,  convex
below, furrowed above, and swelled at its base ; leaflets smooth, oval,
acute, green above, cinereous beneath.   Flowers  monoecious.   Calyx
five-cleft.  Fruit  oblong,  greenish, three-cornered, broadest at base,
tricoccous, each coccus opening with two valves.   Seed ovate,  brownish
variegated with black, with  a  thin, brittle  testa, and a sweet, nut-like
pleasant kernel.
  History.—This  substance  is the coagulated or inspissated  juice  of
several  tropical trees, the Siphonia  Cahuchu, Siphonia Elastica, Jatro-
pha Elastica, and Hevea  Guianensis, all  of which are supposed to be
identical.   On  being  wounded,  the juice flows out, which is  dried on
molds of clay,  and which comes  to  us in various shapes.   It  is gener-
ally blackened  by smoke,  but  when pure  is nearly colorless ; in thin
layers, transparent, highly elastic, lighter than water, without taste or 
296
Materia  Medica.
smell,  insoluble in water, alcohol,  weak  acids  and alkaline  solutions.
It dissolves in  pure ether, oil of turpentine, naphtha, coal-tar naphtha,
bisulphuret of  carbon, and volatile  oils.   Its  solutions in  ether, oil of
turpentine, and coal-tar naphtha, when dried up, leave the gum in an
elastic  state, and on this principle water-proof cloth is  made ;  the same
is said to be the case with its solutions in the  oils of lavender, sassa-
fras  and cajuput.   Under exposure  to heat, caoutchouc first melts, and
then distils, yielding a mixture of several oily liquids, all  of  which, as
well as pure caoutchouc itself, are carbo-hydrogens.
  Caoutchouc is not  affected by atmospheric  air, chlorine, muriatic or
sulphurous acid gas, or ammonia.  It consists of 87.2  parts of  carbon,
and  12.8  of hydrogen.
  Caoutckoucine is said to be the lightest fluid known,  and  yet its vapor
is denser than  the heaviest  of the gases.  It  is prepared by  cutting
India rubber into  small pieces containing  about two cubic inches each,
placing them into a cast-iron still  connected with a well-cooled worm-
tub,  or any flat vessel with  a large evaporating surface, the  entire top
of which can be removed for the purpose  of cleaning  it out.   Heat is
to be applied in the usual way, until the thermometer  ranges at about
600° F.,  when  as it  progresses upward  to  this  temperature, a dark-
colored oil or liquid  is distilled over.  When the thermometer  reaches
600° or thereabouts,  nothing is left  in the still but dirt and  charcoal.
This toil  is to  be rectified,  and thereby obtaining  fluids varying in
specific gravity, the lightest of which has not been  under .670.  At
each rectification the color becomes brighter  and paler, until at about
specific gravity .680  it is colorless  and  highly volatile.  It  must  be
rectified with one-third its weight  of water.    To enable the dirt to be
removed from  the bottom of the still with greater ease, throw  in com-
mon solder to  the depth  of about half an inch ; when this becomes
fused the dirt is easily taken off.   The disagreeable smell  of this liquid
may be removed by  shaking it up with nitro-muriatic acid, in the pro-
portion of four fluidounces  of  the acid  to  one gallon of the liquid.
Mixed  with alcohol,  caoutchoucine dissolves  all the  resins,  especially
copal and india rubber, at the common temperature of the atmosphere,
and it speedily evaporates,  leaving them again in the solid  state.  It-
mixes  Avith oils  in  all proportions.  It promises to be  a very valuable
article  for the solution of resins in the manufacture of varnishes,  and for
liquefying oil-paints with instead of turpentine.  Being very  volatile it
requires to be kept in close vessels.
  When caoutchouc is immersed in  a bath of fused sulphur,  heated to
various temperatures, by absorbing the sulphur, it assumes a  carbon-
ized appearance,  and finally acquires  the consistency of horn; this  is
termed Vulcanized caoutchouc.   The  same vulcanized condition can also
be produced either by kneading the india rubber with sulphur, and then
exposing  it to  a  temperature of  190°,—or  by  dissolving  the  india 
Capsicum Annuum.
297
rubber in any known solvent, as turpentine, previously charged with sul-
phur.  Thus treated, caoutchouc remains elastic at all temperatures ; in
its ordinary state it is quite rigid  at  a temperature of 40° ; it is not
affected by  any known  solvents, nor  by heat short of the vulcanizing
point, and acquires extraordinary powers  of  resisting  compression.   A
cannon  ball was broken to pieces by being driven through  a mass of
vulcanized caoutchouc,  which exhibited no  other  trace of its passage
than a scarcely perceptible rent.   This article may be used  for various
useful purposes,  as  springs  for locks,  ornaments, bottles  for  volatile
fluids, as a covering  to  protect  wires from corrosion in sea or on  land,
life-boats, etc.
  Properties and Uses.—Caoutchouc  is much used for erasing pencil
marks ; in forming flexible tubes  for chemical purposes, and catheters
and bougies for surgical uses.  Melted, it is applied as a luting to the
joints of chemical apparatus ; in the shape of thin layers, for covering
the mouths  of  bottles, and for other purposes in which the exclusion of
air and moisture  is  requisite.  Heated and softened by the  flame  of a
taper, it may be  applied, but  not while hot,  to the cavity of a decayed
tooth to relieve toothache, also over leech-bites, to suppress hemorrhage.
It has been given in  doses  of one or two grains, gradually increased, in
phthisis, but is seldom or never employed  internally.   Externally, it
has  been used as  an  ingredient  of  sticking  plasters  and  lfogments.
Caoutchouc dissolved in oil of origanum  or  cajuput,  and  spread/upon
oil-silk or cloth, and allowed to dry, forms an excellent stimulating plas-
ter for many local difficulties.
                      CAPSICUM ANNUUM.

                          Cayenne Pepper.

        Nat.  Ord.—Solanaceaj.  Sex.  Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.

                               FRUIT.
  Description.—This is  an  annual plant,  with  the stem  herbaceous,
crooked,  smooth, somewhat  angular,  branching above, and growing
from one to three feet high ;  the leaves are ovate or oblong,  acuminate,
smooth, entire,  sometimes hairy on  the veins  underneath, of a  dark-
green  color,  and supported  on long petioles.   The flowers are white,
solitary, and  stand  on long, curved, axillary peduncles.  The calyx is
persistent, tubular, and five-lobed ; the corolla  is monopetalous, wheel-
shaped, with  a five-cleft limb.  The stamens are five, with dark colored,
oblong anthers.   The  ovary  is  ovate, supporting a filiform style, and
terminating in a blunt stigma.  The fruit is a long, pendulous, inflated 
298                     Materia  Medica.
pod  or berry, light,  smooth, shining, of a bright scarlet, orange, or
yellow  color,  with  two or three cells, containing a spongy pulp,  and
numerous whitish reniform seeds.
  History.—There are several species  of Capsicum, as the C. Annuum,
C. Frutescens, C. Buccatum, C. Minimum, etc.   They are natives of the
East and West Indies, and of most hot  climates throughout the globe,
and  are cultivated in this country.    They  all  agree in producing c
shining vesicular berry  of a greenish,  yellowish, cherry-red, or most
generally scarlet color, consisting  of  a thin, fleshy, inflated, bilocular,
or trilocular capsule, and many small, flat, reniform seeds.  The Bird
Pepper, C. Minimum, is usually deemed the best; the C. Annuum  and
C. Baccatum are the most extensively used.   The flowers  appear in
July and August, and  the fruit ripens  in October.   The long, conical,
pointed, recurved fruit is that usually employed in medicine.
  All the varieties  of Capsicum have  a faint,  peculiar  odor, and a hot,
acrid taste, which in some is so intense that the smallest fragment, when
chewed, will excite an  insupportable  glow of pungency and heat over
the whole mouth and throat.   This acridity is imparted  to hot water,
ether, spirit, vinegar, and fixed  oils.   Powdered  Cayenne Pepper, of
good quality,  is of a bright color, varying from a beautiful  red to a
brown  or yellow, which fades on exposure to light—the color will assist
much  in judging  the quality of the  article.  The  active principle is
termed Capsicin.   It may be  obtained by freeing the  fruit from  the
seeds,  submitting it to the action of alcohol, and evaporating the filtered
tincture.  During the evaporation a red-colored wax separates, and the
residuary liquor by  further evaporation  affords an extract, to which
sulphuric ether is to be added.   This  dissolves the capsicin, which may
be obtained by evaporating the ether.   It is a yellowish-brown, or red-
dish-brown oleaginous substance, of an overpowering  acrid taste, vola-
tilizes at a moderate elevation of temperature, and disengages so acrid
a vapor, that half a grain will cause every person in  a  large room to
cough  and sneeze violently.  It is slightly soluble in water and vinegar,
and  very soluble  in  alcohol, ether, oil of turpentine, and the  caustic
alkalies, which it renders reddish-brown.  The  other constituents of
capsicum are coloring matter, an azotized  substance, gum, pectic acid,
and saline matters.   It is frequently adulterated with  sawdust, canthar-
ides, and red-lead.   This last may be detected by placing a portion of
the suspected powder in some dilute nitric acid, allow it to digest, then
filter, and if any oxide of lead be present, the addition of a solution of
sulphate of soda, will throw down a white precipitate.
  Properties and Uses.—Capsicum is a pure,  powerful stimulant.   The
infusion is much used in colds,  catarrh, hoarseness, etc.   In dyspepsia,
it stimulates the nerves of the  stomach, promotes the secretion of the
digestive juices, and assists peristaltic motion.   It forms an excellent 
Capsicum Annuum.
299
addition to quinia in intermittents, where there is a deficiency of gastric
susceptibility.  It has been also used  in spasmodic affections, passive
hemorrhages, especially uterine, and when combined with the compound
powder of ipecacuanha, will, in many instances, arrest hemorrhage after
parturition, promptly.  It has  been used successfully in Asiatic Cholera.
A preparation made by  adding one ounce of powdered Capsicum, and
two ounces of salt to one quart of vinegar, has been found an excellent
anti-emetic, in all cases of vomiting or  nausea.  To be  given in  table-
spoonful doses, as often as required.  It has received the name of Anti-
emetic drops.   Capsicum  may be used wherever a pure stimulant is indi-
cated, in all cases of diminished vital action, and may be combined bene-
ficially with other remedies, in order to promote  their action, as emetics,
cathartics,  diaphoretics,  tonics, etc.   Dose of  the  powder,  from one
to six grains;  of the tincture,  from  half to one drachm.
   Externally, the  infusion and tincture have been  found valuable as a
stimulant  gargle in  the  ulcerated  throat of scarlatina,  or in chronic
cynanche  tonsillaris ;  also as a counter-irritant, as an application to indo-
lent ulcers, and in chronic ophthalmia.   It enters into various  tinctures
and liniments.  The concentrated  tincture of capsicum has been  highly
recommended in the treatment of chilblains and  toothache.  In the
former a piece of sponge or flannel must be saturated with it, and rubbed
well over  the seat of the chilblain, until a strong tingling  and  electrical
feeling is produced.   This application should be continued daily, until
the disease is  removed  ; relief will  be experienced on the  very  first
application, and frequently there will be a total removal of the disease
after the second or third application.   This, however, will depend upon
the severity of the  case.   This  medicine possesses an  extraordinary
power in removing congestion by its action upon the nerves and circula-
tion ;  if the skin  is not broken, it never causes  excoriation by rubbing
with it.  For toothache, place a drop or two of  the tincture on  cotton,
and apply it to the affected part, the relief will be immediate.   Tinctura
capsici concentrata, is prepared by macerating four  ounces of capsicum
in twelve  ounces  of rectified spirit for seven days—then filter.
   The Ethereal Oil of Capsicum, prepared by the evaporation of  a satu-
rated ethereal  tincture of the  pods, is sometimes used as  a rubefacient.
It is of a  brilliant yellowish  color, with a  peculiar odor and  aromatic
taste, and filled with crystals of capsicin of curious  dendroid forms.
   Off. Prep.—Emplastrum Calefaciens; Linimentum Olei Compositum ;
Linimentum Camphori Compositum ; Linimentum Capsici Compositum ;
Pulvis Lobeliae Compositus;  Pilulae Camphorae  Compositae ;  Pilulas
Valerianae  Compositae ; Tinctura Capsici;  Tinctura  Lobeliae et Capsici;
Tinctura Myrrhae Composita;  Tinctura Camphorae Composita; Tinctura
Viburni Composita;  Vinum  Hydrastis Compositum. 
300
Materia Medica.
                       CARBO ANIMALIS.

                         Animal  Charcoal.

    CHARCOAL PREPARED FROM BONES — BONE BLACK,  IVORY BLACK.
  Preparation.—Animal Charcoal is much used in pharmacy and the
arts, and is prepared  by subjecting bones to a red heat in close vessels.
The bones are usually subjected to destructive distillation in iron retorts
or cylinders,  and when the ammoniacal liquor called Bone Spirit ceases
to come over, the  residuum is charred bone, or bone-black.   In this
form it is impure, and although serviceable for many purposes in  phar-
macy and the arts,  yet it will be  found unfit for others unless purified.
The impurities it contains are phosphate and carbonate  of lime,  carburet,
and siliciuret of iron, and sulphurets of iron and calcium.    To purify it,
the bone-black in fine powder, is digested in diluted muriatic acid, which
dissolves or decomposes all the calcareous compounds as well as sul-
phuret of iron, with the disengagement of much carbonic  acid and some
sulphureted-hydrogen.   The residuum is then thoroughly washed  with
boiling water, and contains only charcoal  with a small  proportion of car-
buret and silica.  The charcoal is now thoroughly dried, at first  by a
moderate heat, and then at a low  red-heat;  because its decolorizing
power which was destroyed in the previous steps of its purification, is only
restored after the action of a pretty strong heat.
  History.—Animal  Charcoal  is  a tasteless,  insoluble,  rather coarse
powder, of a dark-brownish-black color.  It somewhat resembles  vege-
table  charcoal, but is more  dense,  and less  combustible.  Upon  long
exposure to the atmosphere it absorbs moisture, and loses its decolorizing
properties, for which it is chiefly employed.  Its decolorizing power is
said to  depend upon a peculiar aggregation of its particles, induced  by
the presence of  phosphate of lime.   It not only removes  the coloring
principle of vegetable infusions and tinctures, but is likewise capable  of
taking up their  bitter principles, and  when purified, takes iodine from
solutions containing it, takes numerous salts from their aqueous solutions,
and converts chromate of potassa into  the carbonate.
  Properties and Uses.—It is principally used in pharmacy for decolor-
izing  vegetable  principles, as quinia,  morphia, etc. ; also  for clarifying
syrups, and for depriving spirits derived from grain of  a peculiar volatile
oil, called Grain oil.  It has likewise been highly extolled as an internal
remedy, in doses of half a grain to three  grains, twice a day, in scrofu-
lous and cancerous affections, goitre, obstinate chronic  glandular indura-
tions, etc.  Not used  in this country medicinally.  Like vegetable char-
coal, it destroys  the odor of putrid animal matter.   Dr. A. B. Garrod in
a paper read before  the Medical  Society of London,  Nov. 17th,  184G, 
Carbo Ligni.
301
recommends purified animal  charcoal in cases  of  poisoning by opium,
strychnia, aconite, belladonna, stramonium, tobacco,  hemlock, arsenic, etc.
First remove as much of the poison as possible by means of the stomach
pump,  or  emetics  combined with the antidote, and  then give  a large
quantity of the animal  charcoal diffused in warm water; a vegetable
emetic must not  be used as  the charcoal would destroy its emetic pro-
perty.  He considers this  agent equal, if not superior to  the hydrated
sesquioxide of iron, as an antidote to arsenious acid.
                          CARBO LIGNI.

                             Charcoal.
  Preparation.—Wood, or vegetable charcoal for pharmaceutical or other
purposes is made by piling billets of wood in  a conical form, and then
covering them with earth and sod in such a way as to exclude the access
of atmospheric air;  several holes must be  left at the bottom, and one at
the top of the pile, in order to produce a draught to commence  the com-
bustion.   The wood is to be  kindled  from the  bottom, and  when com-
bustion has taken place and the whole pile  ignited, the holes at the top
and bottom are  to  be closed,  leaving  only a limited  access of  air.   By
this process, the volatile portions of the  wood, consisting of oxygen and
hydrogen are dissipated, while  the carbon remains in the form of char-
coal.  From 17 to 18 per cent, of charcoal is obtained by this process;
but if the wood be charred in iron cylinders, from 22 to 24 per cent,  of
charcoal is obtained, beside the collection of pyroligneous acid, tar, and
empyreumatic oil, the volatile products of  the wood.
  For medical purposes, charcoal thus prepared is not sufficiently pure
for  exhibition, as all the volatile portions of the  wood, are  not wholly
removed.  It may be purified, according to Lowitz, by filling a crucible
with ordinary charcoal finely pulverized,  and luting  on  a perforated
cover.   Then expose the whole to a red heat, and continue it as long as
a blue flame issues  from the aperture in the cover.   When  this ceases,
allow the charcoal to cool, and transfer it  quickly  to bottles which must
be well stopped.
  History.—Wood charcoal is a  dark-brownish-black powder, composed
of shining particles, tasteless and inodorous, insoluble in water, and per-
manent  in the  air.   It is easily inflammable, and  readily consumed,
much more so than  animal charcoal.   It is a good conductor of electri-
city, but  a bad one  of heat.   If perfectly dry, it absorbs many times  its
own bulk of  certain gases.  It  corrects the fetor from putrid animal
matters, and decolorizes vegetable infusions, but not so promptly as the
animal charcoal.   It decomposes metallic  compounds when heated with
them by  depriving them  of  their oxygen.  If exposed to the air, it 
302
Materia Medica.
increases rapidly in weight, in consequence of its absorption of moisture,
which takes place to the amount of from ten to fifteen per cent.  Combus-
tion disengages  its carbonic acid, leaving behind an  ash composed of
earthy matters and carbonate of potassa.
  Properties and Uses.—As a medicine, charcoal should always be puri-
fied.   It is antiseptic and absorbent.  Used in dyspepsia attended with
fetid breath and  putrid eructations; also in dysentery, to correct the fetor
of the stools.  Useful in acidity of  stomach,  flatulency, obstinate consti-
pation, and in the nausea and  constipation attending pregnancy.  Dose,
from twenty grains to half  an ounce, repeated according to indications.
Externally, used in poultices to correct fetor of ulcers, arrest gangrene,
etc., and is efficient in many cutaneous  diseases.  It occasionally  enters
into tooth-powders, and may be used with advantage to correct the fetor
of the  mouth, and cleanse the teeth.   In such cases  the charcoal pre-
pared from bread is the best, as it contains no gritty particles.
   Off. Prep.—Cataplasma Carbonis.
                   CARTHAMUS  TINCTORIUS.

                           Dyer's  Saffron.

         Nat  Ord.—Asteracea3.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia iEqualis.

                              FLOWERS.
  Description.—Carthamus Tinctorius, sometimes known as Safflower,
Bastard Saffron, etc., is an annual plant, with  a smooth  stem  growing
from one to two feet high,  striate, and  branching at top.   The leaves are
alternate, ovate-lanceolate, sessile, spinose-denticulate, subamplexicaul,
smooth and shining.    The flowers  are compound,  in  large,  terminal
solitary heads.  The  florets are of  an orange-red color, witii a funnel-
shaped corolla,  of which the tube is  long, slender, cylindrical, and the
border divided into five equal, lanceolate, narrow segments.
  History.—This plant  is a native of the  Levant and Egypt, and is cul-
tivated in  many parts  of  Europe and America.  The florets  are the
officinal part.   They  are generally met with in flaky masses of a red
color, intermixed with the  yellow filaments; their odor  is peculiar and
aromatic, and the taste slightly bitter.  The cultivated  safflower in this
country, is usually sold impressed, as  American Saffron.   They contain
two coloring matters—one  of which  is yellow and soluble in water; the
other is red,  insoluble  in  water, slightly soluble in alcohol, and  very
soluble in alkaline solutions, and is called Carthamine or Carthamic Acid;
it is this latter which renders safflower valuable as a dye, especially of silk,
and when  mixed with finely-powdered talc it forms a rouge.  Safflower 
Carum  Carui.
303
is often used to adulterate saffron, but may be detected  by its tubular
form, and the yellowish color of the style and filaments.
  Properties and Uses. — Emmenagogue, laxative in large doses, and
diaphoretic.  Used  as a diaphoretic  among  children in warm infusion,
and  as a substitute  for  saffron, in colds, measles, scarlatina, and other
exanthematous  diseases.  To be taken  tolerably freely.   The  infusion
may be made by adding two drachms of the flowers to a  pint of boiling
water.  The seeds are white and angular, and have been much used as
purgative and  emmenagogue.   They yield an oil by  expression, which
has been used as a local application  in  rheumatic and paralytic affec-
tions, also for bad ulcers.
                         CARUM CARUI.

                             Caraway.

   Ned. Ord.—Apiaceaa or Umbellifera.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.

                      SEEDS,  (HALF FRUITS).
  Description. — Carum Carui is an umbelliferous, biennial plant, with
a fusiform, whitish, fleshy root, and an erect stem, about two feet high,
furrowed, and branched above.  The lower leaves are of a bright-green
color, petiolate, smooth, bipinnate,  with numerous finely-cut leaflets, the
segments of which are narrow, linear, and pointed;  those  of the stem
are smaller, opposite, one  of them with a dilated  petiole, the other ses-
sile.   The fiowers are numerous, small, of a pale flesh-color, and termi-
nate the branches of the stem in erect  umbels, which are generally
without an involucre, but are  sometimes furnished  with one to  three
involucral leaflets.   The calyx  is very small; the petals are five,  small
and  inflexed; the  stamens are about  as long as the petals, and bear
small, roundish, two-lobed  anthers;  the ovary is ovate, and  supports
styles which  are at first very short, but become elongated.   The  meri-
carps are elliptic-ovate, of a grayish-brown  color, and  are marked with
single vittae.
  History.—Caraway is a native of  Europe, and has  been introduced
into  this country.  It flowers in May and June, and the seeds, which
are the officinal portions, are not perfected until the second year,  when
they become ripe  in August.   They  are obtained by cutting down the
plant, and threshing  it on  a  cloth.  They are of a brownish color, with
five  lighter-colored primary ridges,  and  a vitta in  each interval,  are
about two lines in length,  and slightly curved inward.  The odor is
pleasantly  aromatic,  and  the taste warm, sweetish,  and spicy; which
properties  depend  upon a volatile oil, which is officinal, and which may
be obtained by distillation.   The oil is at first pale, becomes darker by 
304
Materia  Medica.
age, and has the peculiar fragrance and taste of the seed.   The virtues
of the seed are readily yielded to alcohol or ether.
  Properties and  Uses.—Aromatic carminative.  Used in flatulent colic,
especially of  children, and  as an adjuvant or corrective of other medi-
cines. In substance the dose is from ten to sixty grains.  The oil, however,
is mostly employed.  (See Oleum Carui.)  The seeds are much used
by the cook and confectioner  to improve the flavor of cakes and comfits,
while at the same time they gently stimulate the digestive organs.
   Off. Prep.— Oleum Carui;  Tinct. Cardamomi Comp.
               CARYOPHYLLUS AROMATICUS.

                               Cloves.

         Nat. Ord.—Myrtaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Icosandria Monogynia.-

                       UNEXPANDED  FLOWERS.
  Description. —  Caryophyllus Aromaticus is an elegant  tree, rising to
the hight of fifteen or twenty  feet; it is of a conical or pyramidal form,
is  always green,  and the whole  plant is glabrous.  The branches are
numerous, slender, opposite, and more  or less virgate.   The stem is of
hard wood, and covered with  a smooth,  grayish  bark.   The  leaves are
about four inches in length by two in breadth, opposite and decussate,
persistent, somewhat  coriaceous and  shining, with a strong midrib and
parallel  lateral nerves; ovate-lanceolate, entire, smooth on both sides,
with numerous pellucid  dots, of a green color, paler beneath, and taper-
ing gradually at the base  into a  slender  footstalk  about  two  inches in
length.   The flowers  exhale a strong, penetrating, agreeable odor, and
are in short terminal  cymes, trichotomously divided,  and jointed at
every division.   The calyx is superior, and consists of a cylindrical tube,
and four ovate, concave, spreading segments; it is first green, but sub-
sequently red, coriaceous.  The petals are four, ovate,  concave, yellow-
ish-red, larger  than the calyx, coherent by their edges, and forming a
calyptra  which is caducous.  In the center of the calvx,  and  at the top
of the ovary, is  a quadrangular, elevated  line or gland, surrounding,
but not  embracing the base  of the  shortish, obtusely-subulate style;
around this line, immediately within the petals, the stamens are inserted;
these are longer than the  petals,  and bear small, yellow, ovate-cordate,
two-celled anthers.   The ovary is oblong, almost cylindrical, two-celled,
and many small  ovules in each cell.   The berry is purplish, elliptical,
one or two-seeded.  Seed covered with a soft, thin, integument.
   History.—A tall and beautiful tree, growing in tropical climates.  The
flowers  are  collected in October  and  November, before  they are fully 
Cassia Fistula.
305
developed, and consist of a tubular calyx, bearing a roundish  bud of
unexpanded petals;  they are quickly dried in the shade to prevent the
escape of volatile oil.  The finest kinds are plump, heavy,  and dark,
and give  out  oil when squeezed with  the  nail.   They  are from five to
ten lines long, and from one to one and a half thick, dark-brown exter-
nally, yellowish-red internally, of a strong, fragrant odor, and of a hot,
pungent, aromatic, permanent taste.   Cloves  contain volatile oil,  fixed
oil, a peculiar  tannin, gum, resin, fiber, water, and two crystalline  prin-
ciples called  Caryophyllin and  Eugenin.  They impart their sensible
properties  to  alcohol, spirit, and ether;  water extracts  only the  odor.
The active properties reside in the volatile oil, which is of a pale reddish-
brown color, darkens by age, and is heavier than water;  it is extremely
pungent and acrid.
   Properties  and  Uses. — Aromatic, stimulant, and irritant.  Used to
relieve nausea, or vomiting, flatulency, and to excite languid digestion:
chiefly employed to  assist or modify the action  of other remedies, and
prevent a tendency to their producing sickness orgriping.  Dose, from five
to ten grains.
   Off. Prep. — Linimentum Olei;  Mistura Cajuputi Composita; Oleum
Caryophylli;  Pilulae Aloes Compositae;  Tinctura  Quiniae Composita;
Tinctura Guaiaci Aromatica; Vinum Cinchonae Compositum.
                       CASSIA  FISTULA.

                          Purging Cassia.

  Nat. Ord-—Fabaceae, or Leguminosas.  Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.

                    FRUIT, OR  PULP OF THE  PODS.

  Description.—Cassia Fistula  is a large tree growing from twenty to
forty feet high, with a trunk of hard, heavy wood, dividing  toward the
top into numerous spreading branches, and covered with a smooth, ash-
colored bark.  The leaves  are pinnate, alternate, from twelve to eighteen
inches long, deciduous.   The leaflets are opposite or nearly so, from four
to eight pairs, ovate, pointed, smooth, undulated, of a pale-green color,
polished  on both sides, on short,  round petioles,  from two to six inches
long, and from one and a half to three broad.   The flowers are large,
fragrant,   bright-yellow, on long, slender,  smooth pedicels.  Racemes
axillary,  pendulous,  simple, one  or two feet long.  The calyx has five
nearly  equal,  oblong,  obtuse, smooth  sepals.  The corolla  consists  of
five petals, which  are  oval, unequal, concave, spreading, and  waved.
The three lower filaments  much longer than  the  others, and  having a
double curve, but no swelling.  Anthers on the three long  filaments 
306
Materia Medica.
oblong, opening by two lines on the face, the other seven clavate, with
pores at the small end.   Ovary filiform, smooth, cylindrical, curved, one-
celled, containing numerous seeds.  The fruit is a woody, dark-blackish-
brown,  cylindrical pod or legume, a foot or more  in length, and  about
an inch in diameter, with two longitudinal furrows on one side, and one
on the other, divided into numerous cells by thin transverse diaphragms,
each containing a  single, oval, smooth, shining,  somewhat compressed
seed, imbedded in a viscid, black, sweetish pulp.

  History.—Purging Cassia  is a  native of Upper Egypt and the East
Indies, from whence it is  supposed to have been transplanted to  other
parts of the world.  It is found in India, Cochin-China, West Indies, and
South America.  The  fruit is the officinal portion.  Those pods are to be
selected which  are the  heaviest, and do not rattle when shaken, as they
contain the  most pulp, which is the  part used.   To obtain it, the pods
are first bruised, and boiling water is poured on them so as to wash out
the pulp ; the decoction is then strained, and evaporated to the proper
consistence.  The pulp has a faint, nauseous odor,  and a sweet, mucila-
ginous taste; it contains sugar,  gum, a substance resembling tannin, a
glutinous principle,  and a coloring matter soluble in ether, with a  small
portion  of water.  When good it should be black and shining; if kept
in a damp place it becomes moldy, and long  exposure  causes  it to turn
sour.   It keeps longest when preserved in the pod.  It is nearly soluble
in water, and its active parts are taken up by alcohol.
  Properties and Uses.—A mild and effectual laxative,  useful in habitual
constipation.  If administered in large doses it purges, occasioning also
nausea, flatulence, and  griping.  Dose as a laxative, one or two drachms,
as a purgative  one or two ounces.   It is seldom employed except as an
ingredient in the confection of senna.
                     CASSIA MARILANDICA.

                          American Senna.

         Nat.  Ord.—Fabaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.

                              LEAVES.
  Description. — Cassia  Marilandica is an  indigenous, perennial plant,
growing from four to six feet high, with  round, striated, smooth, or
slightly hairy stems.   The leaves  are alternate, rather long, not numer-
ous, and  composed  of  from  six  to nine pairs  of ovate, lanceolate,
smooth, entire leaflets, green above, and yellowish-green beneath; the
common petiole is furnished at the  base with  a large ovate, stipitate,
shining-green  gland,  terminating in a dark point at the top, which  is 
Cassia Acutifolia.
307
sometimes double.  The flowers are bright yellow, in axillary racemes,
on furrowed peduncles ; the pedicels are long, glandular, and bracteate.
The petals are five, concave, very obtuse and  unequal, the two lower
being the largest.  The stamens  are  ten, with yellow filaments,  and
brown anthers, which  open by a terminal pore.  The  three upper sta-
mens bear short abortive anthers ;  the three lowermost are long, curved,
and tapering into  a beak.   The fruit or legume is  pendulous, from two
to four inches long, narrow,  arcuated, mucronate, blackish, with  a few
scattered, reddish hairs, and containing many seeds.
  History.—This  plant is common to most parts of the United States, in
low, moist situations,  and flowering from June  to the latter part  of
August,  about which time  the leaves should be collected, or  in  the
beginning of  September.   Water or alcohol extracts their virtues.   The
leaves have a faint  odor, and a nauseous taste not unlike that  of  the
foreign senna, to which drug it is  not inferior  in  medicinal  activity.
They are usually had  in compressed packages from the  Shakers, who
cultivate the  plant.   Mr.  Martin  of Philadelphia, found the  leaves to
contain albumen, mucilage, starch, chlorophylle, yellow coloring matter,
volatile oil, fatty  matter, resin, lignin, salts of potassa and lime, and a
principle analogous  to cathartin.
  The Cassia Chamcecrista, Prairie Senna or Partridge Pea, growing on
the  western prairies, is an excellent substitute  for the above ; it is like-
wise known as Dwarf  Cassia and  Sensitive Pea.
  Properties  and Uses. — A  safe  and efficient cathartic, equal to the
imported article,  for which it may be  substituted.  But, owing to the
presence  of argel leaves, the foreign senna has  its activity  increased,
hence, in giving the American article, the dose will be one-third larger
than of the other.  Its most  convenient form of administration is that
of infusion, which should be  combined with articles similar to the infu-
sion of imported  senna, in order to obviate  any tendency to  griping.
The dose in powder is from half a drachm to  two and a half drachms.
The infusion  may be made by adding one ounce  of the leaves, with a
drachm of coriander seeds,  to a pint of boiling water.  Macerate  for an
hour in a covered vessel, and strain ; dose, four or five fluidounces.
                     CASSIA  ACUTIFOLIA.

                              Senna.

         Nat.  Ord.—Fabaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.

                            the leaves.
  Description.—There  are several species of Cassia plant, which are
supposed to yield the Senna, as the C. Acutifolia,  C.  Obovata, C. Elon- 
308
Materia  Medica.
gata,  C. Lanceolata, etc.   Cassia Acutifolia is a perennial shrub, growing
from  two to ten feet high, with  an erect, woody, smooth, branching,
whitish stem.  The leaves are alternate and pinnate, with glandless foot-
stalks, and two small, narrow, pointed stipules at the base.  The leaflets
from  four to eight pairs  to each leaf, are nearly sessile, oval-lanceolate,
acute, oblique at their base, nerved, from half an  inch to an inch long,
and of a yellowish-green color.   The flowers are brigmt yellow, and in
axillary spikes.   The ovary  is  linear,  downy, falcate, with a smooth,
recurved style.  The fruit or legume is pendulous,  flat, elliptical, obtuse,
membranous,  smooth, grayish-brown, bivalved; quite straight, about an
inch  long, and half an inch  broad, and divided into  six  or seven cells
each  containing  a hard, heart-shaped,  ash-colored seed.  It grows in
great abundance in Upper Egypt, and furnishes the greater part of the
Alexandria Senna of commerce.

   Cassia Obovata, a perennial, is smaller than the above, growing to the
hight of about eighteen inches ; with a  stem pubescent at the base, and
cylindrical.  The leaves are alternate, equally pinnate, smooth, with two
subulate, entire, persistent stipules at the  base, and with  from four to
seven pairs of opposite, nearly sessile, obovate, cuneiform leaflets, obtuse
but mucronate at the apex, unequal at the  base ;  the uppermost gradu-
ally the largest, slightly pubescent.  The flowers are pale-yellow, and in
erect, rather loose axillary racemes.  The legumes oblong, falcate, mem-
branous, smooth, rounded at  each end, with an  elevated, interrupted
ridge along the middle.  The seeds are from six to eight, and heart-
 shaped.  This  species  grows  wild in  Egypt, Nubia,  Syria, and Sene-
gambia ; and has been cultivated in the West Indies, and many  parts of
 southern Europe.   It  is very nearly identical with  the C. Obtusata of
 Heyne.   This plant furnishes an inferior senna, known as  the Italian or
 Aleppo Senna.

    Cassia Elongata,  is an annual, but with care it may be made to live
 through the  year, and  to assume a suffruticose character.   It has  a
 smooth, erect stem, and narrow, equally pinnated leaves with from four to
 eight pairs of lanceolate leaflets, which  are nearly sessile, slightly mucro-
 nate, smooth above,  rather downy beneath, oblique at the base,  with the
 veins turned inward so as to form a wavy line immediately within the
 margin of the leaflet; petioles glandless ; stipules softly spinescent, semi-
 hastate, spreading, minute.  The flowers are bright yellow, and arranged
 on erect, stalked, axillary and terminal racemes, rather longer, than the
 leaves.   The  legume  is  pendulous,   oblong, membranous,  tapering
 abruptly at the base, rounded at the apex, an inch and a half long, and
 about half an inch broad, with  many deep-brown  seeds.   It is supposed
 to grow in southern  Arabia, and in the interior of India, and is cultivated
 at Tinnivelly. 
Cassia Acutifolia.
309
  Cassia Lanceolata resembles the above, having, however, never more
than four or five pairs of leaflets, oblong, and either acute or obtuse, not
at all ovate or lanceolate, and perfectly free from downiness even when
youno-; the petioles have constantly a small, round, brown gland a little
above the base. The pods are erect, oblong, tapering to the base, obtuse,
tun-id, mucronate, rather falcate, especially when young, at which time
they are sparingly covered with  coarse, scattered  hairs.   It  grows in
Arabia, and was considered by Forskhal as the true Mecca Senna.

  History.—These are supposed to be the principal species which yield
the Senna,  though much uncertainty exists with regard  to them, arising
from the want of correct specimens, the difficulty attending the investi-
gation of the plants in their places of growth, the ignorance of the influ-
ences which a change of locality may exert upon them,  and whether the
presence or absence  of the glands on the  petioles are to be assumed as
specific characters.  Although  this confusion exists in the botanical his-
tory of senna, yet, in commerce, but three varieties of the  drug are
found, or which are ever imported into this country, these are, the Alex-
andrian or Egyptian, which is the  finest  and most valuable article, the
Indian, and the Tripoli Senna,.
   Alexandria Senna is  collected  from   Sennaar, Nubia, and  Upper
Egypt,  and made up at Boulak, not far from Cairo, under the superin-
tendence of the Egyptian government, from which  place it is forwarded
to Alexandria, for the European  markets.   It consists of the leaflets of
C. Acutifolia,  C. Obovata, pods, broken leafstalks, flowers, etc., likewise
the leaves of Cynanchum Oleafolium, or Solenostemma argel. The harvest
for collecting commences in September, at which time  the branches of
the  shrub are cut, and exposed to the sun, until the leaves begin to fade;
they are then collected into  bundles, and  placed on  rocks  and high
grounds, in order to have full benefit of the air and of the sun's rays.
When the  leaves are quite dry, the branches are threshed, and the leaves
separated from them, they are  then packed in sacks and sent to Boulak,
at which place their adulteration with other leaves is said  to take place.
   As received in this  country, Alexandria Senna is generally in bales
and barrels, and is considered the finest and most valuable variety ; the
best and most esteemed is that which contains the  least quantity of cy-
nanchum leaves, senna leafstalks and pods, where  the  entire  lanceolate
leaves are  numerous, and where the odor and taste is strong  and pure.
It has a peculiar but not disagreeable odor, with an unpleasant, nauseous,
mucilaginous, and sweetish taste, with hardly any perceptible bitterness,
unless it be adulterated with the leaves of the Argel or Cynanchum olece-
folium  which impart bitterness  to the powder or infusion, and which is
the most important impurity to remove.   They may be recognized by
having  no visible lateral nerves on their under-surface ;  by being longer,
thicker and firmer than senna leaves; by  the greater regularity of their 
310
Materia Medica.
 base, being of a lighter color, of a bitter taste, and often spotted with a
 yellow, bitter, gummy-resinous incrustation.
   Tripoli Senna somewhat resembles the Alexandrian, but is considered
 much inferior to it; the leaves are more broken down, and the leafstalks
 more numerous.  It seems to consist of  one of the acute leaved species
 and  a slight admixture of C. Obovata,  and very seldom contains any
 adulteration with the argel leaves.   T|^re is much uncertainty as to the
 place from which it is derived.
   India or Mocha Senna is  of three  kinds, the  Bombay, the  Madras,
 and the Tinnivelly, of  which the  first, is usually imported from Bombay,
 though it comes in the  first instance  from Mocha and other ports of the
 Red  Sea;  the second and third from Madras; of  these, the Tinnivelly is
 esteemed the best.   India Senna consists  mainly of large, thin, unbroken,
 acute,  yellowish-green  leaves, seldom adulterated, and when  good, is
 fully equal to the Alexandrian.  There are other varieties, but they sel-
 dom  reach this market.
   Good Senna may be  known by  the bright, fresh, yellowish-green color
 of the leaves, with a faint and sickly odor somewhat similar to green lea,
 and a nauseous, mucilaginous, sweetish, and slightly bitter  taste; and
 the fewer the stalks, seed pods, broken leaves, and dirt, the better is the
 senna.   Its active principles are taken up by cold  or warm water, alco-
 hol, and proof spirits ;  boiling destroys its virtues  unless it be in vacuo,
 or in a covered vessel.   Various analyses have been made of senna, but
 there  are none on  which we  can satisfactorily rely.  M. M. Lassaigne
 and Feneulle found it to contain a peculiar bitter principle called Cathar-
 tin, chlorophylle, fixed  oil, a small quantity of volatile oil, albumen, yel-
 low coloring matter, mucilage, malate and tartrate of lime, and acetate
 of potassa, and  some mineral salts.   The cathartin  is a yellowish-red,
 uncrystallizable substance, of  a  peculiar odor, and a  bitter, nauseous
 taste, very soluble in water and alcohol, but insoluble in ether.  It  is
 considered to be the purgative principle of the drug, yet this is not uni-
 versally admitted, as several  experimenters deny  that it  possesses any
 purgative power whatever.  The infusion or decoction of senna is incom-
 patible with strong  acids, alkaline carbonates, lime-water, tartar emetic,
 acetate of lead and tannin, or astringent plants  containing tannin.   The
 tartarized antimony  and acetate of lead do not precipitate the cathartin.

  Properties and Uses.—Senna is  r. certain, manageable, and  convenient
 cathartic, very useful in all forms of  febrile disease,  and other diseases
 where a violent impression on the  bowels  is not desired.   Its influence
is chiefly exerted  on the small intestines, augmenting their mucous secre-
tions, exciting increased peristaltic motion, and producing loose  brown
evacuations.   It does not act  as  a  sedative, as is the case  with  some
cathartics, nor as a refrigerant; but  has  a slight  stimulating  influence,
insufficient however, to contra-indicate its  use in cases of general excite- 
Castoreum.
311
ment, or reaction.   Beside the nauseating taste  of senna, it is apt to
cause sickness at stomach, and very few persons can use it alone, with-
out experiencing more or less griping pains.   The addition of cloves,
ginger,  cinnamon, or other aromatics are excellent correctives of these
unpleasant effects.  A teaspoonful of cream of tartar to a  teacupful  of
the decoction or infusion of senna, is a mild and pleasant cathartic, par-
ticularly suited for females where it may be required soon after  delivery.
The addition of neutral laxative salts is another mode, adopted by a cer-
tain class of practitioners, of preventing  the tormina,  and  at the same
time of increasing  the activity of the infusion of senna, as, phosphate
of soda, Epsom,  or Rochelle  salts; these are, however, rarely used by
Eclectics.  Saccharine and aromatic substances are also sometimes com-
bined for  this purpose, as sugar, manna, aromatic  seeds, electuary of
senna, etc.  The  purgative  effect of senna is much  increased by the
addition of the pure bitters; the  decoction of guaiacum is said to answer
a similar purpose.  Senna is contra-indicated in an inflammatory condi-
tion of  the alimentary canal, hemorrhoids, prolapsus ani, etc.  The dose
in powder is from thirty to fifty grains; in tincture, from half a fluidounce
to two fluidounces ; electuary, two drachms; and  of the infusion, which
is the most usual  mode of administration, from two to four fluidounces.
  A preparation termed Cassine, said to be the active  principle  of the
Alexandria Senna, is advertised as a preparation of an eastern manufac-
turing establishment.  It is stated to be a whitish-brown powder, of a
slightly bitter taste, a senna-like odor, soluble in water and insoluble  in
alcohol.  I have not seen it, nor have I been able  to obtain its mode of
preparation.
   Off. Prep.—Enema Sennae Composita;  Extractum Rhei et Sennae
Fluidum; Extractum Spigeliae et Sennae Fluidum ; Extractum Sennae et
Jalapae  Fluidum ;  Infusum  Sennae ; Pulvis Jalapae  Compositus; Tinc-
tura Sennae Composita.
                          CASTOREUM.

                               Castor.

   History.—This drug is  a  peculiar concrete substance obtained from
the preputial follicles of the Castor Fiber, or Beaver.  These follicles are
filled with a thick fluid secretion, which slowly concretes when they are
removed  from the  animal.   Most of the castor of the present day is
derived from the beaver of North America.  It has  much the  appear-
ance of a pair of dried testicles  united  by their spermatic chords, dark
liver  brown  and  wrinkled externally,  paler  liver  brown  internally,
resinous  in fracture, when perfectly dried  of a strong, peculiar heavy
odor, and of an  aromatic, bitter, offensive taste.  Rectified spirit is its
best solvent;  though ether extracts a good part of its virtues. 
312
Materia Medica.
  The Russian castor, from the Russian dominions, is seldom seen in this
country;  it may be distinguished from the American by being larger,
fuller, heavier, and less  tenacious, and by its stronger taste and smell.
Treated with distilled water and ammonia, M. Kohli states that it affords
a white precipitate, while the American throws down an orange-colored
matter.   Good castor has a strong, fetid, peculiar odor ; a bitter, acrid,
and  nauseous taste, and a color more  or less tinged with  red.  It is
composed of numerous salts,  mucus, a volatile oil, a resinous substance,
a horny matter, osmazome, and a peculiar crystalline, non-saponifiable
principle called  castorin.  Age  impairs the  virtues of castor,  which is
hastened in an elevated temperature ; moisture promotes its rapid decom-
position.   It should always be  kept in a dry cool place.   It is not good
if quite black, tasteless  and inodorous.  A factitious preparation is often
sold, consisting  of a  mixture of various drugs,  scented  with genuine
castor, intermixed with membrane, and stuffed  into the scrotum of a
goat.  The feeble odor, want of other characteristic sensible properties,
and  the want of the smaller  follicles containing fatty matter, and which
are  always attached to  the genuine bags of castor, will  enable one to
detect the fraud.
  Properties  and Uses. — Moderately stimulant, antispasmodic,  and
emmenagogue.  Used in  hysteria,  amenorrhea,  epilepsy,  and many
anomalous nervous affections.  Dose of the substance, from ten to twenty
grains ;  of the tincture, from half  a fluidrachm to two fluidrachms.
   Off. Prep.—Tinctura Castorei; Tinctura Castorei Ammoniata.
 CAULOPHYLLUM  THALICTROIDES.   (Leontice Thalictroides.)

                           Blue Cohosh.

       Nat. Ord-—Berberidaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Hexandria Monogynia.

                               ROOT.
  Description.—This plant, likewise known as Squaw root, Pappoose root,
is  a smooth, glaucous  plant, purple when  young, with a  high, round
stem from one to three feet in hight, simple  from knotted and matted
rootstocks, and dividing above into two parts, one  of which is  a tri-
ternate leaf-stalk, the other bears a biternate leaf and a racemose pani-
cle of small  yellowish-green flowers.   The  leaves  are  biternate and
triternate ;  petiole  trifid, and supporting  nine leaflets.   Leaflets oval,
petiolate, unequally lobed, the terminal one  equally three-lobed, paler
beneath, and from two to three inches long.  The flowers appear in May
and June.  Panicle small, shorter than  the leaves.  Pericarp thin,  cadu-
cous, dark-blue, resembling berries on  thick stipes.  Seeds one or two,
erect, globose, about the size of a large pea. 
Caulophyllin.
313
  History.—A  handsome perennial plant growing  all over the  United
States, in low,  moist, rich  grounds,  near running streams, in swamps,
and on islands that have  been overflowed with water.   The seeds ripen
in the latter part of the summer, and are said to form an excellent sub-
stitute for coffee, when roasted.  The fruit is dry, sweetish, insipid, and
resembles that  of the Vaccinium.   The officinal part is the  root, which
is sweetish, somewhat pungent  and aromatic, and affords a yellow infu-
sion  or  tincture.  No  chemical analysis of the  root has  been made,
though it affords a  resinous principle,  to which I have given the name
of Caulophyllin.
  Properties  and Uses.—This  is essentially an  agent peculiar to Eclec-
tics not  being  employed by  any other class  of practitioners.    It is
principally used  as an  emmenagogue, parturient, and antispasmodic  ;
but it likewise possesses diuretic, diaphoretic, and  anthelmintic proper-
ties.   It has been successfully employed in rheumatism, dropsy, colic,
cramps, hiccough,  epilepsy, hysteria, uterine inflammation, etc.   It  is a
valuable agent in  all  chronic  uterine diseases, appearing to exert an
especial  influence upon the uterus, and has been found serviceable in
uterine  leucorrhea, amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea,  etc.   When  used in
decoction for several weeks previous to the parturient period, it is said
to facilitate that process, acting as  a  preparatory parturient, and it is
sometimes  combined with the Mitchella Repens, and Eupatoria  Aroma-
tica, for  this purpose.  Combined with equal  parts of powdered Hydras-
tis Can., made into an infusion, and  sweetened with honey, it forms an
elegant  and  effectual wash for aphthous sore-mouth and throat.   In
decoction, blue cohosh  is preferable to ergot for expediting delivery,
in all those cases where the delay is owing to debility, or want of uterine
nervous  energy, or  is the result of fatigue.   The decoction or  infusion
may be made by adding  an ounce  of the root to a tint of boiling water,
and boiling  or  macerating for a short time ;  the dose of either is from
two to four fluidounces, three or four times daily.    The tincture should
be made by adding  three ounces of the finely powdered root to a pint
of alcohol, and allow it to macerate for fourteen days ; then filter.  The
dose is  from half a  fluidrachm to  two fluidrachms.
  Off. Prep.—Caulophyllin ;  Extractum  Caulophylli  Hydro-alcoholi-
cum ;  Tinctura Caulophylli Composita.
                        CAULOPHYLLIN.

 THE ACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF THE ROOT OF CAULOPHYLLUM  THALICTROTDES.'
  Preparation.—Caulophyllin  is  the name I have given to the active
principle  of the  root of Caulophyllum Thalictroides.   It is an Eclectic
remedy, not known or used by any, other class'of practitioners, and was 
314
Materia Medica.
first manufactured by W. S. Merrell of Cincinnati.  He prepares it by
precipitation from the  saturated  tincture, similar to the preparation of
cimicifugin, using, however, as small a quantity of water as possible to
prevent waste, as the precipitate is  soluble in water.
   Chemical Properties.—Caulophyllin thus  prepared is a  resinous  sub-
stance of a light-brown color, with  a peculiar,  not unpleasant odor,
somewhat  similar to podophyllin, and  leptandrin, and a  slightly bitter
taste with  some degree of pungency.   Its chemical  reactions have not
been thoroughly investigated; it appears, however, to be a neutral  sub-
stance, like salicin,  exhibiting neither acid nor alkaline principles.   It is
insoluble in ether.  In water  it is partially soluble, in alcohol more so;
the addition  of  aqua ammonia  renders it  completely soluble in either
menstruum,  and the  solution becomes of a  dark-reddish wine color.
Its aqueous solution is  also rendered perfect by  the  addition of liquor
potassa, nitric, or muriatic acids.  Acetic acid  does not solve it.
   The N. Y. Journal of Organic and  Medical Chemistry, vol. i, p. 12,
states  that Caulophyllin  may be obtained by  treating the root of Cau-
lophyllum  with  distilled water, and  obtaining  an  aqueous  solution by
percolation.  This solution is to be decolorized by animal charcoal, then
evaporated in vacuo, and precipitated  with  an infusion of nutgalls, or,
what is still better,  96 per cent, alcohol. A white precipitate is obtained,
which  can  be dried on filter-cloth and powdered.   The properties of the
caulophyllin thus obtained, are  similar to those  detailed  above, being
soluble in water, partly so in alcohol, and possessing similar therapeutic
influences ; yet, it  is there termed  an alkaloid.  It is  to be regretted
that in our eagerness to discover concentrated medicinal principles and
their therapeutic advantages,  but little  attention is bestowed upon their
chemical relations.
   Properties  and Uses.—Caulophyllin appears to exert a direct influence
upon  the uterus, acting  as an alterative, uterine tonic, and parturient,
according to the periods in which it is employed.   In the more common
unhealthy  conditions of this organ and its appendages, known as amen-
orrhea, dysmenorrhea, passive menorrhagia, leucorrhea, congested cer-
vix, etc., it is equal to, if  not surpassing the  cimicifugin.   A combina-
tion of equal parts  of caulophyllin, cimicifugin, and carbonate of ammo-
nia, will be  found especially valuable not only in the  above-named
affections but likewise in epilepsy, hysteria, rheumatism and dropsy, in
which  diseases  it has been recommended as an antispasmodic.   It  may
also be advantageously combined with aletrin, asclepidin,  senecin,  etc.,
in many forms of disease of the female generative organs.   It has been
spoken of  as a  parturient, but we have  no knowledge  of its influence
as  such—though we are aware that the root from which it is prepared
does exert a parturient effect; which property, if retained by the caulo-
phyllin will no doubt render it valuable to  the accoucheur.  Added to 
Ceanothus  Americanus.
315
podophyllin or  other  active purgatives,  it prevents  tormina, and  is,
probably, the best agent that can be employed for this purpose.
  Dr. T. J. Kindlebergcr of Springfield, 0., writes  that  he has used it
with much  advantage  in after-pains,  in menstrual  suppression, and in
dysmenorrhea.   He  closes his letter, by observing,  " In  my opinion
it far surpasses  ergot, both in  its  acting more mildly, and with  more
certain results.   It will, no doubt, occupy a very elevated  position
among remedial agents, when it becomes fully known to the profession."
The ordinary dose  of  the  article is from one-fourth of a grain to one
grain, two,  three, or four times a day.  As a parturient it should  be given
in doses  of  from two  to four grains, and repeated at intervals  of from
fifteen to thirty or sixty minutes, after actual labor has  commenced.   In
one case, reported,  where labor had lasted five days, the patient  much
enfeebled, and  the  labor complicated with  artificial  pains, caulophyllin
was given  in two grain  doses  every half hour ;  but three doses were
given, labor having,- commenced soon after  the second was taken, and
terminated successfully in one hour and forty minutes from the  time the
first powder was given. Caulophyllin may be advantageously combined
with dioscorein  in bilious colic  and flatulence.   With  podophyllin and
muriate of ammonia, it forms an excellent combination for some nephritic
diseases,  accompanied  with pains of a spasmodic character.
                  CEANOTHUS AMERICANUS.

                             Redroot.

       Nat. Ord.—Rhamnaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.

                         BARK OF THE ROOT.

   Description.—This plant, likewise called New Jersey Tea, Wild Snow-
ball, has a large root, with a  red  or brown epidermis, containing many
small white veins, and tolerably thick; body of the root dark-red.   The
stems are from two  to  four  feet  high, slender, suffruticose, with many
reddish, round, smooth branches, the  younger of which  are  pubescent.
The leaves are ovate or oblong-ovate,  somewhat acuminate  at the apex,
rounded, or slightly cordate at the base, serrated, three-nerved, nearly
smooth above, and whitish,  tomentose beneath, the pubescence of the
veins and petioles somewhat  reddish.  The flowers  are  white, in long,
crowded panicles from the axils of the upper leaves.   Calyx white, five-
cleft, and the upper portion  separates by a transverse line, leaving the
tube adhering to the fruit.  The corolla is formed of five-saccate, arched
petals, which are longer than the calyx, and with filiform claws at base.
The  stamens are  five, exserted, and  bearing  ovate, two-celled  anthers.
The  ovary is  three-angled,  and  surrounded with a ten-toothed disk. 
316
Materia  Medica.
The styles  are  three, united to the middle, but  diverging  above.   The
fruit is dry and  coriaceous, obtusely triangular, three-celled and three-
seeded.  The seeds are convex externally, concave internally, the cavity
marked with a longitudinal line.

   History.—C. Americanus is found in all parts of the United States, in
copses and dry woods, and flowering from June  until September.   The
leaves, when dried, have an  odor  and taste  resembling black tea, and
were used  durino- the revolutionary war as a  substitute  for the Chinese
tea ; they are slightly bitter and astringent.  The root is the officinal part,
and has a taste and smell somewhat resembling those of the peach leaf.
It has been  occasionally used for  coloring.  Water extracts  its active
principle.  The leaves are said to contain  tannin, a soft resin, a bitter
extractive,  a  greenish  coloring matter  almost identical in color and taste
with green tea, gum, a volatile substance, lignin, and an active principle
called  Ceanothine.
   This  principle, as stated in the New  York Journal  of  Organic  and
Medical  Chemistry, vol. 1, p. 43, is obtained by first removing the resin-
ous  extractive,  and most of the coloring  matter from the  leaves, by
treating  them with  alcohol.  The  mass  is then placed in an alembic
apparatus,  and the alcohol remaining in the leaves displaced, after which
the mass is submitted  to the percolating process with hot distilled water,
until the active  principle  is  displaced.  The aqueous  solution  is then
evaporated in vacuo  to the consistency of thick syrup, and precipitated
and purified in alcohol  nearly absolute.   The precipitate is then placed
in vacuo at  a temperature of about 100°  F.   By this means the alcohol
remaining  in the  precipitate  is gradually removed, and the  Ceanothine
remains in  a dried mass partially in the form of crystals, after which it
is reduced  to a fine powder.  When purified  it is  white;  its  odor  and
taste is similar to that  of green tea; it  is soluble in water, but insoluble
in alcohol.

   Properties and Uses. — Astringent,  expectorant,  sedative,  antispas-
modic,  and  antisyphilitic.    Used  in  gonorrhea,  dysentery,  asthma,
chronic  bronchitis,  hooping-cough,  and other  pulmonary  affections.
Dose of a strong decoction, one tablespoonful three or four times a day.
It has likewise been successfully used as awash and gargle in the aphthae
of children, sore mouth subsequent to fever, and  in ulceration of the
fauces attendant on scarlatina.
Off. Prep.—Decoctum  Ceanothi. 
            Celastrus  Scandens — Centaurea  Benedicta.       317

                    CELASTRUS SCANDENS.
                         False Bittersweet.
       Nat.  Ord.—Celastracese.   Sex. Syst.—Pcntandria Monogynia.
                        BARK OF THE ROOT.
  Description.—This plant, likewise known by various other names, as
Staff-vine, Waxwork, Climbing  Bittersweet, Climbing  Staff-tree, etc., is a
climbing, indigenous shrub, with a woody, twining stem, without thorns
or prickles ;  the  leaves  are  thin, oblong, acuminate, serrate, alternate,
stipulate, petiolate and smooth ; the racemes are small, terminal, and axil-
lary ;  the flowers  are greenish-white,  or yellowish-white,  fragrant and
dioecious.   Calyx flat, five-lobed ; corolla spreading, of five sessile petals;
capsule  obtusely  three-angled, three-celled, berry like;  valves bearing
the partitions on their centers ; stamens standing around a glandular five-
toothed disk;  style thick; stigma three-cleft.    Seeds  covered with a
scarlet aril,  one or two in each  cell.
   History.—This plant  grows in woods and thickets, from  Canada to
Carolina, creeping on hedges and rocks, or (wining about other trees, or
each other, and ascending to a great Light.  It flowers in June, and bears
a scarlet berry which remains through the winter.  The plant thrives most
luxuriously in a rich, damp soil.  The root is very long, creeping, woody,
of a bright orange color, about half an  inch in thickness, with a thick,
red, or yellowish-red bark, which is the officinal part.   On account of
the similarity of name,  Bittersweet, the plant has been confounded with
the Sdunum  Dulcamara, from  which, however,  it essentially differs in
appearance  and  therapeutic  action.    The bark  has a  sweetish, rather
nauseous taste, and imparts its medicinal properties to water.
   Properties  and  Uses. — Alterative, diaphoretic,  and  diuretic,  with
some narcotic powers.   Used in scrofula,  secondary syphilis, chronic
hepatic affections,  cutaneous  affections,  leucorrhea, rheumatism, and
obstructed  menstruation.  Externally, an ointment has been successfully
employed  in  inflamed  and indurated breasts of nurses.  Dose  of the
decoction, from two to  four  ounces,  three times  a day;  of the  extract,
from  five to ten grains.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Celastri; Syrupus Rumicis Compositus.

                    CENTAUREA  BENEDICTA.
                          Blessed  Thistle.
        Nat.  Ord.—Asteraceas.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Frustranea.

                               LEAVES.
   Description. — Centaurea   Benedicta,  or Cnicus Benediclus  of De
Candolle, also  known as Holy Thistle, is an annual, herbaceous plant, 
318
Materia Medica.
with a whitish, fibrous, branched, tapering root, with several stems, about
two  feet high, and which are  trailing, roundish, furrowed,  reddish,
woolly, and branching toward the  top.   The  lower leaves are petiolate,
but the upper are sessile, alternate, and somewhat decurrent; the whole
are oblong, rough, aculeate, sinuate or almost ruminate, and armed with
many sharp spines;  of a green  color above, and  paler and reticulated
beneath.  The flowers are  large, of a bright-yellow color, solitary at the
ends of the branches,  inclosed by a bracteate  involucrum of ten leaves,
the five exterior of  which are  largest.   True involucrum ovoid, imbri-
cated, smooth, woolly, each scale being terminated by pinnate spines,
connected with the bracts by fine threads.   Ray-florets  small and sterile,
those of the disk  perfect, tubular, and toothed.   Stamens  five, downy,
with linear-oblong united anthers.  The style is filiform  with a cleft
stigma.  The  achenia are oblong, brown, striated, on a bristly receptacle.
  History.—This is a native of  the south of Europe, and naturalized in
the United States.   It flowers in June, when its medicinal virtues are in
the greatest perfection.  The  leaves should be gathered while the plant
is in flower, quickly dried,  and kept in a dry place.  They have  a feeble,
unpleasant odor, and an intensely bitter taste.  Water or alcohol extracts
their virtues.   The  infusion with cold water  is a pleasant bitter; the
decoction is nauseous and offensive to the stomach.   The leaves contain
volatile oil, a  bitter principle, resin,  a fixed  oil,  gum, sugar, albumen,
some salts, etc.  The bitter principle  is supposed to be  the active one of
the plant,  and is named  Cnicin; it is crystallizable, inodorous,  very
bitter,  neutral, hardly soluble  in  cold  water, more so in boiling, and
soluble in alcohol.   It is analogous  to salicin in composition, and consists
of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.  In doses of from four to eight grains
it often vomits and has proved useful in intermittent fevers.
  Properties  and  Uses. — A  cold  infusion is tonic ; a  warm  infusion
diaphoretic, and if strong,  emetic.  Used as a tonic in loss of  appetite,
dyspepsia, and intermittent diseases.   Dose of the powder, from ten to
sixty grains ;  of the infusion two fluidounces.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Centaureae.
                  CEPHAELIS IPECACUANHA.

                            Ipecacuanha.

       Nat.  Ord.—Cinchonaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.

                                ROOT.

  Description.—Cephaelis Ipecacuanha  is a small shrubby plant, with a
perennial  root, descending obliquely into the ground, from  four to six 
Cephaelis  Ipecacuanha.
319
 inches long, about as thick as a goosequill, simple, or divided into a few
 divergent  branches, marked with  annular rugae, flexuose,  contorted,
 epidermous,  glabrous, of a  pale-brown color in the recent root,  and
 umber  or blackish-brown in the dry; the cortex is soft, white, and sub-
 amylaceous in  the  fresh root, and  pale-reddish, or rose-colored in the
 dried state, of a shining and resinous fracture, and readily separable
 from a central woody axis.    The stem  is  suffruticose,  from two to
 three feet  long, ascending, often rooting near the ground,  smooth  and
 cinereous at the base, downy and green near  the apex.  The leaves are
 rarely more  than four or six on a stem, oblong-ovate, acute, roughish
 with hairs, from  three to four inches long, and from one to two broad;
 those at the top of  the stem are  opposite, and those toward the  base
 alternate.  Petioles short, downy.  Stipules erect, appressed, membran-
 ous, deciduous, four  to  six cleft.  Peduncles solitary, axillary, downy,
 erect when in  flower, reflexed when  in fruit,  about one inch and a half
 long.   Flowers small, white, in  semiglobose  heads, of eight, twelve or
 more;  involucre  one-leafed,  spreading, deeply four to six-parted,  with
 obovate acuminate,  ciliated  segments.  Bracts  to  each  flower  one,
 obovate-oblong, acute, downy.   Calyx minute, obovate ; whitish, adher-
 ing to the  ovary, with five-bluntish, short teeth.   Corolla white, funnel-
 shaped ; tube cylindrical, downy  on the outside and at the  orifice; limb
 shorter than the tube, with five ovate reflexed segments.  Stamens five;
 filaments filiform, white, smooth ;  anthers linear, longer  than the fila-
 ments, projecting a little beyond  the  corolla.   Ovary with a fleshy disk
 at the  apex; style filiform; stigmas  two,  linear.   Berry ovate, obtuse,
 about  the  size of a  kidney-bean,  at first purple, subsequently violet-
 black,  two-celled,  two-seeded,  with  a  longitudinal fleshy  partition.
 Nucules plano-convex, furrowed on the flat side.

   History.—This is a small, scrubby, perennial plant, found  in the moist
 shady woods of Brazil, and other sections of South America, but mostly
 between the eighth and twentieth degree of south latitude.  It flowers
 in January and February, and ripens its fruit  in May.   The  root, which
 is the officinal part, is collected during the flowering season  by the Indi-
 ans, who after  plucking it from  the ground, separate it from the  stem,
 clean it, and hang  it up in  small parcels in the sun for the purpose of
 drying.  It is principally imported from Rio Janerio, Bahia, and Pernam-
 buco, in large bags or bales.
  As imported into  this  country, ipecacuanha is in pieces two or  three
lines  in thickness, contorted,  simple or  branched, tapering from  the
center toward both ends, irregular  rings or rugae, separated by narrow
fissures  frequently  extending nearly  down to the  central fiber.   The
internal meditullium or woody part is slender, and light straw-colored ;
the cortex  or bark is hard, horny, translucent, breaking with a resinous
fracture, and easily separating from the central ligneous cord.  It is not 
320
Materia  Medica.
very readily pulverized, and is the most active part of the root.  Phar-
macologists have divided ipecacuanha into three varieties, the grayish-
black,  the grayish-red,  and the grayish-white, which are so named from
the relative color of the surface of the roots.  But as they are derived
from the same plant, and are essentially the same in properties and com-
position, the  division is of no practical  utility,  especially as  they  are
received into this country often so intermingled, as to render a separation
of them almost impossible.
   Ipecacuanha root is seldom seen by the druggist or practitioner of this
country, except in powder, from which circumstance it is much liable to
adulteration.   The powder of the  genuine article is of a grayish-yellow
color, with a  faint, bitterish, obscurely acrid taste, and a  weak, musty,
peculiar odor, which becomes stronger and nauseating during the process
of pulverization ; in some persons it excites violent sneezing, in others a
difficulty of breathing  resembling asthma.   It  yields its properties to
water, and still better to alcohol,  spirits  or wines.   Boiling impairs  its
virtues.   The bark of the  grayish-black, or dark-brown variety, consists
of an odorous concrete  oil, wax, gum, starch, lignin, and  emetia.   The
woody part contains but little emetia.   The grayish-black variety is sup-
posed to contain more emetia than the grayish-red.
   Emetia or emetine which  is the active principle  of the root, is prepared
by removing the odorous fatty matter from the powder with ether, then
exhausting the residue with boiling alcohol, then evaporating  the alco-
holic solution to dryness, and finally subjecting the extract to the  action
of cold water, which dissolves the emetia with some free acid, and leaves
the  wax and other matters.  To separate the  acid, and obtain pure
emetia, treat the watery solution with magnesia, filter,  and evaporate.
The salt is thus decomposed, and the organic  alkali  being insoluble is
precipitated with the excess  of the magnesia.   This precipitate is then
to be washed with  cold water, and  digested in alcohol, which  dissolves
the emetia ;  finally the alcoholic solution  is evaporated, the residue redis-
solved in a dilute  acid, decolorizing  the solution with animal  charcoal,
and precipitating the  emetia by  magnesia.  Or it may be obtained  by
treating the powdered root  with  very dilute sulphuric acid,  precipita-
ting with magnesia,  and  treating the precipitate in the manner  above
directed.
   Pure  emetia is whitish,  without odor, very slightly bitter, pulverulent,
permanent in the air,  uncrystallizable, fusible at about 120°, decidedly
alkaline, sparingly soluble in cold water and ether, more soluble in hot
water, and very soluble in alcohol.  It contains nitrogen among its con-
stituents.  With acids  it forms neutral, soluble, bitter, acrid, and for the
most part, uncrystallizable salts, whose solutions  are precipitated by gallic
and tannic acids.   It is supposed to consist of 35 equivalents of carbon,
25 of hydrogen, 9 of oxygen, and  1 of azote,  (C35 H25 09 N).   The  root
furnishes but a very small proportion of pure emetia. 
Cephaelis Ipecacuanha.
321
  Tannin, all  astringents containing  tannin or gallic acid, iodine, salts
of iron, and acetate of lead, are incompatible with ipecacuanha.
  Properties and Uses.—Emetic in large doses ; nauseant and expectorant
in smaller; and in still smaller doses, tonic, stimulant, carminative and dia-
phoretic. Some authors suppose it to possess narcotic properties. Given in
scruple doses, it operates as an active emetic, causing much nausea, contin-
ued muscular straining, with a free secretion of mucus; vomiting, however,
seldom takes place, until fifteen or twenty minutes after its administra-
tion.  It is  inferior to no other emetic, being safe even in large doses,
seldom producing painful spasms of the stomach or bowels, and causing
less prostration of the vital forces than tartar-emetic ;  it is best employed
in combination with other emetics, as in the Compound  Powder of Lobe-
lia, which  is much used among Eclectics, and  is preferred to any other
emetic in the early stage of febrile diseases, and in other instances where
a severe succussion of  the system is  indicated.    In  spasmodic asthma,
hysteria, pertussis, sore-throat, common catarrh, and stricture of the
chest common in phthisis, ipecacuanha as an emetic will be found  very
beneficial.   In menorrhagia, a scruple of the powder at bedtime followed
by a saline cathartic in the  morning, has, in the hands of several  prac-
titioners, promptly checked  the discharge.  In fevers and inflammatory
affections,  small  diaphoretic doses have been highly beneficial.  It will
likewise act as a nauseant sedative in all local inflammatory diseases, for
which purpose it may be extensively  used, and will be  found extremely
valuable  in  peritonitis, even the worst  form occurring in puerperal
women,  in pneumonia, in which it will assist expectoration, also in hem-
orrhages, especially uterine  hemorrhages. From three  to ten  grains will
produce nausea, which  may be  continued for any length of time, and
which is attended with  more or less  depression of the pulse, languor,
moisture of the  skin,  and an increased  mucus discharge  from all the
mucous  tissues of the system, which renders it very useful in pulmonary
and hepatic diseases.
   In doses of one quarter of a grain to one-half,  it acts as a tonic, im-
proving digestion, increasing the appetite, and is valuable in some forms
of dyspepsia.   In doses  of half a grain to two grains,  administered every
three or four  hours, it produces perspiration,  and is beneficial in febrile
and inflammatory diseases  ; combined with opium, its  diaphoretic influ-
ence is  greatly augmented,  as seen in the Powder of Ipecacuanha  and
 Opium.   In diarrhea and dysentery, both acute and chronic, it has been
regarded as a valuable remedy, free vomiting being first induced,  after
which, two or three grains, with  occasionally one-eighth of a grain of
sulphate of morphia, may be given every four hours.   Combined with
podophyllin, it increases the  activity of that resinoid, and induces perspi-
ration.   An excellent remedy for dysentery is, one grain  each of leptan-
drin and ipecacuanha, and half a grain of podophyllin, to be given every
three hours until it operates freely.  Sometimes ipecacuanha may be
           21 
322                      Materia Medica.
advantageously combined with other emetic agents, as bloodroot, lobelia,
etc., to render emesis more prompt, certain, and effectual.  In all cases
where this drug cannot be given by the mouth,-it may be used in injec-
tion, adding two drachms of the powder to one.pint of warm  water, for
an adult,—it will operate kindly and thoroughly as an emetic.
  Recently,  a liniment of ipecacuanha has  been introduced into practice,
for  the treatment of incipient phthisis,  certain  rheumatic  affections,
chronic hydrocephalus, chronic inflammation of the synovial membrane
of the knee,  and infantile convulsions.  As soon as the pustular eruption
appears, the  symptoms  improve more or less rapidly, until  a cure is
effected.   It is  made of powdered  ipecacuanha, sweet oil, of  each, two
drachms, lard half an ounce  ; mix  them well  together.  To  be rubbed
into the part affected, fifteen  or twenty minutes  at a  time, and to be
repeated three or four times daily, covering the part after each rubbing
with flannel; in from 24 to 48 hours the eruption  appears.  It is  stated,
that an  infusion of two drachms of  ipecacuanha in a gill of  hot water,
and strained, will, if drank warm, prove emetic ;  then if the same quan-
tity of hot water is again added to the residue,  strained, and drank cold,
it will prove purgative ; and  the same process repeated the third time,
and used cold, becomes  a valuable tonic.
  Emetia, the active principle of this  drug, is  so  severe and  uncertain
in its aciion, that it is not used in medicine.  Two grains of it will kill a
large dog.   A sixteenth of a  grain vomited an old man severely.
   Off. Prep.—Pulvis Ipecacuanhae  Compositus;  Pulvis  Ipecacuanhas
et Opii;  Tinctura Serpentariae Composita; Unguentum Ipecacuanhae;
Vinum Ipecacuanhae.


               CEPHALANTHUS  OCCIDENTALIS.

                            Button Bush.

        Nat. Ord.—Rubiaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Tetrandria Monogynia.

                             THE BARK.
  Description. — This plant,  sometimes called Pond  Dogwood,  Globe
Flower, etc., is  a handsome  shrub growing from three to fifteen feet
high, much branched, bark smooth on the  branches, rough on  the stems.
The leaves  are  opposite,  ternate, with red petioles, oval, base acute,
apex acuminate, margin  sometimes  undulate, smooth  on both sides,
sometimes slightly pubescent,  entire, from three to five inches long, and
two to three broad.  The fiowers are terminal, forming round balls of a
cream-white color, about an  inch  in  diameter, resembling the globular
inflorescence of the sycamore (Platanus Occidentalis), and  are on
peduncles about two inches long.  Calyx tube produced above'  the ovary,
teeth obtuse, persistent.   Corolla with a somewhat  funnel-shaped tube, 
Cera Alba — Cera Flava.                 323
with four ovate segments.   Stamens  not much longer than the corolla,
with yellow  anthers.   Style filiform,  much  exserted, Avith  a yellow
stigma.   Capsules  small, crowded, formed  of two half bivalve cells,
with the valves opposite,  each containing one seed.
  History.—This plant is found in most parts of the United States  and
Canada,-by the banks of  streams and ponds, and in low, wet situations,
flowering in July and  August, having a peculiar and heavy odor.   The
wood is light and  spongy.   The bark is the  part used, and  possesses
much bitterness.   Water or alcohol takes up its virtues.
  Properties and Uses.—Tonic, febrifuge, aperient, and  diuretic.   The
bark  has been  used  with  much  success in intermittent and  remittent
fevers;  and the inner bark of the root forms an agreeable  bitter, which
is often  employed in  coughs,  and as a diuretic in gravel.   The plant
deserves further investigation.   It has never been analyzed, but  con-
tains some volatile oil, and much bitter extractive.
                          CERA  ALBA.

                           White Wax.

                          CERA FLAVA.

                           Yellow Wax.

  History.—Wax is a peculiar concrete substance, which exists in small
quantities in various plants; it is  likewise a product of the common bee,
Apis Mellifica  of naturalists, which constructs with it the cells for food
and ova.  It is a proper secretion of the insect, discharged in the form
of scales under the wings of the  belly.  The wax produced by the bee
is the  officinal article, of which  there are two kinds,  Yellow wax and
 White  wax.
   Yellow Wax is obtained directly from the comb, which, after having
been deprived of  its  honey, is melted in boiling water, strained, again
melted and poured into  suitable vessels;  as  the liquid cools the wax
concretes, forming  the yellow wax of commerce.   Our  markets  are
chiefly supplied from  the Western States and  North Carolina, also from
Cuba.   It has a grayish-yellow color, a peculiar rather  agreeable odor,
and  a  slight  peculiar taste.  It possesses considerable firmness  and
tenacity, though rather soft and  unctuous to  the touch, but no greasi-
ness, has a  granular  fracture, is  smooth  and glossy when cut with a
knife, does not adhere to the fingers, nor to the teeth when chewed, is
softened by a moderate heat, and melts at 142°; its specific gravity is
0.960 to 0.965.  Its odor, color, and taste, depend upon  some associated
principle not forming any of its essential constituents. 
324
Materia  Medica.
   White Wax is prepared by exposing thin layers of yellow wax to air,
 sunshine, and moisture, when it loses  its color, nearly all of its  odor,
 and becomes yellowish-white.   In factories where this bleaching process
 is carried on to a considerable  extent, the melted wax  is made  to fall
 upon a revolving cylinder,  kept constantly wet, upon which it concretes,
 forming thin ribbon-like layers, which  are removed from the cylinders,
 spread upon linen cloths stretched  on frames, and  exposed to  the air,
 and light; being occasionally watered  and turned.  To render it per-
 fectly white, this process has to be repeated two or three times, when it
 is melted and cast into small circular cakes.   Chlorine will also decolor-
 ize it, but the wax  becomes somewhat changed in its character.   Pure
 white wax  is white,  shining,  diaphanous  in  thin  layers,  inodorous,
 insipid, harder and  less unctuous  to the touch than the yellow, soft and
 ductile at 95° F., melts at 155° F.,  and of specific gravity 0.966.  At
 a high temperature  it boils, and in  close vessels  distils over with little
 alteration ; at a red heat its vapor inflames, burning with a dense white
 brightness.   It  is  insoluble  in  water,  cold  alcohol,  or ether,  but is
 slightly soluble in boiling alcohol or ether, which deposits it upon cooling,
 It readily dissolves in  fixed and volatile oils, and combines by fusion
 with  fats and resins; boiled with  caustic alkaline solutions it is imper-
 fectly saponified.  The ultimate constituents of wax are twenty equiva-
 lents of  carbon, twenty of  hydrogen, and one of oxygen, (Cm H20 0).
 When treated  with nitric  acid, wax is  almost  entirely converted into
 succinic  acid.   According to Dr. John, wax consists of two  proximate
 principles, Cerin  and Myricin, the  former constituting about 70 per cent.
 of the wax, fusible  at  143°, soluble in boiling  alcohol, partly saponifi-
 able  by  boiling with  caustic potassa, and yielding margaric acid, a little
 oleic  acid,  and an unsaponifiable fatty matter called  Cerain;  the latter
 fusible at 149°, sparingly soluble even in boiling alcohol, and incapable
 of undergoing saponification.  Lewy and Ettling consider cerin, myricin,
 and cerain to be isomeric, but Hess affirms they  are not distinct  princi-
 ples at all, and that wax is essentially a single proximate principle.  Mr.
 B. C. Brodie considers cerin, when pure, as an acid having the constitu-
 tion Cj-i H54 Oi, and  which  he terms Cerotic acid, which is  fusible  at
 172° F., and  on  cooling  concretes   into  a very  crystalline  mass.
Myricin, when  entirely freed  from  cerotic  acid, is saponifiable  with
 difficulty, and  from  the  results of  saponification he  isolated Palmitic
acid (Ci2H32 0() and a  peculiar substance, Melissine (Ceo He2 04),
which he views as a wax-alcohol, convertible into  mellissic  acid  by the
loss of two equivalents of hydrogen, and the gain of  two of oxygen.
  Both yellow and white wax are liable  to  adulterations.  Resin  may
be suspected  by the fracture being  smooth and shining instead of granu-
lar, also by its solubility in  cold alcohol.  Insoluble substances  may be
discovered and separated  by melting and straining  the wax.  Tallow
and  suet, by the greasiness imparted, by the softness they communi- 
                      Cerevisi^e Fermentum.                    325

cate  to the wax, and  its  greater fusibility, also  by its unpleasant odor
when melted.   Fatty  matters may also  be detected by their rendering
hot lime-water turbid, when agitated with chips of the suspected wax,
and then allowed to rest.   Chloroform dissolves stearin and stearic  acid
completely,  but  only  25 per cent, of wax; then, if wax, treated with
six or eight parts of chloroform, loses more than one-fourth of its weight,
it is impure.   If the wax  contains starch, boil it in water and add tinc-
ture  of iodine to it, which will produce a  blue color.  Pereira states
that  the whiteness of  the circular cakes of wax is owing to the presence
of spermaceti, and  that pure wax is yellowish-white.   (For Myrtle wax
see Myrica Cerifera.)
  Properties and Uses. — Wax has  but little effect upon  the system,
though it has been recommended in diarrhea, dysentery, and inflamma-
tion of the alimentary mucous  membrane combined with olive oil, and
the yelk  of  egg.  Its principal employment is in the formation of oint-
ments, cerates, and plasters, of which it forms an ingredient imparting
to them due consistence and tenacity.
                   CEREVISI^E FERMENTUM.

                              Yeast.

  Preparation.—When  an infusion of malt, (barley steeped in water,
fermented, and dried in a kiln,) technically called Wort, is subjected to
the process of fermentation, a dirty, grayish-brown substance, gradually
separates, forming in part a frothy scum, and partly  a sediment; this is
yeast, or barm.

  History.—Yeast is a floceulent, frothy, somewhat viscid semifluid, of
a sour, vinous odor, and  a  bitter  taste ; it  is a very mixed substance,
containing water, alcohol, carbonic, acetic and malic acids,  potassa, lime,
and saccharo-mucilaginous extract.  At 60° or in  a  damp atmosphere,
it soon  undergoes putrefaction, and exposed to a  moderate heat, it be-
comes dry, hard, and brittle, and may then be preserved for a long time,
though with the loss of much of its peculiar power.  Yeast is insoluble
in alcohol or water.  Its most important property is, that when placed
in  contact with saccharine solutions at a temperature between 50° and
80°, it excites vinous fermentation in them,  converting their sugar into
carbonic acid and alcohol.  This property it  owes to its azotized globules
or cells, which may be  seen  in it, when examined with a microscope,
appearing as minute transparent vesicles, containing one or more granules.
This property is much impaired by drying the yeast,  and destroyed by a
heat of 212°, the addition of strong alcohol, of several of the  acids, or
by continued trituration until all the vesicles have  burst and lost their 
326
Materia  Medica.
structure.   It  is also destroyed by  boiling water, pyroligneous acid,
salts of mercury, essential oils, etc.
  Properties and  Uses.—Stimulant, tonic,  nutritious,  antiseptic, and
laxative.  Used in typhoid fevers by  mouth and  injection, and  in tym-
panitis by enema.  In all malignant ulcerations of the throat and mouth,
in diseases where there is  a disposition to putridity, in scarlatina, and
low stao-es of fever, with or without the  addition of olive oil, which
renders it more laxative, it will be found highly beneficial.   Externally,
in combination  with elm bark and charcoal it forms  an  excellent emol-
lient and antiseptic poultice  in sloughing ulcers, stimulating  the vessels,
removing the tendency to gangrene,  and correcting the  fetor.
  In the recent furunculoid epidemic which existed in this  country and
Europe, given  internally, in conjunction with quinia, yeast was found
effectual in the treatment of boils, carbuncles, and felons.   The dose of
yeast is from half an ounce to an ounce, every two or three hours.
  Yeast has been advised in diabetes mellitus in doses of a fluidrachm
three or four times a day, taken immediately before meals.  It has in
some instances proved efficacious, and is supposed to act by decomposing
sugar or preventing  its abnormal production in the stomach.
   Off. Prep.—Cataplasma  Fermenti.
                           CETACEUM.

                             Spermaceti.

  A  PECULIAR CONCRETE SUBSTANCE OBTAINED FROM  THE SPERMACETI
                               WHALE.
  Preparation.—Spermaceti is obtained from the Cachalot or  Sperm
whale, the Physeter Macrocephalus of naturalists, a species of the family
Cetacea; it  is a gregarious animal, inhabiting  the  Pacific ocean, the
waters of the Indian Archipelago, and the Chinese  seas.  It varies in
size, being from fifty to eighty feet in length, with a huge, quadrangular
head, from twenty to thirty feet, or more, in circumference, and which
constitutes  about a third of its whole length.  Spermaceti is  .found in
various parts of its body, in small proportions, dissolved in its blubber,
but that which is met with in commerce, is obtained  from large cavities
in the upper  part  of  the head; these  are divided into numerous cells,
which are filled  with a milky, oleaginous solution of spermaceti.   From
a large whale forty to sixty hundred weight of this fluid may be collected.
It is  removed from the cavities  and  boiled  to separate the oleaginous
matter from the solid substance, and as it cools, the  spermaceti crystal-
lizes.  The oil is then drained off as much as possible, and the remainder
is removed from the spermaceti by  powerful pressure.   The  crude 
Cetaceum.
327
spermaceti is subsequently purified by fusing and skimming it, then fusing
it in weak ley of potassa, and finally by a third fusion at a gentle heat;
after which it is solidified in tin molds.
  History.—Spermaceti is concrete, crystalline and foliaceous in texture,
white,  pearly, tasteless, inodorous,  friable, soft, and somewhat unctuous
to the  touch ;  pulverizable on the addition  of a little alcohol or  almond-
oil, of  specific  gravity 0.943, fusible at 112° F., combustible, insoluble
in water, sparingly soluble in cold alcohol, more  soluble in  boiling alco-
hol, ether,  and oil of turpentine, but deposited as the liquids cool, and
readily soluble in volatile  oils, fixed oils,  or fused fats.  The mineral
acids do not affect it, except the sulphuric, which decomposes and dis-
solves  it.   Long exposure  to the  air  renders it yellow and rancid, in
consequence of its containing a little oil, but it may again be purified by
washing it with a warm ley of potassa, or  by boiling in alcohol, which
deposits the pure spermaceti as  it cools.  Spermaceti, when  deprived of
oil by  means of an alkali, becomes a pure proximate principle,  interme-
diate between  wax and the concrete oils, and presenting all  the  leading
properties of the ordinary article, but less unctuous,  rather harder, and
fusible only at  120°;  it is then termed Cetin, and  is soluble in forty parts
of boiling alcohol of  sp. gr. 0.821.   When boiled in a solution of caustic
potassa, cetin is  partially saponified, forming  a  brittle  soap, composed
chiefly of  margarate of  potassa, oleate of potassa, and a  crystalline
principle called Ethal, and which  soap is  not wholly soluble in water.
Cetin is a compound  of ethal, (hydrated oxide of cetyle,) with ethalic
or cetylic  acid, (C32 H31 Os HO).   When melted or dissolved in hot
alcohol it crystallizes beautifully; when acted on by nitric acid,  it yields
first, pimelic   acid, (C7 Ho O4); which is  then oxidized  into  adipic
acid,  (CuHi-'O10);  which is finally converted into succinic  acid,
(Ct Hi Oi, HO=S, HO).   Cetin or pure spermaceti consists  of 81.66
per cent, of carbon, 12.86 hydrogen, and 5.48 oxygen.
   Properties and Uses. — Demulcent,  much used  among  children in
domestic  practice in coughs, colds, and catarrhal affections, combined
with equal parts of loaf sugar, and  in irritations of  the intestinal mucous
membranes.    An  emulsion may be made by first mixing it wilh  half
its weight  of olive oil, then with powdered Gum Arabic, and lastly with
water gradually added.  Spermaceti forms a useful ingredient of several
cerates and ointments.   Spermaceti enters into the formation of a crayon
which  is of much value to chemists, druggists, and others, inasmuch as
it enables them to write upon clean glass, the contents  of  bottles,  etc.,
as labels or  otherwise.   It  is made by fusing in a cup four drachms of
spermaceti, (or stearine) three drachms of tallow, and  two drachms of
wax ;  after which,  six drachms of  red-lead, and  one  drachm  of potassa
are to  be stirred into it, keeping the whole mass warm for half an hour,
and then pour it into glass tubes the thickness of a lead-pencil.   After 
328
Materia Medica.
rapid cooling, the mass may be screwed up and down in the tube, and
cut to the finest point with a knife.
   Off. Prep.—Ceratum Cetacei; Unguentum Aquae Rosas ; Unguentum
Cetacei.
                    CETRARIA  ISLANDICA.
                           Iceland Moss.
       Nat. Ord.—Lichenaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Cryptogamia Lichen es.
  Description.—Iceland Moss is a perennial, foliaceous plant, from  two
to four inches high ; thallus erect, tufted, olive-brown, paler on one side,
laciniated, channeled, and dentato-ciliate, the fertile laciniae very broad.
Shields brown, appressed, flat, with an elevated border.
  History.—This lichen is a native of Britain and the northern countries
of Europe, particularly Iceland.  It is  of various colors, being grayish-
white, brown,  and red in  different parts; has a  bitter, mucilaginous,
somewhat astringent taste; is  inodorous, absorbs more than its weight
of water when steeped, rendering the water bitter if warmed, is converted
into a mucilaginous pulp by long chewing, and when boiled in water the
decoction becomes a firm jelly on cooling.   The bitter principle,  which
may be removed by weak alkaline solutions, is called Cetrarin, and is
used in Italy instead of Cinchona.   It may be  obtained by boiling the
coarsely-powdered moss for half an hour in  four times its weight of alco*-
hol of 0.883.  When tepid, the solution is to be  filtered, and treated with
diluted muriatic acid, in the proportion of three drachms to every pound
of moss employed.  Water,  to the amount of four times the volume of
the liquid, is then to be added, and the mixture left for a  night  in a
closed matrass.  The deposit which forms, is collected on a filter, allowed
to drain as much as possible, and submitted to the press.   To purify it,
break the mass into small pieces, and while still moist,  wash it with alco-
hol or ether, then treat it with two hundred times its weight of boiling
alcohol, which dissolves  only the cetrarin;  as the liquid cools, this is,
for the greater part  deposited, and  the remainder may be obtained by
evaporation.   One pound  of moss will thus yield about 133  grains of
cetrarin.   It is white, uncrystalline, light, permanent in the air, inodor-
ous, and very  bitter,  especially in  tincture.   It is soluble  in  absolute
alcohol, ether, and slightly so  in water; alkalies  form permanent com-
pounds with it, from which it may  be separated by acids with its original
properties  unchanged.  Acids do not unite  with it, and its solutions are
neutral to test-paper.  Concentrated hydrochloric acid converts it into  a
bright-blue coloring  matter.   It precipitates the  salts of iron, copper,
lead,  and silver, and has been used in two-grain doses, repeated every
two hours, with much success in intermittents.  It is supposed to consist
of cetraric acid, lichstearic acid, and thallocor. 
Chelidonium Majus.
329
  The most important part of Iceland  moss, is its nutritive principle, to
which the name of Lichenin has been  given.   It  may be obtained by
macerating the chopped lichen for twenty-four hours, in eighteen parts
of water, containing a 250th of its weight of carbonate of potassa—strain
off the bitter solution without pressure, and  remove  the rest of it from
the residuum by  maceration with  cold  water,  and  simple  straining.
Boil the residuum in nine  parts of water down to six, strain the decoc-
tion, and squeeze what is  left in  the cloth, and  then allow the strained
liquor  to  cool.  A firm jelly is formed, which  cracks and throws  out
much of the water, and then dries into  a hard,  black, glassy-like sub-
stance.   The  black coloring matter may be  removed by boiling again,
straining,  cooling,  and drying; upon which the  lichenin is obtained in
thin, transparent, and  tough  plates of a yellowish  color.   Cold water
renders it gelatinous, boiling water dissolves it, forming a jelly on cool-
ing ; alcohol and ether do not affect it.  Iodine renders its watery solu-
tion  blue, and it is  converted into  sugar by sulphuric acid, and into
oxalic  acid  by nitric acid.   It consists of carbon, oxygen, and  hydro-
gen, and in  some respects resembles amidin.
  Properties  and  Uses.—Demulcent, tonic, and  nutritious.   Used as  a
demulcent in chronic catarrhs, chronic dysentery,  and diarrhea, and as
a tonic in dyspepsia, convalescence, and exhausting diseases.   Boiled
with milk it forms an excellent nutritive and tonic in phthisis, and gen-
eral  debility.   Its  tonic virtues  depend  upon  its cetrarin, which, if
removed,  renders the lichen merely nutritious.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum  Cetrariae.
                     CHELIDONIUM  MAJUS.

                          Great Celandine.

       Nat. Ord.—Papaveraceas.  Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Monogynia.

                          herb and  root.
   Description.—This plant, sometimes known as Tetterwort, is an ever-
green perennial, with a stem from one to  two feet in hight,  branched,
swelled at the joints, leafy,  round,  smooth.  The  leaves are smooth,
spreading, very deeply pinnatifid ; leaflets, in from  two  to four  pairs,
from one and a half to two and a half  inches long, and about  two-thirds
as  broad,  the  terminal  one  largest, all ovate, cuneately   incised  or
lobed ; the lateral  ones sometimes dilated at their lower maroin  near
the base,  almost  as if auricled ;  color of all  a deep shinino-  oreen.
Flowers bright-yellow, umbellate,  on long, often  hairy stalks.    Umbels
thin, axillary, pedunculate.   Calyx tawny, often hairy.  Petals four,
entire, yellow, and very fugacious.   Stamens numerous.   Capsules long, 
330
Materia  Medica.
torulose, two-valved, one celled.  Seeds black and shining, each with a
whitish deciduous crest.
   History. — Celandine is indigenous to  Europe,  and  is  extensively
naturalized  in  the United States, growing in Avaste places, and flower-
ing  throughout the summer.  The whole plant  is very brittle, and ex-
udes when  broken,  an orange-colored, fetid juice, the taste  of which
is  intensely bitter  and  acrid,  occasioning  a sense  of burning in the
mouth and  fauces, which lasts for some time.  The root is more power-
ful than the  stems, and is  usually  preferred.   Drying  diminishes its
activity.   It  yields  its virtues to  alcohol or  water.   Analysis has
detected in  this  plant, a deep-yellow,  bitter,  resinous   substance,  an
orange-colored, nauseous, and  bitter gum-resin, mucilage,  albumen,
free malic acid, silica, and various salts.  More recently  a peculiar acid
has been detected in it, termed Chelidonic acid; an alkaline  principle,
forming neutral red  salts with acids, which  are narcotic and poisonous,
denominated  Chelerythine;  it is a gray  powder, and  excites violent
sneezing when snuffed  into  the nostrils ;  another  alkaline  principle,
bitter, insoluble in water, and  forming crystallizable "salts, called Cheli-
donin, (Cto  H20  N3 0);  and  lastly  a neuter,  yellow,  crystallizable,
bitter principle, termed Chelidoxanthin.
   Chelerythin may be obtained by forming  a strong ethereal tincture of
the  celandine root; through this pass muriatic  acid  gas,  and dry the
precipitated muriate which is  insoluble in ether.  Then dissolve it in hot
water, filter, precipitate by ammonia,  dry the precipitate, dissolve it in
ether, decolorize  by  animal charcoal, again  precipitate by muriatic acid
gas, and decompose  the muriate, by ammonia, as before.
   Properties and Uses.—Stimulant,  acrid,   alterative, diuretic, diapho-
retic, and purgative.    Used  internally in  decoction  or tincture, and
externally in  poultice or ointment, for scrofula, cutaneous diseases, and
piles.  Likewise useful in hepatic affections, and  is supposed to exert a
special  influence  on the spleen.  As  a drastic  hydragogue it  is fully
equal to gamboge.   The juice when  applied to the skin produces inflam-
mation and even vesication,  and has  long  been known as a caustic  for
the removal of warts, also applied to indolent ulcers, fungous  growths^
etc., and is  useful in removing specks and  opacities  of the cornea, and
in  curing ringworms.   Dose of the powdered root, from  half a drachm
to  one drachm ;  of  the fresh  juice,  from thirty to forty  drops, in some
bland liquid ; of  the tincture, from one to two drachms ;  of the aqueous
extract, from five to ten grains.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Chelidonii. 
Chelone Glabra.
331
                       CHELONE GLABRA.

                             Balmony.

    Nat. Ord.—Scrophulariaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Angiospermia.

                            the leaves.
   Description.—This plant, likewise known by the names of Snakehead,
 Turllebloom, Turtlehead, Salt-rheum weed, etc., is  a herbaceous  plant,
 with  a  perennial root, and erect,  somewhat quadrangular,  branching
 stems, from two  to four feet high.  The leaves are opposite,  smooth,
 oblong-lanceolate,  acuminate,  serrate,  short-petioled, and of  a  dark,
 shining green above.  The flowers are large, inodorous, terminal in  a
 dense short spike, somewhat resembling the  head of a  tortoise ;  each
 floAver is sessile and furnished with three ovate, acute  and entire bracts.
 Corolla ringent, white, often tinged with red or purple, ventricose, con-
 vex above, five-lobed, two-lipped, the lower lip bearded  within.    Calyx
 with five  unequal  imbricated  segments, oblong and obtuse.    Stamens
 didynamous, with woolly anthers ; and  a  short sterile, hairy filament.
 Ovary ovate, with a long, exsert  style, bending downward.    Capsule
oval, tvv .'-celled, two-valved, with numerous small, winged seeds, with
membranaceous margins.

  History.—This valuable medicinal plant is found in the United States
in wet situations,  and blossoms from July  until late in the autumn; the
flowers  are large and  ornamental, varying in  color, in  the  numerous
varieties, from pure white to  purplish,  and resemble in form the head
of a snake or turtle.   The leaves are exceedingly bitter,  but inodorous,
and communicate their properties  to both water and  alcohol.    No ana-
lysis has been made of them.

  Properties and  Uses.—Tonic, cathartic, and anthelmintic.  Especially
 valuable in jaundice and hepatic diseases, likewise for the removal of
 worms, for which it may be used in powder or decoction,  internally, and
 also in injection.  Used as a tonic  in small doses, in dyspepsia,  debility
 of the digestive organs, and  during  convalescence from febrile and
inflammatory diseases.  Recommended in  form of ointment as an  appli-
cation  to painful  and  inflamed tumors,  irritable  and  painful ulcers,
inflamed breasts, piles, etc.   Dose  of the powder  one drachm  ; of the
tincture, one  or two fluidrachms ;  of the decoction, one or two  fluid-
ounces.
Off. Prep.—Decoctum Chelonis. 
332
Materia  Medica.
              CHENOPODIUM ANTHELMINTICUM.

                             Wormseed.

       Nat.  Ord.—Chenopodiaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.

                               SEEDS.
   Description.—This plant, known also by the name of Jerusalem Oak,
has a perennial and branched root, with  an upright, herbaceous, much
branched, deeply-grooved stem,  rising from  two to  five feet in  hight.
The leaves are  alternate or scattered, oblong-lanceolate, deeply sinuate,
or dentate, nearly sessile, conspicuously veined, attenuated at both ends,
of a yellowish-green  color,  and studded  beneath with  small, globular,
oily dots.   The fiowers are very numerous,  small, of the same color as
the leaves, and arranged in long, slender,  axillary, or terminal racemes.
Calyx with five oval, concave segments.   Stamens opposite the lobes of
the calyx, and about as long.  Styles three,  sometimes two, longer than
the stamens.   Seed small, lenticular, covered by the persistent calyx.
   History.—Chenopodium is found growing in waste places in almost all
parts of the  United  States, flowering from  July to  September,  and
ripening its seeds throughout the autumn, at which time they should be
collected.  The whole plant  has  a strong,  heavy,  disagreeable odor,
depending on the presence  of a  volatile oil,  which is most abundant in
the seeds.  This oil is at first light-yellow in color, but  becomes darker
by age and exposure to light.  The whole plant is occasionally employed,
but the seeds only are officinal.   When dried, they  are of a  greenish-
yellow or  brownish color, irregularly  spherical,  very small, very light,
and have a bitterish, warm,  pungent taste, with the peculiar odor of the
plant.   Wormseed oil is obtained from them by distillation.
  Properties and Uses.—Anthelmintic and antispasmodic.  It is used in
various forms to expel the lumbrici in children, in various forms, as the
expressed juice, electuary,  or decoction.   The dose of the  juice, is  a
tablespoonful repeated night and morning ; of the decoction, prepared
by boiling an ounce of the  fresh plant in a pint  of milk, with the addi-
tion  of  some aromatic, a Avineglassful; of the  electuary, made by tho-
roughly mixing the pulverized  seed  in  honey or syrup,  one  or  two
scruples.  But the  essential  oil,  on  which the vermifuge  properties
depend, is the best form, and is more generally employed.  Its dose is
from four to eight drops mixed with  sugar,  or in emulsion, to be given
morning and evening, for four or  five days successively, and then, as
with the other forms of administration, it  should  always be followed by
a purgative.  Among Eclectics it is used in various combinations.  Take
of oil of Wormseed and  Tansy, of each one  ounce, Spirits of Turpen-
tine one ounce  and a  half,  Castor  Oil, one  pound.   Mix.  Dose, for  a 
Chimaphila Umbellata.
333
child, a teaspoonful every hour, until  it operates; for an adult, a table-
spoonful.  The oil has likewise been reputed beneficial in amenorrhea.
  The G. Ambrosoides, which has been successfully  used in chorea, and
the  C.  Bolrys, which has been  used with advantage  in  catarrh  and
humoral asthma,  as  an  expectorant, are both indigenous,  and though
less  powerful, possess somewhat  similar properties  ; and, indeed,  from
the superior powers of the C. Anthelminticum, it might possibly be found
of more benefit in these  affections, than the above.
   Off.  Prep.—Oleum  Chenopodii;  Mistura Chenopodii  Composita ;
Mistura Olei Composita.
        CHIMAPHILA UMBELLATA.  (Pyrola  Umbellata.)

                             Pipsissewa.

         Nat. Ord.—Ericaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.

                         THE WHOLE PLANT.

   Description.—This plant is known  by various other names,  as Winter-
green, Prince's Pine, Ground-Holly, etc. ; it is a small evergreen, nearly
herbaceous, perennial  herb, with  a creeping, yellowish rhizoma, from
which  are  sent several simple, erect, or  semi-procumbent stems, some-
what angular, marked  with  the scars of former leaves, and ligneous at
their base ;  they grow  from four to  eight inches  in  hight.   The leaves
are in two or more irregular whorls,  from tAvo to three inches long, and
about one-fourth as wide,  cuneate-lanceolate,  acute at the base, sharply
serrate, on short  petioles, coriaceous, shining, of  a uniform dark-green
color, paler below, and not  spotted.   The fiowers are  corymbose, nod-
ding, of a light-purple color; the pedicels Avith  linear-subulate bracts
about their middle, one-sixth  of an inch  long.  Calyx small, consisting
of five roundish, acute  teeth or segments, much shorter than the corolla.
Corolla is composed of five roundish, concave, spreading, cream-colored
petals, exhaling a fragrant  odor, and tinged  at  the base  with  purple.
Stamens ten, hypogynous; filaments  sigmoid, the  lower half  fleshy, tri-
angular, dilated,  and slightly pubescent  at the edges  ; the upper half
filiform.  Anthers two-celled, each cell opening by a short, round, tubu-
lar orifice, which  points downward in the bud,  but upward in the flower.
Pollen white.   Ovary globular, depressed,  furrowed, obscurely  five-
lobed, with a funnel-shaped cavity at top, and supporting  a  large, pel-
tate, convex, obscurely five-rayed stigma.  Style short, straight, half as
long as  the ovary, inversely conical,  inserted in the cavity of the ovary,
and  concealed  by the  stigma.   Capsule erect, depressed,  five-celled, 
334
Materia Medica.
 five-valved, the partitions from the middle of the vahTes.   Seeds numer-
 ous, linear, and chaffy.
   History.—This  beautiful  evergreen is a native  of the  northern lati-
 tudes of America, Europe,  and Asia, and is found in  the United States
 growing under the shade  of  Avoods, and prefers  a  loose, sandy soil,
 enriched by decaying leaves.   It flowers in June  and July.   The fresh
 leaves have a fragrant odor when bruised, but Avhen dried have scarcely
 any smell, Avith a pleasantly bitter, astringent  and sweetish taste.   The
 whole plant is officinal.  Boiling water,  or alcohol extracts the active
 properties.  The plant contains a large proportion  of  bitter extractive,
 an acrid and volatile principle, resin, gum, lignin, and saline substances.
   Properties and Uses. — Diuretic,  tonic,  alterative,  and  astringent.
 The fresh leaves when bruised and applied to  the skin, act  as vesicants
 and rubefacients.  It is especially useful  in scrofula, and  chronic rheu-
 matic and nephritic affections.   The  decoction alone has cured ascites,
 and has  been  advantageous  in  strangury,  chronic gonorrhea,  and
 catarrh of the bladder; and as an antilithic it is said  to diminish lithic
 acid in the urine.  In dropsy it cannot always  be relied on to the exclu-
 sion of  other  more active  measures, and is better  adapted  to  cases
 accompanied Avith much debility and loss of appetite.  In urinary dis-
 orders, it may be  used as a substitute for the uva ursi,  to Avhich it is
 preferable on account of being less offensive to the stomach.  In many
 cutaneous diseases, it has proved very efficacious.  Dose of the decoction,
 from one to four fluidounces three times a day;  of the extract, from ten to
 twenty grains,  three or four times a day  ; a syrup may be prepared, by
 macerating four ounces of the finely-bruised leaves, in eight fluidounces
 of Avater for thirty-six hours, then subject the whole  to percolation  till
 a pint of fluid is  obtained, evaporate to  half a pint,  and  add twelve
ounces of sugar.  Dose, one or two tablespoonfuls.
   The Chimaphila Maculata,  or  Spotted Wintergreen,  may  be known
 from the above by its leaves, which are opposite, or in threes, lanceolate,
 acuminate, rounded at the  base, where they are broader  than near  the
 summit, remotely serrate, of a deep  olive-green color, and  veined with
 greenish-white.   The C. Umbellata leaves are  broader near the summit,
 tapering toward  the base, of  a uniform  shining  green color, serrated,
 and not marked with  the whitish line along the midvein and  veinlets.
   The C.  Maculata is probably possessed of similar  powers with  the
 officinal article and may be used  as  a  substitute.   An extract  of it is
reputed to have cured epilepsy.
   Off. iVep.—Decoctum Chimaphilae;  Syrupus  Stillingiae Compositus. 
Chiococca Racemosa — Chloroformum.           335
                   CHIOCOCCA RACEMOSA.

                             Cahinca.

     Nat.  Ord. — Cinchonaceaa.   Sex. Syst. — Pentandria Monogynia.

                      THE BARK OF THE  ROOT.
  Description.—A  subscandent  shrub,  somewhat resembling the Jas-
mine, with opposite branches.   Leaves  oval, acuminate, or sometimes
obtuse, on a short petiole ; they  are entire, very smooth, and furnished
Avith two short, acuminate stipules, which  are connate  at  their edges.
The flowers are in  axillary racemes, generally shorter than the leaves;
they are usually secund ;  at first they are white  and inodorous,  and
afterward  yellow and fragrant.   The fruit is a small, white, compressed
berry.   There are several varieties, differing in the form of the  leaves,
and more  or less scandent character of the shrub.
  History. —This plant, sometimes called Snowberry, is a native of the
West Indies, South America, and  also of the sea-coast of Florida.  The
root, as found in commerce, is of a reddish-brown color, in cylindrical
pieces  of  various  sizes  and  lengths,  somewhat contorted,  slightly
wrinkled  longitudinally, with  occasional small  asperities, and having a
thin, brittle, reddish-brown bark  externally, and an internal ligneous
portion.   The cortical  part, which contains  the medical virtues, is of a
bitter, disagreeable taste, somewhat acrid  and astringent, and possesses
an unpleasant odor.  Water or alcohol extracts its active principles.
  Properties and  Uses. — Tonic,  diuretic, purgative,  and   emetic.   In
moderate  doses it gently excites the circulation, increases the discliarge
of urine, and produces evacuations from the bowels, but is rather slow
in its operation.  If warm drinks are used, and the surface of the body
kept warm, it  will  produce diaphoresis,  and  not purge.   In large doses
it operates powerfully as  an emetic and cathartic.   It  has been found
efficient in dropsy,  amenorrhea, rheumatism, syphilis,  and osteocopus.
In  Brazil  it is used by the natives  as a remedy for the bites of poisonous
snakes.   It may be used in substance, decoction,  tincture, or extract.
Dose of the powdered bark  of the root, as a diuretic  and purgative,
from twenty to sixty grains ;  of  the aqueous or spirituous extract, which
is preferred, from  ten  to twenty grains.
                        CHLOROFORMUM.

                      Terchloride of Formyle.

                            CHLOROFORM.
  Preparation. — Mix  Chlorinated  Lime ten pounds; first with Water,
three gallons and a half, and then with Alcohol, two pints, in a distillatory 
336                      Materia Medica.
 vessel  having the  capacity of about  six gallons.   Distil with a  brisk
 heat into a refrigerated receiver, and Avhen the temperature  approaches
 to 176°,  withdraw the fire, in order that the  distillation may proceed by
 the heat  derived solely from the reaction of the materials.   When the
 distillation slackens, hasten it by a  fresh application of heat, and con-
 tinue to distil until the  liquid  ceases  to come  over Avith  a sweet taste.
 Separate  the heavier layer of liquid in the receiver from the lighter by
 decantation, and,  having washed it first Avith water, and then with a
 weak solution of carbonate of soda,  agitate it thoroughly with powdered
 chloride of calcium, and distil it off  by means of a water-bath,  stopping
 the distillation when eleven-twelfths of the liquid have come over.  The
 residue,  together with the light liquid  of the first distillation, may be
 reserved  for use in  a second operation.
   History.—Chloroform was discovered in 1831  by Mr. Samuel  Guthrie,
 of Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., and also by Leibig in Germany, and Soube-
 rain in  France, at about the same time.   Guthrie obtained it by distilling
 a gallon from a mixture of three pounds of chlorinated lime, and two
 gallons of alcohol, sp. gr. 0.844, and rectifying the product  by redistil-
 lation, first, from a great excess of chlorinated lime, and afterward  from
 carbonate of potassa.  He thus obtained pure chloroform, sp. gr. 1.486,
 free from alcohol, and rendered pure  by washing it with a strong solu-
 tion of  carbonate of potassa.
   Chloroform is a  limpid, colorless, volatile, neuter liquid, having a
 bland ethereal odor, and a hot, aromatic, sweetish taste.   Litmus paper
 is  not bleached nor reddened  by it.   It is not inflammable, but  renders
 the flame of an  alcohol lamp yellow  and  fuliginous.   Its density is from
 1.48 to 1.5, and it boils at 142°.  It dissolves readily in ether  or alco-
 hol, but  is scarcely soluble in Avater  or sulphuric  acid; its alcoholic
 solution Avhen moderately diluted Avith water forms an aromatic  saccha-
 rine liquid of a very grateful taste.   An abundance of Avater decomposes
 a strong alcoholic solution, the chloroform separating and subsiding, and
 the  alcohol uniting with  the water.   When  pure, it has no  action on
 potassium, sulphur,  or phosphorus, but is  capable of dissolving  amber,
 shell-lac,  copal,  caoutchouc, gutta percha, iodine, bromine, resins, wax,
 fats, volatile oils, the organic alkalies, and large proportions of camphor;
 and as  a general solvent, its non-inflammability renders  it superior  to
 alcohol  or ether.   It is composed of three equivalents  of chlorine, and
 one of formyle.
   Chloroform has an extensive range of  solvent power, and will prove
 a most valuable auxiliary to the chemist and pharmaceutist.   According
to  M. Lepage the following is  the solvent pow*r  of chloroform in rela-
tion to various bodies: Mastic,  colophony, elemi, tolu, and benzoin, are
dissolved  in  all  proportions, forming solutions,  some of which might
prove useful as varnishes.  Copal  and  caoutchouc  also dissolve, but
more readily hot than cold.  Amber,  sandarac, and  shell-lac are only 
Chloroformum.
337
 partially dissolved, either with or without heat.  Their constituent resins
 may be thus separated.   Olibanum dissolves  but slightly, hot or cold.
 Guaiacum and scammony resin dissolve readily, while jalap resin is
 insoluble; it merely softens  and floats on the surface like pitch.  Gam-
 boge  and dragon's-blood yield some substance and their fine color to the
 solvent, and might be  advantageously used  as varnishes.   Fixed  oils
 and fats, dissolve readily, in all proportions.  Wax yields 25 per cent.
 of soluble matter to this solvent.   All volatile oils are soluble.  Iodine,
 bromine, phosphorus, and sulphur are  soluble, the two last only slightly.
 Styracin,  piperin,  naphthalin,  cholesterin, and  cantharidin are very
 soluble;  picrotoxin, slightly so; paraffin only when hot, separating as
 the liquid cools; while amygdaline, phloridzin, salicin, digitalin, cytisin,
 urea,  hematin, gluten, and sugar are  insoluble.  Benzoic and hippuric
 acids  are very soluble, tannic  but slightly, and tartaric, citric, oxalic,
 and gallic acids are insoluble.   Quinia, veratria, emetia, narcotina, nico-
 tina, conia, and atropia are easily soluble, strychnia with less readiness,
 and appears to undergo a  change in its morphic  condition; brucia is
 moderately soluble, but morphia and cinchonia are insoluble.  Tartar
 emetic, citrate and lactate of iron, the acetates  of soda and potassa,
 valerianate of zinc, and acetate  of lead are  all insoluble.   Sulphate and
 muriate of strychnia are soluble, while sulphates of  quinia, and of mor-
 phia, and  muriate of morphia, are  insoluble.   Corrosive sublimate dis-
 solves very readily, but the iodide,  bromide, chloride, and ferrocyanuret
 of potassium,  the  chloride  of  sodium,  muriate  of ammonia  and  the
 iodides of mercury and  potassium are all insoluble.  The iodates, chlo-
 rates,  nitrates,  phosphates,  sulphates, chromates,  borates,  arseniates,
 and alkaline hyposulphates, are  insoluble, as are  also nitrate  of silver,
 sulphate of copper, and probably all the  metallic oxysalts.  This article
 thus affords a most valuable means of  readily separating resin of guaia-
 cum from  jalap  resin,  cinchonia  from  quinia,  and  narcotine  from
 morphia.  One per cent of chloroform added to milk, preserved it
 unchanged for one  month, so that it was  boiled without coap-ulatinof.
   When chloroform is impure, owing to the presence of alcohol or ether,
 its specific gravity is lower.  To determine its purity, it has been recom-
 mended  to let fall a drop  of the  suspected chloroform in a cool mixture
 of equal weights of concentrated sulphuric  acid and water, the sp.  gr.
 of the mixture being  1.38; good chloroform will sink in it.   M. Mialhe
 recommends for  detecting the  presence of alcohol, to  drop a  small
 quantity of the chloroform in distilled water; it remains transparent at
 the bottom of the glass, if pure; but the smallest proportion of alcohol
gives a milky appearance to the globules.  The most injurious impuri-
 ties are the chlorinated pyrogenous oils, which cause  distressing sickness
 and headache, when inhaled, or even  smelt; to detect  these, mix the
chloroform in quantity, say several ounces, with  an equal volume  of
 pure and strong sulphuric acid;  if pure, the  mixture is not colored, but
       22 
338
Materia  Medica.
if these oils be present, the acid is colored from a yellowish to a reddish
brown, according to the  amount  of impurity present.  Another test, is
to pour some chloroform  on the hand, when pure, it quickly evaporates,
and  leaves  scarcely any odor, but if  these  oils are present,  they are
recognized by their peculiar offensive,  acrid,  and penetrating odor, while
the odor of the chloroform has dissipated.

  Properties and Uses.—Internally, a sedative narcotic.   Has been used
successfully in asthma, spasmodic cough, scarlatina, atonic quinsy, hys-
teria, lead-colic, cancer,  neuralgic affections, and in intermittents.   It
may be administered in doses of  from forty  to eighty drops, suspended
in water  by means of gum arabic or yelk of an  egg,  Avhich may be
repeated, if necessary, every hour or  two, until  some effect is produced
on  the system.  When  the pyrogenous oils  are present, its internal
administration is liable to produce nausea.   The solution  of camphor in
chloroform is an elegant  form  of  administering that medicine.  Exter-
nally, it has> been used as a local application, in form of Avash, injection,
or gargle, in cancer, senile  gangrene,  sloughing ulcers, profuse  uterine
discharges, and foul ulcers of the throat;  it lessens pain, corrects fetor,
and promotes the  separation  of  diseased parts.   It may be used  for
these purposes, diluted  with  water,  in the proportion  of one  or  two
drachms of the chloroform to a pint of water.   It has proved successful
in dysmenorrhea, being  brought  into contact with the os  uteri  by means
of a sponge; also  in  swelled testicle and acute spinal tenderness, neu-
ralgia, rheumatic ophthalmia, and in the form  of an ointment to papu-
lous eruptions, in the proportion of a fluidrachm of chloroform to ten
drachms of lard.   When applied to the sound skin, it is generally used
undiluted, by means of  lint or soft rags, covered with oiled silk to pre-
vent  evaporation.  When thus used  it should always be pure,  as,  if it
contains absolute alcohol, it acquires caustic properties.
   Chloroform is also used by inhalation as  an anaesthetic  agent, and is
considered to possess some advantages  over ether, from the  smallness
of the dose,  its more prompt  action, its more agreeable effects, its less
tenacious odor, its  greater  cheapness, and  the  readiness with which it
may be  exhibited.   As  an  anaesthetic  it is principally used in  surgery
and midwifery, for the purpose of relieving pain, and facilitating labor.
The effects usually produced by  the inhalation of a full  dose of chloro-
form,  are:  the rapid production of  coma, relaxation  of the muscles,
slow and  often stertorous  breathing, incoherent talking or muttering,
upturning of the eyes,  and total insensibility to pain,  from whatever
cause.   This insensibility is generally produced in one or two minutes,
and continues for five or ten minutes; but it may be kept up for several
hours, by renewing the  inhalation from  time to time.  Sometimes froth-
ing of the mouth takes place,  and occasionally twitches of the face and
limbs; at other times, from coughing or other circumstances it may be 
Chloroformum.
339
a long time before its effect is induced, but which may be obviated  by
holding it, at first, at a little distance from the nostrils, that it may be
mixed with atmospheric air, and gradually approach it.   Its immediate
effects are followed by a  drowsy state, sometimes by quiet sleep, and,
generally, no recollection of incidents occurring during the state of insen-
sibility is retained.
  Being a relaxing agent as well as remedy for pain, its  inhalation has
been  successful  in hiccough, hysteria, asthma, nephritic colic, tetanus,
hydrophobia and neuralgia; it has also been employed with success for
the reduction of strangulated hernia, and as a hypnotic in delirium tre-
mens and the noisy forms of chronic insanity.
  The dose  for  inhalation is a fluidrachm, or more, which  should be
repeated in three or four minutes, if the desired effect should fail to be
produced.   The  best inhaler is a handkerchief, closely rolled up, and
held in the  hand, having a concavity which is  to be imbued with the
chloroform,  and then held to the mouth and nose.   The moment insen-
sibility  is produced, the  inhalation  should be suspended, and, if con-
sciousness return too soon, it should be cautiously renewed.   Persons
affected with epilepsy  or organic  disease  of the heart,  should not be
placed  under its anaesthetic influence.   It should never be administered
after a full meal,  as it may cause vomiting; and an  impure article will
almost always produce  headache, nausea and vomiting.
  As chloroform may  and has produced unfavorable as well as serious
effects,  the operator ought always to be provided with a bottle of strong
aqua  ammonia,  and whenever  these  unpleasant symptoms  arise, the
patient  should be made to inhale it from another handkerchief imbued
with it  in the same manner as named for chloroform, and be either
restored to  sensibility  or not,  as the  case may  require.  The usual
remedies when the effects of the chloroform inhalation proceed too far,
are the horizontal posture, cold air fanned upon the face, cold water to
the head and  face, frictions and heat to the  body and extremities,
and ammonia to the  nostrils;  and if these  fail, artificial respiration
must be  resorted to.   To obviate  these alarming effects it has  been
proposed  to employ an agent  composed of one-third pure chloroform
and nearly  absolute alcohol two-thirds, under the names of Tincture
of Chloroform, or strong  Chloric Ether.  This is considered safer than
chloroform,  and more agreeable than ether.  The stimulating properties
may possibly obviate the  depressing influence  of the chloroform;  and
ether has sometimes been given in connection with chloroform, with a
view to the same effect.   A chloroform liniment has  been made of oil
of almonds  two  fluidounces, chloroform  two and a half fluidrachms;
mix together accurately.   Pieces of flannel are to be soaked with this
liniment, and applied to the painful part in cases of nervous  headache,
neuralgia, rheumatic,  hepatic, nephritic,  uterine,  or intestinal pains,
lead-colic, etc.   By adding  double  the quantity of oil, it may be used 
340
Materia  Medica.
for vaginal  injections, which  may be  retained by a plug of cotton, in
cases of dysmenorrhea, uterine  neuralgia, or other painful affections of
the uterus, bladder, or rectum.
   The fumes from burning the common  Puff Ball, Lycoperdon Proteus,
are said to be anaesthetic, but not equal to ether or chloroform.  It ap-
pears to possess a volatile narcotic principle,  which is not taken up by
alcohol, water, or strong alkaline solution.
                      CHONDRUS  CRISPUS.

                             Irish Moss.

          Nat. Ord.—Algaceae.  Sex.  Syst.—Cryptogamia Algas.
  Description.—Irish Moss, or Carrageen, as it is frequently called, has
a root-disk  throwing  up tufts of many flat, nerveless, slender, cartila-
ginous fronds, from two to twelve  inches in length, subcylindrical  at
the base, but  immediately becoming flat, generally dilating from the
base as  they ascend, until they become three or  four lines wide, and
then dividing repeatedly and dichotomously, each  division  spreading
and becoming narrower than the  preceding one, and taking place  at
shorter and  shorter intervals ;  the  summits  are bifid,  the segments
linear,  wedge-shaped, varying  greatly in length, rounded or acute,
straight  or curved, and often twisted in such a manner as to give the
curled  appearance denoted in the specific name.   Fructification round-
ish or   roundish-oval,  subhemispherical.   Capsules imbedded  in the
disk of the frond, prominent on one  side, and producing a concavity on
the other, containing a mass of minute, roundish, red seeds.   Substance
cartilaginous,  in  some varieties  approaching  to  horny,  flexible  and
tough.    Color a deep purple-brown, often  tinged with purplish-red, and
paler at the summit, becoming greenish, and at length white in decay.
  History.—This plant  grows upon  rocks and stones on the coasts of
Europe, especially on the southern and western coasts of Ireland ; said
also to be a native of the United States.   When collected, it  is washed
and dried.  It is of a yellowish-white color when dried, translucent, of
a feeble  odor, and nearly tasteless.   Boiling water dissolves it, forming
a jelly on cooling.  Cold water  does not  dissolve it, but  swells it up.
It contains starch, a large proportion  of pectin or vegetable jelly, which
Pereira proposes to call  Carrageenin,  supposing it to be a distinct prox-
imate principle, also compounds of sulphur, chlorine and bromine, and
some oxalate of lime,  etc.  Carrageenin  may be known from gum, by
its watery solution not affording a precipitate with alcohol; from  starch,
by not becoming blue with tincture of iodine ; and from pectin by giving
no precipitate with acetate of  lead, and no mucic acid by the action  of
nitric  acid. 
Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum.
341
  Properties and  Uses.—Used in the form of decoction, with water or
milk, as a nutriment, and as a demulcent in chronic pectoral  affections,
dysentery, diarrhea, and disorders of the kidneys  and bladder.   The
decoction may be prepared by boiling half an ounce  of the moss  in a
pint and a half of water, down to  half a pint.   Sugar and lemon-juice
may be added to improve the flavor.  It may be boiled in milk, when a
more nutritious preparation is required.
            CHRYSANTHEMUM LEUCANTHEMUM.

                            Whiteweed.

        Nat. Ord.—Asteraceas.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Superflua.

                     the leaves and flowers.
   Description.—Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum, or the Leucanthemum
 Vulgare  of  Lamark, sometimes known as Ox-eye Daisy, is a perennial
herb, with an erect, branching, furrowed stem, growing from one to two
feet  high ; the leaves are comparatively few and small, alternate, am-
plexicaul, lanceolate,  serrate,  cut-pinnatifid at base ; the lower  ones
petiolate, with deep and irregular teeth ; the upper  ones small and sub-
ulate, and those of the middle sessile, deeply cut at base, with remote
teeth above.  Heads  large, terminal,  solitary.  Disk yellow.  Rays
numerous and white.
   History.—This  plant was introduced into this  country from Europe,
and  is a very troublesome weed  to farmers, in nearly every section.
It generally grows from one to two  feet high, and bears white flowers
in June  and July.   The leaves are  odorous  and somewhat acid; the
flowers are bitterish; they impart their virtues  to water.
   Properties and  Uses. — Tonic, diuretic, and  antispasmodic.  Large
doses emetic.  Used as a tonic instead of chamomile flowers, and has
been found serviceable in hooping-cough, asthma, and nervous excita-
bility.   Very beneficial externally and internally in  leucorrhea ; and its
internal use  has been highly recommended in  colliquative perspiration.
Externally,  it has been used  as a local application to wounds, ulcers,
scald-head, and some other cutaneous diseases.  Dose of the decoction,
from two to  four ounces, two or three times  a day.  Said to destroy, or
drive away fleas.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Chrysanthemi. 
342
Materia  Medica.
                     CICHORIUM  INTYBUS.

                              Succory.

         Nat. Ord.—Asteraceae.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia iEqualis.

                             THE root.
  Description. — Succory,  Chicory,  or  Wild Succory, is  a perennial
plant, having  a spindle-shaped, fleshy, whitish, and milky root.   The
stem is solid, round, furrowed, hispid, very tough, growing two or three
feet high.  The radical leaves are spreading, above a span long, numer-
ous, runcinate, toothed,  roughish; cauline leaves,  smaller,  sessile, less
lobed, the uppermost cordate, acuminate, entire.   Flowers large, one or
two inches  in diameter, axillary, in pairs, sessile, placed rather remote
on the long rather naked branches, and of a beautiful bright-blue color.
Corollas flat, five-toothed. Involucre roughish. Anthers and stigma blue.
  History.—Succory is a native of Europe, but cultivated in this coun-
try, where  it grows in fields, and in roads along the fences, in neighbor-
hoods  which  have been long  settled;  it  bears  large,  compound,
beautiful blue  flowers, which  appear in July and August.  The  root
has a bitter taste, without any peculiar flavor, and imparts its virtues to
water.
  Properties and Uses.—Tonic, diuretic, and  laxative.   The decoction,
used freely, is said to have proved  serviceable  in hepatic  congestion,
jaundice, and  other visceral obstructions  in  the  early  stages ;  also in
hemorrhage, gout,  cutaneous eruptions,  and even hectic fever and other
febrile diseases.
  The usual form of administration is in decoction, an ounce or two of
the root in a  pint of water.  When young  and tender, the leaves are
sometimes eaten as salad; the root, when dried  and  roasted is much
used as a substitute for  coffee  among the French, which it resembles in
taste but without the aroma.
  The  Cichorium  Endivia, or  Garden Endive, is  said, by some French
physicians, to be a remedy for jaundice.
        CIMICIFUGA RACEMOSA.   (Macrotys Racemosa.)

                            Black Cohosh.

     Nat.  Ord.—Ranunculaceaj.  Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Di-Pentagynia.

                              THE root.
  Description. — This plant,  likewise  variously known  as Rattleroot,
Black  Snakeroot,  Squawroot, etc., is  a tall  stately plant, having a 
ClMICIFUGA  RACEMOSA.
343
large blackish, perennial root, with numerous long fibers, and  a simple,
herbaceous, smooth, furrowed stem, from  four to eight feet high.   The
leaves are  feAv,  alternate, one nearly radical, large, decompound, and
tripinnate ; upper  one, bipinnate.   The leaflets are ovate, oblong, ses-
sile, opposite,  three to seven, incised and toothed.   The fiowers  are
fetid, small, white, in a long terminal raceme, with  oftentimes one  or
more shorter ones  at base;  this raceme is at first bent, but  gradually
becomes erect;  the flowers  are supported on  short pedicels, with a
small subulate bract.   Calyx white, with  four rounded sepals.  Petals
small and shorter than the sepals, and cleft at their apex.  Stamens very
numerous, with yellow anthers.   Pistil consists of  an oval germ, with a
lateral,  sessile stigma.  The fruit or capsule is ovoid, dry, with one  cell,
containing numerous flat, smooth seeds, which are packed horizontally
in two rows.
   History.—Black Cohosh is a native of the United  States, growing in
shady and rocky woods, rich  grounds, and on the sides  of hills, from
Maine to Florida, flowering in June and July.  The root is the part gen-
erally employed in  medicine, though probably the seeds will  be found
as active;  the root should be gathered early in the autumn and dried in
the shade.  It consists of a thick, irregularly-bent or contorted body or
caudex, from one-third of an inch to an inch in diameter, often several
inches in length, furnished with many slender radicles,  and rendered
extremely rough and jagged in appearance by the remains of  the stems
of successive  years, which, to the length of an inch or  more, are fre-
quently attached to the  root.   The color is  externally,  dark-brown,
almost black ; internally, a yellowish-white ; the odor is feeble and dis-
agreeable,  and  the taste bitter, and  somewhat  astringent,  leaving a
slight sense of acrimony.  The root partially yields its virtues  to boiling
water, but wholly to alcohol or ether.
   The root contains a resin, to whieh the name, Macrotin or Cimicifugin,
has been applied, likewise gum, starch, sugar, wax, fatty matter, tannic
and gallic  acids,  a black  coloring matter, a  green coloring matter,
lignin, and salts of potassa, lime, magnesia, and iron.
   Properties <md  Uses.—This is  a very  active,  powerful, and useful
remedy, and appears to  fulfil a great number of indications.  It  pos-
sesses an undoubted influence over the nervous system,  and has been
successfully used in chorea, periodical convulsions,  epilepsy, nervous
excitability, asthma, pertussis, delirium tremens, and many spasmodic
affections.  In -chorea, it has been  administered in teaspoonful doses of
the powdered root, to be repeated three times a day;  I, however, prefer
the hydro-alcoholic extract, whieh I have  used successfully, both alone,
and in conjunction  with the extract of scullcap.   In phthisis pulmonalis,
cough, acute rheumatism, neuralgia, scrofula, phlegmasia dolens, amen-
orrhea,  dysmenorrhea, leucorrhea,  and  other  uterine affections,  the 
344
Materia Medica.
saturated tincture  is the best mode of exhibition, and which exerts a
therapeutic influence not to be obtained from the cimicifugin.  Its tonic
and antiperiodic virtues are well marked in remittent and  intermittent
fevers, and I have found it very useful in other febrile and exanthemat-
ous diseases, especially among children, Avhere there exists a strong ten-
dency to cerebral difficulty.  It uniformly lessens the force and frequency
of the pulse,  soothes pain, allays irritability, and lessens the disposition
to cerelral  irritation and congestion.   In febrile diseases  especially, it
frequently produces diaphoresis and diuresis.   In doses  of one drachm
of the  tincture, repeated every hour,  it  has effected  thorough cures of
ophthalmitis  conjunctiva, without the aid of any local application.   As
a partus accelerator, it may be substituted for ergot; half a drachm of
the powdered root, may be given in warm water, every fifteen or twenty
minutes, until the expulsive action of the uterus is induced, and which
it seldom fails to bring on speedily and powerfully ; or half a drachm of
a  saturated  tincture  of the root may be given  in  the same manner.
After labor, it will be found effectual in allaying the  general excitement
of the  nervous system, and relieving after-pains.  In large doses it pro-
duces vertigo, impaired vision, nausea, vomiting, and a reduction of the
circulation, but no alarming narcotic effects.   I have  known three drops
of the  saturated tincture given every hour, for twenty hours, to produce
symptoms  in every way simulating  those of  delirium tremens.  Green
tea is said to counteract its narcotic influences.
   Dr.  C. H.  Cleveland, of  Waterbury, Vt., recommends the  saturated
tincture of the  root, as a valuble embrocation in all cases where a stimu-
lant, tonic, anodyne,  and  alterative combined, is required,  as—in all
cases of inflammation  of the nerves,—tic-douloreux, periodic cephalic
pain, inflammation of  the  spine, ovarian inflammation, spasm of  the
broad  ligaments, rheumatism, crick in the back or  side, inflammation of
the eyes, old- ulcers, etc.  If a more active  preparation is desired, he
adds tincture of grains of  paradise  in proper quantity ;  and  if a more
powerful anodyne would be useful, he adds  a solution of sulphate of
morphia.
   Cimicifuga exerts a tonic influence over both the  serous and mucous
tissues of the system, and will be found a superior remedy in the major-
ity of chronic diseases.   In all cases where acidity of  stomach is present,
this must first be removed, or some mild alkaline preparation be admin-
istered in conjuction with the remedy, before  any beneficial  change will
ensue.   Dose of the  powder, from a scruple to a  drachm, three times a
day; of the saturated tincture, from five to sixty drops ; of the decoction,
from two  to four  ounces.   The saturated  tincture  of this article  was
recommended by me in acute rheumatism, in the New York Philosophi-
cal Journal, as early  as in the  year 1844;  to be given  in  doses  of
ten  drops  every  two  hours,  gradually increasing  to sixty  drops, or
until its action on the brain is observed,  which action must he kept up 
Cimicifugin.
345
for several days; it almost always  removes  the  disease permanently,
especially if it is a first attack.

   Off. Prep.—Cimicifugin; Decoctum Cimicifugae;  Enema Cimicifugae
Composita;  Extractum  Cimicifugae Hydro-Alcoholicum ;  Extractum
Cimicifugae  Fluidum;  Tinctura Colchici Composita;  Tinctura Cimici-
fugae; Tinctura Cimicifugae Composita.
                    CIMICIFUGIN.   (Macrotin.)

     THE resinoid principle of the root of cimicifuga racemosa.

   Preparation.—Cimicifugin is prepared in a manner similar to that for
obtaining Podophyllin, or  Leptandrin.   The  saturated  tincture of the
root, is diluted with  its bulk of water, the  alcohol is  distilled off, and
the resinoid precipitates to  the bottom of the vessel.   Or it may be pre-
cipitated by alum, acids, etc., but is not so active when thus prepared.

   History. — It is a dark-brown  substance, sometimes yellow,  being
lighter-colored after pulverization, of a faint, narcotic odor, and a slightly
bitter, feebly nauseous taste, soluble in  alcohol. This valuable and useful
remedy I have used successfully in medicine since  1835, and had the
honor of calling the attention of practitioners to it in 1844, and  again in
the Western Medical Reformer, of 1846; but it was not  received into
general use among practitioners until its preparation on a large scale by
our  indefatigable  pharmaceutist,  W.  S. Merrell, and it is now ranked
among  the standard  and most important  Eclectic agents.  As I  have
dropped the name of Macrotys in this  work, and adopted the  one more
universally used, I have also taken the liberty of substituting the name
Cimicifugin for that  of Macrotin, considering it  more correct, and fully
as euphonious.

   Properties and Uses.—Tonic, alterative, nervine, antiperiodic, with an
especial affinity for the uterus.  It does not possess the  narcotic proper-
ties  of  the root; which, however, is preserved  in the  hydro-alcoholic
extract, or the ethereal extract.   Used in intermittent fever, periodic
diseases, leucorrhea, menorrhagia, dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, sterility,
rheumatism,  scrofula, and  prolapsus  uteri  not accompanied  with an
inflammatory condition of that organ or its ligaments.   It has also been
used with success in gleet, gonorrhea, dyspepsia, etc., and the  tincture
has been found an excellent application in  chronic ophthalmia.
   Cimicifugin  may be advantageously  combined with any of the uterine
tonics and alteratives, as aletrin,  caulophyllin, senecin, asclepidin, etc.
in diseases of the uterus; it forms a useful combination, with .dioscorein,
for flatulency and  to  remove the  tendency to bilious colic ; and made 
346
Materia  Medica.
into a pill with equal parts of dioscorein and aqueous extract of Cramp
bark, it is highly beneficial in flatulency, bilious colic, cramps of pregnant
women, painful dysmenorrhea, spasmodic affections, borborygmi, and in
cholera morbus to remove the cramps.  As a parturient, it is inferior to
the caulophyllin.  Dose, from one to six  grains three times a day.—In
the following, Cimicifuga and  Cimicifugin, have  been  substituted  for
Macrotys and Macrotin.
   The late Prof. T. V. Morrow says of this article:
   For several months past I have used the cimicifugin very extensively,
in the treatment of a numerous class of female diseases, for the  success-
ful treatment of which I had for many years previous been in the habit
of depending mainly on the Cimicifuga Racemosa, either in the  form of
infusion, decoction,  or  tincture.   My confidence  in the  value of the
Cimicifuga Racemosa, I am free to confess, has been  such as to induce
me to use perhaps a larger quantity of this medicine, for the  last sixteen
years, than any practitioner in the United States, giving it a more extend-
ed range  of application  in the treatment of  disease, and relying with
more  confidence  on  its  ultimate  efficiency,  than any  of my  medical
friends.   My experience  in  the  use of this article, during the period
named, has been mostly confined to cases of  leucorrhea, menorrhagia,
prolapsus uteri, threatened miscarriage, dysmenorrhea, and  barrenness,
or sterility, in all  of  which cases I have obtained the most  satisfactory
results from the Cimicifuga ; but deeming  the Cimicifugin a more con-
venient form of the medicine for practical use, and believing it to contain
the virtues of the article from which it is obtained,  1 have accordingly
used it in similar cases, with  results thus far which justify the conclusion
that it will be found a satisfactory substitute.
   My experience in the use of the Cimicifugin has  demonstrated to my
mind that there is a slight difference in the  modus operandi of this form
of the medicine, when  compared with the usual forms  in which  the
Cimicifuga Racemosa has been used.  That  difference principally con-
sists in the increased liability of the latter to produce a heavy, dull, and
aching sensation  in the forehead, in connection with a feeling of dizzi-
ness, while the former appears to manifest a greater tendency to produce
aching, and somewhat painful sensations in the joints and limbs gener-
ally.   I  have  usually given the Cimicifugin in the form of pills, pre-
pared by adding a small quantity of pulverized Castile soap, enough to
make the mass properly  adhesive, and forming it into pills  of the ordi-
nary size, and giving one every three hours during the  day, in all the
various cases above  mentioned,  whenever  they have come under  my
care,  since I  commenced  its use.  In  nearly all  these cases, it  has
proved singularly beneficial,  thus affording the gratifying evidence that
it will soon become one of the most popular and valuable articles of the
Materia Medica. 
Cinchona.
347
  Another Professor, in speaking of Cimicifugin, remarks:
  " This medicine is, in its effects, essentially the same as the Cimicifuga.
It is particularly useful in chronic  rheumatic affections, and in female
diseases.  In leucorrhea and dysmenorrhea, as Avell  as menorrhagia, it
is invaluable.  It should be used, in order to get its best effects, to the
extent of producing its specific constitutional  symptoms,  i.  e. a  peculiar
dizziness, fullness and dull aching of the head, and more or less aching
in the joints.   This effect should be produced every day (slightly) during
the treatment, until the disease is removed.   By this treatment, and the
use of hip-baths, leucorrhea will often be cured in a week  or ten days,
without any other remedy."
  The  analogous diseases, gleets and  gonorrheas, are greatly benefited,
if not  speedily cured by  it, either  alone or  in combination with other
appropriate remedies.
  The Cimicifugin  is also a most  valuable  medicine, especially as  an
adjunct of other remedies, in all pulmonary, rheumatic and dyspeptic
affections, where there is a want of tone in the nervous system.
   "It is also a very useful agent in  the treatment  of small-pox,  in which
it should be given during  the whole course of the disease.   It seems to
divest it of its malignant character.   I have  never lost a case of  small-
pox where this medicine was used thoroughly from the beginning ; and
during the winter of 1849 and 1850,1 treated from fifty to  one  hundred
cases, some of which were of the most severe confluent kind. The dose
is from one-fourth to one grain, to be given once in three or four hours
until the proper symptoms of the medicine appear."
   Off. Prep.—Pilulae Leonuri Compositae; Pilulae Polygoni Compositae.
                           CINCHONA.

                          Peruvian Bark.

      Nat. Ord.—Cinchonaceaj.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.

                             THE  BARK.
  Description.— Cinchona Calisaya according to Weddell, is a lofty tree,
with a trunk two or more feet in diameter, and a  summit usually rising
above the other trees of the forest.   The leaves are oblong, or lanceolate-
obovate, petiolate, obtuse, acute or slightly attenuated at the base, soft-
ish, from three  to six inches long, and one or two in breadth,  above
smooth, of a velvety aspect and obscurely green,  beneath  smooth,  and
of a pale  emerald hue, with  scrobiculi at the axils of  the  veins,  but
scarcely visible on the upper surface.  The stipules are about as long as
the petioles, or somewhat longer, oblong, very obtuse, and very smooth.
The flowers are in ovate or subcorymbose panicles.   The  calyx is pubes- 
348
Materia  Medica.
cent, with a cup-shaped limb, and short triangular teeth ; the corolla is
rose-colored, with a cylindrical tube about one-third of an inch long, and
a laciniate  limb fringed at the edges ;  the stamina are concealed in  the
tube, and have anthers more than twice as long as  the filaments.  The
fruit  is an ovate capsule  scarcely as long as the flower, inclosing ellip-
tical lanceolate seeds, the  margin of which is irregularly  toothed, so as
to have a fimbriated appearance.  This tree grows in forests upon  the
Andes several thousand feet above the ocean, also in the hottest valleys
of Bolivia, and in the south of  Peru.  From it the Calisaya or Yellow
Bark is obtained, but,  as stated by Weddell, who met with considerable
difficulty before he  could obtain a sight of the tree in its full vigor, it is
rapidly disappearing, on account of the  careless manner in which the
bark-collectors attend  to  it.  The discovery of this species has settled
the inquiry concerning the true source of  the Calisaya bark.
   The Cinchona Boliviano, discovered and named by Weddell,  inhabits
Peru and Bolivia, but is found further to the  north than the  C. Calisaya;
and in the  northern parts of  Bolivia the two species frequently grow
together.   The bark  of the  C. Boliviana is frequently mixed with the
Calisaya, and it is not easy to distinguish  them; this, however, is unim-
portant, as the two barks  do  not  essentially differ in their properties.
   Cinchona Condaminea is a tree attaining  the hight of eighteen feet,
with a stem a  foot in diameter.  The branches are opposite, the lower
horizontal, the upper rising at their extremities; the bark of the trunk
is ash-gray, with clefts or fissures, and  yields when wounded  a bitter
astringent juice ; that of the small branches is greenish, smooth, glossy and
easily separable from  the wood.   The leaves are quite smooth at all
periods of growth, usually ovate-lanceolate, sometimes narrower and only
lanceolate,  occasionally ovate ;  about four inches long and less than two
broad, rather thin, not shining on the upper surface, or but little so in some
specimens ;  mostly with  a pit  or scrobicula at the axils of the veins
beneath, when full-grown; this  scrobicula  is  either naked  or  ciliated,
but the young leaves are  indistinctly or not at all scrobiculate.  Petioles
smooth,  about  one-fourth the  length of the  leaves ;  stipules  oblong,
obtuse, membranous,  smooth.    The flowers are in corymbose panicles,
pedunculated,  and  forming  a  loose, large,  very downy thyrsus in  the
axils of the upper leaves.   Tube of the  calyx tomentose, limb shortly
urceolate, five-toothed, pubescent, not shining; the teeth acute, round-
ish, triangular.  Tube of  the corolla slender, about four times as long as
that of  the calyx, tomentose;  limb very  shaggy within.  This tree
inhabits  the mountains near Loxa, and  several  other places in Peru,
always in micaceous schist, and occupies a zone of 1800 feet, growing at
elevations betAveen  5700  and  7500 feet.   It  furnishes the Crown, or
Loxa bark.
   Cinchona Micrantha is a large tree attaining the hight of forty feet,
with quadrangular branches, smooth, except among the inflorescence. 
Cinchona.
349
The leaves are from four to  twelve inches  long, and  from two to six
broad, oblong, obtuse, or hardly acute, rather membranous, very large,
quite smooth on both sides, shining on the upper surface, and distinctly
pitted at the axils of veins beneath, and either  smooth or  hairy there ;
those near the base of the inflorescence, shorter and blunter.  The flowers
are smaller than those  of any other species, except C. Lancifolia, and
are in terminal, loose, leafless panicles.   Calyx tomentose, with  a short
five-toothed limb,  scarcely changed in  the  fruit.   Corolla tomentose,
woolly inside the limb.  This tree grows on  the high, cool, and  wooded
mountains of Peru, and  furnishes the pale  bark, or the gray or  silver
bark of British commerce, frequently called  Huanuco bark.
   Cinchona Lancifolia has  quadrangular branches, except when very
young,  when  they  are  covered with   short spreading  hairs.   Leaves
oblong-lanceolate,  very acute at both ends, revolute at  the edge ; some-
what coriaceous, not shining, smooth above, thinly beset with hairs  on
the veins beneath, not scrobiculate.  Peduncles axillary, hairy,  trifid,
shorter than the leaves, and not forming a panicle or thyrsus; the  divi-
sions cymose  and about five-flowered.   Tube of calyx  tomentose ;  limb
smooth, campanulate, three  to five-toothed,  teeth revolute at the apex.
 Corolla hairy, the smallest in  the genus, with a tube about three times
as  long  as the cup  of  the calyx; the  limb on each side  smooth, sur-
mounted by an enlarged calyx.   This tree is a native of New Grenada,
and the bark which it affords Avas supposed by Lindley to be the  best pale
bark; but according  to Pereira it is the spongy Carthagena bark  of Gui-
bort, a new spurious yelloAV bark. Mutis, the discoverer of this species,
termed  it Orange bark.
   Cinchona Cordifolia is a spreading tree, fifteen  or twenty feet high,
with  a single, erect, round  stem,  covered  with  a smooth bark, of a
brownish-gray  color.  Its branches are  smooth  and  quadrangular.
Leaves  roundish, obtuse  at both ends, especially at base, or roundish-
oblong  and  tapering to the  base, strongly-veined, thin, smooth above,
downy beneath,  and  hairy at the veins and axils when young, becoming
nearly smooth when old; never pitted.   Panicle contracted, thyrsoid,
leafy at base, or formed of corymbose peduncles, axillary to the  upper
leaves, with the ramifications tomentose.  Calyx tomentose,  with a large,
smooth,  campanulate, five-toothed  cup, the  lobes of  which  become
quadrate  and  cuspidate; the  tube subglobose when  it  first begins to
enlarge after the fall of the corolla, afterward becoming longer.  Corolla.
tomentose, with a thick tube  whose diameter is equal  to the length  of
the shaggy lobes.   This tree inhabits the mountains about Santa Fe de
Bogota  in New Grenada, at an elevation of from 5000  to 9500 feet.  It
was at one time supposed to afford the officinal yellow bark.  The Quina
Amarilla, or Yellow bark of  Santa Fe  is supposed  to  be derived  from
this tree, and which  has been ascertained by Bergen and Guibort, to be
identical with Hard Carthagena Bark. 
350
Materia Medica.
   Cinchona Magnifolia, described by Mutis as the C. Oblongifolia, has
 oblong leaves, sometimes narrowed toward the base, obtuse, often a foot
 long,  coriaceous,  strongly-ribbed, shining on both sides, perfectly free
 from hairiness, except when very young, unless on the principal veins,
 and at their axils.   Flowers  in  a large terminal, leafless thyrsus, with
 erect branches, merely downy, not woolly.   Calyx-tube  clothed with a
 very short, dense tomentum ;  limb pubescent, smooth  at the edges, with
 oval, obtuse,  imbricating teeth.    Corolla externally  tomentose, with a
 tube hardly four times as long as that  of the calyx ; limb quite smooth
 inside, except at the edges, which are tomentose.  Fruit  smooth, nar-
 rower at the base  than  at the apex, slightly  ribbed.   This tree is  found
 in abundance on the mountains Panatahuas,  in low land near torrents, in
 situations fully exposed to the sun, but badly  ventilated.  It was formerly
 supposed to be the source of the officinal  red bark, which, however, is
 incorrect.  The bark afforded by the tree is red, but  it is the red Car-
 thagena bark,  a worthless variety, and identical with the  Quina Nova or
 New bark of European commerce.  Weddell  has  transferred this tree to
 his new genus Cascarilla, which differs from  the true Cinchona or Peru-
 vian bark trees, in not yielding any cinchonia or quinia.
   The first  three species above described, are regarded  as officinal by
 the Pharmacopeias of the United States and Great Britain; the others
 have contributed more or less  to furnish the  bark of commerce, but are
 not viewed as officinal.   There are many other species which yield barks
 possessing febrifuge properties, and which we will merely name,  as :—
 the  C. Nitida, found in cold situations, in lofty mountains of the Andes,
 and furnishing a bark, which, though unknown as a  distinct variety in
 commerce, is  yet  very  highly esteemed in  Huanuco, Huamalies, etc.,
 bringing a very high price.—The  C. Lucumosfolia, growing near Loxa
 in Peru, and  probably contributing to  the Loxa barks.— C.  Lanceolata,
 inhabiting cold elevated situations in the Andes ;  its bark is yellow, and
 resembles the calisaya in its flavor.—C. Ovalifolia, a  shrub  from  seven
 to ten feet high, and growing  in the province of Cuenca ; its bark is of
 an inferior quality, and according to Pereira, it is  the  White cinchona of
 Mutis.— C.  Ovata, growing in close,  badly ventilated woods,  in the
 hottest parts at the foot of the Andes, about  ten leagues from Huanuco.
 The bark from this tree varies in character according to its  situation,
 the  finer kinds  passing for Calisaya bark,  and  in some sections it is
 employed to adulterate  the  true  Calisaya.   Weddell states  that this
 species is  widely diffused in Peru and Bolivia.  Ruiz calls its bark Cos-
 carillo Pallido or Pale bark, and states that an extract is  prepared from
it at Panao.— C. Pubescens inhabits the lower parts of  the Andes  in the
provinces of Loxa, Jaen, Panatahuas, etc., and is likewise found in New
 Grenada.   It is a large tree with  purple flowers, and leaves violet-tinted.
 It yields an inferior bark, which,  it is said, is employed to adulterate the
 better kinds.   Reichel considers it the Huamalies bark  of commerce, and 
Cinchona.
351
 Weddell states it to be the Cusco bark of French commerce.—C. Hirsuta,
 occurring in high and cold situations on the Andes, yields a good bark,
 formerly called Quina Delgadilla or Delgada, but which is seldom collected
 at  present.— C. Glandulifera, a shrub  of  about  twelve feet, with very
 fragrant blossoms, and found on the high mountains N. W.  of Huanuco.
 It  yields an excellent bark, not met with in commerce, called by the
 inhabitants Cascarillo Negrillo from its blackish epidermis.— C. Acutifolia,
 growing in  the Peruvian Andes, and yielding a worthless  bark, called
 according to Ruiz and Pavon, Cascarilla de  hoja aguda ; Weddell  has
 placed this species in his new genus Cascarilla.   C. Macrocarpa, a shrub
 about eight feet high, found in the provinces of Loxa  and Cuenca, and
 in New Grenada.  Its bark is called Quina Blanca, or White  Bark, and is
 not much esteemed ;  Weddell has transferred it to his Cascarilla.—C.
 Villosa, growing at Jaen of Loxa.— C. Rolundifolia, of  Loxa.— C.  Ob-
 longifolia, of St. Jaen de Loxa, of which three nothing  is known respect-
 ing their barks.— C. Caduciflora, growing near the town  of Jaen de
 Bracomoris; the trunk yields considerable resin, and the bark is called
 Cascarilla bora.   C. Scrobiculaia,  growing in the Peruvian provinces of
 Jaen, Cuzco, and  Carabaya ; the bark of the  young branches has been
 placed with the pale or gray barks in quality;  that of the larger branches
 and stem probably among the red.— C. Stenocarpa,  occurring in  the
 mountains of Loxa, placed among the Cascarillas by Weddell.— C. Cava,
 found in  Quito, and placed by Weddell in the  genus Cascarilla.   To
 these may be added, C. Amygdalifolia, C. Purpurascens, C. Australia,
 C.  Chomeliana, C.  Asperifolia, C.  Carabayensis, all  of which were dis-
 covered and described by Weddell; and as imperfectly known species,
 C.  Dichotoma, C.  Macrocalyx, C.  Crassifolia,  C.  Pelaba,  and C. Muzo-
 nensis.
   History.—Peruvian Bark was introduced into Europe in 1640, but the
 first account of the plant  was given by Dr. Arrott in 1737.   About the
 same time La Condamine, and in 1740 the elder Jussieu obtained speci-
 mens from  near  Loxa.   In 1772, Mutis, a  Spanish  botanist,  having
 official  charge of the Cinchona  forests,  became  a leading  authority
 among Botanists,  but, unfortunately, he committed many  errors,  and
 misled them, causing much difficulty in determining the correct botanical
 history of the trees which yielded the Peruvian bark.   Since then Ruiz,
 PaAron,  Humboldt, and  Bonpland, with many others,  have furnished
 more or less accurate information  relative  to  this subject.  The latest
 investigations have been  made by  Weddell, whose valuable researches
 have  settled the hitherto  vexatious  question relative  to the Calisaya
bark, he having discovered its true source.
  The name, Cinchona, was bestowed  upon  the  plant by Linnaeus,  in
compliment to the  Countess of Cinchon, the Avife of the then Viceroy of
Peru, who was cured  of an ague by it,  and brought  some of it  to 
352
Materia Medica.
Europe in 1640.  The history of its discovery is involved in much obscu-
rity.  The genuine Cinchonas are  found on the  Andes, principally in
Columbia, Bolivia, and  Peru, or from 11° N. to 20° S. latitude.   They
are found in the greatest abundance Avest of the Andes, and at eleva-
tions varying from 1200 to 10,000  feet; how far  they extend  eastward
has not been thoroughly ascertained.   The best kinds are found in  dry
situations, at a temperature about 68°  F.,  and  situated at  elevations
betAveen  6000 and 8000  feet.   Much confusion has resulted from  the
too great importance attached to the study of particular  species, and to
the attempt  to divide the genus into numerous  species, from very slight
differences.   It is now well known  that the same tree may vary in its
foliage, as well as in  the  chemical  character of its  bark, depending on
peculiarities of situation  or growth,  severity  or mildness of climate,
degree of mountainous  elevation, nature  of the soil, and various  other
circumstances.    Humboldt  considers all those trees  with hairy and
woolly blossoms, as the  true  Cinchonas, possessing febrifuge virtues,
and Weddell has  transferred all those with smooth corollas into his new
genus, Cascarilla.
   The gathering of the bark is performed by persons called Cascarilleros,
who, in  order  to be  properly  qualified for the business, must be well
acquainted with the trees, the proper  period for collection, and other  cir-
cumstances  necessary for obtaining good bark.  They usually commence
operations in May, when the dry season sets in, more generally cutting
down the tree, and then stripping off the bark;  sometimes they decorti-
cate the tree while standing.  The  former plan is viewed as the best, as
the stump pushes up  shoots  which eventually become fit for decortica-
tion, while,  in the latter instance, deprived of its  bark, the whole plant
perishes.  After the bark has been removed, it must be speedily dried in
the sun, or else  it becomes impaired.   In  the  process of drying, the
bark rolls itself up, becoming quilled, and is then sent to the  coast for
exportation, and is packed in chests, called seroons,  formed of hides  and
coarse cloth, each package weighing  from fifty to one hundred and fifty
pounds, and usually containing several sorts in the same seroon.
   The Cinchona  forests occupy regions which never can be  applied to
agricultural purposes, and which extend over thirty degrees of latitude,
thus almost precluding  the idea  of even their remote extinction.   The
bitterness of the tree is not confined to its bark, but exists in its leaves,
flowers, and root-bark.   In the leaves it  is associated with an acid, and
in the flowers with a delightful fragrance which diffuses itself through-
out the air in the vicinity of the trees.                      .
   Cinchona is divided into three varieties, the Pale, the  Yellow, and the
Red—the extra-officinal or inferior kinds are termed Carthagena Barks.
This  division is founded on  the physical  characters of  the bark, Avhich
appear to be very distinct in the officinal varieties aboAre  alluded to, and 
Cinchona.
353
which is, probably, the best division that could be made in the present
state of our knowledge.
   The Pale Bark is so termed, on account of the color of its powder,
which is pale or grayish-fawn, and of a deeper hue in the inferior sorts.
It is moderately bitter and somewhat astringent, with a feeble, agreeably
aromatic odor.  The bark as received in this country is in cylindrical
pieces, varying from a few inches to two feet in length, singly or doubly
quilled, from two lines to an inch in  diameter, and  from half a line, to
three or four lines in thickness.  The best kinds are  about the size of a
goosequill.  They have  a rough  exterior, with circular or longitudinal
fibers, and  a  grayish,  dull-brown,  or  grayish-fawn  color, owing  to
adhering lichens.   The interior or internal surface is  smooth in the finer
kinds, but rough and somewhat ligneous in the coarser; its color is a
brownish-orange, sometimes inclining  to red,  sometimes to yellow, and
in the poorer  specimens of a dusky hue.  The fracture of the bark  is
generally smooth, with  some short filaments on  the  internal part only ;
it is more fibrous in the coarser barks.   The pale bark is collected, pro-
bably, from C. Condaminea and C. Micrantha, and its appearance indi-
cates it to have been taken from the  smaller branches.  All the pale
barks contain a much greater  quantity of cinchonia than quinia; and solu-
tion of sulphate of  soda is not precipitated with their infusion.   In  this
country it is but  little  employed, in  consequence  of the little quinia
which it yields.   There are several  varieties of pale bark, differing
more  or less in their properties, as the  Crown or Loxa, the Gray, Silver,
Lima, or Huanuco, the Ash or Jaen, and the White Loxa, among which
the first named is esteemed the finest.
   Yellow Bark, is the term applied to those barks of this color only,
which possess the valuable  chemical properties of the drug, and which
are known by the name of Calisaya; they are arranged into two divi-
sions, the quilled and the flat.   The quilled Calisaya is in pieces varying
from a few inches  to two feet in length, from a quarter of an inch to
three inches in  diameter, and of  equally variable thickness.   The epi-
dermis is of a brownish color, diversified or concealed by whitish or yel-
lowish lichens, rough, being much traversed  by longitudinal wrinkles
and transverse fissures, and is generally easily separable from the proper
bark.   It  yields a dark-red,  tasteless, and inactive powder, and should,
therefore, always be removed before the bark is powdered.  When the
epidermis is removed, the bark  is one or two lines in thickness, compact,
of a short-fibrous  texture, and when broken presents shining points,
apparently the termination of small fibers running longitudinally, which,
examined  by the microscope, are found, when  freed  from a  salmon-
colored powder that surrounds them, to be yellow and transparent. They
readily separate, when  the  bark  is powdered, in the form  of spiculae,
which, like those of cowhage,  insinuate themselves  into the skin, and
          23 
354
Materia  Medica.
produce a disagreeable itching and irritation.  The color of the bark is
broAvnish-yellow, with a tinge of orange, the taste less astringent than
that of the pale bark, but much more bitter.   The external portion  of
the proper bark is more poAverful in medicinal virtue  than  the internal;
probably from the longer exposure of the latter to the action of the air
and moisture ; the odor is faint, but resembles that of the pale varieties,
when the bark is boiled in Avater.
   The  Flat Calisaya  bark is  obtained  from the  large branches and
trunk; it is in pieces of various lengths, either quite flat, or but slightly
curved, .generally stripped of their epidermis, on which account they are
preferable to the quilled pieces.  Their inner surface is like that of the
quilled pieces ;  the outer is irregular, marked with confluent longitudinal
furrows and ridges, and somewhat darker-colored  than  the inner, being
of a brownish-fawn, frequently  diversified with  darker stains.  The bark
is of uniform fracture throughout, generally thicker than the  quilled,
more fibrous in its texture, less compact, less bitter, and  possessed of
less medicinal power.   The best yelloAv bark is  very bitter, with a slight
astringency,  of a broAvnish-yellow color with a  tinge of orange, which
is still brighter  in  the powder, and contains a much  greater quantity of
quinia than cinchonia ;  the  salts of quinia and lime are so abundant in
its composition,  that a strong infusion of it instantly precipitates a solu-
tion of sulphate of soda.   This variety of bark is principally derived
from the Cinchona  Calisaya, and a portion from the  C. Boliviano,, both
of which species have been recently described  by Weddell.  It is pro-
duced exclusively in Bolivia, and in  the southern part  of  the  province
of Carabaya, and is imported principally from the ports on the Pacifio
Ocean.
   The Red Bark, always comes to this country in quilled or flat pieces,
and packed in chests.   The quills are  from two lines to an inch and a
quarter in diameter, from one-third of a line to two lines thick, and from
two to twelve inches or more in length.   The flat pieces, which are the
more common of the two, are seldom  absolutely flat,  but are somewhat
curved ; they are from two inches to tAvo feet in length, from one to five
inches in breadth, and from three to nine lines  in  thickness.  They are
generally covered Avith the epidermis, which is rough, wrinkled longi-
tudinally, often  Avarty,  little fissured, of a  reddish-brown color, with a
grayish  efflorescence in the hollows  from adhering  lichens.   Beneath
the epidermis is a dark-red, brittle, and compact layer,  possessing some
bitterness and astringency, but much less so than the fibrous and woody
interior parts, which have a lively broAvnish-red color, and the  odor of
other good barks.  Its  powder is of a reddish-broAvn  color, and  contains
considerable quantities both  of quinia and of cinchonia.  Its decoction  is
of a turbid salmon  color.  The species of Cinchona Avhich yields the
red bark is unknoAvn,  although supposed  to be taken  from the  same 
Cinchona.
355
trees  which furnish the  pale bark.   Weddell  observed that the  pale
barks are almost constantly nothing else than the young  barks of the
same  trees which yield the yellow and red barks.   The red and yellow
barks are preferred in medicine to the pale variety.
  The  Carthagena  Barks are  all  those  barks brought from the
northern Atlantic ports  of South America, and known  as Carthagena,
Maracaybo, and Santa Martha barks.  They all have a soft, whitish,
micaceous epidermis, which  may be  readily removed by the nail, and
some  contain small  quantities of quinia and cinchonia ; there are several
varieties of them, as,—1. Hard-yellow  Carthagena Bark, the China flava
dura of Von Bergen, supposed to be derived from the Cinchona Cordi-
folia,  and  imported from  Carthagena.   It is obtained generally in quilled
pieces, or in sections of cylinders, and often  in flat pieces.   It  may be
known  from the  true  yellow bark, by having scarcely  any transverse
fissures, and by presenting uniformly a velvety, grayish-white,  or pale-
yellowish-white,  glistening epidermis, except  in  places where it has
been  rubbed, and  Avhich  color  is essential  and  not dependent upon
lichens, as with the  true  bark.   Its  fracture is  abrupt and  splintery.
Its taste  is bitter  and nauseous,  but  not  so bitter as in  the  officinal
article.
  2. Fibrous, or  Woody-yellow  Carthagena Bark, the China flava fibrosa
of Von Bergen ; its botanical source is not positively known.   It gen-
erally occurs in flat or slightly-curved pieces, sometimes in quills.   Its
epidermis  is generally wanting in part or altogether, but when present,
resembles in consistence that of the former variety.  Its  color is rather
brighter than in  the  preceding  kind, it  is less compact, its  fracture is
more  fibrous, causing it  to exhibit long splinters when broken trans-
versely, and often to hang together  by connecting fibers when  broken
longitudinally, and its taste is more feebly bitter and slowly developed.
  The powder of these Yellow barks  is of a  yellowish-cinnamon color,
with less of  the reddish tint than the calisaya, for which it  is not unfre-
quently sold.   It may be detected by its feeble bitterness, but with still
more  certainty by a solution of sulphate  of soda, which  causes  no pre-   •
cipitate with its infusion.
  3. The  Red  Carthagena  Bark, the Quinquina Nova  or New Bark of
Guibort, and the Red Bark of Santa Fe\ of Mutis ;  said to be  derived
from the Cinchona  Magnifolia.   It is widely different from  every other
true cinchona bark, and has no resemblance whatever to the true  officinal
red bark ; and  is seldom seen, except as an adulteration of this latter
article.  When  large  the bark is flat  or open, when small and cylindri-
cal, quilled ; its epidermis  is whitish, micaceous, thin, uniform, with a
very few  transverse rents, apparently caused  by  drying.   The bark,
stripped of its  epidermis, is  of a pale reddish-brown color,  becoming
deeper externally where  it is exposed to the  air, thick, spongy,  of a flat 
356
Materia Medica.
astringent taste with scarcely any bitterness ; its fracture is foliaceous
externally, and  short-fibrous  internally ; its powder is fibrous and red,
and said to contain neither quinia nor cinchonia.
   4.  The  Orange  Carthagena Bark,  the  Spongy Carthagena Bark of
Guibourt, and the  Orange  Cinchona of Santa  F6, of Mutis,  derived
from  the Cinchona Lancifolia.  It occurs in quills, flat and semicylindri-
cal pieces of  various sizes, covered with a velvety, pale grayish-white,
micaceous surface, marked with longitudinal and  sometimes transverse
fissures.  The substance of the  bark is  orange-colored, fibrous exter-
nally, light, spongy under the teeth, feebly bitter, and of but little value,
Its powder is of a beautiful  orange color.  This bark is seldom met
with  in commerce.
   5.  Guibourt has described a Brown Carthagena Bark, which is thick,
of an orange-brown color when freshly cut, and a chocolate color on its
inner surface,  very bitter  and  disagreeable, but sometimes spongy and
nearly tasteless ; its  epidermis is  soft, velvety, white,  and micaceous.
Its origin is unknown, and it is worthless.
   Several barks  have occasionally been found  in commerce, possessing
none  of the physical characteristics of the officinal varieties, and which
are termed False Barks.   Among  them are, the  Caribaan Bark from
the Exostemma  Caribaea ; the St.  Lucia Bark  from  the Exostemma
Floribunda, and  the Pitaya  Bark  of uncertain origin.   This last only
is  known  in this country ; it is in quills, the bark being hard, compact,
thin,  and with a short, rough fracture.   The outer surface is  of a dull
grayish-olive color, with irregular lighter or whitish spots ; the  internal
surface is deep-brown or blackish ;  the fresh fracture, brownish-red or
orange.   It  has a very bitter taste, and is inodorous.   It  contains a
new  crystallizable alkaline, tasteless  salt, forming bitter salts with the
acids, termed  Pitania.   The  bark has cured ague in the quantity of
half  an ounce.    Neither  quinia  nor  cinchonia  exist  in  the  false
barks.
   The  Cinchona  barks have  often  been analysed,  and with  various
results.  Dr. Westring was the first who attempted the discovery of an
active, febrifuge principle in the bark ; subsequently Seguin, Desckamps,
Vauquelin, Duncan, Gomez, Lambert, and others  pursued a similar un-
dertaking, but the honor of first making the great  discovery of the alka-
loid principles termed Cinchonia and  Quinia was reserved to Pelletier and
Caventou, who announced it in the year 1820.   According to their ana-
lysis,  the several barks  contain, as follows :—
   Pale Loxa Bark contains a fatty matter, a red  coloring matter, very
slightly soluble,  identical  with  the  cinchonic red of Reuss, a yellow
coloring matter, soluble in water and alcohol, and capable of being pre-
cipitated by the subacetate of lead, tannin, gum, starch, lignin, kinate of
lime,  kinate of  cinchonia, and a minute quantity of kinate  of quinia. 
Cinchona.
357
   Yellow Calisaya Bark contains the same as the above, with the excep-
tion of gum, and a larger proportion of kinate of quinia, and much less
kinate of cinchonia.
   Red Bark also contains the same as the  Pale Loxa, with the exception
of gum, and a large proportion both of kinate of quinia, and  of kinate
of cinchonia.
   The only appreciable difference  therefore in the officinal  barks, is in
the proportions they  contain of quinia  and cinchonia.   The odor  of the
bark  depends upon a thick,  bitterish acrid, volatile oil, which is present
in minute quantity.
   The fatty matter existing in the bark is of a greenish color when ob-
tained from the pale bark, and orange-yellow  from the yellow.  Boiling
alcohol dissolves it, but deposits  a portion of it  on cooling; ether dis-
solves it readily ; alkalies form soaps with it,  and in water it is insolu-
ble.  The red coloring matter is a reddish-brown, amorphous substance,
insipid, inodorous, soluble in alcohol, alkaline  solutions, or their carbon-
ates,  and insoluble in ether or water, though slightly soluble in  the latter
at the boiling point.   Its solubility in water is augmented  by the addi-
tion of acids.  It precipitates  tartar emetic, but not gelatin ;  if treated
with a cold solution of  potassa or soda, or by  ammonia, lime, or baryta
with heat, and precipitated, from  the solution  thus  formed,  by acids, it
is converted into a  species of  tannin, and forms an insoluble compound
with gelatin.   Subacetate of lead precipitates it.  The red bark con-
tains  the greatest proportion of it, the  pale the least.  The yellow color-
ing matter  has little  taste, is soluble in water, alcohol, and  ether, does
not precipitate gelatin nor  tartar-emetic, and is  itself precipitated by
subacetate of lead.
   The Tannin or Soluble red coloring matter of Pelletier and Caventou,
has a brownish-red color,  and  austere taste, is soluble in water or alco-
hol, combines with metallic  oxides, like the tannin in catechu,  produces
precipitates with the  salts of iron, which  are  deep-green with the pale
bark, blackish-brown with the yellow,  and reddish-brown with  the red.
With  gelatin and tartar-emetic  it forms white precipitates,  and readily
absorbs the atmospheric oxygen, becoming red and insoluble. Although
considered to possess all the properties of tannic acid, yet it must differ
materially from that  found in  galls, which  forms insoluble  compounds
with quinia and cinchonia.
  Kinic acid, likeAvise called Quinic, or Cinchonic acid, may be obtained
by evaporating the  infusion of bark to  a  solid consistence, and then
treating the solid extract with alcohol, which  gives a residue consisting
of mucilage with kinate of lime, which  is insoluble in alcohol.  Dissolve
this residue in  water, and evaporate with a moderate heat, and crystals
of the kinate will be deposited, which may be purified by a second solu-
tion and crystallization.   The salt thus  obtained,  being  dissolved in 
358
Materia  Medica.
water, is  decomposed by means  of oxalic acid,  which precipitates the
lime, and leaves the kinic  acid in solution.   This may be procured in
the crystalline state by spontaneous evaporation,  though as usually pre-
pared, it  is in the  form of a thick, syrupy liquid.   The  crystals are
transparent, colorless, acid, and readily soluble in alcohol, and in water.
The kinates of cinchonia and quinia may be obtained either by the direct
combination of their constituents,  or by the mutual decomposition of the
sulphates of those alkaloids and the kinate of lime.  Kinate of cinchonia
crystallizes  with difficulty, is very  soluble in water, soluble in alcohol,
and has a bitter and astringent taste.  Kinate of quinia crystallizes in
opake or translucent crusts of a mammillated  form;  it is  soluble in
water, less so  in rectified alcohol,  and has  a very  bitter taste.
  The most important constituents  of Cinchona  bark  are the Cinchonia
and Quinia, the mode of preparing which, with  their  history, etc., will
be found  under their appropriate  heads.
  The different kinds of Cinchona  bark, yield their active constituents
to boiling water,  rectified spirit, proof spirit, and diluted acids.   In pre-
paring  a  decoction  or infusion of bark, the addition of muriatic or sul-
phuric  acid in small quantity would be  advantageous in retaining the
alkaloids in the solution; because, without the infusion  is thus acidulated,
the  cinchonic-red unites with  the alkaloids, producing  compounds not
readily soluble in hot water, and still less  soluble when cold,  so  that as
the infusion cools, the active constituents  are thrown partly down insol-
uble, forming  part of a deposit of a reddish powder.   Proof spirit, from
its ready  solubility of the principal constituents, is a much better solvent
than water, and should be used in preparing officinal tinctures.   Perco-
lation exhausts more of the alkaloid principles than maceration; and the
extract prepared from the tincture is vastly superior to that obtained
from the aqueous decoction.
  Water  acidulated with muriatic, sulphuric, nitric, acetic, or tartaric
acid, but  especially with  the first-named  acid, effects exhaustion com-
pletely, either by decoction or by percolation.  Diluted alkalies,  as well
as their carbonates,  do  not act on the alkaloids, but decompose their
natural salts, leaving the bases undissolved, and dissolving cinchonic-red,
cinchonic-yellow, tannin and fatty matter.
  In infusions of the true barks, ammonia and potassa precipitate chiefly
the alkaloids;  bichloride of mercury, and neutral chloride of platinum
produce insoluble double salts of  the alkaloids ;  astringent solutions pro-
duce insoluble tannates of the alkaloids;  tartar emetic, sulphate of iron,
and gelatin, owing to the presence of  tannin, precipitate tannates of anti-
mony, iron, and  of gelatin, and  sometimes throw down  cinchonic-red
also; oxalate of ammonia, and in strong infusions sulphate of soda,
throw down oxalate or sulphate of lime; and iodide of potassium causes
precipitates of a  complex nature. 
Cinchona.
359
   In order to determine the genuineness of Peruvian bark, or to  detect
adulterations, many druggists judge of the color  of the powde", which
is the form in which they more usually obtain it, its pure, strong, aroma-
tic, evanescent bitterness, and the peculiarity and strength of its aroma;
but this method is extremely fallacious.   The best methods of testing it
are by chemical reactions, among which ammonia, iodide of potassium, in-
fusion of galls, and solution of isinglass are the best.  Ammonia causes a
more or less abundant precipitate with the true bark, soluble in an excess
of the reagent, but throws down no precipitate with the infusions of the
Carthagena and of the false barks.   Iodide of  potassium  causes  sooner
or later a yellowish-white  or yellowish-red precipitate with the true barks,
but not with the others.  Infusion of galls causes no precipitate,  except
with the true barks;  hence, no bark can be considered good which  does
not  afford a precipitate with the infusion of this substance.   Gelatin
causes a precipitate only with the Carthagena barks.  It must be remem-
bered that all the substances which precipitate the infusion of bark, do
not  by any means, necessarily impair its virtues, as  it contains several
inert ingredients which form  insoluble compounds with bodies that do
not disturb its active  principles.
   In preparing a decoction of Cinchona, it should be boiled for ten min-
utes in a covered vessel, and strained while hot; long boiling,  or the
action  of atmospheric  oxygen, or both  combined materially impair its
virtues.  By acidulating the water employed, say a fluidrachm of muri-
atic or sulphuric  acid to a pint of the water, we will be able  to extract
all the virtues of the bark.  Tannic, gallic, oxalic and tartaric acids, or
substances containing them should be excluded  from the decoction, as
they form insoluble, or nearly insoluble salts with the alkaline principles
of the bark.  The alkalies, alkaline earths, and salifiable bases generally
should also  be excluded, because, uniting with the Kinic acid, they  pre-
cipitate the  quinia and cinchonia.
   The following  mode of estimating the value of bark by the  quantity
of alkaline matter it contains, we copy from a  communication  of M.
Tilloy of  Dijon, published in the 13th vol. of the Journ. de Pharmacie,
p. 530.   " Take an  ounce of the bark  coarsely powdered, introduce it
into  about 12 ounces  of alcohol  of 30° B. (sp.  gr. 0.8748), expose the
mixture for half  an hour  to a temperature of from 105° to  120° F., draw
off the alcohol, add a fresh portion, and act as before ;  unite the liquors,
and throw into them a sufficient quantity of acetate or subacetate of  lead
to precipitate the coloring matter and kinic acid, then allow the insoluble
matter to subside, and filter.   Add to the filtered liquor a  few drops of
sulphuric acid to  separate the excess of acetate of lead,  filter, and distil
off the alcohol.   There remains an acetate or sulphate of quinia, accord-
ing to  the quantity of  sulphuric acid employed,  together with a fatty
matter  which will adhere to  the vessel.  Decant the  liquor, and  add
ammonia,  which will instantaneously precipitate the quinia.   Too much 
360
Materia Medica.
ammonia will retain it in solution; but in this case a few drops of sul-
phuric acid will cause it to precipitate.   The quinia washed with warm
water, and then treated with sulphuric  acid, water, and a  little animal
charcoal, yields very white sulphate of  quinia.  I have thus obtained in
six hours nine grains of the sulphate from an ounce of bark [576 grains
French], which is a large proportion Avhen allowances are made  for the
loss during the process."
   The Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia  gives the  following mode  of  testing
the Value of yellow bark:  "A filtered decoction of one  hundred grains
of the powder in two fluidounces of distilled water, gives, with a fluid-
ounce of concentrated solution of carbonate of soda, a precipitate, which,
when heated in the fluid becomes  a fused mass, weighing when cold two
grains, or more, and easily soluble in solution of oxalic acid."

   Properties and Uses.—Cinchona bark is  tonic, antiperiodic,  slightly
astringent, and topically antiseptic.   When received into the stomach it
generally  causes  a sense .of heat, which often diffuses  itself  gradually
over the whole trunk; occasionally it causes  gastric and intestinal irrita-
tion, and even nausea and vomiting, particularly if the stomach is in an
irritable or  inflamed condition.   The  circulation finally becomes influ-
enced by it, as manifested in the increased frequency of the pulse, with
a slight excitement of all the functions of the system,  especially when
given in large doses.  In many persons its action upon the nervous sys-
tem is accompanied with a sense of tension, fullness, or slight pain in the
head, tinnitus aurium or singing in the ears,  and partial deafness.  It is
valuable in functional derangements of the stomach, improving digestion,
and invigorating  the nervous and muscular systems in diseases of general
debility, and in convalescence from exhausting diseases.  As a tonic, it
will be found  of advantage in the latter stages of typhus gravior, also
in measles, small-pox, malignant scarlatina, during the absence of fever
or inflammation ; likewise in carbuncle, gangrenous erysipelas, and in all
cases in which the system is  exhausted  under large purulent discharges,
and where there  is a tendency to recovery, supporting the powers of the
constitution until all abnormal  action is removed.  It may likewise be
used  in all chronic diseases attended with debility, as in scrofula, dropsy,
passive hemorrhages, certain forms  of dyspepsia, obstinate  cutaneous
affections, amenorrhea, chorea, and hysteria.   Its use is contra-indicated
where any local  irritation or inflammation is present;  profuse sweats
during sleep may be considered one indication for its employment.
   Cinchona  bark, however, exhibits its  most important  therapeutical
powers, as an antiperiodic, and in the consequent influence it exerts in
almost invariably curing remittent and intermittent fevers,  and the gen-
erality of  diseases which are accompanied by symptoms of  marked peri-
odicity, as neuralgia, hemicrania,  epilepsy, diarrhea and dysentery when
epidemic, etc.  Its  use  should in most  cases be preceded by a mild 
Cinchonia.
361
laxative, after the action of which the powder may be given in doses of
from ten to sixty grains, and repeated according to circumstances, every
one, two or four hours, until one or two ounces have been taken during
the periods of intermission, and continue thus until a cure is effected, or
the remedy is found insufficient for the cure of the disease.   In the use
of the  barks, to obtain their antiperiodic influence,  the red and yellow
are considered superior to the pale, and of which the  red is  preferred.
The pale bark is preferable as a tonic, being less apt to offend the stom-
ach, or irritate the bowels.  Quinia, or its salts,  especially the sulphate,
is usually employed as atonic and antiperiodic in place of the bark itself,
but there have been many instances in which the bark in  powder  has
succeeded  in effecting a cure, when its alkaloidal salts failed;  the cause
of this is not well understood.  In such cases, when the powder from
its bulk or otherwise, offends the stomach,  the infusion, decoction,  tinc-
ture, or extract may be administered.  Sometimes bark or its preparations
occasions purging, which may be obviated by small portions of opium or
laudanum.
  Externally, a poultice of the bark has been found an excellent appli-
cation  to felons, fetid  and gangrenous  ulcers, etc., also  as an injection
with opium,  when  the stomach  rejects it; and quilted between  two
pieces of muslin or flannel, and made into jackets, it has been of utility
in obstinate intermittents,  to be worn next the skin.  Dose of Cinchona
as an antiperiodic, from half a drachm to a drachm; as a tonic, from ten
to sixty grains;  of  the  infusion or  decoction  two  fluidounces, to be re-
peated two or three times  a day; of the extract from five  to thirty grains.
   Off. Prep.—Cinchonia; Decoctum Cinchonae; Extractum  Cinchonae;
Extractum Cinchonae Fluidum; Infusum Cinchonae;  Quiniae Sulphas;
Tinctura Cinchonae; Vinum  Cinchonae Compositum.
                           CINCHONIA.

             ONE OF THE  ALKALOIDS OF  CINCHONA BARK.

   Preparation.—Several processes have been employed for the prepara-
tion of Cinchonia.  One of the simplest is  the  following: Powdered
pale bark is submitted to the action  of sulphuric or muriatic acid very
much diluted, and the solution thus obtained is precipitated by an excess
of lime.   The  precipitate  is collected on a filter, washed  with water,
and treated with boiling alcohol.   The alcoholic solution is filtered while
hot,  and deposits  the  cinchonia when it  cools.  A further  quantity is
obtained  by evaporation.   If not perfectly white, it may be freed from
color  by first converting it into  a sulphate with dilute sulphuric acid,
then treating the  solution  with  animal charcoal, filtering, precipitating
by an alkali, and  redissolving  by alcohol in the manner already men- 
362
Materia  Medica.
 tioned.   It may also  be obtained from the mother-waters of sulphate
 of quinia, by diluting them Avith water, precipitating with ammonia, col-
 lecting the precipitate on a filter, washing and  drying it, and then dis-
 solving it in boiling alcohol, which deposits the  cinchonia in a crystalline
 form upon cooling.   It may be still further purified by a second solution
 and crystallization.

   History.—When  pure,  cinchonia is a  white,  crystalline substance,
 soluble in 2,500 parts of boiling water, almost  insoluble  in cold water,
 insoluble in chloroform, very soluble in boiling  alcohol, Avhich deposits a
 portion in the crystalline state upon cooling, and slightly soluble in ether
 and the fixed and volatile oils.   Its bitter taste, at first not very obvious
 in consequence Of its difficult solubility, is developed after a short time
 by the solution of a minute portion in the saliva.  Its alcoholic, ethereal,
 and oleaginous  solutions are very bitter.   Its alkaline character is  very
 decided,  as it neutralizes the strongest acids, forming with them saline
 compounds.   Of the salts of cinchonia,  the sulphate, nitrate, muriate,
 phosphate, and acetate are soluble in water.  The neutral  tartrate,  oxa-
 late, and gallate are  insoluble in cold water, but may be  dissolved in
 hot water, in alcohol, or in an excess of acid.
   Heat fuses and decomposes it, disengaging ammonia.   Sulphuric acid
 in excess, aided by heat, renders  crystallizable  cinchonia amorphous.
 Exposed  to  the  air  it slowly absorbs  carbonic acid, and acquires the
 property of effervescing slightly with acids,  but  does not become decom-
 posed.   When dissolved in water in  the saline state, it may be known
 from  any other vegetable  alkali,  by a  reddish,  somewhat orange color,
 produced by the addition first of a solution of chlorine, and then of am-
 monia to the solution.   Perchloride of  gold precipitates it of a sulphur-
 yellow.   Cinchonia  consists of 1 equivalent of nitrogen, 20 of carbon,
 12 of hydrogen, and 1 of oxygen, (N C23 H12 0).  When distilled  with
 potassa it yields  quinolein.
   The sulphate  or disulphate of cinchonia  may be prepared by heating
 cinchonia with a little water,  adding dilute  sulphuric acid  gradually till
 the alkali is dissolved, then  boiling  with  animal  charcoal previously
 washed with muriatic acid, filtering the solution while hot, and setting
it  aside to crystallize.  By alternate evaporation and crystallization, the
 whole of the sulphate may be obtained from the solution.   It is a white,
 very bitter salt, crystallizing  in  flexible, somewhat shining, four-sided,
flattened prisms,  terminated by an inclined face, and generally collected
 in fasciculi.   It is soluble in fifty-four parts of water at 60° F., and in a
smaller quantity  of boiling water.   It consists of 100 parts of cinchonia,
and 13.021 of sulphuric acid.

   Properties and Uses.—Pure cinchonia,  the acetate and disulphate are
prescribed in medicine;  their properties are said to be similar to quinia;
which see.   Dose, from one to four grains,  three times a day. 
Cinnamomum Zeylanicum.
363
    CINNAMOMUM  ZEYLANICUM.  (Laurus  Cinnamomum.)

                            Cinnamon.

        Nat. Ord.—Lauraceae.  Sex. Syst.—Enneandria Monogynia.

                            THE  BARK.
  Description.—Cinnamomum Zeylanicum is a tree growing from tAventy
to thirty feet high, Avith a trunk from a foot to a foot and a half in diame-
ter, and covered with a thick, scabrous bark.   The  branches  are  nume-
rous, smooth, strong, horizontal, declining, and somewhat quadrangular;
and the  young shoots  are speckled with  dark-green, and light-orange
colors.  The leaves  are  for the most  part  opposite, coriaceous, entire,
ovate or ovate-oblong,  tapering into an obtuse point, three-nerved, with
the lateral nerves vanishing  as  they approach the point, reticulated on
the under side, smooth, the upper leaves being the  smallest.  Panicles
terminal or axillary, stalked.   The flowers are small, Avhite,  hoary, and
silky;  segments oblong,  deciduous in the middle.  The fruit is an oval
berry, which adheres to the receptacle  similar to the acorn, it is  larger
than the black currant, and when ripe has a bluish-brown surface diver-
sified with numerous white spots.
  Cinnamomum Aromaticum is a tree similar to the above, with angular
branches, and petioles covered with broken downiness.   The leaves also
resemble the above, but differ  in being oblong-lanceolate and pointed,
and in having  a very fine down  on their  under-surface which may be
seen by the aid of the microscope.  The flowers  are  in narrow, silky
panicles.
  History.—The  C. Zeylanicum is a  native of Ceylon, the Malabar
coast, Sumatra, Borneo, etc.  The bark of the root has the odor of cin-
namon with the pungency of camphor,  which latter is obtained  from it
by distillation.  The leaves have a hot taste, and when rubbed a spicy
odor resembling  cloves,  owing to an oil which they  yield on  distillation.
The flowers have a disagreeable  odor, said to be similar to that exhaled
from freshly-sawn bones.  The tree throws out no fragrance  beyond its
immediate sphere.  The  bark furnishes  the cinnamon of commerce.   It
is usually collected from trees about nine years old.  The peeling of the
shoots and branches commences in May, and lasts  until the latter part
of September, and merely consists in  slitting the  bark longitudinally,
cutting it  across  at certain intervals, and then  turning it back.  The
epidermis is then  removed  by scraping, and the bark, as it  dries,
assumes the form of quills, the smaller of which are introduced into the
larger  ones.  The drying is always performed in  the shade first, and
finished in the sun.  The best bark comes from Ceylon, which is in the
form of rolls about half  an  inch in diameter, and thirty to forty inches
long, and composed of many quills within each other.  They  have a 
364
Materia Medica.
light yellowish-brown color, are thin, smooth, and break readily Avith a
splintery fracture, being easily pulverizable.   They possess a rich, pure,
peculiar odor, and a sweetish, aromatic, slightly astringent, pungent and
peculiar  taste; are easily pulverized, and yield  their virtues to water,
but more readily to alcohol or spirit.   They yield, when distilled, a small
quantity of essential oil, of an agreeable flavor.  The inferior barks are
browner, thicker, less  splintery, and of a less agreeable flavor.  The
Cinnamon brought to this country is imported from  England.  It con-
tains an essential  oil, tannin, mucilage, a coloring matter, cinnamic acid,
resin, and lignin.   The tannin is of  the  nature of catechu-tannin, as it
gives a dark-green precipitate Avith the salts of iron.
  The C. Aromaticum is a native of China, and furnishes the cassia of
this  country, which is in fact, a mixture of a variety of different qualities
of cinnamon.  It is usually found in our markets in single tubes of vari-
ous sizes, from the eighth of an inch to an inch in diameter, of a  redder
or darker color than the best Ceylon, also thicker, rougher, denser, and
breaks with a shorter  fracture.   It has a stronger, more pungent and
astringent, but less  agreeable taste and  odor.   It is the kind usually
kept in the shops, and forms-a good substitute for the Ceylon cinnamon
in forming tinctures, etc., into which cinnamon enters as an ingredient.
  There are several other species  of cinnamon, as the C. Nitidum, C.
TamalmfP. Loureirii, C. Culilawan,  etc., but they are not recognized as
officinal^ s
  Cinnamon is often adulterated with the poorer sorts, and likewise with
the bark after having been deprived  of its oil.   These adulterations must
be detected by the taste^ and odor of the article.
   Properties  and Uses.—Stimulant tonic, stomachic, carminative, and
astringent;  also reputed emmenagogue, and capable of diminishing the
secretion of milk.  The tincture of  the bark is useful in uterine hemor-
rhage and menorrhagia, given in drachm doses in  sweetened  water, and
repeated every five, ten, or twenty minutes,  or  as  may be required.
Cinnamon is generally used to correct the effects, or improve the flavor of
other drugs, and is one of the best additions to cinchona bark for correct-
ing the nausea or vomiting sometimes occasioned  by that  drug.   Inter-
nally, it is very useful in diarrhea, colic and cramp of the stomach, flatu-
lency,  and to allay nausea and  vomiting.  Dose of  the powder, from
five to twenty grains ;  of the tincture, from ten to  sixty drops.  (See
Oil of Cinnamon.)
  Off. Prep. — Acidum Sulphuricum Aromaticum;  Aqua Cinnamomi;
Oleum Cinnamomi; Tinctura Cinnamomi; Tinctura  Cardamomi Com-
posita ; Tinctura  Catechu ; Tinctura Guaiaci Aromatica ; Tinctura Olei
Cinnamomum ; Vinum Cinchonae Compositum. 
Cirsium Arvense.
365
            CIRSIUM ARVENSE.   (Cnicus Arvensis.)

                          Canada Thistle.

        Nat. Ord.—Asteraceas.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia iEqualis.

                             THE  ROOT.
  Description.—This plant, called in England Cursed  Thistle, has a per-
ennial, creeping, very long root, extremely tenacious  of life, with a stem
three or four feet  in hight, having a  branching panicle  at  top.   The
leaves are alternate, oblong  or  lanceolate, sessile, smooth,  or  slightly
woolly beneath, sinuate-pinnatifid, and prickly margined.   Heads rather
small and numerous, imperfectly dicecious ; flowers,  rose-purple; invo-
lucre round or ovate, with minute spines, scales close pressed, ovate-
lanceolate.
  History.—Canada Thistle  grows in various  sections of the United
States, in  cultivated fields and pastures, roadsides and waste places, flow-
ering from June to August.  It  is an extremely troublesome plant to the
farmer, requiring  his utmost vigilance to extirpate  it from his fields.
The involucre is  the  only part of the plant that can be  handled with
safety.   The  root is the part employed, which  yields its  properties to
water.
  Properties and   Uses. — Tonic  and astringent.  Used principally in
diarrhea and dysentery, boiled with milk; some recommend the addition
of dried codfish skin to the decoction.    Also, used as a local application
to some cutaneous diseases, ulcers and leucorrhea.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Cirsium.
                    CISSAMPELOS PAREIRA.

                           Pareira Brava.

       Nat. Ord.—Menispermaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Dicecia Monadelphia.

                              THE ROOT.
   Description.—Pareira Brava, also termed Velvet-Leaf, Ice- Vine, is a
climbing  shrub, attaining a great size and covering even the tallest trees
with  its foliage.  The root  is  branching and  woody,  with numerous
slender, round stems,  smooth  or with a closely  appressed tomentum.
The leaves are  large, nearly orbicular, peltate, subcordate, entire, aris-
tate at the point, smooth above, silky pubescent beneath, and of a dark-
green color ;  they are supported on downy footstalks, which are inserted
into the back of the leaf.   The flowers are very small, hispid, unisexual
and disposed in racemes.   The male flowers with four sepals in a double 
366
Materia  Medica.
range, and four petals forming a cup-like corolla, with an entire margin;
the female flowers have but a single  sepal  and petal; stamens united,
bearing connate anthers opening horizontally ; peduncles solitary or in
pairs, branching from the base, as  long as the petiole or longer, race-
mose-corymbose, with divaricating  downy ramifications.   Racemes, in
the female plant, longer than the leaves, bearing the flowers  in spiked
fascicles.   Bracts  sessile,  someAvhat orbicular,  scarcely  mucronate.
 Ovary solitary, and  surmounted  with three stigmas.   Berries  scarlet,
round, reniform, compressed,  shriveled, thinned to  the edge, all over
hispid with long hairs.
  History.—This plant is a native of South America, and the West Indies.
The root is the officinal part.  It is  in pieces or billets from half an inch
to four or five inches in diameter, and from a few inches to two or more
feet in length, cylindrical, sometimes forked or contorted, and covered
with  a thin, firmly adhering, grayish-brown-bark; it is often split lon-
gitudinally.  The  outer surface is marked  with longitudinal and  annular
wrinkles,  and sometimes with knotty excrescences.   The interior is of a
yellowish  hue,  ligneous, very porous,  and  displaying a number  of con-
centric circles traversed by many  radiating lines, inodorous, and of a
sweetish,  nauseous, intensely bitter, and somewhat aromatic  taste.  It
readily imparts its taste  and active  properties  to water or alcohol.   It
contains a soft resin,  a  yellow bitter principle, a  brown substance, an
azotized matter, fecula, acidulous malate of lime, nitrate of potassa, and
various other salts.   The active  property  of the root depends upon an
alkaloid,  A\'hich  is called  Cissampelin, or  Pelosin, said to be a white
powder, uncrystallizable, insoluble  in  water, soluble  in  alcohol, ether,
and the acids,  of  an intensely bitter  and sweetish  taste, and forming
soluble salts of Avhich the hydrochlorate crystallizes.
  Properties and Uses.—Tonic, diuretic and aperient.  Used  in  chronic
inflammation'of the bladder, and various disorders of the urinary organs.
Also recommended in calculous  affections, leucorrhea, dropsy, rheuma-
tism and jaundice.   Dose, of the infusion,  from one to four fluidounces ;
of the extract, from ten to twenty grains.
  The Cissampelos Glaberrima, growing in Brazil, a species of this plant,
appears to possess similar properties.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Pareirae.
                      CITRUS AURANTIUM.
                              Orange.
      Nat. Ord.—Aurantiacese,  Sex. Syst.—Polyadelphia Icosandria.
                      THE PEEL  OR OUTER RIND
   Description. — Citrus Aurantium is a middle-sized  evergreen tree,
much branched,  and covered  with a  smooth, shining, greenish-brown 
Citrus Aurantium.
3'67
bark.  Branches generally with axillary spines.   Leaves alternate, entire,
ovate-oblong, acute, a little serrulated, of a shining-green color, and with
footstalks more or less winged.  The flowers are large, white, and very
fragrant, and  arise from the  smaller branches on  simple and divided
peduncles.  The calyx is saucer-shaped, and  divided  into five pointed
sepals.    The petals  are five, oblong,  concave, white, and beset with
numerous small glands.  The stamens are twenty or more, united at their
base into three or more sets, and support vertical, yellow anthers.  The
ovary is superior, roundish, bearing a cylindrical style, terminating with
a globose stigma.   The fruit  is globose, depressed, of a reddish-yellow
color externally,  and internally divided into  several  cells, filled Avith a
mucilaginous  pulp;  each cell  containing from two  to four Avhite  seeds,
with a cartilaginous skin.   The rind of the fruit is double, consisting of
an external thin  and glandular layer, fijled with a fragrant essential  oil,
and of an internal one, thick,  white, spongy, insipid, and inodorous.
   History.—The orange is a native of China and India, and is cultivated
in the southern parts of Europe and America, and in the West Indies.
Its varieties are numerous.  The  fruit  likeAvise differs in  its character,
that of the C. Aurantium being sweet,  while that of the C. Vulgaris, or
C. Bigaradio,  the Seville orange, is sour and bitterish.  The leaves  are
studded  Avith vesicles containing an essential oil, and  have a bitter aro-
matic taste, and when rubbed between the  fingers are highly fragrant.
They yield by distillation an oil termed Essence de Petit Grain.
   An infusion of them  is sometimes  employed as a gently stimulant
diaphoretic.   The flowers have  a  delicious  fragrance,  which is  im-
parted to the surrounding atmosphere, but which is lost  by drying;
those of  the bitter orange  are considered the most delicate.  They owe
their aroma to an essential oil, Avhich may be obtained  by distillation; it
is termed Oil  of Neroli, and  is much  used in perfumery.   An orange
flower water is prepared in Italy and France, which is nearly colorless,
has a rich odor of the flowers, and a bitterish, aromatic taste ; it is used
exclusively as a perfume, although reputed to possess  antispasmodic  vir-
tues.  The  peculiar  fragrance of  the  flowers may be preserved  for a
long time by beating them into a pulp with one-fourth their  weight of
common salt.   The  juice of the orange consists chiefly of sugar, muci-
lage and citric acid.  The  outer rind of the mature fruit  is the officinal
part, the inner being destitute of useful properties,  and the tAvo should
always be separated  from  each other when drying the rind for medical
purposes, as the spongy, inner rind by its affinity for moisture produces
a  disposition  in  the  peel  to  become moldy.   Orange peel has a deep
orange  color,  a grateful aroma, and a pleasant bitter taste, that of  the
Seville orange being much more  bitter than  that of the other variety.
It contains a  volatile oil in visible vesicles, and which is lost in drying,
a saccharine principle, a bitter principle, and ligneous fiber.  The volatile
oil  may  be  obtained by expression  from the fresh-grated rind, or by 
368
Materia Medica.
distillation with water.  Water or alcohol takes up the sensible properties
of the rind.  The finest Orange oil, which must not  be confounded with
the Oil  of  Neroli,  is obtained from Portugal, and is prepared from the
rind of  the sweet orange.  It has a pale straw tint, and a rich fragrance
of the rind.   It is imported in tinned copper cans, and is much used in
perfumery and  for  other purposes.   On  exposure  it  spoils  rapidly,
acquiring a terebinthinate odor.  When about the size of a pea or cherry,
the fruit is sold  under  the  name of Orangettes or  Curacoa Oranges;
and  the small ones are  sometimes used to maintain the discharge from
issues.
  Properties  and Uses.—Orange peel is a mild bitter tonic, carminative
and stomachic.  It is seldom used alone, but is employed generally to
flavor other medicines, or to correct their nauseating tendency.  It thus
forms a very useful addition to bitter tinctures, infusions, or decoctions,
as of cinchona  bark,  quassia, columbo, etc.; though care should be
taken not to subject it to long boiling, on account  of its  oil, which will
thus be  driven off.   As a tonic the rind of the Seville orange is preferred;
its dose in  substance  is  from thirty to sixty grains, three times a day.
Large quantities of it have caused violent colic, convulsions, and even
death. The juice of the orange is not only a light refrigerant article of diet,
but has a direct beneficial medicinal influence in several diseases;  as  in
all fevers and exanthematous diseases, where acids are craved, and the
patient's tongue is coated brown, black, or any intermediate color; in such
cases its free  use may be allowed with advantage; it is also useful as an
antiscorbutic  in  scurvy.  In administering the juice, the membranous
portion  should always be carefully rejected.   The distilled water of the
flowers  are said  to have proved beneficial in  chorea, hysteria, epilepsy,
and many other  nervous disorders, in  doses of one or two ounces.
   Off.  Prep.—Aqua Florum Aurantii.
                       CITRUS LIMONUM.

                               Lemon.

                     THE OUTER RIND AND JUICE.

                         CITRUS  ACIDA.

                                Lime.
                             THE JUICE.

      Nat. Ord.—Aurantiaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Polyadelphia Icosandria.
  Description.—The Lemon tree is an evergreen, about twenty feet in
hight, with flexible branches.  The leaves are firm, alternate, ovate-oblong, 
Citrus  Limonum.
369
 crenate or serrulate, smooth, shining, pale-green, with a winged petiole.
 The flowers are large, white, with a tinge of pink on the outside, and
 arise from the smaller branches.  The calyx and petals resemble those of
 the orange, which see.  The stamens are from twenty-five to thirty.   The
 ovary is ovate.  The fruit is ovate-oblong, uneven, and terminated by a
 more or less elongated knob, or nipple-like protuberance; the rind is of
 a straw-yellow color, and consists, similar to the orange, of two coats, an
 outer thin and yellow,  abounding in a fragrant oil, and an internal thick,
 whitish and coriaceous.   Cysts in the rind  concave.  Pulp juicy, very
 acid.
   The Lime,  Citrus Acida, (or Citrus  Limetta, Risso,) is a tree  about
 eight feet in hight, with a crooked trunk and diffuse  branches with
 prickles.   The leaves  are ovate, obovate, oblong and  serrate,  being
 placed upon  petioles  not winged as in the orange and lemon.   The
 flowers are small and white.   Stamens thirty.  Fruit ovate or roundish,
 pale-yellow, with a boss  at the  point, and  about an  inch and half
 in diameter.   Cysts in  the rind concave.  Pulp subacid, flat, slightly
 bitter.

   History.—These  plants  are  of Asiatic origin, and  cultivated in the
 West Indies,  and some other tropical countries; this market is supplied
 chiefly from the West Indies and the Mediterranean.   The exterior rind
 of the lemon,  and the juice of its pulp, are officinal.   The rind or lemon
 peel has  a fragrant odor, and a warm, bitter,  aromatic taste, which
 depend  upon  a volatile oil contained in the minute vesicles with which
 it is filled, and which, when  obtained by distillation  with water, or
 expression, forms the oil of lemon, of commerce.   (See  Oil of Lemon.)
 Lemon peel yields its virtues to water, wine, and alcohol.
  Lemon juice  has an intense, grateful, acid taste, and a slight  odor
 of the rind.   It is  often  kept  in  a separate state by adding  a  tenth
 of strong brandy, or a tenth of alcohol, and then filtering off the muci-
 lage which separates; it becomes  slightly bitterish after  a time, but
 retains its strong acidity undiminished.   Lemon syrup  is  another form
 in which  the  juice  is  preferred.  However, it is  very liable to sponta-
 neous decomposition, becoming unfit for medical use, hence, citric acid
 in solution, is  its best medicinal substitute; nine drachms  and a half of
 this acid  dissolved  in  a pint of water, form  a solution of the  average
 strength of lemon juice, to which a few drops  of oil or essence of lemon
 may be  added.  Lemon juice contains 2.5 per cent, of solid matter, of
 which 1.77  is citric acid, and  the rest chiefly mucilage and malic acid.
 The  finest lemons  are those which are  smoothest and thinnest in the
skin.
  The lime is smaller than the  lemon,  with  a smoother and  thinner
rind, oval, rounded at the extremities, of a pale or greenish-yellow color,
and abounding in an acid juice, which is chiefly used in the manufacture
         24 
370
Materia  Medica.
of citric acid.   A  variety  of the lime tree,  C. Limetta, furnishes  a
fruit from the rind of Avhich  is obtained the  Oil of Bergamot.
   Properties and Uses. — Lemon  peel is  used in cookery and confec-
tionary, and  also in medicine to qualify  the taste and  increase  the
power of  bitter infusions and tinctures, its virtues are similar to that of
the orange peel.  The juice  of lemon is tonic,  refrigerant  and antiscor-
butic, forming a refreshing and agreeable drink, possessing some  medi-
cinal influence, called Lemonade,  and which, as with orange juice, may
be  used  freely and  advantageously in  the febrile and  inflammatory
diseases, for which  this  last  has  been recommended.   It may also be
added to the nutritive drinks of  the  sick, as gum water,  gruel, barley-
water, etc.  Its power of preventing  and arresting scurvy is unequaled
by any other remedy, except a liberal supply of fresh vegetables of the
Cruciform family.  In scurvy, an ounce or an ounce and  a half of the
juice per day, is a  preventive dose,  and when the disease  manifests
itself, four or six ounces per day will arrest it.  Occasionally, but rarely,
it  fails to  effect  any benefit  in this  disease.  Ships  destined for long
voyages  should always  be provided with a supply of lemon syrup, or
citric acid with oil of lemon.   Lemon  juice has been used as an external
application  in  pruritus of the scrotum, and in uterine hemorrhage after
delivery.
   Off. Prep. — Acidum  Citricum ; Liquor  Potassae  Citratis; Syrupus
Limonis.
                    CLEMATIS VIRGINIANA.

                          Virgin's  Bower.

      Nat. Ord.—Ranunculacea?.   Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Polygynia.

                  THE  BARK, LEAVES AND  BLOSSOMS.

  Description.—Clematis Virginiana is a  perennial,  climbing plant, with
a stem from  eight to fifteen  feet or more  in length, supporting itself on
shrubs, fences and brusliAvood, by means  of its long petioles.  The leaves
are deep-green, ternate ; leaflets ovate,  cordate,  acuminate, lobed, cut-
dentate, and from two to three inches  in length by one or two in breadth ;
flowers in  clusters, paniculate,  often  dicecious ; pa?iicles large, axillary,
dichotomous.  Sepals four, white, spreading, oval-oblong,  obtuse.  Sta-
mens from  twenty-eight to thirty-six.  Fruit  furnished with long, plu-
mose tails, appearing in large, downy tufts ; seeds compressed.
  History. —The  Clematis Virginiana is  a native of the United States,
and grows by  river-banks,  in hedges and thickets,  from Canada to
Georgia and  the Mississippi.   It flowers in July and August.  The parts 
Clematis Virginiana.
371
used are the  bark, leaves, and blossoms, which yield their  virtues to
water or alcohol.   The leaves should be gathered when they are fully
grown, say in  August, spread in the shade, and after drying thoroughly,
should be closely pressed and packed in firm papers to exclude the air as
much as possible, or what is better, should be  placed into well closed
glass jars, whose mouths are sealed, or covered with oiled silk, bladder,
or other impervious material.
   The C. Viorna  or Leather  Flower,  which is more common  in the
western States, and may be found growing in woods from Pennsylvania
to the  Mississippi, may, probably, be employed as a substitute for the
above.  It differs from it in  having a cylindrical, striate stem ; with
opposite, decompound, pinnately divided leaves, consisting of from nine
to twelve ovate-lanceolate leaflets, acute at each end, entire or  three-
lobed ; flowers large, purple, nodding, solitary axillary,  campanulate ;
sepals thick, leathery, acuminate, and peduncles from three to six inches
long, with a pair of small, simple, entire leaves near the middle.
   Properties and Uses.—When applied  to the  skin in a fresh  state, they
blister it; and if taken internally, act as a corrosive poison.   Both dry-
ing  and boiling destroy the virulent property.   They have  been  used
externally in the treatment of several cutaneous affections, and  in the form
of a liniment  made with  oil for the cure  of itch; internally, as diu-
retics and sudorifics in chronic rheumatism, palsy, etc., in minute doses.
The extract, in doses of one  or two grains,  is recommended for osteo-
copic pains.    The green leaves bruised are sometimes employed to pro-
duce vesication, also, as an escharotic  and detergent for venereal and
other foul and indolent ulcers.
   Dr.  C. H. Cleveland, of Waterbury,  Vt., speaks highly of the C. Vir-
giniana as a nervine in uterine diseases; he places two drachms  of the
dried leaf into  a cup  filled with hot water,  covers it, and  allows it to
stand until the liquid is cool enough to  drink; strain, sweeten  Avith sugar
if desired, and let the patient drink it at once.   Repeated  as often as
may be required, the doses being regulated by its effects upon the system.
The root of the C. Dioica, a native of Jamaica, boiled with  sea-water,
acts as a powerful hydragogue cathartic, and  is useful  in dropsy; and an
infusion of the leaves and flowers, removes spots and freckles from the
skin.  The roots of the C. Vitalba boiled for  a short  time to diminish
their acrimony, and then  infused in boiling oil, were applied  to the skin
several times a day, in itch, and a cure was effected in twelve or fifteen
applications. 
372
Materia Medica.
                     COCCULUS PALMATUS.

                              Colombo.

       Nat. Ord.—Menispermaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Dicecia Hexandria.

                              THE ROOT.
  Description. — Colombo is a climbing plant, with  a perennial root,
formed of a number of fasciculated, fusiform, somewhat branched, fleshy,
curved, and  descending  tubers,  of  the  thickness of an infant's arm,
covered with  a  thin, brown epidermis,  marked,  especially toward the
upper part, with transverse warts; internally they are deep yellow, inodo-
rous, very bitter, and filled with  numerous, parallel, longitudinal fibers
or A'essels.  The stems, of which one or two proceed from the same root,
are annual, herbaceous, about as thick as the little finger, simple in the
male plant, twining,  branched in the female,rounded, green ; in the full-
grown plant,  below,  thickly clothed with  succulent, longitudinal hairs,
which  are tipped with  a gland.  The leaves  are alternate,  large, the
younger ones  thin, pellucid, bright-green, generally three-lobed, upward
gradually more numerous ; older ones remote,  a span in breadth, nearly
orbicular, deeply cordate, five to seven-lobed, the lobes entire, often
deflexed,  wavy  on the surface and  margin, dark-green above, paler
beneath ;  hairy on both sides ;  the nerves according to the number of
lobes, are three, seven, or nine, pale, connected by veins which, in them-
selves, are reticulated, prominent beneath.  Petioles  about as long as
the leaves, rounded,  glandulosopilose, thickened below.   The flowers are
small and inconspicuous, and are arranged in the male plant in solitary,
axillary,  drooping, compound racemes, covered with glandular hairs, and
with small caducous  bracts at the base ; in the  female also axillary, soli-
tary, simple,  spreading, shorter than  those of the  male. The calyx is
glabrous,  of six sepals, arranged in a double series. The corolla consists
of six pale-green petals in a single row;   The stamens are six, with ter-
minal, truncate, four-celled anthers.  The pistils are three, of which two
are often  abortive ; stigma spreading.   The fruit is drupaceous or ber-
ried, about the size of a hazelnut, densely clothed with long  spreading
hairs, tipped  with a black, oblong gland.   The seeds are somewhat reni-
form, of  a black color, and transversely striate.

  History.—This plant inhabits  the forests near the coast of Mozam-
bique, and Oibo in East Africa, and has been cultivated at Madras, and
in the Isle of  France.  It was  formerly  incorrectly described  as Menis-
permum  Palmatum, and  has only recently been properly investigated
and classified. It grows abundantly on the south-eastern coast of Africa,
in the neighborhood  of Mozambique, where it is known  by the name of
Kalumb.   The root is dug up in the dry season in the month of March, 
Cocculus Palmatus.
373
and only the fusiform offsets are taken, as the main  root is too fibrous
and woody ; these are transversely sliced, strung on cords, and dried in
the shade.  As  met with in the shops, the  roots  consist of transverse
sections, from half an inch to three inches in diameter, and from one-eighth
of an inch to one inch in thickness.  These sections are flat, circular, or
oval, and  composed of a thin, outer epidermis, brown and wrinkled,—a
thick, bright-yellow inner bark,  of a slightly-greenish color internally,—
and  a light, spongy, yellowish, ligneous internal or medullary portion,
usually more or less shrunk, so that the center  of the sections are the
thinnest,  and  frequently marked with  concentric  circles and  radiating
lines.   Those  pieces are the finest which are the most compact and  uni-
form  in their texture, least worm-eaten, and have the brightest color.
The root is brittle and easily pulverized, the powder having a pale green-
ish-yellow tint, becoming darker by age, a faint aromatic odor, a strong
bitter taste, without acrimony or astringency.   The cortical portion of
the root possesses the greatest intensity of bitterness.  It readily imparts
its bitterness to water, alcohol, or ether. The powder undergoes decom-
position by attracting moisture from the air, and  should, in consequence,
be prepared in small quantities at a time, and kept in well-corked bottles.
Colombo contains an azotized substance, in large quantity,  a bitter  yel-
low substance not precipitated by metallic  salts, one-third its weight of
starch,  a small proportion of volatile oil, salts of  lime and potassa, oxide
of iron, and silica,  beside  colombin and berberin.  It may be  known
from  American Colombo, by an infusion of the latter becoming dark-
green with  the  sesquichloride  of iron,  and not being  affected  by the
tincture of galls ; while the imported  is not affected by the  iron, and
yields a copious grayish precipitate with galls.
   Colombin may be obtained by exhausting Colombo by  means of alco-
hol of sp.  gr. 0.835, distilling off three-fourths of  the  alcohol, allowing
the residue to stand for some days till crystals  are deposited, and lastly,
treating these crystals with alcohol  and animal charcoal.  The  mother
waters  still contain a considerable quantity of  colombin,  which may be
separated  by evaporating  with coarsely-powdered glass  to dryness,
exhausting the residue with ether, filtering, distilling off the ether, treat-
ing the residue  with boiling acetic acid, and evaporating  the solution so
that crystals may form.   The crystals are in beautiful  transparent qua-
drilateral  prisms, inodorous, and extremely bitter.   They are soluble in
boiling alcohol,  which deposits them on cooling, and but slightly  soluble
in Avater,  alcohol, or ether, at 60°, although the bitter taste is imparted
to these fluids.   Diluted acetic acid is  the best solvent.   Alkaline solu-
tions take up colombin, and from which  acids precipitate it.  It has
neither  acid nor alkaline reactions.

  Berberin exists more  largely in the  Colombo root, than  Colombin, it
exists  in  combination with Colombic  Acid forming  a  Colombate of 
374                      Materia Medica.
Berberin, which exists in the thick layers of the cell membranes, while
colombin occurs in the cells of the root in a crystalline state.  It may be
obtained by exhausting Colombo with alcohol of 0.889, distilling off the
alcohol, allowing the  residual liquor to stand for three  days  so as to
deposit its colombin,  then evaporating the supernatant liquid, together
with the aqueous washings  of the colombin, to dryness, exhausting the
residue with boiling alcohol of 0.863, treating the solution thus obtained
as the former one, submitting the residue  to the action of boiling water,
filtering and adding muriatic acid, collecting the precipitated muriate of
berberin thus formed, on a filter, drying it with  bibulous paper, and
finally, to separate adhering acid, dissolving it in alcohol, and precipi-
tating with ether.   The  precipitate  will  be a  bright yellow powder,
imperfectly crystalline, and disagreeably bitter.
   Precipitates of the solutions  of  Colombo are caused  by infusion  of
galls, acetate of lead, corrosive  sublimate, and lime-water, but which  do
not affect its bitter principle.
   Properties  and Uses. — A pure,  bitter tonic.    Used  in dyspepsia,
chronic diarrhea, and dysentery;  in convalescence  from  febrile and
inflammatory  diseases, hectic fever,  and in the muscular debility  of
young children.   It has  been recommended in sympathetic  vomiting,
not connected with inflammation of the stomach, as in that  of pregnant
women.   Like other strong bitters, it occasionally checks the  remittent
and intermittent fevers  of  hot climates.   A  powerful  tonic may be
formed of the alcoholic extract  of the root.  In  dyspepsia, and vomit-
ing it may be  advantageously combined with the alkaline bicarbonates,
as well as in debility with acidity of  the stomach.   It is used in various
combinations,  with aromatics, antacids, cathartics, or other tonics. Dose
of the powder, from ten  to thirty grains, three  or four times a day;  of
the infusion, from one to two fluidounces; of the  tincture, from one  to
two fluidrachms.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum  Colombae ;   Tinctura Colombae;  Vinum  Sym-
phyti Compositum.
                         COCCUS  CACTI.

                             Cochineal.
  History.—The cochineal insect,  Coccus Cacti, belongs to  the  class
Insecta, order Hemiptera ; it is  characterized  by its depressed, downy,
transversely wrinkled  body, its purplish abdomen, its short and black
legs, and its subulate antennae, which are  about one-third of the length
of the body.   It is found wild in  Mexico and  the  adjoining countries,
where it feeds on the different species of Cactus and  the allied genera,
but especially the Opuntia Cochenillifera, on which it thrives best. They
are collected  at various seasons.   The best are the product of the first 
Coccus Cacti.
375
collection, which consists of the impregnated females ; the males are not
collected.  Those killed by the heat of a stove, are said to be  superior
to those destroyed  by boiling water.  As obtained in the shops, Cochi-
neal is in irregularly-circular or oval, somewhat  angular grains, about
one-eighth of  an inch in diameter, convex  on one side, concave or flat
on the other, and marked with several transverse wrinkles.   There are
two varieties, one of a reddish-gray color, silver grains, the other almost
black, black grains ; there is no difference in their quality.
   The Silver  Cochineal is said to consist of the  female insect killed
before it has laid its eggs ; Black  Cochineal, of the female after having
laid its eggs; the first is the most  esteemed.  There  is also an inferior
sort, consisting chiefly of young  insects, called Granilla.
   Cochineal has a faint heavy odor, and a bitter, slightly acidulous taste;
its powder is  of a purplish-carmine color.   It consists  of carmine, ani-
mal matter, stearin, olein, etc.   The coloring matter of  cochineal is dis-
solved out by water, alcohol, and proof spirit.
   Carmine may be prepared by boiling one pound of powdered cochi-
neal and three  drachms  and a half of subcarbonate of potassa, in a
boiler containing seven gallons of water. After boiling for a few minutes,
take the  boiler off the fire, and place it on a table, inclined to one side so
as to  facilitate decantation.   Add  powdered alum, eight  drachms, and
stir the solution.  The liquor  changes color and assumes a more bril-
liant tint.  After a  quarter of an  hour, the cochineal will have deposited,
and the liquor have become as clear as if  it had been filtered.  It con-
tains  the carmine  in suspension.   The  liquor is then decanted into a
similar pan, and placed on the fire, adding three drachms and a half  of
isinglass, which  has been  previously dissolved in two  quarts of water
and strained.  At the moment of ebullition the carmine rises to the sur-
face, and a coagulum forms as in  clarification with white of egg.   The
pan is then removed from the fire,  and the liquor stirred with a spatula.
After a quarter  of an hour the carmine will be  deposited,  when the
liquor is  to be decanted, and the deposit drained on a strained filter, and
then dried in a stove at a temperature from 82° to 86°.   If  dried in the
open air it will become moldy.   This makes a very fine  carmine.   The
remaining solution will make fine carminated lake.  A fine red ink may
be made as follows:  Take of cochineal in powder eight scruples, car-
bonate of potassa sixteen scruples, distilled water eight fluidounces, mix
together  and boil;  then add of alum four  scruples, bitartrate of potassa
two ounces; let them stand for twenty-four hours,  filter, and add  of
powdered gum Arabic half an  ounce.
  Properties and Uses.—Anodyne.   Used in hooping-cough, and neural-
gic affections.  Also used to color tinctures and ointments.  Dose, from
five to ten grains, three or four times a day.
   Off. Prep.— Tinetura Cardamomi  Composita. 
376
Materia  Medica.
                   COCHLEARIA ARMORACIA.

                             Horseradish.

       Nat. Ord.—Brassicaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Tetradynamia Siliculosa.

                             FRESH ROOT.

   Description.—Horseradish  root  is  perennial, thick,  tapering, white,
long, acrid, and very tenacious of life, sending up numerous very large
leaves, from the  midst of Avhich a  round  or angular,  smooth, erect
branching stem rises, two or three feet in hight; those  branches which
flower are corymbose, smooth, angular.   The radical leaves are near  a
foot long, half  as  wide, oblong, crenate-toothed, waved, sometimes pin-
natifid, of a dark-green color, and stand upon long, channeled petioles;
the  cauline leaves are smaller, lanceolate, dentate  or incised, sessile,
sometimes entire, and without footstalks ; the lower ones often pinnati-
fid.  The flowers are numerous, small,  white, peduncled, and in terminal
corymbose racemes.  The calyx spreading with four ovate, concave, and
deciduous sepals.  The corolla consists of four obovate, unguiculate petals,
twice as long as the sepals.  The stamens are as long as  the calyx, in-
curved, and supporting heart-shaped anthers.  The ovary is oblong, with
a  short style, bearing a short capitate stigma,  and changing  into an
elliptical,  compressed, bilocular  pod  or  silicle, containing about four
seeds in each cell, many of which are abortive.

   History.—This is a well-known succulent plant, a native of Europe,
and extensivety cultivated  for the use  of its roots as a condiment.  Its
flowers appear in June.  The fresh root is the officinal part and should
be dug up in the  autumn, as its acrimony is then the strongest; it may
be  preserved for  some  time  fresh, by burying  it in  a  cool place  in
sand.  The root is whitish  externally, very white within, fleshy, fibrous,
of a strong, pungent  odor when  bruised  or  scraped, exciting  violent
sneezing and secretion of  tears, and of an exceedingly pungent, some-
what sweetish taste.  Water,  alcohol,  or vinegar extracts  its properties,
Avhich  depend upon the presence of a volatile oil, and which is dissipated
by heat or desiccation.
   The oil may be  obtained by distillation with water, but not with alco-
hol ; it is colorless or pale  yellow, heavier  than water,  very  volatile,
excessively pungent, acrid,  and  corrosive,  exciting inflammation and
even vesication  when applied to the skin.   It is supposed to be perfectly
identical with the volatile oil of mustard,  and is obtained in minute pro-
portion, six parts  only of  the oil being procured from ten thousand  of
the root.  It is  believed not to exist  already-formed in the unbroken
root, but to be developed by the mutual reaction of its constituents when
the root is bruised.  The dried root possesses no pungency, and yields 
COFFEA ARABICA.
377
 no volatile oil when distilled with water, unless white mustard be added ;
 the myrosine of the mustard supplying some  necessary principle de-
 stroyed by desiccation.   In addition, the root contains  a bitter resin,
 sugar,  gum, starch, extractive, albumen, acetic acid, acetate and  sul-
 phate of lime, water and lignin.
   Properties  and Uses.—Stimulant,  diuretic, antiscorbutic, and  rubefa-
 cient.  It excites the stomach when swallowed, and promotes the secre-
 tions, especially that of  urine.   The infusion  is  emetic.  It has been
 used with advantage in  chronic  affections attended with  debility of the
 digestive organs, and of the system in general,  as in paralysis, rheuma-
 tism, dropsy,  and as an antiscorbutic in scurvy.   In dropsy,  an infusion
 of the  root in  cider and drank as warm as could be borne, in large
 quantities and freely, the patient being warmly covered up, has caused
 copious diuresis and diaphoresis, and cured the disease in a  few weeks;
 the  operation being repeated nightly, or as the strength of the patient
 would permit.   It enters into the following excellent preparation, which
 has  often cured  dropsy alone, but the use of which is generally preceded
 by active hydragogues ;—Take of Parsley roots and tops, Carbonate of
 Iron, of each four ounces ; Juniper berries, Squills, White Mustard seed,
 Mandrake, Queen of the meadow root, of each,  one ounce, Horseradish
 two ounces ; good Cider, not  new or too  hard, six quarts.    Place  the
 whole in  an  unglazed  earthen vessel, cover, and digest with heat for
 twenty-four hours.   Dose, a wineglassful three or  four times  a day.
 The  grated root with sugar to form a syrup with water, is excellent for
 hoarseness, a  spoonful or two  may be swallowed  as occasion requires.
 It has  been  also used  externally, as a rubefacient.   Dose of the root
grated,  from one to two drachms.
  The Cochlearia Officinalis,  or scurvy grass  is  seldom used in medi-
cine ; it possesses similar properties.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum  Armoraciae.
                        COFFEA ARABICA.

                               Coffee.

       Nat.  Ord.—Cinchonacea?.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.

                             THE SEEDS,

  Description.—Coffee tree is an evergreen shrub, growing from twenty
to thirty feet in hight, with an erect stem, covered Avith a brownish bark.
The branches  are opposite, the  lower spreading, the  upper somewhat
declining, and gradually diminishing in length as they ascend, so  as  to
form a pyramidal summit, which is covered with a green foliage through- 
378                      Materia Medica.
out the year.  The leaves are opposite, ovate-lanceolate, entire, acumi-
nate, smooth and shining,  bright-green above and paler below, four or
five  inches long,  on short petioles, and accompanied  with a pair of
small, undivided, subulate stipules.  The flowers are white, having an
odor similar to jasmine, sessile, and are in clusters of four  or five toge-
ther,  in the axils of the upper  leaves ; peduncles short.  The  calyx is
very small, superior, five-toothed.  The corolla is funnel-shaped, with a
flat  border divided into five spreading, lanceolate, pointed segments.
The  stamens are inserted into the tube  of the corolla, and have yellow,
linear anthers.   The  ovary  is inferior,  ovate, and  supports a simple
style, with two awl-shaped, reflexed stigmas.  The fruit or berry is glo-
bular, about the size of a  cherry, umbilicated at the summit, deep-pur-
ple, two-celled, two-seeded, and containing a yellowish pulpy matter.
The seeds are hemispherical, convex on one side, and flat on the other
with a longitudinal furrow, of a pale glaucous color, and invested in a
thin, elastic, somewhat  translucent arillus ;  they  constitute the coffee of
commerce.

  History.—Coffee is a native of Southern  Arabia and Africa, and is
cultivated in various parts of the world, between the  latitudes of 55°
north and south.   The tree is raised from the seeds, which are sown in
proper soil, and germinate in less than a month, producing plants which
are sufficiently large for transplanting  at the end of the year.  They
are then placed in rows, and  begin  to bear fruit in  three or four years.
The seeds are known to be  ripe when the  berries assume a dark-red
color, and if not gathered will  drop spontaneously.  When gathered,
they are dried, and their papyraceous envelope removed.
  There  are  many varieties  of coffee  in commerce, the characters of
which depend upon the  soil, the climate, and the mode of culture.  The
Mocha Coffee is esteemed the best, and  the  Java  next;  but the principal
supply in  this country  is  from the West Indies and  South America.
Good coffee should be  hard,  and so heavy as to readily sink in water;
age improves its  flavor;  soft, light, black  or dark-colored, or musty
grains are of inferior quality.
  Coffee  has a faint, peculiar odor, and  a slightly-sweetish, somewhat
austere taste.  It  contains cellulose, hygroscopic  water,  fatty matter,
glucose, dextrine and a vegetable acid,  legumin, chlorogenate of potassa
and caffein, free caffein, concrete volatile oil, fluid volatile  oil, and min-
eral  substances.   Caffein  may be  obtained in  the  following manner:
Exhaust  bruised coffee by two successive  portions of boiling water,
unite the  infusions, add acetate of  lead in order to precipitate the prin-
ciples which accompany the caffein, filter, decompose the excess of ace-
tate of lead in the filtered liquor by sulphureted hydrogen, and evaporate
to the point of crystallization.   Concentrate by evaporation, and neu-
tralize with ammonia.  The   crystals which form upon  cooling, may bo 
COFFEA ARABICA.                      379
redissolved in water, treated with animal charcoal, and the solution be
again evaporated.
  H. J. Versman states the following to be the most profitable and sim-
ple mode of obtaining caffein :  " Ten parts of bruised coffee are mixed
with two  parts of caustic  lime, previously converted into hydrate of
lime.   This mixture is placed in a displacement apparatus, with alcohol
of 80°, until the fluid which passes through no longer  furnishes evi-
dence of the presence  of caffein.   The coffee  is then roughly ground,
and  brought nearly to the state  of a powder, and  the  refuse  of the
already once digested mixture  from the  displacement apparatus dried,
and  ground  again, and,  mixed with hydrate  of  lime,  is once  more
macerated.   The grinding is more easily effected after the coffee has
been  subjected  to the operation  of the alcohol, having  lost its horny
quality, and the caffein is thus certainly extracted.   The  clear alcoholic
fluid thus obtained is  then to be distilled, and the  refuse in  the  retort
to be washed with Avarm water to separate the oil.   The  resulting fluid
is then evaporated until  it forms  a crystalline  mass, which  is  to be
placed  on  a thick  filter, and  the moisture  expressed.  The moisture,
after  evaporation, still furnishes some caffein.  The  impure caffein is
freed from oil by pressure between folds of blotting-paper, and purified
by solution in water with  animal charcoal, and then crystallized by eva-
poration.   Good Brazilian coffee, thus yields 0.57 per cent, of caffein.
   Caffein crystallizes  by the  cooling of its concentrated solution,  in
white,  opake, silky, flexible needles ; by slow and spontaneous evapora-
tion, in long, transparent prisms.  It has a feebly bitter and disagreeable
taste, is soluble in water, alcohol,  and ether, melts  when exposed  to
heat,  and  at a higher  temperature  sublimes,  without  residue, into
needles analogous to those formed by benzoic acid.   It  is precipitated
from  its aqueous  solution  by no  reagent  except tannic acid, and  is
remarkable for  containing  a  larger proportion  of nitrogen  than any
other proximate vegetable principle ; and in this respect equals some  of
the most highly animalized products.  It is a feeble base, but  forms
very  large crystalline salts with  sulphuric and  muriatic acids.   Its
composition is considered to be Cs N2 H5 O2, and  it is  believed to  be
identical with thein, the peculiar principle of  tea.
   Notwithstanding the quantity of nitrogen  in its composition,  caffein
does not  putrefy, even  when its  solution is kept for some  time in  a
warm place.
   The Hanoverian Pharmacopoeia  directs caffein to be made by preci-
pitating a decoction of  coffee with acetate of  lead, filtering and washing
the precipitate, evaporate  the  liquids to dryness, and after mixing the
powdered extract with  sand, the mass is sublimed in a Mohr's apparatus,
just as  in making benzoic acid.
   Coffee undergoes considerable change during the roasting process.  It
swells up very much, acquiring almost double its original  volume,  while 
380
Materia  Medica.
it loses about 20 per cent, of its weight.   It acquires, at the same time,
a peculiar odor  entirely different from that of the unaltered grains, and
a decidedly bitter taste.   A volatile oil is developed during the process,
and  according  to Chenevix, a  portion of tannin.   The  caffein does not
appear to undergo material change, as, according to Garot,  it  may be
extracted unaltered  from the  roasted coffee.   The  excellence of the
flavor of roasted coffee  depends  much  upon  the manner in  which the
process is conducted, and the extent to which it is carried.  It should be
performed in a covered vessel, over a moderate fire, and the grains
should be kept in constant motion.  When these have acquired  a chest-
nut-brown color, the process should  cease.  If too long  continued, it
renders  the coffee  unpleasantly bitter and  acrid, or by reducing it to
charcoal, deprives it entirely of flavor.  The coffee should  not be burnt
long before it is used, and should never be kept in the  ground state, as
it loses much of its agreeable flavor and activity.

   Properties and Uses.—An infusion of roasted coffee is an agreeable
stimulant, antisoporific, and antiemetic.  It moderately excites the circu-
latory system, and stimulates the digestive function; though if  taken in
large quantities it produces troublesome nervous and dyspeptic affections.
A cup of strong coffee will cause a degree of wakefulness  for several
hours, and it may be administered for the purpose of resisting, to a cer-
tain extent,  the intoxicating and soporific influence of opium and alcohol.
In poisoning from opium, it should always be given.   It has also proved
temporarily useful in light nervous headaches, asthma, hysteria, obstinate
chronic diarrhea, and also calculous nephritis.   It is contra-indicated in
all inflammatory affections of a high grade.   Dr. A. BroAvn,  of Cincin-
nati, has found a strong  decoction of the pulverized, unroasted coffee,  a
superior remedy in  some  forms  of chlorosis and amenorrhea.   When
fullness  of the head, and pain  in the  back are present, he gives  a gentle
purgative, then uses the warm foot-bath, and administers the decoction
in wineglassful doses every half hour or hour.
   Coffee has also been used with much success in hooping-cough, in the
form of  syrup, made with the  extract of coffee prepared without heat,
or a strong infusion by percolation, given in small and  repeated  doses.
Dr. L. Delahage gives the following  formulae as almost infallible : Take
of syrup of extract of coffee  four pounds, extract of  belladonna, ex-
tract of  ipecacuanha, of  each  tAvo scruples.    Mix together.  Dose, two
fluidrachms or a dessertspoonful, morning and noon, and double this dose
at night on going to bed,  for children of three to five years old; it should
be taken in two or three tablespoonfuls of warm water.
   The Citrate of Caffein, recommended  as  a remedy for the idiopathic
headache, called migraine, (pain  in the  forehead), may be obtained by
two processes; the most simple  consists in infusing finely-ground raw
coffee in a very weak solution of citric acid, at the temperature  of 176° F., 
Colchicum Autumnale.
381
filtering the liquid while yet hot, adding two-thirds of its volume of ether,
and agitating the mixture strongly, to remove the chlorogenic acid from
the watery solution.   The latter is separated from the supernatant ether,
and is carefully evaporated with a gentle heat.   The citrate  of caffein
crystallizes  in long needles, which, when redissolved in distilled water
and again evaporated, are obtained in beautiful, long acicular white silky
crystals,  in radiating groups.
   The second process consists  in making the compound by the direct
union of  its constituents, the caffein being dissolved in a weak solution
of citric acid at the temperature of 112°  F., and the solution evaporated
till the citrate crystallizes.
   This  salt is very soluble in  water, and is assimilated  much  more
readily than pure caffein when taken  into the stomach.  It consists of
one equivalent of caffein, three of citric acid, and two of water.  It may
be made into a pill  mass with  some simple extract, say eight  grains of
the salt to  fifteen of the  extract, and divided into ten pills, of which one
pill may be given every hour or two.   Or, two drachms and  a half of
the salt may be  dissolved in four ounces  of simple syrup,  of which one
tablespoonful may be given as above, according to the violence of the
attack.
                   COLCHICUM  AUTUMNALE.

                             Colchicum.

        Nat. Ord.—Melanthaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Hexandria Trigynia.

                    CORMUS OR BULB, AND SEEDS.
   Description.—This plant, also called Meadow Saffron, is  a perennial
bulbous plant.   The corm is large,  ovate, solid, fleshy.  The leaves are
dark-green, very smooth, obtuse, above a foot long, an inch and a half
broad, carinated,  produced in  the spring, along with  the capsules.
Flowers several, radical, leafless, bright purple, with a long white tube
appearing in the autumn without the leaves.   Capsules three, distinct,
though forming together a single, oblong, elliptical fruit,  with  interme-
diate fissures.  Seeds whitish, polished.
   History.—Colchicum grows in meadows, and  low, rich situations in
many parts of Europe, and is common to England.   The herb is annual,
but the root is annual or perennial according to the manner in which the
plant is propagated, which maybe from the seed, by the formation of a sin-
gle mature bulb from a parent bulb, or by the separation of several imma-
ture bulbs from the parent.  The manner of growth of the plant deserves
a brief notice.  In the latter part of the summer, a new bulb or cormus
commences forming at the lateral inferior portion of  the old one, which
receives the young offshoot in its  bosom, and embraces  it half round. 
382
Materia Medica.
The new plant sends out fibers  from its base, and  is furnished with  a
radical, cylindrical, tubular spathe,  cloven at top on one side, and half
under-ground.  In September from two to six lilac or purple  flowers
emerge  from the spathe, and unaccompanied with  leaves ;  by the end
of October these flowers perish, and the rudiments  of the fruit  remain
under-ground until the  next spring, when the leaves rise upon a stem
above the surface, elevating along Avith them the  germ en  consisting of
three  many-seeded capsules, which ripen their seed about midsummer;
after this the plant speedily dies and withers.  While the flower is rising
in the autumn, the bulb is very small, but in the winter it grows rapidly,
being in April as large as a chestnut, and  attaining its greatest  size,
about that  of a  small  apricot, in July.   It is noAv a year old, and the
herb having matured its seed, is withering away, but a new bulb begins
to appear at its lower end, close to its  junction Avith the  radicles or root
proper, which passes through a similar succession of changes ; while the
old parent bulb, gradually becomes more spongy and watery, but retains
its size until the following April, the second spring of its own existence,
when it quickly decays.   The seeds and the bulb  are the officinal parts
of the plant.  The bulb attains its greatest perfection about  the' begin-
ning  of July, at which  time  it should be gathered for medical use.  It
resembles a small tulip root, rounded on one side, flattened  on the other,
being broAvn externally, white internally, and containing an acrid, milky
juice.  The odor is hircine, and  the  taste unpleasant, bitter  and acrid.
In drying,  the bulb is usually cut into thin transverse slices, having first
been stripped of its external dark brownish-black membranous tegument,
and  is dried  quickly; sometimes it is dried entire.
   Good colchicum bulbs when dried are of an oval-rounded  form, with
a notch or deep groove on one side,  of a grayish-white color, an amyla-
ceous appearance, firm, dry, and capable of changing their color to blue
when softened Avith distilled vinegar, and then touched Avith tincture of
guaiacum.   Its odor is much  less than in the fresh  bulb, and its taste
bitter, hot and  acrid.  Alcohol, wine,  or vinegar extracts its virtues.
The  acetic  tincture is generally preferred  to  the vinous,  as it is not so
liable  to change or  decomposition.   Acids  render the vinous tincture
drastic, while alkalies render  its operation milder.  It contains a vege-
table alkali combined with an excess of  gallic acid;  a fatty matter com-
posed of olein, stearin, and a peculiar  volatile  acid analogous to the
cevadic; a yellow coloring matter; gum ; starch ;  inulin  in large quan-
tity,  and lignin.  The alkaline principle,  formerly supposed to be identical
with veratria, has been found to be peculiar, and has received the name
of Colchicia.  Solution of  iodine causes a  blue  precipitate with the
decoction of the bulb ; the acetate of lead, nitrate of protoxide of mer-
cury, and nitrate of silver cause white precipitates ; and the tincture of
galls a slight precipitate. 
Colchicum Autumnale.
383
   Colchicum seeds should be gathered about the beginning of August,
 when they are fully ripe; they are rough, roundish, dark-brown exter-
 nally, white within, about the eighth  of an inch in diameter, and  of a
 bitter, acrid taste.  It Avas formerly supposed that their active properties
 resided  in  the  husk or testa, and it was advised not to bruise them in
 making  the tincture, but recent experiments have proved that the bruised
 seeds yield the strongest tincture.   Their properties are similar  with
 those of the bulb, and as they are considered more uniform in strength
 than the bulb, they are usually preferred to it.
   Colchicia may be  obtained by a process similar to that employed in
 the preparation of hyoscyamia from hyoscyamus.  (See the article Hyos-
 cyamus).   A simpler process is to digest the seeds of colchicum in  boil-
 ing alcohol, precipitate the tincture with magnesia, treat the precipitated
 matter with boiling alcohol, and finally filter and evaporate.  It is crys-
 tallizable, bitter, and very poisonous, and  does  not, like  veratria, cause
 sneezing when applied to the nostrils, is more soluble in water, and has
 less poisonous influence on the system.   It is soluble in water, alcohol,
 and ether;  nitric acid colors  it blue or violet; its salts are ciystallizable,
 acrid, bitter, and poisonous.  In  a very small  dose it causes purging
 and vomiting.
   Properties and Uses.—In large doses, an  acro-narcotic poison.   Medi-
 cinally,  sedative, cathartic, diuretic,  and  emetic.  Used in gout  and
 gouty rheumatism,  dropsy, palpitation of the heart, gonorrhea, enlarged
 prostate, etc.  Care  must be used in its  employment.  It sometimes
 increases the uric acid in the urine of arthritic patients;  and  has been
 beneficially  employed in  febrile,  inflammatory and nervous  affections,
 and  in chronic  bronchial complaints.  A good  acetic  tincture may be
 made by macerating  an ounce and a half of the  dried bulb, or seeds, in
 twelve fluidounces  of the  strongest vinegar for [fourteen days.  Then
 filter, and keep in well-stopped bottles.  The dose for an adult is from
 thirty to  sixty drops,  as often as may be required.  An acetic extract may
 be prepared, containing all the powers of the plant, by rubbing the bulbs
 to a pulp to the  quantity of a pound, and gradually adding acetic or pyro-
ligneous  acid three fluidounces.  Express the liquid, and evaporate it in an
earthen vessel not glazed with lead, to the proper consistence;  the dose
is from  one to three grains, three or four times a day.   Dose of the
dried bulb,  from one to eight grains,  gradually  increased every four or
six hours, till the effects of the medicine are obtained.
   Off. Prep.—Tinctura Colchici Composita; Tinctura Colchici Seminis;
Vinum Colchici  Radicis; Vinum Colchici Seminis. 
384
Materia  Medica.
                 COLLINSONIA  CANADENSIS.

                             Hardhack.

         Nat. Ord.—Lamiaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Diandria Monogynia.

                             THE PLANT.

  Description.—This plant, known likewise  by various  other names, as
Horseweed, Heal-all, Richweed, Ox-balm, etc., is indigenous with a peren-
nial  knotty root, and  a herbaceous, simple  stem, about two feet high,
furnished with two  or three pairs of broad,  cordate, ovate,  serrate,
petioled, and smooth  leaves,  and  terminating  in  a panicle  of yellow
flowers in branched  racemes; the flowers  are diandrous and monogy-
nous.   Calyx bilabiate, upper lip  three-toothed, the teeth short, subu-
late.   Corolla  funnel-form  somewhat bilabiate, the lower lip  fringed.
Stamens two; seeds four, often tAvo or three  of them are abortive.
  History. — Hardhack is found growing  in rich  moist woods, from
Canada to Carolina, and flowering from July to September.  The whole
plant has a peculiar, lemon-like, balsamic  odor, rather disagreeable in
the root, and a warm, pungent taste.  Water or alcohol extracts its vir-
tues ; boiling  destroys it, as  the active principle is volatile.  The fresh
root is the part used.
  Properties and  Uses. — Tonic, astringent, diaphoretic, and  diuretic.
Used in infusion for headache, colic, cramp, dropsy, indigestion,  catarrh
of the bladder, leucorrhea,  gravel, and urinary disorders.   The fresh
root, in substance, irritates the stomach, causing vomiting even in small
doses.  Externally, the  leaves are used as a poultice  or in fomentation
to bruises, ulcers, blows, wounds, sprains, contusions, etc.   The Collins-
onia  Verna, C. Cordata,  C.  Ovata,  C. Scabra, and other species, proba-
bly, possess similar virtues.   Dose of the infusion, from half a fluidounce
to two fluidounces.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Collinsoniae.
                           COLLODION.

                 ETHEREAL  solution of gun-cotton.

  Preparation.—Add  Sulphuric  Acid eight fluidounces  and a half to
Nitrate of Potassa, in  powder, ten  ounces, in a Wedgwood mortar, and
triturate  them until uniformly mixed; then  add of Cotton, freed from
impurities and finely-carded, half an ounce, and by means of the pestle
and a glass rod,  imbue it thoroughly with the mixture for four minutes.
Transfer the cotton to a vessel containing water, and wash it, in succes- 
Collodion.
385
sive portions, by agitation and pressure, until the washings cease to have
an acid taste, or to be precipitated on the addition of chloride of barium.
Having separated the  fibers by picking, dry the cotton with a  gentle
heat; dissolve it by agitation in a mixture of Ether two pints and a half,
and Alcohol a fluidounce, and strain.  On account of the great volatility
of the ether, Collodion should be kept in closely glass-stopped and well-
dried bottles.
   History.—Cotton acted upon by nitric acid is changed into an  explo-
sive substance called Gun-cotton or Pyroxylin.  The nitric acid prepared
as above, by the  action of the sulphuric acid on  the nitrate of  potassa,
affords  a  gun-cotton which  readily dissolves  in ether.   Gun-cotton is
very liable to undergo  spontaneous decomposition.
   Collodion is a transparent, colorless  liquid, of the consistence of  syrup,
with an ethereal  smell;  when not kept properly secured, it thickens and
becomes  unfit  for surgical use,  frequently depositing acicular crystals
of gun-cotton.
   Properties and Uses.—When applied to any part of the surface of the
body it quickly evaporates, leaving the solid  adhesive material, or an
artificial epidermis, and its contraction in drying produces local pressure.
Used tor holding together the edges of incised wounds, for covering
ulcers or abraded surfaces with  an impervious  film not  acted upon by
water, also used for  chapped nipples, leech-bites, erysipelas, and several
cutaneous diseases.   It may be  applied with a  brush, or  by means of
strips of muslin.   It has been beneficially used to form an artificial cover-
ing to ulcers of the os and cervix uteri, thereby allowing the healing process
to go on underneath.  In burns it has  also proved of utility.  The  strong
contractile power of the collodion  is  often  an  objection to its employ-
ment ; this may be  obviated  by dissolving first one part of gun-cotton,
and then  one part of Venice turpentine in twenty parts of ether.   Or to
give more flexibility to the  film, one part  of  elemi  may be added to
twelve  of collodion.  Opacity and  elasticity may be imparted  to collo-
dion by adding from half a drachm to a drachm  of  lard, or similar fatty
matter, previously dissolved  in  ether, to an  ounce of  collodion.   An
ethereal tincture  of saffron or turmeric may  be added in sufficient quan-
tity,  when desired, to produce a color  resembling that of the skin.   Col-
lodion may likewise be prepared pliable and without  any tendency to
crack or  break  by  the  following formula: Take of  Collodion  thirty
grammes, Castor  oil, and  Soft Turpentine, of each fifty centigrammes.
Collodion is said  to have given instant relief in  chilblains.
  A  Cantharidal  Collodion has  recently been brought into use, for the
purpose of vesicating, it may be made as follows :  Exhaust, by percola-
tion,  a pound of cantharides,  Avith a mixture consisting  of a pound of
sulphuric  ether and three ounces of  acetic ether; and  in two ounces of
this liquid dissolve twenty-five grains  of gun-cotton.   It may be kept in
       25 
386
Materia Medica.
a glass-stoppered bottle without change, for an indefinite time.  It should
be applied to the surface by means of a  camel's hair brush, and after
the evaporation  of the ether, another coat may be  given if the surface
be not well  covered.   It produces a blister in three  to six hours, and
may be  applied with  greater facility than the  ordinary cerate, and is
better  adapted to cover uneven  surfaces.   If the evaporation  of  the
ether be restrained by a piece of oiled silk immediately after its applica-
tion, it will act much  more speedily.   One  per cent, of Venice turpen-
tine  added  to the above, prevents the disagreeable contraction of  the
preparation  when drying.
                 COMPTONIA  ASPLENIFOLIA.

                             Sweet Fern.

         Nat. Ord.—Myricaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Triandria.
                             THE PLANT.
  Description.—Sweet Fern is  a  low, indigenous shrub, with  a long,
horizontal root, and growing from two to four  feet high, the main stem
being covered with  a rusty, brown bark, which becomes  reddish in the
branches, and white downy in the  young shoots.   The leaves are numer-
ous, on short peduncles,  from three to four inches in  length, and half an
inch  broad,  alternate, linear-lanceolate, sinuate-pinnatifid, resembling
the leaves of the  spleenwort fern, broAvn, and  rather downy on the un-
derside,  shining  on the upper; stipules in pairs, acuminate.  Flowers
green, monoecious,  amentaceous, and  appearing before the leaves; bar-
ren ones in long, erect, cylindrical, loosely imbricated  catkins, terminal
and lateral, with  deciduous, one-flowered bracts; fertile  ones in ovate,
densely imbricated  catkins, situated  below the barren  ones, with one-
flowered bracts.  Stamens  six,  adhering in pairs.  Sepals six, larger
than the bracts ;  styles two, capillary.   Fruit a small, ovate, broAvn, one-
celled nut.
  History. —This plant  is  found  growing in thin sandy soils, or dry,
stony woods, from New England to Virginia.   All parts of  it possess a
resinous,  spicy,  aromatic  odor, when  rubbed or  bruised between the
fingers.  The Avhole herb is used.
  Properties and Uses. — Tonic,  astringent,  and alterative.  Used in
diarrhea, dysentery, hemoptysis, leucorrhea,  rheumatism, debility suc-
ceeding fevers, and in rachitis.  A decoction of it is very useful in the
summer-complaint  of children, when given as an auxiliary.  A pillow
of the leaves is beneficial  to rachitic children,  and they may be used as
a fomentation in contusions  and  rheumatism.  Dose of the decoction,
from one to four  fluidounces, three or four times a day.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Comptoniae. 
Conium Maoulatum.
387
                     CONIUM MACULATUM.

                          Poison-Hemlock.

          Nat.  Ord.—Apiaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.

                         LEAVES AND SEEDS.
   Desertion.—Poison Hemlock, or Poison  Parsley, as it is sometimes
called, is  an umbelliferous  plant, having a biennial, fusiform, whitish,
fleshy root, and a herbaceous, branching stem,  from  three  to six feet
high, erect, round, hollow, smooth, shining, glaucous,  slightly striated,
and copiously marked with brownish-purple spots.  The leaves are tri-
pinnate ; the lower ones very large, and attached to  the joints of the
stem by sheathing petioles; the upper  are  smaller, and inserted at the
divisions of the  branches; both have channeled footstalks.  The leaflets are
ovate, closely and sharply pinnatifid, with the lower lobes incised, deep-
green on their  upper surface and paler beneath.  The flowers are numer-
ous, small, white, all fertile, the outermost very  slightly irregular, they
are arranged  in  erect, terminal, compound, many-rayed and  smooth
umbels.   General  involucre  ovate, cuspidate, with membranous  edges,
consisting  of  from  three to  seven  lanceolate,  reflected bracts,  with
whitish edges; partial involucre of three  or four, oval, pointed, spread-
ing bracts, and with the inner side wanting.   Petals obcordate, with
acute, inflected points, and five in number.  The fruit is about  a line
and a half, or rather less in length, by a line in breadth, roundish-ovate,
compressed,  of a pale-green  color;  primary ridges  elevated,  sharp,
undulated; commissures and channels finely wrinkled.  The whole plant
has a disagreeable, virose  smell, which  is  more  powerful  when  it is
bruised or broken.
   History.—Hemlock is a native of Europe  and Asia, and is naturalized
in many parts of the United States.   It flowers in June and July.  The
leaves and seeds are the officinal parts.   The proper time for collecting
the leaves is when the flowers  begin to fade ; the footstalks should be
rejected, and the leaflets dried  quickly, and kept excluded as much as
possible from the light and air.   The fruit, commonly called seeds,  retains
its  activity much longer than the leaves.
   Dried hemlock leaves  are of a dark-green color, and  have a strong,
heavy, narcotic odor, and a nauseous and bitterish taste. The  seeds have
a yellowish-gray color, a  feeble  odor,  and a somewhat  bitterish taste.
Alcohol or  ether takes up the medicinal  properties, and the ethereal
extract,  which is of a rich, dark-green color, possesses the full virtues  of
the plant, producing headache  and  vertigo  in a  half grain dose.   The
aqueous extract is uncertain; the alcoholic  extract is  the best.   There
has been  no satisfactory  analysis of  this  plant,  a volatile oil, albu-
men, resin, coloring matter, a poisonous oil, conia,  and  salts, have been 
388
Materia  Medica.
 found in it.   The poisonous empyreumatic oil is obtained by destructive
 distillation of the leaves.  A volatile, alkaline principle termed Conia or
 Conicine, is the  active  agent of  the  plant;  it  may  be  obtained by
 cautiously distilling from  a  muriate of lime bath, a  mixture of strong
 solution of potassa with the alcoholic extract of the unripe  fruit.  The
 alkaloid passes over into the receiver with the water, and floats upon it
 like an oil.   Or, the full  grown, but still green fruit, may be distilled
 with water,  caustic potassa, and slaked lime,  from  a  muriate of lime
 bath, then neutralize the distilled fluid with  sulphuric acid,  and concen-
 trate it by evaporation  to the consistence of syrup;  act on this with a
 mixture of two parts of rectified  alcohol and one of sulphuric ether, and
 again obtain an extract by evaporation, and finally distil the extract with
 a  strong  solution of caustic potassa.    As  obtained  in  either of these
 ways, conia  contains,—some water, which may be removed by chloride
 of calcium,—and also a little ammonia which is separated  by exposing
 it  under an  exhausted receiver till it ceases  to emit bubbles of gas.  In
 the  preparation of conia, the fresh leaves  or  seeds  should always be
 employed, as the  alkali undergoes decomposition, by time and exposure.
 The seeds contain the most  of it.   Eight pounds of green fruit or seeds,
 will yield half an ounce of hydrate of conia.
   Conia is a yellowish, oily liquid, lighter than water, colorless at first,
 but  becoming brown  by oxidation, of an intense, peculiar,  suffocating
 odor, like the urine of  mice,  and an extremely acrid, benumbing  taste.
 Its density is .878; it  is volatile  at ordinary temperatures,  disengaging
 ammonia, and depositing a resinous matter,  and  loses  its activity.  It is
 sparingly  soluble  in water;  but forms a  hydrate  by uniting with about a
 fourth part of  water.   It is  very  soluble in alcohol, ether, the fixed and
 volatile oils,  and  also  in weak acids, which it neutralizes.   It boils at
 370°, and distils over with water at 212°.   It strongly blues reddened
 litmus paper; it  forms soluble  salts with  acids which  are difficult to
 crystallize.   Weak tincture  of iodine yields a white  precipitate,  which
 acquires an olive color with an excess of the tincture. Tannic acid gives a
 white, insoluble precipitate; corrosive  sublimate gives  a Avhite precipi-
 tate ; chloride  of  zinc  gives a white gelatinous precipitate, soluble in
 excess of  the conia.  Sulphate of sesquioxide of iron and  chloride of
 platinum  yield yellow precipitates;  chloride of  gold  a light yellow.
 Chloride of cobalt yields a blue precipitate which changes to green, and
 which forms  with  ammonia a red solution.   Acetate of copper gives a
 gelatinous blue precipitate.  The red permanganate of potassa is imme-
 diately decolorized.   Hydrochloric acid  yields white clouds  as ammonia
 does, and  renders it violet, especially when heated.   Nitric acid imparts
to  it a topaz  color, unchanged by heat.   Pure and  concentrated sul-
 phuric acid does not alter it; but if heated  produces  a greenish-brown
color, which  becomes   blood-red, and finally black, if the heat be con-
 tinued.   It coagulates albumen, and precipitates the  salts of copper, 
Conium Maculatum.
389
lead, zinc, aluminum, manganese, and  iron.  It also precipitates nitrate
of silver, but in excess redissolves the  precipitate.  Its salts  are mostly
decomposed by evaporation.  The actions  of  conia  upon  the  system
closely resemble those of the hemlock itself.  A drop of it injected into
the eye of a rabbit, caused death in nine minutes, and three drops killed
a strong cat in  a minute and a half; its effects are gradual paralysis,
slight convulsive tremors, and death from suspension of the breathing,
without any change  in  the appearance  of the  blood, and without any
depression of the heart's action.   It acts on the  spinal marrow.  It con-
sists of  carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen.   (N C17 Hit.)

   Properties and  Uses.—Narcotic.   When  given  in  doses sufficient  to
affect the system, it causes more or less vertigo, dimness of vision, nau-
sea, faintness, sensations of numbness, and  general muscular debility.
In larger doses it occasions  dilated pupils, difficulty of speech, delirium,
or stupor, tremors and  paralysis, and  frequently convulsions and even
death.  Its operation usually commences in less than  half an hour, and
continues for from twelve to thirty-six  hours.  It is supposed to effect its
results by exhausting the nervous energy of the spinal cord, and  volun-
tary muscles.   It is used for promoting sleep,  and  will be  found
extremely useful in allaying excessive action of the heart in hypertrophy
of this organ ;  a pill  of one or two grains of  the  extract producing a
calm, soothing influence, followed  by  a diminution or removal  of the
palpitation or augmented action.   Indeed, all affections attended with an
excited  or excitable condition of the nervous and vascular systems, will
be benefited by its  use.   I have used a  preparation which I call the
Coidum Mixture, with much advantage  in several diseases ; it is prepared
as follows : Take of Precipitated Carbonate of Iron ten drachms ; inspis-
sated juice  of  Conium  five drachms;  Tincture of  Balsam Tolu six
ounces; Oils of Cinnamon and Wintergreen,  of each  twelve  drops;
White Sugar two  ounces ;  Madeira Wine, Water, of each half a pint.
Mix together, in a week the mixture will be ready for use.  In dyspep-
sia attended with irritation of the stomach, pyrosis, or with an excitable
state of the system from debility, this  mixture will be  found very bene-
ficial ;  it may be given in doses of from a drachm to half an ounce, from
three to six times a day before eating.  Laxatives should be occasionally
employed.   In cough, conium will be found of much utility;  I have used
the following preparation in the  cough attending phthisis, also in other
coughs, with  benefit:  Take  of  Tincture of  Cyanuret of Potassium,
(made by adding twenty-two grains of the Cyanuret to nine fluidounces
of Proof Alcohol,) six  drachms ;  Conium Mixture three ounces ; Tinc-
ture of  Opium  four drachms.  Mix.   Dose half a drachm to a drachm,
three or four times  a  day.  In intermittent fever I have  frequently
derived a happy effect from the following pill, when quinia alone failed;
Take of sulphate  of quinia ten grains;  inspissated  juice  of conium 
390
Materia  Medica.
fifteen grains.  Mix, and divide into twenty pills, of which one pill may
be given every hour or two, until the  effects  of  the conium have com-
menced, after which give one pill every four or five hours,  according to
its influence.  In consequence of the action of conium on  the spinal
marrow it lessens the  venereal  appetite.   It  likewise lessens  the secre-
tion of milk.  In the  neuralgic pains attending carcinomatous affections
it usually gives relief; sometimes, however, it has exerted no influence
whatever, in  palliating  them.   In  scrofula,  goitre,  and  indeed in all
tuberculous  affections, it will be found very effectual given in  combi-
nation with  the iodide of iron.   It enters into the Compound Plaster of
Belladonna, an excellent preparation, which I have been in the habit
of using for many years.   The leaves  have likewise  been employed
externally as a poultice  to painful  tumors, ulcers, neuralgic  and rheu-
matic pains, etc.   The aqueous extract of this  plant is worthless;  the
inspissated juice, or the  ethereal extract, are alone valuable.   A strong
solution of the inspissated juice, or the juice of the fresh leaves, coated
over the parts daily, for five or six days, will cure the itch.  Dose of the
leaves and inspissated juice, from one to  three grains, three or four times
a day;  of the ethereal  extract, which is an  elegant extract of a rich
dark-green  color, from  one-eighth  of a grain to one-half of a grain.
Conia, the active principle, is not used in medicine.
   The  Cicuta Maculata,  Water Hemlock, is seldom  used, being super-
seded by the  Conium, which is deemed the  safer article.
   Off. Prep. — Extractum  Conii  Alcoholicum; Emplastrum  Bella-
donnae  Compositum ;  Unguentum Conii.
   CON V ALL ARIA MULTIFLORA.   (Polygonatum Multifiorwrn.
                           Desfontaines.)

                       Giant  Solomon's  Seal.

         Nat.  Ord.—Liliaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Hexandria Monogynia.

                       ,      THE ROOT.
  Description.—This plant has a perennial root with a terete, recurved,
smooth stem, growing from  one to four feet high;  the leaves alternate,
distichous,  lanceolate, amplexicaul, smooth and glossy  above, paler and
generally pubescent beneath, from two and a half to six inches long, by
one to two  and a half broad.   Flowers  five to eight lines long, pendu-
lous, greenish-white, subcylindric.  Peduncles axillary, filiform, branch-
ing, scarcely a fifth as long  as the leaves,  and  from  one to six-flowered.
Berry globose, three-celled, dark-blue or blackish when ripe ; cells two-
seeded. 
Convolvulus  Panduratus.
391
  Convallaria Racemosa, the Smilacina Racemosa of Desfontaines, has
a thick rhizoma, sweet to the taste, with a stem from one to two feet high,
downy,  and recurved at  top.  The leaves are from four to six  inches
loner, and about one-third as broad, oval, acuminate,  veined, minutely
pubescent, on petioles not exceeding two lines in length, and  often ses-
sile.  The flowers are very numerous, small, white, on white pedicels,
and Avith Avhite,  exserted, tapering  filaments, constituting a large, com-
pound,  terminal raceme.   Berry three-celled,  pale-red, speckled with
purple,  aromatic.
  History.—These plants grow on the sides of meadows, high  hanks,
woods,  and mountains, in various parts of the United  States,  especially
in the northern and eastern States, and Canada, and are in blossom from
May to August.   The roots, which are the officinal parts, are inodorous,
but of  a  sweetish, mucilaginous taste, followed by a slight degree  of
bitterness and acrimony.   There are several varieties of this plant, some
of which  have been transferred to other families, as Smilacina, and Poly-
gonatum, but the  roots  of which, probably, possess similar  medical vir-
tues.   Although used with much benefit in many diseases by nearly all
Eclectics, yet this plant  has  received but little  attention  as to its  true
therapeutical, as well as physical characteristics.
  Properties and  Uses. — Tonic, mucilaginous, and mildly astringent.
Found of much value in leucorrhea, menorrhagia, female debility, and pec-
toral affections.  In piles,  the root chewed and swallowed, or a decoction
drank as freely as the stomach will bear, will be found to give prompt relief,
or the root may be applied to the part, with a similar result. An infusion of
the root will be  found of great efficacy in irritable conditions  of the intes-
tines, as well as in chronic inflammations  of these parts, especially when
attended  with burning sensations, pain, etc.  In erysipelas, and cutane-
ous affections of an erysipelatous nature, as well as those maladies of the
skin produced by the poison-vine, or  resulting from the poisonous exha-
lations  of other plants,  the decoction of Solomon's Seal Root Avill afford
direct  relief, and an ultimate cure;  it may also be applied externally,
with advantage, to local  inflammations.   A large dose of the decoction
will often provoke emesis or nausea, and act as a cathartic.  Dose of the
decoction, from one to  four ounces, three times  daily.
    Off.  Prep.—Decoctum Convallariae ; Vinum  Symphyti Compositum.

                  CONVOLVULUS  PANDURATUS.
                            Wild  Potato.
      Nat. Ord.—Convolvulaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                             THE  ROOT.
   Description.—This plant, likeAvise  known as  Wild Jalap, Man in the
 Ground, Mechameck, Man of the Earth, etc., has a perennial, very large 
392
Materia  Medica.
cylindrical or fusiform root, with a round, purplish, downy, procumbent,
or climbing stem, several stems from the same root.   The leaves are two
or three inches long, and about the  same width, broadly cordate at base,
acuminate, entire, or undulate, alternate, sometimes panduriform, smooth
dark-green  above, paler beneath, and on long petioles.   The flowers are
in fascicles  of from two to five, opening in the forenoon, on  axillary
peduncles, longer than  the petioles, generally branching at the top.
Corolla large, two or three inches long, funnel-shaped, or campanulate,
white, purplish-red toward the base or tube. Calyx smooth, five-parted,
unequal, ovate-obtuse, two larger sepals external.   Stamens  white, the
length  of the tube ; anthers  oblong.   Style white, filiform, with a bilo-
bate  stigma.    Capsule oblong,  two-celled, four-seeded, and  without
intermediate partitions.
   History. —Wild Potato is indigenous to the United States, growing in
light  and sandy  soils, from Connecticut and West New York, southward
and  westward,  and  flowering  from June  to August; it rarely grows
north, but is found in some parts of South America.  The root is the
officinal part; it is very large being from two to eight feet in length, and
from  two to  four or five  inches in  diameter, branched at the bottom,
externally of  a  brownish-yellow color and  full of  longitudinal fissures,
internally whitish and milky, of an  unpleasant odor,  and a bitter acrid
taste.   In drying, the root loses about three-fourths of its weight.  As
found in the shops the root is usually in circular pieces, of various sizes,
being transverse  sections, the color somewhat brown externally, and
whitish within, with radiating striae  or lines.  It pulverizes with difficulty
the powder  being light and gray.   Water  or alcohol  extracts its active
properties, but diluted alcohol or spirits are its best solvents.  It con-
tains  resin, bitter-extractive,  starch, gum, gallic  acid,  etc.  Probably
the active principle  of this plant would prove more  energetic than the
crude root,  and  become a  valuable agent.
   Properties and Uses.—The real properties of this plant are unknown.
It possesses feebly cathartic  properties, acting gently in  doses  of from
forty  to sixty  grains of the powdered root.   The infusion, taken in wine-
glassful doses every hour, has been effectual in dropsy, strangury and
calculous affections.  It seems to exert an influence  over the lungs, liver,
and kidneys,  without excessive diuresis or catharsis.    The saturated
tincture is more  energetic than the powdered root, decoction, or extract.
It is asserted that the Indians can handle rattlesnakes with  impunity,
after wetting their hands with the milky juice  of this  root. 
                     Convolvulus  Scammonia.                  393

                CONVOLVULUS  SCAMMONIA.

                            Scammony.

    Nat Ord. — Convolvulaceae.   Sex. Syst. — Pentandria  Monogynia.

           THE concrete juice of  the root—gum resin.

   Description.—This  plant  has a  perennial, fleshy, fusiform root, from
three to five feet long, and from three to five inches in diameter, branch-
ing toward its lower extremity, covered with a light-gray epidermis, and
abounding in a milky juice.   The  stems are annual, numerous,  slender,
round, smooth, branching, twining, very slightly angular near the ends,
and extending from  twelve to twenty feet upon the  ground, or on
neighboring plants. The leaves are on long petioles, alternate, sagittate,
oblong, acute, entire, quite  smooth,  truncate and  angular at the base,
with acute spreading  lobes,  and of a bright-green color.  The flowers
are pale-yellow, and are placed in  pairs, or three together upon  solitary,
axillary and round peduncles, which are nearly twice the length of the
leaf.    Sepals  five, rather lax,  smooth, ovate, repand, obtuse Avith  a
reflexed point, colored at the edge.  Corolla, funnel-shaped, very much
expanded, pale sulphur-yellow,  thrice as long as the calyx, an inch or
more in length ; limb entire, somewhat  reflexed.   Stamens five, erect,
converging, thrice  as short as the corolla.   Ovary  two-celled, four-
seeded, supporting  a  slender  style  as long as  the  stamens, with two
linear-cylindrical,  erect, oblong,  parallel, distant  and white  stigmas.
Capsule two-celled, with small pyramidal seeds.

   History.—Scammony plant  is a native of Turkey,  Syria,  Greece,
Persia, etc.,  and  somewhat resembles the  Convolvulus  Panduratus.
The officinal  portion is  the  concrete juice of the  root,  the  other parts
of the plant yielding no  milky juice Avhatever.   It  is collected in  the
month  of June, at which time  the  earth is cleared away from about
the root, which is obliquely cut across near its  crown, and a  shell, or
other convenient receptacle is fixed under the most depending part of
the slope, into which the milky juice gradually flows.   This soon  con-
cretes under  exposure  to  the air and evaporation, forming the  gum-
resin  of commerce, Scammony ; of which but a feAv drachms  are  ob-
tained from  a single root.    It is seldom  had in a pure state, being
more  or  less adulterated with  flour, ashes, meal, chalk, sand,  etc.   It
is  imported directly from  Smyrna, or from some of the Mediterranean
ports.   There were several  varieties of scammony formerly known, as
the Aleppo, Smyrna,  and Montpelier, of which the first-named  was  the
best, but,  owing to  the adulteration of the drug, it is impossible to keep
up these  distinctions  any longer,  and  consequently the article is now
recognized as genuine  or factitious scammony. 
394
Materia  Medica.
  Genuine Scammony, called pure  or virgin Scammony, is ranked
among the gum-resins, containing,  however, but a small proportion of
gum ; it is in irregular pieces, often covered with a Avhitish-gray pow-
der, compact, light, very brittle, and easily pulverizable ; with a some-
what  conchoidal, shining grayish-green fracture, soon passing to dark
greenish-black,  and exhibiting under the microscope minute air-cells
and  numerous  gray semi-transparent splinters.   It exhales a strong,
peculiar odor, especially if breathed upon,  and has a feeble taste when
chewed, succeeded by acridity in the back  of the throat.  Its powder is
of a pale ash-gray color.  It is nearly Avholly soluble in boiling alcohol,
and sulphuric ether takes  up from 77 to 83 per cent, of it.  With water
it forms a smooth emulsion, which is not permanent.  Alcohol, however,
is its best solvent.  Analysis has  detected  in it a large proportion of
resin, from 77 to 83 per cent., and small quantities of gum, fiber, sand,
starch and water;  the  starch is  an accidental  ingredient,  probably
derived from the root.
  As found  in  the  shops, scammony is in compressed circular  cakes,
sometimes flat  on  both  sides, at others  convex on one side, about
five or six inches in diameter, from half an inch to two inches thick, of
a dark-ash or slate color, somewhat lighter internally, but darkening on
exposure to the  air, of a smell similar to that of the genuine article, as
well as  the taste ;  it is easily pulverized, affording a light-gray powder,
and when triturated with water forms a greenish milky emulsion.  These
cakes are  often broken and  met with in  fragments, with a faintly
shining  roughish fracture, hard, heavy, exhibiting a finely porous struc-
ture, and  sometimes slightly translucent  at the  edges.  This kind of
scammony is always more or less  adulterated with carbonate of lime,
guaiacum, cowdung, starch, etc.
  A factitious scammony called Montpelier  Scammony is manufactured
in the South of France from the expressed juice of the Cynanchum
Monspeliacum mixed with various resins and other purgative substances.
It has been sold as Smyrna scammony.  It  is in black, hard, compact,
flat, semicircular cakes, about five or  six  inches  in diameter, and half
an inch or more in thickness, of a somewhat shining and resinous frac-
ture, a weak, balsamic, disagreeable odor, and a very bitter  nauseous
taste.  When rubbed with the moistened finger, it becomes dark-gray,
unctuous and tenacious.   It  is more  irritating and  less purgative than
the other  varieties.   There  are  several  other  kinds  of scammony
occasionally  met with,  but  which may  be detected  by  the  proper
tests.
  Pure scammony may be known by being light,  of a glistening almost
resinous fracture if it be  old and  dry, friable, always of a  brownish-
gray color, and  not  subject  to the results of the tests given below for
detecting  its adulterations.   Sulphuric ether separates at  least  eighty
per cent, of resin dried at 280°. 
Convolvulus  Scammonia.
395
   Pure scammony may be obtained by boiling the finely-powdered arti-
 cle  of  commerce in successive  portions of proof spirit,  till the spirit
 ceases  to dissolve anything ;  filter, and distil the liquid  until little but
 water passes over.   Then pour away the  watery solution  from the resin
 at the bottom ; agitate the resin with successive portions of boiling water
 till it is well washed, and finally  dry it at a temperature  not  exceeding
 240°.  This separates the active matter  of scammony from its impuri-
 ties, and is called the Extract of Scammony.  It forms with unskimmed
 milk, a uniform emulsion, scarcely distinguished from rich milk itself.
   The addition  of carbonate of lime as  an adulteration, may be detected
 by its effervescing  with  muriatic acid ; starch, may be  known by the
 tincture of  iodine forming a  blue precipitate with an aqueous  solution
 of the drug; guaiacum, may be detected  by an application of some of
 the  tincture of the suspected  article on the fresh-cut  surface of a raw
 potato; if guaiacum  be  present, it turns  it quickly to  a bright blue
 color.
   Colophony may be detected in the resin  of scammony,  by  the  oil of
 turpentine,  which  dissolves  it at  common temperatures, leaving the
 scammony resin almost wholly unacted  upon.  But the best reagent for
 this purpose is sulphuric  acid, which possesses the property of dissolving
 many resins, and of modifying, more  or  less, their composition.   If a
 little of this acid be poured over colophony, it immediately, and by sim-
 ple  contact, develops an intense red  color.   The  same acid,  when
 poured  over pure  resin  of scammony, produces,  on the contrary, no
 immediate change ; it is only, after the  lapse of some minutes, and with
 contact  of the  air, that it becomes colored, and then but slightly, the
 color being wine dregs.  For this  purpose, four  or five  grains of the
 resin may be placed  into a glass  or  porcelain  mortar;  and sixty  or
 eighty grains of the sulphuric acid of commerce added.   Upon rubbing
 it with  the  pestle, it will  become red at once, if colophony be present.
 This method will detect the one-twentieth part of the adulteration.

   Properties and Uses. — Scammony  is  a  powerful,  drastic  cathartic,
 operating with  harshness  and  griping.  It was a  favorite internal and
 external remedy with the  Arabians.   It does not appear to be  poisonous
 even in  large doses,  but is seldom used alone, except in cases where a
 powerful impression upon the  bowels  is desired ; most commonly it is
 combined with  other cathartics,  whose action  it  promotes,  while its
 own harshness  is diminished.  Scammony is usually given in the form
 of an emulsion with sugar or sweet  almonds.   But when  triturated
 with milk  it is considered  a superior preparation, as follows : Seven
grains of pure scammony to  be gradually triturated with  three ounces
of unskimmed milk, to which  a few grains of ginger may be added,
forms a  safe purgative.  Another form  of using this gum-resin, is that
of biscuit.   A paste is made of scammony one drachm ;  Venice  soap, 
396
Materia Medica.
five grains;  sugar nine grains;  biscuit in powder one ounce, and a few
drops of water.  Mix together,  divide  into two biscuits, and let them
dry ;  one biscuit acts energetically.  The dose of powdered scammony
is from  five  to fifteen grains ;  of the pure  resin, one half this quantity.
Its use  is always contra-indicated by intestinal inflammation.
  Off. Prep.—Pilulae Podophyllini Compositae.  Pilulae Gambogiae Com-
positae.

                   COPAIFERA  OFFICINALIS.

                        Officinal Copaiva tree.

  Nat. Ord.—Fabaceas, Jussieu, or Amyridaceaa Lindley. Sex. Syst.—Decan-
dria Monogynia.
                      the oleo-resinous juice.
  Description.—Copaifera Officinalis, the Copaifera  Jacquini, of Desfon-
taines,  is a large  and  handsome  tree, with a lofty stem, numerous,
crooked and small  branches at the top, a nearly smooth, brownish-gray
bark, and crowned by a thick canopy of foliage.  The  leaves are  alter-
nate,  large,  equally  pinnated, and  composed  of from two  to five pairs
of ovate-lanceolate,  smooth,  entire, incurved, inequilateral, coriaceous
leaflets,  two or  three inches in length, pellucidly  punctate,  somewhat
shining and on  short petioles.   The flowers  are white, almost sessile,
and are in axillary panicles at the ends of the branches, and divided into
about eight alternate common peduncles.   The calyx is composed of
four oblong, acute,  spreading, concave sepals, somewhat united at base,
and  tomentose within.   The petals are  Avanting.   The  stamens are
filiform, incurved, somewhat longer than the sepals, and bearing oblong,
incumbent  anthers.  The  ovary is roundish,  compressed  and hairy,
crowned Avith a thin incurved style  furnished with an obtuse stigma.
The  legume is ovate, subcompressed and coriaceo'is, containing a  single
elliptical seed.
  History.—There  are several  species of the Copaiba tree, which fur-
nish  the oleo-resin copaiba.   For a long time it was supposed to be the
product of  but one  tree,  but the researches of Martius,  Hayne, and
others,  have shown that the  species are numerous,  and that, probably,
several of them  contribute to furnish the copaiba of  commerce.   Beside
the one described above, are the C. Guaianensis, C. Langsdorffii C. Cori-
acea,  C. Beyrichii,  C. Martii,  C. Bijuga, C. Nitida,  C. Laxa,  C. Cordi-
folia, C. Jussieui, C. Sellowii, C. Oblongifolia, and C. Multijuga.   These
trees are all peculiar to South  America, growing  in Brazil, the West
Indies,  and  other parts.  It is principally collected  in the provinces of
Para and Maranham, in Brazil,  the trees of which yield the finer quali-
ties of juice.  It is  imported from  Para, and  other Brazilian ports, Car-
thagena, Maracaibo, etc., from each of which places it differs in quality. 
Copaifera Officinalis.
397
 The juice is obtained  by deep incisions being made into  the  trunk or
 stems of the trees, during or immediately  following the wet season ; the
 balsam flows freely, being clear, colorless, and thin, but soon acquirino-
 more consistency, and a yellowish tinge.   The incisions either heal spon-
 taneously, or are closed with either wax or clay.  Sometimes the opera-
 tion is performed two or more times annually, and some trees so abound
 in the juice  as to yield twelve pounds in three hours.   Although Copaiba
 differs much in its appearance, owing to  its various botanical sources,
 yet  but  two kinds are usually distinguished  in commerce ; the  Brazil,
 and the West Indian.
   The Brazil  Copaiba, which is the most common in use, is a clear,
 transparent  fluid, rather thinner in  consistence than  new  honey, of a
 pale wine-yellow  color, of a peculiar, resinous, not unpleasant odor,  and
 of a bitter, nauseous, somewhat  acrid, aromatic, persistent  taste.    Its
 specific gravity varies from 950  to 1,000.   When long kept, it becomes
 darker, more dense, and of greater consistency ; and after some years its
 resin partly crystallizes in minute six-sided  prisms.   Water  does not
 dissolve copaiba, but acquires its odor; it is moderately soluble in recti-
 fied spirit, and freely so in alcohol, fixed and volatile oils, and sulphuric
 ether.  With the aid of heat it dissolves  iodine and sulphur ; sulphuric
 acid unites  with it, rendering it reddish brown and thicker.   Solution of
 potassa forms  a soap with it; magnesia,  and  its carbonate are  freely
 dissolved by it,  especially with  the aid of heat, producing a honey-like
 translucent mass which gradually hardens ; carbonic acid is disengaged
 with the latter.   Hydrate of lime causes  a similar change.   It is com-
 posed of volatile oil, resin, and a minute proportion of acid.
   The West Indian Copaiba is of a thicker consistence than the above,
 likewise  of a darker yellow color, turbid but translucent, of a less agree-
 able and more  terebinthinate odor, and more bitter and acrid in taste.
 Neither of these varieties con lain benzoic acid; hence the term balsam, as
 applied to copaiba, is incorrect.
   The volatile oil constitutes from one-third to one-half or more  of the
 copaiba, and is obtained by distillation.   (See  Oleum  Copaibce.)  The
 resinous matter Avhich  remains after the oil has been separated, becomes
 hard and brittle in cold, but continues soft in warm  weather, it is trans-
 lucent, greenish-brown, nearly inodorous  and tasteless.  When treated
 with the oil of  petroleum, it becomes separated into tAvo distinct  resins,
 one of which is dissolved, and may be obtained separate by evaporation,
 the other  is left behind.   The first is  hard, brittle and  yellowish,  consti-
 tuting the largest proportion of the resin of copaiba, is soluble in naphtha,
 alcohol, ether, fixed and volatile oils, possesses  acrid properties,  and is
 termed Copaivic acid.    The second  resin is soft, brown, unctuous, pos-
sesses no acid reaction, and is insoluble in naphtha.
  Copaiba,  especially in the European markets, is often adulterated with
oil of turpentine, or fixed  oils.   If turpentine, or other volatile  oil be 
398
Materia  Medica.
present even in small proportion, it may be detected by its odor on the
application of gentle heat.   Any fixed oil except castor oil, may be dis-
covered by agitation with absolute alcohol, giving a turbid, instead of a
clear and permanent solution, from which the impurity slowly separates.
Carbonate of magnesia added to the suspected article,  and a gentle heat
applied,  is a better test for all fixed oils.  Pure copaiba dissolves  one-
fourth of its Aveight of the carbonate, and  remains translucent; but a
small proportion of any fixed oil renders the product opake.
  Various plans  have  been proposed  for ascertaining the presence of
castor oil.   The simplest is to boil  one  drachm of the  copaiba in a pint
of water till the liquid is wholly evaporated.   If the copaiba contain a
fixed oil, the residue will  be more or less soft according to the quantity
present; otherwise it  will be hard.   Another mode, proposed by  M.
Planche, consists in shaking together in a bottle one part of aqua ammo-
niae  of the  sp. gr. 0.9212 (22° Baume) with  two and a half parts of
copaiba, at a temperature  of from 50° to 60° F.  The mixture, at first
cloudy, quickly becomes transparent if the copaiba is pure, but remains
more or  less opake  if it is adulterated Avith castor  oil; this test, how-
ever, is  said to  fail  in some  varieties  of the  genuine article.  If pure
copaiba  be  triturated  with sulphuric  acid, it  reddens it, but does not
alter its color if any  fixed oil be present.  All  these  tests, however,
when taken singly, are open to sources of fallacy, and the best method
of determining the purity of the  article, is to ascertain  the quantity of
volatile oil it affords by distillation.  Recent copaiba examined by Ger-
ber yielded 41 per cent,  of volatile oil, 51.38 of the hard  and  brittle
resin, 2.18 of the soft resin, and 5.44 of water; Avhile an older specimen
gave 31.07 per cent, of oil, 53.68 of hard resin,  11.15 of soft resin, and
4.10 of water.
  Properties and Uses.—When  given  in large doses,  copaiba is an irri-
tant ; in medicinal doses it is  stimulant, cathartic, and diuretic; it like-
wise exerts  an especial influence on the  mucous  tissues  of the system,
diminishing their secretions Avhen excessive, and for this latter purpose
it is  principally employed.  When SAvallowed, it causes  a sensation of
heat in the throat and stomach, and exerts an influence  throughout  the
alimentary canal, the urinary passages, and upon all the mucous mem-
branes.  In the course of its action it becomes absorbed, so that its odor
and  bitter taste are  communicated to the  urine, while the former can
also be detected in the breath.   Among the  inconveniences attending
its use,  especially Avhen  used  in  large doses,  the  most  frequent  are
nausea and  vomiting, occasionally painful purgation, bloody urine, and
febrile symptoms; these effects may be obviated very often, by adminis-
tering the remedy oftener, but in  smaller  doses, and by combining it
with cinnamon, nutmeg, or some other aromatic.  It likeAvise frequently
produces  a transient papular  eruption  on the skin,  resembling that of
measles, and accompanied Avith a disagreeable itching  and tingling.   It 
Coptis Trifolia.
399
has  been found most  beneficial  in  chronic  mucous affections,  as  in
chronic gonorrhea, bronchitis, irritable conditions of the  bladder,  gleet,
leucorrhea, chronic catarrh, chronic dysentery, and painful hemorrhoidal
affections.  Its effects in gonorrhea are much increased by the addition
of liquor potassa; and  it is much more  beneficial in the gonorrhea of
males  than  of females,  because,  in  the  latter, the vagina is oftener
affected than  the  urethra.  In injection,  it has been used with  good
results; make an  emulsion of two drachms of copaiba Avith the yelk of
an egg, add twenty or thirty drops of laudanum to it, in order to prevent
its too  speedy discharge from  the rectum,  and eight  fluidounces of
water.   This  may be used as an injection, and repeated  three or four
times a day.   Locally, it forms  an excellent  application to chilblains,
old ulcers, and  fistulous ulcers,  in Avhich  it serves to speedily soften the
callosity of the walls  of the fistulous canal.   The  dose of copaiba  is
from twenty  to sixty drops, two or three times a day.  It may  be  taken
in emulsion, made by triturating each dose with the yelk of one egg,
adding half an ounce of mint, cinnamon, or  other aromatic water, and
sweetening with sugar; or it may be taken in the form of pill with  mag-
nesia;  the best and least objectionable form in which  it can be taken is
in the form of capsules.  (See Article " Glue.")  The oil is the best form
for obtaining  the effects of the copaiba, which  see.
   Off.  Prep. — Mistura Copaibae  Composita;  Oleum  Copaibae; Pilulae
Copaibae Compositae;  Pilulae Copaibae.
                       COPTIS  TRIFOLIA.
                            Gold Thread.
      Nat. Ord.—Ranunculaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Polygynia.

                             THE  ROOT.
   Description.—This  plant,  also termed  Mouthroot, has  a  small and
creeping, perennial root, of a bright-yellow color; the stems  are round,
slender, and furnished at the base with a number of ovate,  acuminate,
yellowish, imbricated scales.   The leaves are evergreen, radical, ternate,
on  long, slender  petioles; the  leaflets are rounded  or obovate, sessile,
acute at base, smooth, firm, much veined, with a lobed and acuminately
crenate  margin.   The  scape or flower-stem is slender, round, rather
longer than the  leaves, bearing one small, starry, white flower, Avith a
minute, mucronated  bract at  some  distance below.  The corolla has
from  five to seven white, oblong, concave, nectariform petals;  the  nec-
taries inversely conical, hollow, and  yelloAV at the  top.   The  calyx is
from  five to  seven-sepalled;  sepals  oblong,  concave, white.   The
stamens are numerous, white, with capillary filaments, and adnate, glo-
bose anthers.   The ovaries are from five to eight, stipitate,  oblong, com-
pressed ; styles short and   recurved,  with acute  stigmas.    Capsules 
400
Materia Medica.
stalked, oblong, rostrate, compressed, on  long divaricate pedicels, and
containing many small,  black, oval seeds attached to the inner side.
  History.—Goldthread is found growing in the northern parts of the
United States, and in Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and Siberia; it grows
in dark shady swamps and boggy woods,  flowering from  early in the
spring to July.  The root, as found in the shops, is in loosely-matted
masses, consisting of long,  thread-like, orange-yellow roots, frequently
mixed with the leaves and stems of the plant;  it is inodorous, of a pure
bitter taste, without aroma or astringency.  They should be  gathered
in autumn, and  carefully dried.  Its properties are imparted  to water,
but more perfectly  to  alcohol, and the  solutions are precipitated  by
nitrate of silver, and acetate of lead.  It  does  not appear to contain
resin, gum, or tannin, its virtues depending, probably, on a  bitter ex-
tractive substance.
  Properties  and Uses.—Goldthread is a pure and powerful bitter tonic,
somewhat resembling quassia, gentian, and Colombo, without any astrin-
gency.  It may be  beneficially used  in  all cases where a bitter tonic is
admissible, and  is decidedly efficacious, as  a wash  or  gargle, when in
decoction, in aphthous and other ulcerations of the mouth.  In dyspep-
sia, and in chronic inflammation of the stomach, equal parts of  gold-
thread and golden-seal made  into a decoction, with elixir vitriol added
in proper quantity, will not only prove effectual, but in many instances
of the latter  kind, will  permanently destroy the appetite for  alcoholic
beverages.  Dose of the  powder  or tincture  from  half a drachm to a
drachm; of the decoction,  from two  to  six fluidrachms;  the  tincture
made by adding an ounce of the powdered root to a pint of diluted alco-
hol is preferable to the  powder.
   Off. Prep. — Decoctum Coptis.
                    CORIANDRUM  SATIVUM.
                             Coriander.
          Nat.  Ord.—Apiaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.
                             THE FRUIT.
  Description.—This is an annual plant with a tapering root, and an
erect, round, smooth,  more  or  less branching, striated  stem, growing
from one to two feet high.   The leaves  are  compound, the  lower ones
pinnate, on  long  slender  petioles, their leaflets  Avedge-shaped or  fan-
shaped, and acutely-notched, somewhat resembling those of common
parsley;  the upper  ones  thrice  ternate,  Avith five linear-pointed leaflets.
The flowers are white, often  with  a reddish tint, and are disposed in
compound, terminal, stalked  umbels, of rarely more than four or five
rays;  the  partial  rays more  numerous.   Calyx  five-toothed, acute,
unequal, permanent.  Petals obovate, emarginate, with inflexed lobes, the 
Cornu Cervin^e Calcinatum.
401
exterior radiating and bifid.   The fruit is spherical, a line and a half in
diameter, somewhat coriaceous, carminative and  aromatic.  Seed exca-
vated in front, with a loose skin.
  History.— Coriander  is a native of Italy, but  found growing wild in
most  parts  of  Europe.  It flowers  in June,  and  the fruit  ripens in
August.  When bruised, all parts of the fresh plant are extremely fetid,
resembling the odor  of bugs, while the  fruit, which is the officinal por-
tion, becomes fragrant by drying;  the smell and taste being gratefully
aromatic, and which  is owing to a volatile oil, which may be obtained
by distillation.   As  found  in the shops, the fruit is globular, about the
eighth of an inch in  diameter, obscurely ribbed,  of  a grayish  or brown-
ish  yellow  color, and  separable  into two portions, or half fruits.  Its
virtues are imparted to alcohol, and partially to water.
  Properties and  Uses.—Stimulant and carminative.   Used principally
to cover the taste of other medicines, or to  correct their  nauseous or
griping qualities.  Dose, from a scruple to a drachm.
   Off. Prep. — Confectio Sennae.
              CORNU  CERVIN^E CALCINATUM.
                      Calcined Deer's Horn.
  Preparation.—Take the horns of the deer—Cervus  Virginianus—any
time from the months of  August to December, or while they are in vel-
vet,  (until just before they fall off,) and when dry rasp them to a coarse
powder.   Place this in an iron vessel, cover it up tightly, and put  it  in
an oven, or other situation, where a heat, not equal to  boiling water, say
195° or 200°, can be continuously maintained for forty-eight hours,  or
until the whole becomes of a light-brown color, like roasted coffee, and is
readily pulverizable,  then, when cool, pulverize  it, and  keep it in well-
stopped bottles.   During the application of  the  heat,  which should  be
gradual, the powder should be constantly agitated, on which account, a
vessel similar to a coffee roaster would be  a very suitable one  in which
to calcine it.   The  powder, thus  prepared, is of a light chocolate,  or
yellowish-brown color, of a peculiar, slightly aromatic, animal  charcoal
odor, and a very faintly-astringent taste.   Horns which have fallen  from
the deer will not answer.
  Properties  and  Uses. — A powerful styptic.  Especially an  Eclectic
remedy,  of much value in uterine hemorrhage and menorrhagia.  Has
also  been found beneficial in dysentery, hemoptysis and other hemor-
rhages.   Dose of the powder one drachm,  every half  hour  until the
hemorrhage ceases permanently, which is  usually from the first to the
third or fourth dose ; or one drachm of the powder may be placed in a
gill of hot Avater, and a tablespoonful of the  infusion be given every five
or ten minutes.   This has been tested in numerous cases, and as yet, no
failure has btfen heard of.  It is often given combined with the compound
       26
1 
402
Materia  Medica.
powder of ipecacuanha and opium, or with other agents, as capsicum
and opium, etc.
                      CORNUS CIRCINATA.
                      Round-leaved Dogwood.
        Nat. Ord.—Cornaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Tetrandria Monogynia.
                             THE BARK.
   Description. — This  plant,  likewise called Broad-leaved  Dogwood,
Alder-leaved Dogwood, Round-leaved Cornel, etc., is  a shrub  growing
from six to ten  feet high, with  straight, slender, greenish and verrucose
branches.   The leaves  are  large, about as broad  as  long, orbicular, or
very broadly oval, opposite, acuminate, waved on their edges, somewhat
rough above, but lanuginous beneath.   The flowers are white, in small,
spreading, depressed cymes, without an involucrum.  The fruit or berries
are a bright blue, becoming lighter colored as they mature,  small, soft,
hollowed at base, and crowned with the persistent style.
  History.—This plant is  a native  of the United States, growing from
Canada to  Virginia, on hill-sides and the banks of rivers, and flowering
in June and July.  The dried  bark  is usually in quills of a whitish or
ash-color, and affords a gray powder, somewhat resembling that of ipe-
cacuanha.   Its odor is slight,  and its taste bitter,  astringent, and some-
what aromatic.   It imparts its virtues to water, and in chemical character,
has thus far been found analogous with the  Cornus Florida.
   Properties and Uses.—An astringent tonic, which may be employed
in all cases where such agents  are indicated.   An infusion of it may be
made by infusing an ounce of the coarsely-powdered bark in a pint of
boiling water, and  may  be given in doses  of one  or two fluidounces,
several  times a day ;  it is useful in  diarrhea and dysentery,  and also as
a gargle in sore-throat.  One ounce of the bark affords 150 grains of an
astringent, intensely bitter  extract,  which  may be used  Avith  benefit.
The medical virtues of this plant are  similar to those  of the Cornus
Florida, as well as  its doses.
                       CORNUS FLORIDA.
                              Dogwood.
        Nat. Ord.—Cornaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Tetrandria Monogynia.
                              THE BARK.
  Description.—This plant, also known as Boxwood, Flowering Cornel, etc.,
;is a small indigenous tree, from twelve to thirty feet high, with  a very
hard and  compact wood, covered with a rough, dark-brown bark, much
•fissured.  It is a tree of slow growth.   The branches are opposite, spread-
ing, smooth, covered with a reddish bark, and marked Avith rings at the
;place  of  the former  leaves.   The leaves  are opposite,  but  partially 
Cornus Florida.
403
expanded at the flowering time,  ovate,  acute, entire, petiolate, nearly
smooth, dark-green and sulcated above, paler beneath and marked with
strong  parallel veins,  also glaucous  or  whitish  beneath ;  toward the
close of summer, they are speckled with black spots, and on the approach
of cold weather assume a red color.   The flowers are very small, of a
greenish-yellow color, in heads or sessile umbels, upon peduncles an inch
or more in length, surrounded by a large  involucre of  a white or pinkish
color, constituting the chief beauty of the tree when in flower.  Involucre
composed  of  four white,  nerved, obovate  leaves, having  their point
turned abruptly down or up, so as to give them an obcordate  appearance.
Calyx superior, campanulate, with four obtuse, spreading teeth.   The
corolla is composed of four oblong, obtuse,  reflexed  petals.   Stamens
four, erect; anthers oblong, with the filaments inserted in their middle.
Style shorter than the stamens,  erect,  bearing an obtuse stigma.  Fruit
an oval drupe of a glossy scarlet color, containing a nut or nucleus with
two cells and two  seeds.
   History.—Cornus Florida is found in all parts  of the  United States,
but  more abundantly in the middle States ; it flowers from February  to
June, according to the climate,  but always about  the  time  for planting
Indian corn, and ripens its fruit in the fall.  The wood is susceptible  of
a high polish,  and may be  used  for a variety of  purposes where strength
and  hardness are required ; the sap is white, and  the  heart chocolate-
color.   The young branches, deprived of  the bark, and the ends chewed
or pounded, so as  to separate the fibers, are often used for cleaning the
teeth, which they render very white.   The bark of the stem, branches,
and  root, is the officinal part; that from  the root is to be preferred.   It
is found  in the  shops  in  pieces of various sizes,  more or  less rolled,
sometimes having a fawn-colored epidermis, at  other times  partially
or wholly deprived  of it, of a reddish-gray color,  very  brittle,  and
affording, when pulverized, a grayish powder tinged with red.  The odor
is  feeble, its taste bitter, astringent, and slightly aromatic.  Water  or
alcohol extracts its virtues.  Analysis has detected  in it tannin, gallic
acid, a bitter extractive, resin, gum, a crystalline substance,  etc.
  Mr. W. S. Merrell prepares an article from  dogwood which  he  terms
Cornine, and supposes  it to be, probably, a mixture of resin and insolu-
ble  alkaloid.   It  is  prepared  by precipitating from  the tincture with
water, after distilling off the alcohol, in the same manner as podophyllin
is prepared.  It is a light grayish-brown  substance of a  peculiar odor,
slightly bitter and astringent taste, changed to a dark-brownish red by
the action of sulphuric acid, brownish-yellow by nitric acid, and unchang-
ed by muriatic  acid.   It is insoluble in water, in diluted mineral  acids,
in volatile oils and spirits of turpentine.   Ammonia renders  it partially
soluble  in  water;  liquor potassa  diluted causes  a dark wine-colored
solution, with a precipitate which dissolves in alcohol, and ether.  Chloro-
form becomes colored by it, the cornine floating on its surface.   Alcohol 
404
Materia Medica.
almost wholly dissolves it, and ammonia renders the solution complete.
It is  soluble in ether, and ammonia added removes the cornine in solu..
tion, leaving the ether floating  clear and  transparent.   Liquor potassa
added to the ethereal solution does not completely remove  the  cornine,
and causes a precipitate which floats between the two liquids when they
separate.   An article termed  Cornine  is prepared in New York, but as
we have never seen it, nor met with any account of its mode of prepara-
tion, we can merely refer to  the  fact, with this remark, that no practi-
tioner should use any agent whatever, the  mode of preparing which is
kept a secret from the profession;  as well may we employ all the patent
medicines so highly lauded by their originators.
   Properties and Uses.—Dogwood bark is  tonic, astringent, and slightly
stimulant; it is, probably, the best native substitute we have for the cin-
chona, having often succeeded in  preventing  the return of paroxysmal
fevers, where the foreign  drug proved  ineffectual.   It may be used in all
cases  where quinia is indicated and  cannot be administered, owing to
idiosyncrasy, etc., or where it cannot be obtained pure.   It may be used
with advantage in all cases where tonics are required, in periodical fevers,
typhoid  fevers,  etc.   Its  internal  employment increases  the force and
frequency of the pulse, and elevates the temperature of the body.  It
should be used in the dried state,  as the recent bark is apt to  disorder
the stomach, and produce  pains in the bowels,  but which may be relieved
by a few drops of laudanum.   The cornine prepared by Mr. Merrell is
much used as a substitute for quinia, by Eclectics, and is frequently pre-
ferred by them  to the alkaloidal  salt.   It may be variously combined
with xanthoxylin, myricin, salicin, hydrastin, podophyllin, or hydro-alco-
holic extract of cimicifuga, in the different affections for which it is admin-
istered.   An extract  of the bark  prepared by boiling it in water, and
evaporating to the proper consistence, will be found the best  form in
which to administer  it.   Dose of the powdered  bark, from  twenty to
six,y grains, as often as required ;  of the extract from five to ten grains;
of cornine from  one to ten grains or more.   The ripe berries, infused in
brandy, are used in some  sections of country as bitters ; and an infusion
of the flowers forms a good substitute  for chamomile-flower tea.
   Off. Prep.—Cornine; Decoctum Cornus Floridae;  Extractum Cornus
Floridae; Extractum Cornus Floridae Fluidum ; Pilulae Quiniae Compositae.
                       CORNUS  SERICEA.
                          Swamp Dogwood.
        Nat.  Ord.—Cornaceae.  Sex.  Syst.—Tetrandria Monogynia.
                             THE  BARK.
  Description.—The Cornus  Sericea, known likewise by the names of
Rose-willow, Red-osier, Silky Cornel, Red-willow, etc., is  a  shrub  from 
Corvdalis  Formosa.
405
 six to ten feet high, with numerous erect stems, which are covered with
 a greenish, or brownish-purple bark, of a brighter color on the younger
 shoots,  and sending out opposite, spreading branches, with pubescent
 twigs.   The leaves are pale-green, opposite, from two to four inches long,
 half as  wide, ovate  and acuminate, sometimes almost  lanceolate,  at
 others broadly ovate, petiolate, entire, nearly smooth above, with rather
 prominent veins, covered beneath with a  soft, whitish, or rust-colored
 pubescence.   The flowers  are yellowish-white, small, and disposed  in
 large, terminal cymes, which are depressed and woolly.  Calyx-teeth
 lanceolate ;  stigma,  thick and capitate.   The fruit consists of  globu-
 lar,  berry-formed  drupes,  collected in bunches,  of  a beautiful  blue
 color; stone compressed.
   History.—Swamp Dogwood is found in wet thickets, and on the mar-
 gins of  water-courses, from  Canada  to  Carolina, flowering in June and
 July.  The  bark is  the officinal part, that of the root being preferred ;
 it possesses similar properties with the Cornus Florida.
   Properties and Uses.—Similar to the C. Florida, being however more
 astringent and less  bitter.  It has been found  useful in dyspepsia and
 diarrhea, and may be employed as a  substitute for  the C. Florida in the
 same doses, and  administered in a similar manner.   An infusion is very
 valuable in checking vomiting, especially that  arising from pregnancy
 and diseased uterus.  It has also been highly recommended in dropsy,
 ulcers, malignant fevers, and as an antiseptic.


           CORYDALIS FORMOSA.   (Dielytra  Formosa.)

                            Turkey  Corn.

       Nat.  Ord.—Fumariaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Diadelphia Pentandria.

                              THE ROOT.
   Description.—This  plant,  likewise  known as  Wild Turkey-pea, Stag-
ger-weed, Choice Dielytra, is  an indigenous perennial plant, rising from
six to ten inches  in  hight, and having a tuberous root.  The leaves are
radical,  rising from  ten to  fifteen  inches high,  somewhat triternate,
with  incisely pinnatifid  segments, but  quite variable.   The  scape is
naked, and rises  from eight to twelve inches in hight, with  from four to
eight cymes, each with from  six to ten reddish-purple, nodding flowers ;
racemes compound, the branches cymose ;  corolla from eight to ten lines
long,  broad at base; nectaries or spurs very short, obtuse, incurved ;
bracts purplish, at base of pedicels ; style extended ; stigma, two-horned
at apex ; sepals two, deciduous ; capsule pod-shaped, many seeded.
  History.—This  beautiful little plant was  introduced to the profession
by Professor Jones.    It flowers very early in the spring, in this section 
406
Materia  Medica.
of the country as early as March ;  and  the root or tuber, which is a
small round ball, should be collected  only while the  plant  is in  flower.
It grows  in  rich  soil, on hills and mountains, among  rocks, and old,
decayed timber, and is found westward, and south of New York to N
Carolina.
  It must be distinguished from the Corydalis  Cucullaria, which  flowers
at the same time, and very much resembles it.  The root or bulb of
the C.  formosa,  when fresh, is of a  darkish-yellow  color  throughout,
while the  C. cucullaria has  a  black cortex or rind, and is white inter-
nally.   When  dried the external covering of the root is  of  a light
grayish-yellow color, about the fourth of a  line  thick,  inclosing an
internal, light-yellow substance ; frequently it is of a dark color exter-
nally, and when  examined  under a microscope, full of pores, and inter-
nally, yellow or broAvnish-yellow.   It has a faint, peculiar odor, and a
taste  at first slightly bitter, succeeded  by one somewhat penetrating,
peculiar and persistent,  gently influencing the fauces, and  increasing
the flow of  saliva.  The cause of the difference of appearance  in dry-
ing is not known, unless it  be owing to the difference in the age of the
root.    Microscopic examination of the  lighter variety  gives a  porous,
spongy, resinous, glistening fracture ; and of the darker, a  fracture very
much resembling honeycomb.   Water or alcohol extracts its  virtues.
It  has not  been  analyzed,  though  it contains an  alkaloid principle
named  Corydalia.   I called the attention of Eclectics to this principle
in the  U. S. Eclectic Dispensatory, as  corydalin, not having submitted
it to any chemical tests, since which, Mr. W. S. Merrell  has manufac-
tured it for the profession, and ascertained its alkaline character.  When
in  powder, corydalia is of  a  greenish-brown  color, insoluble in water,
partially  soluble in ether, and completely so  in alcohol.   Diluted mu-
riatic  and  sulphuric  acids  dissolve  it.   Nitric acid reddens it, and it
forms  crystallizable salts with acetic and sulphuric acids.  It is of a
peculiar,  slightly aloetic odor, of a weak bitter, sub-acrid,  and nauseous
taste, and rather tenacious.   Four pounds of the  Corydalis root, yields
little more than an ounce  of this  alkaloid.   It is obtained  by adding
water to  the tincture of the root, a  portion  of the  alkaloid is  precipi-
 tated ;  filter the  supernatant  liquid, and add to  it ammonia, which
 causes another precipitate of the alkaloid ;  again filter the supernatant
 liquid, and add  to it  muriatic acid, when the balance of the  alkaloid
 remaining  in the solution is precipitated.   Probably it may be obtained
 by adding  muriatic  acid to a strong infusion of the  root  and precipita-
 ting with ammonia.

    Properties and Uses.—This agent is  peculiar to Eclectics, not being
 known by any  other  class of practitioners.   It  is tonic, diuretic, and
 alterative.   In  all syphilitic  affections, it is  one  of the  best remedies
 we have;  and  will likewise be found valuable in  scrofula, and in all 
Creasotum.
407
cases where  tonics are indicated.  As a  tonic, it possesses  properties
similar  to the Gentian, Colombo, or  other pure  bitters ;  its alterative
properties, however, render it of immense value.   In syphilis it seems
to be possessed of magical  powers.  The corydalia possesses all the
alterative properties of  the bulb  in an  eminent degree,  and will be
found useful in all  scrofulous  and syphilitic  affections, as well as in
many cutaneous diseases.
   Dose of the  infusion,  from  one to  four fluidounces, three or  four
times a day; of the saturated tincture, from  half a  fluidrachm to  two
fluidrachms ; of corydalia, from one half of a grain to one grain, three
or four times a day.  The infusion to be made by adding four drachms of
the powdered bulb to  one pint of boiling water.
   Corydalia may  be advantageously combined with berberin, hydrastin,
ptelein, etc., as a tonic, and with podophyllin, xanthoxylin, stillingin,
iridin, and phytolaccin, etc., as an alterative.
   Off.  Prep.— Corydalia;  Decoctum Corydalis; Extractum Corydalis
 Hydro-alcoholicum; Syrupus Stillingiae  Compositus; Syrupus Corydalis
 Compositus; Tinctura Corydalis.
                           CREASOTUM
                              Creosote.
             A PECULIAR SUBSTANCE  OBTAINED FROM TAR.
  Preparation.—Creosote is  obtained  either from  tar or from  crude
pyroligneous acid.   When tar is used,  it is distilled until it has  attained
the consistence of pitch.  The distilled liquid  divides itself into three
layers, an aqueous between two  oily layers.   The  inferior oily layer,
which alone contains the creosote, is separated, and saturated with car-
bonate of potassa, to remove acetic acid.   The liquid is allowed to rest,
and the  new oil which  separates is decanted from  it.   This oil is  dis-
tilled, and yields products lighter than water, and a liquid heavier. The
latter alone  is preserved, and having been agitated repeatedly with
weak phosphoric acid, to neutralize ammonia, is allowed  to remain at
rest for  some time.   It is next washed  as long  as acidity remains, and
then distilled with a fresh portion of weak phosphoric acid, care being
taken to cohobate from time  to time.  The oily liquid thus rectified is
colorless, and  contains much  creosote,  but also a portion of  eupione.
To separate  these, the  liquid  is  mixed with a  solution of caustic
potassa,  of the  density of 1.12, which  dissolves  the creosote,  but not
the eupione.   The eupione, which  swims above from its levity, being
separated, the alkaline solution of the creosote is exposed to the  air
until it becomes brown in consequence of the  destruction of a foreign
matter, and  is then saturated  with sulphuric acid.   This sets  free the
creosote, which is  decanted,   and again distilled.  The treatment  by
solution  of potassa, sulphuric  acid, etc., is to  be repeated  until  the 
408
Materia  Medica.
creosote no longer becomes brown by exposure to the air, but only slightly
reddish.    It  is then  dissolved  in a  stronger  solution of potassa, and
distilled again, and finally re-distilled  for  the last time, rejecting the
first portion, which comes over  on account of containing much water,
collecting the next portions, and avoiding  to  push the distillation too
far.   The product collected  in this distillation is pure creosote.  When
creosote is extracted from pyroligneous  acid, the first step is to dissolve
sulphate of soda in it  to saturation. The oil which separates and swims
above is  decanted, and having  been allowed to remain at  rest for a
few days, is  saturated by carbonate  of potassa, with the  assistance of
heat, and distilled with water.  The oleaginous liquid obtained is  of a
pale-yellow color, and is to  be  treated with phosphoric acid,  etc.,  etc.,
as above detailed with respect to the treatment of the corresponding oil
obtained from tar.
   Creosote is a  colorless oleaginous  liquid, or as found in the shops,
 with a brownish tinge, of  the  consistence  of oil of almonds, slightly
greasy to the touch, and having  a caustic and burning taste, and a  pen-
etrating, disagreeable  odor, like that  of smoked  meat.   It burns  with
a sooty flame.  Applied to the skin in a  concentrated state,  it quickly
destroys the cuticle.    On paper it leaves a greasy stain, which disap-
pears in a few hours, or very rapidly when exposed to  a gentle heat.
Its sp. gr. is  1.037.   It boils at  397°, and retains its fluidity at — 17°,
and not at so low a temperature as — 50°, as erroneously stated in the
London Pharmacopoeia. It is a non-conductor of electricity, and refracts
light powerfully.   It is devoid of acid or alkaline reaction.  Mixed with
water, it forms two combinations—one  a  solution of  1  part of creosote
with about 80 of water, the  other of 1  part of water in 10 of creosote.
It  unites in  all  proportions with alcohol,  ether  and  naphtha.   It is
capable of dissolving  a large quantity of iodine and  phosphorus, and a
considerable portion of sulphur,  especially when assisted by heat.  With
potassa, creosote forms two combinations ; one anhydrous, of an oleagi-
nous consistence ;  the other, hydrated, and in the form of small, white,
pearly scales ; with soda, it also forms similar compounds. It dissolves
ammonia instantly, retaining it with great force.   It is decomposed by
strong nitric  and  sulphuric  acids.  Acetic acid dissolves it in all pro-
portions.   It acts  powerfully in  coagulating  albumen.   It  preserves
meats from putrefaction which have been dipped in  a solution of  it for
fifteen minutes.    It  consists of  76.2 carbon, 7.8  hydrogen, and 1G
 oxygen.
   It is sometimes rendered impure by the presence of eupione, picamar,
 or  capnomer, and frequently rectified oil  of  tar, as well  as fixed and
 volatile oils ; these may be  detected  by strong acetic acid, which dis-
 solves the  creosote,  and leaves the  adulterations  floating above the
 solution.   Fixed oils are discovered by a stain on paper, not discharged
 by heat. 
Creta Pr^eparata.
409
  Properties  and Uses.—Irritant, narcotic,-styptic, antiseptic, and escha-
rotic.   Used  in  diabetes mellitus,  epilepsy, hysteria, neuralgia, chronic
catarrh, hemoptysis, hematemesis, chronic gonorrhea and  gleet, and to
arrest nausea or vomiting occasioned by hysteria or pregnancy.  Exter-
nally, in which it is more commonly used, it has been found  efficacious
in scalv cutaneous affections, burns, external  wounds, capillary hemor-
rhage, indolent and gangrenous ulcers, also,  scrofulous, syphilitic  and
fistulous ulcers and scrofulous  ophthalmia ; as a gargle, in putrid sore-
throat ; as  an injection, diluted with oil  of almonds, in chronic suppu-
ration of the  external meatus of the ear, and in  toothache, depending
on exposure of the nerve.   It should most usually be sufficiently diluted,
and used in the form of mixture, solution or ointment.  Dose, from  one
to three drops, diluted with two or  three fluidounces of weak mucilage,
three or four times a day.  However, it is seldom used internally at the
present day,  the pyroligneous acid answering a much better purpose for
internal administration.   In an overdose,  creosote  acts as a poison,
causing obscurity of  vision,  giddiness, depressed action of  the heart,
convulsions, and  coma.   The treatment must be the use of ammonia
and  other stimulants,  with  white of egg.  Creosote water may be used
with advantage  as a  preservative  of anatomical preparations,  without
hardening them;  and three or  four drops of creosote to  a pint of ink
will prevent it from becoming moldy.
   Off. Prep.—Unguentum  Creasoti.
                      CRETA PR^EPARATA.
                          Prepared  Chalk.
   Preparation.—Rub Chalk (Carbonate of Lime) very fine, with a little
water;  stir this into a large quantity of water, and when the coarse par-
ticles have subsided, pour off the supernatant turbid liquor, into another
vessel,  and let it settle.  Pour off the water, and dry the powder.
   History.—Chalk  has not  been  found  in the United States, but is
obtained in abundance in the  south  of England, and north of France.  It
occurs in the newest  secondary strata, and  constitutes with its subordi-
nate rocks a distinct and peculiar  formation.   It  is scarcely ever a per-
fectly pure carbonate  of lime,  always containing silica,  alumina, iron,
and  fossil remains of land and marine animals.  It is a carbonate of
lime, and is identical with marble (which see) in its relations to water,
air, alcohol, heat and acids.
  It is termed in the  U. States Dispensatory, Native Friable  Carbonate
of Lime.  There are two kinds of it, Hard and Soft Chalk;  the latter is
commonly preferred  for medical  purposes,  though the former  may be
employed as well.   It has  an earthy appearance, pure white Avhen una-
dulterated, grayish-white  when  impure,  inodorous, tasteless,  opake, 
410
Materia  Medica.
insoluble, rough to the touch, very friable, breaking with an earthy frac-
ture, and leaves  a white  mark when drawn across a resisting surface.
Its specific gravity varies from  2.3 to  2.6.  When pure, muriatic acid
completely dissolves it; if the solution is  precipitated  by ammonia, it
contains  alumina if the precipitate be white, and oxide of iron if it  be
in yellow flakes.   Chalk is unfit  for medicinal use,  until it has been
divested  of its gritty particles by  levigation and  elutriation,  as  above
described.  In this  process, the  coarser gritty particles become  depo-
sited, leaving the soft  chalk floating in the liquor, which being poured
off, the impalpable powder is collected as it  sloAvly descends ; after again
pouring off the liquor, as soon as all the powder has subsided, the mass
left behind, is made to fall in small portions upon an absorbent surface,
and which when  dried have a conical shape, and  are termed Prepared
Chalk.
  Propterties and Uses.—Antacid,  astringent and absorbent.   Used in
acidity of the stomach and diarrhea, combined with aromatics and opium;
externally, to ulcers  and burns, to absorb the ichorous discharge, and to
prevent excoriations from pressure or friction.   Dose, from ten grains to
one drachm.
  Prepared oyster shell,  Testa Prosparata,  has the same properties, but
is now out of use; it is prepared by freeing the shells from extraneous
matter, by washing with boiling  water, then powdering and proceeding
as above.
                        CROCUS SATIVUS.
                               Saffron.
         Nat. Ord.—Iridaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Triandria Monogynia.
                            THE  STIGMAS.
  Description. — Saffron  is  a  perennial  plant,  with a  rounded and
depressed bulb or  cormus, the integuments of which  consist  of parallel
fibers, which  are  distinct  at the  upper  end.  The  leaves are radical,
linear, long, placid, slightly  revolute at the  margins, dark-green upon
their upper surface, with a white, longitudinal furrow in the center, paler
underneath with a  prominent,  flattened midrib, and inclosed at their
base,  together with the tube  of the corolla, in  a long membranous sheath
or bract,  from which they  emerge soon after  the  appearance of  the
flower.   The flowers are large, of a beautiful lilac, or bluish-purple color,
with a long, slender, campanulate white  tube, axillary, striated, with a
two-valved, membranous, thin,  transparent, radical spathe, and appear-
ing with the leaves.  The style hangs  out on  one side between two seg-
ments of the corolla, and terminates in three long, deeply-divided, linear-
cuneiform, emarginate, fragrant stigmas,  of a deep orange color.
  History.—Saffron is a native of Greece and Asia Minor, and is much
cultivated in some parts of  Europe.   It  is also  cultivated as a garden 
Crocus Sativus.
411
 flower, in this country.  It is liable to two diseases, which occasionally
 interfere with the success of its culture ; one is owing to a  parasitic fun-
 gus which adheres to the bulb ;  the other, called tacon by the French,
 converts  the bulb  into  a  blackish  powder.  Saffron  flowers  in  the
 autumn, and perfects its seed  the succeeding spring.   It is propagated
 by offsets from the bulb.   The part used in medicine is the stigmas ; to
 obtain these, the flowers are gathered  as soon as they unfold themselves,
 the stigmas are separated, and dried by an  artificial heat.  There are
 tAvo kinds of it in commerce, called Hay and Cake Saffron.  The Hay
 Saffron, which is the best kind, consists simply of the stigmata entangled
 together, and retaining their original deep orange color.  The Cake Saf-
 fron is in flexible cakes,  about half a  line in thickness, and of a dirty,
 brownish-orange tint, made  by beating the stigmata together before they
 are quite dry.  Saffron has  a  powerful, aromatic, somewhat stupefying
 odor, and a bitterish, balsamic, rather acrid taste.  It imparts its proper-
 ties  to water, vinegar or spirit.   In choosing it, it should not be very
 moist nor very dry, nor easily pulverized, nor should it emit an offensive
 odor when thrown on hot coals.   The freshest is the  best, and  should
 possess an oily feel, and color  the fingers when rubbed between  them.
 As  its  active principle is volatile, it  should be kept in  well-stopped
 vessels.
   Saffron yields, on  analysis, 7.5 per cent, of an odorous, volatile  oil,
 wax, gum, albumen, saline matter, water, lignin, and  6.5 per cent, of a
 peculiar extractive matter, termed polychroite, on  account of the changes
 of color it undergoes by the  reaction of agents.  It may be obtained by
 evaporating the watery infusion of saffron to the consistence of honey,
 digesting the residue in alcohol, filtering the tincture, and evaporating it
 to dryness.   It is a reddish-yellow mass, of an agreeable smell, slightly
 bitter, soluble in Avater and alcohol, and somewhat deliquescent.   Nitric
 acid  added to its  solution renders it of a grass-green color, sulphuric acid
 changes it to blue and then violet, and on exposure to light, or  to  the
 action of chlorine, it becomes colorless.   It contains  about twenty per
 cent, of volatile oil, to which the medicine  owes its activity, and which
 can be separated only by an  alkali.   When pure, polychroite is of a
 brilliant red, readily soluble in alcohol, and the  fixed  and volatile oils,
 and difficultly soluble in water, which  it renders yellow.  The volatile
 oil of saffron may be partially  separated by distillation  ; it is yellow, of
 a hot, acrid, bitterish taste, and heavier than water, in which it is slightly
 soluble.
  Saffron is very liable to be adulterated with water, oil, flowers of other
 plants, fibers of dried beef, etc.  Hot  water Avill detect the  adulteration
 with flowers  by their  expansion, while in it; muscular  fibers may be
known by the odor  of burning  horn emitted on burning the suspected
 article.  When rubbed between the finger and thumb without staining
 the skin yellow, the saffron has been  exhausted by water or spirit.  A 
412
Materia  Medica.
certain test of saffron is concentrated sulphuric acid, which changes the
color of pure saffron to indigo blue.
  Properties and Uses.—Emmenagogue and diaphoretic.  Has been of
benefit in amennorrhea, dysmenorrhea, chlorosis, hysteria, and in sup-
pression  of  the lochial discharge.   As  a diaphoretic, used in febrile and
exanthematous  diseases, especially  of children.   Many consider  this
valuable agent as inert.   Dose of the powder,  from  twelve  to forty
guains ;  of the tincture or syrup,  from  one to two fluidrachms ; of the
decoction, from one to three fluidounces.
   Off. Prep.—Tinct. Aloes et Myrrhae ; Tinctura Serpentariae Composita.
                      CROTON ELEUTERIA.
                              Cascarilla.
      Nat. Ord.—Euphorbiaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Monadelphia.
                              the bark.
   Description.—Croton Eleuteria is a small tree, said to rise to the hight
of twenty feet,  and branching  thickly at the  top.  The branches and
twigs are angular, rather compressed, striated, downy, ferruginous.  The
leaves are  petiolated, alternate,  ovate, with a  short but obtuse point,
entire, faintly nerved, bright-green above, with a few scattered grayish
dots, silvery,  and  very tomentose  beneath;  petioles  short,  scurfy.
Racemes axillary and  terminal, branched or compound; the branches
short, divaricating, covered  with numerous, closely-parted,  subsessile,
whitish, monoecious flowers.   Sterile flowers above and smallest; fertile
ones below, feAV, and on short stalks.   Stamens ten to twelve.  Capsule
roundish, minutely warted,  scurfy, not much  larger than a  pea, with
three furrows, three cells, and six valves.
   History.—The tree from which Cascarilla is obtained is a native of the
West Indies, and is found abundantly in  the small island of Eleutheria,
from Avhich it derives its name.  It was, for a time, supposed to have
been derived from the  Croton Cascarilla, a small  tree growing in the
Bahamas, Hayti, Peru, and  Paraguay, but  this is  now ascertained by
botanists to have been an error.   Cascarilla bark  comes to this market
from the West Indies, in bags or casks, and is had in two forms; in one,
it is  in rolled fragments of various sizes, having a dull-whitish or whitish-
gray epidermis,  which is  frequently more or less removed,  and beneath
which it is of a dark-broAvn color, while its inner surface has a chocolate
tint,  and its fracture is reddish-brown.  In the other variety, it is in very
thin  pieces, an inch or two  in length, not covered by the white epider-
mis,  curved more or less longitudinally, and often with laminae of wood
adhering to their inner surface,  as if the  bark had  been  removed from
the tree by means of a sharp instrument.  The first variety is obtained 
CUCUMIS COLOCTNTHIS.
413
from the Croton Eleuteria; the source of the second is not so well ascer-
tained, though supposed by some to be the Croton Micans.
  The bark is dense, brittle, and easily pulverized, the powder being of
a lisrht-brown  color, Avith a feeble  aromatic odor, increased  by friction
and much more  so by burning, and having a strong, aromatic, bitterish,
acrid  taste.  On account of its delicate  and agreeable odor, it is often
added  in  small  portions  to  tobacco, by smokers,  to  render  the fumes
more fragrant.   Water or spirit readily  extracts its active principles, but
diluted alcohol is the proper menstruum.   Analysis  has  detected  in it,
albumen, a peculiar kind of tannin, a bitter crystallizable principle called
Cascarillin, a red coloring matter, fatty matter of a nauseous odor, wax,
gum, resin, volatile oil, starch, pectic acid, chloride of potassium, a salt
of lime, and lignin.  The  Cascarillin  is white, crystallized, inodorous,
of a bitter taste, sparingly  soluble in water, but readily so in alcohol or
ether, neutral, and without nitrogen.   It may be obtained by  treating
the powdered bark Avith water, adding acetate of lead to the  solution,
separating the lead by sulphureted hydrogen, filtering, evaporating with
the addition of animal charcoal, filtering again, and  evaporating at a
low temperature to the  consistence of a syrup; this  must be allowed to
harden by cooling, and the matter  thus  obtained must  be purified by
twice  successively treating  it, first with  a little cold alcohol 10 separate
the coloring and fatty  matters, and  afterward with boiling alcohol and
animal charcoal; allow this last alcoholic solution to evaporate sponta-
neously.   It resembles  salicin in many  respects.
  Properties and Uses.—Tonic, and stimulant.  Used in dyspepsia, flatu-
lency, chronic diarrhea, in  debility  attending chronic diseases, conva-
lescence  from acute diseases, and  to  arrest vomiting.  When cinchona
produces nausea, the addition of cascarilla will prevent it.  Dose of the
powder, from  one to two scruples ; of the tincture, from one to four fluid-
drachms ; of the infusion, from one  to four fluidounces.  On  account of
its musky odor,  it is a common ingredient of fumigating pastilles.
                    CUCUMIS  COLOCYNTHIS.
                              Colocynth.
      Nat. Ord.—Cucurbitaceas.  Sex.  Syst.—Moncecia  Monadelphia.
                  THE  FRUIT DEPRIVED OF ITS RIND.
  Description. — Colocynth, or Bitter Cucumber, is an  annual plant,  bear-
ing some resemblance  to  that of the Avatermelon, with a whitish  root,
and  herbaceous, trailing,  angular, branched, rough  and hispid  stem.
The leaves are alternately on long petioles, of a triangular  form, deeply
and obtusely  sinuated, of a bright green  on the upper surface, paler
beneath with whitish hairs; tendrils short; the flowers  are solitary', axil-
lary, pedunculate, and of a yelloAv color.  The calyx of the male flower is 
414
Materia  Medica.
 bell-shaped; the corolla is monopetalous, campanulate, divided at the
 margin into five pointed  segments.  The stamens are three, short, dis-
 tinct;  two  are  bifid at  the  apex, or rather  have two anthers.   The
 female flower is like the male, but the filaments are destitute of anthers.
 The ovary is inferior, large, with a very short cylindrical style, furnished
 with three thick stigmas.  The fruit  is a round pepo, the size and color
 of  an orange,  and smooth  on  the  outside  when  ripe;  the  rind  is
 thin,  hard, and  coriaceous;  internally it is trilocular, each  cell con-
 taining numerous ovate-acute, compressed  seeds, enveloped by a white
 spongy pulp.
   History. — The  Bitter Apple, or Cucumber is a native  of Northern
 Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, Western Asia, etc., and is cultivated in
 Italy and Spain.  The fruit is collected in autumn Avhen it begins to turn
 yellow, and after having been peeled, is dried quickly either in a stove,
 or by  the sun.  The colocynth with which the  United States is supplied,
 is chiefly derived from the ports of the Levant.  That which is deprived
 of its rind, is very  white, light, spongy, and  without seeds, is considered
 the best article ;  that Avhich contains  the seeds is inferior; and the gray-
 ish or brownish pith of  the  larger fruits is of the poorest quality.  The
 pulp only of the fruit is  the officinal portion; the fruit, as  usually met
 with in the shops, is  about the size  of a small  orange.  The  pulp is
 tough, pulverized with difficulty, nearly inodorous, but intensely and disa-
 greeably bitter.  Water, ether, or alcohol acquires its active properties;
 water  forms a mucilaginous solution, from which the extract of colocynth
 is obtained by  evaporation;  it is pale-brown, translucent,  elastic,  and
 intensely bitter.  Analysis has detected in  colocynth, a bitter principle
 called Colocynthin, extractive, fixed  oil, resin  insoluble in ether, gum,
 pectic  acid, phosphates  of lime and magnesia, lignin, and a little water.
 It is  incompatible Avith the fixed alkalies,  sulphate  of iron, nitrate  of
 silver, acetate of lead, and vegetable astringents, containing tannin or
 gallic  acid.
   Colocynthin may  be obtained by  exhausting  the pulp previously freed
 from the seeds, Avith successive portions of cold distilled water, until  it
 is deprived of its  bitterness; then filtering the solution, heating  it to
 boiling point,  and adding, while  hot,  diacetate of lead, as long as  any
 precipitation continues.   When  cold, filter  the supernatant liquid,  and
 gradually add to it diluted sulphuric acid, until it no longer throAvs down
 a precipitate; again boil  to remove  the free  acetic  acid, and  filter to
 separate the sulphate  of lead.   By this  means all the  organic  matter,
except the colocynthin, is removed.   Evaporate the filtered  liquor cau-
tiously and  nearly to dryness, and  dissolve  the colocynthin out of the
residuum by means of strong alcohol,  which leaves the salts  undissolved
as sulphates.  By evaporating the alcoholic  solution  the colocynthin  is
obtained  pure.   Colocynthin is  an  amorphous, yellowish-brown, some-
what  translucent, brittle, and friable  substance, fusible at a temperature 
CUCURBITA ClTRULLUS.                    415
below 212°, inflammable,  more soluble in alcohol  than in water, but
imparting to the latter an intense bitterness.  It is neutral ; Avir.h infusion
of galls its aqueous solution gives  a copious white precipitate.
   Properties and Uses.—Colocynth  is  a powerful  drastic,  hydragogue
cathartic, exciting inflammation of the mucous membrane of the intes-
tines, causing severe griping, vomiting, and bloody discharges.  In small
doses it acts powerfully and harshly, and is, therefore, never used alone,
but generally in combination with other cathartics, Avhich tends to modify
its irritating influence.   The addition of extract of hyoscyamus will like-
wise deprive it of its harsh and griping effects.  Its principal employ-
ment is in passive dropsy, in cerebral  derangements, and in pills with
other cathartics for the purpose of overcoming torpid conditions  of the
biliary and digestive systems.   Its irritant effect upon the rectum may
influence the uterus by sympathy  of contiguity, and thus provoke men-
struation, and  on the  same principle, dissolved in  whisky,  it has cured
gonorrhea.  It  may be used in moderate  doses, in all  diseases where
catharsis is indicated.   The powder  applied to an ulcer, or raw-surface,
affects the lower boAvels in the  same manner as  when taken internally.
It is said that Hippocrates  used the colocynth as  a  pessary  for the pur-
pose of exciting menstruation.   The oil of colocynth  has been recom-
mended  as  an external remedy for  neuralgia.   Dose  of colocynth, is
from  four to ten grains, either  in powder, or aqueous extract;  of the
alcoholic extract, from  one to four grains.  When  to be given alone, it
should be triturated with  some inert or  insoluble powders, as gum or
farinaceous matter, in order to diminish  its  seA'erity of action.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Colocynthidis; Extractum Colocynthidis Com-
positum.
                    CUCURBITA  ClTRULLUS.
                             Watermelon.

                       CUCURBITA PEPO.
                             Pumpkin.
       Nat.  Ord.—Cucurbitaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Monoecia Monadelphia.
                             the seeds.
   Description. — The  Cucurbita  Citrullus of Linnaeus,  and  Cucumis
Citrullus of Seringe,  is an annual plant writh a prostrate,  slender,  hairy
stem, with branching tendrils.  The leaves are palmately five-lobed, verv
glaucous  beneath,  lobes  mostly  sinuate-pinnatifid,  all  the  segments
obtuse.   The  flowers  are yellow,  solitary, on  hairy  peduncles, and
bracted at the base.   Calyx tubular-campanulate, five-toothed ; corolla
deeply five-parted ; filaments of the  male  flower, three;  pistils of the
female, three-cleft;  style  short; stigmas three, thick,  two-lobed;  pepo 
416
Materia Medica.
or fruit, oval, or elliptical, smooth, discolored, indehiscent, subligneous,
and light or  dark-green externally, beneath which  is  a white, juicy
substance, and in the center a red or yellow edible pulp, sweet, juicy or
watery, and delicious; it is from three to five-celled, and contains many
obovate, smooth, compressed seeds, thickened at the margin, and of a
black or yellowish-white color.
   Cucurbita Pepo is also an annual plant, hispid and scabrous, with a
procumbent stem and branching tendrils.   The leaves are large, cordate,
palmately five-lobed,  or angled, denticulate;  the flowers are yellow,
large,  axillary,  the- males  long-pedunculate.    Corolla  campanulate;
petals united and coherent with the calyx.   Calyx of male flowers, five-
toothed; of females  the same, and upper part deciduous after flowering;
stigmas three, thick, two-lobed ; pepo  or fruit sub-ligneous, very large,
roundish, or oblong, smooth, yellow when ripe, furrowed and torulose,
containing yellowish seeds, somewhat resembling  those  of the water-
melon in form.
  History.—The Watermelon is a native of  Africa and Southern Asia,
and is cultivated in this country for its large and delicious fruit which is
usually ripened in August, the flowers appearing in  June and July.  The
pumpkin flowers in July, and matures its fruit in September and Octo-
ber ; it is a  native  of the Levant, and is extensively  cultivated  as  a
kitchen A'egetable, and for  cattle.  The  seeds of these plants are  used
in medicine; their virtues reside in the external covering which contains
a large proportion of mucilage, which is freely imparted to Avater; hence,
in preparing an infusion the seeds should  never be bruised. An oil may
be obtained from the  pumpkin  seeds, and probably from those of the
watermelon also, by expression.
  Properties  and Uses.—Mucilaginous  and diuretic,  and of service in
strangury, and other urinary affections, also  in  gastritis, enteritis, and
febrile diseases.  The infusion may be drank freely.  The red, fleshy, juicy
pulp of the watermelon is  diuretic, and forms a grateful article of diet
for  febrile patients, when not contra-indicated.   The expressed oil of the
pumpkin seeds, in doses of from six to twelve drops  several times a day,
is said to be a most  certain  and efficient diuretic, giving quick relief in
scalding of urine, spasmodic affections of the urinary  passages, and has
cured gonorrhea.  The seeds of the Cucurbita Lagenaria, or gourd, the
Cucumis Melo, or muskmelon, and the Cucumis Salivus, or cucumber,
possess similar properties, but in a milder degree.
   Off.  Prep.—Infusum Cucurbitae. 
CUMINUM  CYMINUM--CuNILA MARIANA.           417
                      CUMINUM CYMINUM.
                            Cumin Seed.
          Nat. Ord.—Apiaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.
                            THE FRUIT.
   Description.—This is an annual, herbaceous plant, about six or eight
inches high, having a round, slender, branching stem, and numerous
multifid leaves, with long,  filiform, deep-green  segments.   The flowers
are small, white, or purple, overtopped by the bracts,  which after flow-
ering are reflexed, and are disposed in numerous terminal umbels, which
have very few rays, partial and general  involucres, consisting of two or
three filiform, one-sided bracts.   The fruit  is  about two lines  long,
much longer than  the  pedicels, nearly taper, but little contracted at the
sides, fusiform, crowned by the short teeth of the calyx, densely covered
with short rough hair upon the channels, less densely  upon the ridges,
which are paler, filiform,  and a little raised;  it consists of two oblong
plano-convex half fruits,  commonly  called  seeds, united  by their  flat
sides.
   History.—This plant is  a native  of Egypt, and  is  cultivated for its
fruit in many parts of Europe.  The seeds are elliptical, flat on one side,
convex, furrowed, and rough on the other, about one-sixth  of an inch in
length, and of a light brown color.   Each has seven longitudinal ridges.
Tavo seeds are sometimes united together as upon the plant.   Their odor
is peculiar, strong and heavy; their taste warm, bitterish, aromatic, and
disagreeable.  They contain much essential oil,  which  is of a yellowish
color, and has the sensible  properties of the seeds.
   Properties and Uses.—Highly stimulant, and carminative ; possessing
medical properties similar to the  other aromatic fruits of umbelliferous
plants, but more stimulating.  They  are seldom used in the United
States.  Dose is from fifteen to sixty grains.
                       CUNILA MARIANA.
                              Dittany.
      Nat Ord.—Lamiaceae.  Sex.  Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.
                         THE  WHOLE  HERB.
  Description.—This plant, also called Stonemint, Mountain dittany, etc.,
is an  indigenous, perennial plant, with  a fibrous root, and smooth,  slen-
der, four-angled,  mostly purplish, corymbosely branched stems, growing
one or two feet high ;  the  branches opposite, or nearly so.   The leaves
are opposite,  small, smooth, ovate, subsessile, rounded or cordate at the
base,  punctate with resinous  and pellucid dots, of a dry texture, pale-
green above, glaucous beneath, and margin waved, with small, acute
       27 
418
Materia  Medica.
serratures.   The flowers are numerous, in terminal and sometimes axil-
lary dichotomous corymbs, and of a bluish-purple, and sometimes white
color.  Each flower is pedunculate.   The calyx is green, with ten longi-
tudinal stria, and five nearly equal teeth.   The corolla is twice as long
as the calyx, bilabiate, pubescent; lower lip largest, with three rounded
lobes; upper lip, flat and emarginate.   Stamens four;  two of them long,
slender, and exserted, bearing small, didymous  anthers;  the other two
sterile and very short.  The stigma  is  bifid,  exserted.   The seeds are
four, small,  obovate, at the  base  of the persistent calyx, the mouth of
which is closed by rigid hairs.
  History.—Found in most parts  of the United States, in dry soils, shady
and hilly woods, and flowering from  June to the last of September.  It
has a warm, pungent taste, and  a powerful aromatic smell, depending
on the presence of a volatile oil.
   Properties and Uses. — Stimulant, carminative,  antispasmodic,  and
diaphoretic.  Used freely in warm infusion to promote  perspiration, to
relieve flatulency, and as an emmenagogue.  Said to be useful for cold,
headaches,  and fevers, also to relieve nervous headache, and hysterical
disorders, colic, indigestion, and  all nervous affections.  The volatile oil
possesses all the medicinal properties of the herb, and may be given in
doses of  from five to ten drops.
                       CUPRI SUBACETAS.

                        Subacetate of Copper.
  Preparation.—Subacetate of Copper, or Verdigris is  prepared  in the
South of France, and is imported into  this country from Bordeaux and
Marseilles  principally.   It is formed  by exposing sheet-copper to the
action of the acetous fumes, which are evolved in the process  of wine-
making.   The refuse of the grapes placed in heaps runs into the acetous
fermentation, whereby the copper sheets are oxidized, and the  oxide so
formed unites with the acid.   This is scraped off, usually about the end
of four  or six weeks, and the plates are again stratified with the grape
refuse, to be further acted on.   The scrapings which are in the form of
a paste, are well beaten with wooden mallets, and packed in  leathern
sacks, each weighing from twenty-five to thirty pounds.  Verdigris may
also be formed  by sprinkling vinegar over the copper; and in England
it is prepared by alternating copper plates with woolen  cloths steeped in
pyroligneous acid.
  History.—Verdigris is  obtained  in  loosely aggregated  lumps, or in
powder; it has a pale-green, or blue color, according to the process
employed in obtaining it,  a disagreeable, acetous odor when the powder
is conveyed to the nostrils, and a nauseous, styptic, coppery taste. It is
insoluble in  alcohol, and is  partially soluble  in  water, undergoing a 
Cupri  Sulphas.
419
decomposition, by which an insoluble tris-acetate of copper is precipi-
tated, of a dark-green color, gradually changing to black; and a solu-
ble neutral acetate is dissolved.  This neutral acetate may be  obtained
by evaporation in fine rhomboidal  or rhombic-octahedral crystals of a
beautiful bluish-green color.  They are efflorescent, soluble in five parts
of boiling water,  partially soluble  in  alcohol, inflammable, burning in
the open air with a beautiful green flame, and are known as Crystals of
Venus, Crystallized Acetate of Copper, etc.  Verdigris is speedily black-
ened  by sulphureted hydrogen ;  diluted sulphuric  acid  dissolves all
except its impurities, forming a blue  solution, from which  sulphate of
copper may be crystallized ; concentrated sulphuric acid decomposes it,
evolving acetous  fumes.   Ammonia dissolves all but its impurities form-
ing a solution of  an intense violet-blue; so likewise does diluted muriatic
acid,  forming a fine green solution.   Good verdigris has a lively green
color, is free from white or black spots, is dry, and difficult to break; it
is composed  of two  equivalents of peroxide  of copper, one  equivalent
of acetic acid, and six  equivalents of water.  It is a variable mixture
of the subacetates of copper, and  is sometimes called  the Diacetate of
copper.  The green rust on copper  culinary vessels, popularly termed
Verdigris,  is  a  carbonate of copper.   Verdigris, when  swallowed,  is
decomposed by zinc and copper filings, in the  dose of from  half a drachm
to two drachms,  followed by the free use of  warm water.
   Properties and Uses.—Detergent and  escharotic.  Never used inter-
nally, but  occasionally  employed  externally by some  practitioners  to
remove warts and fungous growths, and as an application to foul ulcers,
ringworm,  ringworm  of the scalp, ophthalmia tarsi, etc.   The powder
may be sprinkled on the surface, or it may be used in the form of oint-
ment.   When taken internally its poisonous influences can be best over-
come by the free use of sugared water, and white of eggs ; they are the
best antidotes.  It is best employed as an escharotic when deprived of
its water of crystallization by heat, which leaves an efflorescent mass.
                         CUPRI  SULPHAS.
                         Sulphate of Copper.
  Preparation.—Sulphate of Copper, or Blue  Vitriol, is made in various
ways : by dissolving  copper in dilute sulphuric acid, evaporating and
crystallizing;  or by roasting the native sulphuret in a reverberatory fur-
nace, whereby it is made to pass into the state of sulphate, by absorbing
oxygen.  The roasted mass is lixiviated,  and the solution obtained is
evaporated that crystals may form.  The salt procured by either of these
methods, contains a little sulphate  of the sesquioxide of iron, from which
it may be freed by adding an excess of protoxide  of copper, which has
the  effect of precipitating the sesquioxide  of iron.  The third method 
420
Materia  Medica.
alluded to is pursued in France.   It consists in wetting, and then sprink-
ling with sulphur, sheets of copper, which  are next heated to redness
for some time, and afterward plunged into water while yet hot.  The
same operation is repeated until the sheets are entirely corroded.  At
first a sulphuret is formed,  which by the action of heat and air gradually
passes into the state of sulphate.   This is dissolved in the water, and is
obtained in crystals by evaporation.
   On account of the duty upon sulphate of copper, none of it is at pre-
sent imported into the United States, the whole demand being  supplied
from our own laboratories.   The  process for  making it, generally pur-
sued in this country, is by direct combination between old  scrap copper
and sulphuric acid.
   History.—Sulphate of copper crystallizes in  large, translucent, oblique
rhombic prisms, of a beautiful azure-blue color, which slightly effloresce
in the air, and  are soluble in two parts  of boiling and four of cold water,
and insoluble in alcohol.  The salt is inodorous, but has an intense styp-
tic metallic disagreeable taste.   When heated  it first fuses in  its  water
of crystallization, and then gradually  becomes a white anhydrous pow-
der ; if the heat be increased, it undergoes the igneous fusion : and at
an elevated temperature it slowly parts with its acid, leaving the brown
protoxide of  copper.   The  solution of sulphate of  copper  is of a fine
blue  color ; sulphureted hydrogen causes a brownish-black precipitate,
when added to it; caustic potassa, a bluish-green precipitate, but if added
in slight  excess, azure-blue ; ammonia, an azure-blue, which  is redis-
solved if an  excess  of the  alkali be added;  solution of arsenious acid
with the addition of an alkali, a grass-green or apple-green.  Aqua sap-
phirina  is the  deep-blue solution  made  by ammonia  redissolving the
bluish-white  precipitate  of hydrated   oxide  of copper,  produced by
potassa,  soda, or ammonia, added to the  solution of blue vitriol.   Sul-
phate of copper is likeAvise  incompatible Avith alkaline carbonates, borax,
acetate of lead, acetate of iron, nitrate of silver,  corrosive sublimate,
tartrate  of potassa,  chloride of  calcium, and all  astringent vegetable
infusions.  If sesquioxide of iron be present it will become very green
on the surface when exposed to the air; which may also be known by
not being re-dissolved with the precipitate caused by ammonia, on adding
an excess of  the alkali.   It is composed of one equivalent of sulphuric
acid,  one of protoxide of  copper, and five of water.
   Properties  and Uses.—Internally, we never use it.   Externally, it is
occasionally employed as  an escharotic  or stimulant;  and  is applied by
some practitioners to ill-conditioned ulcers, warts, fungous  granulations,
chancres, callous edges, as  a styptic to capillary hemorrhage, and as a
collyrium in some cases of chronic ophthalmia; a stimulant wash may
be made by adding from two to eight grains of the salt to the fluidounce
of water.  In  cases of  poisoning by  sulphate  of copper, empty the 
Curcuma Longa.
421
stomach, and give white of eggs freely in sugared water.  Treat inflam-
matory symptoms upon general principles.
                       CURCUMA LONGA.
                             Turmeric.
       Nat. Ord.—Zingiberaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Monandria Monogynia.
                           THE  RHIZOMA.
  Description.—This plant has  a perennial, tuberous, oblong, palmate
root, of a deep-orange  color internally.   The  leaves are radical, large,
lanceolate, obliquely nerved, sheathing at their base, tapering  at each
end, smooth, of a uniform green color, and closely embracing each other.
The scape rises from the center of the leaves, is short, thick,  smooth,
green, and constitutes a spike of numerous  imbricated bracteal scales,
between which the flowers successively make their appearance.
   History.—Turmeric is a native of the East Indies and Cochin-China.
The best is said to come from China.   The dried root is in cylindrical or
oblong pieces, about as  thick as the finger, but not so long, tuberculated,
somewhat contorted, externally yellowish-brown, internally deep  orange-
yellow,  hard, compact, and having a waxy fracture.   It has a peculiar
odor  and a warm,  bitterish,  and feebly aromatic taste; and  yields its
properties to water or alcohol.  The saliva is tinged  yellow by it,  when
the root is  chewed.   It  contains lignin, a fourth of its weight of yellow-
ish  starch, a small quantity of acrid, volatile oil, gum, a brown coloring
matter,  chloride of calcium,  and an uncrystallizable  yellow coloring
matter named Curcumin.   This may be obtained by digesting the alco-
holic extract of turmeric in ether, and evaporating the ethereal tincture.
In this state it is mixed with a little volatile  oil, from which it  may be
separated  and  obtained pure, by oxide of lead.   It is  brown in mass,
yellow in powder, inodorous,  tasteless, scarcely soluble  in water, freely
soluble in alcohol, ether, and  the oils, fusible at 104°, and turned to a
reddish-brown by the action of alkalies.
  Properties and  Uses. —Stimulant aromatic.   Seldom used, except  to
color ointments and other pharmaceutic preparations.  Turmeric Paper is
used as a  test  of acids and  alkalies, and is  prepared by tinging white
unsized paper with a tincture or decoction of  Turmeric.   The  tincture
may be made with one part of turmeric to six of proof spirit; the decoc-
tion, with one part of the root to ten or twelve  parts  of water.   Alkalies
change  turmeric to a reddish-brown.   The concentrated mineral acids,
boracic acid, and numerous salts, are said also to turn  turmeric paper red,
or reddish-brown—if this be so, its indications  cannot be relied  on with
certainty. 
422
Materia  Medica.
                      CYDONIA  VULGARIS.
                               Quince.
        Nat. Ord.—Pomacea?.  Sex.  Syst.—Icosandria Pentagynia.
                       •     the  seeds.
  Description.—This is a well-known shrub or tree from eight to twenty
feet high, the leaves being oblong-ovate, obtuse at base, acute  at apex,
entire, smooth above, tomentose beneath.   The flowers are  solitary,
white with a purple tinge, large, terminal.   The pome or fruit tomen-
tose,  obovoid, yellow when ripe, of an  agreeable odor, and a rough,
astringent, acidulous taste, and in  each  of its five cells contains from
eight to fourteen seeds.
  History.—The Quince Tree  is a native of Candia, but is cultivated
extensively in this country and Europe, and its fruit is much employed
in making jellies, preserves,  etc.  The seeds are the officinal  portion;
they are ovate, angled, reddish-brown externally, white within, inodor-
ous,  nearly tasteless, being slightly bitter when long chewed.   The
external covering of the  seeds contains an abundance of mucilage, which
may be extracted by boiling water;  two drachms of the seeds will render
a pint of  water thick and ropy.  The decoction, evaporated to dryness
and powdered, will  form  a proper mucilage with water in the proportions
of three grains to the fluidounce.   One  part of it gives a semi-syrupy
consistence to a  thousand parts  of water.  Pereira proposes to call this
mucilage  Cydonin; he  considers it a peculiar variety  of gum, which,
like Arabin, is soluble in cold or boiling water, and gelatinizes with ses-
quichloride of iron  ; but, unlike that principle, it is not affected by sili-
cate  of potassa.
  Properties  and Uses.—Decoction  of Quince Seeds forms a demulcent
mucilage, very useful in  gonorrhea, dysentery, aphthous affections, and
excoriations of the  mouth and fauces, also as a collyrium in conjunctival
ophthalmia.  A  syrup prepared from the  fruit, or the jelly, forms an
agreeable article, either  alone or added  to  drinks, for patients  laboring
under febrile diseases, diarrhea, dysentery, and nausea.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Cydonii.
                      CYNARA SCOLYMUS.
                         Garden Artichoke.
         Nat. Ord.—Asteraceas.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia JSqualis.
                             the leaves.
  Description.—This is a perennial plant, with subspinose, pinnate and
undivided leaves ;  heads discoid, homogamous; involucre dilated, imbri- 
Ctnoglossum  Officinale.
423
cate ; scales ovate, with fleshy  bases, emarginate, pointed;  receptacle
setaceous; pappus plumose, sessile ;  achenia not beaked.
  History.—This well-known plant is indigenous in the south of Europe,
and is cultivated in this  country from suckers, as a culinary vegetable,
they being placed in rows about three feet apart.  The flowers or heads
as they  are commonly called, appear in August and September, and are
the parts used ;  the receptacle and the lower portion  of the fleshy leaf-
lets of the calyx are eaten, and the other parts rejected.  When young,
the heads  are cut up raw and eaten as salad; when older, they  are
boiled, and dressed variously.  The  flowers are said to curdle milk, and
the plant to afford a good yellow dye.  The leaves  and their expressed
juice  are very bitter.
  Properties and Uses.—Diuretic and alterative. Reputed very benefi-
cial in dropsies, and recommended, in the form of tincture or extract, in
rheumatic, gouty and neuralgic affections.  The leaves  should be fresh,
and the preparations made from them quickly used.   Dose, of  the tinc-
ture a fluidrachm, or five grains of the extract, three  times a day.
  This  plant must not be confounded with the Helianthus Tuberosus, or
Jerusalem Artichoke, a species of sunflower, and the tuberous  roots  of
which are sometimes used as a substitute for potatoes.
                 CYNOGLOSSUM  OFFICINALE.
                          Hound's Tongue.

       Nat.  Ord.—Boraginaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.

                       THE  leaves and root.

   Description.—This is a biennial plant, with an erect, silky-pubescent
stem, growing from one to two feet in hight.  The leaves are hoary, with
soft down on both sides, lanceolate, acute, entire,—radical ones alternate
at the base, petiolate,—cauline  ones  sessile, clasping, with rounded  or
slightly heart-shaped  bases.   The flowers are  in  terminal,  panicled
clusters, recurved at the end; calyx downy, five-parted ; corolla reddish-
purple, short, funnel-form, vaulted; throat or orifice closed by five con-
verging, convex  scales.    Stamens shorter than the corolla.  Achenia
depressed, fixed laterally to the style ;  seeds rough, with hooked prickles.
  History.—This plant is common both  in Europe and  this country,
growing in waste  grounds  and road-sides,  and is named from the shape
of its leaves ; it bears purple flowers in June and July.  The leaves and
root have been employed, but the latter are  preferred.   It  has a disa-
greeable narcotic odor, resembling that of mice, which is dissipated by
drying; and a  nauseous,  bitterish, and mucilaginous taste.  The  fresh
plant is much more active than the dried. 
424
Materia  Medica.
   Properties and  Uses.—Anodyne, demulcent and  astringent, and has
been  used in coughs,  catarrh, hemoptysis,  diarrhea and  dysentery.
Externally, in the form of a poultice, it has been found highly beneficial
in scrofulous tumors, burns, goitre, and may be applied to recent contu-
sions or inflammations,  with much advantage, also  to remove  the pain
and soreness attending irritated, bruised, or chafed parts, giving com-
plete  and immediate relief,  especially in  excoriation  of the feet from
much traveling.  The tincture  or the application of the fresh leaves,
bruised,  will remove  the  swelling and  ecchymosis  consequent  upon
severe blows or  bruises.   The  C. Amplexicaule,  or Wild Comfrey,
affords a root which may be substituted for the  officinal  Comfrey.
   Cynoglossum Morrisoni, variously called  Virginian Mouse-ear, Beg-
gars-lice, and Dysentery Weed, has been variously  classified by Botan-
ists,  as Rochelia  Virginiana, Myosotis  Virginica,  and  Echinospermum
 Virginicum.  It is an annual plant, with an erect, hairy, furrowed, very
broadly branched  and leafy stem, from two to four  feet in hight.  The
leaves are from three to four inches long,  oblong-lanceolate, acuminate,
entire, remote, tapering  at  the  base, thin, minutely downy underneath,
and scabrous above ; the lower ones petioled.   The branches are slender
and  remote, each terminating in a centrifugal, divaricate, dichotomous,
hairy, paniculate raceme,  leafy-bracted at the base.  The flowers are
very small, white or pale-blue, the pedicels nodding  in fruit.  Fruit con-
vex, densely covered with  prickles having barbed points.  This plant is
common throughout the United States, growing in rocky grounds and
among rubbish,  and flowering in July.  The Avhole plant has an unplea-
sant odor.  The root is the part used, and imparts  its virtues to water.
It is mucilaginous, tonic, and astringent, and has been found very effica-
cious in diarrhea and  dysentery.  From its excellent  effects in these
diseases, it has acquired the popular name of Dysentery Root.  The root
may be chewed, or given in powder or infusion, ad libitum.   It will, pro-
bably, be found useful in other diseases, where such a combination  of
 properties is indicated.
                  CYPRIPEDIUM  PUBESCENS.

                      Yellow Ladies'  Slipper.

         Nat. Ord.—Orchidaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Gynandria Diandria.

                             THE ROOT.

  Description.—Cypripedium  Pubescens is an indigenous plant, known
by various names, as American Valerian, Umbel, Nerve-Root,  Yellow-
Moccasin  Flower,  Noah's  Ark, etc.;  its roots are  perennial, fibrous,
fleshy, undulated or crooked,  long, about a line in  diameter, and from
which arise one or several round, leafy stems, growing  from twelve to 
Cypripedium Pubescens.
425
eighteen inches high.   The leaves are from three to six inches long by
two or three broad, sheathing, oblong-lanceolate, entire, veined, cauline,
acuminate, pubescent, alternate, generally the same number on each
side.   Flowers large,  very showy,  terminal, solitary.   Segments four.
Lobe of the style triangular-oblong, obtuse; sepals ovate,  oblong, acumi-
nate ; petals long,  linear, contorted; lip  shorter than the other petals,
compressed laterally, very convex and gibbous above, pale-yellow, from
one and a half to two inches long.
   Cypripedium Parviflorum,  has been considered a  distinct species by
some Botanists, and as a  mere variety by others.  It differs from  the
above, in having  the  lobe of the style acute, the leaves are broader, the
flowers somewhat  larger,  and the perianth more brownish-purple in
color.
   History.—This plant is found in most parts of the United States, in
rich woods and meadows, flowering in May and June;  its flowers are
scentless.  There are several varieties of it, all of which possess similar
virtues, and  the roots of  which are  undoubtedly collected,  sold,  and
used, with the officinal article indiscriminately.  They are as follows :
   1.  C. Spectabile, or Showy  Ladies-slipper, having crowded,  ovate-
lanceolate  leaves, embracing  each other ; lobe of the style  elliptic-cordate,
obtuse ;  sepals broad-ovate, obtuse ; lip  longer than the petals, not cleft
before, white,  striped  with purple, two inches long, one and a half
broad ; flowers very large, two  or three on each plant, appearing in June
and July.  The whole plant  pubescent.
   2.   C. Acaule,  Low  or Stemless Ladies-slipper, having  a bulbous
root  with  numerous fleshy  fibers; scape leafless, one-flowered ;  leaves
radical, in pairs, oblong, obtuse;  lobe of the style round-rhomboid, acu-
minate,  deflexed ; lip longer  than the lanceolate-petals, cleft before,
purple or white, nearly two inches long, veiny ; flowers solitary, terminal,
with a single, lanceolate bract at  the  base, and appearing in May and
June.
   3.  C.  Candidum,  Small  white, or  White-flowered   Ladies-slipper,
having  a  leafy stem, oblong-lanceolate leaves ; lobe  of  the style lanceo-
late, somewhat obtuse ; lip  rather  shorter than the  lance-linear petals,
white, about  three-quarters of an  inch long ; flowers terminal, solitary.
 The plant is slightly pubescent, seldom growing above a foot in hight;
the flowers appear in  May and June.
   4.  C. Arietinum, or Ram's Head, having a leafy stem;  elliptical, stri-
ate-veined, sessile, amplexicaul leaves ;  lobe of the style  orbicular, some-
what obtuse; lip as long as  the petals, saccate, obconic  before, red, and
white veined,  hairy at the  orifice, about half an inch long ; perianth
greenish-brown.   The flowers  are mostly solitary with  a leafy bract  at
base,  and  appear in May and June. 
426
Materia Medica.
   The C. Spectabile and  C. Acaule, are said to possess more narcotic
properties than the others, especially when inhabiting dark swamps.
   The fibrous roots of these plants are the  parts used in medicine ; they
should be  gathered in  autumn, cleansed from dirt, and carefully dried
in the shade.   They have a peculiar, slightly bitter, and rather nau-
seous taste, and  a somewhat unpleasant  odor.  As met with  in the
shops, they are composed of many long, fleshy, cylindrical fibers, of a
pale-yellow color, matted  together.   Alcohol, or boiling water takes up
their virtues, which, however, are impaired by boiling.  No analysis has
been made of them.
   Properties and  Uses.—Tonic, stimulant, diaphoretic,  and antispasmo-
dic.   Useful in hysteria, chorea, nervous headache, and  all cases of
nervous  irritability ;  and combined with Eupatorium Aromatica and
Scutellaria Lateriflora, it has proved beneficial in neuralgia, delirium, and
hypochondria.  The alcoholic extract is the best form of administration.
Dose, from  ten to twenty  grains ; tincture, from one to three fluid-
drachms ; infusion, from  one to  four  fluidounces;  of the  powder, one
drachm  in warm  water, repeated as often  as required.  The following
preparation has been  used in  sick  or nervous headache, not dependent
on acid  stomach, in  several  hundred  cases, by various practitioners;
Take of nepeta cataria, Scutellaria lateriflora, and cypripedium pubescens
in powder, of  each, half an ounce—pour on a pint of boiling water, and
infuse for fifteen or twenty minutes ; dose, one fluidounce of the warm
infusion ; after which, half a fluidounce, every half hour, for three or four
hours, or until the headache ceases.   Used  thus, during three or four
attacks of headache, it  has, as far as I am informed, invariably effected
permanent cures of this  distressing complaint.  An infusion is said to be
beneficial in the pains of  the joints following scarlet  fever. Although
considered by many practitioners superior  to the foreign valerian, yet it
will  be found inefficient in many instances where the European article
will prove beneficial.
   Off. Prep.  — Extractum  Cypripedii  Hydro-alcoholicum ; Extractum
Cypripedii Fluidum ;  Infusum Cypripedii; Tinctura Serpentariae Com-
posita.
                      CYTISUS  SCOPARIUS.
                          Common Broom.
        Nat. Ord-—Fabaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Diadelphia Decandria.
                    THE FRESH TOPS  AND  SEEDS.
  Description.—This is  a large bushy  shrub,  growing from  three to
eight feet high, with numerous, long,  strait, pentangular, bright-green,
smooth, tough, very flexible  branches.   The leaves are deciduous, scat-
tered,  stalked, ternate ; the upper ones generally simple ;  the  leaflets 
Daphne  Mezereum.
427
are uniform, obovate, obtuse, entire, silky when young.  The flowers are
numerous, papilionaceous, large, showy, of a golden-yellow color, and are
supported solitarily upon short, axillary peduncles.  Legume brown, flat,
above  an inch long, nearly smooth at the sides, but fringed with  hairs
at  each  margin, and  containing  about fifteen  or sixteen  seeds.   The
swelling  ovary soon splits the tube of  the filaments.
   History.—This is a common European shrub, cultivated in  our gar-
dens ;  it  grows on dry and sandy soils, and flowers  in  May and June.
The tops of the branches and the seeds are the officinal parts ; the
latter may be preserved for a longer time than the former ; all  parts
of the  plant have a peculiar, bitter, nauseous taste, and when  bruised,
emit a strong, peculiar  odor.  They  contain oils,  mucilage, albumen,
etc., and yield their virtues  to water or alcohol.  The  flower-buds are
sometimes pickled as a substitute for capers.
   Properties and Uses.—In  large doses, emetic  and cathartic;  in small
ones, diuretic.   Used in dropsy; said never to fail in increasing the
flow of the urine ; especially beneficial in dropsy of the thorax combined
with disease of the lungs. Dose, of a strong decoction,  four fluidounces
every hour until it produces some effect;  of the pulverized seed,  from
ten to fifteen grains, aided by the  free use of diluents.   Seldom used in
this country.
   Off.  Prep.—Decoctum Scoparii.
                     DAPHNE MEZEREUM.
                             Mezereon.
        Nat. Ord.—Thymelaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Octandria Monogynia.
                             THE bark.
   Description.—Mezereon, or Spurge  Olive, is a very hardy "shrub, with
a large root, and  bushy stem four or five feet high, with upright, alter-
nate, smooth, tough, and pliant branches, leafy  when young,  and a
smooth dark-gray bark, which is easily separable from the wood.  The
leaves spring from the end of the branches,  they are deciduous, scattered,
sessile, obovate-lanceolate, entire, smooth,  of a pale-green color, some-
what glaucous beneath, and about two inches long ;  they appear after
the flowers, and accompanied with the flower-buds of the  next season.
The flowers are in clusters, each  consisting of two or three flowers, form-
ing a kind of spike at the upper part of the stem and branches, ses-
sile on the naked branches, with  several  brown,  smooth,  ovate bracts
underneath ; they are of a pale-rose color, very fragrant, and consist of
a hypocrateriform calyx, crimson all over, and the tube externally hairy.
Segments of the  calyx  four,  deep, ovate, spreading.  Stamens eight,
alternately longer, inserted into  the tube, and having roundish, oblong 
428
Materia Medica.
anthers.  Ovary ovate, superior, bearing a short style with a flattish, entire
stigma.  The fruit is a pulpy, scarlet, oval, shining  berry, containing a
single seed.
  Daphne  Gnidium is  a small bush, with the leaves  linear-lanceolate,
clustered, acuminate, cuspidate, quite smooth.  The flowers are numer-
ous, small, white, doAvny, fragrant, and  in  terminal panicled  racemes.
The fruit is globular, dry, at first green, but ultimately black.
  Daphne Laureola or Spurge-laurel is a smooth plant, with a stem two
or three feet high,  and round, pale,  brown, upright,  tough  and pliant
branches, croAvned with tufts of evergreen leaves, elegantly drooping in
all directions, and about two or three inches long, lanceolate, glabrous,
acute,  entire, subsessile.  Flowers deep-green, with orange anthers, four
of which  are just  visible in the throat of the calyx, five together in
each axillary raceme.   An oval, concave bract accompanies each short
partial stalk, at the base.   Berry oval, black.
  History.—All the species of Daphne possess active properties, but the
bark met with  in commerce is usually obtained  from the three above
described, that from the latter being  less active  than the others.  The
D. Mezereum is a  native of the northern parts of Europe, where it is
cultivated both as a medicine and an  ornament; it flowers very early in
the spring,  often before the  snow has disappeared.   The D.  Gnidium
is found in the south  of France on hills and  barren plains, and its
bark is employed there indiscriminately with that  of the other species.
  The bark of  the root is the officinal part, but much that is obtained in
the  shops  is derived from  the stem.   The D.  Mezereum is the most
active  plant of  the  genus ; its bark  is generally collected in  the spring.
It is met with in flat or quilled pieces, from two to four feet long, and an
inch or less in breadth, always folded  in  bundles,  or in the shape
of balls.  Externally, it is covered  with a grayish, or reddish-brown
wrinkled epidermis, very thin,  and easily removed  from the bark, and
beneath which  is a soft, greenish tissue.  The inner bark is tough, pli-
able, fibrous,  striated,  of a yellowish-white color internally, and an
olive or brownish hue externally.  Its smell when fresh is faint and dis-
agreeable,  but on  drying it  becomes  inodorous ;  its  taste  is  at first
sweetish, soon  folloAved by  intense and durable hot acridity.   It yields
its virtues to water by decoction, likewise to alcohol; and it unites with
oils  or fats, forming an excellent ointment.  It contains an acrid resin,  a
yellow coloring matter, a reddish-brown extractive matter, an uncrystal-
lizable and  fermentable  sugar, a gummy matter containing azote, ligne-
ous  fiber, malic acid, several  malates, and  a peculiar principle named
Daphnin.
  Daphnin may be  obtained by treating  the  alcoholic extract of the
bark with water, decanting  the solution, precipitating with subacetate
of lead, filtering, decomposing the excess of the subacetate by sulphu- 
Datura  Stramonium.
429
reted hydrogen, — again filtering, evaporating  to dryness, submitting
the residue to the action of anhydrous alcohol, and evaporating the alco-
holic solution to the point of crystallization.   It  is in colorless, transpa-
rent, brilliant, prismatic  crystals, slightly soluble  in  cold  Avater, very
soluble in boiling water, ether, and alcohol, inodorous, and of a  bitter,
somewhat austere taste.  It is  not, however, the principle upon  which
the virtues of the bark chiefly depend; this is  supposed to be a volatile
oil, which slowly passes to the  state of an  acrid resin.  It may be ob-
tained by boiling mezereon in  alcohol, allowing the  liquor to cool in
order that it  may deposit some  wax which it has taken up, then  distil-
ling off the alcohol, and treating the residue with water, which  leaves
the  resin; it is dark-green, hard, brittle, and of an  exceedingly acrid
and persistent taste.  When boiled with water some of the acrid princi-
ple  of mezereon bark  passes off, which is  not the case when  boiled
with alcohol.
   Properties and  Uses.—In large doses,  mezereon is an irritant poison,
causing redness and vesication of the skin when left in contact with it,
and causing,  when swalknved, dryness and burning of the throat, vomit-
ing, hypercatharsis, and frequently renal irritation.  The  berries have
proved fatal  to children who have eaten them ; yet in some countries
they are used as a purgative,  in doses of eight to twelve.   In  small
doses  it acts as a stimulant, alterative,  diuretic,  diaphoretic  in  warm
decoction,  and  cathartic.    It  acts  favorably   in  syphilis,  mercurio-
syphilis, scrofula, chronic rheumatism, and some forms of obstinate dis-
ease of the skin.  Dose of the decoction,  from one to three fluidounces;
of the powder ten grains.
   Externally, it is seldom  used by Eclectics; sometimes employed by
other  practitioners  to produce  rubefaction  and vesication, and in the
form of ointment as an application to blistered surfaces, indolent ulcers,
and issues, in order to keep  up a discharge.  When vesication is desired,
the bark is moistened with vinegar, after having  been  cut in the  requi-
site  form and size,  and applied  to the skin ; it is renewed twice a day,
until a blister is formed.  It is slow in its operation, frequently requiring
forty-eight hours to vesicate.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Sarsaparilla Compositum ;  Unguentum Me-
zerei.
                     DATURA  STRAMONIUM.
                            Stramonium.
       Nat. Ord.—Solanaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                      THE LEAVES AND  SEEDS.
  Description. — This plant, also known by the names of Thorn Apple,
Jamestown weed, Stinkweed, Apple-peru, etc., is a bushy, smooth, fetid, 
430
Materia Medica.
annual plant, two or three feet in hight, and in rich soil even more ; the
root is large, whitish, and furnished with numerous fibers.  The stem
is erect, round, smooth, somewhat  shining, simple below,  dichotomous
above, with numerous spreading branches, of a yellowish-green  color,
cylindrical, often  hollow.  The leaves stand  on short, round petioles in
the forks of the stem, alternate, five or six inches long, ovate-triangu-
lar,  or oval-oblong, irregularly sinuated, with  large  acute  teeth and
round  sinuses,  end acute, unequal at the base, decurrent, of  a  dark-
green color  on  the upper  surface, and paler beneath.  The flowers  are
large, erect or nodding,  axillary,  solitary, on  short  peduncles," white.
Calyx  monosepalous, tubular, pentangular, five-toothed, deciduous, but
leaving a persistent  rim  at the base which becomes reflexed.  Corolla
funnel-shaped,  with  a long  tube,  monopetalous ;  its limb subangular,
waved and folded, and  terminating in five acuminate teeth.  Stamens
five ; filaments adhering  to the  tube, and  supporting oblong, erect an-
thers.   Ovary free, but coherent at base  with the  persistent rim of the
calyx, oval, hairy ;  style filiform, as long  as the stamina, and bearing an
obtuse, bi-lamellar stigma.   Fruit, a large fleshy,  roundish-ovate, four-
valved, four-celled  capsule, thickly covered on  the  outside with  sharp
spines  or thorns, opening inside at the  top, with  numerous, reniform,
black seeds filling the cells,  and attached to  a  longitudinal  receptacle
occupying the center of each cell.
  Datura Tatula, or Purple Stramonium, differs from  the above, in
having a dark-reddish stem,  minutely dotted with green, and flowers of
a purplish color,  with deep purple stripes  on the inside.
  History.—Stramonium  is a well-known, poisonous weed,  growing in
all parts of the  United States, along road-sides, waste grounds, etc., and
flowering  from July to September.   Its native country is unknown.  It
is  found growing in  Asia, Europe, Canada,  Mexico, and  Peru.   The
whole plant has an unpleasant, fetid, narcotic odor, which diminishes upon
drying.   Almost every part  of the plant is possessed of medicinal pro-
perties, but the  officinal  parts are the leaves  and seeds.   The leaves
should be gathered when  the flowers are  full blown, and carefully dried
in the shade.  They have a rank odor when fresh,  especially if  bruised,
which  is lost on drying,  and a mawkish, bitter, nauseous  taste.  They
impart their properties to  water, alcohol, and  the fixed oils.   Water dis-
tilled from them  slightly  possesses their odor, but  does not contain their
active properties.  They  consist of gum,  extractive, green starch, albu-
men, resin, saline matters, lignin, and water.   The seeds are small, kid-
ney-shaped, flat,  of a  dark-brown, almost black color when  ripe, pale
grayish-brown  when unripe,  inodorous, similar in taste with  the leaves,
with some acrimony   When bruised they emit the peculiar heavy odor
of the herb.    They should  be gathered when ripe.   They contain  a
glutinous  matter, gum, albumen, a butyraceous substance, green wax,
resin insoluble in ether,  fixed oil, bassorin, sugar, gummy extractive, 
Datura Stramonium.
431
orange-colored extractive, various  saline and earthy substances, and a
peculiar alkaline  principle called Daturia.  Water, spirit, and fixed oils
take up their active  properties.
  Daturia may be obtained by  evaporating the alcoholic tincture of the
seeds with a very gentle heat, decolorizing by repeated additions of lime
and sulphuric acid alternately,  with filtration  after each addition, and
then still further  concentrating by evaporation ; an excess of powdered
carbonate of  soda is now to be added to decompose the product, and the
precipitate which follows is to be separated, as speedily as possible, from
the alkaline liquor by expressing, exhausting the residue with absolute
alcohol, and treating the  alkaline or mother waters, with sulphuric ether.
The alcoholic  and  ethereal liquors are now to be united, and treated
with  lime, filtered, and then decolorized with animal charcoal.   Distil
off the etherized alcohol, add  a little water,  and evaporate  by a very
gentle heat.   If the daturia  now  deposited should still be  colored, it
must be combined anew with an acid, and the whole  process  repeated
from the  addition of carbonate of soda onward, in order to obtain it
quite pure.  It  crystallizes  in  colorless, inodorous, shining needles, at
first bitterish when applied to the tongue, but ultimately conveying a flavor
similar to that of tobacco.  It dissolves in 280 parts of cold, and 72 of
boiling water, is  very soluble in alcohol, and less so in ether.   It forms
salts with acids.  It  is obtained  from the seeds in very small proportions,
yielding under the most favorable circumstances only one-fiftieth of one
per cent.   It is  fusible, volatile, and very poisonous.   Dr. Von  Planta
considers  daturia identical  with  atropia, the  formula  of each  being
C38 H-23 NOe.  By the destructive  distillation of stramonium,  Morries
obtained a highly poisonous empyreumatized oil.

   Properties and Uses.—In  large  doses, a powerfully narcotic poison,
producing dryness of  the  throat,  excessive  thirst, nausea, vomiting,  a
sense of strangulation, faintness, anxiety, cardialgia, blindness, dilatation
of  the pupils, vertigo, delirium either of a furious or whimsical charac-
ter, tremors  of  the   limbs, palsy, stupor, convulsions,  and often death.
In  less quantity it generally causes more or less cerebral  disturbance for
several hours, as vertigo, headache,  dimness  or perversion  of vision,
confusion of thought, and a species of intoxication or slight  delirium
In  medicinal doses, it acts as an anodyne-antispasmodic, without causing
constipation, and will prove serviceable in cases where opium  cannot he
given.  It has  proved  serviceable in mania,  epilepsy, gastritis, and
enteritis,  and may likewise  be used  to  allay rheumatic, syphilitic, and
neuralgic pains.   In  combination  with quinia,  it forms an invaluable
preparation which has  been found exceedingly beneficial in intermittent
fever, all periodic pains, headache, dysmenorrhea, delirium tremens, etc.
The leaves, dried and smoked, are said to be useful in spasmodic asthma,
but we do not recommend  them, having more efficient  means  to cure 
432
Materia Medica.
this disease.   It  is  said  that  the  seeds exert an influence, to prevent
abortion, superior to anything else ;  seven seeds to be given at first, after
Avhich one every  hour, as may be required.
   In plethoric habits, and in patients Avith determination to the head,
stramonium must be administered with caution, keeping the excretory
organs, as the skin, kidneys, and bowels in an active  condition during its
employment.   Externally, a poultice of the fresh leaves, bruised, or the
dried leaves in hot water, will be found an excellent  application over the
bowels in severe  forms of  gastritis, enteritis, peritonitis, etc.   I have in
many instances applied them to the  perineum, in cases of retention  of
urine  from enlarged prostate, where it was impossible to introduce a
catheter, and after having allowed them to remain for  about half an hour,
have been enabled to pass the catheter with ease  and facility, and  thus
afford relief to the patient.  I  have met with  similar  good results  in
urethral stricture.   It will also be found beneficial as a local medication to
all species of painful ulcers, acute ophthalmia, swelled breasts, inflamma-
tory rheumatism,  and hemorrhoidal tumors.  An ointment of it is very
valuable in many of the  above diseases.   In  cases where the leaves
cannot be obtained, a plaster of the alcoholic extract or inspissated juice,
may be applied over the affected parts; or the extract may be rendered
thin by heating it in diluted alcohol, and then formed into a poultice with
meal, or moistened  bread, and  applied.  In the absence of belladonna,
the extract of  stramonium may be  mixed  with  lard, and rubbed  over
the eyelid, or a solution of it dropped into the  eye,  in order to  produce
dilatation of the pupil, previous to the operation  for cataract; it is equal-
ly efficacious with this agent.   Dose of the powdered  leaves or seeds,
from one to five grains;  of the extract, which is the  best form of admin-
istration, from one-eighth of a grain to two  grains;  of the tincture, for
which  the seeds bruised, are preferable, from five to  thirty drops.
   Daturia is seldom employed in medicine ;  it is a very energetic poison,
one-eighth of a grain having killed a sparrow in three hours, and nearly
proved fatal to a  cat when applied to the eye.   Very minute quantities
applied to the eye, occasion  protracted  and excessive dilatation of the
pupil.   In cases  of poisoning by stramonium, the best mode of obtain-
ing relief, is  to evacuate the stomach by emetics or  the stomach-pump,
after which vinegar and water may be used, with mucilaginous drinks at
a later period, and strong coffee, tea, and  other  stimulating drinks, if
there is much prostration.   Magneto-electricity  may  also be useful.
   Off. Prep.— Cataplasma Stramonii ;  Extractum Stramonii Alcoholi-
cum ; Tinctura Stramonii; Tinctura Viburnii Composita;  Unguentum
Stramonii; Unguentum Stramonii Compositum. 
Daucus  Carota.
433
                        DAUCUS CAROTA.

                             Wild Carrot.

            Nat. Ord.—Apiaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.

                        the root and seeds.
    Description.—Wild Carrot has a biennial, slender, yellowish, spindle-
  shaped, aromatic  and sweetish root, and  an  annual, round, furrowed,
  leafy, hispid stem, two or three feet high, which divides into long, erect,
  flower-bearing  branches.  The leaves  are  alternate, on broad,  concave,
  ribbed petioles, and pale-green ; the lower are large and tripinnate ; the
  upper, smaller  and less compound ; in both, the leaflets are linear, acute.
  The fiowers are small, white or cream-color, and are disposed in dense,
  and many-rayed compound umbels, which  are at first flat on the top and
  spreading, but  when the seeds are formed, contract so as to present  a
  concave cup-like  surface;  in the center of  the umbel a sterile floAver of
  a deep-purple color is often observed.  The general involucre is composed
  of several leaves, divided into long narrow segments, nearly the  length
  of the umbel;  partial  involucre undivided, or partly three-cleft, mem-
  branous at the  edges.  The petals are five, unequal, and cordate.   Fruit
  small, pale dull brown,  oval.   Mericarps  with the primary ribs filiform,
 bristly, three near the middle of the  convex back, and two on the plane
 of the commissure.   Secondary ridges deeper  and  irregularly split into
 setaceous  lobes.  Vittce, one under each secondary ridge, and two on the
 plane of the commissure.

   History.—The  wild carrot is a native of  many parts of Europe, and is
 extensively naturalized in  the United States, growing in neglected fields
 and  by road-sides,  and flowering  from June  to September.  The well
 known Garden Carrot is the same plant, someAvhat altered by cultivation.
 The root of the wild variety, and the seeds of both  kinds  are  officinal.'
 The seeds, or more strictly speaking, the fruit,  are light, of a dull-brown-
 ish color,  an oval shape, convex and  bristly on one side, and flat on the
 other, presenting on  their convex face  four  longitudinal ridges, with
 stiff  hairs or bristles attached;  they have an aromatic odor, and a warm,
 pungent, bitterish taste.   Their virtues depend upon a volatile oil of a
 pale-yellow color, and which may be obtained by distillation.   Boiling
 water extracts their active properties, which, however, is lost by  decoc-
 tion.
   The root is fusiform, slender, Avhitish-yellow, hard, coriaceous,  branch-
ed, possessing a peculiar aromatic odor, and a  bitter, acrid, disagreeable
 taste.   The  root  of the cultivated variety is  reddish, succulent, thick,
 conical, rarely branched, of a pleasant somewhat  aromatic odor,  and a
 sweet, mucilaginous, peculiar taste.  The root contains crystallizable and
 uncrystallizable  sugar, starch, extractive, gluten, albumen, volatile oil, 
434
Materia Medica.
pectin, malic acid, saline matters, lignin, and a peculiar, crystallizable,
ruby-red, neuter principle, tasteless and inodorous, called Carotin.
   Pectin or vegetable jelly exists more or less in all  vegetables ; it may
be separated from the juice of fruits by alcohol,  which precipitates it  in
the form of jelly; this being washed with weak alcohol and dried, yields
a semi-transparent substance  somewhat resembling  isinglass.   When
placed in one hundred parts  of cold water,  it swells, and forms a homo-
geneous jelly.  Cold water acts upon it much better than boiling.  A fixed
alkali or an alkaline earthy base converts it  into pectic acid, which unites
with the base,  forming a pectate.   Another acid being added, decompo-
sition ensues, the last acid unites with  the base,  separating the pectic
acid.   Pectic acid is in the form of a colorless jelly, gives acid reactions,
forms salts with  the alkalies, and insoluble salts with the earths  and
metallic oxides.
   Properties and Uses.—Both the root and seeds are stimulant and diu-
retic.   Used in infusion  Avith much success, in dropsy, chronic nephritic
affections, and  gravel.   Also  as a  carminative, and to relieve strangury
from cantharides.  Externally^, scraped or grated,  it forms an excellent
application as a poultice  to phagedenic,  cancerous, malignant and indo-
lent ulcers—relieving the  pain, correcting  the  fetor, lessening the dis-
charge, and altering the morbid condition of the parts.  Dose of the
infusion, from two to four fluidounces, three or four times daily.
   Off. Prep.—Cataplasma Dauci; Infusum Dauci.
                   DELPHINIUM  CONSOLIDA.
                              Larkspur.
                 DELPHINIUM STAPHISAGRIA.
                             Stavesacre.
       Nat. Ord.—Ranunculaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Polyandria  Trigynia.
                        the root and seeds.
  Description.—Delphinium Consolida  is an annual herbaceous plant,
with an erect, slightly pubescent, cylindrical, divaricate stem, from one
to two  feet high ;  root simple, slender.   The  leaves  are sessile, and
divided into numerous linear, acute segments, usually  bifurcate  at the
summit.   The floicers are  bright-blue  or  purple, and disposed in loose,
few-floAvered, terminal racemes, on rigid peduncles which are furnished
with two  small,  alternate  bracts.   The nectary is  one-leaved, with an
ascending anterior spur, about the length of the corolla.   Carpels foll^
cular, solitary, smooth, containing numerous black,  or  blackish-broAvn,
angular, hirsute seeds.
  Delphinium Staphisagria is a handsome annual or biennial plant, one
or two  feet high, with  a  simple,  erect, downy stem.   The leaves are 
Delphinium  Cons olid a.
436
broad, palmate, five or seven-lobed, on hairy petioles.  The flowers axe
bluish-gray, in terminal loose racemes, with hairy pedicels twice as long
as the flower, and  bracts  inserted at their base.   The nectary is four-
leaved, and shorter than the petals, which are five in number, dirty-
white, the two lower spathulate, the uppermost projected backward so as
to form a spur, which incloses two spurs of the upper leaflets of the nec-
tary.   Capsules three, large, villous, containing many globose, three-
cornered, thick, black seeds.
   History.—The Delphinium Consolida is a native of Europe, which has
become naturalized in the United States, growing in woods and fields,
and flowering in June and July:  when wild  the flowers  are  blue, but
when cultivated, are of  various colors, as red, white,  blue, etc.  The
finest flowers are obtained from  seed sown late in  summer,  or in the
beginning of autumn.   All parts of the plant are endoAved with a bitter,
acrid  principle, which  is most strongly developed in the seeds, which
also contain much oil.  The flowers  furnish, by expression, a blue pig-
ment, which is permanent if alum be used as a mordant.   Diluted alco-
hol is its best solvent.
   The D. Staphisagria is a native of the south  of Europe, growing in
waste places ; the seeds are the officinal part.   They are about the  size
of a grain of Avheat, irregularly triangular, wrinkled, externally black or
brown, internally whitish and oily, with a slight, unpleasant odor, and a
very acrid, bitter, hot, nauseous taste.  Their virtues are extracted by
water or alcohol.
   The seeds of the D. Consolida contain delphinia, volatile oil, fixed oil,
gum,  resin,  chlorophylle, gallic acid, and salts of potassa, lime and iron.
Those of the D. Staphisagria  contain a brown and a yellow bitter prin-
ciple, a volatile oil, a fixed oil, albumen, an azotized substance,  a muci-
laginous, saccharine matter, mineral salts, and a peculiar alkaline prin-
ciple  combined with an excess of malic acid, called Delphinia.
   Delphinia may be obtained by boiling  a decoction of the seeds with
magnesia, collecting the  precipitate, and  treating it with alcohol, which
dissolves the  delphinia,  and yields it upon  evaporation.   It  is white,
pulverulent,  inodorous,  of a  bitter, acrid taste,  fusible by heat,  and
becoming hard and brittle upon  cooling, slightly soluble in cold water,
very soluble in alcohol  and ether, and forms salts with the  acids.  It
contains three distinct principles,—one of a resinous nature separated from
its solution in diluted  sulphuric  acid by the   addition  of nitric acid,—
another insoluble in ether, and termed  Staphisain,—and a third soluble
both in alcohol and ether, and considered as pure Delphinia.
   Properties and Uses.—The D. Staphisagria possesses the same  proper-
ties as the D. Consolida, but  in a higher degree.   In  large doses they
are irritant poisons ; in medicinal doses the former is emetic,  cathartic,
and  narcotic, but  its action is  too violent   and uncertain  for these 
436
Materia Medica.
indications. An infusion of the seeds of Stavesacre, may, however, be ad-
vantageously used  both by the mouth, and  in injection, as a vermifuge.
PoAvdered and  mixed with  lard, the seeds have been found  useful in
some forms of  cutaneous  disease, and to destroy lice in the hair;  a tinc-
ture, or infusion of the bruised seeds  in vinegar may be employed for the
same purpose.   The seeds have likewise been used in some countries to
intoxicate fish.
   The flowers  of the  D. Consolida, are considered diuretic, emmena-
gogue, and vermifuge ; they were formerly used as a local  application
to wounds, and the decoction was recommended as efficacious  in some
ophthalmic affections. The seeds possess similar properties with those of
the  D. Staphisagria, but less energetic.  A tincture of them has  been
recommended in calculus, as a vermifuge, and to destroy lice in the hair;
it has also been found useful in spasmodic asthma  and dropsy.  It may
be prepared by macerating an ounce of them in a pint of diluted alco-
hol ;  the dose is ten drops gradually increased until some effects upon
the system are produced.   The root possesses  similar virtues but is  sel-
dom  employed.  A drachm  of  two of the flowers of  D.  Consolida,
placed in  a pint of  hot water, and slowly simmered down to half a pint,
then strained and sweetened, is  said to be an excellent  remedy for chol-
era  morbus ; to be  administered in teacupful  doses, at short intervals,
until relief is obtained.   As an antiemetic in the vomiting  of autumnal
fevers and other  diseases,  this  plant  is highly extolled,  calming the
stomach speedily, and giving a delightful relief; it is  used in infusion,
made similar to the  above, by adding half  an ounce of the leaves and
flowers to half a pint  of  boiling water.  The dose is a wineglassful, to
be  repeated every  half  hour  or oftener,  if ^necessary.   This plant
undoubtedly deserves further investigation.
  Delphinia possesses the  peculiar properties of the seed in an eminent
degree.   It is very poisonous exerting its effects chiefly on  the  nervous
system ; six grains of it dissolved in  vinegar killed a dog in forty min-
utes,— the symptoms  are vomiting, giddiness, and convulsions.   Dr.
Turnbull  states that pure  delphinia may be given in doses of half a
grain, to the  extent of  three or four  grains  a day, without any unplea-
sant results ; it sometimes  purges, mostly promotes diuresis, and occa-
sions feelings of heat and tingling in various  parts of the body.  If used
at  all, it should be with excessive  caution.   Externally, it has been suc-
cessfully used in neuralgia,  rheumatism, and paralysis ; it is applied by
friction oA'er the part in the form of ointment  or  alcoholic solution, in
proportions varying  from  ten to thirty grains of delphinia to one ounce
of the vehicle ; and the friction  should be  continued  till some redness
and  burning are produced. 
          Diervilla Canadensis — Digitalis  Purpurea.       437

                  DIERVILLA  CANADENSIS.
                        Bush Honeysuckle.
      Nat. Ord.—Caprifoliaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                     ROOT, LEAVES AND TWIGS.
  Description.—This plant,  the  Diervilla Triflda  of Manchausen, and
sometimes called  Gravelweed, is  a low shrub,  with a branching, pithy,
stem, about two or three feet high.  The leaves  are from two to four
inches long,  by one to one and a  half broad, ovate,  acuminate, finely ser-
rate, opposite, deciduous, on short petioles.   The peduncles  are axillary
and terminal, dichotomous,  and from  one to three-flowered;  flowers
greenish-yellow.   The calyx tube oblong, limb five-cleft, with two bracts;
corolla twice as long as the  calyx, greenish-yellow, five-cleft, funnel-
shaped ;  border five-cleft, spreading.  Stamens five, which with the style
are much exserted.  Stigma capitate.   Capsule oblong, alternate  above,
two-celled, naked, with many seeds.
  History.—This is a woody shrub, growing in the  United States from
Canada to Carolina, in hedges and thickets, and by  the  sides of fences
and rocks, flowering in June.  The leaves, twigs, and roots are the parts
usod,  and yield their properties to alcohol, and boiling water in infusion.
  Properties and  Uses. — Diuretic, astringent, and  alterative.   A cold
infusion  of  the bruised leaves  and  twigs,  used freely, has been very
beneficial in inflammation  of the bladder with  gravelly deposit in the
urine, in nephritic and calculous affections,  and in gonorrhea.  The root
is said to be  a superior article, in decoction or syrup,  for the cure of
syphilis.   Externally, applied to  erysipelas, or erysipelatous inflamma-
tions, and over the inflamed surface occasioned by the rhus, ivy or poison
vine, it soon relieves the itching, burning, inflammation and swelling.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Diervilla.
                    DIGITALIS PURPUREA.
                             Foxglove.
   Nat. Ord.—Scrophulariaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Angiospermia.
                            THE LEAVES.
  Description.—Foxglove is  an  elegant plant with a biennial, whitish,
fibrous root, which in the first year sends up large tufted leaves, and  in
the following summer, a single,  erect, wand-like, roundish with several
slight angles, downy and leafy stem, rising from two to five feet in hight,
and terminating in a spike of purple flowers ; the lower leaves are ovate,
acuminate, rugose, crenate,  downy, especially on their under surface,
veined, of a dull-green color above and paler beneath,  tapering at the 
438
Materia Medica.
base into short, Avinged petioles, about eight inches in length  and three
in breadth, and spreading on the ground ; the upper or cauline ones  are
alternate, elliptic-oblong, somewhat decurrent, and in other respects like
the former.  The flowers are very numerous, large, pendulous, scentless,
on short peduncles, and are arranged in a long, erect, one-sided, termi-
nal spike.   At the base of each peduncle is a  sessile, ovate, and acumi-
nate floral  leaf.   The  calyx is divided into five segments, rounded  or
acute, much shorter than the corolla, of which the uppermost is  the nar-
rowest.   The  corolla is monopetalous, campanulate, spotted  within  as
well as hairy, inflated on the lower side, and narrowed at base, the upper
lip somewhat  cleft, emarginate, and smaller than the lower.   The sta-
mens are didynamous, subulate, inserted into the base of the  corolla,
declined,  white,   supporting  large,  oval,  acute,  deeply-cleft, naked
anthers.   The ovary is pointed, ovate, having a simple style, with a bifid
stigma.   The  capsule is ovate, acuminate, two-celled, two-valved, with a
septicidal  dehiscence,  and  containing  numerous small, oblong, pale-
broAvn, pitted seeds.
  History.—Foxglove is  a native  of the temperate parts of  Europe,
where it grows wild, and is cultivated in this country; it flowers in June
and July.   The leaves and the seeds are  active, though the former are
the officinal  parts.   The  full grown and  perfectly fresh leaves  are
gathered in the  second  year  about the period  of inflorescence,  the
petioles and midrib being rejected, and are then dried by exposure to
a current of dry air, by being placed in a drying-stove, or  by  being
inclosed in a hot-air press.  Much care is necessary in  preserving them
for medical purposes, or  else  they will  prove  inefficient.  When well
prepared,  the powder has a fine green color, and retains the intense bit-
terness of the fresh leaves.  The dried leaves  or the powder should con-
stantly be kept in well-closed, opake vessels, so as to exclude light and
moisture.   Age deteriorates its virtues, consequently the drug  should  be
renewed  yearly.   The compact masses of digitalis prepared by  the
Shakers, are seldom  of good quality, being much disposed to moldiness;
but when  free from this they may be used with advantage, if  recently
prepared.   We  consider  this, however, a very objectionable mode  of
preserving this, as well as many other, agents.  In  the fresh  state, fox-
glove has  but little smell, but when dried emits a faint, narcotic odor;
the fresh juice has a faint, mawkish smell, and is easily evaporated spon-
taneously  without undergoing decomposition,  forming a firm, elegant
extract.  The taste of  the leaves and juice is intensely bitter,  nauseous,
and  permanent.   The dried leaf is of a dull, pale-green color, with a
whitish doAvn on its under surface; the powder is of a  fine deep green.
Water, alcohol, ether,  or diluted acids take up its virtues.  A  solution
of sesquichloride of  iron added to infusion  of digitalis, renders it dark-
greenish-black—tincture of galls causes a gray precipitate ; when tritu-
rated with  lime, the  leaves  give  out ammonia.  Digitalis  contains a 
Digitalis  Purpurea.
439
volatile oil, a fatty matter, a red coloring substance similar to extractive,
chlorophylle, albumen, starch, sugar, gum, lignin, salts of potassa, and
lime, digitalic acid,  volatile antirrhinic acid,  and a neutral,  energetic
principle, upon which its properties chiefly depend, called digitalin.  Dr.
Morries obtained a narcotic empyreumatic oil by the  destructive distilla-
tion of the leaves.
   Digitalin may be prepared  as  follows:—First, prepare an  alcoholic
extract, by making a paste of the coarsely powdered leaves with rectified
spirit, expressing  the solution, and distilling off  the spirit—this extract
is to be  treated with  distilled water  acidulated with  acetic  acid, and
heated to about 110° F., a little animal charcoal being added.  To the
liquor, filtered,  and partially neutralized by ammonia, a fresh concen-
trated infusion  of galls is  gradually added,  so long as a precipitate is
produced.   This  precipitate, which  is  tannate of digitalin, is obtained
separate by decanting the liquid, washing it with  pure water mixed with
a little alcohol,  and then rubbing it in a mortar, with one-third  of its
weight of very finely-powdered litharge.  The mixture is gently heated,
and submitted to the action of twice  its volume of alcohol at about 90°.
The alcoholic solution  is treated with a little animal  charcoal, filtered,
and evaporated at a very gentle heat.   The residue  is acted on twice or
three  times  with  cold  sulphuric ether, which removes  impurities and
leaves the  digitalin.   This may  be  powdered, or  obtained  in  small
scales by dissolving it in the least  quantity of alcohol, and allowing the
concentrated solution to evaporate in a stove upon plates of glass.   One
hundred  parts of the  leaves  yield  about one part of digitalin.   It  is
white, inodorous,  crystallizing with difficulty, intensely bitter,  sternuta-
tory when powdered, slightly decomposed at a  boiling heat, soluble in
about two thousand parts of cold water, more soluble in boiling water,
which retains one part in  one thousand when it cools, very soluble in
alcohol, slightly soluble in ether, incapable of precipitating salts, neutral,
and devoid of nitrogen.   It prevents fermentation in an aqueous solution
of sugar, and is probably a poison to  beer-yeast.   With tannic acid it
forms an  insoluble compound ; to concentrated muriatic  acid it imparts
a fine emerald-green color.  The  seeds are preferable to the leaves, as
they contain a larger amount of digitalin, and can be  better relied upon
as to time of collection, preserving, etc.
   Properties and Uses.—In single large doses,  digitalis is  an irritant-
narcotic poison, producing, nausea,  vomiting, stupor or delirium, purging,
cold SAveats, extreme  prostration of strength, a slow, feeble,  irregular
pulse, hiccough, suppression of urine, coma, convulsions, and death.  In
doses sufficient  to bring the  system under its immediate  influence,  it
causes an augmented and permanent flow of urine, reduces the pulse to
forty or even thirty beats in a minute, with languor, nausea, occasionally
anxiety and salivation, a sense of weight or constriction and dull pain in
the head, giddiness, dimness of vision,  and more or less confusion of the 
440
Materia  Medica.
mental faculties;  occasionally it gives rise to irritation of the pharynx,
larynx,  trachea and esophagus, with hoarseness.  And if the use of the
remedy be persisted  in, these  effects will continue to increase, until the
poisonous symptoms, first referred to, become developed.   In medicinal
doses,  foxglove  is sedative and  diuretic, and  may be  employed with
advantage  in  febrile diseases, acute inflammations, neuralgia attended
with irritative fever,  hemoptysis, palpitation of the  heart, mania, epi-
lepsy, pertussis,  and spasmodic asthma.  As a diuretic, in  dropsy con-
nected with diseased heart  or kidneys.   It  should always  be used with
care, as it will sometimes act suddenly with an accumulated influence, and
endanger the life of the patient.   When its effects begin to appear, its use
should be suspended for a time, as it is very permanent in its action, and
if its  sedative effect  is too great, it is best counteracted by the use of
wine  and opium conjointly.  Dose of the powder from  one to three
grains;  of the tincture from ten to twenty minims, either being repeated
two or three times daily, and  gradually increased  until some effect  is
produced upon the head, stomach,  pulse, or kidneys, when it should be
diminished, or entirely omitted.
  The poisonous effects of  digitalis  are best counteracted by first evacu-
ating  the stomach by the  free use  of warm liquids, if any  of it is sup-
posed to remain  in  the  stomach,  and then administering brandy, wine,
ammonia, or other stimulants,  with  sinapisms to the wrists and ankles.
  Digitalin produces  similar effects on the system with digitalis, but its
internal employment is hazardous, and requires great caution.  If given
at all, it should be commenced with the fiftieth  of a grain, and gradually
and cautiously increased to an  amount not to exceed  the  twelfth of a
grain.
    Off.  Prep.—Tinctura Digitalis.
                     DIOSCOREA  VILLOSA.
                            Wild Yam.
         Nat. Ord.—Dioscoreaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Dioecia Hexandria.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—This  plant,  sometimes called  Colic-root, is  a delicate,
twining  vine, with a  perennial root, from which  proceeds a smooth,
woolly, reddish-brown  stem, one  or  two lines in  diameter,  and from
five to fifteen feet long.  The leaves are from two  to four inches long,
about three-fourths as wide, mostly alternate, occasionally nearly oppo-
site or verticillate in fours, broad-ovate, distinctly cordate and acuminate,
nine to  eleven-veined,  margin entire or wavy, villose with short, soft
hairs on  the lower surface, and glabrous on the upper.   The petioles are
elongated, the lowest somewhat verticillate in fours,  the next subopposite,
the middle and upper alternate, and from two to four.  The flowers are 
DlOSCOREIN.
441
dioecious, very small, of a pale-greenish yellow color, and in axillary pani-
cles or racemes.  The sterile flowers have six stamens inserted on the base
of the divisions of the six-parted perianth ; anthers introrse, with the spikes
paniculate ; the fertile flowers have the ovary adherent, Avith three styles,
and  simple  spikes.   Peduncles  axillary.   Ovaries at first elliptic, but
finally almost as broad as long, about three-fourths of an inch in length,
three-celled, loculicidally three-valved by splitting through the winged
angles.   Seeds one  or two in each  cell, flat, with a membranaceous
margin.
  History.—This is a slender vine, twining over bushes and fences, in
thickets and hedges, and flowering in June and July.   It is  a native of
the United  States and Canada, being, however,  more  common  south-
ward, and  rare  in  the New England States.   The root  is the officinal
part; it is long, woody, contorted, from an eighth to a fourth of an inch
in diameter, with many fine, long, scattering fibers, of a light, broAvnish-
yellow color externally, and whitish internally, with a granular fracture,
almost smooth,  inodorous,  except when  bruised, then it emits  a faint
peculiar  smell,  and  a  not unpleasant,  slightly bitter,  sweetish  and
pungent  taste.  Water  or  alcohol  are its  solvents.  No analysis has
been  made of this root, further than to  extract its active constituent,
dioscorein.
  Properties and Uses.—Antispasmodic.   Successfully used by Eclectics
in bilious colic in doses of half a pint of the decoction, repeated every half
hour or hour;  in fact, no other agent seems necessary  in this disease, as
it gives prompt and permanent relief in the most severe cases.   It will
likewise  allay nausea, also spasms  of the  bowels, and, combined with
equal parts of the bark of Cornus  Sericea in decoction, is eminently
beneficial in the nausea and vomiting of pregnant women.  In ordinary
cases the decoction of the .root may be given in  doses of from  two to
four fluidounces, and  repeated every half hour until  relief  is obtained.
The tincture is said to be a  valuable expectorant and diaphoretic,  and in
large doses produces emesis.  Dose of the tincture from twenty to sixty
drops.
   Off.  Prep. —Decoctum  Dioscorea; Dioscorein.
                           DIOSCOREIN.
    THE RESINOID PRINCIPLE OF THE ROOT OF DIOSCOREA VILLOSA.
  Preparation.—Make  a saturated tincture  of the powdered roots of
Dioscorea Villosa, and  filter; add the  tincture to its weight of water,
and carefully distil off the alcohol; the dioscorein will be left behind in
the water; collect, dry, and pulverize it.   It is prepared similarly to
Cimicifugin, Leptandrin, Podophyllin, etc.
  History.—The profession are  indebted to W. S. Merrell for the prepa-
ration and  introduction  of  this  highly valuable  agent;  it having been 
442
Materia  Medica.
discovered by him in the winter of 1852-3.   It forms a light yellowish-
brown powder of a faint smell, and a slightly SAveetish, resinous, very
bitter, disagreeable taste, with a persistent acridity which is very sensibly
felt  in  the throat  and  fauces.  When exposed  to the atmosphere it
absorbs moisture, becomes  darker colored,  tenacious, of a pilular con-
sistence, and leaves  a light-yellowish greasy S'.ain on white paper in
which it is kept.   It has neither acid nor alkaline reactions.  When first
prepared it is wholly soluble  in alcohol, but on keeping  for a  time is
only  partially dissolved; in this respect it  resembles  podophyllin and
several other resinoids, which, though completely taken up by alcohol
at first, become less soluble in this menstruum by  age;  probably owing
to an oxidizing of the resinoid by the action of the atmospheric oxygen.
It is partly soluble in water, and insoluble in oil of turpentine.  Ether
very slightly dissolves it, and ammonia added to  the ethereal mixture
forms a dark-reddish turbid solution, with the ether floating on  the  top
of a  light straw color.   Chloroform  produces with it  a dark, muddy
solution, which becomes light brown on  the  addition of ammonia, and
if permitted  to stand for ten or fifteen minutes, the mixture divides into
four separate layers, the upper one being clear and of a dark Avine color,
the next turbid and light brown, the third  saponaceous and Avhitish-
yellow, and  the  lower one being  a clear yellowish-Avhite liquid.   By
rubbing with diluted muriatic  acid  it forms a liquid which, on standing,
throws down a yellowish-white precipitate, the supernatant liquor being
clear and transparent; the same result ensues when rubbed with diluted
sulphuric acid.   Ammonia added  to  its aqueous  solution forms a light
straAV-colored, saponaceous fluid, with a very small precipitate of a dark
color.  Rubbed with sulphuric acid it becomes of  a dark brownish-red
color, and  partially dissolves; with nitric acid, it becomes light  yellow-
ish-red;  with  muriatic  acid,  whitish-yellow; with acetic  acid a light
straw color, and partially dissolves; ammonia or liquor potassa forms an
amber color with it.  Dioscorein should be kept in bottles well-stopped;
if it  is desired to  form pills of it, exposure to the atmosphere will pro-
duce the proper tenacity for this purpose.
   Properties and Uses.—Dioscorein possesses the properties of the crude
root  in an eminent degree, and is undoubtedly as much  a specific in
bilious colic, as quinia is in intermittent.   In a severe case of bilious colic
pronounced past hope by several physicians, four grains rubbed up with
a tablespoonful of brandy afforded prompt relief, and a repetition of  the
dose, in about twenty minutes from the time of taking the first,  effected
a cure.  In  ordinary cases  one or  two grains of dioscorein may be
administered  every  five,  ten,  or twenty minutes, according to  the
urgency of the case.   In flatulence, borborygmi, etc., it may be advan-
tageously combined with ginger, aletrin, or asclepidin; in many forms
of uterine  disease its union with cimicifugin, senecin, caulophyllin, etc.,
will  prove very useful;  and it  may be combined with the extract of 
Diospyros  Virginiana.
443
cornus sericea,  to  overcome  the nausea  and  vomiting of  pregnant
females.   In cramp of the stomach, or painful spasmodic affections of the
bowels, a pill or powder  composed of equal parts of dioscorein, caulo-
phyllin, and viburine, will be found a remedy of great value, as well as
in after-pains; the mixture should be given in three or four-grain doses,
and repeated every half hour or hour.  It is strictly an Eclectic remedy
of great  value, and  not known  or employed  by practitioners of other
schools.  Dose of dioscorein, from one to four grains,  repeated as cir-
cumstances require.
                   DIOSPYROS VIRGINIANA.
                            Persimmon.
          Nat. Ord.—Ebenaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Dicecia Octandria.
                    the bark and  unripe fruit.
   Description.—This is an indigenous tree from twenty to sixty feet in
hight, with a trunk sometimes twenty inches in diameter, more especially
in its  southern locations, covered with  a rugged  blackish  bark,  and
having alternate, spreading branches.  The leaves are alternate, oval or
oblong, acuminate, with an entire margin, smooth  and  shining above,
paler beneath with reticulated veins, on  short, pubescent petioles, and
from three to five inches long.  The flowers are obscure, pale-greenish
yellow, lateral, axillary, mostly solitaiy, nearly sessile, the male  and
female flowers being on  different  trees, though  sometimes  a perfect
flower occurs, in Avhich the stamina are double the number  of the seg-
ments of the calyx,  and the stigmas equal to these segments.   The fila-
ments are short, free, or inserted on the calyx, with  bilobate anthers.
The  ovary is globular,  supporting  a very  short  style, with obtuse,
spreading stigmas.   The fruit is  a round, dark-yellow or orange berry,
containing a fleshy, edible  pulp, and from  six to  eight compressed,
hard seeds.
   History.—This is a well known  indigenous tree, common to the Middle
and Southern States, which flowers in May or  June, but  does not ripen
its fruit till the middle of autumn.  It is seldom found above the forty-
second  degree of north latitude.  The  unripe  fruit is very astringent,
but when matured, and after  having been touched  by the frost, it  is
sweet and palatable.  The  bark is  also astringent, and together with
the fruit, form the officinal portions of the tree.  The unripe fruit con-
tains tannic acid, sugar, malic  acid,  coloring matter, and lignin; when
ripe the tannic acid almost  disappears, while  the sugar and malic acid
increase  in quantity.  The bark, probably contains  tannic and  gallic
acids.  Water, spirit, or alcohol  extracts the virtues  of the bark  and
unripe  fruit.
   Properties and Uses.—Tonic and astringent.   The bark has been used
in intermittents, and both it and the unripe fruit  have been beneficial in 
444
Materia  Medica.
various forms of disease of the bowels,  chronic dysentery,  and uterine
hemorrhage; used in infusion, syrup, or vinous tincture, in the propor-
tion of one ounce of  the  bruised fruit to two fluidounces of the vehicle,
and half a fluidounce or more given to adults, and a fluidrachm or more
to infants.   The  infusion may  be  used as a gargle in ulcerated sore-
throat.  The ripe fruits are very grateful  and healthy, and as they ripen
at a time when most  other autumnal  fruits  have disappeared,  the tree
should be cultivated; for if it should improve in the same ratio as the
peach, plum, etc., it  Avould form a very valuable addition to  our fall
fruits.   A pleasant beer is made  with  the  ripe fruit, hops, water, and
yeast; and a species of brandy is obtained by distillation of  the fer-
mented infusion.
                       DIRCA PALUSTRIS.
                            Leatherwood.
       Nat. Ord.—Thymelaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Octandria Monogynia.
                             THE BARK.
  Description. — This  is an  indigenous  shrub, known  by the various
names of Moosewood, American Mezereon, and Wicopy,  and attains the
hight of five or six feet, having crooked, jointed, and spreading branches.
The leaves are alternate or scattered, nearly sessile, ovate, entire, rather
acute, downy when young, smooth and membranous when fully grown,
pale beneath, and not appearing till long after the flowers.  The fiowers
are in threes, on cohering peduncles, small, axillary, yellow, and funnel-
shaped ;  when young they are inclosed within a small, dark, hairy bud,
occupying a sheath or cavity in  the end of  each flowering branch.
Calyx eight-toothed, yellow, funnel-shaped, half an inch long, border
dilated,  drooping,  and contracted  at the middle  and  base.  Corolla
wanting.   Stamens  eight, much longer than the calyx, and alternately
a long and a short one, with rounded  anthers.   Ovary ovate, placed
obliquely,  the  style appearing to issue from one  side ;  style filiform,
curved, longer than the stamens, and terminated by an  acute stigma.
Fruit, a small,  oval,  red   or  orange-colored  berry,  containing  a
single seed.
  History. — Found in most parts  of the United States,  but is more
abundant in the Atlantic than in the Western States ; it grows in shady
swamps, on the banks of streams, and in low, wet places, and floAvers
very early in the season, April and May, when  it is wholly destitute of
leaves.  The bark, Avhich is the officinal part, is very fibrous, extremely
tough, and difficult to pulverize.  It has a nauseous odor, an unpleasant
acrid taste, followed when chewed, by a flow of saliva,  and imparts its
properties  to alcohol, and imperfectly to water, even  by decoction.   It
has  been used for  making ropes, thongs, and baskets, and  might be 
DORSTENIA CONTRAYERVA.
445
advantageously employed in the arts, for making paper, etc.  The wood
is white, soft, and very brittle.  No complete analysis has been made of
the bark, but it appears to contain an  acrid resin, a  bitter extractive,
mucilage, etc.
  Properties and Uses.—The bark is  acrid, rubefacient and vesicant
when fresh; in the dose of six or eight grains  it produces a  sense of
heat in the stomach, with vomiting, and frequently purging.   Applied
to the skin  it slowly excites redness and ultimately vesication, and the
sores caused by it are difficult  to  heal, frequently degenerating into
obstinate and indolent ulcers.  When chewed it causes much  heat and
pain in the mouth, followed by salivation,  and has been found useful in
toothache, neuralgia, and other complaints where the acrid masticatories
are found to be beneficial.   A decoction of  the bark is expectorant and
sudorific, and  may be used as a  substitute  for mezereon.  The berries
are said to be  emetic, narcotic, and poisonous.  The bark or berries are
rarely used in practice, except in  the absence of better known and more
efficient articles.
                  DORSTENIA CONTRAYERVA.
                            Con tray erva.
        Nat. Ord.—Urticaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Tetrandria Monogynia.
                             THE  ROOT.
  Description.—This is  a caulescent  plant, with a perennial, fusiform,
rough, branching  root or rhizoma; the stem is covered with spreading,
green, scaly stipules. The leaves are about four inches in length, palm-
ate,  and placed upon long radical petioles, which are winged toward the
leaves ; the lobes are lanceolate, acuminate, coarsely serrate and  gashed,
occasionally almost pinnatifid.  The scapes  or flower-stems are  radical,
several inches long, and support quadrangular, and waved  or plaited
receptacles, which contain male and female flowers, the former having
two  stamens,  the  latter a  single  style.   The capsule when matured,
throws out the seeds with considerable force.
  History.—This plant grows  in  Mexico, the West Indies, and Peru.
The  root is the officinal part ; as found in the shops, it is oblong, one or
two inches in length, of various thicknesses,  very hard, rough, and solid,
of a  reddish-broAvn  color externally, and pale Avithin ; and has  numer-
ous long, slender,  yellowish fibers  attached to its inferior part.   It  has
an aromatic odor,  and a warm, slightly bitter, pungent taste.   Alcohol
or boiling water, extracts  its sensible qualities.   The tincture reddens
litmus paper, and yields a precipitate on the addition of water. The root
has not been analyzed, but contains starch,  volatile oil, resin, and bitter
extractive.   The  root of  the  shops  is probably derived  from  several 
446
Materia Medica.
other species than  the officinal, which possess similar virtues, as D.
Brasiliensis, D. Houstoni, D. Drakena.   Some writers suppose the D.
Brasiliensis, groAving in Brazil, to furnish the true root.   Contrayerva,
in the Spanish American language, means antidote, having the power to
counteract the effects of poisons.
   Properties and Uses.—Stimulant, tonic, and diaphoretic.   Has  been
used in low  states of fever,  malignant eruptive diseases, some  forms of
dysentery and diarrhea, and other diseases requiring gentle stimulation.
Dose of  the poAvdered root, thirty grains.   The best form of adminis-
tration is the infusion.  It is seldom used  in this  country, having  been
superseded by the Serpentaria.

            DRYMIS  WINTERI.   ( Wintera Aromatica.)
                            Winter's Bark.
       Nat. Ord.—Magnoliacea1..  Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Tetragynia.
                              the bark.
   Description.—This is a very large, evergreen, aromatic tree, varying
in size from six to fifty feet high.   The bark of the trunk is  gray and
wrinkled, and that of the branches smooth  and  green.   The branches
are  somewhat erect, and scarred by the traces of fallen leaves.  The
leaves  are alternate, oblong, obtuse, entire, quite smooth, shining, some-
what  coriaceous,  of  a deep-green  color above,  pale-bluish  beneath,
with two caducous  stipules at their base, and standing on short peti-
oles.  The flowers  are small, sometimes solitary,  frequently in clusters
of three  or four, and on short peduncles, which  are  either  simple or
divided a little above the base into  long pedicels.   The sepals are two
or three, green,  thick, coriaceous, and persistent.  The corolla consists of
seven  Avhite, obtuse, concave, erect, very caducous petals.   The fila-
ments  are numerous, shorter than the petals,  and support large, oval
anthers, longitudinally divided by a  deep  fissure.   The ovary is formed
of from  four  to eight carpels, and  is surrounded by a sessile stigma.
The fruit is a thick, fleshy, ovate berry, containing many seeds.
   History.—This is a very large, evergreen tree, a  native of Terra del
Fuego, and the  southern parts of  South America, and takes its  name
from its discoverer,  Captain Winter.  The bark of the  tree is the part
employed.  It is in quills or rolled  pieces of some length, of different
widths and thicknesses ; of a pale-yellowish, or dull reddish-gray, with
darker spots externally, and of a dark-cinnamon color internally.  The
odor is aromatic, and the taste warm, pungent, and spicy.   It contains
tannic acid and  oxide of iron, which serve to distinguish it from canella
alba, with which it is often confounded.
   Properties and  Uses. —Stimulant, aromatic, and tonic, and  may be
employed in all cases in which the Canella and Cinnamon are indicated 
Epigea Repens.
447
It Avas highly recommended by its discoverer as an antiscorbutic.   The
dose of the powder is about half a drachm.  It is seldom used in this
country.  Another species growing in Chili, Drymis  Chilensis, yields a
bark possessing analogous virtues.
                        EPIGEA REPENS.
                          Trailing Arbutus.
         Nat.  Ord.—Ericaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.
                            the leaves.
  Description.— This plant has  several names, as Winter-pink,  Gravel-
weed,  Mountain-pink,  Ground Laurel, May-fiower, etc.   It  is a small
trailing plant, indigenous, with Avoody stems  from six to twenty inches
long,  and is covered with a hairy pubescence in all its parts.   The leaves
are evergreen, alternate, cordate-ovate, entire, two or two and a half
inches long, by one and a half wide,  roundish at the  end, and abruptly
tipped with a very short point,  and stand on slender  petioles.  The
fiowers are very fragrant, white or tinged with various  shades  of red,
and are disposed in small axillary clusters on short stalks.   The corolla
is hypocrateriform, tube cylindrical, longer than the calyx, hairy within,
limb five-parted, spreading.  Calyx green, five-parted, Avith three large
bracts at  base ; stamens ten with filiform filaments ;  anthers oblong,
awnless, dehiscent by two longitudinal openings.  Capsule or pod de-
pressed globular, five-lobed, five-celled, many-seeded.
  History.—This  shrubby little plant  grows in sandy woods,  sometimes
in rocky  soil, in the shade  of pines, and is found  from Newfoundland to
Pennsylvania and Kentucky; it generally prefers  the sides of hills with
a northern  exposure.   Its flowers exhale a rich, spicy fragrance, and
appear in April and May.   The plant  is  said to be  injurious to cattle
when eaten by  them.   The  leaves  are  the officinal parts, and  yield
their  properties to water or spirits.   No analysis has been made of the
plant.
  Properties and  Uses.—Diuretic and astringent. This is a very valu-
able Eclectic  remedy,  and is  highly beneficial in gravel, and all  dis-
eases of the urinary organs ; it is superior to the uva ursi, or foreign
buchu, and  where these have failed  in producing benefit, this has suc-
ceeded.  It may be used in the same manner and doses as the uva ursi.
The  fluid extract is an elegant preparation for  all  urinary  difficulties.
It enters  into a very useful preparation, termed Diuretic compound, which
see  under the head of Infusions.  It has been  occasionally used with
advantage in diarrhea,  and bowel complaints of children.  The infusion
of the leaves may be drank freely7.
  Off. Prep.—Extractum Epigea Fluidum ;  Infusum Epigea. 
448
Materia  Medica.
                 EPILOBIUM  ANGUSTIFOLIUM.
                           Willow Herb.
        Nat. Ord.—Onagraceaj.  Sex. Syst.—Octandria Monogynia.
                       THE LEAVES AND  ROOT.
  Description.—This plant, sometimes known as Rose-bay, is the Epilo-
bium Spicatum of Lamark;  it is a perennial, indigenous plant, with a
simple, erect stem from four to six feet in hight.   The leaves are scat-
tered, lanceolate,  sessile, smooth,  subentire,  with a marginal  pellucid
vein, from  two to five inches in length,  and one-fourth as wide.  The
flowers are large,  numerous, very showy, pink-purple, and in a long ter-
minal spike or raceme.  The corolla has four deep lilac-purple petals,
clawed, and widely  spreading.   Calyx-tube  not  prolonged beyond the
ovary ; limb four-cleft, four-parted, and deciduous.   Stamens eight, and
as well as the style, turned to one side.  Stigma with four linear, long,
revolute  lobes.   Ovary and  capsule long, linear,  four-cornered,  four-
celled,  four-valved; seeds numerous, with  a tuft of long hairs.
  History.—Willow Herb is found growing in  the United States in newly
cleared lands, and low waste grounds, in  the  northern  States, flowering
in July and August.   The leaves and roots are the parts used, and yield
their virtues to water or spirits.
  Properties and  Uses.—Tonic,  astringent,  demulcent,  and emollient.
An infusion of the leaves will be found  beneficial in chronic diarrhea,
dysentery, leucorrhea, menorrhagia, and uterine hemorrhage ; and forms
an excellent local application for ophthalmia, ulcerations of the  mouth
and throat,  and leucorrhea.    The  leaves in poultice are a valuable rem-
edy for foul and indolent ulcers.   Dose of the infusion from two to four
fluidounces, three or four times a day.
                    EQUISETUM  HYEMALE.
                           Scouring Rush.
        Nat. Ord.—Equisetaceae.  Sex.. Syst.—Cryptogamia Filices.
                             THE PLANT.
  Description.—This  plant, also  knoAvn by the names of Horse Tail,
Shave Grass, etc., is a perennial plant, with simple, stout, erect, jointed
and hollow stems, fourteen to twenty-six longitudinal furroAvs, the ridges
rough with two rows of minute tubercles, and growing from two to three
feet in hight, each stem bearing a terminal, ovoid spike; frequently two
or more stems are united at the base from  the same root.   The sheaths
are from two to three lines long, and from  an inch to an inch and a half
apart, ashy-white, black at the base and summit, short, with subulate,
black, awned, and deciduous teeth, which leave a bluntly crenate margin. 
Erechthites Hieracifolius.
449
Fertile plants mostly leafless.   Fruit  placed  under peltate  polygons,
beinf pileus-like bodies, which are arranged in whorls,  forming a spike-
like  raceme ; from  four to  seven spiral filaments surround the spores,
which resemble green globules, and which roll up  closely around them
when moist, and uncoil, when dry.
  History.—The  plant is common to the northern and  western parts  of
the United  States, growing in wet grounds, on  river banks, and  borders
of woods, and maturing in June and July.  They, together with other
Cryptogamia abound in the fossil remains of coal measures, indicating
that they were once of gigantic dimensions, and formed a large part of
the original  flora of  our  globe.   The E. Lcevigatum and E.  Robustum,
of the southern and western borders of our country, may be substituted
for the above.  Silex enters largely into the composition of  these plants,
on which account they have  been used  to scour, rough polish,  etc.  The
whole plant is medicinal, and imparts its properties to water.
   Properties and Uses.—Diuretic and  astringent.  An  infusion  drank
freely has been found beneficial in dropsj^, suppression of urine, hema-
turia, gravel, and nephritic  affections;  and  has  also been  used with
advantage  in gonorrhea and gleet.   The ashes  of the plant are vejfy
valuable in dyspepsia connected with obstinate acidity of stomach, and
may be given alone, or combined with powdered resin, or hydraslin, etc.
Dose of the pulverized ashes  from three to  ten grains, to be repeated
three or four times daily.
               ERECHTHITES HIERACIFOLIUS.
                             Fireweed.
        Nat.  Ord.—Asteraceas.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Superflua.
                       THE ROOT AND  HERB.
  Description.—This plant is  the Senecio Hieracifolius of Linnaus ; it
has an  annual, herbaceous, grooved, thick,  fleshy, branching, virgate,
panicled, and  roughish  stem, from one  to  five or even eight feet high.
The leaves  are  simple, alternate, large, lanceolate or  oblong, acute,
unequally and deeply toothed with acute indentures, sessile, and  light-
green ; the upper ones often with an auricled clasping base.  The fiowers
are whitish, terminal, crowded, and destitute of rays.  Involucre smooth,
large, tumid and bristly at the base.   Achenia oblong, hairy.
  History.—This is an indigenous, rank weed, growing in fields through-
out the United States, in moist woods, and in  recent clearings, especially
and abundantly in such  as have been burned over.  It flowers from July
to October, and somewhat resembles in appearance the Sowthistle, Son-
chus Oleraceus;  the flowers somewhat resemble those of Lettuce.   The
whole plant is officinal, and yields its virtues to water or alcohol.   It has
a peculiar,  aromatic and somewhat fetid odor, very unpleasant to many
         29 
450
Materia  Medica.
persons, and a peculiar, slightly pungent, bitterish, rather disagreeable
taste, with some astringency.   These properties appear to depend upon
a volatile  oil, which  may be obtained from the plant  by distillation with
water, and which possesses in an eminent degree the  taste and  odor of
the plant, and which is very persistent; it is of a light-yellowish color.
  Properties and  Uses.—Fireweed is reputed to be emetic, cathartic,
tonic, astringent and alterative, of which the most valuable are the latter
three.   Reputed an unrivaled medicine in diseases of the mucous tissues
of the lungs, stomach, and bowels.  A spirituous extract of the plant has
been highly recommended by Dr. A. R. Wyeth, of Pennsylvania, in the
treatment of cholera and  dysentery, in the latter disease promptly
arresting  the muco-sanguineous discharges,  relieving  pain, and effecting
a speedy cure.   In the summer complaint of children, he has  found it
to prove almost invariably successful, even  in cases where other means
had failed.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Erechthites ; Oleum Erechthites.
                    ERIGERON  CANADENSE.
                         Canada Fleabane.
  Nat. Ord.—Asteraceas, or Compositae Asteroideae. (De Candolle.)  Sex. Syst.—
Syngenesia Superflua.
                         the  whole plant.
  Description.—This plant is knoAvn by the various names of Colt's-tail,
Pride-weed,  Scabious, Horse-weed, Butter-weed, etc.  It is an indigenous
annual plant, with  a high, branching, furrowed, and bristly-hairy stem,
from six inches to nine feet in  hight.  The leaves are linear-lanceolate,
ciliate ;  lower ones subserrate.   The flowers  are very small, numerous,
white, irregularly racemose upon the branches, and constituting a large,
terminal, oblong  panicle.   Involucre cylindric; rays  minute, numerous,
crowded, short;  pappus simple.
  History.—This  plant is common to the northern and middle portions of
the United States, growing in fields and meadows, by road-sides, and in
waste places, and flowering in July and August. It differs from the other
species of Erigeron, in having an oblong calyx, very minute rays and more
numerous than the disk-florets, and the pappus simple. Hence, Nuttall has
placed it in a subgenus, named Cosnotus.  A variety of the E. Canadense is
the E. Pusilum,  growing from four to six  inches  high, with  an erect,
smooth  stem, less branched than the above, all its leaves are entire, and
scabrous  on the margin;  the panicle is simple,  and the peduncles fili-
form, nearly naked, divaricate, each bearing two or three flowers.
   The whole plant is officinal and  should  be  collected while in flower.
It has a feeble but agreeable odor,  and  a bitterish, acrid and astringent
taste, and yields  its properties  to water or  alcohol.   Boiling diminishes 
Erigeron Heterophyllum.
451
its acrimony, in consequence of the escape of the volatile oil.  Analysis
has found  in  it, bitter extractive,  tannin, gallic acid, and an astringent
volatile oil, which may be procured by distillation with water.
  Properties and  Uses.—Tonic, astringent, and diuretic.   The infusion
has been found efficient in diarrhea, gravel, diabetes, dropsical affections,
dysury of children, painful micturition, and in many nephritic affections.
It may be given in the form of powder in doses of half a drachm, or a
drachm; or the infusion, which is the best form  of administration, may
be given in doses of from two to four fluidounces, three or four times a day;
the aqueous extract is worthless, but the fluid extract may be given in
teaspoonful doses.
  The volatile oil of E. Canadense acts as an astringent, and may be
used as a local application to hemorrhoids, bleedings from small wounds,
etc., likewise  in rheumatism, boils, tumors, and sore-throat, in which it
should be combined with goose oil or some similar substance, being too
acrid to use alone.  Internally, it will be found useful in diarrhea, dysen-
tery, hemoptysis, hematemesis, and hematuria; from four to six drops
of it  on  sugar, or dissolved in alcohol,  and given in a little water, will
be found a powerful  remedy in uterine hemorrhage  and menorrhagia,
acting promptly and  efficaciously;  it  may be repeated every five or ten
minutes if required.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Erigeroni; Oleum Erigeroni.
                ERIGERON  HETEROPHYLLUM.
                     Various-leaved Fleabane.
                ERIGERON  PHILADELPHICUM.
                      Philadelphia Fleabane.
  Nat.  Ord. — Asteraceae,  or  Compositas-Asteroideae.   (De CandoUe.)  Sex.
Syst. — Syngenesia Superflua.
                         THE WHOLE PLANT.
  Description.—The Erigeron  Heterophyllum is the E. Annuum of Per-
soon,  and many other celebrated Botanists, and which  name will proba-
bly be hereafter generally adopted.  It is a biennial, herbaceous plant,
with a branching root,  from  which  proceed several  erect, roundish,
thick, striate stems,  hispid with scattered hairs, branching, and  growing
from three to five feet in  hight.  The lowest or radical  leaves are ovate,
acute,  deeply-toothed, contracted at base, and on long, winged  petioles;
the upper or stem  leaves are  lanceolate, acute, deeply  serrate  in the
middle, and sessile; the floral  or  branch leaves are lanceolate, entire,
sessile; all  are  ciliate at the base, except  those  from the root.  The
flowers are  in  large terminal, rarely lateral  corymbs,  numerous; disk-
florets yellow,  ray-florets capillary, white or pale-blue.   Pappus plainly 
452
Materia Medica.
double, the outer  a  crown  of minute  chaffy-bristle-form scales; the
inner of scanty capillary bristles which are deciduous, or entirely want-
ing in the ray.   This plant is common to the United States and Europe,
being a very common weed in fields  and  waste grounds from Canada to
Pennsylvania and Kentucky, and flowering from June to August.
  The Erigeron Philadelphicum is the E. Strigosum of Willdenow, and
the E. Purpureum of Aiton.   It is a perennial, herbaceous plant, with
a branching, yellowish root, and from one to five erect, slender, branched
stems, which rise from one to  five feet in hight.   The lower leaves are
ovate, lanceolate, nearly obtuse, ciliate on the margin, entire or marked
with a few serratures, and on long petioles;  the upper leaves are narrow,
oblong, somewhat  wedge-shaped, obtuse, entire,  sessile,  and slightly
embrace  the stem; the floral  leaves are small and lanceolate.  The
flowers are very numerous, radiate,  and disposed in a panicled corymb,
with  long peduncles  bearing from  one  to three flowers.   The rays are
conspicuous, very narrow, rose-purple or flesh-color,  twice as long as
the  hemispherical  involucre.   Pappus  simple.    The whole herb is
pubescent.  This plant is found growing in common with the preceding
variety, flowering at the same period.
  History.—These plants are  identical in their medical properties, and
are  employed  indiscriminately; they  differ from  the E.  Canadense in
being less astringent and more diuretic.  The whole herb is employed,
and should be  collected while in flower.   They have  a peculiar, aroma-
tic odor, and a  slightly  bitter and astringent taste,  and impart their pro-
perties to boiling Avater in infusion.  They have not been  analyzed, but
yield, on  distillation, a pale-yellow, acrid, styptic volatile oil, resembling
that of the E. Canadense.
  Properties and Uses.—Diuretic, astringent, and  tonic.   The infusion
is very efficacious  in  affections  of  the  bladder and  kidneys, dysury,
especially  of children,  painful micturition, various  forms of  dropsy,
gravel, and in  hydrothorax  complicated  Avith  gout.   It has  also been
recommended as a diaphoretic in rheumatism, fevers, colds, etc., and as
an  emmenagogue in  suppressed menstruation; and has been used with
advantage in gout, some  forms of  cutaneous  eruptions,  and  diabetes.
Dose of the infusion, from two to  four fluidounces, three or four times
a day.
                    ERYNGIUM  AQUATICUM.
                           Water  Eryngo.
   Nat. Ord.—Apiaceas, or Umbelliferas.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.
                              the root.
  Description.—This plant, also  called Button Snakeroot, Rattlesnake's
Master, etc., is an indigenous herbaceous plant, with a perennial tuberous
root, and a stem nearly simple, growing from two to six feet, according 
Erythronium  Americanum.
453
to the soil, generally branching by forks, but trichotomous above.   The
leaves are from one to two feet long, and from half an inch to an  inch
and a half wide, linear-lanceolate on the upper part of the stem, sword-
shaped  below, parallel-veined, ciliate with remote soft spines upon their
margins.   Bracts  tipped  with  spines,  those  of the  involucels entire,
shorter  than the  heads.   The flowers  are white or pale, inconspicuous,
and disposed in ovate-globose  heads, which are pedunculate, and from
half an inch to an inch in diameter.   Calyx five-parted,  permanent;
styles slender; petals connivent, oblong,  emarginate, with a long inflexed
point.   Fruit scaly, top-shaped, bipartile.
  History. — This plant is  a  native of the  United States,  growing  in
swamps and low wet lands, from Virginia to Texas,  and especially on the
prairie lands.   It flowers  in August.   The root is the  officinal part.  It
has  a dark-brown,  very knotty rhizoma, wrinkled  horizontally,  with
many fibers of the same color, growing downward, furrowed or wrinkled
longitudinally, and  from a line to a line and a half in thickness.   Inter-
nally, it  is yellowish-white, of a peculiar  smell, somewhat  resembling
that of Iris Versicolor, and a faintly sweetish, mucilaginous, aromatic taste,
succeeded by bitterness, some degree  of pungency affecting the fauces,
and a very slight astringency.   It is easily pulverizable.  Water or spirit
extracts its properties.  It has not been analyzed but is worthy attention.
  Properties and Uses.—Diuretic,  stimulant, diaphoretic,  expectorant,
and, in large doses, emetic.  Very useful in dropsy, nephritic and calcu-
lous affections, also, in  scrofula  and  syphilis;  as  a diaphoretic and
expectorant in  pulmonary diseases.  Recommended as a substitute for
Senega.   The pulverized root in doses of two or three grains has proved
very effectual in  hemorrhoids  and prolapsus ani.   Two ounces of the
pulverized root, added to one pint  of  good Holland  gin, has effected
cures in obstinate cases of gonorrhea and gleet;  to be administered  in
doses of one or two fluidrachms three  or  four times a  day.  By some
practitioners this  root is employed as a specific in gonorrhea, gleet, and
leucorrhea; used internally in  syrup,  decoction, or tincture, and the
decoction applied locally by injection.   Used  externally and internally,
it is said to cure the bites of snakes and insects.   Dose of  the powder,
from twenty to forty grains; of the decoction, which is principally used,
from  two to four  fluidounces, several times daily.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Eryngii.
                ERYTHRONIUM  AMERICANUM.
                         Adder's  Tongue.
         Nat.  Ord.—Liliaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Hexandria Monogynia.
                      THE LEAVES  AND ROOT.
  Description.—This plant, also known by the name of Dog's Tooth  Vio-
let,  Yellow Snowdrop, Rattlesnake  Violet, Yellow Erythronium, etc., is 
454
Materia Medica.
an indigenous, perennial, bulbous plant.   The cormus is situated deep
in the ground, is brown externally, white and solid internally, and from
which arises a single, naked, slender scape, from three to four inches in
hight, and  two smooth, lanceolate, veinless  leaves, nearly equal, about
five inches long, one twice as wide.as the other, of a dark brownish-
green color, clouded with irregular brown or purplish spots, sheathing
the scape with their base, and involute at the point, terminating in an
obtuse, callous point.  The flower is solitary,  drooping, yellow, expanded
and revolute in the sunshine, but nearly closed at night and on cloudy
days.  Sepals and petals oblong-lanceolate, obtuse  at the point; sepals
partly crimson on the outside ; petals with an obscure tooth on each side
near the base. Stamens six; filaments flat; anthers oblong-linear.  Ovary
obovate ; style club-shaped, longer than the  stamens, three-lobed at top,
and terminating  in three,  undivided stigmas.  Capsule oblong-obovate,
stipitate, three-valved ; seeds rather numerous, ovoid, with a loose mem-
branaceous tip.
  History.—This plant is  a native of most parts of  the  United States,
growing in shaded  and somewhat moist situations, and flowering in April
and May.  The bulb and  leaves are  the parts used, and impart their vir-
tues to water.  The leaves are said to be more active than the root.
  Properties and  Uses. — Emetic, emollient,  and antiscrofulous when
fresh ;  nutritive  when dried.  The fresh roots and leaves, simmered in
milk, or the fresh leaves, bruised and applied as a poultice to scrofulous
ulcers or tumors, together with a free internal use of an infusion of them,
is highly recommended as a remedy for scrofula.   The  expressed juice
of the plant, infused in cider, is reputed  useful in dropsy, and for reliev-
ing hiccough, vomiting and  hematemesis.   Twenty-five grains of  the
fresh root, or forty of the recently-dried root, will operate as an emetic,
though this result is sometimes uncertain.

                EUONYMUS  ATROPURPUREUS.
                               Wahoo.'
       Nat. Ord.—Celastraceae.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                         BARK OF THE ROOT.
   Description.—This is a  small shrub or bush ; known by several other
names, as Indian  Arrow-wood, Burning-bush, Spindle Tree, etc., with
smooth branches, and rising from five to ten  feet  in  hight.  The leaves
are from two to five inches  in length, and about  half as  wide, opposite,
on petioles from one-third of  an inch to an inch in length, elliptic-lance-
olate, mostly acute at base, finely serrate, pubescent beneath; peduncles
opposite, slender, compressed, from an inch to two and a half inches in
length, and each with a  cyme of from three to six flowers.   Flowers
dark-purple, usually pentamerous.   Corolla about two and a half lines
in diameter, flat, and inserted on the outer margin of a glandular disk; 
Eupatorium  Aromaticum.
455
 calyx flat, of four, fi\Te, or six united sepals ;  stamens five, with short fila-
 ments.   Capsule or pod smooth, crimson, five-angled, five-celled, five-
 valved ;  seeds one or two in each cell, inclosed in a red aril.
   Euonymus  Americanus, is of smaller size  than the preceding variety,
 with smooth,  four-angled branches ; the leaves are oval and  elliptic-lan-
 ceolate, sessile, subentire at the margin, acute or obtuse at apex, smooth,
 coriaceous, from one-third of an inch to two inches in length, and about
 one-third as wide.   The peduncles are round, longer than the leaves, and
 with two, three, or four flowers.   Flowers somewhat larger than those
 of the preceding variety,  yellow  and pink;  capsule dark-red,  rough-
 warty, depressed, not so copious as in the former plant.
   History.—There are two varieties of this plant used in medicine,—the
 Spindle Tree, E. Atropurpureus, and the Burning Bush, or E.  Ameri-
 canus,  to both of which the term  Wahoo  is indiscriminately applied.
 They grow in many sections of the United States, in woods and thickets,
 and in river bottoms,  and flower in June.  The bark of the root is the
 officinal part.   It has  a bitter, and somewhat unpleasant taste.  Water
 or alcohol extracts its  virtues.  The decoction, concentrated by evapora-
 tion,  yields acicular crystals, the exact nature of which are not yet ascer-
 tained ; probably an alkaloid. They are soluble in boiling water, but are
 deposited on  cooling; soluble  in oils, partly soluble in nitric  acid, but
 insoluble  in cold water, sulphuric acid  and alcohol.  If these  should
 prove to  be the alkaloid principle  of the  plant, they will be termed
 Euonymia.  The Franklin Pharmaceutical Institute of N. York  advertise
 a preparation which they call Euonymine,  and state to be the active prin-
 ciple of E. Americanus.   It is held  to  be an alterative, tonic, laxative,
 and  expectorant.  Unfortunately, we have  not been  made  acquainted
 with the article, nor its method of preparation.
   Properties and Uses.—These plants have been  in use among Eclectics
 for a long time.  The bark is tonic, laxative, alterative, diuretic, and
 expectorant;  in infusion, syrup, or extract, it has been successfully used
 in intermittents, dyspepsia, torpid liver, constipation, dropsy, and pulmo-
 nary  affections.   Dose of the saturated tincture,  from one  to four
 fluidrachms; of the syrup,  from one to two fluidounces;  of  the  hydro-
alcoholic extract, from five to fifteen grains ; of the powder, from twenty
to thirty grains.   The seeds are purgative and emetic.
                 EUPATORIUM AROMATICUM.
                          White  Snakeroot.
         Nat. Ord.—Asteraceas.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia ^qualis.
                             THE  ROOT.
  Description.—This  is a perennial plant, with a rough, slightly pubes-
cent stem, about two feet in hight,  and corymbose at the summit.   The 
456
Materia Medica.
leaves are from two to four inches long, and about one  half as wide, on
petioles not quite an inch long, opposite, subcordate, lance-ovate, acute,
three-veined,  obtusely serrate, smoothish, or  very slightly pubescent.
Involucre simple, pubescent; scales of the involucre nearly equal and in
one row.   Flowers white, aromatic, in small  corymbs;  heads  large, ten
to fifteen-flowered.
  History. —This is an indigenous plant, growing from Massachusetts to
Louisiana,  but especially throughout the middle states, and flowering in
August and September.   The root is  the officinal part, and  should be
collected in September and October.  It has  a pleasant, aromatic  odor,
and a bitterish taste.  Its virtues are extracted by boiling water.
   Properties and  Uses. — Diaphoretic,  antispasmodic,  expectorant and
aromatic.  Used in the  form of infusion or  decoction in fevers  of a
typhoid character,  connected with wakefulness;  also,  in pleurisy and
peripneumony, as a diaphoretic and expectorant. In hysteria, hypochon-
dria, nervous  irritability and flatulence, it is very beneficial.   Dose of
the infusion or decoction from half a fluidounce to four fluidounces.  It
is sometimes  connected  with sanguinaria and asclepias, in pulmonary
diseases.   Said to be valuable in gravel.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Eupatoria Aromatica.
                 EUPATORIUM  PERFOLIATUM.
                              Boneset.
         Nat. Ord.—Asteraceas.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia iEqualis.
                       THE TOPS AND  LEAVES.
  Description.—Boneset, or Thoroughwort, as it is also called, is an indi-
genous plant, with a perennial, horizontal and crooked root, sending up
many erect,  herbaceous stems, which  are  round, hairy,  simple below,
trichotomously branched above, of  a grayish-green color, and  from two
to five feet in hight.   The leaves are opposite,  connate or perfoliate,
resembling a single  leaf, centrally perforated by  the stem, decussating at
right angles, gradually tapering to a point, serrated, rough above, tomen-
tose  beneath, of the same color as the stalks, and  both combined  are
from eight to fourteen inches in length ; the upper leaves, and those  of
the branches are not joined at the base,  being merely sessile.  The
flowers  are white,  numerous,  in dense, depressed,  terminal  corymbs,
formed of smaller, fastigiate ones.  The peduncles are hairy.   Involucre
cylindrical,  imbricated,  twelve to fifteen-flowered ; the bracts lanceolate,
acute, entire, hairy.  Florets tubular, five-toothed, with a rough, down-
like pappus.   Anthers  five, deep-blue  or black, united into a tube.
Style filiform, divided into two  filiform,  acuminate branches, which pro-
ject beyond the corolla.  Fruit or  seeds oblong, black, prismatic, acute
at base, on a naked receptacle. 
Eupatorium  Purpureum.
457
   History.—This is a well-known plant, growing in low grounds, and
on the margins of streams, in almost every part of the United States.
It flowers in August and September.  The tops and leaves are officinal.
It has a faint odor, and a strongly bitter, somewhat peculiar  taste.   Its
virtues are readily taken up by water or alcohol.   No accurate analysis
of the plant has been made,  though its medical virtues probably reside
in a bitter extractive matter,  which  is soluble in water  and alcohol, and
forms copious  precipitates with the  metallic salts.   According to Rafin-
esque it contains a brown,  bitter,  resinous principle, termed by him,
Eupatorin.
   Properties and Uses.—This is  a very valuable medicinal agent.   The
cold   infusion,  or  extract,  is tonic  and aperient; the warm  infusion,
diaphoretic  and emetic.  As a tonic, it is useful  in remittent, intermit-
tent and typhoid fevers, dyspepsia and general debility ;  and combined
with bitartrate  of potassa and camphor, the powdered  leaves have been
serviceable in some forms of cutaneous disease.  In intermittent fever a
strong infusion, as hot as can be  comfortably swallowed, is administered,
for the purpose of vomiting freely.   This is also  attended with  profuse
diaphoresis, and sooner or later by an evacuation of the bowels.   During
the intermission, the cold infusion, or  extract is given every hour as a
tonic and antiperiodic.   In epidemic influenza the warm infusion is valu-
able as an  emetic and  diaphoretic,  likewise in febrile diseases, catarrh,
colds, and wherever such effects are indicated.   The warm  infusion is
also administered to promote  the  operation of other emetics.  Externally,
used alone or in combination with hops or tansy, etc., a fomentation of the
leaves applied to the bowels  have been useful in inflammation, spasms,
and painful affections.   Dose  of the powder, from ten to  twenty grains;
of the extract, from two to four grains; of the infusion, from two to four
fluidounces.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Eupatorii; Infusum Eupatorii; Pilula Aloes
Composita.
                  EUPATORIUM  PURPUREUM.
                       Queen of the Meadow.
         Nat. Ord.—Asteraceae.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia .<Equalis.
                             THE root.
  Description.—This plant, likewise known by the names of Gravel root,
Joe-pye, Trumpet-weed, is herbaceous, with a perennial, horizontal, woody
caudex, with many long, dark brown fibers, which send up one or more
solid, glabrous, green, sometimes purplish stems, five or six feet in hight,
with a purple band at the joints, about an inch broad.  The leaves are
from three to six in a whorl about six  inches  apart, oblong-ovate, or
lanceolate, pointed, rugOsely or feather-veined, coarsely serrate, slightly 
458
Materia  Medica.
scabrous, with a soft pubescence beneath along the midvein and veinlets,
thin, soft, on petioles an inch long, and from eight to twelve inches long
by three or four inches wide.  The flowers are all tubular, purple, vary-
ing to whitish, and consist of numerous  florets  contained, in an eight-
leaved  calyx.   Heads  in lax,  very  dense  and compound  corymbs,
cylindrical, and from five to ten-flowered.
  History.—Queen of the Meadow grows in swamps and low grounds
from  Canada to Virginia, and flowers in August and September.  The
root is the officinal part; as found in the shops it consists of a blackish
woody caudex, from which proceed numerous long  fibers, from one to
three lines in diameter ;  externally they are covered with a dark-brown,
longitudinally-furrowed  cortex, beneath which  the  internal portion is
white, or whitish-yellow, according to its age, the  last color beinor the
oldest.  It has a  smell  somewhat resembling  old  hay, and a slightly
bitter, aromatic,  and faintly astringent,  but not unpleasant taste, and
yields its  properties  to water by decoction, or spirits.   It has not  been
analyzed; a principle has been obtained from it, by Mr. J. B.  Robinson
of Cincinnati, to which he has  given the name of Eupatorine.   It is
obtained by making a saturated  tincture of the root, and adding to  it an
equal bulk of water slightly acidulated with  muriatic acid;  on distilling
off the alcohol  the resin is precipitated.   It  is a  dark-brown resin,
forming a yellowish-brown powder, with a  peculiar, slightly-aromatic,
not unpleasant odor, and a peculiar, slightly-bitterish taste.   It is easily
pulverized, but in a short time the powder forms  a solid mass, of a dark-
brown-color,  or if much exposed  to the  atmosphere, black, resembling
asphaltum. Water alone,  or acidulated with muriatic or sulphuric acids,
does not dissolve it; but ammonia or liquor potassa added to water,
dissolves it, the last  forming a solution of a deep-red  color,  which on
the addition of a few drops of muriatic  acid, gives a clear, transparent
liquor, with a light-yellow spongy  substance floating on the surface, and
which is,  probably, the  resin purified.   It is partly soluble  in alcohol,
but becomes completely so on the addition of muriatic acid, to which, if
water  be  added,  a grayish  milky opake liquid is  formed, which on
standing, or by evaporation of the alcohol, gives a light-brown precipi-
tate.   Ether dissolves it, and if ammonia be added, a separation ensues,
the ether floating above with a yellow tinge,  while the  ammonia sinks,
forming a clear dark-red solution; if liquor potassa be added to the
ethereal solution, it causes a light yellowish-red liquor above, and a dark
one below.   Chloroform partially dissolves  it,  and wholly so on the
addition of ammonia, which  separates the solution  into  a yellow  fluid
below, and a dark-brown liquid above.   It is insoluble in oil of turpen-
tine.   The therapeutical properties of  this resin are not yet understood;
it remains  to  be determined whether or no it possesses the virtues of
the root. 
Eupatorium  Teucrifolium.
459
  Properties and Uses.—A valuable diuretic, stimulant, somewhat astrin-
gent, and  tonic.   Used with excellent  effect in dropsical  affections,
strangury,  gravel, and  all  chronic urinary  disorders,  hematuria,  goUt
and rheumatism.   Dose of the decoction of queen of meadow, from two
to four fluidounces, three or four times a day.
  Since writing the above, Mr. William S. Merrell has prepared  an  oleo-
resin  from  this plant, to which he has given the name of Eupurpurin;
it may be obtained by adding the alcoholic tincture of the root,  to twice
its volume of water, and distilling off the alcohol, similar to the process
for obtaining podophyllin, iridin, etc.  It is of a thick,  pilular consis-
tence and a dark greenish-brown color,  having a faint peculiar smell,
and a slightly nauseous  taste.  It is soluble in alcohol or ether, and  more
speedily when  these are hot; slowly soluble in oil of turpentine,  from
which ether precipitates the resin, holding the oily portion in solution,
and  on  the addition of alcohol the  resin is redissolved.  It is almost
completely soluble in dilute  alkalis, but  completely so, on the  addition
of a small quantity of  ether.   Eupurpurin,  in  doses  of three  grains,
repeated every three or four hours, is a most powerful diuretic,  occa-
sioning  in  some instances a most enormous flow of urine.   It may be
given in pill form, either alone, or combined Avith an equal quantity of
castile soap.  An excellent pill for many renal  affections may be made,
composed of eupurpurin three grains, geraniin two grains, and extract
of nux  vomica  one-tenth of  a  grain.  Divide into two  pills.  One of
these pills may be given every four hours daily.
  Off. Prep.—Decoctum Eupatorii Purpurei; Infusum Epigea Compo-
situm.
      EUPATORIUM TEUCRIFOLIUM.   (E. Verbencefolium.)
                         Wild Horehound.
        Nat. Ord.—Asteraceas.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia iEqualis.
                             THE  HERB.
  Description.—This is an  indigenous, perennial plant, with a herba-
ceous, paniculate, pubescent stem, growing from  two to three feet high,
with fastigiate,  corymbose branches above.   The  leaves  are opposite,
sessile, distinct, ovate-oblong, and ovate-lanceolate, rough, veiny, the
lower  ones  coarsely serrate  toward the base, the upper ones alternate,
subserrate, and often entire.  Branches of the corymb, few, unequal.
The flowers are small, white, composed of five florets within each calyx;
scales of the involucre oblong-lanceolate, rather obtuse, at length shorter
than the flowers.
  History.—This plant grows in low wet places, from New England to
Georgia, and is very abundant in the Southern States, flowering from Au-
gust to November.  The  whole herb is employed; its sensible properties 
460
Materia Medica.
are similar to boneset,  but less  bitter  and disagreeable.   Its  active
properties are taken up by spirits, or water by infusion.   It has not been
analyzed.
   Properties  and  Uses. — Tonic,  diaphoretic,  diuretic,  and laxative.
Recommended by Dr. Jones, of Georgia, in intermittent and  remittent
fevers.   Usually administered in infusion; one ounce of the dried leaves
infused in  a  quart of water,  of which,  half a teacupful  may be  given
every hour or two, as warm as can  be comfortably drank;  it will  prove
diaphoretic, or diuretic, according to the temperature in which the patient
is kept, and likewise laxative.   The cold infusion, or tincture,  is tonic.
  The  Eupatorium  Hyssopifolium,  and  Eupatorium  Leucolepsis,  both
called  "Justice's Weed," have  been used with  success for curing the
bites of snakes and  other poisonous animals;  they were  employed for
this purpose by John Justice, of South Carolina, in 1800, who received
a premium for disclosing his remedy.
                   EUPHORBIA  COROLLATA.
                      Large Flowering Spurge.
  Nat. Ord.—Euphorbiaceae.   Sex.  Syst.—Dodecandria  Trigynia,  Linnaeus;
Moncecia Monadelphia,  Michaux.
                      THE BARK  OF THE  ROOT.
  Description. — This  plant  has  many  common  names, as Blooming
Spurge, Milk-weed, Bowman's Root, etc.  It is a tall, erect plant, with a
large, perennial, branching,  yellowish  root, from which arise several
stems from two to five feet in hight, round, and  in most instances, sim-
ple.   The leaves are scattered, sessile, oblong, obovate, or linear, entire,
flat or revolute  at  the  margin, smooth  in some  plants, very hairy in
others, verticillate and  opposite in the umbel, and from one to two inches
in length.  The flowers  are white, and disposed upon a large, terminal
umbel, with a five-leaved involucrum, and five trifid  or dichotomous
rays,  each fork being attended by two bracts and a flower.   Umbel five
rayed, with as many bracteal  leaves.  Involucre large, rotate, white, with
five obtuse  petal-like segments ; at the base of these divisions are five-
interior, very small, obtuse segments.   The stamens are twelve, evolving
gradually, with double flowers; many flowers have only stamens.  The
pistil, when present,  is  stipitate,  nodding, rounded, with three  bifid
styles.  The fruit is a smooth, three-celled, and three-seeded capsule;
seeds  smooth.
  History .—This is an indigenous plant, found growing in  Canada and
the United States, in dry, sandy, and barren soil, and flowering in July
and August.  When broken, it yields  a  milky juice, which  powerfully
irritates the skin  when applied to it for  a  feAv minutes, creating a pustu-
lar eruption; especially the juice of the  root, or the recent root, bruised 
Euphorbia Hypericifolia.
461
and applied.   The root is from one-third of an inch to an inch or two
in diameter, and  one or two feet long, and should be gathered in the
fall • it is inodorous and almost tasteless, causing a sense of heat shortly
after having been chewed.   Tbe  bark of the root is the officinal part,
which  is quite thick, constituting nearly two-thirds of the whole root;
its virtues are  imparted to water or alcohol, and remain in  the extract
formed by the  evaporation of either solvent.  It forms a light brownish-
yellow powder, speckled  throughout with innumerable  fine  dark spots,
somewhat resembling a mixture of fine pepper and salt, with the excep-
tion of color.  Dr. Zollickoffer found  it to  contain resin, mucilage, and
caoutchouc.   Kino and  Catechu are incompatible with  this plant;  Avhen
united with either, the medicinal powers of  the  euphorbia are destroyed,
while the astringency of the Kino or Catechu becomes entirely altered.
Probably all vegetable astringents are incompatible with the agent under
consideration.   Opium interferes  with its emetic  operation, and should
not, therefore, be given in combination with it, when emesis is desired.
Acetic acid also interrupts its emetic influence, causing it to pass off by
the bowels.
   Properties and Uses.—Emetic, diaphoretic, expectorant, and epispastic.
Fifteen or twenty grains  of the poAvdered  bark of the root will excite
emesis, rarely  occasioning pain or spasms,  and  giving rise to very little
previous nausea or giddiness; when it  does  not prove emetic,  it passes
off by the bowels.   Four grains of the powdered root-bark, given every
three  hours, will  act as a  diaphoretic ; or  the compound  poAvder of
ipecacuanha and opium may be employed for the same purpose, substi-
tuting the E.  corollata  for  the ipecacuanha.  In doses of three grains,
exhibited occasionally in  a little honey, syrup or molasses, it operates as
a  useful  expectorant, and  may be administered in  all cases where such
action is  desired.   When given in large doses, it is apt to induce inflam-
mation of the  mucous coat of the  stomach  and  bowels, Avith  hyperca-
tharsis.  Occasionally, when given  as  an  emetic  or cathartic,  it causes
distressing nausea, with  considerable prostration.   From four  to ten or
twelve grains  generally act as a cathartic.   In  dropsical diseases, espe-
cially hydrothorax and ascites, it will evacuate  the water when  all other
agents prove  useless, for which  purpose it  may be given in  doses of
fifteen or thirty grains, and  repeated twice  or three times weekly.

                EUPHORBIA  HYPERICIFOLIA.
                        Large Spotted Spurge.
 ' Nat.  Ord.—Euphorbiaceae.—Sex.  Syst.—Dodecandria Trigynia,  Linnaeus;
Moncecia Monadelphia, Michaux.
                            THE  LEAVES.
  Description.—This  plant, also  known by  the names of Black-purse-
ly, Milk-pursely,  Eye-bright, etc., is an annual plant, with a  smooth, 
462
Materia  Medica.
somewhat procumbent, branching stem, from one to two  feet high ;  the
branches are dichotomous, and divaricate-spreading. The leaves are from
half an inch to an inch in length, and about one-fourth as wide, opposite,
oblong, somewhat falciform, serrated, oblique or heart-shaped at base,
often  curved,  three to five-ribbed  underneath, on very short petioles,
and often marked with purple  oblong dots and blotches.   The flowers
are small,  white,  numerous, and  disposed in  terminal  and axillary
corymbs.    Fruit mostly rather hairy;  seeds  four  angled,  obscurely
wrinkled transversely.
  History.—E. Hypericifolia is an indigenous plant, growing in rich  soil
in waste  and  cultivated places, and flowering from July to September.
The leaves are the  parts used, and yield  their properties to Avater or
alcohol;  they have a sweetish  taste, succeeded by a  sensation of harsh-
ness  and roughness.   They contain  caoutchouc, resin,  tannin, gallic
acid,  etc.
   Properties and Uses.—Astringent, tonic, and slightly narcotic.  As an
astringent it  has been found efficacious in  dysentery, after having pre-
viously removed the inflammatory symptoms, often curing the disease in
forty-eight hours; also in diarrhea, after  the exhibition of some  purga-
tive ;  in  menorrhagia from debility; also  in  leucorrhea,  and other affec-
tions  where this class of agents is  indicated.  Half an  ounce  of  the
dried leaves may be infused in a pint of boiling water for half an hour.
In  dysentery and diarrhea, a  tablespoonful may be  given every hour
until  the discharges  become less frequent, and  other  morbid  symptoms
begin to yield; then to be used less frequently.  In the  other diseases a
wineglassful may be  given  three times a  day.
   The Euphorbia Maculata, or Spotted Spurge, is possessed  of  similar
properties, and has been used with advantage in the same forms of disease,
as cholera-morbus, diarrhea, dysentery, etc.   It is an annual plant, gen-
erally found growing with  the E.  Hypericifolia, and  possesses sensible
properties analogous  to those of this variety.  It has  a procumbent stem,
spreading flat on the  ground, much branched and hairy;  the  leaves are
opposite, oval or oblong, minutely  serrulate toward the end, unequal at
the base, slightly three-ribbed, smooth above,  hairy and  pale beneath,
oblique  at  the base,  on short  petioles, often spotted with  dark purple,
from  three to six  lines  long, and one-half as wide.   The flowers are
white, solitary, axillary, much shorter than the leaves, appearing from
July  to  October; female flowers naked.   Filaments articulated ; recep-
tacle squamose ; capsule three-grained, smooth, pubescent, or warty ; seeds
four-angled, obscurely wrinkled transversely, and about one-third smaller
than  the E. Hypericifolia. 
Euphorbia Ipecacuanha.
463
                 EUPHORBIA IPECACUANHA.
                       American Ipecacuanha.
  Nat. Ord.—Euphorbiaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Dodecandria Trigynia,  Linnceus;
Moncecia Monadelphia, Michaux.
                       THE BARK OF THE  ROOT.
  Description.—This  plant, also  knoAvn  by the names  of Wild Ipecac,
Ipecac Spurge, Spurge, has a perennial, yellowish, irregular, succulent,
and very long root, sometimes extending to a depth of six or seven feet,
its thickest part being, when full-grown, from three-quarters of an inch
to an  inch and a half in diameter.  The stems are numerous, herbaceous,
erect  or procumbent, rather  thick and succulent, smooth, dichotomous,
jointed at  the forks, white under the ground, red, pale-green, or yellow
above, sometimes almost buried in the sand, forming thick, low bunches
upon  its surface.   The leaves are from an inch and a half to two inches
long,  and from three to six  lines wide, inserted  at the joints,  opposite,
sessile, entire, smooth, usually oval,  but occasionally round,  obovate,
lanceolate, or linear, and varying in  color from green  to  crimson; they
also vary considerably  in  size.   Stipules  small, cordate.  The flowers
are small, solitary, on long, axillary peduncles.  The calyx is spreading,
with five exterior obtuse segments, with  five small, gibbous, inner seg-
ments or nectaries.   Stamens numerous, in five parcels, appearing at
different times two or three together, with  double anthers.  The  fertile
flowers have  a large,  roundish, drooping,  pedicelled germ,  crowned
with  six revolute stigmas.   The capsule is three-celled and contains
three  seeds.
  History.—This is  an indigenous  plant, found growing in dry,  sandy
soil, on Long Island, in New Jersey, and  the Middle and Southern States,
and flowering from May to August.   As with the E. Corollata, it  yields
a milky  juice, which causes a  pustular eruption when applied to the
skin.   The root is the part used in medicine; in  the  dried state it is
light  and brittle,  of a grayish color  externally, white Avithin, inodorous,
and of a sweetish not  unpleasant taste.   The  powdered  root is of a
light-brown,  or light snuff-color, speckled similar to the E. Corollata.
Water or alcohol takes  up  its active  properties.   It has not been accu-
rately analyzed,  but is supposed to contain caoutchouc, resin, gum, and
perhaps starch.   Its incompalibles are probably the same as those of the
E. Corollata.
  Properties  and Uses.—It very much resembles the E. Corollata in its
actions upon the system, but is rather milder.  It is emetic, diaphoretic,
expectorant, and  epispastic;  and may be used in the isame doses and for
the  same purposes as the Corollata;  in dropsical affections it is preferred
by some  practitioners.  When given in cathartic doses, say from three
to ten grains, it  is  said to promote  the menstrual discharge.   As an 
464
Materia  Medica.
emetic and cathartic it  has been found valuable in bilious colic, but is
superseded in this disease by the Dioscorea Villosa, which ac;s promptly
and  efficiently Avithout any unpleasant symptoms.   In dyspepsia one or
two grains, repeated three times daily, will be found useful.   The dose
of the powdered root is from ten to fifteen grains as a hydragogue; one
to three  grains as an expectorant and diaphoretic.  It is  occasionally
used  in jaundice  and obstinate  torpidity of the liver.  It is principally
used by Eclectics as a hydragogue in dropsical affections.
                          EUPHORBIUM.
                            Euphorbium.
  Nat. Ord. — Euphorbiaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Dodecandria Trigynia, Linnceus;
Moncecia Monadelphia, Michaux.
THE   CONCRETE  RESINOUS  JUICE  OF  AN  UNDETERMINED  SPECIES  OF
                               EUPHORBIA.
  History.—The  precise source from which this resin is obtained is un-
known.  It is found in commerce in the  shape of tears, or in oblong or
roundish masses, about the size of a pea  or larger, often  forked, and
perforated  Avith one or two small conical holes, produced by the prickles
of the plant, around which the juice  has concreted, and which  some-
times remains  in  the  holes.   The  masses are  occasionally  large  and
mixed with  impurities.  The surface is dull and smooth, bearing some
resemblance to that of tragacanth; the  consistence somewhat friable;
the color light-yellowish  or  reddish;  the  odor scarcely  perceptible, a
slight  taste at  first, followed  by excessive  acridity and burning.   The
powder is yellowish.  Alcohol dissolves  the resin  on which its activity
depends.   Triturated with water it forms a milky liquid, and is partially
dissolved.   It contains a large proportion of resin, excessively  acrid,
soluble in  alcohol, fusible, and burning with a brilliant flame, diffusing
an agreeable fragrance; also  wax, malate of lime, malate of potassa,
lignin, bassorin, volatile oil, water,  and caoutchouc.
  Properties and  Uses.—Emetic, cathartic, and  errhine.  Seldom, how-
ever, used  for these properties, on account of its severity of action.   Its
principal use  is  externally as a rubefacient or vesicant; the following
preparation forms an  excellent counter-irritant:  Take of powdered
Euphorbium half  a drachm,  coarsely powdered  Cantharides,  and Meze-
reon bark,  of each two drachms, rectified spirits of wine two and a half
fluidounces.  Mix together, digest for eight days, then press and filter,
and  to the filtered tincture add, white colophony one ounce, white tur-
pentine six drachms.  With this preparation, paper or silk may be coated
three several times, by means  of a  soft sponge, and which, when  dry,
forms  an excellent  irritating  plaster in rheumatic, gouty and neuralgic
pains. 
              Euphrasia  Officinalis — Fel Bovinum.          465

                  EUPHRASIA OFFICINALIS.
                             Eyebright.
    Nat. Ord-—Scrophulariaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Angiospermia.
                            THE LEAVES.
  Description.—This is an elegant, little, annual plant, with a square,
downy, leafy stem, simple or branched, and  from one to five inches in
hight.   The leaves are  almost entirely opposite, ovate or cordate, downy,
strongly ribbed and furrowed, the lowest crenate, the floral with sharp,
tooth-like serratures.   The flowers are axillary, solitary, very abundant,
inodorous, with a brilliant variety of colors.   The corolla varies much in
size as well as in  color, being commonly white, with deep purple streaks,
and  a yellowish  palate.   Upper lip  of the corolla galeate, emarginate,
two broad and spreading lobes ;  lower lip larger, spreading, three-cleft,
the lobes obtuse or notched.   Calyx campanulate, four-cleft.    Stamens
four, fertile, under the  upper lip ;  anthers violet, lower cells of the upper
ones with a long  spur.   Pod oblong, flattened ; seeds numerous, oblong,
grooved lengthwise.
  History.—This is a small plant, common to Europe and  this country,
bearing white or red  flowers in July.   The leaves are commonly em-
ployed, they are  inodorous, but  of a bitter, astringent taste.   Water
extracts their virtues.
  Properties and  Uses.—Slightly tonic and astringent.  Used with much
benefit in the form of infusion or poultice, in catarrhal ophthalmia; also
of service in all mucous diseases attended with increased discharges ; and
in cough, hoarseness, earache, and headache, which have supervened in
catarrhal affections.
                         FEL  BOVINUM.
                        ox, or beef's gall.
   Preparation.—As prepared for medicinal purposes, it is dried by spon-
taneous evaporation, or aided by a very moderate heat, when it becomes of
a more or less solid and hard consistence, brown color, and possessing its
natural and peculiar odor.  The method recommended for its preparation
is  to pour two or three gallons of the gall into a deep vessel, and let it
stand for tAventy-four hours.   Then pour off the supernatant fluid into a
shallow earthen dish.  Simmer  it away slowly, stirring  it all the time
until it is dry.  Then preserve in glass bottles well stopped.   Thus pre-
pared it is of  a bright-green color,  friable, pulverulent,  and slightly
aromatic.
   A refined gall is obtained by boiling one pint of  it and  skimming;
then add  alum one ounce, and  keep it on the fire for some time; to
another pint of gall add one ounce of common salt, in the same manner;
         30 
466
Materia  Medica.
keep  them bottled,  separately, for  three  months, then decant  off the
clear  liquid ; mix them in equal proportions ;  a thick, yelloAv coagulum
is immediately formed, leaving the refined gall, clear and colorless.
  History.—The bile of the ox is a viscid fluid, of a green, or greenish-
yellow color, with  a peculiar,  nauseous odor,  and  a bitter  taste ; its
exact composition is not yet settled.  According to a recent analysis by
A. Strecker,  the bile of the  ox consists of a mixture of a  nitrogenous
acid free  from  sulphur, which  he calls Cholic acid,  and a sulphureted
acid free from nitrogen ;  both  of these  acids are  combined  with  soda.
The sulphureted constituent undergoes decomposition with great facility,
yielding  a resin, taurin, and ammonia; so that it is  obtained separate
with considerable difficulty.  Probably, the picromel, biliary  sugar, and
bilin of other chemists may be referred to  this constituent.  In addition
to the above, bile also contains a coloring matter, called Cholepyrrhin, a
peculiar fatty principle, called Cholesterin,  oleate, margarate and stear-
ate  of soda, with various  salts  of soda,  and phosphate of lime.
  Properties and  Uses.—Tonic, and  laxative.   Used in intermittents,
dyspepsia,  torpor  of the  liver,  colic,  constipation, diarrhea,  dysentery,
etc.   Five  or eight grains of inspissated  gall neutralize the constipating
and narcotic effects of one grain of opium,  without injuring its sedative
influence.   Dose, from one to ten grains.
                             FERRUM.

                                Iron.
  History. — There  is no  metal of more utility to mankind, whether
civilized or not, or  more  abundantly diffused  throughout nature than
iron ;  independently of its existence in the form of ores, it is found  to a
greater or less  extent as  a constituent  of earths, minerals, vegetables
and animals.   It is  found in meteoric  stones, frequently  in its pure
state ;  and forms an essential constituent of the blood, in man,  and many
animals ;  and is one of those metals which, under certain circumstances,
may be employed medicinally, with safety and  advantage to the human
constitution.
  Iron occurs in  its  native state, and in  combination with other sub-
stances forming what are called  iron-ores.   Its most common ores are
the sulphuret of iron, or magnetic and cubic iron pyrites; magnetic,  red,
brown, specular, and  argillaceous oxides of iron;  and  the carbonate,
sulj hate,  phosphate, and arseniate of iron.  Magnetic, and specular iron
ores furnish the best iron, and these are found in abundance in Sweden.
Spain,  France and Germany, likewise furnish the carbonate  or sparry
iron, red, brown, specular, and argillaceous oxides.   In  the United
States  iron is found in large quantity, but is principally in the form of
brown, magnetic, or  argillaceous oxides ; and  some of the ores, espe- 
Ferrum.
467
 cially those of New York, New Jersey, and  Pennsylvania, are equal  if
 not superior to the first quality of Swedish ore.
   As the character of the ores differs, the method of extracting the iron
 from them  consequently varies.  As a general rule, the ore is  broken
 into small pieces and  roasted ;  it is then exposed to the  influence of an
 intense heat,  in contact with lime,  anthracite coal, charcoal, or coke,
 and in connection with some flux capable of fusing with the  impurities
 of the  ore, such as limestone when the ore is  argillaceous, and clay
 when it is  calcareous.   The  flux by fusion with the impurities forms
 what is called the slag, while the carbonaceous matter reduces the oxide
 of iron to the metallic state.  The slag which occupies the upper strata
 of the fused mass, is  allowed to escape through a hole in the side of the
 furnace, after which the melted metal is run off, through an opening in
 the  bottom of the  furnace, into long, triangular molds, forming, when
 cold, the pig  or cast iron of commerce.   This, however,  still contains
 many impurities, as carbon, phosphorus,  sulphur, silicon, and occasion-
 ally manganese.   To  remove these impurities, the iron is again  melted,
 and exposed,  while stirring it, to a current of air playing on its surface,
 by which means the carbon is nearly burned out, and  the other impuri-
 ties becoming oxidized, rise to the surface as a slag. As the metal puri-
 fies, notwithstanding  the same  degree of  heat is maintained, it becomes
 less liquid and tough, its particles  adhering to each other, forming half
 fused lumps,  which  are  removed from the furnace, and  by means of
 ponderous hammers,  moved by steam or water-power,  are beaten  into
 tenacious masses, which are finally rolled  into bars of proper size, form-
 ing the soft or malleable iron of commerce.
   Iron has  a bluish-gray, or grayish-white color, a granular or irregu-
 larly foliaceous  fracture, with considerable brilliancy, which  is rapidly
 lost under exposure to both moisture and  air combined.  It has a pecu-
 liar, slightly styptic taste, and a peculiar odor rendered more sensible by
 friction.   It varies  in density from 7.6 to 7.84, and is fused  only at  a
 very high temperature.  It is hard, very ductile, considerably malleable,
 and  the most tenacious of metals.   It possesses magnetic, as  well as
 welding properties.    In oxygen gas  it burns with brilliant scintillations,
 and when heated to whiteness it likewise burns  in atmospheric air, on
 being struck  in particles from  the mass.  Exposed  to the  combined
 action of air and moisture, it becomes covered with a reddish hydrated
 sesquioxide, called  Rust.   It unites with oxygen, forming three oxides,
 a protoxide, a sesquioxide, and a compound of these forming the native
 black oxide, and a  teroxide, having  acid properties, called Ferric acid.
It unites readily with sulphur, with  iodine if moisture be present, with
most of  the metals,  and  with all  the non-metallic elements,  except
hydrogen and nitrogen.  It forms salts with the acids, which are gen-
 erally soluble and crystallizable. 
468
Materia Medica.
   The protoxide of iron is of a dark-blue color, attracted by the magnet,
and spontaneously combustible in the air, being converted into the ses-
quioxide.  It is the base of sulphate of iron, and of the  green salts of
iron, generally.   From its tendency to absorb oxygen, its salts when in
solution  become  changed  into salts of the sesquioxide.  It consists of
one equivalent of iron 28,  and one of oxygen 8=36.
   The sesquioxide of iron, may be  obtained by dissolving iron in nitro-
muriatic  acid, precipitating by ammonia, and  igniting the precipitate.
It is of a reddish color, forming salts usually of a  similar color, and is
not attracted by the magnet.   It is composed of two equivalents of iron
56, and three of oxygen 24=^=80:   One equivalent of the sesquioxide 80,
with one of the protoxide, 36, forms the native black, or magnetic oxide,
= 116.    The teroxide or ferric acid consists of one equivalent of iron
28, and three of oxygen 24=52.
   Iron may be  detected even in minute quantities by bringing it to the
state of sesquioxide in solution, and adding ferrocyanuret of potassium
which will strike a deep blue with it, or  tincture of galls, which  turns
the solution black.   It  may be  converted into  a sesquioxide by boiling
the solution holding it with a little  nitric acid.
   Properties and Uses.—Iron in its metallic  form  has no action on the
system ;  when  swallowed  in this state it becomes oxidated, apparently
at the expense of the water in the  stomach, for eructations  take place,
having a disagreeable chalybeate taste, and an  odor of hydrogen.   It is
usually given in  the  form of iron  filings, in doses of from five to ten
grains.   The proper method  of obtaining  iron filings for medical pur-
poses, is  to file  a piece of pure iron with a clean  file;  those  obtained
from the blacksmith's workshop, whether cleansed by the magnet or not,
are impure and not fit for internal administration.  Iron wire is generally
sufficiently pure for the preparation of filings.
   The various preparations of iron are powerfully tonic, and when taken
for some time in small doses, they have  the property of strengthening
and sometimes accelerating the pulse, improving digestion, promoting
the secretions, and increasing the coloring matter  of the blood;  when
administered internally, iron probably enters the blood,  as  it has  been
detected  in the  urine.  Whether  it increases  the  iron of  the blood, is
still  an unsettled question, although it  renders that fluid  more florid.
The  preparations of iron are contra-indicated  in all inflammatory dis-
eases,  in  persons subject  to  determinations of blood to the head, or
affected with habitual constipation; when pushed too far, or when  inju-
diciously prescribed, it causes a sense of fullness in  the head, headache,
giddiness,  heat,  thirst, difficult breathing, distension of the limbs, and
other symptoms of an  excited circulation.  They are useful in diseases
characterized by debility and  relaxation of fiber, and a languid circula-
tion, more especially when the consequence of inordinate discharges. 
Ficus Carica.
469
The diseases in which they are most usually employed  are  chlorosis,
hysteria, fluor-albus,  gleet, scrofula, rickets, chorea, and  all passive
hemorrhages.   Chalybeates are also proper in palsy after the inflamma-
tory excitement has subsided, in  dyspepsia dependent upon deficient
energy of the digestive functions,  and  in neuralgia,  when  owing to a
similar cause.   They have  also  been  found  advantageous  in  ague,
epilepsy, enlargement of the liver and spleen, and in chronic dysentery.
The medical effects of iron, in its different combinations are nearly the
same, but where it becomes  modified or improved by combination,  it
will  be  noticed under the head of each preparation.  When iron is in
the form of protoxide it is generally more active than where  it is present
as a sesquioxide.
   Off.  Prep. — Ferri  Acetas;  Ferri  Carbonas  Saecharatum;  Ferri
Citras;  Ferri et  Quinia  Citras ; Ferri et Morphia  Tartras; Ferri et
Quinia  Tartras; Ferri et Salicinia Tartras; Ferri Ferrocyanuretum ;
Ferri Iodidum ;  Ferri Lactas ; Ferri Nitras ; Ferri Oxidum  Hydratum ;
Ferri Oxidum  Rubrum; Ferri Phosphas; Ferri  Pulvis;  Ferri Subcar-
bonas; Ferri Sulphas; Ferri Sulphas Exsiccatum; Ferri Tannas ; Ferri
Valerianas.
                         FICUS CARICA.
                                Fig.
  Nat. Ord.—Urticaceae;  Moraceaj, Lindley. Sex. Syst.—Polygamia Dicecia,
                         THE DRIED FRUIT.
  Description.—The fig-tree is usually about ten or twelve feet in hight,
but in warm climates rises to twenty-five and  even thirty feet.   Its
trunk  seldom  exceeds  seven  inches in diameter,  and is  divided  into
numerous round spreading branches, covered with a coarse short down,
and a brown or ash-colored  bark.   The leaves are large, palmate, three
to five-lobed, or  almost entire,  lobes  obtuse,  coarsely  serrated, deep
green, shining, and rough  upon  their upper surface,  pale green  and
coarsely downy beneath, and stand alternately on strong round petioles.
The flowers are green, and situated within a turbinate, fleshy,  closed
receptacle, which is placed solitarily upon a short peduncle in the axils
of the upper leaves.  Male flowers, calyx three-parted; female flowers,
calyx  five-parted.  Stamens three;  pistil  one, lateral.  The  receptacle
forms what is called the fruit, it is more or less pearshaped, or almost
round, succulent, sweet and pleasant to the taste.   The numerous seeds
which are  attached to  the internal surface of the receptacle, by fleshy
pedicels, constitute more properly, the fruit.
  History.—The  fig-tree is supposed to have  come originally from the
Levant, but is now cultivated in all temperate  climates.   The structure
of its  fruit is peculiar; at first it is nothing more than a fleshy recep-
tacle ;  but, as it advances to maturity, minute floAvers form in a cavity, 
470
Materia  Medica.
which occupies the center of the mass and communicates  outwardly by
a small round aperture at the summit, and these flowers are succeeded
by many small roundish seeds.   While young, the fig abounds, like the
trunk and  branches,  with  a milky, aromatic,  acrid juice,  destitute of
sweetness; but as it matures, sugar  and  mucilage are  formed, and the
acridity disappears.   It is  usually  top-shaped, umbilicate  at the large
extremity,  about the size of a small pear, of a whitish, yellowish, or
reddish color, and when ripe, is sweet, high-flavored,  and wholesome;
but if eaten to excess,  occasions  flatulence,  pain in  the  bowels  and
diarrhea.   When perfectly ripe, it is dried  by the heat of the sun, or in
ovens.  Those figs which are brought to  the United States, come chiefly
from  Smyrna, packed in drums or boxes.  They are more or less com-
pressed,  and, in cold weather,  are  usually covered with a whitish, sac-
charine efflorescence,  which melts in the middle of summer, and renders
them moist.  The best are yellowish or brownish, somewhat translucent
when held to the light, and filled with a  sweet viscid pulp, in which are
lodged numerous small yellow seeds.  Their chief constituents are sugar
and mucilage.
  Properties and Uses.—Nutritious, laxative, and  demulcent.   Used in
some cases of constipation, as  a laxative article of diet.   Occasionally
they enter into  demulcent decoctions; and when  roasted or boiled  and
split open, may  be applied as a suppurative cataplasm to boils, buboes,
carbuncles, and to parts upon which  an ordinary poultice can not be
conveniently retained.
                             FIRING.
  Obtain a thick iron-wire shank,  about  two inches long, and inserted
into a small wooden handle; on its  extremity, which  must be slightly
curved, have a  disk or button of iron, exactly one-quarter of an inch
thick, and half an inch in diameter.   The whole instrument to be only
six  inches in length.  The face of the disk for application must be flat.
  Mode of Application.—Light a small spirit lamp, and hold the button
over the flame, keeping the fore-finger of the hand holding the instru-
ment, at the distance of about half an inch from the button.  As soon as
the finger feels  uncomfortably hot, the instrument is ready for use, and
the time required  for heating it  to this degree,  will  be about half  a
minute.  It is to be applied as quickly as possible  to the parts, the skin
being tipped successively, at intervals of half an inch,  over the affected
part, as lightly and as rapidly as possible, always taking care  to bring
the flat surface of the disk fairly in contact with the skin.  In  this way
the process of firing a whole limb,  or the loins,  making about  one hun-
dred applications, does not occupy a  minute, and the one heating by the
lamp suffices.  To ascertain whether the heat be sufficient, look sidewise
at the spots as you touch them, and each spot will be observed to become 
Fceniculum Vulgare.
471
of a glistening white, much whiter than the surrounding skin.   In from
five to thirty minutes the skin becomes bright red, and a glow of heat is
felt over the part.  The iron  must never be made red-hot—it is very
little  hotter than boiling water—should  never make  an eschar, and
rarely raise  a blister.   On the  next day after its application,  a number
of circular red marks will be  seen  on the skin, the cuticle not even
being raised, and the surface ready, if necessary, for a fresh application.
There is no  discharge whatever, and in most cases the patient is uncon-
scious of what has been done.   It is vastly superior to a blister in  many
cases ; even the most delicate female will not object to its  frequent repe-
tition when required.
  Properties and  Uses. — A powerful counter-irritant.  Recommended
by Dr. Corrigan in paralysis, local muscular rheumatism, sciatica, lum-
bago, neuralgic pains,  etc., and wherever a counter-irritant  is required.
Also  applied each side of the  spinal  column, in intermittents, epilepsy,
mania and other diseases.
                  FCENICULUM VULGARE.
                               Fennel.

   Nat. Ord.—Apiaceae, or Umbelliferas.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.
                              THE SEED.
   Description.—Foeniculum Vulgare, or  Common Fennel, has  a biennial
or perennial tapering  root, and an annual, erect, solid, round, striated,
smooth, leafy, copiously branched stem, growing from three to five feet
in hight.  The leaves are alternate at the joints of the stem, upon broad
membranous striated  sheaths, and  are  triply pinnate ; the leaflets are
long, linear,  acute, smooth, more or less  drooping,  deep green.   The
flowers are in large, flat, terminal umbels, with from  thirteen  to twenty
rays;  the partial rays more  slender,  short, and very unequal.  Bracts
or involucres wanting.  The corolla consists of  five petals, of a golden
yellow color, which  are obovate, with  a  broad, obtuse, inflexed point.
Calyx none.  Styles very  short, with  a large,  ovate, pale-yellow base.
Fruit ovate, not quite two lines long, and about a line in breadth, pale
bright brown, smooth; ridges sharp, with but little space between each,
the lateral ones rather the broadest; terminated by a permanent conical
disk.   Fennel is a native of Europe,  growing wild upon sandy  and
chalky ground,  and flowering in July.
  Fceniculum  Officinale, or Sweet  Fennel, has a  perennial, fusiform
and whitish  root, with a solid, jointed, striated, shining, deep-glaucous-
green stem.   The leaves are shorter, and the leaflets less elongated than
in the preceding species;  the fruit is likewise  twice as  long,  a  little
curved, and of a less dark  color,  with prominent ridges, and a persistent 
472
Materia  Medica.
peduncle.  It is a native of the South of Europe, but is naturalized in
this country, and is sweeter and more aromatic than F. Vulgare.
   Fceniculum Dulce, or  Sweet Fennel,  and sometimes confounded
with the F.  Officinale,  very  much  resembles the F. Vulgare, but differs
in being a much  smaller  plant, only about a foot high,—in having its
stem somewhat compressed at the base—its radical leaves somewhat dis-
tichous, and  in  having only six or eight rays, instead  of thirteen  or
twenty, as in the common fennel.  The fruit likewise varies considerably,
being narrow, oblong, three lines long, pale-dull-brown, smooth ; ridges
sharpish, with a space between each for  a convex line  indicating the
vitta, the lateral ones rather the broadest.  This is also a native  of
southern Europe, and  is cultivated  largely in  Italy  and Sicily, for the
sake of the shoots, which are eaten raw, or boiled  as pot-herbs.
  These plants were formerly included in the genus Anethum of Linnaus,
but were separated  from it by Gartner  and  De Candolle, on account
of the difference of the seed.   Authors have not settled the question as
to the officinal species, the botanical history of  which is still a matter of
confusion and indefiniteness.
  History.—The  seeds or half fruits  of  these varieties,  do not  differ
materially  in aromatic properties; they have  a  fragrant odor, and a
warm, sweet, aromatic taste.   There are  three kinds in commerce; 1st,
ovoid, glabrous, of a dull green, marked with lines, of which two are
more prominent than the others—these are the product  of F.  Vulgare.
2d. Long, somewhat curved, of a brighter green, pedicel  often  adhering
to them, and very  aromatic, the  product  of F.   Officinale.  3d. Much
broader  and ovoid,  ribs strongly marked, from the F.  Dulce.   They
impart their virtues to  hot water, but more abundantly to  alcohol.  They
contain volatile  oil,  which may be  obtained by distillation with water,
and likewise a large  proportion of fixed oil.
  Properties and Uses.—Carminative and stimulant.   Used in flatulent
colic, and as a corrigent of  other  less pleasant  medicines.   Dose  of
powdered seeds, from ten to thirty grains.
   Off. Prep.—Aqua Foenieuli.
                       FRAGARIA  VESCA.
                            Strawberry.
         Nat. Ord.—Rosacea^.  Sex. Syst.—Icosandria Polygynia.
                            THE FRUIT.
  Description.—Strawberry has  a creeping, knotty, perennial root, with
short, upright and  reclined, and  procumbent  and stoloniferous stems;
stolons often creeping several feet.  The leaves are pubescent, cauline
and radical;  the latter on long petioles,  trifoliate, the  leaflets sessile  or
nearly so,  oboval, oval,  or nearly round,, deeply  serrated; the former 
Frasera Carolinensis.
473
nearly similar, but smaller, both with lanceolate, oblong, acute stipules.
The flowers white, one or many, with erect or drooping pedicels.   Calyx
spreading or reflexed, divided into ten acute segments, the alternate one
beinf somewhat shorter.  The petals are five, white, oboval  or obcor-
date, inserted on the calyx.   Stamens indefinite, small, and also inserted
on the calyx.   Ovaries  many, with  a small  stigma each, inserted on a
succulent gynophore, which increases in size, becomes colored, and forms
the fruit.  In  this species the  achenia  are superficial on the conical or
hemispherical fruiting receptacle, not sunk in pits;  in the F. Virginiana
the achenia are imbedded in the deep pits of the receptacle.
  History.—This is  a European species, presenting innumerable  vari-
eties, which are cultivated in gardens, flowering from April to May, and
ripening its fruit in May and  June.   The F.  Virginiana, or wild straw-
berry, F. Canadensis, or mountain strawberry', F.  Grandiflora, or  pine-
apple strawberry, and the other varieties possess similar properties. The
fruit of  all the varieties, is highly fragrant and delicious when ripened
in the  sun;  and  the cultivated  varieties frequently become very large,
weighing an ounce or more.   Strawberry consists of equal parts of citric
and malic acids, sugar,  mucilage, pectin, water, peculiar volatile aroma,
woody fiber, and pericarps.
   Properties  and Uses.—The fruit has  been highly spoken of in calcu-
lous disorders,  used very freely, likewise in gout, and the juice will dis-
solve  the hard  concretions called "tartar," which form on the teeth, and
without injuring them.   In some persons strawberries  induce an erup-
tion resembling nettle-rash, with a derangement of the digestive organs.
The grains or seed-like  pericarps are indigestible, and  sometimes cause
irritation of the bowels.   Strawberry juice, or the syrup, added to water,
forms a refreshing and useful drink for febrile patients ; care being taken
that the  grains are removed by  filtering or expressing the juice or syrrup
through  a piece of muslin.   Strawberries eaten with cream  are injurious
to dyspeptics.   The leaves  are somewhat astringent,  and have been
used in infusion, in diarrhea, dysentery, and intestinal debility; the roots
are diuretic,  and have  been beneficially used in infusion  in dysuria,
gonorrhea, etc.
         FRASERA CAROLINENSIS.  (Frasera Walteri.)
                         American Columbo.
       Nat. Ord.—Gentianaceaa.   Sex. Syst—Tetrandria Monogynia.
                             THE  ROOT.
  Description.—American Columbo is an indigenous plant, with a trien-
nial, long, spindle-shaped, horizontal,  fleshy,  rugose,  and yelloAv root,
and  a  smooth, erect, solid, cylindrical, or subquadrangular, succulent
dark-purple stem, from four to nine feet in hight, one or two inches in 
474
Materia  Medica.
diameter at base, and branched above.  The leaves are opposite, sessile,
entire, glabrous, deep-green, subcarnose, from three to twelve inches
long, by one  to  three inches wide, and  in whorls of from four to six.
The whorls commence at the root, and ascend  to the top with succes-
sively diminishing intervals and leaves.   The loAver or radical leaves are
from five to  twelve in number,  elliptical,  obtuse, very long, and rest
upon the ground in the form of a star.   The cauline leaves become suc-
cessively smaller as they ascend, the lowest oblong lanceolate, the upper
lanceolate and pointed.  The flowers are  yellowish-white, or greenish-
yellow, numerous, forming a large terminal, compound, pyramidal, leafy,
verticillate panicle, from one to five feet long, the branches of which spring
from the  axils  of the upper leaves; peduncles  one-flowered, unequal,
leafy, or bracteate.   Calyx deeply four-cleft, spreading;  segments lanceo-
late, acute, persistent, and nearly as  long as the corolla.   Corolla with
four elliptic  segments, flat and spreading;  margin somewhat inflexed,
an  oval or orbicular  fimbriated, purple pit or gland in  the center of
each.   Stamens four, alternate with the segments, and shorter  than the
corolla.  Filaments  subulate, short, and  inserted into  the base of the
corolla between its  segments; anthers large, oval, oblong, yellow, and
notched at the base.   Ovary oblong-ovate, compressed, bearing a short
style with  a  bifid stigma.   Capsule or fruit yellowish, oval, acuminate,
with the persistent  style,  compressed ;  margin  thin, two-valved,  one-
seeded.  Seeds  eight to twelve, flat, elliptical, imbricated,  winged.
  History.—This plant grows west of the Alleghanies, and from New
York to Alabama, in rich woody lands and meadows, and bearing flowers
in June and July.   The  stems and flowers are produced in the third
year,  previous  to which the radical  leaves  only  appear above ground.
The root is the officinal part, and should be  collected  in the autumn of
the second,  or the  spring  of  the third  year; they are  large, yellow,
rugose, hard, and spindle-shaped; but as found in the shops, they are
in dried, transverse slices, having a light  reddish-brown epidermis, a
thick yellow bark, and a yellowish spongy meditullium.   The  taste is
bitter  and slightly sweetish without  aroma.  Water or diluted alcohol
extracts its virtues, and on adding water to the tincture, a precipitate is
thrown down, but it is not disturbed by the tincture of galls.  It contains
bitter extractive, gum, tannin, gallic acid, resin, a fatty matter, sugar, etc.
  It may be distinguished from Colombo, by the greater  uniformity of
its internal structure, the absence of concentric and radiating lines, their
purer yellow color without a greenish tinge, and by affording a dark-green
precipitate with the salts of iron, which  is not the case with Colombo;
and this last, in tincture, gives a dirty-gray precipitate with tincture of
galls.
  Properties and  Uses.—The fresh  root is  emetic  and cathartic ;  the
dried,  a simple tonic, which may be used  wherever mild tonics are indi- 
          Fraxinus Sambucifolia— Fraxinus Acuminata.       475

cated.   Dose of the powder from twenty to sixty grains, of the infusion
from one to four fluidounces, three or four times a day.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Frasera.
                 FRAXINUS SAMBUCIFOLIA.
                           Black Ash.
                   FRAXINUS ACUMINATA.
                           White Ash.
           Nat. Ord.—Oleaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Dicecia Diandria.
                            THE BARK.
  Description.—Fraxinus Sambucifolia is a tree which attains the hight
of from forty to seventy feet;  the trunk is covered with a bark of a darker
hue than that of the White Ash, and less deeply furrowed, and  is from
one to two feet in  diameter.   The wood is purplish, very tough and
elastic, but less durable than the white ash.   The leaves  are from nine to
sixteen inches in length, and are composed of about seven leaflets, which
are sessile, ovate-lanceolate,  serrate, rugose and  shining,  round-oblique
at the base, smooth  above, and  red-downy on the veins beneath.  Calyx
and  corolla  both wanting; buds of  a deep-blue color.  Samara ellipti-
cal-oblong, very obtuse at both ends.   This species grows in swamps
and moist woods in the northern States and Canada, blossoming in May.
The young saplings are  much  employed in making hoops, and the ma-
ture trunks for baskets.  The leaves when bruised exhale the odor of
Elder.
  Fraxinus Acuminata of Lamark, or the Fraxinus Americana of  Lin-
naus, is  a large forest tree, which grows from fifty to eighty feet high;
it often rises more  than forty feet without a branch, and then expands
into a regular summit of an equal additional hight.  The trunk is covered
with a gray, furrowed  and cracked bark, and the branchlets are a smooth
greenish-gray.   The leaves are a foot or  more in length, opposite, pin-
nate, consisting of about seven leaflets, which are petiolate, oblong, shining,
acuminate, entire or slightly toothed, glaucous beneath.   Its flowers are
whitish-green, and  are disposed in loose panicles, the fertile ones with a
calyx, and the barren  ones without.   Corolla wanting.  Calyx small and
four-cleft; buds of  a rust-color.  Samara spatulate-linear, obtuse, with
a long narrowed base.   The white ash is chiefly confined to the Northern
States and Canada,  growing in rich woods, and  blooming in April and
May.   Its wood is light, firm, elastic and  durable, furnishing a  most
excellent  timber for  carriage-frames,  bars, handspikes,  agricultural
implements, etc.
  History.—There  are several species of this tree, all of  which possess
medicinal virtues, probably, of  a  similar character.  The bark is the 
476
Materia  Medica.
 part used, the properties of which are extracted by water.   No analysis
 has been made of it.
   Properties and Uses.—Tonic and astringent.  An extract of the black
 ash used as a plaster is very valuable in salt rheum, and other cutaneous
 diseases.  The infusion may be used internally as a tonic, and for all
 purposes where  a  combination of astringency  with  tonic influence is
 indicated.
   The white ash is also cathartic, and has been found beneficial in some
 cases of constipation,  and  also in  dropsical affections.   It may be used
 in the form of infusion,  or in bitters.  The bark in white wine, is said to
 be efficient in curing ague-cake, or enlarged  spleen.  The seeds are said
 to prevent obesity.                ,  ^
   The leaves of the common ash, Fraxinus  Polygamic, have been high-
 ly recommended in the treatment of gout and rheumatism.   No nausea,
 sickness, general discomfort,  nor  depression  attends their employment,
 and generally, after having used them for four or five days, and some-
 times sooner,  the pain, redness, and swelling sensibly diminish in inten-
 sity, or  entirely disappear.  About  two and  a  half  ounces  of  the
 powdered leaves are to be  infused for three hours in a sufficient quantity
 of boiling water, then strained  through a linen cloth  and  sweetened;
 this is to be  taken  during the day, at several  draughts, and is to be
 repeated daily ; it should be continued for eight days after the symptoms
 have disappeared.  In chronic gout it may be repeated for eight  or  ten
 days every month, for several consecutive  months.   Probably the leaves
 of the above  species, or of the Fraxinus Quadrangulata, or Blue Ash,
 will be found  equally efficacious.

                 FUCUS  HELMINTHOCORTON.
                            Corsican  Moss:
  Nat. Ord.—Algaceas, or Ceramiacese, (Lindley).  Sex.  Syst.—Cryptogamia
 Alga?.
                         THE WHOLE  PLANT.
  Description.—This is the  Gigartina Helminthocorton of Greville ; it has
 a cartilaginous, terete, tufted, entangled  frond, with setaceous branches,
 somewhat dichotomous, marked  indistinctly with  transverse streaks.
 The lower part dirty-yellow, the brandies more or less purple.
  History.—This is a marine plant, growing on the Mediterranean coast,
 and  especially on the Island of Corsica.  The plant is of a cartilaginous
 consistence, of a dull  and  reddish-brown  color,  has  a  bitter,  salt  and
 nauseous taste, and its odor is rather pleasant.   It is found  in  the form
 of thick tufts,  composed of numerous  filaments,  united at the base, in
bundles  intermingled  together, and  fastened to each other  by small
hooks, with which the stems are furnished.   It is seldom employed in
this country.   Water dissolves its  active  principles. 
Fucus Helminthocorton.
477
   Properties and  Uses.—Anthelmintic.  The influence exercised by this
 substance upon the economy, is hardly appreciable; perhaps, occasion-
 ally, a slight irritation of the digestive canal—but it acts very powerfully
 on the intestinal worms, especially the lumbricoid.   Dr. Johnson affirms
 that when thrown into the rectum, "it destroys any worms domiciliating
 there as effectually as choke-damps  would destroy the life of a miner."
 The dose is  from ten  to sixty grains, mixed with  molasses, jelly, or
 syrup, or in infusion.
   Fucus Vesiculosis is a perennial  seaweed.  The root is a hard flattish
 disk.  Frond from a few inches to four feet in length, and from two lines
 to an inch in width, flat, furnished with a midrib throughout its  length,
 occasionally twisted  in  a spiral manner,  repeatedly  dichotomous, the
 angles of the dichotomy acute, except when a solitary vesicle happens to
 be placed there ;  the sterile branches obtuse and often  notched at the
 extremity.  Air vessels from the size of a pea to a hazelnut, in pairs,
 and situated at irregular intervals in different parts of  the frond ;  some-
 times two or three pairs are arranged next to each other ;  they are rarely
 altogether wanting.   Receptacles terminal, compressed, mostly ovate or
 ellipitical, about half an inch long, but varying from nearly spherical to
 linear-lanceolate, and from one-fourth of an inch  to nearly two inches
 long ; they are mostly in pairs, but are sometimes solitary, and occasion-
 ally forked.  They are filled with a  clear, tasteless mucus.   The Avhole
 frond is proliferous in a remarkable degree in cases of injury, throwing
 out numerous new shoots from the injured part.

   The Fucus Vesiculosis, Sea Wrack, or Bladder Wrack, grows upon
 the shores of  Europe and of this continent, attaching itself to the rocks
 by its expanded woody root.   On the coast of  Scotland and of France,
 it is much used in the  preparation of kelp.   It is also employed as a
 manure, and is mixed with the fodder of cattle.
   The Fucus Vesiculosis  has  a peculiar odor, and a nauseous  saline
 taste.  Several chemists have undertaken its analysis, but the results are
 by no means satisfactory.  It contains a large quantity of soda in saline
 combination, and iodine, according to Gaultier de Claubry, in the state
 of iodide  of potassium.   These ingredients  remain in its ashes,  and in
 the charcoal resulting  from  its exposure to heat in close vessels.  The
 charcoal of this plant has long had. the reputation of a deobstruent, and
 been given in goitre and scrofulous swellings.  Its virtues were formerly
 ascribed chiefly to the carbonate of soda, in which it abounds; but since
the discovery of the medical properties of iodine, this has been considered
 as its most active ingredient.   The mucus contained in the vesicles was
 applied externally, with advantage, by Dr. Russel, as a resolvent in scrof-
ulous tumors.
  Other species of Fucus are in all probability possessed of similar pro-
perties.  Many of them contain a gelatinous matter, and a  saccharine 
478
Materia Medica.
principle analogous to mannite;  and some are used as aliment, in times
of scarcity, by the wretched  inhabitants of the  coasts where they are
collected.— U. S. Disp.
               FULIGO  LIGNI.   (Fuligo Splendens.)
                             WOOD-SOOT.
   Description.—The best soot for  medicinal  purposes, is  that which is
gathered within an air-tight wood stove and its pipe ;  that which is col-
lected from a  clean chimney or ordinary stove-pipe,  where hard wood
alone is burned, will ordinarily answer, if it be free from ashes and lime.
Soot  has  a peculiar  smell, resembling  that  of creosote, and a bitter,
empyreumatic, disagreeable taste.   Powdered soot  steeped in  boiling
water makes an  infusion of a deep-yellow or brown color, impartino- to
it its characteristic odor and taste.   The part which is soluble consists
chiefly, according to Berzelius, of a pyrogenous resin  united with acetic
acid,  saturated with potassa, lime  and magnesia.   It also contains sul-
phate of lime, chloride of potassium, acetate of ammonia, and traces of
nitric acid.  If the solution be evaporated to dryness, it furnishes a black
extract, which  on being redissolved in water forms  a blackish-brown
solution, which lets fall acid pyretin, in the form of  a black mass resem-
bling pitch,  when  treated  with any  free  acid except acetic;  the acid
employed remains  in  solution  with  the  bases previously in combination
with  the pyretin.  That portion of soot which is  insoluble in water,
amounts to about  forty-four per cent.  In addition to the above ingre-
dients, soot also contains empyreumatic  oil, and creosote, to which it is
supposed to owe its medical virtues, but which supposition is incorrect.
   Properties and  Uses.—Internally, soot  will be found valuable in all
forms of disease attended with acidity  of the stomach.  A powder com-
posed of one part each of powdered rhubarb  and soot, and half a part
of bicarbonate  of potassa, will be  found  invaluable in all such cases,
removing acidity and  a tendency  to  constipation;  it  may be given in
doses varying from three to twelve  grains, three times a day, or in suffi-
cient  quantity to cause one  or two  evacuations from  the  bowels daily.
An infusion of  soot, made  so as not to be  unpalatable, is very beneficial
in inflammation  of mucous membranes,  and in  hysteria.  A strong
decoction of soot used as an injection into the rectum, has caused the
expulsion of ascarides; its  use should be continued for several days in
succession;  injected into the  bladder  it has  been of service in  chronic
inflammation of the bladder; it should be  injected twice a day for some
days.  It possesses no antispasmodic virtues further than  the neutraliz-
ing acidity of the stomach, to which  the spasmodic  action is owing.
Combined with geraniin, in the  proportion of two  parts to one of the
astringent,  it will prove valuable  in diarrhea  and cholera-morbus  of
children;  in  summer-complaint,  one  part of leptandrin,  and a  fourth 
Fumaria Officinalis.
479
part of camphor or ginger may be added to the above.  The infusion or
decoction may be made by adding one  or two ounces  of soot to a pint
of water, macerate or boil for half an hour, and filter; dose, one or tAvo
fluidounces, two or three times a day.
  Externally, I have used the Unguentum Fuliginis, in cases of recent
and extensive burns, with almost immediate relief; it must be spread on
raw-cotton  and applied over the part.   The ointment is also efficacious
in various cutaneous disorders, especially those of an erysipelatous  char-
acter, tinea, fistula, cancerous and syphilitic ulcers, pruritus of the vulva,
specks on the cornea,  scrofulous ophthalmia, severe  burns and scalds,
etc.  In some  of these diseases the decoction will  answer.  In many
ophthalmic diseases, a strong decoction of equal parts of soot and golden-
seal,  will be  found valuable; it may also be employed internally' by
mouth, or  injection  into the bladder  or  vagina,  for  chronic  mucous
inflammation.
   A preparation  called Fuligokali, has  been recommended in scrofula,
chronic rheumatism, rheumatic  tumors, and  certain  herpetic affections.
It is made  by boiling  for  an hour, one  hundred parts  of good, shining-
soot,  and twenty parts of caustic potassa, each in powder, in two parts
or  a sufficient  quantity of  water.   When cold the  solution is  diluted,
filtered, and evaporated to dryness.  Fuligokali is in the form of a black
powder or scales, very soluble in water, of an  empyreumatic. odor, and
mild  alkaline taste.   The  dose  is  two or three grains, repeated several
times a day.  Sixteen  or thirty-two grains to the ounce of lard, is said
to form a detersive, resolvent, and gently stimulant ointment.
    Off. Prep.—Unguentum Fuliginis.
                    FUMARIA OFFICINALIS.
                             Fumitory.
       Nat.  Ord.—Fumariaceas.  Sex.  Syst.—Diadelphia Hexagynia.

                            THE LEAVES.
  Description.—This is an annual glaucous plant, with a suberect, much-
branched, spreading, leafy, and angular stem, groAving from ten to fifteen
inches high.  The leaves are mostly alternate, bipinnate or tripinnate;
leaflets wedge-shaped,  cut into  flat, lanceolate  segments.   The flowers
are small,  flesh-colored, tipped with  crimson, nodding, the pedicels
becoming erect in fruit.  Racemes opposite to the leaves, stalked, erect,
many-flowered, rather lax.  Bracts lanceolate, acute, not half the leno-th
of the pedicels, especially when in fruit.   Petals four, unequal, one of
them  with a short, rounded spur at the base.   Calyx  colored, toothed,
deciduous.  Fruit or nut ovoid or globose,  indehiscent, emarginate,  one-
seeded, and valveless ;  seeds  crestless. 
4S0
Materia Medica.
  History.—This is a small European plant, naturalized in this country,
growing  in  cultivated grounds, and bearing  red flowers from May to
August.   The leaves are the  officinal  part; they are inodorous, have a
bitter, saline taste, and are very succulent, yielding by expression a juice
which  has the  sensible and  medicinal properties of  the  plant.  The
Avhole plant abounds in saline substances.  By evaporating the expressed
juice, or a decoction of the leaves, an extract is obtained, AYhich throws
out upon its surface  a copious saline efflorescence.
   Properties  and  Uses. — Tonic,  laxative,   alterative, and  diuretic.
Esteemed as a  valuable remedy in visceral  obstructions,  in scorbutic
affections,  in leprosy,  and many forms of  cutaneous  disease.   The
expressed juice  may be used  in  the  dose  of two ounces or more  per
day; or a decoction  of the  dried  or fresh leaves and tops may be used
freely.  Two ounces of the flowers and tops infused in three  pints  of
Madeira  wine,  and  taken  tAvice  a day in doses  of from  two to four
fluidounces, will strengthen the stomach and improve the appetite.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Fumaria Vinum.
                           GALBANUM.
                             Galbanum.
             THE CONCRETE JUICE OF  AN UNKNOWN PLANT.
   History.—The plant from which the gum-resin Galbanum is obtained,
is  unknown ; various plants have  at  different  times  been supposed to
afford  it,  but as  there is no  certainty in  relation to  the subject, it is
scarcely necessary to refer to them.   Galbanum is  brought from the
Levant, and from India.  It is generally in masses of whitish, reddish,
or yellowish tears, irregularly agglutinated by a darker colored yellow-
ish-brown, or greenish substance, more or less translucent, of a peculiar,
disagreeable odor, and a bitterish,  warm, and  acrid taste.   Sometimes,
though rarely, it  has been obtained in  the state of distinct roundish tears,
about  the size of a pea, of a yellowish-Avhite or pale brownish-yellow
color, shining externally, and translucent.  In cool weather, galbanum
has the consistence of wax ; in summer it softens, and is rendered duc-
tile and adhesive by the heat of the hand.  As it is generally mixed
with pieces of stalks, seeds, or other foreign matters, it should be melted
and strained previous to using it.  Its specific gravity is 1.212.  It is
soluble in diluted alcohol; when triturated  Avith water, wine or vinegar,
it forms an imperfect, not permanent, milky solution.  Alcohol dissolves
all except the gum.   Diluted alcohol  is its proper solvent.   Ether  dis-
solves  the resin  and volatile  oil,  leaving  all the gum.  It consists of
resin, soluble gum, bassorin, volatile oil, traces of supermalate of lime,
and some  impurities.  The volatile oil obtained by distillation with water, 
Galipea  Officinalis.
481
is colorless, odoriferous,  and becomes yellowish  by age; it is lighter
than water.
  A dark-brown  or blackish  color, permanent softness, the  absence  of
whitish grains, a  deficiency in odor and  taste, and  a large  amount  of
impurities in connection with the gum-resin, are signs of inferiority.
  Properties  and Uses. — Stimulant,  expectorant, and  antispasmodic.
Used in chronic affections of  the bronchial mucous membrane, amenor-
rhea, and  chronic rheumatism.   Externally, employed in the form  of
plaster to indolent tumors, and in tincture to scrofulous ophthalmia, and
irritability or weakness of the eyes.   Dose,  from  ten to twenty grains,
in pill, or triturated with water, sugar, and gum arabic.  It is less ener-
getic than assafcetida, and  seems to hold a middle place between this
and ammoniac, so far so relates to activity.
                    GALIPEA OFFICINALIS.
                            Angustura.

          Nat. Ord.—Rutaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Diandria Monogynia.
                            THE  BARK.
   Description.—This is a small tree not more than twelve to twenty feet
in hight, and about three to five  inches in diameter, irregularly branched,
and covered with a smooth, gray bark.  The leaves  are alternate, petio-
late, and trifoliate; the leaflets are  oblong, pointed at both extremities,
supported  on the common  petiole  by short footstalks, smooth, glossy,
bright-green, smelling when fresh  and bruised somewhat like tobacco;
they are from six to ten  inches long, and two to four inches wide, and
some of them  are  marked  Avith small, whitish round  spots ; petioles
about the length of the  leaflets, slightly channeled.  The flowers  are
numerous, white, hairy, and arranged in terminal and axillary  racemes,
or with long peduncles ; they likewise exhale an unpleasant odor.  The
calyx is somewhat campanulate, five-cleft, inferior,  hairy ;  the corolla is
about an inch long, downy on  both sides, and someAvhat curved before
expansion.   The petals are five, unequal, oblong, obtuse, and united at
the base into a short tube.   Fertile stamens  two; sterile  ones five, subu-
late, tipped  with a pellucid  watery gland.  The style is erect  with  a
simple stigma.  The fruit  consists of five  bivalve capsules,  of which
tAvo or three are commonly abortive ; the seeds are two in each capsule,
round, black, of the size of  a pea, one of which is often abortive.
   History.—There has been much confusion regarding the species from
which  the  Angustura  Bark is obtained, but  the  observations of  Dr.
Hancock have conclusively shown  that the bark of commerce is derived
from a tree to which he has given the  above name.   The tree grows
abundantly on the mountains of Carony between the seventh and eighth
          31 
482
Materia  Medica.
degrees of south latitude, and is well knoAvn in the district of country
bordering on the Orinoco, at a  distance  of two hundred miles  and
upward from the ocean, and  at  an elevation of from  six hundred to a
thousand feet.  The bark is generally brought from the West India ports,
in casks.   It is  in flat  pieces or incomplete quills, from  two  to eight
inches long,  half an inch to one and a half inches broad, and from half
a line to three lines in thickness.   Externally it is covered with a dirty
grayish-yellow, wrinkled  epidermis, easily removed by the finger nail,
and internally, the substance of the bark is yellowish-brown.   It breaks
easily, with a short,  resinous fracture, and  affords  a powder of a pale-
yellow color, somewhat  like that of  rhubarb. When macerated in water,
for a short time, it becomes soft  and tenacious, and  may be easily cut
with scissors.  It has a  peculiar,  disagreeable odor, becoming fainter by
age, and a bitter, aromatic, hot, but not unpleasant taste.  Water, alco-
hol,  or proof-spirits, extract its virtues.  According to analysis it con-
tains bitter extract, bitter resin, gum, volatile oil, a soft resin, a substance
resembling  caoutchouc,  lignin,  and various  salts.    The volatile oil
may be obtained by distillation  with  water; it  is acrid  to  the  taste,
odor like  the  bark,  and  lighter  than water.   It  also  contains nearly
1.5 per cent, of a peculiar, neutral, crystalline principle, named Cusparin,
which  maybe obtained by treating an infusion of the bark with absolute
alcohol, at common temperatures, and allow it to evaporate spontaneously;
the  crystals thus  obtained are  to  be purified byr repeated  crystalli-
zation  from alcohol, and agitation with ether and hydrated oxide of lead.
It forms tetrahedral crystals, is fusible at 112° F., and loses 23.09  per
cent, of its weight, is  soluble  in  two hundred  parts  of cold,  and  one
hundred parts of boiling water,  freely soluble in alcohol, but not in
ether or volatile oils, readily soluble  in the concentrated acids, and more
sparingly in the alkalies, and its acid solution yields a whitish precipitate
with the tincture of galls.   Some years since a poisonous bark was intro-
duced as the true bark, and  the  administration of Avhich  Avas  attended
with fatal results.  This spurious bark was   at first supposed to be  the
product of the Brucea Ferruginea, but is noAv recognized as the bark of
Strychnos Nux-vomica.   It is knoAvn as the False Angustura Bark, and
may be detected by its greater thickness, hardness, weight  and  compact-
ness, its more  intense bitterness Avithout either aroma  or pungency ; by
the appearance of its epidermis, which is sometimes covered with a fer-
ruginous efflorescence, and sometimes is  yellowish-gray and marked with
prominent  Avhite spots ;  by the  brownish-color and  smoothness of its
internal surface, Avhich is not separable into lamina, like that of the true
bark ;  and by the white, slightly yellow powder  which it yields.  When
Steeped in  Avater  it  does  not  become soft  like  the genuine drug.   An
excellent method of distinguishing the two barks  is by the action of nitric
acid, a drop or two of Avhich, applied to either surface of the true bark,
produces a dull-red  color,  but when dropped on  the  rusty efflorescent 
Galium Aparine.
483
epidermis of the spurious article, induces an emerald-green, and a deep
blood-red tint  on its internal surface.   The false bark is seldom seen
in this country.
  Properties and Uses.—In large doses, of from twenty to sixty grains,
it is emetic and cathartic; in doses of from five to fifteen grains, tonic
and  febrifuge.   Recommended in bilious  diarrheas  and dysenteries,
intermittents, dropsies, etc.  It is seldom used, on account of its liability
to adulteration with the poisonous bark  of the Strychnos Nux-vomica,
known as the False Angustura  Bark.
                       GALIUM  APARINE.
                             Cleavers.
        Nat. Ord.—Rubiaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Tetrandria Monogynia.
                             THE  HERB.
   Description.—This plant  has  many common names, as Goose-grass,
 Catch-weed, Bed-straw, etc.;  it is an annual, succulent plant, with a weak,
procumbent,  quadrangular, retrorsely-prickled  stem, which grows from
two to six feet long, and is hairy at the joints. The leaves are one or two
inches in  length, and two or three lines in  width, verticillate in sixes,
sevens, or  eights, linear-oblanceolate,  nearly sessile,  mucronate, taper-
ing to the base, rough on  the margins and midvein ; peduncles axillary,
one or two-flowered.  Flowers white, small, numerous, scattered. Calyx
four-toothed ; corolla  rotate, four-parted; stamens four,  short;  styles
two.   Fruit large, bristly  with  hooked prickles.
  History.—This plant is common to Europe and the United States,
growing in cultivated grounds, moist thickets,  and along fences and
hedges, and flowering from  June to  September.  Its root consists of a
few hair-like  fibers, of a reddish color.  There are several varieties  of
this plant, all of which possess similar medicinal virtues,  as Galium
Asprcllum, or Pointed Cleavers, which differs from the above in having
its leaves in whorls of four or six, and smaller, its fruit smooth, its stem
less in length, and  is perennial ;  Galium  Verum, or Yellow  Bed-straw,
with  an erect stem, leaves in  whorls of eight, root  long,  perennial,
fibrous, flowers densely paniculate,  yellow, and terminal; Galium Trifi-
dum  or Small Cleavers,  with a perennial root,  decumbent  stem, herb
smaller than the others, leaves in fours or fives, and white flowers.
  In  the  green  state these plants have an unpleasant  odor, but are
inodorous  Avhen  dried, with  an acidulous, astringent, and bitter taste.
Cold or warm water extracts the virtues  of the plants ;  boiling destroys
them.   They have not been analyzed.  The  roots dye a permanent red,
and the plant when eaten  by animals, colors the bones similar to madder.
The flowers are said to curdle milk, but this property is not constant. 
484
Materia  Medica.
  Properties and Uses.—This is another  remedy of the Eclectic  school
of medicine,  the virtues of which are unknown  to allopaths.   It  is a
most valuable refrigerant and diuretic, and will be found very beneficial
in many diseases of the urinary organs,  as suppression of urine, calcu-
lous affections,  inflammation of the  kidneys and  bladder, and  in the
scalding of urine in  gonorrhea.  It is contra-indicated in  diseases  of a
passive  character, on account of its refrigerant and sedative effects on
the  system, but may be used freely in fevers and all acute  diseases.  It
has been recommended in scorbutic and nervous affections, but  cannot
be depended upon.  An infusion may be made by  macerating an ounce
and a half of  the herb in a pint of warm water for two hours, of which
from two to  four fluidounces may be given three or four times  a day,
when cold.  It may be  sweetened with sugar or honey.   Equal parts of
cleavers,  maidenhair, and  elder-blows,  macerated in warm water for
tAvo or  three  hours,  and  drank freely  when  cold,  form  an excellent
drink in acute erysipelas,  scarlatina,  and other exanthematous diseases,
in their inflammatory stages.
  The  infusion  made with  cold water is also considered very beneficial
in removing  freckles from  the face, likewise lepra,  and several other
cutaneous eruptions; the  diseased parts  must be washed with it several
times a day, and continued  for  two or three months in cases of  freckles.
   Off. Prep. — Infusum Galii.
                           GAMBOGIA.
                             Gamboge.
            THE  CONCRETE JUICE  OF AN UNCERTAIN TREE.
  History. — In  relation  to the  plant  from which  this gum-resin is
derived we  have no correct information.  By some, it is laid down as
coming from the  Stalagmitis  Cambogioides, upon the  authority of Mur-
ray, but,  Dr. Graham  has satisfactorily determined that  there is no
such plant in existence.   It is now supposed to be derived from trees of
Ceylon, which produce gum-resins agreeing closely or entirely with the
officinal gamboge—these are the Garcinia  Cambogia and the Hebraden-
dron  Gambogioides, which  last is supposed to be the tree from which it
is principally had—though on merely presumptive  evidence.  The Heb.
Gambogioides belongs probably  to the class  and  order of the sexual
system, Moncecia Monadelphia,  and to the natural order  Clusiacem or
Guttiferce.   It is a moderate-sized tree, with opposite, petiolate, obovate-
elliptical,  coriaceous, smooth, entire,  and abruptly-acuminate,  shining
leaves, dark-green above, and paler beneath.  The flowers are unisexual,
sessile and  axillary; the  calyx  membranous, persistent, and consisting
of four sepals ; the corolla four-petalled ; the fruit is a pleasant, saccha-
rine,  quadrilocular berry,  about  the size  of a  cherry, crowned with a 
Gambogia.
485
sessile stigma, and containing one seed in each division.   Incisions are
made into the tree, or a large slice is pared from  the  bark, from which
the juice  flows, thick, viscid, and  bright-yellow, which is scraped off
and  dried in the sun.  If  left on the  tree, it speedily concretes into dry
tears or irregular masses.  It is collected in Siam and Cochin-China,
and  sent to Canton and Calcutta, from which  places it is imported  into
this  country.
   The best kinds are the  Pipe gamboge, and Ceylon gamboge,  which last
is  seldom had in this country.  The pipe gamboge is in cylindrical rolls,
from one to two inches in diameter, sometimes hollow internally, doubled,
or agglutinated into irregular cakes Aveighing some pounds, and much
flattened.    Externally they are striated,  of a dull orange color, some-
times of a greenish tinge, derived from  the reeds into which they are
molded.  Pipe gamboge  is of a yellow-orange color, which deepens on
exposure  to  the  air, brittle with a  conchoidal, smooth, and glistening
fracture ;  it possesses but  little smell, and a taste at first insipid, but suc-
ceeded by an acrid sensation  in the fauces.  It forms a yellow, smooth,
rather persistent emulsion with water, and is soluble in the alkalies, and
the  essential  oils ;  alcohol dissolves  all  the resin, leaving  the gum;
water  forms only an emulsion with it.  Sulphuric  ether dissolves most
of the resin, and ammoniated alcohol forms a solution with  it which is
not disturbed by water.   The resin is the active  principle.   Its  specific
gravity is  1.221.  The strong  acids  dissolve  it,  and deposit a yellow
precipitate Avhen water is added  to  the  solution.  It has been called
Gambogic acid, as it has the property of combining with salifiable bases.
It  contains nearly four parts of resin, one of gum,  beside  water  and
impurities.  Its color, as  well  as its  medical properties, resides  in the
resin;  one part of which  will impart  a yellowish tinge to ten thousand
parts of water or spirit.
   A variety called Cake or Lump gamboge is sometimes imported ; it is in
irregular masses of two or three pounds, containing many sticks or other
impurities, is less brittle than  the pipe, vesicular, splintery in fracture,
and  without luster, but in other respects resembling the finest gamboge.
Other varieties are occasionally seen, but they are all of inferior quality.
The inferior kinds may be recognized by their many impurities, their
greater hardness and coarser fracture, by the brownish or grayish color
of their broken surface, which is often marked Avith black spots,  and by
the green color imparted to their decoction, when cooled, on the addition
of tincture of iodine.   The pure gum-resin is completely dissolved by the
successive  action of  ether and water.

   Properties and Uses.—In large doses, gamboge is a powerful irritant,
causing gastro-enteritis, and death ; and is said to produce diffuse inflam-
mation  of  the cellular tissue,  when applied beneath  the   skin.  On
account of its severity of  action, and its liability to cause serious symp- 
486
Materia  Medica.
toms, it is seldom  employed singly, as a purgative;  yet when combined
with other cathartics it forms a safe and excellent physic.   It may, how-
ever, be safely administered alone in moderate doses, by reducing it to a
state of fine division with other comparatively inert powders, as sulphate,
or bitartrate of potassa.   It thus  operates  effectually as a hydragogue,
Avithout  occasioning  much tormina  or  constitutional  exhaustion.   In
medicinal doses it is  a drastic, hydragogue cathartic, causing nausea,
griping,  and copious watery stools, on Avhich account it is often used in
dropsy, in combination with squills,  cream  of tartar, etc.  It has also
been  used for the expulsion of tapeworm, in torpor of the bowels, dys-
menorrhea, etc.   Two grains of sulphate of quinia combined with one
grain and one-fourth of gamboge, and administered  three times a day,
have been highly recommended in cases of long-continued constitutional
debility,  with constipation.   United with an  alkali,  it  acts upon  the
kidneys, and proves diuretic.
  Its use is contra-indicated in  gastritis, enteritis, during pregnancy,
menorrhagia, hemorrhoids, in  excited, irritable, or diseased uterus, and
where there is irritation or disease of the urinary  organs.  When taken
in large  doses, or when it acts with  severity, the best remedy to coun-
teract  its dangerous effects, is a  solution of some alkali, as pearl-ash
water, to be followed by general treatment if inflammatory symptoms be
present.   Dose,  in pill, powder, or alkaline solution, from one to fifteen
grains ; the larger doses given in small quantities, and repeated at short
intervals until it operates.
   Off. Prep.—Pilula Aloes  Composita;  Pilula Gambogia  Compo-
sita;  Pilula Podophyllini Composita.
                 GAULTHERIA PROCUMBENS.
                           Wintergreen.
         Nat. Ord.—Ericaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.
                            THE  LEAVES.
  Description.—This plant is known in various sections of country under
different names, as Mountain lea, Deerberry, Partridgeberry,  Checkerberry,
Teaberry, Boxberry, etc.  It is  a small, indigenous, shrubby,  evergreen
plant, with a long, slender,  horizontal, creeping root, which sends up at
intervals one or two erect, slender, round, reddish stems, a few inches in
hight,  naked  below, and leafy at the top.   The leaves are  alternate,
ovate or obovate, mucronate, remotely denticulate, smooth, coriaceous,
shining, acute at each end, evergreen, paler beneath, and revolute at the
edges.  The flowers are few, white,  or flesh-colored, three to  five on
each stem, on terminal, axillary, downy-curved and drooping peduncles.
The calyx  is five-cleft, with two concave, heart-shaped bracts at base,
and finally changes  into a fleshy  covering to the fruit.   Corolla ovate 
Gaultheria Procumbens.
487
 or urceolate, contracted at its mouth, five-angled, white or flesh-colored,
 and divided at its border into five short, acute, reflexed segments.   Sta-
 mens ten, rose-colored, with white, curved, plumose filaments, alternating
 with the short scales of the receptacle.   Anthers oblong, orange-colored,
 ending in two  double horns, opening outwardly for their whole length
 above  the  filaments;  pollen white, ovary  roundish,  depressed,  five-
 angled, and resting  upon a reddish, ten-toothed, glandular disk ; style
 erect, filiform ;  stigma simple, obtuse.  The fruit is a small, five-celled,
 five-valved, many-seeded  capsule, inclosed in  the  fleshy calyx, which
 becomes of a bright scarlet color.
   History.—This plant is  a native of  the United States, growing  from
 Canada to  Georgia, and westward to  Pennsylvania and Kentucky, in
 mountainous tracts, dry barrens, and  sandy plains, beneath  the  shade
 of trees and shrubs,  and flowering from June to September.  It is never
 found in rich alluvions  or limestone plains.   The leaves are officinal, yet
 all parts of the plant may be used; they have a peculiar aromatic  taste
 and odor, someAvhat  resembling that of the Sweet Birch bark, (Belula
 Lenta,) with some astringency, and in the berries some sweetness.   The
 berries are eaten by many persons, and form  an article of food with par-
 tridges, deer, and other wild animals.   The astringency of  the leaves is
 owing to the  presence  of tannic  acid; the aromatic properties depend
 upon a volatile oil, which is separable by distillation.  It  is the heaviest
 of the known volatile oils,  is colorless at first, but subsequently becomes
 more or less red, has a  specific gravity of 1.173, a burning and aromatic
 taste, possesses acid properties, and is soluble in alcohol or ether. Water
 by infusion, and alcohol, extract the virtues of the plant.
   Properties and Uses.—Wintergreen possesses stimulant, aromatic,  and
 astringent properties.  It is  used  in infusion in chronic  diarrhea,  as a
 diuretic in dysury, as an emmenagogue, as a stimulant in cases of debi-
 lity, and is said to increase the  secretion of  milk, but this is doubtful.
 Its chief use  is to flavor  syrups,  mixtures,  etc., for which purpose the
 oil, or its tincture is generally  employed.  The oil allays the  pain of
 carious teeth, and large doses of it administered internally  have caused
 death by producing gastric inflammation ; the essence of wintergreen is
 a  carminative, and is sometimes  used  in the flatulent colic of infants.
 An infusion of the leaves or whole plant, may be drank freely.
   The Gaultheria Hispidula, or Cancer wintergreen, is supposed to be
efficacious in removing  the  carcinomatous taint from the system; used
also in scrofula, prolapsus  uteri.
   Off. Prep.—Oleum Gaultheria. 
488
Materia Medica.
                GELSEMINUM SEMPERVIRENS.
                         Yellow Jessamine.
        Nat. Ord.—Apocynaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.
                             THE root.
  Description.—This plant is likewise known by the names of Wild Jes-
samine, and Woodbine; it is the Bignonia Sempervirens of Linnaus, and
the Gelseminum Nitidum  of Michaux  and Pursh.   It has a twining,
smooth, glabrous stem, with opposite, perennial, lanceolate, entire leaves,
which are dark-green above, and pale beneath, and which stand on short
petioles.   The flowers are yellow, having an agreeable, but  rather nar-
cotic odor, and stand  on  axillary peduncles.   The calyx is very small,
with five sepals ;  the corolla is funnel-form, with a spreading border, and
five lobes nearly equal.  Stamens five ; pistils  two.  Capsule two-celled,
compressed, flat, two-partible.   Seeds flat, and attached to the margins
of the valves.
  History.—This plant was brought into notice, as far as we can learn,
in the following manner: A planter of Mississippi, whose name we have
forgotten,  while  laboring under a  severe attack of bilious fever, which
resisted all the usual remedies,  sent a servant into his garden to procure
a certain  medicinal root, and prepare an infusion of it for him to drink.
The servant, by mistake, collected another root, and gave an infusion of
it to his master,  who, shortly after swallowing some  of it,  was seized
with a complete loss of muscular power, unable to move a limb, or even
raise his eyelids, although he could hear, and  was cognizant of circum-
stances transpiring around him. His friends greatly alarmed, collected
around him, watching the result with much anxiety, and expecting every
minute  to  see him breathe his last.  After some hours, he gradually
recovered himself, and was astonished to find that his fever had left him.
Ascertaining from his servant what plant it was the root of which acted
in this manner, he collected some of it,  and  employed it successfully  on
his own plantation, as well as among his neighbors.   The success of this
article finally reached the ears  of some physician, who prepared from it
a nostrum called  the  " Electrical Febrifuge," which was disguised with
the essence of wintergreen.   The plant was the Yellow Jessamine, and
a knowledge of its remarkable  effects was not  communicated to the pro-
fession until recently.
  The Yellow Jessamine abounds throughout the  Southern States, grow-
ing luxuriantly, and climbing  from  tree to tree, forming an agreeable
shade.  On account of its fine yellow flowers, and the  rich perfume
which they impart to the surrounding atmosphere, as well as the shade
it affords, it is extensively cultivated in the gardens of the South as  an
ornamental vine.   The flowers  appear from  March to May.  The root is
the officinal part, and yields its virtues to water or alcohol.    It is several 
                    Gelseminum  Sempervirens.                  489

feet in length, with scattered fibers, and  is from  two or three lines  in
diameter to nearly two inches.  The internal part of the root is Avoody,
and of a light yellowish color; the external part,  or bark, in which the
medicinal virtues are said principally  to reside, is of a light snuff-color,
and from half a line  to three lines in thickness.  The root of this plant
has been said to contain a resin which is poisonous in very small  doses,
and  a tincture, made by digesting  it  in  undiluted  alcohol, is stated  to
have proved fatal. This statement is denied, and upon good grounds, for
were it true, death would necessarily follow the use of the  tincture made
with undiluted alcohol, in consequence of the presence of this  resin  which
would  still be taken up by the alcohol in a proportion corresponding to the
alcoholic strength of  the solvent.   Again, it has been asserted, that the
deaths Avhich  have occurred where this  article was used, were  owing,
not to the Gelseminum, but to the presence of another very poisonous
root, somewhat resembling it, which was carelessly or ignorantly collected
and mixed with it.   Others  again, state that they have given large doses
without any serious consequences, and in one case, six fluidrachms of the
tincture were swallowed by  a lad twenty years of age, without any per-
manent injury.   Notwithstanding  these  statements, death has followed
the employment of what was supposed to be the tincture of gelseminum,
in a few instances, and further investigations are required to determine
its probable cause, and whether this agent will produce any fatal  results
in large  medicinal doses.   Yellow Jessamine may be administered  in
decoction, infusion, or tincture.   It is reputed incompatible with no known
substance, but this remains  to be satisfactorily determined.
   Dr. Hiram H. Hill, formerly of the firm of F. D. Hill & Co.,  of Cin-
cinnati, has collected many hundreds of pounds of the Gelseminum root
in the  South.   I am  indebted to him for the  following statement of  it.
"The  length of the  Gelseminum root, in clay soil, is from three to ten
feet, and on the Magnolia ridges, and along small streams, I have traced
some roots to the extent  of thirty feet, although the average  length is
about  fifteen.  Like  the roots of many other vines,  it is branching, with
scattered fibers, and runs horizontally near the  surface of  the ground,
sometimes merely under the leaves, for several feet.  When first  pulled
up  it is very yellow, and has a  peculiar odor, like that of  the tincture,
with a bitter, rather pleasant taste to  most persons, at least people Avere
constantly tasting or chewing it, while I was collecting it.  The  vine is
of a green color, and always runs to the top of the tree or bush on which
it  fastens, then  branches out, covering  the  topmost branches with  its
thick foliage.   I have  seen  it on trees that were fifty feet in hight, and
the size of the vine was the same near the top as at  the ground; its gen-
eral length is from twenty to thirty feet.  The bark  of the vine  is full
of a silk-like fiber, which is not found in  other vines  that  I have seen.
On old vines, the leaves  are about one and a half inches in length, of a
dark-green color, lance-shaped, and on short footstalks; on young vines 
490
Materia Medica.
or shoots they are longer and are four or five inches apart, while on the
old ones they are very close and always opposite.  The flowers are fun-
nel-shaped  and yellow.    The vine, the root of which is  sometimes
gathered by mistake  for  the Gelseminum, resembles  it very much in
appearance, though it is of a lighter color, and the outer bark is covered
with Avhite specks  or marks somewhat similar  to those  on young cherry
or peach limbs, and the lower part of the old vines become  rough and
have small tendrils that  fasten upon the  bark of trees, and Avhich are
never  seen on the Gelseminum.   The  bark of the vine is  also  more
brittle, and the leaves are always on long footstalks which are opposite,
at the end  of which are two opposite leaves, almost exactly resembling
the leaf of the  Aristolochia Serpentaria.   The root is almost white, very
tough, straight, and about the same length of the medicinal root, and has a
slightly bitter,  disagreeable, nauseating taste.  I never saw  any of the
flowers, though they are said to resemble the others in shape, but are
snowy-white, with a slight, unpleasant odor.   The  vine  is  called White
Poison Vine, and White Jessamine."
   Properties and  Uses. — Gelseminum  is,  undoubtedly, an  unrivaled
febrifuge, and  which appears to be dependent  upon its relaxing and
antispasmodic  properties.  Whether it is a  narcotic,  is not yet  satis-
factorily  established.   It  has recently been employed in  the form of
tincture by many respectable physicians,  Avho speak highly of it in all
fevers, except the  congestive  form, in which its use  is  considered injuri-
ous.  It has also  proved efficacious in nervous and bilious headache,
colds,  pneumonia,  hemorrhages, leucorrhea,  chorea,  ague-cake, and
several other  diseases, though it  is in fevers  especially  in  which its
efficacy has been mostly observed.   It  is said by some  to be the only
agent ever yet  discovered capable of subduing, in  from two to twenty
hours, and  without  the least possible injury  to the  patient, the most
formidable and most complicated as  well as the most simple fevers inci-
dent to our country and  climate, quieting  all nervous irritability and
excitement, equalizing the  circulation,  promoting  perspiration,  and
rectifying the various secretions, without causing  nausea, vomiting or
purging, and  is  also  adapted to any stage  of the  disease.   It may
follow  any  preceding  treatment  with safety.   Its  effects are clouded
vision, double sightedness, or even complete prostration, and  inability to
open the eyes,  and which gradually pass off in a few hours, leaving the
patient refreshed, and completely restored;  and as soon as  the  heavi-
ness or partial closing of the eyes is induced, no more  of the remedy
is  necessary, although these effects  should even follow the  first dose.
If carried to such  an extent that the patient cannot open his eyes, the
relaxation may be too great for  the system to recover  from, hence its
use should  cease, as soon as the  symptoms  above-named have been
produced. 
Gelseminum  Sempervirens.
491
   The tincture is the form in which it  is employed; the dose  is from
ten to fifty drops, in a wineglass half-full of water, to be repeated every
two hours ; the second dose, in the majority of cases,  usually effecting
the cure.   From two to ten grains of quinia, according  to the  severity
and character of the  disease, should accompany each  dose, or it is said
the system will again relapse  into the febrile  state, in a few hours, for
want  of tonicity following the relaxation produced by the remedy.   The
original discoverers of the use of the article say, however, that  the
quinia is not actually necessary, but that its addition renders the cure
more  prompt, and,  by its combination, its usually unpleasant  effects, as
determination to  the head, etc., are  completely obviated.   When  the
fever  does not yield in six hours, a mild purgative may be administered,
or podophyllin in small doses, may be added to the medicine ; if diarrhea
be present, add an  opiate to it.
   In  the treatment of typhus and typhoid fevers,  it should be given in
smaller doses, say from three to eight drops of the  tincture,  with from
two to  four grains of sulphate  of quinia,  and repeated every two  or
three hours until the more  active febrile symptoms subside ;  then give
one or two grains of the quinia, every two hours, and eight or ten drops
of the tincture of  Gelseminum, every six or eight hours.   A writer
observes, that his experience  in  the treatment of fevers, with  this agent,
inclines him  to believe  that  when given in doses  sufficiently large  to
produce its full and complete  constitutional effects, it impairs the tonicity
of the muscular  fibers  of the  heart (which are  always weakened  in
those  fevers), and thus retards or prolongs convalescence.
  Gelseminum possesses a most perfect control over the nervous  system,
removing nervous  irritability more completely than any other known
agent.  It  may be used in all  forms  of neuralgia, nervous headache,
toothache,  and lockjaw or tetanus.   It is recommended in this last
difficulty, as  an agent that may be relied  upon with definite certainty.
In gout and rheumatism, it may be advantageously added to the tinc-
tures  of guaiacum, or of colchicum.  Combined with mild diuretic and
secernent agents, nephritic and cystic irritability, and leucorrhea, have
readily yielded.
  Upon the uterus it appears to exert an opposite influence, for while it
produces complete and powerful relaxtion of every other tissue,  it tends
to promote contraction of  the uterus; causing an influence intermediate
between ergot and  cimicifuga, it being  less energetic than the  former,
and more so than  the latter.   This property, when  continued, as it is,
with its relaxing effects upon every other tissue, promises to render it an
important aid in parturition.
  Externally, the  tincture will be found of service, in neuralgic and
rheumatic pains.   Its internal administration is contra-indicated  in con-
gestive fever, in cases where  there is great muscular or  nervous prostra-
tion with relaxation, and when there exists a determination to the brain 
492
Materia Medica.
or other important  viscus.  Like  all newly discovered agents which
possess active  and efficacious  influences, this  has probably been too
highly lauded,  yet if one-half of the virtues reported to exist in  this
plant are true, it is certainly  deserving  the close  investigation of all
classes of physicians.
   Off. Prep.—Tinctura Gelsemini.
                       GENTIANA  LUTEA.
                              Gentian.
        Nat.  Ord.—Gentianaceae.  Sex.  Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.
                             THE  ROOT.
  Description.—This plant has  a long, thick, cylindrical,  wrinkled,
ringed,  forked,  perennial  root, brown externally,  and yellow within.
The stem is  three or  four feet high, simple, erect, round, hollow, and
someAvhat annulated at base.   The radical leaves are narrowed at  the
base into the form  of a petiole,  ovate-oblong, five-nerved, plaited, and
two or three  inches broad; the cauline leaves are sessile, ovate, concave,
acute, smooth, pedunculate, in dense  whorls, and of a yellowish-green
color ; the leaves next the flowers  are  cordate, amplexicaul, concave; all
a pale, bright green.  The flowers  are large, bright  yellow, peduncled,
and in whorls at the axils of the  upper leaves.   The calyx is monophyl-
lous, membranous,  yellowish,  semi-transparent, three or four  cleft, with
short, lanceolate, unequal segments.   The  corolla is rotate, with a very
short tube, five or six green glands at the base,  and divided into five or
six long, narrow, veiny, spreading segments.   The filaments vary from
five to eight, are shorter than  the corolla, and alternate with its segments,
and are furnished with long,  erect, subulate, somewhat united  anthers.
The ovary is conical, supporting  two sessile,  reflected  stigmas.  The
capsule is  conical, two-valved, one-celled,  containing numerous, small,
roundish, compressed seeds, with brownish membranous edges.
   History.—This plant grows among the  Alps, Appenines, Pyrenees,
and other mountainous regions of Europe.   The root is  the only part
used  in  medicine, and is  imported from Germany.   It is met with in
pieces of various sizes, seldom above an inch in thickness, split length-
wise  if large, marked with annular wrinkles, and longitudinal  furrows;
sometimes it is met with  in  transversely cut  pieces.  It consists of an
external reddish-yellow layer, separated by a dark  reddish-brown line,
and a grayish-yellow,  or  reddish spongy center. It has  a feeble,  aro-
matic odor, and a taste at first faintly sweetish, and then purely  intensely
and permanently bitter.   It  imparts  its virtues readily to cold  or hot
water, alcohol, wine, spirit, or sulphuric ether.   It contains according to
Henry and Caventou,  gentianin,  a  volatile odorous principle, a substance 
Gentiana Lutea.
493
analogous  to  birdlime, a greenish fixed oil, a free organic acid, uncrys-
tallizable sugar,  gum,  yellow-coloring matter, pectic acid,  and  lignin.
The gentianin, so named by Henry and  Caventou, from a supposition
that it was the active principle of the  root, has been  shown, by M. Le-
conte, to be impure genistic acid, and is,  Avhen  quite  pure, destitute of
bitterness and medicinal power.  It  may be  obtained in pale-yellow,
needle-shaped crystals,  insoluble in water,  and  soluble in alcohol, by
treating the alcoholic extract of gentian, previously exhausted by water,
with sulphuric ether, filtering the ethereal solution, and allowing it to
evaporate spontaneously.  M. Leconte  also  considers  the birdlime or
glue to be a combination of wax, oil, and caoutchouc.  When distilled
with water, gentian yields a minute  quantity of concrete oil,  having the
odor of the root.   When the  root  is  macerated  in  cold water, on  the
addition of yeast to the infusion vinous fermentation ensues, from which
a bitter  liquor is obtained by distillation,  much prized in some parts of
Switzerland as a  stomachic.
   The bitter principle of the  root may be obtained  by macerating  the
alcoholic extract  in water, and then  subjecting the solution to the vinous
fermentation  in order to separate  the sugar.   It is  then to be treated
with acetate of lead, filtered, and treated with subacetate of lead and  a
very little ammonia, in order to precipitate the combination of the vege-
table principle with oxide of lead;  if too much ammonia be  added, in
consequence of its stronger basic powers, it will  separate the vegetable
principle from the oxide.   The precipitate obtained is to be washed with
a little water,  then mixed Avith a large proportion  of the same fluid, and
decomposed  by  hydrosulphuric acid.  The  liquid  is to be filtered,
evaporated to  dryness with a gentle heat, the residue  treated with alco-
hol of  0.820,  and  the alcoholic  solution evaporated.  This gives  a
brownish-yellow, uncrystallizable substance, very  bitter, almost insoluble
in absolute alcohol,  soluble in ordinary  alcohol, and  very  soluble in
water.   It possesses acid properties.  Gentianin is the name proposed
for it.
   Properties and Uses.—A powerful tonic, excites the appetite, invigor-
ates digestion, and moderately increases the circulation and temperature
of the body.   Used in  cases of debility and exhaustion, and in all cases
where a tonic is required, as  dyspepsia, gout,  amenorrhea, hysteria,
scrofula, intermittents, diarrhea, worms, etc.  Dose of the powder, from
ten to thirty grains; of the extract, from one to ten grains;  of infusion,
one or two fluidounces ; of tincture, one or two fluidrachms.  When taken
in large doses, it  is apt to oppress the stomach, irritate the bowels, and
even  produce nausea and A-omiting.  Its administration is contra-indi-
cated where gastric irritability is present.
   Dr. Kuchenmeister believes that impure and  uncrystallized gentianin
is the most valuable substitute for quinia, acting as rapidly, and as effica-
ciously on the spleen, in doses of from fifteen to thirty grains twice a day. 
494
Materia Medica.
  Gentiana  Catesbei, Blue, or American  Gentian, has  a perennial,
branching, somewhat fleshy root, with a simple, erect, rough stem, eight
or ten  inches  in  hight.  The leaves are  opposite, ovate or lanceolate,
slightly three-veined, acute, rough on the margin.  Flowers large, blue,
croAvded, subsessile,  axillary, and  terminal.   Calyx divided into four or
five linear-lanceolate segments, which are longer than the tube.   Corolla
large, blue, ventricose, plaited; its border divided into ten  segments, of
which  the outer five are roundish and more or less acute, and the inner
five bifid and imbricate.  Stamens five, with dilated filaments and sagit-
tate  anthers.   Ovary  oblong-lanceolate, compressed, supported  by a
sort  of pedicel.   Style none; stigmas two, oblong, reflexed.   Capsule
oblong, acuminate, one-celled and two-valved.  This plant grows in the
grassy swamps and  meadows of North and  South Carolina,  flowering
from September  to  December.   The root is little inferior to the foreign
gentian, and  may be used as a substitute for it in all cases, in the same
doses and preparations.  Alcohol and boiling water extract its virtues.
Probably  the Gentiana Saponaria, or Soapwort Gentian,  the  Gentiana.
Pneumonanthe, or Marsh Gentian, and  the  Gentiana  Crinita,  or Blue
Fringed Gentian, possess analogous medicinal virtues.
   Off.  Prep. — Extractum  Gentiana ;  Extractum Gentiana  Fluidum;
Vinum  Symphyti Compositum.
                   GENTIANA OCHROLEUCA.
                       Ochroleucous  Gentian.
        Nat. Ord.—Gentianaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.
                        THE  ROOT AND TOPS.
  Description.—This  plant is  likewise  known  by the names  of Marsh
Gentian, Yellowish-while Gentian, Straw-colored Gentian, Sampson Snake-
root, etc.; it  has a stout, ascending stem, mostly smooth, and from one
to two inches in hight.  The leaves  are  from two to four inches long, by
three-quarters  of an  inch to  an  inch and a half wide,  obovate-oblong,
sessile or amplexicaul, margins slightly scabrous, and narrowed at the
base;  the lowest are  broadly ovate and obtuse, the uppermost some-
what lanceolate.   The fiowers are  straw-colored,  two  inches long  by
three-quarters of an inch thick, and disposed in a dense terminal cyme,
and  often also in  axillary cymes.  The calyx is five-cleft, the lobes un-
equal, linear, longer than the  tube,  and shorter  than the  corolla.   The
corolla is  clavate, connivent or slightly expanding at top, ochroleucous
or straw-color, with green veins and  lilac-purple stripes  internally; its
lobes ovate,   obtuse ; the folds entire, acute, short.  Anthers separate.
Capsule  or  pod included in   the  persistent  corolla.  Seeds entirely-
wingless.
  History.—This   plant is  found  growing in  dry  grounds,  especially
through the  middle and low  country of the Southern States, flowering 
Geraniin.
495
in September and October.  Said  likewise to inhabit Canada and the
Western States, but  this must  be rare.   The  root is the officinal part,
and the tops are also often employed.  They are bitter to the tasle,  and
probably possess the  medicinal properties, in a greater  or less degree,
of the preceding plants of the same family.   Alcohol or boiling water
extracts their virtues.   None of the American gentians have been satis-
factorily analyzed.
   Properties and Uses. — Bitter tonic,  anthelmintic,  and  astringent.
Used in dyspepsia, intermittents, dysentery, and  all diseases of perio-
dicity.  To two ounces of the tops and roots, pour on one and a half pints
of boiling water, and when nearly  cold, add half a pint of  brandy.  Dose,
from  half a  fluidounce to  four fluidounces,  every half hour, gradually
increased as the stomach can bear it, at the same  time lengthening the
intervals between the doses.  Also  used for bites of  snakes,  and in
typhus fevers, pneumonia, etc.
                            GERANIIN.
                              Geraniin.
       THE CONCENTRATED EXTRACT OF GERANIUM  MACULATUM.
  Preparation.—Geraniin is obtained by making a saturated  tincture of
the root  of Geranium Maculatum,  filtering, distilling off a part of the
alcohol,  adding water to the rest,  and evaporating to dryness.  The
operation is similar to that for preparing podophyllin.
  History.—Geraniin is especially an Eclectic  remedy, and is but  little
known among the other schools of medicine.   It was first prepared by
Mr. Wm. S. Merrell, of Cincinnati.  It is a black  substance, forming a
dark-brown, glistening  powder, of  a faint odor,  someAvhat like that of
molasses, and an  astringent, acidulous  taste, leaving  a  flavor in the
mouth somewhat resembling that of good green tea.  Cold water added
to it does not appear to dissolve any, but when  filtered gives  an  acid
reaction, turning blue litmus paper red, and on the addition of sulphate
of iron becomes a deep-bluish black, forming  a good writing ink.   Am-
monia added  to water in which geraniin is placed,  partially dissolves it;
liquor potassa added, completely dissolves it forming a black solution ;
muriatic  acid added, does not affect its solution at all.  It is very little
soluble in alcohol, imparting to it  a light reddish-yellow  tinge, and on
the addition of ammonia, more of the geraniin is dissolved, and the rest
is held in a state of  suspension  in the  liquid.   It is insoluble  in ether,
chloroform, and  oil of  turpentine ; acetic acid  added to  ether  par-
tially dissolves it, causing a reddish solution ;  ammonia added, does not
render it any further soluble, and the clear ether floats on  the top.    Its
composition is  not yet determined, though it undoubtedly contains an
abundance  of tannic or gallic acids. 
496
Materia Medica.
   Properties and  Uses.—Geraniin  is a powerful astringent, and unlike
tannic acid in its action, does not cause a dryness of the mucous surfaces
with which it comes in contact,  but produces its therapeutical influences
upon them  with the continuance  of their  natural moisture.   On  this
account, and in connection with  its  not unpleasant taste, it will, undoubt-
edly, in  a short time,  supersede the use of  tannic acid in most of the
diseases in which this acid is employed.   Geraniin may be employed in
all instances where astringents are indicated.  It has been found a supe-
rior  article both in the  first and second  stages of dysentery, diarrhea,
and  cholera-morbus.  Equal parts of geraniin, dioscorein, and caulo-
phyllin, will  be found a valuable mixture in  diarrhea and cholera-mor-
bus, when much pain and flatulency are present; the mixture may be
given in six grain doses to  an adult, every; fifteen or twenty minutes, or as
often as the urgency of the case  may require.  Geraniin will be found effi-
cacious in hemorrhages, hematuria, menorrhagia, leucorrhea, gleet, dia-
betes, etc.  In colliquative diarrhea it ansAvers an excellent purpose either
alone,  or  in combination with quinia.  Externally, it may be applied to
ulcers, and combined with  alum  and gum arabic, it forms an  excellent
application to bleeding  wounds  and in epistaxis*   All practitioners who
have used this article in their practice, speak  in the highest terms of its
efficacy as an astringent.  Dose of Geraniin, from one to five grains or
more, repeated  as  required;  it may be given  in syrup, molasses, gruel,
water, or Port wine.
                    GERANIUM MACULATUM.
                             Geranium.
       Nat. Ord.—Geraniaceje.  Sex. Syst.—Monadelphia Decandria.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—This plant is also known by the  names  of  Cranesbill,
Spotted-geranium, Wild-Cranesbill, Crowfoot, Alum-root, etc.  It has a
perennial,  horizontal, thick,  rough,  knobby  and fleshy  root, with short
fibers, and sends up annually one  or more erect, angular, or round,
retrorsely pubescent, herbaceous, dichotomous stems,  from one  to two
feet  high,  and of  a grayish green color.   The  leaves are spreading,
hairy, palmate, with three, five,  or seven deeply cleft lobes, two leaves
at each fork; the lobes are  cuneiform and  entire at the base, incisely
serrate above.  The radical-leaves are on long petioles, erect and terete;
the leaves  at the top are  opposite and subsessile, and those at the mid-
dle of the stem  are opposite, petiolate, and generally reflexed.  The
s^mles are linear or lanceolate.   The flowers are  large, and generally
purple, mostly  in pairs, on unequal pedicels, sometimes umbelled at the
ends  of the peduncles.   Peduncles long, round, hairy, tumid  at base,
and  arise  from  the  dichotomous  divisions  of the  stem.   The calyx 
Geranium  Maculatum.
497
consists of five oval, lanceolate, ribbed, cuspidate sepals, plumosely ciliate
on  their outer margin, and membranaceous on  the other; sometimes
three only of the sepals are ciliate.   The petals are five, obovate, entire,
light purple, marked with green at the base.   The stamens are ten, erect
or curving outward, alternately longer, furnished at the base with glands,
and terminated  by oblong, convex,  deciduous,  purple anthers.  The
ovary is ovate, bearing five styles, at first about  the length of the sta-
mens, but finally longer,—they cohere to a permanent central axis before
maturity, but  separate from  it in a twisted form when the seed is ripe.
Stigmas five, at  first erect, afterward recurved.  The fruit  consists of
five aggregated,  one-seeded  capsules, attached by a beak to the  per-
sistent style, and curling up and scattering the  seeds when ripe.
  History.—Geranium is an indigenous plant, growing in all parts of the
United States in open woods, thickets and hedges, flowering from April
to June.  There  are several varieties of this species  which are probably
equivalent in medicinal virtues to the G. Maculatum.  The root is the
officinal part, and should be collected late in the autumn.  When dried it
is in pieces, from one to three inches in length, and from a quarter to  half
an  inch in diameter,  somewhat flattened, contorted, wrinkled, tubercu-
lated, and beset  with  slender  fibers.  It is  of an  umber-brown color
externally, reddish-gray  internally,   compact,  of an  astringent taste,
without bitterness or other unpleasant flavor.   Water or alcohol extracts
its virtues.  It contains a considerable amount of tannin and gallic acid,
some mucilage, amadin, red  coloring matter from  the cortex,  a small
quantity of  resin, and a  peculiar crystallizable  principle.   A  concen-
trated article is prepared from  it, and used by Eclectics under the name
of  Geraniin.
  Properties and Uses.—A  powerful astringent.  Used  in  the  second
stage of dysentery, diarrhea, and cholera infantum in infusion with milk.
Both internally and externally it may be used wherever astringents are
indicated, in  hemorrhages, indolent  ulcers, aphthous sore mouth,  oph-
thalmia,  leucorrhea,  gleet, hematuria, menorrhagia, diabetes,  and all
excessive chronic mucous  discharges; also, to cure mercurial salivation.
A decoction  of the root may be used as  a  gargle  in relaxation of the
uvula, and aphthous ulcerations of the throat.  As it is void of unplea-
sant taste or other offensive qualities, it is peculiarly serviceable in the
cases of infants,  or persons with very delicate  stomachs.   In cases of
bleeding piles, a strong decoction of  the root may be  injected into the
rectum, and which  should be retained as  long as  possible.  Piles are
said to be cured  by adding of the root  in fine powder, two ounces, to
tobacco ointment seven  ounces, and apply to  the  parts, three  or  four
times a day.  Troublesome  epistaxis, bleeding  from  wounds or small
vessels and from  the extraction of teeth, may be  checked effectually by
applying the powder to the bleeding orifice, and if possible, covering with
a compress  of cotton.   With  Aletris Farinosa in decoction, and taken
         32 
498
Materia Medica.
internally it has proved  of superior efficacy in diabetes and in Bright's
disease of the kidney.   A decoction of two parts of Geranium and one
of Sanguinaria forms an excellent injection for gleet and leucorrhea.
Dose of  the powder, from twenty to  thirty grains;  of the  decoction,
from  one to two  fluidounces.  The  Geranium  Robertianum, or Herb
Robert, grows wild both in Europe and the United States, but is rare in
this  country;  and  Pursh states that the American plant is destitute of
the heavy smell by which the European  is so well known, though the
two  agree in  all other  respects.   It  has  a tapering  root, with several
round, leafy,  branched, reddish, brittle,  succulent,  and  diffuse stems,
hairy, chiefly on one side.  The leaves are opposite, shining, petiolate,
more or less hairy, three  to five cleft to the  base, the segments pinnatifid,
and  the  pinna incisely-toothed.   The flowers  are small, in pairs, pale-
purple, occasionally white, and situated on lateral and terminal pedun-
cles.   Calyx brownish,  hairy, with  ten angles when  closed.   Petals
obovate,  entire.  Sepals mucronate-awned, half as long  as  the entire
petals.   Stamens awl-shaped, smooth.   Capsules small, obovate, downy,
carinate,  curiously-marked at the outer edge Avith elevated  interbranch-
ing wrinkles.   Seeds smooth  and  even.   The plant  is in flower from
May to September, and has a strong unpleasant smell.   The herb has a
disagreeable, bitterish, astringent taste, and imparts its virtues to boiling-
water.  It has been used internally in intermittent fever, consumption,
hemorrhages,  nephritic  complaints, jaundice,  etc.; and has been em-
ployed as a gargle in affections of the  throat, and applied externally as
a resolvent to swollen breasts and other tumors.
                  GERARDIA PEDICULARIA.
                          Bushy Gerardia.
   Nat. Ord.—Scrophulariaceaj.   Set. Syst.—Didynamia Angiospermia.
                             THE  HERB.
  Description.—This is the Dasystoma Pedicularia of Bentham ;  it is a
perennial  plant,  known also by the  names of Feverweed,  Lousewort,
American  Foxglove, etc.  Its stem is tall and  bushy, with a scattered,
woolly pubescence, two or three feet in hight, and brachiate-panicled.
The leaves are numerous, opposite, ovate-lanceolate or oblong, pinnatifid,
the segments doubly cut-dentate.   The flowers  are large, yellow, axil-
lary, trumpet-shaped, opposite, and pedicelled;  pedicels longer than the
calyx.   The calyx is five-cleft, cut-dentate, segments as long as the hairy
tube.   The  corolla is yellow, an inch or more in length, sub-campanu-
late, unequally five-lobed, segments mostly rounded, spreading, leaf-like,
and  woolly inside.   Capsule two-celled, dehiscent at  the  top.
  History.—This is a most  elegant plant found growing in  dry copses,
pine ridges, and  barren woods  and mountains from Canada to Georgia 
Geum Rivale — Geum Virginianum.
499
and  Kentucky, and flowering  in August and  September.  The whole
plant is used.  Water or spirits  extracts its virtues.  It has not been
analyzed.  There are several varieties of the species, which probably
possess analogous virtues.
  Properties and Uses. — Diaphoretic,  antiseptic, and  sedative.   Used
principally in febrile and inflammatory diseases; a  warm  infusion pro-
duces a  free  and copious perspiration in a short  time.   Dose  of  the
infusion,  from one to three fluidounces.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum  Gerardia.
                         GEUM  RIVALE.
                           Water  Avens.

                     GEUM VIRGINIANUM.
                           White Avens.

          Nat. Ord.—Rosacea?.  Sex. Syst.—Icosandria Polygynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—Geum Rivale, likewise known  as  Purple Avens, has a
perennial, horizontal, somewhat woody, scaly, jointed, tapering root, of
a reddish-brown color externally, white internally, six or eight inches in
length,  and furnished with numerous descending yellow fibers.  The
stems are one  or  more from the same root, erect, nearly  simple, pubes-
cent, of a purplish  color, paniculate at top, and from one to two feet in
hight.   The radical leaves nearly lyrate, and  uninterruptedly pinnate,
with large terminal leaflets on long hairy petioles, rounded, lobed and
crenate-dentate, and from four to six inches long.  The cauline leaves
are few, subsessile, from one to three inches long, and divided into three
serrate, pointed segments;  stipules  ovate, acute,  cut, purplish.  The
flowers are few,  subglobose, nodding, yellowish-purple,  and  stand  on
axillary and terminal peduncles.   The calyx is inferior, erect, purplish-
brown,  with  ten lanceolate pointed segments,  with five  alternately
smaller than the others.   The petals are five, as long as the erect calyx
segments, broad-obcordate,  clawed, purplish-yellow, veined.   The  seeds
are oval, with  plumose awns, minutely uncinate, and nearly naked at the
summit.   This species is common to Europe and the United States, and
is found growing  in woods, wet meadows, and along streams,  especially
in the  Northern  and Middle States, and flowering in June  and July.
The American species  differs  from the European  in having smaller
flowers, petals more rounded on  the top, and the leaves more deeply
incised.  The  fresh  root is aromatic.
  Geum Virginianum,  also known  as Throat-root, Chocolate-root, etc.,
has a perennial, small, brown, contorted, horizontal root, with an erect 
500
Materia Medica.
stem about two feet high, simple  or  branched, pubescent,  and few
flowered.  The radical  leaves are  on  long petioles, without  stipules,
pinnate, lyrate, or simple and rounded, usually three-foliate; the folioles
oval or oval-lanceolate,  acute at the base, and acuminate, deeply and
unequally serrate.   The cauline leaves are on shorter petioles,  furnished
with large  stipules, three to five-lobed; the upper leaves simple,  acute,
sessile; all  are unequally and incisely dentate, nearly smooth, or softly
pubescent.   The flowers  are  quite small,  white, on erect peduncles.
The calyx subcampanulate, deeply five-cleft, with five exterior alternate
bracteoles.   The petals  are  five, yellowish-white,  not  exceeding the
length  of the  calyx, and inserted  into  it.   Stamens numerous,  short,
unequal; filaments filiform; anthers  roundish and yellow.  Styles nume-
rous, long, hairy, geniculate  above the middle, loAver portion  glabrous,
persistent,  uncinate  after the upper portion falls off.   Fruit a cluster of
dry achenia, which are oval,  brown, smooth, having a tail or awn formed
of the persistent styles, twisted  and uncinate  at apex.   This plant is
found in hedges and thickets,  and in moist  places, in most parts of the
United States, flowering  from June to August.
  History.—These plants, with  some  other varieties, have long  been
used in domestic practice.   The  whole herb contains medicinal proper-
ties, but the officinal and most efficient portion is the root.  The dried
root of the G. Rivale is scaly, jointed, tapering, hard, brittle, easily pul-
verized, of a reddish or  purplish color, and inodorous;  that of the G.
Virginianum is brown,  crooked, tuberculated,  and brittle ;  both are
white internally, and of  a  bitterish, astringent taste.  Boiling water or
alcohol  extracts their virtues, the solution becoming reddish.  They have
not been analyzed, but  probably contain tannic  acid, bitter-extractive,
gum, resin, etc.  A weak decoction of the root of G. Rivale is sometimes
used by invalids as a substitute for tea  and coffee.
  Properties and  Uses. — Tonic  and  astringent.  Used in numerous
diseases, as  passive  and chronic hemorrhages,  chronic diarrhea and
dysentery,  leucorrhea, dyspepsia, phthisis, congestions of the abdominal
viscera, intermittents, aphthous  ulcerations, etc.  Dose of the powder,
from twenty to thirty grains;  of the decoction, from one to two fluid-
ounces, three or four times a day.
  The Geum Urbanum, or European Avens, possesses similar properties.
                     GILLENIA TRIFOLIATA.
                           Indian  Physic.
         Nat.  Ord.—Rosaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Icosandria Pentagynia.
                      THE BARK OF THE  ROOT.
  Description.—Indian Physic is an indigenous, herbaceous plant, with
a perennial root,  composed of a great number of long, slender, brown 
GlLLENIA  TRIFOLIATA.
501
 fibers, arising in a radiated manner, from a brown, irregular, thick tuber-
 like head or caudex.   Some of these fibers are knotted or annulated for
 some  distance as in the  true ipecacuanha.   The  stems vary in number
 from one to several from the  same root, are about two or three feet in
 hight, erect,  slender,  flexuose, smooth, branched above, and of a red-
 dish or brownish color.   The leaves  are alternate, trifoliate, subsessile,
 furnished with  small  linear-lanceolate, slightly-toothed stipules at the
 base;  the leaflets  are lanceolate, acuminate, sharply  and unequally
 toothed, the upper ones often single, the lower broader at the end, but
 acuminately terminated.   The flowers are white, with a reddish tinge,
 in terminal, loose panicles, few in number,  scattered, on long peduncles,
 and occasionally furnished with  minute lanceolate bracts.   Calyx sub-
 campanulate  or tubular,  terminating in  five sharp reflexed  segments.
 Petals five, the  two upper ones separated from  the three lower, white
 with a reddish tinge on  the edge, lanceolate, unguiculate, contracted and
 approximated at base, and three times as  long as'the  calyx.   Stamens
 are about twenty, in  a  double  series within the catyx, with short fila-
 ments, and small and  yellow  anthers.  The styles are  five, with obtuse
 stigmas.   Capsules five, connate at base, oblong, acuminate, diverging,
 gibbous without, sharp edged  within, two-valved, one-celled, one or two-
 seeded ;  seeds oblong, brown,  bitter.
   History.—This plant is found growing  from Canada  to Florida, east
 of the Alleghany mountains,  in  hilly woods, in light, gravelly soils,  and
 in moist and shady situations.   It flowers in June and July.   The root
 is the officinal part, and  should be collected in September; when dried
 it is about  the  thickness of a quill, wrinkled longitudinally, sometimes
 irregular or knotty, of a light brown color  externally, and consists of a
 thick, somewhat reddish, brittle, cortical portion, and an internal whitish,
 ligneous cord.  The  cortical part  is  readily pulverizable.   It has a
 feeble odor, and a nauseous, bitter taste.    Its properties are extracted
 by alcohol or boiling water.  It affords a light brownish powder.  The
 bark is the active portion, the internal woody substance  being nearly
 inert.  According to Mr. Shreeve, it contains starch, gum, resin, wax, a
 fatty matter, a red-coloring substance, a volatile  coloring matter, and a
 peculiar  principle  soluble  in alcohol and  dilute  acids, but insoluble in
 water or ether.
  The Gillenia  Stipulaceoe, or Bowman's  root, which  is found  on  the
 western side  of the Alleghany mountains, growing through Ohio,  In-
 diana, Illinois, Missouri,  and southward, and occupying the place of the
 G. Trifoliata, possesses similar properties, but is more certain in its effects
 in the same  doses.  It may be distinguished by  being larger and more
bushy than the preceding ; the stems brownish and branched; the upper
leaves trifoliate, the folioles lanceolate, incised, and serrate ; the lower
 leaves  more deeply incised, becoming pinnatifid toward the root, and 
502
Materia Medica.
of a reddish-brown color at the margin; the stipules are ovate, acumi-
nate, deeply serrate, foliate, and  the  flowers are smaller, and placed on
long slender peduncles  in a lax corymb.  It is  rare  in calcareous or
alluvial regions, but is common in hilly and sandstone districts.  Its root
resembles the eastern species.
  Properties and Uses.—The root-bark of these plants is emetic, cathar-
tic,  sudorific,  expectorant, and tonic.  In their action, they resemble
ipecacuanha.  They have been recommended in amenorrhea, rheuma-
tism, dropsy,  habitual costiveness, dyspepsia, worms,  and in intermit-
tents.  As an emetic and cathartic, from twenty to thirty-five grains is
a dose, which when vomiting is required, may be repeated at intervals
of twenty minutes.  It  may be used in  all diseases where emetics  are
indicated, as  a safe and efficacious agent.  In  dyspepsia, accompanied
with a torpid condition of the stomach, from two to four grains form an
excellent tonic.   As a sudorific, six grains may be given in some cold
water, and repeated at intervals of two  or  three  hours, or it may be
given in combination with  a small portion of opium.   The infusion,
repeated as often and as largely as  is general in domestic practice, is
objectionable, as it is apt to produce hyper-emesis and catharsis.
                               GLUE.
                                Glue.
                    AN  IMPURE FORM OF  GELATIN.
   History.—Gelatin is found in abundance in various animal substances,
especially in the skin, cartilages, tendons, membranes,  and bones; it
may be obtained by boiling these solid animal parts, in water, straining
the decoction,  and evaporating it, until it assumes  the  consistence of
jelly on cooling.  This is divided into thin slices of various sizes, which
are allowed to  dry  in the open  air.   The  gelatinous matter of the cel-
lular tissue and  membranes, is insoluble  in cold water and  acids, and
combines with  corrosive sublimate, persulphate of iron, alum, and other
salts, forming insoluble compounds which do not putrefy;  gelatine itself
readily putrefies.  The gelatin obtained from the skin when moist, com-
bines  with  tannic acid, if steeped into  a  solution of the acid,  and is
converted into leather.   The gelatin of  the cartilages is  termed Chon-
drin.   That from the  air-bladder of fishes forms isinglass, which is the
purest  variety  of gelatin.   (See Isinglass.)   The common  gelatin of
commerce,  called glue, is prepared from cuttings of parchments, or the
skins, ears, bones, and hoofs of  animals.   When pure gelatin, one part,
is dissolved  in  one-hundred parts of hot water, a jelly is formed when
it cools.
  Glue of good quality is hard and brittle, not easily pulverized, of a
light brown  color, and  equally translucent throughout.  On the addition 
Glue.
503
 of water, it softens and swells, but does not dissolve except by boiling ;
 hot water dissolves it slowly.   When dissolved in hot water, it is much
 in use for cementing pieces of wood, and various other substances toge-
 ther, but is too impure for internal use or for a chemical test.   By the
 addition of nitric acid  to  a  solution of glue, a cement or liquid glue is
 obtained, which does not require the aid of heat  to render it fit for use.
 (See Nitric Acid.)
   Properties and Uses.—Glue has been introduced here,  in consequence
 of its application in pharmacy for the purpose of  promoting certain use-
 ful indications.  Several remedial agents of a valuable character, are
 unfortunately so offensive  to the taste, as  to produce nausea and vomit-
 ing whenever swallowed,  and as in many instances it  is  almost impossi-
 ble to dispense with them, an important object is to prepare them so as
 to prevent their coming in contact with the tongue and palate.   This has
 been accomplished, as far  as liquid medicines  are concerned, by the
 formation of capsules of gelatin, invented by M. Dublanc, of Paris.
   The purest kind of glue is used in manufacturing these capsules, and
 which is accomplished in  the following manner:—Very smoothly round
 the end  of a cylinder of iron or hard wood which is four lines in diam-
 eter,  and a few inches in length, dip half an inch  of this end into a satu-
 rated  alcoholic solution of soap  kept warm, then, when the  layer of
 soap has concreted, dip it into a strong hot solution of sweetened and
 aromatized gelatin, and which may be repeated two  or  three times
 according  to the thickness desired; place them  vertically on boards to
 cool,  and before complete  desiccation, remove the capsule by a screwing
 motion, place it with others on sieves, and dry by  a stove heat.  The top
 to this is made in the same way, but shorter and a trifle wider ; and when
 the body is filled with the medicine, the top is placed upon it, being made
 to unite by rubbing over the line of junction, a camel's hair-brush  moist-
 ened  with hot water.
   Or they may be prepared  in  another  manner, as follows:—"Small
 pouches  made of fine  skin, of an oval form, are attached  by  a waxed
 thread to  the  smaller extremity of  a hollow elongated  metallic cone,
 which is bent toward its point, and has its base closed by a cover, which
 is  screwed so as to make the instrument air-tight.  Into this  conical tube
 sufficient mercury is poured to fill the pouch, which, thus distended, is
 dipped into a  concentrated sweetened solution  of glue, and afterward
 exposed  to heat in a vertical position, so as to dry the layer of gelatin
 which it has received.   In the same  manner a  second  coatino- may be
given, and  the process again repeated, till a sufficient thickness has been
obtained.   The cone being then reversed, the mercury flows out of the
pouch, which collapses  and allows the capsule of gelatin to be removed.
Into this the medicine may now be introduced, care being taken  to avoid
 any contact between it and the outer surface of the capsule.  The open-
ing is next  to be closed by means  of a thin lamina of gelatin previously 
504
Materia  Medica.
softened  by steam; and a solution  of the  same  substance  should be
applied to the edges by means of a camel's  hair-pencil."  In this way
capsules  may be  made to contain from ten to twenty grains of liquid.
When received into the stomach, the gelatin is dissolved, allowing the
medicine to accomplish its therapeutical influences.   For another method
see Capsules, in Mohr and Redwood's Pharmacy by Proctor.
                            GLYCERIN A.
                              Glycerin.
                   THE  SWEET  PRINCIPLE  OF OILS.
  Preparation.—Take of Lead Plaster, recently prepared and yet fluid,
and  Boiling Water, of each,  one gallon.   Mix  them, stir briskly for
fifteen minutes, then allow them  to cool, and pour off the supernatant
fluid.  Evaporate  this until it has the specific  gravity 1.15, and pass a
current of sulphohydric  acid  slowly through it until a black precipitate
is no longer produced.   Filter,  and  boil until the sulphohydric acid is
driven off.   Lastly, evaporate the liquid until it ceases to lose weight.
Or  it may be prepared  by digesting equal parts  of  ground  litharge,
(protoxide of lead), and olive oil with a little boiling water, stirring and
adding water as  it evaporates.  When it  is of the consistence of soft
plaster, it is to be  well washed with hot water.  Decant and filter, then
pass sulphureted hydrogen through the mass, in order to throw down
the lead ;  after which, filter,  and evaporate  to a syrup in a water bath.
The syrupy product is glycerin,  and  looks  a little like mucilage of gum
arabic.
  The following mode of preparing glycerin is by Campbell Morfit, M. D.,
who says:—Glycerin is  generally made, on the large scale, either by
directly saponifying oil  with oxide of lead, or  from " the  waste,"  or
spent leys of the soap-makers.   The  first mode of obtaining it is com-
plex and expensive, while in the latter the difficulty of wholly separating
the saline matters of the " waste," renders it impossible to obtain a per-
fectly pure  product.  In view  of these  obstacles,  and the increasing
demand for the article, both in medicine and perfumery, I submit a new
process, whieh has been found, by actual practice, to combine  the great
and desirable advantages of  economy of time, labor, and money.
  Take one hundred pounds of oil, tallow, lard, or  " stearin " (pressed
lard), place it  in  a clean iron-bound barrel, and  melt it by the direct
application of a current of steam.  While still fluid and hot, add fifteen
pounds of lime, previously slaked and made into a milk with two and a
half gallons of water, then cover the vessel, and continue the steaming
for several hours,  or until the completion of the  saponification.  This is
known when a sample of the resulting and cooled  soap gives  a smooth
and lustrous surface on  being scraped with the  finger-nail, and breaks 
Glycerina.                          505
with a cracking noise.   By this  treatment, the  fat is decomposed, its
acids unite with the lime to form  insoluble lime soap, while the  elimin-
ated glycerin remains in solution in the water along with the  excess of
lime.  After it has  been  sufficiently boiled, it  is  allowed to cool and
settle, and it is then to be strained through a crash cloth.  The soap is
reserved for sale  to  stearic candle-makers, or else may be reconverted
into a saleable fat by the process given at pp. 432, 445 Morfit's " Applied
Chemistry."
   " The strained liquid contains only the glycerin and excess of lime.  It
must be  carefully concentrated by steam heat.  During evaporation, a
portion of the lime is deposited on account of  its lesser solubility in hot
than cold water.   The remainder is removed by treating the evaporated
liquid with a current of carbonic  acid gas, boiling by steam heat, to con-
vert any soluble  6i-carbonate of lime that may have  been formed, into
insoluble neutral carbonate, allowing  repose, decanting or straining  off
the clear supernatant liquid from the precipitated carbonate of lime, and
further evaporating, as before, if necessary, to drive  off any excess of
Avater.   As nothing fixed or injurious is employed in the process, the
glycerin thus prepared will be absolutely pure."—Silliman's Journal.
   History.—Glycerin was discovered by Scheele, who called it the sweet
principle of oils and fats.   When perfectly pure and anhydrous, glycerin
is colorless, or  straw-colored, having  a sweet  taste and  syrupy consis-
tence, with  a faint but not disagreeable odor.   It combines readily with
water, alcohol, or oils;  dissolves  many gums  and  resinous substances ;
does not crystallize,  nor ferment  like sugar; will not evaporate beyond
a  certain point, and  is  destroyed by boiling.   It is  insoluble in fatty
matter, and can only  be incorporated  with  it  mechanically,  to effect
which, it is  necessary that the fat should have  a soft consistence, which
may be  imparted to it by combining it with  oil  of sweet almonds, or
some other fixed oil.   It  is  insoluble in ether, does not evaporate on
exposure to the  air, and becomes  decomposed by distillation.    It
burns with  a blue flame when exposed to a full  red heat.   It forms
sulphoglyeerie acid with sulphuric acid, and in union with sulphuric and
nitric acids it is converted into a liquid called Pyroglycerin, which is explo-
sive and very poisonous.  Diluted with water, the absence of lead may be
determined  by its affording no precipitate with hydrosulphate of ammo-
nia ; and that  of iron by not precipitating with ferrocyanuret of potas-
sium.  Its formula is Co Hi, Oo  -f- HO.
   Properties and Uses.—Stimulant, antiseptic, and demulcent.   Used in
prurigo,  psoriasis, impetigo, lichen, lepra, ptyriasis, herpes exedens, and
some syphilitic and strumous eruptions.   It may be added to poultices
and lotions in a proportion varying from  one-fourth to one-sixteenth.   It
acts as an emollient  and soothing application, absorbing  moisture from
the air, and preventing the parts  to which  it is applied from becoming
too dry.   One-sixteenth of a grain, added to a few grains of borax and 
506
Materia  Medica.
rose-water, furnishes one of the most elegant and efficacious washes for
chapped  hands, face, lips, or nipples.   Pills and extracts, incorporated
with a small proportion of glycerin, are  preserved soft and  free from
moldiness.  It has been highly recommended for deafness, in Avhich there
is a partial or total  absence of ceruminous  secretion, by protecting the
tympanum, and gradually restoring the parts to their natural condition;
it is likewise said to cause  hearing in cases where the tympanum  is
thickened and indurated, or Avhere it is in a sound state or destroyed by
ulceration, but  in this last case  it is not permanent; and when there is a
hardness of the cerumen, and induration of the tympanum, it has proved
very successful, in several cases treated by Prof. R. S. Newton, and other
practitioners.   The plan is to  moisten wool with  the glycerin, pure or
diluted with water, and  pass it into the ear.   The bland and unirritating
character of pure glycerin, its permanence, when exposed to the atmo-
sphere, and the completeness with which it shields the parts covered by it,
render it susceptible of many important applications.  Mr. J. H. Ecky
has given a formula for the preparation of a glycerin ointment, especially
useful for chapped hands, lips, excoriations of the skin, etc.   It will also
serve as  a medium  for applying powders, etc.  to ulcers, cutaneous affec-
tions, or other  difficulties, by combining them  with it, in the desired pro-
portions.   The formula is as follows : Melt together spermaceti half an
ounce, and white wax one drachm, with oil of almonds two fluidounces,
at a  moderate heat; put these into a Wedgewood mortar, add glycerin
one fluidounce, and rub together until well mixed and cold.
   Dr. Goddard has given a formula for a very adhesive glycerin paste,
suitable  for fixing  paper labels to  glass and other surfaces, and which
keeps well; it  is to dissohre an ounce of gum arabic  in two fluidounces
of boiling water, add two fluidrachms of glycerin, and strain if necessary.
This  forms a valuable paste for druggists, chemists and others.
                   GLYCYRRHIZA GLABRA.
                             Liquorice.
  Nat. Ord.—Fabaceas, or Leguminosaj.  Sex. Syst.—Diadelphia Decandria.
                             THE  ROOT.
  Description.—The liquorice plant has a perennial, cylindrical root, run-
ning to a considerable length and depth, grayish-brown externally, yel-
low internally, succulent, tough, pliable, rapid in its growth, and furnished
with scattered fibers.  The stems are erect, herbaceous, smooth, striated,
with few branches, of a  dull, glaucous-gray color, and growing two or
three feet  in  hight.  The leaves are  alternate, unequally pinnate;  the
leaflets are generally about thirteen, one terminal, ovate, somewhat refuse,
petiolate, of a yellowish-green color, and viscid on their under surface;
stipules  inconspicuous.   The flowers  are small, bluish or purplish, and 
Gltcyrrhiza Glabra.
507
are arranged in axillary, erect spikes, shorter than the leaves, and sup-
ported on long peduncles.  The calyx is persistent, tubular, bilabiate,
and five-toothed.  The corolla consists of an ovate, lanceolate, obtuse,
erect vexillum, two oblong ala, and a two-parted, straight carina.   The
stamens are diadelphous ;  the anthers simple and rounded.   The ovary is
short, with a subulate style and blunt stigma.  The legumes are oblong,
smooth, compressed, acute, and one-celled, containing two or three small,
reniform seeds.
   History.—This plant is a native of the  south of Europe and Asia, and
is cultivated in England, France, and Germany.   The root is imported
chiefly from Messina and Palermo in Sicily, and some considerable from
Spain.  The root is the officinal  part;  when  dry it is in long pieces,
varying in thickness from a  few lines to more than an inch, Avrinkled
longitudinally, grayish-brown on the surface, so dense as to sink in water,
yellow, fibrous, and  tough in its substance, without odor, and of a strong,
peculiar, sweet, mucilaginous  taste, and sometimes with a slight degree
of acrimony.  Its powder is  brownish-yellow,  or  pale-yelloAv, if made
of decorticated root.  It must be kept in a dry place,  or it will spoil.
Its active part is soluble both  in water, and in alcohol.   A concentrated
watery solution is acidulous.   The best pieces are those not decayed  or
worm-eaten, with an internal bright-yellow color, and  distinct layers.
Analysis has found in  it, Glycyrrhizin or  Glycion; agedo'ite, a crystal-
lizable principle  identical with asparagin;  starch ; albumen;  a  brown
acrid resin;  a brown azotized extractive matter; lignin; salts of  lime
and magnesia, with  phosphoric, sulphuric and malic acids.
   Glycyrrhizin may be obtained  by subjecting a strong cold infusion  of
the  root to ebullition, in order to separate the albumen; then filtering,
precipitating with acetic acid, and washing the precipitate with cold water
to remove any adhering acid.  By solution  in alcohol, and evaporation
by a very gentle heat, it may be still further purified.  It is a peculiar,
transparent, yellow  substance, of a  sweet  taste, hardly  soluble  in  cold
water, very  soluble in boiling water, but forming a jelly with it on cool-
ing, precipitated from  its aqueous solution by acids, readily soluble in
cold alcohol, does not undergo vinous fermentation, yields no oxalic acid
by the action  of the nitric,  and is,  therefore, distinct  from sugar.   In
combination with the alkalies it  retains  its sweetness.    Carbon,  hydro-
gen, and oxygen are its elementary constituents.
   An extract  of sugar  of liquorice, (Extractum Glycyrrhiza), comes
from Spain, Italy, and Sicily,  in the form of hard, black cylinders, which
is prepared  by inspissating the decoction in copper kettles, till the mass
is thick enough to become firm on cooling.  The finest kind comes from
Italy, and is stamped with the maker's name, "Solazzi."   Water sloAvly
dissolves from three-fifths to eleven-twelfths  of it, alcohol only about
one-eighth, and  acquires an acrid taste, while the  residuum is purely
 sweet, and entirely  soluble in water. 
508
Materia Medica.
   The crude  extract of liquorice is in  cylindrical rolls, somewhat flat-
tened, about five  or  six  inches  in  length, by an inch in diameter, and
often covered with bay leaves.   The best kind is very black, dry, brittle,
having  a shining fracture, and  a peculiar, SAveet taste, and is nearly
completely  soluble  in  water.    It  frequently contains impurities, and
should be purified previous to internal administration.  A good extract,
but less hard and brittle than the foreign, and more soluble in water, is
prepared in New York.
   To purify liquorice,  the  crude extract is dissolved in water without
boiling, the solution strained, and evaporated to  the proper  consistence.
Sometimes gum, glue,  or  starch  is added during the process.  Before
the  extract becomes perfectly dried  it is  rolled into long  cylindrical
pieces about the thickness of a pipe-stem, and is called Refined Liquorice.
If the water be boiled during the purification, much of the impurity may
be taken up, as well as  the acrid oleo-resinous substance of the liquorice,
which is not desirable.
   The Glycyrrhiza Lepidota, which grows in Missouri, possesses the taste
of liquorice to a considerable degree.
   Properties and  Uses.—Liquorice is a demulcent and expectorant, and
is very useful in  catarrhal affections, cough, and irritations  of mucous
membranes, allaying  irritation of  the urinary organs, and the pain in
diarrhea.   The  decoction is the best form of administration, which may
be given alone, or in  combination with other agents.  Before being used,
it should always be deprived of its acrid bark.   Long boiling extracts
the acrid resinous principle; hence, in making a decoction, for the pur-
pose of sweetening diet-drinks, or covering the taste  of nauseous drugs,
it should be boiled for only a few minutes.   Probably, upon  this  acrid
principle depends its  virtues in chronic bronchial affections.  The  pow-
dered root is also  employed to give  due  solidity to pills, and to prevent
their adhesion to each other;  the extract,  for imparting the proper vis-
cidity to them.   The extract held  in the mouth, and  allowed slowly to
dissolve, is very  useful  in  allaying  cough.  An  excellent  troche or
lozenge  very useful in ordinary cough, may be  made by combining
together, six parts of refined liquorice,  two parts  of benzoic acid, four
parts of pulverized alum, and half a part of pulverized opium. Dissolve
the liquorice in  water, and evaporate to  the proper consistence, then add
the  powders with a  few drops  of oil of anise, and divide into three or
six grain lozenges.
   Off.  Prep. — Confectio Senna; Decoctum  Glycyrrhiza; Extractum
Glycyrrhiza; Tinctura Aloes. 
        GNAPHALIUM PoLYCEPHALUM--GOODYERA PuBESCENS.     509

                GNAPHALIUM  POLYCEPHALUM.
                           White Balsam.
         Nat. Ord.—Asteracea?.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Superflua.
                             THE HERB.
   Description.—This plant, also knoAvn by the various  names  of Indian
 Posy, Sweet-scented Life Everlasting, Old Field Balsam, etc., is indige-
 nous, herbaceous, and annual, with an erect, whitish, woolly, and much
 branched stem, from one to two feet in hight.  The leaves are  alternate,
 sessile, linear-lanceolate,  acute,  entire, scabrous above, and  whitish
 tomentose beneath.  The fiowers are tubular and yellow ; in heads clus-
 tered at the summit of the  panicled-corymbose branches, ovate-conical
 before expansion, then obovate.  Involucre imbricate, with whitish, ovate
 and oblong, rather obtuse scales.   Florets of the ray, subulate,—of the
 disk, entire.  Receptacle flat, naked ; pappus pilose, scabrous, capillary.
   History. —White Balsam  is found  in Canada, and various parts of the
 United States, growing in old fields, and on dry, barren lands, and bear-
 ing  whitish-yellow flowers  in  July  and August.  The leaves  have a
 pleasant, aromatic smell, and an aromatic, slightly  bitter and astringent,
 but rather agreeable taste.   They  yield their  properties  to water.   No
 analysis has been  made of them.   The Antennaria Margaritacea,  form-
 erly Gnaphalium  Margaritacea, or  Pearl-flowered Life Everlasting, a
perennial plant, possesses similar properties to the above.
   Properties and Uses.—Astringent.  The leaves and blossoms chewed,
and  the juice swallowed, has proved  beneficial  in ulcerations of  the
mouth and  throat.  A warm infusion may be used in  fevers to produce
diaphoresis, and  is of service in  quinsy, pulmonary complaints, leucor-
rhea, etc.; it may be used internally and as a local application.   Like-
wise used in infusion, in diseases  of  the bowels, and hemorrhages, and
applied in fomentation  to bruises,  indolent tumors,  and  other local com-
plaints.  The fresh juice is reputed anti-aphrodisiac.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Gnaphalii.
                    GOODYERA PUBESCENS.
                         Net-leaf Plantain.
        Nat. Ord.—Orchidaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Gynandria Monandria.
                            THE  LEAVES.
  Description.—This  plant, likewise known  by the names of Scrofula-
weed, Adder's  Violet, Rattlesnake-leaf etc.,  has  a perennial root, from
which arises an erect, sheathed and pubescent scape, from eight to twelve
inches  in  hight.  The leaves  are  radical, ovate, dark-green,  conspicu-
ously  reticulated  and blotched above  with  white, about two inches in 
510
Materia Medica.
length, and contracted at base into winged petioles scarcely half as long.
The flowers  are white, numerous, pubescent, in a  crowded, terminal,
oblong, cylindric spike.  Lip ovate, acuminate, saccate, inflated.   Petals
ovate.   The  Goodyera Repens is  a  reduced  variety of the  above, the
scape being from six to eight feet in hight, the leaves less conspicuously
reticulated, and the flowers being on a somewhat unilateral  spike, more
or less spiral; in other respects  about the same as the preceding.
  History.—This herb grows in various parts of the United States, in rich
woods, and under evergreens, and is common southward, while the  G.
Repens is more common northward  and  on  mountains.   It bears white,
or yellowish-white flowers in July  and  August. The leaves are the parts
employed, and yield their virtues to boiling  water. No analysis has been
made of  them.
  Properties  and  Uses. — Net-leaf  Plantain is  antiscrofulous, and is
reputed to have cured severe cases  of scrofula.  The fresh  leaves are
steeped in  milk and  applied  to scrofulous  ulcers as a poultice, or the
bruised leaves  may be laid on  them,  and in either case, they must  be
renewed every three hours ;  at the same time a warm infusion must  be
taken as  freely as the stomach will allow.  Used as an injection into the
vagina, and at the same time exhibited internally, the infusion has proved
beneficial in leucorrhea, recent prolapsus uteri, and as a wash in scrofu-
lous ophthalmia.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Goodyera.
                   GOSSYPIUM  HERBACEUM.
                               Cotton.
       Nat. Orel.—Malvaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Monadelphia Polyandria.
the  filamentous matter  surrounding the  seeds, and  inner bark
                           of  the  root.
  Description.—G.  Herbaceum  is an  annual, herbaceous plant, with a
round, upright, pubescent stem, from three to five feet high, brown at the
lower part, with straight fissures, spotted with black at the top, and with
spreading branches.  The leaves are  five-lobed, palmate, hoary, with a
single gland below, on the  midvein at the back, half an inch from the
base ; lobes mucronate, somewhat lanceolate and acute.   The flowers are
pretty  and yellow ;  the corolla consists of five spreading petals, united
below into a tube,  of a  pale-yellow color, with a red or purple spot on
each at the  base,  deciduous ; the calyx  is cup-shaped, obtusely five-
toothed, and surrounded by  a  three-leaved  involucel,  the  leaflets of
which  are much cut and dentate.  The capsule is bluntly three-cornered,
three-valved,  three-celled, opening when ripe  and displaying  a  loose
white tuft of long slender filaments, or cotton.   Seeds three in each cell,
^ 
Gossypium  Herbaceum.
511
immersed in cotton, clothed with a dense, close, short tomentum,  white,
convex on one side, and somewhat flattened on  the other.   Gossypium
Barbadense or Sea Island Cotton Plant, is a larger plant than  the  pre-
ceding ; the leaves are five-lobed Avith three glands beneath, upper  ones
three-lobed ;  cotton white, and seeds black.   It  is  likewise biennial or
triennial.
  History.—The Cotton Plant is a native of  Asia, but is extensively cul-
tivated in the warmer climates of the old and new continents.   Cultiva-
tion has much  changed  the plant, so as  to render it very difficult to
determine which are distinct species  and which  the varieties.   Authors
have described from six to thirteen species, which Swartz and Macfadyen
believe to be mere varieties of one species ;  while Hamilton, Wight and
Arnott, are of opinion that there are but two distinct species, the G.
Album with  white seeds, and  the  G. Nigrum  with black  seeds; the
others being varieties caused by cultivation.   There is considerable dif-
ference in the various cotton plants, as regards the  glands, the color of
the flowers, the shape  of the leaves, the hight of the bush, as well as
the length and  fineness of the  cotton.  The plant  cannot  be cultivated
for practical purposes in this  country, north  of Virginia.   The  leaves
contain much mucilage and have been used  as a  demulcent, and the
seeds yield by expression a drying fixed oil, which has been occasionally
employed.   But the officinal part is the inner bark  of the root, and the
hairs or filamentous substance attached to the seeds, which when  separ-
ated from  them  forms cotton.   Under the microscope these filaments
appear to be flattened tubes, with occasional  joints, indicated by trans-
verse lines.   Cotton is without  smell or taste, insoluble in water, alcohol,
ether,  oils,  vegetable  acids, soluble in strong  alkaline solutions, and
decomposed  by the concentrated mineral acids.   Gun-cotton is made
from  it by the  action  of nitric  acid, from which collodion  is prepared.
For medical  use  it should be  carded into thin sheets.  Cotton has not
been analyzed.
   Properties and Uses. — The  bark of the root of the  cotton plant is
emmenagogue, parturient and  abortive.   It is  said  to promote uterine
contraction with as much efficiency and more safety than ergot;  and is
used by the  slaves of the south for producing abortion, which it  does
without any apparent injury to the general health.  Four ounces  of the
inner bark of the root is boiled  in a quart of water down to a pint, the dose
of which is one or two fluidounces every twenty  or  thirty minutes.  The
hydro-alcoholic extract  forms  an excellent emmenagogue, and may be
used in chlorosis, amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, etc.
  The seeds are reputed to possess  superior antiperiodic properties.  A
pint of cotton seed placed in a quart of water, and boiled down  to one
pint, and one gill of  the warm tea given an hour  or two before the
expected chill, is said to  cure intermittent fever with the first dose.  The
flowers and leaves are reputed diuretic, and useful  in urinary affections; 
512
Materia  Medica.
the leaves steeped in vinegar, are said to relieve hemicrania when locally
applied, and a decoction is considered beneficial in the bites of venomous
reptiles, in Brazil.  Externally,  cotton is employed  in the treatment of
recent burns and scalds, in erysipelas,  as a dressing  for blisters, wounds,
severe bruises  or contusions, and  in  rheumatic  pains.  In burns  and
blisters care must be taken that it does not become a mechanical irritant,
in consequence of its becoming consolidated over the surface to which it
is  applied, and  which may be  avoided by first applying some  simple
ointment over the surface which is to come  in contact with the ulcer, or
burn.  It  probably produces  its beneficial results,  by absorbing  the
fluids effused, and protecting the parts over which it is placed  from  the
action of the air.
   Off.JPrep.—Decoctum  Gossypii Radicis ;  Decoctum Gossypii Seminis;
Extractum Gossypii.
                   GUAIACUM  OFFICINALE.
                              Guaiacum.
      Nat. Ord.—Zygophyllaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.
                        THE WOOD AND RESIN.
  Description.—This  is a tree  of very slow growth, attaining the  hight
of from fifty to sixty feet, with a trunk from three to six feet in circum-
ference.   The stem is generally crooked,  with numerous, divaricate,
knotty, short-jointed, fle'xuose branches ; its bark is smooth, but furrowed,
of a dark-gray color, variegated with  greenish or  purplish spots; that
of the branches  is ash-colored and striated.  The wood is hard and pon-
derous, with a dark olive-brown center, but whitish toward the bark, and
has a peculiar odor.  The leaves are opposite,  abruptly-pinnate, consist-
ing of two,  three,  and sometimes four pairs of elliptical, entire, veined,
smooth,  rigid,  shining,  dark-green, and sub-sessile leaflets, which are
from an inch to an inch and a half in length ; the common petiole is terete,
and channeled above.   The flowers are pale-blue, on long,  simple, axil-
lary, filiform, minutely downy peduncles, about an inch in length.   The
calyx consists of  five ovate, obtuse,  concave, hoaryr, deciduous sepals, the
two outer of which are somewhat broader than the others.   The  petals
are five, light-blue, roundish, obovate,  thrice the length of the sepals,
internally downy,  with  short linear claws inserted into the receptacle.
The stamens are ten, awl-shaped, erect, shorter than the petals, grooved
on the back, with  oblong, curved anthers, bifid at the  base.  The ovary
is two-celled, compressed, with numerous suspended ovules, and a short
awl-shaped  style.  The capsule is obovate, succulent, glabrous, yellow,
with from two to five rounded angles, and as many cells opening at these
angles ; two or three of  these  cells are often  abortive.  The  seeds are
solitary,  compressed, convex on one side, angular on  the other, pendu-
lous, with a cartilaginous albumen, and a straight, green  embryo. 
Guaiacum  Officinale.
513
   History.—This is a tree growing in the West Indies, particularly in
Hayti and Jamaica.  All parts of it are possessed of medicinal  proper-
ties, but the wood and the concrete juice only are officinal.  The bark is
said to be the most efficient part of the tree, but it  is not met with in
commerce.   The wood of this tree  had been used as a medicine by the
natives previous to the discovery of the country,  and who made it known
to the  Europeans ; by these it was  introduced into Europe in the six-
teenth century, and employed with much advantage in syphilitic  affec-
tions.  Guaiacum wood, commonly called lignum vilce, from a supposition
that it possessed superior medicinal virtues, is largely imported into this
country from the West India Islands, for  the purpose  of making block-
sheaves, and various other instruments, for which  its density and  ex-
treme hardness render it especially adapted.   It comes in  billets  about
a foot  in diameter, covered with a  thick gray bark, which presents on
its inner surface as well as on its fractured edges, numerous shining, crys-
talline points; more generally, however, the bark is absent.  The wood,
as used in medicine, consists of turnings from the workshop of the turner,
and is a uniform mixture of the alburnum and duramen.
   The alburnum or sap-wood is of a yellow color, that of the  duramen
or heart-wood, greenish-brown, and which are mixed in about  equal
proportion in the shavings.   Guaiacum wood is inodorous, unless rubbed
or heated, when it becomes odorous;  giving  an agreeable scent when
burned.  It has an acrid, bitterish, and aromatic taste, attended with a
singular pricking in the throat, and which is excited most strongly by the
alburnum.   It is very dense, hard and tough, of sp. gr. 1333,  sinking in
water.   When rasped, it emits a peculiar fragrance and excites sneezing.
In a state of minute division, exposure to the  air turns it green;  nitric
acid turns it bluish-green, as does also  a solution of corrosive sublimate;
this last should be applied to the  shavings, and  slightly heated.  These
tests may be employed to determine the genuineness  of the wood.
Boiling water and alcohol take up its active parts—the  alcohol  dissolving
21 per cent., the water 14.  It has not been satisfactorily analyzed, but
contains  a  bitter,  pungent extractive, resin, and  benzoic  acid.   One
pound  of the wood afforded to Geiger two  ounces of extract.   This ex-
tract treated with ether, the ethereal tincture evaporated and the residue
carefully sublimed, affords  a volatilizable acid, which condenses in small,
brilliant needles, called  guaiacic acid ;  if  the heat be pushed too far, an
oil is produced which colors the crystals.    Jahn  considers this  substance
to  be benzoic acid, with volatile  oil and  resin.   It is stated  that  the
guaiacum wood  is  also obtained from other  species,  especially the G.
Sanctum, and  G.  Arboreum.   The former is  semi-transparent, paler-
yellow, and  less heavy and hard, but probably, as fit for  medical use as
the officinal  wood.
  Properties and Uses.—Guaiacum wood is stimulant, diaphoretic, altera-
tive, and diuretic.   If the body be kept warm while using the decoction,
            33 
514
Materia Medica.
which is  the  form  generally  preferred, it  will prove  diaphoretic; if
cool, diuretic.   As a diaphoretic arid alterative, it has been administered
(but usually in compound decoction or syrup), in  chronic rheumatism,
chronic cutaneous diseases, scrofula, and syphilitic diseases.  As water
cannot take up much of  the active principle in the wood, it is probable
that its reputed  efficacy Avas  owing  principally  to  the active aoents
associated with the syrup or decoction.  The resin of guaiacum is the
active principle, which see.  The decoction of guaiacum shavings may
be  made by boiling an ounce in a pint and a half of water down to a
pint, the dose  of which is from two to four  fluidounces every three or
four hours.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Guaiaci; Syrupus Sarsaparilla Compositus.
                         GUAIACI RESINA.
                               Guaiac.
             the concrete juice of guaiacum officinale.
   History.—The resin  of Guaiacum, or gum guaiacum as it is  errone-
 ously called by some, is obtained from  the wood  of the tree, in  several
 different modes ; by spontaneous exudation, by incisions made into the
 tree, or by boiling  the chips or sawdust from the wood in a solution of
 common salt, and skimming off the substance which floats to the surface.
 This last is the method most commonly pursued.   Guaiac is imported
 from the West Indies in irregular lumps of various sizes, combined with
 more or less impurities, as bark, sand,  earthy matters, etc.  Its  surface
 is brownish-red, or brownish-yellow when recent,  but becomes greenish-
 brown under exposure  to the air.  It is brittle,  presenting a splintery
 vitreous fracture with some translucency.   Its odor is feeble  but frag-
 rant, and is increased by heat.  Its taste, at first scarcely perceptible, is
 faintly bitter, and  sweetish, succeeded by a permanent  sense of heat
 and pungency in the mouth and fauces.   It pulverizes readily, and the
 powder, at  first of a light-gray color, becomes greenish on exposure to
 the light,  and in the air it becomes somewhat tenacious, quickly aggre-
 gating.   A  very moderate heat melts it.   Alcohol  dissolves  it readily,
 forming a dark reddish-brown fluid, from  which the guaiac is precipitated
 by water, by sulphuric  or muriatic  acid.  Ammoniated alcohol, or solu-
tions of the  fixed alkalis dissolve it.  Ether does not readily dissolve it;
 fixed and  volatile oils scarcely at all.  Water dissolves about nine parts
 in one hundred of the resin, becoming colored greenish-brown and having
a sweet taste; and upon evaporating the Avater from the infusion a brown
substance  is obtained which is soluble in hot water or alcohol, but hardly
at all in ether.  Sulphuric acid forms  with guaiac a deep-red solution;
nitric acid converts it into oxalic acid and an extractiAre  matter, without
producing any artificial  tannin.  Its specific  gravity varies from 1.2 to
 1.23.  Analysis has found in it resin and  a trace of benzoic acid. 
Guaiaci Resina.
515
   Guaiac is subject to adulteration with pine resin, and other substances;
 this may be detected by observing, that the genuine article when freshly
 fractured is green, not red ; that the tincture of the spurious article will
 not render the recently-cut surface  of a potato,  carrot, or other plants
 containing gluten or milk, mucilage of gum Arabic, etc., blue—which
 change will be effected by the tincture of the genuine guaiac ; that when
 heated,guaiac does not exhale a turpentine odor; that oil of turpentine
 dissolves resin, but not guaiac; and that paper which has been  moist-
 ened by the tincture  of guaiac, speedily becomes blue on exposure  to
 the vapors of  nitric acid.   The mineral acids  are incompatible with the
 solutions of guaiac.
   The  pure resinoid principle of guaiac, obtained by ether from the
 resin, by a process similar to that  named  in  the preceding article for
 procuring it from the wood, is named Gvmacin.   It is readily soluble in
 alcohol, less so in ether, and insoluble  in water.  It forms soluble com-
 pounds with the  alkalis, which are  decomposed  by mineral  acids, and
 several salts, on which account it has been termed Guaiacic acid.   The
 resin of guaiac, according to Jahn, consists of three distinct resins, one
 soft, and soluble in ether or ammonia, and forming 18.7 per cent, of the
 crude drug;  another, likewise soft, soluble in ether,  but scarcely  in
 ammonia, constituting 58.3 per cent.; and the  third, hard, soluble  in
 ammonia but not in ether, amounting to 11.3 per cent.
   Properties and Uses.—Guaiac is stimulant and alterative.  Soon after
 being swallowed it produces a sense of warmth in the stomach, which
 is followed by slight  increase of the pulse and temperature, dryness  of
 the mouth, thirst, and diaphoresis  or diuresis,  depending upon the
 temperature at which  the body  is kept during  its  exhibition.  Large
 doses act as a  cathartic.   It is used in the same affections as the Guaiaci
 Lignum, or guaiacum wood.   Several practitioners have found it benefi-
 cial in amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea,  and other uterine diseases ; likewise
 in acute dysentery, in which its employment is said to be followed by
 speedy beneficial  results.   It is much used in chronic  rheumatism, and
 in the declining stages of  the acute  form, and has proved a most valu-
 able agent in these diseases.  It is said to be an  antidote to the effects
 of the tincture of Rhus Toxicodendron.   If the preparations of  guaiacum
 produce sickness, defective appetite, and irregularity of the bowels, their
 use must be discontinued.   Dose of the powdered resin, from five  to
 twenty grains; of the  tincture, from one to four fluidrachms, either of
 which may be repeated three  or four  times a day.  A mixture of ten
grains each of guaiac and  compound powder of ipecacuanha and opium,
has been found of  advantage in rheumatism and dysentery.
   Off. Prep.—Tinctura Guaiaci;  Tinctura Guaiaci Aromatica;  Tinctura
 Guaiaci Ammoniata. 
516
Materia  Medica.
                          GUNPOWDER.
                 (Pulvis Pyrius.  Pulvis Nitratus.)
   History.—Gunpowder is prepared by combining together, five or six
parts of nitre, with one part each, of charcoal and  sulphur;  however,
these proportions vary with the different manufacturers of the article, so
that there is no  regular or officinal method  for its preparation.   The
uses of gunpowder, aside from medicine, are too well known to require
any description.
   Properties and Uses.—Recommended as a detergent and alterative in
chlorosis, and dyspepsia, also as a corrective of morbid secretions  of the
gastro-mucous membrane, dependent on, or accompanied with subacute
inflammation.  Dose, ten grains, three or four  times a  day, gradually
increased,  occasionally  using a mild laxative.  Externally,  applied in
powder or ointment to indolent ulcers, and  several forms of cutaneous
diseases.   Gunpowder dissolved in water, and the solution taken in tea-
spoonful  doses three  or four times in twenty-four hours, and continued
daily, has  cured  gonorrhea.  Dr. Bone and Dr. Henry, two  celebrated
botanic practitioners of some thirty or forty years since, made  consider-
able use of this  article in the treatment of some forms of cutaneous
disease, indolent  ulcers, and even cancers; the following is the formula
they employed; simmer one pound of  the inspissated juice of poke for
a  short time, on  hot ashes, until  the aqueous portion has evaporated;
then place it in an iron dish, add  to it a pound of fresh butter, and half
a pint of finely pulverized gunpowder,  and place it over a fire, where it
must be kept until it is so far dried that the mixture will flash once or
twice; or if it should take fire  instead, it must  be immediately smoth-
ered.  Remove it into a glazed pipkin, and  let  it remain on hot  ashes
until it is well  incorporated, when it may be transferred  into pots,  and
covered with alcohol to prevent it  from  molding.   This ointment applied
twice a day, is reputed to destroy cancer to its extreme fibers or roots.
   Off. Prep.—Lotio Hydrastii  Composita.
                        GUTTA PERCH A.
                           Gutta Percha.
        Nat. Ord.—Sapotacese   Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.
                CONCRETE JUICE  OF ISONANDRA GUTTA.
  Description.—This is the product or milky juice of a large tree grow-
ing in Singapore and its vicinity, the Isonandra Gutta.  The tree is very
large, having a trunk from three to six feet  in diameter, with numerous
ascending branches, the extremities of which  are crowded with  petiolate,
oblong leaves, green  above, brownish  beneath, and four  or five inches
long by two in width.  The flowers are small and white. 
Gutta Percha.
517
  History.__This substance was introduced in 1842, to the profession, by
Dr. William Montgomerie, a surgeon in the  British army in the Indies.
The mode pursued by the natives  in  collecting it, is  to  cut down the
tree, strip off the bark, and then collect the milky juice in suitable ves-
sels, which coagulates  on  exposure to the air.   This he considers a
wasteful course, as each tree yields only twenty or thirty pounds of the
concrete juice,  and probably a larger yield might be had by tapping the
trees, and  thus preserving them for future use.   As received in this
country it  is rendered impure by the admixture of  various  foreign
matters, from which  it may be freed by  kneading in  hot water, or  by
melting it  with oil of  turpentine,  straining,  and  evaporating  the oil.
Gutta percha is of a dull white, or whitish color, of a feeble odor, taste-
less, at ordinary temperatures hard, almost horny, somewhat flexible in
thin pieces, having an unctuous  feel under the fingers, and very tena-
cious.   It is softened by hot water or dry heat, and on cooling resumes
its former state, and retains any form which may have been given to  it.
At 150° or  160°, it is  soft, very plastic, and capable of being welded
and molded into any form.   When soft, it may be  cut with a knife.   Its
specific gravity is 0.9791.   It is insoluble in water,  alcohol, alkaline
solutions, and the weak acids.  Ether  and the volatile oils soften it  in
the cold, and imperfectly dissolve it with the aid of heat.   Oil of turpen-
tine dissolves  it perfectly, forming a  clear,  colorless solution, which
yields  it unchanged  by  evaporation.   Bisulphuret of carbon also dis-
solves  it without  change.  It  resembles caoutchouc and  is a non-con-
ductor of electricity.  It is used for a number of useful and ornamental
purposes.   In the dissolved state it is used as a varnish  impervious  to
moisture.   Chloroform  and benzole dissolve it.   Pure gutta percha is
analogous,  in its ultimate  composition, with caoutchouc;  the  ordinary
article of commerce contains  pure gutta percha,  a small  quantity of a
vegetable acid, casein, a resin soluble  in  ether or oil of turpentine, and
a resin soluble  in alcohol.  It may be vulcanized in the same manner as
caoutchouc, and undergoes a similar change of properties.
   Properties and Uses. — Used  in  surgery,  as bands  and splints,  to
preserve limbs and  joints  in  fixed positions,  also for the formation  of
bougies, injection pipes, catheters, pessaries,  artificial  teats,  forceps-
handles, etc.   The solution in bisulphuret of carbon is recommended as
an application to the skin in incised wounds—the liquid speedily evapo-
rates, while the gutta hardens, and holds the edges of the wound firmly
together.   The following compound is recommended for the hemorrhage
supervening the  extraction of teeth.  Take of gutta percha  an ounce;
best tar an ounce and a half; creosote a drachm; shell lac  an ounce.
Boil these  in a  crucible, stirring or beating them well, until they are
blended into a  stiff, homogeneous mass.  The compound is readily soft-
ened  between  the fingers,  and  is easily introduced into the bleeding
socket.   It must be pressed  in, and  the hemorrhage will be  speedily 
518
Materia  Medica.
checked.  Mr. Acton states that the following preparation is useful for
protecting exposed surfaces  from contagions, poisonous  contact,  etc.;
dissolve with a gentle heat one drachm of gutta percha in an ounce of
benzole ; also half a  scruple of caoutchouc in an ounce  of benzole, and
mix  the two  solutions.  Apply it with  a brush, the  liquid evaporates
leaving a delicate covering behind.  An improved cement  for uniting
the parts of boots and shoes, and in the manufacture of  articles of dress
in which cement is required,  is made  of 64 parts by weight of gutta
percha, 16  parts  of caoutchouc, 8  parts of pitch, 4 parts of shell-lac,
and  8 parts of oil; the ingredients are melted together,  the  caoutchouc
having been  previously dissolved.  A  cement  for  uniting sheet gutta
percha  to silk or other fabrics, is  composed of gutta  percha 40 lbs.,
caoutchouc  3  lbs., shell-lac 3lbs., Canada Balsam 14 lbs., Liquid styrax
35 lbs., gum mastic 4 lbs., and oxide of lead  1 lb.   Another for uniting
it to leather, as soles of shoes, etc., consists of:—Gutta percha 50 lbs.,
Venice  turpentine 40 lbs., shell-lac 4 lbs., caoutchouc 1 lb., and liquid
styrax 5 lbs.
             H^EMATOXYLON  CAMPECHIANUM.
                             Logwood.

         Nat. Ord.—Fabaceas.  Sex.  Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.
                             THE  WOOD.
  Description.—This is a tree  of  from  twenty to twenty-five feet in
hight, and occasionally reaching forty or fifty feet.  The  trunk or stem
is generally crooked  and deformed, seldom exceeding a foot and a half
in diameter and covered with a rough, ash-colored bark.   The brandies
are somewhat flexuose, terete, covered with whitish spots; in mountains
and moist situations they are unarmed, but in localities where the tree is
stunted  in growth, they are furnished  with sharp spines below the
leaves.   The leaves are alternate,  abruptly pinnate,  and are composed
of three  or four pairs of subsessile, obovate or obcordate, obliquely-
nerved  leaflets.  The flowers are yellow, slightly fragrant, on pedicels
half an inch in length, and collected in axillary and subterminal racemes.
The calyx is deeply five-parted, brownish-purple, with thin,  membra-
nous, deciduous, unequal lobes, and a short, green, campanulate tube.
The petals are nearly  equal, obovate, wedge-shaped at base, scarcely
longer  than  the sepals, and of a lemon-yellowish color.   The stamens
are ten, alternately short, inserted on  the inside  of the margin of the
persistent tube of the calyx; fllaments hairy at base; anthers ovate, and
without glands.  The ovary is lanceolate,  compressed,  three-seeded,
bearing a capillary style which  projects beyond the stamens and petals;
stigma capitate, expanded.  The pod or legume is flat, compressed, lance-
olate, acuminate at both ends, one-celled, two-seeded, not opening  at 
HjEMATOXYLON  Campechianum.
519
 the sutures, but bursting in  the  middle longitudinally.  The seeds  are
 transversely oblong.
   History.—This tree is a native of Campeachy and other parts of tropi-
 cal America, and  has become naturalized in many of the West India
 islands.   The  wood  consists of a  yellowish alburnum,  and  a dingy
 cherry-red  inner wood, which last is the part used in medicine  and the
 arts;  it forms a valuable article  of commerce, and is  extensively used
 in  dyeing.  It is  imported in heavy, hard, close-grained billets, which
 are cut into chips, or rasped into a coarse powder for  general  use.   It
 becomes darker-colored by exposure, has a sweetish, somewhat astrin-
 gent, and peculiar taste, and a slight, rather pleasant odor.  Water or
 alcohol extracts its coloring matter, forming deep-purple solutions.   Its
 aqueous solution  yields  a fine blue precipitate with lime-water, alum,
 acetate of lead, a  deep  violet blue with the salts of sesquioxide of iron,
 and curdy flakes with solution of gelatin; sulphuric, nitric, muriatic and
 acetic acids, and sulphate of copper also produce precipitates.  Water
 is the menstruum usually employed to extract its virtues.  A pound of
 the  wood yields  about two  ounces of extract.  It has been analyzed
 several times, and is found to contain volatile oil, an oleaginous or resin-
 ous matter,  a brown substance the solution  of which is  precipitated by
 gelatin, another brown  substance soluble in alcohol, but not in ether or
 water, an azotized substance  resembling gluten, free acetic acid,  various
 salts, and a peculiar principle called Hematin or Hematoxylin, which is
 sometimes  found crystallized in  the crevices of the wood.  It  may be
 obtained by digesting the dry commercial watery extract with  alcohol,
 evaporating the tincture till a thick,  syrupy  fluid is obtained,  then
 adding a little water, and submitting the liquid again to a gentle evapor-
 ation.   Crystals form in a  few days  upon standing,  and  more  are
 deposited as the fluid evaporates spontaneously.  These may be purified
 by washing  with alcohol  and drying.   When first obtained they are of
 a yellow-rose color,  shining, bitterish, acrid, and slightly astringent,
 readily soluble in  boiling water,  forming an  orange-red  solution which
 becomes yellow on cooling, and  soluble  also in  alcohol  or  ether.   If
 ether be used in the  process instead  of  alcohol,  and the purifying be
 accomplished by washing the crystals with water, they are obtained of a
 pale-straw color, becoming reddish-yellow by exposure to air containing
 the least trace of ammonia, or even in close vessels, to bright sunlight.
 They are sweet like  liquorice, without either bitterness or astringency;
 and though not a coloring substance of themselves, yet they afford beau-
 tiful red, blue, and purple colors  when  acted  upon by an  alkaline base
 and the oxygen of the air.   Their constitution is C20 H17 Ois.
  Properties and Uses.—Logwood  is tonic and astringent, without any
irritating properties.  It may be used with much advantage in diarrhea,
dysentery, and the relaxed condition of the  bowels succeeding cholera- 
520
Materia  Medica.
infantum.   A favorite  preparation with many practitioners in cholera-
infantum,  after a proper  employment of the Syrup of Rhubarb and
Potassa, is the following:  Dissolve two drachms of extract of logwood
in four fluidounces of boiling water, to this solution add two fluidrachms
of ammoniated tincture of opium, three fluidrachms of tincture of cate-
chu, one fluidrachm of compound  spirits of lavender,  and four fluid-
ounces of simple syrup, or syrup of ginger.   The dose is a teaspoonful
every three or  four hours.   In constitutions  broken down by disease,
dissipation, or the excessive use of mercury, the decoction of  logwood,
used freely in connection with the other treatment, will be found  highly
beneficial.  Dose of the decoction from two to four fluidounces;  of the
extract, five to thirty grains.   The use of logwood imparts a blood-red
color to the stools and the urine.  It should never be combined with chalk
or lime-water, as they  are incompalibles.
  A good red ink may be made as follows: Take of Pernambuco wood,
a Brazilian  wood  said to be  derived from  Ccesalpina Echinata, four
ounces, dilute acetic acid, distilled  water, of each sixteen ounces; boil
together, until twenty-four ounces remain.  Then add an ounce of alum,
evaporate the liquid to sixteen ounces, dissolve an ounce of gum arabic
in it, strain, and to  the cold liquid add a  drachm of protochloride of tin.
This ink is preferable  to the cochineal ink, being free  from  its bluish
tint, and more permanent.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Hamatoxyli; Extractum Hamatoxyli;  Vinum
Hamatoxyli  Compositum.
                         H^EMOSPASIS.
              Hamospastic Medication.   Dry Cupping.
  This is a powerful revulsive treatment.  Anything which draws the
blood to a part may be said to act hamospastically.  Dry cupping does
so; it not only draws the blood  from internal parts to the surface, but
likewise  attracts morbid action, and thus affords relief.  Common half-
pint  tumblers will  answer for adults very well,  in place of ordinary
cupping-glasses.  A piece of paper or cotton, rolled up and fired, and
dropped  into the tumbler, and allowed to burn a minute or two, fits the
tumbler for application to the spot.   One, two, or more may be applied,
and  repeated  as often as may be desirable;  they should remain until
ready to  fall  off.   Intermittent fever has been invariably cured by M.
Condret,  by applying eight or ten middle-sized cupping-glasses, on each
side  of the spinal column, from the neck downward, and allowing them
to remain for about thirty or forty minutes.  To be applied at the com-
mencement of the cold stage.  One to four applications effects the cure.
Also useful in cases of difficult respiration  from congestion of  the lungs
or mucous membrane of the bronchii, etc. 
Hamamelis  Virginica.
521
  HjEmastasis is a term applied to the retention of venous  blood in the
extremities by ligature.   Tie a handkerchief, or any suitable  cord  around
the upper part of the arms, and the  thighs, and then, by means  of a
piece of wood, twist  or turn the cord sufficiently tight to check the cir-
culation of the venous blood, but not the arterial, which may be known
by the action of the pulse.  In a short time the arms and legs will be
much distended, and an amount of blood removed from the  trunk and
retained in the limbs, which the most heroic practitioner dare not remove
by "the lancet.   If the subject faint, promptly loosen or remove the  liga-
tures ;  if he be plethoric and of firm, vigorous constitution, he must be
reduced by cathartics, diuretics, sudorifics, and be under the influence
of gentle  nauseants, at the  time of the operation.   This is found  very
useful  in  uterine  hemorrhage,  hemoptysis,  and  other  hemorrhages,
inflammations of the brain, lungs, bowels, etc., congestions, puerperal
convulsions, and wherever it is deemed advisable to lessen  the amount
of blood in the head and trunk, without injuring the system.
                   HAMAMELIS  VIRGINICA.
                           Witch Hazel.
       Nat. Ord.—Hamamelaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Tetrandria Virginica.
                       THE BARK AND  LEAVES.
   Description.—This is an  indigenous shrub, sometimes  called Winter-
bloom, Snapping-hazlenut,  Spotted Alder, etc.;  it consists  of  several
crooked, branching trunks from  the same root, from four to six inches
in diameter, ten or twelve feet in hight, and covered with a smooth gray
bark.  The leaves are on short petioles, alternate, oval or obovate, acu-
minate, obliquely subcordate at base, margin crenate-dentate, scabrous
with minute elevated spots beneath,  from three to five  inches long, and
two-thirds as wide.  The flowers are yellow, on short pedicels, three  or
four together in an  involucrate,  axillary, subsessile glomerule.   The
calyx is  small, and divided into four, thick, oval, pubescent segments,
with an  involucel of two or three bracts at base.  Petals four, yellow,
three-quarters of an inch long, linear, curled or twisted.   Stamens four,
fertile, alternate with the petals, and four, sterile  at their base.   Ovary
ovate, Avith two short styles, crowned by obtuse  stigmas.  Fruit  a nut-
like  capsule, bilobate and split above,  yellowish, pubescent, with  two
cells,  each containing an oblong, shining black  seed, which seeds are
dispersed by the elastic  valves of the capsule opening rapidly.
  History.—This plant grows in almost all sections of the United States,
especially in damp woods, flowering from September to November, when
the leaves are  falling, and  maturing its  seeds the next  summer.  The
bark and  leaves are the parts  used in medicine; they have  a pleasant,
aromatic odor, and a bitter, astringent taste, leaving a sense of pungency 
522
Materia  Medica.
and sweetishness  in  the mouth.  Water  extracts their virtues.  No
analysis has been made of them.   The shoots are  used as divining-rods
to  discover water and  metals under ground, by certain adepts in the
occult arts.
  Properties and Uses.—Witch Hazel is tonic, astringent, and sedative.
The decoction  of the bark  is very useful  in hemoptysis, hematemesis,
and other  hemorrhages, as  well  as  in diarrhea, dysentery, and exces-
sive mucous .discharges.  It has been employed with advantage in inci-
pient phthisis, in which  it is supposed to unite anodyne  influences with
its others.  Reputed to have been used by the Indians  as a sedative and
discutient in painful tumors, and external inflammations.  The decoction
may be advantageously used as a  wash or injection  for sore-mouth, pain-
ful  tumors, external inflammations, bowel complaints, prolapsus ani and
uteri, leucorrhea, gleet,  and  ophthalmia.   An ointment made with lard
and a decoction of white oak bark, apple-tree bark, and witch hazel, has
been found a valuable application to piles.   The following forms a use-
ful  preparation:—Take equal parts of witch hazel bark, golden seal, and
lobelia leaves, the first  two  made into  a strong decoction, after which
add the lobelia to the hot liquid, and cover; when cold, strain.  With
this decoction as a collyrium, I have succeeded in curing  the most obsti-
nate and long standing  cases of ophthalmia, as  have many other prac-
titioners  to whom  I  have named it.  Dose of decoction, from two to
four fluidounces, three or four times  a day.
    Off. Prep.—Decoctum Hamamelis.
                   HEDEOMA PULEGIOIDES.
                            Pennyroyal.
        Nat. Ord.—Lamiaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Diandria Monogynia.
                             THE HERB.
   Description.—This  is  an indigenous annual plant, sometimes  called
Tick-weed, Squaw-mint, etc.  The  root is small, fibrous, branching, yel-
low, from which  arises a pubescent stem from six to fifteen  inches in
hight, upright, somewhat angular, with numerous, erect, slender branches.
The leaves are  opposite,  small, lanceolate-oblong  or ovate, narrowed at
the base,  margin remotely serrate, rough, pubescent and prominently
veined on the under surface,  smooth above, and on short petioles.  The
flowers  are very small,  of a pale-blue  color, on short  pedicels, and
arranged  in  axillary whorls,  along  the whole length of the branches.
The calyx is striated and  pubescent, bilabiate, the  upper lip divided into
two  ciliated  segments, the lower into  three  rounded lobes.   The sta-
mens  and  style are filiform.   The  seeds  are four, oblong,  contained
in the  persistent  calyx, the mouth of which is closed by bristles of the
lower lip. 
Hedera  Helix.
523
  History.__This herb was placed by Linnaus in the genus Melissa, and
afterward Cunila, from which it was separated by Persoon, and  placed
in the genus  Hedeoma.  It must  not  be confounded with the Mentha
Pulegium, or European Pennyroyal.   It is a well known plant, growing
in dry, sterile situations, especially in calcareous soils, and blossoms from
June to September and October, rendering the air fragrant for some dis-
tance around  it.   It is common to nearly all parts of the United  States.
It has a pleasant, aromatic smell, which, however, is very offensive  to
some  persons, and a  warm,  pungent, mint-like taste.  It imparts  its
virtues  to boiling water by infusion;  boiling  destroys its  activity by
evaporating the volatile oil, on which its  properties  depend.  The oil
may be obtained by distillation with water, and is often employed, or  its
tincture, instead of the herb itself; it is  of a  light-yellow  color, and
specific  gravity 0.948.
  Properties and  Uses.—Pennyroyal is a stimulant, diaphoretic, emmen-
agogue, and carminative.  The warm infusion, used freely, will promote
perspiration,  restore suppressed lochia,  and excite  the menstrual dis-
charge when  recently  checked ; it is often used by females for this last
purpose,—a large  draught being taken at bed-time, the feet having been
previously bathed  in warm water.  A gill of brewer's yeast added to the
draught is reputed a safe and certain abortive.   The warm infusion may
likewise be employed with advantage  in the flatulent colic of children.
The oil, or its tincture, is also administered as a carminative, and anti-
emetic, and has been of benefit in hysteria, hooping-cough, spasms, etc.
It is likewise  used as a rubefacient in  rheumatism, and united with lin-
seed oil, as an application to burns.   Dose of the oil, from two to ten
drops.
  Off. Prep.—Decoctum Hedeoma;  Oleum Hedeoma.
                        HEDERA  HELIX.
                                Ivy.
        NaL  Ord.—Araliaceas.  Sex. Syst—Pentandria Monogynia.
                     THE LEAVES AND BERRIES.
  Description.—This  is an  evergreen creeper, with long  and flexible
stems and branches, which  attach themselves to the earth, or trees, or
walls, by numerous root-like fibers.  The leaves are coriaceous, smooth,
shining,  dark-green, with  white veins,  petiolate, the lower  ones  five-
angled or five-lobed, the upper or old ones ovate and acute.  The flowers
are greenish-white, and are disposed in numerous, simple and downy
umbels, forming a corymb.  The berries black, with a mealy pulp.
  History.—This  well known plant is a native of Europe, and is culti-
vated in many parts of the United States; it flowers in September.  The 
524
Materia Medica.
leaves and berries are the parts used.  The leaves have a balsamic odor,
especially when rubbed, and a bitter, astringent, and nauseous taste.
The berries have an acidulous, resinous, somewhat pungent taste.   A
peculiar, very bitter, alkaline principle, named Hederin or Hederia, has
been  discovered in the ivy  seeds  by Vandamme and  Chevallier, and
which appears to  be closely  allied to quinia in febrifuge properties.   It
is  obtained  by treating the seeds with hydrate  of lime, dissolving the
precipitated  alkali in boiling  alcohol,  and evaporating the  alcoholic
solution.
   Properties and  Uses.—The leaves  have been  employed for dressing
issues, and, in the form of decoction, have been  recommended  as  a
wash in sanious ulcers, itch, tetter,  and other cutaneous eruptions; like-
wise to destroy vermin in the hair, which  latter, it is stated, is stained
black by this application;  reputed beneficial as a cataplasm, in chronic
glandular enlargements.  Dried and powdered, they have been employed
in  the atrophy of children,  rachitis, and pulmonary complaints, in the
dose of a scruple  or  more.  The berries are purgative and emetic, and
were  at one time much esteemed  in febrile affections.   Boyle considered
them to be sudorific, and  in the great plague  in London,  they were
administered in combination with vinegar.
                    HELENIUM AUTUMNALE.
                             Sneezewort.
          Nat. Ord.—Asteraceae.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Superflua.
                             THE HERB.
  Description.—This plant, likewise called Sioamp, or False Sunflower,
has a perennial fibrous root,  with several angular branching, minutely
pubescent steins,  two or three  feet high, and strongly winged by the
decurrent leaves.   The leaves are smooth or  slightly pubescent,  alter-
nate, sessile, decurrent, lanceolate, acuminate, unequally serrate, punc-
tate.  The flowers are large, numerous, of a bright-yellow color, loosely
corymbose.   Peduncles axillary, one-flowered, thicker above.  Involucre
with linear-acute scales.  Disk semi-globose.   Rays flat, cuneate,  three
to  five-lobed.   Pappus  of five  membranous,  subulate,  and awned
scales.
  History.—Sneezewort grows in all parts of the United  States, flourish-
ing best in  meadows, moist fields, and  other  low damp grounds, and
flowering from August to October.  It has scarcely any smell, but a
bitter, someAvhat pungent or acrid taste.   It has not been analyzed.
  Properties and  Uses.—Tonic, diaphoretic, and errhine.   Useful  in
intermittent  and  other febrile  diseases.  The whole plant  possesses
errhine  properties ;  but the flowers,  and especially the central florets, 
Helianthemum Canadense.
525
are the most active, and may be used in powder, as a snuff in headache,
catarrh, deafness, and other affections where errhines are desired.
     HELIANTHEMUM CANADENSE.  (Cistus Canadensis.)
                            Frostweed.
        Nat.  Ord.—Cistaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Monogynia.
                            the herb.
  Description.—This plant is also known by  the names of Rock-rose,
Frost-plant, etc.   It  is herbaceous, and perennial, with a slender, rigid,
pubescent, ascending stem, from six to eighteen inches high, and having
erect, pubescent branches.  The leaves are alternate, from eight to twelve
lines long, and about one-fourth  as wide, oblong, somewhat  lanceolate,
erect, entire,  subsessile, tomentose beneath, and without stipules.  The
flowers are large and bright yellow; those which first appear are terminal,
few or solitary, on short peduncles, with erosely-emarginate petals, about
twice as long as the calyx ; at a later period the flowers are very small,
axillary, solitary or somewhat clustered, nearly sessile, sometimes destitute
of petals, and usually wanting the two outer sepals of the calyx.  Stamens
declinate.   The fruit is a smooth, shining capsule, with brown, scabrous,
punctate seeds ;  the capsules  of the  apetalous  or  later flowers, not
larger than a pin's head.
  History.—This plant grows in all parts of the United States,  in dry,
sandy soils, and flowering from May to July.   The whole plant is offici-
nal.  The leaves and stems of the plant are covered with a white down,
and Eaton  states  that, in the  months  of November and December, he
has seen these plants sending out, near the root, broad,  thin, curved  ice
crystals, about an inch in breadth, which melted in the day, and were
renewed in the morning.  The  plant has a  bitterish, astringent,  slightly
aromatic taste, and yields its properties to hot  Avater.
  Properties  and  Uses.—This plant has long been used  by Eclectics as a
valuable remedy for scrofula,  in which disease it has  effected some
astonishing cures.   It is used in  the form  of  decoction, syrup,  or fluid
extract; if taken  in too large doses it will   sometimes vomit.  It is
tonic and astringent, as well as antiscrofulous. In secondary syphilis, either
alone, or in combination with Corydallis Formosa, and Stillingia, it forms
a most valuable remedy.  The decoction may  be employed with advan-
tage in diarrhea, as a gargle in scarlatina and  aphthous ulcerations, as a
wash  in scrofulous ophthalmia, prurigo and  other cutaneous diseases.
Externally, a poultice of the leaves is applied  to scrofulous  tumors and
ulcers.  The  fluid extract is the best form for  internal use ;  dose, one or
two fluidrachms, three or four times a day7.   A physician in the west,
writes to me,  that he procures  an oil  from this plant, which he finds 
526
Materia Medica.
valuable in cancerous affections; how he prepares it is not stated.  The H.
 Corymbosum or Frost-weed, with an  erect, branching, canescent stem;
lance-oblong, alternate leaves, canescently tomentose beneath ; the fiowers
in crowded, fastigiate  cymes; the  primary ones  on elongated, filiform
pedicels, and with petals twice longer than the  calyx ; sepals villous-
canescent, outer  ones linear, obtuse; inner ones ovate, acute;  is found
growing in pine-barrens and sterile  sands, in the Southern and Middle
States.   It possesses properties analogous to the preceding, and may be
indiscriminately employed with it.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Helianthemi.
                   HELIANTHUS ANNUUS.
                            Sunflower.

        Nat. Ord-—Asteraceae.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Frustranea.
                            the seeds.
  Description.—This is an annua] plant, with an erect, rough stem, usu-
ally about seven feet high, but which  under favorable circumstances,
attains the hight of fifteen and  even twenty feet.   The leaves are large,
cordate, three-nerved,  the upper alternate, the lower opposite.   Pedun-
cles thickening upward.    Flowers large, nodding ; rays yellow ; disk
dark-purple.   Seeds numerous,  dark-purple  when  ripe.   A  splendid
variety occurs with the flowers  all radiate.
  History.—This well known plant is a  native of South America, and is
extensively  cultivated in the gardens of this country, on  account of its
beautiful, brilliant, yellow flowers, which appear in July and August.
The ripe seeds are the parts used, they are of a purplish color, exter-
nally, about four or five  lines long, between two and three wide, two-
angled, margins parallel,  apex  somewhat  pointed, the base  truncate,
compressed, Avith longitudinal  convex surfaces, so as  nearly to present
four angles; internally the  testa is whitish, and  the kernel is whitish,
oily, rather  sweetish, and edible.  They contain a  fixed oil which may
be obtained by7 expression.   The leaves  are large,  and when  carefully
dried, may  be made into segars, very much resembling in flavor that of
mild Spanish ones.   The  virtue of the  seeds  chiefly depends upon  the
fixed oil they contain.
  Properties and  Uses.—Sunflower seeds and leaves, are diuretic and
expectorant, and have been used in pulmonary affections with  consider-
able benefit.  The  following preparation has been  of much efficacy in
bronchial and laryngeal affections, and even in the cough of phthisis; it
acts as a mild expectorant and diuretic :  Take of sunflower seeds, bruised,
two pounds, water five gallons ; boil  the two together until but three
gallons of liquid remain, then strain,  add twelve pounds of sugar,  and 
Helleborus Niger.
527
one and  a half gallons of good Holland gin.  The dose of this is from
two fluidrachms to two fluidounces, three or four times a day, or when-
ever tickling or irritation of the throat, or cough is excessive, or when
expectoration is difficult.  Various agents may be added to this prepara-
tion, according to indications, as tincture of stillingia, tincture of balsam
of Tolu,  tincture of iodine, etc.  An infusion of the pith of sunflower
stem is diuretic, and may be used where this class of  agents is indicated,
also  in  many febrile  and inflammatory forms of  disease; it  likewise
makes a  good local application in some  forms of acute ophthalmia.  The
pith contains nitre, and has been proposed for the  preparation of moxa ;
the quantity of nitre, however, varies, depending entirely upon the local-
ity and character of soil in which  the  plant grows.  The  oil obtained
from the  seeds by expression, has been employed  with benefit in cough,
in dysentery, in inflammation of the mucous  coat of the bladder, and in
disease of the kidneys.  To be given in doses of from ten to fifteen drops,
two or three times a day.  A teaspoonful of the oil taken at one  dose,
has produced active  diuresis for  four consecutive days, accompanied
toward the termination with  pain and debility in the lumbar region.
The leaves are astringent.

                     HELLEBORUS  NIGER,
                          Black Hellebore.
      Nat. Ord.—Ranunculaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Polygynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—Black hellebore has a black, perennial,  tuberculated,
horizontal, scaly  root or rhizoma, whitish  internally,  and  sending  off
numerous, long,  fleshy,  brownish-yellow  fibers,  which become  dark-
brown upon drying.   The  leaves  are  large, radical, on cylindrical  pe-
duncles from four to eight  inches long, pedate, of  a deep  green color
above, paler and strongly reticulated beneath ; the leaflets are five or
more, one terminal, two to four on each side supported on a  single par-
tial petiole, ovate-lanceolate, smooth, shining, coriaceous, and serrated
near the top.  The scape is  shorter than the petiole, one or two-flowered,
with ovate lacerated bracts  immediately beneath the calyx, six or eight
inches high,  round, tapering, and reddish toward the base.   The flowers
are large, rose-like ;  the  petaloid calyx consists of five large, ovate  or
roundish, concave, spreading sepals, at first white, then  rose-red, and
eventually becoming green.  The petals are tubercular and two-lipped,
of a greenish-yellow color,  and shorter than the stamens.   The stamens
are very numerous and support  yellow anthers.  The ovaries are from
six to eight in number, surmounted by a somewhat curved pistil.  The
capsules contain many black, shining seeds.
  History.—Black Hellebore is a native of  the mountainous  regions of
southern  and temperate Europe, and is  found  in  Greece,  Austria, 
528
Materia  Medica.
Switzerland, France, Italy, and Spain.   It is cultivated in many places,
on account of its flowers  appearing in winter, between December and
February, on which  account it is called  the Christmas Rose.  It is not
the Melampodium of  the ancients, so  celebrated  in  mental diseases,
which is now shown to be a distinct species, the  Helleborus  Orientalis,
and Avhich probably possesses similar  medicinal virtues, as well  as  the
roots of some other species of the same genus.
  The whole root is generally kept in the shops, though the  fibers  are
the only parts employed.   It is a many-headed root, with  a caudex or
body seldom  over half an inch in thickness, and several inches long,
horizontal, sometimes contorted, uneven,  knotty, with transverse ridges,
slightly striated longitudinally, its upper  surface having the remains of
the leaf and flower-stalks, and thickly  beset upon the  sides  and under-
surface with fibers about as thick as a straw, and which when not broken,
are from four to twelve inches long, smooth, brittle, externally black or
deep-brown,  internally white or yellowish-white, spongy, with a feeble
odor, and a taste at first sweetish, then nauseously acrid and biting,  but
not very durable, and  bitterish.  At from two to  six inches from their
origin, they are furnished with small, slender branches.  When fresh
they are extremely powerful,  producing  Avhen  chewed and retained for
a time upon the tongue, a burning and benumbing impression, like that
caused by taking hot liquids  into the mouth.  Drying diminishes this
acrimony,  which becomes gradually  weakened by  age.   Water or
alcohol extracts its virtues, which are impaired by long boiling.  Analy-
sis has found in these  fibers, a volatile oil, an acrid fixed oil, a resinous
substance, wax, a volatile acid, bitter  extractive, gum, albumen,  gallate
of potassa, supergallate  of lime, a salt  of ammonia,  and woody fiber.
Its acridity is supposed to depend on the volatile  acid, while its  purga-
tive qualities are attributed to the resinous substance, from  the fact that
alcohol extracts the medicinal virtues of the fibers most effectually.
   Properties and Uses.—In large doses a powerful poison, causing gastro-
intestinal inflammation,  vomiting, purging, vertigo, cramp, convulsions
and even death.  Applied to the skin, the fresh  root inflames and even
vesicates.  In medicinal doses, a drastic cathartic, diuretic, anthelmintic
and emmenagogue.  Formerly used in palsy, insanity, apoplexy, dropsy,
epilepsy, etc., but seldom used at present; occasionally it is found useful
in chlorosis, amenorrhea, etc.   Dose of the  powder, from five to ten
grains; of the tincture, from one to two fluidrachms; of the extract, from
two to five grains.
   The Helleborus Fcetidus or Bear's foot, possesses similar properties, but
is scarcely known in this country.  It  has been used in asthma, hysteria,
and for the removal of tapeworm, in powder or decoction.
   Off. Prep.—Vinum Hamatoxyli Compositum. 
Helonias Dioica.
529
                      HELONIAS DIOICA.
                            Helonias.
        Nat. Ord.—Melanthaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Hexandria Trigynia.
                           THE ROOT.
  Description.—This plant, also known  by the  names of False Unicorn-
root, Drooping Starwort, Devil's  Bit, etc., is  the Veratrum Luteum of
Linnaus, and the Melanthium Dioicum of  Walter.   It  is a herbaceous
perennial, with  a  large, somewhat bulbous, premorse  root, from Avhich
arises a simple, very smooth, somewhat angular stem  or scape, one or
two feet in hight.   The cauline  leaves  are lanceolate, acute, small, and
at some distance from each other, without petioles ;  the radical leaves are
broader, being from four to eight inches in length, by half an  inch to an
inch in width, narrow at base, and formed into  a  sort of whorl at the
base of the scape.  The flowers are small, very numerous,  greenish-
white,  and are disposed in  long, terminal, spicate, nodding, dicecious
racemes, resembling a plume, and which are more  slender and weak on
the barren plants.  Male flowers with  white,  linear-spathulate, obtuse,
one-nerved petals; stamens rather longer than the petals; fllaments subu-
late ; anthers terminal,  two-lobed ; ovaries  wanting.  Female flowers, the
raceme is generally  few flowered, becoming erect; petals linear; stamens
very short, abortive; ovary ovate, subtriangular, with  the sides  deeply
furrowed; stigmas three, spreading  or  reflexed.   Capsule ovate-oblong,
tapering to the base, three-furrowed,  opening at  the summit.   Seeds
many in each cell, acute, compressed.
  History. —This plant  is  indigenous to the  United  States,  and is
abundant in some  of the  Western  States, growing in woodlands, mea-
dows and moist situations, and flowering in June and  July.  It  is  also
found  in  low grounds from Canada to Georgia and Louisiana.  The
plant is sometimes mistaken for the  Aletris Farinosa, but may be identi-
fied by the leaves of the aletris  being sharply pointed, with  a straight
slender spike of scattered flowers, while the helonias  is not so sharply
lance-shaped in its leaves, and has a thick plumose dioical spike.
  The root is the officinal part; it is tapering, fibrous, about an inch and
a quarter in length, and from two to six-eighths of an inch in diameter,
very hard, transversely wrinkled, and  abrupt  or premorse at the end,
appearing as though it had been cut or bitten off.  There has been,  and
still exists much difficulty among druggists and herb-gatherers  in de-
termining the difference between  the roots  of Aletris Farinosa  and
Helonias Dioica; it has often been the case that these roots have been in-
discriminately bought and sold.   The specimens of Helonias which I have
before  me are from  half an inch  to two inches in length,  and  from four
to six or eight lines  in diameter, mostly premorse, but occasionally some-
what pointed, with many small,  yellowish-white, thread-like fibers, from
half an inch to  two  or three inches in length; externally, they are dark-
       34 
530
Materia Medica.
 brown, transversely wrinkled, rough and uneven, with  annular promi-
 nences which often  have the appearance as if a small  root had been
 driven into  the  end of a larger one and grew  there;  there  are  also
 many  small  openings,  cups,  pores, or  raised  cells,  through  which
 passed  the  fibers, and which  will always  be  seen at the  base of
 each  fiber upon carefully removing it from  the root; attached  to the
 upper  part  of  the  root, will frequently be seen  the remains of the
 scape  and radical leaves.  Internally, on cutting them transversely, a
 whitish, rough, circular center is  presented, which is surrounded  with a
 smooth substance of a  similar or darker color, and near the margin of
 which may be observed at short  distances from  each  other, dark spots
 or openings,  which appear  to be continuations of the fibers, or of the
 canals through which they pass;  a longitudinal section exhibits a rough,
 whitish center one or tAvo lines in diameter passing through the  root, on
 each side of  which is the smooth  substance above referred to, with few
 or none of the dark spots.  The  roots have a faint,  peculiar, unpleasant
 odor when bruised, and a peculiar bitter, somewhat aloetic taste, not so
 poAverful in the dried ones as in the fresh.  As far as I can recollect, the
 root of the aletris seldom exceeds an inch in length, is  not premorse,
 has a brittle, scaly appearance, is blackish outside, brownish inside,  and
 although having many fibers, the most of them pass from the upper  and
 lateral portions of the root.
   Properties and  Uses.—Helonias is tonic, diuretic, and vermifuge; in
 large doses, emetic,  and when  fresh,  sialagogue.  In doses of ten or
 fifteen grains of the powdered root, repeated three or four times a day,
 it has been found very beneficial in dyspepsia, loss  of appetite, and for
 the removal of worms.   It is reputed beneficial in colic, and in atony of
 the generative organs.  In  uterine diseases it is  held to be invaluable,
 acting as a uterine tonic,  and gradually removing abnormal conditions,
 while at the  same time it imparts tone and vigor  to the reproductive
 organs.  Hence, it is much used in leucorrhea, amenorrhea, dysmenor-
 rhea,  and  to  remove  the tendency to  repeated  and successive miscar-
 riages.   The plant is said to kill  cattle feeding on it; and the decoction
to  kill insects, bugs,  and lice.  Dose of the powder,  from twenty to forty
 grains ; of the decoction, from two to four fluidounces ;  of  the hydro-
 alcoholic extract from two to four or five grains.   The Helonias  Bullata,
with purple flowers,  and probably some other species, possesses similar
medicinal virtues.
                    HEMIDESMUS INDICUS.
                         Indian Sarsaparilla.
        Nat. Ord.—Asclepidaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.
                             THE  ROOT.
  Description.—This is a climbing  plant with  a long and slender root,
with few ramifications, covered with rust-colored bark, and with twining, 
Hemidesmus  Indicus.
531
 diffuse or climbing, woody, slender stems, from the thickness of a crow's
 quill to that of a goose's, and nearly smooth.  The leaves are opposite,
 on short petioles, entire, smooth, shining, and of firm texture ; they vary
 much in shape and size, those  on the young shoots that issue from  old
 roots, being linear, acute, and  striated  down  the middle with white ;
 while the others are generally broad-lanceolate, and sometimes ovate or
 oval.   The  stipules are four-fold, small, on each  side  of each petiole,
 caducous.   The flowers are small, externally green, internally a deep-
 purple, and  are disposed  in axillary, sessile racemes, which are imbri-
 cated with flowers, and then with scales like bracts.  The calyx is five-
 parted, with acute divisions : the corolla  is flat, rotate, with  oblong,
 pointed divisions,  rugose  inside.  The follicles  are  long, slender, and
 spreading.
   History.—This  plant is the  Periploca Indica of Willdenow, and  the
 Asclepias Pseudosarsa of Roxburgh ; it is a native of Lower  India and
 Ceylon, and other parts of the East Indies.  It has been used as a  med-
 ical agent in India for a long time, and was unknown to the  profession
 until its introduction in  1819 by Dr.  Ashburner.  The root is the part
 used; this  is long, tortuous, round,  rugose, with a brownish cork-like
 bark, which  is marked  by longitudinal  furroAvs and transverse  fissures,
 with an internal, yellowish, ligneous center.  The odor  is peculiar and
 somewhat aromatic, somewhat  resembling that  of Orris Root,  and the
 taste bitterish.   Mr. Garden found it  to contain a peculiar volatile,  crys-
 tallizable, acid principle, on which the properties of the root depend.
 He called it  Smilasperic Acid,  from a  belief that the root was  derived
 from Smilax Aspera.   The name suggested by Pereira is the most cor-
 rect, viz: Hemidesmic Acid.
   Properties and  Uses.—Indian  Sarsaparilla is said to be tonic, diuretic,
 and alterative.   It  has been employed as a substitute for sarsaparilla,
 and has proved successful in syphilitic affections when that medicine has
 failed.  It increases the appetite, acts  as a diuretic, and improves the
 general  health.  Likewise  said  to be  useful  in  nephritic complaints,
 scrofula, cutaneous diseases, and in the sore-mouth  of  children.  Not-
 withstanding these statements it  is by no means so efficacious and cer-
tain as many of our indigenous remedies.   It is used in the form  of infu-
sion, as boiling dissipates its volatile active principle ; two ounces of the
root may be infused in a pint of boiling water for an hour ; the whole of
which may be taken in the course of  twenty-four hours. 
532
Materia  Medica.
                   HEPATICA  AMERICANA.
                         Kidney  Liverleaf.
                   HEPATICA  ACUTILOBA.
                          Heart Liverleaf.
      Nat. Ord.—Ranunculaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Polygynia,
                            THE  PLANT.
  Description. — Hepatica Americana of De Candolle, is the Hepatica
Triloba of Willdenow.  It has a perennial fibrous root, with leaves which
are cordate at base, three-lobed  ; lobes unequal,  rounded,  obtuse, or
acute, coriaceous, nearly smooth, purplish beneath, green-mottled with
purple above, and supported on hairy footstalks from four to eight inches
long,  which spring directly from the  root.  The scapes  or flower-stems
are several in number, as long as the  petioles, round, hairy, terminating
in a single white, bluish, or purplish  flower, and invested at base with
membranous sheaths.   Flowers at first drooping, afterward erect.  Invo-
lucre resembling a calyx, very hirsute, with deep, ovate, entire segments.
Sepals in two  or  three series, purplish  or white, equal, ovate, obtuse.
Stamens  subulate ; anthers  elliptic.  Seeds ovate, acute, awnless. Hepa-
tica Acutiloba differs in having cordate leaves, with from three to five
entire, acute lobes, and the involucral leaves are acute.
  History.—But one species of Hepatica is generally admitted by Bota-
nists,  the differences in form, color, etc., being considered as accidental;
De Candolle, however, divides them into the two species above described,
and which  has been  adopted  by the pharmacopceists of this  country.
These plants are  common to the  United States, growing in woods, and
upon the sides of hills and  mountains ; the H Americana, which is the
most common, preferring the south side, and the other the north.  They
both bear white, blue, or purplish flowers which appear late in March
or early in April.  The whole plant is used ; it is inodorous, with a mu-
cilaginous, somewhat astringent, slightly bitterish taste, and  yields its
active properties to water.   The term Liverwort, sometimes erroneously
applied to it, belongs to the cryptogamous genus, Marchantia Polymorpha.
   Properties and  Uses.—A mild,  demulcent  tonic and  astringent.  It
has been used in infusion, in fevers, hepatic  complaints, hemoptysis,
coughs, etc., but in severe  cases it is unavailable.   The infusion may be
taken ad libitum.
                    HERACLEUM  LANATUM.
                            Masterwort.
          Nat.  Ord.—Apiaceas.  Sex.  Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—This plant, sometimes called Cow-parsnep, has a large,
spindle-shaped, perennial  root, with  a strong, unpleasant smell,  which 
Heuchera  Americana.
533
 sends up annually a hollow, thick, furrowed, branching and  pubescent
 stem, from three to five feet high, and often an inch or more in diameter
 at the base.   The leaves are very large, on  downy, channeled petioles,
 and ternately divided ;  the segments roundish-cordate, unequally lobed;
 the lobes acuminate, almost  glabrous  above, and woolly underneath.
 The flowers  are  white,  and are disposed in large,  spreading  umbels,
 having an involucre of from six to ten oblong-lanceolate, deciduous leaf-
 lets.   Involucel composed of lanceolate-leaflets which  are narrowed to a
 long point.   Petals of the exterior flowers unequal, as if unequally two-
 cleft, owing to the enlargement of  the lobes on each side of the inflexed
 apex.   Fruit nearly half an inch  long, often emarginate.   Vittce of the
 channels clavate.   Commissure usually with two vitta.
   History.—Found growing in meadows and along fences and  hedges
 from  Canada to Pennsylvania, and flowers in  June.  The root is officinal,
 resembles common parsley, has a strong, disagreeable odor, and an acrid
 taste.   When applied to the skin, both the root and leaves excite redness
 and inflammation.  When gathered from a damp situation, supposed to
 be poisonous.
   Properties  and  Uses. — Stimulant,  antispasmodic and  carminative.
 Used  in  flatulency and  dyspepsia, in decoction; and two  or three
 drachms of the powdered root, taken daily in epilepsy, and continued
 for some time, with a strong infusion of the leaves and tops at night, has
been found successful.   Recommended, also,  in  asthma, colic, amenor-
rhea, dysmenorrhea, palsy, apoplexy, intermittents,  etc., in doses of one
drachm.
                   HEUCHERA AMERICANA.

                            Alum Root.
         Nat. Ord.—Saxifragaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.
                             THE ROOT.
   Description.—This plant, sometimes called American Sanicle, is her-
baceous and indigenous, with a perennial, knotty, yellowish root.  The
leaves  are  all radical, on very long doAvny petioles from two to eight
inches in length, roundish-cordate, hispidly pilose, about seven-lobed;
and from two to three and a half inches in diameter ; the lobes are short
and roundish, crenate-dentate, with dilated mucronate teeth.  Numerous
scapes or flower-stems are sent up by the same root, from two to four feet
high, erect, naked, viscid-pubescent in their upper part, and terminating
in loose, pyramidal,  dichotomous panicles,  which are nearly  one-third
the length of the scape.  The calyx is permanent, five-cleft, campanu-
late, small, obovate, striated, with  very obtuse segments, and more con-
spicuous than the petals.  The petals are purplish-white, or rose-colored, 
534
Materia Medica.
minute, spathulate, and inserted into the  margin of the calyx, between
its segments.  The filaments are twice as long as the petals, yellowish,
inserted opposite the segments of the calyx, persistent, and surmounted
by small, red, globose anthers.  Capsule ovate.   Seeds minute, oblong,
black, very hispid.
  History.—This plant is a  native  of North America, and is found in
shady, rocky situations, from New England to Carolina, and westward;
it flowers in June and July.  The root is the officinal portion ;  it is hori-
zontal, somewhat  compressed, knotty,  irregular,  yellowish, inodorous,
and  of a powerfully styptic taste.   It  yields its  medicinal virtues to
water.   No analysis has  been made of this plant.   There are several
species of this plant, the Heuchera Caulescens, H. Pubescens, and others
which  possess similar properties,  and are  often collected and  sold with
the roots of H. Americana.
  Properties and Uses. — Alum root, as  its name would  indicate, is a
powerful astringent, so intensely so, as seldom to be administered inter-
nally ;  yet it would undoubtedly prove useful in small doses, in all cases
where astringents  are indicated.  An aqueous extract will be found very
beneficial in diarrhea  and dysentery in the  second stages, in hemor-
rhages, and other  similar  diseases.   Externally, the powdered  root may
be applied to hemorrhages, epistaxis, wounds, foul and  indolent ulcers,
etc.  The decoction is useful in aphthous sore-mouth, and soreness of
the throat and fauces; it may be used  as  a wash  or gargle.  Taken
internally, in doses of  a wineglass half-full three or four times a day, it
has been efficacious in diabetes, and in bleeding piles, employing it, in
this  last complaint, by injection also.   Equal parts of alum  root and
black-cohosh root in decoction, form an excellent local application in
leucorrhea  and  excoriation  of the  cervix  uteri.   Some  practitioners
employ this root indiscriminately with that of the Geranium Maculatum;
it is, however, more powerfully astringent, and probably a preparation,
equal at  least to geraniin in medical  virtue might be obtained from it.
                    HIERACIUM  VENOSUM.
                             Hawkweed.
         Nat. Ord.—Asteraceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia iEqualis.
                      THE ROOT AND  LEAVES.
  Description.—This plant, also known as Veinyleaved Hawkweed, Rat-
tlesnakeweed,  Striped Bloodwort, etc., has a perennial root, with a stem
or scape from one to  two feet in hight, dark-brown, slender,  some-
times naked, sometimes with  one or  more  glabrous  cauline leaves,
several  times dichotomous, so as to  form a compound  diffuse corymb,
with a subulate bract at each division.   The radical leaves are obovate,
or oblong-spathulate, entire or  slightly toothed, subsessile, thin, a little 
Hirudo Medictnalis.
535
hairy above, nearly glaucous, and purplish beneath, ciliate on the mar-
gins and midrib, marked with purple veins, and the first that unfold are
appressed to the ground.  Heads small, and about twenty-flowered; base
of involucre somewhat hispid with short hairs; inner scales of involucre
glabrous or nearly  so.  Florets bright-yellow.  Achenia  linear, not
tapering above.
  History.—Hawkweed grows in many parts of the United States, but
is more common to the northward and eastward, growing upon dry hills,
and  in  pine woods.  It bears yellow flowers from May to July.   The
leaves and roots are the parts that have been used;  they have no odor,
but a bitterish  and somewhat mucilaginous taste.  Water extracts their
virtues.  They have not been chemically examined.
  Properties and Uses.—This plant is tonic, astringent, and expectorant;
it has been used in scrofula, menorrhagia, hemoptysis, and other hemor-
rhages, in decoction.   The powdered leaves and root have been used as
a snuff in polypus  of  the nose, combined with  bloodroot.   Said  to be
efficient against the bites of venomous snakes.   The juice  of the fresh
leaves are recommended as  a cure for warts.  Dose of the  infusion or
syrup, from two to four fluidounces.
                    HIRUDO  MEDICINALIS.
                            The Leech.
   Description.—The leech belongs to Class  1  of invertebrated articu-
 lated animals,  called Annelides,  composed of  worms with red blood,
 having soft retractile bodies composed of numerous segments or rings,
 usually breathing by means of branchia, with a nervous system consist-
 ing  in  a double-knotted cord, the contractile power of their segments
 supplying the place of feet; to Order 3 of this class, called Abranchiate,
 comprising worms with no apparent external  organ of respiration; and
 to Family 2, called Asetigerce, without  seta  to enable  them to crawl.
 The leech is an aquatic worm, with a flattened  body, tapering toward
 each end, and  terminating in circular  flattened  disks,  the hinder one
 being the larger of the two.   It swims with a vertical undulating motion,
 and  moves when out of the water -by  means of these  disks or suckers,
 fastening itself first by one and  then by the  other,  and alternately
 stretching out  and contracting its  body.  The  mouth  is placed in the
 center of the anterior  disk, and is furnished with three cartilaginous
 lens-shaped jaws at the entrance of the alimentary canal.  These jaws
are lined at their edges with fine sharp teeth, and meet  so as to make a
 triangular incision in the flesh.  The head is furnished with small raised
points, supposed by some to be eyes.  Respiration is earried on through
small apertures ranged along the inferior surface.   The nervous system
consists of a cord extending the whole length, furnished with numerous 
536
Materia  Medica.
ganglions.   The intestinal  canal is straight and terminates in the anus,
near the posterior disk.  Leeches are hermaphrodite, but  impregnate
each other mutually;  they  are oviparous having from six to  fifteen eggs
contained in a spongy,  slimy cocoon,  which  are  deposited  near the
water's  edge, arid hatched by the heat  of the sun.   They do not gene-
rate until they are six or seven years old,  and the young  leeches leave
the eggs in about twenty-five days.
  History.—There are  several species  of the leech employed in medi-
cine, the most common of which are the  gray and green leech of Europe,
and the American leech.  The European varieties are both marked with
six longitudinal dorsal  ferruginous stripes, the  four lateral ones being
tesselated with  black spots.  The color  of the black varies from a black-
ish to a grayish-green.   The belly of the H. Medicinalis, or gray leech,
is grayish or yellowish,  more or less speckled with black spots; that of
the H.  Officinalis or green  leech,  is paler, more  yellowish or greenish,
and unspotted.   They are from two to four inches in length, and inhabit
marshes and running streams, in various parts of Europe.   The H.
Decora, or American leech has its back  of a deep pistachio-green  color,
with three longitudinal  rows  of  somewhat quadrate spots, the central
being of a bright brownish-orange color, and the two lateral of a black.
The  belly is of the same  color, with scattered black dots.  It is from
two to three inches in length, and  sometimes larger.
   Leeches are very troublesome to preserve, often  dying suddenly and
in numbers,  and various means have been  adopted to keep them healthy.
The  most common cause of their sickness and death is the formation of
a slimy matter  on their  skin, and which  they are in the habit of remov-
ing  by drawing themselves  through  moss.   Large  quantities, when
kept together,  are more liable to disease and mortality, than when kept
together in small numbers.  They should be  kept  in jars, in clear, soft
water, which should be changed twice a week in winter, and every other
day in summer.  The jar must be covered with a linen cloth, and placed
in a  situation not liable to sudden changes of temperature, nor to strong
odors.  They will live  a  long time, and continue  active  and healthy
without any other attention than that of frequently changing the water
in which  they  are  kept.   As soon as  a  leech  is  known to be dead,  it
should  be instantly  removed, and fresh water applied.  In country
places, leeches  may be preserved in a jar, with small holes to admit the
water, in the bottom of which are placed moss and pebbles, and placed
in a  spring or running stream  of soft water.  A very good method is to
keep them in loose turf or moss, kept constantly moist with rain-water,
and packed  in vessels which admit of a  free renewal of air all the while.
   Properties and  Uses.—Leeches  are occasionally used as affording the
least painful, and  in  many instances  the  most  effectual means, for the
local abstraction of blood, and may be applied to  parts which, either
from their situation or great  tenderness, will not admit of the use of 
HORDEUM DlSTICHON.
537
cups.  They are used generally in local inflammations, bruises, etc.   In
applying them, the hair  should be shaved off, if  there be any7, and the
part well cleansed with soap and  Avater, and afterward with pure water.
If the leech does not readily bite, the skin  should be moistened  Avith a
little  blood or sweet milk.  When it is required that it should bite in
one particular spot, it may be placed in a quill or tube, and held over
the spot until  it does take  hold, when the  quill may be withdrawn.
When a leech is gorged, it  drops off.  One  European leech will draw
from  half an ounce  to an ounce  of blood.  Six  American are applied
for every fluidounce.  They may be separated  from the skin at any
time,  by sprinkling a little salt upon  them, which will also make them
disgorge after they have  dropped off.   But the usual  method is to draAv
the leech  through  the fingers, from  the tail  to  the  head, with  gentle
pressure, and thus squeeze out the blood.  After emptying them, they
should be placed in clean water, which must be frequently changed, and
they  should  also be kept by themselves for several days, or until they
have  recovered their activity.   When the hemorrhage from leech-bites
is troublesome, it may be stopped by tannin or other  astringents, collo-
dion,  or eAren a single stitch of the  needle, which need  not penetrate
deeper than the cutis.  Should a  leech get into the stomach, a solution
of salt may be drank, which is poison to it, and will kill it.
                     HORDEUM  DlSTICHON.

                              Barley.
         Nat. Ord.—Graminaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Triandria Digynia.

                      THE DECORTICATED SEEDS.
   Description.—Various species of barley are cultivated in different
parts of the world; the most common, and which have been introduced
into this country, are the following:—Hordeum Vulgare,  has an erect,
smooth, fistular culm or stem, from  two to four feet in hight, with alter-
nate, sheathing,  lanceolate, roughish, and  pointed  leaves; the sheaths
auriculate at the  throat.   The fiowers  are all perfect, and  disposed in a
thick,  terminal  spike, about three inches  long, the axis of which is
dentate, and on each  tooth supports three sessile flowers.   The calyx or
outer chaff has two valves;  the  corolla or inner chaff  is also composed of
two valves, of which  the exterior is larger than the other, and termin-
ates  in a long,  rough, serrated awn or beard.  The fruit or seeds  are
arranged in four rows.
  Hordeum Distichon  is distinguished by its  flat  spike or ear, havino- on
each flat side a double toav of imperfect or male florets  without beards,
and on each edge, a single row of perfect or hermaphrodite florets ; the
fruit or seeds, are, therefore, in two rows. 
538
Materia Medica.
  History.—Barley is thought  to be  a native of Central Asia, but the
subject is involved in much uncertainty.   The  seeds are officinal; they
are oval, oblong, pointed at one end, obtuse at the other, marked with a
longitudinal furrow on  one side, externally yellow, internally white, of
a faint odor Avhen in mass, and having  a mild, sweetish taste.  When
deprived of the husks, and rounded and  polished by a peculiar process,
it is called Pearl barley—hordeum perlatum ; this is the proper officinal
form of barley,  which  is kept in the shops, and when ground into a
coarse  flour, it forms barley meal.  It  abounds in starch,  with some
gluten, sugar and gum, and is destitute of hordein.
  When the entire grain is moistened, and  exposed in mass to a sum-
mer temperature until  it begins to germinate, and is then deprived of
vitality by a stronger heat, it is called  malt, and in this form barley is
largely consumed in the manufacture of malt liquors.   The  process of
making malt increases  the  quantity  of  sugar, starch,  and gum, while
that of the  hordein  becomes lessened—thus, 100 parts of malt contain
56 of starch, 1 of gluten, 15 of sugar, 15 of gum, 1 of yellow resin, and
only 12 of hordein.   While barley in its  natural state consists in 100
parts  of 32 of starch, 3  of gluten, 5 of sugar, 4 of gum, 1 of yellow
resin, and 55 of hordein.  Hordein  is  a  principle very closely resem-
bling lignin, and which, it has been suggested by Berzelius, may be an
intimate mixture of vegetable fiber with gluten and starch.  It may be
obtained by boiling the  starchy matter which  is obtained by kneading
barley-meal in a  cloth  with water;  the  undissolved  residuum, when
well washed with boiling water, is hordein.   It is a yellowish, granular
powder, like sawdust, yielding oxalic  acid when treated with nitric acid,
and consisting  according to  Marcet of  12 equivalents of carbon, 11 of
hydrogen, and 10 of oxygen.   M.  Guibort and  Dr.  Thomson consider
it  to be the amylin or tegumentary membrane  of the starch globules,
which are stronger and more solid  in barley starch than in other kinds.
Barley is  insoluble in alcohol, ether, or  the  fixed and volatile oils; but
alcohol or ether removes from it a little resin.  Boiling water dissolves a
large proportion of it.   A peculiar substance has been found in barley-
seeds after having undergone germination, by MM. Payen and Persoz,
which they have named Diastase, on account of its effect in detaching
the principles of the starch-globules from one another.  During the pro-
cess of germination, the rupture of the  starch globules, and the separa-
tion of their tegumentary amylin from the contained amidin, is the first
change effected, and which is succeeded by conversion of the amidin into
sugar and dextrine, which changes are owing to this principle, which is
developed at the time in the seed.   The same  substance has likewise
been  found in the seeds  of oats and wheat, and in the potato, but only
after these have undergone germination.
   Diastase may be applied to various useful economical purposes; it  is
obtained  by moistening ground malt with half its weight of cold water, 
Hordeum Distichon.
539
expressing strongly, and adding to the viscid liquid obtained by expres-
sion just enough  of  alcohol to destroy its  viscidity, then filtering  to
separate the coagulable albumen, and finally adding fresh alcohol to the
liquid, which precipitates  the diastase in an impure state.  It may be
purified by three successive solutions in water and precipitations by alco-
hol ; after which it is  best obtained in the  dry state by exposing it  in
thin layers to a current of air  about the  temperature of  110°.   When
pure, diastase is solid, white and  amorphous, tasteless, neutral, soluble
in water and weak alcohol but insoluble in undiluted  alcohol.  Its aque-
ous  solution  is not precipitated, like that of starch,  by lime, baryta,  or
diacetate of lead ;  on keeping it  becomes  acid.  Its most remarkable
property is that of converting starch and water, at a temperature of about
160°, into  sugar  and  dextrine.  It  has  no action upon either gum  or
sugar, and yet one part of  it added  to two thousand parts  of starch
suspended in water, causes  the starch-globules  speedily to burst, the
teguments separating from the contained amidin, which by the prolonged
action of the above heat, effects  this extraordinary conversion without
any perceptible difference in the weight of the substances employed.
   The different kinds of beer, ale,  and porter, are made from malt, with
the addition of hops and other articles.  Malt has a  sweetish, mucilagi-
nous, rather  agreeable taste;  an  infusion of it  at 160° completes the
conversion of the starch into sugar and gum ; yeast being then added  at
a  temperature between 60°  and  80°, vinous fermentation  takes place,
carbonic acid is disengaged and  alcohol  formed.   The sugar  is the
source of the alcohol existing in malt liquors, while the gum or dextrine
is  the cause of their viscidity, and  the permanence of their effervescence
and frothy top.
   Properties  and  Uses.—Pearl barley in  decoction is  a nutritive and
demulcent, and on account of its mild and unirritating qualities is much
used as  an article of diet for the  sick and convalescent, acting  at the
same time, if the barley itself be swallowed, as a gentle  aperient.   The
decoction is employed for suspending powdered drugs insoluble in water,
and  also as a drink in febrile diseases, catarrh, dysentery, inflammation
of the bladder, gonorrhea, and chronic  mucous inflammations.  Com-
bined with hops, or in the form of beer, ale, or  porter, it forms a valu-
able tonic in many chronic  exhausting diseases, and in convalescence.
From two  to four  ounces of malt boiled in a quart of  water, afford a
more demulcent and nutritious liquor than barley, and is consequently
better  adapted to cases requiring  a sustaining course of treatment.  In
making the decoction of barley, two ounces must first be washed with
cold water, and all extraneous matters removed; then place the barley
in  half a pint of water, boil for a short  time, strain off the water, and
throw it  away, as  this  is  only employed  to remove mustiness, or any
disagreeable flavor which the barley may have acquired.   To the barley
thus prepared, add four pints of boiling water, boil  down to  two pints 
540
Materia Medica.
and strain.  The decoction may have other articles added in the course
of its preparation, varied to suit the taste of the patient, as sugar, sliced
figs,  raisins, liquorice root,  etc.  It may be drank freely.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Hordei.
                       HUMULUS LUPUS.
                               Hops.
         Nat. Ord.—Urticaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Dicecia Pentandria.
                      the  strobiles or cones.
  Description.—This  plant has a perennial root, which sends up annual,
angular stems, rough backward, with minute reflexed hairs, and twining
around  neighboring  objects  in  a spiral  direction with the sun,  and
climbing to a great hight.   The  leaves are opposite, on  long winding
rough petioles ;  the smaller ones  cordate, the  larger from three to five-
lobed ; all  are deep green, serrated,  veiny,  and extremely rough.   The
flowering branches are  axillary, angular  and rough.  The stipules are
two or four, between the petioles,  smooth, ovate, reflexed.   The flowers
are numerous, axillary,  and of a greenish color.   The male flowers are
very numerous, panicled and yellowish-white; sepals five, oblong, obtuse.
spreading,  concave; stamens short;  anthers oblong, opening by  two
terminal pores.   The  female flowers are  pale-green, and  grow on a
separate plant in  the form of an ament, having each a pair of flowers
supported by a  bract, which  is ovate,  acute, and tubular at the base;
sepals solitary, obtuse, smaller  than the  bracts, and  enveloping the
ovary ; ovary roundish,  compressed ; stigmas two, long, subulate, downy.
The  bracts  enlarge into a  persistent catkin or  strobile, each bract in-
closing a nut enveloped in its permanent bractlet,  and some  grains  of a
yellow resinous secretion.
  History.—The Hop  plant is a native of Europe, and also of North
America.  It is sometimes found growing wild in the  Eastern States,
and was found in abundance by Nuttall on the banks of the Mississippi
and Missouri.  It  is also  indigenous in the Canary Islands, and is  said
to occur in China.   It is extensively cultivated for its  cones or strobiles
which are  employed  in medicine and  the manufacture  of malt liquors.
A few layers of the barren  vines planted among the fertile ones, is said
to be profitable by increasing the weight of the produce.  The part of
the plant used in  medicine is the strobiles, which are collected when
fully ripe, dried by artificial heat, and packed in bales.   The  strobiles,
known  in commerce  by the name of Hops, consist  of numerous, thin,
somewhat translucent, veined, leaf-like  scales, of a pale greenish-yellow
color, having near their base two small, round, black seeds.  They have
a strong, peculiar, somewhat narcotic  and  fragrant odor,  which is lost
by age, and  a bitter, aromatic, and  slightly-astringent  taste.  Though 
Humulus Lupus.
541
brittle when dried, yet they are not readily pulverized. Water takes up
their  properties by decoction,  but long boiling dissipates them.   The
decoction turns litmus paper red, becomes deep-green with the salts of
iron, and turbid with the solution of isinglass; a better solvent than water
is  proof-spirit.
   The active properties of hops depend upon a yellow, granular poAvder
secreted by the scales, and which  is found in abundance in the dried
fruit; the scales, however, contain  similar virtues though in an inferior
degree.  This yellow powder  is called Lupulin (Lupulina), and may
be obtained by threshing or rubbing, and sifting the strobiles, of which
it  constitutes from  one-tenth to one-sixth by weight.  It is in rounded
or reniform grains,  of a cellular texture, golden-yellow color, and some-
what transparent;  the axis around which  the cells  are arranged  is
called the hilum.   Lupulin has the peculiar flavor of hops ; it is inflam-
mable, and becomes adhesive by moderate heat.  Unless carefully dried
it  soon loses its taste and odor,  which, under all circumstances, are
impaired by keeping.   It  is always preferable  to the hop for officinal
purposes.  Lupulin has been found to consist of resin, volatile oil, bitter
principle, lignin, and  traces of tannin, gum, stearin, and  various salts.
It  is  probably to the oil and bitter extract, that its  virtues depend, and
which are taken up by alcohol.   The volatile oil is yellowish, of an acrid
taste, having the odor of hops, and lighter  than water ; it  may be ob-
tained by distillation with water.
   The bitter principle, called Lupulite by the French chemists, may be
procured by  treating  the aqueous extract of  lupulin mixed with  a little
lime, with  alcohol,  evaporating the tincture and forming an alcoholic
extract, dissolving this extract  in water, and again evaporating to form
a  second aqueous  extract, which  is to be  washed  with ether.   When
pure, lupulite is yellowish, inodorous,  but when heated  giving  off the
peculiar smell of hops, of a bitter, hop taste, slightly soluble in water,
which takes up five  per cent, of its weight, readily soluble in alcohol,
almost  insoluble in ether, neutral, free  from nitrogen, and an excellent
tonic.   The weak acids or alkaline solutions, and metallic salts, scarcely
affect it.
   Properties and  Uses. — Hops are  tonic,  hypnotic, febrifuge,  antili-
thic, and anthelmintic.  Their tonic and  anthelminthic  properties are
small, and  probably depend upon their bitterness ; they possess no anti-
periodic virtues.  Sometimes they cause diuresis, and  are said to correct
lithic acid  deposits.  They are principally  used for their  sedative  or
hypnotic action—inducing  sleep,  relieving  restlessness, and  alleviating
pain,  but which they often fail to accomplish.   A pillow stuffed  with
hops has long been a popular remedy for procuring sleep.   The lupulin
or  its tincture is used in delirium tremens, and watchfulness in connection
with nervous irritation, anxiety  or  exhaustion;  it does not disorder the
stomach nor cause  constipation, as with opium.  Also useful in after- 
542
Materia Medica.
pains, to prevent chordee, suppress venereal desires,  and allay the  pain
attendant on gonorrheal disease.  Externally, in the form of a fomen-
tation alone, or combined with boneset, or other bitter herbs, hops have
proved  beneficial in pneumonia, pleurisy, gastritis, enteritis, also  as an
application to painful swellings or tumors.   An  ointment made by  boil-
ing two parts of stramonium leaves and one of hops, in lard, has proved
an effectual application  in salt-rheum, ulcers, and painful tumors.   The
dose of lupulin is from  six to ten grains,  and  which may be given in
powder, or in pill made by merely rubbing it in a warm mortar till it
acquires a pilular consistence.   The tincture of  lupulin may be given in
doses of from one to four fluidrachms.   The decoction of hops is sel-
dom  employed.  Ale, porter, and beer are frequently administered in
cases of debility in the absence of inflammatory symptoms, as tonic,
stimulant,  and  nutritive agents.   The ethereal  tincture of lupulin forms
what is termed  the  ethereal oil of lupulin, by  allowing the ether to
spontaneously  evaporate.   It produces  at  first a stimulant  influence,
succeeded by a very agreeable, calming sensation, and has been  used
with advantage in  some cases  of nervous  irritability where opium and
other narcotics failed.   It does  not, however, appear to possess any nar-
cotic properties.   A mixture of oil of chamomile one  fluidrachm, and
ethereal oil of lupulin  one fluidrachm and  a half, dissolved in sulphuric
ether half a fluidounce, has been found beneficial in dysmenorrhea, and
other  painful uterine  diseases,  in  doses of from thirty to sixty drops,
every three or four hours.
    Off. Prep—Extractum Lupulina ;  Infusum Humuli; Tinctura Lupu-
lina; Unguentum Humuli.

                  HYDRANGEA  ARBORESCENS.
                             Hydrangea.
         Nat.  Ord.—Saxifragaceaa.   Sex.  Syst.—Decandria Digynia.
                               THE ROOT.
    Description.—This plant, sometimes called Seven-barks, Wild Hydran-
 gea, etc.,  is the Hydrangea  Vulgaris  of Michaux and Pursh.  It is an
 indigenous shrub, smooth or nearly so, attaining the  hight  of five or
 six feet, with opposite, petiolate leaves,  which are ovate, obtuse at base,
 rarely cordate, acuminate, serrate-dentate, nearly smooth, and green on
 both  sides.   The  flowers are  often all fertile, numerous, small, white,
 becoming roseate, and disposed in fastigiate cymes.  Calyx-tube  hemi-
 spherical, eight or ten ribbed, coherent with the ovary;  the limb four or
 five-toothed, persistent; petals ovate, sessile ; stamens eight or ten, slen-
 der ; capsule crowned  with the two divergent  styles, two-celled  below,
 opening by a foramen  between the styles;  seeds numerous.
    History.—This elegant shrub grows abundantly in the Southern, Mid-
 dle,  and Western States, in mountains  and hills, and on rocks and near 
Hydrangea Arborescens.
543
streams.   The bark is rough, peeling off—each layer being of a different
color, and which has probably given origin to the name " Seven-barks."
It is quite common in the Susquehanna and  Schuylkill valleys, and its
flowers are often met with in bouquets in the markets of  Philadelphia.
The root is the part that has been employed ;  it is formed of numerous
radicles,  sometimes not larger than a goosequill,  and again half an inch
or more in diameter, and of considerable  length.   These proceed from
a  caudex which sends upward numerous divergent  branches.  When
fresh, the root and stalks are very succulent, containing much water,
and can easily be cut; and the root likewise contains a great deal of
mucilage, with albumen and starch.  When dry they are A'ery tough and
resistent, and exceedingly difficult to bruise or cut, hence they should be
bruised while fresh, or which is better, cut into short transverse sections,
which facilitates the drying.   The bark of the  dried  root has a rather
pungent, aromatic, not disagreeable taste, somewhat similar to that of
cascarilla bark.  The stalks  contain a pith which is easily removed, and
they are used in some parts of the country for pipe-stems.  Mr. Joseph
Laidley, of Richmond, Va.,  found it to contain gum, albumen, starch,
resin, soda, lime, potassa, magnesia, sulphuric and phosphoric acids, and
a protosalt of  iron.
   Properties and Uses.—This plant was introduced to the  profession by
Dr. S. W. Butler, of Burlington, N. J., as a remedy for the removal of
calculus  or gravelly deposits in the bladder, and for relieving the excru-
ciating pain attendant on the passage  of  a calculus through the ureter;
and from the reports  made, it certainly deserves a full and  thorough
investigation.   The power of curing stone in the bladder is not claimed
for it; it is only while the deposits are small, Avhen in that form of the
disease known as gravel, that it is an efficient remedy ; then by  removing
the nucleus,  which, if allowed to remain  in the organ, would increase in
size and form stone, the disease  is averted, and when employed at this
stage, it is said to  have proved beneficial  in every instance, and as many
as 120 calculi have been known to come  from one person  under the use
of this remedy.   The effect of the plant,  Dr. Butler states, is to remove
by its own specific action on the bladder, such deposits as may be con-
tained in that viscus, provided they are  small enough to pass through
the urethra.   The mode of using it, is to prepare  a  concentrated syrup
of it with sugar or honey, and give a teaspoonful three times a day; or
a simple decoction of  the root may be taken freely.   If  taken in over-
doses  it will  produce some unpleasant  symptoms, as dizziness  of the
head, oppression of the chest, etc.  The   leaves of Hydrangea, are said
by Dr. Eoff to be  tonic, sialagogue, cathartic, and diuretic. 
544
Materia  Medica.
                    HYDRASTIS CANADENSIS.
                             Golden Seal.
        Nat. Ord.—Ranunculaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Polygynia.
                               THE ROOT.
    Description.—This is an indigenous plant, which is also known by the
 various names of Yellow Puccoon, Ground Raspberry, Turmeric Root
 etc.; it has a perennial root or rhizoma, which is tortuous,  knotty, creep-
 ing, internally of a bright-yellow color, with numerous  long fibers.  The
 stem is erect, simple,  herbaceous,  rounded,  pubescent upward, from six
 to twelve inches in hight,  becoming purplish, and bearing two unequal
 terminal leaves.  The leaves are two only, alternate, palmate, with from
 three to five lobes, hairy, dark-green, cordate at base, veiny, the lower
 leaf petiolate, the other  sessile, from four to nine inches wide when full
 grown, and the segments serrated.  The flower is solitary, terminal, small,
 white or rose-colored and on a peduncle about two inches in length.  The
 calyx consists of three petaloid, deciduous, broadly-ovate, pale greenish-
 white,  concave, slightly downy sepals, which fall away when the flower
 opens.   Stamens  many, longer than  the  pistils.   Filaments flat  linear-
 lanceolate, having the cells of the anther  on their edge at the apex.
 Pistils several;  ovary oval,  glabrous, attenuated upward  into a short
 style.   Stigma obtuse, scarcely  lobed.  The fruit resembles a raspberry,
 is  red, and  consists of many little two-seeded drupes collected  into a
 globose head, and each  crowned with the persistent style; seeds  nearly
 black, obovate, polished, having a minute embryo at the base of a fleshy
 and oily7 albumen.
   History.—This plant is found growing in shady woods, in rich  soil
 and damp meadoAvs, in different parts of the United States and Canada,
 but is more abundant west of the  Alleghanies.  It flowers in May and
 June.   The root is the officinal part; it  consists  of a tortuous,  knotty
 caudex, with numerous long fibers, and is of a bright-yellow color.   In
 the fresh state it is juicy,  and when dried loses much of its weight.  Its
 odor is strong and somewhat narcotic, Avith a very bitter taste.  Its vir-
 tues are imparted to water or alcohol.  Analysis has  found it to contain
 resin, fatty matter, albumen, starch, yelloAv-coloring matter, sugar, lig-
 nin, various salts, and a  peculiar, nitrogenous, crystallizable substance,
 called  Hydrastin.   The root of  Hydrastis  yields a brilliant yellow color,
 which appears  to  be permanent, and which might  be employed to dye
 silk, wool, linen, etc.; by the  addition of indigo  it  affords  a beautiful
 green.
   Properties and Uses.—This remedy is peculiar to  Eclectics, and ranks
 among their most valuable agents.   It is a powerful  tonic, at the same
time exerting an  especial influence upon mucous  surfaces and tissues
with which it comes in contact.   Internally, it  is successfully adminis- 
Hydrastis  Canadensis.
545
 tered in dyspepsia, chronic affections of the mucous coats of the stomach,
 erysipelas,  remittent,  intermittent, and  typhoid fevers, torpor of  the
 liver, and wherever  tonics are required.  In conjunction with  Geraniin
 it forms a very efficient remedy in chronic diarrhea and dysentery7.  In
 some instances  it proves laxative, but without any  astringency;  and
 seems to rank in therapeutical action between rhubarb  and bloodroot.
 Externally, and as a topical application, the  decoction or tincture proves
 a superior  remedy in all chronic mucous inflammations.  In some cases
 of opacity of the cornea, as well  as  in other forms of ophthalmic dis-
 ease, I  have found the following preparation  more efficacious than  the
 usual caustic solutions :  Mix together two parts of decoction of Hydras-
 tis, and one of the saturated tincture of Aralia Spinosa, and apply to the
 eye with a camel's hair pencil, two or three  times a day7.  The decoction
 of hydrastis to be made  by evaporating a strong decoction of the root to
 the consistence of mucilage or syrup.  It has been used in ophthalmic
 diseases, with much success in the following form :  Tincture Capsicum
 two fluidrachms, tincture  Hydrastis three  fluidrachms,  Olive Oil two
 fluidounces ; shake well together each time  before using,  and apply with
 camel's hair pencil.    A strong  decoction  of  two parts  of hydrastis,
 and one of geranium maculatum, is very valuable in  gleet,  chronic gon-
 orrhea,  and leucorrhea, used in injection ; it is likeAvise of much benefit
 in incipient  stricture, spermatorrhea, and  inflammation and ulceration of
 the internal coat of the  bladder.  Ulceration  of the internal  coat of the
 bladder has been cured by the decoction  of Hydrastis alone.   It  must
 be injected  into the  bladder, and held there as  long as the  patient can
 conveniently retain it—to be repeated three  or four times a day, imme-
 diately after emptying the bladder.   Combined with Caulophyllum, in
 strong decoction,  and sweetened with honey, it is a superior remedy in
 all ulcerations of  the mouth and fauces, both  as a gargle or wash, and
 taken internally.  The peculiar action of this agent on mucous tissues, I
 noticed  some sixteen years ago, since which  I have successfully contin-
 ued its use in inflammation and ulceration of the bladder,  diseases of the
 eye, dyspepsia, etc.  Prof.  R. S. Newton, to whom  I made known its
 value in these  diseases, has also used it with  a  success similar to my
 own.  When taken in very large doses, I have known the decoction of
 Golden  Seal to produce excessive secretion from the mucous surfaces of
 the mouth  and nose, so  much  so, that the secretions were removed by
 the patients in  long, tenacious shreds or pieces.  Dose of the  powder,
from ten to thirty grains ; of the tincture, from one to two fluidrachms ;
of the hydro-alcoholic extract,  from two to five grains.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Hydrastis ; Extractum Hydrastis Hydro-alco-
holicum ; Lotio Hydrastis  Composita;  Tinctura Hydrastis;  Tinctura
Hydrastis Composita;  Vinum  Hydrastis Compositum.
      35 
546
Materia  Medica.
                           HYDRASTIN.

                             Hydrastin.
           THE ACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF HYDRASTIS CANADENSIS.
   Preparation.—Take of the root  of Hydrastis Canadensis, in coarse
powder,  one hundred  pounds, and add of alcohol a sufficient quantity to
form a tincture by percolation ;  and distil off the alcohol ; the residuum,
which  is of a thick, syrupy consistence, must  be Avarmed, and poured
into eight gallons of hot water,  which will take up the hydrastin, with a
portion of gum, extractive, and some coloring matter.   Let it stand  for
two or three days, and then decant into a precipitating  tub, and add of
muriatic acid five pounds.  This causes a precipitate, which, when per-
fected, must be collected on a linen or cotton cloth placed over a tub  for
the purpose, and Avashed well by pouring clean water upon it.  When it
has thoroughly drained,  place  it into  a tin boiler, and add of animal
charcoal three pounds, and alcohol, six or eight gallons ; place this over
a strong  heat, and stir  constantly till it is all dissolved, bringing the liquid
to the boiling point; then set it aside,  and   as it  cools  the  crystals will
form on  the sides of the boiler and  through the alcohol, and will con-
tinue to form for two or three days.  The liquid and crystals must then
be placed on a cloth, as before, being careful not  to dip up the charcoal
which  is in the  bottom  of the vessel, and wash  the crystals with cold
alcohol, after which spread them on a cloth  or paper and dry in the open
air, or by moderate heat, if necessary.   If  they  are not  of the proper
color, redissolve them  in alcohol Avith animal charcoal, and proceed as at
first.  For the purpose of obtaining any remaining  hydrastin, the alco-
hol in which it  crystallizes may be distilled  and carried through the
same  process as at first;  and  the mother  water may be  treated with
ammonia, and the precipitate  purified in the  same manner as at first.
   The following  is  Dr. A. R. Brown's  process for obtaining hydrastin:
" Macerate thirty pounds  of the  roots of Golden Seal in eight gallons of
Alcohol 76 per cent., for  forty-eight hours ;  then, through a small open-
ing made in the bottom  of the vessel containing the  above, allow the
tincture to run off into a separate vessel; add of a neAV supply of alco-
hol four gallons, and  after macerating for  twenty-four hours, draw  off
as before.   Noav, pour upon the roots,  six gallons of cold water, and in
twrenty-four hours  draAV off  the  remaining alcohol, the water haA'ing
been absorbed by the  roots.   Place these several tinctures together into
a  displacement  apparatus sufficiently large  for the purpose, (I prefer
Smith's) and distil  off the alcohol.  Remove the residue, and let it stand
an hour or tAvo ;  and then pour  off the supernatant liquid very carefully,
so as to leave  behind a black oleo-resinous  substance, which if not
removed will injure the beautiful yelloAv color of the hydrastin, and pre-
vent it from being  pulverizable.  Now treat the liquid  which has been 
Hydrastin.
547
 poured off, with six or eight gallons  of water, and while  stirring  the
 whole, gradually add of pure muriatic acid, sixteen ounces ; let it stand
 ten or twelve hours, and filter through very fine  muslin.   Remove  the
 hydrastin and place it on unglazed dishes  to  facilitate  its drying.  As
 prepared by this process, one pound of the  roots yields half an ounce of
 the so-called hydrastin."

   History.—This elegant and highly valuable  article was  introduced to
 the profession by Dr. H. H. Hill of the firm of F. D. Hill  & Co., whole-
 sale druggists in Cincinnati.  I feel highly  indebted to these gentlemen
 for the above description of the process employed by them for  its man-
 ufacture, and would take this occasion to  remark, that I regret the spirit
 of selfishness which  prompts some manufacturers to withhold a knowl-
 edge of  their mode of preparing concentrated  articles;  it is a species of
 empiricism which should never  be countenanced  by any physician.  I
 never employ an article of any kind, unless  its mode of preparation is
 known to the profession, and this course should  be adopted by every
 practitioner, as  one among  the many other means of elevating the pro-
 fession, and  securing the confidence of others, as well  as of ourselves.
 It is but a short time, since I was presented with  a concentrated agent
 obtained by precipitation with acetate of lead,  and on an investigation I
 found  some lead mixed with it, and which, had I administered without a
 knowledge of the process employed for obtaining it, and my consequent
 examination, might have caused serious  results.   In this instance the
 proper course had not been taken to free  the article from the lead.  The
 profession, therefore, cannot be  too uncompromising in refusing to admi-
 nister  agents, however valuable  they may be,  which are  manufactured
 by secret processes.
   Hydrastin prepared by the above process, forms in delicate,  acicular
 crystals,  of a yellow color and translucent.  It exhibits neither acid nor
 alkaline reactions, and forms Avhen pulverized a beautiful yellow powder.
 It is soluble in boiling alcohol, but is  deposited as it cools in crystals.  It
 is insoluble in cold alcohol, ether, chloroform,  spirits  of turpentine, and
 water, though each liquid becomes tinged more or less of a yellow color.
 It is rendered more soluble  in alcohol, but not  completely  so, by ammo-
 nia, liquor potassa, or acetic acid, the last article making the solution  of
 a lighter  color.   It dissolves to a greater extent in water by the addition
 of acetic acid,  which  changes  the  solution  to a light-yellow color;
 ammonia or liquor  potassa  does not make it more soluble  in water, and
nitric acid changes  the hydrastin to a beautiful bright-yellow color, with-
out solution—sulphuric acid  to a chrome-yellow.  Concentrated nitric acid
turns hydrastin red, and concentrated sulphuric acid swells or effervesces
and changes it to a chrome-yellow color.  Heat gradually changes the color
to a brownish-red, and then black with effervescence.   At its point  of
effervescence by the  application of heat, it is inflammable if brought 
54S
Materia Medica.
 into contact with flame, burns  quickly,  and leaves a  black, porous,
 shining substance behind.
    The hydrastin prepared by the Franklin Pharmaceutical Institute of
 the city of New York,  is said to be soluble in water;  as I  have not
t seen the article, nor been able to obtain an  account of its mode of pre-
 paration, I can merely7 refer to.the fact that such an article is advertised.
 Soluble preparations of  the  concentrated principles of many of our
 agents  are  certainly very  desirable, on  account  of the difference  of
 therapeutic action existing between them  and a decoction, infusion, or
 tincture of the crude articles ; thus, a decoction of  golden seal exerts an
 influence in sore mouth,  and several other affections, not to be obtained
 from the insoluble hydrastin.  These facts should be especially  observed.
    Properties and  Uses.—Hydrastin is  a tonic, with an  especial action
 on diseased mucous  tissues; it possesses, in an eminent degree, the  tonic
 virtues of the root, and is much  used as a substitute for it.   It is more
 beneficial  as a tonic during convalescence from exhausting diseases, such
 as, bilious and typhoid fever, acute hepatitis, gastritis, enteritis,  diarrhea,
 dysentery, etc.  In dyspepsia, and chronic inflammation of the stomach
 it is very valuable, and will  be found of  especial  advantage in the treat-
 ment of persons who are intemperate, gradually removing the  abnormal
 condition of the stomach, and in many instances  destroying the appetite
 for liquor—it may be combined in these cases with sulphate of quinia,
 extract of quassia, or other  bitter tonic.  In jaundice  a  combination of
 equal parts of hydrastin, myricin,  and xanthoxylin, will  often prove
 efficacious.   Combined  with  Quinia and  Leptandrin, it  will  be found
 useful in infantile remittent fever.   One  part of Hydrastin, and two of
 fine salt, well triturated  together, form  an excellent powder  for many
 ophthalmic diseases, to be blown  into the eyes through a quill  or  small
 tube.   Equal  parts  of hydrastin, caulophyllin, and leptandrin, form an
 excellent medicine for aphtha, and other ulcerations of the mouth and
 throat, in infants as well  as adults, it should be administered internally.
 A pill composed of one grain of hydrastin, one-twentieth of a  grain of
 alcoholic extract of  Nux-vomica,  and sufficient  ptelein  to form  a pill
 mass, is found  an  efficacious remedy for some forms of dyspepsia, and
 loss of appetite;  one pill to be given for a dose, and  repeated  three
 times a day.   Dose of hydrastin, for an  adult, from three to five grains;
 for children  from  half a grain to three grains, and which  may be re-
 peated from three  to six times a day, if  required.
                     HYOSCYAMUS NIGER.
                              Henbane.
        Nat.  Ord.—Solanaceaa.—Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                      THE LEAVES AND  SEEDS.
  Description.—Henbane is a biennial plant, with a fusiform, long, thick,
wrinkled, fleshy and somewhat branching  root,  brown  externally, and 
Hyoscyamus  Niger.
549
whitish within.   The stem,  which  rises in the second  year,  is  erect,
branched,  woody, cylindrical,  closely covered with  long weak  hairs
tipped Avith a minute black gland, thickly furnished with leaves, and
growing from one to four  feet in hight.   The  leaves  are  large, oblong,
acute, alternate,  coarsely and  unequally sinuated, "Sessile, occasionally
someAvhat decurrent, stem-clasping at the base, pale dull-green, slightly
pubescent,  with long glandular  hairs upon the midrib.  The flowers  are
numerous,  nearly sessile, of a  straw-yellow color, marked  with purple
veins, and arise singly either from the axilla of the leaves, or from long,
nodding, secund  spikes, at  the end  of the  branches and stem.   The
corolla is monopetalous,  funnel-shaped, with  a  somewhat erect limb,
which is divided above  into five  rounded lobes, the two anterior  of
which are  a little smaller than the others, and separated at base by a
deep slit in the tube.  The calyx  is villous, funnel-shaped, five-lobed,
regular, wider than the corolla, to  whose tube it is equal in length and
persistent; each  lobe ovate,  acute, with  an open astivation.   Stamens
five, declinate, straight, shorter than the corolla,  the three lower longer
than the others; filaments pubescent, inserted about  the  middle of  the
tube of the corolla, inclined, and bearing cordate, purple anthers.   The
ovary  is nearly  round, shining, pale-green, two-celled, with numerous
ovules adhering  to the dissepiment;  style filiform, declinate, having  a
blunt, round stigma.  The fruit or  capsule is ovate, bilocular, and  open-
ing by a convex  lid; it contains numerous small, obovate, unequal, brown
seeds.  The whole plant has a rank, offensive smell, and a forbidding
appearance.
  History.—Henbane is a native of Europe, and is  naturalized in  the
northern parts of the  United  States,  flowering in July and  August.
Botanists are divided as to whether it is an annual or biennial  plant, as
it is sometimes found to  be the  former.  The biennial is  the officinal
plant, though we are not aware  of any difference  between the two as
regards  medical  properties.   All parts of the  plant  are  medicinal,  but
the leaves and seeds are the parts usually employed; the former should
be gathered at  the  time  of its full inflorescence, and the  latter  when
perfectly matured.   The  leaves  of the  second  year's growth of  the
officinal plant are more active  than those of the first year; when fresh
they abound in  a viscid  juice, and when bruised have a strong, fetid,
narcotic odor, with a mucilaginous, unpleasant, and somewhat acrid taste.
  Upon  drying  most of  these qualities are  lost.   The  leaves impart
their properties   completely  to diluted alcohol;  water, alcohol, ether,
fixed  or volatile oils, also  take up a portion of  their  virtues.   The
aqueous infusion is pale-yellow, insipid, with  a narcotic odor.   By  de-
structive distillation, the leaves  yield a very poisonous empyreumatic oil.
The seeds are of a yellowish-gray or brown color, with the odor of  the
plant, and  an  oleaginous, bitter  taste; they are very small, roundish, 
550
Materia Medica.
compressed,  somewhat renifonn, and  a little wrinkled.   They contain
fixed oil, fatty matter, gum, bassorin, starch, albumen, vegetable  fiber,
saline matters, with hyoscyamia, etc.
  Hyoscyamia is the active principle of henbane ; it may be obtained by
exhausting the seeds first with  alcohol, and then with  hot water—con-
centrating the united liquids by a very gentle heat, and  decolorizing
them by  the alternate use of lime and sulphuric acid,  with  filtration
after each addition, and then still further  concentrating by evaporation
with gentle heat;  the product  is now to be decomposed by adding an
excess of powdered carbonate of soda, and the precipitate produced  is
separated as  speedily as possible, from the alkaline carbonate by express-
ing, and  treated with  absolute  alcohol;  while the mother waters are
treated at the same time with sulphuric ether.   The alcoholic and  ethe-
real liquors are united, and again treated with lime,  filtered, decolorized
with animal  charcoal,  and evaporated  by a very gentle  heat.  If the
hyoscyamia deposited should be  colored, it must  be combined with an
acid, and the whole process repeated from the addition  of carbonate of
soda onward.  The quantity obtained is small.   Hyoscyamia crystallizes
in tufts of colorless, transparent, silky needles, which are  inodorous, of
an  acrid, disagreeable taste,  slightly soluble in water,  very soluble in
alcohol and  ether, and volatilizable with little change if carefully dis-
tilled.   If boiled  in  contact with water and  an alkali, it is quickly
decomposed,  with evolution of ammonia.  It neutralizes  acids, forming
with them crystallizable salts.   The tincture or infusion of galls precipi-
tates it from  its solutions.  Hyoscyamia is  an active poison, as are  its
salts ;  a minute quantity of it placed within the eye, produces a persis-
tent dilatation  of the pupil.  In  its natural state of combination, this
principle is very prone to  decomposition under the influence of heat, and
its destruction is always indicated by the escape of ammonia.

  Properties  and Uses.—In large doses, henbane is a powerful  narcotic,
and dangerously poisonous; it powerfully affects the brain, as well as the
alimentary canal, occasioning dilatation of the pupils, disordered vision,
loss of speech, stupor or delirium, convulsions,  paralysis, pain in the
bowels, diarrhea, great arterial prostration, petechia, and other alarming
symptoms, which sometimes end in death.  Inflammation of the stomach
and bowels are found on  dissection.  Emetics and the  stomach pump,
stimulants, galvanism and acids  are the chief remedies in such cases.  In
medicinal doses, it  is anodyne hypnotic, calmative, and antispasmodic ;
allaying pain, soothing excitability, inducing sleep, and  arresting spasm.
It does not produce constipation like  opium,  but has a tendency to act
as a laxative.  Usually given in cases where opium disagrees, or where
constipation must be avoided ; in neuralgic and all spasmodic affections,
asthma,  gout,  rheumatism,  chronic cough, irritations of  the urinary
organs, and inflammatory cases  attended with  nervous excitability and 
Hypericum  Perforatum.
551
not with high  fever.   It  may  be combined with  active  cathartics, as
scammony, colocynth,  aloes, podophyllin, etc., for  preventing  tormina
without impairing  their energy.  Its principal  employment is to cause
sleep, or remove irregular  nervous action.   Where the fresh leaves can
be obtained, they are employed  in fomentation, or bruised as an external
application to allay pain and irritation of tumors, ulcers, nervous head-
ache, gouty, rheumatic, and neuralgic pains, and similar affections.  An
infusion of the  leaves,  or  a  solution of the extract  is dropped  into the
eye  by oculists, previous to the  operation for cataract, in order  to
dilate the pupil, which it usually effects in three or four hours,  without
any subsequent injury  to the eye.  One part of hyoscyamia to  twenty-
four  of water, forms a  solution for a similar purpose, and of which one
drop is to be placed on the eye.   Dose  of the powdered leaves from five
to ten grains ; of the tincture from thirty drops  to two fluidrachms ; and
of the  alcoholic extract, which is the  only extract  that should be used*
from one-half of a grain to two grains, which may  be increased gradu-
ally  to twenty.
   Off. Prep. — Extractum Hyoscyami  Alcoholicum ; Extractum Hyo-
scyami Fluidum ; Tinctura Hyoscyami.
                  HYPERICUM  PERFORATUM.

                          St. John's Wort.

      Nat. Ord.—Hypericaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Polyandria Pentagynia.
                      THE TOPS AND FLOWERS.
   Description. — This plant has a perennial, woody, tufted,  fusiform,
tortuous,  somewhat creeping root.   The  stem  is ancipital,  branchiate,
erect above,  curved below, much branched, and from one  to  two feet
high.  The leaves are very numerous, elliptical  or ovate, obtuse, conspi-
cuously marked with numerous pellucid dots, of a light green color, from
six to ten lines long, and one third as wide, the ramial leaves  being much
smaller.   The flowers are  numerous, of a bright yellow color, and ar-
ranged in dense, fopked, terminal panicles.  The calyx is persistent, and
is  composed of five acute-lanceolate sepals, united at base, and bordered
with fine dark-colored glands.  The corolla consists of five ovate, obtuse,
sessile petals, much longer than the sepals, of  a yellow color, with nu-
merous dark  glandular spots at the edges.  The stamens are numerous,
united at  base, and divided into three  sets, with  small  anthers.  The
styles are  three, short,  erect, with very  small  stigmas.   The fruit or
capsule is somewhat globose, with three cells, and opening naturally by
three valves  ; seeds numerous,  small, roundish.  The whole  herb is
dark-green, with  a powerful scent when  rubbed, staining  the  fingers
with dark purple, from the great  abundance of colored essential oil. 
552
Materia Medica.
  History. — St. John's Wort is an  herb abundantly growing in this
country and Europe, and proving exceedingly troublesome to farmers.
The flowers appear from  June to August.   It has a peculiar balsamic
odor,  and a bitter, resinous, somewhat astringent taste.   It  contains  a
volatile oil, a resinous substance, tannin and coloring matter.   It imparts
its properties to water, alcohol, ether, oils, or alkaline  solutions.
  Properties and  Uses. — Astringent, sedative, and diuretic. Used in
suppression of  the  urine,  chronic urinary affections, in diarrhea, dysen-
tery,  worms, jaundice, menorrhagia,  hysteria, nervous affections with
depression, hemoptysis, and other hemorrhages.   Externally, in  fomen-
tation, or used as an ointment for dispelling hard tumors, caked breasts,
bruises,  ecchymosis,  swellings,  ulcers,  etc.   The blossoms  infused in
sweet oil or bear's oil, by means  of  exposure to the sun, make a fine
red balsamic ointment for wounds, ulcers, swellings, tumors, etc.  Dose
of the powder, from half a drachm to two drachms ;  of the infusion,
from  one to two fluidounces.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Hyperici.
                    HYSSOPUS  OFFICINALIS.
                               Hyssop.
       Nat.  Ord.—Labiaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.
                        THE TOPS AND  LEAVES.
   Description.—Hyssop is a perennial plant, with numerous, erect, qua-
 drangular,  spreading, and much branched stems, which are woody at
 their base,  and about two feet high ; the branches are rod-like, and one
 or two feet long.   The leaves are  opposite,  sessile, usually oblong-linear,
 or lanceolate, sometimes  elliptical, sometimes narrower, acute, entire,
 punctate, green on each side, rather thick, one-ribbed underneath.  The
 flowers are violet-colored or blue, sometimes white, chiefly one-sided,
 and arranged in half verticillated, terminal, leafy spikes.  Floral leaves
 like those of the stem but smaller.  Outer bracts lanceolate-linear, acute,
 scarcely shorter than the calyx.  The upper lip of the^orolla is roundish,
 and emarginate,  the lower is divided into  three segments,  of which the
 undermost is  obovate.   Stamens four.   Calyx teeth erect.
  History.—This  plant  is a native of  Europe, and  is cultivated in the
 gardens of that  country as well  as  in  those  of the United States ; it
 flowers in July.  The tops and leaves are the  parts used; they have an
 agreeable odor, and a  warm, pungent, bitterish taste, and owe  their
 properties  to  a volatile  oil, which may  be  obtained  separate by distil-
 lation  with  water.   Water by infusion or alcohol  extracts its  active
virtues.  Said to contain beside its yellow oil,  some bitter principles,
and sulphur. 
Iberis Amara—IcHthyocolla.
553
  Properties  and Uses. — Stimulant, aromatic,  carminative  and tonic.
Principally used in quinsy and other sore-throats, as a gargle, combined
with sage and  alum, in infusion sweetened with honey.   Also recom-
mended in asthma, coughs, and other affections of the chest, as an ex-
pectorant.  The leaves applied to bruises, speedily relieve the pain, and
disperse every spot or mark from the part affected.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Hyssopi.
                        IBERIS  AMARA.
                         Bitter Candytuft.
      Nat. Ord.—Brassicaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Tetradynamia Siliculosa.
                            THE SEEDS.
  Description. — This  plant  has a herbaceous  stem, about  a  foot in
hight,  with  lanceolate,  acute,  somewhat  toothed  leaves,  and white
flowers, corymbed, but becoming racemed.  Silicles obcordate, narrowly
emarginate.
  History.—This is a small  annual  plant,  indigenous in Europe, where
it is cultivated in gardens, on account of its bright milk-white floAvers,
which appear in June and July7.  The leaves, stem, and root, are said
to possess medicinal properties ; but the seeds  are  the most efficacious.
The ancients employed it in  rheumatism, gout and other diseases.
   Properties and Uses.—In large  doses it produces giddiness, nausea,
and diarrhea; but its virtues do not seem to be associated Avith any per-
ceptible physiological effect.   It is thought to exercise a happy influence
over the excited actions of the  heart, and is especially useful in hyper-
trophy.   Much advantage is  also said to have accrued from it in asthma,
bronchitis and dropsy.  The dose of the seeds is from one to three
grains.

                        ICHTHYOCOLLA.
                             Isinglass.
 THE SWIMMING  BLADDER OF ACIPENSER HUSO, AND OTHER SPECIES  OF
                            ACIPENSER.
  History.—In  the  greater  part of fishes, there is a membranous  bag
placed in  the anterior  part  of  the  abdomen, frequently communicating
by means of a  duct,  with  the esophagus or  stomach, and  which is
termed " sound," or " swimming bladder," from the idea that its contrac-
tion or expansion enables the fish to sink or rise in the water.  Its shape
varies among fishes, and it  is composed of two inner, thin  and delicate
coats, and one external, tough  and silvery white.  These are removed
from the  fish while fresh  and sweet,  split open, cleansed  from any
impurities by careful washing, divested of their mucous coat, and spread 
554
Materia Medica.
 out to dry or stiffen in the air.   They are then formed into  cylindrical
 rolls about as thick as the finger, and bent into the shape of horse-shoes,
 by bringing the ends together, which are secured by pegs.  The longer
 rolls are called Long-staple, and the  shorter,  Short-staple.  These rolls
 are known in commerce as Staple Isinglass.   Sometimes the  sounds are
 dried in a flat state, or  simply folded, and then  receive  the name of
 Leaf or Book Isinglass.   These are  the best kinds, but the finest book
 isinglass is superior to  any; one  hundred  grains  of  it dissolve in  ten
 ounces of water, forming a tremulous jelly when cold,  and  yield but two
 grains of membranous insoluble residuum.
   There are other  kinds of an inferior character, as the Cake Isinglass,
 which is in cakes  or globular masses, brownish, of an unpleasant odor,
 and used only in the arts.  A Russian product of an  inferior  character,
 which comes  in the form of Leaf,  Book, and Short-staple, and termed
 Samovey  Isinglass, is said  to  be  prepared from  the Silurus  Glanis.
 Isinglass is also made in New England from the intestines of the codfish
 (Morrhua Americana), and some of its allied  fishes; this sort is in rib-
 bons,  several  feet  in length, and  from one  to two  inches  in width;
 although  pure, yet its fishy taste and odor render  it unfit for culinary
 and medicinal purposes.   Fifty grains of this  dissolve in four ounces of
 water, and form a  tremulous jelly  on cooling, leaving but one grain of
 insoluble  membrane. Isinglass is  also prepared in Brazil and the East
 Indies, but is inferior in quality.
   Refined  or  transparent isinglass is made by dissolving the New Eng-
 land  isinglass  in  hot water, and spreading  the solution to dry on oiled
 muslin.  It is in very thin plates, and is an  excellent glue, but retains a
 fishy odor.  Cooper's Gelatin appears to be the dried froth  of  a solution
 of pure bone-glue.
   Isinglass is  the purest form of gelatin with which we are acquainted;
 it  is whitish, semi-transparent, of a shining, pearly  appearance, inodor-
 ous, and tasteless when pure.  It is insoluble in alcohol, but is readily
 dissolved  by most  dilute acids and  alkaline  solutions.   It swells up and
 softens in cold water, but does not dissolve; boiling water wholly dissolves
 it, with the exception of any impurities, forming on cooling  a jelly of
 pure  gelatin and water.   Its aqueous solution  speedily putrefies.   With
 tannin it forms an insoluble  compound, somewhat  like leather.  Boiled
 with concentrated> sulphuric acid, it  is converted into a kind of sugar,
 termed Glycocoll, or Sugar of Gelatin.   The inferior kinds of isinglass
 are yellowish and more opake than the better kinds.  Analysis has found
 in isinglass a large quantity of gelatin, some albumen, osmazome, inso-
luble membrane in boiling water, free acid, various salts and water.
  An  excellent cement,  called  Armenian or  Diamond Cement is made
 with isinglass,  which is  valuble  to  the chemist and pharmaceutist for
mending glass, china and porcelain vessels, which  are not exposed to
heat and moisture.   It is made by sprinkling  water  upon  two drachms 
Ilex Opaca.
555
of isinglass, allowing it to stand until  softened, then adding  as  much
proof spirit as will  rather more than  cover  it, and dissolving it with a
moderate heat.   Have previously prepared, a solution made byr dissolv-
ing one drachm of gum mastic, in  two or three fluidrachms of alcohol.
Mix the two solutions, and stir  in  one drachm of gum ammoniacum,
previously  reduced  to  a fine  powder, and rubbed  down with a  little
water.  Evaporate, if necessary, in  a water-bath to a proper consistence.
Keep the cement thus prepared in a vial.  When required for use plunge
the bottle in warm water, and keep it there until  the cement becomes
fluid; then apply it Avith a stick or small hard brush to the edges of the
broken vessel, previously warmed.   Compress the pieces firmly together
until cold, taking care to make the  contact perfect, and using a very thin
layer of cement; when  properly applied, the cement is  almost, if not
quite, as strong as the glass or china itself.
  A cement for stoneware may be made by allowing gelatin to swell in
cold water, the jelly warmed, and  so much recently slaked lime added
as is requisite to render the mass  sufficiently thick for the purpose.  A
thin coating of this  cement is spread Avhile warm over the  gently heated
surfaces of fracture of the articles, and let dry under a strong  pressure.
What oozes out is removed directly with a moist rag.
  Isinglass is  sometimes kept cut  up in fine  shreds, in which  form it is
more readily acted on by boiling water.
  Properties and Uses.—Isinglass  is seldom used in medicine  except as
a nutritive.  It is used as a diet, in the form of jelly, or added to other
jellies, to give them a tremulous appearance.  I have used the following
preparation in incontinence of urine,  both in  children and  adults, in
many instances,  and  have  found it  a useful as  well  as  agreeable
remedy, proving serviceable when other means  had failed:  Take of
isinglass (long staple) one roll; boil it  in one pint of water till it  is dis-
solved,  then strain, add  one  pint  of sweet milk,  put it again over the
fire, and remove it just as ebullition commences; then sweeten  with loaf
sugar, and  grate nutmeg upon it.  When made, it very  much  resembles
custard.   Of this, a tumblerful  may be taken three or four times a day
by an adult.
  Isinglass is employed in the arts for various  purposes, and is often
added to vegetable  jellies for the purpose of giving them a tremulous
appearance.  Three drachms form a proper jelly with a pint of water.
                          ILEX  OPACA.
                         American Holly.
      Nat. Ord.—Aquifoliaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Tetrandria Tetragynia.
                            THE  LEAVES.
  Description.—This tree rises from twenty to forty feet in hight, having
leaves which  are  alternate, coriaceous, evergreen, smooth and shining, 
556
Materia  Medica.
flat, oval, acute at the end, and the wavy margins armed with strong,
scattered  spiny teeth.  The flowers are  small, greenish-white, and are
arranged in scattered clusters along the base of the young branches,
and from the  axils of the  leaves.  The calyx is persistent; calyx-teeth,
acute.   The corolla is rotate, monopetalous, four-cleft; stamens erect, and
alternate  with the divisions.  The ovary  is globular,  four-celled, with
four sessile stigmas.   The fruit  is globular, umbilicated at top, fleshy,
scarlet, and contains four bony nucules.
  History.—The  Holly is found growing throughout the United States
from Maine to Louisiana, in moist woodlands, and flowering in June.  It
is  quite common to the  Atlantic  States, especially New Jersey.   The
leaves  are the medicinal  parts; they have  a bitter, somewhat austere
taste, but no  odor, and yield their virtues to water or alcohol.   They
are said to contain ilicin, wax, gum, several salts, etc.  Ilicin is the  bitter
principle upon which the febrifuge virtues of the leaves depend; it may
be obtained  by diluting a strong alcoholic  extract of the holly leaves
with water, to which add sugar of lead,  then sulphuric acid, and finally
carbonate of  lime.  The  ilicin being thus separated, dissolve it in alco-
hol ; then evaporate to a syrupy consistence.   Or, a filtered decoction
of the leaves  may be boiled with  animal charcoal, then allow the char-
coal to subside, wash  it,  treat it  with  alcohol,  filter off the alcoholic
solution,  and  evaporate  to a  syrupy  consistence.   The liquid  thus
obtained  is very bitter, and when allowed  to evaporate spontaneously,
yields an amorphous substance,  resembling gelatin, which is ilicin.  It
is not soluble in  ether, partially dissolves in warm water, soluble in alco-
hol,  and  is not  decomposed by acids or alkalies.  Two pounds of the
dried  leaves  yield  more  than two ounces of this principle.  The inner
bark of the holly is glutinous, and the viscous substance  called  birdlime
is prepared from it, by burying it in the  earth for some days, in order to
soften it, it is then beaten  in a mortar, and well washed in water to sepa-
rate the impurities.  The  berries  are about the size of  a pea, red, with
a bitter, acrid taste.
   Properties and Uses. — Holly  leaves  are tonic and febrifuge; said to
be very efficacious in the  treatment of intermittent fever, used in doses
of a drachm of the powder two  hours before the paroxysm.  The  infu-
sion has likewise proved  beneficial in catarrh, jaundice, pleurisy, small-
pox,  gout, etc.   Ten  or  twelve of the berries, are said to be emeto-
cathartic, producing copious watery evacuations.
  Ilicin,  as well as the holly leaves, exerts a sedative  influence on the
spleen, liver, and pancreas, and is a cheap substitute for quinia.  The
dose of ilicin for an adult, as a febrifuge or antiperiodic, is twelve  grains
gradually increased to twenty-four, and given in  the form of pill.
   The  European Holly,  Ilex Aquifolium, together with several other
species in this country, possesses  similar properties.  The Hex Vomitoria 
Impatiens Pallida.
557
or South Sea tea, an evergreen shrub growing in our Southern States, is
the Cassina of the Indians.   They toast its leaves  and make a decoc-
tion, called Black drink, which is used in their religious ceremonies and
great councils, by the men only, to purge their bodies from impurities.
The leaves are inodorous, with an aromatic, acrid taste.  A decoction of
them in small doses, acts as a powerful diuretic;  in large  doses it pro-
duces copious evacuations  from the stomach, bowels, and bladder.  The
inhabitants of North Carolina, on the sea coast, modify the deleterious
action of their brackish water, by boiling a few leaves of Cassina with it.
These plants  are deserving a careful investigation.
                       IMPATIENS PALLIDA.
                              Jewelweed.
        Nat. Ord.—Balsaminaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                               THE HERB.
    Description.—Impatiens Pallida, likewise known by the names of Pale
  Touch-me-not, Balsam-weed, etc., is an indigenous annual plant, having a
  smooth,  succulent,  tender,  subpellucid,  branching stem, with  tumid
  joints,  and growing from  two to four feet  in hight.   The leaves are
  oblong-ovate, coarsely and  obtusely serrate, teeth mucronate, from  two
  to five inches long, petiolate, and about two-thirds as wide.   The flowers
  are  large, pale-yellow,  sparingly maculate,  mostly  in pairs; peduncles
  two to four-flowered, elongated.  Sepals  apparently but four,  the  two
  upper united,  the  lowest gibbous,  dilated-conical, broader than long,
  with a very short, recurved spur.  Petals apparently two, unequal-sided
  and two-lobed, each consisting of a  pair  united.   Stamens five, short;
  anthers opening  on  the inner face, connivent over the stigma.  Ovary
  five-celled;  stigma  sessile.   Capsules oblong-cylindric,  an inch long,
  five-valved, bursting at the slightest  touch Avhen ripe and  scattering the
  anatropous seeds.
    Impatiens Fulva, or Speckled Jewels is the most common variety; its
  leaves  are rhombic-ovate, obtusish, coarsely  and obtusely  serrate, teeth
  mucronate.  The flowers are smaller  than in  the previous one,  deep
  orange,  and  maculate  with  many  broAvn spots;  lower  gibbous sepals
  acutely conical, longer than  broad, with  an  elongated, recurved spur.
    Impatiens Balsamina, the Garden Balsam or Ladies' Slippers, is spon-
  taneous  about gardens ;  its leaves are lanceolate, serrate,  upper ones
  alternate; peduncles clustered, one  flowered;  spur shorter than  the
' flowers.   The flowers are red, white, purple, pink,  flesh-color, and scar-
  let;  sometimes they are double.   This is an exotic plant, a native of the
  East Indies, and  cultivated as a beautiful garden  annual.   Its hight is
  from one to five feet. 
558
Materia Medica.
  History.—These  plants grow throughout the United States, in  moist
shady places, and along rills, in rich  soil, flowering from July to Sep-
tember.  The I. Pallida is most common northward and westward and
the I.  Fulva, southward.   They all  possess similar properties.  The
whole plants are used, and impart their virtues to water.
  Properties and Uses.—They are  aperient and diuretic ; a decoction is
recommended in jaundice, hepatitis and  dropsy.   The juice is said  to
remove warts,  cure ringworms, salt-rheum, etc.,  and  to cleanse foul
ulcers ; or  it may be applied for these purposes in the form of a poultice
boiled in milk.   The recent plant boiled in lard, forms an excellent oint-
ment for piles.
                       INULA  HELENIUM.
                             Elecampane.
          Nat. Ord.—Asteraceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Superflua.
                              THE ROOT.
   Description.—Elecampane  has a thick, fusiform, branching, aromatic,
 and perennial root, with a thick,  leafy, round,  furrowed, solid stem, from
 four to six feet  high, and branched and downy above.  The leaves are
 large, ovate, serrated,  veiny, smooth and of a dark-green  color above,
 downy and  hoary beneath with a fleshy midrib ; the radical ones are
 petiolated, from one to  three feet in length, by six or twelve inches
 wide ; the cauline ones sessile, amplexicaul.  The flower -heads are large,
 radiated, solitary at the downy  summits of  the branches, two inches
 broad, and  of  a  bright-yellow color.  The involucre is hemispherical;
 the order scales  are  broad, recurved, leafy, finely downy on both  sides;
 the  inner scales are narrow, linear, and chaffy.   The florets of the ray
 are  numerous,  spreading, linear, ligulate,  pistillate, and  terminate in
 three  unequal  teeth;  the disk-florets are  numerous, perfect,  tubular,
 five-cleft.  The anthers  are furnished with bristles at their base; the
 ovary  is oblong with a  filiform cloven style, and spreading, obtuse stig-
 mas.  The seeds are quadrangular, smooth, striated, and furnished with
 a simple, roughish pappus.
   History.—Elecampane is a native of Europe and  Japan, and is natu-
 ralized in some parts of the United States,  growing in moist places, and
. about houses, flowering  in July and August.   The root is  the officinal
 part, and should  be gathered in autumn, and in the second year of its
 growth.  When fresh  it is very thick, spindle-shaped, much branched,
 with whitish  cylindrical  ramifications furnished  with thread-like fibers;
 brown externally, and  whitish and  fleshy internally.  As  found  in the
 shops  in the dried state,  it is usually in longitudinal or transverse  slices,
 and of a grayish color  internally.   It has an agreeably aromatic, some-
 what  camphorous smell, and a warm, aromatic, bitter taste.  It  yields 
IODINUM.
559
its properties  to  alcohol or water, but more especially to the former.
Analysis has  found in it, a volatile oil, a peculiar camphor, wax, acrid
resin, gum, bitter extractive, inulin, etc.  Inulin is an amylaceous sub-
stance,  differing  from starch in being  deposited unchanged from  its
solution in boiling water, as the liquid  cools, and in giving a  yellowish
instead of a blue color with  iodine.  Its constitution is identical with
that of starch, and it has  been found in the roots  of many other plants.
Beside this principle, elecampane contains another, called Helenin, which
is intermediate in its properties between the essential oils and  camphor,
and  is separable by distillation with water.  Helenin may be obtained
by cutting the fresh root of elecampane  in slices, and  exhausting with
boiling alcohol of sp. gr. 0.833;  the hot  solution is  to  be filtered, and
mixed with three or four times its  bulk of cold water, when a  slight
turbidness results, and after standing twenty-four hours, long, dazzling
white needles of pure helenin will be found in the li|uid, leaving very
little in solution.   The  dried  root  gives  a smaller quantity of this prin-
ciple than the fresh.
  Inulin may be  had by boiling the roots  in water, and concentrating  the
decoction by evaporation ; it is deposited  as a brittle white mass, formed
of crystalline grains, or as a fine, tasteless powder.
  Properties and Uses.—Elecampane is an  aromatic stimulant and tonic,
and  is said to possess  diaphoretic, diuretic,  expectorant, and emmena-
gogue properties.   It is much  used in  chronic pulmonary  affections,
weakness of the  digestive organs, hepatic  torpor, dyspepsia, and inter-
nally and externally in tetter, itch, and other cutaneous diseases.  When
added to the Compound Syrup of Spikenard, it should be exhausted by
boiling alcohol, and the tincture added to  the syrup, instead  of  boiling
it with the other  articles, as is usually done.  The alcoholic extract, com-
bined with powdered extract  of liquorice, benzoic  acid, sanguinarina,
and morphia, forms a lozenge or pill very valuable in chronic  catarrhal,
bronchial, and all pulmonary irritations; one drop of the Oil of  Stillin-
gia may be added  to each lozenge, for  bronchial and  laryngeal affec-
tions.   Dose of the powder, from one scruple to one  drachm ;  of  the
infusion, from one to two fluidounces.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum  Helenii; Extractum  Helenii  Hydro-alcoholi-
cum ;  Syrupus Aralia Compositus.
                             IODINUM.
                               Iodine.
  Preparation.—Kelp, which  contains about a*.224th part of Iodine, is
lixiviated  in water, in Avhich about one-half dissolves.   The  solution is
concentrated to a pellicle, and allowed  to cool, Avhereby7 all the  salts,
except the  Iodide of  Sodium, are  almost completely  separated, they 
560
Materia  Medica.
being less soluble than the iodide.  The remaining liquor, which is dense
and dark-colored, is rendered sour by sulphuric  acid, whereby carbonic
acid, sulphureted hydrogen, and sulphurous acid are evolved, and sul-
phur is deposited.   The liquor is now introduced into a leaden still, and
distilled Avith a portion of deutoxide of manganese into a series of glass
receivers, inserted into one  another, in which the iodine is condensed.
In this process the iodide of sodium is  decomposed, and the  iodine
evolved ;  and the  sulphuric acid, deutoxide of manganese, and sodium
unite, so as to form the sulphate of protoxide of manganese and sulphate
of soda.
  Souberain  states  that a  much larger  quantity  of iodine may  be
obtained by the following process :  Add sulphate of copper to the mother
water so long as a Avhite precipitate of iodide  of  copper is thrown down.
Then treat the supernatant liquid with more of the sulphate, together *
with iron-filings.   The iron, taking the place  of the  copper in the solu-
tion, sets that metal free ; and the metal, in the act of evolution, unites
with what  remains  of  the  iodine in  the  fluid, so that more  iodide of
copper is formed.   When  this iodide  is mingled with oxide of manga-
nese and sulphuric acid, a moderate heat decomposes it, and iodine is
sublimed.

  History.—Iodine  is  an elementary  non-metallic body,  discovered in
1812 by  Courtois,  a French soda manufacturer; and  in 1820, its  medi-
cinal virtues  were first made known  by Dr.   Coindet, sen., of Geneva,
It exists in many marine vegetables, particularly the fuci or common sea-
Aveeds, and is  also  found in nitre, sponge, sea-water, oyster, cod-liver
oil, water-cress, brook-lime, fine-leaved water hemlock, coal-gas, many
ores, salt-springs, spring-waters, etc.   Sea-weeds, however, contain it in
the greatest proportion ; they are burned for the sake of their  ashes, the
product being a dark-colored fused mass called Kelp.
  Iodine is a  soft, friable, opake substance,  in  the  form of crystalline
scales,  or in  solid  masses, of a shining appearance,  and bluish-black
color.  It emits a peculiar,  powerful  odor, which strongly irritates the
nostrils, and excites cough, has a hot,  acrid taste, and is brittle and pul-
verizable.  It stains the skin broAvnish-yellow, and if the contact be pro-
longed, will destroy the soft textures of the  body.   It is volatile,  and
slowly  evaporates at common temperatures ; when heated  it evaporates
more rapidly, fuses at  245°, and boils at 347°, distilling over in the form
of a rich purple vapor, which condenses* into scales.   Water dissolves
only a  7,000th of its  own weight of iodine,  and acquires a brownish-
yellow color; in saline solutions it is  much more soluble,  and freely so
in solutions  of chloride of  sodium, nitrate of ammonia, or iodide  of
potassium.  It dissolves in twelve parts of  rectified spirit at 60°, is very
soluble in ether, or  the volatile oils, but with some  of them,  especially
those  from coniferous  vegetables, considerable  heat is evolved,  brisk 
IODINUM.
561
effervescence ensues, and much of the iodine is  discharged in vapor. It
unites with oxygen  or hydrogen to form acids;  also with sulphur, phos-
phorus, carbon, chlorine, etc.;  starch globules, if converted  by boiling
with water into soluble starch or amidin, form a  blue precipitate with it,
of such intensity that iodine may be detected in 450,000 parts of water.
To effect this the iodine must be free, which may be obtained by adding
a little nitric acid to the suspected solutions, and the solutions must be
cold.  Iodine is easily mixed with fatty substances ; it is apt to escape
from the  surface of ointments, unless united with iodide of potassium,
which much impedes this result.  The combination of iodine with hydro-
gen forms a  gaseous acid, called Hydriodic Acid :  and that with oxygen
forms three acids, the Iodous,  Iodic, and Hyperiodic Acids.   Starch  is a
delicate test to determine  the presence of iodine in urine, solutions,  etc.
 Chloroform has been recently proposed as a test;  thus, if  150 grains of
a  solution containing one  part  of iodide of potassium in  one hundred
thousand of  its weight, be treated with two drops of nitric and fifteen or
twenty drops of sulphuric  acid, and afterward shaken with fifteen grains
of  chloroform, the  latter acquires  a distinct violet tint.  Chloroform
may also be applied to the detection of iodine in the several varieties of
cod-liver oil, the amount of which may be judged by the depth of color
produced ; as follows :  Incinerate in an iron spoon 50 parts of the speci-
men of the oil with 5 of caustic potassa, dissolved  in 15 of  water,  and
exhaust the cinder with the smallest possible quantity of water.  Filter
the solution,  acidulate it with nitric and  sulphuric acids, and agitate with
four parts of chloroform.  After a time, the chloroform is deposited  of a
violet color, more or less deep  according to the amount of iodine pre-
sent.   This  test  of iodine  was presented  by M. Rabourdin.  Dr. A.
Overbeck gives the  following very delicate test for iodine :  Some  starch
or sugar  is poured into a test-tube with concentrated nitric  acid,  and
heated over a spirit-lamp very  gently7 until  a violent evolution  of  gas
ensues.   The  spirit-lamp  is then removed, and  the gas, which  now
evolves without a continuation  of the application of heat,  is conducted
into the fluid to be tested, to which a solution of  starch has been added.
If the fluid  contains only a millionth  of  iodide of potassium, a blue
coloration  directly results.   By a  farther introduction of the gas,  the
iodide of  starch precipitates out  in flocks, and deposits  itself, when at
rest, as a  compact, massy  precipitate.   In  this way he found iodine in
many plants, particularly in the ashes of several ranunculuses.   There
are so  many substances incompatible with iodine, that its preparations are
best given in simple water  sweetened, and diluted  to the patient's taste.
  Iodine is much subject to adulteration : oxide of manganese, char-
coal, plumbago, red oxide of iron, and  the like, are often fraudulently
added  to it.  The most frequent  adulteration, however, is  water, which
may be easily detected  by the presence of visible moisture  in the bottle,
or by the iodine adhering to the inside  of  it.   The Edinburgh College
           36 
562
Materia Medica.
has given a test which detects all impurity beyond two per cent.   It is
based upon the fact that pure iodine diffused in water, forms a colorless
solution of iodide of calcium and iodate of lime, with a certain propor-
tion of  quicklime.  Accordingly,  an  amount  of  quicklime is  directed,
which is not quite sufficient to form a colorless solution with iodine, con-
taining only two  per cent, of impurity; and hence, if the  sample con-
tain more impurity, the lime is competent to produce a solution without
color.   The test is  : Thirty-nine grains of the iodine suspected, with nine
grains of quicklime, and three ounces  of water, when heated  short  of
ebullition, slowly form a perfect solution, which is yellowish or brownish
if the iodine be pure, but colorless if there be above two per cent,  of
water or other impurity.
   Properties and Uses.—In large doses, Iodine is an  irritant and corro-
sive poison, stimulating the  mucous  membranes, liver,  and absorbent
glands,  exciting the sexual organs,  and producing debility of the diges-
tive functions, muscular weakness, and emaciation.  This influence upon
the system,  in  which  its poisonous  effects are  developed, is termed
Iodism.  Its symptoms are restlessness, palpitation, a sense of constric-
tion in the throat, and of burning along the gullet, excessive thirst, pain
and nausea in the  stomach,  vomiting  and purging, severe cramps, diu-
resis, priapism, rapid and extreme emaciation, and frequent pulse.  From
four to six  grains have produced these symptoms, hence it should never
be administered in large doses, and Avhen these effects appear, the medi-
cine should at once be stopped.
   In  small or medicinal doses, it  is a stimulant, tonic, alterative, diu-
retic, emmenagogue, and diaphoretic.   It affects  especially the  absorb-
ent and glandular  systems, and its  results vary according to the dose,
combination, etc.;  it has been detected in the urine soon after  being
swallowed, also in the saliva, perspiration, milk, and blood, and always
in the form of hyuriodic acid, or an iodide.   It is supposed to undergo
conversion  in the  stomach  into hydriodic  acid,  and thus absorbed.
Iodine and some of its preparations will occasionally  produce salivation,
soreness of the mouth, coryza, and often pustular eruptions.  Under its
influence, enlarged  glands are brought to their normal size, and stru-
mous ulcers gradually healed.  Occasionally it  has caused a rapid and
permanent  wasting  away of the mamma or testicles ;  and again after a
lapse  of time, these organs have recovered their original development.
  It is  employed medicinally in various forms of disease, in  some of
which it produces astonishingly beneficial results.  The diseases in which
it appears  to be more generally efficacious,  are bronchocele, glandular
obstructions, scrofula, syphilis, mercurio-syphilis,  strumous  ophthalmia,
ozcena, ulcers of the integuments, enlargement of the  external absorbent
glands, chronic enlargement  of the liver and  spleen, mamma,  testes,
and  uterus, ovarian  tumors, leucorrhea,  amenorrhea,  dysmenorrhea,
caries, paralysis, chorea, rheumatism, and in fact all diseases of a hyper- 
IODINUM.
563
trophical, strumous  or  cachectic character.   In bronchocele it is  most
serviceable  in the early congestive  stage, or  in the  middle stage of
gelatiniform effusion; in the indurated stage of the  thyroid gland, it  is
of little benefit.  In this affection its  use should be  continued  uninter-
ruptedly, for at least five weeks, and  if no good effects appear, it may
be  laid aside.   It should always be combined with some  narcotic,  to
lessen or prevent its irritant results.  The tincture diluted with three
times its volume  of water, has been recommended as an injection  in
hydrocele, after removal  of  the effused fluid, to stimulate the tunica
vaginalis, to  adhesive inflammation.   In erysipelatous inflammations  it
has been advised to paint  the inflamed surface with a strong tincture ;
likewise in chilblains, and cutaneous scrofula.   Iodine is not a cumu-
lative  medicine, like lead, digitalis,   etc.,  hence, whenever its effects
approach iodism,  a  suspension of its use will gradually  remove them;
however, at  the present time, these effects are not so often observed  as
 among its early investigators.  Yet,  as some persons are  very suscep-
tible to its influence, the approach of  iodism should be carefully watched,
and its symptoms checked.  In chronic diarrhea and  dysentery, cholera-
infantum, colliquative  diarrhea of phthisis  and scrofulous diseases,  I
have found the following a superior  remedy.   Take of iodine  one  and
a half grains, sulphate of morphia one-eighth of a grain, geraniin twenty
grains—triturate thoroughly together in a mortar, form into a pill mass
with simple syrup, or extract of liquorice, and divide into ten pills ; of
these,  one pill may be  given every hour or  two to an adult.   In hepatic
and splenitic affections, leptandrin may be  substituted for the geraniin.
In the Mexican diarrhea I succeeded in curing every case in which the
folloAving preparation was employed  :  Take of iodine  one and a half
grains,  tannic  acid  ten grains, distilled water  five fluidrachms ; mix
together.  For  an  adult, give  one  fluidrachm, every  two hours   in
syrup of ginger, or cinnamon water; to be continued daily.   Externally,
iodine is used in the form of ointment for strumous  ulcers, ophthalmia,
and some cutaneous diseases.  A caustic iodine is recommended as an
application to stimulate or destroy soft and fungous granulations, and as
a remedy for noli-me-tangere;  it is made by adding  an ounce  each of
iodine and iodide of potassium, to two ounces of distilled Avater.   Iodine
is contra-indicated in cerebral congestion, and tendency to apoplexy, in
menorrhagia, in disordered stomach  or bowels, or wherever local dis-
eases become attended  with symptomatic fever, or with incidental febrile
affections.
  Iodine may be kept in a state of solution when added to mixtures in
the form of tincture, by the addition of syrup of orange peel, or a few
grains  of tannic acid.   When given  internally to females it is apt to
increase  the  quantity  of the  menstrual discharge,  and  sometimes to
multiply the  periods of its appearance; if the  symptoms are not very
severe  or alarming  but little  interference will be required, as they will 
564
Materia Medica.
cease after a short time; where this is demanded, a cessation of the use
of the remedy will most generally suffice.  In the employment of iodine,
if the urine is passed in quantity, and on  examination is  found  to  con-
tain iodine,  and the  strength and appetite of the  patient gradually
return,  it may be  considered indicative of a beneficial therapeutical
influence, and its use should be continued.   Dose of iodine in substance,
half a grain, two or three times a day, in pill form; of the tincture from
five to  fifteen drops, twice a day.    The best forms for internal use are
the  Compound  Tincture,  and Compound  Solution.   When given in
powder, it should be united with opium, and  formed  into a pill with
extract  of liquorice.   In poisoning by iodine, first evacuate the stomach,
by  giving an emetic  in  starch water, and afterward administer freely,
starch water, or flour, or arrowroot  in water.
   Off. Prep. — Emplastrum Belladonna  Compositum; Ferri Iodidum;
Liquor Ferri Iodidi; Liquor Iodini Compositus; Potassii Iodidum; Tinc-
tura Iodini; Tinctura Iodini Composita; Unguentum Iodidi Compositum.
                       IPOM^EA  JALAPA.

                               Jalap.

      Nat.  Ord.—Convolvulaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—The root of Jalap is a roundish, somewhat pear-shaped
tuber, externally blackish, internally white, with long fibers proceeding
from its lower part, as well  as  from the upper root-stalks.  The stems
are several,  roundish, smooth,  herbaceous, of a  reddish-brown color,
much disposed to twist, and rising to a considerable hight upon neighbor-
ing objects,  about which  it twines.  The leaves  are  cordate,  entire,
smooth, conspicuously acuminate, deeply serrated at the base, the lower
ones sometimes nearly  hastate, or with diverging angular points, the
under surface prominently veined, the petioles often nearly the  length
of the leaf.  The peduncles  about the length of the  petioles, each one
supporting two, rarely three  flowers.  The  calyx is ebracteate, five-
leaved, obtuse, with two of the divisions external.  The corolla is fun-
nel-form, of a lilac-purple color.   Stamens  five; anthers oblong, white,
somewhat  exserted.  Ovary slender, bilocular.   Style slender;  stigma
simple and capitate.  Seeds not known.
  History.—It is only within a few years  that any certainty has existed
in relation  to  the plant from which the jalap root was obtained.   It was
first spoken  of in  1609, as Bryonia Mechoacana Nigricans, then it was
regarded by  Ray  as Convolvulus  Americanus, jalapium  dictus, after
which Tournefort, being misled by persons who stated that they had seen
the plant growing, attributed it to a species of Mirabilis.  Balfour placed 
IPOM^EA JALAPA.
565
it as the Exogonium Purga, and Linnaus named it Convolvulus Jalapa,
and thus much difference of opinion existed, until in  1827, when Dr. J.
R. Coxe of Philadelphia, having received roots of the true  Jalap  from
South America, from  which he succeeded in producing a perfect flower-
ing plant, first  made  known  to  the  scientific  world  its  true  character.
The name of Ipomaia Purga was bestowed upon the plant by Hayne and
Wenderoth, but as the American authorities have a  claim  prior to all
others, it may  be considered  as settled that Ipomoea Jalapa, the  name
originally given to it by Nuttall, is looked upon as the  officinal species.
The Jalap plant is a native of Mexico, growing at a hight of about  6000
feet above the level of the ocean, near  the  city of Xalapa, in  the  state
of Vera Cruz,  from which city it is generally exported, and from which
it also derives its name.  It is usually  imported in bags containing one
or two hundred pounds.   The root is the officinal part, and is gathered
at all  seasons,  but principally  in March and April, when  the young
shoots are appearing.  The plant might  be cultivated in the southern
parts of the United States.
  When fresh, the root is black externally,  white and milky within, and
varies in size according to  its age, from  that of a walnut to that of a
moderate-sized turnep.  It is dried in net bags over the fire, sometimes
entire, and sometimes in sections.  It is imported in irregularly round or
pear-shaped masses,  seldom as  large as the fist, and is either entire, or
divided into longitudinal or transverse slices.   It is ponderous, hard, dark-
brown externally,  rough and wrinkled, internally grayish diversified by
irregular concentric darker circles, in which the substance is denser and
harder than in the intervening spaces.  If moist, it is tough; if dry, rather
brittle, with a shining undulated fracture, exhibiting numerous resinous
points, distinctly visible with the microscope.  The odor of jalap is faint and
disagreeable, but stronger on rubbing or powdering it,  and the taste is
nauseous and sweetish, succeeded by some acridity.   It is often attacked
by insects, but its actiA-e portion or resin  is left untouched by them,
rendering it, consequently, more energetic; worm-eaten jalap  may be
employed for procuring the resin, but should not be formed into powder,
as it would be  above  the proper strength.   Jalap is rather difficult to
pulverize, but if triturated with cream of tartar, sugar of milk, or other
hard salt, the  process of pulverization is  facilitated, and the  powder
rendered much  finer.  When in powder, the  color  is a pale grayish-
brown, and if  inhaled, it irritates the nostrils  and throat, and provokes
sneezing  and   coughing.   Its solvents  are water,  alcohol,  or spirits.
Water takes up but a small  portion of its  cathartic  principle, but con-
siderable of an amylaceous and mucilaginous extractive matter.  Alco-
hol  dissolves its resin,  on which its cathartic virtues depend.  Proof
spirits  or diluted   alcohol  completely  extract  its  active  properties.
Analysis  of the commercial  jalap has  detected in it,  resin  soluble  in
alcohol, a soft resin soluble in ether, also, colored gummy extract, starch, 
566
Materia Medica.
albumen, lignin, numerous salts, and uncrystallizable sugar.  Jalap root
is  seldom adulterated;  the best  quality may be known by being com-
pact, ponderous, dry, dark, with many shining lines and points; if light,
whitish internally, spongy, friable, and of a  dull fracture, it should be
rejected.   Several adulterations are spoken  of by authors, but they can
usually be detected without difficulty.   The  resin is  more liable  to be
adulterated  with guaiacum, resin and colophony, and  which may be
detected by sulphuric ether which does not dissolve pure jalap resin.
   Properties and Uses.—Jalap is  an irritant and cathartic, operating
briskly, producing copious liquid stools with griping,  and sometimes ac-
companied with  nausea and vomiting.  Large  doses  produce violent
hypercatharsis,  sometimes terminating fatally.  When applied to  a
wound it is said to induce purgation.   Notwithstanding its activity, it is
a safe  and convenient purgative,  much in use among the profession, and
is  applicable in all  cases where  it is  desirable to produce  a powerful
influence on the bowels, or to obtain copious evacuations.  In intestinal
inflammations it should  not be used.  United with the bitartrate of
potassa, its hydragogue properties are much increased, and thus  proves
beneficial in dropsies, as well as in some forms of scrofula.   It is stated
that the  aqueous extract of jalap, the root having been previously ex-
hausted of its resin by alcohol, will exert no cathartic influence, but will
operate as a powerful  diuretic.  Three grains of jalap taken an hour
before each meal, act as a slight nauseant, destroying a desire for food
among persons who are apt to eat too freely.   If jalap is  digested  in
ether,  its nauseous taste  and  smell  will  be wholly  removed, without
lessening its cathartic  power.  A biscuit is sometimes  made for those
to whom it is  extremely nauseous and  disagreeable ; five drachms  of
jalap,  thirty of  sugar, and four  ounces of flour, are  made  into fifteen
biscuits after the usual mode ;  one biscuit  is a dose.   The  tendency of
jalap to  gripe  and nauseate, may be  obviated  by adding to the dose a
grain or two of camphor, or three grains of cloves.   The dose of jalap
in powder is from fifteen to thirty grains  (the  aqueous extract ought
not to  be used, except as a diuretic);  of the tincture, from one to four
fluidrachms; the resin,  or alcoholic extract is given in from four to eight
grain doses, being usually rubbed up with  sugar, or in emulsion, for the
purpose of lessening its disposition to produce  painful irritation of the
intestinal mucous membrane.  As a  hydragogue, two  drachms  of the
bitartrate of potassa is added to ten or thirty grains of pulverized jalap.
   Off. Prep. — Confectio  Senna  Composita; Extractum sive  Resina
Jalapa ; Pulvis Jalapa Compositus ;  Tinctura  Jalapa  Composita. 
Iris Versicolor.                       567
                       IRIS VERSICOLOR.
                             Blue Flag.
         Nat.  Ord.—Iridaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Triandria Monogynia.
                            THE RHIZOMA.
   Description.—Iris Versicolor  is  an  indigenous  plant, with a fleshy,
horizontal, fibrous root or rhizoma.  The stem is  two or three feet in
hight, terete, flexuous, round on one side, acute on  the  other, and  fre-
quently branched.  The leaves are about a foot long, half an inch  to an
inch  wide,  ensiform, striated,  erect,  and sheathing  at base.  Bracts
scarious.   The flowers are from  two to six in number, and usually blue
or purple, though varying much  in color.  Peduncles  are of different
lengths, and flattened on the inside.   Sepals spathulate, beardless, the
border purple, and the  claw variegated with green, yellow, and white,
and veined with purple.   Petals erect, varying in  shape  from spathulate
to lanceolate, usually paler than the outer, entire or emarginate.   Stig-
mas  three,  petaloid,  purple  or  violet, bifid, crenate, and more or  less
reflexed at the point.   Stamens  three, concealed  under the stigmas,
with  oblong-linear anthers.   Capsule three-celled, three-valved,  and
when ripe oblong, turgid,  three-sided,  with roundish  angles.   Seeds
numerous, flat.
   History.—Blue Flag is found in all parts of the United States, growing
in low wet places,  in meadows, and on the  borders of swamps, serving
to adorn them with its  large and  beautiful flowers, which make  their
appearance  in June.  They afford a fine blue infusion, which  serves as
a test of acids and alkalies.   The root  is the officinal portion, it has a
peculiar  odor, augmented by rubbing, and a nauseous taste, imparting
to the fauces a powerful sense of heat and acrimony. In appearance the
root very much resembles that of  the Acorus Calamus.  Its active pro-
perties are taken up  by alcohol or ether, and  its acrimony, as well as
medicinal activity, is  impaired by age.  If cut when  fresh into slices,
dried at the temperature of about 100°, and then powdered and kept in
bottles or tin cans excluded from the air and light,  the  root retains its
virtues unimpaired for a long time.   It contains mucilage, oil, and  resin,
from  the former of which it derives  diuretic  properties, by decoction.
The resin is of a light brown color, of a faint odor, and of a taste resem-
bling  that of the root; when perfectly freed from oil  it is  whitish y7ellow.
Its therapeutical influences are not positively known.   The oil possesses
in a high degree the taste and smell of the root, and is the principle to
which it owes its medicinal  activity.    The oleo-resin is  obtained for
medical purposes, under  the name of Iridin.
  Properties and Uses.—This is  one among our most valuable medicinal
plants, and is employed  almost exclusively by Eclectics.  It  has  been
termed the Mercury of  Eclectic practice, in  consequence of the many 
568
Materia  Medica.
indications it is capable  of  fulfilling.  It is  cathartic, alterative, siala-
gogue, vermifuge, and  diuretic.  In  dropsy,  it  may  be used alone in
doses of ten grains of the powdered root  every two hours, as a hydra-
gogue,  or it may be combined  with corn snakeroot, Eryngium Yucce-
folium.   In  anasarca  and hydrothorax,  the  saturated  tincture of the
root,  taken in teaspoonful  doses,  every two or three  hours,  until its
hydragogue  influence  is  obtained, will be found serviceable ; in some
instances it may be  combined with an equal  quantity of  the saturated
tincture of Euphorbia Ipecacuanha.   In scrofula, and syphilis, whether
primary or secondary, it  acts as a powerful  and efficacious agent,  and
may be used alone, or combined Avith mandrake, poke,  black-cohosh,
and other alteratives.  In chronic, hepatic, renal, and splenitic affections,
five  or  ten grains  of the powdered  root, will  be found very valuable.
Equal parts  of  blue flag root, mandrake root, and  prickly-ash  bark,
combined, and given in doses of  ten  grains every two or three hours, to
fall short of catharsis, will act as a powerful alterative, frequently caus-
ing a copious salivation without injury to the teeth or gums.  In chronic
rheumatism,  mercurio-syphilis, dyspepsia, tapeworm, gonorrhea, leucor-
rhea, dysmenorrhea, and constipation, it has been used with positive ad-
vantage, either alone, or in combination with other agents.  A writer says,
" The root of the Blue  Flag extends  its influence through every part of
the system in small doses and repeated at short intervals; it seems to act
more particularly on the glandular system, exciting them to a discharge
of their respective offices ; in large doses it evacuates and exhausts the
system, acting on the liver, and the alimentary canal throughout."
  In Eclectic  practice  salivation is not, as  a general rule, desired for the
cure of  disease, yet  we have many articles which produce it, and often
without the  practitioner's being aware of the fact, and hence,  when it
does occur, the cry  is at once raised  that Eclectics use mercury.   Sali-
vation caused by vegetable agents may be  known from that by mercury,
by the absence  of mercurial fetor, and no sponginess of the gums or
loosening of  the teeth.   The dose of  pulverized blue flag is from five to
twenty grains; of the saturated tincture, from ten to sixty drops.  In some
persons,  and  when  exhibited in large doses, it is apt  to occasion  much
distressing nausea, with considerable prostration, these effects may be
obviated or mitigated,  by combining it with  a  few grains of capsicum
or ginger, a grain of camphor, or four or five  grains of caulophyllin.
  There are several species of  Iris, as /. Virginica,  I. Lacustris, etc.,
which probably possess similar properties, and which are often collected
and  mixed with the officinal article.   The Iris Florenlina, or Floren-
tine  Orris, is said to be emetic, cathartic, and  diuretic, but is seldom
employed, except  in the composition of tooth-powders, and to conceal
an offensive breath.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Iridis Hydro-alcoholicum; Extractum Iridis
Fluidum ; Tinctura Iridis; Syrupus Styllingia Compositus. 
Iridin.
569
                              IRIDIN.

                               Iridin.
          THE 0LE0-RESIN0US  PRINCIPLE OF IRIS  VERSICOLOR.
   Preparation.—This is prepared  in the  same manner  as  Aletrin, but
being an oleo-resin cannot be reduced to powder.  I had the pleasure
of calling the attention of the profession to this article in 1844, about
the same time I introduced the podophyllin,  (to remarks on which  I
refer  the  reader)  and again in 1846.   I have used it extensively and
find it to be an invaluable medicine.  It is now prepared by W. S.  Mer-
rell of Cincinnati, for the use of practitioners generally.  It is soluble in
alcohol, but insoluble in water.
   Properties and Uses.—This is cathartic, alterative, sialagogue, diuretic
and anthelmintic.  I have  used it more or less  extensively for  several
years in combination with the resin of podophyllum, and in the form of
pill, for dropsy, primary  and secondary syphilis, chronic visceral affec-
tions, rheumatism, gonorrhea, and many female affections.   It is not as
nauseating, when given alone, as podophyllin, and requires rather larger
doses.  One grain triturated with ten grains of sugar, may be given in
three-grain doses, every hour or two, until a cathartic effect is produced.
I have long  used the following as a sialagogue  in those cases of glan-
dular diseases which  seemed  to resist  the action of other  means, viz :
equal parts of Iridin, Podophyllin, and Xanthoxylin,  given in grain
doses every hour or two  until ptyalism was produced.   By trituration
with sugar or lactin, this combination  becomes  more active.  Iridin  is
not as prompt in  its  effects as Podophyllin,  although it may be  substi-
tuted for this in all instances ;  and its alterative influence, though slowly
developed and without any immediate appreciable effect,  is yet positive
and certain.  For the last six  years I have used it in preference to the
Podophyllin, in uterine diseases conjoined Avith Cimicifugin.  The usual
dose of Iridin is from  one-half of a grain to five grains.   Physicians will
occasionally meet with patients upon whom Podophyllin, even in small
doses, exerts a powerful  and long continued  influence, sometimes not
readily obviated; in such cases, Iridin  seems  to me to be more espe-
cially indicated.  The addition  of capsicum or  caulophyllin to iridin,
mitigates any harshness of action which  it may  produce.  A combination
of Iridin, Podophyllin and Xanthoxylin, or Corydallia is a most powerful
and certain remedy for syphilis, either primary  or  secondary, and will
be found very  useful in scrofula.  Iridin three grains,  leptandrin six
grains, and  bitartrate potassa twenty grains,  made into one powder,
forms  a  hydragogue cathartic  of much  value in some forms of dropsy.
Iridin may be used in all cases where the root of the Iris is indicated. 
570
Materia  Medica.
                      JANIPHA MANIHOT.
                              Tapioca.
      Nat.  Ord.—Euphorbiaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Moncecia Monadelphia.
                     the fecula  of the root.
   Description.—This is the  Cassava plant of the West Indies, and  the
Mandioca or Tapioca of  Brazil.   It has  a large, white, fleshy, oblong,
tuberous root, often weighing thirty pounds, and full of a wheyish, ven-
omous juice.    The stems  are white, crooked,  brittle,  jointed, pithy,
usually six  or  seven feet high, and having a smooth, white bark;  the
branches are crooked, and have, on  every side, near their tops, leaves
which are irregularly placed on long terete petioles, broadly cordate in
their outline, and divided nearly to their  base into five, spreading, lan-
ceolate, entire  lobes, attenuated at both  extremities,  dark-green above,
pale glaucous  beneath ;  the midrib strong, prominent and yellowish-red
below, with several oblique veins, connected  by lesser transverse ones,
branching from  it.   Stipules  small,  lanceolate, acuminate, caducous.
The flowers are in axillary and terminal racemes.  Pedicels with small,
subulate bracts at their  base.  Male flowers  smaller than the  female.
Calyx campanulate, divided into five spreading segments, purplish exter-
nally, fulvous-brown within.   Disk orange-colored, fleshy, annular, ten-
rayed.  Stamens ten, alternating with the lobes of  the disk  Filaments
shorter than the calyx, white, filiform,  free.    Anthers  yellow, linear-
oblong.  Female flower of the same color as the male, deeply five-parted,
the  segments  lanceolate-ovate, spreading.   Disk  an annular, orange-
colored ring, in which  the purple, ovate, furrowed ovary is imbedded;
style short; stigmas three, reflexed, furrowed  and plaited, white.  Cap-
sule ovate,  three-cornered, tricoccous.   Seeds elliptical, black,  shining
with a thick fleshy funiculus.
   History.—This plant, formerly designated by botanists as the Jatropha
Manihot, until  separated by Kunth, is a native of South America, and is
cultivated extensively in many parts of it, for  the sake of its root, which
serves as an article of food.  The plant grows rapidly, and the root
matures in about eight months.   There are two varieties of the plant;
the root of one variety is fusiform, brown externally,  not  exceeding  six
ounces in weight, Avith  a sweet, amylaceous  taste, and which may  be
eaten with impunity.   This is  termed Sweet Cassava.   The root of  the
other and more common variety, is much  larger, knotty, and black
externally, abounds in an acrid milky juice, has a  bitter  taste, and is a
deadly narcotic poison in the recent state.  This is called Bitter Cassava,
and  its  poisonous properties are  said to  be owing to the presence  of
hydrocyanic acid.  Both varieties abound in starch.  Tapioca is prepared
from the  Bitter Cassava.  The root,  which is very large, white, fleshy
and  tuberous,  is reduced to a pulp, this  is washed with cold water in 
Jeffersonia Diphylla.
571
funnel-shaped mat-filters, the starch is allowed to subside in the milky
fluid which passes through, and is then elutriated in the  usual  manner,
and  finally converted into the granular  form by drying it on hot plates.
Should any of the volatile  poisonous principle  remain in the meal pre-
vious to drying it, the heat employed for this purpose  entirely  removes
it.  Tapioca is a very pure  starch, in the form of irregular Avarty grains,
seldom larger than a pea, white, tasteless and inodorous.  Boiling water
dissolves it almost entirely,—or, if in small proportion to the tapioca, it
forms with it  a translucent, tasteless jelly,  and firmer than is made with
most varieties of starch.   Cold water  partially dissolves it, forming a
liquid which yields a blue precipitate with iodine. Under the microscope
it is found to  consist  of aggregated starch-globules,  about the two thou-
sandth of an  im;h in diameter, partly broken, partly entire, the broken
ones only being soluble in cold water, more uniform  than the granules of
most other varieties of fecula,  with  a distinct hilum  which is surrounded
by rings, and cracks in  a stellate  manner.  The rupture observed in
some of  the granules, is  owing to the heat employed in drying.
  Properties  and Uses.—Nutritive and  demulcent.   Used as a light and
agreeable nourishment for the sick  ; it makes  an excellent nourishment
for infants about the time  of Aveaning, and  is  less  apt to turn sour on
their stomach, than  any other kind of  farinaceous  food.  For  the  sick
and convalescent, lemon juice and sugar form  agreeable additions ; and
in low states of disease, or  debility, it may be  improved  by  the addition
of wine,  nutmeg, or  other aromatic.
                  JEFFERSONIA DIPHYLLA.
                             Twinleaf.
       Nat. Ord.—Berberidaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Octandria Monogynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—This is an indigenous, perennial plant, sometimes known
as Ground-squirrel Pea, and Rheumatism Root. The rhizoma is horizontal,
with matted  fibrous radicles ; the scape or stem is simple, naked, one-
floAvered, and from  eight to fourteen inches in hight.  The  leaves are in
pairs, binate, placed base to base, oval, broader than long, ending in an
obtuse point, smooth, glaucous beneath, and on petioles as long as the
scape, which arise  from the rhizoma.  The flowers are large, regular,
white.   The calyx  consists of four,  colored,  deciduous sepals.   The
corolla has eight  flat, oblong, spreading, incurved petals.  The  stamens
are eight, with oblong-linear anthers on  slender filaments.  Ovary ovoid,
soon gibbous, pointed; stigma two-lobed.  The capsule is obovate, or
somewhat  pear-shaped,  stipitate,  one-celled, opening  half-way round
horizontally, making a  persistent lid.   Seeds many on  the  lateral  pla-
centa, with a fleshy lacerate aril on one side, oblong. 
572
Materia Medica.
   History.—This plant is found from New York to Maryland and Vir-
ginia, and  in  many parts of the Western States, growing in limestone
soil, in woods, and  near streams and rivers, flowering in April and May.
The root is the officinal part, it is  yellow like the  Hydrastis, but much
larger, it has a pungent, nauseous, bitterish, and acrid taste, and an odor
resembling Podophyllum.  Water or alcohol extracts its virtues.   It has
not been analyzed.
   Properties and   Uses. — Diuretic,  alterative,  antispasmodic,  and  a
stimulating diaphoretic.   Successfully  used  in  chronic  rheumatism,
secondary  or  mercurio-syphilis,  syphilitic pains,  dropsy, in many ner-
vous affections,  spasms, cramps, nervous excitability, and even  during
pregnancy.   In syphilitic diseases it is combined with corydallis.   As a
gargle it has been beneficial in diseases  of the throat, ulcers  about  the
fauces, scarlatina, ophthalmia,  and  indolent ulcers.   It  is administered
in decoction and saturated tincture.   Dose of the decoction, from two to
four fluidounces, three times a  day; of the tincture, from one to three
fluidrachms, three times a day.
   Off.  Prep.—Decoctum Jeffersonia.

                       JUGLANS  CINEREA.
                             Butternut.
        Nat. Ord.—Juglandaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Monoacia Polyandria.
            THE INNER BARK  OF THE ROOT,  AND LEAVES.
   Description.—This tree, also known as White Walnut,  Oil Nut, etc.,
is indigenous, and  grows to a hight of from thirty to fifty feet, with a
trunk three or four  feet in diameter at the distance of five feet from  the
ground.  At a short distance  from the  ground, the stem divides into
numerous,  nearly  horizontal, wide-spreading branches,  covered with a
smooth, gray bark,  and forming a  large  tufted head, giving to the tree
a peculiar  appearance.   The leaves are alternate, from twelve to twenty
inches long, and consist of seven or eight pairs of leaflets, which are two
or three inches in length, oblong-lanceolate, rounded  at the  base, acu-
minate, finely serrate and downy, the  petioles and branchlets downy
with clammy hairs.   The male and female flowers  are distinct upon the
same tree.   The former are in large aments, four or five inches long,
hanging from the sides  of the last  year's shoots, near their extremities.
The scales which compose them are oblong and deeply-cleft on each side
into about three teeth or segments.   The anthers are about eight or ten
in number, oblong  and nearly sessile.   The fertile flowers grow in a
short spike at the end of the new shoot; they are sessile, and universally
pubescent and viscid; when fully grown, they seem to consist of a large
oblong ovary and a  forked feathery style.  The top of the ovary, how-
ever, presents an obscurely four-toothed calyx.   Within this is a corolla
of four narrow lanceolate petals growing to the sides  of the  style;  the 
JUGLANS ClNEREA.
573
style  divides  into two  large, diverging,  feathery, rose-colored stigmas
nearly as long as the ovary.   The fruit is sometimes single, suspended
by a thin pliable peduncle;  sometimes several are together on the sides
and extremity of the same peduncle, of a green color, brown when ripe,
oblong-oval, obtusely-pointed, hairy, and  extremely viscid.   The nut or
nucleus is of a dark color, hard, oblong, pointed, carinated on both sides,
its whole surface roughened by deep indentures and sharp prominences.
The kernel is oily, pleasant-flavored, and edible.
   Juglans Nigra, or Black  Walnut, grows from sixty to ninety feet high,
with a diameter  of from three to six feet,':with a brown bark.  The leaf-
lets are numerous, seven to ten or eleven pairs, ovate-lanceolate, serrate,
subcordate at base,  taper-pointed at the 'apex, smooth above, the lower
surface and the petioles minutely downy.  The fruit  is globose, with
scabrous punctures,  the nut  corrugated, and its kernel sweet, more plea-
sant-tasted and  less oily than the butternut,  but  greatly inferior to  the
European walnut, Juglans Regia.
   History.—These trees are common to North America.   The J. Cinerea
is found in Canada, and throughout the  whole  northern, eastern, and
western sections of the  United States, in  rich woods, on elevated river-
banks, and on cold, uneven rocky soils, flowering in April and May, and
ripening its fruit  in September.   The tree,  if tapped just before  the
unfolding of  the leaves, yields a  richly-saccharine juice,  from which
sugar may be obtained, nearly if  not quite  equal to that from the sugar-
maple.   The  wood is  light, of a reddish hue, but on account of  its
durability and exemption from the attacks  of worms, is considerably
used in panneling and ornamental work.   The fruit,  when quite young,
is made into  pickles, and the bark is employed for dying wool a dark-
brown color, though  inferior for this purpose  to that of the black walnut.
In  the recent state it is acrid, and when applied to the skin, produces a
rubefacient effect.   The inner bark is the medicinal portion, especially
of the  root, and  should be collected in May or June.   When first uncov-
ered on the  tree, the inner bark  is pure Avhite, but soon  becomes a
lemon, and ultimately a deep-broAvn  color;  it is of  a fibrous texture, a
slight  odor, and a peculiar,  bitter, subacrid taste.  Boiling  water  com-
pletely  extracts  its  medical virtues.   No satisfactory  analysis of  the
inner bark of  this  tree  has been made.
   The J. Nigra  is rarely found in the Northern States, but is more com-
mon to the Middle and Western.   It flowers  and ripens its  fruit at  the
same  time with  the  butternut.   The  duramen of its wood is compact
and heavy, of a deep  violet-color, surrounded with a white alburnum.
It is extensively used in building, and  for cabinet-work.
  Properties and Uses.—Butternut is a pleasant and  mild  cathartic,
operating Avithout pain, irritation,  or subsequent debility of the  alimen-
tary canal, somewhat of the cathartic character of rhubarb,  but without 
574
Materia Medica.
inducing constipation  after its action.   It is especially adapted to cases
of habitual  constipation, dysentery, and other  affections of the bowels.
It is generally used in the form of an  extract,  in  doses  of from  ten to
thirty grains.   A strong decoction of it is much employed in some sec-
tions of the country,  as a domestic remedy in intermittent and remittent
fevers,  as  well  as in other diseases  attended with  congestion  of the
abdominal viscera; it is  also reputed  efficacious  in  murrain of  cattle
and yellow-water in horses.   The juice of the rind of the black walnut
(Juglans Nigra) is said to remove ringworm and tetter; and a decoction
has  been used  as  a vermifuge.   Its bark  is acrid and  styptic, seldom
used except  for tinctorial  purposes.   The  European walnut (Juglans
Regia) has recently been found by Professor Negrier, of Angers,  in the
highest degree  efficacious in scrofula.   He gave to children a teacupful
of a strong infusion of the leaves, or six grains of the aqueous extract,
or an  equivalent  dose of a syrup prepared from it two to four times a
day; if there were ulcers or sore eyes, a strong decoction was applied
to them.  No injury was ever experienced from a long-continued  use of
the  remedy.  It appears  to  act  as  a moderately aromatic  bitter and
astringent.  The above American  species  would probably  ansAver as
good a purpose.  Juglandin is the name  of an agent just prepared from the
J. Cinerea, by Mr.  W. S. Merrell.  It is of a jet-black color, brittle like
starch, with the peculiar odor of the bark,  and a bitter, somewhat pun-
gent and aromatic taste, with a stimulant effect  on  the fauces.   It is
insoluble in water, but becomes soluble on  the  addition of ammonia or
liquor  potassa;  and the addition of acids to the solution precipitates the
juglandin.   Sulphate of iron added to water containing juglandin, dark-
ens it.   It is nearly soluble in alcohol, more  so on the addition of ammo-
nia ; partially soluble in  ether.  Muriatic acid  turns  a thin layer of it
green; sulphuric acid, reddish-black;  and with nitric  acid it effervesces,
and becomes yellowish-red.  So far as employed, this article has answered
an admirable purpose as a laxative and cathartic, in doses of from one
to five  grains;  and will,  probably,  prove  an  invaluable agent.   It is
prepared by adding  a saturated  tincture  of the  bark of butternut to
twice its volume of water, and distilling off the alcohol; the  juglandin
is precipitated in the water, from which it must be removed and  dried.
Combined with  Castile soap it operates more promptly.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Juglandis.

                    JUNIPERUS  COMMUNIS.
                              Juniper.
          Nat. Ord.—Pinaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Dioecia Monadelphia.
                       THE FRUIT OR  BERRIES.
  Description.—This  is  an erect, evergreen shrub, generally small, but
occasionally attaining  a hight  of twelve or  fifteen  feet, with numerous, 
Juniperus Communis.
575
very close branches, the extremities of which are smooth and  angular.
The leaves  are  attached to the stem or branches in threes, in a verticil-
late manner, linear-acerose, sharply mucronate,  entire, shining-green on
their  lower surface, channeled and glaucous along the center of their
upper surface; they are always resupinate, and  turn their upper surface
toward  the ground.  The flowers are  dicecious, the males in small axil-
lary  aments, with roundish, acute,  stipitate  scales, inclosing several
anthers.  Female flowers are on a separate shrub, having a small,  three-
parted involucre growing to the scales, which are three in number.  The
fruit is fleshy, roundish-oblong, berried, of a dark-purplish color, formed
of  the  confluent  succulent scales,  marked with  three  prominences or
vesicles at top, ripening the second year from the flower, and containing
three seeds.
   History.—The Juniper is a native  of Europe,  though naturalized in
some parts of  this country, growing in dry woods and hills, and flower-
ing in May.   The fruit, or berries, as  they are generally called, are the
officinal parts;  those which are imported from  the south of Europe are
the best.—the American berries are greatly inferior  in strength, and not
much used.  They are globular, more or  less shriveled, about the size
of  a pea, marked  with three furrows at  the  summit,  covered with a
glaucous  bloom, beneath which they  are of a  shining, blackish-purple
color, and containing a brownish-yellow pulp, and three angular  seeds.
They haA7e an agreeable, aromatic odor, and a sweetish, warm,  bitter,
slightly terebinthinate  taste, which  properties  they owe  to an essential
oil, the oil  of juniper, which is  obtained  by distillation.   The berries
impart their  virtues to water or  alcohol.  Beside  volatile oil, they con-
tain resin,  gum,  wax,  sugar, lignin,  water,  and  various saline sub-
stances.
   Properties  and, Uses.—Both the berries and oil are gently stimulant,
carminative, and diuretic.  The oil is said to act  like copaiba in  arresting
mucous discharges, especially from the urethra.  It is  contained  in the
spirituous liquor called Hollands,  one of its  best  forms as a diuretic.
Five minims of the oil,  with one fluidrachm of nitrous ether, given three
times  a  day in  any common vehicle, produces diuresis in dropsy Avhen
other means fail.   The  berries are used principally as  an  adjuvant to
more powerful diuretics.  They have  also been recommended  in  scor-
butic and  cutaneous diseases, catarrh of the  bladder, and atonic  condi-
tions of the  uterus and alimentary canal.   Dose of the berries, from
one to two drachms; of the oil, from four to  six minims.
   Off. Prep. — Pilula  Saponi  Composita;  Tinctura  Pinus Pendula
Composita. 
576
Materia Medica.
                      JUNIPERUS SABINA.
                               Savin.
         Nat. Ord.—Pinaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Dioacia Monadelphia.
                      THE TOPS  AND LEAVES.
  Description.—Juniperus Sabina, is an evergreen, very compact shrub,
growing from three to fifteen feet in  hight, with a disposition to spread
horizontally rather  than to form a stem.  The  branches are  slender,
round, tough, the bark of the  young branches light-green, that of the
trunk rough and reddish brown.   The leaves closely invest the younger
branches, are numerous, small, erect, firm, smooth, pointed, of  a dark-
green color, glandular in the middle, opposite, and imbricated in four rows.
The flowers are male  and female on different trees.  The fruit is a deep
bluish-purple,  almost black, about the  size  of a currant, of an ovoid
shape, marked Avith tubercles, the remains of the calyx  and  petals, and
containing three seeds.
  History.—This plant is a  native  of southern  Europe, and is said to
grow wild around  our north-western lakes.   The  extremities of the
branches  and leaves are the officinal parts.   When dried they fade  very
much  in  color; they  have  a strong, peculiar, rather unpleasant odor,
especially Avhen bruised, and a disagreeable, bitter, resinous, acrid taste.
They impart their virtues to Avater or alcohol.  Their properties are owing
to an essential oil, oil of Savin, Avhich is obtained by distillation; it  is limpid
and colorless.  They are also said to contain gum, tannic or  gallic  acid,
resin, chlorophylle, fixed oil, bitter extractive, lime, and  salts of  potassa.
  Properties and  Uses.—Emmenagogue,  diuretic,  diaphoretic,  anthel-
mintic, and  abortive.  In  over-doses it will produce  gastro-enteritis.
Useful in menorrhagia, and said to be beneficial in preventing threatened
abortion.   Care must be taken in its administration, as it may produce
fatal  results.   It should  never  be  given Avhen much  general  or  local
inflammation exists,  and it  should never  be used  during pregnancy.
Sometimes used for  worms, with  pink and  senna.    The oil (oleum
sabince), given two or three  times  a day, in doses of from ten to fifteen
drops on  sugar, is said to  produce  abortion, and it  is apt to  violently
affect the stomach and bowels, bringing life into extreme  danger.  It is
sometimes combined  with oils of tansy7,  pennyroyal, and hemlock,  as an
emmenagogue and  abortivant;  dose, from two  to four drops.  Exter-
nally, the leaves  in  the  form of cerate, have  been used as a stimulant
to  indolent ulcers, and to maintain a discharge from blistered surfaces;
and mixed with an equal weight of verdigris, the powder has been used
for destroying venereal warts.   Dose of powdered leaves,  from five to
fifteen grains, three  times a day ; of the infusion, from  half a fluidounce
to  two fluidounces.
    Off. Prep.—Ceratum  Sabina ; Decoctum  Sabina;  Tinctura Caulo-
phylli Composita; Unguentum Sabina. 
Juniperus Virginiana.
577
                  JUNIPERUS VIRGINIANA.
                           Red Cedar.
          Nat. Ord-—Pinaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Dioacia Monadelphia.
                  THE  LEAVES AND EXCRESCENCES.
  Description. — Juniperus Virginiana is an  evergreen tree of  slow
growth, seldom attaining a very large size, though sometimes rising forty
or fifty feet in hight, with a stem twelve or thirteen inches  in diameter,
straight and decreasing rapidly from the ground, giving off many hori-
zontal branches; its surface generally unequal, and  disfigured by knots,
and the crevices and protuberances they occasion.   The small twigs are
covered with minute, densely imbricated leaves.  These leaves are fleshy,
ovate, concave, rigidly acute, with a small depressed gland on the mid-
dle of their outer side, growing in pairs which are united at the base to
each other, and to the pairs above and below them.  (A singular variety
sometimes appears in the young shoots, especially those  which issue
from the base of the trees;  this consists  in an elongation  of the leaves
to five  or six  times their usual  length, while they become spreading,
acerose, remote from  each other,  and irregular in their insertion, being
either opposite or ternate;  such  shoots are so dissimilar to the  parent
tree that they have repeatedly been mistaken for individuals of a differ-
ent species.)  The barren flowers grow in small oblong aments, formed
by peltate scales with the anthers concealed  within them.   The fertile
flowers  have  a  proper  perianth, which  coalesces with the germ,  and
forms a small, roundish berry, with two  or three seeds, covered on its
outer surface with a bright blue powder.
  History.—The Red Cedar grows in all latitudes of the United  States,
from that of Burlington, Vermont, to the Gulf of Mexico; it  inhabits
dry rocky situations,  and is most abundant and vigorous in  the southern
States and maritime parts, and flowers in April and May.   The interior
wood  is of a  reddish color, fine-grained and compact, very light and
durable, and is much used for tubs,  pails, lead pencils,  fences, etc.   The
tops  and  leaves are the officinal parts ; they have a  peculiar, not un-
pleasant odor, and a strong, bitterish, somewhat pungent taste.   Their
virtues reside chiefly in an  essential oil, and are readily imparted to alco-
hol.   The leaves bear  a close resemblance  to those  of the Juniperus
Sabina, for which  they are often but incorrectly employed, and  from
which they can be distinguished only by  the difference  of odor.   Analy-
sis has  found  in them  volatile  oil, gum,  tannic acid, albumen, bitter
extractive, resin, chlorophylle, fixed oil, lime and lignin.  Excrescences
are often found on  the small branches, known as Cedar Apples, and
produced, like galls, by the puncture of an  insect; they have a  some-
what aromatic  odor, and a bitterish taste.   These  are sometimes  pow-
dered, and administered successfully as  a vermifuge, in doses  of  from
ten to twenty grains, three times a day, in some convenient vehicle.
         37 
578                     Materia  Medica.

  Properties and Uses.—Same  as the Juniperus Sabina, but less ener-
getic, and used in the same diseases; also in scalding of urine, and
derangement of the kidneys and bladder, with spearmint  and marsh-
malloAvs.  The oil makes  a valuable external stimulating application for
rheumatic pains, bruises,  etc.   Dose  of  the leaves, from  one to two
drachms;  of the oil, from ten to fifteen drops.
  The excrescences or cedar apples, as they are called, which are some-
times found  on  the tree, are decided anthelmintics.   The folloAving makes
a pleasant and  excellent vermifuge and tonic,  for pale, sickly children;
I have used it with much success in hundreds of cases:  Take of cedar
apples one pound; of black alder berries,  (Prinos  Verticillatus) one pint
by measure  ; digest these for fourteen days, in one quart of alcohol, and
one pint of molasses.   The  more recent the articles, the better.  Dose,
one fluidrachm,  three times a day, for a child one  or two years old ;  it
is laxative, tonic and vermifuge.
    Off. Prep. —Linimentum Olei.
                      KALMIA LATIFOLIA.
                           Sheep  Laurel.
         Nat.  Ord.—Ericaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.
                            the leaves.
  Description.—This plant is known by various names in different  sec-
tions  of  the  country,  as Laurel, Lambkill, Ivy,  Big-leaved Ivy, Spoon-
wood, Calico-bush, Mountain Laurel, etc.  It is a beautiful shrub, from
four to eight feet  high, sometimes attaining the  hight of a  small tree;
usually with very crooked  stems, covered  with  a light-colored rough
bark.  The leaves are irregularly alternate and ternate, evergreen, coria-
ceous, very smooth, with  the  under side someAvhat paler,  ovate-lanceo-
late,  acute at each  end, entire, on long petioles at the ends of the
branches, and from two to three inches long.  The flowers are numerous,
white or variously tinged with red, very showy, clammy, and are dis-
posed in splendid terminal, viscid-pubescent, simple or compound corymbs,
with opposite branches.  Pedicels glutinous, pubescent, with ovate,  acu-
minate  bracts.   Calyx small, five-parted,  persistent, with oval acute
segments.  Corolla large, monopetalous, with a conical tube, a cyathiform
limb, and an erect, shallowy five-lobed margin; at the circumference of
the limb, on the inside, are ten niches or pits, accompanied  with corre-
sponding prominences  on the outside; in these depressions  the anthers
are found lodged  at the time Avhen the flower expands. The  stamens are
ten, hypogynous, bent outwardly so  as to lodge  their anthers in the
niches of the corolla, but liberating  them during the period of flower-
ing and striking against the  sides  of the  stigma; anthers two-celled,
with two terminal pores.  The ovary is roundish, supporting a slender, 
Kalmia Latifolia.
579
declinate style longer than the corolla;  stigma obtuse.   Fruit a dry cap-
sule, which is roundish, depressed,  five-celled, five-valved, the valves
alternating with  the  divisions of  the  calyx.   The seeds are numerous
and minute.
  History.—Sheep-Laurel is found in most parts of the United States, on
rocky hills andmountains, and in damp soil, sometimes forming dense thick-
ets, with a profusion of beautiful rose-colored flowers which appear in June
and July, forming a  contrast with its dark shining green leaves.  The
leaves have poisonous narcotic properties, and prove fatal  to sheep and
some other animals, while goats, deer and partridges feed upon them with
impunity. Where partridges which have fed upon them, have been eaten,
it is said to have  caused nausea,  temporary blindness,  pain in the head,
dyspnoea, pallid  countenance,  cold extremities, feeble  pulse, and even
death.   An emetic of  mustard with warm water, has relieved some of
the above symptoms, by removing the poison from the stomach.   It is
very doubtful, however, whether these symptoms were caused by the
poisoned flesh of the birds, as numerous persons eat partridges that have
been feeding on  the  laurel, without the least inconvenience.  The pre-
sumption is  that the poisonous character of  the  flesh  was caused by a
peculiar state of animal decomposition.   The Indians are said to use the
expressed juice of the leaves, or  a strong decoction,  for the purpose of
committing suicide.  The leaves  are the officinal parts, and yield their
virtues to alcohol or water.  They contain gum, tannic acid, resin, chlo-
rophylle, fatty matter,  a substance resembling mannite, an acrid  prin-
ciple, wax, extractive,  albumen, yellow-coloring matter, lignin, and salts
of potassa, lime, and iron.
  Properties and Uses.—In immoderate doses,  Sheep-laurel is a poison-
ous narcotic, producing vertigo,  dimness of sight, great  depression  of
the action of the heart, and cold  extremities.   In medicinal doses it is
sedative, antisyphilitic, and astringent.  Internally, either in  powder,
decoction, or tincture, it is an efficacious remedy in primary or secondary
syphilis, and will likewise be found invaluable in febrile and inflamma-
tory diseases, and hypertrophy  of the  heart, allaying all febrile and
inflammatory action, and lessening the action of the  heart.  In  active
hemorrhages, diarrhea, and dysentery, it has been employed with excel-
lent effect.  I have extensively used this agent, and  regard it as one of
our most efficient agents in syphilis ;  and  have  likewise  found  it very
valuable in inflammatory fevers, jaundice, and ophthalmic neuralgia and
inflammation.   The  remedy must always  be  used with prudence, and
should any of the above-mentioned symptoms appear, the dose must  be
diminished, or its use suspended  for a few days.  In cases of poisoning
by this article, stimulants,  as brandy, whisky, etc., must be given, with
counter-irritation to the spine and extremities.  Sheep  poisoned by eat-
ing the leaves, have  been saved by administering  a gill  or two of whisky
to them. Externally, the fresh leaves stewed  in lard, or the dried leaves 
580
Materia  Medica.
in powder mixed with lard to form an ointment, are said to be beneficial
in tinea-capitis, psora, and other cutaneous affections.  Some time since I
treated a case of syphilis of five weeks' standing, which had not received
any kind of treatment during  that period.   The  patient, at the time I
saw him, had several chancres, the surface of the body and head was
covered with small red pimples, elevated above a jaundiced skin, and he
was in a very debilitated condition  ; I administered a saturated tincture of
the leaves of Kalmia, and touched the chancres with tincture of muriate
of iron, and effected a cure in four weeks, removing the jaundice at the same
time.   The saturated tincture  of the leaves is the best form of adminis-
tration, it may be given in doses of from ten to twenty drops, every two
or three hours; the decoction may be given in doses of from half a
fluidounce to a fluidounce ; and of the powdered leaves from ten to thirty
grains.   There are  other species of Kalmia, as  K. Glauca or Swamp
Laurel,  and K. Angustifolia, or Narrow-leaved Laurel, which probably
possess similar properties.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Kalmia;  Syrupus  Phytolacca  Compositus;
Tinctura Kalmia.
                               KINO.
                               Kino.
THE  inspissated juice of pterocarpus  marsupium, and other plants.
  Description.—For a long time the origin of Kino was unknown, but it
has recently been ascertained to be the product of a lofty tree, growing
upon the mountains of the Malabar coast of Hindostan, named Pterocar-
pus Marsupium, belonging to the Natural Order Fabacea. It has an erect,
very high trunk,  rarely straight.   The outer layer  of bark is brown,
spongy, falling off in flakes, and the inner is red, fibrous, and astringent.
The  branches are spreading, horizontal, numerous, extending far.  The
leaves are sub-bifarious, alternate, pinnate with an odd one, eight or nine
inches long; leaflets five, six, or seven, alternate,  elliptic,  emarginate,
firm, deep-green  and  shining above, less  so below, from three to five
inches long, and two or three broad.   The petioles are round, smooth,
waved from leaflet to leaflet, and  five or six inches long; stipules none.
Panicles terminal, very  large; ramifications bifarious,  like  the leaves.
Peduncles and  pedicels round, a little downy.  Bracts small, caducous,
solitary below each  division and  sub-division of the  panicle.   Flowers
very numerous, white,  with  a  small tinge  of  yellow.   Vexillum with a
long slender  claw,  very broad ; sides reflexed,  waved, curled, veined;
keel  two-petalled, adhering slightly for a  little way near the middle,
waved, etc., same as the vexillum.   Stamens ten, united near  the base,
but soon dividing into two  parcels of five each; anthers globose, two-
lobed.    Ovary oblong,  pedicelled,  hairy,  generally two-celled;  cells 
Kino.
681
 transverse, and one-seeded.   Style ascending.  Legume on a long peti-
 ole, three-fourths orbicular, the upper remainder, which extends from
 the pedicel to the remains of the style, is straight, the whole surrounded
 with  a  waved, veiny,  downy,  membranous wing, swelled, rugose, and
 woody in the center, where  the seed is lodged, not opening;  generally
 one but sometimes two-celled.   Seeds single, reniform.
   History.—Kino is the juice of the tree  obtained by making longitudi-
 nal incisions in the bark ; it  flows abundantly, and of a red color, and by
 drying it in the sun, it cracks into irregular angular masses, which are
 placed into wooden  boxes for exportation.  It sometimes comes to this
 country direct from the East Indies, but  more generally from England.
 East India  Kino, which is the  ordinary kino of the shops, is usually in
 small, irregular, angular, shining fragments, in size between a pin's head
 and a pea,  of a dark-reddish-brown or blackish color, opake, very brittle,
 easily pulverizable, and affording a reddish powder, much lighter colored
 than the drug in its aggregate state, and which  becomes brownish on
 being kept for some time.  It is inodorous, and of  an intense, pure
 astringent,  with barely perceptible  bitterness, and leaving a  sweetish
 after-taste in the mouth.  It burns without fusion or softening,  and with
 but little flame and  frothing, leaving a scanty gray ash.   Boiling water
 dissolves -a large proportion of it, forming when cold,, a permanent,
 intense blood-red solution ; and which yields, with  sesquichloride of iron,
 a dark-green, coarsely flocculent precipitate,  which is so abundant as to
 render the whole liquid pulpy.  Acetate of lead affords a gray precipi-
 tate, and tartar emetic  a gradually formed lake-red muddy jelly.   Cold
 water forms with it a clear cherry-red solution, leaving  a crumbly, gray-
 ish residuum.  Alcohol dissolves about two-thirds of it,  and forms a deep
 brownish-red tincture, which is not disturbed by water.   By long stand-
 ing, the tincture gelatinizes, and loses its astringency.   Proof spirit is  a
 less complete solvent, but the tincture  is less apt to gelatinize.   Alkalies
 favor its solubility in water, but change its nature, and destroy its astrin-
 gency.  When chewed, Kino softens in the  mouth, slightly adheres to
 the teeth, and colors the saliva blood-red.  It is found to contain 75 per
 cent, of tannin, and  peculiar  extractive, 24 of red  gum, one of insoluble
 matter, and according  to Buchner catechuin or catechuic acid.  Its
 aqueous solution is  incompatible with gelatin,  the soluble salts of iron,
 silver, lead, antimony, bichloride of mercury,  and the  sulphuric, nitric
 and muriatic acids.
  There are many other exudations known in commerce as Kino, some
 of which are used principally for the purpose  of adulterating the finer
 sorts;  among the most  important are the  African Kino, Dhak-tree Kino,
 Botany Bay Kino, Jamaica Kino, and South American Kino.
  The African Kino, is at present very rarely  seen in commerce ;  from
specimens sent home by Mungo Park  during his last  journey, it was 
582
Materia Medica.
 decided an exudation from the Pterocarpus Erinaceus, a tree growing
 in Senega], and upon the banks of the Gambia, on the western coast of
 Africa.
   The Dhak-tree Kino is the product of the Butea Frondosa, a magnifi-
 cent leguminous tree of the East Indies.   The juice naturally exudes
 from  fissures in the branches of the tree, and  concretes into red tears
 which become black under the  action of the sun.   They are irregularly
 angular, seldom so large  as a grain of barley,  apparently black and
 opake,  but really  of an intense  garnet-red color, translucent  in thin
 pieces, and frequently have fibers of bark adhering to one of their faces.
 Their taste is very astringent, brittle when chewed without adhering  to
 the teeth,  and tinge the  saliva  red.  Their relations to water, alcohol,
 and other  chemical reagents are very nearly similar to those of ordinary
 Kino.   They  contain from  73 to 90 per cent, of  tannin.  This Kino  is
 much used in the arts in India, and would  undoubtedly answer as well
 in medicine as the Kino of commerce.   It  is seldom imported into
 England, and never, at present, into this country.
   The Botany  Bay Kino is the concrete juice of  the Eucalyptus Resi-
 nifera, or  Brown Gum tree of New Holland, a fine  tall  tree belonging
 to the Natural Order, Myrtaceae, and Sexual System, Icosandria Mono-
 gynia.  When the bark of this tree is wounded,  a  red juice flows  so
 profusely that sixty gallons may be  collected from  one tree.   Mr. White
 states  that five hundred pounds  of Kino may be obtained in one year
 from a single  tree.   The juice concretes into a resinous-like substance, on
 the branches  and  trunk, which is at first  reddish and  translucent, but
 ultimately  chocolate-colored and opake.  It is in  irregular masses, free
 from impurity, generally covered with a reddish powder from attrition,
 compact, very  brittle,  deep  brownish-black, resinous  in luster, and
 opake  even in  thin fragments.   It is  more bitter and  less astringent
 than ordinary Kino, and  tinges the saliva a  dirty-lake red.   It is easily
 powdered,  the powder being of  an umber color ; softens and swells up
 by heat, and burns with  a dense flame or white smoke before it becomes
 perfectly charred.  Cold water  does not readily act  upon it, slowly ac-
 quiring a pale-yellowish  tint after an hour or two,  with but little change
 in the appearance  of the Kino  ; boiling water dissolves considerable  of
 it, forming  a deep cherry-red solution, which, on  cooling, precipitates a
 copious brick-colored deposit, if the  solution be made with one part of
the Kino to twenty-five of water.   The remaining solution is yellowish-
brown, and yields a deep-green turbid fluid with sesquichloride of iron,
 and a grayish-yellow precipitate with acetate of lead.  Alcohol dissolves
it in large proportion, forming a deep yellowish brown  tincture.  It is
not so common in Europe as it was some years since, and is seldom seen
in this country.
  Jamaica  or West India  Kino, is presumed to  be the product of the
 Coccoloba Uvifera, or Sea-side grape, belonging to the Natural Order, 
                       Krameria  Triandria.                   583

 Polygonacea, obtained by evaporating a decoction of the wood and bark.
 This tree grows in the West Indies  and neighboring parts of the conti-
 nent.  The evaporated fluid while in a semi-liquid state is poured into
 gourds,  and allowed  to  harden.  When removed  from the gourd, it
 breaks into fragments of various sizes, having a tendency to the rectan-
 gular form, and about as  large as a small cherry.  Their consistence is
 uniform, their surface smooth and  shining, and their color a very dark
 reddish-brown.   They are not so shining nor so black as the common
 Kino;  are  opake in mass, translucent and ruby-red in thin fragments.
 They are readily fractured and pulverized, forming a dull-reddish pow-
 der, much  paler than the commercial drug.   They are  inodorous,  but
 very astringent and bitterish, very  slightly adhering to the  teeth when
 chewed, and coloring the saliva red.   Cold water dissolves 89 per cent.,
 and officinal alcohol 94  per cent.  It contains  about 41  per cent, of
 tannin.
   The South American,  Columbia, or  Caraccas Kino is probably  de-
 rived from the  Coccoloba  Uvifera, which grows  upon the continent as
 well as in the islands.  It is imported in heavy masses, and  closely re-
 sembles the Jamaica Kino, in color, luster, taste, and other  properties,
 with the exception that it is nearly equally soluble  in cold water and
 alcohol; without any adhesive matter to impede filtration in the aque-
 ous solution, and wanting a minute proportion of resinous matter.
   Properties and Uses. — Kino is a pure and energetic astringent, and
 may be used to  fulfill all the indications for which catechu is  employed.
 It is not considered so efficacious in chronic dysentery as catechu, but is
preferred internally in menorrhagia, and as a topical application in leu-
 corrhea, relaxed sore-throat and  aphtha of the mouth or fauces.  An
 infusion thrown into the nostril has suppressed hemorrhage from the
Schneiderian membrane :  and  the  powder on lint  has  suppressed a
hemorrhage from  a wound in the  palate,  which had resisted  various
means.   Dose of the powder, from ten to thirty grains; of the tincture,
from half a fluidrachm to two fluidrachms.
   Off. Prep.—Pilula Camphora  Composita;  Tinctura Kino.
                    KRAMERIA TRIANDRIA.

                             Rhatany.

  Nat.  Ord.—Polygalaceaa, Decandolle ;  Krameriaceaa, Lindley.  Sex. Syst.—
Tetrandria Monogynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—Rhatany is a suffruticose plant, with a horizontal, very
long and branched root, with a thick  bark, reddish-brown externally,
and red internally.   The stem  is round, procumbent, much branched, 
584
Materia  Medica.
taper ; the  branches are two or  three feet long, white  and silky when
young, but black and naked when old.   The leaves are alternate, sessile,
oblong-ovate, pointed, entire,  and covered on both surfaces with silky
hairs.  The flowers are lake-colored, solitary, axillary, and  on short
peduncles.  The calyx  consists of four red sepals, the  inferior largest,
hairy externally, but smooth  and shining on  the  inner surface.  The
corolla is formed of four petals, the two  upper separate, spathulate, the
two  lateral, roundish and concave.  Stamens three, hypogynous, with
small, urceolate anthers, having two openings at their apex.   The ovary
is  ovate, supporting a  small red style, crowned with a  simple stigma.
The fruit is a dry, globose berry or drupe, about the  size of  a pea,
covered with stiff reddish-brown hairs, and furnished with one or two
seeds.
  History.—This species of Krameria is  a native of Peru, usually grow-
ing in dry argillaceous and sandy  places, on the sides of mountains,
flowering throughout the year, but most freely in October and Novem-
ber.  It was long known to the  natives  as a powerful astringent, pre-
vious to its discovery in 1780 by  Ruiz.   The root is  the officinal part;
it is dug up after the rains in large quantities, and after being well dried
are exported, principally to Portugal, where they are employed to adul-
terate red wines.  Sometimes an  extract  is prepared from  them, which
is exported and used in a similar  manner.  As imported, it  consists of a
short root-stock  from half to two inches in diameter; and several roots
proper, which are simple or branched, one or two feet long, and between
the thickness of a goosequill and that of a man's  thumb.   Its bark is
dark brownish-red, wrinkled, and warty on the root-stock, brittle, inodo-
rous, and of  a  strongly astringent and  slightly bitterish  taste.  The
woody interior is  yellowish-red,  dense, tough, and of the  same taste,
but much weaker.   Cold water, rectified, or proof spirit, readily extracts
its active constituents.  In powder it is of a reddish  color.  The bark
contains  more of the medical virtues than the ligneous or woody part.
By maceration, boiling  water takes up the virtues  of  the root, forming
a turbid solution  on cooling, in  consequence of the deposition of apo-
theme taken up  by the water when  heated.   If boiled, a  still greater
quantity of apotheme is dissolved, and a large amount of tannin becomes
insoluble in cold  water, and without medicinal  virtue, in  consequence
of its combination with the dissolved starch, or by the action of the at-
mosphere converting it into apotheme.   Hence, the decoction, and  the
extract  formed  from it, contain  much less soluble and active  matter,
than  that from  the cold infusion, and are therefore ineligible prepara-
tions.  By displacement, cold water  removes all  the  astringent virtues
of rhatany, forming a clear deep-red  infusion, from which an active  and
almost perfectly soluble extract  may be  obtained by careful evapora-
tion.  Alcohol takes up  but little more of its astringent principle than
cold water, with much inert matter.  Rhatany root consists of tannin in 
Lactuca Sativa—Lactuca Virosa.             585
a state of purity, in a state of apotheme, deprived of its astringency, and
insoluble from the  action of the  air, and in  a state of extractive or a
combination  of  tannin  and  apotheme, also  lignin,  an  acid  termed
Krameric acid, and small proportions of gum, starch, saccharine  matter,
etc.   Its preparations are incompatible with the mineral acids, and most
of the metallic salts.
   Properties  and  Uses.—Rhatany is a powerful astringent, with some
slight tonic virtues.  It may be employed internally with advantage, in
menorrhagia, hematemesis,  passive  hemorrhages,  chronic  diarrhea,
leucorrhea, chronic mucous discharges, colliquative  perspiration,  and
incontinence of urine.  Also as an energetic styptic in epistaxis,  hemor-
rhage from the cavity of an extracted tooth, or the surface of a  wound,
and as a local application to prolapsus ani, fissure of the anus  and leu-
corrhea.  As an application to spongy and bleeding  gums, to  redden
and consolidate  them, as well  as to preserve the teeth,  the following
paste will be found unsurpassed:  Take of prepared chalk, and powdered
cinchona, of each, equal parts; combine them with a sufficient quantity
of equal parts of the tinctures of  rhatany and myrrh, to form a paste.
Use daily with a brush.  Dose of the powder from ten grains to thirty;
of the  tincture from one to four fluidrachms; of the infusion from  one
to four fluidounces; of the extract from ten to twenty grains.
   Off. Prep. — Extractum  Krameria; Infusum Krameria;  Tinctura
Krameria.
                       LACTUCA SATIVA.

                              Lettuce.
                       LACTUCA VIROSA.

                       Strong-scented Lettuce.
  Nat. Ord. — Asteraceaa; Cichoraeaa, Lindley.  Compositaa Cichoraceaa,  De
Candolle.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia iEqualis.

          THE HERB, AND INSPISSATED JUICE--LACTUCARIUM.
  Description.—Lactuca Sativa has an annual, tap-shaped root, with  an
erect, round stem, simple below, branching above, and about two feet in
hight.  The lower leaves are obovate, rounded at the end, and undulating;
the upper are smaller, sessile, cordate, and  toothed; both  are shining,
and of a  yellowish-green color.  The flowers are pale-yellow, small, and
disposed  in  an  irregular terminal  corymb.  Before  the  flower-stem
begins to shoot, the plant contains a bland, pellucid juice, has little taste
or smell, and is much  used  as  a  salad  for the table;  but during the
period of inflorescence  it abounds in  a peculiar  milky juice, which
readily escapes from incisions in the  stem, and has been found to pos-
sess decided medicinal properties. 
586
Materia  Medica.
   Lactuca Virosa has a tap-shaped root, with  a solitary stem, two  or
 three feet high, erect, round, smooth, sparingly leafy, scarcely branched;
 panicled at the top;  a little prickly below.   The leaves  are  horizontal,
 nearly smooth, finely toothed; radical  ones numerous,  obovate,  undi-
 vided, depressed; those of the stem smaller, often lobed; arrow-shaped
 and clasping at their base ;  the midrib of all more or less  beset under-
 neath with prominent prickles; such as often occur-on the margin also.
 Flower-heads numerous, panicled, with abundance of small, heart-shaped,
 pointed bracteas.   Involucral scales  downy at the tip, destitute of any
 keels or ribs.  Corolla small, light-yellow.   Pappus rough.  There are
 many varieties of  lettuce which differ much from  each other; as  an
 application to all of them, it may be said, that they have  large, milky,
 frequently wrinkled  leaves,  usually of a pale-green, but varying  to  a
 light-red.  The radical leaves are roundish and toothed at the  margin;
 those of the  stem obovate  or cordate.   The stem is round, leafy, corym-
 biform at top, with numerous bright-yellow flowers.
   History.—The native country of this plant  is unknown  ; but it  is
 cultivated in all parts of the civilized world.  The Lactuca Elongala of
 our country, was  presumed for a  time to possess narcotic principles
 similar with the others, but on investigation it has been ascertained  to be
 nearly if not entirely inert.  Lactucarium or lettuce-opium is obtained
 from these plants, by cutting across  their stems, at the  time  of  inflo-
 rescence,  Avhen a milky  fluid exudes from the surface of the cut; this
 is absorbed by cotton or a piece of sponge, and is  pressed  out into  a
 small vessel, when, by  exposure to  the air, it  concretes.  By making
 another cut at a short interval below the first,  and so proceeding six  or
 seven times daily, or even oftener, the whole juice of the plant may be
 obtained.   There are several other  modes  recommended for procuring
 the lactucarium,  but no one of them  obtains an article  equal to that
 collected by the above plan.   After the middle  period of inflorescence,
 the juice becomes thicker but deteriorated  in its medicinal  principles.
 A single plant  of L.  Sativa is said to yield seventeen grains of lactuca-
 rium, while a plant of L. Virosa gives fifty-six grains.  As found in the
 shops, lactucarium is in roundish, compact, rather hard masses, weighing
 several  ounces, of a reddish-brown  color externally,  of  a bitter,  nar-
 cotic and somewhat acid taste, and an odor approximating that of opium.
 It is asserted that two other  varieties, the L. Scariola, and L. Allissima,
 furnish a superior article of lettuce-opium.
   Lactucarium does not attract moisture from  the atmosphere ; is  soft-
 ened by heat, and  at a high temperature burns with a large white flame.
 Cold water takes up about a sixth of it, forming a deep-brown infusion;
 boiling water a third, and proof spirit, alcohol and ether a much larger
proportion.   The addition of acetic acid to water or  alcohol improves
their solvent powers upon this article.   It contains neither  morphia nor
narcotine, but is found to consist of lactucin, volatile oil, a yellowish-red 
Lactuca Sativa — Lactuca Virosa.             587
 tasteless resin, a greenish-yellow acrid resin, crystallizable and uncrys-
 tallizable sugar,  gum, pectic acid, albumen, a brown basic substance, a
 principle like humus-extractive, a concrete oil or wax, one part of which
 is soluble in ether, and fusible only at 212°, and the  other  insoluble in
 ether and  fusible at 167°, and numerous  salts, particularly oxalates.
   Lactucin is obtained  by treating finely-powdered lactucarium with
 alcohol acidulated with  one fifteenth of acetic  acid, adding an equal
 volume of water, and precipitating the mixture with  a slight excess of
 subacetate of lead; filter the solution and free it from the lead  by sul-
 phureted-hydrogen  gas, filter, evaporate by a gentle heat not exceeding
 144°—treat the  extract  with  absolute  alcohol, then distil it  off,  and
 again exhaust with  ether, which by distillation or spontaneous evapora-
 tion,  forms crystals of an obscure  acicular character.  When pure they
 are colorless, inodorous, intensely bitter, easily fusible, soluble in sixty
 or eighty  parts  of cold water, more soluble in ether, still more so  in
 alcohol, and easily  soluble in acids, especially acetic  acid, but without
 neutralizing them.  In regard to this being the  active principle  of  lac-
 tucarium,  there is yet much dispute;  several  analysts have differed  in
 their  results and conclusions.  The most recent analysis is by Ludwig,
 who  in connection with  several other principles, obtained lactucic  acid
 and lactucin.  " To obtain these principles, eighty parts  of lactucarium
 in fine powder, were triturated with eighty of pure cold diluted sulphuric
 acid,  and then mixed  with four hundred parts of alcohol  of 0.851;  the
 liquor was filtered, shaken with hydrate of lime till it yielded no precipi-
 tate with baryta-water or oxalate of potassa, then decolorized with pure
 animal  charcoal, and evaporated; the  brown tenacious mass,  thus
 obtained, (alcoholic extract) was treated with boiling water, which  left
 behind a viscid substance ; the aqueous  solution  was treated with animal
 charcoal,  and on being  evaporated yielded a mixture of lactucic acid
 and lactucin ; these were separated by dissolving the mixture in boiling
 water, which on  cooling  deposited the latter in white crystalline  scales,
 and gave up the former  upon subsequent evaporation.  Lactucic  acid  is
 of  difficult crystallization, light-yellow, strongly bitter,  Avithout  sour
taste,  of an acid reaction,  and  readily soluble in alcohol  and water.   It
has as much claims as any other discovered substance to be considered
the active principle  of lactucarium.   Lactucin, purified by animal char-
coal, is in white  pearly scales, the solution of which exhibits no reaction
 with subacetate  or acetate of lead, or solution of iodine.   It is dissolved
without change of color by concentrated sulphuric acid."  Thridace,  is
the inspissated expressed juice obtained by collecting the stalks near the
flowering  period,  depriving them of their leaves, and then subjecting
them  to pressure.
   Properties and Uses.—Lactucarium has never  been thoroughly and
satisfactorily investigated in relation  to its  therapeutical  influences;
indeed, various experimenters differ in  their views on this point, some 
588
Materia Medica.
asserting  it  to be  a stimulant  and  others a sedative.    It  is,  when
employed at all, usually given as a calmative and hypnotic, and as a
substitute for opium, to which it is to be  preferred in many instances,
on account  of its freedom from  unpleasant after-effects, as  constipation,
excitement of the brain,  etc.   However, it is not considered equal in
power to opium.  The most energetic lactucarium is said to be obtained
from L. Virosa, and L. Altissima.  Moderate doses of it act as a nar-
cotic poison  on the lower animals, and ten or twenty grains'swallowed
by a dog will  cause  sleep, or the watery solution injected into a vein
occasions sleep, coma, and death.  Dose of lactucarium in  pill or pow-
der, which is the most efficient mode  of  administration, from five to
twenty grains; of the tincture,  thirty to sixty drops;  of the  alcoholic
extract, one to five  grains.  The article is  seldom used in medical  prac-
tice on account of its high price, its uncertain power, and its liability to
adulteration.
                      LARIX  AMERICANA.
                          American Larch.
   Nat. Ord.—Pinaceaa or Coniferaa.   Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Monadelphia.
                             THE  BARK.
  Description.—This  is the Pinus Pendula, Pinus Microcarpa, and Abies
Americana of various botanists, and is known by the several names of
Black Larch, Tamarac, Hackmetack, etc.  The tree has a straight and
slender trunk, with slender horizontal branches and attains the hight of
eighty or a hundred feet.  The leaves are short, one or two inches long,
very slender, almost  thread-form, soft,  deciduous, without sheaths and
in fascicles of from twenty to forty, being developed early in the spring
from  lateral  scaly and globular buds,  which produce (the same or the
second year) growing shoots on which the leaves  are scattered.  The
cones  are oblong, of few  rounded scales, inclining upward, from half an
inch to an inch in length, and of a deep purple-color.  Scales thin and
inflexed on the margin.   Bracts  elliptical, often hollowed at the sides,
abruptly acuminate with a slender point, and together with the scales,
persistent.
  History. — This is  a beautiful tree,  more  common throughout New
England; it  is found in  swamps  and moist places, and flowers in April
and May.   It may be  distinguished from the pines, by the branches
being without leaves for nearly half the year.  Its wood is very heavy,
strong and durable, and is the most valuable  of all the pines or spruces.
The bark is the part  used as medicine.
  Properties and Uses.—A decoction of the bark of this  tree is said to
be  laxative,  tonic,  diuretic, and  alterative,  and  is recommended  in
obstructions of the liver, rheumatism, jaundice, and some cutaneous dis-
eases ; a decoction of the leaves has been employed, in piles, hemopty- 
Laurus Sassafras.
589
sis, menorrhagia, diarrhea and dysentery, and externally in cutaneous
diseases, ulcers,  burns, etc.  In dropsy, combined with spearmint, juni-
per berries and horseradish, it  has proved valuable.   Dose of decoction,
from two to four fluidounces, two to four times a day.
   Off. Prep.—Tinctura Pinus  Pendula Composita.
                     LAURUS  SASSAFRAS.
                             Sassafras.
       Nat. Ord.—Lauraceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Enneandria Monogynia.
                      THE BARK OF THE ROOT.
  Description.—This is a small  indigenous tree, varying in  hight from
ten to  forty feet,  and having a trunk about a foot in diameter, covered
with a rough, deeply-furrowed and grayish bark — that on the twigs,
however, being smooth and beautifully green.  The leaves are alternate,
petiolate,  membranous,  bright-green,   smooth  above,  finely  downy
beneath,  especially when young, very variable in form,  from ovate  and
entire to three-lobed, or lobed only on one side, all, however, tapering to
the base.  The greater number are three-lobed, and  their mean length
is four or  five inches.   The flowers appear before the  leaves, are  fre-
quently dioecious,  small,  of  a  pale  greenish-yellow  color, and  are
arranged in  naked,  downy corymbose racemes which are terminal  and
axillary, and have subulate, deciduous bracts at their base.   The calyx
is six-parted, permanent at  base.   The sterile flowers have nine stamens,
the fertile only  six with  a simple style.  The fruit is an oval drupe  of a
deep-blue color when ripe, about as large as a pea, and supported in the
permanent base of the calyx on the thick, red, clavate peduncle.
   History. — Sassafras  is a well-known tree growing  throughout the
United States,  and  extending into  Mexico, and  flowering in the latter
part of April or early in May.   Its flowers have a weak, agreeable odor,
and are, as well as the  twigs, much used in domestic practice, in decoc-
tion, as a purifier of the blood in spring.   The officinal  parts  are the
bark and  the pith.  The root is largely exported, it consists  of a brown-
ish-Avhite  Avood, and an  external spongy bark,  both of which are recog-
nized as officinal  by the foreign authorities.  The bark of the  root, is
the part generally employed in this country, it is by far  the  most active
part of the  whole tree.  It is found in the  shops, in small irregular
pieces, of a  grayish-brown' color on the  surface, rusty-brown within,
very brittle, of an agreeable odor, and a powerful, peculiar, warm,  aro-
matic,  sweetish taste.  It owes its properties to a volatile oil, which  may
be  separated by  distillation with  water.   Hot  water,  in  infusion, or
alcohol takes up its active properties,  but boiling dissipates  them.   The
bark contains a heavy  and light  volatile  oil, camphorous matter, fatty
matter, resin, wax,  a principle resembling tannic acid, called Sassafrid, 
590
Materia Medica.
tannic acid, gum, albumen, starch, red coloring-matter, lignin, and salts.
The pith of the extremities of the branches is in light, spongy, slender,
and  cylindrical  pieces, with  a  mucilaginous,  slightly7 sassafras-flavored
taste.  It is  full of gummy  substance, affords  a clear but viscid muci-
lage in water, much less tenacious than that of gum  arabic, and which
is not affected by alcohol.
  Properties  and Uses.—Sassafras is a warm aromatic stimulant, altera-
tive, diaphoretic, and diuretic.   It is generally used in combination with
other alteratives whose flavor it improves, in syphilitic affections, chronic
rheumatism,  scrofula, and many cutaneous eruptions.   The mucilage of
the pith is used as a local  application in acute ophthalmia, and as a
demulcent drink in disorders of the chest, bowels, kidneys, and bladder.
The oil  is used to afford relief in the distressing  pain  attending men-
strual obstructions, and that following parturition, in  doses of from  five
to ten drops,  on sugar; also used in diseases of the  kidneys and bladder.
Externally, as a rubefacient,  in painful swellings, sprains, bruises, rheu-
matism, etc., and is said to check the progress of gangrene.
   Off.  Prep. — Infusum Sassafras  Medulla; Lotio  Sassafras;  Pilula
Saponi Composita;  Syrupus Sarsaparilla Compositus.
      LAVANDULA VERA,  AND LAVANDULA  SPICA.
                             Lavender.
      Nat. Ord.—Lamiaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.
                            THE FLOWERS.^
  Description.—Lavandula Vera, of De Candolle,  is a small shrub gene-
rally one or two feet high, but sometimes growing  to even six feet.   The
leaves are oblong-linear, or lanceolate, entire, opposite, sessile, tapering
to the base, Avhen young hoary and revolute at the edges; upper  ones
linear-lanceolate, the highest shorter than the calyx and the lower petio-
lated.  The flowers are  of a lilac color, small, in terminal, cylindrical
spikes consisting of interrupted whorls, in which the florets are from six
to ten, each whorl being furnished with two small, ovate bracts.  The
corolla is tubular, and divided into two lips, the uppermost of which is
larger and bifid, the loAver declining,  and of three segments.   The sta-
mens are  four, with small, simple anthers.  The style  is slender, and
covered by a bilobate stigma.
  Lavandula Spica of De Candolle  is more dwarfish and more hoary
than the last.   The leaves are oblong-lanceolate,  somewhat spathulate,
entire, much narrowed at the base, hoary on both  sides.   Spikes some-
what interrupted.   Bracts linear-subulate, shorter  than the calyx.   This
plant is not used in medicine, but yields what is called Oil of Spike,
much used in the  preparation of artistical varnishes and  by porcelain
painters. 
Ledum  Latifolium.
591
   History.—Lavandula Vera is a native of the south of Europe, growing
in dry, barren lands.   It  is extensively cultivated in this country, and
flowers in July and August. When too thickly planted, the plant suffers
from a disease which  is removed  by thinning them.  All parts of the
plant are aromatic,  but the flowers only are officinal; they are cut when
they begin to bloom, and  dried in  the  shade.  They have a rich, pecu-
liar  fragrance, which is retained long  after drying, and a strong, bitter,
aromatic, somewhat camphoraceous taste.  Alcohol extracts their virtues,
which probably  depend upon  their volatile  oil, from half a drachm to
two  drachms of which may be obtained from a pound of the fresh flowers.
   Properties. — Lavender is an aromatic  stimulant and tonic, but is sel-
dom given in its crude state, but in its officinal preparations, which see.
   Off. Prep.—Oleum Lavandula; Tinctura Lavandula Composita.
                     LEDUM LATIFOLIUM.
                          Labrador Tea.
         Nat. Ord.—Ericaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.
                           the leaves.
  Description. — Ledum Latifolium is an  evergreen shrub, with  an
irregularly branched stem from  two to five  feet in hight; the branches
are woolly.  The  leaves are  alternate,  sub-sessile, entire, one or tAvo
inches in length,  and  nearly one-third as wide, obtuse,  elliptical  or
oblong, smooth above, clothed Avith  a  dense, rusty wool beneath, with
revolute  or replicate margins.   The flowers are  large, Avhite, in  dense
terminal  corymbs of about a dozen flowers ; pedicels nearly as long  as
the leaves, filiform, pubescent.  Calyx very minute.   Corolla white, and
consists of five  spreading, obovate,  obtuse petals.   Stamens five or ten,
as long as the petals; filaments slender, smooth ;  anthers  small, opening
by two simple terminal pores.   Ovary roundish ;  style straight, about as
long  as  the  stamens;  stigma  small,  obtuse.   Capsule  ovate-oblong',
subpubescent, fiAre-celled, five-valved; valves  splitting from  the base
upward,  with the margins inflexed and connivent;  receptacles  linear,
extending into the cells  of the capsule.   Seeds  minute, terminating in a
membrane at each extremity.
  History.—This plant  is a native  of North America, and is found  in
the northern parts of the United States and in  Canada, growing in cold
bogs,  and  damp  mountain woods,  flowering in June and July.  It is
also found in  the mountainous regions of more southern latitudes.   The
leaves have a pleasant odor and taste, and were  substituted for tea-
leaves during the revolutionary Avar.   Its virtues are extracted by  water
in infusion, and alcohol.
  Ledum  Palustre or Marsh Tea, inhabiting swamps and wet places  in
the northern parts of Europe, Asia, and North America, may be known 
592
Materia Medica.
by its linear leaves, having uniformly ten stamens, and especially by its
oval pods. The leaves have a balsamic odor, and an aromatic, camphor-
ous, bitter taste, and contain among other ingredients, volatile oil and
tannin.   Water by infusion, or alcohol extracts its properties.
   Properties  and  Uses. — Ledum Latifolium is pectoral and tonic ; and
is  useful  in coughs,  irritations of the pulmonary membranes,  and in
dyspepsia.  Reputed also to possess similar but less energetic properties
than the Ledum Palustre, which is supposed to possess narcotic  powers.
An infusion of the leaves has been  successfully employed  in decoction
in  pertussis, dysentery, and to allay irritation in exanthematous diseases.
In leprosy, scabies, and various cutaneous affections, the decoction inter-
nally and externally  has  been beneficially used.  When  placed among
clothes, they are said to prevent the attacks of moths. A strong decoction,
used externally, Avill kill lice and other insects.   Dose of the infusion of
either of the  above plants, from  2 to 4 fluidounces, 3 or 4 times a day.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Ledi.
                    LEONURUS CARDIACA.
                            Motherwort.
       Nat. Ord.—Lamiaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.
                       THE TOPS AND LEAVES.
  Description.—Leonurus Cardiaca is a perennial plant,  with stems from
two to five feet in hight, wand-like, minutely downy, acutely quadran-
gular,  with  intermediate channels, purplish, and  beset with numerous
pairs  of opposite,  long-stalked,  rough, dark-green, somewhat downy
leaves,  arranged in four vertical rows.   The  lower  stem-leaves  are
palmate-lobed, and broadest;  the upper ones acutely three-lobed ; those
about the summit lanceolate and undivided; all of them toothed, cunei-
form at base.   The fiowers are purplish or whitish-red, and are disposed
in numerous, axillary whorls.  Calyx rigid and bristly. Corolla purplish,
the upper lip clothed Avith dense, white, shaggy, upright hairs; the lower
deeply colored, variegated, smooth, in three nearly equal entire  lobes;
the middle lobe obcordate.  Stamens didynamous ;  anthers approximated
in pairs, with parallel transverse cells and naked valves, and sprinkled
with shining dots.  Achenia oblong, ribbed,  and  roughened on the ribs,
the apex prolonged into a very slender thread-like beak, bearing  the
pappus of copious soft  and white  capillary  bristles.
  History. —Motherwort is an exotic plant, but extensively introduced
into this country, growing in fields  and  pastures, and  flowering from
May to September.  It is supposed to be a native of Tartary, and may
probably be indigenous to the northern sections of  this  country.  After
blossoming, the inner involucre closes for a time, the slender beak elon-
gates  and raises up the pappus while the fruit is  forming ;  the whole
involucre is then reflexed, exposing  to the  wind the naked fruits with 
Leptandra  Virginica.
593
the pappus displayed in an open globular head.   The root sends forth a
number of small, long fibers of a dark-yellowish color.  The whole plant
is officinal.   It  has  a  peculiar, aromatic, not  disagreeable odor, and a
slightly aromatic,  bitter taste,  and  yields its properties to  water  or
alcohol.   The plant has not been  analyzed.
   Properties  and Uses. — Motherwort is emmenagogue,  nervine, anti-
spasmodic and  laxative.    It  is  usually  given in warm  infusion  in
amenorrhea from colds ; and in suppressed lochia, we have  found it
superior to any other remedy7.   Likewise useful  in hysteria.   The ex-
tract is recommended in nervous complaints, pains peculiar to females, in
irritable habits, delirium tremens, typhoid  stages, with  morbid nervous
excitability, all chronic diseases attended with restlessness, wakefulness,
disturbed  sleep,  spinal  irritation, and neuralgic pains in the stomach and
head, and in liver affections.  Combined with Ictodes and  Cimicifugin, it
forms a superior antispasmodic, nervine and emmenagogue.  Externally,
it may be used as a fomentation to the bowels, in suppressed or painful
menstruation,  etc.   Dose of decoction, from two  to four fluidounces,
every one, two or three hours ; of the extract, from three to six grains,
every two or four hours.  The root in infusion is diuretic.  The seeds haAre
been given in half teaspoonful  doses in Avater, in bilious colic, and, it is
said, will pass through the bowels when quicksilver will not; they must
not be pulverized.   This, however, requires more satisfactory evidence.
   Off. Prep. — Decoctum   Leonuri;  Extractum Leonuri Hydro-alco-
holicum ;  Pilula Leonuri Composita.
                   LEPTANDRA VIRGINICA.
                            Leptandra.
      Nat. Ord.—Scrophulariaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Diandria Monogynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description. — This  is  the  Veronica Virginica of  Linnaus,  and  is
known also by the names  of Culver's Physic, Tall Speedwell, Blackroot,
etc.  It is an indigenous, perennial plant, with a simple, straight, smooth
herbaceous stem, from two to five feet in hight.   The leaves are whorled
in fours  to sevens, short-petioled, lanceolate, acuminate, finely  serrate,
and glaucous beneath.   The fiowers are white, numerous, nearly sessile,
and  disposed  in long,  terminal,  and verticillate, sub-terminal spikes.
Spikes panicled, crowded; bracts very small.  Calyx four-parted.  Corolla
small, nearly white, with a deeply four-cleft, spreading border, the lateral
or lower segments  narrower than the others,  tubular, pubescent inside ;
tube of the corolla longer than its limb and much longer than  the calyx.
Stamens  two, very much exserted.   Capsule oblong-ovate, not notched,
opening by four teeth at the apex, many-seeded.
  History.—This plant grows throughout the  United States, in limestone
countries, and in rich  moist  places, woods,  thickets and  barrens, and
         38 
594
Materia Medica.
floAvers in July and August.   The root is perennial, horizontal, irregular,
woody, about  as thick  as the finger, from six to twelve  inches long,
blackish externally, brownish internally, with  many long slender, dark
fibers, issuing horizontally in every direction.   It is  the officinal part,
and should be gathered in the fall of its  second  year.  When fresh it has
a faint  odor and a bitter, nauseous taste, which is somewhat lessened by
drying, and yields its active properties to boiling water, or still better to
alcohol.  Age impairs its A7irtues.  It  has not been  satisfactorily ana-
lyzed, but is  said to  contain an essential oil,  bitter extractive,  tannin,
gum, resin, and woody fiber.
   Properties and  Uses.—The fresh root  is too  drastic and uncertain for
medicinal use, producing vomiting, bloody stools,  dizziness, vertigo, and
in  pregnant  females, abortion, unless used Avith  much care.  A decoc-
tion or extract of the fresh  root is highly recommended in intermittent
fever;  my colleague, Prof. W. Byrd Powell,  who  has tested it, states
that it removes the disease, and  leaves the system in a condition to repel
a fresh attack or relapse; but it must be used with caution,  as it is  apt
to  produce unpleasant  symptoms.   The dried root is laxative, chola-
gogue  and  tonic  ; and  is employed  with much  success in all hepatic
affections, as it causes the liver to act with great energy, and without
active catharsis.   In all febrile diseases it is an excellent laxative, and
may be given daily in tablespoonful  doses of the infusion, repeated every
hour, until one or two moderate  evacuations  are procured; it is pecu-
liarly applicable  to bilious and  typhoid fevers, causing discharges of a
black, tarry and morbid character,  without debilitating  the  tone of  the
bowels or of the general system.  It  has been successfully employed in
leprosy and cachectic  diseases, and its  effects  in  these instances, may,
probably, be owing to its influence on the biliary apparatus.  As a laxa-
tive and tonic in small doses, it is very  valuable in dyspepsia, especially
when connected with an inactive condition of  the liver, and torpid and
debilitated bowels, likewise in all functional  diseases  of the liver, as
above remarked.  It  exerts a  powerful influence upon the absorbent
system, and  in combination with cream of tartar, has been successfully
used in obstinate  cases  of dropsy.  In  diarrhea  and dysentery, it  has
proved very beneficial as a cathartic, one active dose frequently effecting
a cure.  By  some it  is  said  to  possess  narcotic properties, and that,
during its operation, it  will frequently be necessary to rouse the patient
lest he  fall into a  deep sleep.  I  have  neA7er witnessed this effect.  Dose
of the poAvdered root as a cathartic, from tAventy to sixty grains, which
maybe given  in  sweetened water; of  the infusion, in  typhoid  stages,
half a fluidounce  every  hour, until it  operates,  and to be repeated daily.
Dose of the  hydro-alcoholic  extract, Avhich is  its best form  of adminis-
tration, from one to five  grains in form of pills.
   Off.  Prep.—Extractum  Leptandra  Hydro-alcoholicum ; Extractum
Leptandra Fluidum ; Leptandrin; Tinctura Leptandra. 
Leptandrin.                         595
                          LEPTANDRIN.
                             Leptandrin.
           THE RESINOUS PRINCIPLE OF LEPTANDRA  VIRGINICA.
   Preparation. — Leptandrin may be  prepared as  follows:  Take of
 coarsely-powdered Leptandra  any quantity, alcohol 90 per cent., a suf-
 ficient quantity.   By percolation, obtain a saturated tincture.   Place the
 tincture in a still,  and distil  off the alcohol, and while hot add the resi-
 duum slowly and  gradually to cold water, equal to  two or three times its
 volume.  Allow this to stand for seven or eight days, when the resinous
 matter will precipitate to the bottom of the vessel in a semi-liquid mass,
 while the water will  hold in solution most of the extractive and coloring
 matter.   Remove this water, and to the residue add a fresh  supply of
 cold water,  subjecting  it to another washing.   Then carefully remove
 the  water, after having  allowed all  the resinous matter to precipitate,
 which last must be dried in shallow tin or porcelain  plates  by a mode-
 rately-continued heat, until it  becomes perfectly friable on cooling, and
 which generally requires several days.   In the preparation of this arti-
 cle,  high-proof alcohol  must  be  employed, on account  of the  large
 amount  of  extractive matter present,  which  is soluble in  water,  and
 which, according to the proportion of water present in'the tincture, pre-
 vents the precipitation of the leptandrin.   Care must  be taken likewise
 in the application of heat, as too great a heat, say above 175° or  180p
 will  render the precipitate inert, or materially affect its character.   The
 above is the process usually employed in the preparation of  leptandrin ;
 it  may be  obtained, however, by adding the tincture  to  four times its
 weight of water, distilling off the alcohol, and setting aside the residue for
 several  days, until all the leptandrin precipitates.   Remove the water,
 and  dry the  precipitate as above, having previously washed it in fresh
 water to remove  extractive, etc.  Roots of the  second year's growth,
 are said to afford the most leptandrin.
   History.—Leptandrin,  according to its mode of  preparation, is a jet-
black resinous substance, resembling pure asphaltum, or of a grayish-
brown color, with a  peculiar,  faint cyanic smell and  taste,  somewhat
bitter, but  not disagreeable.   In its  aggregate form,  it has a vitreous
fracture, is unalterable in a dry atmosphere, and is without acid or alkaline
reactions.  Its powder has a black, glistening, soot-like appearance, and
 coalesces in a warm and  moist air.  When first  made it  is soluble in
alcohol, though as  with many other resins upon exposure to atmospheric
influence, it  becomes imperfectly soluble  in alcohol, but perfectly so
upon the addition  of aqua  ammonia.  It  is insoluble in water, but the
addition of liquor potassa or aqua ammonia, renders it completely solu-
ble,  from which  solutions it is precipitated  by  acids.   Ether takes up a
portion of it, and  aqua ammonia  added perfectly  dissolves  it, leaving 
596                      Materia Medica.

the ether floating above of a light reddish-yellow color. It is lighter than
chloroform, and is insoluble in it.   Spirits of turpentine takes up a small
portion, forming a dirty-white liquid; acetic  acid  likewise dissolves a
small proportion.  None of the above agents have been tried with heat.
Nitric acid  turns  leptandrin  a brownish-yellow color; muriatic acid, a
light yellowish-green ;  and sulphuric acid, reddish-brown.  Heat semi-
liquefies it, and it burns with  a bright white flame, giving  out a sweet,
balsamic, rather  agreeable odor, somewhat resembling balm of Gilead
buds when burned, or incense.  This valuable agent was first prepared
and  introduced to the profession by W. S. Merrell, of Cincinnati.
  Properties.—Leptandrin is a powerful cholagogue, with but slight lax-
ative influence; except given in very large doses its cathartic powers are
but very feeble.  It is one of the most efficacious and important agents
among those peculiar to Eclectic  practice, being the only known medi-
cine  that efficiently stimulates and corrects the hepatic  secretions, and
functional derangements of the liver, without debilitating the system  by
copious alvine evacuations.  It may be safely and efficaciously employed
in the treatment of diarrhea, cholera-infantum, some forms of dyspepsia,
typhoid  fever, and  all  diseases connected with biliary derangements.
Combined with podophyllin it is a  prompt and  effectual remedy in epi-
demic dysentery, often  effecting  a permanent cure in from twelve  to
eighteen hours; in dysentery  with  irritable  bowels, it may be used alone
with advantage, or combined  with  camphor, as in such cases its union
with  podophyllin  is contra-indicated.   In intermittents it renders the
action of quinia, when  united with it, more certain, and prevents the
liability to a return of the disease,  at least for the season, and is likewise
highly7 beneficial in  infantile  remittent fever, and  in periodic  diseases
generally,  of  an obstinate character, in which quinia alone seems  to
produce but little or no result.  It may also be used in many other com-
binations with much advantage, as with Hydrastin,  or dried beef's gall,
in some dyspeptic affections,  jaundice, piles, etc., or with Iridin, Bapti-
sin, Phytolaccin, Corydallin,  Caulophyllin, and other active principles,
in various forms of disease.   Dose  of Leptandrin,  from one-half of a
grain to five  or six grains, every three or  four hours, according to the
action or effect desired.   Some  practitioners neglect  the  use of this
agent, because it does not act so  powerfully as podophyllin, and hence
lose  the influence of a very important remedy in functional derangements
of the liver, and other organs essential to digestion.  In relation to this
article, a late Professor in the Eclectic school, observes :
  "This  is not strictly speaking  a cathartic.   It is aperient, alterative,
and  tonic.   Its effects on the  liver are peculiar.   In cases of children
afflicted with summer complaint, where there is evidently a lack  of  the
proper biliary secretion, but where, owing to the already irritated condi-
tion  of the bowels,  the ordinary medicines for arousing the liver  are 
Leptandrin.
597
inadmissible, this article seems to be the very thing needed. While it acts
freely upon the liver, instead of purging  it seems only to change the
discharges from the light and watery or slimy condition,  to a darker and
apparently bilious state, rendering  them  more  and more consistent,
until  they  become  perfectly natural, without  having been arrested
entirely, or at any time aggravated.  It at the same time seems to act
as a tonic, restoring the tone of the stomach and increasing the strength
and activity of digestion.  It is a most valuable remedy in dyspepsia.
   " The dose is from one-fourth to one grain every one  or two hours in
acute cases, and  from  one to two grains three times a  day in chronic
cases.   It is valuable to combine with Podophyllin as a  remedy in  dys-
pepsia and chronic hepatitis.
   "In the epidemic dysentery, which has  prevailed for the past two sea-
sons,  in many  parts of our country, this article has been  of great service.
It was usually given with the best success after  evacuating the bowels
freely, with a  combination of Podophyllin and Leptandrin or Rhubarb.
For this purpose, give from one-half of a grain to one grain every hour,
gradually lengthening  the  intervals  as  the discharges  become darker.
Though it may not be applicable in all cases of dysentery, it is doubtless
one of the most useful articles in this dangerous disease."
   In cholera-infantum, a disease which sometimes  sets at defiance all
the skill of the physician, I have met with excellent success by the fol-
lowing combination :  Take of Leptandrin six grains, Quinia three grains,
Camphor one  grain  and a half, Ipecacuanha three-fourths of a grain.
Mix and divide into twelve powders,  of which one may  be  given every
two or three hours,  and its use continued thus for several days.  Its
action at first is to increase the alvine passages and apparently augment
the disease, but in a few days the character of the  evacuations change,
become more and More normal, as well as more regular  in their appear-
ance ; after which, one  or two powders per day for  a week, will  render
the cure  permanent.  This powder, in large doses for  adults, will be
found very efficacious in painful diarrhea  and dysentery, as well as in
6evere pains depending upon intestinal irritation.   The following has also
been of  advantage in cholera-infantum : Triturate together, Charcoal one
drachm, with Leptandrin three grains, and divide into twelve powders,
of which one powder is to be given every two or  three  hours until the
evacuations become more natural, after which, give  one  or two powders
a day for a few days.
   Off. Prep.—Pilula  Baptisia  Composita; Pilula Leptandrini Com-
posita ;  Pulvis Leptandrini Compositus. 
598
Materia Medica.
                        LIATRIS SPICATA.
                          Button Snakeroot.
          Nat. Ord.—Asteraceae.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia iEqualis.
                              THE ROOT.
   Description.—This plant, also known by  the names of Gay-feather,
Devil's-bit, etc., has a perennial, tuberous root, and an erect, annual stem
from two to five feet in hight,  mostly stout and very leafy.  The leaves
are linear, glabrous, alternate, punctate, ciliate at base, the lower ones
from three to five-nerved, and narrowed at base.  The fiowers are ses-
sile, and of a bright-purple color ; the heads are many  and  densely
crowded  in a long, terminal spike, and from  eight to twelve-flowered.
Scales of the cylindrical bell-shaped involucre oblong or oval, appressed,
with  slight scarious margins.  Achenia pubescent,  obconic.   Pappus
permanent, colored, barbellate, not evidently plumose to the naked eye.
Receptacle naked.   This  plant is found in moist places in the middle and
southern states,  and is found in abundance in the prairies.
   Liatris Squarrosa or Blazing Star, has also a perennial tuberous root,
with a stem two to three feet high, thickly beset with  long-linear, nerved
leaves, the lower ones being attenuated  at the base.   The heads are few,
sessile or nearly so, with brilliant purple flowers ; racemes flexuous, leafy,
involucre ovate-cylindric  ; scales of the involucre large, numerous, squar-
rose-spreading,  outer ones larger, leafy,  inner  ones  mucronate-acumi-
nate,  scarcely colored.   Pappus plumose.   This plant is likewise found
in the middle and southern states, growing in  dry soil, and is known  in
the south by the name of Rattlesnake's Master.
   Liatris Scariosa or  Gay-feather, has a  perennial, tuberous root, with
a  stout,  scabrous-pubescent  stem, from four to five feet  in hight, and
whitish above.  The leaves  are numerous, lanceolate, tapering at both
ends, glabrous, with rough margins, entire, lower ones on  long petioles
and from three to  nine inches long, upper ones from one to three inches
in length, by from one to three lines in width. Heads from five to twenty,
an inch in diameter, in a long raceme, with from twenty to forty purple
flowers.   Involucre globose-hemispherical;  scales of the involucre obo-
vate or  spathulate, very obtuse, with  dry and  scarious margins, often
colored.  Pappus scabrous.  This plant is  found in dry woods and sandy
fields from New England to Wisconsin, and extending southward.
   History.—All the above plants are splendid natives, and flower through
August and September.   There are several  other species  of  this genus
which appear to possess medical properties analogous to each other, and
which deserve further investigation, as  the  L. Odoratissima, L.  Cylin-
dracea, L. Graminifolia,  etc.   The roots are the officinal parts ;  they are
all tuberous, with  fibers of  an acrid, bitterish,  pungent taste, and  an
aromatic, terebinthinate odor, which properties are owing to the presence 
Ligustrum  Vulgare.                    599
of a peculiar balsamic resin ;  water partially extracts its virtues, but
alcohol, wholly.  They have not been  analyzed.  The resin  obtained
from them might, probably, prove a valuable agent.
   Properties and Uses.—These plants are diuretic, with tonic, stimulant,
and emmenagogue properties.  A decoction of them  is very efficacious
in gonorrhea, gleet, and nephritic diseases, in doses of from two to four
fluidounces, three or four times  a day ; it is also reputed beneficial  in
scrofula, dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, after-pains,  etc.   It  is likewise  of
advantage in  sore-throat, used  as a gargle, and in  injection  has proved
useful  in  leucorrhea.  Said to be beneficial in Bright's disease, in  con-
nection Avith  Lycopus Virginicus  and Aletris Farinosa ; equal  parts  of
each in decoction.  These  plants are celebrated  for  their alexipharmic
powers in bites of venomous snakes; Rush states, that when bitten, the
inhabitants of the Southern States bruise the bulbous roots, and apply
them  to the wound, at the same time drinking freely of  a decoction of
them in milk.  This requires corroboration.
   Off.  Prep.—Decoctum Liatris.
                     LIGUSTRUM VULGARE.
                               Privet.
         Nat.  Ord.—Oleaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Diandria Monogynia.
                            THE  LEAVES.
  Description.—This  plant, also called Privy, Prim, etc., is a smooth
shrub, growing five or six feet high, with wand-like branches. The leaves
are dark-green, one or two inches in length, and about half as wide, oppo-
site, entire, smooth,  lanceolate and  obovate, obtuse or  acute, and on
short petioles.   The fiowers are small, numerous, white, and disposed in
tetramerous, thyrsoid, terminal panicles.   Calyx minutely four-toothed,
deciduous, short-tubular ; corolla funnel-form, tube short, limb  with four
spreading, ovate, obtuse lobes.  Stamens two, on the tube of the corolla;
anthers large,  exserted.   Style very short;  stigma two-cleft.   Berries
spherical, black, in conical  bunches, two-celled, and from two  to four-
seeded ;  seeds convex on one side, angular on the other.
  History.—Privet is found growing wild in woods and thickets, and
along the roadsides from New England to Virginia, and West to Mis-
souri, flowering in May and June.  It is  used in  England for hedges,
from which place it is supposed to be introduced ; but it is  indigenous
in Missouri.   It  is often cultivated  in gardens.  The  leaves  are  the
officinal parts ; they have but little odor,  but an astringent, bitter taste.
Water or alcohol extracts their virtues.   They7 have not been analyzed.
  Properties and Uses.—Privet leaves are astringent; a decoction of
them is very valuable  in chronic bowel complaints, ulceration of stomach 
600
Materia Medica.
and bowels, as a gargle for ulcers of mouth and throat, and as an in-
jection  for ulcerated ears with offensive discharges, leucorrhea, gleet,
and ulceration of the bladder, likewise in diabetes.  They  may be em-
ployed either in decoction or powder.   Dose  of the powdered leaves,
from  thirty to sixty grains, three times  a day;  of the  decoction, from
two to four fluidounces.   The flowers  have been employed for similar
purposes with the leaves.  The berries have a sweetish  bitter taste,  are
reputed cathartic, and to color the urine brown; they have been used
for dyeing.   Probably the bark will be  found  equal, if not superior in
efficacy,  to the leaves.  On analysis it was found to  contain a peculiar
substance called ligustrin, also sugar, mannite, muco-saccharine matter,
starch, chlorophylle, bitter extractive, bitter resin,  tannin, albumen  and
salts.  It is deserving further attention.
   Off.  Prep.—Decoctum Ligustri.
                      LILIUM CANDIDUM.
                           Meadow Lily.
         Nat. Ord.—Liliaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Hexandria Monogynia.
                             THE  root.
  Description. — This plant has a  perennial  root or bulb, consisting of
imbricated fleshy scales, from which arises a thick stem from three to
four feet in hight.  The leaves  are  scattered lanceolate, and narrowed
at the base.   The fiowers are large, snow-white, campanulate, smooth
inside, and disposed in a terminal raceme.
  History.—This is an exotic, a native of Syria and  Asia Minor, and is
much cultivated in  this country  on account of its beautiful white flowers,
which have long been regarded as the emblems of purity, and which
appear in June and July.   The  bulb is  the part  used,  it is inodorous,
but  has a peculiar,  disagreeable,   somewhat bitter and mucilaginous
taste.  It contains a large  proportion of  mucilage, and a small quantity
of an  acrid principle which is dissipated by heat.   Water extracts its
virtues.
  Properties  and Uses.—Meadow Lily, or White Lily as it is sometimes
called, is  mucilaginous, demulcent, tonic,  and astringent.   Useful in
leucorrhea and prolapsus  uteri,  the decoction taken internally, and em-
ployed in  injection ; it is  more  decided in its effects, when combined
with life-root (Senecio Gracilis).  Boiled in milk, it forms an  excellent
poultice  for ulcers,  external inflammations,  tumors,  etc.  The recent
root is stated to have been  useful in  dropsy.   The flowers have an
agreeable  odor,  which is  imparted to oil  or lard ;  and a liniment or
ointment is sometimes prepared from them, and used as a soothing ap-
plication in external inflammations.   The petals contain -a fragrant oil,
which has been thought beneficial in earache, and uterine pains. 
LlNUM UsiTATIbSIMUM.
601
                   LINUM USITATISSIMUM.
                             Flaxseed.
        Nat.  Ord.—Linaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Pentagynia.
                            THE  SEEDS.
  Description.—Flax  is an  annual  plant, very smooth, with  a  slender
fibrous root, and one or more erect, slender, delicate, and round stems,
one or two feet high,  and  branching at the top.   The leaves are small,
alternate,  sessile, lanceolate, acute,  entire, three-veined, and of  a pale-
green color ;  the lowermost short and blunt.   The fiowers are  several,
large, of a delicate-blue color, erect, and disposed in a terminal  corym-
bose panicle, and are supported on long peduncles.   The calyx is per-
sistent, and has five lanceolate, erect sepals, which  are  three-nerved  at
base, and imbricated in astivation.  The corolla consists of five thin,
delicate, crenate, oblong or obovate, striated petals, readily dropping off,
glossy,  broad above, narrow below, and contorted  in  astivation.  The
stamens are five, subulate, erect, as long as the calyx, united  at base,
and supporting two-celled  sagittate  anthers.   The  ovary is superior,
ovate, and surmounted by five  blue, slender styles.  The fruit is  a
globular capsule, about the size of a small pea, having the  persistent
calyx at the base, crowned with a sharp spine, having five cells  contain-
ing two seeds each,  divided from  each  other by a  false dissepiment.
Seeds elliptical, smooth, brown, and shining.
  History.—The native country of Flax is unknown, though supposed to
be derived from Egypt, or from Central Asia.   It was known at a very
early period,  as it is mentioned  in the  ninth chapter, thirty-first verse,  of
Exodus, as growing in Egypt.  At present it is naturalized in nearly all
civilized countries.  It flowers in June and July, and  ripens its  seeds in
August.   The seeds,  as  well  as the oil  they  yield  by expression are
officinal.  The seeds are small,  oval, oblong, flattened on the  sides Avith
acute edges,  somewhat  pointed  at one  end, about  a line  in  length,
smooth,  shining, of  a brown  color externally,  and  yellowish-white
within.   They are devoid of smell,  and  have an oily mucilaginous taste,
and consist  of a  mucilaginous tegument  and oleaginous cotyledons,
When the teguments or  husks are steeped in hot water,  a  peculiar
gummy or mucilaginous matter is obtained, viscid, inodorous, and almost
tasteless ; alcohol added to this infusion forms a white flaky precipitate,
and subacetate of lead affords a copious dense precipitate.  In  prepar-
ing the infusion the seeds  should not be bruised  as the mucilage  resides
only in their  external coat.  When flaxseed mucilage is dried it forms a
brown gummy mass,  containing in  100 parts, 52.70 of arabin  or soluble
gum, 29.89 of an insoluble azotiferous  gummy  principle, and 10.30  of
moisture,  and yields 7.11 per cent, of ashes.  Vauquelin found in it free
acetic acid, silica, and various salts of potassa and lime. 
602
Materia Medica.
   The internal portion of the seed, or nucleus, contains  a peculiar oil,
called Linseed  Oil, and which is obtained  from the seeds  by expression
without the aid of heat.  It is rather thick, of a pale amber color, inclin-
ing to green, of a feeble, peculiar, disagreeable odor, and  a nauseous
taste.   Its density varies from 0.927 to 0.934.   It resists a cold of 4°
F., without concreting;  on exposure to the action of the air, it slowly
becomes thicker, and gradually hardens into a firm elastic varnish—on
which account it is highly useful in painting, in the  formation of printers'
ink, and other important applications.   It  boils at  600° F., is soluble in
forty  parts of cold alcohol, five of boiling,  and in one part and a half of
ether ; becomes rancid  with  facility;  and is saponified by the alkalies.
When prepared on the large scale, the seeds are roasted  before expres-
sion, in order to destroy the gummy matter contained  in their tegument.
 Oil Cake, is the cake or refuse which remains after the expression of the
oil, as it retains the mucilaginous matter of the husk, it is much used for
fattening cattle.  Flaxseed Meal is the seeds  finely  ground; it  is of a
dark-gray  color, highly oleaginous,  and  when mixed  with hot water
forms a soft adhesive mass, much used by practical chemists for  luting.
Flaxseed, according to Meyer, contains fixed oil, wax, resin,  extractive,
gum,  tannin, azotized mucilage, starch, albumen, gluten, and various
salts.
   Properties and Uses.—Flaxseed is used as  a  demulcent and emollient.
Half an ounce of the seeds not bruised, infused in  half a pint of  boiling
water, forms a mucilage which is very useful in urinary diseases,  cough,
catarrh, dysentery, and inflammatory affections of  the lungs, intestines,
and urinary passages.  When  not  contra-indicated, the addition of
lemon juice improves the flavor; it may be sweetened  with loaf-sugar or
honey.   A  decoction of flaxseed, or of flaxseed meal  forms an excellent
laxative enema; and the meal mixed with  hot water forms an excellent
emollient poultice.  Dose of the infusion,  one or two  pints daily.  Lin-
seed oil in  doses  of two fluidounces twice a day7, is said  to have cured
severe cases of piles within two or three weeks; while using it,  liquors
and stimulating diet are to be avoided.   It is likewise  reputed beneficial
when internally administered in dysentery, colic, and  lumbricus.   Used
as an enema it is advantageous in dysentery, hemorrhoids and ascarides;
and combined  with lime-water,  it forms  the  Carron Oil, an excellent
application  to burns.  One pint of linseed oil, combined with half an
ounce each of oils of origanum and wintergreen,  forms a pleasant ca-
thartic ;  to  be given in the same doses as castor oil.   The oil is  consti-
tuted  of a large proportion of oleic acid, together with margaric acid and
Glycerine.
   Off. Prep.—Cataplasma Lini; Linimentum  Calcis. 
Liquidambar  Styractflua.
603
                 LIQUIDAMBAR STYRACIFLUA.

                             Sweet Gum.

   Nat.  Ord.—Altingiaceaa, Lindley. Balsamaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Monoacia Poly-
 andria.
                        THE CONCRETE JUICE.
   Description.—The Sweet Gum tree attains the hight of from  fifty to
 sixty feet, with a  diameter of from three to five feet.   It is covered
 with a gray, deeply furrowed bark, with corky ridges on the branchlets.
 The leaves are palmate, deeply five to seven-lobed, rounded, smooth and
 shining, of a rich  green color; the lobes  finely glandular, serrate  and
 acuminate;  the veins villous at their bases.   When  bruised the  leaves
 are  fragrant, and turn crimson or  deep-red  in  autumn.  Sterile fiowers
 in several globular heads arranged in a conical  cluster, naked  or  achla-
 mydeous; aments  monoecious, roundish, surrounded  with a four-leaved
 involucre; stamens  numerous, intermixed  with  minute scales; filaments
 short;  anthers numerous, oblong, subsessile.  Fertile flowers  consist of
 two-celled ovaries, subtended by minute scales, all more or less cohering
 and hardening in  fruit, forming  a spherical catkin  or  head;  catkins
 racemed, nodding,  inclosed in  the bud by a four-leaved deciduous in-
 volucre.  Styles tAvo, long.   Fruit a kind of strobile, composed  of the
 indurated scales and capsules.   Capsules or pods two-beaked, two-celled,
 opening between the two awl-shaped or prickly diverging styles.   Seeds
 small,  several, amphitropous, with sparing albumen and a straight  em-
 bryo ; cotyledons foliaceous.
   History.—This is a large and beautiful tree,  with  fine-grained wood,
 growing throughout the United States in moist woods from Connecticut
 and New Jersey,  southward; but found in  greater  abundance  in  the
 Southern and Middle States.  In warm latitudes, when wounded in  the
 summer, a balsamic juice flows from its trunk;  it is  of the consistence
 of thin honey, more or less transparent, of a yellowish-white color, of a
 peculiar, agreeable, balsamic odor, and a bitter, warm, and acrid taste.
 It concretes  into a  soft resinous mass, assuming a darker color, and is
 known as Sweet Gum, or Liquidamber (Liquidum Liquidambar Styraci-
 flua).   It is soluble in alcohol,  oils,  lard  or  fats.   According  to M.
 Bonastre, it contains a colorless volatile oil, a  semi-concrete  substance
 which  rises in distillation and  is separated from  the water by ether,  a
 minute proportion of benzoic acid, a yellow coloring substance, an oleo-
 resin, and a peculiar principle, insoluble in water and cold alcohol, for
 which  he proposes the name of styracine.   The  proportion  of benzoic
 acid  is greatly increased by time.
   Properties and Uses.—It probably possesses virtues  similar to the con-
 crete juice of Styrax officinale, which see.  It  makes an elegant and
agreeable  ointment when melted  with  equal parts of lard  or tallow, 
604
Materia  Medica.
which I have found  decidedly useful in  hemorrhoids, psora, ringworm
of the scalp, porrigo scutulata, and many  other  cutaneous affections;
also in that indolent species of ulcer, known as  " fever sores on the
legs."  In anal fistula,  it maintains  an increased  discharge, softens the
callosity of the walls of the sinus,  and produces  a normal result, and
effects this without pain to the patient.   If necessary, in fistula, a little
creosote, or other stimulant may be  added to it.   This employment of
sweet gum is not generally known, and Eclectics would do well to avail
themselves of  its use in the above diseases.  It is  also used  in chronic
catarrh, coughs, and pulmonary affections.
                 LIRIODENDRON  TULIPIFERA.
                             Tulip Tree.
       Nat. Ord.—Magnoliaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Polygynia.
                              THE BARK.
   Description.—This tree is also known by the names of Poplar, White
Poplar,  Yellow Poplar, and  White-wood.  It is ordinarilv about eighty
feet high, with a diameter of two or  three feet, but in  favorable situa-
tions it frequently attains  a hight of one hundred and forty feet, with a
diameter of eight or nine feet.   The trunk is perfectly straight and cylin-
dric, and is covered with a bark of a brown or grayish-brown color, smooth
when young, but rugged  and furrowed when old.   At the top it divides
rather abruptly  into coarse,  crooked  branches,  in somewhat regular
order, giving a symmetrical aspect to  the  tree ; the bark  of the young
branches is bluish or of a reddish tinge.  The leaves are large, bright
green, alternate, on  long petioles, smooth, shining, three lobed, the
lateral lobes ovate, the middle one truncated and  horizontally notched
at its summit.  In the larger leaves, the lateral lobes  are furnished with
a tooth-like projection, or additional lobe  at some  distance  below their
apex.  There is a variety with the lobes of its leaves not pointed, but
very obtuse.  The flowers  are large,  solitary, terminal, tulip-shaped,
variegated with  different colors, greenish-yellow externally,  orange
within, and from four to six inches in diameter.  Bracts two, triangular,
falling off as the floAv^r expands.  The calyx is double, the inner and
proper sepals being three, large, oval, concave, veined, of a pale-green
color, spreading at first, but afterward reflexed.  The corolla consists of
six, seven, or more petals, which  are obtuse, concave, veined, of a pale
yellowish-green color, and marked with an irregular  indented crescent
of a bright orange on both sides toward the base.   Stamens numerous,
with short filaments, and long, linear, adnate  anthers.  The pistil is a
large, conical, acute body, its upper half covered with minute, blackish,
recurved stigmas ; its lower furrowed, being a mass of coalescing styles
and  ovaries.  The fruit  consists of  numerous,  long,  narrow scales, 
LlRIODENDRON TuLIPIFERA.
605
 attached to a common axis, imbricated in a conical form, attached at the
 base to a common receptacle, and containing each two seeds;  the upper
 portion of each scale is winged.   The seeds are ovate, blackish, one or
 both often abortive.
   History.—This is one of the most magnificent and  remarkable trees
 of the American forests, on account of its size, its striking foliage, its
 beautiful flowers, its useful wood,  and its medicinal  properties.  It is
 found in rich soils from New England  to  Florida, attaining its greatest
 size in the Middle and South-western States, and its flowers  appear in
 the latter part of May, or early in June.   The wood is compact, of fine
 grain, light,  and easily worked, and  is  much  used  for  a variety  of
 purposes ; it has the property of resisting moist atmospheric influences,
 as well as the attacks of worms.  The bark of the root or trunk is  the
 officinal  part.   It is of a  yellowish-white color when its epidermis is
 removed, the root-bark being the darkest.   It is very  light and brittle,
 of a peculiar rather disagreeable odor, and a bitter, pungent, aromatic
 taste.  Age impairs its properties.   Water or alcohol takes up its active
 properties, which are  dissipated by  long boiling.  The bark  should  be
 collected during the winter.  The virtues  of the  bark  appear to reside
 in a volatile  principle,  which escapes during boiling, and to which  the
 name of liriodendrin was  given  by its discoverer, the late Professor J.
 P. Emmet.   It  may be  obtained by macerating  the powdered  bark in
 alcohol, boiling the tincture with magnesia till it assumes an olive-green
 color, then filtering, concentrating by distillation  till the liquid becomes
 turbid, and finally precipitating  the  liriodendrin by the  addition of cold
 water.  In the pure state it is white, solid,  crystallizable, brittle, insolu-
 ble in water, soluble in alcohol  or  ether, fusible at 180°, volatilizable
 and partly decomposed at 270°, slightly aromatic,  with a warm, bitter,
 pungent  taste.   It is precipitated from infusion or decoction hj alkalies,
 and from its alcoholic solution by water; and does not unite with  acids
 nor alkalies.
   Properties  and Uses.—Tulip tree bark is  an aromatic, stimulant tonic,
 and has  proved beneficial in intermittents, chronic rheumatism, chronic
 diseases of the stomach and bowels, worms, and hysteria.  In hysteria,
 combined with a small quantity of Laudanum,  it is  said to be certain,
 speedy, and  effectual, and also  to  abate the hectic fever, night-sweats,
 and colliquative diarrhea of phthisis.  The warm infusion is diaphoretic,
 and under certain states  of the  system has proved  diuretic.  Dose of
 the powdered bark, from  a scruple to two drachms;  of the saturated
tincture, which is the best  form of administration, one fluidrachm; of
the infusion,  from one to two  fluidounces;  of liriodendrin, from five  to
ten grains.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Liriodendroni; Vinum Hydrastii Compositum. 
606
Materia  Medica.
                       LOBELIA INFLATA.
                               Lobelia.
       Nat. Ord.—Lobeliaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                       THE  LEAVES AND  SEEDS.
  Description.—This plant, generally known as Wild or Indian Tobacco,
is  an annual  or biennial  indigenous  plant, more  commonly the latter,
with a fibrous, yelloAvish-white root, and an erect, angular, very pubescent
or hairy stem, from  six inches  to two feet in hight, and much branched
toward  the top.  The  leaves are scattered, alternate, sessile, ovate or
oblong, unequally serrate,  and hairy.  The flowers are numerous,  small,
in leafy terminal racemes, and supported on short peduncles, each
arising  from the  axil of a small bract.   The  calyx is five-toothed, the
segments being linear, pointed,  and as long as the  corolla.   The corolla
is of a pale-blue color, monopetalous, but cleft on its upper  side  nearly
to its base, bilabiate, with  the upper lip divided into two lanceolate seg-
ments,  and the  lower  into three  oval  ones.    Anthers  united into an
oblong, curved body,  purple;  filaments white.   Style filiform;  stigma
curved, two-lobed,  and inclosed by the anthers.   Capsule two-celled,
ovoid, inflated,  striated, ten-angled,  and crowned with the persistent
calyx.  Seeds numerous, small, oblong, broAvn.
  History.—This is  a very common weed, growing in fields  and by the
roadsides throughout the United  States, and floAvering from July to
September, or until  the occurrence of  frost.   The  Avhole  plant possesses
medicinal activity, but the leaves and seeds are more usually employed.
The root is said to be the  most active part of the plant.   The proper
time for gathering the plant is in August  or September,  when the cap-
sules are numerous.   It should  be dried in the shade Avith care, when it
may be kept Avhole, or in the  state of poAvder.   When dried it has a
faint, irritating,  rather unpleasant odor, and a strong, acrid, nauseous
taste, very much resembling tobacco, producing a burning acrid impres-
sion upon  the  tongue and fauces, attended with nausea and a flow of
saliva.  The powdered leaves  are of a  greenish  color — the  seeds in
powder, brownish.   It yields its properties to water by infusion, alcohol,
ether, or vinegar.  Heat dissipates its active principles, hence it should
never be boiled.  It contains  an odorous volatile principle, lobelic acid,
gum, resin, chlorophylle, fixed oil, lignin,  salts of lime and potassa, oxide
of iron, and a peculiar alkaline  principle, named Lobelina, of Avhich the
seeds contain double the amount found in any7 other part  of the plant.
  The fixed oil of lobelia may be obtained by bruising the seed between
heated rollers, and pressing while  hot in a strong linen cloth, between
proper iron plates.   Its consistence is nearly like that of linseed oil, and
possesses  the  drying qualities  common to the fixed oils.  It possesses
all the medical properties of the seed. 
Loeelia  Inflata.                      607
  Lobelina may be obtained by bruising one pound of lobelia seed in a
mortar, and then adding eight pints of alcohol, and one pint of acetic acid;
digest with the heat of the sun for several days,  or  until the seeds are
deprived of*their acrimony, and  strain.   Evaporate the tincture to two
pints, and filter;  then,  by means  of  a water-bath, evaporate  to  an
extract.   This extract is then to  be triturated with magnesia and water,
and after repeated agitation for several hours, is strained through calico,
and  then  filtered.  This liquor, which  holds  the  lobelina in solution is
then shaken repeatedly with fresh portions of sulphuric ether,  until the
water settling below is deprived of its acrimony.  The ethereal solution
must now be  drawn off with  a syphon, or carefully decanted, and then
left to evaporate  spontaneously.   The  residue is  impure lobelina, of a
reddish-brown color,  and a honey-like consistence.   To obtain it pure,
the residue is treated  with water, to which a slight excess  of  sulphuric
acid is  added, and then boiled  with  animal charcoal, saturating with
magnesia,  filtering, agitating repeatedly with fresh portions  of ether,  till
the aqueous  portion is deprived of acrimony, then carefully decanting
off the  ethereal solution as before, or drawing it off with a syphon, and
then evaporated again spontaneously.   The  lobelina thus obtained is a
yellowish  liquid, lighter than water,  of an odor rather aromatic, and an
extremely acrid  and permanent taste.  It is readily soluble in alcohol or
ether, but less so in water.  Ether will remove it from its aqueous solu-
tion, and  upon evaporation the  lobelina  may be again obtained.   Its
reaction is decidedly  alkaline, and  with sulphuric, nitric  and muriatic
acids, it forms soluble and crystallizable salts, but  not crystallizable
with acetic, and probably tartaric and  citric acids.   It is instantly pre-
cipitated from its solution by tannic acid, with Avhich it forms an insoluble
compound.   Unless combined with  acids, it is  decomposed by boiling.
It possesses  the  active properties of the plant in a  concentrated form.
As an  emetic, three  to  ten drops,  sufficiently diluted with water, will
generally  operate.  With vinegar, or citric acid and honey, it forms an
oxymel which is very beneficial in bronchitis and cynanche trachealis.
By some it is considered as the narcotic (?) principle of lobelia.
  Lobelia was known to the Penobscot Indians, and was also extensively
used by the people of New England  in domestic practice, long before the
time of Samuel Thomson, its  assumed discoverer.
  Properties  and Uses.—Lobelia  is emetic, nauseant,  expectorant,  relax-
ant, sedative, antispasmodic, and secondarily cathartic, diaphoretic, and
astringent.  There is  much discordance of opinion among  medical men
as regards its narcotic properties, many denying that it holds any such
influences  whatever.   When  chewed,  lobelia produces a  disagreeable
sense of burning and distension, which  extends into the esophagus,
terminating in nausea and vomiting, Avith oppressive prostration, relaxa-
tion of the muscular system, and a  languid pulse.  In doses of ten or
twenty grains of the  leaves or seeds, it is a prompt and efficient emetic, 
608
Materia  Medica.
and may be given in all cases where emesis is indicated; its action is
somewhat modified by a combination with ipecacuanha and other vege-
table  emetics, and rendered  safer and  more  effectual.  In  very small
doses it  excites diaphoresis,  increases expectoration, diminishes  cough,
and counteracts spasmodic action.  In all  diseases  of  the  respiratory
organs, as croup, pneumonia, pertussis, catarrh, asthma,  and those fits
of dyspnoea  resembling asthma,  it will  be, found useful either  as an
emetic, or expectorant.  As  with  ipecacuanha so  with lobelia, it  will be
found very useful in all febrile  diseases,  especially during their  earlier
stages, as it relaxes the system, modifies arterial excitement, and pro-
duces  diaphoresis, thus  tending  to equilibriate the  circulation, and
assisting the  vital powers to  eliminate  morbid humors.   As  an  expec-
torant it  may be used  in  tincture combined with  tincture of bloodroot,
syrup of senega, oxymel of squill, Avine of  ipecacuanha, etc.  In all
cases  where relaxation of the system is desired, either to subdue spasm,
or otherwise, lobelia will be found a very valuable article—probably no
remedy is more effectual.   Spasmodic movement is incompatible with
nervous  and muscular relaxation, hence  we find prompt relief  in epi-
lepsy, hysteria, cramps, tetanus, chorea, convulsions, etc., by the exhi-
bition of lobelia  in doses sufficient  to excite nausea and  relaxation.
Rigidity  of the os uteri has often been overcome by the employment of
this drug internally, or as an enema.  In  strangulated hernia, and other
intestinal obstructions, it  has been  found an  excellent relaxant when
used in injection; and  on this account it is highly beneficial in fractures,
dislocations, and tedious labors.  It may be given internally, and applied
in fomentation externally; the  oil may be  used  externally likewise for
the purpose of causing relaxation.
   Externally, the  infusion has  been  found useful in ophthalmic affec-
tions ; and the tincture is a valuable local  application  to sprains, bruises,
rheumatic pains, erysipelas, and erysipelatous  inflammations, tetter, and
other forms of cutaneous disease, as well as a remedy  for the poison from
ivy or dogAvood.  A poultice  of  powdered lobelia and slippery-elm bark,
with a weak ley-water will be found valuable  in  erysipelatous diseases,
bites  and stings of poisonous insects, spasmodic affections  of the limbs,
pains, and to produce muscular  relaxation.
   The oil of lobelia, as prepared by W.  S. Merrell, is  valuable in tetanus
and  some other  extreme cases, as it is easy to introduce enough upon
the tongue to relax the whole system  immediately.   On account of its
tendency to produce inflammation of the  stomach, it  should  not  be em-
ployed alone as a common emetic, but a few drops of it should be tritu-
rated with  sugar,  and   diffused  in  chamomile, boneset, or other  emetic
infusion.   One drop of the oil triturated with one scruple of sugar, and
divided into from six to twelve  doses, will be found highly useful as an
expectorant, nauseant, sedative, and diaphoretic, when given every one
or two hours, as may be required.  As a local application, much benefit 
Lycopus Virginicus.
609
may be derived from it, where a particular nerve is to be quieted, or a
muscle to be relaxed.  An excellent liniment may be made of a mixture
of half an  ounce each of oils of  amber and sassafras, a drachm of oil
of lobelia, and half a drachm of ethereal oil of capsicum.   To be used in
painful neuralgic and rheumatic affections.   As an emetic, dose of the
powder, from twenty to sixty grains ;  of the tincture, from two to four
fluidrachms.  As a nauseant and expectorant, from five to twenty grains.
When lobelia does not act as  an emetic, it is very apt to purge.
   There  are two other  species of lobelia, the Blue lobelia, Lobelia Syphi-
litica, and the Red lobelia, L. Cardinalis.  The first is diaphoretic, emetic
and cathartic ; also diuretic and antisyphilitic, and a strong infusion of it
has cured gonorrhea.  It has likewise been used  in  dropsy, diarrhea,
and dysentery.   The root is the  part used ; dose, from twenty to sixty
grains  of the powder.   The  L.  Cardinalis  is  said  to be anthelmintic,
nervine, and antispasmodic.   These two  varieties are seldom, if  ever,
used in medicine.
   Off. Prep.—Acetum Lobelia; Cataplasma Lobelia et Ulmus; Enema
Lobelia  Composita; Extractum Lobelia  Fluidum;  Extractum Lobelia
Fluidum Compositum ; Linimentum Stillingia Compositum; Lotio Lobe-
lia Composita; Oleum  Lobelia; Pilula Aloe's Composita; Pulvis Lobe-
lia Compositus;  Tinctura Hydrastis  Composita ;  Tinctura Lobelia;
Tinctura Lobelia Composita; Tinctura Lobelia et Capsici; Tinctura San-
guinaria  Acetata; Tinctura Sanguinaria Composita;  Tinctura Viburni
Composita.
                    LYCOPUS  VIRGINICUS.

                            Bugleweed.
        Nat. Ord.—Lamiaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Diandria Monogynia.
                            THE  HERB.
  Description.—This plant, also known as Paul's Betony, and  Water
Horehound, is indigenous, with  a  perennial, creeping fibrous root, from
which  arises  an  erect,  herbaceous,  furrowed,  somewhat pubescent,
obtusely quadrangular stem, nearly simple, and from  one to two feet in
hight.   The leaves are opposite, sessile, broad-lanceolate, attenuated and
entire  at both extremities, remotely serrate  in the middle, somewhat
rough, purplish, and beset Avith glandular  dots on their under surface.
The flowers  are minute,  sessile, in axillary  whorls, with  two  subulate
bracts  at  the base  of each  flower.  The calyx  is tubular, four-cleft,
shorter than the seeds, persistent;  segments ovate-lanceolate and acute.
Corolla white, tubular, with four small round lobes, twice as long as the
calyx, the emarginate segment broader than the others.   Stamens two,
as long as  the corolla, inserted on the tube near the  base of the upper
segment.  Anthers erect,  two-lobed, pale-purple.   The ovary is superior,
           39 
610
Materia Medica.
 quadrangular,  somewhat  furrowed,  with  a filiform style,  somewhat
 exserted, and terminated by a two-cleft stigma, the lobes of which are
 acute.   Seeds  four, longer than  the  calyx, obovate, compressed,  and
 crenate at the top.
   History.—Bugleweed is found growing throughout the greater part of
 the United  States, in moist and shady situations, flowering in July  and
 August.  It has a  peculiar, balsamic, terebinthinate odor, and a disa-
 greeable, slightly bitter taste.   It imparts its properties to boiling water
 in infusion.   The whole herb  is  officinal.   It has  not  been analyzed,
 but, probably, its virtues depend upon a volatile oil  and tannic acid.
   Properties and Uses.—The  exact medicinal  virtues of this plant  are
 not fully understood.  It appears to possess sedative, tonic, astringent,
 and narcotic properties, and  has been successfully used  in incipient
 phthisis, hemoptysis, and other hemorrhages ; it allays irritation, dimin-
 ishes the frequency of the  pulse, and lessens cough. It acts  somewhat
 like digitalis, in abating  the velocity of the pulse, but is devoid of  the
 dangerous effects resulting from the use of that drug. It is peculiar to
 Eclectics in  the treatment of  diabetes,  haA7ing cured  when  all other
 means were useless; and  has  been beneficial  in  chronic diarrhea  and
 dysentery, inflammatory diseases  of drunkards, diseases of the heart,
 and intermittents.   Dose of the powder, from one to two drachms; of
 the infusion, from two to four fluidounces.
   The Lycopus Europeus, a  European species, but  naturalized in  this
 country, has long been employed as a febrifuge ; and the most obstinate
intermittents have been cured by two-drachm doses of the dried plant.   It
is frequently collected and sold for L. Virginicus, but may be distinguished
by its acutely quadrangular  stem, its narrow lanceolate leaves of Avhich  the
lower are somewhat  pinnatifid,  its more crowded floAvers, and the acute
segments of its calyx, armed with short spines.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Lycopus.
                     LYTHRUM  SALIC ARIA.
                             Loosestrife.
       Nat. Ord.—Lythraceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Dodecandria Monogynia.
                             THE  HERB.
  Description.—This plant, also  known  by the name of Purple-willow-
herb, is an  elegant  perennial, with a woody  root, sending up several
erect,  leafy, slender,  reddish stems,  three or four feet high, downy,
herbaceous, quadrangular,  or even  hexangular  near the root.   The
leaves  are mostly  opposite, occasionally  in whorls  of three  or four,
in which  cases  the  number of angles  in the  stem  is  likewise  in-
creased ;  they  are  also nearly sessile, lanceolate,  acute, entire, from 
Lythrum  Salicaria.
611
 three to  six  inches  in  length,  and  about  one-fourth  as  wide,  the
 upper ones diminished to bracts, cordate at the base, and downy on the
 under surface, and at the margin.   The flowers  are large, numerous,
 nearly sessile, inodorous, purple, axillary, crowded  and whorled in a ter-
 minal, interrupted  wand-like  spike, six in  each whorl.  The calyx is
 inferior, cylindrical, striated, downy or hairy, with twelve marginal teeth,
 six of Avhich are long, subulate, erect, and reddish ;  the others  minute,
 ovate, concave, and inflected.   The petals are  six,  elliptic-oblong, equal,
 waved.   Stamens twelve, filiform, the six alternate ones shorter, bearing
 red, roundish anthers, with green or yellow pollen.  The ovary is ovate-
 oblong,  with a simple style and capitate stigma.  The capsule is small,
 elliptical,  two-celled, many-seeded, and inclosed in the tube of  the
 calyx.
   History.—This plant is found in various parts of the world, being an
 inhabitant of Europe, Asia, North America,  and New Holland, growing
 in wet situations,  and in this country bearing purple flowers in July and
 August.   It is inodorous,  but has  a herbaceous, mucilaginous, some-
 what astringent taste.  It yields its properties to water.  It has not been
 analyzed,  but probably contains tannin and much mucilage.   It renders
 boiling Avater very mucilaginous, and its decoction is  blackened  by sul-
 phate of iron.
   Properties and  Uses. — Demulcent  and astringent.  Very useful in
 diarrhea, dysentery, and other affections of the bowels, where this class
 of remedies is indicated ; used freely in decoction.   Externally, it is very
 beneficial as a local application in ophthalmia, leucorrhea, gleet, ulcers,
 and some forms of cutaneous disease ; used either  as a wash,  or in form
 of poultice.  Dose of the powder, one drachm, two or three times a day;
 of the decoction, one or two  fluidounces. The Decodon, or L. Verticil-
 latum, or Swamp Willow-herb, bearing purple  flowers, possesses similar
 properties to the  above; it is  said to cause abortion in mares and cows
 browsing it in winter, and may, perhaps, exert  a medicinal influence on
 the  female uterus.  It groAvs  in swamps throughout the United States
 and  Canada, has a stem woody at the base, often prostrate, and rooting
 at the summit, three to eight feet long, or when erect from two to three
 feet in hight, and from four to  six-angled. The leaves are opposite, or
 in whorls of three, lanceolate, on short petioles, acute at base, from three
to five inches long, gradually acuminate and acute at apex.  The flowers
are large,  purple,  in axillary subsessile umbels of three  or more, appa-
rently whorled, constituting a long, leafy, terminal  and  showy panicle.
 Calyx short, broadly campanulate, with  five  erect  teeth, and  five elon-
gated, spreading, horn-like processes.  Petals five or six.   Stamens ten,
alternate ones very long; style filiform ; capsule globose, included, three-
celled, many seeded.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Lythri. 
612
Materia  Medica.
                   MAGNESIA.   (Magnesia  Usta.)
                              Magnesia.
   Preparation.—Magnesia, or Calcined magnesia, as it is more  usually
 termed, is obtained by placing carbonate  of  magnesia in an earthen
 vessel, and exposing it to a red-heat for two hours, or until all the  car-
 bonic acid is expelled, by which process the earth is obtained pure.  A
 very intense heat is not required for the calcination, but merely sufficient
 to expel the water and carbonic acid; if a higher heat is kept  up, the
 magnesia  obtained will be hard, dense, less readily soluble in acids,  and
 less beneficial as a medicine.   The expulsion  of the carbonic acid may
 be known by mixing a little of the magnesia  with water, when  on  the
 addition of muriatic acid, no effervescence ensues.
   History.—Magnesia is a  pure white powder, of various degrees of
 density, obscurely alkaline, inodorous, and of an earthy taste ; it attracts
 from twelve to twenty per cent, of  moisture from the air, passing from
 the  caustic to the slaked condition,  but it does  not absorb carbonic acid
 in a corresponding degree.   Water sprinkled  on  it is  absorbed to  the
 extent of about 18 per cent., but Avithout heat  being evolved, and when
 thrown into water, it crackles slightly.  Its  specific gravity is  about 2.3.
 Trituration greatly increases its specific gravity,  so that a bottle which
 wrould only  contain one ounce of it when  not triturated, will, by this
 process, readily hold four ounces,  or  four times the  quantity.  The
 density of the magnesia is increased  by employing a high temperature
 during calcination.  It is soluble  in  5142 parts  of water at 60°, in
 36,000 parts of boiling water.   It  unites with acids, occasioning much
 heat, and forms salts, some of which are soluble; the nitrate and muriate
 of magnesia are very  deliquescent,  and soluble in  alcohol.  It is precip-
 itated from its  saline  solutions, in  the  state of a  hydrate, by the pure
 alkalies, and  in the state of a carbonate by the carbonates of soda and
 potassa; the bicarbonates of alkalies, and ordinary  carbonate of ammonia
 cause  no precipitate.   Magnesia is  a  metallic oxide, consisting  of one
 equivalent of magnesium 12, and one of oxygen 8=20,  (Mg 0.)
   Henry's magnesia  is usually considered the best;  its method of pre-
 paration is not known; some suppose  its softness, density, and ready
 miscibility with water, to be owing to its being  prepared by precipitation
 of a  solution of sulphate of magnesia by caustic potassa ;  others suppose
 the precipitation to be accomplished with carbonate of soda; and others
again to the  employment of  an intense heat.  If equivalent  quantities
 of crystallized sulphate of magnesia, and crystallized carbonate of soda
be boiled  together in water,  the  mixture  evaporated  to dryness,  the
residual salts calcined, and the sulphate of soda dissolved out by water,
the magnesia obtained will be dense.   Husband's magnesia stands next
to Henry's, and Ellis's last.
  Magnesia  is subject to adulteration with lime,  alumina, silica, and, 
Magnesia Carbonas.
613
 from careless calcination or preservation, carbonate  of magnesia.  If
 carbonate  of  magnesia be  present, the addition  of muriatic acid will
 cause  effervescence ;  silica may be detected by  the  same acid, which
 slowly dissolves the magnesia but does not touch the silica.   Alumina
 may be detected by dissolving  fifty grains of magnesia in a  fluidounce
 of muriatic acid,—if alumina be present, ammonia added in excess Avill
 cause a precipitate of the adulteration.  A neutral solution of  pure mag-
 nesia in a dilute acid,  is not disturbed by  the addition  of  oxalate of
 ammonia, or bicarbonate of potassa; but if lime be present, both cause
 precipitates ; the first of oxalate of lime, the second of carbonate.   Ad-
 herent  sulphate  of magnesia is indicated in  the muriatic solution of
 magnesia, by  the chloride of barium, which precipitates a white sulphate
 of baryta.
   Properties and Uses.—Magnesia is  antacid, antilithic, and laxatiAre. It
 is useful in dyTspepsia Avith acidity, and is preferable to the carbonate, as
 it can be given in a much smaller dose, and does not occasion flatulence ;
 its laxative qualities likewise give it some advantage over alkaline reme-
 dies.  In all cases attended with acidity and constipation it will be found
 useful.   It  acts as an  antilithic, first by correcting gastric acidity, and
 secondly by forming with free  lithic acid, or lithate of ammonia, the
 more soluble  lithate of magnesia.  It is on  this account beneficial in
 gout, and rheumatic gout, frequently  giving material relief.  It is apt to
 lodge in the bowels, if  no acid be present, hence, in this case, it should
 be followed by a draught or two of  lemonade.  It is often united with
 rhubarb  as a laxative  and antacid.   Freshly precipitated hydrate of
 magnesia, is a good antidote  to arsenious acid, though  inferior to the
 hydrated peroxide of iron.  The following is recommended in cases of
 poisoning, in which the  nature of the poison is unknown: after freely
 evacuating the stomach by emetics, give the following mixture in  a suffi-
 cient quantity of water—Calcined magnesia, pulverized  charcoal, and
 sesquioxide of iron, of each,  equal parts, mixed together.   It  is per-
 fectly innocuous, and as its  ingredients are antidotes to  the most active
 and  commonest poisons, it  is very likely to be efficacious.  Dose, as a
laxative from  half a drachm  to a drachm; as an antacid, or antilithic,
from ten to thirty grains twice a day.
                    MAGNESLE CARBONAS.
                       Carbonate of Magnesia.
  Preparation. — Carbonate  of  Magnesia  rarely  occurs as  a native
mineral, but  is usually prepared on a large scale, by decomposing the
sulphate  of magnesia  with carbonate of soda.  Dissolve four pounds
nine ounces of carbonate of soda, and four pounds of sulphate of mag-
nesia, separately, in two gallons  (Imperial  measure)  of distilled water;
mix  the solutions, then boil for two hours, constantly stirring it with a 
614
Materia Medica.
spatula, and adding a little distilled water now and then, so as nearly to
preserve the measure; then pour off the liquor, collect the precipitate,
wash it thoroughly with boiling distilled water,  and dry it.
  Some of the best manufacturers are said to prepare it according to the
following  method; a solution of one hundred  and twenty-five parts of
crystallized  carbonate of soda is gradually added to a saturated solution
of one hundred parts of sulphate of magnesia, constantly  stirring the
solutions.   The mixture is  then heated to ebullition,  in order to com-
plete the  precipitation of the magnesia, which  is  subsequently washed
with  tepid,  and finally  with cold water, until  the washings  no longer
give  a  precipitate with  the salts of  baryta.   When it is sufficiently
washed, the carbonate is allowed to drain for  one or two days on large
linen filters, and is then placed in wooden  molds with a porous bottom
of brick or  gypsum, and subjected to  pressure in order to  give it the
square and compact form into which it is usually wrought.
  History.—Carbonate of Magnesia is made, in this country, from the
bittern of salt works, which consists principally  of sulphate of magnesia,
and chloride of magnesium.   But the greater part of  that used* is  im-
ported from Scotland,  from which place  it comes to us in cases of  one
hundred and twenty pounds each.  Officinal Carbonate of magnesia is
a pure white powder, loose, and granular if dense, but somewhat coher-
ent,  like  starch,  if light,—inodorous,  nearly  tasteless,  smooth to the
touch, permanent  in the air, and  feebly alkaline in its action  on vegeta-
ble colors.  It is soluble in  2493  parts  of cold, and 9000  parts of hot
water;  it  is more soluble in cold water if it be charged with carbonic
acid, forty-eight parts of water being then sufficient.   It is soluble in
diluted  nitric, muriatic,  sulphuric, or carbonic  acids, and effervescence
takes place.  It is decomposed  by strong  heat, all the acids, potassa,
soda, lime, baryta, strontia, the sulphate, phosphate, nitrate, or muriate
of alumina,  and by acidulous or metallic salts.
  There are two kinds of this salt in commerce, the light and the heavy.
Its density is said to  depend upon the strength of the solutions from
which it is first precipitated,  and its fineness and softness to the touch,
upon the  use of carbonate of soda in its preparation.  The light carbo-
nate  is the kind  manufactured  in Scotland.   Carbonate  of magnesia
varies in its composition  with the mode of preparation.  Berzelius, whose
doctrine is most current, supposes it to be a compound of three equiva-
lents of the  hydrated neutral carbonate, with one equivalent of hydrated
magnesia.   According to Phillips, four equivalents of the carbonate are
combined with  one of  the bi-hydrate, and four of water.
  The impurities of carbonate of magnesia, are similar to those of mag-
nesia, and usually occur from carelessness in  the process  of manufac-
turing.   If water in which carbonate of magnesia is boiled changes
turmeric paper, it contains an alkaline carbonate.   If chloride of barium 
Magnesije Sulphas.
615
causes a precipitate in the water, it indicates the presence of a sulphate,
or carbonate, or both.  If nitrate of silver produces a precipitate, a chlo-
ride is present, probably of sodium.   Alumina is  separated from the
muriatic acid solution  by an excess of ammonia — the solution to  be
made in an excess of the acid.  And after the alumina has been thrown
down, if lime be present, the addition of oxalate of  ammonia will cause
a precipitate of oxalate of lime.
  Properties  and Uses. — Carbonate of Magnesia is antacid, antilithic,
and by combining with acid in the stomach, it becomes generally cathar-
tic ;  but produces no purgative effect, if it undergoes no change in the
alimentary canal.   Hence, it  is always useful to give it in combination
with lemonade or lemon juice.  Useful in cases of  acid stomach, gout,
and where the urine contains an excess of uric acid ;  but from its lia-
bility to produce  flatulence, in consequence  of  the extrication of its
carbonic acid in  the stomach and bowels, it  is inferior to the  calcined
magnesia.  Dose, as an antacid and antilithic, one or two scruples ; as
a cathartic, one or two drachms in  water or milk.   It is a useful agent
for diffusing camphor and volatile oils through water in preparing several
of the medicated waters.
   Off. Prep.—Liquor Magnesia Citratis.
                     MAGNESLE SULPHAS.
               Sulphate of Magnesia.  (Epsom-Salts.)
   Preparation. — Sulphate of Magnesia,  commonly known as Epsom-
Salts, is one of the constituents of sea water, and of some saline springs.
For its artificial manufacture, several processes are followed, the most
important of Avhich are as follows :—When prepared from bittern water,
or the residual brine after crystallizing salt from sea water, it is  accom-
plished  by simple  evaporation  and crystallization.   A  little  sulphuric
acid is added to the bittern in order to convert the chloride of mag-
nesium, which forms part of its saline ingredients, into the sulphate.   It
is  then carefully evaporated, and the sulphate of magnesia crystallizes
first, leaving  behind  the chlorides of magnesium  and  calcium.   It is
then collected, and  any impurities it may contain removed by washing
the crystals  in  water, or by chemically  precipitating  the impurities,
filtering,  and evaporating.  However, the sulphate of magnesia obtained
by this process is very apt to be impure and deliquescent.
   It is also prepared from dolomite, a magnesian limestone, composed
of carbonate of lime and carbonate of magnesia ; the carbonates may be
converted into sulphates, and the latter separated by means of the infe-
rior solubility of the sulphate of lime.   Or the  dolomite may be calcined,
thereby driving off the  carbonic  acid, and converting  the remaining
earths into hydrates ; then muriatic acid is added in such quantity as to 
616
Materia  Medica.
unite with the caustic lime only,  and the chloride  of calcium being re-
moved by solution in water the magnesia is converted into the sulphate
by means of sulphuric  acid.  It is  likewise prepared from magnesite,  a
siliceous hydrate of magnesia, which is found in veins in the serpentine
and other magnesian rocks so common in the neighborhood of Baltimore
and southern  Pennsylvania.   This mineral is finely powdered, and the
powder saturated with sulphuric  acid.   The whole mass is  then dried
and calcined at a red-heat, for the purpose of changing any existing sul-
phate of iron into red oxide.  It is then dissolved in water, and sulphuret
of lime added to separate any remaining portion of iron.  The  salt is
crystallized and dissolved a third time in order to purify it.  In this
manner sulphate of magnesia is extensively prepared at Baltimore, and
is usually very pure and clean.   Sulphate of magnesia also occurs as  a
native production, being found abundantly in many of the great caverns
of the western states.  It is  found  in  long, slender, prismatic crystals;
as an efflorescence on certain rocks and soils, or it occurs in masses of
six, eight, or ten pounds.
   History.—Sulphate of Magnesia was discovered in 1694 by Grew, who
prepared it from the saline waters  of  Epsom in England, from whence
it has derived its familiar name, Epsom-Salts ;  at  present it is usually
met with in small acicular crystals, transparent and colorless, inodorous,
of a cooling, saline, bitter, disagreeable taste, and slightly efflorescent in
dry air.   When slowly crystallized it forms large rhombic or quadran-
gular prisms, often truncated on the  obtuse edges, and terminated by
two or four converging planes, somewhat like the crystals of sulphate of
Zinc,  and sulphate of Soda.  A moderate heat causes  it to fuse in its
water of crystallization; a higher  temperature renders it anhydrous; and
at a full  red-heat the anhydrous salt melts into an enamel.  It is insolu-
ble in alcohol, soluble in its own weight of water at 60°, and in  three-
fourths of  its weighj; at 212°.  It  is decomposed by potassa, soda, and
their carbonates; by lime, baryta, strontia, and  their soluble salts.  Am-
monia partially decomposes it, forming with the remaining salt a double
sulphate.  The  bicarbonates of potassa and soda,  decompose it by the
aid of heat. It consists of one equivalent of acid 40, one of base 20, and
seven of water 63=123,  its combining number. (Mg 0+S03 +7 Aq.)
   This salt is liable to  various impurities, but as now prepared is  gener-
ally quite free from  them.  Iron, and chloride  of magnesium are, pro-
bably, the most  common impurities at present met with.   Iron may be
detected by ferrocyanuret of  potassium, and the chloride of magnesium
by rendering the salt moist.  If sulphuric acid be added to the sulphate,
and muriatic acid gas is not evolved, the absence of all  chlorides is indi-
cated.   To detect the presence  of sulphate of soda, ten grains  of the
salt are to be dissolved in a fluidounce of water, and treated with a solu-
tion of sesquicarbonate of ammonia;  280 minims  of a solution  of one 
Magnolia  Glauca.
617
part of phosphate of soda in twenty parts of water are then added, which
precipitates 97 per cent, of the magnesia in a pure  sulphate, leaving a
little magnesia in the solution.  Filter the solution, and add to it  more
of the phosphate of soda solution, if no more magnesia is thrown down,
the salt must contain something else than sulphate of magnesia.
  Properties and  Uses.—Refrigerant,  cathartic  and diuretic.   Chiefly
used in febrile and inflammatory affections, or in cases where a refriger-
ant,  mild laxative effect  is  desired.   It  may be  dissolved in  eight
times its quantity of water.   The  addition of four or five  drops of
sulphuric acid to the dose covers the bitter taste of the salt, causes it to
sit easier on the stomach, counteracts  its refrigerant effects, does not
impair its energy, completely removes its tendency  to gripe or  irritate
the rectum, and prevents it from interfering with the  appetite  or diges-
tion.  M. Combes states that the bitterness of this salt may be  removed,
by  the following  means :  Take  of  Sulphate  of Magnesia, one  ounce,
powder of  roasted coffee, two  and a half drachms, water about  sixteen
ounces.  Place  in a A7essel (not a tin one), and boil for two minutes,
remove from the fire, and let the mixture infuse  for some minutes, so as
to allow time for the development of the aroma; then strain and sweeten
to the taste.  By this process the salt is not decomposed.  Should it be
required to increase the amount of the sulphate without augmenting the
proportion of coffee, two or three grains of tannic acid should be added
to the boiling decoction.   Dose  of  the  powder, from two  drachms to
two ounces.  Very seldom  used by Eclectics.
                      MAGNOLIA  GLAUCA.
                             Magnolia.
       Nat. Ord.—Magnoliaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Polyandria Polygynia.
                             THE BARK.
  Description.—This tree  is  known  by several names, as White  bay,
Beaver-tree, Sweet Magnolia, Swamp  Sassafras, etc.  In  the  Northern
States it is often nothing more than a shrub, from four to ten feet high ;
in  the  south it  often  attains  the  hight of forty feet.   Its average
hight is about twenty-five feet.  The trunk is  covered with  a smooth
grayish bark, and that of the young twigs is a bright, smooth green,
scarred with rings  at the insertion  of the leaves by  the fall of the
deciduous  stipules;  the branches are crooked  and much  divaricated.
The leaves  are  alternate, petiolate,  oval, obtuse,  entire, coriaceous,
smooth,  thick, opake,  yellowish-green on their  upper  surface,  and
with the exception  of the midrib, of a  beautiful  pale glaucous  color
beneath; when young they are covered with a silken pubescence.   The
flowers  are  large, solitary, terminal,  cream-colored, of a grateful odor,
and stand on a short  incrassated peduncle.  The calyx is  composed of
three, spathulate, obtuse, concave sepals; the  corolla consists of from 
618
Materia Medica.
 eight to fourteen, obovate, obtuse  and concave  petals, which are con-
 tracted at their base.  The stamens are very numerous, and are inserted
 in common with the petals on the sides of a conical receptacle ; filaments
 very short; anthers linear, mucronated, two-celled,  opening inwardly.
 Ovaries collected  into & cone,  each  divided  by a furrow,  and tipped
 Avith  a brownish,  linear, recurved style.   Fruit a  small,  squarrose,
 fleshy cone,  about  an inch  in  length,  of  a  green  color tinged  with
 red.   These cones  consist of numerous  imbricated  cells, each contain-
 ing a bright  red  seed, and open  longitudinally at the back for the
 escape of  the seed.  The seeds are  obovate, and  on the  opening of
 the capsule at maturity, are  connected to the cone  by  a funiculus, or
 Avhite  slender thread formed of spiral  vessels, which  suspends  them for
 some time after they have fallen  out.  The M. Glauca is  found growing
 in swamps and morasses along the  seaboard, from Massachusetts to the
 Gulf of Mexico,  and is seldom met with at any great distance from the
 seaboard.  It flowers  in May, June, or July according to the latitude.
 At the south it is known as White bay, or Sweet bay. The fragrance of its
 flowers is usually agreeable, but to some persons it is not only unpleasant,
 but absolutely deleterious, causing oppressed breathing and faintness.
   Magnolia Acuminata, or  Cucumber Tree, is  much larger than the
preceding, often  growing to  the hight of sixty  or eighty feet, with  a
 diameter  of from four to  six feet.   The leaves are oval,  acuminate,
 pubescent  beneath, five or six  inches in length  by three  or four in
 breadth.  The fiowers are five or six inches  in diameter, bluish, some-
 times  yellowish-white, slightly odorous, with from six to nine  obovate,
 rather obtuse petals.   The cones are about three inches long, cylindric,
bearing some  resemblance to a small cucumber.   This tree grows near
the Falls of Niagara, and in the  mountainous regions in the  interior of
the country from  New York  to  Georgia; it is  more abundant  in the
Southern States.   Its flowers appear in May  and June.
   Magnolia Tripetala, or Umbrella Tree, the M. Umbrella of Lamark,
is  a  small  tree not exceeding thirty feet in hight, and  almost always
having an inclined trunk.  Its leaves are from sixteen to  twenty inches
long, by six or eight in width, thin, obovate, somewhat wedge-shaped,
entire, acute at both  extremities, silky when young,  and  often appear-
ing whorled at the  ends of the branches in  the form  of an umbrella,
displaying a surface thirty inches or more in  diameter.  The fiowers are
terminal, white,  seven or eight  inches in diameter,  with from five to
twelve, narrow lanceolate, acute petals,  of  which the three outer are
reflexed.  The fruit is conical, rose-colored, and from four to  five inches
in  length.  This  tree is found growing in shady situations, in strong,
deep,  fertile soil,  in the same range of country  as the M. Acuminata,
being, however, more generally confined to the lower grounds.   It also
flowers in May and June. 
Malva Sylvestris.
619
    History.—All the species of Magnolia are possessed of similar medici-
 nal virtues, which are found in the bark  and fruit.   The  bark only is
 officinal, and that of the root is  considered  the  most efficient, though
 probably without much reason.  It has an aromatic odor, and  a  spicy,
 bitter, pungent taste, without any astringency.  When dried, or by long
 keeping, its volatile aromatic principle is much diminished, but without
 any loss of its bitterness.  It has  not been analyzed but probably con-
 tains volatile oil, resin, and magnolin. Water or alcohol extracts its virtues.
    Properties and Uses.—Magnolia Bark is an aromatic tonic  bitter of
 considerable power, and appears likewise to possess antiperiodic proper-
 ties.   Intermittent fevers have been cured by it after cinchona had failed.
 It is not so  apt to disagree with the stomach and  bowels, nor to induce
 fullness  of the head as the Peruvian bark, and can be continued a longer
 time with more  safety in all respects.  Its curative agency is said to be
 favored  by the diaphoretic action which  generally follows its administra-
 tion.  In dyspepsia, vrith loss of tone in  the stomach, it is very useful as
 a tonic,  and has also proved highly beneficial in the  treatment of remit-
 tents having a  typhoid  character.  A  warm  infusion acts  as  a gentle
 laxative  and sudorific ; a cold  one as a  tonic and antiperiodic, -as does
 also the  tincture  and powder.  The powder is considered the preferable
 form  of  administration.  The bark of  the M. Tripetala, cheAved as  a
 substitute for tobacco, has cured  an inveterate tobacco cheAver of  the
 filthy habit, and deserves a further trial among those who wish to break
 up the pernicious practice.   The bark in powder  may be administered
 in half drachm or drachm doses, to be repeated five or six times a day ;
 the infusion  may be  taken in  wineglassful doses, repeated  five  or  six
 times a  day.  It  is used in the  above forms of disease, as well as in
 chronic rheumatism.  The tincture, made by  adding  an ounce of  the
 powder to a pint of brandy, and allowing  it  to macerate for ten or twelve
 days, may be given in tablespoon doses three times a day, for the  same
 purposes.  A tincture made by adding two ounces of the cones to a pint
 of brandy, has long been used as a domestic remedy for dyspepsia and
 chronic rheumatism; it is given three or four  times  a  day in doses  of
 from one to four fluidrachms.  Magnolia  is contra-indicated whenever
inflammatory symptoms are present.
                      MALVA SYLVESTRIS.
                         Common Mallow.
       Nat. Ord.—Malvaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Monadelphia Polyandria.
                             THE HERB.
  Description.—This is a perennial herbaceous plant, sometimes  called
High-mallow; it has a tapering, branching, whitish  root, and a round,
hairy, branching,  usually erect stem,  from one to three feet in  hight! 
620                     Materia  Medica.
The leaves are alternate, petiolate, cordate, deep-green, soft and downy,
serrated,  plaited,  with seven acute lobes ; the uppermost Avith fewer,
but deeper, and more acute lobes,  than the lower ones.   The fiowers
are large, numerous, of a shining purple, veiny, on  simple, aggregate,
hairy axillary stalks.   The  calyx is  five-cleft.  Petals five, inversely
cordate, and three times as long as the calyx.  Stamens, indefinite, mon-
adelphous.  Pollen large, whitish.   Ripe carpels reticulated at the back.
  Malva Rotundifolia,  or Low-mallow, called  by children  who are
fond of eating the fruit, cheeses, has a fusiform  root and prostrate stem,
with leaves of a fine, delicate texture, roundish, cordate,  or somewhat
uniform,  crenate, obtusely  five or seven-lobed,  and  on long hairy
petioles.   The fiowers are pale-pink,  with deeply-notched petals, and
stand on aggregate, axillary peduncles.  The fruit is  depressed-globose,
and composed of the numerous carpels arranged circularly.
  History.—The M. Sylvestris is a native of Europe, and is naturalized
in this  country,  growing  abundantly  in  fields, roadsides, and waste
places, and flowering from May to October.  The whole plant, especially
the root, abounds  in  mucilage.   The  M. Rotundifolia, a very common,
troublesome plant growing around dwellings and in cultivated grounds,
together with other  species of  this  genus, possesses  similar properties,
and  may  be substituted for each   other.   The herb  and flowers are
inodorous, with a weak, herbaceous,  mucilaginous taste.  Water  extracts
their mucilage, and the solution is precipitated by acetate of lead.  The
root and seeds may be also used, as they contain much mucilage.  An
infusion or tincture of the flowers is  blue, and is turned red by acids,
and green by alkalies, and may hence  be used as tests for these  articles.
  Properties  and Uses. — Emollient and demulcent.   Infusion  and
decoction  used in catarrhal, dysenteric and nephritic complaints.  Also
used as an emollient  injection, and the herb in the form of poultice to
external  inflammations.   They may  be  employed in all  cases where
mucilaginous liquids are required.
                  MARANTA ARUNDINACEA.
                         Arrowroot Plant.
       Nat.  Ord.—Marantaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Monandria Monogynia.
             THE FECULA  OF THE  RHIZOMA, ARROWROOT.
  Description.—The root or rhizoma of this plant is perennial, tuberous,
fleshy, horizontal, nearly cylindrical, scaly, from six inches to twelve,
or more, in length, and furnished with numerous long white fibers.   It
sends forth  several  tuberous, jointed,  curved, white, scaly stoles,  the
points of which  sometimes rise  above  the  ground, and become new
plants.   The stems are  several, annual, slender, much  branched, finely
hairy, jointed, leafy, and about two or three  feet in hight.   The leaves 
Maranta Arundinacea.
621
are -alternate, with long, leafy, hairy sheaths, ovate, lanceolate, slightly
hairy underneath, pale-green on both sides,  and about four inches long.
The fiowers are white, and disposed in a long, loose, spreading, terminal
panicle, with long  linear sheathing bracts at the ramifications.   Calyx
green, smooth,  and consists of three small  lanceolate leaves.   Corolla
white, small, monopetalous, with a tube longer than the calyx, and a
double border,  of which the three outermost segments are smallest, and
the two inner obovate,  and slightly emarginate.   Ovary  three-celled,
hairy.  Fruit nearly globular, with three obsolete angles,  the size of a
small currant.
   History.—This plant is a native of the West Indies, from which it has
been introduced and cultivated in the East Indies, in Sierra Leone, and in
our Southern States.  The  plant is readily propagated by cuttings of the
root.   Arrowroot is obtained from the various portions  of  the root,
which are dug up when a year old, washed,  beaten into a  pulp, and
stirred in cold water;  the  fibers are  removed by  the  hand, and the
milky liquor, which holds the starch suspended, is passed through a fine
sieve, the starch allowed to subside, and then  after washing it with a
fresh portion of water,  it  is dried without  heat, or in the sun.  This
constitutes West Indian arrowroot,  of which the finest comes from the
Bermudas.  Arrowroot is  obtained likewise from other plants, as the
M. Allouya, and M. Nobilis of the West Indies  ; the M. Indica, and the
Curcuma Anguslifolia of the East Indies.  West Indian arrowroot is in
the form of a light white powder, or of small, irregular, friable  grains
varying in size from  a  millet  seed to  a pea.   It is inodorous,  nearly
tasteless, has a firm feel when  pressed  between  the  fingers, and when
rubbed produces a faint crackling sound.  If musty, it should be rejected.
Musty arrowroot, having been thoroughly washed with  two  successive
portions of cold water, and then dried upon  frames of muslin in a warm
place, has been rendered  quite sweet.   Examined  by the microscope,
arroAvroot is found to consist of minute pearly globules  or granules,
which are rarely  spherical or ovate, generally elliptical, sometimes of
the form of a levigating muller, and of various sizes.  A few attain the
750th of an  inch,  and many are only  the  2000th of an inch in their
longest diameter; their breadth is generally two-thirds of  their length.
Arrowroot presents all the chemical relations of wheat and potato starch,
though it makes a firmer jelly with the same quantity of boiling water,
nine parts in this respect being equivalent to fourteen of common starch.
According to Prout, anhydrous arrowroot is composed of 44.0 per cent.
of carbon, 6.22 of hydrogen,  and 49.78  of  oxygen or C12 H10 O10,
corresponding  with the  elementary composition of  amylin, one  of the
principles of  wheat starch.
   West Indian arroAvroot is sometimes  adulterated with Avheat or potato
starch, or with  the East Indian variety of arrowroot.  Muriatic acid has
been proposed as a test of their presence. When potato or  wheat starch 
622
Materia  Medica.
 is rubbed with twice their weight of a mixture of equal parts of muriatic
 acid and water, a mucilage is quickly formed so thick and tenacious that
 the mortar in which the trituration  is effected  may  be raised by  the
 pestle ;  with rice flour, or arrowroot, this result does not ensue short of
 25 or  30 minutes.   It is said that from four to six per cent, of the impu-
 rity may thus be detected.  But the microscope affords  the best means of
 determining these adulterations, by observing the form of their granules.
 Thus  the true arrowroot  granules are rarely oblong,  somewhat ovate-
 oblong,  or  irregularly convex,  with  very fine rings, a circular hilum
 which cracks in a linear or stellate manner, and small mammillary pro-
 cesses occasionally projecting from them.  (See above for size, etc.) The
 East India arrowroot granules  are of  unequal  size,  ovate  or oblong-
 ovate, flattened,  and often furnished  with a very short neck or nipple-
 like projection; the  rings are numerous, close, and very fine, and the
 hilum, which is situated at the narrow extremity, is  circular, small, and
 indistinct.  (See description of  Tapioca.)  The  Tacca Fecula  from the
 South Sea  islands,  consists of  circular,  mullen-shaped,  or  polyhedral
 granules, Avith  few and  not  very distinct rings, and  a small, circular
 hilum, which is cracked in a linear or stellate manner. Florida arrowroot
 consists  of granules forming the  half,  the third, or the  quarter of a solid
 sphere.   The potato-starch granules  are very unequal in size,  ovate, or
 for the most part elliptical, and from the 7000th to the 300th of an inch
 in length.   (See Canna.)
   East Indian arrowroot, is  chiefly  prepared  from  a  plant  growing
 throughout India, and particularly on the Malabar coast, the Curcuma
 Angustifolia;  it is prepared by  a process similar to that followed in the
 West Indies.   It is  commonly white,  sometimes pale-yellow, less crepi-
 tating  between the fingers  than the best West Indian kind, more fre-
 quently damaged by impurities, and composed of rather larger globules,
 unequal  in size, egg-shaped, compressed,  faintly rugous at their larger
 end, and with little processes attached to their sides.  It is lighter than
 maranta  arroAvroot,  does  not  so quickly  make  a jelly, and is of low
 value,  being in demand only among starch-makers.
   Properties and Uses.—Arrowroot is nutritive and demulcent.  Used
 as an  article of diet in  certain  chronic diseases, during convalescence
 from fevers, bowel complaints, diseases of the urinary organs, and for
infants after weaning.  It may be given in the form of jelly, variously
seasoned  with  sugar, lemon  juice, fruit jellies, essences or aromatics.
Potato starch is sometimes substituted for it, but it is more apt to cause
acidity.   Arrowroot is superior  to every other kind of farinaceous food,
except tapioca and tous-les-mois.  Its jelly has no peculiar taste, and is
less  liable to become acid in the  stomach,  and is generally preferred  by
young infants  to  all others,  except  tapioca.   Tous-les-mois  makes a
stiffer  jelly.  A tablespoonful  of arrowroot may be formed into a paste
with a little cold water, and then enough boiling water gradually added 
Marmor Album — Makrubium Vulgare.           623
 with brisk agitation to make a pint.  It may be seasoned with any of the
 above-named articles if not contra-indicated.  For children it is usually
 prepared with milk.

                        MARMOR ALBUM.
                           White Marble.
                WHITE GRANULAR CARBONATE OF LIME.
   History.—White Marble is known from most other minerals by its pure
 white  color, its  crystalline structure, and  the effervescence it presents
 when touched with nitric  or  muriatic  acids.   It  is tasteless, inodorous,
 brittle, pulverizable,  and insoluble in water or alcohol.   Its specific
 gravity varies from 2.7  to 2.8.   When exposed to  a  full red-heat, it
 acquires an earthy appearance, loses about  44 per cent, of carbonic acid,
 and is converted into lime.  It dissolves less rapidly in acetic acid than
 in nitric or muriatic ; it  also dissolves with effervescence in  sulphuric
 acid, and forms  an insoluble salt.  When pure it consists of one equiva-
 lent of acid or 22.12 parts, and one of lime, or 28.5 parts (Ca O+CO2.)
   It is sometimes rendered  impure by the presence  of magnesia.   To
 detect this, the marble must be dissolved in diluted muriatic acid,  taking
 care that the marble neutralizes the muriatic acid, or else the magnesia
 will not be thrown down on account of the  formation of muriate of  am-
 monia.   To this  neutral muriatic solution add ammonia, and if magnesia
 be present, it will be precipitated.  If strontia or baryta be an impurity,
 a solution of sulphate of lime will  cause a precipitate.
  Properties and  Uses.—Marble is used for obtaining acid, as well as
 for making several officinal preparations.  Common marble is sufficiently
pure for the former  purpose,  but not for the  latter.   The Dolomitic
marbles contain considerable proportions of magnesia,  and are  therefore
unfit for pharmaceutic use.  The finest and purest variety of marble is
that of  Carrara,  sometimes called  Statuary Marble.
   Off. Prep. — Aqua Acidi Carbonici;  Potassa Bicarbonas;  Soda
Bicarbonas.
                    MARRUBIUM  VULGARE.
                             Hoarhound.
      Nat.  Ord.—Lamiaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.
                             THE  HERB.
  Description.—Hoarhound has a perennial fibrous root, and numerous,
annual bushy stems, which are erect, quadrangular, leafy, clothed with
fine woolly pubescence, branching from the bottom, and from one to two
feet in hight.  The leaves are roundish-ovate, crenate-dentate, wrinkled,
veiny above, hoary on the under surface, one or two inches in diameter
and  supported in  pairs upon  strong  footstalks; the upper ones nearlv 
624
Materia  Medica.
sessile.   The fiowers  are  small, white, in sessile, axillary, hairy,  and
dense whorls.  The calyx  is  tubular, five to ten-nerved, nearly equal,
with five or ten recurved, acute, spiny teeth, the alternate ones shorter;
orifice of the tube, hairy.   The corolla is tubular, with a labiate margin,
of which the upper lip is bifid, the under reflected and three-cleft, with
the middle segment broad, and slightly scolloped.   Stamens four, didy-
namous,  included beneath  the  upper  lip of the corolla;  anthers with
divaricating, somewhat confluent lobes, all nearly of the same form.
Style with short obtuse lobes.  Achenia obtuse.   Seeds four, lying in the
bottom of the calyx.
  History.—This plant is a native of Europe, but has been naturalized
in some parts of the United States.   It grows on dry, sandy fields, waste
grounds, road-sides, and banks of rubbish, especially in warm, dry situ-
ations, and flowers in  July and August.  The whole  plant has a white,
hoary appearance.  The whole herb is officinal, it has a peculiar, rather
agreeable,  vinous, balsamic odor, and a very bitter, aromatic, somewhat
acrid, and  persistent  taste.   Its bitterness  is  extracted by  alcohol or
water.  It contains resin, tannic acid, volatile oil, a peculiar crystalliza-
ble  bitter principle, and lignin.  The bitter principle  is insoluble in water,
soluble in ether, more  so in hot than cold  alcohol, is perfectly neutral,
and melts like resin when heated.
  Properties and  Uses.—Hoarhound is a stimulant tonic, expectorant,
and diuretic.  It is used in the form of syrup, in coughs, colds, chronic
catarrh, asthma, and all  pulmonary affections.   The warm infusion will
produce  diaphoresis, and sometimes diuresis,  and  has been  used with
benefit in jaundice, asthma, hoarseness, amenorrhea, and  hysteria;  the
cold infusion is  an excellent tonic in some forms of  dyspepsia, acts as a
vermifuge, and will be found  efficacious in checking mercurial ptyalism.
In  large doses  it  purges.  It  enters  into  the  composition  of  several
syrups and candies.  Dose of the powder, one drachm;  of the infusion,
or syrup, from two to four fluidounces.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Marrubii;  Syrupus Aralia  Compositus.
             MARUTA COTULA.   (Anthemis  Cotula.)
                             Mayweed.
  Nat. Ord. — Asteraceaa,  (Lindley,) or Compositaa, Sub-tribe, Anthemidese.
Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Superflua.
                              FLOWERS.
  Description.—Maruta Cotula has an annual, crooked, tapering, fibrous
root, with one  or more stems, erect,  branched, bushy, leafy, angular,
furrowed, nearly smooth, solid, and  rising from one to two feet high.
Branches  corymbose.  Leaves alternate,  sessile, bright-green, smooth,
or slightly hairy, bipinnatifid and cut;  the segments narrow, flat, a little
• 
Mel.
625
 succulent, spreading and rather distant, not crowded or parallel, some-
 what  bristle-pointed.   Flower-heads  solitary,  on  terminal,  striated,
 slightly downy peduncles.   Involucre hemispherical, imbricated, hairy,
 rouo-h ; the scales  linear, pale-green, scarious on  the margin.  Florets
 of the disk, brio-ht-yellow, numerous; those of the rays Avhite, ligulate.
 Receptacle conical,  covered Avith  short, bristly chaff.    Central florets
 tubular, glandular,  five-toothed, Avith five-stamina.    Ovary obovate, with
 a filiform, bifid  style.''  Stigmas two, reflexed.  Seeds  brown, obovate,
 quadrangular, ribbed.
   History.—Mayweed  is a  native  of Europe, and is extensively culti-
 vated in this country, where it is known by several  other names, as Wild
 Chamomile, Dog-fennel, etc.  It may be  found growing in all waste
 places, in hard,  dry soils,  especially along road-sides.  Its flowers are
 white, and appear from June until September.  Every part of the plant
 is acrid and fetid, and  according  to Linnaus is grateful to toads, drives
 away fleas, and is annoying to flies.  The whole plant is officinal.
   Properties and Uses.—Tonic, emetic, antispasmodic, emmenagogue and
 epispastic.  The cold infusion or  extract may7 be substituted, as a tonic
 and  antispasmodic, in   all  cases, for the foreign  article.  The extract
 may be used in sick headache, and in convalescence from fevers.   A
 warm  infusion may be  used as  an emetic or diaphoretic.  It has been
 efficient in amenorrhea.  The fresh plant bruised and applied to the
 skin,  will cause vesication,  and  the  sores heal readily.  A powerful
 epispastic is made by bruising the  fresh leaves of M. Cotula and Poly-
gonum Punctatum, equal parts, and moistening them with a small quan-
 tity of spirits of turpentine.   Dose of the infusion, from one  to  four
 fluidounces, as often as required.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Anthemidis Cotula.
                               MEL.
                               Honey.
               A  LIQUID  PREPARED  BY  APIS MELLIFICA.
  History.—The  Apis  Mellifica, or  honey bee, belongs  to  the  order
Hymenoptera of the  class of insects.  In the wild  state it dwells  in the
hollows of trees in large communities, consisting of males, females, and
neuters.   The neuters only collect honey, they suck it from the nectaries
of flowers by means of their proboscis, convey it  into a proper recep-
tacle, and discharge it into the cells of the honeycomb, somewhat altered
in its sensible  qualities.   It  is  yet undetermined,  however,  whether
honey is  a secretion of the bee, or  exists already-formed in the plant.
The nectaries of flowers, it is well known, contain a saccharine substance,
which is  taken up by the insect, and the honey formed is  also  affected
in its flavor and character by the nature of the plants which predominate
            40 
626
Materia Medica.
in the vicinity of the hive—yet some change is undoubtedly undergone
in the organs of the bee, as there is  an appreciable difference between
the saccharine matter of the nectaries and honey.   Honey of a superior
quality is obtained by7 allowing it to drain from the comb; and if it be
from a hive of young bees before they have swarmed, it is called  Virgin
honey.   After the first honey is collected, an inferior quality is procured
by submitting the comb  to  pressure, or by fusion in  the  vapor-bath.
The greater proportion  of the  honey used  in  the^maritime  towns and
cities of  this country is imported from Cuba; though large quantities of
it are collected at home.
  At first honey is fluid,  thick, viscid, colorless, or of the  palest  straw
tint, of a peculiar  fragrant odor, and  of a corresponding, very  sweet
taste.  On  being kept  it  forms a crystalline deposit, and ultimately
becomes concrete from  the formation of numberless granular crystals.
Its flavor varies according to the flowers from which it was collected, and
its  specific gravity is about 1.333.   In  a great measure it is soluble in
water,  and not so readily soluble  in  alcohol.   Boiling  alcohol dissolves
it, and on cooling deposits crystals of grape sugar.   It is said to contain
crystallizable sugar analogous to that of  grapes, and two other kinds of
sugar,  one of which is  changed by acids, and has the property of turn-
ing the rays of polarized  light to  the right;  and the other, not acted on
by  acids, and possessed  of a strong  left-handed  rotating power.  Of
these two sugars, the first is not  always present in honey, as it is sup-
posed to be changed, in time, into granular sugar; it is more  abundant in
honey taken from the  comb.  The  second  is similar to that uncrystal-
lizable sugar formed by the reaction of acids on cane sugar, being iden-
tical with it in composition, like it uncrystallizable, and very sensitive to
the action of alkalies; but differs by the impossibility of converting it into
granular sugar, and by having nearly twice  the rotating power of com-
mon uncrystallizable sugar.  Beside  these  saccharine  principles,  honey
also contains  an aromatic principle, an  acid,  wax, and a little mannite.
Diluted  with  water honey undergoes the vinous,  fermentation, and if
yeast be  added it  forms the alcoholic  liquor called Mead; nitric acid
converts  it  into oxalic  acid.  Inferior honey contains a large proportion
of uncrystallizable sugar and vegetable acid.  Honey is  occasionally
adulterated with starch,  especially the  inferior kinds, in  order to give
them a white appearance.  This may be  detected by7 diluting with  Avater,
which  dissolves the  honey and  leaves the starch  at the bottom  of the
vessel.   The tincture of  iodine will determine the  nature of the deposit.
Sometimes water is added to increase its bulk, which may be known by
the great thinness of the honey, and its  tardiness to crystallize.   If not
very pure, honey is apt to ferment in warm weather, acquiring a deeper
color and a pungent taste.
   Mel despumatum or  clarified honey is generally obtained from the
inferior  qualities; the  process  of clarification  is  entirely unnecessary 
Melia Azedarach.                      627
with fine honey.  It may be purified by melting the honey by means of
a water-bath, the Avax and other light impurities  float to the  surface,
and may be skimmed off, while the  heavier substances, if present, sink
to the bottom, from which the honey  may be  decanted.  The French
clarify honey  as  follows : Take of  honey 3000 parts, water 750 parts,
powdered and washed carbonate of  lime  96 parts.   Mix them in a suit-
able vessel,  and boil for three  minutes,  stirring constantly.   Then add
96 parts of animal charcoal previously washed, heated to redness, pow-
dered and sifted, and boil  for a few  minutes.  Lastly, add the whites of
two  eggs  beat up with  500  parts of water, and bring the liquid to the
boiling point.   Remove  the vessel from the fire, and after the liquid has
cooled for fifteen minutes, strain  it through  flannel,  and repeat the
straining till the liquid passes perfectly clear.  Should it not have the
proper  consistence, it should be sufficiently concentrated by  a quick
boiling.  The use of the carbonate  of lime is to saturate any  acid in the
honey which might favor the formation of glucose, and  thus  increase
the  tendency to granulation.
   Properties and  Uses. — Honey is nutritious,  antiseptic, diuretic,  and
demulcent.   Used  in urinary affections, and as an addition to gargles,
lotions, injections, etc.   It is said that the Indians  make an  infusion of
the honey bee, and give a gill of it every half hour, in strangury, sup-
pression of urine, etc.; and it is further added, that this infusion has the
power of destroying the sexual propensity.  A very excellent  prepara-
tion  for  coughs,  especially during  febrile or inflammatory  attacks,  is
composed of honey, olive oil, lemon juice, and sweet spirits of  nitre, of
each, one fluidounce; to be taken several times a day, in half fluidrachm
or fluidrachm  doses.   A  tincture of honey bees is made by collecting a
quantity of  the living insects in a  vial, agitating them roughly so as to
irritate them, and while in  that condition  they are  to  be covered with
alcohol; in  a few days it will be ready for use.  In doses of five, ten,
or fifteen drops, three  or four times a day, this is highly recommended
in many diseases of the bladder and kidneys, as well as in some uterine
affections.   Some practitioners assert that it will produce abortion in the
pregnant  female, if its  use be too  long continued,  or  when employed
too freely.
   Off.  Prep. — Pilula Ferri Carbonatis; Tinctura Opii Camphorata;
Unguentum Plumbi Compositum.
                     MELIA AZEDARACH.
                          Pride of China.
        Nat. Ord.—Meliaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.
                      THE  BARK OF THE ROOT.
  Description.—This is a beautiful tree, also known by the names Bead-
tree, Pride of India, etc.; it attains the hight of thirty or forty feet, with 
628
Materia  Medica.
a trunk  fifteen or twenty inches in diameter, and  spreading branches.
The bark on the trunk and large branches  is scabrous.  The roots are
horizontal,  rather superficial, and extend to a  considerable distance.
The leaves are large, alternate, unequally bipinnate; the leaflets opposite,
smooth, ovate, acute, denticulate,  dark-green, with  an odd  one  at the
end.  The flowers  are  fragrant,  of a lilac-color, forming a terminal,
drooping panicle, from the axils of the upper leaves.   The calyx is very
small, and is formed of five  obtuse, slightly-pubescent sepals, united at
base.  The petals are  five,  pale-pink inside, deep  lilac outside, much
longer than the calyx, spreading, oboval, and obtuse.  The stamens are
united into a  tube, which is  rather shorter than  the  petals, dilated at
base, of  a dark-violet color,  and ten-toothed; each tooth being bifid,  it
appears  twenty-toothed,  except on close inspection.  The anthers are
yellow, bilocular, alternate with the dentures of the tube, and attached
to its inner  surface.   The ovary is globular, surmounted by a thick style,
which is  terminated  by a small five-lobed stigma.   The fruit is a fleshy
berry or drupe, of an ovoid  shape, about the size of a cherry, of a yel-
lowish color, and containing an elongated bony nut, which  is five-celled,
each cell containing one seed.
   History.—This tree is a native  of  many parts of Asia,  but is exten-
sively cultivated in the  southern parts of Europe and the United States;
it does not  grow to any great extent north of Virginia, and flowers early
in  the spring.  Its  name of Bead-tree, Avas derived from  the hard nuts
contained in its berries,  which are extensively used in Roman Catholic
countries for the purpose of making rosaries.   The fruit is sweetish, and
is reputed  powerfully vermifuge ; the pulp of  the fruit formed  in the
middle ages the basis of an ointment for the destruction of lice and other
parasitic  insects.    The  recent  bark  of  the root is  the  part usually
 employed by practitioners in the  south ; it has a nauseous, bitter taste,
 and an unpleasant, virose smell, and yields its properties to boiling water.
 A fluid-extract might possibly be prepared from it, for more  general use.
   Properties and  Uses.—The bark is anthelmintic, and in large doses,
 narcotic and emetic.  It is said that if gathered at the season when the
 sap is rising,  it will cause narcotic symptoms similar to spigelia.  Useful
 in verminose fevers, and infantile  remittents which resemble them, with-
 out being dependent on the presence of worms.   Dose of the powdered
 bark, twenty grains ;  of the decoction, (which is the best form for admin-
 istration, two ounces of the  bark to one pint of water, and  boiled down
 to half a pint,) a  tablespoonful every few hours, till the desired effect  is
 produced,  to be followed by an active cathartic.   An  ointment prepared
 from the pulp of the berry, is said to be employed in  Persia, in cases of
 tinea-capitis, and other obstinate  cutaneous  affections.  The nuts yield
 an  oil by expression, which is said to be anthelmintic, and  useful as an
 application to rheumatic and spasmodic affections, and foul ulcers. 
Melissa Officinalis.
629
                    MELISSA OFFICINALIS.
                               Balm.
      Nat. Ord.—Lamiaceaa.  Sex-. Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.
                             the herb.
  Description.—Balm has a perennial root,  which  sends  up annually
several erect, quadrangular stems, usually branched toward the base, and
a foot or two in hight.   The leaves are opposite, broadly7 ovate or cordate,
deeply serrate, pubescent above and smooth beneath, the lower ones on
long petioles, the upper nearly sessile.   The flowers are white or yellow-
ish, upon short peduncles, and in axillary, dimidiate whorls ;  bracts few,
ovate-lanceolate, petiolate.  The calyx is tubular, pentangular, and bila-
biate, with the upper lip three-toothed  and flattened, the lower cut into
two pointed teeth.  The corolla is tubular and  bilabiate, the  upper lip
less convex  and notched,  the lower three-cleft.   Stamens ascending.
  History.—Balm is a native of the south  of Europe, but  introduced
into this country, growing in gardens, and in fields, by the sides of fences,
roads, and lanes, flowering in June and July.  The whole plant is offi-
cinal,  and should be  collected  before  the appearance of the  flowers.
When fresh, its odor  very  much resembles that of lemons, but when
dried, it is nearly inodorous ; its taste is somewhat austere  and  slightly
aromatic, with a faint astringency,  and  a degree of persistent bitterness.
Boiling water extracts its virtues.  Balm contains a bitter extractive sub-
stance, a little tannin, gum, and  a peculiar volatile oil.   A pound of  the
plant  yields  about four grains of the oil, which is yellowish, or reddish-
yellow, very liquid, 975 in density, and possessing the fragrance of  the
plant  in a very high degree.   The  Nepeta Cilriodora, a powerful emmen-
agogue, is sometimes cultivated and employed by mistake for balm.   It
has the same odor, but may be distinguished by having both surfaces of
its leaves hairy7.
  Properties  and Uses. — Balm is  moderately stimulant,  diaphoretic,
and antispasmodic.  A warm infusion drank freely, has been  service-
able as a diaphoretic in febrile diseases, and painful menstruation, and to
assist the operation of other diaphoretic medicines ; in combination with
ipecacuanha and nitre, it  forms a valuable diaphoretic.  It is also occa-
sionally used to assist  menstruation.  When  given in  fevers, it  may be
rendered more agreeable  by the addition of lemon juice.   The  infusion
may be taken ad  libitum.
  Off. Prep.—Infusum Melissa. 
630
Materia Medica.
                 MENISPERMUM CANADENSE.
                           Yellow  Parilla.
        Nat. Ord.—Menispermaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Dioacia Polyandria.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—This plant is  also known by the names of Sarsaparilla,
Moonseed,  Vine-maple, etc. ; it has a perennial, horizontal, woody, very
long root, of a  beautiful  yellow color  externally, and a round, striate
climbing stem, greenish-yellow when young,  and from eight to twelve
feet in length.   The leaves are roundish, cordate, peltate, three to seven-
angled or lobed, smooth,  the  petiole inserted near  the  base and  from
three to five inches  long, and white lines  radiating from the petiole on
the upper  surface  to  each angle, glaucous green  above, paler below,
entire, and four or five inches  in diameter.  The flowers are small, yel-
low, and disposed in axillary clusters ;  sepals four to eight, in a double
row ; petals four to  seven, minute, refuse, shorter than the sepals.   Sta-
mens twelve to twenty in the sterile flowers ; anthers four-celled.  Pistils
two to  four in the  fertile flowers, raised  on  a  short stalk, one or two
ripening into round drupes.  Imperfect stamens  are sometimes found in
the fertile  flowers.   Drupes about four lines in diameter, black with a
bloom resembling frost-grapes, one-seeded. Seeds crescent, compressed.
  History.—The use of this plant is principally confined to Eclectics, its
virtues being unknown to  Allopaths.  It grows in woods and hedges near
streams, from Canada to Carolina and west to the Mississippi, flowering
in July.  The root  is the  officinal part,  it has  a bitter, persistent, but not
unpleasant acrid taste, and yields its virtues to water or alcohol.  It has
not been analyzed.
  Properties and Uses.—Yellow Parilla is tonic, laxative, alterative and
diuretic.  In small  doses, no obvious effects are  produced on the general
system ; but in larger  doses, a slight increase of the volume  of the pulse
may be perceived, as well as an increase of the  appetite, and the  action
of the bowels.  In  excessive doses, purging and vomiting will follow,
but no other unpleasant effect.  It is a superior laxative bitter.  It is
much esteemed as a remedy in scrofulous, cutaneous, arthritic,  rheuma-
tic, syphilitic, and mercurial diseases.  Said to be superior to the imported
Sarsaparilla.  Likewise employed in dyspepsia, general debility, and
chronic inflammation of the viscera.  Externally, the decoction has been
used with good effect as an embrocation in gouty and cutaneous affec-
tions.  Dose of the decoction, from one to  four fluidounces three times a
day ; of the extract, from two to six grains three  or four times a day;
of the saturated tincture, from half a fluidrachm to a fluidrachm.
  The  Franklin Pharmaceutical  Institute of the  City  of  New  York,
advertise the active principle of this root, under the name of Menisperine;
it is  stated to be a powder of a whitish-brown color, with a  not unplea- 
Mentha  Piperita.
631
sant, bitter taste, and is recommended as an alterative, tonic, nervine and
laxative.  Said to be valuable in the treatment of scrofulous, cutaneous,
syphilitic, and mercurial diseases, and superior to sarsaparilla as an alter-
ative.  Dose from one to  three  grains, three or  four times a  day.  I
have not been made acquainted with the process of manufacture, nor do"
I even know whether it is  a secret preparation; but  I  have no doubt,
from the known virtues of Yellow Parilla  root as an alterative, that if
its active principle  can be obtained, it will prove a  decidedly valuable
medicine.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum  Menispermi; Syrupus Rumicis Compositus.
                      MENTHA PIPERITA.
                            Peppermint.

      Nat. Ord.—Lamiaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.
                            THE  HERB.
  Description.—Peppermint is a perennial,  herbaceous plant,  with a
creeping root, and a quadrangular, channeled, purplish, nearly erect stem,
with short recurved hairs, and about two  feet in hight.   The leaves are
opposite, on short petioles, ovate, serrate, acute, smoother on the upper
than the under side, of  a dark shining  green color above and  paler
beneath; the  midrib is  furnished with  short  hairs.   The flowers are
small, purple, and disposed in short  terminal, lax, obtuse spikes, inter-
rupted and leafy below. The bracts are subulate, lanceolate, and fringed,
the  outer ones as long as the calyx.   The peduncles are  either smooth,
or slightly hairy above.   The calyx is tubular, slender, furrowed, and
covered with  pellucid  dots, the  base quite  smooth,  five-cleft, with the
segments dark-purple,  erect, subulate, fringed.   The corolla is tubular,
longer than the calyx, with  its  border divided into four segments, of
which the uppermost is broadest and notched at its apex.   The  stamens
are  subulate, straight;  the anthers concealed within  the tube of the
corolla.  The ovary is four-lobed, superior, supporting a slender style
longer than the calyx and terminated by a bifid stigma.   The seeds are
four, lodged in the calyx.
  History.—Peppermint  is a  native of  England, from  whence it has
been introduced into this country,  where it is largely cultivated for the
6ake of its  oil.  It also grows wild in wet places.  It flowers from July
to September.  It is said that the roots must be transplanted every three
years in order to preserve the fragrance of the plant.   The whole herb
is officinal, and should be collected when the  flowers commence their
appearance, and dried in the shade.   In the recent state all parts of the
plant have a  peculiar, powerful, penetrating, diffusive,  aromatic  odor,
and an agreeable, warm, aromatic, pungent, camphorous, bitterish taste, 
632
Materia  Medica.
followed by a singular sensation of coolness when air is admitted into
the mouth.  Both the odor and taste are retained Avhen the plant is dried,
and may be preserved for a long time.  Its virtues depend upon a vola-
tile oil, which is contained in little vesicles existing throughout the plant,
and visible in  the  leaves ; and which  may be obtained by distillation
with water.  It also contains  a portion  of tannic acid, as its infusion
becomes dark-green with the salts  of sesquioxide of iron.  Its virtues
are taken up in infusion by water, and more readily by alcohol.
   Properties and Uses.—Peppermint is a powerful,  diffusive stimulant,
antispasmodic, carminative, and stomachic.  Used in the treatment of
gastrodynia, flatulent colic, hysteria, spasms or cramps of the stomach,
to allay the griping of cathartics, to check nausea and vomiting, and to
disguise the unpleasant taste  of  other medicines.   The fresh herb
bruised, and applied over the bowels, will often allay sick  stomach, and
is useful in the cholera of children.  The infusion may be drank freely ;
but the most usual form of administration is the essence, made by dis-
solving one fluidrachm  of the oil in one fluidounce  of  alcohol.  Dose,
from ten to sixty drops in sweetened water.
   Off.  Prep. — Aqua Mentha  Piperita;  Extractum  Rhei  Fluidum;
Infusum Mentha Piperita ;  Mistura   Camphora Composita;  Mistura
Cajuputi Composita ; Oleum Mentha Piperita ; Pulvis Rhei Compositus;
Tinctura  Olei  Mentha  Piperita.
                        MENTHA VIRIDIS.
                             Spearmint.
      Nat.  Ord.—Lamiaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.
                             THE HERB.
  Description.—Spearmint has a perennial creeping root, from which
arises annually several herbaceous, erect, branched, acutely four-angled,
smooth, purplish stems from two to three  feet in hight.  The leaves  are
of a bright-green color, lanceolate, oblong, acute, ineisely serrate, nearly
sessile, opposite, and sometimes a little hairy beneath.   The stems and
branches are terminated by long spikes of verticillate flowers, the whorls
of which  are somewhat distant, and  furnished with narrow, lanceolate
bracts; the pedicels are smooth.   The spikes  are slender, loose, cylin-
drical, interrupted, and  attenuated above.   The  calyx is campanulate,
usually smooth, with five  equal teeth, and  sprinkled, equally with  the
leaves, with minute dots.   The corolla is  funnel-shaped, smooth, and of
a light-purple color; the stamens are generally shorter than the corolla,
with roundish anthers.   The ovary is  four-lobed, with a filiform style,
having a bifid stigma.   The seeds are  four, small, and often abortive.
  History.—Spearmint  is a native of Europe, but like  the preceding
species of mint, is extensively cultivated in various moist places in  this 
Menyanthes Trifoliata.
633
country for the sake of its oil, and for domestic use.   It flowers in July
and Au«ust.   The whole  plant is officinal,  and should be gathered for
medical use, just as the flowers  appear in dry weather, and  carefully
dried in the  shade.  If gathered to obtain their oil, it should be done
after  the  flowers have  expanded.  It has a peculiar, strong, aromatic
odor, and  a warm, aromatic, slightly bitter taste, weaker than that of
peppermint, but like it leaving a cool sensation in the mouth when air is
admitted.   These properties are retained for some time by the dried plant.
Its virtues are owing to a  volatile oil, which may be obtained by dis-
tillation with water.  Alcohol extracts its virtues, also water by infusion.
   Properties and Uses.—The carminative, antispasmodic, and stimulant
properties of Spearmint are somewhat  inferior to those  of Pepper-
mint; its principal employment is for its diuretic and febrifuge virtues.
As a  febrifuge, it is superior to peppermint, and may be used freely in
warm infusion.   The cold infusion is beneficial in high color or scalding
of urine, difficult micturition, etc.; it may be used alone, or in combina-
tion with marsh-mallow root.  A saturated tincture of  the  fresh  herb
with gin has  been  found serviceable  in  gonorrhea, strangury,  sup-
pressed urine, gravel, and as a local application to painful hemorrhoids.
The  oil is  diuretic,  stimulant,  antispasmodic, and  rubefacient,  and is
used externally in rheumatic and  other pains.   Dose, same  as pepper-
mint.
   Off. Prep.—Aqua Mentha Viridis ;  Infusum Mentha Viridis ;  Mis-
tura Camphora Composita; Pilula Taraxaci Composita ; Pilula Saponi
Composita ; Tinctura Mentha Viridis ;  Tinctura Olei Mentha Viridis.
                 MENYANTHES  TRIFOLIATA.
                             Buckbean.
       Nat.  Ord.—Gentianaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                       THE LEAVES  AND ROOT.
  Description.—This  plant  is also known by the names of Bog-bean,
Marsh-trefoil,  Water-shamrock, etc.;  it has  a perennial,  long,  round,
horizontal, branching, dark-colored root or rhizoma, about as thick as
the finger, and sending out numerous fibers from its under surface;  it is
regularly  intersected by joints about  half an inch  from each other,  and
which are formed by the breaking off  of the old petioles and their sheaths.
The scape is erect, round, smooth, from six to twelve inches high, longer
than the leaves, and terminated  by a conical  raceme  of flowers.  The
leaves are  ternate, and stand upon long striated petioles which proceed
from the end of the root, and are furnished at their base with sheathinc
stipules; the leaflets are obovate,  obtuse, entire  or bluntly denticulate,
very smooth, green  on their upper  surface,  and paler beneath.  The
flowers are of a pale lilac or flesh  color on thick  pedicels, with  ovate- 
634
Materia Medica.
  concave bracts at base.   The  calyx  is erect,  somewhat campanulate,
  fiA7e-parted, persistent.   The corolla is funnel-shaped, with a short tube,
  deeply cleft into five  spreading  or  recurved, pointed segments, of a
  white  color tipped with  rose, smooth externally, and  covered on the
  inner surface with  dense, white, shaggy fibers.  The stamens are five,
  shorter than the corolla, and  alternate with its segments; anthers red
  and oblong-sagittate.   The ovary is  ovate,  supporting a slender style
  longer than the  stamens,  and terminating in  a  bifid and compressed
  stigma.  The fruit is an ovate, succulent, two-valved, one-celled capsule,
  containing  numerous minute, roundish seeds.
    History.—Buckbean is a native of Europe and  America, growing  in
  moist boggy soils, or even in  ponds and ditches, in temperate  or cold
  climates, and in this country flowering in May.  In England  it flowers
  in June  and July.  The whole plant is  medicinal, but the leaves and
  root only are  the officinal parts.   The  odor of the leaves is faint and
  disagreeable, and the whole plant has  an  intensely bitter taste.   Water
  or alcohol takes up its active properties.  It contains albumen, chloro-
 phylle, a peculiar substance precipitable by tannin, but soluble in water,
 fecula, malic acid, bitter extractive, etc.   Its virtues depend on a bitter
 principle, called menyanthin, which may be obtained sufficiently pure for
 use by treating the spirituous extract of the plant with hydrated oxide
 of lead, removing the lead by hydrosulphuric acid, filtering and evaporat-
 ing the liquor, exhausting the residue with alcohol, and again evaporat-
 ing with a gentle heat.  It has a pure  bitter taste, is soluble in water or
 alcohol, but not in pure ether, and is chemically neuter.
   Properties and Uses.—Buckbean is tonic and astringent in small doses;
 in  large ones cathartic, and sometimes  emetic, especially when fresh.
 It has  been given in dyspepsia, intermittent and  remittent fevers with
 advantage ; and has been highly recommended in chronic  rheumatism,
 hepatalgia, dropsy, worms, and some cutaneous diseases, and as a tonic in
 scrofula and various cachectic affections.   Dose of the powdered leaAres
 or root as a tonic, from twenty to thirty grains; of  an infusion, prepared
 with half an ounce of the root to a pint of boiling water, from  one to
 two fluidounces; of the extract five or  ten grains, to be repeated three
 or four times a  day.   As a purgative,  sixty grains of the powder, or a
 gill  of  the  infusion will generally answer, and will occasionally cause
 vomiting.

                      MITCHELLA  REPENS.
                           Partridgeberry.
        Nat.  Ord.—Rubiaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Tetrandria Monogynia.
                             THE VINE.
  Description.—This is an indigenous  evergreen herb, with a perennial
root, from which  arises a smooth and creeping stem, furnished with 
MOMORDICA ELATERIUM.
635
 roundish-ovate, or  slightly heart-shaped, petiolate, opposite, flat, coria-
 ceous, dark-green  and shining  leaves, usually variegated with  whitish
.lines.   The flowers are white, often  tinged  with red, very fragrant, in
 pairs,  with their ovaries  united.   Calyx four-parted.   Corolla  funnel-
 form,  two on each double ovary,  limb  four-parted,  spreading, densely
 hairy within.  Stamens four, short, inserted on the corolla.  Style slender;
 stigmas four.   Fruit a dry berry-like double drupe, crowned with the
 calyx-teeth of the two flowers, each containing four small  and seed-like
 bony nutlets.   Some plants  bear flowers with  exserted  stamens  and
 included styles; others, conversely,  those with  included stamens  and
 exserted styles.
   History.—This plant is  indigenous to  the United  States, growing in
 dry woods, among  hemlock-timber, and  in swampy places, flowering in
 June and July.  The leaves  bear  some resemblance  to  clover,  and
 remain green through the winter.  The  fruit or  berry is  bright scarlet,
 edible, but nearly tasteless, dry  and full of stony seeds, and also remains
 through the  winter.   The  plant  is sometimes called  Checkerberry,
 Winter-clover, Deerberry, Squaw-vine, Oneberry, etc.  The whole plant
 is officinal, and imparts its virtues to boiling water or alcohol.   It has
 not been analyzed.
   Properties and  Uses. — Partridge-berry is parturient,  diuretic  and
 astringent.  Used in dropsy,  suppression of urine, and diarrhea, in  de-
coction.  It seems  to have an  especial  affinity7  for the uterus,  and is
highly beneficial in all uterine diseases.  It is said that the squaws
drink a decoction of this plant for several weeks  previous to their con-
finement, for the purpose  of rendering parturition safe and  easy.  It
appears to  exert a powerful tonic and alterative influence on the uterus.
The remedy is peculiarly Eclectic, not being noticed or used by other
practitioners.   Dose of a strong decoction, from two to four fluidounces,
two or three times a day.   The berries are a popular remedy for diar-
rhea, and  dysury.   Used  as follows, partridge-berry is highly recom-
mended as a cure for sore nipples :  Take two ounces of the herb, fresh
if  possible, and make a strong decoction with  a pint of water, then
strain,  and add as much good cream  as there is liquid of the decoction.
Boil the whole  down to the consistence of a  soft salve, and when cool,
anoint the nipple with it every time the child is removed from the breast.
   Off.  Prep.—Extractum Mitchella ; Syrupus Mitchella Compositus.
                  MOMORDICA ELATERIUM.
                          Wild  Cucumber.
       Nat. Ord.—Cucurbitaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Monoacia Monadelphia.
     THE FECULENCE OF THE JUICE OF THE FRUIT.   ELATERIUM.
  Description.—The  Wild  or Squirting Cucumber  is  a perennial  plant,
with a large fleshy root, from which proceed several thick, round, rough, 
636                      Materia  Medica.
trailing stems, divided into many branches, but destitute of tendrils. The
leaves  are  large, rough, irregularly  cordate, somewhat lobed, crenate-
toothed, hairy, of  a grayish-green color above,  paler beneath, and sup-
ported on long petioles.   The flowers are axillary, of a straw-yellow color,
and both male and female on the same plant.  The males are on short pe-
duncles, the female, sessile on the ovary.  The calyx five-cleft, with a very
short tube.   The corolla is composed of five acute  segments, tomentose and
veined with green.  The stamens  are short, inserted into the base of the
corolla, and  support recurved, double-headed,  orange-colored anthers;
the style is short, cylindrical, three-cleft, and terminated  by an oblong
stigma.  The fruit is watery, of a coriaceous texture, pendulous, oblong,
like a small oval cucumber, obtuse at each end, of a greenish or grayish
color, about an inch and a half long,  an inch thick, and closely set with
short bristles.  When fully ripe it separates from the peduncle with vio-
lence, and  expels its juice and seed with considerable  force,  through an
opening at the base, Avhere  it was attached  to  the footstalk, and which
is owing to the sudden contraction of the sides of the pepo.
  History.  — The  Wild Cucumber is the Ecbalium Elaterium of some
botanists ;  it is a native of the South of Europe, growing  on poor soils,
in waste places, and flowering  in  Jul)7.   It  has been extensively culti-
vated  in England  for medicinal  purposes, where, however, it  perishes
in the winter ; and being a  hardy plant it will grow in most parts of the
United  States, without much attention.   The officinal part of the plant
is the juice around the seeds,  and which, when  properly prepared, forms
the elaterium of commerce.  It must be collected a little before the period
of ripening.   When the fruit is sliced and placed upon a sieve, a per-
fectly limpid  and  colorless juice flows out, which after  a  short time
becomes turbid, and in the course of  a few hours  begins to deposit a
sediment.  This when collected and carefully dried, is very light and pul-
verulent, of a yellowish-white color, slightly tinged with green.  It is the
genuine elaterium, and was found by Clutterbuck to purge violently in the
dose of one-eighth of a  grain.  But the quantity contained in the fruit
is exceedingly small; Clutterbuck obtained only six  grains  from  forty
pepos or cucumbers.  Commercial elaterium is a much weaker medicine,
owing in part, perhaps, to adulteration, but much more  to the mode in
which it is prepared.  In order to increase the  product, the juice of the
fruit is often expressed  with force; and there is reason to  believe that it
is  sometimes evaporated so  as  to form  an extract, instead of being
allowed to  deposit the active matter.   The French elaterium is prepared
by  expressing the juice, clarifying  it  by rest  and filtration, and then
evaporating  it to a suitable consistence.  As the liquid which remains
after  the  deposition  of  the sediment is comparatively inert, it will be
readily perceived  that  the  preparation  of  the  French  Codex  must be
relatively  feeble.   The following are  the directions  of the London 
Momordica Elaterium.
637
 College, with which those of  the  Dublin College essentially correspond.
T" Slice ripe wild  cucumbers, express the  juice very gently, and pass it
' through a very fine hair sieve;  then  set it aside for some hours until the
 thicker part has subsided. Reject the thinner, supernatant part,  and dry
 the thicker part with a  gentle  heat."  As  this process is performed at
 Apothecaries' Hall, the  juice after expression, is allowed to stand for
 about two  hours, when  the  supernatant  liquor  is poured off,  and the
 matter deposited  is  carefully dried, constituting the finest elaterium.
 Another  portion of a paler color, is deposited by the decanted liquor.
 It is  incorrectly  denominated by  the London  and Dublin   Colleges
 Extractum Elaterii, as it  is neither an extract, strictly speaking, nor an
 inspissated juice.   In the  Pharmacopoeias  of  the United States  and
 Edinburgh, it is named simply Elaterium.   As the plant is not cultivated
 in this country for medicinal  purposes,  our text-books very properly
 adopt as officinal, the medicine  as it  is found  in commerce.  It is brought
 chiefly from England ;  but probably some of the elaterium prepared in
 Malta, reaches our market also.   As  elaterium  is insoluble in water,
 the inquiry has arisen  as to what  kept it in a state of solution in the
 juice.   Dr. A. T. Thomson suggests that the elaterium does not  exist
 in a formed state  in the juice, and is  the result of an absorption of oxygen
 by the fluid, as this is at first nearly colorless and transparent, and does
 not become turbid or make any deposit until it has been exposed to the
 action of the air; if the progress of  this change be examined  by means
 of a microscope,  it will  be  seen  that there is a gradual formation of
 minute crystals, mingled Avith vegetable matters.  The elaterium of the
 shops, therefore, consists  of these crystals,  elaterin,  mixed with green
 coloring  matter, cellular  tissue, starch, etc., and according to  the care
 taken in the preparation, Avill be the proportional quantity of this active
 principle, as it varies from five to forty-four per cent.
    Good Elaterium is in  light, thin, friable, flat or somewhat curled  frag-
 ments, of a pale, grayish-green color, changing to yellowish by exposure,
 often  bearing the impression of the muslin upon which  it Avas dried,
 having a faint, animal odor, and  of  an intensely bitter, somewhat  acrid
 taste.  It  is pulverulent and  inflammable,  and. so light that  it swims
 upon water.   Alcohol is its best solvent.   Dr. Paris found it to contain
 28 per cent,  of starch, 26 extractive matter, 25 ligneous fiber, 5 gluten,
 a little moisture, and 12 of chlorophylle and elaterin in union.   Accord-
 ing to Mr.  Hennel, 100 parts of elaterium contain  44 of elaterin,  17 of
 chlorophylle,  6 of starch, 27 of lignin, and 6 of saline matters.
    When elaterium  is of inferior quality it is dark-colored, much curled,
 rather hard,  breaking with difficulty or presenting a resinous  fracture ;
 it  does not yield over 6 per cent, of elaterin, while  the best elaterium
 yields from 15 to  25 per cent.  The Maltese Elaterium is of a pale color,
 frequently  without  the  slightest  tinge of green,  in  larger pieces, soft,
 friable, inodorous, sinks in water, and is often mixed with starch  or chalk. 
638
Materia Medica.
  Elaterin is  the principle in which  the  active properties of the ding,
reside.   It may be  obtained  by thoroughly exhausting elaterium with
boiling  alcohol, concentrating the tincture to the consistence of thin oil,
or so long as  no separation takes place, and then pouring it while  hot
into a weak boiling solution of potassa.  The potassa retains the chloro-
phylle  or green resin in solution, and  the  elaterin crystallizes as  the
liquor  cools.   When pure, elaterin is in very7 delicate, colorless  crys-
tals, which are striated sattiny prisms, with  a  rhombic  base.  It is per-
manent in the air, inodorous,  but of an  extremely bitter and somewhat
acrid taste, insoluble in water and alkaline solutions, soluble in alcohol,
and  hot olive oil,  and slightly soluble in  ether, diluted acids, and fixed
oils.  It fuses at a temperature between 300°  and 400°, and at a higher
temperature  it is decomposed,  with the evolution of thick, white,  acrid
vapors, having an ammoniacal odor.   It is a neutral body containing no
azote, but having  the constitution C20  Hi4  Os.
  Elaterium is seldom adulterated ; its variableness of strength depends
probably7 more upon its mode  of preparation, or the time of its collection.
It should be  light,  pale  grayish-green, and friable, not brown or com-
pact, should  not effervesce with  acids, and should  yield from 15 to 25
per cent, of elaterin on analysis.
  Properties  and  Uses.—Elaterium is  a powerful  hydragogue cathartic,
operating with great violence  in doses of a few grains, causing diffuse
inflammation  of  the stomach  and bowels,  characterized  by vomiting,
griping pain, and  profuse diarrhea.  In ordinary medicinal doses it pro-
duces copious watery evacuations, attended with considerable depression
of the  circulation and  nervous system, and most generally nausea and
vomiting.  Hence, it is often  used in dropsy, to aid  in removing  the
effused fluid, as a revulsive in cerebral affections, and whereArer a hydra-
gogue or revellent effect is indicated.  It also  increases the flow of urine.
The dose of the  common  commercial article is from a quarter to half a
grain, administered  every hour or tAvo until  it operates; of Clutterbuck's
elaterium, which is  the best, and is  so named because  it is prepared
after the process  recommended by Clutterbuck,  from one-eighth of a
grain to one-tenth, every three  or four hours; of elaterin, from one-six-
teenth  of a  grain to one-twelfth, and is best given in solution.   An
excellent purgative  solution is made with  one grain of elaterin, a fluid-
ounce  of alcohol, and four drops of  nitric  acid;  of which  from  thirty
to forty drops may be given diluted with water.
   Off. Prep.—Pilula Gambogia Composita. 
           Monarda Punctata—Monotropa Uniflora.         639

                    MONARDA  PUNCTATA.
                            Horsemint.
        Nat.  Ord.—Lamiaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Diandria Monogynia.
                            THE  HERB.
  Description. — Horsemint is an indigenous perennial or biennial plan.
with a fibrous  root,  and a  stem two or three feet high,  herbaceous,
obtusely  four-angled, whitish,  downy, and branching.  The  leaves are
oblong-lanceolate,  remotely-serrate,  smooth,  punctate, tapering  to  a
short petiole.   The flowers are yellow,  spotted with red or brown, and
disposed in numerous dense, axillary whorls, having  lanceolate, yellow-
ish  and purple, sessile bracts, obtuse at the  base, and longer than the
whorls.   Calyx tubular,  downy;  calyx-teeth unequal,  short and rigid,
awnless.   Corolla,  nearly smooth, yellow with brown spots, the upper
lip villous at the apex,  somewhat vaulted, and  spotted with  purple; the
tube  scarcely exceeding the calyx.  Stamens two, not exceeding the
upper lip of the corolla.
  History.—This plant is found growing  in light and sandy soils  from
New Jersey to  Florida, and in the Western States to Louisiana, flower-
ing from June  to September.   The whole plant has an aromatic  odor
and a warm, pungent, somewhat bitter taste, and abounds in a powerful
volatile oil  on which its active virtues depend.  The oil may be obtained
from  the fresh herb by  distillation with water.   The plant  yields  its
virtues to alcohol or infused  in boiling water.
  Properties  and Uses.—Horsemint is stimulant,  carminative, sudorific,
diuretic and  anti-emetic.   The infusion or essence  used  in  flatulence,
nausea, vomiting, and as  a diuretic  in suppression of the urine, and  other
urinary disorders.  The warm infusion is a stimulating diaphoretic, and
has  acquired some  reputation as  an emmenagogue;  it maybe drank
freely.  The M. Didyma and M. Squarrosa may be used as substitutes
for  the above.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Monarda ; Oleum Monarda.
                   MONOTROPA UNIFLORA.
                              Iceplant.
  Nat.  Ord. — Ericaceaa;  Suborder, Monotropeaa.   Sex.  Syst. — Decandria
Monogynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—This plant, also known by the names of Ova-ova, Bird's
Nest, Indian-pipe, Fit-plant, etc., has a dark-colored,  fibrous, perennial
root, matted in masses  about as  large as  a chestnut-burr, from which
arise one  or more short,  ivory-white stems, from  four to eight inches
high, furnished with sessile, lanceolate, white, semi-transparent, approxi- 
640
Materia Medica.
 mate leaves or bracts,  and bearing a  large, white, terminal, solitary
 flower,  which is at first nodding, but becomes  upright in  fruit.  The
 calyx is represented by from two to four scale-like deciduous bracts, the
 loAver rather  distant from  the  corolla.   The  corolla is permanent, and
 composed of five distinct, erect, fleshy petals, which are narrowed below
 and have a small nectariferous pit at the base.   Stamens ten, sometimes
 eight; anthers short on the thickened apex of the hairy filament, two-
 celled, opening  by  transverse  chinks.   Stigma five-crenate, depressed,
 beardless.    Pod  or capsule five-celled, five-valved; seeds  numerous,
 invested with an arillus-like membrane.
   History.—This is a singular plant, found in various parts of the Union
 from Maine to Carolina, and westward  to Missouri, growing in shadv,
 solitary woods, in rich moist soil, or soil composed of decayed wood and
 leaves,  and near the base  of trees,  on whose roots  it is said to be para-
 sitic. The whole plant is ivory-white in all its parts, resembling frozen
 jelly, and is very succulent  and tender, so  much so that when handled
 it dissolves and melts aAva}7 in the hands like ice.  The flowers are ino-
 dorous,  and appear from June until September; their resemblance to a
 pipe  has given rise to the  names Indian Pipe, or Pipe-plant.  The root
 is the part used; it should  be gathered in September and October, care-
 fully dried,  pulverized, and kept in well-stopped bottles.
  Properties and  Uses. — Iceplant-root  is tonic,  sedative, nervine, and
 antispasmodic.  It has also been employed  in  febrile diseases, as a
 sedative, and diaphoretic.   The powder  has  been  employed in instances
 of restlessness, pains, nervous irritability, etc.,  as a substitute for opium,
 without any deleterious influences.   It is reputed  to have cured remit-
 tent and intermittent fevers, and to be  an  excellent  antiperiodic.  In
 convulsions of children, epilepsy, chorea, and other spasmodic affections,
its administration has been  followed with prompt success; hence its com-
mon name,  Fit or  Convulsion-root.   The juice of  the  plant, alone or
combined with rose-water, has been found an excellent local application
to  obstinate ophthalmic  inflammations, to ulcers, and as an injection in
 gonorrhea, inflammation and ulceration of  the bladder.  Dose  of the
powdered root, from half a drachm to a drachm, two or three times a day.
  This plant is undoubtedly one of great value, and deserving of more
confidence  and attention than  is at present bestowed upon it.  It is not
 the Mesembryanthemum  Crystallinum or Iceplant of Europe, which has a
 creeping stem a foot or more in length, Avith large, ovate, wavy, frosted
leaves, and white  flowers;  and the whole  plant  is  covered over with
frost-like, warty protuberances, which give a very singular aspect  to it. 
Morus  Rubra.
641
                         MORUS RUBRA.
                          Red Mulberry.
Nat. Ord.—Urticaceaa; Suborder, Moreaa.   Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Tetrandria.
                            THE fruit.
   Description.—Morus Rubra,  or the Red Mulberry, is but a  shrub in
the northern and New England States, from fifteen to twenty feet high,
but in the Middle  and Western States  it attains an elevation of from
fifty to sixty feet, with a diameter of two feet, and covered with a gray-
ish, furrowed, much broken bark.  The  leaves are alternate, rounded or
subcordate at base, acuminate, equally serrate,  either ovate or three-
lobed, rough above and pubescent beneath, thick, dark-green, from four
to six inches long, and about two-thirds as wide.  The flowers are small,
monoecious, rarely dioecious;  the sterile ones in loose spikes ;  calyx four-
parted ; the fertile ones in dense spikes;  calyx four-parted;  styles two,
filiform, stigmatic down  the inside.   Ovary two-celled, one of the cells
smaller and disappearing.  Achenium ovate, compressed, inclosed within
the succulent, berry-like  calyx.  Fertile spikes  cylindric, constituting a
dark-red,  thickened, oblong and juicy, compound berry or fruit.  The
sterile spikes are rather slender.
   History. — The red  mulberry is  indigenous  to the United  States,
growing in rich woods, flowering in May, and ripening its fruit in July.
The wood of the tree is fine-grained, strong, and durable.  The fruit is
oblong-oval, of a dark-red color, almost  black, and consists of minute
berries united  together and attached to a common receptacle, each con-
taining a single seed, the succulent envelope of which is formed by the
calyx.  It somewhat resembles a blackberry, is inodorous,  but with a
sweet, mucilaginous, acidulous taste, and is very juicy.  They are said
to consist  of bitartrate of  potassa, pectine,  sugar, lignin, coloring matter
and water.
   Properties and Uses.—Mulberries possess very  slightly nutritive qual-
ities ;  they are refrigerant and laxative, and their juice forms a pleasant
and grateful  drink for patients suffering under  febrile diseases, as it
checks thirst,  relieves febrile heat, and when taken freely, gently relax
the bowels.  A syrup made from the juice, and added to water, answers
the same purpose, and forms a pleasant addition to gargles in quinsy.  If
the berries are eaten  to  excess they are apt to  induce diarrhea.  The
bark of the tree is said to be cathartic and anthelmintic, having expelled
tapeworm.   The Morus  Nigra of Europe possesses similar properties.
The Morus Alba,  a native of  China, with white fruit Avhich is SAveeter
and less grateful than  the others, is the kind cultivated as a source of
food for the silk-worm.
              41 
642
Materia Medica.
                            MOSCHUS.
                                Musk.
  History.—This article is  obtained  from the  Moschus Moschiferus, a
wild  ruminating animal,  rather larger than  the  domestic goat,  and
approaching the deer in its characters, and which is  an inhabitant of
Central Asia.   At  the posterior part of its abdomen, there is a small
sack situated immediately under the skin, which opens a little in front of
the preputial orifice, and which is filled with  a thick fluid, abounding
particularly in the rutting season. This fluid, in the dried state, is musk.
It is removed from  the  animal in its containing bag, and dried in this
state  for exportation.   The musk-bag, or pod  is usually plano-convex ;
and in general the  plain surface is a bare membrane, while  the convex
surface is covered with stiff hairs ; but  sometimes the hairy and mem-
branous  parts are reversed.  It weighs, along with  its contents, between
five and nearly ten drachms, and contains on an average two drachms
and two-thirds  of  musk.   Musk is in  the form of  irregular, reddish
black, rather unctuous grains, possessing an overpowering,  most pene-
trating, diffusive odor, and a  bitterish,  corresponding taste.  Rectified
spirit is its best  solvent.   Musk is now scarcely ever prescribed, both on
account of its high  price, and the extreme difficulty of obtaining a pure
article ; as nearly all the musk of the shops, at the present day, is an
artificial or factitious article.   Camphor, cinnamon, almond syrup, wax,
etc., when mixed with musk,  destroy its odor.
  Musk is  inflammable, burning with a white flame, and leaving a light-
spongy charcoal.   In some individuals its odor produces headache  and
other disagreeable  symptoms, and has  even given rise to convulsions.
It consists of a  great  number of proximate principles, as stearin, elain,
cholesterin, a peculiar fixed acid, resin, osmazome, numerous salts,  and
free ammonia combined with  an odoriferous principle, and  which  has
not yet been separately detached.  Ether is said to be a good solvent;
and the emulsion  or syrup of bitter almonds, or  cherry laurel-water,
very  much diminishes its odor.
  From its high price, musk is very liable to adulterations;  indeed  it is
very rare that the  pure article can be had at the shops in this country.
These adulterations are very difficult  to detect.   Musk Avhich  burns
with  difficulty7,  which  has a  feeble odor, and a  color  either pale or
entirely black, which feels gritty to the finger, is very moist, or contains
obvious impurities,  should be  rejected.
  Properties and  Uses.—Musk is  stimulant and antispasmodic ; it in-
creases the vigor of  the  circulation, and exalts the  nervous energy,
without causing any great derangement of the purely cerebral functions.
It is asserted to have been used with much advantage in the following
diseases:   in all spasmodic affections, typhus,  and low forms of fever,
obstinate hiccough,  pertussis,  convulsions of infants, epilepsy, hysteria, 
Mucuna Pruriens.
643
asthma, palpitation of the heart, chorea, colic, etc.   Fifteen grains of
musk combined  with  extract of valerian, and hydro-alcoholic extract
of cimicifuga, of each, fifteen grains, and  divided into fifteen pills, will
be found beneficial in pneumonia accompanied by delirium, and in the
involuntary movements observed in low typhoid fevers.   One pill may
be given every hour or two, until there is a marked  improvement in the
symptoms.   In  small  doses  musk is hypnotic.  If its use is long con-
tinued it imparts its peculiar odor to the secretions.  It should always
be given in substance,  either in the  form of pill or emulsion.  Dose
from five to twenty grains, every two or three hours.  Nitre, cochineal
of each two grains,  musk one grain, mix and  form a powder.  This
powder given  and repeated every two or three hours is said to be very
useful in some low forms of  fever,  and in febrile  or  inflammatory affec-
tions with  spasmodic action or delirium.   An artificial musk is prepared,
by carefully adding, drop by drop, three parts of fuming  nitric acid  to
one of unrectified  oil of amber.  The acid is decomposed, and  the oil
converted into an acid resin, which  must be kneaded under pure water,
until all excess of  acid is removed.  The substance  which remains is of
a yellowish-brown color, viscid, and an odor similar to musk, for which
it may be  used as a substitute in doses  of from  fifteen to thirty grains.
                     MUCUNA PRURIENS.
                             Cowhage.
        Nat.  Ord.—Fabaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Diadelphia Decandria.
                    THE  BRISTLES OF  THE PODS.
  Description.—This plant has a perennial and fibrous root, from which
arises a herbaceous, climbing, cylindrical, tomentose stem, divided into
many branches, and which rises to a considerable hight, twining round
the trees  in  its vicinity.  The leaves  are  alternate,  on long petioles,
about a foot from each other, and pinnately-trifoliate; the central leaflet
is  rhomboidal; the two lateral ones, oblique at the base, dilated exter-
nally ; all of them are entire, ovate, acuminate, smooth on  the upper
surface, and hairy beneath.  The flowers are  large, inodorous, of  a
purplish or violet color, somewhat resembling those of the pea in form,
and are usually collected by threes in long, pendulous, axillary racemes.
The calyx is hairy, pink, campanulate, bilabiate,  the lower lip trifid, and
the upper entire, semi-ovate.  The corolla consists of a vexillum, which
is roundish,  concave,  and double  the length of the calyx, but shorter
than the other petals.   The carina is straight, obtuse, and furnished on
each side  of the apex with a short spur.  The alae are oblong, and as
long as the carina.  The stamens are ten, diadelphous, five of them sup-
porting oblong, linear anthers, and the others  ovate, hirsute ones.   The
ovary is oblong, villous, and furnished with a  slender style, with a small 
644
Materia Medica.
orbicular stigma.  The legume is a coriaceous  pod about three or four
inches long,  the  thickness of the finger,  compressed, curved like  the
letter S, thickly  set with short, reddish-brown,  brittle, stinging  hairs,
somewhat terete  and keeled ;  when handled  or rubbed  on the skin,
they produce an intense  itching sensation.  The seeds are oval-oblong,
brown or variegated, with a white hilum.
  History.—This plant is a native of the West  Indies, and  other tropical
parts of South America ; it is found in woods,  along  river  courses, upon
fences, and in waste, neglected places. The East Indian species, Mucuna
Prurita, is entirely distinct from the one under consideration.  The offi-
cinal part of the plant  is the  hair of  the pods, which are generally
imported into this country attached to  pod, and from which they  are
carefully removed, so that they do not fasten to the operator's hands.
  Properties and Uses.—Cowhage is a  mechanical  anthelmintic, acting
by penetrating the body of the worms;  its decoction or tincture has no
anthelmintic  properties.  It is used  in the treatment of intestinal worms,
which are expelled alive.  It has  no effect on tenia, but  appears more
serviceable in  removing the lumbrici and ascarides.   Dose, from  one
drachm to half an ounce in syrup or molasses,  and followed,  a few hours
afterward, by a purgative.   The application of oil is the best to allay the
heat and itching it produces when  rubbed on the skin.  Cowhage  has
been recommended in the form of an  ointment,  as a cutaneous irritant,
in the place of croton oil, and tartar-emetic, also as a good medium for
the endermic application of  various  substances, as muriate of morphia.
The proportions are, seven grains and a  half of the  hairs of  cowhage to
an ounce of lard.  This must be rubbed in from ten  to twenty minutes;
seven or eight grains are usually sufficient.  The immediate  effect is the
production of a sensation resembling stinging with nettles ;  but the burn-
ing sensation  and the itching diminish during  the friction, and entirely
pass off in less than half an hour.   The skin generally becomes covered
with white flat papula, which soon disappear, leaving a sensation of heat.
It produces no inconvenience, and children bear it easily.
                      MYRICA CERIFERA.
                             Bayberry.

         Nat. Ord.—Myricaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Dioacia Tetrandria.
                THE BARK AND  WAX.   BAYBERRY  WAX.
  Description.—This plant, known also by the names of  Wax Myrtle,
Wax-berry, etc., is a branching,  half-evergreen shrub from one to twelve
feet in hight, and covered with a grayish bark.  The leaves are glabrous,
cuneate-lanceolate, rather acute or obtuse, distinctly petiolate, margin
entire, but more frequently remotely dentate,  particularly toward the 
Myrica Cerifera.
645
end, paler and with distinct veinlets beneath, generally twisted or revo-
lute in their mode of growth, shining and resinous, dotted on both sides,
and from an inch and a half to two and a half inches in length, by half
an inch to three-quarters wide.   The flowers appear in May before  the
leaves are fully expanded.   The males grow in aments, which  are ses-
sile, erect, from six to nine lines  in length ; originating  from the sides
of the last year's twigs.   Every  flower is formed by  a  concave rhom-
boidal scale, containing  three or four pairs of roundish anthers on a
branched footstalk.  The females, which  are  on a different shrub, are
less than half the size of the males, and consist of narrower scales, with
each an ovate ovary, and two filiform styles.   To these aments  succeed
clusters  or  aggregations of small  globular fruits resembling  berries,
which are at first green,  but finally become nearly white.  They consist
of a hard stone inclosing a dicotyledonous kernel.   The stone is studded
on  its outside with small black grains resembling fine gunpowder, over
which is a  crust of dry greenish-white  wax,  fitted to  the grains  and
giving the surface of the fruit a granulated appearance.   The fruit  is
persistent for two or three years.
   History.—This plant  is found in damp places in many  parts of the
United States, and  is very abundant in New Jersey.   The  bark of the
root is the officinal part; boiling water extracts its astringent principles,
and alcohol  its  stimulating.  It probably contains  tannin,  gallic acid,
extractive matter, and lignin.  The root should be collected late in the
fall, cleansed from  dirt and  foreign  substances, and  then  while fresh,
pounded with a hammer or club  to separate the bark, which should be
thoroughly dried without exposure  to a wet or moist  atmosphere, then
pulverized, and kept in darkened and well-closed vessels.  The  berries
of  this plant are studded over with  small,  black  granulations,  and
covered by a white, mealy crust,  consisting of  a kind  of wax, which  is
separated by placing the berries in  boiling water, when it will melt  and
collect on the surface of  the fluid, and on becoming cool, congeals into a
concrete substance.  Bayberry or Myrtle Wax, as it is sometimes called,
is of a pale,  grayish-green color, somewhat diaphanous, more brittle, and
at the same  time  more unctuous to the touch than beeswax, of a feeble
odor,  and a  slightly bitterish taste.  It is  insoluble in water, scarcely
soluble in cold alcohol, soluble in boiling alcohol, but not  permanently
so in  boiling ether, and  slightly  so in oil of turpentine.   One hundred
parts of wax contain eighty-seven parts of cerin, and thirteen of myricin.
The wax boiled with ether, may be  obtained colorless as the liquid cools,
while  the ether holds the green substance in solution.   A bushel of bay-
berries will yield about four pounds of wax.
  Properties and Uses.—Bayberry Bark is astringent and stimulant, and
in drachm doses,  it is apt to occasion emesis.   The bark  has been suc-
cessfully employed in scrofula, jaundice, diarrhea, dysentery, and other 
646
Materia Medica.
diseases where  astringent-stimulants were  indicated.   The  powdered
bark, combined with bloodroot, forms an excellent application to indolent
ulcers, and has likewise been employed as a snuff for the  cure of some
forms of nasal polypus.   In the  form of  poultice, with elm, or alone, it
is a valuable application to  scrofulous  tumors or ulcers.  The decoction
is beneficial as a gargle in  sore  mouth and throat,  and is of service in
injection, in leucorrhea and fistula, and also as a wash  for ulcers, tinea-
capitis,  etc.   It also forms  an excellent gum wash, for tender, spongy,
and  bleeding  gums.   The  leaves are reputed  antispasmodic, antiscor-
butic and astringent.  Probably  the M. Pennsylvania, M. Carolinensis,
and  M. Gale,  possess similar properties.  The Bayberry Wax is astrin-
gent and slightly narcotic, and has been successfully employed in epi-
demic typhoid dysentery.   It is also used in the form  of plaster, as an
application to  scrofulous and other ulcers.   Dose of the powdered bark,
from twenty to thirty grains;  of  the wax, one drachm ;  of the decoction
of the leaves or bark, from  two to four fluidounces.
   Off.  Prep.—Cataplasma Myrica ;  Decoctum Myrica ;  Extractum
Myrica; Emplastrum Myrica ; Lotio Lobelia Composita ;  Pulvis Ascle-
pia Compositus ; Pulvis Myrica  Compositus; Unguentum Myrica.
                             MYRICIN.
                              Myricin.
            dried  alcoholic extract of bayberry bark.
  Preparation.—I  am  indebted  to  Drs. Hill & Co., of this city, for a
description  of the  mode  of preparing  this article.   Make a saturated
tincture  of  Bayberry Bark,  filter,  distil off a portion  of the  alcohol,
evaporate the remainder by means of a water-bath until the mass is of a
syrupy or semifluid consistence, then spread  it in thin layers on glass  or
metallic  plates, and allow it to dry by spontaneous evaporation, which
will require several weeks.
  Some  manufacturers  precipitate  the myricin from  the tincture, by
water, similar to the method employed for  obtaining podophyllin; the
article obtained by  this  process is lighter  colored than that had by the
above, and the yield is much less, beside a great portion of the astrin-
gency of the myricin is taken up  by the water, and the agent possesses
merely stimulant, with but slight astringent virtues.
  History.—The profession are indebted to Messrs. F. D. Hill & Co.,  of
this city, for first preparing and introducing this elegant article  to their
notice.  It forms a  light  grayish-brown powder, with a  peculiar, spicy
smell, and a peculiar, bitterish-astringent taste, with  some degree of per-
sistent pungency.   It is  soluble  in alcohol, partially soluble in ether,
and its astringency is  taken  up  by water,  the  rest  being insoluble.
Sulphate of iron  forms  a black  inky  liquid  with  the  water in which 
Myristica  Moschata.
647
myricin has been agitated.  It is perfectly soluble in  water to which
ammonia has been added.
  Properties and Uses.—Myricin is a stimulant  and astringent, and will
be found a very advantageous remedy in chronic diarrhea and dysentery,
in dysentery with typhoid  symptoms, and in  colliquative diarrhea of
phthisis ;  in scarlatina it may be  given with  advantage, while  a decoc-
tion of the bark is  employed  as  a gargle ;  it will likewise  be found a
useful remedy for aphthous affections, when given internally, and applied
locally.   It forms an  efficacious application to tender, spongy, bleeding
gums,  and  an excellent snuff  for  polypus,  also  for  headache  and
catarrhal affections.   It is likewise beneficial  in jaundice, and in combi-
nation with leptandrin and  apocynin, I have successfully treated several
cases of this affection.  In some  instances of cholera, it will be service-
able, given in combination with  geraniin.   Combined with leptandrin,
podophyllin, or some other cathartic, it  may be employed with benefit
in the latter stages of typhoid fever.   Dose, from two to ten grains of
the powder, which may be repeated as often as required.
                    MYRISTICA MOSCHATA.
                             Nutmeg.
        Nat. Ord.—Myristicaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Dioacia Monadelphia.
                    THE  KERNELS OF THE FRUIT.
  Description.—This is a tree from twenty to twenty-five feet  high,
having  a grayish-brown and somewhat  smooth bark,  abounding in a
yellow juice, and  furnished with  many whorls of spreading  branches.
The leaves, which are alternate and on petioles from half to three-fourths
of an inch long, plane  above, are oblong, approaching to elliptical, sub-
bifarious, glabrous, rather obtuse  at the base, acuminate, quite entire,
aromatic, dark-green and somewhat  glossy above, paler  beneath, with
simple  parallel veins, and from three to six inches  long.   The flowers
are male and female upon different trees,  minute, and pale yellowish ;
the males  are disposed in axillary, solitary clusters, from  three to five
on  a  peduncle.   The  calyx is  urceolate and petaloid, thick and of a
fleshy texture, indistinctly  reddish-pubescent,  dingy pale-yellow, and
divided into three  erect teeth.   The stamens are united into a thickened,
whitish, cylindrical column, about as long as the calyx, the upper half
bearing from six to  ten connate, linear-oblong, two-celled anthers, free
at their base, and opening  longitudinally.   The peduncles  and pedicels
are glabrous, the  latter having a quickly  deciduous, ovate bract  at its
summit, often  pressed close  to the  flower.  The  female flowers  are
scarcely different from the male, except that the pedicel  is frequently
solitary.  Pistil solitary, shorter than the calyx, broadly ovate, a little
tapering upward into  a short  style,  and   terminating in a  two-lobed 
648
Materia Medica.
persistent stigma.  The fruit is pyriform, pendent, having a fleshy pericarp
opening by  two,  nearly  equal, longitudinal  valves,  yelloAvish,  almost
white within, four or five lines thick,  and abounding in  an astringent
juice.   The  arillus (mace), is  thick, between horny and  fleshy, much
laciniated, folded  and  anastomosing  toward  the  extremity,  almost
enveloping the nut, and so tightly as to form inequalities on its surface;
when fresh,  it is  brilliant scarlet; when  dry, much  more horny, of a
yellow-brown color, and very brittle.   The nut is oval or broadly ovate,
with a  hard, rugged, dark-brown, shining shell, marked by the mace,
pale and smooth within, and about half a line thick;  it closely envelops
the seed, and its inner coat dips down into the substance of its albumen,
giving it a marbled appearance.  The seed or nutmeg is oval, pale-brown,
quite smooth when fresh, but  soon becomes  shriveled, with irregular,
vertical lines or furrows  on its surface.   Its substance or  albumen is
firm, fleshy,  and whitish,  being traversed by veins of  a red-brown color,
abounding in oil.   Near  the base of the  albumen, and imbedded in a
cavity in its substance, is  the embryo, which is small, fleshy, yellowish-
white, rounded below, and where is found  the hemispherical radicle ; its
cotyledons of  two, large, somewhat foliaceous, plicate lobes, in the center
of which is seen the plumule.
  History.—The nutmeg  tree  is a native  of the Molucca Isles, and is
cultivated in  Sumatra, French  Guiana,  the Mauritius, and  various West
Indian  islands.  The  tree  is produced from  the seed, and  does not
flower until the eighth or ninth year, when it continues to bear fruit and
flowers  together, for sixty or seventy years.  Its cultivation is said to
require  but little trouble.   In the East  Indies three crops  are  gathered
annually.   The fruit is gathered by hand  and  is never  used whole, on
account of its acridity; the outer pulpy coat is removed with a knife, and
thrown  away, the  arillus is then carefully separated, flattened, and dried
in the sun, sprinkled with  sea-water, and again partially dried; in this pro-
cess it changes from its  original crimson color to a brownish-yellow, and
constitutes the mace of commerce.   The nuts require more attention, as
they are liable to  be attacked by insects; they are first exposed to the
sun for  a few days, and then slowly dried  by a slow fire for a length of
time, until the seed becomes perfectly detached from the shell; this is
then broken and the seeds steeped in a mixture of lime and water, to
protect them from insects and prevent the volatilization of  their aroma,
and thus prepared  they constitute the nutmegs of commerce.  The kernel
of the  fruit,  or  nutmeg, and the  arillus of the nut,  or mace, are the
officinal parts.   Nutmegs reach this country from the East Indies, from
Europe, and  a small portion from the West Indies.
  The finer  kinds of nutmeg  are  small, short, of  an olive shape, firm,
heavy, externally marked with  reticulated furrows, and lightish  brown
or white,  from  having  been dipped  for preservation in milk of  lime;
internally grayish-red, and  beautifully  marbled with darker brownish- 
Myristica Moschata.
649
red  veins, from which oil  may be easily expressed with  the  point of a
warm knife.   They have a strong, peculiar, delightfully fragrant odor,
and a powerful, bitter, warm aromatic taste.  Their virtues are extracted
by alcohol or ether.   According to Bonastre, they contain 54 per cent.
of lignin, 24 of stearin,  7.6 of elain, 6.0 of volatile oil, 2.4 of starch, 1
of gum, and 0.8 of an  acid substance.  By distillation  with water, the
volatile  oil may be  obtained.  The small,  round  heavy nutmeg  is
esteemed superior to  those which are larger, longer, lighter, less  mar-
bled,  and not  so oleaginous.  It makes  a  grayish-brown, somewhat
fatty powder.   All inferior nutmegs may be recognized by the above
description.
   The powder  of  nutmegs  beaten  to  a  pulp with  a little water, and
pressed between heated  plates, yields from ten to thirty per cent, of a
fragrant, orange-colored, concrete oil, commonly, but incorrectly called
Oil of Mace.   It is the Myristicce Adeps of the  Edinburgh Pharmaco-
poeia, and the Myristicce Oleum of  the London.   The  best quality of
this  oil is imported  from  the East Indies in stone  jars ; it is in rectangu-
lar cakes, enveloped in the leaves of some  plant.   It has  the consistence
of suet, and possesses the  odor and taste of the nutmeg.  It is  soluble
in four parts of  boiling alcohol, which deposits the solid part of the oil,
myristicin, in  silky crystals.  The crude  fat likewise contains  a soft,
yellowish or brownish oily substance, soluble in  cold alcohol or ether,
and a volatile oil.   Myristicin is insoluble in cold alcohol  or ether, melts
at 88°, and is a compound  of  Myristicic  acid and glycerin.  An inferior
concrete oil is prepared in Holland from spoiled nutmegs.   An artificial
preparation is  made  by mixing  together  various proportions  of  suet,
palm oil, wax,  spermaceti,  etc., coloring the  mixture, and flavoring  it
with the volatile oil of nutmeg.
  Mace is in the shape of a flat membrane irregularly slit, smooth, soft,
flexible, of a  reddish  or orange-yellow color, and an odor and  taste
closely resembling those  of nutmeg.   It is seldom used in medicine.  It
contains a small quantity  of volatile  oil, a fixed, odorous, yellow oil,
soluble in  ether, insoluble  in boiling  alcohol;  a fixed, odorous, red oil,
soluble in every proportion in  alcohol or ether; a peculiar gummy matter,
analogous to gum and amidin, constituting one-third of the whole, and a
small proportion of ligneous fiber.  On distillation, mace  affords  a vola-
tile oil, and by pressure a fixed oil, less concrete  than that of nutmegs.
Inferior  mace may be knovra by its brittleness, by its being whitish or
pale-yellow, and having  but little taste and odor.
  Properties  and  Uses.  — Both  nutmeg  and mace  possess  aromatic
stimulating properties, and  are occasionally used  to remove flatulency,
correct the nausea arising  from other drugs and to allay nausea and
vomiting.  The nutmeg forms a very agreeable addition to various
drinks for convalescents,  as well as to some articles of diet;  it is gener-
ally  grated over them,  or  mixed with  them.   Applied  locally, grated 
650
Materia Medica.
nutmeg mixed with lard has been found an excellent application in piles—
and the nutmeg roasted is used in  some parts of the country internally,
as a domestic remedy for leucorrhea.  I have known the following pre-
paration  to cure several cases  of intermittent fever,  and  have  been
assured of its almost universal success in this disease.  It is also recom-
mended for the  cure of other forms of fever.  Char a nutmeg by  hold-
ing it in the flame, and permitting it  to burn by itself without disturb-
ance; when charred, pulverize it,  combine it with an equal quantity of
burnt alum, and divide the mixture into  three powders.   On the  com-
mencement of the chill give a powder—if this does not break it, give the
second powder on the approach of the next chill, and if not cured, the third
powder must be given as the succeeding chill comes on.   Usually the
first powder effects a cure, and it is seldom that the three powders are re-
quired.  The bowels should always be acted upon by a purgative previous
to their administration.   It is certainly deserving attention, though I do
not pretend to account for its action.  Dose of nutmeg or mace,  from
five to twenty grains.  Larger doses possess narcotic qualities, and in
doses of two or three drachms, stupor and delirium have been produced.  .
   Off. Prep. —Tinctura Lavandula  Composita.
                 MYROSPERMUM PERUIFERUM.
                          Balsam of Peru.

   Nat.  Ord. — Leguminosaa, (De Candolle); Amyridaceaa,  (Lindley).   Sex.
 Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.
              THE JUICE OF MYROSPERMUM PERUIFERUM.
   Description.—This is the Myroxylon Peruiferum of Linnaus ; it  is a
 large tree, having the trunk and branches covered with a gray, coarse,
 thick, compact bark, of a pale color internally, and filled with a fragrant
 resin.  The branches are  almost horizontal.  The leaves are alternate,
 and composed of two to five  pairs of nearly opposite leaflets, which are
 ovate-lanceolate, acute, coriaceous, somewhat obtuse  and emarginate at
 the apex, smooth, shining above, hairy beneath, entire, with pellucid
 dots,  and on  short petioles ; many  leaves  terminate  unequally.   The
flowers spring from the axils  of  the  leaves  in long, tomentose, erect
 racemes, longer than  the  leaves,  with slender peduncles and a small
 bract at the base of each.  The calyx is campanulate, dark-green, nearly
 equally five-toothed, with the odd  tooth  remote from the others.   The
 corolla  is formed of five white petals, the  upper one reflexed, broad,
 roundish, emarginate, and  twice the size of the others;  the remaining
 four distinct, linear-lanceolate,  reflexed, spreading.   Stamens ten,  dis-
 tinct,  spreading, shorter than the  petals, with elongate, sulcate, mucro-
 nate anthers.  The ovary is oblong, pedicellate, with  a short, subulate,
 crooked  style,  bearing a  simple  stigma.  The fruit  is  a pendulous, 
Myrospermum Peruiferum.
651
yellowish legume, somewhat clavate and curved, and terminating by the
persistent curved  style.   It contains  a single  seed, which  is crescent-
shaped and  enveloped in a yellow liquid balsam, which hardens into
resin.
   History.—Although the above is generally considered to be the tree
which yields Balsam  of Peru, yet there has been  much uncertainty  as
to the particular species, and even at the present time the question is not
satisfactorily  determined.   It is probable that the balsam  is obtained
from more than one species of  Myrospermum,  as it presents varieties in
commerce, that seem to show a difference of origin.  The above tree is
a native of several parts  of South  America, and  grows in  low, warm,
sunny situations,  especially amidst the Peruvian forests on the banks  of
the Maranon, flowering from August to October.  By the  natives it is
called Quinquino.  The  tree abounds in a balsamic juice,  which flows
copiously on  an incision being made in the bark, and is collected  on rags
which  are placed in  the  incisions, and replaced by others, as they be-
come  saturated.   The rags are then boiled in water, from the top of
which the balsam is  skimmed  off, as it rises, and  put  into vessels for
purification and exportation.  It usually comes to this country in tin
canisters, with a whitish scum  upon its surface, and a  deposit which is
dissolved by  heat.
   Balsam of  Peru is  opake, of  a dark reddish-brown color, syrupy,  or
of the consistence of molasses,  of an agreeable balsamic odor, and an
acrid, aromatic, bitterish taste, leaving a prickling sensation in the throat
when swallowed.  Its specific  gravity is about 1.155.  On  exposure  to
the air it does not dry  up; it burns when exposed to flame, with a
white smoke, and diffusing a fragrant odor.  It is soluble in  a large pro-
portion of alcohol, but only partially in  ether; it is miscible with water
by means of mucilage.   Boiling water removes from  it a crystalline
acid, supposed by Stolze  to be benzoic acid, and by Fremy, cinnamic.
Various analyses have been made  but none of them are  satisfactory.
Supposed to contain an oily substance, called Cinnameine, resinous mat-
ter, benzoic acid, extractive, moisture, etc.
   There is likewise a variety of Peruvian  balsam, of a pale-yellowish
color, syrupy, highly fragrant, and of a bitterish, acrid, somewhat aromatic
taste.   It is  called White Peruvian Balsam, and is said to  be procured
from the  fruit, by expression.   When dried,  it  constitutes  the  Dry
Peruvian Balsam, or  Indian Opobalsamum, and is of a  reddish,  pulver-
izable, resinoid character.   Balsamito, is the name of a tincture of the
fruit of the tree in rum, and is said to possess stimulant, diuretic, and
anthelmintic properties.  The natives of Central America employ it as
a wash to remove freckles, and as a local application to indolent or gan-
grenous ulcers.   Neither of these  varieties reach  the  markets of this
country. 
652
Materia Medica.
  Properties and  Uses. — Balsam of Peru is  a stimulating tonic and
expectorant,  acting more especially on mucous tissues.   It has been
recommended in chronic catarrh, asthma, pulmonary complaints gene-
rally, mucous inflammation of the stomach and bowels, gonorrhea, leu-
corrhea, gleet, and chronic  diarrhea.   Externally, it forms an excellent
application to indolent ulcers, wounds,  ringworm of the scalp, and other
cutaneous affections.  It may be applied alone, or in ointment made by
melting it with an equal part by weight of tallow.  The  dose  is from
ten to thirty drops, and is best given diffused in water by means of sugar
and the yelk of egg, or gum arabic.
                MYROSPERMUM  TOLUIFERUM.
                          Balsam of Tolu.
       Nat. Ord.—Leguminosaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Decandria Monogynia,
              THE JUICE OF MYROSPERMUM TOLUIFERUM.
  Description. — There has been  no detailed description given of this
tree.  It is supposed  to resemble the  M. Peruiferum,  differing in its
leaflets, which, according to Richard,  are thin, membranous, obovate,
with a lengthened and pointed apex, and the terminal ones being  larger
than the others.
  History. — As with the preceding article, so with the  present, it is
involved in considerable obscurity ; it being  uncertain  whether the
same trees  which yield Balsam of Peru, furnish likewise that of Tolu.
Some consider that the two balsams are derived from the same species,
and that they  differ merely on account  of their  mode of collection and
preparation.
  The M.  Toluiferum, which is undoubtedly one species  from  which
Tolu is obtained, is found in several parts of  South America, especially
on the elevated plains  and mountains  near Carthagena, Tolu, and in the
Magdalena province of Colombia.  The balsam is said to be procured
by making incisions into the trunk of  the tree, and as it  exudes, it is
received into  vessels  of various  kinds, in  which it concretes.   It is
brought from  Carthagena, contained in  calabashes, earthen jars or glass
vessels.  When first  imported, it  is  usually soft and tenacious, but by
age  becomes  hard and brittle, resembling resin.  It is shining, translu-
cent, of a pale yellowish-red or brown color, very fragrant, and a warm,
sweetish,  pungent, rather agreeable taste.   It  softens  when chewed,
and exposed to heat, melts readily; when  inflamed it evolves an agree-
able odor.   It is wholly soluble in alcohol,  ether  and the volatile oils,
and  like Balsam of Peru, gives up its  acid to boiling water.  By distil-
lation with water a small quantity  of  volatile oil is obtained, and if the
heat be continued, its  acid sublimes.   When  dissolved in  the smallest
quantity of a solution of potassa, it is said to lose its characteristic odor, 
Myrtus  Pimenta.
653
and  acquire that of the  clove-pink.   Its  chemical composition has not
been satisfactorily ascertained, but appears to be similar  to that of the
Balsam of Peru, differing only in its greater tendency to become resin-
ous.   The pure volatile oil, called Tolene, is a hydro-carbon (Cio Hs).
Guibourt observes that as the balsam solidifies, it becomes less odorous,
and holds more acid; and thinks that the  acid  is increased at the ex-
pense of the oil.
  Properties and Uses.—Balsam of Tolu, like that of Peru, is a stimu-
lant  tonic and  expectorant, and  may be used as a substitute for it, in
chronic catarrhs,  and  other  pulmonary affections not inflammatory in
their character.  It is usually preferred on  account of its  more agree-
able  flavor,  and for which  it is  often added  to  expectorant  mixtures.
The  vapor of an ethereal solution of  this balsam  is said to be  beneficial
in old and obstinate coughs, when inhaled.   Two parts  of Tolu,  three
of almond oil, four of gum arabic, and sixteen of rose-water, make an
excellent liniment for excoriated nipples.   The dose is from ten to thirty
grains, frequently repeated,  and  given in  tincture, syrup, or similar to
Balsam of Peru.
   Off. Prep. — Mistura  Sanguinaria Composita; Syrupus  Tolutanus;
Tinctura Tolutani; Tinctura Benzoini Composita.
                      MYRTUS PIMENTA.
                              Pimento.
        Nat. Ord.—Myrtaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Icosandria Monogynia.
                        THE UNRIPE  BERRIES.
  Description. — This tree, the  Eugenia Pimenta  of  De  Candolle, is a
handsome evergreen, with a straight trunk about thirty feet high, much
branched  toward the top, and covered with a smooth gray bark; the
twigs  are compressed, the younger and the pedicels downy.   The leaves
are opposite,  on  short  petioles,  oblong-lanceolate,  smooth,  shining,
pointed, deep-green, about four inches long, and when recent abound in
an  essential oil, and have an aromatic taste.  The flowers  are  small,
numerous, and disposed in axillary and terminal panicles upon trichoto-
mous  stalks.  The calyx is formed of  four roundish sepals.   The petals
are four, reflected, greenish-white.  The stamens are  numerous, longer
than the petals, of the same  color, with rounded, white  anthers.   The
style is simple, with an obtuse stigma.  The fruit is  a smooth, shining,
succulent berry, crowned  with the persistent calyx, of a black or pur-
plish color when ripe, about the size of  a pea, and containing two reni-
form,  flattish seeds.
  History. — The Pimento tree is a native  of Mexico, the West  Indies,
and other parts of South America.   It is  abundant  in Jamaica.  The
tree bears  fruit when three years old, and  arrives at maturity at seven; 
654
Materia  Medica.
it grows best in a calcareous soil, covered with  a light mold.   The
unripe berries are the officinal  part, and are more generally known by
the name of Allspice.   Other names, as Jamaica Pepper, Bayberry, etc.,
have been given to them.   They are gathered just before they are ripe,
and carefully dried  in the sun,  and then put into bags or casks for
exportation.  When these  trees are in  blossom they  exhale a most
delicious fragrance.
  Pimento,  or allspice when  dried, becomes brownish-black, round,
wrinkled, and umbilicate at the apex.  It consists of an  external, hard,
brittle  rind, which is yellowish internally, and which presents two cells
when broken, each  containing a dark-brown hemispherical seed.  Its
odor is strongly aromatic,  combining that of cinnamon, cloves, and nut-
meg, and  the taste is warm, aromatic, pungent, and slightly astringent.
Boiling water takes up the aroma, and alcohol all the active properties.
The infusion is brown, and has an acid reaction  on litmus paper.  The
berries are  found to  contain  a volatile oil, which  may be obtained by
distillation, a green  fixed  oil, of a burning  aromatic taste, a concrete,
yellowish, flaky,  oleaginous substance, tannin, gum, resin, uncrystalliz-
able  sugar,  coloring-matter,  malic and  gallic  acids,  saline  matters,
moisture, and lignin.   The seeds contain only half the proportion of
volatile oil, and three times as much astringent extract.
  Properties and Uses.—Pimento is a warm aromatic stimulant and car-
minative,  and may  be used  where  such agents  are indicated.  It is
seldom employed in  medicine, but is used largely as a  hot aromatic in
cookery; and sometimes  it is  added to  other medicines to render them
more agreeable.   A tincture  has been  recommended as a local appli-
cation in chilblains.  Dose of the powder,  from  ten to thirty grains;
of the tincture,  from one  to  two fluidrachms;  of the oil, from two to
five drops.
   Off. Prep.—Aqua Pimenta ;  Tinctura  Guaiaci Ammoniata.
                        NABALUS ALBUS.
                           Lion's  Foot.
Nat. Ord.—Compositae,  Tribe Cichoraceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Syngenesia iEqualis.
                            THE PLANT.
  Description—This plant, also known as While-Lettuce, and Rattlesnake
Root, is the Prenanthes Albus  of Linnaus.   It is an indigenous  peren-
nial herb, with a  smooth, somewhat glaucous stem, corymbose-panicu-
late at the summit, stout, purplish, often deeply so in spots, and from
two to four feet in hight.  The radical leaves are angular-hastate, often
more or less deeply three to  five-lobed; the uppermost cauline ones,
lanceolate, and between these the intermediate forms, hastate and ovate, 
Nectandra Rodi^ei.
655
petiolate, and all irregularly dentate.  Heads pendulous, glabrous ; invo-
lucre of eight linear scales,  nine to twelve-flowered;  scales purplish;
corollas whitish.  Pappus brown.
   There is a variety of the above plant, Nabalus Serpentaria or Prenan-
thes  Serpentaria, with rough dentate leaves, of Avhich the radical are pal-
mate, the cauline with long footstalks, sinuate-pinnatifid, disposed to  be
three-lobed, with the middle lobe three-parted and the upper, lanceolate.
The racemes are terminal, somewhat panicled, short, and nodding, with
an eight-cleft  calyx, and twelve florets; it  is about two feet high, with
purple flowers.
   History.—This plant is found in moist woods and shades, in rich soils,
from New England to Iowa, and from Canada to Carolina, flowering in
August.  The variety N. Serpentaria is common to the mountainous
districts of Virginia, North  Carolina, and  other  sections of the  United
States,  and  is  considered more  active than the  N. Albus.  The root,
leaves,  and  juice of the plant are employed.   It has not been analyzed.
   Properties and Uses.—Said to be an antidote to  the bite of the rattle-
snake, and other poisonous serpents.   The milky juice of the plant is
taken internally, while the leaves steeped in water are to be applied to
the wound, and frequently changed.  A decoction of the root, which is
bitter, has been successfully used in the bite of the rattlesnake,  also in
dysentery.   This plant is deserving further and  more  accurate investi-
gation.
                      NECTANDRA  RODLEI.
                              Bebeeru.
       Nat. Ord.—Lauraceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Dodecandria Monogynia.
                THE ALKALOID CONTAINED  IN  THE BARK.
   Description.—This is a magnificent forest tree, growing from sixty to
eighty feet in hight, branching  near the  summit, and covered with a
smooth ash-gray bark.   The leaves are  nearly opposite, smooth, shinincr,
coriaceous, five  or six inches long, and  two or three broad.   The flowers
are obscure, whitish-yellow, cordate, and  disposed in  axillary panicles.
The fruit is a globular berry, about six inches in circumference, having
a woody,  grayish-brown, speckled  pericarp, and a seed with two large
plano-conyex cotyledons, which is yellow when freshly cut, and possesses
an  acid reaction  and an intensely bitter  taste.  The  fruit  abounds in
bitter starch.
   History.—This tree  is a native  of British  Guiana, and its bark has
been recently brought into notice by Dr. Rodie, as  a powerful tonic  and
febrifuge.   It is in flat pieces  of one or tAvo feet in length, from two to
six inches broad, and about four lines in thickness, hard, heavy, brittle,
with a rough fibrous fracture, dark-cinnamon-brown and rather smooth 
656
Materia  Medica.
internally, and covered externally Avith a brittle grayish-brown epider-
mis.  It has little or no odor, but a strong persistent bitter taste, with
considerable astringency.   The fruit is as large as a small apple, obovate,
or obcordate, somewhat  compressed,  consisting of an external brittle
shell, and an interior fleshy kernel.   It is likewise  intensely bitter.  The
Sulphate of Bebeerina is obtained from the bark and seeds.  The pro-
cess for obtaining it is essentially the same as that for sulphate of quinia.
The bark is at first freed of tannin and coloring matter by boiling it with
carbonate of soda; it is then exhausted by boiling  in water acidulated
with sulphuric acid,  and  the alkaline  matter is thrown down from the
concentrated acid liquor by means  of  carbonate of  soda.  The  impure
bases thus  separated are washed, dissolved, and neutralized with  weak
sulphuric acid, and the solution is treated with animal charcoal, concen-
trated, filtered again, and finally evaporated in thin layers in flat ves-
sels.  Any  excess of acid must be carefully avoided, otherwise the salt
will be charred on evaporating it to  dryness.
  The sulphate of bebeerina of the shops, contains  both bebeerina and
Sipeerina, another alkaline principle also  discovered by Dr. Rodie.  It
occurs in thin, somewhat glittering scales of a brownish-yellow color,
(sometimes with a greenish tinge,) and forming a yellow powder.  It is
inodorous and  has an intensely bitter, persistent, and somewhat astrin-
gent taste.    Like the Sulphate of Quinia it requires an excess  of acid
for  its perfect solution;  hence the addition of a few drops of diluted sul-
phuric acid renders  its solution more  complete.  It is also soluble in
spirit.   When well prepared, the  scale-like particles should be glittering
and translucent, and  ought, when incinerated to leave no ash, or a mere
trace only.    In this way,  sulphate of lime, the only important impurity
which has  been  found  in  it, may7 be  easily detected.   When carefully
dried, it contains 90.83 per cent, of base, and 9.17 of sulphuric  acid.
  Pure Bebeerina may be obtained  as follows: Decompose the commer-
cial  sulphate by ammonia, and carefully wash the  alkaline precipitate
with cold water,  and  while still  moist, triturate it with an  equal weight
of freshly precipitated and moist hydrated  oxide of lead.   The magma
thus formed is  then dried over the water-bath, and the alkali is taken up
by  absolute alcohol.  On distilling off  the spirit, the organic base is left
in the  form of a transparent orange-yellow resinous mass, containing
Sipeerina.   This is  dried, pulverized,  and  treated with successive por-
tions of pure ether, which dissolves  the bebeerina, leaving the sipeerina
behind.  The  ether  is distilled  and evaporated, and pure bebeerina is
obtained in  the form  of a translucent, amorphous, but homogeneous resi-
nous-looking substance, of a pale-yellow color, and possessed  of all the
properties  of an organic  alkali.  Bebeerina  does not  crystallize; it is
very soluble in  alcohol, less so in  ether,  and very sparingly in water.
When heated it fuses;  and the heat being continued, it swells up, giving
off  vapors of a strong peculiar odor and burns without residue.  It forms 
NECTANDRA R0DL<EI.
657
non-crystallizable salts with acids.   With bichromate of potassa and sul-
phuric acid it gives a black resin, and a yellow, with nitric acid.
   M. A. De Planta, has still further purified Bebeerina, and obtained it
in a colorless powder, inodorous, unalterable  in the air, highly electric,
very soluble in water, but dissolving more easily in ether, and in all pro-
portions in alcohol.   He takes the bebeerina obtained by the above pro-
cess of Maclagan and Tilley, and treats it with acetic acid, which imper-
fectly dissolves it; to the filtered liquor he adds an excess of acetate  of
lead, and then potassa, until a precipitate is formed.   The  combination
of bebeerina  and oxide of lead, which  is  thus obtained, is dried in a
water-bath, and  exhausted with ether.   On distilling  away the  ether,
after filtering, the bebeerina is left in the form of a syrupy mass,  having
a slightly yellow color.   It is dissolved in absolute alcohol, and the solu-
tion in a concentrated  state, added drop by drop, to cold water kept
constantly agitated.  It  forms a thick precipitate, which may be collected
on a filter, washed and dried without agglutinating.
   Properties and Uses.—Bebeerina and its sulphate, is a tonic  and anti-
periodic,  and is applicable to the same  forms of disease  as those  in
which quinia is employed.  It increases the appetite, raises the pulse a
little, and improves the tone of the  constitution generally, with  but little
tendency to produce ringing in the  ears, headache, vertigo, or other ner-
vous  symptoms, as is the  case with quinia, except when given in large
or frequently repeated doses.   It has been used  with  success  in  inter-
mittent and remittent fevers, but is  inferior to quinia,  although a valu-
able substitute for it.   It has been  found of decided benefit in periodic
headache, and other  periodic neuralgias,  as well  as in atonic dyspepsia,
and general debility.   It seems to be specially applicable to persons of a
strumous  or  phthisical habit,  and  in the latter  stages of phthisis has
strengthened  the system,  improved the  appetite,  and checked  night-
sweats.  In strumous ophthalmia, and in pregnancy requiring tonic treat-
ment, it has  been highly prized by many practitioners.  The dose  of
Sulphate of Bebeerina is from one  to three grains as a tonic, and from
five to twenty as a febrifuge.   It may be given in pill with conserve  of
roses, or  in  solution.   Half  a  drachm  of the  sulphate,  twenty-five
minims of elixir vitriol, a fluidounce each,  of syrup,  and tincture  of
orange  peel,  and four  fluidounces  of water, mixed together,  form  an
excellent solution for general tonic purposes ;  of this a tablespoonful may
be given three times a day, each dose containing about two and  a half
grains of the salt.
         42 
658                       Materia Medica.
                       NEPETA CATARIA.
                               Catnip.
       Nat. Ord.—Lamiaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.
                       THE  TOPS AND  LEAVES.
   Description.—Catnip or Catmint is a perennial herbaceous  plant, with
an erect, quadrangular,  branching,  hoary-tomentose stem from one to
three feet in hight.   The leaves are opposite, petiolate, cordate, pubes-
cent, coarsely crenate-serrate, green above, and whitish beneath.  The
flowers are many, white  or purplish, the lower lip dotted with  crimson,
and are  disposed  in whorled spikes, which are slightly pedunculated.
 Calyx dry, striate, tubular, obliquely five-toothed.  Corolla  naked and
dilated in the  throat,  two lipped, twice the length  of the calyx  ; the
upper lip rather concave, erect, notched or two-cleft; the lower spreading,
three-cleft, the middle lobe largest and crenate.  Stamens four, ascending
under the upper lip; anthers approximate in pairs, the  cells divergent.
   History.—Catnip is a native of Europe, and is abundantly  naturalized
in this country ; it is found  growing in dry, neglected  situations, about
old buildings and fences,  and in cultivated grounds, flowering from June
to September.   The tops and  leaves  are  officinal, they have a strong,
peculiar, rather unpleasant odor, and a bitter, somewhat aromatic taste,
yielding the active virtues to  boiling  water.  The names of this plant, in
all languages, indicate the fondness of cats for it, upon whom it is said
-to exert an aphrodisiac influence.   Its active constituents are volatile
oil, and that variety of tannin which produces a greenish color with the
salts of iron.
   Properties and Uses.—Catnip is diaphoretic and carminative in warm
infusion; tonic, when  cold.   It is also antispasmodic,  emmenagogue,
and diuretic.   In warm infusion it is used in febrile diseases as a diapho-
retic, and to promote the action of other diaphoretics, as well as to allay
spasmodic action  and produce sleep ;  it is also given  as a carminative
and antispasmodic in the flatulent colic of  children; and as an emmen-
agogue or uterine tonic,  it has proved decidedly beneficial in  amenor-
rhea and dysmenorrhea, and has likewise been  successfully employed
in nervous  headache, hysteria,  and nervous irritability.   The leaves
chewed, or held in contact with  the  diseased tooth, are said to relieve
toothache.  A warm infusion of saffron and catnip is a very popular and
beneficial remedy  in colds, febrile and exanthematous diseases  to which
infants and  young  children  are subject.   A fluid  extract of catnip,
valerian, and scullcap, forms an excellent agent for the cure of nervous
headache, restlessness, and   many other nervous symptoms.  The ex-
pressed juice  of the herb, given in doses of a tablespoonful two or three
times a day, is decidedly7  a superior remedy in amenorrhea, often restor-
ing  the  menstrual secretion  after other means have failed.   The leaves
are  frequently used in fomentation  as  a local  application to painful and 
             Nepeta Gleckoma-—Nicotiana  Tabacum.           659

inflammatory affections.   Of the dried leaves  in powder, two drachms
may be given for a dose in some liquid, as cold  or warm water; the
infusion, made by adding an ounce of  the dried herb to a  pint of boiling
water, covering it, and allowing it to stand for a few minutes, may be
drank as freely as the stomach  will permit.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum  Nepeta.
                     NEPETA GLECHOMA.
                            Ground Ivy.
      Nat. Ord.—Labiaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.
                            THE LEAA7ES.
   Description.—This plant,  the  Glechoma  Hederacea  of  Linnaus, is  a
perennial gray, hairy herb,  with a  prostrate, creeping stem,  radicating
at base, square, and varying in length  from a few inches to one or two
feet.   The leaves are  petiolate, opposite, roundish,  cordate-reniform,
crenate,  hairy, and  glaucous  on both sides; floral leaves of the same
form.  The flowers are bluish-purple, about three together  in  axillary
whorls.  The corolla is  about  three  times as long as  the calyx, with  a
variegated throat.   Calyx long, curved,  villous, with  the limb oblique,
and the teeth lanceolate-subulate, the upper being the largest.   Bracts
scarcely so long as the pedicel.  The two  anthers of each pair of stamens
meet with their two divaricate cells,  forming the appearance  of  a  cross.
   History.—This  plant  is indigenous in Europe and the United States,
where  it is found growing  in shady, grassy places, in orchards,  along
fences and  hedges, and  on the sides of moist meadows, flowering in May
and August.   The leaves are the parts used, and yield their virtues, by
infusion, to boiling water.  They have a disagreeable odor, and a rough,
bitterish, somewhat aromatic taste.  It is also called Gill-over-tke-ground.
   Properties  and Uses.—Ground Ivy is  stimulant, tonic, and pectoral,
and  has been  recommended in diseases  of the lungs,  and  kidneys,
asthma, jaundice, hypochondria, and monomania.  An infusion of the
leaves is highly recommended in lead colic, and it is stated that painters
who  make  use of it often are never  troubled with that affection.  The
fresh juice snuffed up the nose, is said to cure the most inveterate  head-
ache.   Dose of the powdered leaves, from half a drachm to a drachm ;
of the infusion one or two fluidounces.
                    NICOTIANA TABACUM.
                             Tobacco.
       Nat. Ord.—Solanaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia,
                           THE  LEAVES.
  Description.—Tobacco  is an annual  plant, with  a  large fibrous root,
and an  erect,  round, hairy, viscid stem branched  toward the top, and 
660
Materia  Medica.
 from three to  five feet in hight.   The  leaves are numerous, alternate,
 sessile, large, ovate or lanceolate, acuminate, entire, viscid,  pubescent,
 and of a  pale-green color.   The lower cauline leaves are somewhat
 decurrent, often two feet  long, and four inches broad, and  diminish in
 size as they approach the top.   The flowers are rose-colored,  and dis-
 posed in loose terminal panicles, upon long footstalks, and are furnished
 with  long,  linear,  acute bracts at the divisions of the peduncle.  The
 calyx is urceolate,  hairy, somewhat viscid, half as long  as the corolla,
 and divided at its  summit  into  five acute  segments.   The corolla is
 funnel-shaped, monopetalous, viscid, of a pale-greenish color  externally,
 swelling above into  an oblong cup, which expands into five  pointed,
 plaited, rose-colored  segments.   The stamens are as  long as the corolla,
 inclining to one side,  and supporting oblong,  compressed  anthers.   The
 ovary is ovate, and bears a long, slender style, terminated by a roundish,
 bilobate stigma.  The fruit is an  ovate, two-valved,  two-celled capsule,
 invested with the  calyx, opening  crosswise at top, loculicidal, and con-
 taining numerous, small, reniform seeds, attached to  a fleshy  receptacle.
   History.—This plant is  a native of the warm parts of America, and
 was unknown  to Europeans  before the discovery of this country.  At
 present it is  cultivated in most parts of the world, and especially in the
 Middle States of this country.  Havanna tobacco is most esteemed by
 the smoker, but the Virginian  is  the strongest, and in most common
 use.  It flowers in July.   In  cultivating tobacco, the young shoots, pro-
 duced from seeds thickly  sown in beds, are transplanted into the fields
 during the month of  May, and  set in rows with an  interval of three or
 four feet  between  the plants.   The  crop  requires  constant attention
 through the whole period of its  growth.  The development of the leaves
 is  promoted by removing  the top of each plant, and  thus preventing it
 from  running into flower  and seed.  The  harvest is in August.   The
 ripe plants having been cut off above their roots, are dried under cover,
 then stripped of their leaves,  which are tied in bundles, and packed into
 hogsheads.   There are several varieties of this species, but they do not
 differ materially in properties.  Soil and mode of cultivation, affects the
 quality of tobacco.
   As found  in commerce, tobacco is  of various shades of color, most
 commonly dark yellowish-brown, of a  strong, peculiar, heavy, narcotic
 odor, and a strong, bitter, nauseous taste, followed by a very unpleasant,
 acrid sensation in the throat.   The darker the color  of the tobacco, the
 stronger is the  tobacco, and the greater its  action on the system.  Its
 properties are imparted to  boiling water or  alcohol.  Long boiling ren-
 ders it feeble or inert.  Many chemists have  analyzed it, and with vari-
 ous results.  Posselt and Reimann, found ten thousand parts of the fresh
leaves to contain 1172 of solid matter; of which 287 are bitter extrac-
tive, 174 gum  mixed with a little malate of lime,  27  green-resin, 26
 albumen,  105 amylaceous  gluten,  133 organic  and inorganic salts, 497 
NlCOTIANA TABACUM.
661
ligneous fiber, 6 a peculiar, oily-like  alkaloid called Nicotina, and 1 a
camphoraceous  volatile  oil  termed Nicotianin.   According  to  M. E.
Goupet, tobacco also contains a little citric acid.
   Nicotia or Nicotina exists in tobacco  combined with an acid in excess,
and in this state is not volatile.  That  obtained by Vauquelin, and Pos-
selt and Reimann was not  in a state of purity; it was reserved for MM.
Henry and Boutron to prepare the pure alkaloid by the following pro-
cess : Five hundred parts of smoking tobacco were exposed to distillation
in connection with about six thousand parts of water, and two hundred
parts  of caustic soda;  the  heat applied being at first very moderate, and
afterward increased to the  boiling point.   The product of the distillation
was received in a vessel containing about thirty or forty parts of sulphuric
acid,  diluted with three times its weight of water; and  the process was
continued till nearly one-half of  the liquid had  come over.   The  pro-
duct, in which care was taken to  preserve  a  slight excess of acid, was
evaporated to about one hundred parts, and was then  allowed to cool.
A slight deposit which had  formed was  separated by filtration, an  ex-
cess of  caustic soda was added, and the liquid again  distilled.  A color-
less, xerj volatile acrid liquid now came over, which, being concentrated
under the receiver of an air-pump, lost the ammonia which accompanied
it, and assumed a syrupy  consistence, and  more or  less of the color of
amber.   In this liquid, after a  few days, minute crystalline plates of
pure nicotia formed, but in consequence of their great affinity for mois-
ture,  it  was difficult to isolate them.
   As usually obtained Nicotia is  in the form of  an oleaginous, transpa-
rent, colorless, tolerably fluid, anhydrous liquid, of the density of 1.048,
becoming slightly yellow with keeping, and tending to become  brown
and thick from contact with the  air, from which it absorbs oxygen; it
remains liquid at 22° F., and volatilizes at 77°, leaving  a carbonaceous
residue.  When cold it  has but  little odor; its taste is exceedingly
acrid-burning,  even when  largely diluted.   The  vapor which rises from
its volatilization,  presents such a powerful  smell of  tobacco, and  is so
irritating, that it is difficult to breathe  in a room  in which one drop  of it
has been spilt; if this vapor be approached with  a lighted taper, it burns
with a white smoky flame, and leaves a carbonaceous residue.   It strongly
blues  reddened  litmus paper; and is soluble in water, alcohol, oil  of tur-
pentine  and  fat  oils, also in ether, which easily separates it from an
aqueous solution.  It  combines directly with acids, disengaging heat, and
forming difficultly crystallizable salts, of a deliquescent character, having
an acrid-burning taste, and losing a portion  of their base by heat;  the
double salts which it yields with  the different metallic oxides crystallize
better.   Heated with stearic acid it dissolves and forms  a soap, which
congeals on cooling, and is slightly soluble in water, and very soluble in
heated  ether.  It contains a larger  proportion of nitrogen  than most
other organic alkalies; its  formula being N2 C20 Hit, and  its combining 
662
Materia  Medica.
 number 162.  It is the active constituent of tobacco, and is a most viru-
 lent poison.  One  drop of its  concentrated  solution is  sufficient to kill
 a dog ; and small birds perished at the approach of a tube containing it.
 It exists in various proportions in different tobaccos, varying from 3.8 to
 11.28 parts in 1000.  Smokers in respiring the smoke of tobacco intro-
 duce into  their bodies a  certain quantity of the vapor  of nicotia; and
 the empyreumatic  oil of tobacco, formed  in  the  pipe  of the smoker, is
 an active  poison, and consists of nicotia attached to a true volatile oil.
 Tannic acid forms  with nicotia  a compound  of but slight solubility, and
 might be employed as an antidote to it.
   Nicotianin, discovered  by  Hermstadt, may be obtained  by distilling
 six pounds of fresh tobacco leaves with twelve pounds of water, till one-
 half of the liquid passes over, then add six  pounds more of water, and
 again distil, and repeat this  process three times.   The nicotianin will
 float on the surface of the water, amounting  to about eleven grains.  It
 is a white, fatty, crystalline substance, with the odor of  tobacco, and its
 bitterish, warm taste, without its acridity.   It is volatilizable  by heat,
 insoluble in water,  soluble in  alcohol or ether, not affected by the dilute
 acids, but  dissolved by solution of potassa.   When applied to  the nos-
 trils it occasions sneezing,  and a grain of it  swallowed produces  giddi-
 ness and nausea. *
   The empyreumatic oil of tobacco is also a virulent poison, it is of a dark-
 brown color, with  a peculiar odor  and an acrid taste, and may be ob-
 tained from the pipe of a smoker, or by distillation of tobacco by  a heat
 above 212°.  One drop killed a cat, and two drops a dog, in about five
 minutes, each, being injected into the rectum.
   Properties and Uses.—Tobacco is  a potent  acro-narcotic poison.  The
 infusion is more apt to affect the heart, and its  smoke to act on the brain—
 the former being followed by great feebleness of  the pulse,  fluttering of
 the heart, faintness, alarm, etc., while the latter  occasions  nausea and
 vomiting followed  by drowsiness.   Medicinally it is a sedative, emetic,
 diuretic, expectorant, discutient, antispasmodic, errhine,  and sialagogue.
 Seldom used internally, except in cases where from extreme insensibility
 of the stomach, ordinary emetics will not operate.  The  smoke injected
 into the rectum, or the leaf itself in the shape of a suppository, and in-
troduced into the  rectum, has  been  beneficial in  strangulated hernia,
 obstinate constipation from spasm of the bowels, in  retention  of  urine
 from  spasmodic urethral stricture,  hysteric convulsions, worms, and in
 spasms caused by  lead ; likewise in croup, asthma, and  in inflammation
 of peritoneum to produce evacuations of the bowels, moderating reaction,
 and  dispelling tympanitis.   To use  the  infusion  of  smoke, blow the
 smoke into milk or water and inject.
   In croup and spasm of the rima  glottidis a plaster made  of Scotch
snuff and lard,  and applied to the  throat  and  breast, has  proved very 
x       Nymph^ea  Odorata.
663
effectual; or a cataplasm of the leaves may be employed.  An ointment
of tobacco has been  found valuable in several forms of cutaneous dis-
ease.   The leaves, in combination with belladonna or stramonium leaves,
will be found  an  excellent application to old, obstinate ulcers, painful
tumors, and for spasmodic affections.  Almost a certain cure for piles, is
the application of a wet leaf to the parts, and maintained there for three
or four hours.  The  inspissated juice has cured facial  neuralgia, being
rubbed along the track of the affected nerve.   In using tobacco at all,
great caution should  always be observed, and if it produce great depres-
sion, or too lasting a sedative effect,  stimulants, as ammonia or brandy,
should be administered.   The  quantity for an injection ought not to
exceed a scruple at first;  if this  fails, cautiously increase it, for  even
half  a drachm has often proved fatal; if the injection do not come away
in five minutes, it should be assisted by  throwing up  a large quantity of
warm water.  Tobacco ought never  to be  used internally, as  we have
other agents, much safer and fully as  effectual, to meet every indication
desired.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Tabaci; Oleum Tabaci; Unguentum Tabaci.
                     NYMPHS A  ODORATA.
                         White Pond  Lily.
       Nat.  Ord.—Nymphaaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Polyandria  Monogynia.
                             THE ROOT.
   Description.—White  Pond  Lily has a blackish,  large, fleshy, peren-
nial root, or rhizoma, growing in mud where  the water is from  three  to
ten feet in depth, and is often as thick as a man's arm, sending up leaves
and flowers  to  the surface.   The petioles are  long, somewhat semicir-
cular,  and  perforated throughout by  long tubes or air-vessels which
serve to float them.  The leaves are floating, orbicular, sometimes almost
kidney-shaped, peltate, cordate-cleft at the base quite to the  insertion
of the petiole, the  lobes  on  each side prolonged into an acute point,
entire, reddish with prominent veins beneath, dark shining-green above,
and five or six inches in diameter.  The flowers are large, Avhite or rose-
colored, and fragrant.  The  sepals are  four, lanceolate, green without
and white within.   The petals are numerous, lanceolate, from an inch
to two and a half inches long, of the most delicate texture, white, some-
times tinged with purple on the outside.  Stamens numerous, yellow,  in
several  rows; fllaments dilated  gradually from the inner to the outer
series so as to pass  insensibly  into petals-  Anthers in  two longitudinal
cells growing to the filaments, and opening inwardly.  Stigma with from
twelve to twenty-four rays, very  much resembling  abortive anthers,  at
first incurved, afterward spreading.  The pericarp  is berry-like, many-
celled, many-seeded. 
664
Materia Medica.        j-
  History.—This plant grows  in ponds, marshes, and sluggish streams
in most parts of the United States, flowering from June to  September;
the flowers  shut at night and open about sunrise ;  and the seeds ripen
under water.  The root is the officinal part, and becomes light, spongy
and friable on drying.   It has an astringent and bitter taste, and readily
imparts its  virtues to water.   It  is  said to contain much tannin and
gallic acid,  with starch, mucilage, resin, sugar, ammonia,  ulmine, tar-
taric acid, fecula, etc.   The root should be  collected in the  fall, freed
from dirt, cut into slices and carefully dried.
  Properties and Uses.—The root is astringent, demulcent, anodyne and
anti-scrofulous.   Used  in  dysentery, diarrhea, gonorrhea,  leucorrhea,
and  scrofula,  and combined with  wild  cherry in bronchial affections.
Externally,  the  leaves and roots  have been used in form of poultice to
boils, tumors, scrofulous ulcers, and inflamed skin.  In infusion, used
as a gargle  in ulcers of mouth and throat, and as an injection in leucor-
rhea.  I recollect a lady, who, several years since,  was pronounced by
several physicians to  have uterine cancer, and which resisted all their
treatment;  she  was permanently  cured  by  a  squaw who gave  her to
drink freely of  the decoction of a root, as well as to  inject it  in the
vagina, which proved to be that of the White Pond  Lily.  The dose of
the powdered root is half a drachm in milk or sweetened water;  but its
best form of administration is the infusion made by macerating for thirty
minutes, one ounce of the  coarsely-powdered  root  in a pint of  boiling
water, of which from  two to four fluidounces may be given three  or four
times a day.
  The Yellow  Pond  Lily,  Nuphar  Advena,  called also  Spatterdock,
Frog-lily, etc., possesses similar properties, and may be used as  a sub-
stitute.   It  has a large and extensively creeping  rhizoma, with large
erect leaves, or floating on  half-cylindrical petioles, oval,  rounded  at
apex, with rounded, diverging lobes at base, dark shining-green above,
and when floating, pale and slimy beneath.  The flowers are rather large,
globular, erect,  yellow, on a thick,  rigid  stalk.  Sepals six, the three
outer yellow inside, the three inner entirely yellow.  Petals  numerous,
small, yellow,  furrowed externally,  and inserted with  the  stamens on
the torus.   Stamens  numerous, truncated, linear.    Stigma, sessile, dis-
coid, with  prominent rays.   Fruit  an  ovoid, naked pericarp, many-
celled, and  many-seeded.  It is a very common plant in ponds, ditches,
muddy lakes, and mostly in shallow  water.
   Off.  Prep.—Cataplasma Nympha ; Infusum Nympha. 
CEnanthe Phellandrium.
665
   GENANTHE PHELLANDRIUM.   (Phellandrium ^quaticum.)

                         Water Fennel.

          Nat. Ord.—Apiaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.

                            the seeds.
  Description.—This plant, also known by the names of Water-Dropwort,
Fine-leaved Water-hemlock, is a biennial or perennial, umbelliferous herb,
having a  thick,  spindle-shaped root, with  many whorled fibers.  The
stem is hollow, furrowed, half immersed in  the water, very bushy, with
numerous spreading, leafy branches, and from two to four feet in hight.
The leaves are petioled, spreading, repeatedly pinnate, cut, with innume-
rable  fine, expanded, dark-green, shining, acute segments.   The umbels
are opposite to the leaves, on shortish stalks,  about  five-rayed, without
any general bracts.   Partial umbels  are very dense,  of numerous short
rays,  accompanied by many narrow, taper-pointed bracts.  The flowers
are white, numerous, all fertile, the  outer ones largest and most irregu-
lar ; the innermost more certainly prolific.  Styles long, filiform, spread-
ing, capitate.  Fruit ovate, rather compressed, purplish, smooth, oblong,
croAvned with the minute spreading calyx, and rather short,  permanent,
slightly-spreading styles ; the dorsal ridges distinct,  but  little  elevated.
the lateral ones much broader and thicker; all confluent below the
calyx. Pedicels shorter than the fruit.
  History.—This plant is common to Europe, growing in ditches and wet
places, and its leaves are said to be  injurious to cattle, producing a kind
of paralysis when eaten.  It is poisonous but not so  dangerously as the
OSnanthe  Crocata,  Dead-tongue, or   Hemlock-dropwort, which is consi-
dered the most energetic poison of the narcotico-acrid Apiacea.  By
drying, they lose much of their deleterious properties.   The  03. Phel-
landrium is occasionally found in this country.   The seeds are the parts
used ; they are from a line to a line  and a half in length, ovate-oblong,
or elliptical, yellowish-green, slightly curved, flat on one side  and gib-
bous  on the other, marked with ten delicate ribs, and crowned with the
remains of the calyx, and with the erect or reverted  styles.  They have
a peculiar, strong odor, somewhat   resembling  angelica, and  an acrid,
aromatic taste, owing to a volatile oil, which they contain in abundance.
The poisonous principle of this plant has been discovered by M. Hulet,
an apothecary at Lyons.  He names it Phellandrine, and procures it from
the seeds, which contain an average of two or three  per cent, of it.
Seven and a half grains of it, injected into the veins of a dog produced,
in a few  moments, a difficulty of respiration, nervous tremblings, and
anxiety, lasting  some hours ;  he  recovered, however.   Two birds  into
whose beaks the same dose was introduced,  died in fifteen or twenty
minutes.   We are not informed of its method of preparation. 
666
Materia Medica.
  Properties and  Uses.—Water Fennel is  a mild  narcotic stimulant,
expectorant, alterative, and diuretic.   In overdoses it produces vertigo,
intoxication, and  dull pains in the head.  The seeds have  been most
successfully used in chronic bronchitis, asthma, chronic catarrh, hemop-
tysis, dyspepsia,  and  obstinate ulcers.  They are given  in powder,
commencing Avith five or six grains, and so  repeated as  to amount to a
drachm in twenty-four hours.   The formula  recommended by Dr. Lob-
stein, who  had considerable success  Avith the  remedy, in many of the
above  named diseases, is:  take of powdered water fennel seed, two
drachms, lactin, powdered gum arabic, of each, four drachms.    Mix,
and  divide into twenty-four powders.  Dose, one powder every two or
three hours.
                     GENOTHERA BIENNIS.
                           Tree Primrose.
        Nat.  Ord.—Onagraceae.   Sex. Syst.—Octandria Monogynia.
                        THE BARK AND  TWIGS.
  Description.—This is an  indigenous, biennial plant, with  an erect,
rough, hairy, and branching stem, from three to five  feet high.  The
leaves are ovate-lanceolate, alternate, acute,  obscurely toothed, roughly
pubescent, from three to six inches long by half an inch to an inch and
a half broad, those on the stem sessile, and the radicals tapering into a
petiole.  The flowers are numerous, pale-yellow, sessile, odorous, and
are disposed  in  a terminal, somewhat leafy  spike ; they are nocturnal,
open but once by night, and continue only  a single day.  The calyx tube
is two or three times longer than the ovary, deciduous, four lobes, reflexed.
The petals are four, equal, obcordate, or obovate, inserted into the top
of the tube.   Stamens eight, obliquely declined, a little shorter than the
petals.   Anthers mostly linear.   Ovary sessile, four-grooved.  Capsule
oblong, somewhat tapering above, four-celled, four-valved, valves one-
ribbed.  Seeds numerous, naked, arranged in two rows in each cell.
  History.—Tree-Primrose is very common in this country, growing in
fields and waste places, and along fences,  from Canada  to  Carolina;  it
bears fine yellow flowers in July and  August.  It is  exceedingly vari-
able, and has been divided into  numerous  species.  When  it grows in
secluded situations,  the leaves become covered with a white  mucor,
giving them  a highly  pubescent appearance; and by cultivation the
flowers become  of a  much deeper color,  and  of a  larger  size.  They
expand in the evening, just as twilight begins, and continue open till the
sun  begins   to   exert some power on  the  succeeding morning;  the
same flower does not expand a second  time.   Pursh states that he has
" frequently  observed a singularity in this  plant, and it might be inter-
esting to make further inquiry into its cause; it is that in a dark night,
when no objects can be distinguished at an inconsiderable distance, this 
Olea.
667
plant, when in full flower, can be seen at a great distance, having a
bright white appearance, Avhich probably may arise from some phos-
phoric properties of the flowers."   The bark, leaves, and twigs  are the
parts used ; when recent they are  mucilaginous, and when chewed, are
followed by a sensation of acridity, which is partially lost by drying.
  Properties and Uses.—A strong decoction has been very beneficial in
obstinate infantile eruptions, tetter, and some other cutaneous  affections.
Probably an ointment  made  by boiling  the  twigs, leaves and bark, in
lard  or tallow,  would answer a similar purpose.  They must be gathered
about the flowering season.  In  fomentation, or when  recent, bruised,
they form an excellent emollient in ulcers.
                              OLEA.
                                Oils.
   Oils may be liquid or solid; they are characterized by an unctuous
feel, by  their inflammability,  and  insolubility in water, and by their
property of leaving a greasy stain upon paper.   They are divided  into
two classes, the fixed and volatile or essential oils.
   Olea Fixa, fixed or expressed oils, are usually obtained by submitting
the seeds or other bodies containing them, to powerful pressure, after
having bruised and gently heated them, in order  that  the  oil may  flow
more  freely.  Sometimes the  articles  are boiled in water, and the oil
removed as it comes  to  the  surface.   Fixed oils  vary in consistence
from that of tallow to perfect fluidity;  they are somewhat viscid, trans-
parent,  and mostly of  a yellowish  color,  which  may be removed by
animal charcoal; they are most commonly fluid at ordinary temperatures,
and are not volatilizable without decomposition.   Their density is  less
than that  of water, ranging from  0.913 to 0.936,  and their point of
concretion varies  considerably.  Pure  fixed oils  are  nearly  inodorous
and tasteless.  Heated to 600°, ebullition ensues, and  a  vapor is given
off, which when condensed presents oleic and  margaric acids in large
proportion, beside  benzoic acid, another volatile acid, and an empyreum-
atic oil.  If placed in close vessels, and exposed to red heat, they7 yield
among other products, a quantity of the combustible compounds of  car-
bon and hydrogen. In the open  air, exposed  to  heat,  they burn with a
bright flame, producing water and carbonic acid.   They absorb  oxygen
and gradually  become solid on exposure to the  air.   Those which are
thus converted into a  transparent, yellowish, flexible solid, without  any
unctuous feel,  are  called Drying oils.   Those which contain mucilage or
acid, become rancid, with an unpleasant smell and sharp taste; in those
where there is a tendency to  the formation  of  an  acid, this change may
be prevented by boiling them for a short time with hydrate of magnesia
and water.  The  fixed  oils  are insoluble in water, but  may be mixed
with it by means  of mucilage, forming  emulsions; generally sparingly 
668
Materia  Medica.
soluble in alcohol, but readily so by ether, which may be used to sepa-
rate  them  from other vegetable  proximate principles.  Aided by heat
they dissolve sulphur and phosphorus.  They  convert  chlorine  and
iodine  into  muriatic  and hydriodic acids, which, reacting upon  them,
render them more and more consistent, until they acquire the firmness
of wax.   They are decomposed by the stronger acids, furnishing, among
other products, oleic  and margaric acids.   When  boiled with nitric acid,
they furnish malic and  oxalic  acids.   By combination with salifiable
bases,  they are resolved into glycerin, which remains free, and into oleic
and margaric acids which combine with  the  base.  The compounds  of
these acids with potassa and soda are called  soaps.   Many of the vege-
table alkalies, resins,  volatile oils, and  other proximate principles of plants
are dissolved by the fixed oils.   They consist of two distinct substances,
the  one a  fluid, called Olein, and  the other  a solid, called Maryarin.
Boiling alcohol takes up  fixed oil, and on cooling deposits the concrete
principle, and the olein may be had by evaporation.   Or the olein may
be had from congealed oil or fat, by pressing it between folds of bibulous
paper, which absorbs the olein, and leaves the solid principle untouched.
Margarin differs from Stearin by  yielding margaric acid, while the latter
furnishes stearic acid.   They may be distinguished from each other  by
the  greater fusibility of margarin, and by its solubility in cold ether;
and the two principles may be  separated  by boiling  ether,  which dis-
solves both, but deposits  the stearin on  cooling,  and after filtration,
yields the margarin  by evaporation.   Nitric acid converts olein  into a
deep-yellow butyraceous mass, which when treated with warm alcohol,
yields to it in solution  a deep  orange-red oil, leaving  a  peculiar fatty
matter  behind, called Elaidin.   It is white, fusible at 97°, insoluble in
water, sparingly7 soluble in alcohol,  readily soluble  in ether, and con-
verted, in the process of saponification by alkalies, into a peculiar acid,
termed Eldidic acid,  and into  glycerin.   MM.  Pelouze and Boudet, con-
sider margarin and stearin to be  always identical  from whatever  source
they may be derived, when in a state of purity.  The variable fusibility
of these principles is owing to the existence of definite combinations of
them respectively  with olein.   They also  state that there are two dis-
tinct kinds of olein,  one existing in the drying oils, and the other in oils
which are not drying.   One remains liquid under nitrous  acid, Avhile
the  other forms elaidin,  with it;  the  former contains much less hydro-
gen than the latter.   The  oleic acid  prepared from them, likewise  dif-
 fers as with the  one  nitrous acid converts it  into ela'idic acid, but not
 with the  other.   Olein,  margarin, stearin, elaidin,  etc., are  at present
 supposed to be compounds of oleic, margaric,  stearic, elaidic, etc., acids,
 with glycerin; and in the process of saponification, the alkali takes the
 oily acid, and sets the glycerin  free.  The ultimate constituents  of the
 fixed  oils are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen; the  hydrogen being  in
 much larger proportion than is necessary to form water with the oxygen, 
                               Olea.                            6(59

Those which contain the most carbon and least oxygen are least fusible;
and their solubility in alcohol is said  to depend upon  their  amount  of
oxygen, those with the greatest proportion of it, being the most soluble.
It is said that some of them  contain a very minute proportion of nitro-
gen, but this is, probably, an error in analysis, the nitrogen depending
upon a minute quantity of albuminous matter in the oil,  or, perhaps the
absorption of a minute quantity of azote from the atmosphere.
   Olea Volalilia, volatile or essential oils, are  found in  all  odoriferous
plants, in one or several parts of them, or in  the  Avhole  plant, and  are
usually  obtained by distillation, with a few exceptions, as with  the rind
of the  lemon  or  orange, where  the oil is in  distinct  cellules,  and is
obtained by expression.  Some  oils, as  those  of mustard, or  bitter
almonds do  not exist ready formed in the  plant, but are produced during
distillation by chemical reactions and influences.  Volatile  oils  are  of
various colors, red, green, blue, or brown, sometimes colorless, but more
commonly yellowish.   Their odor is similar to that of the plants furnish-
ing  them, but  stronger and less agreeable; and their  taste is hot and
pungent, being more grateful  Avhen they are  diluted.   They vary in
density from 0.847 to 1.17.   At ordinary  temperatures they partially
rise  in vapor, diffusing their  peculiar odor, and on the application  of
heat they become entirely volatilized.  Their boiling point varies, though
most of them rise readily with  the vapor of boiling water; when dis-
tilled alone,  they  almost always undergo decomposition.   Their point of
concretion also varies, some becoming solid at ordinary temperatures,
several at 32° F., and many remain liquid even  below this degree  of
temperature.  They burn with a bright flame with much smoke ; and
exposed to the atmosphere, they absorb oxygen, become  darker colored,
thicker, less fragrant, and finally become converted into resin; under the
influence of light this change takes place  rapidly.   Previous to a com-
plete change, the remaining oil may be recovered by distillation.  Instead
of resin, some of them form acids by combination with oxygen.   Dr. J.
L. Plummer has  found many of the essential  oils to possess bleaching
or decolorizing properties ; Avhether this is actually the  case is  not yet
satisfactorily ascertained, as it is probable  that the bleaching power Avas
due  to  some principles produced by  the influence of light and  air.
Faraday has stated that "essential oils are thickened by long  exposure
to light and  air; they become ozonized, and their properties changed."
The volatile oils  are  slightly soluble in Avater, rendering it  milky upon
agitation, but separating on  standing, leaving  the water clear and  im-
pregnated with their odor and taste; this impregnation is more complete
when water is distilled with the oils, or from the plants containing them.
When trimrated with magnesia or its carbonate, they are  more readily
soluble in Avater; sugar also increases their solubility.  Alcohol readily
dissolves the greater part of them,  as well as ether ;  the more oxygen
they contain the more  easily soluble  are  they.  They dissolve  sulphur 
670
Materia  Medica.
and phosphorus with  the aid of heat, but  deposit  them on  coolinw.
Brown, unctuous, fetid substances called Balsams of Sulp>hur, are made
by boiling them for a long time with sulphur.   Chlorine or iodine con-
verts them  into resin, and  then combines with the resin.  They unite
with several vegetable acids, but are decomposed by the strong mineral.
Caustic alkali converts them into resin, which unites with the alkali and
forms  soap.   Several  metallic  oxides,  and various salts  which  easily
part with  oxygen, convert them  into  resin.  They dissolve fixed oils,
fats, resins, camphor, and several of the vegetable alkalies.
   The volatile oils consist of two  distinct principles, Stearoptene or a
solid matter, and Elcoptene or a fluid.   These  principles congeal at diffe-
rent temperatures, and  may  be separated by pressing the  oil,  when
frozen, between  folds  of  bibulous  paper,  the  stearoptene  remains
between the folds, while the eleoptene  is absorbed by the paper, and
may be obtained from it by distillation Avith water.  Stearoptene is often
deposited by  volatile  oils upon standing, in a solid  crystalline  form;
sometimes these deposits are oxides, and when formed under  the  influ-
ence  of water,  are frequently hydrates of the respective oils.   The
ultimate constituents of  the volatile oils are  usually carbon, hydrogen,
and oxygen ;  some of them contain  nitrogen, and the oils of horseradish
and mustard  contain sulphur.  Volatile oils  leave a greasy stain upon
paper, which  disappears  by heat; this  is  not the  case with fixed oils,
and they should always be preserved in small, well-stopped bottles, and
excluded  from the light.
   Volatile oils are  frequently adulterated with fixed oils, resinous sub-
stances, and alcohol.   Fixed oils may be known by their leaving a per-
manent greasy stain upon paper, while that produced by the volatile oil
disappears entirely when exposed to heat.   When the adulterated oil is
distilled with Avater, both resin and fixed  oil  remain behind.  Alcohol
may be detected by the milkiness of  the oil when agitated with water,
and, after  the liquids have  separated, the water  occupies more  space
and the oil less than before.  Various methods have been recommended
to detect the presence of alcohol with essential  oil.  M. Beral puts twelve
drops of the suspected oil in a perfectly dry watch-glass, and  then adds
a piece of potassium about as large  as the  head of a pin.   If the potas-
sium remain for twelve or  fifteen minutes in the  midst of the  liquid,
there is either no alcohol present, or less than four per cent.; if it dis-
appear  in  five minutes,  the oil contains more than four per cent, of
alcohol; if in less  than  a minute, twenty-five per cent, or more.  M.
Borsarelli introduces small pieces  of chloride of calcium, well dried and
perfectly free  from powder, into a  small cylindrical tube, closed at one
end, and  about two-thirds  filled with the oil to be  examined, and heats
the tube  to 212°,  occasionally shaking it.  If there be a considerable
proportion of alcohol, the chloride  is entirely dissolved, forming a solu-
tion which sinks to the bottom of the tube; if only a very small quantity, 
Olea.                             671
the pieces lose their form, and collect at the bottom in a white adhering
mass;  if none at all,  they remain unchanged.   J. J. Bernoulli adds dry
acetate of potassa to  the  oil; if alcohol be present the salt is dissolved,
forming a solution from which the volatile oil separates.  If the oil be
free from alcohol, the salt remains dry therein.  Wittstein, who speaks
highly of this test, has suggested the following  mode of applying it as
the best:  In a dry test-tube, about half  an inch in diameter, and five or
six inches long, put not more than eight grains of powdered dry acetate
of potassa;  then  fill  the  tube two-thirds full with  the volatile  oil to be
examined.   The  contents of the  tube must be well stirred with a glass
rod, taking care not to allow the salt to rise above the oil; afterward set
aside for a short time.  If the  salt be found at the bottom of  the tube
dry, it is  evident that the oil contains no spirit.  Oftentimes, instead of
the dry salt, beneath the oil is found a clear  syrupy fluid, which is a
solution of the salt in  the  alcohol, with which the oil was mixed.   When
the oil contains only a little alcohol, a small portion of the solid salt will
be  found under  the  syrupy solution.   Many oils  frequently contain a
trace of water,  which  does not  materially interfere  with this test,
because,  although the acetate of potassa becomes moist thereby, it still
retains its pulverulent form.   A. Oberdofl'er  places from two to four
drachms  of the suspected  oil in a flat glass plate, in the middle of which
is placed a small glass  stand (the inverted neck of a six-ounce bottle is very
suitable for this purpose)  on which a watch-glass, Avith five to ten grains
of platinum-black, is supported, and the whole covered with a glass bell
open at the top.   After a strip of moistened litmus paper has been laid
over the vessel   containing  the platinum-black, the operator observes
the reaction.  In  the course of  a few  minutes, oil containing  alcohol,
begins to redden the litmus paper, which, in the space of a quarter or
half an hour, is completely accomplished; upon which, the  eliminated
vapor of  acetic acid is deposited on the  interior of  the glass  bell if the
alcohol Avas  present in sufficient quantity, and can be recognized dis-
tinctly by its odor.  To remove all doubt, he washes the platinum-black,
after an hour has elapsed, with a little water, filters, saturates the filtrate
carefully with potassa, and adds  neutral chloride of iron, by which the
characteristic color of acetate of iron is obtained; and, after boiling, the
fluid becomes decolorized, and the hydrated oxide of iron is precipitated.
From a series of  experiments,  he  concludes that it is  possible, in this
way, to detect the presence of  one to two per cent, of alcohol, and that
with five  per cent, the odor is sufficient, with most oils, to prove the
admixture of alcohol.  How far this method may be interfered with, by
some oils which have very acid reactions, or particularly pungent odors,
experience must teach;  but with  a great number of oils, it has been
found available, even  with oil of bitter almonds.
  It is frequently the case, that volatile oils of small value  are mixed
with the more costly; these may be  detected by their taste, smell, and 
672
Materia Medica.
specific gravity.  Oil of  turpentine, which is a common adulteration,
may be known by remaining in part undissolved, when the oil is treated
with three  or four  times  its volume of alcohol  of the  specific  gravity
0.84.   (For  Volatile  Oils, see Part 111.)
TABLE OP SPECIFIC GRAVITIES OP PIXED AND VOLATILE OILS.
Oils.	Temperat. 1 Specific		Gravity. j| Oils.		Temperat.	Specific (iravity.
Amygdalae....		.917 to .920 i Mentha Piperita				.902 to .920
do Amarae..		1.043	' 1.084	Menthae Viridis.		•914 " .975
			.881			
		.976	" .990	Morrhuae, pure..	72° F	.917 .923
Anthemidis...			.908		63° F.	
			.885	do light-brown	«	.924
		.914	" .927	do dark-brown	«	.929
		.931	' .946			.920 to .948 .915
Caryophylli...		1.034	' 1.061			
Chenopodii.. .			.908			(Kane .867
Cinnamomi...			1.035			^Lewis .940
			.910			(Brande.909
			.929			1.021
			.997			.925 to .978 .964 .832 .911
Gaultheriae ...			1.173 .948 .911		90° F.	
Hedeomae ....						
				Rosmarini, com.		
Lavandulae.c'm	68° F		.898	do rectified..		.888
			.877 .920			.837 .915 1.094
						
whole herb						
Limonis, com.			.851	Succini, rectified.	75° F.	.758
do rectified	71° F.		.847	Terebinthinaa ..	72° F.	.86
			.932	Valerianae......		.934
  The above specific gravities are those usually given, yet they probably
vary, according to circumstances; and unless otherwise named, the tem-
perature of each is about 60° F.
                        OLEUM BUBULUM.
                           Neats-foot  Oil.
     THE OIL PREPAKED  FROM THE BONES  OF THE BOS  DOMESTICUS.
   Preparation.—The feet of the ox, having been deprived of the skin
and hoof, are subjected to a long-continued boiling in water ; the oil and
fat existing in them  being melted, rise to  the surface,  from which they
are removed, and  again placed in fresh water, which is heated to nearly
212°.   After  standing for  some  time, various impurities  settle at the
bottom, and the oil is taken from  the surface.   If further purification is
desired, it  is to be  again  placed into water, and kept for twenty-four
hours at such  a temperature as will permit the fat that remains with the
oil to separate from it.   After the liquid  has cooled, the fat  concretes
into a mass, and the oil remains in the state of a thin fluid, which  is to be
filtered through small pieces of  charcoal, free from powder.
   History.—Neats-foot  Oil,  when purified  properly, is  a yellowish,
inodorous, and bland liquid ; but in general, it retains both a disagreeable 
Oleum  Morrhu^e.
673
 odor and taste.  It congeals with much difficulty, remaining fluid at very
 low temperatures, and is used for greasing machinery in order to lessen
 friction, likewise  by saddlers  and shoemakers,  to  soften and  preserve
 leather, and prevent its cracking.
   Properties and  Uses.—This oil is emollient and relaxant, and may be
 applied with advantage to the breast and throat, in croup or cough, rub-
 bing it on with brisk friction.  It likewise enters into various extempora-
 neous  liniments and  poultices.

                       OLEUM MORRHUJ2.
                           Cod  Liver Oil.
     A FIXED OIL OBTAINED FROM THE LIVER OF GADUS MORRHUA.
   Description.—The Gadus Morrhua of Linnams, and Morrhua vulgaris
 of Storer  and other Naturalists, or the common  Cod-fish, belongs to the
 Class Pisces, Order Jugulares (Linnaeus)—Malacopterygii Subbrachiati,
 and Family Gadidse ; its Generic character  is recognized by the ventrals
 attached under the throat, and attenuated to a point.  The fish is usually
 between two and  three  feet long, with brown  or yellowish spots on its
 back.  The body is moderately  elongated and somewhat compressed,
 and  covered with  soft, rather small scales, of which the head is destitute ;
 of the fins, which are soft, there are three  on the back, two anal, and a
 distinct caudal; and  the fin  under the  throat  is narrow  and  pointed.
 The jaws are furnished with  pointed irregular teeth in several  ranks.
 The gills are large  with  seven rays.  It  inhabits the Northern Atlantic
 Ocean, and is found in abundance on the banks of Newfoundland.
  History.—Cod-liver Oil, as it is generally called in commerce, is obtained
 from several of the species of the Genus Gadus — as the codfish, coal-
 fish, and burbot; and sometimes from the pollock, hake, and haddock.
 The oil is obtained  by several processes ;  one  of which is to heat the
 livers with water, until they are broken  up into a pultaceous mass, and
 then throw them  upon a strainer placed over some vessel into which the
 liquid flows, the  oil rises  to  the  surface,  from which   it is drawn  off,
strained, and prepared  for market.  Another and improved  plan is to
 heat the livers  in a large vessel by  steam  externally applied, and  then
drain the pultaceous mass as in the other process.   The oil is said to be
sometimes procured by expression.   Again, it is obtained by the putre-
factive decomposition of the livers, when placed in quantities  in barrels
or other vessels, the oil rising  to the surface as  it escapes from the dis-
integrating tissue.
  There  are three  varieties of Cod-liver  Oil in commerce : 1st.  The
 White  or Pale-yellow, which is  prepared  from  fresh sweet livers, and
varies in color from the slightest tint of  transparent  yellow to a fine
golden yellow ; 2d.  The Brownish-yellow, obtained  from livers  running
          43 
674
Materia Medica.
gradually to putrefaction, and of a chestnut-brown color;  and 3d. The
Dark-brown,  prepared from livers in an intermediate state, dark-brown,
and somewhat  opake, except in thin layers.   They are generally of the
consistence of sperm oil, and have a  peculiar odor and  taste unlike all
other oils, and  which properties, in  a great  measure, are the best tests
for the genuineness  of the oil.   The smell and taste is similar to that of
shoe-leather, as prepared in this country, and when  a decided  odor of
ordinary fish oil is present,  we may suspect  its purity.  All the varieties
have  an acrid taste, together with a somewhat empyreumatic bitterness
in the most impure.   The specific gravity at 72°  F. varies from 0.915 to
0.9195;  at 63° F.,  the specific gravity of  the pale variety is stated as
0.923 ;  of the  light-brown 0.924, and of the dark-brown 0.929.
  According to analysis, numerous principles have  been found in Cod-
liver  Oil, as  gaduin, oleic and margaric acids, butyric and acetic acids;
various biliary principles, as fellinic, cholic, and bilifellinic acids, and
bilifulvin ; a peculiar substance soluble in alcohol; a peculiar substance
insoluble  in water, alcohol, or ether ;  iodine, chlorine, and traces of bro-
mine ;  phosphoric  and sulphuric  acids, phosphorus, lime,  magnesia,
soda, and iron.  Dr. Winckler  has shown that a distinguishing feature
of cod-liver oil, consists in its  having no glycerin, but  in its place, the
hydrated oxide  of propyl.
   Gaduin may be obtained by  saponifying the oil with soda, decompos-
ing the soap  by acetate of lead, and treating the resulting lead soap with
ether, which dissolves the oleate of lead and gaduin, leaving the marga-
rate  of lead behind.   The ethereal solution,  which is dark-brown, is
decomposed  by  sulphuric  acid, which liberates  the brown oleic acid.
This  owes its color to gaduin, to separate which soda is added in excess;
the resulting oleate of soda, which is  insoluble in an excess of the  alkali,
is dissolved in  alcohol ;  and the alcoholic solution is cooled below 32°,
by which means the oleate  of soda is separated, the gaduin remaining in
solution.  This is precipitated from its solution by the addition of sulphu-
ric  acid.   Gaduin  is a  dark-brown  substance, brittle and  pulverizable
when dry, without odor or  taste, insoluble in water, and soluble to some
extent in  alcohol or ether.  It  is insoluble in  nitric  and muriatic  acids,
but is dissolved by  sulphuric acid, giving a  blood-red color to  the solu-
tion,  from which it  is precipitated  by water and  the  alkalies.  Alkaline
solutions  dissolve it;  chlorine  decolorizes  it.  It is gradually changed
into a blackish-brown insoluble  substance, by boiling in alcohol.  Its for-
mula is G>5 Hy; Oo.  It is not supposed to be connected with any of the
virtues of the oil.   The virtues of Cod-liver Oil have been supposed by
many to be owing to its bromine  and iodine, but these exist in  it  in too
small proportion for much effect.   The usual tests cannot detect the pre-
sence of the  iodine ; the oil must be first saponified,  and this carbonized
before the iodine can be detected.  The oil, although capable of dissolving 
Oleum Morrhu^e.
675
a laro-er proportion  of iodine,  never contains  over one  part of it in
2000;  and if any specimen contains more, it is, probably, fraudulently
added.
  Cod-liver Oil is liable to adulteration with other fixed  oils ; for the
detection of this there are no perfectly reliable tests.  The best, are the
peculiar shoe-leather smell and taste ; and  if a strong lamp-oil odor is
perceptible, the oil is impure.  The color of the oil is of but little import-
ance, though the pale  or  light-brown variety is generally  esteemed the
most.   A drop of concentrated  sulphuric acid added to a small portion
of fresh cod-liver oil, causes a fine violet color, soon passing into yellow-
ish  or brownish-red; sometimes it  immediately becomes a clear red, or
dark-brownish  red, without assuming the violet  hue, and  which is  said
to occur with oil prepared by boiling the livers with  water.   Concen-
trated nitric acid agitated with the  oil, produces instantly a pinkish color
which soon becomes brown.
   Dr. Jongh  states that a few drops of concentrated sulphuric acid,
change olive oil to  a dirty gray color;  oil  of poppies to  a deep-yellow
inclining to brown ; and  ordinary fish oil to a  deep-brown  color; but
when added, drop by drop, to cod-liver oil, a peculiar centrifugal  move-
ment is produced from the spot at which  the drops fall, and at the same
time a  beautiful violet tint, which is instantly changed into purple by
agitating the oil.  This change  of color is not owing to the presence  of
iodine,  for other fish-oils which  contain iodine do not manifest a  similar
change, but, as he believes, to the presence  of a biliary principle called
Cholinic Acid.   This method, however, although it will distinguish the
cod-liver from  every other oil,  will not answer to distinguish  its various
adulterations with other fish or vegetable oils.   The  pure cod-liver oil
contains in 100 parts from 0.020 to 0.030 parts of iodine, and  oils  con-
taining  a less proportion of this substance, are to be considered as adul-
terations  or  mixtures with non-remedial oils.   Other oils, when mixed
with iodine or  various iodurets, maybe readily detected by their yielding
these articles to water or alcohol when agitated with them, while genuine
cod-liver  oil never gives up its iodine to these fluids.   The genuine oil,
when carbonized, without being first saponified, and  the carbon  then
separated by means of alcohol, does not betray the  least trace of iodine,
while other oils treated in the  same  manner are invariably detected by
manifesting the presence of iodine  or  any  of the medicinal iodurets.
Again,  the genuine  oil,  when saponified,  never communicates  to the
mother  water the slightest trace of iodine, while the contrary is the case
when other oils combined with  iodine, either in a free state or in any of
its combinations, are subjected  to saponification.
  Exposure to the air effects a change in the properties of the cod-liver
oil, consequently it  should always be kept well stopped;  and the  best
mode of keeping it,  is to fill bottles with  it,  which  are  of  sufficient size
to contain the quantity generally wanted for use at one time, and have 
676
Materia Medica.
them well stopped.   By this means it may be kept for some time without
any sensible change.
  Properties  and  Uses.—Cod-liver  Oil  is  nutritive  and alterative.  It
has been long used  as  a domestic remedy in  chronic  rheumatic  and
strumous diseases, especially in the  northern  parts of  Europe, and has
been in general medical use, only since the treatise upon it by Professor
Bennett of Edinburgh, in  1841, although employed  occasionally in the
profession as early as 1766.   The diseases  in which it is said to be most
efficient are  chronic rheumatism,  strumous diseases, enlargements of
the glands, strumous ophthalmia, pseudo-syphilis, in  scrofulous constitu-
tions, various chronic cutaneous diseases, and even  phthisis.   Gout,
caries, rachitis, and tabes mesenterica,  have, it is said, yielded to its
influence.  It is also asserted  to have been found useful in diseases of
the joints and spine, lupus, obstinate constipation, worms, and inconti-
nence  of urine ;  and may be advantageously employed in all  chronic
cases,  in which the disease appears to consist mainly in impaired diges-
tion,  assimilation and  nutrition.   Externally, used  in  opacities of the
cornea, a drop or two placed on the cornea with a camel's hair pencil,
also in various  chronic  cutaneous  diseases,  rhagades, chaps, eczema,
excoriations and fissures.  Dose, half a fluidounce, twice a day, or more;
but it is best to begin with small doses at first, say one drachm only, in
order to lessen the risk of  nausea and vomiting.  Patients soon accustom
themselves to its use, without  repugnance.  It is best given alone, fol-
lowed  by some claret, or a  little sugar and cinnamon powder, or prepared
with aromatic oils, the same as castor oil, which see.  Its use is contra-
indicated in plethora, or where there is a strong tendency to it.   When
long used, it is  said  to frequently occasion an  eruption on the surface
of an eczematous character.   But little advantage will  be apparent from
the  administration of cod-liver oil,  until  its use has been persevered in
for five or  six weeks,  though it often  commences earlier.   Whether it
deserves all the encomiums passed upon it, or is as efficient an agent as
stated, in the various forms of disease in which it has been recommended,
is yet  a matter of some uncertainty; time is required to fully and cor-
rectly  ascertain its merits.  Dr. Jongh  prefers  the darker colored  oils,
which he thinks act more  promptly than the paler kinds.  He considers
this to  be owing to  their different  chemical  composition, which varies
according to the  mode  adopted in obtaining  them ;  by analysis he has
shown that the lighter-colored oils are the richest in inorganic principles,
while the darker-colored contain a greater  abundance of the bilious prin-
ciples  and volatile  acids, on the presence of which last constituents he
believes their medical virtues chiefly to  depend. 
Oleum  Oliv^e.
677
                          OLEUM OLIV^E.
                              Olive  Oil.
          Nat. Ord.—Oleaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Diandria Monogynia.
               OIL FROM  THE  FRUIT  OF OLEA EUROP-iEA.
   Description. — The  Olive tree is an  evergreen, with  hoary, rigid
branches, and covered with  a  grayish-bark.   It is usually from  fifteen
to twenty feet high,  though frequently attaining a much  greater size.
The wood is hard and compact, of a dark-yellowish color, susceptible of
a  high  polish.   The  leaves are opposite,  subsessile,  firm,  lanceolate,
entire, mucronate, two  or three inches long,  smooth, dull green  above,
hoary beneath, and with  their  edges somewhat reverted.   The fiowers
are small, whitish, and are disposed in opposite clusters in the axilla of
the leaves, which are on short peduncles, erect, about half  as long as
the leaves, and furnished with  small, obtuse,  hoary bracts.  The calyx is
obtuse  and four-cleft;  the  corolla is white,  monopetalous,  spreading,
and  divided into  four  ovate,  obtuse segments.   The stamens  are two,
shorter than  the corolla, supporting large elliptical anthers,  and a  single,
slender, erect style, with  a bipartite  stigma.  The fruit is a smooth,
oval drupe, of a violet color when ripe,  of an unpleasant, bitter taste,  but
abounding in a bland oil,  and inclosing  an ovate, oblong, rugose nut.
   History.—The  native country of the Olive  tree  is  unknown, though
supposed to  be originally from Asia ;  at present it is extensively culti-
vated in the South  of  Europe, especially  in  Spain, Southern France,
Sicily,  and Italy.   After its second year,  it commences bearing fruit,
and is in full bearing at six years, and  is of long duration,  perhaps cen-
turies.   There are several varieties of this  tree, differing in the size and
form of the  leaves, and in the  magnitude,  color, and taste  of the fruit.
The bark of  the olive  tree was formerly used in medicine; it, together
with the leaves, have an acrid and bitterish  taste.  In  hot countries a
morbid product exudes from the  tree, incorrectly  termed Olive-gum or
Lecca-gum ;  it consists of a resin, a peculiar crystalline  principle called
Olivin or Olivilin, and  benzoic acid.   This was formerly used in medi-
cine, but is  not  employed at  present.   The fruit, gathered when  not
quite  ripe, is hard  and excessively acrid ;  but when macerated in lime-
water or an  alkaline ley, and  then  pickled  in brine, it constitutes  the
olive of commerce, a pleasant  and highly esteemed article of diet.
   The only product of the plant which is officinal is the oil obtained from
the fleshy pericarp of the fruit.  The fruit is gathered  just before they
are fully ripe, or when it begins to redden,  because if delayed until they
are thoroughly matured,  the tree will bear only in alternate years.   It
is  carefully collected  by hand, and  the harvest completed, if  possible,
in  one  day ; it is then  immediately carried  to the mill, in which it is
bruised, care being taken that the millstones are  set far enough apart
from each other as not to crush the  nut.  The  pulp is  put in bags and 
678
Materia  Medica.
 moderately pressed; the product obtained is of the first quality, and is
 called Virgin oil.  The remaining marc is broken in pieces, moistened
 with hot water,  and again pressed;  the oil from this second operation is
 of an inferior quality, but sufficiently good  for table use, and for  pre-
 paring  fine soaps—it  constitutes  the ordinary olive oil  of commerce.
 The marc is again broken up, well  soaked in water, allowed to ferment,
 and again submitted to pressure ; a coarse, inferior oil is obtained fit
 only for burning, plasters, coarse soaps, etc.   Other varieties are intro-
 duced into the process in different countries.   The finest oil comes from
 Provence and Florence,  and sometimes  from Genoa and  Lucca; the
 commoner sort,  termed Gallipoli  oil, comes from  Naples.   The best
 quality is imported in glass  bottles, or in flasks, surrounded by a net-
 work made of grass, and known as Florence flasks.
   Pure  olive oil is an unctuous liquid, of a pale-greenish  yellow tint,
 almost  inodorous,  and  a  bland, faintly sweet,  oleaginous taste; it will
 keep for a long time without becoming rancid.  Its  specific gravity is
 0.9153.   It is only partially dissolved by alcohol, unless this be in large
 proportion,  and is completely soluble in twice its volume of ether.  At a
 temperature of 38°,  a portion of it solidifies  in white crystalline grains,
 which is a compound of margarin and olein;  the liquid portion is uncom-
 bined  olein.  Olive  oil contains  in  100  parts, 72  of olein, and 28 of
 margarin.  Margarin  may be obtained  by squeezing the crystals which
 form at a temperature of about 20° in bibulous paper; the paper absorbs
 the olein, and leaves the concrete margarin.   Few vegetable oils contain
 so large a proportion of this  solid principle.   Olive  oil is not a drying
 oil;  it  undergoes  saponification when  heated  with  alkaline solutions,
 freeing glycerin, and forming soluble salts in which  the  alkali is com-
 bined with  several fatty  acids.  Nitrous  acid, or  nitrate of  mercury
 converts it into a fatty principle, called  Elaidin, which  concretes at tem-
 peratures below  97°,  and is  converted by saponification  into glycerin,
 and  elaidic acid.  When  exposed to the air or heat, olive oil is apt to
 become rancid, acquiring a thicker consistence, a sharp taste, a disagree-
 able smell,  and  a darker color.   It is often adulterated with oils of
 poppy seeds, rape seeds, etc., which may be  detected  by the aid of
 hyponitrous acid and  heat, which, in the course of a few hours, renders
 the whole of the pure article a firm fatty mass—even if so little as five
 per cent., of any other oil be present, the consolidation is much less firm
 and  more tardy.   M. Diesel states that nitric acid colors pure olive oil
 green, but if it be mixed with rape oil, it becomes of a strong yellowish-
gray color.   Since the  manufacture of  lard oil, it has  been extensively
used to adulterate olive oil, and large quantities of it are exported annu-
 ally  from this country to France for this purpose ;  the  reaction with
 nitric acid, will, probably, detect this adulteration.
  Properties and Uses. — Olive, or  Sweet oil, as it  is often  called,  ia
 nutrient,  emollient, laxative, and  anthelmintic.   A  fluidounce  or  two 
Oleum Kicini.
679
purges, but is uncertain and often ineffective.  Used as a demulcent in
catarrh and other pulmonary affections, as a laxative in irritation of the
intestinal mucous membrane, as an emollient and  antidote in poisoning
by alkalies, with which it forms  soap, but not as an antidote to opium,
arsenic, copper, etc., in which cases its administration is improper.   In
poisoning by  cantharides, on account of its being an excellent solvent of
the active principles, it augments the danger.  It is principally employed
in the composition of liniments, ointments, cerates and plasters.   As  an
article  of diet, it is exceedingly improper for dyspeptics.  Smeared over
the skin, it is  thought to be  beneficial in the treatment of  plague, scar-
latina,  and some  other exanthematous  affections.   According to Mr.
Sidney H.  Maltass, a strong decoction of the leaves of the olive  tree,
given in doses of a  wineglassful every three hours, has cured the  most
obstinate and severe forms of intermittent fever.  He considers it more
effectual than quinia.
   Off.  Prep. — Emplastrum Plumbi; Emplastrum  Plumbi  Composi-
tum ; Emplastrum Resinae Compositum;  Linimentum Ammonias; Lini-
mentum Nigrum ;  Unguentum Acidi  Nitrici;  Unguentum  Cetacei;
Unguentum Ipecacuanhae ;  Unguentum Myricae;  Unguentum  Plumbi
Compositum.
                         OLEUM RICINI.
                            Castor Oil.
      Nat. Ord.—Euphorbiacese.   Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Monadelphia.
            THE  OIL OF THE SEEDS OF RICINUS COMMUNIS.
   Description.—Ricinus  Communis, the  Castor oil bush, in the United
States is  a herbaceous annual,  with a white,  frosted  or glaucous,
hollow, smooth stem, somewhat purplish  toward the top, branching, and
from three to eight feet in hight.  In the East  Indies and Africa, it
becomes a tree attaining the hight of thirty or forty feet, and  is peren-
nial.   The root is long, thick, and fibrous.  The leaves are large, alter-
nate, on long tapering  purplish petioles, peltate, palmate, with seven or
nine pointed,  serrate  lobes,  smooth on both sides,  of a  bluish-green
color.   The flowers  are monoecious, stand  upon jointed peduncles, in
long, green, glaucous,  pyramidal spikes  or racemes which spring from
the divisions of the branches.   The male flowers from the lower part of
the spike, the females  the upper;  both  are destitute of corolla.   The
calyx of the  male  flower  is divided  into  five oval, concave,  pointed,
reflected, purplish segments, and incloses numerous stamens, which are
united into fasciculi at their base.   That of the female has three or five
narrow lanceolate segments ; and the ovary, which is roundish and three-
sided,  supports three linear, reddish stigmas, forked at their apex.   The
fruit is  a roundish,  glaucous  capsule, with three projecting  sides,
covered with  tough spines, and divided into three cells, each containing 
680
Materia  Medica.
one seed, which is  expelled by the bursting of the capsule.   Seeds,
about as large as a bean, ovate, compressed, obtuse at the extremities,
smooth and shining, of a gray or ash color, marbled with black or red-
dish-brown spots and veins.
  History.—Ricinus Communis, or Palma Christi, is a native of India,
and has become naturalized in  many warm climates;  it is  extensively
cultivated in many parts of the United States, where it flowers in  July
and August, ripening its seeds in August and September.   The officinal
part is the  fixed oil obtained from the seeds.   The  seeds have a small
yellowish tubercle at one end, from which an obscure longitudinal ridge
proceeds to the opposite extremity, dividing the sides upon which it is
situated into two flattish surfaces.   Its variegated  color depends upon a
very thin pellicle, closely  investing a hard brittle,  blackish,  tasteless,
easily separable shell, within which is a thick, fleshy,  oleaginous, white
nucleus  or  kernel,  inclosing a large, dicotyledonous,  leafy  embryo.
From its  resemblance to the  dog-tick, the Latin name, Ricinus, was
probably derived.   The husk constitutes  twenty-four per cent, of the
seed, and consists chiefly of ligneous fiber, with a little gum, resin, and
extractive matter.   The nucleus  constitutes sixty-nine per cent, of the
seed when dry, and contains 46.19 parts of fixed oil, 2.40 of gum, 20.00
of starch and lignin, and 0.50 of soluble  albumen.  It must  also con-
tain a peculiar acrid and purgative  principle, which has not  yet been
obtained, for it is  powerfully active after the oil has been expressed.
The seeds easily become rancid, and are then unfit for the extraction of
the oil,  which  is acrid and  irritating.  The fixed  oil  is the officinal
Castor oil.
   Castor oil is  obtained  from the  seeds by three processes: First, by
decoction;  the seeds  are deprived of their husks,  steeped for  a night
in cold water, and then boiled for two hours in a fresh  portion of water,
dried in the sun and bruised, and lastly boiled in  fresh water, and con-
stantly stirred, till all  the oil separates and rises to the surface; this is
skimmed or strained  off, and  boiled with a small quantity of water to
dissipate the  acrid principle.   The  above process is the one said to be
pursued in the East Indies; in the West Indies the same course is followed,
except that the seeds are  not steeped or boiled  before  being bruised.
This mode  is very apt to furnish an acrid and irritating product, and a
brownish-colored  oil.   The second method  is by alcohol, which process
has  been practiced in France, but  the oil obtained is  said to become
speedily rancid, although very  pure.   The  third  method is  by expres-
sion,  which  is  the  one practiced in this country,  and  when  properly
conducted, gives a bland and colorless result.   The  seeds  after having
been thoroughly  cleansed  from dust  and  fragments  of  capsules, and
other impurities with  which they may be mixed, are placed into a shal-
low iron-reservoir, where they are submitted to a very gentle heat, no
greater than  can be  borne by the hand, and not sufficient to scorch or 
Oleum Ricini.
681
 decompose them; this warmth renders the oil sufficiently liquid for easy
 expression.    They  are  then placed into a powerful screw-press, and
 yield a whitish oleaginous liquid, which  is transferred to vessels holding
 large quantities of water, and boiled for some time.  As impurities rise
 to the surface they are skimmed off, until at last the clear oil only is left
 floating upon the surface, the albumen having been coagulated by the
 heat, forms  a whitish layer between the  oil and  the water, and  the muci-
 lage  and starch are dissolved by the water.   The oil is now carefully
 removed, and is again boiled with a minute proportion of water, for the
 purpose of clarifying it, and rendering  it less  acrid by driving off the
 acrid volatile matter; and the heat is continued till aqueous  vapors cease
 to rise, and till a small portion of  the oil, taken out in a vial, presents a
 perfect transparency when  cooled.   Care, however, must be  taken not
 to push the heat too  far, or else the  oil will become  brownish, and
 acquire an acrid peppery taste.   One bushel of good seeds yields five
 or six  quarts of  oil.  Sometimes, however, after expression,  the  oil  is
 merely allowed  to stand for a time, until all precipitation  has ceased,
 and  then the supernatant liquid is drawn off.  When not carefully pre-
 pared, castor oil is apt to deposit a sediment  upon standing; and the
 apothecary frequently finds it necessary  to filter it through coarse  paper
 before dispensing  it.
  When pure, castor oil is a thick, viscid, colorless fluid, slightly odor-
 ous,  with a  sweetish, mildly nauseous taste, followed by a  slight sense
 of acrimony.  In  the shops it is often found tinged with yellow, having
 an unpleasant smell, and occasionally brownish, with a hot acrid taste.
 The  most esteemed  castor  oil is  the cold  drawn, which  is  made by
 expression without heat.  It is one of  the  heaviest of the fixed  oils,
 having a density of .964 at 60°.   When exposed  to cold a  little  below
 32°, it slowly becomes thick and turbid, and  at length deposits a very
 few crystalline grains of margarin, though it is stated that no margarin
 separates, if the oil has been  previously heated  to 212° either with  or
 without  water.  At a temperature above 212° the oil  itself becomes
 altered and  acquires  acrid  properties.   Exposed to the air  it slowly
 thickens without  becoming opake, acquires  rancidity, and  finally dries
 up; it belongs to the drying oils.   It is insoluble in water, soluble in all
 proportions  in alcohol or ether, and alcohol of the  specific gravity of
 0.842 takes  up about three-fifths of its weight—a property not  possessed
 by any other common fixed oil except the concrete palm oil.   It readily
 combines with other fixed as well  as volatile oils;  the alkaline  solutions
 dissolve  and saponify it, producing acids termed the ricinic,  ricinoleic,
 and ricino-stearic.  Hyponitrous acid will convert twenty times its weight
 of castor oil  in  seven hours, into a firm, yellow, solid substance, called
 Palmin,  which is saponifiable by alkalies,  yielding Palmic  acid  and
glycerin.  Castor oil when added to other fixed  oils, renders them more
soluble in alcohol.   It may be distilled at a temperature of about 510°, 
682
Materia  Medica.
when it undergoes important alterations, yielding three acids, apparently
identical with those above-named.   The proximate constitution of castor
oil, is imperfectly understood by chemists.
   It is stated that rancid acrid  castor oil  may be deprived of its disa-
greeable odor  and taste, as well as of its  acrimony, by boiling it for
fifteen minutes with water  and  a  little  calcined  magnesia.  If it be
turbid, it should be clarified  by filtration through coarse  paper.   Castor
oil is much  employed in the preparation  of an article which is  exten-
sively sold throughout the country for bear's  oil; it is composed of four
fluidounces  of castor oil,  mixed with two  fluidrachms  of  an aqueous
solution  of salts of tartar  (carbonate of potassa)  and scented with ber-
gamot, lavender, or other aromatic  oil.
   Properties and Uses.—The castor  oil seed or bean is a powerful drastic
cathartic and irritant, and has proved fatal  to man  when taken to the
extent of twenty seeds  at once.   Yet the oil expressed from it is only a
mild  cathartic,  operating  promptly, producing thin, feculent, but not
watery stools, causing but little griping  or nausea.   From its mildness
of action, it  is especially adapted to young children, pregnant or puer-
peral females, likewise to  hemorrhoidal  affections,  colic, diarrhea,
dysentery,  enteritis,  after the reduction of hernia, obstinate constipation,
collections  of indurated feces, accumulation  of acrid secretions, and in
worms.   One part of oil of  turpentine mixed with three or four parts
of castor oil increases its purgative  and anthelmintic effect.   The great-
est objections to this cathartic are its nauseous taste and  its  tendency to
cause sickness or unconquerable disgust.   This may be overcome by
adding to one pint of the oil half a  fluidounce  each of oils of origanum
and wintergreen, or  one ounce of sassafras oil; the dose  of this may be
given in  sweetened water.   Any other aromatic oils will  answer equally
as well.  When not contra-indicated it may be taken in wine, spirituous
liquors, or the  froth of porter, likewise in cinnamon or peppermint water.
I find it  a very pleasant mode  of administration to boil  the  dose of oil
with about  a gill  of good sweet milk for a few minutes, sweeten with
loaf-sugar,  and flavor with essence of cinnamon or other  favorite aroma-
tic ;  it somewhat resembles  custard in its taste and  appearance, and is
readily taken by even the  most delicate  stomach.  Stuncke  states  that
castor oil saponifies  readily  with  alkalies, and gives  with soda  a white
solid soap, which, in the form of pills, is a certain and agreeable purga-
tive.  According  to M. Parola, an  ethero-alcoholic extract,  and an
ethereal  or  alcoholic tincture  of the seeds, operate  in much  smaller
doses than  the oil, and with less disposition to irritate the bowels or to
cause vomiting.  As  an enema, castor oil may be used in the quantity
of  two  or  three fluidounces,  mixed with  some  mucilaginous  liquid.
Externally, it has been  recommended in itch, ringworm, and  other cuta-
neous diseases.  Dose,  for an adult, a fluidounce or  a fluidounce and a
half;  for an infant, one, two, or three fluidrachms, according to its age. 
Oleum Ricini.
683
Equal  parts  of castor oil and  copal varnish, form an  excellent local
application for hemorrhoidal affections.
  We  are  informed by Dr. J.  O. McWilliam  that the  natives  of the
Cape de Verd Islands, have common recourse to a remedy called "Bo-
fareira," for the purpose of accelerating and increasing the flow of milk,
not only from the breasts  of childbearing women, where that secretion
was tardy in appearing, or deficient in quantity when it did appear, but,
on  occasions  of  emergency,  from the breasts  of women who are not
child bearing, or who  have not given birth to, or suckled  a child for
many years.  The leaves of the plant, Bofareira, are used, and which
proved  to be on investigation,  the "Ricinus Communis,"  or common
castor oil plant.  The while bofareira is used, and carefully selected from
the red bofareira, which appears to be a variety of the same species, but
which they say is a powerful irritant, producing  an immediate^nd often
immoderate menstrual discharge, as  has resulted in cases where  it has
been occasionally used in mistake.  The white,  or that which possesses
galactagogue qualities, is recognized by the natives by the light-green
color of the  stem  of the  leaf,  while the  leaf stem of the  red  is of a
purplish-red hue.
  In cases of childbirth, when  the appearance  of  the milk  is delayed
(a circumstance of not unfrequent occurrence in those islands), a  decoc-
tion is made by boiling well a handful  of  the white bofareira in  six or
eight pints of spring water.  The breasts  are bathed with this decoction
for  fifteen or twenty minutes.   Part of the boiled leaves, are then thinly
spread  over the breasts, and  allowed to remain until all moisture ha.s
been removed from them by evaporation, and probably, in some measure,
by  absorption.   This  operation of  fomenting with the  decoction  and
applying the  leaves, is repeated at short intervals until the milk flows
upon suction by the child, which it usually does  in the course of a few
hours.
  On occasions where milk is  required to be produced in  the  breasts
of women who have not given birth to, or suckled a child for years, the
mode of treatment adopted, is as follows : two or three handfuls  of the
leaves of the Ricinus are taken  and treated as before.  The  decoction  is
poured, while yet boiling, into a  large vessel,   over which  the  woman
sits so as to receive  the vapor  over  her thighs  and generative organs,
clothes being carefully tucked around her so as  to prevent the escape of
the steam.   In this position she remains  for ten or twelve  minutes, or
until the decoction cooling a little, she is enabled to bathe the parts with
it, which she does for fifteen or twenty minutes  more.   The breasts are
then similarly bathed, and gently rubbed with the hands; and the leaves
are  afterward applied to them in the manner already described.   These
several operations are repeated three  times during the  first day.  On
the  second day, the woman has her  breasts  bathed, the leaves applied,
and the rubbing repeated three or four times.   On the  third day, the 
684
Materia Medica.
sitting over the steam, the rubbing, and the application of the leaves to,
with the fomentation of, the breasts, are again had recourse to.  A child
is  now put to the  nipple, and, in  a  majority  of instances, it finds an
abundant supply of milk.  In the event of milk  not being secreted on
the third day, the same treatment is continued  for another day, and if
then there still be want of success, the case is abandoned, as the person
is supposed not to be susceptible to  the influence of the Bofareira.
  Women with  well-developed breasts are most easily affected by it,
while those with  small and  shriveled  breasts have the  uterine system
acted upon, bringing on the menses, if their period be distant, or causing
their  immoderate  flow if  their advent be near.  Exposure  to cold is
carefully avoided by women brought under  its influence;  they scrupu-
lously abstain from wetting  the hands or feet with cold water.  It is
said to affect virgins of adult age, similar to child-bearing women.   It
sometimes produces swelling and pain in the breasts and axillary glands,
pain in the back, and an increase of a leucorrheal discharge.
  This remedy, and the red Bofareira, as  an emmenagogue, both of
which are  common to this country, have  been already tried by physi-
cians, and the results have been sufficiently favorable to render further
investigation very desirable.
   Off. Prep.—Mistura Chenopodii Composita;  Mistura Olei Composita.
                    OLEUM  TEREBINTHINAE.
                      Oil or Spirit of  Turpentine.
         Nat.  Ord.—Pinacea5.  Sex.  Syst.—Moncecia  Monadelphia.
  History.—The term Turpentine  is usually given to  vegetable juices,
liquid or concrete, and  which consist of resin, and a peculiar volatile
oil, separated by distillation, and called Oil of Turpentine.   It is derived
from  the juice of the Yellow or Pitch  Pine, Pinus Palustris, as well as
other pines, and the Abies  Balsam6a, etc.   Beside the turpentines from
these trees, there  are others, as  the common European  Turpentine,
Terebinthina  Vulgaris, from  the Pinus Sylvestris; the Larch or Venice
Turpentine, Terebinthina Venela,  from the  Larix  Europea and  Abies
Larix; the Chian or  Cyprus Turpentine, Terebinthina Chia, or Cypria,
from  the Pistacia Terebinthus;  the Bordeaux Turpentine, from the Pinus
Maritima, and many others.  All the turpentines are generally thick,
of the consistence of  honey, and of a light yellow  or brown color; some
are turbid, others are transparent,  of a strong smell, sui generis, and of
an acrid, bitter,  and nauseous taste,   The Venice  turpentine is usually
tolerably liquid, slightly greenish, of a strong, not  unpleasant smell, and
of a  warm and  bitter taste.  The turpentines are readily soluble in
ether or alcohol, and unite with fixed  oils.   All the  terebinthinate  pre-
parations owe their medical properties to their volatile oil, and they are
seldom used at present, except in salves,  plasters, and the like. 
Oleum Terebinthinae.
685
   Oil of turpentine is obtained by distillation  of the  turpentine with or
without water;  but in  the  latter case a much higher temperature  is
required, and the product is liable to be empyreumatic.   The residue
in the still, after the distillation of the oil, is resin.   When it is necessary
to obtain absolutely pure oil of turpentine, it  should be  redistilled from
a solution of caustic potassa.  Large quantities of the oil  are  distilled
in North Carolina for exportation.  The  oil, or Spirits of Turpentine as
it is frequently called, is, when pure, a clear, transparent, colorless, very
liquid fluid, having the  specific gravity of 0.86 at  72° F.   It possesses
a  powerful, penetrating, balsamic,  peculiar  odor, and  a disagreeable,
aromatic, bitter, and sometimes acrid taste.   It is lighter than water,  is
very volatile and inflammable, and boils at 312°, the temperature rising
to 350° as the ebullition proceeds.   A cold of—17° causes it to deposit
white crystals, which are a  hydrate of the pure  oil.  It burns with  a
fierce, dense, red flame  and much black smoke.  Exposed to the air  it
slowly absorbs  oxygen  and  becomes yellow and thick, losing  much of
its activity.  It is  very sparingly soluble in water,  moderately so in
alcohol, and readily in  sulphuric ether.   It  dissolves resins, fixed oils,
fats,  many alkaloids and neutral crystalline principles  from the vegetable
kingdom, and caoutchouc.  When immersed in chlorine gas, it inflames;
and iodine  dropped into it is partly dissolved,  and  partly dispersed with
an explosion.  It absorbs  muriatic acid gas in  large  quantity, forming
with it two compounds,  one  a dense red liquid, the  other a white crystal-
line compound resembling camphor, and hence called  Artificial camphor;
this last consists of  an equivalent of the  acid, and one of the radical oil
of turpentine or camphene, and  is therefore  a muriate of camphene.
Nitric acid changes oil of turpentine into resin, and by long boiling, into
turpentinic acid.  Exposed to light and air oil of  turpentine deposits  a
white solid matter in acicular crystals, which are inodorous and tasteless,
insoluble in cold water,  but  soluble  in ether  or alcohol.   The  pure or
radical oil is denominated Camphene, and consists of ten equivalents of
carbon, and eight of hydrogen;  but when kept for some time it always
contains a  little  absorbed oxygen.   Combined with  one equivalent of
oxygen, camphene  forms  camphor; and with two  equivalents it  forms
camphoric  acid.
  Properties and  Uses.—The actions of oil of turpentine  are complex.
It is  irritant, stimulant, cathartic, diuretic anthelmintic,  and in  relation
to  chronic mucous discharges, astringent.  Given in large doses it occa-
sions slight vertigo, or a sense of fullness  in the head, with a feeling
similar to  that of intoxication, or a state resembling trance, attended
frequently  with  nausea, and frequently followed  by active  catharsis;
sometimes  it creates pain in the   stomach, sickness  and vomiting; more
frequently, especially when  absorbed, it gives rise to violent strangury
bloody urine, and  other  symptoms of  irritation  of  the bladder  and
kidneys, at the  same  time imparting  the odor of violets to the  urine. 
686
Materia  Medica.
If purgation occurs, the other effects seldom present themselves.  In
medicinal doses, it warms the stomach, quickens the pulse, increases the
temperature  of the surface, and in small doses, frequently repeated, it
stimulates  the  kidneys,  increasing  the urinary  secretion.   In  some
persons,  its internal administration occasions an erythematic eruption on
the skin.  As a stimulant it is particularly useful  in the  typhoid  stage
of various febrile diseases, where  there  is reason  to suspect ulceration
of the mucous membranes; as in cases where the tongue becomes dry
and  brown, the skin dry,  and tympanitis  present, with  sometimes a
slight delirium, the frequently-repeated use  of small doses will remove
all these  symptoms, and the patient  gradually recover.  It is supposed,
in these  instances, to effect a healthy change on the ulcerated intestinal
surfaces.  It is likewise recommended in neuralgia, chronic rheumatism,
dropsy, suppression  of urine, worms, especially tenia—tympanitic dis-
tension in typhoid fever, peritonitis, or other diseases—chorea, hysteria,
croup, colic, jaundice,  and  in cases where gravel is  habitually carried
off by  copious discharge of lithic acid, and lithate of ammonia.  It has a
tendency to diminish excessive mucous discharges, and has been employed
with advantage in chronic  catarrh, chronic dysentery, chronic diarrhea,
chronic inflammation of the bladder, gleet, chronic gonorrhea, and leucor-
rhea.  The dose, in ordinary cases, is from five drops to half a fluidrachm,
and even to one drachm, repeated every hour or two in acute disease, and
every three or four hours in chronic.   In the course of its action it is ab-
sorbed, and imparts its odor to the breath and perspiration.   In doses vary-
ino- from  twenty minims to a fluidrachm, according to the urgency of the
symptoms, and repeated every three or four hours, it is a most efficacious
astringent, and may be used in  epistaxis, hematemesis, hemoptysis, and
other sanguineous discharges.  It may be administered in water, flavored
with some ao-reeable aromatic syrup,  or in infusion of matico, in hemop-
tysis; in the decoctions of uva ursi, epigea, or eupatorium,  etc., in hema-
turia ;  or in the decoction  or  infusion  of  Peruvian bark  in  purpura
hemorrhagica.   Where much arterial blood has  been lost, muriated
tincture  of iron will  form  a valuable adjunct.   Combined with castor
oil, it is an excellent vermifuge.   Externally it is  a rubefacient, and is
used as  a counter irritant  in  the  form  of  liniment in rheumatic and
paralytic affections, various internal inflammations, in the  neighborhood
of indolent tumors, to chilblains, indolent and erysipelatous ulcers, caries,
sloughing, especially from pressure in exhausting diseases, chronic inflam-
mation of the edge of  the  eyelids, and in recent  burns  or scalds  com-
bined with linseed oil.   Sometimes used in deafness arising  from  a de-
ficient  or unhealthy secretion of wax, mixed with some  mild oil and
introduced on cotton into the ear.   In the form of  enema,  oil of turpen-
tine has been employed in  cases of amenorrhea  arising  from torpor  of
the uterine vessels, likewise  in obstinate constipation, ascarides, and in
tympanitis,  or distension of the bowels  from accumulations of air, in 
Oleum Terebinthinae.                    687
 which it is a superior remedy.  From half a fluidounce to two  fluid-
 ounces may be suspended in half a pint of water, or some mucilaginous
 liquid, by means  of two  yelks of egg, injected  into  the  rectum, and
 retained there for  some time.
   When given internally,  it may be administered on sugar, or in emul-
 sion with gum Arabic, loaf sugar, and cinnamon or mint water ;  or it
 may be triturated with the  yelk of  egg,  gradually adding syrup, and
 essence of cinnamon, with a portion of water.  One yelk is  sufficient for
 trituration with every two  fluidrachms of the oil.   In  tapeworm it has
 been combined with gin, and given in doses of one  or  two fluidounces.
 As an ordinary vermifuge, three or four parts of castor  oil may be added
 to one part of the oil of turpentine.
   Dr. Jas. Warren has used a preparation for nearly thirty years in the
 treatment of hemorrhages, with uniform  success.  It  acts  both by its
 sedative power, in diminishing the force of the  circulation, and by its
 astringent qualities, in  contact with the bleeding vessels.  He is satisfied
 that  no  remedy  now  known exerts  a more  specific  power and  more
 speedy relief,  especially  in  hemoptysis,  hematemesis, epistaxis,  and
 menorrhagia.   In  the  treatment of  hemorrhage, neither bloodletting,
 confinement to the room, suppression  of the voice, relaxation from  busi-
 ness, nor other precautions are necessary; nor is any auxiliary treatment
 required, except, perhaps, a purgative dose where there is evidence that
 blood has been swallowed.   Exercise  in the open air is  decidedly prefer-
 able to inaction;  and  wherever there are premonitory symptoms of a
 return of hemorrhage,  it has always exerted a prophylactic  power when
 promptly used ; and by this early resort to it, many radical  cures  have
 been effected.   He terms it  "Styptic  Balsam."  It is made as follows :
 Place sulphuric acid, five drachms by weight, in a Wedgewood  mortar,
 and slowly add to it, oil of turpentine two fluidrachms, stirring  it  con-
 stantly with the pestle ; then  add  in the same  manner  Alcohol two
 fluidrachms, and continue  stirring until no  more fumes arise, when  it
 may be  bottled, and should be stopped with a ground stopper.  It
 should be prepared from the purest materials;  and when made  should
 exhibit a dark but clear red color, like dark-blood ;  but if it  be  a  pale,
 dirty red, it will be unfit for use. The dose  is forty drops, to be  used
 as follows; into a common sized teacup put a teaspoonful of brown sugar,
thoroughly incorporate the forty drops by rubbing together, and  then
slowly stir in water until the  cup is nearly full, when it  should be imme-
diately swallowed.   The dose may be repeated every hour, for three or
four  hours, and its use should  be discontinued as  soon as fresh blood
ceases to  flow.   After standing a few days, a pellicle forms upon the
surface of the balsam, which  should be broken, and  the liquid below  it
used.   If in well-stopped  bottles, age does  not deteriorate it.—N.  Y.
Jour. Med. 
688
Materia Medica.
   Off. Prep. — Emplastrum Myricae ;  Emplastrum Picis  Compositum;
Enema  Terebinthinae Composita; Linimentum Terebinthinae ;  Linimen-
tum Nigrum ;  Mistura  Copaibae  Composita; Mistura  Olei Composita;
Pilulae Ferri Compositae; Tinctura Camphorae Composita; Unguentum
Myricae ; Unguentum Plumbi Compositum ; Vinum Phytolaccae Com-
positum.

                         OLEUM  TIGLII.
                            Croton Oil.
      Nat. Ord.—Euphorbiaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Monoecia Monadelphia.
        the expressed oil of the  seeds of croton  tiglium.
  Description. — Croton Tiglium  is a middle  sized  tree, the young
branches of which are terete, smooth,  shining, and somewhat  furrowed
toward the extremities.  The leaves  are alternate, petiolate, oval-oblong,
acute,  three to five-nerved at the  base,  acuminate at the apex, with
shallow glandular serratures ;  thin, membranous,  with  two glands at
their base, covered when young with very minute stellate scattered hairs,
dark-green above, and paler beneath.   The petioles are about  one-third
the length of the leaf, channeled, having stellate hairs when quite young,
but soon losing them.  The flowers are downy, and arranged in erect,  ter-
minal racemes,  the male flowers being at the apex, and the female below.
The male flowers have a five-cleft calyx, five lanceolate, woolly, straw-
colored  petals,  and fifteen  distinct  stamens ; the  females  have a five-
cleft, permanent calyx, with long and bifid styles.  The fruit is a smooth,
oblong, obtusely triangular capsule, about the size of a hazel-nut, closely
covered with minute  stellate hairs,  three  cells,  each of which is com-
pletely filled with  a solitary seed.   The skin of the seeds is of a pale
dull-brown color, and overlays a harder dark integument.
  History.—This tree is a native of the East Indies, and is cultivated in
some parts of the West Indies.   Like the other plants of the family  Eu-
phorbiaceae, it is pervaded  throughout by  an acrid purgative  principle.
The oil  obtained from the seeds is the  officinal portion.   The seeds are
of an ovoid or  oblong form, rounded at  the extremities, rather larger
than a coffee grain, reddish-brown  when  recent, grayish-brown when
old, sometimes  brownish black.   They consist of a thin, brittle, ligneous
shell;  a delicate,  white, membranous  integument; and an oleaginous
kernel composed of a  pale yellowish-white albumen, and a beautiful
embryo,  with large, leafy cotyledons.   The oil is obtained  by  depriving
the seeds of their shells, bruising them to a pulp, and subjecting the
pulp to  strong  pressure.  About fifty per  cent, of oil  is thus obtained,
and ten per cent, more may be removed by digesting  the residue with
sulphuric ether, filtering, and expelling the ether by a gentle  heat.   It
may likewise be obtained by decoction of the pulp in water.  Guibourt 
Oleum  Tiglii.
689
recommends after the first expression, to digest the residue  with  alcohol
at a temperature of 120° to 140° F., and then submit it to a new expres-
sion.  Distil off the alcohol, and add the oil to the first product.  Croton
seeds yield upon analysis, a fatty acid  called Crotonic acid,  fixed oil,
resin, traces of a volatile oil, stearin, wax, a magnesian soap with an alka-
line reaction, called Crotonin, extractive, sugar, gum, starch,  albumen,
gluten, lignin, and salts.
   Crotonic acid is  the supposed active  constituent of the seeds,  and
passes out with the oil either by expression, by ether, or by alcohol.   It
may be  obtained by saponifying the oil with solution  of  potassa, de-
composing the resulting soap by  tartaric acid, filtering and  distilling the
solution,  neutralizing the acid product with barytic water, evaporating
the solution to dryness, decomposing the barytic salt with  strong phos-
phoric acid, and again distilling.   The acid thus obtained is crystalline
at  23°,  highly  volatile, of an  acrid  taste, intensely  irritating to the
nostrils,,  and forms salts with alkaline bases called Crotonates.
   The croton  oil of commerce is  partly imported from India, and partly
expressed in England from the imported seeds.   It varies in color  from
a pale amber color to that of deep-colored sherry, has a viscid consistence,
like castor oil, which is increased by age, possesses a faint odor, a pecu-
liar, hot, acrid taste, which is very persistent, and  is felt most strongly
in the back of the palate and throat.   It is soluble in sulphuric  ether,
also in the volatile as well  as fixed oils.   The English oil is wholly and
readily soluble in pure alcohol, forming a permanent solution at ordinary
temperatures ; the  India oil forms  an opake mixture, which becomes
clear  and uniform upon being heated, but separates  on standing into two
layers, one of  the alcohol somewhat diminished in bulk, the other of the
oil, somewhat  increased by  a retention  of part of the  alcohol.   It  is
sometimes adulterated with castor oil,  which is difficult to detect in the
English  variety, but may be distinguished in the  India oil by shaking
the suspected  article with absolute alcohol, which will dissolve  the castor
oil, and  have but  slight influence on the croton.   It is stated that an  oil
weaker than the genuine croton is obtained from the Barbadoes' nuts, or
the seeds of Jatropha Curcas ; it is an efficient cathartic in a  dose of three
or four drops.   The seeds of  the Croton Pavana are likewise supposed
to furnish some of the croton oil of commerce.
   Properties and  Uses.—Croton oil  is  a powerful irritant, and hydra-
goo-ue cathartic.   In large doses it is a dangerous poison, occasioning
vomitino-, severe griping pain, hypercatharsis, and  other serious symp-
toms.  Its action is prompt, frequently causing catharsis within an hour;
and on account of its small dose it is especially adapted  to cases where
medicines requiring large  doses  cannot be given, as in mania,  coma, and
with  children.   A drop placed on the tongue of a comatose patient will
generally operate.   It is principally employed as a purgative when the
         44 
690                       Materia Medica.
bowels  are very  torpid ;  in comatose diseases as a revellent;  and in
dropsy  as a hydragogue.   It is likewise  asserted that, independent of its
purgative property, it possesses efficacious influences in epilepsy,  neural-
gia, and spasm of the glottis.   It may be used in all cases where  prompt
and active purgation is indicated.  It is distinguished from other pow-
erful cathartics by occasioning much borborygmus or rumbling of wind,
by its action commencing  speedily and ending soon, and by the purgative
effect, however exhausting at the time, being followed  by little debility.
Externally, it produces erythematic  redness,  intense burning, and an
eruption of minute vesicles.   It should  be diluted with  three parts of
olive oil, camphor liniment, oil  of turpentine, or other convenient vehicle,
and  applied to the skin as a counter-irritant  two or three  times a day.
Used thus it is beneficial  in rheumatism, gout, neuralgia, indolent  swell-
ings, follicular disease  of the throat, and pulmonary affections.   The
dose of croton oil is from  one to six drops, which is best given on sugar,
or made into a pill with crumb of bread, in order to  avoid the disagree-
able acrid sensation it occasions in the throat,  with a constant tendency
to hawk, as well as to prevent nausea or vomiting.  Four  drops of the
oil, applied externally by  friction  around the umbilicus, will, it is  said,
produce catharsis.
   Off.  Prep.—Ceratum Crotonis; Pilulae Gambogiae Compositae.
                            OLIBANUM.

                  The Frankincense of the Ancients.
  Nat. Ord.—Amyridacese, Burseraceas, (Lindley); Terebinthacea?, (De Can-
dolle).   Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.
                  gum-resin of boswellia serrata.
  Description.—This is the Boswellia Thurifera  of  some botanists;  it is
a leafy forest tree  growing on the Coromandel coasts and other parts of
India.  The leaves are- at the extremity of the branches, pinnate, consist-
ing of about ten  pairs  of  obliquely, oblong, obtuse, serrated, villous
leaflets, with a  terminal one; they are  sometimes opposite, sometimes
alternate, and on  short, round, pubescent petioles.   The flowers are in
simple axillary  racemes, shorter than the leaves, numerous, small, of a
pale pink color,  and furnished with  minute bracts.   The calyx is small,
downy, and five-cleft; the petals are oblong and spreading, villous exter-
nally, and longer  than  the stamens.   Stamens are ten, inserted on the
outer edge  of a cup-shaped  torus  or  nectary, which is  crenated  and
fleshy, surrounding the ovary ; they are alternately shorter, and support
oblong anthers.   The ovary is superior, ovate, and bears  a  cylindrical
style, with three-lobed stigmas.   The  fruit is a three-angled, smooth
capsule, having  three cells opening by three valves, and each containing 
Onosmodium  Virginianum.
691
 a single seed, which is broad, cordate at base, deeply emarginate, with
 a long, slender point.
  History.—There appear to be  two varieties  of frankincense, one from
 the above tree and one from a tree growing in the countries around the
 Red Sea,  and which, it is stated, grows upon bare marble rocks, without
 any soil or even a fissure to support it, adhering by means of a substance
 thrown out from the  base of the stem.   It rises about forty feet, having
 short branches near  the top, covered with a bright-green, singular foli-
 age.   Olibanum consists chiefly  of yellowish, somewhat translucent,
 roundish tears, and generally covered with a  whitish powder, produced
 by friction.   It has  a balsamic, resinous  smell, and  an acrid,  bitterish
 and somewhat aromatic taste.  When triturated with water, it forms an
 imperfect  milky solution.   Alcohol dissolves nearly three-fourths of it,
 forming a transparent tincture.  One hundred parts of it contain 8 of a
 volatile oil resembling that of lemons in color and smell, and which may
 be separated by distillation ; 56 of resin ;  30 of gum; 5.2 of a glutin-
 ous matter insoluble  in water or alcohol, with 0.8 loss.
  Properties and Uses.—Olibanum is stimulant, like  other gum-resins.
 Principally used for fumigations, and  occasionally enters  into some
 plasters.

                ONOSMODIUM VIRGINIANUM.
                          False  Gromwell.
       Nat. Ord.—Boraginaceas.  Sex.  Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                       the root and  seeds.
  Description.—This plant is the Onosmodium Hispidum, of Michaux,
 and the Lithospermum Virginianum of Linnaeus; it is also known by the
common names of Gravel-weed, and Wild Job's Tears.   It is a perennial
herb, clothed all over with harsh  and rigid appressed bristles ; the stems
are  rather slender, and grow from one to two feet in hight.   The leaves
 are  oblong, or oblong-lanceolate, often oval, and even ovate-lanceolate,
sessile, minutely strigose, three to five-veined, the  lower ones narrowed
 at base, and from an inch to two and a half inches long, by half an inch
or three quarters of  an  inch broad.  The flowers are yellowish-white, in
terminal leafy racemes,  which are recurved at first but finally become
erect  and elongated.  Calyx five-cleft,  the lobes lanceolate, pilose  on
both sides,  and half as long as the corolla.   Corolla oblong-tubular,
with a ventricose,  half  five-cleft  limb, with  lance-subulate  segments,
 and clothed  externally with  long, hispid hairs.   Stamens five, with very
short flattened filaments supporting included, sagittate, apiculate anthers.
 Style much exserted, smooth.  Achenia  ovoid, smooth and shining, fixed
by a flat base.
  History.—This plant is  found  growing from New York to Florida, in
dry, hilly grounds, flowering from June to September.  The  root and 
692
Materia Medica.
seeds are the parts employed, and yield their virtues  to water.  There
are  two other species of this genus which  possess similar properties.
These are the Onosmodium Carolinianum, growing in rocky hills and along
river banks from New York to Carolina and Tennessee;  it grows from
one to four feet high, has a  stout, upright, soft, white pubescent stem,
with stouter and larger leaves than the preceding variety; lobes of the
corolla deltoid-ovate, obtusish, more or less hairy  on  the back; anthers
oblong, longer  than the narrow filaments, and silky-pubescent.—The
other is the Onosmodium Strigosum, growing in  the Western States, and
found abundantly in  Tennessee  and Illinois  in  wet prairies and woods,
on hill sides, and delighting,  as it is said, in rich  limestone soils.  The
stem is  erect, simple, pilose-hispid, very leafy; the leaves  are  sessile,
lance-linear, three inches long and  one inch wide, three-veined, with
appressed  hairs, nearly smooth beneath the veins; bracts lance-linear,
silky;  calyx lobes linear,  acute, silky with appressed hairs on both sides,
very long; corolla cylindrical, larger than in the  last, a third longer than
the calyx,  silky pubescent outside ; anthers  linear, much longer than the
vertically dilated filaments.
  Properties and  Uses.—Diuretic and tonic.  Said to be a solvent of
calculus.   A  strong infusion of the  root  and  seeds,  taken every two
hours for twelve or twenty hours, or until  it operates  as  a cathartic, in
doses of four fluidounces, is highly extolled as a  cure for  calculous affec-
tions.  Care must  be taken  that it  be not continued  too long, for fear
of producing too great  a flow of urine.  It is worthy of a full investi-
gation.
                      ORIGANUM  VULGARE.
                              Origanum.
      Nat. Ord.—Lamiaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.
                              the herb.
  Description.—Origanum  Vulgare  or Wild Marjoram is a perennial
herb, with erect, herbaceous, hairy, purplish, quadrangular, trichotomous
stems, from  six inches to  two feet  in  hight.   The  leaves  are opposite,
petiolate,  broad-ovate, obtuse, subserrate, hirsute, rounded  at the base,
green on both sides, sprinkled with resinous dots, and paler beneath.  The
petioles are hairy, and one-fourth as long as the leaves.   The fiowers are
numerous, of a pinkish purple or rose-color, and are disposed in smooth,
erect, roundish, panicled, and  fasciculate  spikes,  and accompanied with
ovate, reddish bracts,  longer than the calyx.  The calyx is ovate, tubu-
lar, striated,  with nearly equal segments,  and hairy in the throat.   The
corolla  is  funnel-shaped, about the length of the calyx, slightly two-
lipped ;  the  upper lip  suberect, bifid and  obtuse,  the lower trifid, blunt,
and  spreading.   Stamens  four, exserted,  somewhat didynamous, with 
Ornus Europ^ea.
693
double anthers ;  the stigma bifid and reflexed.   Achenia dry, somewhat
smooth.
   History.—Wild Marjoram is a native of Europe  and America.  It is
found o-rowing along the  road-sides, dry banks, and in dry stony fields
and woods, flowering from June to  October.   The whole  plant is offi-
cinal, but is principally used  for the extraction of its  volatile oil, on
which its virtues depend and which may be separated by distillation with
water.   The plant has a strong, peculiar, rather agreeable balsamic odor,
and a warm, bitterish, aromatic taste, which properties are imparted to
alcohol, or  boiling  water by  infusion.— The  Origanum Majorana,  or
Sweet Marjoram,  possesses properties similar to the above species.   It
is  a native of  Portugal, but cultivated in our  gardens,  and much used
in  cookery as a seasoning.  Its leaves are oval or obovate, obtuse, entire,
petiolate, hairy pubescent; the flowers pink-colored, in compact, round-
ish, pedunculate, terminal spikes, with roundish  bracts.  It flowers a
month  earlier  than the preceding species; its odor is stronger, and more
agreeable, and its taste more camphoraceous.
   Properties and Uses.—Origanum  is  gently stimulant,  tonic, and em-
menagogue.   A  warm infusion  produces  diaphoresis, and  tends to pro-
mote menstruation,  when  recently suppressed  from cold.   It is some-
times employed externally in fomentation.
   Off.  Prep.—Infusum  Origani;  Linimentum  Capsici  Compositum ;
Linimentum  Olei Compositum; Linimentum  Saponis Camphoratum ;
Oleum  Origani;  Tinctura  Camphorae Composita.
                       ORNUS EUROP^EA.
                           Manna  Tree.
          Nat. Ord.—Oleaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Diandria Monogynia.
                   the concrete  juice,   manna.
  Description.—The Manna tree,  or Flowering Ash, is  a small tree,
usually  from  twenty to twenty-five  feet  high, much  branched, and
covered with a smooth  gray bark.   The leaves are opposite, petiolate,
and unequally pinnate, and consist of three or four pairs of leaflets, with
a terminal one, which are opposite, oblong,  or oval, acuminate, obtusely
serrate, smooth, hairy at the base of the midrib on the under side, about
an inch and a half in length,  and of a bright green color; the petioles
are  channeled.   The flowers are white,  and usually expand with the
leaves; they  grow  in dense panicles at the extremities of the young
branches,  on supra-decompound  peduncles.  The calyx is very short,
with four  ovate  teeth ;  the corolla, consists of four  linear, lanceolate
petals.   The  stamens are two, supporting long, yellow, incumbent an-
thers.  The ovary is oval, with a very  short style, and a notched stigma. 
694
Materia  Medica.
 The fruit is  a pendulous,  compressed samara,  containing  a single,
 lanceolate, cylindrical, brown seed.
   History. — The manna tree is  a native  of most parts  of  Southern
 Europe, but thrives especially in Calabria and Sicily.  The officinal part
 is the juice of the tree, known in commerce as manna.  In Sicily the
 tree yields manna after its eighth year,  and for some ten or twelve sub-
 sequent years, when it is cut down, and young sprouts allowed to grow
 up from the  root.  The manna exudes spontaneously  from the bark,
 during the hot months, and concretes ; but in order to facilitate  the
 process deep longitudinal incisions are made in the bark, on one side of
 the tree, from which the juice runs out, and speedily thickens.   These
 incisions are made on one side of the trunk during  one  season; on the
 other  side the next, and  so on alternately  as long as the trees yield
 manna.  There are several varieties of manna, which chiefly differ from
 one another  in quality according to the season and mode of collection.
 The Sicily manna is the most esteemed.
   The  best and  purest  is the Flake Manna or Manna  Cannulata, the
 Manna Gerace of the Sicilians; it exudes spontaneously,  or by incisions
 during the hottest and dryest weather in July and August, and is usually
 collected on straw or clean chips which are stuck into the  bark below the
 incisions, so that the  juice may concrete upon  them in easily detached
 stalactites.  It is in irregular, unequal pieces, light, rough, brittle, dry,
 white, or pale  yellowish-white, resembling stalactitic  masses, about six or
 seven  inches  long, and an inch broad, hollowed slightly on the side by
 which they adhered to the tree, and frequently soiled by  adhering frag-
 ments of bark  or  other  impurities.   They  usually vary in  length from
 one to seven  inches, and have a crystalline or granular fracture.  The
next quality is Common Manna, or Manna-in-sorts,  this is collected late
in the season when the heat has begun to moderate, and  the juice does
not so readily concrete, but requires to be further dried in the sun.  It
is in whitish or yellowish fragments, similar to the flake manna but much
smaller, mixed with a soft, viscid, uncrystallized brownish matter, and
has a nauseous taste.  Fat Manna is that collected in the latter part of
the season, during cool and wet weather, in which the juice is still less
disposed to thicken.   It is  soft,  adhesive,  not brittle, of a brown, or
yellowish-brown color, and full of impurities.
  Manna is produced  from  several other trees  beside  the Ornus Eu-
ropaaa,  belonging  to the genera Ornus  and  Fraxinus.   Among which
are more particularly the 0. Rotundifolia, F. Excelsior, and F.  Parvi-
flora.   The  Abies or  Pinus Larix, yields  a  sweet exudation called
Briancon manna, but which contains no mannite; the Hedysarum Alhayi
of Syria, yields the Manna  Mereniabin, an inferior manna; the Larix
 Cedrus produces the Manna of Lebanon;  the Tamarix Gallica, the Manna
of Mount Sinai; and the Eucalyptus Mannifera, a kind of manna called
New Holland manna, containing a saccharine principle, but no mannite. 
Orobanche Virginiana.
695
   Manna has a faint, peculiar odor,  and a rather pleasant, sweet, some-
 what sharp, peculiar taste ; in the impure or inferior kinds the taste
 is also nauseous.  When long kept it loses its white color, and gradually
 changes to a yellowish-red or brown.   It softens with  the heat  of the
 hand, melts at a temperature somewhat higher,  and  is inflammable,
 burning with  a blue  flame.  When pure it is  almost wholly soluble  in
 three parts of temperate,  and in  its own weight of boiling  water.   A
 saturated boiling aqueous solution on cooling deposits the manna in par-
 tially crystalline masses.   It dissolves  in eight parts of  alcohol,  and if a
 saturated solution be made  by heat,  on  cooling, a  deposit of beautiful
 crystals of manna will ensue.  In consequence  of its sugar, it is capable
 of undergoing fermentation.  Analysis has found it to consist of mannite,
 sugar, a yellow, nauseous matter, mucilage, etc.  Mannite may  be ob-
 tained by boiling manna in  alcohol, allowing the solution  to cool, and
 redissolving the crystalline precipitate, when pure mannite  is  deposited.
 It is in white, acicular,  four-sided  prisms, in radiated tufts.  It is  sweet,
 inodorous, soluble in five parts of  cold water, less so in alcohol, and not
 fermentable with yeast.   Nitric acid converts  it partly into oxalic,  and
 partly into mucic acid.   It consists  of six equivalents of carbon, seven
 of hydrogen,  and six of oxygen.  One or two  ounces will, it is stated,
 act as a gentle laxative.   Good manna is seldom counterfeited, though
 the inferior sorts are, occasionally.   A spurious article is said  to be
 made of sugar and honey combined with  some mild laxative.  The
 inferior manna is likewise  purified so as to resemble the flake  variety;
 but all these frauds are  easily detected.
  Properties and Uses.—Manna is a gentle laxative.  Used for children
and pregnant women, also in piles attended with constipation.   Usually
added to other  purgatives to conceal their taste.   Dose,  one or two
ounces, for an adult; from  one  to four drachms  for children.  It is
usually prescribed with  other purgatives, as rhubarb,  magnesia, etc.,
but especially with senna.  In large doses it is apt to  cause  flatulence
and griping.
                   OROBANCHE  VIRGINIANA.
                            Beech  Drops.
       Nat. Ord.—Orobancheaceas.  Sex.  Syst.—Polyandria Digynia.
                            the plant.
  Description.—This plant is the Epiphegus Americanus of Nuttall, the
E. Virginiana of Barton, and is also known by the name of Cancer-root.
It is a  parasitic  growth, with  a smooth, fleshy,  leafless stem,  about a
foot, or  a foot and a half in hight, with slender and irregular  branches
given off the whole length of it.  The root is scaly, and tuberous, covered
with stiff, short, and brittle radicles.   Instead of leaves it has only a few,
scattered,  inconspicuous, ovate  scales, one  at the  base of each  branch, 
696
Materia  Medica.
of a yellowish or purplish color.  The flowers are alternate, scattered
on  each branch,  subsessile,  the  lower perfect  and  fertile,  the  upper
usually imperfect and  abortive.   Calyx short, five-toothed.   Corolla of
the perfect flowers, two-lipped;  the  upper lip  emarginate,  the  lower
three-toothed;  of  the  imperfect, slender, four-toothed, deciduous, six to
eight lines  long,  curved,  whitish and purple; the upper tooth  or lip
broadest, notched  at the apex, arched, not longer than the others.  Sta-
mens as long as the corolla ; fllaments  smooth ; anthers two-lobed, acute
at the base, valveless,  dehiscent in the middle.   Stigma capitate,  some-
what emarginate.   Capsule gibbous, truncate, oblique, one-celled, com-
pressed, half two-valved at the apex, with two approximate placentae on
each.   Seeds very numerous, straw-colored, shining.
  History.—This plant is found in all  parts of North  America, growing
upon the roots  of  beech trees, and flowering  in August and September.
The whole  plant is  of a dull-red  color, without any verdure.  It has a
bitter,  nauseous, astringent taste, which is  diminished by drying.   It
yields  its virtues  to water.  There  are several other species of this
genus, which are  parasitic, and which possess analogous  properties, as
the Orobanche  Uniflora, or one-flowered  broomrape, and the Orobanche
Americana,  or American broomrape.
  Properties and  Uses.—An  astringent.   Used with  benefit  in hemor-
rhages of the bowels and  uterus, and  in diarrhea.   Said to cure cancer,
but it  possesses no property of  the  kind.   In  erysipelas a decoction
drank freely, and the parts bathed with it, has effected many cures.  As
a local application, the decoction or poultice will  arrest the tendency of
wounds or ulcers to gangrene; a poultice of  equal parts of poke, white
oak, and beech-drops is very useful in herpetic affections.   Also useful as
a topical application to obstinate ulcers, aphthous  ulcerations, leucorrhea,
gleet, etc.   Dose,  of the powder,  from ten to fifteen grains.   This plant
seems to exert  an  influence upon the capillary system, somewhat similar
to that produced by the tincture of muriate of iron.


                         ORYZA SATIVA
                                Rice.
        Nat. Ord.—Graminacea1.   Sex.  Syst.—Hexandria Digynia.
                the seeds deprived  of their  husks.
  Description. — Rice  is an annual plant with  a jointed culm or stem;
leaves clasping; panicle terminal; glumes two, one-flowered; palea two,
adhering to the ovary; stamens six; styles two.
  History.—Rice is  supposed  to  have been  originally a  native  of the
East Indies, but it  is  at  present cultivated  in  nearly  all parts  of the
world, where the soil and climate are favorable. The ordinary commercial
rice consists of  the seeds of the plant divested of their husks.   Carolina 
Osmorrhiza  Longistylis.
697
rice, on analysis, has been found to consist of  85.07 per cent, of starch,
3.60 of gluten, 0.71 of gum, 0.29 of uncrystallizable  sugar, 0.13  of  a
fixed oil, 4.80 of vegetable fiber, 5.00 of water, and  0.40 of saline
substances.
   Properties and Uses.—Rice is nutritious; and boiled in water till per-
fectly soft, is very useful in cases of debilitated stomach  or bowels, and
diarrhea; it is likewise reputed a valuable  article  of food to overcome
the diarrhea so common to those  who  for the first  time use the river
waters of the Western States.   It is by  some considered injurious to the
eyes when used in any quantity,  but this is an  erroneous  opinion, as
many nations employ it  almost exclusively as a diet, without any such
effects.   A  decoction of rice (rice-water) is an excellent soothing and
nutritive drink in  fevers,  and inflammatory diseases   of the  lungs,
stomach, bowels, and kidneys.
                  OSMORRHIZA  LONGISTYLIS.
                            Sweet  Cicely.
          Nat.  Ord.—Apiaceae.  Sex.  Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.
                             the root.
   Description. — This is  the  Uraspermum Claytoni of  Nuttall; it has a
perennial, thick, fleshy, branching root, of an agreeable, aromatic flavor,
and an  erect, nearly smooth  stem, branching  above, and  growing from
two to three feet high.   The leaves are large,  decompound, the ultimate
divisions often pinnate; the radical leaves on  long, slender petioles, the
cauline  sessile.   The leaflets are irregularly divided by clefts and  sinuses
into lobes  and teeth;  the lobes  broadly ovate, and slightly pubescent.
The flowers are white, in axillary and terminal umbels, about five-rayed,
the central ones barren, and the outer ones fertile.  Calyx-margin obso-
lete ; 2)ctals oblong, nearly entire, with a short inflexed point.  Involucres
of linear bracts longer than the rays.  Style as long as the villose germ,
filiform, erect, deflexed.   Fruit linear-oblong, about an  inch in length,
angled,  tapering downward into a stalk-like base, contracted at the sides,
blackish, and crowned  with  the persistent styles.   Carpels with  five
equal, acute,  upwardly  bristly ribs;  commissure  with a deep,  bristly
channel; intervals without vittae.
  History.—This plant grows in  various parts of the  United States, in
rich moist woods, on the sides of low meadows,  on the banks of running
streams, and on the borders of low woodlands.   It flowers in May and
June.   The root is the  part  employed, it  has a sweet smell and taste,
resembling aniseed, and yields its sensible properties to water or diluted
alcohol.
  Properties  and Uses.—Sweet Cicely is aromatic, stomachic, carmina-
tive, and expectorant.   Useful in coughs,  flatulence,  and  as a  gentle 
698
Materia  Medica.
stimulant  tonic to debilitated stomachs;  the  fresh  root may be eaten
freely, or  it may be used in infusion with brandy or water.
                      OSMUNDA REGALIS.
                          Buckhorn Brake.
   Nat.  Ord.—Filices (Lindley); Polypodiaceae (Brown).   Sex. Syst.—Cryp-
togamia Filices.
                              the root.
   Description. — This is the Osmunda Spectabilis of Willdenow,  often
termed Royal Flowering-Fern.  It has a hard, scaly, tuberous rhizoma,
beset with numerous fibers, and having  a whitish  core  in the center.
The fronds are several, erect, three or four feet high, doubly-pinnate,
smooth, bright-green, the  primary divisions or pinnae  from  six to ten,
nearly  opposite,  remote, hardly a span long.  The  leaflets  are  more
numerous, often  alternate, sessile or nearly so, oblong, bluntish, entire
or obscurely-crenate with one rib, and numerous transverse veins; the
base dilated,  heart-shaped,  or somewhat lobed.    Some  of the upper
leaflets are cut, and as it were partially transmuted into  dense  clusters
or  spikes  of  innumerable,  small,  light-brown, veiny, globular,  two-
valved thecce entirely covering the segments; several of the upper divi-
sions of the leaf consisting entirely of such thecae, composing a compound
panicle.   Spores  green.
  History. — This  beautiful fern  is found  in  meadows and low, moist
grounds throughout the United States, flowering in June.  The  main
roots or caudex, is  the officinal part, it  is  about  two  inches  long, and
somewhat in the shape of a horn.   It consists of a number of longitudi-
nal scales, lying over each other,  and which have silky, transparent
borders, with numerous small fibers or radicles, firmly  matted together.
It contains an abundance of mucilage, which is extracted by boiling
water.  The root should be collected in August, or about the latter part
of May, and dried with great care, as they  are apt to become moldy.
  The  Osmunda  Cinnamomea, or Cinnamon-colored Fern, is sometimes
used as a substitute for the above, but it is inferior.   Its root is similar
to that of the  above, in  shape, but it is considerably larger.  When its
stems first appear in the spring, they are hairy and of a whitish color,
surmounted by the  young leaves, curiously rolled up  in  the form  of a
scroll,  and covered with a downy or wool-like substance.
  Properties  and  Uses. — Mucilaginous,  tonic, and styptic.   Used in
coughs, diarrhea, and dysentery; also  used as a tonic  during conva-
lescence  from  exhausting diseases.  One root, infused in a pint of hot
water for half an hour, will convert the whole into a thick jelly.  Very
valuable in leucorrhea, and  other female weaknesses,  and said to be an
almost certain cure  for rickets, in doses of  three  drachms of the  root, 
OSTRYA VlRGINICA.
699
three times a day.   The  mucilage mixed with brandy is  a popular
remedy as an external application for sprains, and weakness of the back.
For  internal use, the roots may be infused in hot water, sweetened, and
ginger, cinnamon, brandy etc., added if not contra-indicated.

                     OSTRYA VlRGINICA.
                            Iron Wood.
        Nat.  Ord.—Cupuliferas.  Sex. Syst.—Monoecia Polyandria.
                         THE INNER WOOD.
  Description. — This is a small tree from  twenty-five to thirty feet in
hight, remarkable for its fine, narrow, longitudinally divided and brown-
ish bark.  The wood is white, hard, and strong.  The leaves are oblong-
ovate, subcordate, acuminate, unequally serrate, somewhat downy; buds
acute.   Sterile flowers in cylindrical aments; scales orbicular-ovate acu-
minate, ciliate,  one-flowered; fllaments  somewhat united  irregularly;
anthers bearded at the summit.   Fertile flowers in pairs, numerous,  in a
short,  oblong, pendulous,  loosely imbricated, linear, terminal ament,
with small  deciduous bracts;  scales none, but each flower is inclosed in
a membranous  sac-like  involucre, bristly-hairy at the base, and which
enlarges, forming a bladdery closed bag in  fruit, these being imbricated
to form a sort of strobile  appearing like  that of the Hop.  Ovary two-
celled,  two-ovuled, crowned with entire and bearded border of  the peri-
anth, forming a small and seed-like smooth nut.  Styles  two, united at
the   base;  nut  lance-oblong,  somewhat compressed, included in the
enlarged, imbricated, bladder-like sac.
  History. — This plant, sometimes  called  Hop-hornbeam, Lever-wood,
etc.,  is  a tree common to  the United States, growing in rich woods, and
flowering in April and May.  The flowers are green and appear with the
leaves, and the large and handsome oval-oblong strobiles are matured in
August.   The inner wood and bark, are the parts used ;  they are bitter,
and  yield their virtues to water.  There is  another tree, known as Iron-
wood closely  resembling  the  above, the  Carpinus Americana;  it grows
from ten to twenty feet high, has a smooth gray bark, with an irregularly
ridged trunk, and very fine-grained, compact, white wood.   The  scales
of the fertile  aments are  three-parted, the  middle segment being much
the largest, oblique, with a lateral tooth, persistent, and becoming folia-
ceous.   The  nut small, ovoid, bony, ribbed, with a  simple,  one-sided,
enlarged, and open  leaf-like involucre.   This tree is not bitter, and must
not be confounded with the Ostrya.
  Properties and Uses.—Iron-wood is antiperiodic, tonic, and alterative,
It has been used with efficacy in intermittent fevers, neuralgic affections,
dyspepsia, scrofula, and all diseases where  an antiperiodic-tonic is indi-
cated.   Dose of  the decoction, one or two fluidounces, three or four times
a day. 
700
Materia  Medica.
                              OVUM.
                                Egg.
                   THE  EGG OF  PHASANIUS  GALLUS.
  History.—The Common Hen,  Phasanius  Gallus,  supposed  to  have
been  originally  the Jungle-fowl  of India, is domesticated  in nearly all
parts  of the  globe.   Its egg is the officinal product.  It consists of an
external shell, testa ovi or putamen ovi, composed chiefly of  carbonate of
lime,  from  which nearly pure lime is had by calcination; a lining mem-
brane of an albuminous  nature ;  the white,  and the yelk.
  The white,  albumen  ovi,  is  a  glairy,  colorless,  transparent liquid
inclosed in delicate membranous cells, inodorous, tasteless, and composed
of twelve per cent, of albumen, 2.7 of  mucus, 0.3 of saline substances
with  traces of sulphur, and eighty-five of water.   It is soluble in water,
coagulable by alcohol, the stronger acids, and by a heat of  160° F., and
precipitated by  corrosive  sublimate, chloride of tin, chloride  of  gold,
subacetate  of lead,  sulphate of  copper,  and tannin.  Exposed in thin
layers to a current of air, it becomes solid, retaining its transparency
and solubility in water, and  can  be thus preserved a long  time without
change ; in this state, it may be  applied in a  state  of solution to the
same  purposes as in its original condition.   It soon putrefies when  kept
in the fluid state.
  The yelk, vitellus ovi, is a thick, opake,  yellow  fluid, inodorous, of a
bland, oily taste, and when agitated with water  forms an opake emulsion.
When heated it is converted into a granular solid,  from which a fixed oil
may be obtained by expression.  It contains 51.846  per  cent, of water,
15.760 of vitellin,  a peculiar albuminous principle, 21.304  of margarin
and olein, 0.438 of cholesterin, 7.226 of oleic and  margaric acids, 1.200
of phosphoglyceric acid, 0.034  of muriate  of  ammonia, 0.277 of  chlo-
rides  of sodium,  potassium, and  sulphate  of  potassa, 1.022  of  phos-
phates of lime  and magnesia, 0.400 of animal extract, and  0.553 of
coloring matter, traces of iron, lactic acid, etc.
  Properties and. Uses.—Eggs  are much employed  in medicine and phar-
macy.  The shells, powdered and levigated, may  be used  in the  same
doses as prepared  chalk, as an antacid in diarrhea.  The white  of egg is
useful as  a demulcent in  diseases of the intestinal  mucous membrane,
and as an antidote for corrosive  sublimate and  the soluble  salts of cop-
per, with which it  forms insoluble and  comparatively inert compounds.
In cases of redness or excoriation  from pressure,  it forms  a good  local
application,  used in the form of a liniment, made by agitating it briskly
with its own volume of alcohol.   It is used  also for the  clarification of
liquids, which it accomplishes by undergoing coagulation, and  envelop-
ing suspended impurities in  its flakes;  for  the suspension  of  insoluble
substances  in water; and  for  forming an astringent poultice,  by being 
OXALIS  ACETOSELLA.
701
agitated with a lump of alum ;  the  coagulum thus produced is applied,
between folds of gauze, over the eye in some forms of ophthalmia.
  The yelk when raw is considered  laxative, and is a popular remedy in
jaundice, and dvspepsia ;  probably, its  effects in  these  complaints  are
owing to its easiness of digestion.   It is mildly nutritious, and generally
acceptable to the stomach, and may be used in dyspepsia, beaten up with
water and a little ginger.  It answers a better purpose than the white,
in preparing  emulsions and mixtures, being  highly useful as an inter-
medium between water  and balsams, turpentines,  oils, and  other insol-
uble substances.  The oil  expressed from  the  coagulated  yelk  is some-
times used as  an  application  to excoriated  nipples.   A non-collegiate
practitioner in this county, has acquired some celebrity in the treatment
of dyspepsia, loss of appetite,  constipation, hemorrhoids, etc. ; the agent
he employs is  a powder  composed of equal  parts of the inner skin of
chickens' gizzards (ingluvies pulli,) dried and pulverized, sulphur, and
resin, of which from five to ten grains are  to be taken three or four times
a day.
   Off. Prep.—Linimentum Terebinthinae.
                     OXALIS  ACETOSELLA.
                           Wood  Sorrel.
        Nat. Ord.—Oxalidaceee.  Sex.  Syst.—Decandria Pentagynia.
                         THE WHOLE HERB.
  Description.—Wood-Sorrel is a small, perennial, herbaceous, stemless
plant,  with a creeping  and scaly-toothed root-stock.   The leaves  are
numerous, radical,  palmately three-foliate, on long,  weak, hairy stalks;
the leaflets are broadly obcordate, with rounded lobes, entire, pubescent,
of a yellowish-green color, but frequently purplish  beneath ; they close
and droop at nightfall.  Scape longer than the  petioles, one-flowered,
with two scaly bracts near the middle.  Flowers  white, yellowish at the
base,  delicately veined with  purple, scentless.   Stamens ten, monadel-
phous at the base, alternately shorter; sepals fixe, persistent; petals five;
style as long as  the inner  stamens.   Capsule  five-lobed,  five-celled,
oblong ; seeds several, with an elastic testa.
  History.—This plant grows in Europe and North  America, in woods,
groves,  and hedges, but  principally  confined, in America, to the boreal
and mountainous  regions.   It flowers in  May,  and  is the Shamrock of
the Irish.   It is without smell, and  has an agreeable, acid taste.  It owes
its acidity to binoxalate of potassa, which is sometimes prepared and sold
under the name of Salt  of Sorrel.   This comes from Switzerland  and
Germany,  where it is prepared from  different species  of oxalis   and
ruraex.   The following  process is   employed:  The plants previously 
702
Materia Medica.
bruised are macerated  for  some days in water, and then submitted to
pressure.   The liquid thus obtained is mixed with clay, and occasionally
agitated  for  two days.   At the  end of this  time, the clear liquor is
decanted,  and evaporated  so  that  crystals may  form when it cools.
These  are purified by solution and a new crystallization.   Five hundred
parts of the plant afford four parts of the acidulous salt.   The same salt
may be prepared by cautiously dropping  a solution  of potassa into a
saturated solution of oxalic acid.   The binoxalate crystallizes when a
sufficient  quantity of the alkali has been  added.   It is in  rhomboidal
crystals, of a sour, pungent, bitterish taste, soluble in ten  times  their
weight of boiling water, much less so in cold water, and unalterable in
the air.   It  is employed for  removing  iron-mold  and ink stains  from
linen,  and sometimes as a test  for lime.   It contains 72.48 parts  or two
equivalents of oxalic acid, 47.5 parts or one equivalent of potassa, and
eighteen parts or two equivalents  of water.
   The  Quadroxalate of Potassa,  or Essential  Salt of Lemons is  often
substituted for  the  binoxalate.   It is  prepared in  the  same manner,
except that, instead  of  one  part, three parts of the  acid are added to the
original portion  neutralized by the potassa.  Used  for the same purposes
as the binoxalate; both are  poisonous, though in a less degree  than
uncombined oxalic acid.— U. S. Dis.
   There are other varieties of this plant, possessing analogous  proper-
ties, as the  Oxalis  Stricta, and  0.  Violacea.   They all have  ternate
leaves with  obcordate  leaflets, and  with the  exception  of  0. Violacea
bear yellow flowers.
   Properties and Uses.—This and other species of  Sorrel are refrigerant
and diuretic.   Useful  in  febrile diseases,  hemorrhages,  gonorrhea,
chronic catarrh, urinary affections,  and  in  scurvy.   An  infusion, or a
whey made by boiling them in milk, may be used, or the herb  may be
eaten, but in neither case to excess, on  account of the oxalic  acid they
contain.  Externally, the bruised leaves, or inspissated juice have been
found  useful as an application  to  scrofulous,  malignant and indolent
ulcers.  The Rumex Acetosa, or  Garden Sorrel, R. Acetosella, or Sheep
Sorrel, and R.  Vesicarius possess similar properties, which see.
                     P^EONIA OFFICINALIS.

                               Peony.
        Nat. Ord.—Ranunculacese.  Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Digynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—Peony has many, thick, long, spreading, perennial roots,
running  deep into the ground,  with  an erect, herbaceous, large, green
and branching stem, about two or three feet high.  The leaves are large ; 
Panax  Quinquefolium.
703
the lower leaves bipinnately divided;  the leaflets are ovate-lanceolate,
smooth, variously incised.   The flowers are large, red, terminal, solitary;
sepals  five, unequal; petals red,  cordiform ;  stamens  numerous, mostly
changed to  petals by cultivation.   Carpels three;  stigmas double, per-
sistent ; follicles  fleshy, many-seeded ;   seeds black, numerous,  dry,
round.
  History.—This is a  native of southern  Europe,  and is cultivated  in
gardens in  the United  States and elsewhere, on account of the beauty
of its flowers, which appear from May to August.  The  root is the offi-
cinal part;  it consists of a caudex about as thick as the thumb, sending
off spindle-shaped tubers  in all directions,  which gradually taper into
thread-like fibers.  It,  together  with  the seeds,  have when  recent, a
strong, peculiar, disagreeable odor,  and a nauseous, sweetish taste, suc-
ceeded by bitterness, acridity, and slight astringency; on drying it nearly
loses its odor, and its taste is lessened.  The flowers have a similar odor,
and an astringent, sweetish, herbaceous taste.  They  all yield their vir-
tues to diluted spirits.  No analysis has been  made of this plant.
  Properties and Uses.—Peony is antispasmodic and  tonic.  It has been
successfully employed in chorea, epilepsy,  spasms, and various nervous
affections.  In combination with white snakeroot,  or black cohosh, it has
proved valuable in pertussis.  An infusion may be  made by adding an
ounce of the root in coarse powder to a pint of a boiling  liquid, com-
posed of one part of good  gin, and two  parts of water, which may be
sweetened ; dose  two  or three fluidounces three or four times a day.
Dose of the  expressed juice of the recent root, one  or  two drachms; of
the powdered root, a drachm three or four times a day ; of the powdered
seeds from thirty to forty grains.  The seeds taken night and morning,
have been successfully used in removing  the nightmare, attendant  upon
dropsical persons; they  are also reputed  emetic,  cathartic, and anti-
spasmodic.
                   PANAX QUINQUEFOLIUM.
                              Ginseng.
         Nat.  Ord.—Araliaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia,
                             THE  ROOT.
  Description. — Ginseng has a perennial, fusiform, whitish, thick and
fleshy root  transversely wrinkled,  and terminating in fibers ;  its upper
portion slender and marked with the scars of former shoots.   The  stem,
is round, smooth, green, often with a  tinge of red, about a foot high,
regularly divided at top into three petioles, with a flower-stalk in their
center.  Petioles round, smooth, swelling at base.  The  leaves are three,
ternate, quinate or septenate.   Leaflets  pedicellate, obovate, sharplv
serrate  ac""-"'""*! 
704:                     Materia  Medica.
 veins above.  The flowers are small,  greenish, and arranged in a simple
 umbel, supported by a round, slender peduncle, which  rises from the
 top of the stem in the center of  the  petioles.  Involucre of a  multitude
 of short  subulate bracts,  interspersed among the  flower-stalks,  which
 are so short as to give the appearance of a head rather than  an umbel.
 Calyx with five  small acute teeth.  Petals five, oval, reflexed and  deci-
 duous.   Stamens five, with oblong anthers.   Styles two, reflexed, per-
 sistent.    Ovary  large,  inferior, ovate-cordate,  compressed.  Berries
 kidney-shaped,  refuse  at  both  ends, compressed,  of a bright scarlet
 color, crowned with the calyx and styles, and containing two  and some-
 times three semicircular seeds.  The outermost florets ripen  first, and
 their berries often obtain their full size before  the central ones are ex-
 panded, the central florets are frequently abortive.
  History.—Ginseng is a  native of  most of the Middle and  Northern
 States,  and extends on the mountains far south, growing in rich soil and
 in shaded  situations,  and  flowering in May.   The  root is  somewhat
 spindle-shaped,  from one  to  three  inches  long, about as thick as the
 little  finger, and terminated  by several slender fibers.   When dried,
 it is  yellowish-white and wrinkled  externally, internally a hard central
 portion, surrounded by a soft whitish bark ;  it has a feeble odor, and a
 sweet, pleasant  bitter, slightly aromatic taste, and yields its properties to
 water or alcohol.
  Properties and Uses.—A  mild  tonic and stimulant.  Useful  in loss of
 appetite, slight nervous debility, and weak stomach.   By some, it is con-
 sidered useful in asthma,  gravel, convulsions,  paralysis, to  invigorate
 the virile  powers, etc., etc.  Dose  of the  powder, from ten  to  sixty
 grains ; of the infusion, from two to four fluidounces.


                   PAP AVER SOMNIFERUM.
                               Poppy.
       Nat. Ord.—Papaveraceae.   Sex.  Syst.—Polyandria Monogynia.
        THE CONCRETE JUICE OF  THE UNRIrE CAPSULES.  OPIUM.
  Description.—The Poppy is an annual  plant, with a tapering and white
 root;  the  stem is round, erect, smooth, glaucous, often branched, leafy,
 and  from two to four feet  in hight; sometimes there are a few rigid
 hairs on the upper part of the  stem.  The leaves are large, alternate,
 ovate-oblong, incised and dentate, repand, amplexicaul.  The flowers are
 large, terminal,  white or silvery-gray, on long peduncles.  The calyx is
smooth, and consists  of  two ovate, concave, obtuse,  sepals, which fall
off on the expanding of the flower ; the corolla consists of four, roundish,
spreading, undulated, and as it were, plaited  petals, white with a violet
spot  at base.  The stamens  are very numerous, much shorter than the
corolla, and terminated by oblong, compressed anthers.   The  ovary  is 
Papaver  Somniferum.                    705
 nearly globular, smooth, crowned with a flat, stellate stigma.  The cap-
 sule is large, smooth, one-celled, but  with  partial dissepiments.   The
 seeds  are very numerous, small, of  a whitish  or  gray color, somewhat
 reniform, escaping at maturity by openings under the stigma ; they are
 oily and destitute of any narcotic power.
   History.—There are several varieties of this species, the most promi-
 nent of which are termed the White and the Black Poppy.   The white,
 Papaver Somniferum, has white flowers and  seeds, and ovate capsules
 with no seed openings; the black, P. Officinale has colored flowers, dark
 seeds,  and large globular capsules, with  openings  for the discharge of
 the seeds under the stigma.  However distinct these may be naturally,
 by cultivation they run into each other, and seeds  from the same capsule
 will furnish plants bearing flowers of different  colors.  The white poppy
 is generally described as the officinal opium plant,  and is commonly
 supposed to be a native of Persia,  though found growing wild in the
 South  of Europe.  At present it  is  extensively cultivated in India,
 Egypt, Turkey, and  several parts  of  Europe, on account of its seed,
 capsules, and opium.  In this country it is found only as a garden plant,
 although  there is every reason to  believe that it would prove  a very
 lucrative branch of industry, not only from  the opium it  yields, but  also
 from the  oil to  be  had  from  its seeds, which is an excellent substitute
 for olive oil.   In India the flowers appear in February ;  in Europe  and
 the United  States from  May to September.   The officinal parts of the
 plant are the  capsules, and opium,  or  the concrete juice from the cap-
 sules ;  the seeds are employed for obtaining their  oil.
   The capsules of the poppy, or poppy-heads, should always be gathered
 before they have ripened ; at this time they abound  in  the juice  from
 which  opium  is formed,  which in a great  measure  disappears on  the
 ripening of the capsule.   When  dried, the  unripe capsules possess the
 peculiar bitterness and narcotic qualities of opium, which is scarcely per-
 ceptible in those that have been suffered to come to maturity.  The dried
 capsules are of various sizes, from that of a small egg to that of a large
 orange, they are of an ovate or globular form,  flattened below, and sur-
 mounted  by the persistent stigma.  The capsules of the white poppy are
 larger than those of the  black.  They owe their  virtues entirely to the
 opium  contained  in them.  Poppy seeds are  very numerous, a single
 capsule containing from  10,000 to  30,000.  They are  oleaginous  and
 emulsive, and yield by expression a large quantity of a  yellowish fixed
oil, which, on  being exposed for some  time to the air,  dries up into a
varnish.  The oil obtained is from one quarter to one half the weight of
 the seeds.  It, together  with the seeds, is inodorous,  and has a bland
and pleasant taste, without  any narcotic properties.  The oil is light,
and transparent,  and is used as food, likewise for painting, for burning,
and for the manufacture  of soap.
       45 
706
Materia. Medica.
    Opium is  procured from  the unripe capsules.   The whole  plant is
 said to contain a white, opake, narcotic juice, but in less quantity than
 the capsules.  The mode of procuring it is as follows : A few days after
 the flowers have  fallen, horizontal incisions are made in the capsule,
 care being taken not to penetrate its cavity; a white, milky fluid  exudes,
 which is left for twenty-four hours, and then scraped off with laro-e dull
 knives ; each capsule furnishes but a few grains of opium.   The epider-
 mis of the capsule is likewise removed by the  process of scraping, and
 constitutes about one-twelfth of the whole product.  The opium is  now
 in the form of a glutinous,  granular jelly, and  is transferred into small
 earthen vessels,  where it is beaten,  and at the same  time, moistened
 occasionally with saliva.  It is then wrapped in dry leaves for sale.   The
 extraction of the opium from the capsules does not injure the seeds.   In
 different countries, the mode of collecting the opium varies, in some, the
 incisions are made transversely, but in all, the essential  steps are nearly
 similar.  An inspection of the various kinds of opium, would indicate a
 difference  in the mode of extraction, as well as in its subsequent manipu-
 lations.  Sometimes  it  consists of small  tears or drops,  which appear to
 have undergone no  other  process after collection than agglutination ;
 again, it is found composed of thin layers, partially inspissated on poppy
 leaves, and afterward united along with the leaves into roundish masses;
 and that of Egypt, Hindostan,  and Europe is quite homogeneous.
   The  supply  of opium, in commerce, is chiefly obtained from  Persia,
 Hindostan, Egypt,  and Asiatic Turkey.  That from Turkey is the most
 esteemed,  and is the kind principally used in the United States.  It is
 imported  direct  from Smyrna, or indirectly through various European
 ports.  Turkey opium is prepared in  Anatolia;  it usually comes to us
 in more or less flattened masses, of irregular size and  shape, covered
 with leaves, or the remains  of  leaves  and with the reddish  capsules of
 some species  of Rumex, which  are  said  to  be  absent in the inferior
 kinds.  There are several varieties of  it, among which we may refer to
 the Smyrna and  Constantinople opium.  The Smyrna opium is imported
 in lumps weighing  from half a pound  to  a pound, and occasionally two
 or three pounds, and is of various shapes, owing probably to  the pres-
 sure they receive, while yet soft, in the cases which contain them ; some-
 times they are  found in flat  cakes.  Internally,  they are  still soft when
 found in the market; externally they are hard, and covered with the red-
 dish capsules of a species of Rumex to prevent their surfaces from adhering,
 and sometimes with the  remains of leaves. Their substance is rather pale-
 brown,  and consists of minute  agglutinated scales or tears, and are un-
 doubtedly formed from the juice which escapes in drops from the incisions
 in the capsules, and is allowed to concrete before collecting them.  In the
 finer  kinds, the only impurities present, are fragments of the capsules.
 This variety of opium is the most abundant in our markets, and is the best
opium met with; it is more productive in morphia than any other, yielding 
Papaver Somniferum.                   707
 from 9 to 11 per cent.  There is an inferior article, or Common Smyrna
  Opium, of the form and size of the previous kind;  it  is commonly
 covered with poppy leaves, and  often with rumex capsules; it is harder
 because older;  it  has  a  darker color, sometimes brownish-black inter-
 nally, at times a musty smell, with more or less moldiness.  It is some-
 times homogeneous, and  again  appears  to be composed of thin layers
 with interposed poppy leaves.  This variety is less productive of mor-
 phia than the preceding, and is likewise more liable to adulteration.
    Constantinople Opium is met with in flat, roundish masses, from half
 a pound to two and a half pounds in weight, and in its exterior appear-
 ance very much resembles the  superior Smyrna variety.   It differs,
 however, in its interior constitution, being for the most part, dry, hard,
 pale-brown, and homogeneous in texture, or rather composed, as it were,
 of agglutinated  scales, owing, probably,  to its being removed  from the
 capsules  before concretion, or  to its  being subsequently  subjected to
 pressure.  In point of purity, it is about equal to the Smyrna drug.  It
 is only occasionally met with in commerce.
   Other varieties, as Egyptian, India, and Persian Opium are  occasion-
 ally met with.  The Egyptian variety has been largely imported, but of
 late is gradually disappearing from  our  markets.   It is in round flat-
 tened cakes, of various dimensions, weighing from four to eight ounces,
 and sometimes a pound.   It is wrapped up in a poppy leaf,  is dry, hard,
 and brittle, has a pale-brown color and conchoidal, waxy fracture, with
 an odor weaker than the Smyrna opium.   It is always destitute of the
 Rumex capsules.   It is inferior to the  Turkey opium, though  occasion-
 ally parcels are met with as rich in  morphia, but  the quality is by no
 means  uniform.  It is probably  adulterated  in its  preparation, and
 should never be  employed in the preparation of tinctures, or for filling
 the prescriptions of physicians.   The India or East India Opium, very
 seldom reaches our markets; a greater abundance of it is made than of
 any other kind of opium,  and in the East it  commands high prices,
 though inferior to  Turkey opium.   There  are  two chief  varieties  of
 it, the Bengal, and the Malwah opium.   The Bengal Opium is produced
 in Bahar and Benares ;  it is in round balls, weighing three  pounds and
 a half, invested by a coating or case about half  an inch thick, and half a
 pound in weight,  formed  of  tobacco-leaves  and agglutinated poppy
 capsules.   Its  interior is  brownish-black, of the consistence  of stiff
 paste, and has the characteristic  odor and taste of opium.   This is  an
 inferior opium, yielding about 4 or 5 per cent, of morphia, and is  not
 only subject to adulteration, but  is injured, in consequence  of the juice
 being kept until fermentation takes place, before it is made up.  Another
 variety  of Bengal  Opium,  is called  Garden Patna Opium; it is  pre-
pared in Bahar with much care, from juice which has not been  allowed
to ferment.  It is in cakes about  three or  four inches square, and about
half an inch thick, weighing four ounces, and is neatly packed  in cases 
708
Materia Medica.
 with a partition of mica between  each cake.  The cakes are without
 covering, hard, dry, brittle, of  a  uniform  fracture, light-brown, and
 sometimes almost black, very  much resembling  the Egyptian Opium.
 They are superior to the preceding Bengal Opium, and some  specimens
 are  little inferior to average Turkey Opium in their proportion of mor-
 phia.  This  opium is never imported  as an article of trade.   Malwah
 Opium is in flat, roundish cakes,  five or six inches  in  diameter, and
 from four to eight  ounces  in weight.   They are commonly quite hard,
 dry, brittle, almost pulverizable, of a light-brown color, a shining frac-
 ture, a compact homogeneous texture, free from  mechanical  impurities,
 and  frequently presenting cracks near their circumference.   It is superior
 to the common Bengal Opium, and is not met with in this country.
   Persian Opium has occasionally found its way  into our markets, but
 it  is very rare.   It is in cylindrical  sticks  five or  six inches long, and
 about  half an  inch thick, wrapped  in glossy paper, and tied with  a
 cotton  thread.  It is soft and  flexible, of uniform consistence, does not
 harden when kept for years, is  of  a  paler-brown color than  any other
 kind, and its texture, under the microscope, is distinctly granular, as if
 it were composed of agglutinated tears.   It is of inferior quality.  But it
 is  not  in Asia  alone that  Opium has  been  collected;  many successful
 attempts have been made in England and other parts  of Europe;  and
 although the culture of the poppy has been limited  in these places, yet
 opium  has been prepared fully equal to  the Turkey drug, and at a much
 cheaper rate.
   Opium, when of good quality, has a strong, very peculiar, narcotic
 odor, with a most intense and persistent bitter taste,  somewhat aromatic
 and  acrid.   Its  color is  deep reddish-brown or deep fawn, its texture
compact,  and its specific  gravity 1.336.   The only change that  good
opium  undergoes by keeping, is that of gradually becoming hard; the
inferior varieties, are very  apt to become moldy after a time.  Persons
unaccustomed to its use will often have  their  mouths blistered by chew-
ing it, and it is very apt to  excite more or less irritation  in the lips  and
tongue.  When  soft, as it is usually in the center of  the mass, it is tena-
cious, and on exposure  to the  air gradually hardens, and ultimately
becomes  brittle, breaking with a shining fracture, and giving a yellowish-
brown  powder, when pulverized, which is  very apt to cohere.  Upon
the application  of a gentle heat  it  softens and becomes  adhesive, and
 at a higher temperature  it  burns,  evolving peculiar odorous fumes.
Water, cold or warm, dissolves about two-thirds of  it, including a great
part  of its active  ingredients, and forms a deep reddish-brown infusion;
 the residuum consists chiefly of a substance analogous to caoutchouc, with
 a considerable portion of narcotin.  Alcohol  dissolves nearly four-fifths
 of its weight, and the whole of its active parts.  Sulphuric ether chiefly
 dissolves narcotin, which may  be obtained in fine crystals on  evapora-
 tion.   The  concentrated  mineral  acids  disorganize  opium; but the 
Papaver  Somniferum.
709
 diluted acids, Doth mineral  and vegetable, are  powerful solvents, and
 exhaust it entirely of its active principles.
   Probably, no drug has more engaged the attention of chemists than
 this; but  notwithstanding  the  many  investigations of  it,  nothing of
 importance was developed  until 1803  when Derosne made known the
 existence of a crystallizable substance which he had discovered in opium;
 and which was subsequently termed narcotin;  in  the  year following,
 Seguin discovered another crystallizable body, but did not fully investi-
 gate its nature.  In 1817 Sertuerner announced  the discovery of mor-
 phia and meconic acid, since which later experimenters have demonstrated
 that this drug is complex in its  composition, containining no  less than
 seventeen  or eighteen constituents.  It contains morphia, which  is its
 most important principle, narcotin, codeia, paramorphia, narcein, meco-
 nin, porphyroxin, meconic and sulphuric acids,  a peculiar acid not yet
 fully investigated, extractive matter, gum, bassorin, a peculiar resinous
 body insoluble in ether and  containing nitrogen, fixed oil, a  substance
 resembling caoutchouc, an  odorous  volatile principle,  lignin, a  small
 proportion of acetic acid,  sulphate of  lime, sulphate of potassa, alumina,
 and iron, and also what  appears to  be only an occasional  constituent,
 termed by Pelletier,  pseudomorphia, beside papaverina discovered by
 Dr. G. Merck.
   Inferior  opium has a blackish color, a weak or empyreumatic smell, a
 sweet or slightly nauseous and bitter  taste;  a soft, viscid, or  greasy con-
 sistence, and a dull fracture; or it may possess an irregular, heterogeneous
 texture, arising from foreign  impurities.  It should not  color the  saliva
 deep brown, nor leave a dark uniform trace when  drawn over paper, nor
 form with water a thick viscid solution.  When  drawn over paper, good
 opium  usually leaves  an interrupted trace of a light-brown color.
   All the substances which cause precipitates with opium do not neces-
 sarily  affect  its medical  virtues; but  those agents which  are strictly
 incompatible, are all vegetable infusions  containing tannic  or gallic acids,
 which  separate  and precipitate its  active principle, and also  the alkalies
 or their solutions.
   Opium is very subject  to  adulterations, which  are practiced before it
 is imported into this country.   Sand,  dust, stones, oil, extract of poppy,
 and various other substances are  employed for the purpose.  Some of
these impurities can  be detected by ocular inspection, but others are
more difficult to distinguish.   Many purchasers rely almost entirely on
external characters, as color, odor,  taste, texture, moisture, and freedom
from mechanical admixtures; but these constitute fallacious criterions.
 Meconic acid and morphia, have, thus  far,  been found only in the pro-
 ducts of the poppy—hence, the presence of these agents will prove the
existence of opium in any  suspected mass, although it will not determine
its quality.   Meconic  acid may be ascertained  by forming an aqueous
infusion of the  substance  to  be examined, and adding to it the tincture 
710
Materia  Medica.
 of chloride of iron, if the solution become changed to a red color, this
 acid is probably present.  The matter may be rendered more certain by
 the following process :  Add to the filtered infusion an excess of a solu-
 tion of acetate of lead; if opium be present, there will be  a precipitate
 of meconate of lead, and the  acetates of morphia and lead will remain
 in solution.   Suspend the precipitate in water, and decompose it, either
 by adding a little diluted sulphuric  acid,  which forms the  sulphate of
 lead, and leaves the meconic acid in solution; or, by passing through it
 a stream of sulphureted hydrogen, removing  the precipitated sulphuret
 of lead by filtration, and heating  the clear liquor so as to drive off the
 sulphureted hydrogen.   If meconic acid be present, the  clear liquor
 thus obtained, will yield a red color with tincture of muriate of iron, a
 green  precipitate with  the  ammoniated sulphate of copper, and white
 precipitates soluble in  nitric acid,  with acetate of lead, nitrate of silver,
 and chloride of barium.   To ascertain the presence of morphia, take the
 above  liquid  after  the  sulphureted  hydrogen has  been driven off by
 heat, and apply the following reagents : Nitric acid,  colors it red if mor-
 phia be present;  iodic  acid,  which is decomposed by the morphia with
 the extrication of iodine, colors the liquid reddish-brown, and, if starch
 be present, unites with  it to form a blue compound;  tannic acid, precipi-
 tates an insoluble tannate  of morphia;  solution of ammonia,  carefully
 added so as not to be in excess, throws  down a precipitate  of morphia,
 soluble in a great excess of that alkali,  or of potassa; and if the pre-
 cipitate afford a deep-red color becoming yellow, with nitric  acid, and a
 blue color with the sesquichloride of iron, the proof is complete.  Having
 now ascertained that opium is  present in the mass under examination,
 the next thing is to ascertain its quality,  and this can only  be done by
 extracting its morphia ;  the proportion of morphia obtained  is the best
 test of  its purity.   Good opium should yield at least ten  per cent, of
 morphia, according to the processes named under the head  of Morphia,
 which see.  The  Edinburgh College gives the following test: "A solu-
 tion from 100 grains of  fine  opium macerated twenty-four hours in two
 fluidounces of water, filtered and strongly squeezed in a cloth, if treated
 with a cold solution of half an ounce of carbonate of  soda in two waters,
 yields a precipitate which weighs when dry, at least ten grains, and dis-
 solves entirely in solution of oxalic acid."
   The following is Guilliermond's test of the quality of opium,  as ascer-
 tained  by  its amount of morphia:  "Take 15 parts  of opium,  cut in
 pieces,  rub it  up with 60 parts of alcohol at 160°, drain the mixture on
linen and express, treat the residue with 40 parts  of  alcohol  at the same
temperature, unite the  tinctures in  a vessel with a large  mouth into
which 4 parts of  solution of ammonia (22° Cartier), have  been  intro-
duced, and  allow the mixture  to stand  12 hours.  The crystals which
form are to be put upon linen,  washed repeatedly with water to separate
the meconate  of  ammonia, and then  introduced  into a small vessel of 
Papaver  Somniferum.
711
 water.   The crystals of narcotina being very light, remain suspended in
 the water, and may be decanted  along with  it, while those of morphia
 remaining at the bottom, may be collected and weighed.   Good opium
 treated in this way will  yield for the  15 parts  employed from 1.25 to
 1.75  parts of the crystals of morphia."   As these crystals are not quite
 free  from narcotina, M. de Vry proposes the following  modification:
 "The mixture of morphia and narcotina, precipitated from the alcoholic
 solution by ammonia, after being washed, is  to be heated with a slight
 excess  of sulphate of copper dissolved in  pure water.   The  narcotina
 has no action on the  sulphate  of copper, which is  decomposed by the
 morphia, producing sulphate of morphia and tribasic  sulphate of copper.
 The latter and  the  narcotina remain undissolved, and a solution is ob-
 tained containing sulphate of morphia with  a little sulphate of copper.
 This  being  filtered is  treated first  with sulphureted hydrogen,  which
 precipitates the copper, and afterward with ammonia, which throws down
 the morphia.
   Morphia and some of its salts are treated of under another head,—see
 part III, Morphia. Narcotin or Narcotina, is considered alkaline by some
 who bestow upon it the latter name, and others who view it as a neutral
 principle, give it the  former term.   It  may be  obtained from opium
 exhausted in water, by  macerating it with diluted  acetic or pyroligneous
 acid, filtering the solution and decomposing it with potassa, washing the
 precipitate with water, and purifying it by solution in boiling alcohol,
 from which it crystallizes as the liquid cools.   Should it still be impure,
 the solution in alcohol and crystallization  may be repeated  several times
 if necessary.  Narcotina  may likewise be obtained by digesting opium
in sulphuric  ether, and  as  the ethereal  solution  is  slowly evaporated,
crystals of narcotina are deposited.  It is white, tasteless, and inodorous;
it crystallizes from alcohol in  thin, unequally-beveled pearly tables, but
in regular rhombic prisms from ether; is insoluble in  cold water, soluble
in 400  parts of boiling water, in 100 parts of cold  and  24 of boiling
alcohol which deposits it upon cooling, soluble in ether, diluted  acids,
fixed and volatile oils, and insoluble in solution of potassa.   At a mode-
rate temperature it is fusible, being  converted into a resinous-like sub-
stance, and when pure it is incapable of forming a yellow solution with
nitric  acid, or a blue one with sesquichloride of iron.  It unites with acids
forming definite  compounds, some of which are crystallizable, but does
not prevent them from reddening litmus paper.  Its salts are very bitter,
and their solution reddens litmus paper.   Narcotina consists of nitrogen,
carbon,  hydrogen and  oxygen;  its  received formula is  NCts H24 O15.
Its effects upon the system are but very imperfectly known.   One grain
dissolved in oil threw a  dog into a state of stupor terminating in death
in the course of twenty-four hours.  Acetic  acid is said to modify its
action, also nitric and  muriatic acids.  Twenty-four  grains dissolved in
vinegar will not destroy a dog; thirty grains similarly dissolved exerted 
712
Materia  Medica.
no influence upon several patients to whom this dose was given.  Thirty
or forty grains dissolved in acetic or sulphuric acid, or in olive oil, proves
fatal to dogs, but not when put in nitric or muriatic acid.   It has been
highly recommended as an antiperiodic; three grains to be given as a
dose, in a solution of muriatic acid, and repeated three times a day; it
is  said  to prove sudorific, and never  to occasion distressing headache
and restlessness, as is sometimes the case with quinia.
   Codeia was discovered by Robiquet, in 1832.   It exists in opium com-
bined  with  meconic acid, and is  extracted with the  morphia in the
preparation of the  muriate.   When  the liquor containing the mixed
muriates of morphia and codeia is treated with ammonia,  the morphia
is  precipitated, and  the codeia remains in the liquid, from which it may
be obtained by evaporation and crystallization.   It may then be purified
by dissolving the crystals in hot ether, and evaporating.   It may like-
wise be separated from morphia by a solution of soda or potassa, which
dissolves the morphia and leaves the  codeia.   Codeia forms in colorless
octahedral crystals.  It is soluble in alcohol, ether and in water, which
takes  up 1.26  per cent, at 60°, 3.7 at 110°, and  5.9 at  212°.  When
added to boiling water in excess, the undissolved portion melts and sinks
to the bottom, looking like oil.   It melts at 300° without decomposition.
It has an alkaline  reaction  on test-paper, forms salts with  the acids,
some of which are crystallizable, and does not  become changed to a red
color with nitric acid, nor to a blue with the salts of sesquioxide of iron.
Tannic acid precipitates it from its solutions, forming a tannate of codeia.
It consists  of nitrogen,  carbon, hydrogen, and  oxygen,  its received
formula being NGi5 H20 Oj.  In doses of one  or two grains, it acts on
the nervous system,  directing its influence apparently to the great sym-
pathetic, relieving painful disorders which  seem to have originated from
this nerve, but producing no effect upon pains of parts receiving a supply
of nerves from the  spinal marrow.   It does  not affect the circulation,
disturb digestion, nor cause constipation.  The nitrate of codeia in doses
of four or six grains acts as an excitant, accelerating the pulse, increas-
ing the temperature of the head and face, with itching of the  skin, and
a  species of intoxication, followed after a lapse of several hours, with
an unpleasant depression, nausea,  and sometimes vomiting.  Like nar-
cotina its influence upon the system is  imperfectly known.
   Paramorphia was discovered by Pelletier.   It is prepared by treating
an infusion of  opium with milk  of  lime; the resulting  precipitate must
be washed with water till the liquid comes  away colorless.   Then  treat
with alcohol, which, instead of taking up morphia, yields a new alkaline
principle, which may be obtained by  evaporating the alcohol, dissolving
the  residue with  ether, and  allowing the  ethereal solution to evaporate
spontaneously.   The resulting crystalline  mass must, in order to purify
it, be dissolved in an acid, precipitated by ammonia, and  recrystallized
by means  of alcohol or  ether.   Paramorphia is white, crystallizes in 
Papaver  Somniferum.
713
grains from alcohol, and in very oblique prisms from ether, has an acrid,
styptic taste,  is hardly soluble in water, very soluble in alcohol or ether,
fuses at 266°, and  combines with acids forming  uncrystallizable  salts.
Alkaline solutions do not dissolve it, but precipitate it from its acid solu-
tions.  Nitric acid does not redden it, nor the salts of sesquioxide of iron
change  it to  a blue  color.   It  may be distinguished  from codeia, by
never being in large crystals, by its not forming crystallizable salts with
acids, being always precipitated from its acid solutions by ammonia, and
by not melting in oily drops.   It differs from narcotina, in having shorter
crystals which lack  the pearl-like appearance of those of that alkali, in
tasting differently, in being much more soluble in cold alcohol, and in the
action of nitric acid upon it, which converts it into a resinous-like matter
before dissolving it, while the same acid instantly dissolves narcotina.
The same elements are found  in its composition  as in the two previous
principles; its  formula is  NC25 Hu 03.  The term Thebain  has been
proposed  for it.  One grain  of it  has produced  tetanic spasms, and it
appears to produce  effects analogous to those of strychnia and brucia.
  Narcein was  discovered  by  Pelletier  in  1832.  He obtained it by
treating an aqueous  extract of opium with  distilled water, precipitating
the morphia  by  ammonia, concentrating  the solution and  filtering  it,
precipitating  the meconic acid by baryta water, separating the excess of
baryta by carbonate of ammonia, driving off the  excess  of  the ammo-
niacal salt by heat,  evaporating the  liquor to the consistence  of syrup,
and setting it aside till a pulpy matter formed containing crystals.  This
pulpy matter he  separated and expressed, treated  it with alcohol, and
concentrated  the alcoholic solution.   Upon cooling, delicate silky needles
of narcein were deposited,  which  were readily purified  by repeated
solution and  crystallization.   Meconin, which often crystallizes with  it,
may be separated by the agency of  ether.   Its effects upon the system
are not  known.   Narcein  is white, neutral, inodorous, slightly bitter,
fusible at 197° F., soluble  in 375 parts of cold and 220 of boiling water,
soluble  in alcohol,  and insoluble in ether.   Weak acids render it blue,
but nitric acid does not redden it, nor  the salts  of sesquioxide of iron
turn it blue.   It is  dissolved by acids, but  does  not  combine with  nor
neutralize them.  Its formula is NCas H20 O12.
  Meconin, first observed by M. Dublanc, junior,  is obtained by precipi-
tating the aqueous infusion of opium with  ammonia, washing  the preci-
pitate with water until the  latter  passes colorless, mixing  the watery
fluids,  evaporating  them  to the consistence of molasses, setting  them
aside for two or three weeks,  during which a mass of granular crystals
is formed, then decanting the liquid, expressing the mass, and drying it
with a gentle heat.   The meconin may be separated from the mass by
treating it with boiling  alcohol of 36°  Baume,  evaporating so  as to
obtain crystals, dissolving these in  boiling water  with  animal charcoal,
filtering the  liquid  while hot, and  subjecting the crystals which  form 
714
Materia  Medica.
upon the cooling of the  solution to the action of ether, which dissolves
the meconin, and yields it in a state of purity by spontaneous evapora-
tion.   Meconin is white, crystallizes in hexangular prisms, is neutral in
respect to  acids, soluble in  265 parts of cold and 18 of boiling water,
very soluble in ether, alcohol, and the essential oils, has  an acrid  taste
without bitterness, fuses at  194°,  and in this state forms, with chlorine
gas, a blood-red fluid,  which  crystallizes on cooling.  It contains no
nitrogen, and is volatilizable  without change.   Gregory gives its formula
as Cio Hs Oi.
  Meconic acid is  obtained by macerating  opium in water, filtering the
infusion, and adding a solution of  chloride of calcium, which causes a
precipitate of  meconate  and sulphate  of lime.   This  precipitate havinw
been  washed  with hot  water and  with alcohol,  is treated with dilute
muriatic acid at 180°.   The meconate of lime is taken up, and as the
liquid cools, bimeconate of lime is  deposited.  This is  dissolved in warm
concentrated muriatic acid,  which  deposits pure meconic  acid when it
cools.   It may be freed from coloring  matter by neutralizing  it  with
potassa, decomposing the crystallized meconate thus  obtained by muri-
atic  acid, and again  crystallizing.  It forms in white,  brilliant scaly
crystals, of  an acid taste followed by bitterness, fusible and volatilizable
by heat, soluble  in four parts of boiling water, also  in  cold  water or
alcohol, reddens vegetable blues, and forms salts.  Its compounds with
the earths  and heavy metallic oxides are generally  insoluble in water.
With the salts of sesquioxide of iron it produces a blood-red color;  with
a weak solution of ammoniated sulphate  of copper  it causes a green
precipitate;  with acetate of lead, nitrate of silver, and chloride of barium,
it produces  white precipitates, soluble  in  nitric acid.   It has  but  little
action on the  system.  Its formula is, according to Gregory, Cu HOn,
3 HO = m^, 3  HO.
  Porphyroxin is neutral, crystallizes in shining  needles, is insoluble in
water, soluble in alcohol, ether, and weak acids, and  is convertible  into
a beautiful purple-red or  rose-colored solution when  heated in  diluted
muriatic acid.   It  may be obtained by treating powdered  opium (pre-
viously exhausted by boiling ether,  and then made into a pulp  by means
of water) with carbonate of potassa, agitating it with  ether, evaporating
the ethereal solution, dissolving the residue in dilute  muriatic acid, and
precipitating with  ammonia.   Paramorphia and porphyroxin are thus
obtained together.  These are to be dissolved in ether, which by spon-
taneous evaporation deposits  the paramorphia in crystals, and the  por-
phyroxin in the form of resin.   By  the  cautious use of alcohol, the
porphyroxin is  separated, and obtained  by  evaporating the alcoholic
solution.
  Papaverina is prepared by precipitating the aqueous infusion of opium
with  soda,  exhausting  the  precipitate with  alcohol, evaporating  the
tincture  to  dryness,  treating  the  residue with  a dilute  acid, filtering, 
Papaver Somniferum.
715
precipitating by ammonia, dissolving  the  precipitate in muriatic acid,
mixing with the solution the  acetate of soda, and treating the resulting
precipitate with boiling  ether; on  cooling  the papaverina  is deposited.
It crystallizes in needles, is insoluble in water, very sparingly soluble in
cold alcohol or ether, more soluble in these liquids when boiling hot, but
deposited as they cool.   It forms salts with acids which are nearly inso-
luble in water.  When  moistened  with concentrated sulphuric acid, its
crystals acquire a dark blue color.   Its formula  is NCw H21 Os.
   Pseudomorphia is reddened by nitric acid, and strikes a blue color with
the salts of sesquioxide of iron, the same as morphia, but it differs from
this in not forming salts with the  acids,  in not decomposing  iodic acid,
and in not having any poisonous influence upon the system.  It forms
shining scales, is sparingly soluble in water and weak alcohol, insoluble
in absolute alcohol and ether, and is readily dissolved by caustic potassa
or soda.   Its supposed formula is C27 His NOu.
   Properties and Uses.— Opium  is a stimulant-narcotic,  acting under
various  circumstances  as  a  sedative, antispasmodic, febrifuge,  diapho-
retic, and an inspissant of the mucous  secretions.   Topically, it is  a
direct stimulant  and indirect sedative of the  nervous, muscular and
vascular systems.  A medium dose taken while  in health, augments the
force, fullness, and frequency  of  the  pulse,  increases  the heat of the
skin, gives energy to the  muscles, renders the senses more  acute, and
produces a general excitement of the whole system—the braiu  is espe-
cially acted upon, the faculties becoming more clear, the ideas brilliant,
precise,  and under control, the  power of  application more intense, the
conversational energies  augmented, and  frequently a state of delirium or
intoxication  is induced.   After a time  this  excitement subsides, leaving
a calm,  careless, indifferent, pleasurable sensation, with a series of vague,
fleeting  ideas, which at the end of half an  hour  or an hour is succeeded
by sleep, which continues  for six, eight, or  ten hours, and is followed by
giddiness, languor of  the pulse, nausea,  headache,  tremors,  want  of
appetite, and other symptoms of deranged nervous action.   Other effects
likewise  occur during the period of its influence upon the system, thus—
the mucous secretions  become suspended, constipation is induced, the
cutaneous secretion is increased, the urinary and biliary secretions may
be unaffected, or merely inspissated, in consequence of their discharges
being impeded.  The retention of  urine,  and  constipation, sometimes
exist for several days.   No injurious consequences will  ultimately result
from these  effects, unless the dose  be frequently repeated, so  that the
natural  powers be destroyed by continuous over-excitement.  The  un-
pleasant symptoms following the sleep caused by opium  may be removed
by lemon-juice, strong coffee, or a cathartic.
   The effects of opium vary in different persons, and not unfrequently
in the same individual under dissimilar circumstances.   In some persons
the smallest dose will cause nausea, vomiting, and spasm of the stomach; 
716
Materia  Medica.
in others it will occasion feverishness, headache, watchfulness, restless-
ness, startling, disagreeable visions, delirium, anxiety, and afterward an
aggravated degree of the more familiar subsequent effects of this drug;
these phenomena constitute what is  called the  idiosyncratic action of
opium.   Though commonly the result of idiosyncracy, yet these symp-
toms are often induced in persons with whom opium in general agrees.
Dissolved in vinegar or lemon juice, opium acts more pleasantly, and is
less liable to produce the above disagreeable consequences.  A disagree-
able itching or pricking  of the  skin, occasionally attended with a slight
eruption, will be  frequently produced by opium, as well as  its various
preparations.   The narcotic power of opium is lessened by certain states
of disease,  as  in  the advanced stage of  pneumonia, or peritonitis, by
profuse hemorrhage, especially uterine, by severe  dysentery, delirium-
tremens, some varieties of mania,  tetanus, and severe pain or spasm of
any kind.   It  is  also  modified by the  conjunction of other remedies;
camphor is thought to diminish the chance of  its subsequent or idiosyn-
cratic effects; and given with  ipecacuanha, three or four times the ordi-
nary hypnotic  dose may be  administered without  inducing  sleep,  but
with  the effect of bringing on sweating with  much greater  certainty.
Through whatever  channel opium is introduced  into the body—the
stomach, rectum,  a wound, vein, excoriation, blistered surface, etc.,—its
remote action is exerted on the brain.  It acts most  energetically when it
is promptly absorbed ; yet it has not been detected  in the  blood. When
opium, or any  of  its preparations, is applied freely to a blistered, exco-
riated, or inflamed surface, its effects should be attentively watched, for
dangerous accidents have occasionally happened in this way.
  In large  doses, opium is a poison, producing death  if the proper
remedies are not promptly and  unremittingly resorted to.   The state of
excitement and exhilaration, if  caused at all, is of short duration, being
speedily  followed  by depression of the circulation, and of the functions
of the brain, as manifested by  diminution of the frequency of the  pulse,
loss of muscular strength, slow, soft respiration, flaccidity of the extremi-
ties, languor, drowsiness, torpor or coma, pale  features, excessively con-
tracted  pupils, coldness  of the  limbs, generally retention of  urine,  and
frequently profuse perspiration, together with an almost total insensibility
to external impressions.  This state ends in death, unless  speedily
relieved.  The remedies are, emetics of  mustard  and lobelia seed, with
strong coffee, stomach pump,  external  counter-irritation,  cold applica-
tions to  the head and  spine,  forced exercise, galvanism, and artificial
respiration.   As soon as  the stomach has been properly evacuated by
emesis, internal stimulants must be administered, the best of which are
brandy and carbonate  of ammonia.  As soon as consciousness is once
fairly restored, an active cathartic, with  the continuation of  the  forced
exercise, generally completes  the cure.   The  same  toxicological treat-
ment should be  pursued in  case of  poisoning  by any  of its salts of 
Papaver Somniferum.
717
 morphia.  Opium is employed internally in form of pill, powder, tincture,
 or  solution.  In addition  to the laudanum, and paregoric elixir of the
 pharmacy, other valuable forms of preparation are used,  which  it may
 be  proper to notice here.

  Rousseau's Laudanum, is in fact a tincture of the acetate of morphia,
 and is three times as active as Sydenham's laudanum, though liable to
 uncertainty; it is made by placing a vessel containing twelve ounces of
 pure honey, and three pounds of warm water, in a warm place;  and so
 soon as  fermentation commences, add four ounces of good opium pre-
 viously diffused in twelve  ounces of water, and let the whole ferment for
 one month.  Pour off the liquor, and evaporate to ten ounces ; filter,
 and add four  and a half ounces of alcohol.   Sydenham's  Laudanum is
 prepared by adding  to a  pint of Spanish wine, a mixture composed of
 opium two ounces, saffron one ounce, powdered  cloves and  cinnamon,
 of each, one drachm.   Expose the whole to  a sand bath heat  for two or
 three days, and strain.  It is double the strength of ordinary laudanum,
 a fluidrachm being equal to  seven and a half grains of  opium.  The
 Black, or Quaker's Drop, is an acetic tincture of opium.  It is prepared
 thus:  Take half a pound  of good opium in slices,  an  ounce and a half
 of bruised nutmegs, and half  an ounce of saffron, and boil them in four
 pounds of verjuice, (or good  vinegar), and then add a  quarter  of a
 pound of sugar, and two tablespoonfuls of yeast.   Place the mixture in
 a warm place to ferment for the space of six weeks.  Then  decant, filter,
 and bottle, adding a little  sugar to each bottle.  It is about three times
 stronger than ordinary laudanum, and is preferred by many practitioners,
 on  account of  its more uniform agreement with the  digestive organs.
 However, the  acetate, or  citrate of morphia, are much  preferable  to
 these tinctures.
  The special uses of opium are so numerous,  that it is impossible to do
 more here than mention the most important of them.  In all febrile and
 inflammatory diseases, it is given either alone, or in combination with
 ipecacuanha to produce diaphoresis.   As an  anodyne-diaphoretic this
combination is  likewise beneficial in  rheumatic,  neuralgic, and gouty
diseases,  in nervous irritability, morbid vigilance, restlessness, diarrhea,
and dysentery.   As an antispasmodic in asthma, colic, cholera, hysteria,
 tetanus, spasm  of the stomach attending  gout, spasm of the ureters in
nephritis,  and   of the biliary  ducts  during the passage of  calculi,  in
 convulsive  affections,  and  dyspepsia.   Also to relieve cough, nausea,
 tenesmus, and  strangury.   In the suppression of morbid  discharges it
frequently answers an important indication, and proves very advantage-
 ous   in diarrhea,  chronic  catarrh, humoral asthma,  diabetes, hemor-
 rhages, especially  uterine  hemorrhage, etc.   Indeed it will  be found
 valuable  in all symptoms  or forms  of disease characterized by pain,
 wakefulness, inflammation, increased  nervous  excitability,  increased 
718
Materia Medica.
 mucous secretions, or spasmodic action.   Its use  is  contra-indicated
 where there is a great amount of inflammatory excitement, which should
 be reduced before venturing  its  internal  administration, or  the  drug
 should be  modified in its  action by combination  with  ipecacuanha, in
 cases where there is any doubt as to the sufficiency of the reduction.  In
 inflammation of the brain, strong determination  of  blood to  the head,
 deficient secretion from inflamed  mucous membranes, and generally in
 constipation,  it is  also contra-indicated.   If the  constipation  depends
 upon  spasmodic action, it  may then  be given as an antispasmodic in
 combination with a laxative.  Opium is often eaten  by persons until it
 becomes a habit exceedingly difficult to overcome ;  when taken to ex-
 cess in this manner it may be known by the deadly pale or sallow aspect,
 with tokens of emaciation, and a gradual loss of the  energies  and  acti-
 vity of the whole system.  The author of a work entitled, " Confessions
 of an Opium Eater," tells us that he was cured of this soul-destroyino-
 vice by using  the Ammoniated tincture of Valerian  as  a substitute for
 his opiate stimulant.  Probably any other stimulant would have answered
 the same purpose.
   Externally, opium is employed chiefly to subdue pain, and arrest  local
 inflammatory action ; it is applied in the form of lotion, liniment, or plas-
 ter,  and is of service in neuralgia, rheumatism,  some forms of cutaneous
 disease, irritable blistered  surfaces, diseased mucous  surfaces, and in
 erysipelatous inflammations.   It is likewise added to  collyria in ophthal-
 mic  affections, and to  injections in gonorrhea.  There is much variety
 of opinion among Eclectics as to the use of this drug as a medicine, some
 contending  against  its use, and  others in its favor.   That it is a useful
 agent in many diseases, and  exerts an influence  not possessed by any
 other one, no person will  attempt  to deny;  neither does it, when given
 in the proper medicinal doses, leave the seeds of after disease in the sys-
 tem,  as  is the case with  arsenical, mercurial, and  other preparations,
 which in small doses  decompose the constituents of the body; there-
 fore,  although its present results  may be disagreeable, yet,  as they are
 not permanent, there is no good reason why we should dispense with an
 agent so well calculated  to lessen the effects of disease upon the human
 system.  When we administer the almost death-like  prostrating emetic,
 lobelia, the  energetic, prostrating,  and nauseating  hydragogue, podo-
 phyllin, etc., etc., it is too much like prejudice without reason to oppose
 opium because its effects  continue for a few days, or improper doses and
 carelessness  in  its  use have resulted  in  death,  and which may, in a
 degree, be said of every active remedy in the Materia Medica.
   The dried ripe capsules of poppy have properties analogous to opium,
but very feeble, and are sometimes used in decoction, emulsion, syrup,
or extract, to calm irritation, lessen pain,  promote rest, and produce the
general effects of opium ;  and externally, as an emollient and anodyne
application. 
Parthenium  Integrifolium.
719
  Dose of  opium in pill or powder from one-fourth of a grain to three
grains,  according to its influence  upon  the patient, the nature of the
complaint,  and the purpose to be effected.  Sometimes larger quantities
are given, as in severe tetanic, or other nervous affections, and in cases
of severe pain.  The medium dose to ease pain and produce sleep is, one
grain.   The  dose  of  the  tincture is from ten to fifty drops.  When  it
cannot  be  taken  by mouth, as in cases of obstinate vomiting, and in
painful  nephritic or uterine affections, strangury from  blisters,  and in
dysenteric tenesmus, it may be injected into the rectum with great ad-
vantage, being added  to a small quantity of water, flaxseed or elm  infu-
sion, starch water, mucilage of gum Arabic, etc.   When thus given the
quantity may be twice that administered  by the mouth—yet the prac-
titioner  should be cautious, as  some patients are more  powerfully influ-
enced by it than others.
   Off. Prep.—Enema Opii; Linimentum Capsici Compositum; Linimen-
tum Opii; Mistura Camphorae Composita; Pilulae Camphorae Compositae;
Pulvis Ipecacuanha et Opii ;  Tinctura Opii ;  Tinctura Opii Acetata;
Tinctura Opii Camphorata ; Tinctura Serpentaria Compositae.
               PARTHENIUM INTEGRIFOLIUM.
                          Cutting  Almond.
       Nat. Ord.—Asteraceae.  Sex.  Syst.—Syngenesia Necessaria.
                             THE root.
  Description.—This plant, also known by the name of Nephritic Plant,
is indigenous and perennial, with an erect, striate,  pubescent stem, from
three to six feet in hight.   The  leaves are alternate, lance-ovate, hispid-
scabrous, coarsely dentate-crenate, coriaceous, lower ones petiolate, upper
sessile, sometimes clasping; they are  from four to twelve  inches long,
and  about half as  wide.   Radical  petioles a  foot long.  Heads many-
flowered,  tomentose,  corymbed ; ray-flowers  five, somewhat  ligulate,
fertile;  disk-flowers tubular, sterile.   Involucre  hemispherical,  five-
leaved; scales in  two series, outer ovate, dilated, inner orbicular; recep-
tacle, minute, conical, chaffy; achenia five,  obovate,  compressed, cohering
with two contiguous paleae.
  History.—This plant  grows in the Middle and Western States, in dry
soils,  flowering from July to  September.  The root  is  the part used.
Its growth  is singular ; it  issues from a head or caudex, at first small,
but gradually increases in size, and  terminates very abruptly, givin"
off other roots of a similar form,  each being a distinct root about the size
and shape of a radish, but growing horizontally, and sending up stems
from near the large ends of the principal roots, which  are blackish  out-
side, and bluish-gray within.  Cold water extracts its medicinal virtues.
It has not been analyzed. 
720
Materia  Medica.
  Properties and Uses.—Diuretic.   The root sliced and infused in cold
water, and drank in moderate quantities, is useful in suppression of the
urine, scalding of the urine, gonorrhea, gravel, and diseases of the kid-
neys and  bladder generally.  It is highly recommended by some prac-
titioners in these diseases.   Likewise  said to be an aromatic-bitter, and
stimulant.
                          PETROLEUM.
                             Petroleum.
           A  bituminous fluid, issuing from  the earth.
  History.—Liquids, or readily fusible  solids  of native  inflammable
character, are found in various parts  of  the globe, which evolve, when
heated, a peculiar odor, which burn readily leaving a very small carbo-
naceous  residue,  and which are called Bitumens; to  this class of sub-
stances Petroleum belongs.   They  are of two kinds, one liquid, called
Naphtha, the other solid, termed Asphaltum.
  Naphtha is a  transparent,  yellowish-white,  ethereal,  very mobile,
inflammatory, and very light liquid, and is found in abundance in Persia.
It consists exclusively of hydrogen and carbon ; and on account of the
absence  of oxygen in its composition, it may be  used for  preserving
potassium.  Dr. Andreosky, of the Russian army, has, it is stated, used it
with benefit in Asiatic Cholera, in  doses of from ten to  twenty drops,
given  in half a  glass of white wine, or  in mint water.  The artificial
naphtha obtained during the formation of coal gas, when rectified becomes
as light and limpid as the natural fluid; and in this state is said to dis-
solve  caoutchouc, the  solution having  been usefully applied to the
purpose of forming several surgical instruments  of  that material; it has
also been employed for giving a thin  coating of  caoutchouc to cloth or
other fabrics,  to  render them water-proof.   They are varnished with
the  solution on one side, and the varnished surfaces are applied to each
other,  and  made  to adhere by powerful pressure.
  Asphaltum  is  a solid,  black, dry,  friable  substance,  insoluble in
alcohol, but soluble in oil of  turpentine by the aid of heat, forming an
ink  or  paint.   Naphtha and Asphaltum  often exist, naturally combined
together; when the asphaltum predominates, the viscid substance formed
is called Maltha or Mineral Tar; when the naphtha is in the  larger pro-
portion, the thick fluid produced is termed Petroleum.
  Petroleum  is found principally at Amiano in the  Duchy of Parma, at
Gabian in France, upon the borders of the Caspian Sea, in the kingdom
of Ava, and  in  Barbadoes,  Trinidad, and other  West India islands.
The wells of  petroleum in Ava are said to produce four hundred thou-
sand hogsheads annually.   The petroleum from Barbadoes is indicated
as the officinal variety by the  London  and Dublin  Colleges.  In  the
United States  petroleum is found in various localities, the principal of 
Petroleum.
721
which are on the Kanawha, in Virginia; near  Scottsville, in Kentucky;
in Western  Pennsylvania; on Duck Creek in  Ohio;  and on the shores
of Seneca Lake in New York.  That found in the latter locality is usu-
ally called in this country Seneca oil, and similar varieties of petroleum
from other native sources are known by the same name.
  Barbadoes Petroleum, sometimes called Barbadoes Tar, as well as that
from Trinidad, is  of  a dusky-greenish brown, or black color, nearly
opake, inflammable, of a strong, peculiar, not agreeable, bituminous
taste and odor, unctuous  to  the  touch, and having  the consistence of
very thick cream or molasses.  When exposed to the  air it gradually
hardens  to the consistence of pitch.   Heat increases  its liquidity, but
not its thorough mobility;  and  a higher heat, by distillation, expels
naphtha, leaving a solid residue of asphaltum.  Alcohol, acids, and
alkalies have  but little  effect upon it;  ether dissolves  it, the solution
becoming green; and  the fixed and volatile oils likewise dissolve it.   It
consists chiefly of carbon and hydrogen, with  a little oxygen and nitro-
gen.  The Rangoon Petroleum has also a dark greenish-brown color, a
strong rather fragrant odor, and the consistence of lard in warm weather;
when heated to  90° it becomes a very mobile liquid.   By distillation it
yields a large quantity of naphtha, and afterward a crystalline principle,
identical with paraffin.  In the naphtha  Dr. Gregory subsequently dis-
covered  eupione.   It  is, probably, more  active  than the  Barbadoes
Petroleum.
  Properties and Uses.—Petroleum is considered a stimulating antispas-
modic and sudorific, and has been recommended as a remedy in various
diseases.  In diseases of the chest not attended with inflammation it has
been reputed beneficial, and is  extolled as a vermifuge, especially for
tapeworm.   For  this  purpose it  may be taken  inwardly in the form
of emulsion,  and  applied  externally by friction over the abdomen.
Schwartz's formula in such cases, was a mixture of one part of petro-
leum with one and a half parts of tincture of  assafcetida, of which forty
drops were given three times a  day.  Externally, it is employed as a
stimulating embrocation in chilblains, chronic  rheumatism, affections of
the joints, and paralysis.  It is likewise beneficial in cutaneous diseases,
especially lepra,  psoriasis, and other scaly diseases.  The dose of Petro-
leum is  from ten to thirty minims, given in any convenient vehicle.
  British Oil is composed of eight fluidounces  each of Oil of Turpentine,
and Oil  of  Linseed;  four fluidounces each  of Oil  of Amber, Oil of
Juniper; three fluidounces of Barbadoes Petroleum, and one fluidounce
of American Petroleum or Seneca Oil.
  Seneca or Rock  Oil is lighter colored, of thinner consistence, and less
sapid  and odorous than  the Barbadoes, and probably contains  more
naphtha; it is considerably  used in domestic practice  as  an  external
application.
         46 
722                      Materia Medica.
                           PHOSPHORUS.
                             Phosphorus.
   Preparation.—Phosphorus is made  by adding to bone  ashes, which
 consist principally of phosphate of lime, two-thirds their weight of strong
 sulphuric acid previously diluted with twelve times its weight of water;
 allow them to digest for twenty-four hours.  The  sulphuric acid  com-
 bines with the lime, and precipitates as sulphate of  lime, while a super-
 phosphate of lime remains in solution.   The whole is  strained through
 a linen cloth to separate the sulphate of lime, and  afterward submitted
 to evaporation, which causes a fresh precipitation of sulphate, requiring
 to be separated by a new filtration.  The filtered solution of superphos-
 phate is  evaporated to a syrupy consistence, and then thoroughly mixed
 with half its weight of powdered charcoal,  so as to form a soft mass,
 which is dried by being heated to dull  redness in an iron  pot.  The
 mass, when cool, is quickly transferred to a coated earthenware  retort,
 furnished with an adopter of copper, bent downward at right angles so
 as to enter a bottle with a large neck containing water which should rise
 about two lines above the orifice  of the adopter.  The bottle is  closed
 round  the adopter by a cork, which is traversed by a small glass tube,
 to give exit to the gaseous products.  The retort is  heated in a furnace,
 furnished with a dome, in the most gradual manner, so as  to occupy
 about four hours  in bringing it to a red heat.   Afterward, the heat is
 pushed vigorously, so long as any phosphorus drops into the water; and
 this takes place generally for from  twenty-four to thirty hours.  During
 this part of the  process, the excess of acid in the superphosphate is
 decomposed; its oxygen combining with the charcoal, and the liberated
 phosphorus distilling over.  A quantity of the materials sufficient to fill
 a quart retort will yield about  a pound of phosphorus.  The calcined
 bones of  sheep are generally preferred, as they  contain most phosphate
 of lime,  and are more readily acted on  by the acid.— U. S. Disp.
  M. Donovan has offered a process which facilitates the preparation of
phosphorus.   It is as follows:   Take beef or sheep bones  as they are
 found in commerce, with their  natural  quantity  of fatty matter  and
moisture.  Digest them for four hours  in a mixture of one part of nitric
 acid of commerce, and ten parts of water.   This dissolves  the calcare-
 ous salts, leaving the soft gelatinous tissues which retain the form of
the bones, and which may be washed and employed in the  manufacture
of glue.   The acidulated liquid containing the phosphate and nitrate of
lime, is to be treated with an excess of  neutral acetate  of lead, and the
precipitated phosphate of lead washed  and dried.   It is then put  m a
covered crucible  and heated to redness to condense its volume, which
operation requires great care, else  the  phosphate will lose  its pulveru-
 lent  form  and  fuse, requiring a  difficult  pulverization.  The  dense
 pulverulent phosphate of lead  is then  intimately mixed with one-sixth 
Phosphorus.
723
 of its weight of charcoal, previously calcined, and  afterward distilled
 in the ordinary manner in large earthen retorts, properly heated.
    History.—Phosphorus  was discovered in  1669 by Brandt,  and was
 at first  obtained from  putrid urine; in 1769 it was found in bones by
 Gahn who published a  process for obtaining it.  It is  a  semitransparent
 solid, without taste, but possessing an alliaceous smell.   When perfectly
 pure, it  is colorless;  but as usually prepared, it is yellowish or reddish-
 yellow.   It is flexible, sectile, and  when cut, exhibits a waxy luster.  It
 is insoluble in water, but dissolves sparingly in alcohol and the oils, and
 more freely in ether.   Its sp. gr. is  1.84 and its equivalent number 32.
 It  takes  fire at 100°, melts at 108°, and boils at 550°, air being exclud-
 ed.   During its combustion, it combines with the oxygen of the air, and
 forms phosphoric acid.  On account of its great inflammability, it requires
 to be kept  under water.   When exposed to the air, it undergoes a slow
 combustion, emitting white vapors, which are luminous in the dark.  It
 forms with  oxygen,  hypophosphorus,  phosphorus,  and phosphoric acids,
 and the  two isomeric varieties of phosphoric acid, called pyrophosphoric,
 and metaphosphoric.  With hydrogen, it forms phosphureted hydrogen
 and subphosphureted hydrogen.   The only medicinal combinations con-
 taining phosphorus are phosphoric acid and the phosphates of mercury,
 iron, lime, and soda.  Phosphoric acid in a diluted state, and the three
 latter phosphates are officinal.   In contact with  chlorine, bromine, or
 iodine, without the aid of heat, combustion takes place spontaneously,
 while the phosphorus combines with these metalloids.  It occasionally
 contains  arsenic, antimony or  sulphur, from which it  should be freed.
 Those who  work in  phosphorus, as manufacturers of lucifer matches,
 are liable to necrosis of  the jaw-bone, the consequence of periostitis.
  Properties and Uses.—In small doses, and properly diluted, phosphorus
 acts as a powerful diffusible stimulant; in large doses, or when given in
 substance, it acts  as a violent irritant poison.  Its action is  especially
 directed  to the kidneys  and genital organs, producing diuresis,  and a sex-
 ual excitement.  It is, undoubtedly, an aphrodisiac,  and is of much service
 in the impotence of old and debilitated subjects. It has been recommend-
 ed in extreme prostration of the vital powers, dropsy, typhus fever, phthi-
 sis, marasmus, chlorosis, paralysis, amaurosis, mania, etc.  It should never
 be used in substance, but in solution with ether and oil.  The following is
 a good formula : Take of phosphorus, cut in pieces, four parts; sulphuric
 ether, two hundred parts;  mix, and macerate in a  darkened bottle, or in
 a dark place for one month ; then  add one  hundred parts of oil of
 cinnamon, or any other  oil, and mix thoroughly together.   Decant this
 into blackened ounce vials, and have them well stopped.   Dose, is from
 ten to fifteen drops,  every three hours, in some mucilaginous liquid.  In
the exhibition of phosphorus, great caution  is  necessary, and its effects
must  be  closely watched.  It  should never be given in substance as
it is apt  to  cause violent irritation  of the stomach.   When taken in a 
724
Materia Medica.
poisonous dose, give an emetic followed by copious  draughts of water
and magnesia, which arrest its combustion, and neutralize any phosphoric
acid which may form.  The following, administered in copious draughts,
has been recommended as  an antidote to  phosphorus: Calcined mag-
nesia  4 grains;  chlorine water  16 grains;  distilled  water 224 grains;
mix.  Phosphorus is seldom employed in  Eclectic practice.
   Off. Prep.—Acidum Phosphoricum Dilutum.
                      PHYSALIS VISCOSA.
                          Ground  Cherry.
        Nat.  Ord.—Solanacese.  Sex.  Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                            the berries.
  Description. — This plant,  also called  Yellow-henbane, is indigenous,
perennial and pubescent, having a herbaceous, decumbent stem, about
a foot high, and which is often viscid  as  well as the whole plant.   The
branches are somewhat dichotomous and  angular.  The leaves are  very
variable, even in the same plant, solitary or in pairs, ovate, or lanceolate-
ovate, cordate or acute at base, often obtuse at the apex, repand-toothed
or entire, petiolate, from one  to  four inches in length, and one-half, or
two-thirds  as broad, or even of equal breadth ; when they occur in pairs,
one of them is much smaller.   The fiowers  are solitary, axillary, pendu-
lous ; the corolla is campanulate-rotate, twice as long  as the calyx, tube
very short, limb obscurely five-lobed, greenish-yellow, with five brownish
spots at base inside.   The calyx is five-cleft, persistent, enlarged, inflated,
angular; stamens five, connivent;  anthers opening lengthwise. Fruit a yel-
low or orange-colored berry, inclosed in the  calyx.  There are many vari-
eties of this plant, some of which have been unnecessarily divided into spe-
cies, as P. Obscura, P. Pubescens, P. Pennsylvanica, and P. Philadelphia.
   History.—This plant is common in many parts of the country, and is
found growing in dry fields,  hill-sides,  and road-sides, flowering in July
and August.  Its root  is fusiform, white, and  bitter,  and will probably
act as a bitter-tonic; the fruit or  berries are slightly acid and edible,
with a faint bitterness.   Water or proof  spirit extracts their properties.
   Properties and Uses.—Tonic,  laxative, and  diuretic, said  also to be
sedative.  The  juice of  the berries, or a strong infusion is reputed very
beneficial  in suppression of the urine, gravel, and other urinary disorders.
Dose of the  juice of the berries, one or two ounces.
   The  Physalis Alkekengi, or Winter Cherry, of Europe, with the stem
somewhat branching below, the leaves  in pairs, entire,  acute; flowers
white ;  calyx of the fruit red or reddish, with acid and somewhat bitter
berries, and growing about a foot high, possesses similar properties, and
is likewise recommended as a febrifuge.
   Dessaignes and Chautard have  obtained the bitter principle  of the
 Physalis  Alkekengi, which  they call  Physaline, and  which has been 
Phytolacca Decandra.
725
employed with success in intermittent fever.   An alcoholic extract of the
plant was prepared, which yielded a bitter dark-colored mass ; the bitter
principle was taken up by cold water, and was separated either by means
of charcoal, from which it was  afterward dissolved by  alcohol, or by
shaking the aqueous solution with chloroform.  The bitter principle  thus
obtained was  pulverulent, slightly colored, and very bitter.  When pure,
physaline is a white powder, with a faint tinge of yellow ; its taste  is at
first faintly, afterward permanently bitter; it is noncrystalline, softens at
356° or 374°, and then soon decomposes, burning with a smoky flame.
It is sparingly soluble in  cold water, to which it communicates a bitter
taste ; more soluble in hot water, chloroform and alcohol; and sparingly
soluble in ether and acids.  It is dissolved by ammonia, and remains
unaltered after its volatilization; is not precipitated by nitrate of silver
and ammonia from the alcoholic solution, but is precipitated by an am-
moniacal solution of  acetate of  lead.  They give its formula as  C26 H32
O10.  The fruit of the physalis contains citric acid.

                  PHYTOLACCA DECANDRA.
                               Poke.
      Nat. Ord.—Phytolaccacea?.   Sex. Syst.—Decandria Decagynia.
                  the root,  leaves and  berries.
   Description.—This plant is known by various other names, as  Pigeon-
berry, Garget, Scoke, Coakum, etc.   It is indigenous,  with  a perennial
root of large  size, frequently exceeding a man's leg in diameter, usually
branched,  fleshy,  fibrous, whitish  within,  easily  cut  or  broken, and
covered  with a very thin brownish bark or cuticle.   The stems are
annual, about an  inch in diameter,  and from five to eight feet in hight,
round, smooth, and very much branched; when  young they are green,
and become of a fine deep purple when  matured.  The leaves are  scat-
tered, petiolate, ovate-oblong, smooth on both sides, ribbed underneath,
entire, acute, and five inches long  by two or three in breadth.   The
flowers   are  numerous,  small,  greenish-white,  on long pedunculated
racemes opposite to the leaves, sometimes erect,  and sometimes droop-
ing.  Peduncles nearly smooth,  angular, ascending; pedicels divaricate,
sometimes branched, green, white, or purple,  having  a  small linear
bract at base, and two others in the middle.  Calyx  whitish, consisting
of five  round-ovate, concave, incurved sepals.  Stamens ten, somewhat
shorter  than  the sepals, with white, roundish, two-lobed anthers. Ovary
green,  round,  depressed,  ten-furrowed.   Styles  ten, short,  recurved.
Berries  in long clusters, dark-purple, almost black, round, depressed or
flattened, marked  with ten furrows  on the sides.  Cells ten; seeds ten,
solitary; embryo curved in a ring around the albumen.
   History.—Poke is a native of the United States, growing in nearly all
parts, along fences, in newly cleared spots, uncultivated fields, road-sides, 
726
Materia Medica.
moist  grounds,  etc., and flowering from July  to  September.   It is
likewise found naturalized in some parts of Northern Africa and Southern
Europe.   The young  shoots  are  often  used for greens, but become
cathartic when they have attained any size.  The ashes of the stem and
leaves contain a large proportion of potassa, at least forty-two per cent.,
which, in the  plant, is in union with an acid resembling the  malic;
some persons have successfully employed the ashes as a local application
to cancer.   The officinal parts  are the root, leaves, and berries.
   The root should  be  gathered late  in November,  cut into thin trans-
verse slices, and  dried with a moderate heat;  it loses its virtues  by
keeping, and should, consequently,  be replaced by a fresh supply every
year.  When properly  dried, it is in transverse slices,  of a light yellow-
ish-brown color externally, wrinkled, and presenting on the internal cut
surface, numerous  concentric rings, formed by  the projecting  ends of
fibers, between which the intervening matter has shrunk in the drying
process.   In the  older  roots  the structure is firm and almost ligneous,
having a yellowish-white color, alternating with  darker circular layers.
It has no smell, but the taste is mild,  and slightly sweetish,  followed by
a sense of acrimony.  Boiling  water, or  alcohol extracts its active prin-
ciples.  Analysis  has detected in it  tannic acid, gum, starch,  sugar,
resin, fixed oil, lignin,  and various inorganic principles.   The leaves
should be gathered a short time previous to the ripening of  the berries.
The berries must be collected when they are fully ripened; they contain
a succulent  pulp, and yield upon pressure a large quantity of a purplish-
red juice.   They  have  but little  odor, and a nauseous sweetish taste.
The coloring  principle of the juice is evanescent,  and cannot,  conse-
quently,  be applied to the purposes  of  dyeing.   Alkalies turn it yellow,
but acids restore it to its original color.  The  juice  contains saccharine
matter, and after fermenting, yields alcohol by distillation.
   Properties and  Uses. — Poke  is emetic,  cathartic, alterative, anti-
herpetic, and  somewhat narcotic.   In doses of from ten to thirty grains
it  acts both  as an  emetic  and  cathartic, but is  seldom used for these
purposes on account of the slowness  of its action,  which, when estab-
lished, continues for a long time.  Narcotic effects  as  drowsiness, dim-
ness of vision, vertigo,  etc., frequently attend its  action, but very rarely
any pain or spasm.  Overdoses cause excessive vomiting  or  purging,
great nervous prostration, occasionally  convulsions, and  sometimes a
tingling or prickling sensation over the whole surface.   In doses of from
one to five grains it acts as an  alterative.  The root excites the whole
glandular system, and has been highly extolled in syphilitic, scrofulous,
rheumatic, and cutaneous diseases.  The extract of the root is an excel-
lent remedy for the removal of those  severe pains attending mercurio-
syphilitic  affections (osteocopus),  in  which it is more beneficial  than
opium.   The root roasted in hot ashes until soft, and then mashed and
applied as  a poultice,  is unrivaled  in  felons and tumors of various 
Picr^ena Excelsa.
727
 kinds.  It discusses them rapidly, or, if too  far advanced, hastens their
 suppuration.   Care must be had in powdering the root, as it sometimes
 occasions  headache, purging, prostration of strength, and all the symp-
 toms of a severe coryza.   A drachm of the  pulverized root or leaves,
 mixed with an ounce of lard has proved beneficial in psora., tinea-capitis,
 and some other forms of  cutaneous  disease;  when first applied it occa-
 sions a sense of heat and smarting.
   The leaves are somewhat purgative, and are used,  in some parts of
 the country, as a dressing to ulcers.  A strong decoction of the leaves
 is of much benefit in hemorrhoids ; injected into the rectum two or three
 times a day, and a  fomentation  of the leaves applied  to the part, will
 almost always give  relief,  and eventually effect a cure.  A fluidrachm
 or two may be taken internally at the same  time, and  repeated two or
 three times a day; should any narcotic effects be produced, its use may
 be  omitted for a day  or two, and  then commenced in smaller doses.
 The inspissated juice of the leaves  has been recommended in indolent
 ulcers, and as a remedy in cancer; in this last  disease, Dr. Bone com-
 bined it with gunpowder.
  A saturated tincture of the berries has been successfully employed in
 chronic rheumatism.   It is also recommended in the  same diseases as
 the root.   Dose of the powdered root, as an alterative,  from one to five
grains; of the tincture, one fluidrachm, three or four  times a day; as
 an emetic, twenty to  thirty grains of  the powder.
  The Franklin Institute  of the city of New York  advertise the active
principle of poke root under the name of Phytolaccin; said to be a light-
brown powder, with a pleasant, mucilaginous  taste, soluble  in  water,
 and insoluble  in alcohol or ether.   I  am not  advised of its mode of
preparation.  Said likewise to be a most powerful alterative, aperient,
and slightly narcotic.   Dose from one-fourth of a grain  to a grain, three
times a day.
    Off.  Prep. — Cataplasma Phytolaccae; Decoctum Phytolaccae; Ex-
tractum Phytolaccae; Pilulae  Phytolaccae  Compositae;  Syrupus Phyto-
laccae  Compositus;  Tinctura Phytolaccae; Tinctura Cimicifugae  Com*
posita; Unguentum  Phytolaccae; Vinum Phytolaccae Compositum.
                     PICRJSNA  EXCELSA.
                             Quassia.
       Nat. Ord.—Simarubaceaa,  Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.
                            the wood.
  Description.—This is the Quassia Excelsa of Linnaeus, and the Sima-
ruba Excelsa of Decandolle, and is known by the various names of Lofty
Quassia, Bitter-wood, Bitter-ash, etc.  It is a tall tree, frequently attain-
ing a hight of one hundred feet, with a straight, tapering stem, often ten 
728
Materia  Medica.
 feet in circumference.   The branches are given  off near the top, and
 with the trunk, are covered with a smooth  gray, or ash-colored bark;
 that of the  roots is  of a  yellowish color.  The wood is of a pale-yellow
 hue, tough, but not very hard, though susceptible of a good polish.   The
 leaves  are  pinnate,  with  a naked  petiole, and  are composed of  from
 four to eight pairs of nearly opposite, elliptical, pointed, entire, smooth
 leaflets upon short footstalks, with a terminal leaflet.  The flowers are in
 corymbose clusters, numerous, small, of a yellowish-green, some male,
 and the rest hermaphrodite in the  same cluster.   The  calyx is  very
 small,  with five equal, ovate, pointed sepals.   The corolla consists of five
 equal, lanceolate  petals, longer than the sepals.  The stamens are  five,
 somewhat  longer than the petals, pubescent, and supporting  roundish
 anthers.  The  ovary is ovate, and surmounted by a slender, grooved
 style, which  is  trifid at  the apex.   The fruit  is a small black  drupe,
 usually three,  sometimes  only one  or  two, attached  to  the side  of a
 fleshy receptacle.
   Quassia  Amara, or  Bitter Quassia, is  a  small  tree  or shrub, much
 branched, and covered with an ash-colored bark.  The leaves are alter-
 nate, and consist of two  pairs of leaflets, and a terminal one;  they are
 elliptic-lanceolate, entire, very smooth,  two or three inches in length,
 and of a  deep-green  color.  The  common footstalk  is narrow,  but
 winged on each side with a leafy membrane, which expands  toward the
 base of each pair of leaflets,  where it is also jointed  or  articulated.
 The flowers are  hermaphrodite and  decandrous, have a brilliant  scarlet
 color,  and terminate the branches in long spikes, which are secund  and
 bracteate.   The bracts  are lanceolate,  reflexed,  and of  a  pink color.
 The calyx consists of five small, persistent sepals.  The corolla is formed
 of five lanceolate petals, which are never fully  expanded, being twisted
 in a spiral manner, and opening irregularly;  at the base of the corolla is
 placed  the  nectary,  consisting of  five roundish, colored scales.  The
 stamens are ten, slender, longer  than the corolla, and  bearing  simple
 anthers, attached by their middle so as  to  be transverse.  The ovary is
 ovate,  five-parted, and supports a slender style, longer than the  stamens,
 and terminated by a subulate  stigma.  The fruit  consists of five black
 drupes, containing a small unilocular nut, and  all attached  to a fleshy
receptacle.
  History.—The Quassia Amara  is  a native of Surinam, flowering in
 November  and  December, and is cultivated  in some  of  the West India
 Islands. It was discovered by a negro, named Quassi, who had become
 celebrated for his success in curing the malignant fevers of that country;
he kept his remedy a secret, until a Swede, Mr. Rolander, obtained the
 knowledge of it,  by giving him  a valuable  consideration for  it.  The
bark, wood, and root of this tree, were formerly officinal, but it is  very
 doubtful whether, at this time, any of these  reach our  markets.  They 
Picr^ena Excelsa.
729
are  all excessively  bitter, and the  root  especially,  has proved very
efficacious in malignant fevers.  The quassia amara, has now become
superseded by the following article.
   Picrcena Excelsa is a native of Jamaica, and some of  the  other West
India Islands, flowering in October and November, and ripening its fruit
in December and January.  The wood of this tree  furnishes  the quassia
of commerce, and is used as  a substitute for the genuine  quassia of
Surinam.   It is imported in large  cylindrical billets,  several  feet in
length, of various diameters, occasionally larger than a man's body, and
split into quarters, and frequently retaining a slightly adherent, smooth,
and  brittle bark, of equal  virtue with  the wood.   These are undoubtedly
derived from the trunk or branches, and not from  the root.   The wrood
is very tough, close in texture, at first whitish, but  by exposure becomes
yellower than  Surinam quassia; it is inodorous,  of  a  pure, intensely
bitter taste, and imparts  all its active properties to water and alcohol.
The bark  is thin, dark-brown, or  thick, grayish-brown, wrinkled,  and
traversed by reticulating lines.  Its virtues are owing  to a bitter princi-
ple discovered by  Winckler, called Quassin.
   Quassin may be obtained by concentrating a decoction of the wood to
three-quarters  of the weight  of the wood employed, agitating it when
cold with  slaked lime  for twenty-four hours, and  filtering, which sepa-
rates the pectin and  other substances.  The filtered liquor is then to be
evaporated nearly to dryness, and the residuum to be acted on by boiling
alcohol of specific gravity 0.835, which dissolves the quassin, and leaves
behind gum, salt, nitre, etc.   The  alcoholic solution must then be eva-
porated to dryness,  when impure crystals will be  obtained.   To  purify
them, dissolve them in the  least possible  quantity of absolute alcohol,
and then add a large proportion of  ether, which throws  down a  brown
mass; filter the liquor and evaporate  to dryness.   This solution in abso-
lute alcohol, the addition of ether, etc., must be repeated until  the quassin
is obtained colorless.  As it is not disposed to assume  a  crystalline form
by this  process, it may be  effected by  pouring  the alcoholic solution
mixed  with ether upon a small quantity of distilled water, and allowing
it to  evaporate  spontaneously.  Quassin is white, opake, unalterable in
the air, inodorous, and  intensely bitter; it is freely soluble  in alcohol,
sparingly so in ether, soluble in two hundred parts of water, but the
solubility of which  is increased by the addition of acids  or alkalies, and is
perfectly neuter.  When heated, it melts like a resin.  Its aqueous solu-
tion  is not  disturbed  by iodine, chlorine,  corrosive sublimate, solutions
of iron, nor  acetate of lead, but  is precipitated by  tannic acid.   It con-
sists  of carbon, hydrogen  and  oxygen.
  Properties and Uses.—Quassia is tonic, febrifuge, and anthelmintic.
It is  used  sometimes in remittent and intermittent fevers ;  likewise in
dyspepsia,  debility during convalescence from exhausting diseases, and 
730
Materia  Medica.
for worms.  It preserves animal matters from decay, which is a property
possessed more or less by all simple bitters. The decoction administered
by way of injection, will remove  ascarides.  An infusion may be made
by macerating for twelve hours, an ounce of the rasped or ground quas-
sia in a pint of cold water ;  the cold water does not dissolve  the extrac-
tive matter.  Of this  a wineglass half full may be taken three times a
day, either alone,  or with some ginger tea, and will be found useful for
feeble,  emaciated persons,  with  impaired  digestive organs.   Or an
extract made by evaporating the decoction to a pilular consistence, may
be given in doses of one grain, three or four times a day, and which will
be found less offensive  to  the  stomach than the  infusion or decoction.
Quassia, in connection with sulphuric acid, enters  largely into the com-
position of an Antibacchanalian Elixir, for  the cure of drunkenness, and
which does certainly destroy all appetite for alcoholic drinks.  On flies
and other insects quassia acts as a powerful narcotic poison, and the alco-
holic  extract kills small animals, when introduced into the cellular tissue.
Mr. Brande, in his work on chemistry, recommends  a strong decoction
of quassia, wTell sweetened with brown sugar or molasses, as an effectual
poison for flies, and  far preferable to  the poisonous articles generally
used  to destroy them.   It is certainly worth a trial.   Dose of the pow-
der, thirty grains; of the infusion,  from one to three fluidounces ; of the
tincture, one or two  fluidrachms ; and of the  extract, from two to ten
grains.
   Off.  Prep. — Infusum Quassiae.
                     PIMPINELLA ANISUM.
                               Anise.
          Nat. Ord.—Apiaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.
                        THE FRUIT.   ANISEED.
  Description.—Anise has a perennial fusiform woody root, and an erect,
branched, solid, round, jointed, striated stem, somewhat rough or downy,
and growing about a foot high.   The leaves are petiolate ; the lower or
radical ones are roundish, cordate, three to five-lobed, unequally toothed,
and  supported on  furrowed, sheath-like  petioles ;  the middle cauline
ones are  pinnate-lobed, with  cuneate or lanceolate  lobes;  the  upper
cauline ones are trifid, undivided, linear.   The flowers are small, white,
and disposed in flat, terminal umbels, without any involucre.  The calyx
is very minute or wanting.   The corolla  consists of five nearly equal,
obcordate petals, incurved at tip.   The stamens are five, filiform, longer
than the  petals,  with roundish  anthers.   The ovary is  ovate, downy,
with long  spreading, subulate, capitate styles  bearing obtuse stigmas.
The fruit is ovate,  a line and a half long, dull brown, slightly downy,
and not  at  all shining; the mericarps with five rather prominent ribs,
the intervals being rugose. 
Pinus  Palustris.
731
  History.—Anise is a native of Egypt, but is extensively cultivated in
many parts  of Southern  Europe.  That produced  in  Spain is smaller
than the French or German, and is usually preferred.   The fruit, popu-
larly called Aniseed is the officinal portion.  Aniseed is about a line or a
line  and a half in length, oval, striated, somewhat downy, attached to
their footstalks, of a light greenish-brown color, with a shade of  yellow.
They have a powerful, penetrating, fragrant odor,  and a warm, sweet,
aromatic taste.   Their  virtues depend upon a volatile  oil, and  are
imparted sparingly to water, but freely to alcohol.  The volatile  oil is
officinal; it  resides in the envelope of  the seeds,  and may be  readily
obtained by distillation with water or spirit.  The  internal substance of
the seeds contains a bland fixed  oil,  and when they are expressed, a
greenish oil is obtained, which consists of a  mixture  of the fixed  and
volatile oils.   When the seeds  are collected  before maturity, they are
apt to become impaired in quality, by a  slight fermentation in the  mass.
   Star-aniseed, which is much  used to flavor liquors, being called  by
the French Badiane, in its sensible properties is  similar to the common
aniseed ; and the volatile oil upon which its virtues  depend, is sold as oil
of common anise, and is regarded by some to be much superior.   It is
derived from an evergreen tree growing in Eastern  Asia, called lllicium
Anisatum ; the fruit or  seeds consist of five  or ten brownish ligneous
capsules four or five lines in length, united together  in the form of a star,
each containing a brown  shining seed.
  Properties and Uses.—An aromatic carminative ; used in cases of flatu-
lency, flatulent colic of infants, and to remove nausea.   Sometimes added
to other medicines to improve their flavor, correct griping and other dis-
agreeable effects.   The  dose  of aniseed, bruised or powdered,  is from
twenty to forty grains.
   Off.  Prep.—Oleum Anisi.
                       PINUS  PALUSTRIS.
                         Long-leaved Pine.
         Nat. Ord.—Pinaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Monadelphia.
           the concrete juice.  (See  Oil of Turpentine.)
  Description.—This tree is also known by the names of Broom Pine,
 Yellow  Pitch-pine,  etc., and  is the Pinus Australis of Michaux.  Its
trunk rises to the hight of from sixty to eighty feet, of which distance
about forty or  fifty feet below the branches  has a diameter varying
from  twelve  to twenty inches; the  bark of  the tree is slightly fur-
rowed.   The leaves are in threes, of a brilliant green color, about a foot
lono-,  and united in bunches at the ends  of the branches; the  sheaths
or stipules are pinnatifid,  scaly,  persistent; buds very  long, whitish.
 Sterile  aments violet  colored,  two inches  long.   Strobiles or cones 
732
Materia Medica.
sub-cylindrical, muricate, with small recurved spines, and from eight to
ten inches long.   Seeds with a thin, white testa.
  History.—This is a very large indigenous tree, found in the Middle,
Southern, and Western States, growing  in dry sandy soils.   Its timber
is  strong, compact  and durable,  and is much used by carpenters and
others.   From this tree is  obtained the greater part of the tar, turpen-
tine, resin, etc.,  used in the United States.   The  concrete juice  is the
white turpentine  of commerce; it is obtained by making excavations in
the trunk during the  winter months, about three or four inches from the
ground, and of sufficient size to  contain three or four pints.   About the
middle  of March the juice  begins  to flow into  these, and continues to
flow throughout  the  warm  season,  being removed as  the excavations
become filled ; this is placed in  casks, where it slowdy thickens, acquir-
ing a soft solid consistence.   It is yellowish-white, of a peculiar, some-
what aromatic odor,  and  a  warm, pungent, bitterish taste.  It is  some-
what translucent, and of a  consistence which varies with the  temper-
ature ; when exposed to  the air it ultimately becomes hard and dry.
When recent  it affords about seventeen per  cent, of essential oil.   It is
almost wholly soluble in alcohol or ether, and  readily unites with the
fixed oils.
   Venice Turpentine  is procured from  the  Larix Europaea, or  Abies
Larix ; it is  a viscid liquid of the consistence of honey, imperfectly trans-
parent, yellowish, or slightly greenish in color, having a strong not disa-
greeable odor, and  a  warm, bitterish, and very acrid taste.  It is soluble
in alcohol, does not readily  concrete upon exposure, and is not solidified
by  one-sixteenth of  magnesia.   The brown venice  turpentine of the
shops, is a factitious article  said  to be made  by dissolving resin in oil of
turpentine.  See Abies Larix.
   Chian Turpentine is obtained from the Pistachia Terebinthus; it is a
thick, tenacious liquid, of a greenish-yellow color, a peculiar penetrating,
rather agreeable odor, and  a mild taste without bitterness or acrimony.
Exposure to the  air gradually hardens it.
  Bordeaux Turpentine is the product  of several species  of pine, but
chiefly the Pinus Sylvestris, and Pinus Maritima.   It is whitish, turbid,
and  thickish, and on  standing separates into  a transparent liquid fluid,
and  a fluid of the color and  consistence  of thickened honey.  There are
various  other turpentines noticed in  foreign  Materia  Medicas, but not
being found in this country, it  is unnecessary to describe them.  All
the turpentines  have  a similarity in taste and odor, yet differing suffi-
ciently to characterize each  kind.   They become  thick  and  eventually
solid  by exposure,  are softened  or  rendered more liquid  by heat, and
burn with a white flame and much smoke.  Some of them are solidified
by the addition of magnesia; alcohol or ether almost completely dissolves
them, and they readily unite with the fixed oils by heat. 
Piper  Angustifolium.
733
   An  adhesive  and  strengthening plaster may be made  as follows:
 Take of Caoutchouc, reduced to fine shreds, five  pounds, steep it in hot
 water to soften; then remove from the water, dry as quickly as possible,
 place in a vessel, and cover with oil of turpentine, which must be in-
 creased in quantity as the caoutchouc absorbs it.   When the gum is suf-
 ficiently dissolved, press it through a fine sieve, and add to it the follow-
 ing mixtures :  1st. White turpentine, melted and dissolved in a sufficient
 quantity of oil of turpentine to  make  it  thin  enough  to  strain ; 2d.
 Capsicum,  four ounces,  heated in a quart of oil of turpentine, which
 must  be filtered  and  gradually  added and ground  with a pound of
 litharge, and to which Balsam of Peru six ounces, is to be added.  This
 plaster may be spread on paper,  linen, or leather.—The phosgene which
 is used in lamps as a substitute for oil, is said to be composed of, alcohol
 of 100 per cent.,  four gallons and a half, oil  of turpentine one gallon,
 camphor two ounces.  Burning fluid may he made in two different ways:
 1st.  Add together alcohol  of 90  per  cent, ten gallons, oil of pine, one
 gallon, camphor, four ounces ; or 2d. Alcohol  90  p. c. six gallons, phos-
 gene, one gallon,  oil of turpentine, one pint; mix.
  Properties and  Uses.—The turpentines  owe their influence upon the
 system  to their essential oil.   The urine is changed to a violet color by
 their use, and if  used too  freely, they  are apt to  occasion strangury,
 especially when they  do not act  upon  the bowels.   White  turpentine
 possesses stimulant, diuretic, and anthelmintic properties, and in large
 doses it is  laxative.   Used in  gonorrhea, gleet, leucorrhea,  chronic
 diseases of the urinary passages,  in chronic catarrhal affections,  chronic
 rheumatism, piles, chronic inflammation or ulceration of the bowels and
in chlorosis  and  amenorrhea.   Externally, it is  rubefacient and stimu-
lant, and enters  into various plasters and ointments.   Dose, is from a
scruple  to a drachm,  in  pill form, or in emulsion with gum arabic, or
 yelk of egg, loaf  sugar, and water.   Venice Turpentine,  Chian Turpen-
tine and Bordeaux Turpentine, possess similar properties, but are seldom
 used in this country.
   Off. Prep.—Emplastrum  Myricae;  Pilulae Ferri  Compositae; Ungu-
entum  Myricae; Unguentum Plumbi  Compositum; Vinum  Phytolaccae
 Compositum.
                   PIPER  ANGUSTIFOLIUM.
                              Matico.
          Nat. Ord-—Piperaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Diandria Trigynia.
                            THE LEAVES.
  Description.—This plant is the Artanthe Elongata of Miguel, and the
Stephensia Elongata of Kunth; it is described as a shrub with a jointed
stem, growing to the hight of about twelve feet.   The  leaves are sessile 
734
Materia  Medica.
or  petiolated  very shortly, oval-lanceolate, acuminate,  two or  three
inches long by about one in breadth, bright green on the upper surface,
paler and downy beneath, crenate, minutely and strongly reticulated, of
an agreeable aromatic  odor, and a strong spicy  taste.   The spikes are
solitary,  opposite the leaves, and cylindrical.  The bracts are pellate or
cucullate ; the flowers  hermaphrodite.
  History.—This plant is a native of Peru, and was introduced to the
profession by  Dr. Ruschenberger, of the U. S. Navy.  In the imported
drug, the leaves spikes and stalks are mixed together,  and more  or less
compressed in packages.   They are easily pulverized,  forming a  light,
greenish, absorbent powder.  Water takes up their aroma and a slight
pungency, but no astringency.   Infusion of galls produces a gray pre-
cipitate with infusion of matico ;  the sesquichloride of iron causes a deep
green one ; tartar-emetic, corrosive sublimate,  and gelatin scarcely affect
it.  They are said  to contain chlorophylle, a soft dark-green resin, brown
and yellow coloring matters, gum, salts, lignin,  a light-green, thickish
volatile oil, and a peculiar bitter principle, soluble in water and alcohol,
but not in ether, named Maticin; to this and the volatile oil, matico prob-
ably owes its activity.
  Properties and Uses.—Aromatic,  tonic, and  stimulant,  and  exerts  an
influence on the urinary passages.  Highly recommended in hemoptysis,
hematemesis,  dysentery, and hematuria, in doses of one drachm of the
powdered leaves, or one or two  fluidounces of the infusion, four times a
day.   The leaves and  flowering tops have been used with advantage in
diseases  of the  mucous membrane, as  gonorrhea,  leucorrhea,  menor-
rhagia, catarrh of the bladder, hemorrhoids, and epistaxis.  Externally,
the leaves are used for arresting hemorrhage from wounds, leech-bites,
etc.; the downy part of the  leaf is said to be the  most active part.  Also
applied to ulcers.  A tincture is also used, made with two ounces and a
half of the leaves to a  pint of diluted alcohol, of which the dose is from
one to three fluidrachms.
   Off. Prep. —Infusum  Matico.
                          PIPER CUBEBA.
                              Cubebs.
          Nat. Ord.—Piperaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Diandria Trigynia.
                            THE  BERRIES.
  Description.—This is a climbing perennial plant, with a smooth, flex-
uous, jointed stem; the branches round, about as thick as a goosequill,
ash-colored, smooth, rooting  at the joints ;  when very  young minutely
downy, as well  as the petioles.   The leaves are  petiolate, oblong  or
ovate-oblong, entire, acuminate, rounded  or obliquely cordate at base,
strongly  nerved, netted, coriaceous, very smooth, and from four to  six 
Piper  Cubeba.
735
 and a half inches long by one  or two inches broad.  The flowers are
 dicecious  and in spikes at the end of the branches, opposite the leaves,
 on peduncles the length of  the petioles.   Fruit globose, rather longer
 than black pepper, on pedicels from four to six lines in length.
   History.—Piper Cubeba is a native of Java, Prince  of Wales,  and
 other East India  Islands, where it grows wild in the woods.  The dried
 unripe fruit is the officinal portion ;  it is  generally  imported with the
 peduncles attached.   The fruit or berries are nearly globular, about the
 size of a small pea, rough, blackish or grayish-brown, of a rather agree-
 able  aromatic odor, and  of  a hot, bitterish,  somewhat camphoraceous
 taste, leaving a peculiar  sensation of  coolness in the mouth, similar to
 that caused by the oil of peppermint.  The peduncles or  stalks are  con-
 tinuous with  raised veins that  run over the  surface of the berry,  and
 embrace it like  a network.  The  sarcocarp is  thin;  the shell is hard,
 almost  ligneous, containing within it  one  loose  spherical seed, covered
 with a blackish coat, but white and oleaginous internally.  The powder
 of cubebs is dark-colored,  and of an oily aspect.   Cubebs contain a
 green volatile oil, a ceruminous  substance, a yellow volatile oil, a balsa-
 mic resin, cubebin,  chloride of  sodium,  extractive,  and lignin.    The
 volatile oil is officinal.   Age deteriorates the properties of  cubebs in
 consequence  of the evaporation of their volatile oil ; hence, it is better to
 keep them whole, pulverizing them when dispensed.
   Cubebin, was first obtained by Casola;  it is a neutral  substance,  and
 may  be  obtained by expressing cubebs  from which the oil has been
 distilled, preparing with them an alcoholic extract, treating this with a
 solution of potassa, washing  the residue with water, and  purifying it by
 repeated crystallizations in  alcohol.   Thus prepared, it is white, inodo-
 rous  and insipid, not volatilizable  by heat, almost insoluble in water,
 slightly soluble in cold alcohol,  freely so  in that liquid when hot,  and
 soluble  also  in  acetic  acid, ether, and   the  fixed  and volatile oils;
 although  bearing a close resemblance to  piperin, it  differs  from it in
 containing no nitrogen.
   Prop>erties   and Uses. — Cubebs are mildly  stimulant,  expectorant,
stomachic, and carminative.  They act more particularly upon mucous
tissues, arresting  excessive discharges, especially from the urethra.   In
large doses they  accelerate the circulation, increase the temperature of
the system, and  occasionally produce headache and giddiness ; with
these effects  they likewise in most instances, cause an increased flow of
urine, to which they impart a peculiar  odor.   They have been employed
successfully in gonorrhea,  gleet,  and sometimes in  leucorrhea,  and
catarrh of the urinary bladder;  if not speedily useful, their use should
be discontinued.   They are contra-indicated during a high inflammatory
condition, and are advised  to  be used in  gonorrhea only  when  the
inflammation  is confined to the mucous membrane of the urethra.  They 
736
Materia Medica.
have  also been  recommended  in piles, abscess of the prostate gland,
and chronic bronchial inflammation.   Their  use sometimes  occasions
nausea  or vomiting, and is  frequently attended, like  copaiba, with an
ephemeral  synocha, followed by a prompt cessation of the gonorrheal
discharge ; in which  disease they may be  given in  powder along with
water or milk, or made into a  paste with copaiba.  The following pre-
parations have been successfully used in gonorrhea and gleet;—1. Take
of Ethereal  extract  of  Cubebs,  Solidified  Balsam of Copaiba,  and
Carbonate  of  iron,  of each, two  drachms, Podophyllin half a scruple.
Mix, and divide  with pills of four grains each, of which one or two mav
be given three times a day.   2. Take of pulverized  Cubebs, Podophyl-
lum, white Pond Lily, of each, half an ounce,  Holland gin one pint.
Macerate for several days, and  give sufficient doses three times a day to
act slightly on the  bowels.   3. Take of Solidified Copaiba two ounces,
Ethereal extract of Cubebs  one ounce, Oil  of Juniper, a sufficient quan-
tity.   Mix, and  divide into pills of four grains each,  of which one or
two may be taken three times a day.  Dose of Cubebs in powder, from
half a drachm to  a drachm, three  times  a day; of  the tincture two
fluidrachms; of  the oil from ten to thirty drops.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Cubebae Fluidum ; Oleum Cubebae.
                        PIPER LONGUM.
                           Long  Pepper.
                           DRIED SPIKES.

                        PIPER NIGRUM.
                          Black Pepper.
          Nat. Ord.—Piperaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Diandria Trigynia.
                      DRIED UNRIPE  BERRIES.
  Description.—Piper Longum has a wroody, perennial root, with many,
creeping, jointed, round stems, downy when young.  Branchlets bearing
the fruit erect, with the leaves  sessile, or nearly so.  Leaves  on the
creeping branches largest, stalked, broad-cordate, seven-nerved;  on the
erect fruit-bearing branchlets amplexicaul, oblong-cordate, five-nerved ;
all  smooth, somewhat  wrinkled,  pale-green below.   Stipules  of the
petioled leaves two, adhering to the petiole, and lanceolate ; of the ses-
sile leaves intrapetiolar, single, spathiform.  Fertile flowers or catkins in
sessile spikes, opposite a leaf, stalked, erect, cylindrical, imbricated with
five or  more spiral  rows of small, orbicular scales.   Ovaries  sessile,
sub-orbicular.   Stigma  three or four-lobed.   Spike of ripe fruit, sub-
cylindrical, composed of firmly united one-seeded drupes.
  Piper Nigrum  is  a perennial vine  with  a trailing  or climbing  stem,
round,  smooth,  shrubby,  flexuose,  dichotomously branched, jointed, 
Piper  Longum.
737
 swelling at the joints, and  often  throwing  out  radicles there which
 adhere to bodies like the roots of ivy, or become roots  striking  into the
 ground.  The  leaves are  from four to six inches long, alternate, disti-
 chous,  broad-ovate, acuminate, of a dark-green color, shining above,
 paler beneath,  five to seven-nerved,  the  nerves connected  by lesser
 transverse ones or veins, and prominent beneath; petioles round, from
 half an inch to an inch long.  The flowers are small, whitish,  sessile, in
 spikes  opposite the  leaves,  mostly  toward the  extremities  of  the
 branches, pedunculate, from three to six  inches long, slender, droop-
 ing, apparently some male, others female,  while  sometimes the  flowers
 are  furnished with both  stamens and  pistils;  stamens  three.   Fruit
 ripening irregularly all the year round, sessile, the size of a pea, at first
 green, then red, and afterward black, covered by pulp.
   History.—Piper Longum is  a native of  South-eastern Asia, and is
 cultivated in Bengal, and many parts of Hindostan.   The  female spikes,
 dried in  the sun, form the long  pepper  of  the shops.    Miguel has
 separated this plant from the genus Piper  and placed it in a new one,
 Chavica ; he states that the Long Pepper is obtained from  three species,
 viz :  Chavica Pepuloides, Chavica Roxburghii,  both of which are found
 in a wild state in India, are cultivated in Bengal,  and furnish the  Long
 Pepper  of India;  and  the  Chavica Officinarum, a native of the  Philip-
 pine and Sunda  Islands, and which yields the  Long Pepper of Sumatra
 and Java.
   The India Long Pepper is cylindrical, an  inch or more in  length,
 indented on  its surface, of a dark-gray color, a weak aromatic odor, and
 a pungent fiery taste, but inferior to black pepper.  The Java Long Pep-
 per is very aromatic,  having a pungent aromatic taste stronger than
 that of  black pepper; they are of a grayish-brown, or grayish-cinnamon
 color, thick, cylindrical, somewhat narrowed toward  the apex, thick at
 base, and faceted with  a sort of network, of the projecting apices of the
 berries;  their stalk is  roundish, compressed, somewhat woody, curved,
 and almost  smooth.   Long-pepper contains a pungent concrete oil or
soft resin, aromatic volatile oil, and piperin.  Its medical virtues  are the
same  as Black  pepper, but it  is very little employed in  this country,
either as a condiment or in medicine.
   Piper Nigrum is a native of various parts of the East Indies, and is
extensively  cultivated  in Sumatra,  Java,  Malabar, etc.   The plant  is
propagated by cuttings, and begins to bear fruit in three or four years
from the time of  planting.   The berries are  gathered before they are
 quite ripe, and dried in the sun, when they become black and wrinkled,
 in consequence of  the drying of the pulp over the seed.  If permitted
 to ripen, and macerated  in water, so  as  to  permit  the  removal of the
outer coat, they form white pepper, which is  less pungent  and  aromatic
than the  black  pepper.  Black  pepper is principally imported  from
 Sumatra and Java.   The dried berries are about the size of a small pea,
           47 
738
Materia  Medica.
roundish, somewhat wrinkled, dark brownish-black  externally,  whitish
internally, with a peculiar,  aromatic odor, and a  hot,  spicy, pungent,
bitterish taste.  Alcohol or ether extracts  their virtues, and water only
partially.  They contain an  acrid concrete  oil, or soft resin of a green
color, a balsamic volatile oil, a colored gummy substance, an extractive
matter precipitated by infusion of galls, bassorin, uric and  malic acids,
lignin, various salts, and piperin.  The activity of black pepper probably
depends upon its acrid, green concrete oil, and its  volatile  oil, which is
limpid,  colorless,  becoming yellow  by age, of a  strong odor, and an
acrid taste, less so, however, than  that  of the pepper,  and consists of
ten equivalents of carbon, and eight of hydrogen; with muriatic acid
it forms  a liquid compound.   The  concrete oil is  soluble in alcohol or
ether.
   Piperin was discovered by Professor  GCrsted  of Copenhagen, Den-
mark.   It may be obtained  by treating pepper with alcohol, filtering
and evaporating the tincture to the consistence of an  extract, submitting
this extract to the action ^of an  alkaline  solution by which  the  oleagi-
nous matter is converted into soap, washing the undissolved portion
with cold water, filtering, and treating the  matter left on the filter with
alcohol, and allowing the solution thus obtained to  evaporate spontane-
ously, or by a gentle heat.   Crystals of piperin are deposited and may
be purified by alternate solution  in alcohol  or ether, and crystallization.
As ordinarily procured, the  crystals of piperin are yellow; when per-
fectly pure  they are  colorless, transparent,  inodorous, and nearly taste-
less, fusible at 212°, insoluble in cold water, slightly soluble in  boiling
water,  which deposits it on  cooling, soluble in  alcohol, ether or  acetic
acid, decomposed  by the concentrated  mineral acids,  becoming of a
blood-red color with  sulphuric acid, and with the  nitric becoming first
greenish-yellow, then orange, and finally red.  It  consists  of nitrogen,
carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, and  its formula, according to Wertheim,
is N2 Cro H37  O10.  It is supposed to be a neutral substance.
   Properties and Uses.—Black pepper is  a warm  carminative stimulant,
capable of producing general arterial  excitement.   Its  chief medicinal
use is to excite the languid stomach, and correct flatulence, and is some-
times added to quinia in cases where the stomach  is  not susceptible  to
quinia  alone.   It has been recommended as a remedy in intermittents,
but very often fails.  Piperin is  occasionally employed in  intermittent
fever, but will be found less  efficient than the alcoholic extract of black
pepper.  Its use has also been advised in colic, diarrhea, cholera, scarla-
tina, chronic  gonorrhea,  and in solution  as a wash for tinea  capitis.
Piperin should not be administered with  astringents, as it  is thereby
rendered nearly inert.  Dose of Black pepper from  five to twenty grains;
of piperin, from one to eight grains.
   Off. Prep.—Unguentum  Piperis Nigri. 
PlSTACIA LENTISCUS.
739
                     PlSTACIA LENTISCUS.
                              Lentisk.
         Nat. Ord.—Anacardiaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Dicecia Pentandria.
            THE CONCRETE  RESINOUS EXUDATION.   MASTICH.
   Description.—The Lentisk or mastich  tree, is a small shrub, seldom
more than twelve feet in hight, and eight or ten inches in diameter; it
is covered with a  smooth, brown bark, and toward the top sends off
numerous branches.  The leaves are evergreen, petiolate, and  abruptly
pinnate; the leaflets are from eight to  twelve in number, usually alter-
nate, with the exception of the two  upper which  are opposite,  oval,
lanceolate,  entire,  obtuse,  often  mucronate,  dark-green  above,  paler
beneath, and sessile upon the common petiole which is winged on each
side.   The flowers  are  very small, dicecious, and  in  single axillary ra-
cemes.   In the males,  the calyx is  divided into five minute, ovate seg-
ments ; stamens five,  very short, with large, brown, and quadrangular
anthers.   The females are placed  alternately on the peduncle, and their
calyx consists of three small, scale-like segments.  The  ovary is ovate,
and supports three  styles, with reflexed, clavate stigmas.  The fruit is
a smooth, reddish, obovate drupe, about the size  of a  small pea, con-
taining a smooth nut.
  History.—This  plant is  a native  of the South of Europe  and the
Levant; it flowers in April and May.   Its wood is hard  and yellowish,
and is sometimes used in the arts; the kernels of the  nut are edible, and
furnish an  oil which is used in Spain and other places for  burning.   It
is principally cultivated for its  resinous juice, known  as Mastich, the
greater part of  which is  obtained from   the island  of  Scio.   It  is
obtained by making  transverse  incisions in the  trunk and principal
branches, during the  month of August; from these the  juice slowly
exudes, and hardens in tears upon the bark, or drops upon the ground
where it is received upon cloths, or upon  the bare ground, and concretes
in irregular masses.  There are two kinds of it in commerce, the Picked
Mastich,  and Mastich in Sorts.  The former is the finest variety; it is  in
tears of various sizes, oval, roundish, or elongated, frequently flattened,
smooth, pale-yellow, translucent,  usually covered with  a whitish dust
from  attrition, brittle and easily pulverized, and of a shining fracture.
The Mastich in Sorts is  a coarser  kind, and  is composed of many  tears
agglutinated together,  varying  in  color  from pale-yellow,  to  grayish-
brown, and  black, together with  fragments  of  wood, bark, and earthy
matter intermingled.
  Mastich  has  a faint,  agreeable, balsamic  odor, which  is  increased by
heat or friction; its taste is weak,  agreeable, and somewhat terebinthi-
nate; when chewed it  becomes  soft, ductile, whitish-gray, and opake,
and after a time slightly acrid.  At a moderate heat it  melts, and at a
higher temperature  it burns with a clear flame and balsamic fumes.  Its 
740
Materia  Medica.
specific gravity is 1.074.  It is insoluble in water, but is wholly soluble
in ether, chloroform, and oil of turpentine, and scarcely soluble  in  the
fixed oils.  Boiling alcohol dissolves  from it  a resinous  acid, to  the
amount of nine-tenths  of its weight,  and  leaves a white, ductile sub-
stance, somewhat resembling caoutchouc in its  properties, and which is
soluble in ether, or boiling absolute alcohol.   This substance softens and
swells up  in alcohol, as gluten does  in water, and becomes  brittle  on
drying; it is termed Masticin.  Mastich consists chiefly  of resin, with
masticin,  and a minute  proportion of volatile oil.   It is occasionally
adulterated with sandarach, olibanum, and other resinous bodies; and
in seasons of scarcity with sea-salt.
   Properties and Uses.—Mastich is seldom  employed in medicine.   The
Turks use it as a masticatory to sweeten the breath and strengthen  the
gums. It is sometimes  employed by dentists to fill the cavities of decayed
teeth.   The  following  preparation is  recommended  for  this  purpose:
Take of pulverized  mastich nine  parts, sulphuric ether four parts, mix,
and digest for several days, strain it through a cloth, and add native alum,
in fine powder, a sufficient quantity to form a plastic mass, with which
vials  holding about two drachms  are  to be  filled, having first poured
into  each  about  thirty grains  of camphorated  alcohol, and  fifteen  of
essence of cloves.   This stopping  introduced in the cavity of a carious
tooth, first well cleansed and dried, is extremely useful on account of the
great degree of  hardness it  acquires.   Dissolved in alcohol or oil of tur-
pentine  mastich  forms  a brilliant  varnish.    An  ounce of mastich and
half a drachm of caoutchouc macerated in four fluidounces of chloroform,
and  when dissolved, filtered  in close  vessels,  forms a varnish  much
esteemed  by microscopists.

                          PIX LIQUIDA.
                                Tar.
   History.—The impure turpentine procured  by burning from the wood
of Pinus Palustris and  other species of pinus.   It has a peculiar empy-
reumatic odor, a bitterish, resinous, somewhat acid taste, a color almost
black, and a  tenacious consistence  between that  of a liquid  and solid.
It is dissolved by alcohol, ether, the fixed and volatile oils, and yields a
small proportion of its medicinal virtues  to -water.  It consists of resinous
matter united with acetic  acid,  oil of  turpentine, and various volatile
empyreumatic products, and colored  with  charcoal.   By distillation it
yields pyroligneous acid, and an empyreumatic oil called Oil of Tar, which
contains oil of turpentine, paraffine, eupione, creosote, upon which probably
its medicinal virtues depend, picamar, the  principle to which  its bitter-
ness is owing, capnomor, and pittacal.    The solid black mass left after
the liquid parts  have  been evaporated, is called Pix Nigra, or Black
Pitch; it  has a shining fracture, softens, and becomes adhesive with  a 
Plantago  Cordata.
741
 moderate heat,  melts  in  boiling water, and  consists  of the  unaltered
 pine-resin, and  various  empyreumatic  resinous  products  which  have
 received the name of pyretin.— U. S. Disp.
   Tar is  prepared  in large quantities in North Carolina and Virginia;
 and in smaller  quantities in  New  Jersey, New England,  and West
 Pennsylvania, from  the  Pinus Rigida, or pitch  pine.  For Burgundy
 Pitch, Pix Burgundica, see Abies Excelsa; and  for Canada  Pitch, or
 gum hemlock, Pix Canadensis, see Abies Canadensis.
   Properties and Uses.—Similar to  those of the  turpentines.   Used in
 chronic coughs, chronic bronchial inflammation, ichthyosis, and the vapor
 has been serviceable in cases of bronchial disease, by being inhaled into
 the lungs.  Externally, in the form of an  ointment, it has proved an
 efficient remedy in  tinea  capitis, and some cases of psoriasis; also in
 foul and indolent ulcers.   A tar water has been recommended in cough
 and bronchial affections, prepared as follows:  To half a gallon of boil-
 ing water, add one pint of tar  and one pint of  honey; stir the mixture,
 and when cold, strain off the liquid.   It  is stimulant  and diuretic, and
may be taken three  or four times a day, in  doses  of a wineglassful.  It
will also be found beneficial as a wash in some forms of cutaneous disease.
  Pix Nigra  has been used in doses of from ten to sixty  drachms in
ichthyosis and other cutaneous affections—it may be given in  pill form.
In piles it has been used with great advantage in the form of the follow-
ing ointment:  take of pitch, wax, resin, each, ten ounces, olive oil, one
pint.  Melt them together, and express through linen, and when nearly
cool, stir in four  ounces of Scotch snuff.
   Off. Prep.—Emplastrum Picis Compositae; Unguentum Piperis Nigri.
                    PLANTAGO  CORDATA.
                          Water  Plantain.
     Nat. Ord.—Plantaginaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Tetrandria Monogynia.
                            THE  ROOT.
  Description.—This is an indigenous perennial plant, known likewise as
the Heart-leaved Plantain.  It is an acaulescent herb, with  stout, naked
scapes,  growing from one to two feet in hight.  The leaves are radical,
cordate-ovate, broad, smooth,  somewhat toothed, thickish,  about six
inches  long, six or eight-ribbed below with a thick midrib, and on long
stout petioles.  The flowers are small, whitish, somewhat imbricate, the
lower ones scattered, and  on elongated spikes  which are from six to
eight inches  long;  bracts ovate, obtuse.   Calyx and corolla lobes, very
obtuse.   Pyxis a third longer than the calyx, two-celled, with two seeds
in each cell.
  History.—This  plant grows in moist  places, and along the banks of
rivers, from New York and New Jersey to Tennessee; also from Ohio to 
742
Materia Medica.
Wisconsin,  and flowers  from April to August.   The  root is the part
used, and yields its properties to water;  it has not been analyzed.
  Properties and Uses. — The root of Plantago Cordata  is astringent,
anodyne,  antispasmodic,  and an ti-emetic.  The decoction and  extract
have  been successfully used in Asiatic cholera, checking  the disease in
a short time; they have  likewise proved beneficial  in  dysentery.  The
plant  is certainly deserving more extended investigation.   A poultice of
the roots is recommended as an application to old, indolent ulcers, bruises,
wounds, etc.; it allays inflammation, and reduces swelling.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Plantaginis Cordatae Hydro-alcoholicum.
                       PLANTAGO  MAJOR.
                              Plantain
       Nat. Ord.—Plantaginaceae.  Sex.  Syst.—Tetrandria Monogynia.
                           ROOT  and  tops.
   Description.—This is a perennial acaulescent plant with a round scape
from one to three feet in hight, arising from a fibrous root.  The leaves
are  ovate, smoothish, somewhat  toothed, five to  seven-nerved, each of
which contains a  strong fiber, which  may  be pulled  out, and abruptly
narrowed into  a long, channeled  petiole.   The flowers  are white, very
small, imbricated, numerous, and  are  densely disposed  on a cylindrical
spike  from five  to  twenty inches long.  Small  plants  are frequently
found with the spikes only half an inch to two inches long, and the
leaves and stalks proportionally small.   Stamens  and  styles long; seeds
numerous.
   History.—Plantain is a well known herb, growing in rich moist places,
in fields, by the  roadsides, and in grass-plats, and  common in Europe
and  America.   It flowers from May to October.  The root has a sweet-
ish, saline taste, and the leaves  are saline, bitterish, and austere.   Water
or alcohol extracts the virtues of  the plant;  it has not been analyzed.
   Properties  and  Uses. — Plantain  is  refrigerant, diuretic, astringent,
alterative, and  antiseptic.   The tops and roots in strong  decoction, have
been highly recommended  in  syphilitic, mercurial,  and  scrofulous dis-
eases, in the dose  of from  two  to four fluidounces, three or four times a
day.   It is  likewise  reputed beneficial in menorrhagia, leucorrhea,
hematuria, diarrhea, dysentery,  and  hemorrhoids.    The juice taken
internally, in doses  of one fluidounce  every hour, and  also applied to
the wound, is in high repute as an  antidote  to the bites of venomous
serpents,  spiders,  and insects.  Externally, the bruised leaves, or an
ointment  made with them, is useful in wounds, ulcers, ophthalmia, salt-
rheum, erysipelas, and some other cutaneous affections.   The best form
of administration is the juice dissolved in diluted alcohol,  and evaporated
by gentle heat to the consistence of an  extract. 
Plumbi Acetas.
743
                         PLUMBI ACETAS.
                          Acetate  of Lead.
   Preparation.—Acetate of Lead is likewise known by the several names
 of Sugar of Lead,  Superacetate of Lead, Saccharum Saturni.   It is pre-
 pared by placing thin lead plates in shallow vessels containing distilled
 vinegar, or diluted pyroligneous acid, and turning them  occasionally so
 as to bring different portions of the metallic surface in contact with the
 air.   In this way the metal protoxidizes, and a saturated solution of the
 protoxide is formed, which, by evaporation  and crystallization, yields
 the  acetate.  This process furnishes  a perfectly neutral salt.   Another
 mode consists in dissolving, by the aid of heat, litharge,  or the protox-
 ide  of lead obtained by calcination, in an  excess of distilled vinegar or
 of purified pyroligneous acid, contained in leaden boilers.  The oxide is
 rapidly dissolved, and when the acid has become saturated, the solution
 is transferred to other vessels to cool and crystallize.   After the  forma-
 tion of the  crystals, the mother-waters are decanted,  and  by  a new
 evaporation  made  to yield another crop, which are usually yellow, but
 may be whitened by repeated solutions and crystallizations.
   History.—Acetate of  lead is extensively manufactured in  Germany,
 Holland, France, England, and in the United States.   It is a white salt,
 crystallizing in transparent, brilliant needles, which have the  shape of
 long prisms, terminated  by dihedral summits.  It has an acetous odor,
 and  a sweet taste followed by strong astringency.  It  slowly effloresces
 when exposed  to the  air, at the same time  parting with  a little of its
 acid.  It is  soluble both in water  and  alcohol ;  cold  water  dissolving
 from one-fourth  to three-fifths of  its weight.   Carbonic  acid  water, as
 well as common water, which  uniformly contains this  acid, produces a
 slight precipitate of carbonate of lead with the acetate, which  interferes
 with the clearness of the solution; this maybe removed or prevented by
 the  addition of a small portion  of vinegar, or of aeetic acid.   Acetate of
 lead ought  to dissolve entirely, and form  a  clear solution, in pure dis-
 tilled water, free from carbonic acid.  Sulphuric acid, or a soluble sul-
phate, when added to a solution of the acetate of lead, produces instantly
a precipitate of sulphate  of lead, the acid disengaging, at  the same time,
acetic vapors.  When heated,  the salt fuses in its water of crystalliza-
tion  ; at a heat of 320° its whole water, with a small  proportion of its
acid, is speedily discharged, and a heavy white opake  mass remains; a
higher heat fuses it again, decomposing it, and disengaging acetic acid,
and  pyro-acetic spirit or acetone ;  a still higher temperature  leaves a
residue of charcoal and  reduced lead.  In the air-pump vacuum, and
with the aid of sulphuric acid or quicklime to absorb water as it escapes,
the acetate of lead falls into a white powder, which is completely anhy-
drous.   Acetate of lead  possesses the important property of dissolving 
744
Materia  Medica.
a large quantity of the protoxide of lead.  It consists of one  equi
valent of acetic acid 51, one of protoxide of lead, 111.6, and  three
of water 27=189.6 ; its formula is (Ci  Hs Os+PbO+3HO,  or A+
PbO+3Aq.)
  Acetate of lead is incompatible with all acids, and with those soluble salts
formed from them, which produce, with protoxide of lead, insoluble, or
sparingly soluble compounds.  Acids of this character are the sulphuric,
muriatic, citric and tartaric.   It  is also decomposed by lime-water, and
by ammonia, potassa, and soda ;  the  two last, if added to  excess, dis-
solving the precipitate at first formed.  It is decomposed by hard water,
in consequence of  the  sulphate  of lime and common  salt which  such
water usually contains.   With sulphureted hydrogen, it gives a black
precipitate of  sulphuret of lead ;  with iodide of potassium, a yellow ore
of iodide of  lead ; and with carbonate of soda, a white one of carbonate
of lead.
  Properties and Uses.—Acetate of lead in doses of from one to three
grains, repeated every two or three hours, is a powerful astringent and
sedative ; it  is usually given in pill form.   In large doses it is an irritant
poison ;  and in long continued small doses it  may induce the peculiar
constitutional action of the preparations of lead.  Its best antidote is sul-
phate of soda, sulphate of magnesia,  or phosphate of soda, which should
be followed by emetics if necessary, and then  by alternate purgatives
and opium.   Generally  an overdose is followed by vomiting, which pre-
vents any serious injury, and as long  as the bowels are kept regular, its
remote constitutional effects are less  apt to occur.   Large  doses, even
two  hundred  and forty grains,  have been swallowed, without proving
fatal.  It is  much employed internally among Allopathic practitioners,
in hemorrhages from the lungs, intestines,  and uterus,—in  some forms
of diarrhea, and dysentery, — in cholera  infantum — in the colliquative
diarrhea of phthisis combined with opium — in  severe mercurial saliva-
tion, and in  irritability of the stomach attending certain fevers.
  It is never used internally by Eclectics, but is occasionally employed
externally, in  solution, in cases of superficial inflammations, as  in ery-
thema, erysipelas, spreading inflammation of the subcutaneous cellular
tissue, and in many cutaneous diseases.   The solution may  be made by
dissolving a drachm of the salt  in five or eight fluidounces of distilled
water, to which a fluidrachm of distilled vinegar may be added to prevent
the oxide from being thrown down.   As a collyrium the usual strength
is one or two grains to the ounce of water.  In  inflammations opium is
often conjoined with it, four grains of each being added  to  every  fluid-
ounce of water.  So much improvement  has been recently made in
Eclectic practice, that we believe even the external use of this  agent can
be, in a great measure, dispensed with.
   Off. Prep.—Lotio Myrrhae Composita. 
Plumbi Oxidum Rubrum.
745
                   PLUMBI  OXIDUM RUBRUM.
                        Red  Oxide  of  Lead.
   Preparation.—Red Oxide of Lead, also  known by the name of Red-
 lead, Minium, etc., is prepared on a  large scale by the  manufacturing
 chemists.  It is obtained from the  protoxide of lead, (yellow massicot,)
 by exposing it, under the  access of  air, to a  temperature just short of
 what is required to cause fusion, stirring it occasionally for a day and a
 half or upward, and allowing  the product to cool slowly.   The French
 prepare it in tin boxes,  closed from the air, and heated  nearly to red-
 ness, and then gradually allowed to cool.  Red-lead, to be of good qual-
 ity, should be made in large quantities at a time, and should be allowed
 to cool slowly;  this is  important, for, as the  absorption of  oxygen,  by
 which it is formed, takes place during a particular interval of temperature
 only, it is  necessary that the  heat within that interval  should be main-
 tained sufficiently long  to  allow all the  protoxide to absorb its appro-
 priate amount of oxygen.
   History.—Read-lead  is a heavy, scaly, tasteless powder,  of  a  bright
 scarlet color, with a slight tinge of orange.   Heat renders it darker, and
 when raised, fuses it, with the disengagement of oxygen, and its re-con-
 version into protoxide.  Its specific gravity is  about 9.  It is insoluble
 in water.   Nitrous  acid  dissolves it  entirely, forming nitrate of protoxide
 of lead; because the excess of oxygen in red-lead converts  the nitrous
 into  nitric  acid.  Diluted  nitric acid instantly  renders it dark-brown,
 resolving it into two oxides,  one of  them the  protoxide, which  is dis-
 solved, and the other the peroxide or  binoxidc, which remains.  It is
 sometimes  adulterated with red oxide of  iron,  or red-bole, substances
 which may be  detected by dissolving the suspected red-lead  in nitric
 acid,  and testing with tincture of galls.   This  reagent will produce a
 black precipitate, in consequence of the  iron  present in the substances
 mentioned.   If  powdered brick be present, it will be  left undissolved,
 upon treating the suspected specimen with nitrous acid, which dissolves
 the lead and leaves the  impurity ;  or  if boiled in water  with  sugar, and
 a small quantity of nitric acid, a similar result  will take  place.   When
 free from impurities, it is completely reduced on charcoal, by means  of
the blowpipe, into a globule of metallic  lead.   When treated by nitric
 acid,  it is resolved  into  protoxide which dissolves, and peroxide  which
remains insoluble.   Chemists  differ as to the constitution of red-lead ; it
is  generally considered  to consist of  three equivalents  of lead and four
of oxygen,  so united as  to constitute  it  a compound of two  equivalents
of protoxide, and  one of peroxide or plumbic acid (2PbO+Pb02) that
is, 223.2 parts of the former oxide, and 119.6 of the latter.
   Properties and Uses.—The only purpose  for which this article is used,
 is in the formation  of plasters,  as for instance, the Black Plaster, or Black 
746
Materia Medica.
Salve, a  beautiful and efficacious  agent in  cuts, wounds, ulcers, some
cutaneous affections, etc.
   Off. Prep.—Emplastrum  Plumbi  Compositum; Unguentum Plumbi
Compositum.
                  PODOPHYLLUM PELTATUM.
                             Mandrake.
  Nat. Ord. — Berberidacea?, Brown; Podophylleas, Lindley.   Sex.  Syst.__
Polyandria Monogynia.
                       THE RHIZOMA,  OR ROOT.
  Description.—This plant is also known by the several names of May-
apple, Wild-lemon, Raccoon-berry, Wild Mandrake, etc.   It is indigenous
and herbaceous, with a perennial, smooth, creeping, jointed root,  several
feet  in length, about a quarter of an  inch thick, brown externally,
yellowish within, and furnished with radicles at the joints.   The stem is
simple, erect, round, smooth, about a foot in hight, invested at its base
by the sheaths which  covered it when in bud, and divided at top into
two round petioles from three to six inches long; each  petiole supports
a large, peltate palmate leaf, smooth above, slightly pubescent beneath,
deeply divided  into five, six, or seven lobes,  which are wedge-shaped,
two-parted, yellowish-green above, paler below, and irregularly incised
at their  extremities.   In  barren stems which support but one leaf, the
peltate character is the most perfect.   The flower is solitary in the fork
of the stem, on  a  round nodding peduncle one or two inches long, white,
large, about two inches in diameter, and  somewhat fragrant.  The calyx
consists of three  oval, obtuse, concave, deciduous sepals, which  cohere
in the bud by their scarious margins.  The corolla is composed of from
six  to nine white,  obovate,  obtuse, smooth,  concave  petals, curiously
netted with delicate, transparent veins.  Stamens from nine to twenty,
shorter than  the  petals, curving upward, with yellow, oblong anthers of
twice the length  of the filaments, and not  opening  by perfect  uplifted
valves.   Ovary oval,  compressed,  obscurely  angular.    Stigma  subses-
sile, convex,  its surface rendered irregular by numerous folds and con-
volutions.  The fruit is fleshy,  ovoid-oblong, one-celled,  one  or two
inches  in length, and crowned with  the persistent stigma; its  fleshy,
mucilaginous pulp,  has somewhat the flavor of a  strawberry, and
contains  imbedded in it about twelve  ovate seeds, all  connected to the
lateral receptacle by fibers.  When ripe the  fruit is of a lemon-yellow
color, with round, brownish spots.
  History.—Mandrake is found in abundance in almost all parts of the
United States,  in  damp and shady woods, and  sometimes in dry and
exposed  situations.  It flowers in May and June, and ripens its  fruit in
September, at which time the leaves wither and fall off.   The leaves are
said to be poisonous.   The fruit has a subacid, sweetish, peculiar taste, 
Podophyllum Peltatum.
747
 is edible, and slightly aperient, and is very much liked by some persons,
 but extremely disagreeable to others.   The root, which is the officinal
 part, was well known to the Indians before the whites settled the country,
 and was one  of their most active purgatives; it should be collected  for
 medicinal  use soon after the ripening of the fruit.   The dried root, as
 found in the shops, is in pieces of various lengths, about two or three
 lines thick, with broad, swelling, flattened joints  at short intervals, longi-
 tudinally corrugated, blackish-brown, or reddish-brown externally, dirty
 white internally, and furnished with fibers of a similar  color to  that of
 the  rhizoma.  Its  fracture is short  and irregular,  its odor faint and
 unpleasant, very similar to ipecacuanha, and its  taste is sweetish, bitter,
 and slightly acrid.  Its active principles are readily taken up by alcohol,
 or ether; water takes up a portion of its activity.    Analysis has detected
 in this root gum,  albumen, starch, extractive, lignin, gallic acid, fixed
 oil, traces of volatile  oil,  salts of potassa and  lime, and two resinous
 principles,  one soluble in  alcohol  or ether, and  the  other  soluble in
 alcohol  only.  Both resins are purgative, and   probably  compose  our
 medicinal podophyllin.
   Properties and Uses.—The entire plant in its recent state is an irritant
 poison, producing vomiting, hypercatharsis, tormina, stupor, and bloating
 of the body; the root, recently dried,  operates as a drastic cathartic and
 emetic, when  given in large  doses ;   but the violence of its  action is
 materially modified by age, or roasting.  Mandrake is cathartic, emetic,
 alterative,  anthelmintic, hydragogue,  and sialagogue.   It is an active
 and  certain cathartic,  being  equal, if not superior to jalap, though
 operating more slowly.  When given in combination with bitartrate  of
 potassa,  it induces watery  stools, on which  account it  has been found
 serviceable  in dropsical affections.   As a deobstruent, it is one of the
 most  valuable  in our Materia Medica, acting through and upon all the
 tissues of the system—and its action  continues for a long time.  Small
 doses, repeated at  short intervals,  to fall short of catharsis, will induce
 ptyalism with many persons.   In bilious and typhoid febrile diseases, it
 is very valuable as a cathartic, or emeto-cathartic, often  breaking up the
 disease at  once.   Its cathartic operation is  apt  to be  slow, sometimes
 remaining twenty-four hours, and producing considerable distress, which
is, however, more than  compensated  for, by the  thorough and cleansing
 manner in which it acts.  In  chronic  hepatitis, there is not  its superior
in the whole range of medicines, being vastly more useful than mercurial
 agents, arousing the liver to a healthy action, increasing the flow of bile,
 and keeping up these actions longer than any  other agent with which
we are acquainted.   In alterative doses, it has been found exceedingly
valuable in  scrofula, syphilitic diseases,  rheumatism, and  many other
forms  of chronic  disease.   In constipation,  it  acts upon the bowels,
without disposing them to subsequent  costiveness.  It has likewise been 
748
Materia Medica.
found very  beneficial  in  dysmenorrhea,  amenorrhea, incontinence of
urine, worms, and some affections of the bladder.  Dose of the powdered
root, as a cathartic, from  ten to thirty grains; of the tincture,  from ten
to sixty drops ; as a sialagogue  and alterative, from three to ten grains
of the powder,  or  from five to twenty drops of the  tincture.  Since the
preparation of the podophyllin  by Mr. W. S. Merrell, the crude drug is
seldom employed.   The Podophyllum Montanum of Rafinesque, having
a slender, deeply furrowed stem, the  leaves with sharp, bifid segments,
palmate, not peltate, with narrow sinuses, and many unequal teeth ; the
petals six to seven, oblong, obtuse ; stamens seven to nine, and berry
yellowish oblong, is possessed of similar medical properties.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Podophylli; Emplastrum  Picis Compositum;
Pilulae Aloes Compositae ; Tinctura Podophylli.
                         PODOPHYLLIN.
            The Resinoid or Active Principle of Mandrake.
  Preparation.—This is,  undoubtedly, as with the major part of our
concentrated preparations, an  impure resin.   It may be prepared by
adding a saturated tincture  of  the root to an equal quantity of water,
and distilling off the alcohol;  the resin falls to the bottom.   The water
contains  the gum, mucilage, extractive, etc.   It may likewise be pre-
cipitated without heat  by adding  a  solution  of  alum  to a saturated
tincture of the root, but by this process all the  resin is not obtained.
  I am  indebted to the  Messrs. F. D. Hill &  Co., of this city, for the
following process of manufacturing  podophyllin, as pursued by them;
these  gentlemen, in  common with all true  Eclectics, are very desirous
of elevating our school of medicine by  all honorable means,  and one
among these means is opposition  to all secret remedies or preparations;
and for the prompt and  cheerful  manner  in which  they  have furnished
any information requested of them, they deserve the thanks of  the pro-
fession.   " Exhaust coarsely powdered mandrake root with alcohol, by
percolation.  Place the saturated tincture in a still, and distil off the
alcohol, the residue will be  a dark fluid of the  consistence of molasses;
sometimes it is thicker,  and  when this is the case add a small portion of
it to some water, and if it does not form a whitish  yellow precipitate, a
small quantity of alcohol must be added to it, or  enough to cause the
light precipitate.  Then warm the thick residual fluid, and  slowly pour
it into three times its volume of  cold water, which must be constantly
agitated  during the process.   If  poured in too  fast, or without  agitation
the fluid will fall to the bottom unchanged. Allow it to stand for twenty-
four hours; at which time nearly all the podophyllin will  be precipitated,
the addition of a sufficient quantity of muriatic acid will precipitate the
remainder.  The precipitated podophyllin, of a whitish  yellow color, is 
Podophyllin.
749
now to  be removed and placed on  a linen filter, and washed  several
times with water, to remove any remaining acid, gum, etc.;  after which
it is to be placed in thin layers on paper, and dried in a room of a tem-
perature between 65° and 90° F., or if in summer at the natural atmos-
pheric temperature—it becomes a shade or two darker by drying in this
manner, but if artificial heat be employed to hasten the process,  or of a
hio-her temperature, the resin becomes quite dark."
  This valuable  agent I had the honor of introducing to the profession
several  years since.   In 1835 I was first led to an examination  of the
resinous principle of this plant, as well  as of the Iris, Cimicifuga, Ale-
tris, and several  other plants, in consequence of some information given
to me by Professor Tully, of Yale College, New Haven, Conn., relative
to the resinous  constituent of the  Cimicifuga Racemosa.  And  since
August, 1835, I have prepared, and used, more or less in my practice,
in the treatment of various forms of  disease, the resins of Podophyllum,
Iris, Cimicifuga, Aletris, and several other medicinal  plants.   In July,
1844, I  first called  public attention  to the resins of Podophyllum and
Iris, in  the New  York Philosophical Medical Journal, vol. i, No.  7,
pages 157-161,  in which I recommended the mandrake resin in combi-
nation with an alkali, for hepatic  diseases, scrofula, dropsy, leucorrhea,
syphilis, gonorrhea, gleet, obstructed menstruation,  etc., but of which
it appears but little notice was taken  by the profession.  In April, 1846,
I again called the attention of the profession to this, as well as many
other concentrated preparations, in the Western Medical Reformer, vol.
v, No.  12, pages 175-178.   Now, as dates are the only reliable  source
of correct  information in  such matters, unless some one can  show an
earlier  notice of these  articles,  and  of their practical utility, than the
above, their claims will naturally be considered doubtful.  The credit
of first  preparing podophyllin, and  other concentrated  preparations, for
the  use of the  profession generally, it being part  of his avocation,
belongs to Mr. W. S. Merrell, druggist and chemist, of Cincinnati, who,
first manufactured it in June, 1847;  since which it has become  an indis-
pensable and highly important Eclectic remedy; and is likewise used by
many Allopathies  and Homoeopathies, and by the former, in all instances
where they have employed it, is preferred to mercurials.
  Podophyllin varies in color according to  its mode  of  precipitation,
being when precipitated by heat, dark-brown; and when by acid, a light
brownish-yellow, or greenish-olive if by alum.   It is insoluble in water,
oil  of turpentine,  dilute nitric acid,  and dilute alkalies.  It appears  to
be composed of  two resins, both of which are  purgative, one is soluble
in alcohol only,  the  other  in alcohol, or ether.  From the  presence  of
gum, or perhaps from an oxidation  of the resin (an  example of which
may be witnessed in the pine-gum), soon after  its  preparation, a portion
of podophyllin ceases to be dissolved by alcohol.   It  has no alkaline nor
acid reaction, but forms a saponaceous compound with the alkalies. 
750                      Materia Medica.
   Properties and Uses.—It  possesses  the  properties  of  the root in  a
superior degree; from four to eight grains operate as  an  active emeto-
cathartic, with griping,  nausea, prostration,  and watery  stools;  from
two to four grains,  as a drastic cathartic, with nausea.and griping; from
one half a grain  to two grains, generally operates as an active cathartic,
leaving the bowels in  a soluble condition;  in very  small doses, it is
gently aperient and alterative.   We make use  of this agent in  those
cases  where mercurials are  used by a certain  class of  practitioners, and
find the result to be vastly in our favor;  it fulfills  all the indications for
which mercurials are recommended and used.   The action of podo-
phyllin is very much  increased by long trituration,  with  four or  five
times its weight  of loaf sugar,  or sugar  of milk (lactin).   In doses of
half a grain,  or a grain, it  is  one  of our  most valuable cholagogue
cathartics,  operating mildly yet effectually, arousing the whole biliary
and digestive apparatus  to a normal action, and which is very persistent
in its  character.  It likewise exerts a  favorable influence  on the  cuta-
neous functions,  producing and  maintaining a constant moisture on the
skin.   In doses of from  one-eighth to one half of a  grain, or rather in
sufficient doses not to purge, it acts as  a  powerful alterative, and will
induce ptyalism in  some persons, and is very useful  in scrofulous  and
sjrphilitic diseases, hepatic affections, dysmenorrhea, rheumatism, gonor-
rhea,  and recent  disease  of the prostate.   It produces a powerful and
lasting  impression  upon the glandular  system  and  secretory organs,
unequaled by any other  article.   It has likewise been found to act as an
emmenagogue, and may also be safely and beneficially administered in
jaundice, dropsies,  dysentery, diarrhea, bilious remittent  and  intermit-
tent fevers, puerperal  fever, typhoid fever, phrenitis,  and  all glandular
enlargements;  and in  congestive fever  it will produce  evacuations from
the bowels, when mercurials and all other agents  fail.  There is not a
better cholagogue preparation known in medicine, than the combination
of podophyllin and leptandrin.   It is superior to mercurials or any other
preparation of  the kind, has  an  extensive range of application, combines
certainty and  permanency of action, and is less  liable to  effect harm,
even  in the hands of ignorant or injudicious practitioners, than any other
known  remedy of equal  power  and energy.   In  urethral stricture, and
recent disease  of  the  prostate, the following pill has  cured several
cases:  Take  of podophyllin and iridin  of each  four grains,  alcoholic
extract of belladona, five grains, strychnia, a grain or a  grain and a
half, conserve of roses a sufficient quantity to make a pill mass. Divide
into twenty pills, of which, one  may be given for  a  dose,  and repeated
three  times a day, using in combination with  it, active  diuretic infusions.
Podophyllin  should never  be  given,  except in  very fine powder, or
which is still  better, thoroughly triturated with  loaf sugar,  sugar of
milk,  ginger, or  some soluble extract.   Five grains well triturated with
sugar of  milk, will make ten or fifteen active cathartic doses.  When 
Podophyllin.
751
used alone it is very apt to produce irritation and  pain  of the stomach,
but castile soap, alkalies, or ginger added to  it deprives it  of most of
its irritating and nauseating tendency and disposition to gripe.  Caulo-
phyllin combined with it, materially lessens its painful and disagreeable
effects.   Care should always be taken to proportion the  dose of podo-
phyllin to the susceptibilities and condition of the patient, as in some
cases half a grain will prove a vigorous emeto-cathartic, while in others
it would require twice that amount.  When it operates too actively, the
administration of alkaline  solutions with  aromatics  internally,  and in
severe cases by enema, will check it.
  Professor R. S. Newton observes,  that, "administered in  one-fourth
or half grain doses, two or three times a day, and continued for  several
days, it  produces an  entire change of the  secretions throughout the
system, especially that of the liver, producing free and copious bilious
discharges."   He has used it  extensively,  alone and  in  combination
with leptandrin and cimicifugin.
  An  Eclectic  physician  says of this  resinoid:—"As  a  cholagogue
cathartic, it probably has no equal in the Materia Medica.   Its operation
is slow, mild and certain.  It produces  a specific action  on the liver,
arousing it to action, and producing free  'bilious  evacuations,' rather of
a hydragogue character,  but is  not liable to produce intestinal irritation,
unless given in unnecessarily large  doses.  It usually takes  from six to
eight hours for it to operate as a cathartic, unless  combined with cream
of tartar,  or  some  other  article by which its action will be  hastened.
As  a cathartic  in  all biliary derangements  not  attended by intestinal
irritation, it is a superior remedy.   In bilious  fevers, either remittent or
intermittent,  as  well  as in  acute  hepatitis or bilious-pneumonia, it not
unfrequently arrests the disease at the  first  prescription if given in  a
proper manner,  or it so far modifies  the attack that the case becomes
mild and manageable.  In chronic hepatic derangements, with dyspepsia,
it is a most, valuable remedy.   Its range of application is perhaps more
extensive than any  other cathartic  medicine, except what is  claimed by
the  old school for mercury.   The Podophyllin is  a regulator of all the
secretions as  far as  any one remedy can be.   It is indicated  in all  cases
where according to  'the  books,' mercury is indicated,  and while in  any
and every case it will do all the good  that mercury can be presumed to
do, it is entirely free from any of the objections to that article.  The dose
varies from one-fourth to one-half a grain, repeated once in two or three
hours.  The  best mode of using it is, to triturate  it thoroughly with ten
times its  weight of  pure white  sugar, or  sugar of milk, and  give  from
one to five grains of the trituration at a dose once in two or three hours,"
until the proper effect is produced.  It will usually operate in about six
hours, sometimes in less.   If it  is desirable to have an operation sooner,
add twenty or thirty grains of cream of tartar and one-fourth of a grain
of capsicum to each dose.   This is not apt to  nauseate when first given, 
752
Materia  Medica.
but if the stomach be much  deranged or 'bilious,' it will be pretty sure
to vomit, though not excessively, about the time its cathartic effect com-
mences.   If  given  alone, however, it is quite  sure  to  operate  as  an
emeto-cathartic, unless  the  doses be  very  small,  and  the intervals
between them longer than three hours.   As an aperient or alterative,
from one-sixth to one-fourth  of a grain given evening and morning, or
three times a day will generally be sufficient.  It is better, however, in
all cases to triturate it  as before directed, and give  the dose accordingly.
A combination of one part Podophyllin and ten  parts Leptandrin tritu-
rated with ten  parts of sugar, is  an excellent  alterative in dyspepsia,
hepatitis, etc.  As  a  remedy in puerperal  fever, I consider the Podo-
phyllin almost a specific.   I  prescribe it  in one-fourth  to  one-half grain
doses with half a drachm of cream of tartar, to be repeated  every two
hours until it produces  free purging, and in no instance have I had any
trouble with  the case after its operation."
   The late  Prof. T. V. Morrow makes  the following  remarks:—"Per-
haps no medicine  has  been introduced to the notice of the  medical
profession, for the last one hundred years,  which promises to be of  so
much value  as  the  Podophyllin.   An experience somewhat extensive
in the use of this agent in the treatment  of  a great variety of cases  of
disease, during  the  last six months, has fully convinced the writer  of
its immense  value as a remedial  agent,  more especially as a purgative
and alterative.   To prepare it properly for use, it should be finely pulver-
ized, and given  in  doses of  from one and a half to three grains, to  an
adult, mixed  in a little simple syrup or sweetened water—say in one-half
a tablespoonful or about two teaspoonfuls.  In doses of this size it will
operate with  great  efficiency and certainty  as a purgative, in from four
to eight hours, producing several pretty  copious  and moderately consis-
tent  discharges, which  are  very frequently charged  to  a considerable
extent with bile.  In some instances a longer period will elapse before  its
operation will commence, and in nearly  every case it leaves  the bowels
in a gently lax condition, perhaps for two or three  days after its opera-
tion  is  over.  It operates with  much  energy and  efficiency,  without
harshness, seldom  producing  griping;  but it occasionally produces
nausea, and,  in full doses,  may cause  vomiting,  but in small doses,
seldom produces these effects.   Some practitioners, who  have used the
Podophyllin,  say it will operate  quite  satisfactorily as a purgative, in
doses of one  grain.  This is  one of the cathartics which, during its ope-
ration, seems to exercise a powerfully  controlling  influence over the
condition of the cutaneous tissue, as well as the  action of the heart and
arteries, producing, in   many instances,  a moderately copious perspira-
tion, which often continues, to a greater  or less  extent, during the whole
period  of its operation.  This is  more  especially true when it causes
nausea and vomiting.   But when these effects do take place the patients
never experience that death-like and powerful depressing sickness, which 
Podophyllin.
753
not unfrequently results from the operation of the  powdered root of the
Podophyllum  Peltatum, when  given in full doses.  I have found the
Podophyllin quite a popular and convenient purgative, the  dose  being
so remarkably small that no one objects to  taking  it on account  of its
unpleasant and inconvenient size.
   In the treatment  of the various kinds of intermittent, remittent, and
continued forms of fever, I have had  frequent opportunities to test its
value, during the past summer and fall.  With one single dose,  of from
two to  three grains, of  this medicine, I  have frequently arrested  the
progress of a severe attack of bilious remittent fever, requiring nothing
further to complete the  cure, except some gentle  tonic and restorative
medicine, and  a proper avoidance of the exciting  causes.  The same
remarks apply with equal truth to  the intermitting forms of fever, as
well as to some of the  continued.  In every variety of case, which is
characterized by much hepatic torpor and congestion of the portal circle,
it has manifested a superior controlling  power, appearing  to  arouse the
torpid energies of the liver, and restoring very promptly its lost functions.
   But in no class of cases has this medicine manifested a higher degree
of value, so far as  I have been able to observe its effects,  than  in those
cases marked  by strong determination  of blood to the brain, producing
either congestion or  incipient inflammation of that organ.  In several
cases of this description, in the  treatment of which I have witnessed its
effects, I was agreeably surprised to find every trace of congestion eradi-
cated by one or two  thorough operations of this article.  It seemed to
exercise  a more completely controlling  influence  over this pathological
condition than  any  medicine I have ever  known used for the same pur-
pose.   Of course, in these  cases it was used in  moderately full doses,
and its operations continued for a considerable length of time.  In cases
of puerperal fever,  in their incipient stage, it has  manifested itself as a
medicine of superior value, arresting them at  once, when administered
in  full doses, and even as a common purgative dose after confinement,
no medicine has exercised a happier influence.  I  have availed myself
of its use under these  circumstances, in  numerous instances, with the
most beneficial  and  satisfactory results.   In a case of dropsy of the
serous cavities, as well as cellular texture of the whole body, the Podo-
phyllin was administered in doses of one-half a  grain, in conjunction
with half a teaspoonful of  Cremor Tartar, every two hours, until it
produced  a half  dozen  or more  copious  watery  discharges from the
bowels,  and repeated in two  or three days afterward,  till the same
effects took place, it soon relieved the patient completely of the dropsi-
cal effusion!!   From its effects in this  case I should be led to entertain
a favorable opinion of its powers in all cases of dropsy.
   I have used the Podophyllin in numerous cases of cholera infantum,
and other attacks of summer-complaint in  children, with very satisfac-
tory results.  In these cases, however, it was given in very small doses.
           48 
754
Materia Medica.
To a child three years old, it was given in doses of from one-fourth to a
half of a grain, once in six or eight hours for thirty-six to forty-eight
hours, and it scarcely  ever failed to afford decided advantage,  more
especially in those cases in which there was frequent hepatic torpor, in
connection with a determination of blood  to the head.  The results of
my experience in the use of this  article as a remedial agent,  on the
whole, are such as to leave no doubt on my mind that it is destined soon
to occupy a conspicuous place among the  most valuable remedies of the
Materia Medica, with a very extended range of application  in the treat-
ment of disease.  As an alterative, it has  demonstrated its value beyond
all doubt, in numerous cases in which it has been  used during the past
summer  and fall, especially in  that class of cases in the treatment of
which  the routine practitioners of the  orthodox school regard the mer-
curial preparations as of indispensable importance.   Indeed, it promises
to be more than  a substitute for  the mercurials, in all those cases in
which  these medicines have  proved  of  any substantial  value,  without
their liability to produce injurious effects on the constitution of patients."
   Off. Prep.—Pilulae Baptisiae Compositae; Pilulae Copaibae Compositae ;
Pilulae Ferri Compositae;  Pilulae Leptandrini Compositae;  Pilulae Podo-
phyllini Compositae; Pulvis Leptandrini Compositus; Pulvis Podophyl-
lini Compositus.
                    POLEMONIUM  REPTANS.
                      American Greek-Valerian.
      Nat. Ord.—Polemoniaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                              the root.
   Description.—This is an indigenous perennial plant, sometimes known
as Blue Bells, Jacob's Ladder, etc.  It has a creeping root, and a smooth,
erect, weak, fleshy, diffusely-branched stem from twelve to twenty inches
high.  The leaves are alternate, and pinnately divided; the leaflets from
seven  to eleven, ovate-lanceolate,  acute, subopposite, smooth, entire,
sessile, an inch long and half as wide; the  upper leaflets are sometimes
confluent.  The flowers are  numerous, terminal, rather large, nodding,
on short petioles, blue, and nearly bractless.   The calyx is campanulate,
five-cleft; the  segments lanceolate-acute, persistent, much shorter than
the tube of the corolla.   The corolla is  rotate-campanulate, limb five-
lobed, erect,  tube short, closed at the base by five stameniferous valves.
Stamens five, equally inserted at the summit of the  corolla-tube; fila-
ments slender, declined, hairy-appendaged at the base; anthers introrse.
Capsules three-celled,  three-valved;  cells two to three-seeded.
  History.—This is a handsome plant, growing in woods, damp grounds,
and along shady river banks, from New York  to Wisconsin, bearing blue
flowers  in  May.   The root  is the part used, and  yields  its virtues to 
Polygala Rubella.
755
water; it has not been analyzed.   The Polemonium Cceruleum, or Greek-
Valerian, is a native of England.   It is larger  and more  numerously-
flowered than the above, and is often found cultivated in gardens.   The
stems are about two feet high, stout, hollow, several from the same root,
each dividing at top into a corymbose  panicle.  The leaves are mostly
radical, on  long, grooved petioles, pinnately eleven to seventeen foliate;
segments sessile, ovate-lanceolate,  subopposite, acuminate,  oblique, odd
one lanceolate. Flowers blue, terminal, suberect.   This plant, probably,
possesses medicinal virtues similar to the one above.
  Properties and  Uses.—Alterative,  diaphoretic,  and astringent.  A
warm infusion  of the root will, it is said, produce copious perspiration,
and has been found serviceable  in pleurisy,  febrile  and inflammatory
diseases.  The tincture, made of whisky, in  doses  of from one to two
fluidounces, two or three times  a day, has been found valuable in all
scrofulous  diseases, and other  chronic  diseases where an  alterative is
indicated.    The infusion is recommended in  bites of venomous snakes
and insects, and in  bowel complaints  requiring  the  use of astringents.
Reported to have cured  consumption.
  Off. Prep.—Infusum  Polemonii.
                     POLYGALA RUBELLA.
                          Bitter  Polygala.
        Nat. Ord.—Polygalaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Diadelphia Octandria.
                        the  root and herb.
  Description. — This is the Polygala  Polygama of Walter.   It is an
indigenous herb, with a perennial,  branched, and somewhat fusiform
root.  The stems are simple, crowded, many from the same root, angular,
smooth, and erect, growing from  six to twelve  feet  high.   The leaves
are linear, oblong, mucronate, smooth,  alternate below;  linear-lanceo-
late, obtuse, sessile above.   The flowers are crested, purple, and  in
terminal or lateral racemes;  the  former are  spike-form, loose, with the
flowers perfect and winged; the latter are leafless, prostrate or subterra-
neous, wingless,  and nearly apetalous.   Wing  of  the  calyx broadly
obovate, and longer  than  the crested  corolla.   Anthers  eight, in two
equal parcels.   Bracts small, subulate,  caducous.  Lobes of the caruncle
two, scale-like,  shorter than the seed.
  History.—This plant is a native  of many parts of the United States,
usually growing in arid, sandy or gravelly soils, and  flowering in July
and August.  The whole  plant is  officinal;  it is inodorous, with a  per-
sistent and powerfully bitter taste, which is imparted to water or alcohol.
It has not  been  analyzed.  The Polygala  Amara  and  the  Polygala
Paucifolia, or Fringed Polygala, possess similar properties, and may be
employed as  substitutes; the  root of the  latter  has  a sweet, pungent,
aromatic taste, resembling somewhat that of Gaultheria. 
756                      Materia  Medica.
   Properties and  Uses. — In  small doses a bitter tonic;  in large ones
laxative  and diaphoretic.  An  infusion has been  found beneficial as a
tonic  in  debility of the digestive  organs.   It may be used in all cases
where a bitter tonic is indicated.
                      POLYGALA  SENEGA.
                               Seneka.
       Nat. Qrd.—Polygalacese.  Sex.  Syst.—Diadelphia Octandria.
                             the root.
  Description.—Seneka is an indigenous plant, with a ligneous, contorted,
branching and perennial root, which  sends up annually several erect,
simple,  round, somewhat terete, leafy stems,  from eight to fourteen
inches in hight, brownish-red  below,  and green above.  The leaves  are
alternate  or  scattered, nearly  or quite sessile, lanceolate, acuminate,
bright-green above, paler beneath, with scabrous  margins, from one to
three inches long, and about one-third  as wide.  The flowers are small,
white, slightly crested, on very  small pedicels, and  arranged in a some-
what dense,  terminal,  spike-form, filiform raceme, from  one to  three
inches in length.   The calyx  is five-leaved, with two leaflets wing-
shaped, larger than the  petals, round-obovate,  concave,  white, and
slightly veined.   The corolla is  small, closed, having two  obtuse lateral
segments, and a short-crested extremity.  The style is short, somewhat
rostrate.  The capsules are  small, obcordate, invested by the persistent
calyx, compressed, two-celled, two-valved.  Seeds two,  oblong-ovate,
acute at one end,  slightly hairy, curved, blackish, with a  longitudinal,
bifid, white strophiola on the concave side.   The spike opens slowly, so
that the lower flowers are in fruit while the upper ones are in blossom.
  History.—Seneka, or Seneca, Snake-root, as it is usually called, is found
in various parts of  the United States in woods, and on hill-sides, flower-
ing from June to  August.  It is found  in the greatest abundance in the
Southern  and Western  States, and is rare  in the Eastern.  The dried
root, which is the officinal part,  is of various sizes, being from two to five
or six lines in diameter ; it presents a tuberous head, with the remains
of the stems, below which is the tapering, branched, twisted root, often
surrounded by ringed protuberances, and carinated along its whole length.
The epidermis is  corrugated, transversely cracked, of a yellowish-brown
color in the young roots, and brownish-gray in  the old;  the cortical
portion  is thick, hard, and resinous, and contains the active principles of
the root; the  central part is ligneous,  white, inert, and should be rejected
in the preparation of the powder.  When fresh, it  has  a strong, peculiar,
nauseous  odor, which is scarcely perceptible in the dried root; its taste
is at first  mucilaginous  and somewhat sweetish, followed  by pungency,
acridity, irritation of the fauces, and  a flow of saliva.   It imparts its 
Polygala Senega.                      757
virtues  to water or alcohol; diluted alcohol is its  best  solvent.  The
infusion is stronger than the decoction, and should be prepared by dis-
placement in water not exceeding 104° F. in temperature.  Too high a
temperature renders a portion of the acrid principle insoluble  in water,
by causing it to unite with the coloring matter and coagulated albumen
of the root.   It  has been analyzed by several chemists,  and with vari-
able results; according to the most recent investigations by M. Quevenne,
it contains a peculiar acrid principle, named Polygalic Acid; a bitter,
yellow coloring matter, nearly insoluble in water, but soluble in ether or
alcohol; a volatile principle, named Virgineic Acid; pectic acid or pectin;
tannic acid  of that variety which  precipitates iron  green; gum; albu-
men ; cerin ;  fixed oil; woody  fiber;  and various saline and  earthy
substances.   The polygalic acid has been variously called Polygalin and
Senegin; it  contains  no  azote; is  closely analogous to saponin,  and is
probably the active principle of the root.  It may be obtained by the
following process of Quevenne: Exhaust  powdered seneka by alcohol
of 33°,  and distil off sufficient alcohol from the tincture to reduce it to
the consistence of syrup; treat this with ether to remove the  fatty mat-
ter, and allow the liquid to stand.  It deposits a precipitate which  is
separated by filtration, and is  then mixed with water.   To the turbid
solution  thus formed  alcohol is added, which facilitates  the production
of a white precipitate, consisting chiefly of polygalic acid.   The  liquid
is allowed to  stand for several days that  the precipitate may be fully
formed.    The  supernatant liquid  being  decanted, the precipitate  is
drained  upon a  filter, and  being removed while yet moist, is dissolved
by the aid of heat in alcohol of 36°.  The solution is boiled with puri-
fied animal  charcoal, and filtered while hot.  Upon  cooling it deposits
pure polygalic acid.  It is a white inodorous powder, of a slight taste  at
first, but soon followed by pungency, acridity, and  pain in the  fauces.
It is  permanent, unalterable in the  air, inflammable, slowly soluble  in
cold,  but rapidly so  in hot water, soluble  in boiling absolute alcohol,
which deposits  it on cooling, insoluble in  ether, the fixed and volatile
oils, neutralizes  the alkalies, and reddens litmus paper.  It consists  of
carbon,  hydrogen, and oxygen.
  The Polygala Sanguinea, or Caducous  Polygala, and the Polygala
Chamcebuxus, possess  similar properties with the Seneka, and may be
used as  a substitute.
  Properties and Uses.—In large doses, seneka is emetic and cathartic;
in ordinary doses it stimulates most  of the secretions, acting especially
as a  sialagogue, expectorant, diuretic, diaphoretic,  and  emmenagogue.
It is chiefly  employed on account of its expectorant virtues, and is much
used  in chronic  catarrh, and  protracted  pneumonia,  also in humoral
asthma, and in the secondary stages  of croup.  In active inflammation
its use is contra-indicated.   In  relaxed sore-throat it is recommended as 
758                      Materia  Medica.
a local stimulant; also as a diaphoretico-diuretic in  rheumatism, and as
an emmenagogue in amenorrhea.   Dose of the powdered root, from ten
to twenty grains ; of the infusion or syrup,  from half a fluidounce to two
fluidounces.  The extract prepared from an infusion of the root, obtained
by percolation, and evaporated to the proper consistence by means of a
water-bath, may be given in doses of from one  to three grains.   Poly-
galic acid may be  given for  the  same purposes as the root, in doses of
from one-fourth to one-half of a grain, dissolved in hot water, with the
addition of gum and  sugar.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Senegae; Tinctura Laricis Composita.
                  POLYGONUM PUNCTATUM.

                          Water  Pepper.
        Nat. Ord.—Polygonaceae.  Sex. Syst—Octandria Trigynia.
                         the whole herb.
  Description. —This plant, sometimes called  Smart-weed, is the Poly-
gonum Hydropiper of Michaux.  It is  an annual plant, with a smooth
stem, branched, often decumbent at base, slender, jointed, swelling above
the joints, of a reddish or greenish-brown  color, sprinkled with glandu-
lar  dots, and from one to two  feet  in hight.  The root is white, whorled,
and fibrous.  The leaves are  alternate, lanceolate, petiolate, punctate
with  pellucid dots,  wavy and scabrous on the margin, two or three
inches long, and not more than one-fifth as wide ; the petioles are sheath-
ing, inflated, fringed.  The flowers are small, greenish-white  or  purple,
and are disposed in slender,  loose, interrupted,  drooping, but finally
erect spikes or racemes ;  bracts remotely alternate.   The calyx is four or
five cleft, and covered with glandular dots.   Stamens six to eight; styles
two to three, united  at the base and half way up. Fruit either lenticular
or three-sided, opake, roughish.   Seed one.
  History.—Polygonum  Punctatum, is  a well known,  intensely acrid
plant, found growing in  nearly all  parts of the United States in ditches,
low grounds, among rubbish,  and about brooks and water-courses, flow-
ering in August and September.  There are many species of Polygonum,
but which, although possessing similar virtues, yet differ materially in
their medical potency.   The  whole plant is officinal, and has a biting,
pungent, acrid taste, and imparts its virtues to alcohol  or water.  Age
renders it inert, and heat impairs its  medical  qualities.   It  should  be
 collected and made into  a tincture while fresh.  The plant has not  been
 analyzed.
    The Polygonum  Persicaria, called  Ladies'  Thumb, or Spotted Knot-
 weed, possesses similar but inferior medicinal properties, and may be dis-
 tinguished  from the above by the deeper green or purplish color of the 
Polygonum  Punctatum.
759
 whole plant, a brownish, heart-shaped spot near the center of the leaf,
 and its rose-colored flowers, in short, dense,  terminal spikes.   It has a
 feebly astringent saline taste, and at one time was considered antiseptic.
   Properties and Uses.—Water-pepper is  stimulant, diuretic, emmena-
 gogue, antiseptic,  diaphoretic and vesicant.   Highly recommended in
 amenorrhea, in doses of one fluidrachm of the saturated  tincture, two
 or three times a day, or  from four to six grains of the extract.  The infu-
 sion in cold water has been found serviceable in gravel, colds and coughs,
 and mixed with wheat-bran in bowel complaints.  In Asiatic cholera,
 the patients wrapped in a sheet moistened with a hot decoction, are said
 to have been much benefited, and recovered.  In combination with  sul-
 phate of iron and gum  myrrh, it is said to have cured epilepsy—proba-
 bly dependent on some uterine derangement.  Externally, used as fomen-
 tation, in  gangrene, simmered in water and  vinegar; the infusion or a
 fomentation of the leaves  has been beneficially applied in chronic ulcers,
 and hemorrhoidal tumors, also as  a wash in chronic erysipelatous inflam-
 mations, as a fomentation in  tympanitis and flatulent colic.  The fresh
 leaves bruised with the leaves of Mayweed, and moistenedj with oil of
 turpentine, and applied  to the skin, will speedily vesicate.  The ashes
 of the plant combined with the ashes of the garden Thyme, Thymus Vul-
garis, are, it is said, used  by many empirics as a solvent for gravel and
 stone, injected, in  solution,  into the  bladder:  hazardous and  doubtful
 treatment.  The infusion in cold water, forms an excellent local application
 in the sore-mouth  of nursing women, and in mercurial salivation.   The
 decoction, or infusion in hot water, is not so active as when prepared in
 cold or warm water.   Dose  of the infusion, from two to four fluidounces;
of the saturated tincture, from one to four fluidrachms three or four times
 a  day — it  is said to cause a warmth and peculiar tingling sensation
 throughout  the  system, with  slight aching pains  in the hips and loins,
 and a sense of weight and tension within the pelvis.
   The Polygonum  Arifolium, Sickle-Grass, Halbert-lmved Tear-thumb,
 or Hastate  Knot Grass,  has  a grooved,  angled, prostrate, aculeate stem,
 with reversed  prickles, and growing from two to four feet in length.
 The leaves are halbert-shaped, taper-pointed, long-petioled, from two to
 four inches  long, and about one-half  as wide ;  the petioles are from half
 an inch to an inch long.  The flowers are few, distinct, reddish-white,
 and are disposed in loose, slender, terminal, racemose clusters ; peduncles
 glandular-bristly;  calyx  often four-parted, closed; stamens six ;  styles
 two,  very short;  fruit lenticular, large.    It  grows in low  and wet
 grounds throughout the  United States, flowering from June to September.
 An infusion of this plant in cold  water is a powerful diuretic,  useful in
 gravel,  strangury,  gonorrhea, and all urinary  affections; it must be
 drank freely.
   Polygonum Fagopyrum,  or common Buckwheat, may be used as fol-
 lows to recall the flow of milk in the breasts of nurses,  where it has 
760
Materia  Medica.
disappeared for several days :  Stir in any quantity of buckwheat flower,
a sufficient quantity of buttermilk  to form a poultice;  warm it, but  be
careful not to boil or make it hot.  Apply it thus warm, over the whole
breast and renew it every four or six hours.   Sometimes it  requires to
be thus used  for three  or  four days  before  its effects are produced;
usually, however, twenty-four hours are sufficient.
   Off. Prep. — Infusum Polygoni; Extractum  Polygoni;  Extractum
Polygoni Fluidum;  Pilulae Polygoni Compositae ; Tinctura Caulophylli
Composita; Tinctura Polygoni.
                    POLYPODIUM VULGARE.
                        Common Polypody.
  Nat. Ord. — Filices, Jussieu;  Filicales,  Lindley; Polypodiaceae, Brown.
Sex. Syst.—Cryptogamia Filices.
                        the  root and  tops.
  Description.—This plant is also known  by the names of Rock-Polypod,
Fern-root, Rock-Brake, Brake-root, Female-Fern,  etc.  It  has  a peren-
nial, creeping, irregular, brown root,  with membranous scales extending
to the caudex or base of the stipe.  The fronds are from six to twelve
inches high,  distiched, green,  smooth,  deeply pinnatifid, being divided
into alternate  segments nearly to the  midvein, which are linear-oblong,
obtuse,  crenulate, the upper  ones gradually smaller,  parallel, a little
curved, and about a quarter of an inch wide.  Stipe naked and smooth.
The fruit on the lower surface of the frond, in large, distinct, golden
dots, sori, or capsules, without any indusium, round, in a double row,
and becoming finally brownish.
  History.—Polypody is common on  shady rocks, in woods, and moun-
tains, throughout the United  States.  The root and tops are used  in
medicine ; the root is rather long, about  as thick  as a goosequill, some-
what  contorted, covered with  brown, easily separable  scales, furnished
with slender radicles, and marked by  numerous small tubercles ;  its color
is  reddish-brown with a  tinge of yellow, its odor  disagreeably oleagi-
nous, and its  taste peculiar, sweetish, mucilaginous, somewhat bitter and
nauseous.  Water extracts its  properties.
  Properties  and  Uses.—This plant is pectoral,  demulcent, purgative,
and anthelmintic.  A decoction or syrup has been  found  very valuable
in pulmonary and hepatic  diseases;  and a  strong  decoction is recom-
mended as a  purgative, and for the expulsion of taenia, and other worms.
Dose of the powdered plant from one to four drachms;  of the decoction
or syrup, from one to four fluidounces, three or four times a day.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Polypodii. 
          P0LYTR1CHUM JuNIPERUM — PoPULUS BALSAMIFERA.      761

                  POLYTRICHUM JUNIPERUM.
                           Hair-cap Moss.
    Nat.  Ord.—Musci,—Polytrichacese.  Sex.  Syst.—Cryptogamia Musci.
                         the whole plant.
   Description.—This plant, sometimes  known as Bear's Bed,  Ground
Moss, Robin's-Rye, etc., is indigenous, and perennial, with  a simple  or
divided stem, more generally simple, slender, of a  reddish color, and
from four to seven inches  in hight.  The leaves are linear-lanceolate, awn-
pointed,  entire,  flattish,  appressed, somewhat spreading, the  margins
inflexed.   The capsule is oblong four-sided, the angles acute ; the calyp-
tra is densely hairy and white ; the lid or operculum short-beaked from a
convex base; apophysis depressed, and discoidal.  Peristome single,  of
sixty-four teeth, adherent by their  summits to the membranous-dilated
apex of the columella.   Inflorescence dicecious ;  sterile flowers terminal,
cup-shaped.
   History.—This is an evergreen plant, found on  high, dry places, along
the margins of dry woods, and exposed places, mostly on a  poor, sandy
soil, and  is of a darker green color than the  mosses in general.   The
leaves are closely set on the stem about one half its length, above which
the stem  is naked, terminating in a capsule, covered with a white, hairy
hood or calyptre.   The whole plant is officinal.  It yields its properties
to boiling water by infusion.  It  has not been analyzed, but is deserving
the especial attention of medical men.
   Properties and  Uses.—This is  a very valuable and important Eclectic
agent, which has  been in  use for a number of years,  and is, I  believe,
unknown to any other class of practitioners.   It is a powerful diuretic in
strong infusions   In doses of two fluidounces of the infusion, every  half
hour, it has been known to remove  from  a  dropsical patient from twenty
to forty pounds of water in the space of twenty-four hours.   It possesses
but very  little smell  or taste,  and never produces any nausea  or disa-
greeable  sensation in the  stomach.   It may be used in connection  with
hydragogue cathartics, or even alone, in  dropsies, with the most decided
advantage ; and is a very  useful  article in gravel, and all urinary obstruc-
tions.  Professor  Jones considers it  worthy to be ranked among the first,
if not at the head, of the class of diuretics.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Polytrichi.

                   POPULUS  BALSAMIFERA.
                           Balsam Poplar.
          Nat. Ord.—Salicaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Dicecia Octandria.
                             the buds.
   Description.—This tree, also called Tacamahac, or  Tacamahac Poplar,
attains the hight of from fifty to seventy feet, with  a trunk about eighteen 
762
Materia Medica.
inches in diameter.   The  branches  are smooth,  round, deep-brown;
the buds acuminate, smooth, and covered in  the  spring with an abund-
ance of fragrant, viscid, balsamic juice.  The leaves are ovate, gradually
tapering and pointed, smooth  on both sides, with fine glandular serra-
tures, deep-green above, whitish and  reticulate-veined beneath, and on
long petioles ; sometimes two glands at the apex  of the petiole.  Scales
dilated, slightly hairy.
  History.— This tree is  found in Canada, the northern parts of the
United States, and in Siberia.   In this country it is in blossom  in April.
The leaf-buds are the officinal part, and should be collected in the spring;
they have a peculiar,  agreeable, balsamic odor, and a,bitterish, balsamic,
somewhat pungent taste.  The balsamic juice is  collected in  Canada in
shells, and sent  to Europe, under the name of Tacamahaca.  Alcohol or
spirits is the proper solvent.  They have not been analyzed.
  The buds of the Populus  Candicans, or Balm of Gilead, possess
similar virtues with the above.   The tree is of less stature than the  P.
Balsamifera, the leaves are broader, and heart-shaped, with a distinct
sinus at the base—the petioles are hairy and  the  branches  terete.
  Properties and Uses.—Poplar buds are reputed  stimulant, tonic, diu-
retic, and  antiscorbutic.   A  tincture of them  has been  beneficially
employed in pectoral, rheumatic,  scorbutic, and nephritic affections.
Externally,  macerated in oil or lard, they form an  excellent liniment or
ointment in the treatment of wounds,  bruises, tumors, some cutaneous
diseases, and in local  rheumatism.  The bark is said to be tonic and
cathartic, and to have proved of service in gout and rheumatism.  Dose
of a tincture of  the buds, from one to four fluidrachms ; and is  excellent
for colds, and pain in  the  breast.
                   POPULUS TREMULOIDES.
                         American  Poplar.
           Nat. Ord.—Salicaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Dicecia Octandria.
                             THE BARK.
  Description.—This  tree, also known by the names of  White-Poplar,
and Aspen, attains the hight of from  twenty to fifty feet, with a diame-
ter of from eight to twelve inches.  It is  covered with a smooth, green-
ish-white bark, except on the trunks  of very old trees.  The leaves are
orbicular-cordate,  abruptly acuminate, dentate-serrate,  smooth on both
sides, pubescent at the margins, dark-green, three-nerved, from two to
two and a half inches long,  and  one and a fourth as wide, and are on
long, slender, and laterally compressed petioles,  which accounts for the
continual agitation of the leaves by the slightest  breeze. Aments plumed
with silken hairs, about two inches long, pendulous,  appearing in April, 
Potassium.
763
 long before the leaves.   Scales cut into three or four deep linear divi-
 sions, and fringed with long hairs.
   History.—This tree is common in Lower Canada, and in the Northern
 and Middle States.   The bark  is  the officinal part, and should be col-
 lected in the spring,  just  as  the  sap begins to rise.   Its virtues are
 imparted to alcohol, water, or acetic acid.   There are several varieties
 of  this tree, all of  which  possess  similar properties, as the  Populus
 Grandidentata, P. Candicans, etc.
   These trees owe their virtues to two  alkaloids, Populin and  Salicin.
 The process for obtaining Salicin is described under its appropriate head.
 Populin may be obtained from the  solution,  after the  salicin  has been
 procured, by saturating  the excess  of sulphuric acid, when  the  salicin
 has ceased  to crystallize, with  a concentrated  solution of carbonate  of
 potassa.   This precipitates  the populin, which should be pressed between
 folds of  blotting paper, and re-dissolved in boiling water;  when, upon
 the cooling of the liquid, the populin will be deposited in the crystalline
 state.   It is  very light, purely white,  and  of a bitter-sweetish taste.
 When heated, it melts into a  colorless and transparent liquid.  It is
 soluble in two thousand parts of cold,  and  about seventy of boiling
 water, and in boiling alcohol, acetic acid, or the dilute mineral acids from
 which alkalies precipitate it unchanged.
  Properties and Uses.—Poplar bark is tonic and febrifuge, and has been
used  in intermittent fever with advantage.   An infusion of it is reputed
 a valuable remedy in debility, emaciation, want of appetite, feeble diges-
 tion, faintness at the stomach,  chronic diarrhea, and worms.   It is  said
to possess active diuretic properties, and has been beneficially employed
in gonorrhea, gleet, strangury, and other diseases of the urinary organs.
 The large aspen,  P. Grandidentata, is said to be the most active  and
bitter. Dose of the powdered bark, one drachm, two or three times a day.
                           POTASSIUM.
                             Potassium.
   Preparation.—A mixture of carbonate of potassa with  finely divided
charcoal is first prepared by igniting cream of tartar in a covered cruci-
ble, which leaves  a mixture, well known as  the  Black Flux.   This,
while still warm,  is mixed with a considerable proportion  of charcoal
in coarse powder and small fragments recently ignited, and allowed  to
cool in a covered crucible.  The whole is now introduced into one of the
hammered iron bottles used for holding mercury, coated  outside with a
mixture of sand and clay.  The bottle is  placed horizontally in a wind
furnace, and  a short wide tube of iron is fitted to it, to which tube is
attached a copper receiver, partly filled with good naphtha, and having
a diaphragm of copper,  and on  the  further side  of the receiver an
aperture for the escape of gas, opposite the tube of the bottle; so that, if 
764
Materia Medica.
necessary, a strong steel rod may be introduced through  this aperture,
and  another in the upper part of the diaphragm into the tube, for the
purpose of cleaning it out as it is apt to become choked.  The receiver
with the naphtha being surrounded with ice, a steady and uniform strong
red or white heat (by means of dry  wood, the flame of which  plays all
round the bottle,) is  applied  to the bottle, and after  a time potassium,
which is known by the appearance of its pink flame at the mouth of the
tube, distils over, accompanied with  carbonic oxide gas, and with a gray
powder, which is the cause of the occasional choking of the tube.   The
potassium drops  into the naphtha, which protects it from the action of
the air; to purify it entirely, it is re-distilled  in a small iron retort along
with a little naphtha into a receiver containing that liquid.
  History.—Potassium was discovered in 1807 by Sir H.  Davy, who
obtained it by decomposing the hydrate of potassa by means of galvan-
ism.  It was  subsequently obtained in larger quantity by  Gay-Lussac
and  Thenard,  who placed the fused  alkali in contact with iron heated to
whiteness, which attracted the oxygen and set free the metal.    The
common mode of preparing it is given above.
  Potassium  is a solid, soft, bluish-white metal, having a high degree
of metallic luster, but  becoming  quickly  tarnished and oxydized when
exposed to the air, from which it absorbs  oxygen, and  should therefore
be kept in naphtha, a  liquid which contains no oxygen.  It is more
ductile than wax, and  is easily cut with a knife.   Its  specific gravity is
0.865, so that  it floats on the surface of water; it melts at 136°, its equi-
valent number is 39.2, and  symbol K.   When thrown  upon water, it
swims, takes fire, and burns with a beautiful  pink flame, combining with
oxygen, and generating potassa which dissolves in the water.  It  unites
with most of the  non-metallic  elements, and  with  several  of the metals.
Metals and metalloids whose  attraction for oxygen is  too strong to be
overcome by the usual means, are isolated  by  potassium.  Thus, it decom-
poses the oxides or chlorides of aluminum, glucinum, yttrium, thorium,
and  zirconium, and the boracic and  silicic acids.  It is found chiefly in
the ashes of land-plants, as oxide of potassa united to carbonic acid,  and
is also obtained as chloride in  the ashes of sea-plants. Many rocks, min-
erals, and  soils contain it;  indeed, it is necessary to the growth of plants.
  Potassium forms  two compounds with oxygen, a protoxide, KO, con-
taining one equivalent of  oxygen, (a dry  potassa) of a gray color;  and
a peroxide K03,  containing three  equivalents of oxygen, and of  a  yel-
lowish-brown  color.   Its protoxide  forms the following medicinal salts,
acetate, bichromate, carbonate, bicarbonate,  chlorate,  citrate,  hydrate,
nitrate,  sulphate, sulphureted  sulphate, bisulphate, tartrate and bitar-
trate of potassa.   Potassium also forms officinal compounds with various
agents,  under the names of iodide, bromide, sulphuret, cyanuret, and
ferrocyanuret  of  potassium, each of which will be described under its
appropriate head, throughout  this work. 
Potassae Bitartras.
765
                      POTASSAE BITARTRAS.
                        Bitartrate of Potassa.
   History.—This salt, commonly called Cream of Tartar, in its pure
 state was unknown until the investigations of Scheele in 1769.  It is
 obtained from the crude tartar, argol, or winestone of commerce, a gray-
 ish or brownish obscurely crystalline substance, which becomes deposited
 on the bottom and sides of casks in which new wine has been kept.  The
 tart wines deposit it in the largest quantity; it is composed of bitartrate
 of potassa, tartrate of lime, coloring matter, and other accidental impu-
 rities.   That called Red Tartar, is of a reddish color, and is the deposit
 of red wines ; while that named White Tartar, is of a  dirty-white color,
 and obtained from white wines.   The juice of the grape contains bitar-
 trate of  potassa  in solution with  saccharine matter, and during its fer-
 mentation  the sugar  disappearing and  becoming  replaced by alcohol,
 which does not hold the bitartrate in solution,  this consequently precipi-
 tates as a crystalline crust.  To purify this substance, it  is pulverized, and
 then boiled with water, and as soon as the solution is saturated, it is allowed
 to cool,  when a  nearly colorless crystalline layer is deposited ;  this is
 again dissolved in boiling water,  four or  five per cent, of pipeclay added
 to it, and the solution  then evaporated  to  a pellicle.   As it cools, the
 clay and coloring  matter subside,  and white crystals  in crusts are
 deposited, which become still whiter when placed on linen and exposed
 to the air.   In  pharmacy,  these are  the  crystals of tartar;  and when
 powdered form the medicinal cream of tartar.
   Bitartrate of potassa when first prepared is in the form of white cakes,
 with obscure crystallization on one of the surfaces ; the  crystals being of
 small size,  and in oblique rhombic prisms.    But as more generally met
 with it is in the  form  of a  fine  white  powder.   The crystals are hard
 and gritty between the teeth,  and do not quickly dissolve in the  mouth.
 In either form, it has  a sharp, agreeable, acid taste, an acid reaction, is
 permanent,  soluble in 184 parts of cold  water,  18 of boiling,   and  is
 insoluble in alcohol.   A red heat chars and decomposes it, disengaging
 empyreumatic oil, pyrotartaric acid, and various gases,  and leaving car-
 bonate of potassa with  charcoal.   The black flux of chemists is composed
 of one part bitartrate of potassa, and half a part of nitrate of potassa,
 mixed  and heated together ;  a residuum is left of carbon and carbonate
 of potassa.   If the nitre be doubled the carbonate will remain without
 the carbon, forming while flux.  Cream of tartar is abundantly soluble in
 water to which borax or boracic acid has been added, forming a solution,
 termed Soluble cream of tartar.  It is incompatible with baryta, strontia,
lime, and acetate of lead, which  precipitate insoluble tartrates, and tar-
trate of lead.   It  forms soluble tartrates with salifiable bases, giving rise
to double salts.  It is  composed of two  equivalents of  acid 132, one of
potassa 47.2 and one of water 9=188.2, (2T+KO+Aq). 
766
Materia  Medica.
   Commercial cream of tartar usually contains from two to five per cent.
 of tartrate of lime not intended as an  adulteration.   But it is sometimes
 adulterated with sand, clay, gypsum, flour, chalk, nitre, alum, sulphate
 of potassa, chloride of potassium, etc.  Sand, clay, and gypsum may be
 known by their insolubility ;  flour, by giving a blue color with  iodine ;
 chalk, by effervescing with dilute acids ; alum, by its  astringency;  and
 any soluble sulphate, by the addition of  chloride of  barium, which
 occasions a precipitate not entirely soluble  in nitric acid.   Chloride of
 potassium may be detected by nitrate of silver, which  produces  a white
 flocculent precipitate insoluble in nitric acid.
  Properties and Uses.—Bitartrate of potassa is refrigerant, diuretic, and
 cathartic.  In  large doses it is apt to give  rise to severe and loner-con-
 tinued purging of watery stools, — yet it does not cause griping at the
 time, nor debility afterward ;  from this property,  as well as its diuretic
 action, it  is very much used  in dropsical  affections.  It is frequently
 combined  with  Jalap, the Compound Powder of Jalap, Podophyllin,
 Sulphur, etc.   In solution, sweetened  with sugar, it forms an agreeable,
 refrigerant drink, very useful in many  febrile affections.  Combined with
 sulphur, it is used as a laxative, and is often given for some forms of
 cutaneous disease.   Dose, as  a cathartic, from four to six drachms ;  as
 an  aperient, one or two drachms ;  and in dropsy, it  may be given  in
 doses of  from  one  to three  drachms, in water,  several  times  a day.
Equal  parts  of Bitartrate of Potassa, Powdered Rhatany Root, and
 Myrrh,  form a  good dentifrice.  Two  drachms of cream of tartar added
 to a pint of milk, form a cream of tartar whey, which when diluted with
 water is sometimes given in dropsical complaints.
  Off. Prep. — Potassae Carbonas  Purus ; Potassae  Tartras ;  Pulvis
Ipecacuanhae Compositus; Pulvis Podophyllini  Compositus ;  Sodae  et
Potassae Tartras.
                       POTASSAE NITRAS.
                         Nitrate of Potassa.
  History.—Nitrate of Potassa (Saltpetre, Nitre, Sal-prunelle) is a salt
which was known to the  ancients, though,  probably, not with sufficient
accuracy to enable them to determine it from other salts formed on the
surface of the soil by efflorescence.  It may be artificially manufactured,
although it exists naturally  in some soils.   In  many countries it exists
already formed;  thus,  it is found in this  country in  Ohio,  Kentucky,
Tennessee, Virginia, and Maryland, generally in caverns situated  in
limestone rock, and intermixed with nitrate of lime.   It is  also found in
various sections of Europe,  in Egypt, in Peru, and other  countries; but
by far the greater part of the commercial article is obtained from India,
where it exists in great abundance.   The vegetable kingdom contains a
considerable portion of it, having been found in the crawley, sunflower,
borage, hemlock, parietaria, bugloss, tobacco, etc. 
Potassae Nitras.
767
   In India, where  it is  manufactured, the  soil contains  about six or
 seven parts  of nitre in a thousand; this  is  lixiviated  in  an apparatus
 made for  the purpose, and  containing wood ashes, which  has the effect
 of converting any nitrate of lime  that may be  present, into nitrate of
 potassa.   The liquid obtained is then evaporated, filtered,  and set aside
 to crystallize, and furnishes  a substance  containing from  45  to 70 per
 cent, of the  pure salt.  This, when redissolved and again crystallized,
 is the crude  nitre, or crude saltpetre of commerce; it has a dirty yellow-
 ish hue, and contains much foreign matter.  An. essential  part of these
 soils  is, that they  shall  contain decomposing  felspar,  mica, or other
 destructible  minerals which  consist partly of potassa.   The production
 of nitre from them is  promoted  by the  presence of animal  matter, but
 may  also  go on  without  it;  so that the nitric acid  must be  formed
 through the  intervention  of  atmospheric air.  The soluble salts of the
 nitrate  soils  consist  of sulphates, muriates, and nitrates  of potassa, lime,
 and  soda.   The nitrates are  converted  into nitrate  of potassa  by lixivi-
 ating the soil over a filter of wood ashes, containing carbonate of potassa,
 and  then duly evaporating the filtered liquor.  Nitre is also prepared in
 many parts  of Europe from soils  artificially  impregnated  with  animal
 matter—from the mortar of  old buildings—or from artificial  composts
 consisting of animal substances, decaying vegetables, ashes, and chalk,
 marl, or lime.   The nitrate  thus  in the first  place   produced is  the
 nitrate of lime, which is converted into the nitrate of potassa by  double
 decomposition with carbonate of potassa;  and the salt  is then obtained
 by lixiviation, and purified by repeated crystallization.
  On account of  the low price  of India  nitre, but little of the  salt is
prepared from the native  sources of this country ; it is  chiefly imported
from Calcutta, in grass-cloth bags holding from 150 to 175  pounds each.
In this country it is  refined by our chemists, of which refined saltpetre a
great portion is exported.  The South American saltpetre, incorrectly so
called, which has been received from  Peru  within a  few  years, is  a
nitrate of soda, and  is  found to be preferable to nitre in the preparation
of nitric and sulphuric acids, in consequence of  its  containing a greater
proportion  of acid.   As  it absorbs moisture, it is not adapted  to  the
manufacturing of gunpowder.
  Nitrate of potassa forms  white,  long,  striated, translucent crystals,
 which  are  six-sided prisms,  terminated by one, two, or six converging
planes.   Its  taste is peculiar, cooling, and slightly bitterish.   It is per-
manent in the air, soluble in about two-fifths of its weight of boiling water,
soluble in four or five times its weight of water at 60°,  sparingly soluble
in ordinary alcohol, but insoluble in absolute alcohol.  In the act of dis-
solving it occasions considerable  cold.    Heat  fuses it,  and when raised
to redness  drives  off oxygen  and  converts it into the  hyponitrite of
potassa.  In  consequence of this evolution of oxygen, it greatly enlivens
combustion when thrown on burning fuel.   Chloride of  platinum  added 
768
Materia Medica.
to its solution, occasions a yellow precipitate.   On account of its liability
to hold mechanically a portion of water, within  the  large crystals, it is
advised by Berzelius to stir  the mixture during crystallization, so as to
make it shoot into small crystals.   When allowed to cool from a state of
fusion, either in  molds or  flat circular  cakes, it concretes  into a hard,
fibrous, opake, white mass, known in commerce by the name of Sal Pru-
nelle, or Crystal Mineral.   Nitrate of Potassa consists of one equivalent
of nitric acid 54,  and one  of potassa 47.2= 101.2.   (NOo-j-KO.)
  Its most common impurity  is salt, which renders it inapplicable to the
purpose of making gunpowder.  The presence of salt, or of chloride of
potassium, may  be known by the addition  of nitrate of silver to  the
solution, which will occasion a white precipitate of chloride of silver.
If the chloride of barium  produces  a precipitate, the impurity is a sul-
phate.  If lime  be present,  the  addition of a  solution  of oxalate of
ammonia precipitates the white oxalate  of lime.  The fracture of pure
nitrate  of potassa  is radiated, the  radii being usually large;  if l-80th
of common  salt  be present,  it renders  the  radii smaller;  and l-40th,
or more, gives rise to a zone  in the body of  the  mass without any radi-
ated structure, or occasions the entire  disappearance of this structure.
One hundred grains of dry, pure nitre, treated with sixty grains of sul-
phuric acid,  in a deep platina or porcelain crucible covered to prevent
loss during the desiccation of the salt, and the whole kept at a red-heat
until it ceases to lose weight, should yield a residue of eighty-six grains
of sulphate  of potassa; if less  than this, and  chlorides and  sulphates
are absent, the nitre probably contains nitrate of soda.
   Properties and Uses.—Nitrate of potassa is irritant, cathartic, refrige-
rant, and  diuretic.  In  doses  of  from  half an  ounce to two ounces, in
solution, it occasions heat and pain in the stomach, vomiting, excessive
nervous depression, and sinking of the pulse;  and has proved fatal in a
few hours.   On  account  of the uncertainty of its cathartic  effects, it is
seldom used for that purpose.   Its most common actions are to increase
the cutaneous and renal  secretions, to  diminish the temperature of the
system and  the frequency of the pulse, to keep the bowels in a soluble
condition,  and, in consequence of  these  influences, to lessen febrile  and
inflammatory action.   An experiment, in which from one to five drachms
of nitre were given daily, in a state of health, and continued for eight or
twelve  days, resulted  in general  debility, lowness of spirits,  constant
drowsiness,  and  slow  and weak pulse, falling, toward the termination of
the  experiment, at several various times, to  twenty beats in the minute.
All this time the appetite and digestion  continued unimpaired, with occa-
sional pains  in the abdomen followed by purging.   Nitre is extensively
employed  as a diuretic, and  especially in dropsical  affections.  It has
also been  found useful in  acute rheumatism, and active hemorrhages;
and in such  cases the  salt may be given in divided  doses, to the  extent
of one or two ounces in twenty-four hours, care being taken to have it 
Potassii Ferrocyanuretum.
769
largely diluted with water.  In spasmodic asthma it has been  adminis-
tered internally with efficacy; nitrous fumigation has  also  been found
useful in this affection; it is employed as follows : blotting-paper is dipped
in a saturated solution of nitre  and dried, fire is then  applied to it, and
the nitrous fumes that are evolved are to be inhaled, continuing the in-
halation each time for a quarter of an hour.   Nitre is  sometimes added
to gargles in certain  stages of  inflammatory sore-throat.  It is fre-
quently substituted for the bitartrate of  potassa in  our Powder of Ipe-
cacuanha and Opium.   Sal prunelle  has been found useful as an appli-
cation to chapped  lips.   The  dose of nitre, as a sedative refrigerant, is
from ten to twenty grains, well diluted;  and  as a diuretic,  from twenty
to sixty grains.  Too freely given, or its use  too long continued  occa-
sions pain in  the stomach.  No antidote is known to  its more serious
actions;  the  treatment consists in speedily evacuating it from the sto-
mach, administering mucilaginous draughts in large quantities, anodynes
to relieve pain and irritation, and  stimulants  to overcome any tendency
to prostration.
   Off.  Prep. — Acidum Nitricum Purum;  Collodium ;  Potassae Sul-
phas cum Sulphure ; Pulvis  Asclepidis Compositus;  Spiritus JEtheris
Nitrici;  Unguentum Sulphuris Compositum.
               POTASSII  FERROCYANURETUM.
                    Ferrocyanuret of Potassium.
  History.—On  the  large scale, this salt is prepared by placing a mix-
ture of two parts of pearlash, with five parts of animal matter, such as
hoofs, dried blood, old leather, chips  of horn, woolen rags, and other
substances abounding in nitrogen, into an egg-shaped iron pot, calcining
the mixture at a red-heat, and constantly stirring the mass until it ceases
to give  out  fetid vapors.   The calcined mass is then cooled, dissolved
in water, and  concentrated  by  evaporation so that crystals  may form.
These are purified by repeated  crystallization.  It may also be obtained
by boiling purified Prussian blue in a solution of potassa, until the blue
color  disappears,  filtering  the  liquor, evaporating, and crystallizing
several times to  render it pure.
  Ferrocyanuret of Potassium occurs in broken or entire crystals of large
size, whose form is usually a rectangular prism, truncated on the ends
and edges, or a  foursided table derived from the rhombic octaedre by
excossive truncation of the  apices.   They  are  transparent, of a lemon-
yellow color,  permanent  in  the air, somewhat  flexible, inodorous,  and
possessed of a  sweetish-bitter, saline taste.  It is soluble in three or  four
times its weight of Qold water, and about its own weight of boiling water,
but is insoluble in alcohol.  At a temperature of 140° it  loses its water
of crystallization, leaving a white anhydrous  salt.  A  low red-heat,
decomposes it, converting it into cyanuret of potassium, carburet of iron,
           49 
770
Materia  Medica.
and other compounds.  The salts of sesquioxide of iron are precipitated
of a deep-blue color by it; those of protoxide of iron white, quickly
passing to blue ; those of zinc  and lead white,  and of copper  chestnut-
brown.   The precipitates are ferrocyanurets of the respective metals.  It
emits a hydrocyanic acid vapor when boiled with dilute  sulphuric acid.
It consists of two  equivalents of cyanuret of potassium 130.4, one  of
cyanuret of iron 54, and three of water 27 = 211.4, (2 K Cy, Fe Cy-f-
3 HO).  In the  anhydrous state, it is stated to consist of a compound
radicle called Ferrocyanogen, which is composed of three equivalents  of
cyanogen,  and one of  iron (tercyanuret of iron)  combined with two
equivalents of potassium, (2 K Cy, Fe  Cy), or  (Fe Cy3-|_2 K.)
  Properties and Uses.—Ferrocyanuret of potassium is not poisonous,
being absorbed and carried off quickly  with  the urine.  " Dr.  Burleigh
Smart, of Kennebec, Maine, has attributed to this salt valuable medicinal
powers.  Its primary effect,  according to him, is that of a  sedative,
diminishing the fullness and frequency of the pulse, and  allaying pain
and irritation.  It also acts, under favorable  circumstances, as a diapho-
retic and astringent.  Dr. Smart used it with  success in a case of chronic
bronchitis in a child, with the effect, in a few days, of diminishing the
frequency of the pulse,  and of lessening  the  sweating, cough,  and dys-
pnoea.   It  sometimes acts as a diaphoretic, but only in cases  attended
with  excessive vascular action,  and increased heat of skin.   As  an
astringent, its power is  most conspicuous in the colliquative sweats of
chronic bronchitis and phthisis.  The  same power was evinced in several
cases of leucorrhea, cured by its use.  It sometimes produces ptyalism,
unattended, however, by swelling of  the salivary glands, or fetor of the
breath.  Its  properties  as  an anodyne and sedative, render it applicable
to  cases of neuralgic  pains  and  hooping-cough,  in  which  diseases,
especially the latter, Dr. Smart found it useful.  When given in an over-
dose, he states that it occasions vertigo, coldness and numbness, with a
sense of gastric sinking.
  " The form of administration which  Dr. Smart prefers, is that of solution
in the proportion  of two drachms to  the  fluidounce of water.  Of this,
the  dose for an adult is  from thirty to  forty-five drops,  equivalent  to
from ten to  fifteen grains  of the salt, repeated  every four or six hours.
Should  the  results of Dr.  Smart be confirmed by the profession, the
ferrocyanide  of potassium  will form an important  acquisition to the
Materia Medica."—U. S. Disp.
  Off. Prep.—Acidum Hydrocyanicum Dilutum ;  Ferri Ferrocyanure-
tum ; Potassii Cyanuretum. 
         Potentilla Canadensis—Potentilla Tormentilla.    771

                 POTENTILLA CANADENSIS.
                             Fivefinger.
         Nat. Ord.—Bosaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Icosandria Polygynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—This is a perennial, villose-pubescent plant, frequently
known by the name of Cinque-foil.   It  has  a sarmentose, procumbent
and  ascending stem from two to eighteen inches in length.  The leaves
are palmately five-foliate, the leaflets obovate, silky beneath, cut-dentate
toward the apex, entire and alternate toward the base.   Stipules ovate,
hairy, deeply two or three-cleft, or entire.  The fiowers are yellow,  on
long, axillary, solitary  pedicels.   The calyx-segments are lanceolate or
linear; bracetoles of the calyx longer than the segments, and  nearly as
long as the petals; petals obcordate, and  longer than the calyx.   There
are two varieties of this plant, the Potentilla Pumila, which  is very
small and delicate, flowering in April and May,  and  growing  in dry,
sandy soils,  the  stem rising about three or four inches.  The other is
the Potentilla Simplex, which is less hirsute, with a simple stem, erect or
ascending at base, and oval-cuneiform leaflets ; it  grows in richer soils
to twelve and sixteen inches high,  and flowers from June to August.
  History. — Five-finger is  common to the United States, growing  by
roadsides, on meadow banks and waste  grounds,  and  flowering from
April to October.   It  is the Potentilla Sarmentosa of  some  botanists.
The root is the part used;  it has a bitterish, styptic taste, and  yields its
virtues to water.
  Properties and Uses.—This plant is a tonic and astringent.   A decoc-
tion  has  been found  useful in fevers, bowel complaints, night  sweats,
menorrhagia, and  other  hemorrhages;  also it is an  excellent  local
application in form of gargle, for spongy, bleeding gums, and  ulcerated
mouth and throat.   The European herb, Potentilla  Reptans,  possesses
similar properties.
  Off. Prep.—Decoctum Potentillae.
                 POTENTILLA  TORMENTILLA.
                             Tormentil.
         Nat.  Ord.—Rosaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Icosandria Polygynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—Tormentil or Septfoil, is the Tormentilla Erecta of Will-
denow, and the Tormentilla  Officinalis of Smith.   It has  a perennial,
tough, woody root or rhizoma, about the thickness and length of the
upper joint of  the fore-finger, with numerous radicles.   The  stems are
slender, weak,  erect, often procumbent, branching  toward  the top, and
six or eight  inches high.  The leaves are almost sessile, and consist on
the  stalk of seven, on the  branches of five palmate, elliptical, villous, 
772
Materia  Medica.
deeply serrated leaflets, three of which are larger than the others.  The
flowers are small, bright-yellow, with the parts of the calyx and corolla
in fours, on slender axillary hairy stalks much longer than the  leaves.
Carpels corrugated when ripe.
   History.—Tormentil or Septfoil is  a plant common to Europe.  All
parts of it are astringent, but the root is  the part usually employed.   It
is cylindrical or roundish, rather larger at its upper extremity,  an inch
or two in length, about as thick as  the finger, knotty, sometimes con-
torted,  brown  or  blackish  externally, and reddish within.   It has  a
slight aromatic odor, and a veiy astringent taste.  It yields its virtues to
boiling water.   It contains an abundance of tannic acid, a red coloring
principle  soluble in alcohol, but insoluble in water, resin, cerin, myricin
gummy-extractive, gum,  lignin, extractive, water, and a trace of  volatile
oil.  It is said to be used in some of the islands of  Scotland for tannin^
                                                                   o
leather, and in Lapland for  staining leather red.  It is equally applicable
in medicine with catechu, kino, and other foreign astringents.
   Properties and  Uses.—A simple and powerful astringent; used in all
cases of disease in which this class of medicines is  indicated.   It may
be given in substance, decoction, or extract.  Dose of the powder, from
thirty to sixty grains.
   Off.  Prep.—Decoctum Tormentillae.
                    PRINOS VERTICILLATUS.
                            Black Alder.
       Nat. Ord.—Aquifoliaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Hexandria Monogynia.
                       THE BARK AND  BERRIES.
  Description.—This is an indigenous shrub  of irregular growth, some-
times known as Winterberry,  having a stem six or  eight feet in hight,
with a bluish-gray,  or  ash-colored bark, and alternate, horizontal, and
spreading branches.   The leaves  are  alternate,  or irregular, on  short
petioles,  oval, acute at the base, pointed, sharply serrate, of an olive-
green color, smooth  above, and pubescent beneath, particularly on the
veins.   The flowers are small, white, dicecious, on very short peduncles ;
the fertile ones somewhat clustered or solitary ; the sterile ones sub-um-
bellate ;  sometimes the flowers are monoecious.   The calyx is small, six-
cleft, persistent.   Corolla  monopetalous, spreading, without a tube, the
border divided  into  six  obtuse segments.   The stamens  are  equal  in
number to the divisions  of the  corolla, erect, with oblong anthers ;  in
the fertile flowers  they are shorter than the corolla, in the sterile they
are equal in length to it.  The ovary is  large, green, roundish, with a
short style  and obtuse stigma.   The fruit consists of bright scarlet,
globular berries, about the size of a pea, supported by the persistent 
Prunus Virginiana.
773
 calyx, and crowned with the stigma, six-celled, containing six long seeds,
 which are  convex outwardly, and sharp-edged within.  Several of them
 are clustered together so as to form little apparently verticillate bunches
 at irregular intervals on  the stem.
   History.—Black Alder is found in nearly all  parts  of the United
 States, from  Canada  to  Florida, in moist woods,  swamps, borders of
 ponds,  ditches, etc.,  flowering  in  July,  and ripening its  fruit late in
 autumn.   The bark  and berries  are  officinal.   The dried bark is in
 slender pieces, more or less rolled,  brittle, greenish-white internally, and
 covered  with  a smooth, whitish ash epidermis,  alternating or mingled
 with brown,  and  easily  separable.  It has a bitter, slightly astringent
 taste, but no smell.  Boiling water extracts its virtues.   The berries are
 sometimes, but improperly, substituted for the bark, they have a sweet-
 ish, bitter, acrid  taste,  and impart their virtues to water or alcohol.
 These have not been analyzed.
   Properties and  Uses.—Black Alder  is tonic, alterative, and astringent.
 It has been used with  good effect in jaundice, diarrhea, intermittent
 fever, and  other diseases connected with a debilitated state of the system,
 especially  gangrene and mortification  ; it has also  been of service in
 dropsy.   Two  drachms of  the powdered  bark and  one drachm of
 powdered golden-seal, infused in a pint of boiling water, and when cold,
 taken in the course of  the day,  in doses of a wineglassful, and repeated
 daily, has proved very valuable in dyspepsia.  Externally, the decoction
 forms an excellent local application in gangrene, to ill-conditioned ulcers,
 chronic cutaneous eruptions, etc.  The berries are cathartic and vermi-
 fuge, and form, with cedar-apples, a pleasant  and effectual  worm  medi-
 cine for children.  (See  Juniperus  Virginiana.)   Dose, of the powdered
 bark,  from half  a  drachm to  one  drachm;   of  the  decoction four
 fluidounces three  or four times a day.   Black Alder bark is an ingredi>
ent of several  alterative syrups.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Prinos.
                     PRUNUS VIRGINIANA.
                           Wild  Cherry.
  Nat.  Ord.—Drupaceae, De Candolle; Amygdaleas, Lindley.  Sex. Syst.—Ico-
sandria Monogynia.
                             THE  BARK.
  Description.—This  tree is  the Cerasus Serotina  of De Candolle, and
the Cerasus  Virginiana of Michaux; it is a large tree, and has been seen
from eighty  to one hundred feet high.  Its usual size, however, is from
fifty to eighty feet high, from two to four feet in diameter, being of uni-
form size and undivided to the hight of twenty or thirty feet.  The bark
is black and rough, which  spontaneously  detaches  itself semicircularly, 
774
Materia  Medica.
in thick narrow plates.   The wood is compact, fine-grained, and receives
a fine polish, and is extensively used  by cabinet  manufacturers.   The
leaves are deciduous, oval-oblong, or lanceolate-oblong, acuminate, une-
qually serrate, with  incurved, short and  callous teeth, thickish, smooth
on both sides, except the midrib, shining above, of a beautiful brilliant
green, from three to  five inches long, and one-half as wide, and supported
alternately on petioles, which are furnished with one or two pairs of red-
dish glands.  The flowers are  small, white, and disposed in elongate,
spreading, and sometimes pendulous racemes.   The fruit is a globular
drupe about the  size of a pea,  of a  purplish-black color, edible, but
having a bitter taste.
  History.—The Wild Cherry tree is found in many parts of the United
States, but is most abundant, and attains the greatest magnitude, in the
south-western States.  Its flowers appear in May, and the fruit ripens in
August and September.   The officinal  portion is the bark, and that of
the root should be preferred to that of the trunk  or branches.  When
dried and prepared for use, it is in pieces of various lengths  and sizes,
deprived of epidermis, of a reddish-brown color, bitter, and  easily pul-
verized.   Its powder is of a fawn color.   When recent,  or when boiled
in water, it emits an odor resembling that of peach-leaves ;  and its taste
is agreeably bitter and aromatic, with a flavor similar to that of peach-
meats.  It imparts  its  properties to alcohol or water, whether hot or
cold; but boiling destroys its remedial qualities, partly in  consequence
of the escape of its volatile principle, and partly upon a chemical change
effected by the heat. It should be  employed in a recently dried state,
as its properties are  much  impaired by keeping.   Mr. S. Procter found
it  to  contain starch, resin, tannin, gallic acid,  fatty matter, lignin,  red
coloring  matter, salts of lime and potassa, and iron, also a volatile  oil
associated with hydrocyanic  acid, of a light-straw color, and analogous
in its properties to the essential  oil of bitter almonds.  Two drops  of it
destroyed a cat in nearly five minutes.   This volatile oil  and  the hydro-
cyanic acid do not exist ready formed in the bark, but are caused by the
reaction of water upon  amygdalin, which is one of the  constituents of
the bark; and which change is  very probably effected by the agency of
another principle, analogous to,  if not  identical  with, emulsin, or the
synaptase of Robiquet.
   Properties and  Uses. — Tonic and stimulant in its operation on the
digestive organs,  and at the same time  exercising a sedative influence on
the circulatory and nervous systems.  It is, therefore, useful in all  dis-
eases where it is of  importance  to impart tonicity, and yet, to avoid any
undue excitement of the heart and blood-vessels, as for instance, during
the first stage of  convalescence  from inflammatory  attacks, and in many
pulmonary diseases.  It is very generally used in phthisis, where hectic
fever exists,  and has  also been used with benefit  in  some forms of 
Prunus Virginiana.
775
 dyspepsia. In large doses it diminishes the action of the heart, owing pro-
 bably to the hydrocyanic acid which it affords.   It has likewise been of
 service  in scrofula and other diseases attended with much debility and
 hectic fever.  Externally it has been found useful in decoction as a wash
 to ill-conditioned ulcers.  An excellent preparation is a syrup  made  by
 macerating four ounces of the powdered bark with twelve fluidounces of
 water, for two days ; the mixture is then placed in a percolator or dis-
 placement apparatus,  returning the liquid which passes till  it  comes
 away clear—displacing with an additional quantity of water, until twelve
 fluidounces of infusion are obtained, and then dissolving  in this thirteen
 ounces of loaf sugar ;  the dose of this syrup  is from half a fluidounce to
 one ounce.  Dose of the powdered bark, one or two drachms ;  of the
 infusion, one ounce  of bark  to  one pint of cold water, and allowed to
 stand a few hours, from one to four fluidounces, four or five times a day,
 and which is the best mode of using it.
   The Prunus Domesticus, or cultivated  Prune or  Plum Tree, may be
 referred to here.  The dried or prepared fruit is the only officinal part,
 and  furnishes  the prunes of commerce.   Those imported  into this
 country, are principally from the  south of  France, the  finest kinds
 eoming  from the  port of Bordeaux.   A poorer kind is brought  from
 Germany.   Prunes are prepared by exposing the fresh fruit to the heat
 of an oven, and then  drying in the  sun.  They have  a faint odor, a
 sweet, mucilaginous, somewhat acid taste, and contain crystallizable and
 uncrystallizable  sugar, malic  acid, and  mucilaginous  matter.  In Ger-
 many a kind of brandy is obtained from this fruit, and which may be
 sometimes had of the importers  of  German liquors.   Prunes are laxa-
tive and nutritious, and stewed with water form an excellent diet in cases
of constipation,  and also during convalescence from  febrile or inflamma-
tory diseases.   They are often added to purgative  decoctions, and the
pulp is  employed  in the preparation of  laxative  confections.   When
 taken too  largely,  and especially in  those whose digestive  organs are
debilitated or impaired, they are apt to cause flatulence, and griping.
The following preparation has been administered with much success in
leucorrhea,  irregular menstruation, and in  debility from frequent abor-
tions : Take of small raisins or dried currants  two ounces, aniseed, mace,
and cinnamon, of each, half an ounce, and one nutmeg in powder ; to
these add one quart of prune brandy, and let them macerate  for two
 weeks, frequently agitating.   This is  the formula  as  originally given.
Of the clear tincture thus made, one fluidounce may be given  previous
to a meal, and repeated three times daily.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Pruni Virginianee ;  Tinctura Laricis Composita;
Vinum Cinchonae Compositum. 
776
Materia  Medica.
                      PTELEA TRIFOLIATA.
                          Shrubby Trefoil.
      Nat.  Ord.—Xanthoxylaceae.  Sex.  Syst.—Tetrandria Monogynia.
                       THE BARK OF THE ROOT.
   Description.—This plant is  also  known  by the names  of  Wingseed,
 Wafer-Ash, and Swamp-Dogwood.   It is a shrub from six to eight feet
in hight, with the leaves trifoliate, and marked with  pellucid  dots; the
leaflets are  sessile,  ovate, short  acuminate, downy beneath when young,
crenulate, or obscurely toothed; lateral ones inequilateral, terminal ones
cuneate at  base, from three to four and  a half inches long by one inch
and  a quarter to  one inch and three-quarters wide.  The flowers are
polygamous, greenish-white, nearly half an  inch in diameter, of a dis-
agreeable odor, and disposed in terminal corymbose cymes.   Stamens
mostly four; style  short.  Fruit a two-celled samara, nearly an  inch  in
diameter, winged all round, nearly orbicular.
   History. — Shrubby  Trefoil  or Ptelea, is a shrub common  to  this
country,  growing  more abundantly  west of the   Alleghanies in shady
moist hedges and edges  of woods, and in  rocky places;  it flowers  in
June.  The bark  of the root is officinal,  and yields its  properties  to
boiling water;  but alcohol is its best  solvent.   It is, when dried, of a
light  brownish-yellow color externally, in cylindrical rolls or quills, a
line or two  in thickness, and from one to several inches in length, irregu-
larly wrinkled and furrowed externally, with broad, transverse lines or
rings at short but irregular intervals, and is covered with a thin epidermis;
internally it is yellowish-white, but becomes darker on exposure, and  is
wrinkled longitudinally;  it is  brittle with  an  almost smooth, resinous
fracture,  granular under  the   microscope,  resembling wax.  It has  a
peculiar smell, somewhat similar to that of liquorice-root, and  a peculiar
bitter, resinous,  pungent, acrid,  and rather  disagreeable taste, speedily
and powerfully acting upon the mouth and fauces, and the pungency of
which is  persistent, and which is probably owing to its oil.  It has not
been analyzed.  The fruit is bitter and aromatic.
   Properties and Uses.—Ptelea is  tonic. Used  in intermittent fevers,
remittent fevers, and all  cases  of debility  where tonics are  indicated.
Said also to be anthelmintic.  Equal parts of Ptelea  and the Euonymus
Atropurpureus,  have been highly recommended in pulmonary affections.
A tincture  of Ptelea, made in whisky, is reputed to have cured several
cases of asthma, and it is said to cause, in many instances  where it has
been  used,  a troublesome external erysipelatous inflammation, either
general or local, but which, if the use  of the tincture be  persisted in,
finally disappears,  and  the patient becomes at the  same  time perma-
nently cured  of the disease for which he  was  treated.   This would
certainly  indicate other valuable properties in this plant, than those with 
Ptelein.
777
which we are acquainted, and deserves a further and thorough  investi-
gation.  It may be used in powder, tincture, or extract.   Dose  of the
powder, ten to thirty grains, three or four times a day ; of the tincture,
one or two fluidrachms ; of the extract, five to ten grains.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Pteleae Hydro-alcoholicum ; Infusum Pteleae;
Ptelein.
                             PTELEIN.
                               Ptelein.
         THE  OLEO-RESINOUS PRINCIPLE OF PTELEA TRIFOLIATA.
   Preparation.—Make a saturated tincture  of the bark of Ptelea Tri-
 foliata. add to it twice its volume of water, and distil  off the alcohol;
 the ptelein remains in the water, from which it must be  separated.
   History.—Ptelein, I believe, was  first  prepared  by  Mr. W. S. Mer-
 rell, and is obtained from the tincture of the bark by precipitation with
 water, in the same manner by which podophyllin, iridin, eupurpurin, etc.,
 are obtained.   It is  of the consistence of thick syrup or molasses, dark-
 brown in mass, much lighter when in thin layers,  and has a peculiar odor,
 somewhat similar to  that of the extract of liquorice, and an oily, bitterish,
 acrid, persistent taste, peculiar and rather disagreeable, and acting power-
 fully on the fauces.  It is soluble in alcohol, ether, oil of turpentine, and
 rather imperfectly in  alkaline  solutions ;  insoluble in acids  and water.
 It imparts a slight milky color to water, and separates into two portions,
 one of which floats  on the water, while  the other  sinks.   Acetic acid
 added to its alcoholic or ethereal solution  does not disturb them, unless
 added in  excess.  Water  added  to  the alcoholic solution  produces  a
 milky color, precipitating the resin; added to the ethereal solution it sepa-
 rates the oil, which floats on the surface.
   Properties and Uses.—Ptelein is a tonic, and  possesses other proper-
 ties not yet  satisfactorily understood.   It is a valuable medicinal agent,
 which should  receive  the  especial attention of the profession.  I have
 used it extensively and successfully in cases of dyspepsia, combined with
 equal parts  of Xanthoxylin, and given in doses  of one or  two grains,
repeated three times a day; if constipation be present, I have found the
 following an admirable combination: Take of ptelein nineteen grains,
alcoholic extract  of  nux vomica one  grain,  white sugar, or  lactin, two
 drachms.  Mix thoroughly together; the dose is  six grains to be repeated
three or four times a day.   I have found the following a valuable pill  in
 chronic erysipelas, hepatic torpor, enlarged spleen, habitual constipation,
chronic dysentery, and some forms of dyspepsia: Take of podophyllin
 and  leptandrin, of  each  one grain,  sulphate  of quinia  four  grains,
ptelein eight grains; mix  these together, and  divide into  eight  pills.
The dose is one pill,  to be repeated two or three  times  a day, and the
alkaline bath to be used daily. 
778
Materia  Medica.
                    PTERIS ATROPURPUREA.
                             Rockbrake.
Nat. Ord.—Filices ; Polypodiaceae, Brown.  Sex. Syst.—Cryptogamia Filices.
                             THE PLANT.
   Description.—Rock-brake  is  an  indigenous  perennial  fern, with  a
frond from six to ten inches in hight, twice  as long as wide, of a gray-
ish hue,  pinnate, the two lower divisions consisting of from one to three
pairs of  leaflets with a large, terminal segment.   The stipe and rachis,
dark-purple, shining, with dense, paleaceous hairs at base.   The lower
leaflets ternate or pinnate, lanceolate, obtuse, distinct, obliquely truncate
or subcordate at base, with margins conspicuously revolute.   Involucre
rather broad, formed of  the inflected margin of the  frond, and opening
inwardly.   Sori in  a  broad continuous line along  the margin of the
frond.   The several varieties  of this species possess similar properties,
as  the Pteris  Venosa, with  the stipe angled, and   the leaflets  veined
beneath; P. Punctata, with  the stipe terete, and the leaflets punctate
beneath.
   The Pteris Aquilina or common Brake likewise possesses  analogous
virtues.   It is a fern from two to five feet in hight, upon a smooth, dark-
purple, erect stipe.   The frond is pinnate, three-parted, broad-triangular
in outline.  The branches are bipinnate.   The leaflets linear-lanceolate;
the lower ones pinnatifid, the upper ones entire; segments oblong, obtuse.
Sori covered by the folding back of the margins of the segments.
   History.—Rock-brake is common to the United States, usually grow-
ing on limestone rocks; the common Brake is found in greater abundance,
in woods, pastures, waste grounds, and stony hills.   The whole plant is
used in  medicine, and imparts its  virtues to water.  No analysis  has
been made of it.  As found in the  shops, the dried root  consists  of a
long cylindrical  caudex, of a  dark-brown  color externally, and light
brownish-red internally, of  an astringent, leathery taste  and around
which are closely arranged, overlapping each other like  the shingles of
a roof, the remains of the leafstalks or stipes, which  are an inch or  two
in length, from  two to four  lines thick, somewhat curved and directed
upward,  angular, dark-brown, furrowed longitudinally, and from between
which, emerge numerous small radical fibers.  The  dried leaves are of
a light-grayish or greenish-yellow color, of an odor resembling that of
sole leather, and a leathery, astringent, not disagreeable taste.   As sold,
it is usually in broken fragments.
   Properties and Uses. — Rock-brake is  astringent and  anthelmintic.
A decoction of it, taken  moderately, has proved efficacious in diarrhea,
dysentery, night-sweats,  and hemorrhages; and used as a local applica-
tion, it is beneficial in obstinate and ill-conditioned ulcers, ulcerations of
the mouth  and fauces, and, as  a vaginal injection in  leucorrhea.  A 
Pterocarpus  Santalinus.
779
strong decoction is in some repute as a remedy for worms.  A power-
ful astringent infusion may be made  by adding  four  drachms  of the
plant to one pint of boiling water, and which has been used in  diarrhea
and dysentery, in half fluidounce doses  repeated  every two or three
hours, with success.
   A plant called Winter-fern or Brake is much employed in amenorrhea,
and in suppression of the lochia; it is used in infusion, and taken freely.
By some it is supposed to  be the  Pteris Atropurpurea ; but of this I am
not positive,  not having been able to obtain a  perfect specimen  of the
plant  for  examination.  Both  the  roots and  tops  are used,  and  are
worthy the attention of the practitioner in the above-named derangements.
                 PTEROCARPUS  SANTALINUS.
                           Red Saunders.
  Nat. Ord.—Fabaceas, or Leguminosas.  Sex. Syst.—Diadelphia Decandria.
                             THE  WOOD.
   Description.—This is a large tree with alternate branches.  The leaves
 are petiolate, ternate, and alternate ; the leaflets are  alternate, petiolate,
 the uppermost larger, ovate-roundish or  oblong, entire, emarginate or
 refuse,  veined,  smooth  above,  and hoary beneath.   The flowers are
 yellow, in axillary, erect, simple or branched racemes;  the  corolla  is
 papilionaceous, the  vexillum  or banner of which  is obcordate, erect,
 somewhat reflexed at the sides, toothed and waved, having red veins;
 the alee or wings spreading, with their edges apparently toothed, and
 the carina or  keel oblong, short,  and inflated.  The  calyx  is  brown.
 Filaments ten, diadelphous.   Legume  roundish, stalked, falcate upward,
 compressed, smooth, keeled on the lower edge, the keel being mem-
 branous and undulated.  Seeds solitary.
  History.—This is a large forest tree inhabiting Ceylon, and the moun-
 tains of the  opposite  Coromandel coast  on the Indian continent.  The
 wood is the officinal Red Saunders or Red Sandal wood. It  is imported in
 billets  which are dense, heavy, dark-brown externally, and internally
 dark-red with  light-red  rings.  It  is usually kept  in  the shops in the
 state of small chips,  raspings, or coarse powder.   It has  a faint, pecu-
liar odor, and an obscurely astringent taste, and is of difficult pulveriza-
tion.  It may be distinguished from other  coloring woods, by imparting
 a red color  to  alcohol, ether, and alkaline solutions, but  not  to water.
 The  alcoholic  tincture causes  a deep violet precipitate with the sulphate
of iron, a scarlet with the bichloride of mercury, and  a violet with the
soluble salts of  lead.  About  seventeen per cent, of a yellow resinoid,
coloring principle was obtained from it  by Pelletier, which became red
from the action of the air; he named it  Santalin Cio Hi6 03.    It may
 be obtained either  by precipitation of  the tincture with  water, or by 
780
Materia Medica.
preparing an infusion with an alkaline solution, and precipitating with an
acid.  It is insoluble in water, soluble in alcohol or ether, slightly soluble in
volatile oils, with the exception of those of lavender and rosemary, which
readily dissolve it.   Soluble  in  acetic acid, and  readily soluble without
decomposition in alkalies; the acetic solution  is somewhat astringent to
the taste, and is precipitated  by solution of gelatin.  It is said to be pos-
sessed of acid properties.
  Properties and Uses.—Tonic and astringent; formerly used for these
indications, but at present employed only  for coloring tinctures, etc.
                  PTEROSPORA  ANDROMEDA.
                              Crawley.
   Nat. Ord. — Ericaceas ;  Suborder,  Monotropeaa.   Sex.  Syst. — Decandria
Monogynia.
                             THE ROOT.
   Description.—This plant, also known by the various names of Dragon's
Claw,  Pine-drops, Albany Beech-drops, Fever-root, etc., has a perennial,
fleshy, tuberculous root, with  many  tubers which resemble the claws of
a fowl.   The stem or scape is  erect,  simple, straight, dark-purple, cylin-
drical, covered  with short viscid wool, from  eight  to  thirty inches in
hight,  leafless,  and sparsely beset  with scales.  Leaves  none.  The
flowers are pale or reddish-white, lateral, nodding, and disposed in a
terminal raceme from six  to twelve inches long, and composed of fifty or
more flowers; the pedicels are  irregularly scattered, from  six to eight
lines in length, and  axillary to long, linear bracts.   The calyx is five-
parted ; the corolla, is roundish-ovoid, urn-shaped, the limb five-toothed,
reflexed, and inclosing the stamens.   Stamens ten; fllaments flat;  anthers
peltate, two-celled, two-awned, opening  lengthwise;  style short; stigma
five-lobed, capitate.   Capsule or pod globose, depressed, five-lobed, five-
celled, loculicidal.   Seeds very numerous,  minute,  ovoid, tapering to
each end, the apex expanded into a  broad reticulated wing many times
larger than the nucleus.
   History.—This is a rare and singular plant, found on  barren hills and
shady uplands, and  in  hard  clay soil, in the  State  of New York and
some other of the northern States and Canada, flowering in July.  By
some it is supposed  to be parasitic on the roots of certain trees.  It was
first discovered in 1816 by Dr. D. S. C. H. Smith, although long known
previous to that time by herbalists.  The entire plant is destitute  of ver-
dure.  The root is the officinal part, it is small, dark-brown, resembling
cloves or a hen's claw,  has a strong, nitrous  smell, and  a mucilaginous,
slightly-bitter, astringent taste.  It  has not been  analyzed, hence its
proper menstruums are unknown. — There  are four varieties,  the  P.
Pauciflora, or Few-flowered Crawley; the P. Leucorhiza, or White-stalked 
PULMONARIA  OFFICINALIS.
781
 Crawley; the P. Flaviculis, or Yellow-stalked Crawley; and the P. Ela-
 tior, or High-stalked Crawley—all of which  possess  similar medicinal
 virtues.   The first two are found in the Western States.
   Properties and Uses.—Crawley is, probably, the most powerful, prompt,
 and certain diaphoretic, in the Materia Medica, but its scarcity and high
 price prevent it from coming into  general use.  It is  also sedative, and
 promotes perspiration, without producing any  excitement  in the system.
 Its chief value is as a  diaphoretic  in  fevers, especially typhus, and in
 inflammatory  diseases;  it has  proved efficacious in acute  erysipelas,
 cramps, flatulency, pleurisy and night-sweats;  and relieves hectic fever
 without debilitating the patient.  Probably it will be found  to combine
 tonic, sedative, diaphoretic,  and febrifuge  properties. Its  virtues are
 especially marked in the low stage of fevers.   The dose is from twenty
 to thirty grains  of  the  powdered  root, given  in water as warm as the
 patient can drink, and repeated  every hour or two, according to circum-
 stances.  The powder should always be kept in well-closed vials; it con-
 stitutes  the "fever powders" of  some practitioners.   Combined  with
 caulophyllin it forms an excellent agent in  amenorrhea and  dysmenor-
 rhea; and is unsurpassed in  after-pains, suppression  of lochia, and the
 febrile symptoms which sometimes occur at the parturient period.  In
 fevers it may be advantageously combined with leptandrin, or podophyl-
lin, where it is found necessary to  act  upon  the  bowels  or  liver; and
mixed with dioscorein, it will be found  almost  a specific in flatulent and
bilious colic.  It is an agent not  known in Ailopathie works on medicine,
and one which deserves more attention than has been bestowed upon it.
                  PULMONARIA  OFFICINALIS.
                             Lungwort.
       Nat. Ord.—Boraginaceae.   Sex.  Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                            THE  LEAVES.
  Description.—This is a  rough plant, with  a stem  about one foot  in
hight.   The radical leaves are ovate, cordate, scabrous, and the cauline
ones ovate and sessile.  The flowers  are blue,  and in terminal  clusters.
The calyx is prismatic, five-angled, five-toothed, and as long as the tube
of the corolla;  the corolla is infundibuliform, wdth a cylindric tube, ori-
fice hairy in five lines alternating with the stamens;  stigma emarginate;
achenia roundish, obtuse, imperforate at base.
  History.—This is a herbaceous perennial, growing in Europe and this
country, in northern latitudes.  In Europe it is a rough-leaved plant, but
in this country the whole plant is smooth. The Mertensia Virginica, or Vir-
ginian Lungwort, or Cowslip, is frequently employed in the United States;
it is the Pulmonaria Virginica of Linna3us, and the Lithospermum Pulchrum 
782
Materia Medica.
of Lehman.  It is a smooth, erect and elegant plant, about twenty inches
in hight, the  radical leaves of which are  obtuse, obovate-elliptical, and
become from five to six inches long, and about two-thirds as wide, many-
veined, and the cauline are long-lanceolate and sessile.  The flowers are
blue, and in terminal clusters.  The calyx five-cleft, much  shorter than
the tube of the corolla, limb longer than the tube; the corolla is nearly
an inch long, funnel-form, four times the length of the calyx, naked in
the throat, and the much-spreading border  slightly five-lobed, stamens
and style included; filaments slender.  Disk  bearing two glands as long
as the ovaries.  The stem and leaves are usually pellucid-punctate.  This
plant  is  found in alluvial  banks, growing from western New York to
Georgia and the Western States, and flowering in May.  Being a showy
plant  it is  frequently cultivated.—The leaves of  these plants are the
parts  used ;  they are inodorous,  and have a herbaceous, somewhat
mucilaginous, and  feebly  astringent taste.   Water extracts their pro-
perties.
   Properties and Uses.—Demulcent and mucilaginous, and may be used
in decoction, whenever this  class of agents  is indicated.  They have
been much used in catarrh, hemoptysis, and other diseases of the respi-
ratory  organs.
                      PUNICA GRANATUM.
                            Pomegranate.
        Nat. Ord.—Myrtacea?.  Sex. Syst.—Icosandria Monogynia.
          THE  RIND OF THE FRUIT AND BARK  OF THE ROOT.
  Description.—The Pomegranate is a beautiful shrub, covered with a
brownish  bark, with many slender branches,  which are more or less
spiny.   In favorable situations it frequently attains the hight of twenty
feet.  The leaves are opposite or ternate, sessile, smooth, waved, entire,
oblong,  inclining  to lanceolate,  of  a  bright-green  color, two  or three
inches long, by from five to ten lines wide, and without a marginal vein.
The flowers are large, of a rich scarlet color, solitary, or two  or three
together,  terminal.  The  calyx is turbinate, thick, fleshy,  red, and
divided into five acute  segments, which are valvate in aestivation.  The
corolla consists of five  large, wrinkled,  membranous petals, somewhat
spreading, and  which are inserted into the upper part of the tube of the
calyx.   The stamens are indefinite, with capillary filaments,  and oblong,
two-celled anthers, bursting in front by two chinks.  The ovary is infe-
rior, with a simple style, crowned by a papulose stigma.   The fruit is
the size of an orange, globular, somewhat compressed, and  indehiscent;
it is filled with  numerous, angular, exalbuminous seeds,  each enveloped
in a juicy rose-colored  pulp,  and is crowned with the limb of the calyx,
and covered with a thick, tawny, coriaceous  rind, which is the dilated
calycine tube.  This balaust, as it is termed, is divided into two chambers 
PUNICA GRANATUM.
783
 by a transverse diaphragm.   The upper chamber is five  to nine-celled,
 and the lower three-celled.  The placentae of the upper division extend
 from the parietes to the center, while those of the lower proceed irregu-
 larly from the bottom.
   History.—The  Pomegranate is a  native of Northern Africa, Syria,
 Persia, China, and other countries of Asia, and has been naturalized in
 the West Indies, and other civilized countries in warm latitudes.  It has
 splendid, dark-scarlet flowers,  often  doubled, which appear in July and
 August.  The fiowers  have a bitterish, astringent  taste,  without odor,
 and  their infusion gives a deep bluish-black precipitate with the salts of
 the sesquioxide of iron; the saliva is colored agviolet-red  upon chewing
 them.  They contain tannic and gallic acids, and together with the seeds
 are recognized as officinal in some foreign Pharmacopoeias.   The fruit
 varies in size and flavor, that of the West Indies becoming  the most
 perfect; it  contains  a  red, succulent,  pleasantly  acid,  sweetish,  and
 edible pulp.   The rind of the fruit,  and the bark of the root, are the only
 parts employed in this country.
   The Rind of the fruit, ( Granatum, London;  Punica? Granati  Cortex,
 Dublin, or Granati Fructus Cortex, United States,) when dry, is yellow-
 ish or reddish-brown externally, yellow within, about a line in thickness,
 smooth or finely tuberculated, hard, dry, brittle, in  irregular fragments,
 inodorous, and of a  very astringent, slightly bitter taste.   Its infusion
 gives an abundant,  dark-bluish  precipitate with the  salts of iron.   It
 contains 18.8 per cent, of tannin, 17.1 of mucilage, 10.8 extractive matter,
 30 lignin, a trace of resin,  and 29.9  moisture.
  The  root is large, ligneous, knotty,  and hard, and  covered with a
yellowish-gray, or ash-gray bark, which is yellow on its  inner surface.
The  Bark of the root, (Granati Radicis Cortex),  as found in commerce,
is generally in quills, or fragments of quills, from two to  six inches in
length,  and  from half an inch to an inch in breadth, and nearly a line in
thickness ; it  is grayish-yellow  externally, with green specks,  yellow
internally, brittle, and not stringy.   It breaks with a short fracture,  has
a faint, peculiar odor,  has an astringent, bitter taste when  fresh, the
bitterness of which is nearly lost by drying.   When chewed, it tinges
the saliva yellow.  Its infusion  yields a deep-blue  precipitate with  the
salts  of iron, a yellowish white  one with  a solution of gelatin, a grayish-
yellow with corrosive sublimate, and potassa or ammonia  colors it purple.
 The  inner surface of the  bark,  steeped in water and then  rubbed on
paper, stains it  yellow, which  becomes  blue by the contact of sulphate
of iron,  and  a  slight rose tint by that of nitric  acid, which soon vanishes.
 These properties will distinguish it from the barks of  the  box  root and
barberry branches,  with which  it is sometimes adulterated ; the box
bark is nearly white,  bitter, not astringent, and its infusion is not preci-
pitated by salts of iron.   The  barberry  bark,  very much resembles  the 
784
Materia Medica.
pomegranate, and is very bitter and  not  astringent, and is not affected
by the salts of iron, solution of isinglass, corrosive sublimate, or potassa.
The ligneous portion of pomegranate root  is inert, and should, therefore,
be always separated from the bark.
  Pomegranate  bark  has been analyzed  by several  chemists,  and
contains  fatty matter, tannic  and gallic acids,  starch, gum, resin, wax,
chlorophylle, a saccharine substance having the properties of mannite,
and some insoluble matters.  Righini obtained a peculiar  oleo-resinous
principle from it, which he considers to be the  source of its activity and
which he named Punicin; it has an  acrid taste, and affects the  nostrils
somewhat similar to veratria.   It may be prepared by rubbing a hydro-
alcoholic extract of the bark with one eighth of hydrate of potassa, heat-
ing the  mixture with  eight parts of pure water gradually added, then
dropping in dilute sulphuric acid to neutralize the alkaline  solution, and
washing on a filter with cold water; the punicin separates and is obtained
in the filter.
   Properties and Uses.—The flowers and rind of the  fruit are  astrin-
gent,  and have been used for arresting chronic mucous discharges,
passive hemorrhages, aphthous disorders of the mouth,  night-sweats,
colliquative diarrhea, etc., but are  now  seldom employed.   The  rind
has also  been  found serviceable in  intermittent fever, and  tapeworm.
The bark of the root possesses anthelmintic  properties, and is  chiefly
serviceable in tapeworm.   The bark of the wild pomegranate  is consi-
dered by the French to be more active  than  the cultivated plant.  It
may be given in powder,  but the decoction is generally preferred.  Two
ounces of the  bark are to  be steeped in two  pints of water, for twelve
hours, then boil the whole down to one pint, strain, and give  a wine-
glassful  every  two hours, until the whole is taken.  It commonly occa-
sions several stools, an increased flow of  urine, or  nausea  and vomiting,
owing, it is  supposed, to the  agitation into which the worm  is thrown
 from its presence.   Sometimes joints of the worm  begin  to come away
in  less than an hour after the last dose.  But  often the doses must  be
 repeated several successive  mornings before they take  effect, and it is
 right  to  repeat  them occasionally for four or five days after the joints
 have  ceased to come away.   Laxatives should be administered  from
 time to time.  It is said to act with the greatest certainty when the joints
 of the worm come away naturally.   The dose of the rind or flowers in
 powder, is from one to two scruples,  and  in decoction from one  to  three
 fluidounces.  The seeds are demulcent.
    Off. Prep.—Decoctum Granati Radicis. 
        Pycnanthemum Pilosum — Pyrethrum Parthenium.     785

                 PYCNANTHEMUM PILOSUM.
                          Pycnanthemum.
  Nat.  Ord.—Lamiaceaa, or Labiataj.   Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Monogynia.
                            THE PLANT.
  Description.—This is an indigenous perennial plant, with long and soft
whitish  hairs,  and a subsimple stem, growing from one to two feet in
hight.   The leaves are sessile, nearly entire, lanceolate, acute  at  both
ends, and pilose beneath ; the floral ones not whitened.   The flowers are
white, and  disposed  in large, terminal, sessile heads.   The  calyx-teeth
are ovate-lanceolate, acute,  and with the lanceolate bracts, are canes-
cently villous and awnless.   The corolla is pubescent, and the  stamens
exserted.
   History.—This plant is  found  in low grounds, dry  hills and plains,
from Ohio and Illinois extending southward, and flowering in July and
August.  The whole plant is used and yields its virtues to boiling water;
it has the taste and odor peculiar to  the Mint family.  There are several
species  of this genus which possess similar medicinal properties, as the
Pycnanthemum Virginicum,  Narrow-leaf Virginian Thyme  or Prairie-
Hyssop, a pubescent plant with white flowers, sessile, lance-linear, entire,
and punctate leaves, terminal and corymbed heads, and  acuminate bracts.
Also the  P.  Aristalum, or  Wild  Basil,  with lance-ovate,  subserrate,
pubescent, acuminate, and short petiolate leaves ; with hirsute, terminal,
capitate and subterminal verticils;  bracts  lance-subulate,  and with the
calyx terminated by awns.   Likewise P. Incanum, and  others.
  Properties and Uses.—Pycnanthemum is  diaphoretic, stimulant, anti-
spasmodic, carminative, and  tonic.   A warm  infusion  is very useful in
puerperal, remittent, and other forms of  fever, coughs, colds, catarrhs,
etc., and is of  much benefit in spasmodic diseases, especially colic, cramp
of the   stomach, and  spasms of infants.  The cold infusion is a  good
tonic and stimulant during convalescence from exhausting diseases.  Dose
of the infusion, either warm or cold, from one to four fluidounces,  three
or more times a day.
   Off.  Prep.—Infusum Pycnanthemi.
                  PYRETHRUM PARTHENIUM.
                             Feverfew.
        Nat. Ord.—Asteraceas.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Superflua.
                             THE HERB.
   Description. — Feverfew  is  a perennial, herbaceous  plant, with  a
tapering  root, and  an erect,  branched, leafy, round,  furrowed  stem,
about two  feet  high.   The  leaves are  alternate,  petiolate,  flat, bi-
pinnate or tripinnate, of a  hoary green,  with the segments or leaflets
         50 
786
Materia Medica.
inclining to ovate, decurrent,  gashed  and  dentate.   The flowers are
white and compound.   The panicle corymbose,  sometimes compound;
the peduncles  long, naked,  single-flowered, swelling upward.   Flower-
heads erect, about half an inch broad, with a convex yellow disk, and
numerous short, broad, abrupt, two-ribbed, white rays ; often wanting ;
sometimes multiplied, and the disk being obliterated, constitutes a double
flower.   Involucre hemispherical, imbricate,  pubescent, with the scales
scarious at the edge ; receptacle flat or convex, naked; achenia wingless,
angular,  uniform, crowned by a coroneted pappus which is  usually
toothed, and occasionally auriculate.
  History.—This is a European plant, and  is common to the United
States, found occasionally in  a wild state, but is  generally cultivated in
gardens,  and flowers in June and July.   It is the Matricaria Parthenium
of Linnaeus, and the  Chrysanthemum  Parthenium  of  Persoon.    It
imparts its  virtues to water, but much better to alcohol.
  Properties and  Uses.—Tonic, carminative, emmenagogue, vermifuge,
and  stimulant.  The  warm infusion  is  an  excellent remedy in recent
colds,  flatulency, worms, irregular menstruation, hysteria, suppression
of the urine, and in some  febrile diseases.  In  hysteria,  or flatulency,
one teaspoonful of  the  compound spirits  of  lavender forms a valuable
addition  to  the dose  of the infusion, which is from  two  to four fluid-
ounces.  The  cold infusion  or extract, makes a valuable tonic.   The
leaves in poultice are  an  excellent local application  in severe  pain  or
swelling of the bowels, etc.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Pyrethri.
                   PYROLA ROTUNDIFOLIA.
                       Round-leaved  Pyrola.
         Nat. Ord.—Ericaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.
                             THE  HERB.
  Description.—This is a  perennial, low, scarcely suffruticose, evergreen
herb, known by the various  names of False  Wintergreen, Shin-leaf,
Canker-Lettuce,  Pear-leaf Wintergreen, etc.   The  leaves  are radical or
nearly so, orbicular-ovate, nearly two inches in diameter, smooth, shining,
thick, entire or crenulate,  usually shorter than the petiole, with  con-
spicuous,  reticulate veins.   The petioles are margined, as long as, and
usually much longer than  the leaf.   The scape is mostly racemose, three-
angled, from six to twelve inches high,  with  scaly  bracts  at base and  in
the middle.  The flowers are many, large,  fragrant, white, drooping,
about three-fourths of  an  inch broad, and disposed in an  oblong, termi-
nal raceme.  The calyx is  five-parted, persistent; the lobes lanceolate,
acute, with somewhat spreading tips, one-half or one-third the length of 
Pyrus Malus.
787
the petals.   Petals five, roundish-obovate,  nearly  spreading,  concave,
deciduous.   Stamens ten,  ascending; filaments awl-shaped,  naked ;
anthers large,  pendulous;  stigmas  exserted beyond the  ring;  style
declining and curved, longer than the petals.   Capsule five-celled, five-
valved, opening at the angles, many-seeded.
   History.—This plant is common in damp and shady woods, through-
out various parts of the United States, bearing numerous white flowers
in June  and July.   The whole  plant is used, and imparts its medical
properties to water.   It has not been analyzed.
   Properties and Uses.—Round-leaved Pyrola is tonic, astringent, diu-
retic,  and antispasmodic.  Used in decoction, both internally and exter-
nally  in  various  cutaneous  eruptions, likewise  in  a  carcinomatous  or
scrofulous taint of the system, and in leucorrhea, and  some uterine dis-
eases.   As a local application it will be found of service in  sore-throat,
and ulcerations  of the  mouth,  indolent ulcers,  ophthalmia,  etc., and
forms an excellent soothing poultice for boils, carbuncles,  and all painful
tumors or swellings.   The decoction, taken internally, is said to be valu-
able in many urinary affections, as gravel, hematuria, and ulceration  of
the bladder, and in some nervous diseases.    The decoction  and extract
have been used with  success in convulsions,  and form a large portion  of
a popular nostrum for epilepsy.  Dose of the decoction, one or two fluid-
ounces, three or  four times a day ; of the extract,  from  two to five
grains.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Pyrolae Rotundifoliae.
                         PYRUS MALUS.
                          The  Apple-tree.
 Nat.  Ord.—Rosacea?; Suborder, Pomese.  Sex. Syst.—Icosandria Pentagynia.
                             THE BARK.
  Description.—This is a well known tree, growing from twenty to forty
feet high, with rigid, crooked, spreading branches, and a rough, blackish
bark.   The leaves are from two  to  three inches long,  and about two-
thirds as wide,  ovate,  or oblong-ovate, serrate, acute,  or short-acumi-
nate, pubescent above, tomentose beneath, and on petioles from half an
inch  to an inch  in length.   The fiowers  are  large, fragrant, expanding
with the leaves, pale-rose color, and  arranged in subumbellate corymbs.
The calyx-tube is urn-shaped, limb five-cleft; pedicels and calyx villous-
tomentose.   Petals five, roundish, or obovate, with short claws.  Stamens
numerous;  styles five, united and villose  at base.   Fruit or pome
globose.
  History.—The Apple Tree is a native  of Europe, naturalized in  this
country, and  flowers from April to June.   There  are, probably, nearly 
788
Materia  Medica.
 one thousand varieties cultivated in the United States, and all of which
 are said to be derived from  the  Wild  Crab.   From the fruit,  cider is
 manufactured, and both the fruit and its cider are much used for domes-
 tic and medicinal purposes.  The bark is bitter and has been  employed
 in medicine, it contains a principle  called Phloridzin; the root-bark is
 the most active, and yields  its virtues to boiling water.
   Phloridzin was discovered  by Dr. Konink, a German physician, who
 found it to exist in  the bark of  the  apple, pear, cherry, and plum trees,
 but in greater abundance in the fresh root-bark.  To obtain it, the bark
 of the recent roots is  boiled with water  sufficient  to cover them,  for
 about an hour; the fluid is  poured off,  and as much more poured in  for
 a second boiling.   The decoctions are placed in a clean vessel, and  set
 aside to remain undisturbed for about twenty-four hours, at the  end  of
 which time will be  found a copious precipitate of phloridzin, of a deep-
 red, velvety-looking color.  To remove the color, and render the article
 white, it is to  be  boiled with distilled water  and animal  charcoal, and
 then filtered ;  this process is to  be repeated two or three times, and then
 by allowing the solution to cool slowly, the phloridzin is deposited in the
 crystalline state.  By evaporating the  decoction, (after the above pre-
 cipitate has been collected,) to about one-fifth of  its bulk, an additional
 quantity of phloridzin may be  obtained, on allowing it to cool. It is
 light, white, crystallizable in silky needles, of  a  bitter taste, soluble in
 alcohol and boiling water,  scarcely soluble in  cold water or ether, and
 dissolved without change by alkaline solutions, and especially by  ammo-
 nia ; heated to 212° it is deprived of its water  of crystallization, and at
 a higher temperature it is  fusible.   It is without  acid  or alkaline reac-
 tion, and consists of carbon, hydrogen  and oxygen.
   Properties and Uses.—Apple  Tree Bark is tonic and febrifuge, and a
 decoction of it has been used with advantage  in intermittent, remittent,
 and bilious fevers,  and in convalescence from exhausting diseases.   It
 may be given  in doses of  from one to four fluidounces, three times a
 day.  A strong decoction or syrup of the Sweet-apple tree bark has been
 employed with success in some cases of gravel.   The fruit or apple con-
 tains both malic and acetic  acids, has a pleasant  and refreshing  flavor,
 and is a useful and healthy article of diet.  However, it  should  not  be
 eaten by dyspeptics, or patients  afflicted with gout, rheumatism, or renal
 and  cutaneous diseases.  When baked, stewed, or  roasted, it becomes
 valuable as an  agreeable  and  healthy diet in febrile diseases, exan-
thema, etc., and is more easily digested than when raw; it also becomes
slightly laxative and is beneficial in cases of habitual constipation. Raw
 apples should  always be well  masticated before being  swallowed,  as
 otherwise,  they may become a  source  of  serious difficulties, especially
with children.  An apple tea may be made for fever patients, by boiling
 a tart apple in half  a pint of water,  and sweetening  with sugar. 
Quercus Alba.
789
   Cider forms  not only a  refreshing and agreeable drink for  patients
with fever, but actually exerts a salutary  medicinal influence, especially
where the tongue  is coated  brown or black.   This is an Eclectic agent,
which has recently become adopted by  Allopaths  in this class of  dis-
eases, and it is  truly amusing to observe how much trouble they take to
persecute  and  misrepresent  us, while  at the  same time they are very
eager to seize upon all our valuable  remedial  means.  It is well known
that cider in which horseradish, etc., has been steeped, has long been an
Eclectic agent in the treatment of dropsy,—at this day its value is recog-
nized by Allopathy,  as may be seen in "  Wood's  Practice," under  the
treatment of dropsy.  Nor is this the only agent they have derived from
Eclecticism, without giving fair and honorable credit.   Cooked apples
form an excellent local application in ophthalmic inflammation, erysipe-
latous  inflammation, sore  and swelled  throat in scarlatina, ulcers,  etc.
   Phloridzin is tonic and febrifuge, and in the dose of from ten to fifteen
grains has cured  intermittent  fever where quinia  has  failed;  unlike
quinia it does not induce gastralgia.
                        QUERCUS ALBA.
                            White  Oak.
  Nat. Ord. — Corylacea?, Lindley; Amentaceae, Jussieu; Cupuliferaa, Bichard.
Sex. Syst.—Monoecia Polyandria.
                             THE BARK.
  Description.—Quercus Alba is a forest tree, varying in size according
to the climate and soil, attaining the hight of from sixty to  ninety feet,
with a diameter of from three to six feet.   Its trunk and large branches
are covered with a whitish bark, which serves to  distinguish it from most
of  the  other  species.    The leaves  are oblong,  pinnatifid,  sinuate,
smooth,  bright-green above, pale or glaucous  beneath,  and regularly
and obliquely divided into from three to five lobes, which are oblong, or
linear, obtuse,  mostly entire, and  sometimes narrowed at  their base.
The fiowers are monoecious and  amentaceous.  The cup is hemispheri-
cal, naked, much  shorter than the acorn, deep, tuberculate.   The acorns
are large, ovate,  coriaceous, one-celled, one-seeded, surrounded at base
by the cup, and supported singly or in pairs upon peduncles nearly an
inch in length.
  Quercus Rubra, or Red Oak,  is a lofty, wide-spreading  tree, attain-
ing the hight of about  seventy feet, with a  diameter of three or four
feet.  The leaves are from six to ten inches  in length, on long petioles,
oblong, smooth  on both  sides, pale beneath, obtusely sinuate, with  short,
and entire  or sparingly dentate,  mucronate  lobes, from  four to six  on
each side.  The fructification is biennial.  The acorns are oblong-ovoid,
about an inch  long, surrounded  at  base  by a saucer-shaped, shallow,
even cup, very  much shorter  than  the acorn, of very small and close
scales, and subsessile. 
790
Materia  Medica.
   Quercus Tinctoria, Quercitron  or Black Oak, is one of the loftiest
trees in the forest, frequently attaining the hight of from eighty to one
hundred feet, with a diameter of four or five  feet.   The bark is deeply
furrowed, black or deep-brown.   The leaves are from six to eight inches
long,  obovate,  oblong, more or less rusty-pubescent  beneath, finally
glabrous, slightly or sometimes deeply sinuate-lobed, with oblong, obtuse,
mucronate, somewhat  toothed  lobes.  The acorns are  brown, nearly
spherical or depressed-globose, about one-half immersed in a deep, thick,
flat, conspicuously scaly cup, which  is subsessile.  The leaves turn dark-
red after frost.
   History.—Quercus is a very large and important genus, consisting of
many species, a large proportion  of which  grow in the United States.
Their  general character  is  that of astringents,  and the three above
described,  are those  which have  been more  particularly employed in
medicine.  The bark of the trees is the officinal portion.
   White Oak grows throughout the Union,  but is more  abundant in the
Middle States.  Its wood is  strong and durable, and is  extensively em-
ployed in ship-building, coopering, carriage-making, etc.  The bark is
sometimes employed for tanning, but for this  purpose, that o( the Red, and
Spanish Oaks are preferred; its principal use is in medicine.   It should
be deprived of its  epidermis, which  contains no astringent property; it
then presents a coarse  fibrous  texture, is tough  and not easily pulve-
rized, of a light yellowish-brown  color,  a  feeble odor, and a  strongly
astringent, bitterish taste.   Its  active properties are extracted by water
or alcohol.  It contains a large proportion of tannin, some gallic  acid,
and  extractive matter.   The inner bark, collected during the spring, is
said to afford  the most tannin.
   A bitter principle has been  obtained from the European  oak-bark
(Quercus Pedunculata), called Quercin.   Our own  oak-bark  is  fully
equal  in  medicinal virtues to  the  foreign, and may, undoubtedly, be
substituted for this in obtaining  quercin.  The bark must be boiled with
water  acidulated with one-hundredth of sulphuric acid,  after which the
sulphuric acid is to be removed  by the addition of sufficient milk  of
lime, and then a solution of carbonate of potassa must be added so long
as it causes a white precipitate; filter the liquor, evaporate  to  the con-
sistence of a  thin extract, add alcohol, and finally evaporate the spiritu-
ous solution down to a small volume, and let it stand  for some days;
yellow crystals will form, which may be  obtained colorless by  repeated
crystallizations.  Thus  prepared, quercin is  in small white crystals, ino-
dorous, very bitter, soluble in water, less so in alcohol containing water,
insoluble in absolute alcohol, ether, or oil of turpentine,  and is neutral.
   Black Oak is likewise  a forest tree common to the United States, the
bark of which is  much used in tanning, and for dyeing.  It is  more
bitter than the  other species named, and when chewed  stains the saliva
yellow.  It is seldom employed internally on  account of its  disposition 
Quercus Alba.
791
to irritate the bowels, but is valuable as an external astringent.  Boiling
water  extracts a coloring  principle from  its cellular integument, of a
brownish-yellow  color,  which  is deepened  by alkalies  and rendered
brighter by acids.  This bark,  deprived of its epidermis and powdered,
is exported to Europe under the name  of  Quercitron,  where it is exten-
sively used for dyeing silk and wool of a yellow color.  The coloring
principle, called Quercitrin or Quercitric Acid, may be obtained by add-
ing gelatin to a decoction of the bark, which precipitates the tannic acid,
filtering the liquor,  adding  a very small quantity of hydrated oxide  of
lead, which produces a brown precipitate,  pouring off the golden-yellow
liquid left, precipitating again with an additional quantity of the hydrate,
and decomposing the resulting quercitrate  of lead  by hydrosulphuric
acid.  Filter the colorless liquid left,  evaporate in vacuo, and white needle-
shaped crystals of pure  quercitrin will be obtained,  which  has the pro-
perty of combining  with salifiable bases.   Black oak bark contains more
tannic and gallic acids than the other officinal species.
   Red  Oak is more common  in  the Northern  States and  Canada;  its
wood is reddish  and coarse-grained, and used principally  for fuel;  its
bark  is extensively used in tanning.   It  contains  considerable tannin,
and is generally employed as an external agent.  An extract of the bark,
as well as the  potash obtained from its ashes, are both  much employed
as a local application in the treatment of cancer, indolent ulcers, etc.
   Properties and Uses.—Oak bark is somewhat tonic, powerfully astrin-
gent,  and antiseptic.  Used with advantage in intermittent  fever, obsti-
nate chronic  diarrhea, chronic mucous discharges, and in certain forms
of passive hemorrhages;  likewise in phthisis, and diseases attended with
great prostration, colliquative  sweats,  etc.   In  such cases, a decoction
of it may be combined with lime-water.  Externally, a decoction forms
an excellent gargle for relaxed uvula and  sore-throat, a good stimulating
astringent  lotion for  ulcers with spongy granulations, and an astringent
injection for leucorrhea, prolapsus ani,  hemorrhoids, etc.  A poultice of
the ground bark  has often proved of service  in gangrene  and mortifica-
tion.  In sickly,  debilitated children, and in severe diarrheas, especially
when the result of  fevers, the  decoction given internally, and used as a
bath to the body and limbs, two or  three times a day, will be found very
efficacious.  When given for diarrhea or dysentery, it should  be com-
bined with aromatics, and  sometimes with castor oil.  A bath  is  often
advantageous  in some cutaneous diseases.  The green bark of elder and
white oak, bruised together, or in  strong decoction, forms a very useful
and valuable  application to  abrasions.  Dose of the decoction, one or
two fluidounces; of the  extract, from five to twenty grains.  A coffee
made from roasted acorns, has been  highly recommended in the treat-
ment  of scrofula.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Quercus Albse. 
792
Materia Medica.
                     QUERCUS INFECTORIA.
                             Dyer's Oak.
   Nat.  Ord.—Cupuliferae, Richard; Corylaceae, Lindley;  Amentacea?, Jussieu.
 Sex. Syst.—Monoecia Polyandria.
                    morbid excrescences — galls.
   Description.—Quercus Infectoria is a small shrub, with a crooked stem,
 seldom exceeding six feet  in hight.  The leaves are from an inch to an
 inch  and a half long,  on short petioles, ovate-oblong, sinuate-dentate,
 smooth, of a bright-green color, shining on the upper side, rounded and
 rather  unequal at  the  base, and deciduous.  The cup is hemispherical,
 scaly, and sessile, somewhat downy; acorns  elongated, obtuse, and two
 or three times longer than the cup.
   History. — Dyer's Oak, or Gall Oak, grows  throughout Asia Minor,
 and, very probably, through  the middle latitudes of Asia.   It affords
 the Gall Nuts  or Galls (Galla, U.  S.)  of commerce.  These are pro-
 duced by the puncture of the  shoots and young  boughs by a  hymenope-
 terous insect or fly,  for the deposition  of  its  eggs.   This insect is  the
 Cynips Quercusfolii of Linnaeus, and the  Diplolepis  Gallce-tinctorice of
 Geoffroy; it has a fawn-colored body, dark antennae,  and the' upper part
 of its  abdomen a shining brown.  After the puncture is made, the egg
 is deposited  in  the  wound, and in consequence  of  the irritation thus
 produced, a morbid secretion takes place, which concreting as it flows,
 forms the hard excrescences called Galls.  The  egg grows with the gall,
 is converted into a larva, which  feeds upon the morbid excrescence sur-
 rounding  it, and forms a cavity in its center.   Toward the end of July,
 the young insect, having passed through all its stages of transformation
 into the state of a fly, eats its way out and escapes.   The  best galls are
 those which  are gathered about the middle of July, when  they have
 attained their full size, and  just before the escape of  the  insect.  They
 are then called green, blue, or  black galls;  those which  are  gathered
 later, after having  been injured by the insect, are  usually larger, less
 heavy and  compact, and lighter-colored  than  the  former — they are
 termed White galls,  and are of an inferior quality.
  Galls are imported from  the  Mediterranean ports, especially Smyrna
 and  Trieste, or  from London.   The  best kind  were formerly called
 Aleppo Galls, from  a supposition that they were  obtained more abun-
 dantly in the vicinity of that city, but at present, it is hard to  discrimi-
nate  between the finer sorts from various places.  An  excellent article
has been  brought from  Calcutta, of  equal  value with that  from the
 Mediterranean.  Galls vary in size from that of a large pea to that of a
 small walnut;  they are roundish,  tuberculated  on  the  surface,  and
hollow within.   The best are  of middle size, dark-bluish or  lead color,
sometimes with a greenish tinge, whitish or  brownish internally, hard,
heavy,  brittle,  with  a flinty fracture, a striated texture,  and  a small 
Quercus Infectoria.
793
 cavity in the  center, containing  dust, the undeveloped insect,  or  the
 insect itself in  the  state of  larva, pupa,  or  of fly.   It  forms a light
 yellowish-gray powder.   The inferior sorts are of a lighter color, some-
 times reddish  or nearly  white, of a loose texture, with a large cavity in
 the center,  from which a small hole or perforation passes to the external
 surface,  and through which the fly effected its escape.   Both kinds  are
 brittle, easily pulverized, inodorous, and have  an intensely astringent
 taste. Water  is the  best solvent of galls, and proof-spirit the next;
 pure  alcohol or ether acts more feebly upon them.  All the soluble matter
 of galls is taken up by forty times their weight of boiling water,  and  the
 residue is tasteless ;  alcohol dissolves seven parts in ten, ether five parts.
 Upon cooling,  a saturated   decoction deposits  a copious  pale-yellow
 precipitate.   An infusion or  tincture of  galls affords  precipitates with
 muriatic, sulphuric,  nitric, phosphoric, and  arsenic acids,  lime-water,
 carbonate of ammonia,  carbonate of potassa, solutions of  acetate and
 subacetate of lead, sulphates  of iron and copper, nitrates of silver and
 mercury, tartrate of antimony and potassa, gelatin, infusions  of Peruvian
 bark, Colombo, opium, and many other vegetables, especially those con-
 taining proximate alkaline principles, with most of which  tannic acid
 forms insoluble compounds.   The infusion of galls reddens litmus paper,
 and is rendered  orange by nitric  acid, milky by corrosive sublimate,
 and its own color is deepened  by ammonia.   Galls consist of a  large
 proportion of tannic  acid ;  according to Davy 500 parts give 185  parts
 of matter soluble in water, of  which 130 were tannic acid, 31 gallic acid
 with a little  extractive, 12  mucilage and  matter  rendered insoluble  by
 evaporation, and 12 saline matter and calcareous  earth.   Guibourt found
 galls  to  consist of 65 per  cent, of tannic acid,  10.5 of lignin,  11.5 of
 moisture, 5.8 of gum, sugar and starch, 4.0 of gallic, ellagic, and luteo-
 gallic acids, beside extractive, chlorophylle,  volatile oil, albumen and
 salts.   The  gallic and ellagic  acids, according to  M. Pelouze, do not pre-
 exist in the  galls, but are formed by the  action of atmospheric oxygen
upon  their tannin.
  I have in my possession a specimen of an excrescence  found on a
plant, the name of which has not been ascertained, growing in Texas,
in the neighborhood of Red river.   It was presented to me by Mr. W.
S. Merrell;  he obtained  it from  a physician who  had pursued the prac-
tice of his profession  in that section of country, and who states that it is
caused by  the puncture of  some insect,  and is found in  abundance.
 According to his account these morbid growths are hollow, globose, and
whitish.  The dried  specimens which I have are of a light brown color
mixed with  fragments of a darker color, and appear to be  pieces of a
 hollow body, some  of  which very much resemble  squill  in  color.
 They  are half a line  and less in thickness, of various  sizes,  from a line
to three-fourths of an inch  in  diameter, irregular in their shape, having
 an external  convex  surface which is very  finely corrugated,  and of a 
794
Materia Medica.
shining,  resinous  appearance under  the  microscope, and an  internal
concave  surface which is much  smoother that the external one, and in
which may be  distinctly  traced  veins  running in various  directions.
They are translucent, with the exception of the darkest colored, have a
short fracture, presenting under the microscope a shining, finely granu-
lated, waxy or resinous surface, are inodorous, brittle, of  a taste at first
resembling green tea, but which becomes slightly bitter and  powerfully
astringent;  the light-colored pieces are more astringent and bitter than
the dark ones.  One piece of this article, about one quarter of  an inch
in diameter was placed in an  ounce of water and agitated for a  few
minutes,  and was not dissolved; to this about five or six grains of sul-
phate of  iron were then added, which, on  agitation, immediately turned
the liquid  black.   This,  used  as an ink, formed pale  lines  scarcely
discernible,  but which, in a few  minutes, became intensely black.   I
consider  this the most powerful astringent vegetable product ever yet
found in  a  natural state, and trust that means may be devised to intro-
duce it into our markets.
   Properties and Uses.—Galls are astringent and may  be used in  all
cases where astringents are indicated, as  in chronic dysentery, diarrhea,
passive hemorrhages, and in cases of poisoning by tartar-emetic  or the
vegetable alkaloids,  in infusion or tincture.  Boiled in  milk they are
good  for the diarrhea of  children.  As a local  application, the infusion
is  employed  as  an injection in gleet, leucorrhea, prolapsus  ani, or  for
a gargle in indolent ulceration of the fauces, relaxed uvula, and the
chronic stage of mercurial  action on the mouth; the addition of  alum is
said  to render it more beneficial.  Dose  of the powder, from  five  to
twenty grains ; of the tincture  half a fluidrachm to a fluidrachm;  of
the infusion from half a fluidounce to a fluidounce.
   Off. Prep.— Acidum Tannicum; Decoctum Gallae.
                   RANUNCULUS BULBOSUS.
                              Crowfoot.
      Nat. Ord.—Ranunculacea?.   Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Polygynia.
                       THE CORMUS AND  HERB.
  Description. — Ranunculus  Bulbosus has a perennial, solid, fleshy,
roundish, depressed cormus or root, sending out radicles from its under
side ;  in autumn it gives off lateral bulbs near its top, which afford plants
for the following year, while the old cormus decays.  The root sends up
annually, several erect, round, hairy, and branching stems, from six  to
eighteen  inches in hight, and which  are furrowed, hollow, and  bulbous
at base.   The radical leaves  are on long  petioles, ternate, sometimes
quinate;  the segments  variously  cut, lobed and  toothed, hairy.   The
cauline leaves are sessile and ternate, the upper ones more simple.  Each 
Resina.
795
stem supports several solitary, golden-yellow flowers, upon furrowed,
angular and hairy peduncles.  The sepals are oblong, hairy, and reflexed
against the peduncle.  The petals are five,  inversely cordate,  longer
than the  sepals, and arranged so as to represent the shape of a small
cup.   At the  inside  of the claw of each petal  is a small cavity, which is
covered with  a minute wedge-shaped emarginate scale.   The stamens
are  numerous, yellow, with  oblong, erect anthers.   Ovaries numerous,
with  reflexed stigmas.   Receptacles spherical.   Carpels  acute,  naked,
diverging, tipped with very short recurved beaks.
   History.—This plant is common to Europe  and the United  States,
growing  in fields and pastures, and  flowering in May, June, and July.
There are several species, possessing  similar  properties, and designated
by the common  name of Buttercup; among these  the  R. Acris, R.
Repens, R. Sceleratus, and R. Flammula, may be indiscriminately sub-
stituted, the one for the other.   In all these species, the active principle
depends  upon a volatile, acrid  principle, which is dissipated  by drying,
or by the  application of heat, and which may be separated by distillation
with water.   The fresh  plant or  root,  when  chewed,  excites  violent
irritation  in the mouth and throat, inflaming  and even excoriating the
tongue, and inside  of the cheeks  and lips, if not quickly discharged ;
and if swallowed, it produces much heat and pain in the stomach.  The
distilled water of R.  Flammula is said to act as an instantaneous emetic.
   Properties and Uses.—From the caustic or acrid  character of these
plants they are seldom used internally; but when applied externally, are
powerfully rubefacient and epispastic.  The R. Bulbosus is  the officinal
plant.  It is employed in its recent  state, in rheumatic,  neuralgic and
other diseases where vesication and counter-irritation are indicated.  Its
action, however, is so uncertain, and sometimes so violent, causing deep
and obstinate  ulcers, that it  is seldom used.  It is sometimes used by
the beggars of Europe to produce  and keep open sores, for the purpose
of exciting sympathy.  I have cured two obstinate cases of nursing sore-
mouth, made by adding two  drachms  of the recent root, cut into small
pieces, to  one  pint of hot water ; when cold,  a  tablespoonful was given
three or four times a day, and the mouth frequently washed with a much
stronger infusion.
                            RESINA.
                           Resin or Rosin.
  History.—This is the residuum after the distillation of the volatile oil
from the turpentine of the Pinus Palustris and other pines.  When the
distillation is not carried too far, the rosin contains a little water.   This
is the officinal article, the  Resina Flava,  or yellow rosin.   If, when in  a
state  of  fusion, it be  strongly agitated  with water,  it acquires a dis-
tinct appearance, and  is  called  Resina Alba, or white  rosin.   A more 
796
Materia Medica.
 continued heat than that prepared in making the yellow rosin expels the
 water, and  produces transparent rosin;  and if the process be pushed as
 far as it can, without producing a  complete alteration of properties, the
 residue  acquires a  deeper color, and  is termed Brown or Black rosin,
 Fidler's rosin, Colophony.  If melted rosin be run  into cold water, con-
 tained in shallow tanks, and a supply of cold water be kept up until the
 rosin has solidified, a pale yellow product  is obtained, called Flockton's
 Patent  Rosin.   Rosin is translucent,  yellowish, brittle,  pulverizable,
 rather heavier than water, of a feeble  terebinthine odor and taste, fusi-
 ble at a moderate heat, inflammable, soluble in ether and many volatile
 oils, insoluble in water, partially soluble in boiling rectified spirit, and
 capable of  uniting by fusion with wax, fixed oils, fats,  and spermaceti.
 The concentrated acids dissolve it, especially  with the aid of heat; sul-
 phuric or nitric acids slowly convert it  into artificial tannin.  Solutions
 of potassa  and soda partially  dissolve it, forming soluble soaps, and
 leaving a resinous  principle undissolved.   Prof.  Olmstead states  that
 rosin added to lard, gives it a degree of fluidity not before possessed by
 the lard, and also prevents the latter forming those acids which corrode
 metals.  If three parts of lard  have one part of finely powdered rosin
 added,  and  the mixture be well stirred,  without the application of heat,
 it softens, and so nearly approaches a fluid as to run freely when taken
 up on the stirring-rod, at a temperature of  72°.   On melting  the mix-
 ture, and setting it aside to cool, the following changes take place:  At
 90°  it remains transparent and limpid;  at 87°, a pellicle begins to form
 on  the surface, and soon after it  begins  to grow slightly viscid, and
 as the temperature descends, it  passes  through different degrees of vis-
 cidity, until at 76° it becomes a dense semifluid.   A compound of one
 part of rosin to four of lard, may be used for  various purposes:  by add-
 ing a portion of black-lead, and applying  a  thin coating to iron stoves
 and grates, it prevents them from rusting, forming a complete protection.
 It may  likewise be  applied to various other purposes.
  Properties and Uses.—Rosin is seldom given internally.  Its principal
 use is to form plasters and ointments, to which it is an excitant ingre-
 dient, and renders them more adhesive.   The vapor from rosin has been
 inhaled in chronic  bronchitis and  affections  of the  lungs with benefit;
 and the fumes from burning  rosin,  if received upon the parts, will, it is
 said,  remove the irritation attending piles  and prolapsus ani.   Half a
 drachm of powdered rosin  dissolved in a  sufficient quantity of chloro-
form, so as to make a thick solution, will relieve neuralgia of the teeth,
or toothache, by introducing a piece of cotton, which has been impreg-
nated with the solution, into the hollow  teeth.
   Off.  Prep.—Ceratum Resinae;  Ceratum Sabinae ; Emplastrum Cale-
faciens;  Emplastrum  Plumbi  Oxidi Rubrum;   Emplastrum  Resinae;
 Emplastrum Resinae Compositum. 
Rhamnus  Catharticus.
797
                   RHAMNUS  CATHARTICUS.
                             Buckthorn.
        Nat. Ord.—Rhamnaceas.  Sex.  Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                       the berries  or fruit.
   Description.—Buckthorn is a shrub  from six to fifteen feet in hight.
 The branches are alternate, or nearly opposite, spreading, straight, round,
 smooth, hard, and rigid, each terminating in a strong spine, after the
 first year.   The leaves are from one to two inches  long, and about two-
 thirds as wide, deciduous, bright-green, smooth, simple, entire, veined,
 ovate, serrate, and in fascicles,  on short downy petioles; the young ones
 are  downy; the earlier ones in  tufts from  the flowering buds, and the
 rest opposite, on the  young branches.   Stipules linear.  The flowers are
 small, numerous, yellowish-green, on the last year's branches, and usu-
 ally dicecious or polygamous; the fertile flowers have the rudiments of
 stamens, narrow petals, and a deeply four-cleft style; the barren ones have
 an abortive ovary, and broader petals.  The anthers  are small, rounded,
 and borne on short, subulate filaments, which are inserted in the mouth
 of the calyx.  The berries are globular, about the  size of a pea, bluish-
 black, containing a green pulp, with four cells, and  as many seeds, which
 are smooth, elliptical, convex on one side and flattened on the other.
   History.—Buckthorn is a native of Europe, and is found growing wild
 in some parts of the United  States, flowering in May and June, and
 ripening its fruit in the latter part of September.  The berries are  the
 officinal portion.  They are round,  about the  size of a pea, black, smooth
 and shining, somewhat flattened on the summit, with an unpleasant odor,
 and a bitter, acrid and nauseous taste.  The juice  of the  berries stains
 paper green, is reddened by acids, and is rendered light-green by alkalies.
 On standing it ferments,  acetic  acid is formed, and it becomes red.   A
 pigment, known as Sap-green, is made with them, by adding a little alum
 to the  inspissated juice, or by adding lime-water and  gum  arabic to it,
 and evaporating to dryness.  It contains green coloring matter, sugar,
 brown mucilage, and bitter extractive supposed  to be its  active princi-
 ple.   The bark of Rhamnus Frangula, is occasionally used in Germany
 as a carthartic, under the name of Cortex Frangulm.
  Properties and Uses.—Buckthorn berries,  (Rhamni Baccae) are pow-
 erfully cathartic ; twenty of the recent berries cause  brisk watery purg-
 ing, with nausea, dryness of the throat, thirst, and tormina.  These effects
 are partly removed by giving the juice (Rhamni Succus) in the form of
 syrup,  and which formerly enjoyed much reputation as a hydragogue in
gout, rheumatism, and dropsy; at present it is seldom employed in prac-
tice, and is occasionally employed  as  an adjunct to other cathartic and
diuretic mixtures.  Dose of the syrup, from  half a fluidounce to a fluid-
ounce. 
798
Materia Medica.
                      RHEUM PALMATUM.
                             Rhubarb.
       Nat. Ord.—Polygonaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Enneandria Trigynia.
                             the root.
  Description.—In relation to the Rhubarb root, the scientific world is in
much ignorance, not knowing the exact plant or plants from which it
is produced.   All that is known is, that it  is the root of one or more
species of rheum, supposed to be the Rheum Palmatum and  R.  Undu-
latum.   The species from which the medicinal drug is obtained inhabit
the  great plains of Tartary, the steppes of Siberia, and the great ranges
of mountains lying  between these and  the northern parts of India, and
great caution is exhibited in monopolizing the trade in the article.   Until
1732 but little was known as to the true origin of rhubarb; but at that
time Jussieu and Rand  received  specimens from  Russia which were
named Rheum Rhabarbarum by Linnaeus, under an impression that they
were of the species which furnished the genuine drug; this name has since
been changed to Rheum  Undulatum.   Subsequently Kauw Boerhaave
obtained some  seeds  of a plant said  to  produce the root, and which
upon planting yielded two distinct species,  the  R. Undulatum and R.
Palmatum.  Several  other  species  have from  time  to time attracted
the  attention of naturalists, being reputed each  as the  one which fur
nished the  genuine  rhubarb of commerce, but the presumption is, that
it is derived from several species of Rheum, and that the differences of
character  existing between  the  cultivated European  and  Asiatic roots
are  owing  to the differences in soil, climate, mode of cultivation, etc.
The rhubarb plants  are  herbaceous,  perennial, with large branching
roots, vigorous stems from  four to eight feet high, with numerous, large,
petiolate leaves at base, and  terminating in branching panicles of numer-
ous, small flowers. The leafstalks of the various species have a pleasant
acid taste,  and  several  of them are cultivated in the United States for
the  purpose of making  pies and  tarts,  as the R. Rhaponticum, R. Hy-
bridum, and R. Compactum.  The method of cultivation and preparation
of rhubarb in its native  country is not satisfactorily known, though vari-
ous statements in relation to  it have  been  published.  Lindley,  in his
Flora Medica, gives the following description of the plants which furnish
rhubarb:—
  Rheum Palmatum.  Willd. Sp. Plant, ii. 489; Lindley, Flor. Med. p.
358 ; Carson, Must, of Med. Bot. ii. 22, pi. 69. "Leaves roundish-cordate,
half palmate ; the lobes pinnatifid, acuminate, deep dull-green, not  wavy,
but uneven and very much wrinkled on the upper side,  hardly scabrous
at the edge, minutely downy on the under side ; sinus completely closed;
the  lobes of the leaf standing forward  beyond it.  Petiole  pale green,
marked with  short purple lines, terete,  obscurely channeled quite  at the 
Rheum  Palmatum.
799
upper  end.   Flowering stems taller than those of any other species."
This species is said to inhabit China in the vicinity of the great wall.
It has been  cultivated in England and France, for the sake of its root,
which is generally admitted to approach more nearly in odor, taste, and
the arrangement of its colors, to the Asiatic  rhubarb than  that of any
other known species.
  R.  Undulatum.  Willd.  Sp. Plant, ii. 489 ; Lindley, Flor. Med. p.
357; Woodv. Med. Bot. 3d ed. v. 81. " Leaves oval, obtuse, extremely
wavy, deep-green, with veins purple at the base, often shorter than the
petiole, distinctly and copiously downy on each side, looking as if frosted
when young, scabrous at the edge ;  sinus open, wedge-shaped, with the
lower lobes  of the  leaves  turned  upward.   Petiole downy, blood-red,
semicylindrical, with elevated edges to the upper side, which is narrower
at the  upper  than  the  lower  end."  This is a native of Siberia, and
probably of  Tartary and China.   It was cultivated by the Russian gov-
ernment as the true rhubarb plant; but theculture has been abandoned.
It contributes to the rhubarb produced in France.
  R. Compactum.  Willd.  Sp. Plant, ii. 489 ; Lindley, Flor. Med. p.
358; Carson, lllust.  of Med. Bot. ii. 24, pi. 71.  " Leaves heart-shaped,
obtuse, very wavy, deep-green, of a thick texture,  scabrous at the mar-
gin, quite smooth on  both  sides, glossy and  even on  the  upper  side;
sinus nearly closed  by the  parenchyma.   Petiole  green, hardly tinged
with red except at  the base, semicylindrical, a little compressed at the
sides, with the upper side  broad, flat, bordered by elevated edges, and
of equal breadth at each end."   This plant is said to be a native  of Tar-
tary and China.   It  is one  of the garden  rhubarbs,  and is cultivated in
France for its root.
  R. Australe.  Don, Prod. Flor. Nepal, p. 75.—R. Emodi.  Wallich  ;
Lindley, Flor. Med.  p. 354 ;  Carson, lllust.  of Med. Bot.  ii. 24, pi. 70.
" Leaves cordate, acute, dull-green, but little wavy, flattish, very much
wrinkled, distinctly rough,  with  coarse  short  hairs on each side ;  sinus
of the base distinctly open,  not wedge-shaped but diverging at an obtuse
angle,  with the lobes nearly turned upward.   Petioles  very  rough,
rounded-angular, furrowed; with the upper side depressed, bordered by an
elevated edge, and very much narrower at the upper than the lower end."
The root of  this species was at one  time conjectured to be the source of
officinal  Asiatic rhubarb ;  but has  been found to  have  scarcely any
resemblance to it.   The  plant has  been cultivated both in Europe and
this country, and  its petioles answer well for tarts, etc.
  R. Rhaponticum.  Willd.   Sp. Plant,  ii. 488 ; Lindley, Flor. Med. p.
357 ; Loudon's Encyc. of  Plants, p. 335.    " Leaves roundish-ovate,
cordate,  obtuse, pale-green, but little wavy, very concave, even, very
slightly downy on the under side, especially near the edge, and on the 
800
Materia  Medica.
 edge itself; scabrous at the margin ; sinus quite open, large, and cuneate.
 Petiole depressed, channeled  on the upper side, with the edges regularly
 rounded off, pale green, striated, scarcely scabrous.  Panicles  very com-
 pact and short, always rounded  at the ends, and  never lax as in the
 other garden  species.   Flowering stem  about three feet high."  The
 Rhapontic rhubarb grows upon  the  banks  of the  Caspian Sea, in the
 deserts between the Wolga and the  Oural,  and  in  Siberia.   It  is said
 also to grow upon the borders  of the Euxine.  It is cultivated as a gar-
 den plant in Europe and this country; and large quantities of the root
 are produced  for sale in France.   It is  said by Royle to  be the  source
 of the English rhubarb. — U. S. Disp.
   Beside the  above species, several others have been named,  as the
 R. Cuspicum from the Altai  mountains, R. Leucorrhizum from the Tar-
 tarian  Kirghese desert,  R.  Speciforme, R.  Webbianum,  and  R. Moor-
 craftianum, growing on the Himalaya mountains, R. Crassinervium, R.
 Hybridum, etc.
   History.—Among the several kinds  of rhubarb found in commerce
 that called Russian rhubarb, is considered the best.   It was formerly
 derived from the Turkish ports, and in consequence  received  the  name
 of Turkey Rhubarb; and has  likewise been called by the several  names
 of Persian, Moscow, Bucharian, or Siberian Rhubarb.   It is prepared  in
 Tartarv,  from  which place it is  conveyed to a town  of Kiachta where it
 undergoes a rigid inspection by an apothecary appointed by the Russian
 government, who burns the inferior pieces, and forwards the remainder
 to  St.  Petersburg, where it  is  again  sorted  and shipped  for  other
 countries.  It  is  in irregular, roundish cylindrical or flat plano-convex
 pieces, usually from  one to three  inches in  breadth, always  obscurely
 angular,  owing to the bark of  the root together with a small portion of the
 substance immediately beneath the bark, having been apparently sliced off
longitudinally with a knife, and with large perforations, frequently extend-
 ing only to the  center, and evidently made to ascertain the soundness of the
 article at the time of inspection. Their external surface is yellow, and thinly
covered with a yellow powder,  caused  probably by the  friction or rub-
bing together of the pieces; and when scratched with a knife, they give
 a bright yellow streak.   They have rather a compact texture, an uneven
 fracture exposing a surface beautifully marbled with irregular, waving,
grayish and reddish veins.  They are easily pulverizable, giving a bright
yellow powder.  Russian rhubarb has a peculiar, aromatic, bitter,  faintly
astringent taste, and a strong, peculiar odor;  it tinges the saliva yellow,
 and produces a crackling, or sense of grittiness between  the teeth, owing
 to crystals of oxalate of lime, which are largely contained in it.  These
 crystals  may be seen under  the  microscope by previously boiling thin
 slices of the root in water until soft, and  then  crushing and  agitating
them in the water; in 100 grains Mr.  Quekett found between 35 and 40
 grains  of these minute crystals. 
Rheum  Palmatum.
801
   The Chinese or East Indian Rhubarb is brought from  Canton; the
 finest quality of it,  termed Batavian or Dutch-trimmed Rhubarb, very
 much resembles the Russian Rhubarb  in  appearance.   That which  is
 brought to  this country,  however,  as  Chinese Rhubarb, consists of
 irregular cylindrical  or roundish pieces, sometimes  flattened  on one or
 both sides, and never angular, like Russian or Dutch-trimmed Rhubarb,
 of a duller yellow  color than the  former  variety,  and  presenting  an
 external appearance as if  the bark had been  removed by scraping or
 rasping, and the surface rendered  smooth and somewhat  powdery  by
 attrition.   Their  density is somewhat  greater than that of  Russian
 Rhubarb,   and  their texture more  compact; but the  appearance of a
 fresh  fracture is  very nearly the same.  They are  usually perforated,
 and the holes frequently contain fragments  of cord by which  they were
 suspended  during the drying process.  They are not  of such  uniform
 quality as the Russian  article, being often  imperfectly stripped  of their
 bark, and more or less attacked by insects, moldiness, or other impurity.
 The color,  odor, taste and grittiness are very nearly, if not precisely the
 same  as those  of the Russian  drug.  Their powder is yellow, with  a
 reddish-brown tinge, but in the finer kind it is  hardly discernible  from
 the powder of  Russian Rhubarb.   The major  portion of  the rhubarb
 consumed in this country is the Chinese variety; it is somewhat inferior
 to the Russian,  but is less expensive, and when of good quality is suffi-
 ciently active to answer all medical purposes.
  European Rhubarb is obtained from England, France, Belgium, and
 Germany.    That which is imported  into this country comes principally
 from England and France.   English Rhubarb is obtained from the roots of
 Rheum Rhaponticum, which is cultivated in various parts of  the country,
 but chiefly  in Oxfordshire near Banbury.  It is collected in  October and
 November  from plants three or four years old.  The pieces, as  seen in
 this country, are of various shape and size, sometimes cut and perforated
to resemble the Russian, frequently cylindrical, five or six  inches long,
by an inch  or less in  thickness, more commonly flat, or somewhat lenti-
cular, and quite large.  It has an external reddish  hue, and  brownish
spots of adhering bark, and internally a looser,  softer, and more spongy
texture than the others, with occasional cavities, especially in the center.
It is  more  easily scratched with the nail, and  yields a lighter  yellow
streak; and the surface of a fresh fracture shows the same  marbled red
 and gray lines,  but generally more straightly radiated from the center.
 It has a mucilaginous, astringent taste, with little bitterness  and  a flavor
 similar to Eastern Rhubarb, but much more feeble in odor, more  muci-
 laginous, and without any  grittiness between the teeth.   The  long  or
inferior pieces are often met with in  this country, and are  called Stick-
rhubarb  in  England.   These  are principally used for adulterating  the
 finer Eastern varieties, when in powder.
         51 
802
Materia Medica.
   French Rhubarb, also called Rhapontic Rhubarb, or Krimea Rhubarb,
is made in abundance at an establishment called  Rheumpole, near the
port of L'Orient, from the roots of Rheum Rhaponticum, R. Undulatum,
and R. Compactum.  It bears  some  resemblance externally to Chinese
Rhubarb, but has  neither its  odor, nor aromatic taste.  Its properties
are very similar to  the English variety, and like that, it is often used to
adulterate the powder of true eastern rhubarb.
   A mere reference to other varieties of rhubarb will be sufficient here.
The Himalaya  or Emodi Rhubarb, from the Rheum  Astrale, and other
species growing in  the  Himalaya mountains, is  brown, fibrous, inodor-
ous, and inferior, yet is said to be nearly as active as the Chinese.   The
Russian traveler, Pallas, describes a White or Imperial Rhubarb as being
a superior article, of white color, and  sweetish taste; but according to
Dr. G. Walpers, who has made some inquiries in relation to it, it proves
to be  one of  those  fabulous  sayings, in  which,  unfortunately,  some
travelers are very apt to indulge.
   Good rhubarb may generally be known by being of a lively color, mode-
rately compact and  heavy, of an aromatic odor, of  a bitter and  astring-
ent, not  mucilaginous  taste, and  by  feeling  gritty,  and  staining the
saliva bright yellow; it  should be brittle, presenting a marbled appear-
ance  of reddish and yellowish veins intermingled "with  white, when
freshly broken, and affording a  bright yellow powder, perhaps with a
slight reddish-brown  tinge.  When very compact and heavy it is infe-
rior; when very light it maybe rotten or worm-eaten.   Inferior rhubarb
is  often  colored with turmeric, which  may be detected by solution of
boracic acid, which  turns turmeric-yellow to brown, but does not affect
the yellow color of  the true rhubarb.   When in powder, the adultera-
tions of rhubarb are very difficult, if  it all possible, to detect.   Water,
either cold or boiling, extracts the active properties  of rhubarb,  and the
infusion is  of a  dark reddish-yellow color, with  the  peculiar odor and
taste of rhubarb;  and  the residue  becomes  whitish, tasteless  and in-
odorous.  Long boiling impairs its virtues.  The infusion  prepared by
percolation with cold water,  is preferable to that obtained with boiling
water alone,  as this last  becomes turbid on cooling, owing  to  a partial
separation of some  of the principles of the root; this may be prevented,
however,  by the addhion of a little spirit.   Proof spirit is a more ready
solvent of the  active ingredients  of rhubarb than water.  Nitric  acid
added  to an infusion of Russian rhubarb in twenty parts of water, causes
a dense muddiness, and  slowly a yellow precipitate, owing to the  sepa-
ration  of  rhabarbarin;  tincture of  iodine causes a  tawny muddiness,
probably for a similar reason; solution of potassa combines with the rha-
barbeiin and produces a fine blood-red color; and  lime-water causes at
first a pale cherry-red haze, which  slowly gives place  to a  red precipi-
tate composed  of rhabarberin  and  lime.   Sesquichloride of iron  pro- 
Rheum  Plamatum.
803
 duces a  green  precipitate, and  solution of isinglass a  yellow curdy
 deposit,  owing to the presence of tannin.  Chinese Rhubarb is  affected
 in the same way by the above reagents.  Rhubarb  has  been analyzed
 by several chemists, and with various results.  In 1836  Brandes found
 the Eastern drug to consist of 2 per cent, of pure  rhabarbaric  acid  or
 rhabarbarin, 7.5  of the same acid impure, 2.5 of gallic acid,  9 of tannin,
 4 starch, 11 of  uncrystallizable  sugar  in  union with tannin, 14.4  of
 gummy  extractive,  3.5 of  coloring extractive,  4 of pectic  acid, 11  of
 oxalate of lime,  1.1 of malate and gallate  of lime, 1. 5  of  sulphate  of
 potassa and chloride  of potassium, 1 of silica, 0.5 of phosphate  of  lime
 and oxide of iron, 25 of lignin, and 2 of moisture.  The  principles  indi-
 cated by previous investigators, under the names Rhein, Rheumin, Rha-
 barbarin,  and Caphopicrite,  appear to  be complex bodies, consisting  of
 the Rhabarbaric  acid of Brandes combined  with other  principles.  It
 may  be  obtained by purifying  the alcoholic extract of rhubarb  with
 cold water, drying  the residue,  dissolving it in the smallest possible
 bulk of spirit, and then adding ether so long as  it separates  anything.
 The ether is  then  to be distilled off, and  the  residue  again similarly
 treated with spirit  and  ether.  The  solution yields  it pure by  sponta-
 neous  evaporation.   It  is  granular, yellow, tasteless  and inodorous,
 fusible, partially volatile, sparingly soluble in water,  more so in  alcohol
 or ether,  and acid in its reactions.  Alkaline solutions dissolve it form-
 ing intensely red solutions, from which  acids separate it  as a yellow
 precipitate, and which,  with the earthy salts, give yellow precipitates  of
 the principle, united with an earthy base.  Ultimate analysis shows that
 it is  identical with  a coloring matter  (chrysophanic acid)  obtained by
 Rochleder from the yellow lichen  Parmelia Parietina.
  Schlossberger and Dcepping, in a recent and elaborate analysis, have,
in addition to the above principles, also discovered three coloring princi-
ples, which are freely soluble  in  alcohol, slightly soluble in water, and
hold an intermediate place  betwen resin and extractive matter.   Two
of these were uncrystallizable, one of which  was brown  and the other
red, and  were named Phceoretin and Erythroretin ; the other formed  in
granular  crystals, and was named Chrysophanic acid.  Aporetin was the
 name given  to another resinous  substance, which was insoluble in the
 alcohol from which it had been precipitated by ether, and isomeric  with
phaeoretin, it was supposed to be a product of the operation.   These
 three principles were obtained by pursuing the above-named process for
 rhabarbaric acid, and dissolving the yellow precipitate, had by evapora-
tion,  in alcohol ;  the  insoluble portion is aporetin, and the  phceoretin  is
taken up  by the  alcohol, from which  it may be separated  by evapora-
 tion.   It  is a yellowish-brown powder, very slightly soluble  in water or
 ether, freely soluble in alcohol and alkaline solutions, with which it  pro-
 duces an  intense reddish-brown color, and which is precipitated  yellow
by the mineral acids.   The ethereal  solution of the alcoholic extract, 
804
Materia Medica.
 after all the aporetin and phaeoretin had been separated was allowed to
 separate spontaneously, and a  large  quantity of beautiful  yellow crys-
 talline granules of chrysophanic acid was obtained, possessing properties
 the  same  as named above  for rhabarbaric acid.   When the deposition
 of these granules ceased, the  ethereal solution was evaporated, which
 yielded the red resin or erythroretin, and which formed  beautiful purple
 combinations with  potassa  or  ammonia.   The  cathartic principle  of
 rhubarb has not  yet been  isolated, and is supposed to be more or less
 volatile.
   The  incompatible substances with an infusion of rhubarb,  are  gelatin,
 most of the acids, the salts of sesquioxide of iron, acetate of lead, nitrate
 of protoxide of mercury, nitrate of silver, protochloride of tin, lime-water,
 solutions of quinia, tartar emetic, sulphate of zinc, corrosive  sublimate, etc.
   Properties and  Uses.—Rhubarb is cathartic, astringent and tonic; as a
 cathartic, it acts  by increasing the  muscular action of  the intestines,
 rather than by augmenting their secretions, and affects  the whole intes-
 tinal canal, especially the duodenum.   Its  cathartic effect is succeeded
 by a mild  astringency, which has gained for rhubarb the  reputation  of
 being  secondarily a calmative,  as well as  a  stimulant  of the digestive
 canal ; with its astringent influence, it likewise exerts, for  the most part,
 a  tonic action on  the stomach, improving the appetite  and digestive
 powers.  It is absorbed in the course  of its operation, making the serum
 of the blood yellow, the sweat tawny, and  the urine red,  which  may be
 distinguished from bloody urine by heating it.  If blood be present it
 will  coagulate, and  remove  the red  color, which will not happen if the
 tint  be owing to  rhubarb.   Rhubarb is much used as  a  laxative  for
 infants, in  many infantile diseases ; its mildness and tonic  qualities ren-
 dering it peculiarly applicable, especially when enfeebled  digestion and
 irritation of the alimentary  canal are present.  In acute or chronic diar-
 rhea or dysentery,  in  convalescence  from exhausting  diseases, and  in
 some irritable habits where the mildest of all other laxatives are apt  to
 excite hypercatharsis, rhubarb is  an  appropriate  medicine.   Its  combi-
 nation with soap  or  an alkali tends to counteract its astringent effects,
 and  it thus  becomes valuable in cases  of constipation.  It  is  useful in all
 cases of fecal accumulations,  as it produces fecal, more than watery
 discharges.  Sometimes it produces griping, which may be obviated by
 aromatics.   The following pill I have  found very beneficial in dyspepsia
 attended with constipation,  chronic  diarrhea and dysentery,  habitual
 constipation, hepatic  derangements, piles, etc.—Take of extract of rhu-
 barb, leptandrin, hydrastin,  and castile  soap, of  each,  half  a drachm,
 mix  them well together, and divide into thirty pills ; of these, one, two,
 three,  or four may be taken daily, sufficient to kep the  bowels regular,
without causing catharsis.   When more than one are required  daily,
 they should be given in doses of  one pill at a time at regular intervals 
Rhododendron Chrysanthum.
805
through the day. Rhubarb is generally contra-indicated in cases attended
with much inflammatory action.   Toasting it, destroys much of its pur-
gative  power, while its astringency  remains the same, and it is, thus
prepared, recommended by  some practitioners in diarrhea, dysentery,
cholera morbus, and other  diseases where astringents are indicated.
  Dose of the powder as  a purgative, from ten to thirty grains;  as a
laxative, from five to ten grains;  as  a tonic, from one to five grains; of
the tincture or syrup, one or two  fluidrachms.
   Off.  Prep.—Extractum Rhei;  Extractum Rhei Fluidum; Extractum
Rhei et Potassae Fluidum ; Infusum  Rhei;  Pilulae Leptandrini Compo-
sitae ; Pulvis Rhei Compositus ; Tinctura Rhei.
             RHODODENDRON  CHRYSANTHUM.
                      Yellow Rhododendron.
        Nat.  Ord.—Ericaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.
                           THE LEAVES.
  Description.—This is a small bush, with the stem from a foot to a foot
and a half high, with numerous, decumbent, spreading branches, covered
with a brown bark.   The leaves are few, alternate, of the  texture of a
laurel leaf, terminal, ovate, somewhat acute, tapering into  the stalk,
reticulated and rough above, of a dark-green color, paler, or somewhat
ferruginous  and smooth  underneath,  with their margins  entire and
involute.  The flowers are large, showy, nodding, yellow, supported  on
long peduncles, and varying in number in each cluster from five to ten.
The calyx  is inferior, persistent, and deeply five-cleft.   The corolla is
campanulate, five-cleft, with  rounded  segments, nearly equal, and
spreading, the three upper ones somewhat the largest, and streaked with
livid dots next the tube, the two lower unspotted.   The stamens are ten,
with unequal, filiform, declining filaments, and oblong incumbent anthers.
The ovary is five-sided, with a long  slender style  terminated by a five-
lobed stigma.  The capsule is  ovate, somewhat angular, not  tomentose,
five to ten-celled, containing numerous minute, irregular seeds.
  History.—Rhododendron is  a beautiful  evergreen  shrub, a native of
the mountains of Siberia, with large, yellow flowers, which appear in
June and July.   The leaves are the parts used in medicine, and should
be  collected  in September, when the  capsules are ripe.   When dried,
they are inodorous, but have an austere, astringent, bitterish taste, and
yield their virtues to water or alcohol.   The  decoction has an  unplea-
sant odor, and  a rough, bitter, and acrid taste.   The  leaves have not
been analyzed.  Our native species, the  R. Maximum, and R. Punctatum,
according to Barton, possess properties similar to the  R. Chrysanthum,
but milder; according to Bigelow they are astringent, but  not  narcotic. 
806
Materia  Medica.
   Properties  and Uses.—Yellow  Rhododendron is narcotic,  stimulant,
and diaphoretic;  when first taken, the action of the  heart and arteries
is  increased,  followed by a  diminished frequency of the pulse ; large
doses produce emeto-catharsis, and delirium.   They are recommended
in  infusion, in chronic rheumatism, gout, syphilis, and palsy; two drachms
of the dried leaves being infused in ten fluidounces of hot water, for
twelve hours, in a close vessel.  The  liquor is then strained and taken
in  the morning, one-fourth of it every four hours,  and  the patient kept
in  bed ; a repetition of the dose three or four  days successively, gener-
ally effects a cure.   It occasions  a sensation of heat, with a species of
intoxication,  and  a  peculiar creeping  or pricking, and uneasy sensation
in  the affected parts, which  subsides  in a few hours, leaving the parts
free from pain.   It  is a valuable remedy, used in Russia, Germany, and
sometimes in France and England, but not in this country.
                        RHUS  GLABRUM.
                              Sumach.
       Nat. Ord.—Anacardiaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Trigynia.
                       THE BARK AND FRUIT.
  Description.—As there are several species of this genus which possess
poisonous properties, some care  should be employed  in distinguishing
them apart.  Rhus Glabrum, or Smooth Sumach, is a shrub from  four to
fifteen  feet in hight, consisting of many straggling, glabrous branches,
with a light-gray  or  somewhat reddish  bark.   The  leaves are upon
smooth petioles, and consist of from six to fifteen pairs of opposite leaf-
lets, with an odd  one at  the  extremity, all of which are lanceolate,
acuminate, acutely  serrate, glabrous, green on their upper surface and
whitish beneath, sessile except  sometimes the  terminal odd one, about
three inches  long, and one-fourth as wide; in  the autumn their color
changes to a beautiful red.   The fiowers are greenish-red, and disposed
in large,  erect,  terminal, compound thyrses, and are succeeded by clus-
ters of red berries, covered, when mature, with a  crimson down, which
is extremely sour to the taste, owing to the  presence  of malic acid  in
combination with lime.
  History. — Rhus  Glabrum, sometimes called Upland or Pennsylvania
Sumach, is found in almost all  parts of the  United States, growing  in
old  neglected fields, along fences, and on the borders  of woods,  flower-
ing  in June and July, and maturing its fruit in the  early part of autumn.
The bark and berries  are  officinal; the latter should be collected before
their acid efflorescence is washed away by  the rain.  They have an acid,
astringent, not  unpleasant taste.   The  bark and leaves are astringent,
and have been  used in dying and tanning leather; when broken from
the  plant,  a milky juice exudes from them, which  concretes  into  a 
Rhus Glabrum.
807
 gummy substance.  The excrescences which form upon the leaves, con-
 tain large quantities of tannic and  gallic acids, nearly resembling galls
 in character, and are fully equal to them in medicinal action.
   Malic acid may be obtained from the berries by the following process:
 Pour boiling water on the ripe berries, and let them macerate for twelve
 hours;  then strain,  evaporate to one-fourth, and again strain; resume
 the evaporation and continue it till  the liquid assumes the consistence of
 thin syrup,  when it may be set aside to  crystallize.   Wash the crystals
 of bimalate of lime which are formed, with a little water, and recrystal-
 lize from a boiling solution.  Dissolve the salt in hot water, and decom-
 pose it with a solution of acetate of lead.  Wash the precipitated malate
 of lead, suspend it in water, and pass sulphureted hydrogen through the
 liquid until  the whole of the lead is separated.  Lastly, filter and evapo-
 rate to dryness in a  porcelain vessel.   Malic acid thus prepared may be
 used  for obtaining the malates of iron or of manganese.
   The  Pharmaceutical  Institute of New  York  city  profess to  have
 obtained from the leaves of the Rhus Glabrum, the active principle of
 the plant, which they term Rhusine.  It is said to be prepared by per-
 colation  with alcohol of  specific gravity 0.830, and then  displace the
 solvent by means of a vacuum apparatus.  The Rhusine is then precipi-
 tated and washed with  distilled water, dried  on filter-cloth, in  an airy,
 dry room, and reduced to a fine powder.  (See Eclectic Journal of Medi-
 cine,  Rochester,  Vol. IV, No. VI, page  232.)  It is  said to be a light
brown powder, soluble in hot water, insoluble in alcohol and  having a
slightly  bitter taste.   I  have not been  able  to procure any of it, nor a
more detailed account of its preparation.  Both the bark and berries of
 Sumach  yield their active properties to water.
  Properties and Uses.—Sumach bark is tonic, astringent and antiseptic ;
the berries are refrigerant and diuretic.  In decoetion or syrup, the bark
of the root has been found valuable in gonorrhea, leucorrhea, diarrhea,
dysentery,  hectic fever and scrofula.   Combined with the barks of Slip-
pery Elm and White Pine, in  decoction, and taken  freely, it is said to
have proved highly  beneficial in  syphilis.   Externally, the  bark of the
root in powder, applied as a poultice to  old  ulcers,  forms  an  excellent
antiseptic;  a decoction may also be used in injection  for prolapsus uteri
and  ani, and leucorrhea,  and as a wash in  many cutaneous  diseases;
simmered in lard it is valuable  in scald-head.  A decoction of the inner
bark of  the  root  is serviceable in the sore-mouth resulting  from mercu-
rial salivation, and is much used internally in mercurial diseases.    The
berries may be used in infusion in diabetes, strangury, bowel-complaints,
febrile diseases, etc., as  a gargle in quinsy, and ulcerations of the mouth
and  throat;  and as a wash for ringworms, tetters, offensive ulcers, etc.
The excrescences which form upon  the leaves of the sumach, are nearly
equal in astringency  to galls, and if pulverized and made  into an oint-
ment with lard, they afford a soothing application for piles.   The  gum 
808
Materia Medica.
 which exudes from the bark on being punctured, during the summer, is
 beneficial in gonorrhea,  gleet, obstruction of the urine, and leucorrhea;
 the following is a good  preparation, which increases  the  secretion of
 urine, and lessens its burning or scalding:  Take of gum sumach, and
 Canada balsam, of each, equal  parts, form into four-grain pills with a
 sufficient  quantity of powdered pokeroot; dose, one or two pills, three
 times a day.   Dose of the decoction of sumach, from one to  four fluid-
 ounces.
   There are  several varieties  of this plant, as  the R. Typhinum, Stag-
 horn  or Velvet Sumach; and the R. Copallinum, Mountain  or Dwarf
 Sumach, which possess   similar virtues,  and which must be  carefully
 distinguished from those  which possess poisonous properties.   The  non-
poisonous species have  their fruit clothed with acid crimson hairs, and
their  panicles are  compound, dense, and terminal; the poisonous vari-
eties have axillary panicles, and smooth fruit.
   Rhusine is  said to be  tonic, astringent, and antiseptic; and  to be  of
service in diarrhea,  dysentery, and bowel diseases generally, in doses of
one or two grains, every two, three or four hours, to be given after the
exciting cause of these diseases has been removed by other agents.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Rhus Glabri;  Extractum Rhus Fluidum.
                    RHUS TOXICODENDRON.
                            Poison Oak.
        Nat. Ord.—Anacardiaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Trigynia.
                            THE LEAVES.
   Description.—There are three species of Rhus, common  to this coun-
try, which are poisonous, viz: the Rhus Toxicodendron, Rhus Venenata,
and  Rhus  Pumilum.   They possess  similar  medicinal virtues,  in  a
greater or less degree, and should be known to every physician.
   Rhus Toxicodendron, or  Poison Oak, is a creeping shrub from one
to three feet high, the root of which sends up many stems, which are
either  erect, decumbent, or  when  they meet  support, ascend  a  wall,
fence,  or tree,  in the  same manner as ivy, by radicles thrown out at
intervals.  The bark is of a brownish-gray color.   The leaves are ternate,
on long semicylindrical  petioles; they  vary  considerably,  in the  erect
varieties being usually entire, or variously and irregularly sinuate-foothed
or lobed, while in the climbing kinds they are  almost entire or nearly
so; in  all cases they are smooth on the upper surface, but  more or less
pubescent beneath.   The leaflets are from two  to six inches long, and
about two-thirds as wide, ovate or rhomboidal, acute, entire, or sinuate-
dentate,  petiolate ; the lateral leaflets are always inequilateral, nearly
sessile,  and smaller than  the central  ones.   The flowers are small,
greenish-white, dicecious, and grow in lateral, usually axillary, racemose, 
Rhus Toxicodendron.
809
 subsessile panicles.  The barren flowers have  a calyx of five  erect,
 acute segments, and a corolla of five oblong recurved  petals; stamens
 erect with oblong  anthers; in the center is a rudiment of a style.  The
 •fertile flowers are about half the  size of the preceding, with calyx and
 corolla similar, but  more erect.  They have five small abortive stamens,
 and  a  roundish ovary, crowned by a  short, erect style bearing three
 small, cordate  stigmas.  The fruit  is a globular, smooth, dry berry, of
 a pale-green color  approaching to  white, and  which contains a single
 bony seed.
   Rhus Radicans  or Poison  Ivy, and  sometimes Poison Vine, is con-
 sidered by botanists to be merely a variety of the above species;  it has
 a climbing stem from three to twenty or more feet in length, and ascends
 trees, rocks, and other objects, to which it adheres by means of myriads
 of radicating tendrils  thrown out from its sides.  The leaves are smooth
 on both sides, sometimes pubescent on the veins underneath.   In other
 respects it resembles  the  R. Toxicodendron.   Rhus  Toxicodendron
 grows in woods, fields, and along fences from Canada to Georgia, flow-
 ering in June and July.  When wounded, it emits a milky juice which
 becomes black on exposure to the air, and leaves upon linen or cloth, a
 stain  which deepens by age, and  which cannot be removed by soap and
 water, or alcohol.   Ether dissolves  it.   It has been  proposed  as an
 indelible ink.
   The Rhus Venenata, or Poison  Sumach, also known as Poison wood,
 Poison ash, and inappropriately as poison-elder, and poison dog-wood.
 This  has  been  confounded with the  Rhus Vernix of Linnaeus, a species
 which grows in Japan.   It  is a shrub or small tree, from ten  to  fifteen
 and sometimes thirty feet in  hight, with the trunk from one to five  inches
 in diameter, and branching  at the top.  The bark of the trunk is dark-
 gray,  paler on the branches, and  red on the extreme twigs and petioles.
 The  leaves are pinnate,  with from three to six pairs of opposite leaflets,
 and an odd terminal one, which  are oblong or oval, entire or slightly
 sinuated, acuminate, smooth, paler underneath, and nearly sessile, except
the odd terminal one ;  they are about three inches long,  and nearly half
 as wide.   The flowers are dicecious and polygamous, very small, green,
and in loose, axillary, pedunculate panicles.  The panicles of the barren
flowers are downy,  the largest and most branched.  Sepals five, ovate ;
 petals  five, oblong; stamens  longer than  the  petals,  and projecting
through their  interstices ;  the rudiment of  a three-cleft  style in the
 center.  In the fertile flowers, the panicles are much smaller, sepals and
petals resemble the  last, while  the center  is occupied by an oval  ovary,
terminated by three  circular  stigmas.   The fruit is a bunch of dry berries
or drupes, about the size of peas, smooth, greenish-yellow or greenish-
white,  sometimes marked  with  slight  purple  veins,  and  becoming
wrinkled when old ;  roundish, a little broadest at the  upper  end,  and
compressed, containing one white, hard, furrowed seed. 
810
Materia  Medica.
  Rhus Venenata  grows in swamps and low grounds, from  Canada to
Georgia, and flowers in June and July ;  it is sometimes  termed Swamp
Sumach.   It furnishes an opake  whitish juice when wounded,  which
becomes permanently black on  exposure, and which may, by sufticient
boiling, be made to afford a brilliant, glossy, durable varnish, very anal-
ogous to that obtained in Japan from the Rhus Vernix.  It is much more
poisonous than the previous species, and its volatile principle taints the
air  for some distance around with its pernicious influence, producing in
many persons severe swellings  of an erysipelatous  nature ;  sometimes
the body becomes  enormously swollen, and the patient unable to  move.
Some persons are hardly or not at all affected even by handling it. The
affection caused by it, generally  subsides spontaneously after several
days, and may be  treated in the same manner as named  for the poison-
ous effects of the R. Toxicodendron.
  The Rhus Pumilum is considered the most poisonous of the genus. It
grows about a foot in hight, and may be distinguished by its pubescent
branches and petioles, its pinnate leaves, with many pairs of oval, nearly
acuminate, incised-dentate leaflets,  downy beneath, and by its silky fruit.
It is a southern species, growing in Upper Carolina.
  History.—Although  all parts  of the Rhus Toxicodendron  are,  prob-
ably, possessed of active properties, yet  the leaves only are officinal.
They are inodorous, have a mawkish acrid taste, and yield  their virtues
to water or alcohol.  The best preparation for medical use is a saturated
tincture of the recent, leaves,  and which should be kept well corked.
They have not been satisfactorily analyzed, though known  to contain
tannic and gallic acids.
  Properties and Uses.—The fresh juice of the Poison Oak is powerfully
irritant.   In  some persons it produces vesication wherever  it is applied,
accompanied sometimes by much symptomatic fever,—and even  the
emanations from the plant are alleged to have the same effect on certain
constitutions.  To remove these effects,  the parts may be bathed with a
solution of borax  or copperas, or  a wash made by boiling the bark of
the elder in buttermilk ; accompanied with  a light cooling regimen,  and
cooling purgatives or diuretics.  The bruised leaves of  the Collinsonia
Canadensis, externally, and an infusion of the Verbena, Urticifolia,  inter-
nally, have been  successfully used in internal or external poisoning by
these plants.  In large doses the leaves and juice are narcotico-irritant,
and in small doses, they are diuretic, diaphoretic, laxative,  and a  stimu-
lant of the nervous system.   It is  said they produce twitchings of para-
lyzed muscles, and prickings of the affected limb, similar to strychnia or
nux vomica.   They have been highly recommended in chronic paralysis,
chronic rheumatism, cutaneous diseases, and some diseases of the eye;
it is seldom used  on  account of its poisonous consequences and the
volatility of its active principle.  I have derived much  advantage from 
Ribes Nigrum.
811
the following preparation in paralysis, chronic rheumatism, and  some
obstinate cutaneous affections:  Take of a saturated tincture of the fresh
leaves of Rhus Toxicodendron half a fluidounce, saturated tincture of
Aconitum,  volatile tincture of Guaiacum, of each, two fluidrachms ; mix
together.   Of this give forty  drops  every three  or  four hours, having
previously  evacuated the  bowels.  Rhus  Toxicodendron has been em-
ployed  successfully  in  paraplegia without  any  actual organic lesion,
likewise in paralysis of the bladder  and of the rectum.   Dose of the
leaves, in powder, half a grain three times a day, gradually increased
until some effect is produced;  of the saturated  tincture  from five to ten
drops.
   Off. Prep.—Tinctura Rhus Toxicodendri.
                         RIBES  NIGRUM.
                           Black Currant.
       Nat. Ord.—Grossulaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                             THE FRUIT.
  Description.—The Black Currant is a woody bush or shrub from three
to five feet in  hight, stems unarmed,  and the leaves from  three  to five
lobed,  punctate beneath, dentate-serrate, longer than  their  petioles.
Racemes  lax,  hairy,  somewhat  nodding.   Calyx  campanulate, with
reflexed  segments; petals oblong, yellowish ; bracts  minute, subulate or
blunt,  nearly as  long as the pedicels.   Fruit large,  roundish-ovoid,
nearly black.
  Ribes  Rubrum, or common Red Currant, has unarmed, straggling or
reclined  stems, with leaves obtusely three to five-lobed,  smooth  above,
pubescent  beneath,  subcordate  at base,  margin  mucronately serrate.
The  racemes are from lateral buds distinct from the leaves, pendulous,
and nearly glabrous.   Bracts blunt, shorter than the pedicels.  Calyx
flattened  out, short,  spreading, with  obtuse  lobes; petals  obcordate,
green.   Fruit globose, smooth, red.
  History.—The Black Currant is a native of Europe and Siberia, grow-
ing  in woods, cultivated  in Europe and  this country, and flowering in
May.   The Red Currant grows in cold damp woods and bogs  in this
country and Europe,  and is  extensively cultivated in gardens ;  it  also
flowers in  May.  The fruit of these  two plants, is  the  part used, and
imparts its  virtues to water.   The juice of Red Currants is said to con-
tain citric acid, malic acid, sugar, vegetable jelly, gum, and extractive;
that of Black Currants contains the same, with the  addition of a pecu-
liar volatile principle,  and a violet coloring matter.
  Properties and Uses.—The  juice of these berries, especially  of the
black  currant, is  said to be  diuretic  and diaphoretic.   They  may be
made into a jelly, a jam, paste, etc., and  are very useful in febrile and 
812
Materia  Medica.
inflammatory cases, in hoarseness and affections of the throat.   The raw
juice is an excellent refrigerant beverage in febrile diseases.  A decoc-
tion  of the bark of the black currant has proved useful in calculous
affections, dropsy, and hemorrhoidal tumors.  The wild black currant,
Ribes Floridum,  of this country, possesses similar properties.  It is a
handsome shrub,  growing from three to five feet high, with leaves one or
two  inches long,  and somewhat wider, subcordate,  from three to five
lobed,  lobes acute,  spreading, sprinkled on both  sides with yellowish,
resinous dots, just visible to the naked eye.   Flowers greenish-yellow,
subcampanulate, in pendulous, pubescent, many flowered racemes.  Calyx
cylindrical; bracts linear, longer than the pedicels; petioles  one or two
inches  long.  Fruit obovoid, smooth, black, insipid.   It flowers in May
and June.
                  ROBINIA  PSEUDO-ACACIA.

                            Locust Tree.

  Nat. Ord.—Fabaceae, or Leguminosae.  Sex. Syst.—Diadelphia Decandria.

                       the bark and  leaves.
  Description.—This is a tree from forty to fifty, and in favorable situa-
tions, eighty feet in hight, with a diameter of from  one to four feet, and
covered with a darkish-colored rough bark.  The branches are numerous,
and armed with  short, strong spines.  The leaves are unequally pinnate;
the leaflets are from four to eight or twelve pairs, with an odd one at the
end, ovate, and  oblong-ovate, thin, nearly sessile and very smooth, with
minute, setaceous, partial stipules,  and  of a bright green color.  The
flowers are produced from the sides of the branches, in long pendulous
racemes,  are numerous, white, fragrant,  and  are succeeded by com-
pressed pods or  legumes, about three or four inches in length, and half
an inch in width, and containing five or six brown, hard, reniform seeds.
When young, the  tree  is armed with  thorns  which disappear in its
maturity.
  History.—This tree, known  also by the names  of Black Locust, and
Yellow Locust, is found in many parts of the United States,  principally
west of the mountains, being seldom found north of Pennsylvania, or in
the Atlantic Southern States ; it blossoms in May.  It is highly esteemed
for the durability, hardness and  lightness of its wood.  The bark and
leaves are used, and yield their properties to  water  or  alcohol.   The
bark of the root is the most active.   The seeds  are sub-acrid, and fur-
nish a large quantity of  oil on expression ; by  infusion  in water, they
become perfectly mild, and afford an excellent  farina.  The  inner bark
is fibrous, and capable of being  spun.   No analysis has been made of
this tree. 
Roccella Tinctoria.
813
  Properties and Uses.—The bark of the root is  sweetish, but emetic
and cathartic ; in small doses, tonic.   An ounce of the bark boiled in
three gills of water operates  as a  cathartic  in doses of half an ounce,
given morning and evening.   The bark is supposed to possess some acro-
narcotic properties, as the juice of it has been known to produce  coma
and slight convulsions.  The flowers  possess antispasmodic  properties,
and form an excellent and agreeable syrup.   The leaves operate mildly
and  efficiently as an emetic, in  doses of thirty grains every  twenty
minutes.
                    ROCCELLA  TINCTORIA.
                              Litmus.
        Nat. Ord-—Lichenales.  Sex. Syst.—Cryptogamia Lichens.
                   A PECULIAR COLORING MATTER.
   Description.—Roccella Tinctoria, or Orchilla-weed, is a small dry lichen,
with  a  rounded,  glaucous,  nearly erect thallus, forked and subdivided
into numerous, branchy, roundish, gray, yellowdsh or brownish threads;
apothecia scattered and elevated ;  disk flat, caesius, pruinose, as broad as
the border.
   History.—This lichen abounds on alpine or maritime rocks in  various
parts of the  world, and  chiefly upon the European  and African coasts,
and the neighboring Madeira, Canary, Cape de Verds, etc. islands.   It
contains a resinoid matter,  a waxy principle,  mucilaginous extractive,
lichenin, oxalate of lime and various  other salts,  and  Roccellic and
Erythric acids.  Litmus was formerly obtained from this plant alone,
but other lichens have now in a  great  measure supplanted  it, as the
Roccella Fusiformis or Angola-weed, from Angola and Madagascar, the
Lecanora Tartarea  or Tartarean Moss, from Norway and  Sweden, the
Variolaria Dealbata from Auvergne  and the Pyrennees, and some others.
The principles  in these  plants upon which  their properties depend, are
themselves  colorless, and yield  coloring substances  by the reaction of
water, air, and  ammonia ; they are generally acids.
   Lacmus or Litmus is  prepared  chiefly in Holland.    It is  made  by
coarsely powdering the lichen, and  then placing it in close wooden ves-
sels, containing  urine, lime, and potassa or soda  mixed together, allowing
it to macerate for several weeks, with occasional agitation. Fermenta-
tion takes place, the mass becomes red and then blue, is mixed with cal-
careous  or siliceous  matter  to give it consistence, and  with  indigo to
deepen the color, and placed into  small molds to harden.   It is  in rect-
angular cakes from a quarter of an inch to an inch  in length, light,
friable,  finely granular,  of  an indigo blue  or deep violet color,  and
scattered over with  white saline points.   It has the combined odor  of
indigo and violets, tinges the  saliva a deep blue,  and is somewhat pungent 
814
Materia Medica.
and  saline to the taste.  It is reddened by acids, and  restored to its
original blue color by alkalies.
  Properties and  Uses.—Litmus is  much used in investigations of the
urine, and other  analyses, as one of the  most delicate tests of uncom-
bined acids, which change its blue color to red ;  and of alkalies which
restore the reddened litmus to its original hue.  It is used either in infu-
sion, or in the form  of  litmus paper.   The infusion, called  Tincture of
Litmus, is prepared by adding  one part of litmus to twenty of distilled
water, boiling it, and then  adding two parts of alcohol  to  preserve it.
Litmus paper is prepared by first  boiling for half an hour, one part of
litmus with four of water, and thus forming a strong and clear decoction ;
then by means of a brush, apply it to only one surface of  white, unsized
paper, carefully dry it,  and then keep  it in  well-closed vessels, and  not
exposed to the action of the light.
   Orchil  or Archil, is  the  lichen, turned to a violet or  deep reddish-
purple color.  It is in the form of a thickish liquid, or consists of a con-
fused mass  of violet-colored threads.   It  is prepared  by macerating
lichens, in a covered wooden vessel, with an ammoniacal liquor, either
consisting of stale urine and lime, or prepared by distilling an impure
salt of ammonia  with lime and water.   Cudbear is prepared in the same
manner as Orchil; but after the development of the  color, it is dried
and pulverized, forming a purplish-red powder.   The difference  in  the
preparation of these dye-stuffs and  litmus, is that in the  latter, potassa
or soda, is added to the ammoniacal liquid used.
                         ROSA  CANINA.
                              Dog-Rose.
         Nat. Ord.—Rosaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Icosandria Polygynia.
                         THE  RECENT FRUIT.
  Description.—This plant,  also known  by the names of Hip-tree,  or
 Wild-brier, is a soft, branched, smooth bush,  with  long  green curved
roots hoots, which  are covered with equal, remote, strong, compressed,
falcate prickles; the leaflets are from  five to nine, ovate, firm, Avithout
glandular pubescence, with  acute, incurved and often double serratures.
The flowers with leafy bracts.   Sepals partly pinnated, usually naked as
well as the tube of the calyx.  Petals white or pink, obcordate, fragrant;
throat of the calyx thick and quite closed up.  Fruit red, succulent, ovoid,
truncated in  consequence of the fall of the sepals.
  History.—This plant is a native of Europe,  and introduced into this
country ; it usually  attains the hight of eight or ten  feet,  and flowers in
June and July.  The flowers are succeeded  by a scarlet fruit called Hip.
The fruit, (Rosce Fnidus,)  is the only officinal  part,  it is  inodorous, but
possesses a rather pleasant, sweetish, acidulous taste, which is increased 
Rosa Centifolia.
815
by the action of frost.   The hip or fruit consists  of the developed tube
of the calyx, inclosing within  its cavity numerous carpels or true fruits ;
these must be carefully removed before it is used  for pharmaceutic pur-
poses.  It then, after  having been  dried, consists of gum, citric  acid,
impure malic acid, a large proportion  of uncrystallizable sugar, various
salts, and traces of wax, resin, and volatile oil.  Its properties are pre-
served by beating the pulp with sugar.
   Properties and Uses.—The conserve made  by beating  the  pulp with
sugar, is called Conserve of Dog-Rose, or Conserve of Hips, ( Confectio
Rosen Caninm,) and is tenacious, retaining its  softness for  a long  time,
even under exposure to the air.  It is a useful material for forming pill-
masses, and, as it contains less tannic  acid, may be used  as a  substitute
for the conserve of red roses,  when preparations of iron are to enter into
the pill mass.                   _______

                       ROSA  CENTIFOLIA.
                        Hundred-leaved Rose.
          Nat.  Ord.—Rosaceae.   Sex.  Syst.—Icosandria Polygynia.
                             THE PETALS.
   Description.—This is an erect shrub, from  three to six feet in hight,
and  having the branches closely covered with nearly straight prickles,
scarcely dilated at base, and glandular  bristles  of various forms and
sizes ; the large ones falcate.   Shoots erect.   The leaves consist of two
or three pairs of leaflets, with an odd  one at the end, closely attached to
the common footstalk, which is  rough, but without spines.  The leaflets
are  ovate, broad, pointed, glandular-ciliate on the margin,  sub-pilose
beneath.   The flowers are large, several together, drooping, on peduncles
beset with short hairs, and  fringed  with  glands.   Sepals leafy, com-
pound, viscid.   Petals usually of a pale-red color.  Fruit ovoid, and the
segments of the calyx semi-pinnate.
   History. — The  native  country of this rose-bush is unknown; but  it
is extensively cultivated in nearly all parts of the world, forming a valu-
able  ornament to gardens.  Its varieties are numerous, differing in form,
size, color, etc.  The most fragrant varieties  are the best adapted for
use.   The parts used are  the petals of the fully expanded flowers, Avell
dried, or preserved by means of salt.   They have a delicious  fragrance,
and   a  sweetish, slightly acidulous and bitter  taste, with  a faint astrin-
gency.   Iodine is  said  to increase the fragrance, which  depends on  a
volatile oil which may be  separated with water.  (See Oleum Rosai.)
   Properties and  Uses.—The petals,  or a syrup of them is slightly lax-
ative ; their principal use, however, is in the preparation of Rose-Avater,
so much used in collyria and other lotions, and  on account of its agreeable
odor.
   Off.  Prep.—Aqua Rosce ;  Linimentum Terebinthinae ;  Lotio ^Etheris
 Composita; Loti Sassafras;  Unguentum Aquae Rosae. 
816
Materia Medica.
                         ROSA GALLICA.
                             Red Rose.
         Nat. Ord.—Rosaceae.  Sex.  Syst.—Icosandria Polygynia.
                            THE PETALS.
  Description.—The Red,  French,  or  Provins Rose, is a  dwarfish, stiff,
short-branched bush, from tAvo to three feet high, with the  stem  and
petioles armed with numerous fine, nearly equal, uniform prickles  and
glandular bristles intermixed.   The leaflets, mostly five, are stiff, ellipti-
cal, and rugose.   The flowers are  large, erect,  several together,  with
leafy bracts.   The  sepals  are ovate,  leafy, compound.   The petals are
five or  more, obcordate, large,  spreading, and of a rich  crimson color.
The fruit is oval, shining, and of a firm consistence.
  History.—The Red Rose is a native of the south  of Europe, but is
cultivated in our gardens, flowering in  June and July.   There are many
varieties, some of which are very unlike the original.  With this plant,
as with the previous ones, cultivation  multiplies the petals very much,
by the  conversion of stamina.  The  petals are  the parts used.  They
should  be  gathered before  the flower has  blown,  deprived  of their
whitish claws, dried in  the sun, or by a warm fire, and kept  in a  dry
place.  They retain their color when dried, and their odor becomes much
improved.  They have  a velvety appearance, a purplish-red color,  and
an aromatic, bitterish, astringent, feebly acid taste ; and which is com-
municated to water.   The pale-red infusion becomes bright-red on  the
addition of sulphuric acid ; and  yields  a black precipitate  with  the salts
of sesquioxide of iron.   Exposure to light and air impairs their proper-
ties, they should  therefore be kept in well-closed opake vessels.  The
addition of honey or  sugar, preserves  their properties, whether in  the
petals,  or in  infusion.   They contain tannic  acid, gallic acid, color-
ing matter, a volatile oil, a fixed oil,  alhumen, soluble salts of potassa,
insoluble salts of lime, silica, and oxide of iron.
  Properties  and Uses.—Red Roses are slightly astringent and tonic.
They  have been used in passive hemorrhages,  and excessive mucous
discharges.   They have  also been found beneficial in  bowel complaints,
and are more  commonly used in ophthalmic diseases, as a poultice, or
the pith of sassafras and infusion of roses as a collyrium  in  acute oph-
thalmia.  The infusion is also used  as a vehicle for tonic and astringent
medicines.   The  infusion, with the addition  of sulphuric acid, is an
agreeable refrigerant and astringent in some cases.  The confection  is a
very common  pill basis, and  it is  for this purpose that the  article is
principally employed.  If iron be added to the confection, or any of its
preparations,  it forms a  hard pill, which passes through  the alimentary
canal unchanged.
   Off. Prep.—Confectio Rosae. 
            Rosmarinus  Officinalis—Rubia Tinctorcm.        817

                  ROSMARINUS OFFICINALIS.
                            Rosemary.
         Nat. Ord.—Lamiaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Diandria Monogynia.
                             THE TOPS.
   Description.—Rosemary is an erect, perennial,  evergreen shrub, three
or four feet high,  divided into many long, slender, ash-colored branches,
and densely leafy.  The leaves are sessile, opposite, linear, over an inch
in length, and about two lines broad, entire, obtuse at the summit, revo-
lute at the  margins, of a firm consistence, smooth  and green on the
upper surface, whitish and downy beneath.  The flowers are few, pale
blue or white, subsessile, and disposed in short, opposite, axillary and
terminal racemes.  The brads are shorter than the calyx.  The calyx is
purplish,  campanulate  and villous;  the corolla  is ringent, longer than
the calyx, with the upper lip erect and bifid;  the lower divided into
three segments, the middle one of which is largest, concave, and  emar-
ginate.   The leaves and flowers exhale a fragrant  camphoraceous odor.
The stamens are  two, longer than  the corolla, curved  and furnished
with a minute tooth near the base; the anthers are oblong and of a blue
color.  The style is as long as the stamens, curved and furnished with
pointed stigmas.  The seeds are four, naked and situated at the base of
the calyx.
  History. — Rosemary  is a  native  of  the  countries surrounding the
Mediterranean, and  is  cultivated in the  gardens of Europe  and this
country.   The  flowers and  leaves of the wild variety  are  said  to be
larger than those  of the cultivated.  The officinal parts are the flower-
ing tops,  which haAre a powerful,  diffusive, camphoraceous odor, and an
aromatic, bitter taste; they yield  their properties to water or spirit, but
more  completely  to alcohol.   Age and drying  impair their odor and
properties, which  are owing to a volatile oil, and  which may be obtained
by distillation.  On standing for some time, the oil deposits crystals of
camphor.
  Properties  and Uses. — Rosemary  is stimulant,  antispasmodic, and
emmenagogue; seldom used  in this country, except as a perfume for
ointments, liniments, embrocations, etc.  The oil is principally employed.
Dose, internally, from three to six drops.
   Off.  Prep.—Oleum Rosmarini.
                      RUBIA TINCTORUM.
                             Madder.
        Nat. Ord.—Rubiacea?.   Sex. Syst.—Tetrandria Monogynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—Dyers' Madder has a perennial root, composed of numer-
ous long succulent fibers, of various sizes, and united to a common head.
             52 
818
Materia Medica.
 The stems are many, slender, quadrangular, jointed, decumbent, diffuse,
 brittle, branched and furnished at the angles with short prickles, by
 means of which they can climb on a support.  The leaves  are from  four
 to  six in a  Avhorl,  elliptical,  acuminate,  rough on edges and  midrib,
 somewhat membranous, with  pinnated veins,  about three inches long,
 and nearly one inch broad.  The flowers are small, yellow, and termi-
 nal, forming a ramose panicle.   The  corolla  is rotate, four-cleft, with
 the  lobes ovate-lanceolate, apiculate, and  somewhat callous.   The  sta-
 mens are short; anthers ovate-oblong;  styles short;  and stigmas conical.
 The fruit is  a round, shining black berry, or  rather double berry,  one
 of which is abortive.
   History.—Madder is a native of the South of Europe, and is exten-
 sively cultivated in France and Holland; from which last place is derived
 the principal supply.  The root is the part  used; it is dug up in the third
 summer,  deprived  of its  cuticle, dried  by artificial  heat,  and then
 reduced to a coarse  powder,  which is of a brownish-red color.   The root
 consists of a thin epidermis,  covering an easily separable cortex, and  a
 ligneous meditullium,  which is at first yellow, but on drying becomes
 reddish.   The plant is cultivated in the State of Ohio.  Madder has  a
 weak peculiar  odor, a bitterish,  astringent taste, and  imparts its color
 and properties to water or  alcohol.   According to  analysis, madder
 contains sugar, resiri, and five coloring matters, and according to Runge,
 Madderic  and Rubiacic acids.   The coloring  substances  are  a red,  a
 purple, an orange, a yellow, and a brown.   One of these, Xanthin, has
 been noticed by Kuhlmann, and  two others Purpurin and Alizarin, by
 Robiquet  and Colin.  The coloring matters are probably all modifica-
 tions of a single substance, which appears  to be  the Xanthin, as  at first
 the juice  of  the root is yellow, and does  not  become red only under
 exposure to the atmospheric oxygen.  The alizarin is the most interest-
 ing of the coloring substances.   It is of an orange-red color, inodorous,
 tasteless, crystallizable, sublimes  without change, hardly soluble in cold
 water, but soluble in boiling, readily soluble in alcohol, ether, fixed oils,
 and  alkaline solutions.  The alcoholic and watery solutions  are rose-
 colored; the ethereal, golden yellow ; the alkaline, violet and blue when
 concentrated, but violet-red  when  sufficiently diluted.  A precipitation
 of a mixture of the  solutions of alum  and alizarin, affords a beautiful
rose-colored lake.  When taken  into the stomach, the coloring  matter
of madder is absorbed, and  the urine,  milk, and bones become colored
red,  though none  of  the other tissues are affected by it.
  Properties  and  Uses.—Madder is supposed to  be emmenagogue and
 diuretic, and has been recommended for such purposes by  various prac-
titioners.   However, it is not  in general  use, as  the profession lack
confidence in its action.  The dose is  thirty grains, three  or four times
a day. 
       Rubus Strigosus—Rubus  Trivialis—Rubus Villosus.    819

                       RUBUS STRIGOSUS.
                           Red Raspberry.
                       RUBUS TRIVIALIS.
                    Dewberry or Low Blackberry.
                       RUBUS VILLOSUS.
                             Blackberry.
          Nat. Ord.—Rosacea?.   Sex. Syst.—Icosandria Polygynia.
           THE  BARK OF THE  ROOT, AND RASPBERRY LEAVES.
   Description.—Rubus Strigosus is  a shrubby, strongly hispid plant,
 about four feet in hight.   The leaves are pinnately three or five-foliate,
 with the leaflets  oblong-ovate or oval, obtuse at base, pointed, coarsely
 and  unequally  serrate, green  above, canescent  tomentose  beneath,
 lateral  ones  sessile, odd  one  often subcordate  at  base, and distinctly
 petiolulate ;  they  are  from one and a  half  to  two and a half inches
 long, and about from one-third to two-thirds as  wide.  The flowers are
 white, and in panicled  corymbs.  The corolla is  cup-shaped, and about
 the length of the  calyx.   The fruit is a red berry, hemispherical, com-
 posed of  many juicy,  one-seeded acini,  on a dry receptacle, of  a
 rich delicious flavor.
   Rubus Trivialis or Rubus Canadensis, sometimes called Low or Creep-
 ing Blackberry, has a slender, prickly stem, which runs along the ground
 for several yards.   The leaves  are petiolate and composed of three, (or
 pedately five or  seven) leaflets, which are elliptical,  or rhomboidal-oval,
 acute, thin, membranaceous,  sharply  and unequally cut-serrate, often
 somewhat incised, somewhat pubescent, from an inch to an inch and  a
 half long, and about one-half as wide.  The common petioles are  one
 or two  inches long, and together  with the peduncles, are armed  with
 recurved,  hispid prickles ; sometimes naked.   The stipules are linear,
 subulate, entire,  or serrate.  The flowers  are large, white, nearly soli-
 tary,  on slender, elongated, prickly, somewhat corymbed pedicels, with
 leafy bracts ; the  lower peduncles distant, the upper crowded.   The
 petals are obovate, in  one variety orbicular,  and twice as  long as  the
 calyx.  Fruit large, black, very sweet and juicy.
  Rubus Villosus, is  a pubescent, viscid and  prickly shrub, with  a
 horizontal,  perennial, irregularly tuberous, woody root,  of a  reddish-
 brown color, from which arise  tall, slender, angular, and biennial stems
 from three to seven feet high, of a brownish color, branching, recurved
 at top, more or less furrowed, and  armed with strong, curved prickles.
 The  smaller  branches  and new shoots are  decumbent,  herbaceous,
greenish, pubescent and prickly.  The leaves are ternate or quinate, and
are composed of  from three to  five leaflets,  which are ovate, acuminate, 
620
Materia  Medica.
 sharply and unequally serrate, and pubescent on both sides; the petioles
 and midrib usually armed with short recurved prickles.  The flowers are
 large, white,  and in erect terminal panicles or racemes ;  the  calyx is
 short, with  acuminate segments ; the petals are five, obovate or oblong,
 obtuse; stamens numerous; fllaments slender; anthers small.  The fruit
 is large, at first green, then red, and when matured, black, it consists of
 about twenty  roundish, shining, black, fleshy carpels, closely collected
 into an ovate  or  oblong head, subacid, well-flavored, and ripening in
 August and September.
   History.—The Red-raspberry grows wild, and is common to  Canada
 and the Northern United States, growing in hedges, neglected fields,
 thickets and hills,  flowering in May, and ripening its fruit from June to
 August.  The leaves are the  officinal parts.   They impart their proper-
 ties to water, giving to the infusion an  odor and flavor somewhat similar
 to that of some kinds of black tea.
  The Dewberry likewise grows wild in dry, stony fields, gravelly soil,
 and  neglected grounds, and is common from  Canada to Virginia, flow-
 ering in May,  and ripening its fruit in  July and August.   The root is
 the officinal part,  it is generally smaller than the blackberry root, with
 transverse fissures through the epidermis, but no  longitudinal wrinkles,
 of a dark-ash color, without any reddish tinge, inodorous, with a bitter-
 ish,  strongly  astringent  taste.  Blackberry grows abundantly in  most
 parts of the United States, in neglected fields,  along  fences,  on  the
 borders of woods, etc.   Its flowers appear from  May to July,  and its
 fruit is matured in August.  The root is the officinal portion, it is branch-
 ing,  cylindrical, of various dimensions,  from  an inch down to two or
 three  lines  in  diameter, ligneous, covered with a thin light brown or
 reddish brown  bark, Avhich when dried is wrinkled longitudinally.
  These plants possess similar medicinal properties, and may be substi-
 tuted the  one  for the other;  and  as  they belong to the same genus, I
 have  placed them together.   The  bark of the old roots, or the smaller
roots, of dewberry and blackberry, should always  be selected for use,
 as the woody portion is inert; their odor and taste are similar, and they
impart their virtues to boiling water, or  diluted alcohol.   They contain
 a large quantity  of  tannic acid,  with  bitter extractive ;  no accurate
analysis has been made of them.  The fruits of these plants are much
esteemed as an article of diet,  and have been manufactured into cordial,
 jam, jelly, and syrup.  They  contain volatile oil, citric and malic acids,
sugar, mucus,  etc.
  Properties and Uses.—These plants are tonic and strongly astringent.
Ah infusion  or  decoction of the leaves of raspberry, or of the bark of the
roots of the other two, has been found  an excellent remedy in diarrhea,
dysentery, cholera-infantum,  relaxed  conditions  of the intestines  of
children, passive hemorrhage  from the stomach, bowels, or uterus, and 
Rudbeckia  Laciniata.
821
in colliquative diarrhea.  The decoction used as an injection, is useful in
gonorrhea, gleet, leucorrhea, and prolapsus uteri and ani; in prolapsus
uteri, it may be used  either alone or combined with the internal use of
a decoction of equal parts of black  cohosh and blackberry roots, taken
freely.  The leaves of raspberry,  in  decoction with cream, will  allay
nausea and vomiting, and combined with aromatics has been found useful
in diarrhea,  cholera-morbus and cholera-infantum.   It  is said  that the
raspberry exerts an influence over the uterus during parturition, exciting
its contractions when other agents have failed, and  has  been found ser-
viceable  in  after-pains.   The fruit, especially that of  the blackberry,
makes an excellent syrup, which is of much service in dysentery, being
grateful  to  the patient, relieving  the tenesmus  which  so  constantly
attends  the  disease, and ultimately effecting a cure.   The fruit of  the
raspberry contains very little nourishment, but is an agreeable acidulous
article, rarely disturbing the stomach, and when  eaten  freely, promotes
the action of the bowels.   Raspberry syrup added to water, forms a
refreshing and beneficial beverage  for  fever-patients, and during con-
valescence.   The  jelly or  jam may likewise be used in similar cases ;
that of the blackberries being more astringent, is better adapted to cases
of diarrhea,  dysentery, and cholera-infantum.  Dose of  the decoction of
these  plants, from one to four fluidounces  several times a day; of  the
pulverized root-bark from twenty to thirty grains.
   The Rubus  Odoratus, or  Rose-flowering  Raspberry, has an  erect or
reclining,  unarmed, glandular-pilose, shrubby stem, from three to five
feet in hight.   The leaves are from four to  eight inches long, nearly as
wide,  cordate at base,  palmately three to five-lobed, unequally serrate,
lobes acuminate, the middle one  prolonged, petioles two  or three inches
long,  and with the peduncles, calyx  and branches, clothed with viscid
hairs.  Flowers many, large, nearly two inches in diameter, in terminal
corymbs.  Petals orbicular, purple-rose color; stamens numerous,  whit-
ish.   Fruit  broad  and thin, bright-red, sweet.   This  plant grows on
rocky banks, and in upland woods  in  the  United States and  Canada,
flowering in June and July, and ripening its fruit in August.   A decoc-
tion of it  is  said to be powerfully diuretic,  and  may be used  freely in
affections  of the urinary organs,  and dropsy.
                   RUDBECKIA  LACINIATA.
                           Thimbleweed.
        Nat. Ord.—Asteraceae.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Frustranea.
                         THE WHOLE  PLANT.
  Description.—This plant, also known by the names of Cone-disk Sun-
flower, and Tall Cone-flower, is a tall, showy, indigenous, perennial plant,
with a round, glabrous, branching stem, from three to eight feet in hight. 
822
Materia Medica.
 The leaves  are  alternate, smooth  or  roughish, the lower ones  pinnate
 with from five to seven cut or three-lobed leaflets, petiolate, the upper
 ones irregularly three to five-parted ;  the lobes ovate-lanceolate, pointed.
 The flowers are large, and terminal; pappus crenate ; chaff truncate and
 downy at the tip.  Rays one  or  two inches  long, oblanceolate, bright
 yellow, spreading or drooping.  Disk oblong-conical, and columnar  in
 fruit, greenish-yellow.
   History.—This  plant grows in  various parts of the United States,  in
 damp places, low thickets, edges of swamps and  ditches, etc., flowering
 from July to September.  The whole  herb is recommended  to be used.
 Its chemical reactions, as well as formation, are not known.   It imparts
 its properties to water.
   Properties and Uses. — Thimbleweed is a valuable  diuretic, tonic and
 balsamic.  Useful in many diseases of the urinary organs, and highly
 recommended in strangury, Bright's disease, and wasting or atrophy of
 the kidneys.   Dose of  the decoction, ad libitum.
   The Rudbeckia Purpurea of  Linnaeus,  variously  called Red  Sun-
 flower,  Comb-flower, or  Purple Cone-flower (the Echinacea Purpurea  of
 Mcenchausen), has a  thick, black root, with branched, sulcate,  smooth
 or rough stems, growing from three to five feet in  hight.  The leaves are
 alternate, from four to  eight inches long, and about  one-fifth as wide,
 rough, with short stiff bristles; the lower ones broad-ovate, attenuate at
 base,  five-nerved, veiny, long-petioled,  remotely-toothed; the  cauline
 ones lanceolate-ovate, acuminate,  nearly entire.   Heads  large, solitary,
 on  long  peduncles.  Disk thickly beset with the stiff, pointed, brown
 chaff.  Rays from fifteen to twenty, two or three inches long, dull purple,
 pendulous,  bifid.  This plant  is common to the Western prairies and
 banks, and is found also in the  Southern States flowering from July to
 September.   The root is very pungent to the taste, and has been popu-
 larly used in medicine under the name of Black  Sampson;  it is stated
to have been employed with much benefit in syphilis.  Both of the above
plants, deserve  a  full  and thorough  investigation from  the profession.
From all I have been able to learn, the latter plant is  equal to the  Stil-
lingia in medicinal efficacy.
                       RUMEX  ACETOSA.
                              Sorrel.
        Nat. Ord.—Polygonaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Hexandria Trigynia.
                            the leaves.
  Description.—Rumex Acetosa has a long  and tapering, somewhat
woody root, with  an erect, simple, leafy, striated stem, one or  two feet
high.   The lower leaves are  petiolate, somewhat ovate, arrow-shaped,
with two lateral  teeth ; the  upper ones are sessile,  more oblong and
narrower.   Stipule  tubular,  membranous, fringed.    Clusters erect, 
Rumex Aquaticus, Britannica, etc.            823
 compound, whorled, leafless.   Flowers dicecious.   Males green  with a
 reddish tinge; inner sepals ovate, rather larger than the outer.  Females
 rather redder; inner sepals ovate, obtuse, red, entire, each bearing an
 oblong  pale tubercle.  The whole herb is smooth  and  powerfully and
 agreeably acid.   The root is  astringent.   The plant is common to Eng-
 land, and is sometimes cultivated in this country.
   Rumex Acetosella, Field or Sheep Sorrel, has a leafy stem  from six
 to twelve inches in hight, with lanceolate-hastate, pleasantly acid leaves.
 The flowers small, reddish, collected in panicled racemes, the valves are
 ovate scarcely enlarging in fruit, destitute of granules.  The stamens and
 styles on separate plants; the  styles adherent to the angles of the ovary.
 This weed is found in abundance throughout the United  States, growing
 in pastures,  waste grounds, and worn fields, and flowering all summer.
   History.—The leaves of these two plants are the parts used in medi-
 cine ; they are inodorous, and  have an agreeable sourness, which latter
 depends on  the presence of binoxalate of potassa, with  a small propor-
 tion of tartaric acid;  by drying them this taste is lost.  They are used
 alone, or in  an infusion of the fresh leaves.
   Properties and Uses.—Fresh Sorrel leaves are refrigerant and diuretic;
 an infusion is useful in febrile  and inflammatory diseases, and in  scorbutic
 complaints.   They may likewise be prepared  in the  form  of  salad, or
 boiled like spinage.  The leaves eaten largely are said to have produced
 poisonous effects, owing to the oxalic acid they contain.  Wrapped up
 and roasted, the leaves form an excellent application to indolent tumors,
 wens, boils,  etc., hastening suppuration.  The inspissated juice, applied
 on leather, is said to form an  effectual but painful cure for tumors and
 incipient cancers.   Acting  upon this hint, the  following preparation has
 been found  a  useful remedy  in cutaneous cancer, viz:  Take of Burnt
 Alum, one drachm; Citric or  Tartaric Acid, two drachms;  Oxalic Acid,
 two drachms; Rain Water, half a pint.  Mix.  To be applied by  means
 of a camel's hair pencil.

                     RUMEX AQUATICUS.
                        Great Water  Dock.
                     RUMEX BRITANNICA.
                           Water Dock.
                    RUMEX  OBTUSIFOLIUS.
                       Blunt  Leaved Dock.
                       RUMEX  CRISPUS.
                          Yellow Dock.
        Nat. Ord.—Polygonaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Hexandria Trigynia.
                            THE ROOT.
  Description.—Rumex  Aquaticus has  a large thick root, externally
black, internally whitish, with  an erect stem from three to five feet high; 
824
Materia  Medica.
the leaves are a foot or more  in  length, and  three  to  five inches wide,
smooth, lanceolate, pointed, the lower ones cordate,  on long petioles.
The flowers are verticillate, and  are disposed in a terminal leafy panicle.
Pedicels  capillary, drooping.   The three petals, or as termed by some
botanists, the three inner divisions of the calyx, approach each other, so
as to assume a triangular shape, and in this state are called valves; these
are large, ovate, obtuse, entire,  and are each  furnished  with a small,
linear, often obscure grain, extending down the middle.   The plant is a
native of Europe, but naturalized in America.  It grows in this country
in ponds  and ditches,  and flowers in July and August.
   Rumex Britannica, or Yellow-rooted Water  Dock, has a  large  root,
externally dark, internally yellowish, with an angular, furrowed, branch-
ing stem,  two or three feet high.  The  leaves  are broad-lanceolate, acute
at both ends, from three to five  inches long, petiolate, flat, smooth, with
the sheathing stipules slightly torn.  The flowers are perfect, in verticil-
late fascicles, collected into a large, terminal panicle, the spikes of which
are nearly leafless.   The pedicels  are capillary and  nodding in fruit.
The calyx  valves  large, cordate, entire, graniferous, two of the grains
small or abortive.   This plant is indigenous,  growing in low, Avet  places,
in various parts of the United States, and flowering in  June and July.
   Rumex Obtusifolius, or Blunt Leaved Dock, has its  root brown exter-
nally, and yellow internally; the stem is two or three feet high, furrowed,
somewhat roughish, branching, and leafy.  The radical leaves are about
a foot long, and five or six inches in width, ovate-cordate, obtuse, rather
downy on the veins underneath, somewhat  wavy margined, often with
stalk and veins red; the upper  ones are oblong-lanceolate,  and acute.
The flowers are in long, nearly naked racemes ;  whorls loose and distant;
valves  ovate-halbert shaped,  sharply denticulate at the base, strongly
reticulated,  one  of them  principally bearing a  granule  on  the  back.
This  is a common weed,  growing in  rich  grounds and pastures, and
about  houses, flowering in June and July.   It is supposed to have been
introduced from Europe.
   Rumex Crispus,  or Yellow  Dock, is the species  of  Dock more com-
monly used by Eclectics,  and is,  perhaps, the only one  entitled to an
officinal rank in our Dispensatory.   It has a deep spindle-shaped,  yellow
root, with a stem two or three  feet high, angular, furrowed, somewhat
zigzag, smooth to the touch, panicled,  leafy.   The leaves are lanceolate,
acute,  strongly undulated,  and  crisped at the edges,  of a light-green
color ; the radical ones on long petioles, truncate, or subcordate at base;
the uppermost narrower, and nearly sessile.   The flowers are numerous,
pale-green,  drooping,  disposed  in a large  panicle consisting  of many
wand-like  racemes of  half-whorls,  interspersed with  leaves  below.
Inner sepals, or valves, much  larger than the  outer, veiny, waved, entire,
ovate, each bearing a large ovate brown grain or tubercle on  the back. 
Ruta Graveolens.
825
Nut contracted at each end, with three blunt or tumid angles.  This plant
is a native of  Europe,  introduced into  this country, where  it grows Avild
in pastures, dry fields, waste grounds,  etc., flowering in June and July.
   History. —I have placed these four species of dock  together, in  con-
sequence of their possessing similar  medicinal properties, and Avhich
under separate  heads would lead  to  an unnecessary repetition.   The
roots of several other species have been medicinally employed, and  may
be used indiscriminately  with the  above, as the  R. Patientia  and R.
Alpinus of Europe, and the R. Acutus and R. Sanguineus  of this coun-
try.  These various dock-roots have little or  no odor, a bitter astringent
taste, and readily yield their virtues to water by decoction.  They have
not all  been analyzed.  The R.  Obtus'folius contains a peculiar princi-
ple called Rumicin,  resin,  extractive matter resembling tannic  acid,
starch,  albumen, mucilage,  lignin, sulphur, and  various  salts.   The
young leaves  of some of the species  are occasionally used as spinage.
As found in  the shops, yellow dock-root is in slices cut transversely
and  dried,  and occasionally the  root  is divided  longitudinally  into
halves or quarters;  it is  sometimes called  Sour Dock, Narrow Dock,
or Curled Dock.
   Properties and Uses.—The dock-roots are alterative, tonic,  mildly
astringent, and detergent, and are  eminently useful in scorbutic, cuta-
neous, scrofulous, scirrhous,  and  syphilitic affections, leprosy, elephan-
tiasis, etc.; for which purpose we prefer the Rumex Crispus.  The fresh
root bruised in cream, lard, or fresh butter, forms an excellent ointment
for scrofulous  ulcers, scrofulous ophthalmia, itch, and  a  discutient for
indolent glandular tumors.  An ointment of the root of R.  Crispus, and
the root-bark  of Celastrus Scandens, with gunpowder, is said to form a
certain cure for the itch, as well as being of value  in other cutaneous
diseases, and ulcers.   The powdered root is recommended as a dentifrice,
especially when the gums are spongy.   Dose of the  decoction or syrup,
from one to four fluidounces, three times a day.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Rumecis;  Extractum Rumecis Hydro-alcoholi-
cum ; Syrupus Rumecis Compositus.
                      RUTA  GRAVEOLENS.
                                Rue.
         Nat.  Ord.—Rutaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.
                     LEAVES AND UNRIPE FRUIT.
  Description.—Rue is a perennial plant, with shrubby branching stems,
two or three  feet in hight, woody at the lower part and covered with a
rough, gray bark, but smooth, green, and herbaceous in the upper part
and  branches.   The leaves  are  alternate,  smooth, glaucous,  a little
tomentose,  transparently dotted,  and doubly  pinnate;  the leaflets are 
826
Materia Medica.
sessile,  unequal,  obscurely crenate,  somewhat thick and fleshy;  the
lateral lobes linear or nearly so ; and the terminal ones larger and obo-
vate.  The flowers are of a pale greenish-yellow color, and disposed in
terminal corymbose panicles, upon subdividing peduncles ;  the terminal,
or first unfolded, only having  the  full number of the parts of fructifica-
tion ;  the others having eight  stamens and four sepals and petals.  The
petals are large, rounded a little, toothed at the extremity, and concave,
attached by narrow  claAvs.  The stamens are equal, with  small yellow
anthers.  The ovary is oval, with crucial furrows, and is surmounted by
a  short style.  The capsule is  gibbous,  four-lobed, and  bursts at the
summit of each lobe, for the passage of numerous,  angular, blackish
seeds.  The  process of  impregnation is  singular,  each anther in turn
approaching the style, and after shedding its pollen, retiring.
   History. — Rue is a well  known,  hardy,  evergreen undershrub,  a
native of the south of Europe and north of Africa,  and cultivated in our
gardens, flowering from  June to  September.  The  whole plant has  a
strong,  peculiar, disagreeable odor.  The whole herbaceous portion of
it possesses  medicinal activity, but the leaves are more  generally em-
ployed.  They have a strong,  disagreeable  odor,  and a disagreeable,
bitter,  acrid taste.  In the recent state  they will inflame and vesicate
the skin.   They should  be  gathered when  the seed vessels  are well-
developed, yet still  green;  the  seed-vessels of  the unripe  fruit are
covered with  large  oil vesicles, and  may likewise  be used for medical
purposes.  The virtues of this plant are owing to a volatile oil,  which  is
abundantly contained in glandular vesicles, with which it is covered, and
which may be obtained by distillation with water.   It yields its properties
to boiling water in infusion, but alcohol is its best solvent.   The plant
loses  much of its activity by drying.  Beside volatile oil, the plant  is
said to  contain albumen, chlorophylle, extractive, gum, starch or inulin,
an azotized matter, malic acid, lignin, and a peculiar acid  called Rutinic
acid.
   Properties  and Uses. — Rue  is emmenagogue, ecbolic, anthelmintic
and antispasmodic.   In large doses it acts  as a narcotico-acrid poison.
It has been taken by pregnant women, and  produced dangerous symp-
toms of gastro-intestinal inflammation, and cerebral derangement, termi-
nating  in miscarriage.   Its  action  is chiefly directed upon  the uterus,
and is capable of  exciting menorrhagia, inflammation, and miscarriage.
It has  been successfully used in flatulent colic, hysteria,  some nervous
complaints, epilepsy, and as an excellent vermifuge.   Dose of the leaves,
from ten to twenty grains ; of the decoction, from one to four fluidounces ;
of the  oil, from two to six drops.
   Off.  Prep.—Infusum Rutee; Oleum Rutee. 
          Sabbatia Angularis—Saccharum Officinarum.      827

                   SABBATIA ANGULARIS.
                       American  Centaury.
       Nat. Ord.—Gentianaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                            THE  HERB.
  Description.—This plant, also called Rose-pink, has a yellow, fibrous,
biennial root,  with an erect, smooth, quadrangular stem, with the angles
winged, having many opposite branches, and growing from one to two
feet in hight.  The leaves are opposite, sessile, ovate, cordate at  base,
clasping  the  stem, five-veined,  smooth, entire, and from  one  to two
inches in length by half an inch to  one and a half inches in width.   The
flowers are numerous, from an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half
in diameter,  of  a rich  rose color, terminal, on  elongated  peduncles,
greenish or whitish in the  center, and forming a large corymbose panicle.
The calyx with five narrow, lanceolate,  almost subulate segments,  about
half the length of the corolla;  tube angular.  Corolla with five obovate
segments.  Stamens five, erect, with short slender filaments and oblong
anthers of a  yellow color, which are spirally twisted after fecundation.
The ovary is ovate, with a terete, declined, and bifid style, and  the
stigmas  twisted  spirally together.   Capsule,   one-celled,  two-valved,
many-seeded.
  History.—This plant is  common to the Middle and Southern States,
growing in low meadow grounds,  and in wet seasons upon uplands, in
woods and neglected fields, and flowering in July and August.   The
herb  is employed, and  should be  collected when in flower.  It has a
strong bitter  taste, and yields its virtues to water or alcohol.   It is pref-
erable to the European Centaury.
  Properties  and  Uses.—Tonic.  Used  as a prophylactic and remedy in
autumnal intermittent and remittent fevers ; also useful in dyspepsia,
and convalescence from fevers.   When administered in warm infusion it
is a domestic remedy for worms, and to restore  the menstrual secretion.
Dose of  the powder from half a drachm to a drachm ;  of the cold infu-
sion four fluidounces  every two or three hours ; of the tincture one or
two fluidrachms ; and of the extract from two to six grains.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Sabbatiae.
                 SACCHARUM OFFICINARUM.
                            Sugarcane.
        Nat.  Ord.—Graminaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Triandria Digynia.
                  THE SUGAR,  OR CONCRETE JUICE.
  Description.—Sugarcane is a herbaceous plant, with a jointed, succu-
lent root, from which arise  several shining,  jointed, solid stems, one or
two inches in diameter, from six to twelve feet in hight, colored yellow, 
828
Materia Medica.
 greenish-yellow, purple, or striped, and containing a white juicy pith.
 The leaves  are about three or four feet long, and an inch wide, flat,
 acuminate,  longitudinally  striated, furnished with  a Avhite  midrib, gla-
 brous, finely dentate, of a yellowish-green  color, and originating at the
 joints  of  the  stems which are about three inches apart, and  at which
 places the stem is  embraced  by their  lower  portion.  The panicle  is
 terminal,  spreading, erect, oblong, from  one to three  feet in length, and
 grayish from  the quantity of long loose hairs surrounding the florets;
 the branches are alternate and very spreading.  Rachis striated.  Florets
 dicecious,  in pairs.  Glumes smooth.  Paleai  smooth, membranous, of
 a pink color.
   History.—The native  country of sugarcane is unknown, though sup-
 posed to be indigenous to the south-eastern parts of Asia.   Those canes
 which have not flowered, or have no tendency  to flower, are the  richest
 in sugar; and the lower part of them contains the greatest proportion.
 The juice constitutes nearly one-half of  the cane, and when expressed,
 ferments rapidly, forming an acid,  so  that it  requires to  be promptly
 evaporated, and its  acidity neutralized, before  the sugar can be made.
It has been analyzed a number of times, and is found to consist of crys-
tallizable and uncrystallizable sugar, water, malic acid, gum, extractive,
chlorophylle, etc.   The sugar and  molasses of commerce are  obtained
from the juice of this plant, and are prepared as follows:  the ripe canes
are cut down close to the ground, and with their  tops and leaves removed,
are crushed between vertical iron rollers.  The juice thus obtained, con-
stituting from  fifty to ninety per cent., is  of a pale-greenish color,  sweet,
with a balsamic odor, and  a specific gravity from  1.033 to 1.106. The
 juice ferments  quickly, and is therefore, at once  conveyed from the
vessels which  have received it, into  boilers, where every  eight hundred
parts of it  are immediately  mixed with about one part of milk of lime, or
 sufficient  to render  the  liquor  neutral,  or  very  slightly alkaline, and
heated to  140°.  A  thick scum forms on the top, consisting of  albumen
and gluten, and the  liquid  beneath is drawn off by means of a cock into
a copper  boiler, where  it  is sufficiently  concentrated  by ebullition, the
scum being removed as  it forms.   If the juice be filtered, previous to
the last boiling, it improves the sugar.  When of the proper consistence,
the concentrated juice is removed to shallow  coolers, and again con-
veyed, before cooling, into wooden vessels  having perforated  bottoms,
with the holes temporarily plugged.   As the sugar concretes, the liquid
is  stirred  from time to time, which accelerates its  granulation.   When
completed, the stoppers are removed from the holes, and  the  syrup  is
allowed to drain off.  A yellowish, moist sugar is the result, which  is
further  dried in the  sun, and constitutes the brown sugar of commerce ;
the liquid which is left,  is again  concentrated, and a further supply of
sugar obtained, as well as of drainings, and which last is molasses.  The
 brown  sugar is formed into Havanna sugar by being again boiled with 
Saccharum Officinarum.
829
lime-water, sufficiently concentrated,  placed in  large  inverted conical
vessels, and, when sufficiently solid, covered with a thin mixture of clay
and water, the latter of which percolates through the sugar, and removes
the colored syrup through a small opening in the bottom of the vessel,
rendering it of a whitish color.   The  sugar  is still  further purified by
again boiling, filtering, clarifying, and placing it into molds, Avhere it is
again clayed, and when all the syrup is removed, the sugar is placed in
a warm oven to dry, and  constitutes white or refined sugar.  And by one
or more repetitions of the  process, is obtained single, double, and  treble
refined sugar.   In clarifying the sugar, it is at first, while in the form
of syrup, heated with bullock's  blood, and then decolorized  by passing
it through a layer of coarse-grained animal charcoal, two or three inches
thick.   In the process of manufacturing sugar,  a large proportion of it is
lost, to prevent which several plans have been offered, but which  have
not, as yet, receiA'ed  sufficient confidence to induce sugar-manufacturers
to adopt them.
   Beside  the sugarcane, sugar may be  obtained  from  the  beet, (Beta
Vulgaris), and  the sap  of  the  sugar-maple,  (Acer Saccharinum) and
likewise  from corn-stalks, turneps, onions,  etc.   In France considerable
quantities are manufactured  from the beet; and  in  Canada  and the
United States, wherever the sugar-maple tree grows abundantly, maple
sugar, as it is termed, is largely made.   A  large quantity of sugar is
also obtained from the sap of the cocoa-nut tree, ( Cocos Nucifera)  as
well as other species of palm growing in India.
   Other saccharine principles  are recognized by the chemist, as Glucose,
or Grape-sugar;  this  is not so sweet as canesugar, nor so readily soluble
in water, but is much  more soluble in alcohol.  The crystallizable sugar
of honey, starch sugar, and diabetic  sugar are identical with  it.   It is
hardly acted upon by concentrated mineral acids, which destroy cane-
sugar with facility ; alkalies, which form  definite  compounds with  cane-
sugar, destroy grape-sugar.   It undergoes very  little  change by  long
boiling with water, Avhich is apt  to decompose cane-sugar, causing a loss
in the amount of sugar obtained.   Its solution rotates the plane of polar-
ization of polarized light to the right, and  is  capable of undergoing the
vinous fermentation immediately, Avithout passing through any interme-
diate state.  Its specific gravity is 1.386, and its  formula C12 Hit Oh.
   Uncrystallizable or  Fruit-sugar, called by Souberain,  Chulariose.  This
is found in honey, and in the  juice of fruits, and may be obtained from
cane-sugar  by solution in water  or Aveak acids,  and   long boiling.  A
watery solution of this sugar turns the plane of polarization to the left,
and is  as  susceptible of the  vinous  fermentation, without  intermediate
change, as the grape-sugar.  Its formula, when dried at 212°, is C12 H12
O12.  Lactin or  Sugar of Milk,  see Saccharum Lactis.    Sugar of Ergot,
obtained by Wiggers  from ergot of rye, is  soluble in water and  alco-
hol, crystallizes  in transparent rhombic prisms, and is susceptible of the 
830
Materia  Medica.
vinous fermentation.   Its formula is given as C12 H13 O13.  For a descrip-
tion of the other saccharine principles, mannite and glycerin, see articles
Manna and Glycerina.
  Sugar has been known from the earliest ages, and was used  in Europe
exclusively as a medicine, from  the time of its introduction,  about  the
period of the Crusades, until the cultivation of the sugar-cane in the New
World,  when it soon became a common article of food throughout the
civilized world.  The greater part of the  sugar  of commerce at this
day, is  manufactured in the West Indies,  and some of the Southern
United States.  In the United States, a variety of sugar-cane,  called  the
Otaheite-cane,  has recently been introduced;  it is  said to be hardier,
more productive, and better  suited  to the climate of  the  Southern
States.
  The first concretion of the juice of sugar-cane,  as before  remarked,
gives rise to brownish  crystalline grains, and a  thick,  empyreumatic
syrup, called  molasses,  Sacchari Fcex, or  Sacchari Syrupus  Empyreu-
maticus.   Of this, there  are two varieties, the West India and Sugar-
House.   The  West  India Molasses is a black ropy liquid, of a peculiar
odor, and a sweet  empyreumatic taste.  When mixed with  water and
the skimmings of the vessels used in the manufacture of sugar, it forms
a liquor, which, when fermented and distilled, yields rum.  Sugar-house
Molasses is the officinal one, it is thicker than  the West India, about the
same color, with a  peculiar,  sweet,  rather pleasant taste, differing in
flavor from the former ; it consists chiefly of gummy extract and uncrys-
tallizable  sugar, and thickens very slowly under  exposure to the  air.
Its specific gravity is 1400.
   The grains constitute the brown sugar, raw sugar, or muscovado sugar
of commerce,  Saccharum  Commune, (Saccharum non Purificatum);  six
or eight pounds  of  the  juice yield one  pound of raw sugar, and this
when purified  is the refined loaf, or white sugar, Saccharum Purum.
Raw sugar, of  good  quality, is in small shining grains, which  are short,
broken, four-sided prisms varying in color from very pale yellowish-gray,
to rather deep  yellowish-brown,  dry when recent,  but  afterward some-
what clammy,  of a purely sweet taste, and of a feeble honey-like odor.
   Pure Sugar is usually prepared in compact, crystalline,  conical loaves,
which are snow-white, dry, easily pulverizable, inodorous, of  an intense
sweet taste, without  any aroma, permanent in the air, phosphorescent
by friction, and of a specific  gravity from 1.5629 to  1.6.   It crystal-
lizes in oblique, four-sided prisms, terminated by two converging planes,
or in derived figures, in which form it contains 5.3  per cent, of Avater of
crystallization.  When  heated to 365°, it melts into a viscid, colorless
liquid, which  on being suddenly cooled, forms a transparent amorphous
mass, called   Barley-sugar;  between  400°  and  420°,  it  loses   two
equivalents of water, swells, emits  a  peculiar odor, and is  converted
into a black porous mass, having a high luster, like anthracite, called 
Saccharum Officinarum.
831
Caramel.  At a still higher temperature, it yields combustible gases, car-
bonic acid, empyreumatic oil, and acetic acid, leaving  about one-fourth
its weight of charcoal, which  burns without residue.   Sugar is soluble in
twelve parts of rectified spirit and in eighty parts of alcohol; it dissolves
readily in  half of its weight of temperate water, and to an almost un-
limited extent in boiling water, which  solution, when thick and ropy, is
called Simple Syrup, Syrupus Simplex. The fixed and volatile oils are to
a certain extent rendered miscible with water by means of sugar, with
the volatile oils it imperfectly combines, forming the  Oleum-saccharum
of the pharmaceutist.    Sugar may  be distinguished  from most other
organic principles, by not being precipitated by subacetate of lead, when
in solution.  Strong nitric acid, with the aid  of heat, converts sugar into
oxalic acid ; and when weak, into saccharic acid.  Chlorine converts it
into  saccharic  acid.  Concentrated  sulphuric  or muriatic acid chars it;
diluted muriatic acid, converts it into a solid, brown* gelatinous mass, by
boiling.   Diluted  sulphuric acid  changes  it into uncrystallizable sugar,
then into grape sugar*and ultimately into sacchulmin, which is insolu-
ble, and  sacchulmic acid, which is soluble in ammonia.  Sugar in  fine
powder,  treated with a mixture of sixteen parts of sulphuric and eight
of nitric  acid, and cooled to the temperature of 60°, is converted,  in a
few seconds, into a  pasty substance,  which, after having being washed
in cold water and dissolved in alcohol, furnishes, on the  addition of an
excess of carbonate of potassa to the alcoholic solution,  a peculiar explo-
sive and  inflammable substance, resembling common rosin in its physical
properties, and, like it, insoluble in water, but  soluble in alcohol,  ether,
and the  volatile oils.  Oxalic, tartaric, citric, malic, and  acetic  acids,
prevent  sugar  from crystallizing  from  its watery solution, effecting
changes  in it similar to those resulting from the action of mineral acids.
If sugar  be boiled in open vessels with weak sulphuric acid, for several
days, oxygen will be absorbed, and formic acid  will be generated with
sacchulmin and sacchulmic  acid.   Sugar  combines with  the alkalies,
losing its sweet taste, and  forming compounds which render the  sugar
less  liable  to  change; it  likewise unites with various metallic oxides
rendering  them soluble.   Boiled  for a long time with aqueous solutions
of potassa, lime, or baryta, the liquid becomes brown, formic acid is pro-
duced, and melassic and glucic acids  are generated; the former being
brown or black, and insoluble in water, the latter colorless and very
soluble.  When distilled with lime, sugar yields a volatile liquid  called
acetone,  and an oily substance termed Metacetone.
  Properties and Uses.—Sugar is nutritive, alterative,  demulcent,  and
topically  antiseptic.  It cannot sustain life alone, owing to the absence
of nitrogen in its composition, and only becomes eminently nutritive when
combined with   other alimentary proximate principles.   Used in large
quantities it is injurious to  digestion.   In relation to both vegetable  and
animal matters it is a powerful antiseptic ; the former of which may be 
832
Materia Medica.
preserved indefinitely in syrup, so long as the syrup is secured  against
fermentation; while the latter, after  long immersion in syrup,  or  in
moistened  sugar, may be perfectly mummified.   On this account it  is
now used considerably in  preserving fish and meat, instead of salt,  to
which it is  superior, as it requires a less quantity of sugar than salt, and
does not change the taste nor injure the nutritive qualities of the aliment.
Sugar or molasses, when freely eaten by children, prove excellent anthel-
mintics ; it has proved beneficial in scurvy, and in some  chronic cutane-
ous diseases, and  powdered loaf sugar has been  applied externally  to
fungous  ulcers, and  for the removal  of  specks on the cornea.   It has
long been a popular idea that sugar  is  injurious to the teeth, this,  how-
ever,  is  erroneous ;  if particles of  sugar become lodged between the
teeth, and  are  allowed to  decompose, decay will inevitably ensue, but
if the particles be removed at an early period, sugar will be found  to
exert a  beneficial influence upon the teeth and gums.  As a demulcent,
sugar has been used  in various  forms in  catarrhal  affections; and  when
it is used daily in very large quantities,  say a pound or more dissolved
in a quart of cold water, it is said to be powerfully antiphrodisiac.  The
use of it, however, is  mainly confined to the  preparation of syrups,  to
cover the taste of nauseous drugs, for rendering oils miscible with water,
for  suspending many drugs  in the form of mixture or emulsion,  to pro-
tect certain ferruginous preparations  from oxidation, and also for con-
Alerting some agents into the state of conserve, confection, electuary, pill,
or lozenge.   For pills, molasses is most generally preferable  to syrup,  as
it does not  so readily harden, and preserves them  in a soft,  moist state,
for  a long time, Avhile its antiseptic properties prevent them from  becom-
ing moldy.
  Sugar may be detected in urine by the liquid fermenting on the  addi-
tion of  yeast;  or  by yielding a reddish-brown precipitate when boiled
with a  solution  of sulphate  of copper, and solution  of caustic potassa;
boiled with solution of potassa alone, it acquires a dark-broAvn or bistre
tint.  Dr. Donaldson gives the  folloAving simple and easy method  for dis-
covering the presence  of sugar in  the blood, urine, or bile : Take of
crystallized carbonate of soda, and caustic potassa,  of each, five parts,
bitartrate of potassa six parts, crystallized sulphate of copper four parts,
distilled Avater thirty-two  parts; mix  together, boil,  and  filter.   A few
drops of this  solution,  thrown  into  urine or other liquid suspected  of
being saccharine, and heated over a spirit-lamp, will discover the small-
est  quantity of sugar present.  After a few minutes' application of  heat,
the  liquid acquires first a yellowish-green color, and  becomes more and
more reddish-yellow, as the proportion of sugar  is  more considerable.
Sugar in solution  absorbs  a very large quantity of lime.  A saccharale
of lime has been found very beneficial in  the chronic diarrheas of child-
ren, as well as to prevent acidity of  the stomach, and the  disposition  to
diarrhea so common  in children of a certain age  at  particular seasons. 
Saccharum  Lactis—Sagapenum.
833
It is made by saturating simple syrup with lime, and then filtering it; it
forms a transparent mixture of an  extremely alkaline taste, and may be
added to water or milk.   It is altogether superior to  the bicarbonate of
soda.  Dose for an infant, from a fourth to half a drachm, given in some
of the mother's milk ; for an adult, from one drachm to two and a half.
   Off. Prep, of Saccharum Purum.—Syrupus.
   Off. Prep, of Saccharum Commune.—Confectio Sennae.
                     SACCHARUM  LACTIS.
                      Sugar  of Milk.   Lactin.
   Preparation. — Evaporate whey to  the  consistence  of syrup ;  when
cool, clarify it by white of eggs,  strain, and  carefully evaporate by a
gentle heat, that it  may crystallize on  cooling.   For further purification,
use animal charcoal, and repeated  crystallizations.
   History.—Sugar  of Milk  is a white, gritty,  crystalline, semi-transpa-
rent substance, permanent in the air, soluble in five  or six parts of cold
water, and two and a half or three of  boiling water, Avithout forming  a
syrup, and insoluble in alcohol or  ether.   It is inodorous, feebly SAveet,
but much more so in a concentrated solution, and of the specific gravity
1.54.  It is frequently met with in  cylindrical masses, in  the  axis  of
which is a cord, around which the  crystals have been deposited.   When
converted into grape-sugar by the action of diluted acids, it is susceptible
of vinous fermentation,  and affords an  intoxicating spirituous liquor.
Mucic acid is  formed by* the action  of diluted nitric acid upon  it.  Its
formula is C21 Hu Oi9-r-5HO ; and when anhydrous C24 Hio 0.9.
   Properties and Uses.—Its principal medicinal use is in the trituration
of drugs; to aid in  rendering them finer  and more energetic, as well as
to assist  in more easily dividing active agents  which are to  be given in
minute  doses : thus, if we wish to divide  one grain of strychnia into
twenty doses,  it may be thoroughly triturated with nineteen grains  of
sugar of milk, and one grain  of the mixture  gives the required  dose.
Or, one grain of podophyllin, which, in general, is a cathartic dose, by
long trituration Avith ten grains of  sugar  of milk, will form  several pur-
gative doses.   In these cases, the trituration should  always  continue for
from one hour to an hour and a half.  As a medicinal  agent  Sugar  of
Milk is inert.
                          SAGAPENUM.
                            Sagapenum.
              the gum-resin  of an  uncertain plant.
  History.—This gum-resin  is brought  from Alexandria,  Smyrna, and
other parts of the Levant.  It  is the concrete juice of a plant growing
             53 
834
Materia Medica.
in Persia, the history of which  is  not  fully known.   It is in  irregular
masses, composed of agglutinated  fragments, slightly translucent, of a
brownish-yellow,  olive,  or  reddish-yellow color externally, paler  inter-
nally, brittle,  in  consistence  resembling wax, with an  alliaceous  odor,
and a hot, nauseous, bitterish taste.  It softens and becomes  tenacious
by the heat of the hand.   It is  almost  entirely soluble in diluted alco-
hol.   A«-e  and exposure harden it as well as render  it  darker.  It is
inflammable, burning with  a white  flame and considerable smoke, and
leavino- a lhdit  spongy charcoal.   An inferior kind is  browner, softer,
and  uniform, Avithout  any  appearance of tears.  It consists  of  resin,
gum, bassorin, volatile oil, salts, etc.   The oil is pale-yellow, very fluid,
lighter than water, and of an intense  alliaceous odor.
  Properties and Uses.—Gentle stimulant, antispasmodic, and  emmena-
gogue ; inferior to assafetida.   Occasionally employed externally as  a
discutient, in the form  of plaster, to indolent tumors.  Dose from  ten to
thirty  grains, in pill or emulsion.
                        SAGUS RUMPHII.
                               Sago.
         Nat. Ord.—Palmaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Hexandria.
                THE PREPARED FECULA OF THE  PITH.
  Description.—The Sagus Rumphii, or Sago Palm, is one of the small-
est trees of the family to which it belongs, seldom exceeding thirty feet
in hight.  The trunk is, proportionably, very thick, quite erect, cylindri-
cal, covered with the remains of the old leaf-stalks, and surrounded by
a beautiful crown of foliage, consisting of numerous, very large, pinnate
leaves, extending in every direction from the summit, and curving grace-
fully downward.   From  the basis  of the  leaves proceed  long, divided
and subdivided fiowers, and fruit-bearing spadices, the branches of which
are smooth.   The fruit is a roundish  nut, covered with a checkered
imbricated coat, and containing a single seed.
  History.—This tree is  a native of Malacca, and  the adjacent islands,
thriving in low and moist situations.   Previous to  maturity, the trunk
consists of an external ligneous part about two inches in thickness, and
an internal spongy medullary substance, somewhat like the pith of elder.
After  the appearance  of fruit; this internal  substance  is gradually
absorbed, and the trunk eventually becomes hollow.   The maximum age
of the tree does not exceed thirty  years.  There are two other species
of palm known to produce sago, namely : Sagus Lmvis, Jack,  or Sagus
Inermis,  Roxburgh, a native of Borneo and Sumatra ;  and  Sagueris
Rumphii, abounding in all the eastern isles of the Indian Ocean. These,
with  the Sagus Rumphii, contain a farinaceous pith, and  probably fur-
nish the finest kinds of sago.  Sago has likewise been obtained from the 
Sagus Rumphii.
835
Sagus Ruffia, Phoenix  Farinifera,  Cycas  Revoluta,  Cycas  Circinalis,
Zamia Lanuginosa, and  Caryota Urens.
  As soon as the pith or medullary  matter has become fully developed,
the tree is cut down, and the pith extracted.  This is then reduced to a
coarse powder, and stirred with water; the water is allowed to stand
until the starch  has subsided, and  is then strained off; the remaining
amylaceous matter is then made into cakes, dried, and used by the na-
tives as food, under the  name of Meal Sago.   When made into a paste
with water, and rubbed  into grains,  it forms the  Granular Sago of com-
merce.  Sago is abundantly manufactured in the Moluccas, but the finest
quality  is  obtained  from the eastern coast of Sumatra.  In  several
places it is refined by some process  not yet satisfactorily ascertained, and
which gives the grains  a fine pearly luster.   In this state it is called
Pearl Sago.   A single tree, it is stated, will yield from five to six hun-
dred pounds  of  sago.
  Sago Meal  is rarely met with in this  country, though imported  into
England.   It is  in the form of a fine amylaceous powder, of a pale yel-
lowish-Avhite,  or reddish-white  color, of  a  feeble, somewhat  musty,
peculiar odor, and composed of unbroken  starch globules.  Under the
microscope it  is found  to  consist of oval  or ovate  particles, many of
which appear as if truncated, so as to be  more or less muller-shaped.
They are generally more or less broken, and  the surface of the  greater
part of them  is irregular or tuberculated.  Their surface exhibits con-
centric rings,  which, however, are not so distinct as in the potato-starch.
The hilum is circular when perfect, and cracks either with a simple slit,
a cross, or in a stellate manner.   Common  Sago is in roundish grains of
the size of pearl-barley, or sometimes larger, mottled with various tints
of gray and brown, and  composed of aggregated, unbroken globules.
Under the microscope, their appearances are  similar to those of the sago
meal, except that they are less regular, and more broken.  The above
varieties do not yield any soluble starch or  amidin to cold water.  Pearl
Sago is the kind most generally  used, and  is the most esteemed.  It is
in pale yellowish-white, reddish-white, grayish-white,  or translucent
grains, about  the  size of a pin's head, inodorous, nearly tasteless,  of a
somewhat pearly luster externally,  and forms a solution with cold water
which is rendered blue  by tincture  of iodine.   A solution of chloride of
lime will render it perfectly white.   Its partial solubility in cold water,
is, probably,  owing to the action  of heat used in preparing it.  It pos-
sesses the  chemical properties of  starch.  Under the  microscope, the
granules are of the same form as in the preceding, but are all ruptured,
and exhibit very indistinct traces  of the external concentric rings, which
have  been, undoubtedly,  altered  in the process  employed in their
preparation.
  Common Sago is insoluble in cold water, but upon being boiled, it
becomes at first soft and transparent,  and ultimately forms a gelatinous 
836
Materia Medica.
solution.  Pearl sago is more soluble.  Imitation pearl  sago, prepared
from potato-starch, may be known by exhibiting larger  granules under
the microscope, which are more  regularly oval or ovate, smoother, less
broken, and more distinctly marked with  the  concentric rings  on their
surface;  and when cracks occur  at the hilum,  they are usually in two
diverging fissures.
  Properties and  Uses.—Sago is nutritive and demulcent,  and  is a con-
venient and agreeable article for making puddings, gruel and diet drinks
for the sick room.   It should always  be  long boiled before it  is used.
It is not so much used as formerly, being superseded by the purer arrow-
root and tapioca.  A tablespoonful of sago to a pint of water, is sufficient
for  ordinary purposes ;  and the  solution  may be sweetened with loaf-
sugar, and seasoned Avith  nutmeg or other spice, wine, etc., when these
are not contra-indicated.
  Castillon's Powders, a popular article of diet for invalids, in  cases of
indigestion, chronic dysentery, etc., is composed of Sago, Salep, Traga-
canth, of each, in powder, four drachms, powdered prepared oyster-
shells one drachm.  These are to be well mixed, and divided into twelve
powders ; sometimes it is colored with a small quantity  of cochineal.
For use, each powder is to be  boiled with  a pint of milk ; which may be
sweetened and  flavored to suit the patient's taste.
                          SALIX ALBA.
                              Willow.
           Nat.  Ord.—Salicaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Dicecia Diandria.
                             THE BARK.
  Description.—Salix Alba,  or  White-willow  is a tree from thirty  to
eighty feet in hight, Avith numerous round, widely spreading branches,
the younger of which are silky.   The bark is brown, thick, and full  of
cracks ; that of the smaller branches smooth and greenish.   The leaves
are alternate, on short petioles, lanceolate, or elliptic-lanceolate, broadest
a little above the middle, pointed, tapering  toward each  end,  acutely
serrate with the  lower  serratures glandular; both sides of a grayish,
somewhat glaucous, green, beautifully silky,  with close-pressed silvery
hairs,  especially on the under surface, and  which is  very dense  and
brilliant on the uppermost, or  youngest leaves ;  the lowermost on each
branch, like the bracteas, are  smaller, more obtuse, and greener.   The
stipules are variable, either roundish or oblong, small, and often wanting.
The fiowers appear at the same time with the leaves.  The aments are  on
6hort stalks, with three or four spreading, leafy bracteas, terminal, cylin-
drical, and elongated.   Scales brown, elliptical, lanceolate, pubescent at
the margin;  those of the barren aments narrower toward the base ;  of
the fertile, dilated and convolute in that part.   Stamens two,  yellow, 
Salix Alba.
837
 rather  longer  than the scales, with one  obtuse gland before, and one
 behind ; filaments hairy in their lower part.   Anthers roundish, yellow.
 Ovary  very nearly sessile, green, smooth,  ovate-lanceolate,  bluntish,
 longer  than the scale.  Style  short;  stigmas short,  thick, two-parted,
 recurved,  and   nearly sessile.   Capsule  ovate, brown,  smooth, rather
 small.
   History.—The White or European Willow has been  introduced  into
 this country from  Europe, and is now  very common.   It flowers in
 April and  May ; and  the bark is easily separable throughout the sum-
 mer.   When dried it rolls up into quills, having a brown epidermis, and
 being  flexible, fibrous, and of difficult pulverization.  It has a feebly
 aromatic odor,  and a  peculiar, bitter, astringent taste.   Water extracts
 its  active  properties,  and the  decoction  is  of  a  reddish-brown color.
 Willow bark contains a large proportion of tannin, a bitter yellow coloring
 matter, a green fatty matter, gum, wax,  lignin, an  organic acid com-
 bined with magnesia,  and a crystalline principle, named Salicin.
   There are not less than one hundred and thirty species comprised in
 this genus, which chiefly abound in the northern and  temperate parts of
 Europe and America; and probably all of them  are possessed of similar
 medical properties  in  a greater or less  degree.  The best method of
 determining the value of the various species, is,  probably, by the degree
 of bitterness in  the  bark.  Among those  which have  been used, are the
 S. Alba, S. Caprea, S. Fragilis, S. Russelliana,  S.  Purpurea, and S.
 Pentandra.   The Weeping Willow or Babylonian  Willow, Salix Baby-
 lonica, is cultivated as an ornamental tree.
  Properties and Uses.—Willow-bark is  tonic and astringent,  and  has
 been employed as a substitute for Peruvian bark in  intermittent fever,
 to which, however, it  is inferior.  In chronic diarrhea and dysentery,
 the tonic and  astringent combination of  the willow, renders  it  very
 eligible.   It  may be given  in substance, in doses of  one drachm of the
 powder, repeated as indicated ; or of the decoction, one  or two  fluid-
 ounces, four  or five times a day.  The decoction has also proved effica-
 cious as a local  application to foul and indolent ulcers.
  Salix Nigra, Black, or Pussy Willow, is  a tree growing from fifteen
 to twenty-five feet high, covered with a rough blackish bark, and found
 on the banks of rivers, especially in New York and Pennsylvania.   The
 leaves are narrowly lanceolate,  pointed and tapering at each end, serru-
 late, smooth  and green on both sides; petioles and midveins tomentose.
 The stipules are small, deciduous, dentate; aments erect,  cylindric,
 villous ; scales oblong, very villous,   Sterile aments  three inches long;
glands of  the sterile flowers two, large, and  deeply two or three cleft.
 Stamens four to six,  often but three in  the  upper scales; filaments
 bearded  at base.   Ovary pedicellate, smooth, ovoid  ; style very short;
 stigmas bifid.  The  branches are pale yellow,  and brittle at base, and are 
838
Materia  Medica.
much used for the manufacture of baskets and other kinds of wicker-
work.   The  bark  of black or  pussy willow, is  recommended  as  a
poultice in gangrene, and as an external application to foul and indolent
ulcers, in which it  stands  unrivaled.  It is made by  simmering the
powdered bark in cream.   It has also been successfully used  in various
swellings of the neck.  Internally, the root is a bitter tonic, effectual in
intermittents.   Some have  highly recommended it in asthma and gout.
A decoction of the  black  willow buds or aments is useful in gangrene,
taken internally, and applied locally;  and drank freely it proves a pow-
erful  anaphrodisiac, suppressing venereal desires for a long time, and is
highly recommended in the treatment of spermatorrhea.
                             SALICIN.
                               Salicin.
               THE  ACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF  THE WILLOW.
  Preparation. — Several processes are given  for  the preparation  of
Salicin.  Merck obtained 251 grains from sixteen ounces of the bark and
young twigs,  by the following process : Treat a boiling concentrated
decoction of the  bark with litharge, until  it becomes nearly colorless;
this removes the gum, tannin and extractive from the liquid, the presence
of which would impede the crystallization of the salicin, while at the
same time a portion of the oxide is dissolved, probably in union with the
salicin.   To separate this portion of oxide, sulphuric acid is first added,
and then sulphuret of barium, and the liquor is filtered and evaporated.
Salicin is deposited,  and may be purified by  repeated solution and crys-
tallization.   Erdmann obtained 300 grains of  salicin,  from sixteen ounces
of the bark of Salix Pentandra.   Sixteen ounces of the bark are mace-
rated for twenty-four hours in a mixture of four quarts of water, and two
ounces of lime, and the whole  is then boiled for half an hour.   This
process is repeated twice with the residue.   The decoctions are  mixed,
allowed  to become clear by subsidence, the  liquor poured off, and con-
centrated to a quart;  this concentrated liquid is  then  digested  with
eight ounces of ivory-black, filtered, and evaporated to dryness.  The
extract in powder  is then exhausted with spirit containing 28 per cent.
of alcohol, and the tincture evaporated, or the spirit distilled off,  so that
the salicin  may crystallize.   It may be purified by again  dissolving,
treating  with  ivory-black, and crystallizing.   Another  method is  as
follows:—Willow-bark is boiled with caustic lime in water; the decoction
is filtered, and sulphate of zinc added so long as it produces a precipi-
tate.  The liquid having been again filtered, is  evaporated to  the  con-
sistence  of  an extract, and  the residue is treated with alcohol.  The
tincture thus obtained, if carefully evaporated, yields crystals of salicin,
which may be purified by washing with a saturated solution of the same
principle in cold water. 
Salvia  Officinalis.
839
   History.—Salicin, when pure, is white, forming minute, shining, rect-
 angular crystals, permanent in the air, inodorous, of a persistent bitter
 taste with the peculiar  aromatic  flavor of the bark, soluble in twenty
 parts of temperate water,  and also soluble in alcohol, but insoluble in
 ether or oil of turpentine.   It is a neutral body and is not precipitated
 by any reagent.   Concentrated sulphuric acid decomposes it, forming a
 new compound  of a permanent bright-red color, called Rutulin.  Dis-
 tilled with bichromate of potassa and sulphuric acid, it yields formic and
 carbonic acids, hyduret of salicyle, and a resinous  matter.  Hyduret of
 salicyle, or salicylous acid, is an oily colorless liquid, having a fragrant
 aromatic  odor, and  a burning taste.  Its specific  gravity is  1.1731, it
 boils at about 380°, and its formula is Cu Hs  04, H=Sa H.   With bases
 it forms salicylurets, water  being separated.  It may be  obtained by
 distilling one part of salicin, one part of bichromate of potassa, two and
 a  half parts of sulphuric  acid, and twenty  parts  of water,  together.
 The salicin  is dissolved in part of the water,  and the acid  diluted with
 the rest.  The mixture is then made in a retort, and after  the effer-
 vescence which takes place is over, the  whole is distilled, and yields the
 hyduret, to the amount of  one-fourth of the salicin employed.   By con-
 tact with  synaptase, salicin  is decomposed, being resolved into grape-
 sugar  and a  new body called Saligenine;  this  latter,  boiled  with a
 diluted acid, or heated beyond its melting point, is changed into a white,
 tasteless, insoluble, resinous powder, named Saliretin.  The formula of
 salicin is C26 His Ou.
   Properties and  Uses.—Salicin  is tonic, antiperiodic,  and  febrifuge ;
 and may be used  as  a  substitute for quinia, to which,  however, it is
 slightly inferior.   It is, however, less likely to offend  the stomach and
affect the  nervous  system,  for which properties it may be administered
in cases where  cinchonism would be produced by the exhibition  of
quinia.   It is often employed to  adulterate  quinia with,  and may be
detected by sulphuric acid, which will turn the  Salicin red, even  in
minute quantity.   The dose of salicin is from two to ten grains to  be
repeated three or four times a day; three doses of six grains each, have
been known to cut short  intermittent fevers in one day.
   Off. Prep.—Salicin ; Quiniae et Saliciniae Tartras.
                     SALVIA OFFICINALIS.
                                Sage.
         Nat.  Ord.—Lamiaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Diandria Monogynia.
                            THE  LEAVES.
  Description.—Salvia Officinalis or Garden Sage is a perennial, shrubby
plant, about two feet in hight, with a quadrangular, pubescent, branch-
ing stem.  The Imves are opposite, petiolate, ovate-lanceolate, crenulate, 
840
Materia Medica.
 wrinkled, of a grayish-green color, sometimes tinged with red or purple;
 the loAvermost tomentose beneath.   The fiowers are blue, variegated with
 white and purple, and arranged in long, terminal spikes, composed of
 distant whorls, each  composed of  few flowers, and  accompanied  with
 sessile, ovate, acuminate and  deciduous bracts, which are membranous
 and striated at  the  base.  The  calyx  is  campanulate, membranous,
 colored,  striated, downy, and bilabiate; the upper lip is  three-toothed,
 the lower bifid; all the teeth  subulate, acuminate.   The  corolla  is two
 or three  times as long as the calyx, with a large projecting tube,  ringed
 in the inside, and bilabiate; the upper lip is  arched and  concave, and
 the lower one divided into three rounded lobes, of which  the middle  is
 the largest, the lateral ones  reflexed.   The stamens are  affixed  to short
 pedicels  transversely  about their middle.
   History.—Sage  is indigenous to the South of  Europe, and is  exten-
 sively cultivated  in gardens in this  country, where it flowers in June, at
 which time  the leaves and  tops which are officinal, should be collected,
 and dried in a shady place.  They have a strong, fragrant odor, and a
 warm, bitterish, aromatie, somewhat astringent taste,  which are due to
 the presence of  an abundance of volatile oil containing considerable
 camphor, and which may  be  obtained by distillation  with water.  It
 imparts its virtues to boiling water in infusion,  but more readily to alco-
 hol.  The infusion becomes  black  on the addition of sulphate of iron.
 Numerous other  species have similar  properties  as  the  S. Sclarea or
 Clarry, a native of Southern Europe, which is said  to be antispasmodic
 and  balsamic.   Also the S.  Horminum, S. Bengalensis of India, S.
 Pomifera of Greece, etc.
   Properties and  Uses.—Sage is feebly tonic and astringent, expectorant,
 diaphoretic, and having properties  common to  aromatics.  An  infusion
 is  beneficial in flatulence connected with gastric debility, and will, it is
 stated, prove efficacious in checking the exhausting sweats of hectic fever;
 it may likewise be  used warm, as  an anthelmintic, and for the  purpose
 of causing  diaphoresis in  some febrile  diseases.  The warm  infusion
 will  cause active  diuresis by  checking its diaphoretic  tendency.  Dr.
James Anton of Georgia, considers it an excellent remedy for  sperma-
torrhea ;   also a  valuable antiphrodisiac  to  check excessive venereal
desires.    It may be used in connection with moral, hygienic, and other
 aids, if necessary.  Van Swieten  states that a vinous  infusion forms an
excellent fomentation  to the breasts of nurses, when it is desirable to
 check the flow of milk.   The  infusion is  much  used as a gargle for
inflammation and ulceration of the throat, and  relaxed uvula,  either
 alone, or combined with vinegar, honey, alum, or  sumach berries.   The
 oil may be used in small doses as a  carminative and  stimulant;  and
 externally, applied with friction in rheumatism.   Dose of the infusion,
from two to four fluidounces, three  or four times a day; of the powdered
leaves, twenty to thirty grains. 
Sambucus  Canadensis.
841
   Salvia Lyrata, variously named  Wild or Meadow Sage, Lyre-leaved
 Sage, or Cancer Weed is a perennial plant, growing from Canada to Florida
 in shady woods and meadows, and flowering in May and June.  It has
 an erect quadrangular, nearly leafless stem, one or two feet high, branch-
 ing above and covered with hairs pointing downward.   The radical leaves
 are obovate, lyre-shaped or sinuate-pinnatifid, sometimes almost entire,
 and petiolate; the cauline leaves  mostly but one or two  pairs, just below
 the raceme, smaller and  narrower  than the radical.   The flowers are
 blue, in loose and distant whorls of about six, forming a long, interrupted
 raceme; bracts oblong-linear, not longer than  the calyx.  The upper lip
 of the  blue-purple pubescent corolla, short,  straight, not vaulted ;  the
tube much exserted.  The fresh radical leaves of this plant will, it is
positively  asserted,  when bruised,  and  applied  to  Avarts, generally
destroy them; the application to be continued for a day or two, and
renewed every twelve hours.  It is also reputed to have cured cancers.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum  Salviae Compositum.
                   SAMBUCUS  CANADENSIS.
                               Elder.
        Nat.  Ord.—Caprifoliaceas.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Trigynia.
                     THE FLOWERS AND BERRIES.
   Description.—Sambucus Canadensis is an indigenous shrub from six to
ten feet high, with a branching stem, which is covered with a rough gray
bark, and contains a large  spongy pith.  The small branches and  the
leafstalks are very smooth.   The leaves are opposite, pinnate, sometimes
bipinnate, and generally composed  of  three  or four pairs of leaflets,
with an odd one, and which are  oblong-oval, serrate-acuminate, smooth,
shining,  deep-green, with the midribs somewhat pubescent;  the  lower
ones are often trifoliate.  Petioles smooth.  The flowers are small, Avhite,
and disposed  in  loose cymes, which are level-topped and five-parted.
The fruit consists of numerous small, globular berries, which are of a
dark-purple color when ripe.
   Sambucus  Nigra  or European Elder, is larger  than  the preceding,
approaching in size  to that of  a  small  tree.   The stem is much and
irregularly, though  always oppositely branched, and of quick growth ;
after a year's  growth the branches become filled  with  a light spongy
pith, and covered with a  smooth gray bark.   The  bark  of the  stem is
rough and whitish.   The leaves are long, and  composed  of two opposite
pairs of leaflets and an odd terminal one, which  are oval, acuminate,
serrate,  smooth, and  of a shining green color.  The flowers are small,
numerous, cream-colored, and  form  large five-parted cymes;  the  calyx
is  persistent,  five-cleft; the corolla rotate, five-cleft,  with obtuse and
somewhat reflexed segments.  The stamens are  five, subulate, as long 
842
Materia Medica.
 as the corolla, and furnished with roundish, cordate, yellow anthers.
 The ovary is ovate, supporting three obtuse stigmas.  The fruit is a globu-
 lar berry, of a purplish-black color when ripe, on a reddish footstalk.
   History.—Sambucus Canadensis is an indigenous  shrub growing in all
 parts  of  the United States, in low  moist grounds, thickets, and  waste
 places, flowering  from  May to July, and maturing its berries early in
 the  autumn.   S.  Nigra is indigenous to many parts  of Europe, growing
 in situations similar to those  of the  American variety.   The two plants
 possess similar medical properties.   The officinal parts are the flowers,
 the  berries and the inner bark.
   The flowers have a peculiar sweetish odor, very strong  when recent,
 but feeble when  dried; they  are somewhat aromatic, with a bitterish
 taste,  and yield their  properties to hot water in infusion.  The active
 principle probably depends upon a volatile oil,  which is dissipated by
 boiling, but which  maybe obtained by distillation with-  water;  when
 cold it has the consistence of butter.  Water distilled  from the flowers
 contains  ammonia in appreciable quantity.  They contain volatile  oil,
 acrid  resin,  tannin, extractive, etc.
   The berries are nearly inodorous, with a sweetish, acidulous taste;
 the  juice expressed from them is susceptible of fermentation, and  forms
, a vinous  liquor.   It is of a purplish  color, and may be used as a delicate
 test for acids and alkalies.  Acids color it bright  red, and alkalies violet;
 and acetate of lead precipitates its coloring principle blue.   The berries
 contain malic acid, a little citric acid, sugar, pectin,  and coloring matter.
   The inner bark is  greenish-white, inodorous, of a  sweetish  taste at
 first, but subsequently  slightly bitter,  acrid, and nauseous, and  imparts
 its properties to water or alcohol.   Its active principle is stated by Simon
 to be  a soft  resin, which may be  obtained by exhausting the  powdered
 bark with alcohol, filtering the tincture, evaporating  to  the consistence
 of syrup, then adding  ether,  which  dissolves the active  matter,  and
 finally evaporating to the consistence of a thick extract.  Twenty grains
 of this will purge and vomit actively.  The bark contains valerianic acid,
 traces of volatile oil, resin, albumen, an acid sulphurous fat, wax, chloro-
 phylle, tannic acid,  grape-sugar, gum, extractive, starch, pectin,  and
 various salts.
   Properties and Uses.—In  warm infusion  the flowers are diaphoretic,
 and gently  stimulant; in cold infusion  they are diuretic, alterative,  and
 cooling,  and may be used in  all diseases requiring  such  action, as in
 hepatic derangements of children, erysipelas, erysipelatous  diseases,  etc.
 In infusion  with  maidenhair  and beech-drops, they will be found very
 valuable in  all erysipelatous diseases.   The expressed juice  of the berries,
 evaporated to the consistence of a syrup, is a valuable aperient  and alter-
 ative ; one ounce of it will purge.   An infusion of the young  leaf-buds
 are likewise purgative, and  sometimes act with violence.   The flowers 
Sanguinaria Canadensis.
843
and expressed juice of the berries have  been beneficially employed in
rheumatic,  gouty,  eruptive, scrofulous, and  syphilitic diseases.   The
inner green bark is cathartic; an infusion of it  in wine, or the expressed
juice will purge moderately, in doses of from half a fluidounce to a fluid-
ounce ;  large doses produce emesis; in smaller ones it proves an effica-
cious deobstruent, promoting all the fluid secretions, and is much used
in dropsy,  especially  that  following  scarlatina, and  other  febrile  and
exanthematous diseases, as well as in many chronic  diseases.   Beaten
up with lard or cream, it  forms  an excellent discutient ointment, and
which is of much value in  burns, scalds, and  some cutaneous diseases.
The juice of the root in ounce doses, daily, acts as a hydragogue cathar-
tic and diuretic, and will be found valuable in all dropsical affections.
   Off.  Prep. —Aqua Sambuci; Syrupus Sarsaparillae Compositus;  Un-
guentum Sambuci;  Vinum Sambuci.
                 SANGUINARIA  CANADENSIS.
                             Bloodroot.
       Nat. Ord.—Papaveraceas.  Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Monogynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—Bloodroot, or Red Puccoon,  as  it is sometimes called, is
a smooth, herbaceous,  perennial,  indigenous  plant, with a horizontal,
truncate or premorse root or rhizoma, giving off a few fibers, and abound-
ing in a bright-orange juice ;  it is  about as  thick  as the  finger, two or
three inches  long,  fleshy, reddish-brown externally, and brighter red
internally.  From each bud  of the root-stalk there springs a single,
large, smooth leaf, and a scape  about six  inches high, with  a  single
flower;  and as they arise, the folded-leaf envelops  the flower-bud, and
rolls back as the latter expands.   The leaf is erect, supported on a long
channeled petiole, cordate or subreniform,  with large roundish lobes
separated by  obtuse sinuses, yellowish-green on the upper surface, paler
on  the  under, and strongly marked by  orange-colored veins.   The
scape is erect, round, and  smooth.  The flower is  white, scentless, of a
quadrangular outline, and of  short duration.  The  calyx formed of two
concave, ovate,  obtuse  sepals, which fall  off as  soon  as the corolla
expands; the  corolla is composed of eight (or more, by  cultivation)
petals, which  are spreading,  ovate, obtuse,  concave, white,  but some-
times slightly tinged with rose or purple.  The  stamens  are  numerous,
short, with oblong,  orange-colored anthers.  The ovary is oblong,  and
compressed,  and  supports a sessile,  persistent, somewhat two-lobed
stigma.  Style wanting.   The capsule is oblong,  acute at each end, tAvo-
valved,  and  contains  numerous, obovate, dark  shining red seeds, half
surrounded by a white  arillus.   The whole  plant is pervaded  with an
acrid orange-colored juice, which is in greatest abundance in the root. 
844
Materia Medica.
   History.—Bloodroot is found in most parts of the United States, grow-
ing in woods, groves, and on shaded banks, in rich light  soil;  it is  one
of the earliest and most beautiful spring-flowers of this country, appear-
ing in March and April.  When dried, bloodroot is  in pieces from one to
three inches in  leno-th, from  three to nine lines in thickness, somewhat
flattened, much wrinkled and twisted, often furnished with abrupt oftsets
and numerous short fibers, of a reddish-brown color externally, with a
spongy, uneven fracture, and of a bright-orange  color internally,  but
which  becomes  dull brown  by long exposure.  It forms a  brownish
orange-red powder.  It  has a faint virose odor, and a bitterish, very
highly and persistently acrid  taste.  It imparts its properties to boiling
water or alcohol.  The root should be kept in a dry place; age or mois-
ture impairs its activity.  An  alkaloid  and resinoid are  prepared  from
the root, the former termed Sanguinarina, the latter Sanguinarin.
   Properties and Uses.—Bloodroot  is an acrid emetic, with narcotic and
stimulant properties ; it is also expectorant, sudorific, alterative, emmena-
gogue, tonic, antiseptic, detergent, escharotic, and  errhine, according to
the mode in which  it is employed.  It is  a very active  agent, and is
capable of exercising a powerful influence on the system.  When given
in small doses it stimulates the digestive organs, and accelerates the  cir-
culation ; in larger doses, it occasions nausea and consequent depression
of the  pulse;  and in a full dose, it produces active vomiting.   In over-
doses it causes violent  emesis, a  burning  sensation in the   stomach,
tormenting thirst,  faintness, vertigo, dimness of  vision,  alarming pros-
tration,  and  even death.   It has been  successfully used in pulmonary
and  hepatic  affections, catarrh, croup, pertussis,  typhoid pneumonia,
rheumatism, jaundice, dyspepsia, and hydrothorax, either as an emetic,
nauseant, or alterative.   In torpid  conditions of the liver it is very valu-
able,  and it  has also proved beneficial in  scrofula, amenorrhea,  and
dysentery.   Used as a snuff, either alone or combined with  bayberry
bark, it is beneficial in coryza, some headaches, and is recommended as
a remedy for nasal polypus.    Applied to fungous growths, indolent and
ill-conditioned ulcers, and fleshy excrescences, the powder often proves
of utility, removing  the fungous growth by its  escharotic action,  and
creating a new and healthy energy  in the ulcers.   An infusion  made in
vinegar has been found valuable in several obstinate cutaneous diseases,
tetter, ringworm, and warts.   Dose of the powder, as an emetic, from
ten to twenty grains; of  the  tincture, from  twenty to sixty drops; as a
stimulant or expectorant, from three to five grains; as an alterative, from
half a  grain  to  two grains.   It may be used in powder,  pills,  tincture,
or extract.
   Off. Prep.—Acetum  Sanguinariae; Extractum  Sanguinariee Hydro-
alcoholicum; Mistura Sanguinariae  Composita;  Pilulae  Taraxaci Com-
positae;  Pulvis Ipecacuanhae  Compositus;  Pulvis Lobeliae Compositus; 
Sanguinarina.
845
Pulvis  Myricae  Compositus;  Sanguinarin;   Sanguinarina;  Tinctura
Lobeliae Composita; Tinctura Sanguinariae; Tinctura Sanguinariae Ace-
tata ;  Tinctura Sanguinariae  Composita; Tinctura Viburni Composita.
                         SANGUINARINA.
                            Sanguinarina.
               THE  ALKALOID PRINCIPLE OF BLOODROOT.
   Preparation. — Digest  six ounces of finely  powdered bloodroot in
twelve ounces of diluted muriatic or acetic acid;  at the expiration of ten
days, filter, and add to the  filtered tincture  two and  a half ounces of
aqua ammonia,  and pour the mixture into a vessel containing tAvo pints
of distilled water; filter and collect the brown matter which subsides, and
carefully wash it with a  small  quantity of distilled water, and remove
the coloring by means of  purified charcoal.   Then  treat it with boiling
alcohol, which dissolves the sanguinarina, and cautiously evaporate.  Or
it may be prepared by forming  a strong  ethereal tincture of the  root;
passing through this muriatic acid gas, drying the  precipitated muriate
which is insoluble  in  ether,  dissolving it in hot water,  filtering, precipi-
tating by ammonia, drying the precipitate, dissolving it in ether, decolor-
izing by animal charcoal,  again precipitating by means  of muriatic acid
gas, and decomposing the muriate as before.
   History.—Pure sanguinarina is  a white, pearly substance,  of  an acrid
taste, sparingly soluble in water, soluble  in  ether, and very soluble in
alcohol.  Exposure to the  air changes it to a light yellow color.   It forms
soluble salts with the acids, which have some shade of red or scarlet,
and are acrid and pungent to the taste.   Its formula is NC37 Hi6 Os.
   Properties and Uses.—Same as the bloodroot.  One grain of this alka-
loid may be thoroughly triturated with tAventy or thirty grains of sugar
of milk, and  divided  into ten  or  thirty doses, according to the  effect
desired.   However,  it is  not much used  in practice,  the Sanguinarin
being preferred.
                          SANGUINARIN.
                            Sanguinarin.
             THE ALKA-RESINOID  PRINCIPLE OF BLOODROOT.
   Preparation. — Take  of coarsely pulverized bloodroot,  any  quan-
tity,  alcohol a sufficient  quantity to make a saturated tincture.   When
made,  filter  the  tincture  and  add distilled water  equal  in quantity
to that of the  alcohol;  distil  off  the alcohol,  and allow the residue
to rest for  several  days,  or  until  precipitation  ceases.  Remove the
supernatant  liquid,  wash  the precipitate  in a  fresh  supply of dis-
tilled water, dry it  carefully  by a moderate heat, and  pulverize for 
846
Materia Medica.
use.  As thus prepared it consists of a portion of the alkaloid Sanguin-
arina in combination with the Sanguinarin, and which is generally sold
and used under the name of  Sanguinarin.
  History.—As thus  prepared, sanguinarin is of a deep reddish-brown
color, a peculiar odor, of a bitterish, rather nauseous taste, followed by
a sense of pungency in the fauces, which is persistent, soluble in boiling
alcohol, insoluble in water, and does not coalesce, unless it is heated or
exposed to moisture.  It is fusible, forming a black shining mass, and is
also inflammable.  It is partially soluble in  alkaline solutions, acetic acid,
and ether.
  Properties and Uses.—This article  is prepared by W. S. Merrell, and
is an elegant and valuable, as well  as important  Eclectic agent.  It
possesses properties similar to bloodroot, and acts as a tonic, hepatic, and
alterative.   One or two grains, repeated every two hours, diminishes the
velocity of  the  pulse in from  eight to  twelve hours;  after which it only
requires a small dose  two or three times a day, to maintain its influence;
and in effecting this  sedative action on the arterial system, it does not
produce any unfavorable cerebral results.  It may be  employed with
advantage  in the treatment  of pulmonary diseases, influenza, hooping-
cough, rheumatism, jaundice, etc.   In combination with leptandrin and
podophyllin it  forms  a medicine, which for safety  and efficacy in  the
treatment of hepatic diseases  is superior to any other remedies yet known
in medicine; the combination may be formed  into pills with extract of
rhubarb, hydro-alcoholic extract of cimicifuga, or of bitter root.  Com-
bined with equal parts of caulophyllin, and hydro-alcoholic extract of
cimicifuga, it will be found very efficacious in amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea,
and other functional disorders of the female generative system.  It may
also be used  as  a sternutatory, and  as a local application to indolent
ulcers.  When used  alone it should be triturated with sugar, sugar of
milk,  or  some other article.  As a tonic, the dose is from one-fourth of
a grain to a grain, three or four times a day; as a hepatic and alterative,
from one-half of a grain to two grains.
                      SANGUIS DRACONIS.
                          Dragon's  Blood.
                     RESIN  OF CALAMUS DRACO.
  Description.—Calamus Draco is a small palm growing in the Molucca
Islands, and other parts of the East Indies. While the plants are young,
the trunk is erect, and resembles an elegant, slender palm tree, armed with
innumerable  dark-colored, flattened  elastic spines, often disposed in ob-
lique rows, with their bases united.   By age they become scandent, and
overrun trees to a great extent.   The leaves are pinnate, their sheaths and
petioles armed as above  described.   The leaflets are  single,  alternate, 
Sanguis  Draconis.
847
ensiform, margins remotely armed with stiff, slender bristles, as are also
the ribs ; from  twelve  to eighteen inches long and about three-fourths
of an  inch  broad.   Spadix  of  the  female  hermaphrodite  inserted by
means of a short, armed petiole  on the mouth of the sheath opposite to
the leaf, oblong, decompound,  resembling  a common oblong panicle.
Spathes several, one  to  each of  the  four or  five primary ramifications
of the spadix, lanceolate,  leathery;  all  smooth except the  exterior  or
lower  one which is  armed on  the  outside.   Calyx turbinate,  ribbed,
mouth three-toothed, by the  swelling of the ovary split into three por-
tions, and in this manner  adhering, together  with the  corolla,  to the
ripe  berries.   Corolla  three-cleft; divisions  ovate-lanceolate, twice  as
long as the calyx, permanent.  Filaments six,  very broad, and inserted
into the base of the  corolla.   Anthers filiform, and  seemingly abortive.
Ovary oval;  style short; stigma three-cleft;  divisions revolute, glandu-
lar on the inside.  Berry round, pointed, of the size of a cherry.
   History.—On the  surface of the ripe fruit, an exudation forms, which
is removed by rubbing, or shaking in a bag, or by exposure  to the vapor
of boiling water, or,  finally, by decoction.  The first two modes procure
the finest  resin, which comes in small oval masses, from a  half inch to
two inches in diameter, covered with  the leaves of the plant, and arranged
together in a row like beads when strung; sometimes it is found in cylin-
drical sticks, about a foot and a half  in length, and  from two to six lines
in diameter, thickly  covered with palm  leaves, and bound  round with
slender strips of cane.  In these  forms it is opake,  pulverizable, and dark-
reddish-brown, yielding a fine scarlet powder.  It also comes in tears or
small irregular fragments, in the form of a reddish powder.   WThen the
fruit is boiled in water, it yields an inferior resin,  which is in flat circular
cakes  about  an inch thick, and two or three inches in diameter, and
which  affords a fine red powder.   That in  large  disks, six to  twelve
inches in  diameter  by an  inch  thick, is a very inferior article, and is
usually mixed Avith pieces of the shell, stem, and other impurities.
   Dragon's Blood is hard, opake, brittle, with a smooth, shining fracture,
of a deep red color,  inodorous, tasteless, insoluble in water,  but soluble
in alcohol, ether, and the fixed or  volatile oils.   It  is composed of 90.7
parts of a red resin, called Draconin, 2.0 of fixed oil, 3.0 of benzoic acid,
1.6 of oxalate of lime,  and 3.7 of phosphate of lime.
   Properties and  Uses.—Dragon's  Blood was formerly considered  an
astringent, and  used in doses of  from ten to thirty  grains in passive
hemorrhages, diarrhea, etc.   It is  sometimes  used to impart color to
plasters, in  dentifrice preparations, and  as an  ingredient of paints and
varnishes.   It  is an  ingredient of  the  following  preparation,  which,
whether deservedly or not, has  acquired much reputation in the treat-
ment of syphilis: Take of Dragon's Blood and Colocynth,  of each, two
drachms, Gamboge  half an  ounce,  Sweet Spirits of Nitre  and Balsam 
848
Materia  Medica.
Copaiba, of each, two ounces.  Mix the first three articles in a mortar,
and then add to them three gills of boiling water; keep it hot, and stir
for one hour, then cool, and after uniting the last two,  add  them to the
first mixture, stirring for some time.   The dose is a half ounce to  pro-
duce free catharsis;  after which, a drachm, two or three times a day,  to
keep up a gentle action on  the bowels.  Notwithstanding the  character
of this compound, it is said to have effected cures in very severe forms
of the disease.
                  SANICULA MARILANDICA.

                              Sanicle.

          Nat.  Ord.—Apiaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—This is an  indigenous, umbelliferous,  perennial herb,
sometimes known by the name of Blacksnake Root, with a stem from
one to three feet  high, smooth, furrowed,  and dichotomously branched.
The leaves are from  three  to five-parted, digitate, mostly radical, on
petioles  from six to twelve inches long; segments from two to four inches
long, half as wide, oblong, irregularly  and  mucronately toothed.  Cauline
leaves few, nearly sessile.   The flowers are mostly barren, Avhite, some-
times yellowish;  the sterile flowers on slender pedicels;  the fertile ones
sessile.   Segments of the calyx, entire.   Involucres six-leaved,  serrate.
Umbels often proliferous; umbellets capitate.   Fruits several in each urn-
bellet, and densely clothed with hooked bristles.
  History.—Sanicle is common to the  United States and Canada, and is
found in low woods and thickets flowering  in June.  The root is the part
used; it is fibrous,  and has  an  aromatic smell  and taste.   Water or
alcohol extracts its properties.
  Properties and  Uses.—Sanicle is  nervine, tonic, astringent, and slightly
anodyne; it is very analogous to  valerian,  and may be substituted  for
it.  It has been used with advantage  as a domestic remedy in intermit-
tent fever, sore-throat, croup, hives, and other cutaneous  diseases.  It
is very efficacious in chorea, in doses of half a drachm of the powdered
root, three times  a day, to children eight  or ten years of age.   It has
also been beneficially employed in various  other nervous affections. The
decoction of it is  said to  be valuable in  gonorrhea, dysentery, passive
hemorrhages,  and leucorrhea, administered in doses of from two to four
fluidounces, and  repeated  three or four  times a  day.   The  decoction
used  freely, at the same time bathing the wound with it, is reputed a
certain cure for the bites of poisonous snakes. 
Sapo.
849
                                SAPO.
                                 Soap.
   Soaps embrace all those compounds which result from the reaction of
 salifiable bases with oils and  fats.   Oils  and fats consist of two  solid
 principles, and one liquid.   Of the former, one is called Stearin, and is
 the chief ingredient of solid fats, as suet and tallow, the other is called
 Margarin, being the principal ingredient  of soft fats, as lard ; and the
 liquid Olein characterizes the fluid fats or oils.   Stearin is considered to
 be a combination of stearic acid and glycerin, or an acid stearate of the
 oxide  of glycerile ;  stearic  acid  is a firm, white solid,  fusible at 167°,
 forming  brilliant white needles  on  cooling, greasy to the  touch, pulve-
 rizable, soluble in alcohol, very soluble in ether, but insoluble in water.
 It burns like Avax, and is  used in  the  formation of improved candles.
 Margarin is viewed  as a combination of margaric acid and  glycerin, or a
 margarate of glycerin ; margaric acid is a  white solid fat, of distinct acid
 properties, fusible at  140°, very soluble  in hot alcohol, and in ether,
 and  combines  instantly with alkaline bases.   Olein is a combination  of
 oleic acid and glycerin, or an oleate of oxide of glycerile ;  oleic acid, is a
 colorless oily fluid at temperatures above 57°, but when once melted, it
 does not solidify  until  cooled to 40°, and when  soluble it does not  melt
 until heated to 57°, and crystallizes in needles a little below 32°.  It
 rapidly absorbs oxygen from the air, and becomes brown, is insoluble in
 water, soluble  in alcohol and ether, lighter than water,  and has a slight
 smell and a pungent taste.  It  forms salts with  bases.  The theory  of
 saponification is,  that these  fatty acids unite with the  alkaline base and
 form soaps, which are stearates, margarates, or oleates, as the case may
 be, of the particular base  which has been added, while at the same  time
 a non-saponifiable, sweet principle  is set free,  called glycerin,—which
 see under its proper head " Glycerina."   When these fatly acids com-
 bine Avith soda, potassa,  or ammonia,  they form  soluble  soaps ;  when
 united with earths and metallic oxides, as in the case of lead-plaster,
lime-liniment, etc., the soaps formed are insoluble.  Among the soluble
 soaps,  those are the hardest which contain the most stearate,  and  those
 the softest which have a  predominance  of oleate, while  an  excess  of
 margarate ranks  in solidity  between the two ; again, those soaps formed
 with soda are the hardest and least soluble, while the  reverse is the case
 with those formed with potassa.   Consequently, the  hardest and least
 soluble  soap is a stearate of soda, while the softest and most  soluble, is
 an oleate of potassa.
  The theory of soap-making  is very simple, depending on the affinity
 between  the alkalies and  the fat acids ; on the solubility in water of the
 alkaline  stearates, margarates, oleates, etc.; and, finally, on  the  power
 of a certain amount  of free alkali or sea-salt, to  coagulate the soap, and
render it insoluble in  the liquid in which it swims,  and which in fact
            54 
850
Materia  Medica.
runs off its surface as water does off the  surface of fat, while yet the
soap retains perfectly its solubility in pure  water.
  Preparation.—The fat or oil is boiled with a solution of caustic alkali,
by which it becomes gradually dissolved in the water, if there be not too
great an excess of alkali present, until a ropy or  gelatinous solution is
formed, capable of being drawn out  into long clear threads.  After the
soap is fully made, it is then to be separated from the remaining excess
of alkali, glycerin, and water.   This  may be accomplished by boiling the
solution  down, until a strong alkaline solution is obtained, in which the
soap is insoluble,  and it then  rises to the  surface in a soft, half-melted
state.  As soon as it ceases to froth  in boiling it is ladled out into molds
or frames, and on cooling  forms soap, which is cut into bars by means
of a wire.  Another method of causing the  soap to separate  from the
water  in which it is dissolved, is  to add  a very strong alkaline ley, in
which the soap is insoluble, or common salt Avhich at once coagulates
the soap, converting it into a soap of soda,  if it be a soap of potassa.  In
either case the glycerin is carried  off in  the mother liquid.   As first
separated, the soap is called Grain soap, which may be purified by dis-
solving it in an alkaline ley, and separating it by common salt.  During
this process the impurities  subside, the soap combines Avith more water,
and  becomes weaker, but purer and whiter.  If grain soap be not puri-
fied it forms marbled  soap, the marbled  appearance being produced  by
adding to the soap as soon as it is completely separated, a fresh portion
of ley, and immediately afterward a solution of sulphate of iron.  The
black oxide of iron is precipitated, giving  rise to  dark-colored streaks,
which, by exposure to the  air, become red, in consequence of the conver-
sion of the black into the sesquioxide of iron.
  History. — There are  three  varieties of soap,  which are  officinal,
namely, Spanish or Castile soap, Sapo Durus, which  is made with soda
and  olive  oil.  Common  soap, Sapo  Vulgaris, made with  soda  and a
concrete  animal oil;  it is white, and usually formed from barilla and
tallow, and is used as  the only proper soap for making opodeldoc.   Also
Soft soap,  Sapo Mollis, made with  olive oil and potassa.  It is likewise
made  Avith other oils,  as oil from various seeds, fish  oil, and much of it
in our own  country is  made with  refuse  fat  and grease, and a  ley of
wood ashes.  It is a  potassa soap,  completely dissolved in an alkaline
solution  in excess.   White Castile soap is  a mixed  margarate and oleate
of soda;  common  soap is a stearate of soda, and soft soap is  a mixed
margarate and oleate  of potassa.  Beside  these, there are other varieties
used more or less  for  medicinal or economical  purposes,  as follows :
Sapo  Amygdalinus,  or Amygdaline soap, made by adding to oil of
almonds twenty-one ounces, in small proportions and stirring frequently,
a solution of  caustic soda,  (at 1.334 sp. gr.) ten  ounces;  leave  the
mixture for  some days at a  temperature  of 64°  to 68°  F.,  stirring 
Sapo.
851
occasionally; then put into molds, until sufficiently solid.  It should be
exposed to the air for two months, before  being used.  Sapo Animalis,
or Beef's marrow soap, made by boiling beef-marrow with two parts of
water, and half a part of soda  ley;  when saponified, add  one-fifth of
common  salt, stir, remove the soap  from  the  surface,  and  place it  in
molds.   Sapo  Terebinthinae, or  Starkey's soap,  made by triturating
together  equal  parts of subcarbonate of potassa, oil  of turpentine, and
Venice turpentine,  until  they  combine.    Sapo Windsor,  or Windsor
soap,  a scented soda soap, made of one part of olive  oil, and nine parts
of tallow.  Likewise  Palm  soap,  made of palm oil  and soda, and  to
which tallow is added to increase  its  firmness.  Transparent  soap, pre-
pared by saponifying kidney fat with soda free from foreign salts, drying
the resulting soap, dissolving it in alcohol, filtering and evaporating the
solution,  and running it into molds when sufficiently concentrated.   It is
yellow or yellowish-brown, and  preserves its transparency after drying.
Common  Yellow or Rosin soap derives its peculiarities  from an admixture
of rosin,  and a little  palm oil with the tallow employed, the oil  being
added to improve its color.
  The several varieties of soap have  the same  general  properties, as—
a peculiar smell, a slightly alkaline taste, and being more readily soluble
in hot than cold water, or alcohol.  With alcohol it forms the Tincture of
soap, which is a convenient  test for  discovering lime in natural waters.
Soap is heaAder than water, melts, swells up and is decomposed by heat,
and renders grease  soluble in water.  Acids give a milky appearance to
an aqueous solution of soap,  in consequence of setting free the oily acids,
which become diffused through the water.
  Soap  is  adulterated  by  lime,  gypsum,  gelatin,  etc., which may be
knoAvn by its imperfect solubility in  alcohol.   Good white Castile Soap,
is white,  inodorous, entirely soluble in alcohol  or water, is incapable  of
imparting an oily stain to paper, should not feel greasy, nor groAv moist,
but should become dry Avhen exposed to the air, without exhibiting any
saline efflorescence.   Marbled castile soap is not so pure as the above.
Soap is incompatible with all acids, which  decompose  it  by  uniting with
its alkali, and setting free its  fatty acids; also with earths and earthy and
metallic salts, Avhich form an insoluble soap with their base, and a saline
combination between their acid and the alkali  of the soap.   It may  be
used in hard water, when this has had  all its  lime precipitated, by the
addition of sufficient carbonate  of soda or carbonate of potassa, in the
form of carbonate of  lime.
  Properties and Uses.—Soap is antacid, antilithic, and in some measure
laxative;  it is usually given in combination with  rhubarb in  dyspepsia,
torpor of the liver, and constipation.  It has a tendency to  correct the
astringency of the rhubarb;  and when combined with  aloes, gamboge,
or other resinous cathartics, it modifies in  a greater or less degree their
irritating properties.  Being easily decomposed by the weakest  acids, 
852
Materia  Medica.
which unite with its alkali, it has proved beneficial in acid stomach, and
as a remedy in the uric acid diathesis, but it  does not dissolve calculi.
It has also been recommended in solution as a  remedy for poisoning
with  the concentrated acids, in which case it should be  administered
without  delay  every two  or three  minutes,  until chalk,  lime, or the
bicarbonates of potassa or soda can be had.   Externally, it is  a stimu-
lating discutient, and has been used by friction, or in the form of plaster,
in sprains,  bruises,  and various tumors.  A strong solution of soft soap
forms a  valuable  enema  in  constipation, especially when  arising  from
hardened feces  in the rectum.  In the  preparation of  pills,  liniments, or
plasters,  care  must be taken  not to  associate  soap  with  a substance
which may be decomposed by it.   The dose of soap, is from five grains
to half a drachm, in the form of pill.
   Off. Prep, of Common Soap.—Linimentum  Cajuputi Compositum ;
Linimentum Opii; Linimentum Saponis Camphoratum.
   Off. Prep, of Castile Soap.—Pilulae Aloes Compositae; Pilulae Podo-
phyllini Compositae ; Pilulae Saponi Compositae.
   Off. Prep, of Soft Soap.—Unguentum Sulphuris Compositum.
                   SAPONARIA  OFFICINALIS.
                              Soapwort.
        Nat. Ord.—Caryophyllaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Decandria Digynia.
                       THE ROOT AND LEAVES.
   Description.—This is a  stout perennial herbaceous plant, sometimes
known by the name of Bouncing Bet, with a stem from one to two feet in
hight.  The  leaves are lanceolate, inclining  to  elliptical,  very  acute,
smooth, two  or three  inches long, and about  one-third as wide.   The
flowers  are many, large,  flesh-colored or pale pink, often double and
disposed in paniculate  fascicles.  The  calyx is cylindrical, and slightly
downy.   Petals five, unguiculate ; crowns of the petals linear.  Stamens
ten ; styles two  ; capsule oblong, one-celled.
   History.—Soapwort is found growing in  Europe and the United States,
by roadsides  and in waste  places, flowering in July and August.   The
root and leaves are the parts employed ; they are inodorous, of a  bitter-
ish and  somewhat sweetish taste, succeeded by a persistent pungency,
and imparting a slight sense of numbness to the tongue.  When agitated
with water they form a lather like soap-suds, which property together
with its medical virtues, depend upon a  peculiar principle termed saponin,
which constitutes  about thirty-four per  cent., of the  dried  root, the
remainder  being gum, bassorin, resin,  extractive, lignin  and water.
Water or alcohol extracts  the properties of the root and leaves.   Sapo-
nin is obtained, though  not absolutely pure,  by treating  the watery 
Sarracenia Purpurea.
853
extract with  alcohol, and evaporating; it is brown, somewhat translu-
cent, or,  white  and  amorphous, hard, brittle, with  a sweetish taste at
first, then styptic, and finally, followed by a sense of acrimony in the
fauces.   It is soluble in water and officinal alcohol, but not in anhydrous
alcohol, ether, or the volatile  oils,  When acted upon by alkalies, it is
converted into saponic acid, C26 IL3  O12.   Its aqueous solution froths
when agitated, like a solution of  soap.
   Properties  and Uses. — Soapwort is tonic, diaphoretic, and alterative;
and  forms a valuable remedy in  the  treatment of  syphilitic, scrofulous
and  cutaneous  diseases, also in  jaundice, liver-affections, rheumatism
and gonorrhea.   It is generally used  in decoction ;  although an extract,
or the inspissated juice will be found  equally efficacious.  Dose  of the
decoction, from two to four fluidounces, three  or  four times a day ; of
the extract, or inspissated juice,  from ten to twenty grains.  Saponin,
may be used as a substitute for the root, and will likewise  be found a
powerful sternutatory.  Dose, from two to six grains.
                   SARRACENIA  PURPUREA.
                             Sarracenia.
      Nat. Ord.—Sarraceniaceae.  Sex.  Syst.—Polyandria Monogynia.
                             THE  ROOT.
   Description.—This plant, also known as Side-saddle Flower, Fly-trap,
and Huntsman's Cup, is an indigenous, perennial plant, of a very curious
character.  The leaves or ascidia are from six to nine inches  long, radi-
cal, short-globose, inflated or cup-form, contracted at the mouth, having
a broad arched lateral wing from half an inch to an inch in  width, and
extended on the outside of the mouth  into a  broad-cordate, erect lamina,
or hood, covered above with  reversed hairs.  The scape is from one  to
two feet in hight, terete, smooth, and  supporting a single, large, purple,
nodding flower.
  History.—This plant owes its strange appearance to a curious pitcher-
shaped  metamorphosis  of the leaf, which resembles very much an old-
fashioned side-saddle ; six of these generally belong to each plant.   The
leaf, which  springs from the root, is formed by a large hollow  tube swell-
ing out in the middle, curved  and diminishing downward till it ends in
a stem,  contracted at the mouth, and furnished with a large  spreading,
heart-shaped  appendage at the top,  which is hairy within, the hairs
pointing downward, so as to cause everything which falls upon the leaf,
to be carried toward the petiole ; a broad wavy wing extends the whole
length on the inside; these lie upon the ground with their mouths turned
upward, so as to  catch  the  water when it falls.   They hold  nearly a
wineglassful,  and are generally filled with  water and  aquatic insects,
which undergo decomposition or a  sort of digestion, and serve as nutri- 
854
Materia Medica.
ment to  the plant.   The  stem rises  direct from the  root, it is  round,
quite smooth, and bears  an elegant,  deeply reddish-purple  terminal
flower, having two  flower-cups; the  external consisting of three small
leaves ; the internal of five egg-shaped, obtuse leaves, shiny, and of a
brownish-purple.  The blossoms are five, guitar-shaped, obtuse, repeat-
edly curved inward and outward,  and finally inflected over the  stigma,
which is broad and spreading, divided at its margin into five  bifid lobes,
alternating with the petals, and  supported on  a  short cylindrical style;
this  is surmounted by the stamens, which are numerous,  having short
threads,  and large two-celled, oblong, yellow anthers attached to them
on the under surface.   In  the yellow-flowered species  of the Southern
States, the bottle is very long, resembling a trumpet, by which name it
is often called.
  The whole  species are water plants, and are found  only in wet mea-
dows, wet boggy places, marshes, mud-lakes, etc., and are found from
Labrador to Florida, flowering in June.   There are several varieties, as
the S. Heterophylla, found in  the swamps at Northampton,  Mass., and
the S. Rubra, S. Flava, S. Variolaris,  S. Drummondii, and S.  Psytta-
cina, which are common to the  South, and all of which, probably, pos-
sess similar medical virtues.  The root is the part used, it has a bitter
and astringent taste, and  yields its  properties  to water.   It contains
coloring  matter, resin, an acid salt of lime,  an  unknown salt, and
lignin.
  Properties and Uses. — The therapeutical  actions of sarracenia,  are
not fully ascertained.   It is supposed to be a stimulating tonic, diuretic,
and laxative ; in connection with Osmunda Regalis  and blue cohosh, it
will form a valuable syrup for chlorosis, all uterine  derangements,  dys-
pepsia, and other gastric difficulties.  An infusion of the leaf has been
found equally available with  that of the root.   The best mode  of em-
ploying it, is not well determined ;  though the powder may be given  in
doses of  from twenty to thirty grains three or four times a day ; and the
infusion from one to three fluidounces.  In relation  to this  plant,  Dr. C.
H. Cleaveland makes the following remarks :
  " During the year 1847, Dr. F. P. Porcher, of South Carolina,  experi-
mented with the  root,  or that portion of the stem which  is below the
surface of the ground; and  he  details  the following results : He thinks
the bitter,  and  astringent principles  of the plant are imperfectly extracted
by water, and that the decoction  is  even  more destitute of these proper-
ties, than the cold infusion.  He made trial of the root, in a recent state,
as well as of the dried  root, on his own  person, and he gives the follow-
ing,  as  the result of  one  of  his  experiments : ' Dec.  4th.  We again
commenced experimenting with it.  It  had  become dry,  having been
rolled into pills of three grains each.  Of these we took sixty (180 grs.),
between  ten  and  twelve  o'clock,   p. m., upon a comparatively  empty
stomach, swallowing them, at intervals,  six or eight at a time. Its  diu- 
Sarracenia Purpurea.
855
retic action in this instance was frequently repeated—the secretion being
increased in quantity, pure, limpid,  and  colorless, with  scarcely any
sediment after -everal hours' standing.
   " ' Its action on the stomach, resembled that following its first employ-
ment, being attended with the same phenomena.   A feeling of emptiness
was produced in the course of an hour.  After retiring to bed, the whole
abdominal  region was  in  a  state of commotion — extending along the
tract of the ascending and  descending colon, all of which appeared  to
participate  in a kind of rolling motion produced by it.  To these, were
added involuntary rumbling sounds, as if the entire alimentary tube was
stimulated, and apparently forewarning a cathartic effect.  We  are led
to believe, that its astringent property presented this result.  There was,
also, tenderness on pressure at the epigastrium.
   " ' The feeling of congestion about the head, with irregularity of the
heart's  action,  which lasted several days, was again observed.   Before
morning, the pulse rose to 100 by the watch — resuming its usual fre-
quency after a time.   We  were  prevented by sleep, which  was much
disturbed,  from ascertaining positively the co-existence of strange im-
pressions on the sensorial  functions.   The general vigor of the digestive
apparatus  was increased.  The  appetite following  the next day  was
unusually active—seeming to demand much more to satisfy its require-
ments;  but there was a sense of pain about the stomach, like  that fol-
lowing inflammation, or that felt in the muscular tissue after a limb has
been overtasked.'
   "In the first experiment, in which Dr. Porcher took 140 grains of
the fresh root,  the  symptoms  produced  were very  similar to those
detailed in  the above quotation — pointing distinctly to the parts of the
system  influenced by  the drug:  namely, the gastric  filaments of the
ganglionic,  or organic  system of nerves.   This produced an increased
action  of the circulatory system, and drove  the blood  to the head.   It
also increased the peristaltic motion of the entire alimentary canal, and
promoted the renal, and  other glandular secretions, without any appa-
rent effect upon the nerves of animal  life.
   "As the  experiments  of Dr. Porcher  are directly  corroborative of
those made by the writer, and confirmatory of the utility of the  plant  in
all cases where there is a sluggish or torpid condition  of the stomach,
the intestines, the liver,  the kidneys, or the uterus, producing  costive-
ness, dyspepsia, amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea,  and the various functional
derangements whieh are so commonly to be met with, it must be evident,
that this plant possesses valuable  properties, which render it well worthy
the attention of the enlightened practitioner.
   " The plant has not yet been much used.   It would, therefore, appear
improper to speak of  the best mode of preparing it, or of the amount
necessary to be given  to  produce the desired result.   Probably, how-
ever, it will seldom be found necessary to resort to the  heroic doses 
856
Materia  Medica.
taken by Dr. Porcher, or to expect from its use  the  immediate effects
observed by him.   In almost all cases, gastric debility, dyspepsia, sick-
headache,  etc.,  are  accompanied with a constipated  condition of the
bowels; and it would seem desirable to prepare the article in such a way
as not to extract the astringent  principle, whatever that may be; and
doubtless the infusion or the syrup is as good a preparation as any.  In
those cases, however, which sometimes  occur,  when there  is chronic
diarrhea, without much inflammation of the intestines, it is  altogether
probable, that a cold infusion would be  preferable.
  " It is even  possible, that a new salt, similar to morphia  or quinia,
might be extracted from  the plant, and a new and valuable remedy be
added to our Materia  Medica."
                    SATUREJA  HORTENSIS.
                          Summer Savory.

      Nat. Ord.—Lamiaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.
                            THE LEAVES.
   Description.—Summer Savory is an  annual plant, with a branching
and  bushy stem,  about eighteen inches in hight, woody at base, fre-
quently changing  to purple.  The  leaves are numerous, small, linear-
oblong, entire, acute at the  end.    The flowers  are  pink-colored, on
axillary, cymose peduncles.  The calyx is tubular, ribbed, and  about as
long as the corolla.  The corolla is bilabiate, with nearly equal divisions;
stamens diverging, scarcely exserted.
   History.—This well known plant is  a native of the south of Europe,
and is extensively  cultivated in the gardens of this country and Europe
for culinary purposes, flowering in  July and  August.   The leaves are
the parts employed.  They have an aromatic  odor and taste, analogous
to those of thyme, and impart their properties to boiling water in  infusion,
but more freely to alcohol.   Its virtues depend upon  a volatile oil.
   Properties  and Uses.—Summer Savory is stimulant, carminative, and
emmenagogue.  A warm infusion is  beneficial in colds, menstrual sup-
pression, and  flatulent  colic ;  the cold infusion is a  gentle stimulating
tonic, during  convalescence from fevers.  The infusion may be used in
doses of from two to four ounces,  several times a day.  The oil is some-
times used as a local application to carious teeth for relieving toothache;
and  its  tincture is a valuable carminative.  The S. Montana,  or Winter
Savory, with mucronate leaves, somewhat one-sided peduncles, and  acu-
minate and mucronate segments of the calyx, possesses similar properties. 
SCILLA  MARITIMA.
857
                        SCILLA MARITIMA.
                                Squill.
          Nat. Ord.—Liliaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Hexandria Monogynia.
                              THE  BULB.
   Description. — Squill is a perennial plant with a roundish-ovate bulb,
 very large, half above ground, with  the integuments either pale-green
 or red, and  giving off fibrous roots.  The  leaves proceeding from  the
 bulb,  are broad-lanceolate,  channeled,  spreading,  recurved, shining,
 deep-green,  and make  their appearance  long after  the  flowers.   The
 scape is tAvo or three feet high, and terminated by a rather dense, long,
 ovate raceme.   The flowers are about three-fourths of an inch in diame-
 ter,  spreading, pale yellowish-green,  with a green mark on  the middle
 of each segment.   Peduncles purplish ; bracts linear, twisted,  deciduous.
 Filaments shorter than the segments of the perianth.
   History.—Squill is a native of almost every part of  the Mediterranean
 coast, and  is also met  with in Portugal  and France.   It  flowers  in
 August and September.   Steinheil has proposed to remove it  into a new
 genus under the name of Squilla  Marilima,  as the structures  of its nec-
 taries and seeds distinguish it from the genus Scilla.   The only officinal
 part is the bulb.   When recent it is pear-shaped, from three  to  six
 inches in its largest diameter,  and consists of concentric scales, the  outer
 ones of Avhich are  thin  and membranous,  while  the  inner are whitish,
 thick, fleshy, and  full  of juice;  they weigh on an average from one to
 four pounds, though they have  attained a weight of ten pounds and a
 half.   There are two varieties known as the Red and White Squill; the
 former  being distinguished by its reddish-broAvn external coat, its light-
 pink epidermis,  and yellowish-white  parenchyma of the inner  scales;
 the latter being white throughout.   The medicinal  properties are the
 same in each.  In  the  recent state the bulb contains a viscid,  very  acrid
 juice, which will inflame and even excoriate the skin,  and the acrimony
 of which  is much  diminished by drying.   When intended for medical
 use,  squill bulbs ought not to be kept entire, but should be stripped of
 their outer scales, cut transversely into thin  slices,  and dried carefully at
 a temperature about 100° F.   When recent, these slices have a mucila-
 ginous,  disagreeably bitter,  and  somewdiat acrid taste, with a feeble
 radish-like odor.
   As found in the shops of this country, dried  squill is in irregular,
 oblong pieces, often more or less contorted, of a dull yelloAvish-white
 color, with a reddish or rosy tint, sometimes  entirely white, translucent,
brittle, and pulverizable Avhen perfectly dry, but generally flexible  from
the presence of moisture, for which they have a  great affinity.  Occa-
sionally a parcel will be found consisting of vertical slices, some of which
adhere together at  their  base.   The odor  is very feeble, and  the  taste 
858
Materia  Medica.
bitter, nauseous, and acrid.   Squill yields its properties to water, spirit,
or diluted acids; but the best solvents are proof spirit or vinegar.   It
contains, according  to analysis, Scillitin, gum, a trace  of tannin, traces
of citrate of lime and saccharine matter, lignin, and an acrid principle.
When kept dry, squill retains its virtues for a long time, but exposed  to
moisture it speedily becomes moldy.
   Scillitin may be obtained pure  by treating a decoction of  squill with
acetate of lead, in order to separate the viscid  matter, then filter, add
finely powdered purified animal charcoal and Avhen cold agitate briskly,
and afterward allow it to rest.   The charcoal, as it subsides, carries along
the bitter and  coloring principles.   Decant  the  liquid, and dry the
remaining solid matter,  and treat it, when dried, with hot alcohol, Avhich
becomes  intensely bitter.  Distil  off the  alcohol, and allow the milky
liquid which is  left to evaporate spontaneously.  Scillitin thus procured
is pure, solid, uncrystallized, easily decomposable by heat, almost caustic
to the taste,  not deliquescent, neuter, slightly soluble in water, to which
it imparts excessive bitterness,  very soluble in alcohol,  dissolved  by con-
centrated sulphuric or nitric acid, but at the same time decomposed, and
imparting to the first a purple color,  instantly becoming black.   By
allowing the last alcoholic  solution to evaporate spontaneously, scillitin
has been obtained in long, flexible, needle-shaped crystals.  A single
grain has killed a dog.
   A  crystalline principle  has  been  discovered in  squill by Landerer,
Scillitina, which is bitter, but not acrid, insoluble in Avater or the volatile
 oils,  sparingly soluble in alcohol, and capable of neutralizing acids.  It
is procured by  exhausting the bruised fresh bulb with  diluted sulphuric
acid,  concentrating the solution,  neutralizing it with lime, drying the
precipitate,  exhausting  it  with alcohol, and evaporating the tincture,
which on cooling, deposits the  scillitina  in  prismatic  crystals.   The
acrid and bitter principles of squill are  supposed to be  distinct.
   Properties and  Uses.—Squill  is  irritant,  emetic, cathartic, diuretic,
 and expectorant.  In large doses it is a dangerous irritant poison, pro-
 ducing inflammation of the  alimentary canal, and urinary organs, and
 proving  fatal  in the  dose of only  twenty-four grains  of the  poAvder.
 Some constitutions  are  so susceptible of its irritant action, that it cannot
 be safely used  in any dose, unless combined with opium.  It is seldom
 used as an emetic or cathartic, on account of its uncertainty in producing
 these effects.   In small doses it causes nausea and  depression of the
 pulse, and  never stimulates the circulation.  Its  expectorant action  is
 greatly increased by the addition of opium ;  and its diuretic  by the con-
 junction of digitalis, or some  other vegetable or  saline diuretic.  It is
 used in dropsy, catarrh, pneumonia, asthma, and phthisis.  It acts better
 in general than in local dropsies, and also in those of an asthenic charac-
 ter.   As an expectorant it will be found useful both in cases of deficient
 and   of  abundant secretion   from  the bronchial  mucous  membrane. 
SCROPHULARIA  NODOSA.
859
Troublesome vomiting or purging caused by squill is best corrected by
opium.  Where there  is much inflammation or vascular excitement,  it
is contra-indicated.   Dose of the powder, as a diuretic and expectorant;
from one to three grains ; as an emetic, from six  to twelve grains ; of
the syrup, one or two fluidrachms.   When given  in  substance, its best
form is that of pill.
   Off.  Prep.—Acetum Scillae;  Syrupus Scillae.
                   SCROPHULARIA  NODOSA.
                              FigAvort.
    Nat. Ord.—Scrophulariacea?.  Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Angiospermia.
                       THE  LEAVES AND ROOT.
  Description.—Figwort has a perennial, whitish, tuberous, and knotty
root, with a herbaceous, erect, quadrangular, smooth stem, from two to
six  feet in hight, with  paniculate, opposite branches  above.   The leaves
are opposite,  petiolate,  ovate, ovate-oblong, or  the upper lanceolate,
acute,  sharply and unequally serrated,  rounded, acutish, or  broadly
cordate at base,  veined, of a deep green color, and from three  to seven
inches  in length.   The flowers are small, three or four lines long, ovoid,
dark-purple,  slightly drooping, and  borne  on axillary  and terminal,
forked, angular,  glandular peduncles in oblong thyrsoid panicles.  Calyx
in five segments which are broadly ovate,  obtuse,  slightly margined  ;
corolla of  a dull green, with a livid purple lip, subglobose ; limb con-
tracted, sublabiate, having a green  scale or sterile filament, adnate to
the upper side.  Stamens didynamous ; sterile anthers, broadly orbicular.
Capsule ovate-oblong.
  History.—This plant is a native of Europe, and found growing in dif-
ferent  parts of the  United States, in woods, hedges, damp copses, and
banks, flowering from July  to October.   The  S. Marilandica  and S.
Lanceolata, known by the names of Carpenter's Square,  Healall, Square-
stalk, etc.,  are mere varieties, possessing similar medicinal properties.
The leaAres and root are the officinal  parts, and yield their virtues to
water or alcohol.   The leaves have a rank, fetid odor,  and a disagree-
able, bitter taste; the root has  also a nauseous odor, and a sweetish,
subacrid taste.  Much of the odor and  taste are lost by drying.   The
aqueous infusion, Avhich  is reddish, is blackened by the sulphate of the
sesquioxide of iron.  They contain a  brown bitter  resin, an extractive
having the odor of benzoic acid,  extractive, gum, starch, inulin, etc.
  Properties  and  Uses.—Figwort is alterative, diuretic,  and anodyne;
highly beneficial in hepatic diseases, scrofula, cutaneous diseases, dropsy,
and as a general deobstruent to the glandular system when used in infu-
sion or syrup.  Externally,  in the form of  fomentation, or ointment, it
is valuable in bruises, inflammation of the  mammae,  ringworm, piles, 
860
Materia Medica.
painful tumors, itch, and cutaneous  eruptions  of  a vesicular character.
The root, in decoction, and  drank freely, is  said  to restore  the lochial
discharge when  suppressed, and to  relieve the pains attending difficult
menstruation.   This plant possesses  valuable and active medicinal pro-
perties.   Dose of the infusion or syrup, from tAvo to four fluidounces.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Scrophulariae ; Syrupus Rumecis Compositus.
                 SCUTELLARIA LATERIFLORA.
                              Scullcap.
      Nat. Ord.—Lamiaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.
                          THE  WHOLE  HERB.
   Description. — Scutellaria Lateriflora  has a small, fibrous, yellow,
perennial root, with  an erect,  very  branching, diffuse,  quadrangular,
nearly glabrous  stem, from  one to three  feet in hight ; the branches are
opposite.   The leaves are on petioles about an inch long, opposite, thin,
entire,  nearly  membranous, subcordate on the  stem,  ovate on the
branches,  acuminate,  or acute, coarsely serrate  and slightly rugose.
The flowers are small, of a pale blue color, and  are  disposed in long,
lateral, axillary racemes, Avith ovate,  acute, entire, subsessile, distichous
bracts, each flower axillary to  a bract, and pedunculated.   The  calyx
has an entire margin, which after the corolla has fallen, is closed with a
helmet-shaped  lid.  The tube  of Ike  corolla about a  quarter of an inch
long, the upper lip concave and entire, the lower three-lobed.  Seed, four
in the  closed calyx, oval, verrucose.
   History.—Scullcap  is an indigenous herb, growing  in moist places,
meadows,  ditches,  and  by the  sides of ponds, flowering in  July and
August.  It is  known by the  names of Blue-Scullcap, Side-Flowering
Scullcap,  Mad-Dog-weed, and Hood- Wort.  The whole plant is officinal;
it should be gathered while in flower, dried in the  shade, and kept in
well-closed tin  vessels.  It is  inodorous,  but  has  a bitterish  taste;
alcohol or boiling water extracts  its properties.  Scullcap  is said to
contain an  essential  oil; a  fixed oil, yellowish-green, and soluble  in
ether; a  bitter  principle soluble in  water, alcohol, or  ether; chloro-
phylle ; a peculiar volatile matter; albumen; a  sweet  mucous substance;
a peculiar astringent  principle; lignin, chloride of soda and other salts.
   Properties and Uses.— Scullcap  is tonic,  nervine,  and  antispasmodic.
This is one of those valuable agents which  a certain  class of physicians
consider inert; yet it has proved especially useful in chorea, convulsions,
tremors, intermittent  fever,  neuralgia  and  all nervous  affections.  In
delirium tremens, an  infusion drank freely will  soon  produce a  calm
sleep.   In intermittents, it may be  beneficially combined with  bugle.
Where teething has impaired the health of children, an infusion may be
given with advantage.  In all cases of nervous excitability, restlessness, 
Secale Cereale.
861
 or wakefulness, attending acute or chronic diseases, or from other causes,
 it may be drank freely with every expectation of beneficial results.  The
 warm infusion  has a tendency to keep the skin moist ;  the cold has a
 tonic influence, and either may be drank freely.  When  its soothing
 effects  have ceased, it does not leave an excitable, irritable  condition of
 the system, as is the case with some other nervines.  Half  an ounce of
 the dried leaves or herb, to a half pint of boiling Avater,  will make a very
 strong infusion.  Scullcap has been extolled as a remedy in  hydropho-
 bia, but this  is  still a matter  of  uncertainty.  The S.  Hyssopifolia and
 S. Integrifolia possess similar properties.
   The  Pharmaceutical  Institute  of the city of New York,  profess  to
 have prepared a concentrated preparation  of Scullcap,  in the form of a
 whitish powder, which they name Scutelline, and recommend as atonic,
 nervine, etc., highly useful in  nervous  diseases.   Having never seen the
 article, and not having been able to learn its mode of preparation, which
 appears to be kept a secret, with  many of their other preparations, I can
 only refer to it as an article said  to have been prepared.
    Off.  Prep. — Extractum  Scutellariae Hydro-alcoholicum;  Infusum
 Scutellariae ;  Pilulae Valerianae Compositae.


                       SECALE CEREALE.
                                Rye.
         Nat.  Ord.—Graminaceae.    Sex.  Syst.—Triandria Digynia.
                        THE  SEED OR GRAIN.
                   ERGOT A.   (Secale Cornutum.)
                   Ergot.  Spurred,  or Smut Rye.
              THE DISEASED SEEDS OF SECALE CEREALE.
   Description.—Rye has a stem from four to six feet high, hairy beneath
the spike, in a wild state seldom over a foot high.   The leaves are lance-
linear,  rough-edged  and  rough  above,  glaucous; the lower  ones,
together with  their sheaths, covered with a soft down.  Rachis bearded
on  each side  with white  hairs.   Glumes subulate, ciliated, scabrous,
shorter  than  the florets, taken together with their awns.   Outer paleae
folded up, keeled,  tri-nerved, with very long awns ; the two  nerves and
awns very rough.  Stamens three. Ovary pyriform, pilose. Stigmas two.
   History.—Rye is now cultivated in all temperate  latitudes  ;  though  its
native country  is unknown.   At present it is thought  to be originally
from the countries around Caucasus.   Ground into fine flour, it  is  used
as an article of diet in the form of bread or mush. Bread  made from
rye-flour is dark-colored, and less digestible than that from wheat.  Rye
in grain consists of water, flour, and envelope ;   the  flour  consists  of
starch, gluten, albumen, uncrystallizable sugar, gum, vegetable fiber, etc. 
862
Materia Medica.
   Rye is very subject to a disease, caused by the growth of a fungus on
the grains, which is called Ergot, or Spurred  Rye.  In  relation to  this
substance, much difference of opinion  has existed, having been thought
by some as the seed altered by disease ; by others as the result of exces-
sive heat and moisture ; and again, as a morbid condition produced by
an insect.  The general view, at the present time, is, that it is caused by
the growth of a fungus on the grain, and which opinion is  strengthened
by the  microscopic observations of Mr. Quekett of London.   He states
that the beginning of the growth of ergot, is marked by the  appearance
of numerous minute filaments, which run over all parts of the young
grain and its appendages, cementing anthers and  stigmas together,  and
of a white coating upon the surface of the grain, from  which a multi-
tude  of minute particles separate, and sink,  when immersed  in water.
These particles are about  the  four-thousandth of an inch long, and  are
sporidia or the reproductive agents of a species of fungus, Avhich may
be observed  to sprout and  propagate in various Avays, under  favorable
circumstances,  and Avhich give rise to the filaments.  These sporidia  and
filaments do not increase Avith the growth  of the  ergot; and when  this
has projected beyond the paleae and become visible, it has lost a  portion
of  its  white coating,  and  presents a  dark violet color.   The grain
increases rapidly, and attains its size in a few days, Avhen it exhibits very
few of the filaments or sporidia upon its surface.  It is  stated  that  this
fungus  exists independent of the perverted grain, and that the sporidia
will, upon application to the seeds of other Graminaceae before germina-
tion, give rise to ergotized  fruit.  Mr. Quekett believes that the germs
of the fungus emit their filaments through  the tissue of the  ergot when
young and tender, and that, as this increases, it is made up partly of the
diseased structure of the grain, and partly of  the  fungous matter;  he
named the fungus Ergotcclia Abortifaciens.   Ergot generally projects out
of the glume beyond the ordinary outline  of the  spike, and sometimes
wholly  occupies the place  of the seeds, and at others only two or three
spurs will be found in a spike.   When gathered before harvest it is said
to be more energetic, and should not be collected until several days after
its formation, as, according to M. Bonjean,  it does not possess  the poison-
ous properties on the first day of its formation, which it exhibits on  the
sixth.
   Ergot is in grains of a somewhat cylindrical, or obscurely triangular
form, slightly curved like a cock's spur, from a third of  an inch  to  one
inch and a half, or rarely two inches in length,  from one to three lines in
diameter, solid, brittle, marked with one  or  two longitudinal furrows,
often  irregularly cracked or fissured, obtuse at  the extremities, and ter-
minated at  the apex by a  pale-gray excrescence, which, however, is
generally rubbed off in what is found in the shops ; externally, it is of a
dingy purple hue,  or violet-brown color, and often somewhat glaucous,
and  internally it is pale grayish-red, grayish-white, or violet-white.   It 
Secale Cereale.
863
has, when pulverized, a peculiar, musty, unpleasant smell, and a sweet-
ish, slightly bitter, obscurely acrid taste.  It is lighter than water, some-
what of the consistence of horn, and under the microscope its external
surface presents more or less of the sporidia, while its internal structure
is composed of minute roundish cells, many of which, contain  particles
of oil.  Unless kept carefully excluded from the air, it softens and swells,
and becomes infected with numerous brown insects, about the  size of a
pin's  head, while at the same time  it acquires a deep black  color and
heavier odor.   Its  powder  quickly  becomes damp, and full of animal-
cules.  It should always be used recently pulverized,  or if kept in pow-
der, it should be in well-closed and darkened vials, and with a few lumps
of camphor added.  It imparts its  virtues to water or alcohol; long
boiling renders  it inert.  The best ergot is dry, and easily broken, free
from  insects, burns with  a  clear flame, and is incapable of  forming a
dark-blue pulp Avhen its powder is triturated with  iodine and water.
Ergot has been analyzed by various chemists ;  according to a recent
investigation by M. Legrip, he found it to contain in 100 parts, 34.50 of
a thick, fine yellow, very fluid, fixed oil ; 2.75 of starch ;  1.00 of albu-
men ;  2.25 of inulin;  2.50  of  gum;  1.25 of uncrystallizable sugar;
2.75 of a brown resin ;  3.50 of funoin ; 13.50 of vegeto-animal matter ;
0.75 of osmazome ; 0.50 of a fatty acid ; 24.50 of lignin ; 0.50 of color-
ing principles ; an odorous  principle not isolated ;  2.25 of fungate of
potassa ; 0.50 of chloride of sodium ; 0.50 of sulphate of lime and mag-
nesia  ; 1.25 of  subphosphate of lime ;  0.25 of oxide  of iron ; 0.15 of
silica; 2.50 of water, and 2.35 loss.  H. L.  Winckler  gives as the most
important chemical constituents, secaline in  combination with ergotine, a
red ferruginous coloring matter with a base yet to  be eliminated, albu-
men soluble in water and in a coagulated condition, a large quantity of
fatty oil, which in the normal grain appears to be replaced by amylon,
fungous  sugar,  which  disposes the Avatery  extract of ergot  of rye so
strongly to fermentation, formiates, and phosphates.   He considers the
specific action of ergot ascribable to  the secaline compound, or the color-
ing matter,  or  both  of these compounds  together and not to the fatty
oil.  A watery extract is, he states, the most  active preparation, but  it
cannot be kept; a tincture, prepared with  alcohol  of 10 per cent., by
several days' digestion at an ordinary temperature, from finely pulver-
ized ergot, is of a dark-brown color, and contains all the active constitu-
ents of the ergot, with very little fatty oil, which  separates in a crystal-
line form at very Ioav temperatures.   The spirituous extract is  best kept
and most effective  when it is prepared by twice extracting the  fine pow-
der with an equal  quantity of cold distilled Avater, clarifying the concen-
trated extract, and treating it with  alcohol of 80 per cent, as long as  a
precipitate results on the addition  of a fresh  portion.  The  spirituous
fluid is after tAventy-four hours separated from the precipitate by filtra-
tion;  the filtrate subjected to distillation in a water-bath, and the residue 
864
Materia Medica.
 evaporated to the consistence  of an extract.   Obtained in this way, the
 extractive  ergotine is a little hygroscopic,  has a light-brown color, a
 slight narcotic odor, dissolves  under  the  separation of a  little ergotine
 ( Wiggers)  in water, and evolves, when treated with a solution of caustic
 potassa, the penetrating odor  of secaline in a high degree.  By distilla-
 tion of the  concentrated watery extract with  caustic lime, a very concen-
 trated  solution of secaline  is also obtained.  Winckler has found  the
 compound  of ergotine with  secaline, ergotinate of secaline in  the black
 sporous mass of Lycoperdon Cervinum.
   Wiggers digested ergot in ether, and aftenvard in alcohol, evaporated
 the alcoholic solution, and treated  the extract thus obtained with water,
 which left a reddish-brown powder,  undissolved.  Supposing this to be
 the active principle of ergot, he named it Ergotin ; it possessed a pecu-
 liar nauseous odor, and a bitter, slightly acrid  taste, and was soluble in
 alcohol, but insoluble  in Avater or ether.  Dr. Christison and Dr. Wright
 have not been able  to  obtain  ergotin after  the process of Wiggers.
 Winckler dried some  recent ergot of rye at 139° F.,  pulverized it, and
 extracted first with ether, then with water.  The aqueous solution Avas
 treated with strong alcohol, and separated  from  albuminous matter by
 filtration ; the spirit was distilled off, and the  residue brought to dryness.
 During this operation  a small quantity of a brown powder, (the Ergotine
 of Wiggers,) was precipitated,  which again dissolved in the concentrated
 liquid.  The residue above,  (Winckler's Extractive Ergotine,) dissolved
 readily in  alcohol and Avater  under  the precipitation  of  a light-brown
 powder, (the Ergotine of Wiggers).  It had a  bitterish, cooling taste, and,
 when distilled with quicklime,  afforded  a  distillate with the odor of her-
 rings,  containing propylamine or trimethylamine, but no ammonia.  The
 residue consisted of a compound of secaline,  (a volatile base,) with Wig-
 gers'  ergotine, which  Winckler regards as an  acid.  The solution with
 ether, first  extracted, contained a  fatty oil, equal  to 3-1 per cent, of  the
 ergot.   By  treating ergot with alcohol acidified with  sulphuric acid, he
 extracted  a red ferruginous coloring matter.
  The Oil of Ergot, introduced into practice by Dr. Wright, contains the
 active  principle of ergot, and is very generally employed as a substitute
 for the crude article.   It may be obtained by  forming an ethereal tincture
 of ergot by  the process of displacement, and evaporate  by means of gen-
 tle heat.  It is sometimes colorless, but generally reddish-broAvn, has a
 disagreeable, somewhat acrid taste, is lighter than water, and is soluble
 in alcohol, or alkaline  solutions.  Its  effects  are identical with those  of
 ergot.   When  the oil  is obtained by simple expression, it is destitute of
 the peculiar medicinal influences of that prepared by means of ether.
  Ergot is  incompatible with acetate  and subacetate of lead, nitrate of
silver,  and tincture of  galls.   Iodine does not indicate starch in it.   Its
 aqueous infusion is claret-colored,  and has an acid reaction. 
Secale Cereale.
865
   Properties and Uses.—The free and long-continued use of ergot, gives
rise to very terrible and dangerous symptoms, even when no immediate
effects are  perceptible, as  dry gangrene, typhus fever,  or  convulsions.
In doses of from thirty to sixty grains, it often occasions nausea, vomit-
ing,  and in still larger  doses, it causes a  sense of pain and weight in the
head,  giddiness,  dilated pupils, delirium and stupor.   It  reduces the
frequency of the pulse, even without nausea.  Medicinally, ergot is used
on account of its power of promoting  uterine  contraction in languid
natural labors.  When thus employed, it produces  a strong and contin-
uous  contraction  and rigidity, without any  alternation of contraction
and  relaxation,  as observed  in  the natural  process of labor; conse-
quently,  unless the os uteri and external parts are sufficiently soft and
yielding, the constant  pressure exerted  upon  the child, causes injury to
it, and very often death.   Its use  should  always be  avoided, if pos-
sible, in  first pregnancies.   The  conditions for  safety and success are,
that  labor be somewhat advanced, the mouth of the womb moderately
dilated, that no mechanical obstruction to delivery exists, from deformity
of the pelvis, rigidity  of the os uteri, mal-presentation, or  disparity of
the size of the child  to the parts of the mother,  and that the only cause
of the slow progress of labor is insufficiency of the uterine contractions,
in point of force or frequency.  One or two drachms of the powder may
be stirred in four fluidounces of hot water, and when sufficiently cool, may
be given in  tablespoonful doses every ten minutes, until labor-pains are
induced; usually in fifteen  or  twenty minutes, the labor-pains increase
in force and frequency, and gradually become continuous, and effect the
expulsion of the child within an hour.  Many  objections are raised to its
use, but, in  general, if prudently administered, no bad effects will ensue.
Dr. Catlett asserts that it will give rise  to puerperal  convulsions, hour-
glass  contraction of the uterus, and  hydrocephalus in the  new-born
infant.  It may also be given in cases where the fetus is dead, and cir-
cumstances  require speedy delivery, as  great exhaustion, or dangerous
constitutional  irritation.  It may likewise be  administered  to facilitate
abortion  when it has once commenced, as  well  as to check uterine
hemorrhage in the gravid  or  non-gravid  state; it has likewise proved
serviceable  in hemorrhages from other  organs, as the lungs,  stomach,
etc.   It may likewise be given  with  advantage in retained  placenta, as
well  as promoting the  expulsion of a mole, hydatids, a clot of  blood, or
other uterine  contents, when  the womb has  once  begun to act.   It is
doubted by many whether  it will excite  uterine contractions in any in-
stance, unless  a natural movement toward such action has commenced.
In small doses, it has been recommended in painful dysmenorrhea, where
membranous shreds pass off.   It has also been recommended in leucor-
rhea,  gleet, gonorrhea,  chronic  diarrhea  and  dysentery, paraplegia,
paralysis or debility of the  bladder, and of the rectum, spermatorrhea,
hysteria, and intermittent fever.  In these affections it may be given in
            55 
866
Materia  Medica.
 doses of from five to ten or fifteen grains three times a  day; but its use
 should not be continued for a great length  of time, on account of its ten-
 dency to cause dangerous symptoms.
   The Oil of Ergot may likewise be  used  as an aid to parturition, and
 in uterine affections, in the place of ergot; it is equally effectual in closes
 varying from tAventy to fifty  drops, and which  may be  given in water,
 tea, or some aromatized  syrup.   In  the dose of ten drops, it has been
 beneficially employed in diarrhea,  and in gastric irritability and  spasm;
 the dose may be repeated every three or  four hours.  Externally,  the
 oil has been found serviceable as an anodyne in rheumatism, toothache,
 and as a styptic  in hemorrhage from wounds ; in this latter  instance care
 must be employed in its  application, as ergot has produced  sloughing,
 when applied to abraded surfaces  on the  lower animals.   The oil will
 retain its properties for several years,  if kept in well-closed bottles in a
 cool place, and excluded from light;  an elevated temperature or a pro-
 longed exposure to the sun's  rays diminishes its activity.
  Rye flour,  in the form  of mush, is an excellent laxative article of diet,
 and may be given with much benefit  in hemorrhoids and prolapsus ani,
 with accompanying constipation, mixed with molasses.  In  the dry state,
rye flour has been found  an excellent  application to erysipelatous inflam-
mations,  and some other eruptive  affections, allaying the burning and
itching, and absorbing the irritating secretions.   In the form of poultice,
it is often applied to discuss tumors or swellings, or to hasten their sup-
puration Avhen far advanced.   Green  rye, Avhen from six  to ten inches
high,  made into  a salve by simmering  in fresh cream, I  haAre knoAyn to
cure several most inveterate cases of tinea-capitis ; to be applied to the
scalp, twice a day.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Ergotae Fluidum ; Infusum Ergotae; Tinctura
Ergotae;  Vinum Ergotae.
                      SELINUM PALUSTRE.
                          Marsh Small age.
          Nat.  Ord.—Apiaceas.  Sex.  Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.
                             THE  ROOT.
  Description. — This plant is  the Cnidium  Palustre of Sprengel, the
Peucedanum  Montanum of Koch, and the Conioselinum of Fischer.   It
has a simple, tapering, perennial  root, with many long fibers.   The stem
is erect,  four or  five  feet high, hollow, deeply furrowed,  not  hairy,
branched and corymbose in the  upper part, bright-purple at the base.
The leaves are about five or six on the stem, alternate, remote, ternate with
bipinnate divisions; the leaflets are opposite, deeply pinnatifid, dark-green,
smooth,  their  segments Hnear-lanceolate, never quite   linear,  acute,
entire, or trifid; the  petioles are smooth, striated, dilated,  and sheathing
at the base, with a reddish membranous margin.   Umbels  large, horizon- 
           Selinum Palustre — Sempervivum Tectorum.        867

tal, of numerous,  angular,  general and  partial  rays.   General bracts
several, lanceolate,  pointed,  dependent, not half the  length of the rays,
their  margins membranous and  partly  colored; partial ones similar,
rather longer in proportion, and often confluent.  Flowers Avhite, numer-
ous, uniform, with  involute  petals.  Fruit very  light straw color, four
lines long, shining,  obovate; the dorsal ridges very near each other, dis-
tinctly elevated, sharp, the lateral depressed and far within the  broad
thin margin; vittce  of the  commissure  subulate, straight, about half the
length of the fruit.
  History.—This plant  grows in marshes and boggy meadows  in the
north  and middle of Europe.  The  root abounds in a white fetid, bitter
juice, which hardens into  a  brown acrid resin; it is the part employed.
It imparts its properties to water or  alcohol.
   Properties and  Uses. — Marsh Smallage is emmenagogue,  diuretic,
and antispasmodic,  but abandoned as an internal remedy, on account of
its caustic and dangerously poisonous properties.   Ten or twenty grains,
according to the  patient's age, repeated  every five  hours,  and after a
time gradually augmented, have cured several cases  of epilepsy; but it
must not be used where abdominal obstructions exist, or where there is
an exalted sensibility of the genital apparatus.  In nervous and sanguine
persons, especially those  of  irritable habits, it increases the violence of
the disease.   Two  grain doses, repeated twice daily, have proved  almost
immediately beneficial in the convulsions of children  during the process
of dentition.   The  Marsh or  Hemlock  Parsley, Selinum Canadense, or
Cnidium Canadense of Sprengel, and Conioselinum Canadense of Fischer,
which groAvs in swamps, wet Avoods, and around the mouth of large
rivers from Canada to Carolina, and  westward, is a  species of the
above plant, and deserves a trial in  the diseases just  mentioned.  It is a
plant  from two to four feet in  hight, somewhat resembling  the Conium
Maculatum, and having an  angular, flexuous, hollow stem.  The leaves
are on large, inflated petioles, ternately divided;  the  divisions bipinnate,
with  linear-oblong, acute  lobes.   Umbels  compound.   Petals  white,
spreading.  Involucre wanting, or two or three-leaved.   Styles slender,
diverging.  Fruit  about two  lines  long, oblong-oval.  Vittce solitary in
the dorsal intervals, tAvo or  three in the lateral.  It flowers in August
and September.
                  SEMPERVIVUM TECTORUM.
                       Common Houseleek.
       Nat. Ord.—Crassulacefc.  Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Polygynia.
                           THE  LEAVES.
  Description. — Houseleek  has a  fibrous root crowned with  several
rosaceous  tufts of numerous, oblong, acute, keeled, fringed, extremely 
868
Materia  Medica.
succulent leaves.  The stem from the center of one of these tufts, is about
a  foot high,  erect, round, downy, clothed Avith  several, more  narrow,
sessile,  alternate leaves,  and terminating in a sort of many-flowered
cyme, with spiked branches.  Flowers large, pale rose-colored, without
scent.   Segments of the calyx twelve or more, with a similar number of
petals, stamens, and pistils.   Offsets spreading.
   History.—This is a well known perennial  plant, a native of Europe,
where it is found growing on  rocks, old walls, and the roofs of houses,
flowering in August, and is remarkable for its tenacity of life.  It sends
out runners with axillary offsets  by which it  is propagated, and rarely
flowers.   It is sometimes cultivated  as an  ornament, or  as a domestic
medicine.  The recent leaves are the parts used, they are  from half an
inch to  two inches in length, thick, fleshy, succulent, flat  on one side,
somewhat convex on the other,  smooth,  of a light  green  color, inodo-
rous,  and of  a cooling, slightly saline, astringent, and sourish  taste;
they contain a large proportion of supermalate of lime.  The juice of
the leaves filtered with  an equal  quantity of  alcohol, forms a beautiful,
white, highly  volatile coagulum.
   Properties and Uses.—The leaves of Houseleek are usually employed
in  the recent state, bruised, and applied as a cooling application to burns,
stings of insects, ulcers, erysipelas, and  other external inflammations.
The leaf sliced in two, and the inner  surface  applied to warts or corns,
and changed  twice a day, will, it is said, positively cure  them.   The
juice, applied locally, has cured ringworm,  shingles,  and many other
cutaneous affections.  Dr. A. Brown,  of Cincinnati,  recommends the
following  in many cases of deafness : fill  a four  or  six ounce vial with
the leaves of  houseleek, cork it tightly, and  place it within an unbaked
loaf of bread.   When the bread is baked remove the bottle,  and  there
will be  found a liquid of  a soft, oily  character, which may be dropped
into the  ear,  say one or two drops, every night.  When applied it pro-
duces a  singular,  stimulating sensation.  In  erysipelas, he has  found
much benefit  from the free  interna] use of the leaves bruised in milk
and water, in  quantity sufficient merely to stain the liquid.   The bruised
leaves applied as a poultice, have, in his  hands, cured severe cases of
shingles  in twenty-four hours.   The  leaves  also possess  an astringent
property,  which is beneficial in many  cases.
                       SENECIO AUREUS.
                             Life Root.
  Nat. Ord. —Asteraceae; Tribe, Senecionideae.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Su-
perflua.
                        THE  ROOT AND  HERB.
  Description.—This  plant is known by several other names, as  Rag-
wort, False Valerian, Golden Senecio, Squaw-weed, and Female Regulator. 
Senecio  Aureus.                       869
It has an erect, smoothish, striate stem, one or two  feet high, floccose-
woolly when young, simple or branched above, terminating in a kind of
umbellate, simple, or compound corymb.   The radical leaves are simple
and  rounded, the  larger mostly cordate,  crenate-serrate,  and  long-
petioled;  the  lower  cauline  leaves lyre-shaped;  the  upper  ones  few,
slender, cut-pinnatifid,  dentate,  sessile or  partly clasping, the terminal
segments  lanceolate.   Peduncles  subumbellate  and  thick  upward.
Corymb umbel-like.  Rays from eight to twelve, four or five lines long,
spreading.   Flowers golden-yellow.  Scales linear, acute, and purplish
at the apex.
  History. — This is an indigenous,  perennial  plant,  growing on  the
banks of creeks and on low marshy  grounds, throughout the northern
and western part of the Union,  flowering in May and June.  The root
and herb are the officinal parts, and the medicine is peculiar to Eclectics,
not being known to other practitioners;  it yields its properties to water
or alcohol.  It has not been  analyzed.   There  are  several varieties of
this species, which possess similar medicinal virtues,  as the Senecio Bal-
samitos, or Balsam Groundsel, with the stem and peduncles villous at base ;
the leaves few, small  and distant, pubescent; the radical ones oblong,
spatulate, or lanceolate, sometimes cut-toothed, tapering into the petiole ;
cauline ones lyrate or  pinnatifid ; flowers subumbellate.  This variety
grows in pastures and on rocky hills.
  Another, the Senecio  Gracilis, Unkum, or Female Regulator, a slender
state of the species, found on rocky shores; its radical leaves are orbic-
ular,  on long  petioles,  subcordate,  crenate;  cauline ones very  few,
remote, linear-oblong,  dilated at the base, incisely  dentate ; peduncles
very short,  pilose, subumbelled ;  involucre smooth;  rays  few,  very
short.   The  Senecio Obovatus with the  radical leaves  obovate, crenate-
serrate, petioled ; cauline ones pinnatifid, toothed ; flowers subumbelled
long-peduncled, bracted, with a cavity under the receptacle  like some
other of the genus; stem somewhat glabrous.   Found in meadows, etc.
   Senecio Lanceolatus,  found  in shady cedar swamps in Vermont;  it has
all the leaves  lanceolate-oblong, thin, sharply and  unequally toothed,
either wedge-shaped or somewhat cordate at the base, the upper cauline
ones being  pinnatifid-cut toward the  base.  Among these varieties, the
Senecio Gracilis is considered the most efficient  in uterine  difficulties,
and it is from this that the Senecin is  prepared.
   The whole herb is  used.   The root grows just below the surface of
the ground, and runs along horizontally; it is  from  half an inch to six
or eight inches in length, and about two  lines  in diameter, reddish or
purplish externally, white-purplish internally,  with  an  aromatic taste,
and having scattered fibers.   When dried, and mixed  with the herb, it
is found of various lengths from one-fourth of an inch to an inch or two,
greenish-brown, or yellowish-brown externally, with very fine longitudinal 
870
Materia  Medica.
lines, a few fibers attached, short fracture, presenting under the micro-
scope  a shining, waxy surface, with  a central pale-purple substance
surrounded by a greenish-yellow one, with a light-yellowish ring between
the two; it is inodorous,  and has a faintly bitter,  herbaceous, peculiar,
resinous taste, with  a very slight  degree of pungency.  It yields its
properties best to alcohol.
  Properties and Uses.—Life Root is diuretic, pectoral, diaphoretic, tonic,
and  exerts a  peculiar influence upon the female  reproductive organs,
which has  given to  it, especially  the  S. Gracilis,  the  name of Female
Regulator.   It is very efficacious in promoting the  menstrual flow ;  and
may be given  alone, in infusion, or combined with equal parts of asarum
and savin,  in amenorrhea not connected with some  structural lesion.  It
will  also be  found valuable in dysmenorrhea.   In  menorrhagia, com-
bined with  cinnamon and raspberry leaves, it has  been found very  ser-
viceable, when administered during the intermenstrual period, as well
as at the time  of ovulation.  It has proved an excellent diuretic in gravel
and other urinary affections, either alone, or given in combination with
other diuretics; and  is said to be a specific in strangury.  In pulmonary
and hepatic affections it has proved advantageous;  and taken freely, the
decoction has  effected cures of  dysentery.   This is one of our valuable
agents in the treatment of female diseases.  Dose of the decoction, four
fluidounces, three or four times a day.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Senecii; Extractum Senecii Fluidum.  Senecin.
                             SENECIN.
                              Senecin.
      THE CONCENTRATED ACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF  SENECIO GRACILIS.
  Preparation.—Make a saturated tincture of the root and herb of Sen-
ecio Gracilis, add to it  an equal quantity of water,  and distil off the
alcohol;  the senecin remains in the water, which must be removed by
filtration.
  History.—Senecin thus prepared, is an oleo-resin of thick consistence,
of a very dark-green color,  appearing quite black  in mass, having a
peculiar, herbaceous odor,  and a bitter, slightly  pungent, persistent, and
rather unpleasant taste.  A portion  of it, probably the oil, is soluble in
alcohol, imparting a green color to the solution ;  on the addition of liquor
potassa to the alcohohc solution, the senecin is rendered wholly soluble,
and if muriatic acid be  added in small quantity, it  changes the green
solution to greenish-white, without precipitation.  It  is entirely soluble
in sulphuric ether, forming a greenish solution, which is not precipitated
by water, nor acetic acid.  It is insoluble in water, but becomes soluble
on the addition of strong alkaline solutions. 
Sesamum Indicum.
871
   The Franklin Institute of the city of New York, publish a preparation
 as  Senecin, the  active principle of Senecio Gracilis; they state that it is
 a whitish-brown powder, agreeable to the stomach, and pleasant to the
 taste.   I have never seen the article,  nor do I know how  it is prepared,
 but from a specimen of their  Stillingin, I am  inclined to view it as the
 oleo-resin triturated with sugar, or sugar of milk.  And if such be the
 case, it shows the necessity  that exists, for practitioners to employ no
 secret agents, nor such as are prepared by secret processes, lest they be
 imposed upon in the  article itself,  as well as  in  the  exorbitant price
 demanded  for it.
  Properties and Uses.—Senecin possesses the virtues of the plant from
 which it is obtained, in a high degree.   It is,  however, more  especially
 employed  in  the treatment  of female diseases, as  amenorrhea,  dys-
 menorrhea, and other uterine derangements.    Combined with aletrin,
 caulophyllin, or cimicifugin it Avill be found especially useful  in  these
 complaints.  In menorrhagia it  may be combined with geraniin advan-
 tageously ; or its ethereal tincture may be administered in some astrin-
 gent infusion.  A pill  of senecin, aletrin, and sulphate of iron, will be
 found of benefit in  chlorosis accompanied with  amenorrhea.  In dys-
 menorrhea it may be combined with extract of belladona and  sulphate
 of quinia.  It is one  of those  agents which exert a tonic influence upon
the  uterus, thereby restoring its various functional derangements to a
normal  condition.  Dose of Senecin,  from three to  five  grains,  three
times a day.
                      SESAMUM INDICUM.

                               Benne.
  Nat. Ord.—Pedaliacea?, Lindley;  Bignoniae, Jussieu.   Sex. Syst. — Didyna-
mia Angiospermia.
                       THE LEAVES AND  SEEDS.
  Description. — Sesamum Indicum is an annual plant with an erect,
pubescent, branching stem from  two to four feet in hight.   The leaves
are ovate-lanceolate, or oblong ;  the lower ones trilobed  and sometimes
ternate;  the upper  undiAdded,  irregularly serrate  and pointed.   The
flowers are of a reddish-white color, axillary, on short glandular pedicels.
The fruit is an oblong, mucronate, pubescent capsule, containing numer-
ous small, oval, yellowish seeds.
  History.—There are  tAvo species of this genus, the S. Indicum, and
the S. Orientale, both of which  are natives of the East  Indies, and are
now extensively cultivated  in many parts of Asia, Africa, West Indies,
and in the Southern United States.   That growing  in the South  is  the
S. Indicum, and  flowers in August.  Both the seeds and leaves are offi-
cinal.   The first are  small, yellowish, or in some  cases blackish,  of a 
872
Materia Medica.
pleasant, mucilaginous taste, and yield by expression an excellent, bland,
sweetish, inodorous,  fixed oil, closely resembling olive oil, and which
may be used  as a substitute for it  in all cases.  Five pounds of the
seeds afford about one pound of oil, which will keep several years with-
out becoming rancid.   The seeds are  much employed by the negroes as
an article of food;  they parch them,  and  prepare them into  puddings,
broths, and various other ways.   The leaves abound in a gummy matter,
which they impart to  water, forming a rich, bland mucilage.
  Properties and Uses.—One or two  fresh leaves, stirred in about half
a pint of cool water, forms a bland and demulcent drink, very useful in
catarrh,  diarrhea, dysentery, summer-complaint, and irritation  of the
urinary organs.   When the leaves  are dried, hot water should be used.
This mucilage likewise forms an  excellent soothing application in oph-
thalmia,  irritations  and diseases of  the skin, etc., but is not at all  supe-
rior to that of slippery elm, or of sassafras pith.  The oil may be used
as an application to furfuraceous eruptions—or, in large doses, as a laxa-
tive.  In India it is considered to possess  emmenagogue properties, and
capable of producing  abortion.
                             SEVUM.

                               Suet.
                 THE PREPARED FAT OF OVIS ARIES.
  History.—Suet, Mutton Suet or Sheep Tallow, is the fat of the domestic
sheep, ovis aries.   For medical purposes it is usually obtained from the
fat around the kidneys, cut into pieces, melted with a  moderate heat,
and strained through  linen or flannel.  It is sometimes purified by
boiling it in  a little water, thus avoiding too great a  heat.  It is some-
what  similar in its properties to lard, but is  of a firmer consistence, and
requires  a  higher temperature (103°) for its fusion  than  any other
animal fat.  When fresh and well prepared, it is white, inodorous, of a
bland taste, sometimes brittle, insoluble in water, and nearly so in alco-
hol; when long kept it is apt to become yellow, rancid, and consequently
unfit  for pharmaceutic purposes.   According to  Chevreul, it  consists
of stearin,  olein,  and  a small proportion  of hircin; and its ultimate
composition is Carbon 78.99, Hydrogen 11.70, Oxygen 9.30.  Hircin is
a liquid-like olein, but  is more soluble in alcohol; by saponification it is
convertible  into hirsic  acid and glycerin, and is therefore a hircate of
oxide of glyceryle.
  Mr. Wiggin, of  Ipswich, has patented a  mode for melting  and puri-
fying tallow and other kinds of grease.   The process consists in heating
the fatty substance in the  state in which it is removed from the animal,
with a small  quantity of sulphuric  acid of specific gravity 1.3 to 1.45.
The acid dissolves the  membrane and other impurities present, acquir- 
SlLPHIUM  PERFOLIATUM.
873
ing a dark color and thick syrupy consistence, while the fat separates in
a state of great purity.   It has  been suggested that the fats  obtained
by this process were probably the fatty acids resulting from the decom-
position of the neutral fats by the oil of vitriol;  but Mr. Wiggin  replies
that in using the  sulphuric acid at the density indicated, no decomposi-
tion  of the fats was effected, and that no sulphurous acid was evolved
in the process.
  Properties and  Uses.—Suet is nutritive and emollient, but not so easy
of digestion as the fat of the pig or ox; yet made into a broth, with  or
without aromatics, and used  in diarrhea, dysentery, and general debility.
It is  sometimes used as a dressing to blisters, and may be applied  to
most of the purposes  for which lard  is used, on  account of its  superior
hardness, and higher melting point.   For  forming  an  ointment, it will
be found preferable to lard, especially when it is to be applied to several
forms of cutaneous  disease.
                   SlLPHIUM PERFOLIATUM.
                         Indian Cup-plant.
        Nat.  Ord.—Asteraceae.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Necessaria.
                             THE  ROOT.
  Description.—This plant, also known by the name of Ragged Cup, has
a perennial, horizontal, pitted rhizome, beset with radicles, and a large,
smooth, square herbaceous stem, from four to seven feet high, and often
branched above.  The leaves are  opposite, connate-perfoliate, ovate,
coarsely  toothed, abruptly narrowed into winged petioles at the base,
the upper  pairs forming  a  cup-shaped  disk with their  connate bases ;
they are  from eight to fourteen inches long, by four to seven wide.  The
flowers are terminal, with from fifteen to twenty-five oblong, lanceolate,
yellow rays, and a large  dark colored  disk.  Heads  in  a trichotomous
cyme, the  central on  a long peduncle ;  scales ovate, obtuse, squarrose;
achenia broadly ovate,  winged, emarginate.
  History.—This plant is common  to the Western States, and is found
growing in  rich bottom or interval lands, bearing numerous yelloAv flowers
in August.   The root is the officinal part; it is large, long and crooked,
and imparts its properties  to water or alcohol.  It has a persistent, acrid
taste.  There are  several species  of Silphium, which  yield by exuda-
tion  and incision a fine fragrant and bitterish gum like Frankincense,
white or  amber color, and which is chewed by the Indians  to  sweeten
the breath.
  Properties  and Uses.—Cup-plant is  tonic, diaphoretic, and alterative.
A strong infusion of the  root, made by long steeping, or an extract, is
said  to be  one of the best remedies for the removal of aguecake, or
enlarged spleen; it is also useful  in intermittent  and  remittent fevers, 
874
Materia  Medica.
inward bruises, debility, ulcers, liver affections, and as a general altera-
tive restorative.   The gum is  said to be  stimulant and antispasmodic.
The  S. Gummiferum, or Rosin-weed, and S. Laciniatum, or Compass-
weed, are said to  be emetic in  decoction.  They have effected cures in
intermittent fever, and are beneficial in dry, obstinate coughs.  Said to
cure the heaves in horses.  The dose of the powdered root  of S. Per-
foliatum is twenty grains.
                   SIMARUBA  OFFICINALIS.
                             Simaruba.
     Nat.  Ord. — Simarubaceas.   Sex. Syst. — Decandria Monogynia.
                      THE  BARK OF THE ROOT.
  Description.—Simaruba, called in Jamaica Mountain Damson, is a tree
with long, horizontal, creeping  roots, and a trunk about sixty  feet in
hight, covered with a blackish, furrowed bark, and sending off alternate
spreading branches, Avhose bark is smooth, gray, and marked with broad
yellow spots.   The wood is  hard,  white, and has scarcely  any bitter
taste.  The leaves are alternate and abruptly pinnate, with a long, naked
petiole, sometimes  nearly fourteen inches long, to which the leaflets are
attached by short footstalks.   The leaflets are alternate, from two to nine
on each  side, about two inches long, obovate, entire, someAvhat coria-
ceous,  smooth, dark-green  above,  and whitish beneath.  The  flowers
are  of  a  yellowish-white  color,  and  are  disposed  in  long axillary
panicles;  some describe them as' monoecious, others as dicecious ;  which
last is said to be the case with the tree in Jamaica.  The calyx is  small,
and divided into five obtuse,  erect  segments.  The petals are stiff, lan-
ceolate, equal, spreading, somewhat reflexed, and much longer than the
calyx.   The stamens are ten, equal, about as long as the corolla, bearing
oblong, incumbent anthers, with  a  small hairy scale  at the base.  The
ovary is  ovate,  five-parted,  crowned with  an erect,  cylindrical style,
bearing a five-lobed stigma,  and  surrounded at base with a ring of hairy
scales.  The fruit  consists of five ovate, black, smooth, one-celled ber-
ries, all connected  with a fleshy,  pentagonal  receptacle, and opening  by
a fissure when ripe, each containing a single, oblong seed.
  History.—Simaruba is found in Jamaica, Guiana, and several parts of
South America.  Although placed in the  class and order Decandria Mono-
gynia of the Sexual System, it  evidently is  pentagynous; for although
the styles are connected above, yet they are distinct below, are crowned
with five  connected stigmas, and  spring from  a  five-lobed  ovary.  It
prefers a sandy, arid soil,   and flowers in  NoArember and December.
The bark of the root is the officinal part.  The root is rough,  scaly, and
warty, and  its  bark is  intensely bitter.  When dried, as met with in
commerce,  it is in pieces  several  feet in length,  and some  inches in
breadth,  folded lengthwise, light, flexible, tenacious, very fibrous, exter- 
Sinapis Alba — Sinapis Nigra.
875
nally of a light  brownish-yellow color, rough, warty, and marked with
transverse  ridges, and internally pale-yellow.  It is  inodorous,  of a
purely bitter taste, not easily pulverizable, and imparts its bitterness to
water or alcohol.  It is said to contain a bitter principle identical with
quassin, resin, a volatile  oil with the odor of benzoic acid, malic  acid,
traces of gallic acid, oxide  of iron,  silica, and several other unimpor-
tant ingredients.
  Properties and  Uses. — In  large  doses Simaruba  is said to purge
and vomit.   In smaller doses it  is tonic, and  may be  used  in  infusion
in all  cases where  simple  bitter tonics are  indicated.   It may  be
used in all cases as a substitute for quassia.   It was  at first introduced
to the profession as a calmative astringent in chronic dysentery and  diar-
rhea.   However, it merely acts as a tonic, proving beneficial  in relaxed
and debilitated  states  of the  alimentary canal, and would  do harm, if
used indiscriminately in  dysentery.   The infusion is the  best form, two
or three drachms of the bark being added to a pint of boiling  water, the
dose of which, as a tonic, is from half a fluidounce to two fluidounces.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum Simarubae.
                         SINAPIS  ALBA.
                          White Mustard.
                        SINAPIS NIGRA.
                           Black Mustard.
      Nat. Ord.—Brassicaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Tetradynamia Siliquosa.
                             THE SEEDS.
  Description. — Sinapis Alba is an  annual  plant, with a thinly hirsute
stem, from two to five feet high.  The leaves  are smoothish,  lyrately pin-
nate, irregularly dentate, rugged, and pale-green ;  the lower lobes oblong
and deeper, the terminal larger.  The flowers are in racemes, with yellow
petals, and linear, green, calycine  leaflets.   The siliques  or  pods are
spreading, hispid, torose at the place of the  seeds, ribbed,  shorter than
the compressed, ensiform beak, and about four-seeded.   The seeds are
globose, large, and pale.
  Sinapis  Nigra is also an annual plant, with a round, smooth, striate,
branching  stem from three to six feet high.  The lower leaves are large,
rough, variously lobed, and  dentate;  those higher on the stem  more
smooth and less lobed;  and the uppermost are linear-lanceolate, entire,
smooth, and pendulous; all are petiolate.  The flowers are small, with
yellowish, spreading calyx, and yellow, obovate petals, and  stand closely
together upon peduncles at the upper  part of the branches.  The pods
are very numerous, nearly an  inch long, bluntly quadrangular, nearly
even  and smooth, appressed  close to the rachis  of the  raceme, tipped
by a small, short, four-sided style, but wholly destitute of  the ensiform 
876
Materia  Medica.
 beak of the above species.   Seeds numerous, small, globose, blackish-
 brown, veined.
   History.—These plants are natives  of Europe, and have  been intro-
 duced into  this country, where they are cultivated in gardens, and are
 found growing in old fields and waste places, flowering in June and July.
 The seeds of the Black Mustard are small, about the size of millet seed,
 globular,  of a  deep-brown color,  slightly rugose  on the surface, and
 internally yellow; when pulverized, they form a greenish-yellow powder,
 and have a faint smell when dry, but when mixed with water or vinegar,
 they have a peculiar, penetrating, diffusive odor,  and a hot, bitterish,
 pungent, but not persistent taste.   White Mustard seeds are nearly three
 times the size  of the  black, yellowish externally and in its substance,
 and of an odor and taste similar  to  the  preceding, but more feeble; it
 affords a yellow powder, of a somewhat unctuous appearance,  coalescing
 when compressed.  Both kinds of mustard  seed are employed in medi-
 cine, in the  form of flour, and the white  seeds are likewise used entire.
 Table mustard  is prepared  from the white seeds; but the finest quality
 is prepared with the purest flour of both  the white and black, in nearly
 equal quantities.   An English quality of table  mustard  is said to be
 prepared  by mixing  145 pounds of mustard flour,  made by grinding
 together two bushels of black and  three of white seed,  with fifty-six
 pounds of wheat flour, to diminish the pungency, and two pounds of tur-
 meric to improve  the  color; then  to  restore the acrimony without the
 pungency, one pound of chilly pods, and  half a  pound of ginger, is
 added.   The officinal flour of  mustard should be made with the black
 and white seeds only, without  any adulteration.
  Upon pressure, both kinds  of seed  yield  a fixed oil, thick like castor
 oil, of a  greenish-yellow color, little smell,  and a  mild, not  unpleasant
 taste, called Oil of Mustard, which yields upon saponification a peculiar
acid, to which the name of Erucic Acid has  been applied.
  When black mustard seeds have been deprived of their fixed  oil by
pressure, a volatile oil is then obtained from them by distillation with
water, called the Volatile oil of mustard;  it contains sulphur, is colorless,
or pale-yellow,  heavier than water, of an exceedingly pungent odor, and
an acrid, burning taste; it is  slightly soluble in water, but readily so in
alcohol or ether.   It boils at about 298°, and when  treated with alkaline
 solutions, forms sulphocyanurets;  with an  equivalent of ammonia,  it
 forms a white, inodorous, crystalline compound,  possessing many  of the
characters of an organic base, called Thiosinnammin, Cs Hs N2 Sa.  The
volatile oil consists of nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, and sulphur ; its for-
 mula is Cs Ho NS2, and its specific gravity 1.010.   Dr. Will considers it
a sulphocyanuret of allyle Cj Hs + C2 NS2.   It  is the active  principle
 of black mustard seeds.
  Black mustard seed  contains two peculiar principles, Myronic Acid, in
 the state of Myronate of potassa, and Myrosyne, an indifferent nitrogenized 
Sinapis Alba — Sinapis Nigra.
877
body, analogous in character  to  the  emulsin of almonds.   When the
seeds are bruised and macerated in water, the myrosyne, acting the part
of  a ferment,  causes  a reaction  between the  water and myronate of
potassa, which results in the production of the volatile  oil.   The  same
thing happens when any one of the myronates is brought into  contact
with water, and the essential fermenting principle, myrosyne.  As with
emulsin, Avhen  coagulated  by heat,  alcohol,  or acids,  the  myrosyne
becomes inert,  and no volatile oil is obtained.
  Myronate of potassa may be obtained by pulverizing black mustard
seeds, drying the powder at a temperature of 212°, and then depriving
it of its  fixed oil by pressure.  The powder is then to be treated with
strong alcohol in a displacement apparatus, and when nearly exhausted
of everything soluble  in  this liquid, it is to be again pressed, and then
treated  with water.  The aqueous solution  must next be evaporated,
adding weak alcohol before  it is too much concentrated, which precipi-
tates a glutinous matter.  The  solution then being filtered, and carefully
evaporated,  deposits crystals of myronate of potassa,  which may be
obtained very pure  and white by washing the mass with diluted alcohol.
It is unalterable in the air, very soluble in water, insoluble in pure  alco-
hol, and of a bitter taste.
  Myronic acid may be obtained by adding to a solution  of one hundred
parts of myronate of potassa, thirty-eight  parts of  crystallized tartaric
acid, concentrating  the  solution by evaporation, and then adding weak
alcohol, which precipitates the bitartrate  of potassa,  and  retains the
myronic acid in solution.  It is a fixed, inodorous substance, of a bitter
and sour taste,  and an acid reaction.  When obtained separate from its
bases, it forms a colorless solution, which, by  evaporation becomes thick,
like molasses, without  crystallizing. It  is  soluble in water  or alcohol,
but not  in ether; and forms soluble salts with the alkalies, baryta, lime,
and the oxides  of lead and silver,  all of  which yield volatile oil of  mus-
tard, when mixed with  an aqueous solution  of myrosyne.   It contains
sulphur, nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
   White mustard seeds contain myrosyne  but no myronate of potassa,
and consequently no volatile  oil can be obtained from them;  yet  if they
be added  to black mustard seeds in which the myrosyne has been coagu-
lated, the volatile oil will  be  generated on the application  of water and
distillation.   Although no volatile oil is had from white mustard seed, yet
upon the addition of water, a fatty acrid principle is developed, Avhich
renders these seeds applicable to the same purposes as the black variety.
This acrid principle is the result of the reaction of water upon sulpho-sina-
pisin, a principle found in the seed, and which is accomplished through
the presence and influence of myrosyne; for if this be absent, or coagu-
lated by heat, alcohol, etc., no change takes place.   Boutron and Fremy
state  that with the development  of the fixed,  fatty,  inodorous,  acrid 
878
Materia Medica.
principle, hydrosulphocyanic  acid  is  also  produced.  White  mustard
seeds contain more fixed oil than the black.
   Sulpho-sinapisin may be obtained by freeing white mustard seeds of
their fixed  oil by expression, then  boiling  them in water, evaporating
the decoction to  the consistence of honey, mixing  the  residue with  six
or eio-ht times its volume of anhydrous  alcohol,  which precipitates vari-
ous  substances, then distilling off the alcohol,  and setting the  syrupy
residue aside, to crystallize.   The crystals may be  purified by repeated
solution in  alcohol and crystallization.   It  is white, crystallizable, ino-
dorous, bitter, and soluble in  alcohol or water, forming yellow solutions.
It is neutral, and consists of sulphur, nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, and
oxygen.
   Myrosyne may be procured by treating white mustard seed with cold
water, filtering the solution, evaporating it by a heat not exceeding 100°,
and  when it is of the consistence  of syrup, carefully adding  alcohol,
which causes a  precipitate  easily  separable by  decantation.   If this
precipitate be dissolved in water, and the  solution cautiously evaporated
as before, myrosyne, not entirely pure, is obtained.  When dry, it has
the character of an albuminous substance, is soluble in water, forming a
viscid solution which froths Avhen agitated, and  is  coagulated and ren-
dered inert by heat, alcohol, and the acids.  Though closely analogous
to emulsin,  yet it is  a distinct principle, as  its place cannot be supplied
by emulsin with the same results, and which  is supposed by Simon to
be owing to the absence of sulphur  in the  latter  article.
   Simon obtained a peculiar principle by the following process, and which
he called  Sinajrisin: He  exhausted black  mustard  seeds with strong
alcohol, distilled off  the greater part of the  alcohol, treated  the residue
several times with four or  five times its weight of  ether, distilled off  all
the ether  from  the  ethereal  solutions, treated the  extract again with a
smaller quantity of ether so as to leave behind insoluble substances, and
repeated this process until the extract formed a perfectly clear solution
without residue.  The extract was then dissolved in cold strong alcohol,
and  the solution,  having  been decolorized  with animal  charcoal, was
alloAved to evaporate  in the air.  Fifty-five  pounds of the seeds yielded
only eighty grains of crystallized Sinapisin.  It was in brilliant, white,
scaly crystals, sublimable by heat, soluble  in alcohol, ether, or the fixed
and  volatile oils, but insoluble in acids and alkalies.   Upon contact with
water and myrosyne, it emitted the  odor of the oil of mustard.
   From the above  statements, it will be perceived, that water at com-
mon temperatures is the best vehicle for mustard, whether for internal or
external use ; and that boiling, or uniting it with alcohol or acids, must
impair its active properties.
   Properties and Uses.—Mustard  is  an irritant, stimulant, rubefacient,
vesicant,  and diuretic.   It is used  in small quantities, internally, as a 
Sisymbrium  Officinale.                   879
condiment, and safe stimulant of the digestive organs.  In large doses it
is a good emetic, and  may be used in cases of torpor of the  stomach,
poisoning by narcotics, to rouse gastric susceptibilky, and also to facili-
tate the action of other emetics.  In inordinate doses it is poisonous,
producing gastro-enteritis,  and  perverting  the vital  processes by  its
absorption into the system, as known by the horse-radish smell of the
urine, and the mustard odor in the blood.  Externally, it  quickly excites
redness of the skin, and if too long applied, inflammation,  ulceration, and
even  sloughing ;  but if removed in time, the redness is succeeded only
by induration of the cuticle, and occasionally desquamation.  ,The sting-
ing pain Avhich remains after the removal of the mustard, may be miti-
gated by sponging the part with cold water, or dropping ether  on  it.
Sinapisms are beneficially applied over the abdomen and spine, in gas-
tric and  enteritic inflammations, and over the epigastrium, in vomiting
from  irritability of  the stomach ; also to the spine, Avrists and ankles, to
arouse the system in apoplectic and  comatose conditions,  and in typhus
fever ; to the feet and legs, for pains in the head during fevers and other
diseases, and  in  determinations to  the head ;  and to A'arious  parts for
removing pain, mitigating local inflammations,  or  arousing from stupor.
In the treatment of cholera, mustard is an excellent rubefacient applica-
tion, likewise in dyspepsia and  obstinate constipation.  Applied to the
breasts it  will often relieve suppression of the menses,  as Avell as menor-
rhagia ; to be applied intermittingly.  In no case should  a sinapism be
continued too long, as vesication and ulceration followed by sphacelus, may
result.  The  volatile oil of mustard, is a poAverful rubefacient and vesica-
tory ;  and in  the dose of two drops, several times a day,  in some muci-
laginous vehicle, it  is a good diuretic, useful in dropsy,  and has  been
serviceable in colic.  A liniment composed of one part of the oil, dissolved
in sixteen parts  of  alcohol, or in ten parts of olive  or almond  oil, is  a
good  substitute for  a sinapism.  White mustard seeds, taken entire,  were
formerly used as a  favorite tonic in dyspepsia.   Dose of mustard, as an
emetic, one, two  or three drachms, with six or eight ounces  of warm
Avater.
   Off. Prep.—Cataplasma Sinapis.
      SISYMBRIUM OFFICINALE.   (Erysimum  Officinale.)
                          Hedge  Mustard.
        Nat. Ord.—Crucifera?.   Sex. Syst.—Tetradynamia Siliquosa.
                        THE SEEDS AND HERB.
  Description.—This is an annual, herbaceous plant, with a round more
or less hairy, branching stem, from  one to three feet high.   The  leaves
are  runcinate ;  the lower ones from three to eight inches long by one to
three wide, the lower segments placed at right angles to the midvein, or 
880
Materia Medica.
pointing backward,  the terminal segment largest; upper ones  in three
lanceolate segments placed at right angles.  The flowers are small,  yel-
Ioav, and terminate  the  slender, virgate  raceme, which  becomes one or
two  feet lono-.   The  siliques or pods  are subulate, erect,  sessile,  and
closely  appressed to  the  rachis.   Seeds in a single row in each cell,
ovoid, marginless.
  History.—This is  an unsightly weed  growing in the United States  and
Europe, along the roadsides, by walls and hedges, and on heaps of rub-
bish, flowering from May to September.  The whole plant is employed;
it has  a herbaceous,  acrid taste, somewhat resembling mustard.  The
seeds have considerable pungency.  Water extracts the active properties.
  Properties and Uses. — Diuretic and  expectorant; recommended in
chronic  coughs, hoarseness, ulceration of the mouth and fauces,  asthma,
and  urinary obstructions.   The juice of the  plant may be  mixed with
honey, or the seeds  may be taken in substance. The Sisymbrium Sophia,
or Flixweed, of a biting acrid  taste, and pungent odor when  rubbed,
has been used externally in indolent ulcers, and  the seeds internally in
worms,  calculous complaints, etc.  Its leaves are bipinnately divided,  the
lobes oblong-linear, incised ; pedicels four times the length of the calyx;
petals smaller than the sepals.
                     SMILAX OFFICINALIS.
                            Sarsaparilla.
          Nat. Ord.—Smilaceae.   Sex. Syst.—Dicecia  Hexandria.
                             THE  ROOT.
  Description. — Smilax  Officinalis has a  twining, angular, prickly, and
shrubby stem; the young shoots being unarmed.   The leaves are ovate-
oblong, acute, cordate, netted, five or seven-nerved, coriaceous, smooth, a
foot long,  and four or five  inches  broad  ; the young ones lanceolate,
oblong, acuminate, and tri-nerved.  The petioles are  an inch long, smooth,
bearing tendrils  above the base.  Flowers unknown.   The natives on
the banks of  the Magdalena river, in New Grenada, call this plant Zar-
zaparilla,  and send great quantities of it down the river to  Carthagena
and Mompox, from whence it is shipped for Jamaica and Cadiz.  Pereira
supposes this to be the Jamaica Sarsaparilla, the best and most valuable
kind  in commerce.  It is  not knoAvn, however,  by this name in the
United States, and differs from the Honduras sarsaparilla in  the reddish
color  of its epidermis, and in containing less starch,  and yielding a
greater proportion  of extract.   It  is usually had in bundles a foot or a
foot and a half  in length, by four or five inches in thickness, consisting
of long slender roots folded up, with numerous radical fibers attached.
  Smilax  Syphilitica has a round, smooth stem, furnished  only at the
joints with from two to four short, thick,  straight prickles.  The  leaves 
Smilax  Officinalis.
881
 are a foot long, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, shining, coriaceous, three-
 nerved,  and terminated by  a long point.   This plant has been  seen
 growing upon the banks of the river Cassiquiare in New Grenada, and
 in Brazil at Yupura, and near the Rio Negro.   Pereira supposes  it to
 yield the Lisbon or Brazilian Sarsaparilla, which is imported from Para
 and Maranham, in cylindrical bundles, from three to five feet long, and
 about a foot in thickness ;  it  is bound by close  circular turns of a  very
 flexible stem, and consist of unfolded roots, without rhizoma and stems,
 and with but feAv radical fibers.  It has an amylaceous interior structure,
 with considerable acrimony.  It is considered  as a valuable variety of
 the  drug.  According to Richard it has been ascertained to be the  pro-
 duct of the S.  Papyracea of Poiret, instead of S. Syphilitica.
   Smilax Papyracea is an under shrub Avith a compressed stem angular
 below, and furnished with spines at the angles.  The leaves are ellipti-
 cal, acuminate,  and three-nerved.   It  inhabits  Brazil, on the banks  of
 the  Amazon and its tributaries,  and is thought  to furnish the Brazilian
 Sarsaparilla.
   Smilax Medica has an angular stem, armed with straight  prickles
 at the joints,  and  a few hooked  ones in  the   intervals.   The leaves
 are of the texture  of paper, smooth, bright-green on both sides, cordate,
 auriculate, shortly acuminate, five-nerved, Avith  the  veins of the under-
 side prominent; they vary much in form, being ovate, somewhat pan-
 duriform, auriculate, and somewhat hastate, with the lobes  of the base
 obtuse,  sometimes obsolete, sometimes divaricating;  their  edge  not
 straight,  but as if irregularly crenate ;  petioles and midrib armed, when
 old, with straight, subulate prickles.  Peduncles smooth, axillary, vary-
 ing in length from three lines to an inch or more.  Umbel about tAvelve-
 flowered,  with the pedicels about three lines long.   Schiede found this
 plant on  the east slope of the Mexican Andes, where the root is col-
 lected and then  carried to Vera Cruz ;  it is supposed to furnish the Vera
 Cruz Sarsaparilla  of commerce.   This is imported from Vera Cruz and
 Tampico, in large, loose bales of about two hundred pounds each, bound
 with cord or leather thongs, and usually holding the roots folded upon
 themselves,  and separately packed.  These consist  of a caudex, with
 numerous long radicles, smaller than in the Honduras variety, and having
 a thinner bark.  They are frequently soiled with earth.  Although not
 much esteemed, it possesses considerable acridity, and is, probably, not
 inferior to any of the other kinds.
  Smilax Sarsaparilla has  a long,  slender,  shrubby, slightly four-
 angled stem, aculeate above.  The leaves are unarmed, ovate, lanceolate,
 cuspidate, abruptly contracted at each end, with three strong veins,  and
 two  lateral  smaller secondary ones, glaucous  beneath, two or three
 inches  in diameter, and  supported alternately upon  short, margined
petioles with two long tendrils at their bases.  The flowers are in small,
             56 
882
Materia Medica.
thin  umbels, yellowish-white,  usually three or four together, upon  a
common peduncle which is longer than the petioles.   The berries are
three-seeded, red according to  Woodville, black, to Pursh.   This species
is indio-enous, growing in swamps and hedges in the Middle and Southern
States.   It does not furnish any of the sarsaparilla of commerce, and is
supposed to be destitute of any active medicinal properties, but on Avhat
grounds I do not know.  There is a plant in the South extensively known
as Bamboo  Brier, the  root of which  I have much used  in  practice, and
with decidedly more successful results  than from the use of any of the
Sarsaparillas of  the shops — from the description of the plant, given to
me by those who have seen it growing,  I am inclined to believe it is one
of the species of Sarsaparilla, probably  S. Sarsaparilla, and I invite the
attention of Eclectics to it, as a remedy in every respect superior to the usual
commercial article, especially in primary and secondary syphilitic diseases.
  Smilax China has a hard, large, knotty, uneven rhizoma, brown  or
blackish internally,  whitish within.   The  stem  is  tapering,  slightly
prickly, growing two or three  feet high Avithout support, but acquiring
a greater length if scrambling among  bushes.   The  leaves  are  thin,
membranous, roundish,  five-nerved,  acute  or obtuse at each  end, and
mucronate  at the point ; the stipules  are distinct, obtuse.   Umbels small,
ten-flowered, greenish-yellow.   Fruit red, about the size of a bird cherry.
This is  a native  of China and Japan, and has been employed under the
name of China  root  as a  substitute for the officinal Sarsaparilla.  As
found in the shops, it is in  pieces from two to ten inches ]->ng, an inch
or two in  diameter, someAvhat compressed, more or less  knotty, often
branched, brownish or grayish-broAvn externally, whitish or light flesh
color internally, inodorous, of an insipid taste at first, but succeeded by
a slight bitterness and acridity, similar to that of sarsaparilla.
  History.—All of the Sarsaparilla plants are climbing or trailing plants,
with prickly stems ; there are many  species of them, some of which are
destitute of any useful medicinal power.   Hancock, among six or eight
species grpwing in the Avoods of Guiana, found only one possessing any
degree  of medicinal activity.   There  are  several varieties of the drug
sarsaparilla in commerce, but  from our  present imperfect knowledge on
the subject, we  cannot determine with certainty the species  which afford
them.   Those growing in  Mexico and  South America, have long and
slender roots, originating  in great  numbers from  a common head  or
rhizoma, from Avhich  arise  the stems  of the plant.   The Avhole  root is
usually dug  up, with the rhizoma  attached.  Beside  the  varieties  of
this  drug,  heretofore referred  to, there are one or two others, viz;  the
Caracas Sarsaparilla. from La Guayra.  It comes in  oblong packages
of about one  hundred  pounds, surrounded  with broad strips  of  hide,
which are  connected laterally with thongs of the  same  material, and
leave much of the root exposed.   The roots are separately and  carefully
packed. 
Smilax Officinalis.
883
   Honduras Sarsaparilla is the variety most  esteemed and more com-
 monly employed in this country.  It comes from the bay of Honduras,
 and is  in  bundles two or  three  feet long, composed of several roots
 folded  lengthwise,  and  compactly secured by a  feAv circular turns.
 These are packed in bades of a hundred pounds or more, and are imper-
 fectly covered Avith  skins.  Externally the  roots are of a dirty-grayish
 color, frequently re'cldish-brown, the epidermis is thin, inner bark thick,
 and the root is brittle, and so amylaceous when broken, that a fine white
 dust is easily driven out by rubbing it.   Its botanical source is not accu-
 rately known.   There are some other varieties of an inferior sort, which
 it is unnecessary to notice.
   The sarsaparilla of  commerce is composed of roots of several feet in
 length,  as  thick or thicker than  a goosequill, cylindrical, more or less
 wrinkled longitudinally, flexible, having a thick bark externally, covered
 with a thin,  easily separable epidermis, an inner layer of ligneous fiber,
 and a central pith.  The epidermis varies in color, but is mostly grayish,
 or reddish-brown, and occasionally very dark; the  bark  also varies in
 color, being  whitish, broAvn, pink,  and occasionally white, brittle, and
 pulverulent.   The ligneous portion is thin, and is composed of longitu-
 dinal fibers,  which allow the Avhole root to be readily split  through its
 whole length.   The central medulla often abounds in starch.   The root
 is very faintly  odorous, except  when boiled  in water, Avhich gives a
 decided and  peculiar odor.   Its taste is at first mucilaginous, but which
 gradually  becomes  slightly bitter  and disagreeably  and  persistently
 acrid.   Water, either cold or hot, readily extracts its virtues, Avhich are,
 however, much  impaired by long  boiling; diluted  alcohol may also  be
 used as a menstruum.   According to Hancock, water does  not take  up
 all the active principle.  In speaking of the Para and Rio Negro Sarsa-
 parilla, he  states : " After exhausting  half  a pound of this sort  by two
 digestions, boiling and pressure, I  added to the dregs half a pint  of
proof spirit,  and digested this with  a gentle heat  for  a few hours in a
close vessel,  then affusing hot water to the  amount of that taken off from
the first boiling, and pressing again,  I  procured by the last  operation
about four  pints  of an  infusion Avhich  possessed the acrid properties of
the sarsa  in  a much higher degree even than  that obtained by the first
decoction with simple water."  There is no doubt, that alcohol added to
infusions of the root, will increase their medicinal poAver, in consequence
of its superior efficacy  as  a  solvent.   According to  analysis, sarsaparilla
contains a peculiar crystalline substance, a coloring  matter, resin, starch,
lignin, a thick, aromatic, fixed oil, a waxy substance, chloride  of potas-
sium, and nitrate of potassa.  Also said to contain  a minute proportion
of volatile oil, gum, bassorin, albumen, gluten,  gliadine, lactic and acetic
acids, and various salts.
   The  crystalline substance found in Sarsaparilla is supposed  to be  its
active principle,  and has been variously named by chemists.   Palota, 
884
Materia Medica.
its first discoverer in 1824, named it Pariglin ;  M. Folchi, supposing he
had  subsequently discovered  a new principle, called it Smilacin.  M.
Thubeuf,  in  1831, announced  it as another newly-discovered principle
under  the name  of  Salseparin; and in 1833 M. Batka, from a similar
supposition, gave an account of it as Parillinic acid, under  an impres-
sion  that it contained acid properties.  In 1834, M. Poggiale proved that
all these  substances  are identical,  though procured by different pro-
cesses.  If it is the active principle of sarsaparilla it should be named
Sai-saparillin.  The best process for obtaining it, is that of M. Thubeuf,
as follows :  Treat the bruised root with hot alcohol, until it  is deprived
of taste,  distil the tincture  and draw off seven-eighths of the alcohol;
treat the remainder with animal charcoal, and at  the end of twenty-four
or forty-eight hours, filter.   The  sarsaparillin will be  deposited in the
form of a granular powder.  This must be dissolved in a  fresh portion
of alcohol and crystallized.  The  alcoholic mother liquors may be de-
prived of  that portion of this principle which they retain, by evaporating
to dryness, dissolving the product  in Avater, filtering, again evaporating
to dryness, redissolving in  alcohol, and crystallizing.  Sarsaparillin  is
white, inodorous, neutral, almost  tasteless in the solid state, but of a
bitter, acrid, nauseous taste, when dissolved in alcohol or water.   It  is
sparingly soluble in cold water, but more readily in boiling water, which
deposits  it on cooling.   Boiling alcohol also dissolves it  more readily
than cold ;  and it is likewise soluble in ether and the volatile oils.  The
aqueous  solution froths very much when  agitated.   It is  found in the
greatest  abundance  in  the bark of the root.  In doses of from two  to
thirteen  grains,  it has  been found to produce nausea,  and  diminish the
force of the circulation.   M.  Beral procured it pure, by preparing a
tincture of the root Avith very dilute alcohol, and distilling  by means of
a salt-water bath.  It is, therefore,  volatile, and this explains the cause
of the inefficiency of a long boiled decoction of sarsaparilla.
   Sarsaparilla should never be purchased, unless it leaves a decidedly
acrid impression on the  mouth and fauces, after having  been chewed
for  a  short time ;  without this effect,  it cannot be relied  upon  as an
efficient article.
   Properties and Uses. — Sarsaparilla is generally considered  as  an
alterative, though stated by some to possess  diuretic, diaphoretic, and
emetic properties.  Its mode of action, however, is not well  understood,
as it effects normal changes in the system without any apparent influence
over any of the functions.   No  medicine has,  probably,  ever passed
through  so many changes of reputation, having been at various times
most  highly lauded  as  an efficient alterative, and  as often been pro-
nounced  inert.   There is no  doubt, however, that when  properly pre-
pared, it  exerts  a  favorable influence over the  system.   The diseases
in which  it has been  more particularly  recommended,  are inveterate 
Sodium.
885
syphilis, pseudo-syphilis, mercurio-syphilis, and  struma in all its forms.
It has also been  advised in chronic  rheumatism,  chronic  cutaneous
diseases, passive general dropsy,  gonorrheal  neuralgia, and other de-
praved conditions  of the  system, where an alterative is required.  A
beer is made in South America, which  enjoys  much  reputation there as
an alterative beverage ;  it is made of Rio Negro Sarsaparilla  one pound,
raspings of guaiac  wood six ounces, aniseed and bruised liquorice root,
of each two ounces, mezereon root-bark one ounce, molasses one pound,
and half a dozen bruised cloves ; pour upon these articles two gallons of
boiling water,  and  shake the vessel three times a day.  As soon as fer-
mentation has well begun, it may be taken in doses  of four  fluidounces
two or three times a day.  At the present day,  sarsaparilla is but little
used by Eclectics ;  the Stillingia Sylvatica being found greatly superior to
it in medicinal efficacy,  is employed in preference.  Dose of  sarsaparilla
in powder, thirty grains,  three or four times a day ;  of the  infusion or
syrup, four fluidounces.
   Off. Prep.— Decoctum Sarsaparillae ;  Extractum  Sarsaparillae  Flui-
dum;  Infusum Sarsaparillae;  Syrupus  Sarsaparillae Compositus.
                                 SODIUM.
                                  Sodium.
      History. — Sodium was discovered by Sir H. Davy  in  1807,  while
    decomposing soda by means of galvanism.  It was subsequently obtained
    in large quantities by Gay-Lussac and Thenard by means of iron turn-
    ings heated  to whiteness;  these coming in contact, the iron  became
    oxidized,  and sodium  Avas  liberated.   The  process of Schcedler is the
    most economical, as well as the most generally employed at the present
    day for procuring it—it is as follows: the commercial acetate of soda, is
    converted by ignition into carbonate and charcoal, which is heated in an
    iron-mercury bottle  to whiteness, having had an additional portion of
    charcoal mixed with it;  the process  is similar to that for  obtaining potas-
    sium, which  see.   Sodium is the metallic radical of the alkali soda.  It is
•   a soft,  sectile, silver-white metal, having a very high luster,  but becom-
    ing quickly tarnished and oxidized when exposed to the  air,  from Avhich
    it rapidly absorbs oxygen, and must therefore be kept under naphtha.  Its
    specific gravity is 0.97,  it melts at 200°, its  equivalent  number is 23.3,
    and symbol Na.   It fuses into a globule, when thrown upon cold water,
    and rapidly traverses the surface in all directions,  liberating hydrogen,
    and generating a solution of soda, thus instantly decomposing the water.
    When exposed to the air, sodium forms the protoxide, or the alkali soda,
    which is the only important oxide, on account of its numerous salts.
      Sodium constitutes tAvo-fifths of all the sea-salt existing in salt water,
    in the water of springs,  rivers,  and  lakes in  almost all soils, and in the
    form of rock-salt.  Sea-salt  is a compound of sodium with  chlorine, 
886
Materia  Medica.
Na.  CI.  It is also contained in many minerals,  sea-plants, and in most
animal  fluids.  Sodium and the salts of the protoxide burn with a more
or less rich yelloAV-colored flame.
   The  medicinal salts of soda are chloride of sodium, solutions of soda
and  chlorinated soda, the  acetate, borate, carbonate, bicarbonate, phos-
phate, sulphate and valerianate of soda, and the tartrate of potassa and
soda, each of  which will be described under its appropriate head in the
second part of this work."

                         SOD^E ACETAS.
                          Acetate of Soda.
   History.—Acetate of Soda, formerly called Crystallized Foliated Earth
of Tartar, was first obtained in 1767 by Meyer.   At present, it is pre-
pared on a large scale by the  manufacturer of pyroligneous acid, for the
purpose of obtaining  acetic acid  by the action of sulphuric acid.  The
impure  pyroligneous acid is neutralized with lime, forming an acetate of
lime; this is treated with a strong solution of sulphate of soda, which by
double decomposition produces a  deposit of sulphate of lime, and acetate
of soda in solution, which last is filtered and crystallized ; the crystals
may be further purified by melting and re-crystallizing them.   It may
also  be  obtained by the following process of the Dublin College : Take
of Crystallized Carbonate of Soda of commerce one pound (avoirdupois),
or a sufficient quantity;   Acetic Acid of commerce, sp. gr.  1.044, one
pint (Imperial measure).   To the Acid, placed in a porcelain capsule,
add  by  degrees the Carbonate of Soda, and, taking care that there shall
be a slight excess of Acid, evaporate the resulting solution until a pellicle
begins to form on its surface, and set it by to crystallize.  The  crystals,
when drained of the mother liquor, and dried by a short exposure to air
on a porous brick, should be inclosed in a well-closed bottle.
   Acetate of Soda is a white salt, in amorphous foliated  masses of inter-
laced crystals, or crystallized in long  striated needles and oblique rhom-
bic  prisms variously modified.   It  is  permanent in ordinary  air,  but
slowly effloresces in a dry atmosphere,  losing  about forty per cent, of its
weight; its  taste is cooling, saline, bitterish,  but not disagreeable.  It
requires about three parts of temperate water to dissolve it, and about
twenty-four parts of alcohol.   It dissolves in less than its own weight of
water at 212°.  A temperature of 550°, cautiously managed, drives off
its water of crystallization, without the loss of any acid ;  but at 600° the
acetic acid is decomposed, and a  mixture of carbonate of soda and char-
coal  is left.  Sulphuric acid decomposes it, setting free  the acetic acid,
which may be known by its peculiar acetous odor, and forming a sulphate
of soda.  A solution of acetate of soda is not acted on by chloride of
platinum, which will serve to distinguish it from  a salt of potassa.  Ace-
tate  of soda should be perfectly neutral to test-paper.  It consists of one
equivalent of acid 51.48, one of soda 31.3, and six of water 54=136.78. 
Sod^e Boras.
887
  Properties and Uses.—Acetate of soda is a mild diuretic, and possesses
similar properties with  the acetate of potassa.   As a diuretic, its dose is
from a scruple to two drachms.
                          SOD^E BORAS.
                       Borate of  Soda.   Borax.
   History.—Borax exists in a native  state in several parts of the world,
 but more abundantly in the Avater of  various lakes of Persia and Thibet,
 on the margins  of Avhich it is left in impure  crystals  during the dry
 season, and  is gathered in lumps, called Tincal or  Crude Borax.   It is
 also met with  in the mines of Potosi; and is largely manufactured by
 the direct  combination  of boracic acid with soda.   The  crude borax or
 tincal comes from Thibet and various parts of Asia by the way of Cal-
 cutta, of which there are three varieties, Adz:   Indian  Tincal, which is
 met with in small crystals;  Bengal or Chandenagor  Tincal, which  is in
 large, well-defined, hexaedral  prismatic crystals; and  Chinese Tincal,
 which is imported in  crusts and masses, and  is  partially refined.   The
 tincal met  with  in commerce  is  in  crystalline masses, of  a grayish,
 greenish, or yellowish  color,  opake,  of a Avaxy luster, covered either
 with  an argillaceous, or soapy substance,  of a soapy odor, and greasy
 to the touch.   Before being employed in  medicine or in the arts, the
 various kinds of tincal require  purifying.
   The mode of purifying crude borax was for many years known  only
 to the Dutch and Venetians, Avho contrived to keep the process a secret;
 but in 1818 Robiquet and Marchand made known  a process which is
 now generally adopted by refiners.  It consists in placing the tineal in a
 large wooden vessel, covering it with  water to the depth of four or five
 inches, and allowing it to remain thus, with occasional agitation, for six
 or seven hours; slaked lime is now added in the proportion of one  part
 to four hundred of tincal, this is thoroughly mixed with the impure salt,
 and is then  allowed to remain  for twenty-four  hours.  The lime forms
 with  the soapy matter  an insoluble  calcareous soap, and at the  same
 time  removes  sulphate of soda, and chloride of sodium.  The crude
 borax thus acted  upon, is crumbled betAveen the hands, and placed upon
 a sieve to drain ; after  the draining,  it is dissolved  in two and a  half
 times its weight of water, by the aid of heat, and in order to separate any
 remains of  the  soapy matter, about one-fiftieth  of its weight of chloride
of calcium is  added to the solution, after whieh it is strained.   The  solu-
 tion is then concentrated by evaporation,  and run  into wooden vessels
of an inverted quadrangular pyramidal shape, which  are lined with lead,
and by allowing it to cool very slowly, distinct crystals of refined Borax
 are obtained; if the cooling takes place rapidly, crystalline crusts only
 will be furnished. 
888
Materia Medica.
  At the present day, large quantities of borax are made artificially by
the combination of boracic acid with soda.  Boracic acid is  obtained in
great abundance from certain lagoons and hot springs in Tuscany, which
are stated to furnish about three millions  of pounds  annually.  It is
impure  when  first obtained, containing in 100 parts 76.5  crystallized
boracic  acid,  8.5 sulphate of ammonia, 2.6 sulphate  of magnesia,  5.0
sulphate of lime, 1.2 silica,  1.3 sulphuric acid, 6.6 Avater, beside various
other impurities.  Borax is prepared by saturating a solution of carbo-
nate of soda with boracic acid,  then evaporating  and  crystallizing, or
by saturating  caustic soda with boracic acid;  the impurities  existing in
the acid are removed, after the biborate  has been formed, by various
processes.  Borax crystallizes  in large, oblique, rhombic  prisms, or in
flattened, six  or eight-sided prisms,  usually terminated by two or four
converging planes ; it is  white, translucent, shining, inodorous, and pos-
sessed  of a  peculiar SAveetish,  slightly  saline and somewhat alkaline
taste.  It has an alkaline reaction.   It slowly effloresces Avhen exposed
to the air, its  surface becoming  covered with a Avhite  powder.  It dis-
solves in twelve parts of  cold, and  two of boiling water; sulphuric  acid
added  to a hot concentrated  solution, causes a  precipitate  of white,
pearly, scaly crystals of  boracic  acid, which,  added to  alcohol, impart a
green color to its flame while burning.  The  sulphate  of soda remains
in solution.   At a moderate heat, borax fuses in its water of crystalliza-
tion, swells  considerably, and ultimately becomes  an  anhydrous salt,
having lost about half its weight.  Above a red heat it fuses again  into
a liquid, which on  cooling, concretes into  a solid, transparent mass,
called Glass of Borax, which is much used as a flux in assays with the
blowpipe.  When two parts of  borax, and  six parts  of bitartrate of
potassa,  are  boiled  for   five  minutes, in sixteen  parts of  water,  the
solution filtered when  cool,  and then evaporated, a  gummy  mass is
obtained, called  Soluble  Cream  of Tartar;  this is soluble in its own
weight  of cold,  and half its  weight  of  boiling water.  Boracic  acid
renders the bitartrate of  potassa still more soluble in water, than borax;
four parts of the bitartrate and one of acid, boiled in twenty-four parts
of water, and the solution evaporated, will likewise form soluble cream
of tartar, the exact character  of  which is  not  satisfactorily known.
Boracic acid is composed of one  equivalent of  boron 10.9, and three of
oxygen  24=34.9 (B03).  Borax consists of tAvo equivalents of boracic
acid 69.8, one of soda 31.3, and  ten  of water 90=191.1 (2B03 +NaO
+ 10Aq).  The boracic  acid 4s so  feeble an  acid that even the  two
equivalents of it in borax do not fully neutralize the soda, so that borax
is  an alkaline salt.   A   variety  of borax  occurs  containing only  five
equivalents of water; it  crystallizes in octahedrons, is harder than com-
mon borax, and does not effloresce.   It may be obtained by crystalliz-
ing a boiling solution of borax, at a temperature between 132° and 174Q.
Borax is not subject  to adulteration. 
Sod^e Carbonas.
889
  Properties and Uses.—The medicinal actions of borax are but imper-
fectly knoAvn.  It is  supposed to be  a  diuretic, refrigerant, antilithic,
emmenagogue, and aphrodisiac.   It has been found an excellent remedy
in nephritic and calculous complaints, depending upon an excess  of uric
or lithic acid; the dose is from thirty to forty grains.  It is rarely used as
a parturient agent, yet there is no doubt that  it  exerts an action on the
uterus.   It  has been successfully used  in  amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea,
and to facilitate parturition, or favor the  expulsion of the placenta.   In
such instances  it has been  used alone, or  combined with other agents
as ergot, blue cohosh, cinnamon, etc.  Ten grains given for a dose, and
repeated three or four times a day for several days, have produced abor-
tion, attended with pains all over the system, and excessive debility of
the joints, which  remained for several months in a greater or less degree.
It is an  aphrodisiac, and will excite  the venereal appetite when taken
internally ;  but its aphrodisiac effects are said  to  be more marked when
a solution of it is injected into the  rectum,  and retained there an hour
or two.   A solution of ten or fifteen grains to  the fluidounce of water,
injected, will, in two or  three hours, produce a  poAverful venereal excite-
ment.. And if the strength of  the solution be  doubled,  it will cause
powerful erections, and several copious seminal emissions.
  It is in extensive use as an external application in aphthous and inflam-
matory  affections of the mouth  and  throat, and  in scaly cutaneous
diseases.  A solution of one drachm in five fluidounces of water, with a
little sugar or honey, forms one of the best applications for use as a gargle
in the early stage of mercurial  salivation, and  also in all varieties  of
aphthous ulceration  of  the  mouth  and  throat.   One  drachm  of borax
dissolved in two fluidounces  of distilled vinegar, is said to be an excel-
lent lotion  for ringworm of the  scalp.  In  liver spots, (pityriasis versi-
color), it has also been found beneficial, and in  pruritus vulva, combined
with morphia.   Combined with  sugar it forms an. excellent collyrium,
and  enters  into  several  cooling or refrigerant  lotions.   The dose  of
borax is from  ten to thirty grains, dissolved in water,  or  in  infusion  of
elm or flaxseed.
  Off. Prep.—Lotio Boracis ; Lotio Boracis cum Morphiae.
                       SOD^E  CARBONAS.
                         Carbonate of Soda.
  History.—Carbonate of Soda exists in a native state in various parts
of the Avorld in  mineral waters, lakes, and  springs,  or in the surface of
the soil, which frequently exhibits a saline efflorescence.   It sometimes
occurs as a mineral in the form of sesquicarbonate, and is found abun-
dantly in the ashes of marine and salt-marsh plants.  Thus, it is found
in Fiance in the waters of Vichy and of Vals, in Hungary in the waters
of Bilin, and in Iceland in the Geyser  springs; as a mineral, it is found 
890
Materia Medica.
in Hungary, Egypt, South America, and in Northern Africa.   The prin-
cipal part of the commercial salt is, however, prepared artificially, being
much purer than that otherwise obtained.
   The ashes  of marine plants furnish an impure soda, which is called
Barilla, or Kelp.  Barilla  is obtained from a variety of plants, chiefly
of the genera Salicornia, Sulsola, and  Chenopodium.  When ripe, these
vegetables are  cut down,  dried, and burnt.  The ashes contain  from
twenty-five to forty per cent, of carbonate  of soda, and when of good
quality, are in hard, dry, porous, sonorous,  grayish-blue masses, which
upon  exposure  to  the air  become covered  with a saline efflorescence.
Barilla is prepared chiefly in Spain and Sicily.   Kelp is procured  from
various  seaAveeds,  principally  the Algae and Fuci.   The plants  are
allowed to ferment in  heaps, then dried, and burnt.   A large solid mass
is  formed, which  is broken into small fragments.  As found in com-
merce, kelp is in hard, vesicular, dark-gray, bluish, or greenish masses,
havino- a sulphurous odor, and a caustic  acrid  taste.   It contains  from
five to eight  per  cent, only of carbonate of soda, and was formerly
abundantly manufactured in Great Britain, and especially in the Orkney
and Hebrides islands.
   The artificial salt is prepared  by decomposing the  sulphate of soda;
which salt is more commonly made by converting common salt (chloride
of sodium) into the sulphate, by means of sulphuric acid.  The sulphate
being thoroughly dried is intimately mixed with its weight  of limestone-
powder, or chalk,  and half its weight of  powdered pit-coal;  the Avhole
mixture is then subjected to a strong heat in a reverberatory furnace,
and frequently  turned over, till flames cease to be emitted, and a pasty,
black mass is obtained called Black Ash, Black Soda-ash, Black Bulls, or
British Barilla.  When properly prepared this contains soda chiefly in
the caustic state, and  equivalent to about 55 per cent, of  the dry car-
bonate.   When  this is lixiviated and evaporated to perfect dryness, the
soda becomes partly carbonated, and a white or gray compact substance
is produced, which is called Soda-ash or White Soda-ash.  The carbonate
of soda is obtained by calcining this soda-ash in a reverberatory furnace,
with its weight of sawdust or coal-dust, the temperature being maintained
between 650° and 700°, till blue flames cease to issue; the sulphur is
thus burnt all aAvay, and all the  soda becomes carbonated.   The result-
ing mass is then  lixiViated, concentrated  till a pellicle forms on its
surface, and then poured into tanks to crystallize.   This mode of manu-
facturing  carbonate of soda, is pursued  on an  immense scale in Great
Britain, especially  at Liverpool and Glasgow.
   Carbonate  of soda  crystallizes in  rhombic  octahedres,   or in large
oblique rhombic prisms, or  forms  derived from the latter.   These are
colorless,  transparent, alkaline, and disagreeable to the taste, speedily
efflorescent in the air, soluble in  twice their weight of cold water,  inso-
 uble in alcohol, and having an alkaline reaction.  At  a moderate heat 
Sod^e Carbonas.
891
 they lose their water of crystallization; if it be increased, they become
 converted into a Avhite,  opake, anhydrous carbonate.   The anhydrous
 salt is fused at a full red-heat.   Carbonate of soda may be known from
 the carbonate  of potassa by its crystalline appearance and disposition
 to effloresce — from bicarbonate of potassa by its efflorescence — from
 bicarbonate of soda, by that being never distinctly crystalline.   In solu-
 tion, it may be discriminated from  carbonate of potassa, by chloride of
 platinum, an excess of tartaric  acid, or perchloric acid, occasioning no
 precipitate—and from bicarbonate of soda by giving a white precipitate
 with sulphate  of magnesia, and a reddish-brown one with corrosive sub-
 limate.  It is incompatible Avith acids, acidulous  salts, lime-water, muriate
 of ammonia, and earthy and metallic salts.  It  consists of one equivalent
 of soda 31.3, one of carbonic acid 22.12,  and ten  of water 90 = 143.42.
 (Na 0 + 002 + 10  Aq.)  The quantity  of Avater may, however, vary
 in its proportion, owing to the degree of efflorescence of the salt.
   Sulphate of soda and chloride of  sodium are the most common  impu-
 rities met Avith; these may be detected by converting the carbonate into
 a nitrate, and then  testing with chloride of barium, and nitrate of silver.
 When improperly prepared the salt is apt to contain some sulphuret of
 sodium, which may be known by the odor of sulphureted hydrogen  which
 is emitted on dissolving it in Avater.   Good carbonate of soda should be
 free from these impurities, though common salt is frequently present.
  Properties  and Uses.—In large  doses  carbonate of  soda is corrosive
 and irritant;  in medicinal ones, it  is  antacid,  antilithic, and  resolvent.
 When an overdose is taken, the best antidotes are fixed oils, acetic acid,
 lemon-juice, or cream of tartar.  It has been  used in diseases attended
 with acidity of stomach,  especially gout,  uric  acid,  gravel, dyspepsia,
 sick-headache, etc.  It  is more easily  taken, and  is  less acrid  and
 disagreeable  than the carbonate of potassa.   As with all the  alkaline
 carbonates, if too long  employed,  it  may bring  on phosphatic gravel
 through  the alkalinity of the  urine; on this account, the bicarbonates
dissolved in  carbonic  acid-water  and taken,  are  preferable, as  the
 excess of carbonic  acid  tends  to  keep the phosphates in solution.  It
has been recommended  in  pertussis, scrofula,  and bronchocele, and as
 an internal and external  agent in scaly and papular  cutaneous  diseases.
In these  latter affections, a lotion  may be made by dissolving two or
 three  drachms of the carbonate in  a  pint of water; or a bath may be
 employed, holding from eight to sixteen ounces in solution in the neces-
 sary quantity of water; or an ointment may be used,  composed of from
 eight  to sixty grains  to the ounce of lard.   The dose of carbonate of soda
is from ten to thirty grains in solution.
   Off. Prep.—Ferri Carbonas Saccharatum ; Ferri Subcarbonas; Liquor
Sodae  Chlorinatae; Magnesiae Carbonas; Pilulae Ferri Carbonatis;  Sodse
Acetas; Sodae  Bicarbonas; Sodae Carbonas Exsiccatus; Sodae et Potassa)
Tartras;  Sodae Phosphas; Zinci Carbonas  Praecipitatus. 
892
Materia Medica.
                         SOD^E SULPHAS.
                          Sulphate of Soda.
   History.—Sulphate of Soda, also known as Glauber's Salt, from its dis-
 coverer in 1658, and Vitriolated  Soda, exists more or less abundantly in
 various mineral springs, in sea-water, and in the  form  of mineral  com-
 bined Avith sulphate of lime.   It  is found in the mineral springs of Carls-
 bad,  Cheltenham, Sulphur springs of Virginia,  Saratoga Pavilion spring,
 Geyser springs, and Paipa among the Andes, in the latter  of which, it
 is so  abundant, that it forms crystals upon the  soil over which the water
 is thrown.  It is likewise prepared  artificially in  great  quantity in the
 processes  for  procuring  muriatic acid  and chlorine, and  in obtaining
 muriate of ammonia from common salt and sulphate of ammonia.  In
 some of the NeAV England  States,  it  is procured in the winter season
 from  sea-water.
   The Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia gives the following formula for prepar-
 ing it: Dissolve two pounds of the salt which remains after the distillation
 of pure muriatic acid (which is a supersulphate of soda), in three pints,
 Imperial measure, of boiling water; then add white marble in powder
 so long as  effervescence takes place, or  to saturate the  excess  of acid,
 boil  the liquid, and when neutral, filter it;  wash the  insoluble matter
 (sulphate of lime) with  boiling water, and  add  the washings to the
 original liquid  ; concentrate  till a pellicle begins to form, and then set it
 aside  to  crystallize.  Thomas, Dellisse, and Boucard have proposed a
 cheap process and which avoids the  productions of muriatic  acid vapors;
 it is by double  decomposition between sulphate of  iron, and chloride of
 sodium.
  Sulphate of  soda crystallizes  in  large oblique rhombic prisms, often
 truncated on their acute edges so as to form six-sided prisms, and termi-
 nated by two, four, or six converging planes; when hastily  crystallized,
 the crystals are small and acicular.  Its crystalline form  and  general
 appearance resemble those of the sulphates  of magnesia and zinc.  It
 is colorless and transparent, possessing a cooling, bitter, saline, nauseous
 taste,  and effloresces in the  air, its surface  becoming covered  with an
opake white poAvder.  It is soluble in three times its weight  of cold, and
in its  own weight of boiling water, and is insoluble in alcohol.  Exposed
to  heat it fuses in its water of crystallization, which  is expelled by
an elevated heat, with  the exception of one  equivalent of water; this
is removed, however, by a low  red-heat, and at a  full red-heat,  the salt
fuses  again, losing 55£ per cent, of its weight.  It is not subject to adul-
teration,  though it occasionally  contains an  excess of  alkali or acid,
which may be  ascertained by turmeric  or litmus paper.  Salt  may be
detected by sulphate of  silver;  iron  by tincture of galls, or ferrocyanu-
ret of potassium.   Sulphate of soda is incompatible  with the salts  of lime,
baryta, and lead, carbonate of  potassa, and  nitrate of silver.  It is 
Sodii Chloridum.
893
composed of one equivalent of soda 31.3, one of sulphuric acid 40, and
ten of  water 90=161.3 (Na 0 + SOa + 10 HO).
   Properties and  Uses.—Sulphate of  soda is cathartic,  aperient, and
diuretic, but on account of its  disagreeable taste, it has gradually been
displaced by the sulphate of magnesia.   As a cathartic the dose is from
four drachms to an ounce,  dissolved in eight or ten ounces  of water;
as an aperient and  diuretic the doses must be smaller, and largely diluted
with water.   As the salt by efflorescence loses about half its  weight of
water,  when the effloresced  article is used, the dose will be only one
half of the above quantities.  A few drops of sulphuric  acid, or a little
lemon-juice, or cream  of tartar,  added to the  solution, will  lessen its
nauseous and bitter taste.
                      SODII CHLORIDUM.
                        Chloride of  Sodium.
   History.—Chloride of Sodium  (Sodae Murias, Muriate of Soda, Com
mon salt), exists  abundantly in nature either in solution, or in the  solid
state.   In the state of solution it is found in many springs, lakes, and in
sea-Avater, Avhich contains about 2.7 per cent, of it, and from which it is
obtained  either by spontaneous evaporation in warm countries, consti-
tuting the bay-salt of commerce, which is in large grains approaching the
cuboidal form, or, by concentrating the  sea-wTater with the aid of heat,
constituting  the sea-salt of commerce, which is in small, white, irregular
grains, tending to the cubic  form.   In the evaporation of sea water, sul-
phate of lime  is deposited in the early part of the process, and after the
crystallization of the chloride of sodium, a large proportion of magnesian
salts remain in the mother-water.   All salt waters have the salt obtained
by evaporation in large iron boilers, or by spontaneous evaporation,
depending on the amount of salt contained  in the water, and  the  tem-
perature of the climate.  In the solid state, salt is found in various parts
of the Avorld,  forming  extensive beds, and even  entire mountains,  from
which it is removed in blocks or large masses  by mining operations ; in
this state it is  called Rock Salt, Fossil Salt,  Gem Salt, etc.  It is either
transparent or translucent, exhibiting various  colors, as red, yellow, blue,
broAvn, etc., owing probably to the presence of  manganese  and iron, and
from Avhich it may be purified by solution, and crystallization.   In the
United  States a great amount of  salt is made at Salina, Montezuma,
Galena, on  the Kanawha,  etc.,  from saline springs which either  flow
naturally, or are produced artificially  by  sinking shafts to various depths
in places where  salt is  known to exist.  Although there are several
varieties of salt recognized in commerce,  the essential difference between
them is  in the  size and density of the grains, rather  than in a difference
Of composition.
  Chloride of sodium  by slow evaporation  crystallizes in transparent,
colorless, and regular cubes, but  by hasty evaporation it forms  hollow 
894
Materia  Medica.
 quadrangular pyramids.   It is permanent in the air, but becomes moist
 on the surface in a damp  atmosphere, or when chloride of magnesium is
 present.   It is sparingly  soluble in alcohol, and dissolves in two  and
 two-third parts  of cold water; boiling increases its  solubility but very
 slightly.   Heat  causes it  to  decrepitate  from the  presence  of water
 inclosed in the crystals ; a red heat fuses, and a white heat volatilizes it
 in white fumes without decomposition.  It communicates a bright yellow
 hue  to the flame of spirit.   Nitrate of silver added to its solution occa-
 sions a curdy Avhite precipitate of muriate  of silver, soluble in ammonia.
 It does not  yield  a yellow precipitate with chloride of platinum, or a
 crystalline deposit Avith  tartaric  acid,  as  is the  case with chloride  of
 potassa.   It  is very apt to contain sulphates of lime and magnesia, and
 chlorides of magnesium and calcium.  Pure chloride of  sodium is  not
 precipitated by ferrocyanuret of  potassium, carbonate of  soda, or chlo-
 ride  of barium.    It is incompatible  with  nitric, sulphuric, and several
 other acids,  carbonate of  potassa, nitrate  of  silver, and protoxide  of
 mercury.   It is composed of one equivalent of chlorine 35.42, and one
 of sodium 23.3=58.72, Na+Cl.
  Properties and Uses.—Chloride of sodium in large doses is emetic and
 cathartic ; in small ones, tonic, alterative, and anthelmintic.  It is useful
 in all chronic diseases characterized  by a pale color of the tongue Avith a
 white  coat  or fur.   In teaspoonful  doses, taken dry, it often  checks
 hemoptysis, and  used  moderately it  promotes  digestion,  removes stru-
 mous diseases,  cures seme forms of dyspepsia, and gives tone to  the
 digestive organs  of children, and  corrects the disposition to  generate
 worms.  It proves a salutary stimulus even in health when taken in very
 small quantity, but an undue amount of it used  daily, does, undoubtedly,
 in many persons  dispose to plethora and corpulency.   In spasms of  an
 epileptic  or apoplectic character, the  effects of intemperance, salt and
 mustard, a teaspoonful or two of each, given in warm water, every ten
 or fifteen minutes, until free emesis is produced,  will be found the most
 efficient emetic.   In these cases,  counter-in itation may be produced by
 bastinadoing the  feet, and after the vomiting, the patient  may drink
 freely of good fresh milk.  During  the cholera of 1849-50-51, in Cin-
 cinnati, much benefit was derived  from the following  mixture:  Black
 Pepper, in powder, fine Table Salt, of each, one  teaspoonful ; Vinegar,
 five teaspoonfuls ;  Hot Water, half a tumblerful.   Dose, a tablespoonful
 every five, ten, or fifteen minutes,  as circumstances required.  It speedily
 checked  vomiting, abated  the  Avatery  discharges, and   removed  the
cramps.  It succeeded  in  many  cases, where  every other means  had
 failed.  Externally, applied in solution, salt is useful as a fomentation in
bruises or sprains, as a tonic and  excitant application in depraved condi-
tions of the  system, as a collyrium in some ophthalmic diseases, and is
 frequently used  as an ingredient in stimulating enemata.  A pound of
 salt to four gallons of Avater forms a suitable salt-Avater bath, acting as a 
Solanum Dulcamara.
895
tonic and excitant in debilitated and strumous  habits.  The dose of salt
as a tonic  and alterative, is from ten to sixty grains.   It  has recently
been recommended as a remedy in phthisis and intermittent fever.   The
entire absence of salt in the food, gives rise to a cachectic condition, and
other morbid  states,  with the formation of an abundance  of intestinal
worms.
   Off. Prep.—Acidum Muriaticum Purum ; Liquor Sodae Chlorinatae;
Sodae Murias Purum.
                    SOLANUM  DULCAMARA.
                             Bittersweet.
         Nat. Ord.—Solanacea?.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                        THE  ROOT AND TWIGS.
   Description. — BittersAveet or  Woody  Nightshade, is a woody vine,
 having a Avoody root, with a shrubby, flexuous,  thornless and branching
 stem, several feet in length, and having a grayish-green bark on the stem
 and large branches.   The leaves  are alternate,  acute,  mostly  smooth,
 though sometimes pubescent, veined, of a dull-green color, and petiolate;
 the loAver ones are  ovate or cordate ; the upper, halbert-shaped, or with
 two ear-like lobes  at the base, sometimes only one  side; most  of them
 are entire.  The flowers are purple, and are disposed in branched cymose
 racemes, opposite, the leaves  or terminal, drooping, divaricate,  and  on
 alternately  subdivided  peduncles.  Bracts minute.  The calyx is very
 small, acute, purplish, and divided into five  persistent  segments.  The
 corolla is rotate, and consists of five purple reflexed segments, which are
 acute, ovate, Avith two roundish, shining greenish spots at  the  base of
 each.   The fllaments are very short;  the anthers erect,  yelloAv, some-
 what connected into a conical  tube.   Ovary roundish, bearing a filiform
 style, longer than the anthers, Avith a simple, obtuse stigma.   The fruit
 is a scarlet, oval, juicy berry, containing  several whitish, plano-convex
 seeds.
   History.—Bittersweet, also known by the  names of Violet-bloom, and
 Scarlet-berry, is common to both Europe  and this country, growing in
 shady,  fertile situations, especially where there is some moisture, and
 flowering  from  June to August.  Its berries are ripened in autumn, and
 remain on the vine  during most of the  winter.  There are several varie-
 ties of it, founded on the form of the leaves, and their  smoothness  or
 pubescence.  The officinal portion  are  the small stems or tAvigs, though
 the Avhole plant is medicinal.  The berries, when  eaten, have certainly
produced serious consequences, though considered  by many to be innox-
ious.   The best time for gathering the twigs is  in autumn, after the
leaves have fallen ;  those plants growing in high and dry situations are
 Eaid to be the best. 
896
Materia Medica.
  When dried,  the  twigs  are  of various lengths,  light, hollow,  cylin-
drical, about as thick as a goosequill, wrinkled, and of a grayish-ash
color externally, and consisting of a thin bark, an interior woody portion,
and a central pith.  When  fresh, they emit on being bruised, a peculiar,
nauseous odor, and have a taste at first bitter,  followed by some sweet-
ness, and which has given  origin to the name of  the plant;  when  dried
they are inodorous, but of  the  same  taste with the fresh twigs.  They
impart  their virtues  to  boiling water, and  diluted alcohol; but  long
boiling  destroys their  activity.  They are found to contain a sweetish,
bitter extract, named  Dulcamarin or Picroglycion ; a narcotic  alkaloid,
named Solania ;  beside gum, gluten,  and other unimportant ingredients.
Its active principle is, probably, the solania.
  Several  other species  of Solanum  have been  employed medicinally.
The  Solanum  Tuberosum or Common Potato  is said to possess  narcotic
properties.   An extract prepared from the  leaves has been given  in
doses of from half a grain  to two grains in cough and spasmodic  affec-
tions with advantage ;  the stem and  unripe  berries have also been em-
ployed.  The  extract  has  also been of  service  in chronic rheumatism
and painful affections of the stomach and bowels.   The potato itself, has
been eaten in a raw state, either with or without vinegar, in  cases  of
scurvy, and with good effect; occasionally it produced  narcotic symp-
toms, with  a slight action on the bowels.  Some practitioners have, how-
ever, employed  it in the  above-named forms, without  producing any
sensible  effect.  Probably, cultivation,  soil, climate,  season, etc., exert
some influence upon the properties of the plant.  Dr. J.  Otto found So-
lania in the germs of the potato.  The stalks of  potato  furnish a  large
quantity of potassa.   If  the stalks are cut while  the plant is in flower,
and  the juice obtained by bruising  and pressing, a bright yellow dye
will be obtained.
  Solanum Lycopersicon,  (Lycopersicon  Esculentum,) or  Tomato, is  a
native  of South America.   The fruit contains a peculiar acid, and  a
brown,  tarry,  odorous, resinous matter, with some  indications of the
presence of an  alkaloid.   It forms  a very healthy article of food, and
exerts  a marked influence  on the biliary functions.   The leaves have  a
nauseous, narcotic odor, and contain an alkaloid very analogous  to Sola-
nia, a peculiar oil, and  animal-extractive.  Nearly all of the Solanums
are possessed of nutritive or medicinal properties.
  Solania may be best obtained from the potato.  In  the beginning  of
June, collect the sprouts, and  press them down in a suitable vessel, by
means  of pebbles.   Then cover them with water acidulated with  sulphu-
ric acid, so as to  have a strongly acid reaction during the  maceration,
and allow them to macerate for twelve or eighteen hours.   Then express
by hand, and the liquor, with the addition of fresh portions of sulphuric
acid, is  to be added twice  successively, as at first,  to fresh portions  of
sprouts, and in like manner separated by expression.   After standing for 
Solanum  Dulcamara.
897
some days, it must be  filtered, and treated with powdered  hydrate of
lime in slight excess.   The precipitate which  forms, is  to  be separated
by straining, dried in a warm air, and boiled  several times  in  alcohol.
The alcoholic solution, being filtered while hot, will upon cooling deposit
the solania in flocculent crystals.   An additional  quantity of the alka-
loid  may be  obtained by evaporating the mother liquor to  one-fourth its
volume, and  then allowing it to cool.  The whole  residuary liquor  will
assume a gelatinous  consistence, and, upon being dried, will leave  the
solania in  the form of a translucent, horny, amorphous mass.  Solania
may be obtained impure from S. Dulcamara  or S. Nigrum, by precipi-
tating the expressed juice of the plant with ammonia, and then purifying
by repeated solution in alcohol, and  decolorizing with  animal charcoal.
When pure, solania is in the form of a white,  opake powder, or of deli-
cate acicular crystals, permanent in the air, inodorous, of a bitter taste,
fusible at a  little  above  212° F.,  scarcely soluble in water, soluble in
alcohol  or ether, and neutralizing  acids without forming  crystallizable
salts.  Its solution becomes deep-brown or broAvnish-yellow on the addi-
tion  of iodine ; and sulphuric  acid causes it to become  at  first reddish-
yellow,  then purplish-violet, then  brown, and finally colorless, with a
brown pulverulent precipitate.   Solania has not been used in medicine ;
two grains  administered to  a rabbit,  produced symptoms  of coma  and
paralysis, followed by death ; somewhat larger doses caused vomiting in
dogs and cats, succeeded by drowsiness.
  Picroglycion  may  be obtained by treating the watery  extract  of S.
Dulcamara with alcohol, evaporating the tincture, dissolving  the residue
in water, precipitating the solution with subacetate of lead, decomposing
the excess  of this  salt  by sulphureted hydrogen, then  evaporating  the
liquor to dryness, and treating the residue with acetic ether.    Upon
spontaneous  evaporation the principle is  obtained in the form of small
isolated crystals.
  Properties  and Uses.—Solanum Dulcamara is feebly narcotic, diuretic,
alterative, diaphoretic, and discutient.  It has been chiefly  used in syrup
or decoction in cutaneous  diseases,  syphilitic diseases, rheumatic  and
cachectic  affections, ill-conditioned ulcers, scrofula, indurations from
milk, leucorrhea, jaundice, and obstructed menstruation.   It is of more
benefit in scaly cutaneous diseases, than others, as in lepra, psoriasis,
and pityriasis, and  especially when  combined with guaiacum,  and yellow
dock root.  When taken  in large  doses it produces nausea, vomiting,
faintness, vertigo, and spasmodic  action  of the muscles.  With  many
persons,  the face and hands become  purplish,  and  the  circulation
depressed while under its  influence.   It is said to be antaphrodisiac,  and
has proved useful in  mania in which the venereal functions  Avere strongly
excited.  Equal parts of the  twigs,  yellow  dock  root, and stillingia,
made into a syrup, form a valuable preparation for scrofulous affections,
           57 
898
Materia Medica.
as well as syphilitic.  Externally, in the form of ointment, it is employed
as a discutient to painful tumors, also as an application to some forms of
cutaneous disease,  ulcers, and erysipelatous  affections.  Dose  of the
decoction or syrup,  one or tAvo  fluidounces; of the extract,  from two to
five grains ; of the  powdered leaves, from ten to thirty grains.
   Off. Prep.—Decoctum Solani.
                       SOLANUM NIGRUM.
                         Garden  Nightshade.
        Nat. Ord.—Solanacea?.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                            the  leaves.
   Description.—Solanum Nigrum  is a fetid narcotic, bushy herb, with  a
fibrous  root, and an  erect, branching, angular, herbaceous,  thornless
stem, one  or two feet in hight.  The leaves are undivided, ovate, toothed
and waved, smooth, lengthened out at the base, and almost always with
the  lamina perforated  and the margin erose as if gnawed by insects.
Umbels  from the intermediate spaces between the leaves, solitary, pedun-
cled, simple, doAvny, and nodding.   Flowers white  or pale-violet, with a
musky scent; anthers yelloAv.   Berries globose, black, about the size of
peas.
   History.—The Garden or Deadly Nightshade, is found growing along
old Avails, fences, and in gardens,  in various parts  of the United States,
floAvering in July and August.  There are  several varieties of this spe-
cies, of which  the  Solanum Virginianum is the  most  abundant in this
country.  It has an erect, prickly  stem ; pinnatifid leaves, prickly on both
sides ;  divisions  sinuate, obtuse;  margin  ciliate; calyx  prickly, and
flowers blue, or whitish.  The  leaves are  the  parts employed, and yield
their properties to water, alcohol, or fixed oils.
   Properties and Uses.—Solanum  Nigrum  is a narcotic and  sedative,
producing, when given in large doses, nausea, and giddiness.   One to
three grains  of the leaves  infused in water,  will, it  is said, produce  a
copious perspiration, and often  purge on the next day.  They have been
used in  cancerous, scrofulous and  scorbutic diseases, being given inter-
nally, and at the same time, applied to the affected parts in the form  of
poultice or ointment.   Solania  exists in it more abundantly than in the
S. Dulcamara,  to which'it is somewhat analogous in  medicinal proper-
ties, with  more active  and energetic  narcotic virtues.   The berries are
poisonous, causing torpor, burning in the  stomach, fever, nausea, stupor,
and insensibility ; though  this is denied by M. Dunal of Montpelier.
The plant is used by Eclectics  in  the  form of  ointment only,  as  a
discutient.
   Off. Prep.—Unguentum Stramonii Compositum. 
Solid ago  Odora.
899
                        SOLIDAGO  ODORA.
                      Sweet-scented  Goldenrod.
         Nat. Ord.—Asteraceae.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia  Superflua.
                             the leaves.
   Description.—This plant is also  known  as Fragrant-leaved Goldenrod,
 and Sweet Goldenrod; it has a  perennial, woody, much branched and
 creeping root,  and a  slender, round, yellowish-green stem,  smooth or
 slightly pubescent  below, pubescent at top, often  reclined,  and two or
 three  feet in hight.   The  leaves  are closely sessile, linear-lanceolate,
 broad at base, entire, acute, rough at the margin but otherwise smooth,
 with a prominent midrib, and covered with  small  pellucid  dots.  The
 flowers are of a deep golden-yellow color, and are  arranged in a termi-
 nal, compound, and usually secund-paniculate  raceme, the  branches of
 which are  very slender,  rigid, and  spread  almost horizontally, are each
 accompanied by a small leaf, and support the flowers on downy pedicels,
 which put forth from the upper side  of the peduncle, and have small,
 linear,  subulate bracts  at their  base.  Scales  of  the involucre oblong,
 acute,  smooth, or slightly pubescent, the lower ones shorter,  and closely
 imbricating the rest.  Florets of the ray few, with oblong, obtuse, yellow
 ligules ;  those of the disk funnel-shaped, with acute segments.  Pappus
 shorter than  the florets of the disk.   (The leaves of this plant are  from
 an inch and a half to three inches long by from  three to five lines broad,
 with a strong, yellowish  midvein, but no veinlets.)
  History.—This is one  of an extensive genus of herbaceous perennials,
 most of the species of which are natives of North America; their general
 character is that of mild astringency, combined in a  few species  with
 some aromatic stimulating qualities.   The S. Odora is a native of most
 parts of the United States, growing in dry or sandy soil, and flowering
 from July to  October.   The leaves are the  officinal  portion, they  have a
 fragrant odor, partaking of anise  and sassafras, more perceptible on
 bruising them, and a warm, aromatic, agreeable taste,  which  properties
 depend on a pale-greenish-yellow  volatile oil, lighter than  water, and
 which'maybe obtained by distillation with water.  When properly dried
 the leaves form an excellent substitute for  tea.  They impart their vir-
 tues to alcohol, or boiling water in infusion ; but boiling injures them.
  Properties and Uses.—Sweet scented Goldenrod is moderately stimu-
 lant, aromatic, and carminative; and in warm  infusion, diaphoretic.   It
may be given to allay flatulence,  nausea, and to cover  the taste, or cor-
rect the operation of unpleasant or irritating medicines.  The oil is car-
minative and diuretic : and  its tincture, or essence, has been used as a
 diuretic in suppression of urine among  infants, and as an external appli-
cation in headache.   Its  essence  is useful in flatulency, to arrest vomit-
ing and spasmodic pains  in  the stomach, and  to disguise the taste of 
900
Materia Medica.
nauseous medicines.   The flowers are  said to be aperient, tonic, astrin-
gent, and diuretic, and have  been found beneficial in gravel, urinary
obstructions, ulceration of the bladder, and in the early stage of dropsy;
taken in infusion.
                       SOLIDAGO RIGIDA.
                        Hardleaf Goldenrod.
         Nat. Ord.—Asteraceae.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Superflua.
                     THE LEAVES AND BLOSSOMS.
  Description.—This plant is also termed Rigid Goldenrod; it has a sim-
ple stem, corymbose above, terete, round, striate, rough, minutely hairy,
very leafy, and from three  to five feet in hight.   The  leaves are  from
one to four inches long, ovate-oblong, rough, with minute, rigid hairs;
the upper ones being entire, veiny, thick and rigid;  the lower closely
sessile, by a  broad base, slightly serrate;  the radical ones  lanceolate,
acuminate, nerved, petiolate,  sometimes near a foot  long,  and about
two or  two and  a half inches broad.   The flowers are all yellow, and
arranged  in a  terminal, compound,  close, compact, paniculate-raceme.
Heads very large, about thirty-four flowered ; rays twice  the  length of
the  obtuse involucre, deep-yellow, from seven to  ten, and about three
lines  by one.   Scales of the involucre round-obtuse,  nerved, membra-
naceous at the edges.
  History.—This  is a tall species growing in dry fields and rocky woods
throughout the United  States, and is abundant in the Western prairies,
flowering in August and September.   It  is  the styptic plant  of old Dr.
Bone, of New Jersey, who  is said to have suppressed hemorrhages from
large blood-vessels, by applying it locally, in the powdered state ; a pro-
perty likewise attributed to the Solidago  Virgaurea or European  Golden-
rod, found in  this country and Europe.   The leaves and blossoms of  S.
Rigida are the parts employed;  they have an astringent taste, and yield
their  virtues to water or alcohol.
  Properties  and Uses.—Hardleaf Goldenrod is tonic, astringent, and
styptic.   In powder or infusion, it is  beneficial in all  external hemor-
rhages,  epistaxis, hemotypsis, hematemesis,  and hemorrhage from the
bowels.    Applied with excellent effect in form of poultice, to  old ulcers.
The oil  is diuretic.  The plant deserves further investigation.
                   SPIGELIA MARILANDICA.
                             Pinkroot.
   Nat.  Ord. — Rubiaceas;  Suborder,  Spigelieae.   Sex.  Syst. — Pentandria
Monogynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—Botanists vary in their arrangement of this plant; beside
the above given order and  suborder, we  find it classed in the natural 
Spigelia Marilandica.
901
order Gentianacece, also Spigeliacece, and again Loganiacece.  It is usually
known as the Carolina Pink, or  Worm-grass.  It is a herbaceous, indi-
genous  plant, with  a perennial, very fibrous,  yellow root, which sends
up several erect, simple, nearly smooth, four-angled stems, of a purplish
color, and from six to twenty inches high.  The leaves are opposite, ses-
sile, ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, entire, and  smooth, with the
margin and veins roughish-hairy ;  they are three or four inches long by
an inch  and  a half, or two inches and a half broad, and the stipules are
scarcely perceptible.   The flowers are few in number, are  arranged in
a terminal,  secund spike, and supported  on short pedicels; they are
somewhat club-shaped, scarlet externally, yellow internally,  and from
an inch  and  a half to two inches in length.   The calyx is persistent, with
five long,  linear, subulate, finely serrulate divisions, which are reflexed
in the ripe fruit.  The corolla is funnel-shaped, four times as long as the
calyx, the tube  inflated in the  middle and angular at top, and divided
into  five  acute, spreading  segments,  the  edges of which are  slightly
tinged with  green.   The  stamens are short, inserted into the  mouth
of the  corolla between the  segments;  anthers  oblong,  heart-shaped,
exserted.   Ovary small, superior, ovate; style about the length of the
corolla,  jointed  near its base, and terminating in a linear, fusiform,
fringed  stigma, projecting considerably beyond the corolla.  The cap-
sule  is double, consisting  of two cohering, one-celled, globular carpels
attached to a common receptacle, and containing numerous, small, angu-
lar seeds.
  History.—This plant is a native of the United States, growing  in dry
rich  soils,  and on the borders of woods, seldom found north of the Poto-
mac, and flowering from May to July.  There are several varieties, both
as regards the form of the leaves and  the color  of  the flowers.   It was
known to  the natives as a vermifuge, and was in use  among  the early
colonists in the Southern States a  long time before  it became  known  to
the profession, to whom it was introduced by Drs. Garden, Lining, and
Chalmers, of  South  Carolina.   As received at present,  spigelia is  in
bales or casks, consisting almost exclusively of the root, without the stem
or leaves; that  contained in casks is less liable to become damp and
moldy, and is consequently preferred to that in bales.   The officinal part
is the root;  this  consists of numerous, slender,  branching, crooked,
wrinkled fibers, from three to six inches long, forming a dense bunch,
and arising from a short rhizome,  which exhibits traces  of the stems  of
former years.   Externally it  is brown  or yellowish-brown, of a feeble,
peculiar odor, and a sweetish, slightly bitter, not very unpleasant taste.
Boiling water extracts its medicinal qualities.  Analysis has detected  in
it fixed and volatile oil, a small quantity of resin, a brown-colored extrac-
tive  of a bitter and nauseous  taste, on which the vermifuge power proba-
bly depends,  a  mucilaginous saccharine  matter, albumen, gallic acid,
some salts, etc.  A  long, slender, crooked, yellowish root, thickly set 
902
Materia Medica.
 with  short capillary fibers, and much smaller and lighter colored than
 the  pinkroot, will  sometimes be found  mixed with it; these are the
 roots, chiefly, of a small vine which attaches  itself to  the  stem of the
 spigelia, and should be separated before using the medicine.  Age im-
 pairs the activity of pinkroot.  The leaves and stalks of spigelia should
 always be rejected.
   Properties  and Uses.—Pinkroot is an active and certain anthelmintic,
 especially for children.  In large doses, it  is apt to purge, and likewise
 produce  symptoms  of narcotism, exciting the circulation, determining
 the blood to the brain, giving rise to vertigo, dimness of vision, dilated
 pupils, spasms  of the facial muscles, and sometimes even  causing con-
 vulsions.  Spasmodic  movements  of  the  eyelids are among  its most
 common attendants.  These narcotic effects are less liable to occur when
the medicine purges, and are entirely obviated by combining it with
cathartics.  Dose, of the powder, for  a child three  years old,  from ten
to twenty grains, or a fluidounce or two of a strong infusion, to  be given
 at bed-time, followed in the morning by a cathartic.   It is also  useful in
those conditions of the system, caused by worms, which resemble infantile
remittent and other  febrile diseases, and hydrocephalus.  A well known
worm tea is composed of  pinkroot half an ounce ;  senna two drachms ;
savin half a drachm; manna two drachms.  Mix, and infuse  in a pint
of water; dose one or two fluidounces. Dose of powdered pinkroot for
an adult, one or two drachms twice a day for several successive days,
and then followed by a cathartic.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Spigeliae et Sennae Fluidum; Infusum  Spi-
gelise.
                     spir.f:a tomentosa.
                            Hardhack.
         Nat. Ord.—Rosaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Icosandria Pentagynia.
                         the whole plant.
  Description.—This plant, known also by the names of Meadow-sweet,
White-leaf, and Steeple-bush, is  a small shrub, from  two to four feet in
hight, with many, simple, erect,  round, downy, hard, brittle and pur-
plish stems, furnished with alternate leaves, crowded on very short peti-
oles.  The leaves are from an inch and a half to  two inches  long, and
about half as wide, ovate-lanceolate, or oblong, unequally serrate, some-
what acute at both ends, smoothish and dark-green,  or brownish above,
and covered with a rusty white, dense tomentum beneath.  The flowers
are small, very numerous, subsessile, beautifully red or purple, and are
disposed in very short, dense,  slender,  compound,  terminal  spikes or
racemes.  The  calyx  is campanulate, with  five acute  segments.   The
petals are five,  round.  The stamens are numerous, exserted and  con- 
Spirit Vapor-Bath.
903
spicuous.   Styles five; carpels five, tomentose and spreading; seeds sub-
ulate at each end.
  History.—This is a beautiful shrub, common in low grounds and mea-
dows, in most parts of the United  States, and flowering  in  July and
August.  The whole plant is officinal.   As found in the shops, it is in
packages of various sizes, containing a mixture of leaves and flowers, and
frequently the bark.  Its odor is somewhat similar to that of black tea,
and  its  taste bitter and  exceedingly  astringent.   Water extracts  its
medicinal virtues.   It has not been analyzed thoroughly, but is known
to contain bitter extractive, tannic and  gallic  acids.   The  fruit is per-
sistent, .remaining through the winter, and furnishing food for the snow-
bird.
  Properties  and  Uses. — Hardhack is tonic  and astringent;  useful in
diarrhea, cholera infantum,  and other  complaints in  which astringents
are indicated, and is less apt to  disagree with the  stomach than  most
other astringents.   As a tonic, it  may be used in cases of debility, with
want of appetite.  The best form of administration is an extract, made
by displacement, and evaporation  in a water-bath, which affords a beau-
tiful article, of an agreeable odor,  and astringent,  bitter taste, that is
fully equal  to catechu, and  might replace it in all  cases where that
medicine is required ; the dose is from two to ten grains.   Dose of the
decoction, one or two fluidounces.
                     SPIRIT VAPOR-BATH.
  History and Uses.—A spirit vapor-bath  exerts a most powerful, yet
beneficial influence upon the whole system, aiding very materially our
endeavors to remove disease.  This highly valuable mode of producing
activity of  the  cutaneous  vessels has  long been practiced  in  many
sections of the country as a domestic remedial agent, and was first intro-
duced to the notice of the medical profession by myself, about eighteen
years ago,  since which  it  is in much  use  among physicians.   The
advantages  to be  derived from  this method of producing perspiration
are very great, and it is not followed with any of those  injurious conse-
quences which often attend the internal administration of a sudorific.
  It is  to  be given as folloAvs: The patient  is undressed, ready for
getting  into  bed,  having  removed the  shirt  and  underclothing worn
through the day, and put on a night shirt  or other clothing to be Avorn
only while  sweating, and during the  night, if the bath is taken at bed-
time.   He  is then  seated on a high Windsor, or wooden bottomed chair,
or instead thereof, a bench or board  may be  placed on a common open
bottomed chair, care being taken that the bottom is so covered that the
flame will  not burn him.   After seating  himself, a large  blanket or
coverlid  is  thrown  around him  from  behind, covering the back part of
his head and body,  as well as the chair, and  another  must be passed 
904
Materia  Medica.
 around him in front, which last is to be pinned at the neck, loosely, so
 that he can raise it and cover his face, or remove it down from his face,
 from time to time, as occasion requires, during  the operation of the bath.
 The blankets must reach down to the floor, and cover each other at the
 sides, so as to retain the vapor,  and prevent it  from passing off.
   This having been done, a saucer or tin vessel, into which is put one
 or two tablespoonfuls of whisky, brandy, spirits, alcohol, or any liquor
 that will burn, is then placed upon the floor,  directly under the center
 of the bottom of  the chair, raising a part of the blanket from behind to
 place it there;  then light a piece of paper, apply the flame to the liquor,
 and as soon as it  kindles, let down the part of  the blanket which  has
 been raised, and  allow the liquor to burn till it is consumed, watching it
 from time to time to see that the blankets are not burned.  As  soon as
 consumed, put  more liquor into the saucer, about as much as before,
 and again set  it on fire ;  being very careful to pour no liquor into  the
 saucer while the  flame exists, as there would be danger of burning the
 patient, blankets, and perhaps the house.   Continue this until the patient
 sweats or perspires freely, which in a majority  of cases will be in five or
 ten minutes.
   If, during the  operation, the  patient feels faint or thirsty, cold  water
 must be sprinkled or dashed in his face, or he may drink  one or two
 swalloAvs of it; and in some cases, the head may be bathed with cold water.
   As soon as free perspiration is produced, wrap the blankets around
 him, place him in bed, and cover him up warm, giving him about a pint of
 either good store tea, ginger, or some herb tea  to drink,  as warm as he
 can take it.  After two or three hours, remove  the covering, piece by
 piece, at intervals of twenty or twenty-five  minutes between each, that
 he may gradually cease perspiring.
   There is no  danger of taking cold after this spirit vapor-bath, if the
 patient uses ordinary precaution ;  and if his disease will allow, he can
 attend to his business on the next day the same as usual.  In fact, the
 whole is  a very  easy, safe, agreeable and beneficial  operation ; much
more so  than a mere  reading of the above explanation would lead one
to suppose.
   Chairs are now manufactured expressly for this purpose.
   This kind of  bath is peculiar to Eclectics, and  is highly beneficial in
colds,  pleurisy,  and all  febrile and  inflammatory attacks, diarrhea,
dysentery, sluggishness of cutaneous vessels, and in all chronic disease
where there is an abnormal condition of the skin.  In  acute diseases, it
may be repeated once a day, if required ; in  chronic diseases, once or
twice a week, or  once in a  fortnight, according  to indications.
   Where  it can be done,  it is  always preferable to bathe the patient
with an alkaline wash, both before and after this vapor-bath. 
             Spiritus Pyroxilicus — Shell-lac Splints.         905

                    SPIRITUS PYROXILICUS.
                          Pyroxylic Spirit.
   History.—This substance was discovered in 1812 by P. Taylor, since
 which it has  been examined  by various  chemists; it has been  called,
 Pyroligneous Ether, Wood-Naphtha, Wood Spirit, Wood Alcohol, Pyroxy-
 lic Alcohol, Methylic Alcohol, Hydrated Oxide of Methyle, etc.
   When wood is subjected to destructive distillation, there is formed,
 beside acetic  acid, tar, and other products, about one per cent,  of an
 inflammable, volatile  liquid, which when separated and purified,  consti-
 tutes pyroxylic acid.   Pure  anhydrous  pyroxylic  spirit is a mobile,
 colorless liquid, having a hot and pungent taste, and an aromatic  odor,
 similar to that of acetic  ether ;  it readily combines with water, alcohol,
 or ether, without disturbing its transparency.  It burns like  alcohol, the
 flame, however, being less luminous, and resembles it as a solvent, as
 all bodies  that are soluble in alcohol are likewise soluble in pyroxylic
 spirit.  Its specific gravity as a liquid is 0.798 ; as  a vapor  1.042.  At
 140° it boils,  and its vapor causes concussions which render its distilla-
 tion difficult,  but which  may be  prevented  by  placing in the bottom of
 the vessel, a layer of mercury.  It is sometimes confounded with pyro-
 acetic  spirit, which may be distinguished  by adding a few  drops of a
 saturated  solution of  chloride of calcium, which dissolves in the pyro-
 xylic spirit, but has  no action on the latter,  separating from it after
 agitation.  The liquid examined must be sufficiently pure not to separate
 into  two layers, nor to become milky on the addition of water.
  Properties and Uses.—Used to palliate consumptive cough, and lessen
 the febrile excitement attending phthisis.   It appears to act as a nar-
 cotic, sedative, and anti-emetic.  It arrests or greatly mitigates chronic
vomiting, whether dependent on  functional or  organic  diseases ; and is
reputed efficacious  in  diarrhea and  dysentery.  Recommended by Dr.
John Hastings in consumption, but is  inefficient  as  a curative  agent.
 Dose,  ten to  forty drops, three times a day;  sufficiently diluted with
water.  A  crude pyroxilic spirit of sp. gr. 0.846  to  0.890, is used by
chemists to burn in lamps as a substitute for alcohol; and by hatters and
varnish makers for dissolving resinous substances.
                      SHELL-LAC SPLINTS.
  Preparation.—Take of finely pulverized  shell-lac one pound, alcohol,
90 per cent, one quart;  mix, and expose  it to a moderate  heat in a
loosely stopped bottle, for forty-eight hours, when the shell-lac will be
dissolved.  With this  solution saturate woolen cloth,  and allow it to
dry.   To apply and fit the cloth to any part, cut it into the proper shape,
and then  hold  it near a  fire or hot stove, or dip it  into boiling water,
when it will become soft and pliable.   As soon  as  it has cooled so as 
906
Materia Medica.
not to burn the patient, apply it to the part, and by holding it for a few
minutes, or by the application of  the bandage while it is yet  pliable, it
will  assume any form  desired, and  on cooling, it becomes hard, and
remains  exactly as  at first placed.  If it is desirable to strengthen the
splint, take two pieces of the saturated cloth, spread one side of each
with a thick coat of the solution, by  means of a common paint-brush,
alloAv the alcohol to evaporate, and then, placing these two coated sides
together, press them with a  hot  flat-iron, until they have become per-
fectly cemented.  This operation  may be repeated several times,  if it is
necessary to increase the strength of the cloth, or splint.
                             SPONGIA.
                               Sponge.
   History,.—Sponge  is a flexible,  fixed, torpid, polymorphous  animal,
 composed either of reticulate fibers, or masses of small spires interwoven
 together, and clothed with a gelatinous flesh, full of small mouths on its
 surface, by which it absorbs and ejects water.   They inhabit the bottom
 of the sea, where they are fixed to rocks, or other solid bodies, and are
 most abundant Avithin the tropics.   The coarser kind are imported from
 the  Bahamas ; but the finest and best sponges  are brought from the
 Mediterranean.
   Sponge, as in  the  shops,  is in yellowish-brown masses,  of  various
 shape and size,  light, porous,  elastic, and  composed  of fine,  flexible,
 tenacious fibers, interAvoven in the form of cells or  meshes.  It usually
 contains numerous minute  fragments of coral,  stone,  or small shells,
 from which it must be freed before it can be used for ordinary purposes.
 Sponge  is prepared  by macerating  it for  several  days in cold Avater,
 beating it, in order to break up the concretions which  it contains, and
 dissolving what cannot thus  be separated of the calcareous matter by
 muriatic acid, diluted with thirty parts of water.   By  this process it is
 rendered perfectly soft and fit for surgical use; and when intended for
 surgical purposes, the softest, finest, and most elastic sponges should be
 selected.  For forming burnt sponge, the coarser will answer equally well.
 Sponge contains  gelatin, coagulated  albumen, iodine, common salt, sul-
 phur, phosphorus, carbonate  of lime, magnesia, silica, iron, bromine, etc.
   Properties and  Uses. — In consequence of its softness, porosity, and
 property of  imbibing liquids, sponge is very useful in  surgical  opera-
 tions.  It may likewise be advantageously applied over certain ulcers,
 the irritating sanies from which  it removes by absorption.  Compressed
upon a bleeding vessel, it is useful for promoting the coagulation of blood
in epistaxis and external hemorrhages.  Dipped  in wax, and flattened,
and  then cut into the  size  and  form required, it forms the sponge tent,
useful for dilating sinuses.  It has likewise been used for producing pre-
mature delivery, by introducing a piece of sponge into the mouth of the 
               Spongia Usta — Staphylea  Trifolia.            907

uterus, and allowing it to remain there for a time, and then changing it,
until by its swelling, and the irritation it produces, uterine contractions
are caused.
                         SPONGIA USTA.
                           Burnt Sponge.
   Preparation.—Take of  sponge a convenient quantity, cut it into pieces,
and beat it, that any extraneous matters may be separated, then burn it
in a close iron vessel until it becomes black and friable, lastly rub it into
very fine poAvder.
   History.—In 1000 parts of sponge, 343.848 were  dissipated by calci-
nation ; the remainder consisted of  327.0  parts of carbon and insoluble
matters, 112.08  of chloride  of sodium,  16.43  of sulphate of lime,
21.422  of iodide  of sodium, 7.57  of bromide of magnesium, 103.2 of
carbonate of lime,  35.0 of  phosphate of lime, 4.73 of  magnesia,  and
28.72 of oxide of iron.   The efficacy of burnt sponge depends princi-
pally upon the presence of iodine,  and should always be used when of
recent calcination, as it becomes impaired rapidly in consequence of the
volatilization of the iodine.
   Properties and Uses.—Said to be alterative and antiscrofulous.  Used
in goitre, scrofulous tumors,  and obstinate cutaneous eruptions.   Dose,
from one to three  drachms, mixed with syrup or honey, in the form of
an electuary.  A pill,  which has acquired some considerable  reputation
in the cure of  scrofula, is  made as follows:  Take  of  iodine fifty grains;
sulphate of morphia ten grains;  burnt sponge  one  hundred  grains.
Triturate these well together, and into a fine powder, and then form the
mixture into a pill mass, by the addition of  molasses or other compatible
medium, and divide into one hundred pills.  To be kept  in a dry place.
Dose, two or three pills daily.
                    STAPHYLEA  TRIFOLIA.
                            Bladder-nut.
        Nat. Ord.—Celastraceae.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Trigynia.
                      the bark  of the root.
  Description.—This is a handsome shrub, from six to ten feet in hight,
with greenish, striped branches.  The leaves are opposite, ternate; the
leaflets oval-acuminate, serrate, pale beneath, with scattered hairs.  The
flowers are white, or yellowish-white, half an inch long, and in a short,
pendulous raceme, terminating the branchlets.  The calyx is composed
of five, colored, persistent sepals;  the petals are five, ciliate below; the
fruit is ovate.   When in flower, if  the  germ be  cut transversely and
examined, it will appear two or three-celled, and will contain the  rudi-
ments of fifteen or twenty seeds; but when the fruit is ripe, it consists 
908
Materia  Medica.
of two or three inflated,  adnate, submembranous  capsules, which are
three-sided, three-parted at top, three-celled, and contain several hard,
small nuts or seeds, with a bony, smooth, and polished testa.
  History.—This plant is common to the United States, growing in moist
woods and thickets, and flowering  in May.  By some it has been erro-
neously called Swamp-Dogwood.  The bark of the  root  is the officinal
part, and has a pleasant, bitter taste.  It yields  its  properties to  water.
No analysis has yet been made of this new Eclectic medical agent.
  Properties  and  Uses. — Practitioners must be careful  to distinguish
this bark from that  of  the Ptelea Trifoliata, with which  it is frequently
confounded, although there is but little resemblance between them; the
Staphylea being  a thin, hard  bark, free  from  any oily  taste or smell.
Prof. I. G. Jones states that this bark is a pure, unirritating tonic, having
rather a soothing influence when applied to irritated  mucous membranes.
He has  employed it advantageously in convalescence  after fevers, and
in debility connected with  gastro-enteric  irritation.   It promotes the
appetite, enables the stomach to endure suitable nourishment, favors the
early re-establishment of digestion, and will be tolerated by the stomach,
when other tonics are rejected.   He employs it in cold infusion, of which
half a fluidounce  may be given every two,  three, or four hours, accord-
ing to circumstances.  It is also said to cure intermittent  fever,  and  is
considered  by some to be equal to quinia.   An extract maybe made of
the bark of the root, and will be found valuable as a tonic; the dose
of which is from three to five grains.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum  Staphyleae.
                   STATICE  CAROLINIANA.
                         Marsh Rosemary.
     Nat. Ord.—Plumbaginacete.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Pentagynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description. — By some botanists  this plant is  considered as a mere
variety of the Statice Limonium of  Europe, but the difference consists
in the American plant having flat-margined  and cuneiform leaves, while
in the European species the leaves are oblong with undulated margins,
and the flowers much larger.   Statice Caroliniana  is also known by the
names of Sea-Lavender, Ink-root, etc.; it  is  an  indigenous  maritime
plant, with a perennial,  large, fleshy, fusiform or branched root, of a
brownish  color, which  sends  up  annually  a scape and  leaves.  The
leaves are all radical, petiolate, erect,  smooth, mucronate,  entire, and
veinless.  The scape is round, smooth, terete, from  six to eighteen inches
in hight;  paniculate above, divisions alternate, bearing unilateral spikes
of small,  bluish-purple, somewhat sessile flowers,  each  with two scaly
mucronate bracts.   The calyx is funnel-shaped, five-toothed, five-angled, 
Stellaria  Media.
909
 the  angles  ciliate; corolla deeply five-cleft, divisions spatulate, obtuse,
 longer  than the calyx.  Stamens  five, inserted on the  claAvs of the
 corolla; anthers heart-shaped.   Ovary superior,  small,  and obovate,
 supporting  five styles shorter than the stamens.   Fruit or seed oblong,
 invested with the persistent calyx.
   History.—Marsh rosemary is found along the seacoast in marshy situ-
 ations from Maine to Florida, flowering from August to October.  The
 officinal  part is the root, which  is  large,  fusiform or branched, heavy,
 fleshy, and  of  a reddish  or purplish-brown color; it is inodorous, but
 has a saltish, extremely bitter and astringent taste.   It  imparts its vir-
 tues to alcohol,  and more readily  to  boiling  water.  Mr.  E. Parrish
 found it to contain about 12 per cent, of tannic  acid,  some gum, extrac-
 tive, albumen,  resin, volatile oil, caoutchouc,  lignin, coloring matter,
 and various salts.
   Properties and Uses.—Marsh Rosemary  is a  powerful  astringent,  and
 in some sections of the country is  very much  used  in  diseases of the
 bowels, in the form of infusion or decoction.   It has proved efficacious
 in diarrhea, dysentery, etc., in which diseases  it is  only  suited to the
 latter stages, where a tonic and astringent action is required.   The infu-
 sion, employed  as a gargle in affections of the throat, scarlatina anginosa,
 and  as  a wash in aphthous and ulcerated sore-mouth, has been very
 highly recommended.  Externally, the  powdered root may  be applied
 to old ulcers, or made  into an ointment,  as a  soothing application for
 piles.   The  decoction is likewise very useful as an injection in chronic
 gonorrhea,  gleet, leucorrhea,  prolapsus  ani and  uteri,  and in some
 ophthalmic  affections.   It  may be used in all  cases where  astringents
 are indicated.
  The Statice Limonium,  of Europe, is possessed of  the same  powers,
but in a less degree.  The infusion may be given in doses  of from half
a fluidounce to  two fluidounces, every two, three, or four hours.
                      STELLARIA  MEDIA.
                             Chickweed.
       Nat. Ord.—Caryophyllaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Decandria Trigynia.
                             THE plant.
  Description.—This plant is the Alsine Media of Linnaeus ; it is an annual
or biennial  weed, from six  to fifteen  inches in length, with  prostrate,
branched, brittle, round, jointed, and  leafy stems, distinguished by the
alternate, lateral,  hairy lines, extending from joint to joint.   The leaves
are ovate, ovate-cordate, and glabrous, the lower on hairy petioles.  The
flowers are small  and white,  in forked cymes  ; petals two-parted, shorter
than the calyx.   Stamens varying, three, five, or ten.
  History. — This is  a common plant throughout the  United States,
growing in fields and around dwellings, in moist, shady places, probably 
910
Materia Medica.
introduced from Europe ; it flowers from the beginning of spring to the
end of autumn.  The seeds are eaten by poultry and birds.  The whole
herb is used, when recent.
  Properties and Uses.—Chickweed appears to be a cooling demulcent.
I have seen the fresh leaves bruised and applied as a poultice to  indo-
lent, intractable ulcers on the leg, of many years standing, with the most
decided and immediately beneficial  results ; to be changed two or three
times a day.   In acute  ophthalmia, the  bruised leaves will likewise be
found a valuable application.   An ointment made by bruising the recent
leaves in fresh lard, may be used  as a cooling application to  erysipela-
tous and other forms of ulceration, as well as in many forms of cutaneous
disease.
                   STILLINGIA SYLVATICA.
                           Queen's Root.
      Nat. Ord.—Euphorbiaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Monadelphia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—This  plant is also known by the name of Queen's De-
light,  Yaw-root, and  Silver-leaf;  it is an  indigenous perennial, with
herbaceous  stems  two or three  feet high.  The  leaves  are  alternate,
sessile, oblong or  lanceolate-oblong, obtuse, serrulate, tapering  at the
base,  and accompanied with stipules.   The  male and female flowers are
distinct upon the same plant; they are yellow, and arranged in the form
of a spike, of which  the upper part is occupied by the male, and the
lower by the female flowers.   The male florets are  scarcely longer than
the bracteal scales.
  History.—This plant is found growing in pine-barrens and sandy soils
from Virginia to Florida,  and in Mississippi  and  Louisiana,  flowering
from April  to July.  When wounded, the plant emits a milky juice.
The root, which is  the officinal portion,  is large, thick, and woody, in long
cylindrical pieces,  from one-third of an inch to more than an inch thick,
wrinkled when dried, externally of a  dirty yellowish-brown color, and
exhibiting, when cut across, an interior soft, yellowish, ligneous portion,
surrounded by a pinkish-colored bark.  It  has a slight, peculiar, some-
what  oleaginous odor, which  is  strong and acrimonious  in the  recent
root, and the taste is bitterish  and pungent, leaving an  impression of
disagreeable acrimony in the mouth and  fauces.   It  imparts its virtues
to water or alcohol, and deteriorates in activity by age.   Its properties
appear  to be owing to a very acrid oil.   It also contains resin, woody
fiber, coloring matter, extractive, etc.
   The Oil of Stillingia, so called by its manufacturers, is more properly
an  alcoholic fluid extract; it is composed  of about forty per cent, of oil,
with  the  remainder consisting of extractive, resin, etc.  It is prepared 
Stillingia Sylvatica.
911
by  adding alcohol  95  per cent,  to the  recent  root of Stillhjgia, and
makino- a saturated tincture;  then distil off the alcohol.  The residue is
the preparation  sold and used as the oil of  Stillingia.  Upon  standing
for  a length of time, a flocculent deposit takes place, of a reddish-brown
character.  A similar preparation is  made with  ether by  displacement
and evaporation; it forms a more consistent liquid, probably holding
more fixed oil.  The  above oil or alcoholic fluid extract of Stillingia, is
of a dark brownish-red  color, of a strong, peculiar, not unpleasant odor,
and of a faint taste at  first, but in a short time followed  by exceeding
pungency and acridity, very persistent in its character,  and  which is
especially felt in the throat and fauces, being accompanied with a very
unpleasant sensation  in the  stomach,  if swallowed.  The recent root
affords a larger  quantity of oil, than when old, probably, because the oil
becomes oxidized and changed to resin by age, and is no longer soluble
in ether, although the real active principle of the article is but little im-
paired.   I have seen a preparation, called Stillingin, purporting to have
been prepared by the Franklin Pharmaceutical Institute of the City of
New York, sold for  one dollar  per  ounce.   It was, undoubtedly, the
above oil, triturated with sugar or sugar of milk, and the  whole cost of
which would not exceed twenty cents.
  Properties and Uses.—Stillingia in large doses is emetic and cathartic,
producing in  many  instances, a peculiar, disagreeable burning  sensation
in the  stomach, or some portion of the alimentary canal, accompanied
with more or less  prostration  of the  system.  In  small doses it is an
alterative, exerting  an influence over  all the secretions which  is unsur-
passed by any other known alteratives.  It is an  Eclectic remedy of
much importance and value, and is extensively used in all the various
forms of primary and secondary syphilitic affections, in which it appears
to have almost a specific action, also in  scrofulous, hepatic, and cutaneous
diseases, in which its administration is followed by the most successful
results.   In the form of fluid  extract, combined with oils of anise or
caraway it has been found very beneficial in chronic laryngeal and bron-
chial  affections, and in leucorrhea.   Small  pieces  of the recent root,
chewed occasionally through  the day, have effectually and permanently
cured laryngitis  and bronchitis.  The oil is entirely too acrid for internal
use, unless it be well incorporated with some  mucilaginous  or saccharine
substance; and, for internal use, the  fluid  extract, or syrup, will be
found sufficiently energetic and efficacious.   But as an external stimu-
lating application, the oil will be found Arery  valuable in many instances.
One drop of it placed upon the tongue, and repeated three or four times
a day, is reputed to  have proved  successful in  cases of  severe croup.
The dried root  is inert or nearly so,  hence,, its powder is of no utility
Dose of the  tincture, from half  a  fluidrachm to a fluidrachm ; of  the
decoction, one  or  two   fluidounces.    This  article  is reputed  to have
formed  an ingredient of Swaim's Panacea ; such is not the case. 
912
Materia  Medica.
   Off. Prep. — Extractum Stillingiae Hydro-alcoholicum ;  Extractum
Stillingiai Fluidum ;  Linimentum Stillingiae Compositum ;  Pilulae Phy-
tolaccae Compositae; Syrupus Stillingiae ; Syrupus Stillingiae Compositus ;
Tinctura  Stillingiae.

                  STRYCHNOS NUX VOMICA.
                           Nux Vomica.
     Nat. Ord. — Apocynaceas.    Sex.  Syst. — Pentandria Monogynia.
                            THE SEEDS.
   Description. — This is a middle-sized tree, with  a short,  crooked,
thickish  trunk, irregularly branched, and  covered with a  smooth,  ash-
colored bark; the young shoots are deep green,  and highly  polished.
The wood is white,  hard, close-grained, and bitter.  The  leaves  are
opposite, on short  petioles, oval, shining, smooth  on  both  sides, entire,
from an inch and a half to four inches in length, from  one to three inches
broad, and from three to five-nerved.   The flowers are small, greenish-
white,  funnel-shaped, and are collected into small terminal cymes,  with
a disagreeable odor.   The calyx is five-toothed ;  the  corolla is  also  five-
parted.  Filaments scarcely any or exceedingly short, inserted  over the
bottom of the divisions of the  corolla; anthers oblong, half within the
tube, and half without.   The  ovary is superior,  roundish,  two-celled,
with many ovules in each cell, attached to the thickened  center of the
partition. Style as long as the tube of the corolla ;  stigma capitate.  The
fruit is a berry, round, about the size of a large apple, and covered with
a smooth, hard rind, of a rich orange color when  ripe, and filled with a
white,  soft,  gelatinous pulp, in which are five  seeds ; these are  flat,
round, with a prominence in the center, of a grayish color externally and
covered with a woolly substance, but internally hard and tough like horn.
   History.—The Nux Vomica tree is a native of the East Indies, abound-
ing particularly on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts.  The wood is
exceedingly bitter, especially that of the root,  which is said to cure inter-
mittent fevers, and  the  bites  of venomous  snakes.   The pulp of the
fruit is greedily  eaten by various birds.  The Lignum Colubrinum or
Snake-wood,  which is generally referred  to the  Strychnos Colubrina, is
frequently nothing else than the nux-vomica wood.  The bark contains
a large proportion of brucia, and some strychnia,  and is said to be iden-
tical with the False Angustura Bark.  The officinal part of the plant is
the seeds.
   Nux Vomica seeds are circular, about nine  lines in diameter, and two
in thickness, flat and slightly concave on  one side and convex on  the
other,  umbilicated at one surface, and everywhere beset with fine short
ash-colored, or yellowish-gray satiny hairs, attached  to a thin,  fragile
coating,  which closely invests the kernel.  This internal nucleus or ker-
nel  is whitish and  translucent, occasionally dark-colored and  opake, 
Strychnos Nux Vomica.                   913
almost horny, exceedingly tough, very difficult to pulverize, and of an
intensely bitter taste.   To powder them, the method recommended is to
soften them well with steam, then slice them, and dry them ; after which
they are ground to powder.  The powder has a grayish-yellow color, a
faint, sweet odor, and an intense, durable, bitter taste.  Water or proof
spirit dissolves its active ingredients, but rectified,alcohol acts Avith the
most energy.  Ether takes up a concrete oil and some wax.   Nitric acid
renders the powder orange-red.  The  aqueous  decoction  is of a pale
grayish-yellow color, and intensely bitter, and becomes orange-yellow on
the addition of nitric acid, and  emerald-green by sesquioxide  of iron.
Nux Vomica consists of strychnia,  and  brucia,  united with  a peculiar
acid named Igasuric  Acid, concrete oil, wax, yellow coloring matter,
soluble gum, starch, and lignin.  Strychnia was discovered in  1818  by
Pelletier and Caventou, who found  it in greater proportion in the bean
of St. Ignatius than in the nux vomica.   For an  account of its  prepara-
tion and properties, as well as of Brucia, see article Strychnia, in the
second part of this work.
  Properties and Uses.—Nux  Vomica is  a powerful poison, exerting its
influence principally on the cerebral system.  In poisonous doses  it pro-
duces violent tetanic convulsions without impairing the  functions  of the
brain, asphyxia and death.  When given in doses sufficiently large to
influence the system, a sensation of weight and weakness is experienced,
with tremblings in the limbs, and  some rigidity on attempting motion.
Sometimes there are sudden starts or shocks, more or less frequent and
violent, Avith a tendency to permanent  inAroluntary contraction or  rigid-
ity of the muscles.  Even in  small  doses, it will occasionally  create a
sense of heat in the stomach, constriction of the throat, chest, and abdo-
men, and  retention of urine; sometimes vertigo, pain in the head, con-
tracted pupil, and dimness of vision  are produced ; and, more especially
with the corpulent and apoplectic, there will be formication, and tingling
upon  the surface, with  more or  less  perspiration,  slight involuntary
spasms of the muscles, and a very  disagreeable, dreamy or vague con-
dition of the brain.  The pulse may or may not be increased in  fre-
quency.  Chloroform is said to be beneficial in  poisoning by nux-vomica.
In small doses it is tonic, and increases the action of the various excretory
organs.
  Nux Vomica is  employed  principally in the treatment of paralysis,
especially when it  is of some standing, and  where  no hyperoemic or
hemorrhagic condition of the nervous centers exist; it is generally inap-
plicable to the recent forms, until the removal of the primary affection
by antiphlogistic means.   Its  use  is limited  to cases in which inflam-
matory action  or  congestion has been removed.   It  is said to be more
beneficial in general palsy and paraplegia than in hemiplegia,  and  has
also been found of benefit in local palsies, as of the bladder, likewise in
amaurosis, spermatorrhea and  impotence.  It has also been beneficially
            58 
914
Materia  Medica.
employed in neuralgia, chorea,  and obstinate constipation.  A small
quantity added to cathartics, increases their  energy.   Dysmenorrhea,
dyspepsia, dysentery, rheumatism, hysteria, mania, worms,  intermittent
fever, eneuresis, chronic  splenitis, etc., have  been successfully treated
by the use of this  agent.  Nux vomica and its alkaloids should always
be given Avith great care, the physician closely observing its effects.  The
dose of powdered nux vomica is five grains three or four times a day,
and gradually increased to ten, or until its effects are experienced.   The
alcoholic extract is the best form of administration and may  be  given in
doses of from one-fifteenth to one-twentieth of a grain as a tonic; and in
paralytic affections from  half a grain to two  grains in the form of  pill,
and, as with the  powder, gradually increased.  The saturated tincture
may be given in  doses of from five to thirty drops, likewise gradually
increased.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Nucis Vomicae ; Pilulae Copaibae Compositae ;
Strychnia ; Tinctura Nucis Vomicae.
                     STYRAX OFFICINALE.
                               Storax.
         Nat.  Ord.—Styracea?.  Sex. Syst.—Decandria Monogynia.
                        THE CONCRETE JUICE.
   Description. — This is a tree  from fifteen to twenty-five feet in hight,
Avith irregular, round branches which are tomentose when young.   The
leaves  are  alternate,  petiolate,  entire,  elliptical, deciduous, somewhat
pointed, bright-green  and smooth above, whitish with soft down beneath,
and  about two inches in length, by one and a half in breadth.   The
flowers are white, and in clusters of three or four, at the ends of the
young lateral shoots,  with angular pedicels.   The calyx is hoary, almost
hemispherical, rather angular at the  base, with five or seven very  short
marginal  teeth;  corolla white,  externally  downy, someAvhat  funnel-
shaped, and  divided into  from five to seven deep,  elliptical,  bbtuse,
spreading  segments.  The stamens  are ten,  placed  in a ring; the flla-
ments subulate, and inserted into the corolla,  with  yellow, erect,  oblong
anthers.  The ovary is ovate, with a slender style and simple stigma.
The fruit  is  a downy drupe of a globose form, containing  one or two
angular nuts, which are  concave on one side and convex on the other.
   History. — Storax is a native of Syria, Arabia, and other parts of the
Levant, and has  been naturalized in  some  of the Southern parts of
Europe.   The European tree does not yield any of the balsam, which
has led some botanists to doubt whether the officinal storax  is obtained
from it at all.   The mode of collecting it in Syria, whether by incisions
or by decoction, is not positively known, as the natives make a mystery
of their proceedings.  There are several kinds of  storax in commerce ; 
Styrax  Officinale.
915
 the  purest is the storax in grains, which are about the size of a pea,
 opake, soft, adhesive, capable of uniting so as to form a mass, and of a
 whitish,  yellowish-white,  or  reddish-white  color.   Another variety, in
 dry  and  brittle, amygdaloidal  masses, formed of yellowish agglutinated
 tears, with a brown or reddish matter between them, and wrapped in
 the leaves of a kind of reed, is called storax amygdaloide.  Both of the
 above varieties are free from impurities,  and have a pleasant vanilla odor;
 they are  rarely seen in our markets.   The common storax of the shops
 occurs in brittle,  brown  or  reddish-brown masses, several  pounds in
 weight, of various shapes, somewhat tenacious, and  softening under the
 teeth;  it has an agreeable odor  like vanilla or balsam  of Peru, and
 apparently consists of sawdust cemented by a balsamic or resinous sub-
 stance.   When exposed to the air it acquires upon its surface, a whitish
 efflorescent film of benzoic acid.  The  cakes or masses may be easily
 crushed  to a  coarse powder, in which state it is usually sold in the shops.
 When  good, it yields  a  brown resinous fluid, with  the odor of storax,
 when compressed between hot plates.   In consequence of its impurities,
 it should be purified by solution in alcohol, strained and then the alcohol
 distilled off by moderate heat, until the storax acquires the proper con-
 sistence.   The storax of commerce consists of a trace of  volatile oil, a
 little gum, some extractive matter, much woody fiber, with from 33 to
 54 per cent, of resin, and from 1 to 2.6 per cent, of benzoic acid.
  Liquid Storax is another variety, and which is the most commonly
 employed;  it is a semifluid adhesive substance, of a slightly greenish-
 gray color, the surface of which becomes  brown or  blackish upon expo-
 sure  to the atmosphere, and of an odor  somewhat similar to balsam of
 Peru, but less agreeable.   Its source is not accurately known.  Landerer
 says  that liquid storax is obtained from a plant growing in the islands
 and  on the mainland  of Greece,  which  is inodorous,  and  yields  no
 balsam, except that inhabiting the islands of Cos and Rhodes, which in
the flowering season exhales a rich vanilla odor, and yields liquid storax
from its bark and young twigs.  These  are  formed into balls, and are
 subjected to  pressure in  a heated press, when a  gray oily matter is
obtained, which is exported pure, or made into cakes with finely pow-
dered olibanum.
  Storax has  an  aromatic and fragrant odor and  taste, and yields its
 active properties to alcohol or ether; water becomes yellow and milky
with  it, acquiring  its  odor.   A moderate  heat  fuses it, and a higher
 temperature inflames it, burning with a white flame,  and leaving a light
 spongy carbonaceous residue.  Four hundred and  eighty grains of the
commercial article, haAre  yielded  three  hundred  and sixty of alcoholic
extract.  As  it yields benzoic or cinnamic  acid by  distillation, it ranks
as a balsam.
  Properties  and Uses. — Storax is a stimulant, acting more  especially
upon mucous tissues, as do nearly all balsams.  It has been found bene- 
916
Materia Medica.
ficial as  an expectorant in  cough, chronic catarrh, asthma, bronchitis,
and  other pulmonary affections; also in gonorrhea,  leucorrhea, and
gleet, in  which it is as effectual and more pleasant than copaiba.   Com-
bined with tallow or lard, it forms a valuable application in many forms
of cutaneous disease, especially those common to children,  as ringworm,
tinea, ringworm of the scalp,  etc.  It is  much  used, on account of its
fragrance,  for  compounding ointments and  pills,  and is  an  excellent
addition to opium in the form of pill,  when it is necessary to conceal the
taste and smell of this narcotic ;  three or four grains  of storax may be
combined with  one grain of  opium for this purpose.  The dose of storax
is from ten to twenty grains, gradually increased.
                            SUCCINUM.
                              Amber.
  History.—The origin of Amber is very uncertain; it is believed to be
a fossil resin, the produce of an extinct plant.   It may be derived from
some resin  formerly liquid  or soft;  or possibly from the slow oxidation
of a fatty matter, as we see succinic  acid formed from  fats by oxidation.
It is found chiefly in Prussia, either on the sea-shore or in the alluvial
formations  along the coast; it is likewise found  in  Sicily, and in this
country in New Jersey and Maryland.  It is a brittle solid, generally in
small irregular  masses, permanent  in  the air, having  a  homogeneous
texture and vitreous fracture, and susceptible of a fine polish.  Its color
is either light  or deep yellow, and  occasionally reddish,  or even  deep
brown.   It has no taste, and is inodorous, unless heated, when it exhales
a peculiar,  aromatic,  not unpleasant smell.  It is usually translucent,
though occasionally transparent or opake, and is found chiefly associated
with lignite, sometimes iron pyrites,  and frequently contains insects and
fragments of vegetables imbedded in it.  By friction  it becomes nega-
tively electric.  Its specific gravity is 1.07.   It  is  for the  most part
insoluble in all menstrua.   Heated in the open air it  softens ; at 548° it
melts, swells,  and burns with a yellow flame, leaving  a small portion of
ashes.   Subjected to distillation  in  a retort furnished with a tubulated
receiver, it yields first  a yelloAv acid liquor, which is a solution of impure
succinic acid; and  aftenvard a thin yellowish oil, Avith a yellow waxy
substance, which is deposited in  the neck of the retort and  the  upper
part of the receiver.   The oil obtained is called the Oil of Amber, Oleum
Succini.   The waxy matter, exhausted by cold ether of the portion solu-
ble in that menstruum, is reduced to a yellow micaceous substance  iden-
tical with Chrysene, and from which a white crystalline body may be
separated by  boiling  alcohol,  identical  with the solid carbo-hydrogen
Idrialine, and  called by  its discoverers  Succisterene.    Both  have the
same composition,  and  color sulphuric acid intensely blue,  forming a
coupled  acid.    Chrysene is insoluble in most liquids, melts at 455°  and 
Sulphur.
917
is likewise a carbo-hydrogen.  As the distillation of amber  proceeds, a
large quantity of combustible gas is given off, which must be allowed to
escape from  the tubulure of the receiver.   As the heat continues, the
oil gradually  deepens in color, until it finally becomes black and of the
consistence of pitch.  Amber repeatedly distilled from nitric acid, yields
an acid liquor, from which, after  it has been  neutralized  by caustic
potassa, ether  separates pure camphor.  Camphor may  likewise  be
obtained by distilling to dryness powdered amber with an extremely con-
centrated  solution of caustic  potassa.  When  the acid crystals form,
when amber is  subjected to distillation, they may be obtained  by com-
pressing them  in bibulous paper, and subliming  them a second time;
these crystals of succinic acid were formerly called Salt of Amber, and
were much esteemed as a diuretic.
  Amber consists of a small quantity of fragrant volatile  oil; a yellow
resin, intimately united with a volatile oil, very soluble in alcohol, ether,
or the alkalies, easily  fusible, and  resembling ordinary resins; another
resin, also  combined with volatile oil, soluble in  ether  or the  alkalies,
sparingly soluble in cold, but more  soluble in boiling alcohol;  succinic
acid; a bituminous principle, having some analogy to the  lac-resin of
John, insoluble in alcohol, ether,  or the alkalies, and constituting  more
than  four-fifths of the amber; also a strongly odorous, bright-yellow
substance,  which hardens by time.   Its elementary composition is, car-
bon  80.59, hydrogen  7.31, oxygen 6.73,  ashes (silica, lime, and alu-
mina) 3.27=97.90.
  Properties  and Uses.—Amber is not used as a medicine in the present
day,  being employed only in pharmacy and the arts. It is used to prepare
succinic acid and  oil of amber.  In the arts it is made into ornaments,
and prepared in making varnishes, for which latter purpose it is first sub-
jected to the process of roasting, whereby it is  rendered soluble in a
mixture of linseed oil and oil of  turpentine, forming amber-varnish.
   Off. Prep.—Oleum  Succini; Oleum Succini Rectification.
                            SULPHUR.
                              Sulphur.
                   SULPHUR  SUBLIMATUM.
              Sublimed Sulphur.  Flowers of Sulphur.
                       SULPHUR LOTUM.
                         Washed Sulphur.
  History. — Sulphur  is  an abundant natural production, occurring
principally  in  volcanic  districts,  especially in Sicily, where  it may be
obtained in a state of purity, and often crystallized.   It is also very gene-
rally disseminated  throughout the mineral kingdom in combination with
gypsum, heavy-spar, and many  other minerals, with oxygen as sulphuric 
918
Materia  Medica.
acid,  with hydrogen as sulphureted hydrogen, with mineral waters,
and with the metals, especially lead, iron, copper, quicksilver, etc., form-
ing with them compounds  called sulphurets or sulphides.   It is almost
always  present  in  minute quantity in animal  and  vegetable matter,
especially in mustard and other cruciform  plants; indeed it is an essen-
tial ingredient of vegetable and  animal fibrine, albumen, and caseine,
and as such is indispensable to vegetation and  to  animal  life.  When
found in a native state, it is in masses, translucent  or opake, or in the
powdery form, mixed with various earthy impurities.
  For supplying the wants of medicine and the arts, sulphur is obtained
from two  sources; one, imported from  Sicily, and  known  as Native or
Volcanic Sulphur, the  other, prepared  from the sulphurets of iron or
copper,  and known  as Pyritic  Sulphur, which is  seldom employed in
medicine.   Volcanic sulphur occurs in masses  or crystals;  the crystal-
lized variety presents the form of very acute rhombic octaedres, bright
sulphur-yellow in color, and  exceedingly pure.  The massive sulphur,
has a grayish-yellow tint, rather less brittle and less  lustrous than the
preceding, with  many grayish or bluish spots or streaks, arising  from
mineral impurities.   From the volcanic sulphur, pure  sulphur is pre-
pared by distillation.   Crude sulphur is prepared by distillation  of sul-
phur from the sulphur earths; this, when purified by being again melted,
allowing the impurities to settle, and  then pouring the purer sulphur
into cylindrical molds about an inch in diameter,  forms the Roll Sulphur
or Cane Brimstone of commerce ; and the residue of this process, ground
to powder, being a very impure  sulphur, of a gray color, is known by
the name  of Sulphur Vivum or Horse Brimstone.  Roll sulphur is now
made by subliming  the sulphur in iron vessels, fusing the product, and
casting it into cylindrical molds.
  The best mode of purification is to sublime the sulphur, pass the sub-
limed vapor into a close chamber of considerable  size, where it condenses
in fine  impalpable  powder, consisting  of minute  globules between  a
thirtieth and a two-hundredth of an inch  in diameter, unless they  have
been  exposed to light or agitation, when they are apt to present a crys-
talline structure.  This is  called Flowers of Sulphur or Sublimed Sul-
phur.  Washed Sulphur is  the  sublimed sulphur thoroughly washed
with water to free it from the acidity which is  apt to be present, in  con-
sequence of the combustion some  of it undergoes in  the act of subliming,
thereby giving rise to sulphuric acid.  When properly washed, it under-
goes no change by exposure to the atmosphere.
  Crude sulphur is imported to this country principally from Sicily and
the ports of Italy.   Roll sulphur and  the flowers of  sulphur generally
come from Marseilles.   Sulphur  is an  elementary, non-metallic, brittle
solid, of a pale-yellow color, permanent  in the air,  and exhibiting  a
crystalline texture  and shining  fracture, with a  perceptible smell when
rubbed, and a faint peculiar taste.  It is a bad conductor of heat, and 
Sulphur.
919
becomes negatively electric by friction.   When pure its specific  gravity
is 1.99; when impure it may be as high as 2.35.   Its equivalent number
is 16, and its symbol S.  It is insoluble in water, but soluble in petro-
leum, alkaline  solutions, the fixed and  volatile  oils,  and when finely
powdered in alcohol or  ether.  It begins to volatilize at about 180°,
giving off its peculiar odor, and when heated to between 224° and 230°,
it passes into a state of fusion ; about 400°, or a little higher, the melted
mass becomes thicker and brownish;  and if kept for some time at this
temperature, or suddenly  cooled  by being  poured  into cold water, it
forms for a short while aftervvard a soft, tough mass, called Amorphous
Soft Sulphur, which is capable of receiving and  retaining delicate im-
pressions of seals,  coins, and the like.  At 650° it sublimes unchanged,
if oxygen be excluded;  in open vessels, sulphur, when inflamed, burns
with a lambent blue flame, combining with  the oxygen of the air, and
giving rise to highly suffocating vapors  of sulphurous  acid gas.  As a
chemical, sulphur  is exceedingly important, its  combinations being
numerous,  and  among the most powerful agents of chemistry.
  Sulphur, from carelessness  in its purification, may contain sulphuric
acid, from which it should always be freed; this  may be detected by
agitating some of the sulphur in water, and testing the water with litmus
paper.  It is sometimes  adulterated with arsenic, which  may be detected
by converting the  sulphur and arsenic into sulphuric and arsenic acids,
through the action of nitric acid and heat, neutralizing the  acids by car-
bonate of soda, adding muriatic acid in excess, and transmitting sulphu-
reted hydrogen for some minutes; upon which yellow  sulphuret of
arsenic  will fall down.
  Properties and  Uses.—Sulphur  is a stimulant, laxative, diaphoretic,
alterative, and in regard to scabies, it is considered a specific.   It is used
in hemorrhoids, diseases of the bladder, and in  pregnancy, as a mild
cathartic, either alone,  combined  with  cream of tartar, or  with  some
other saline purgative.   It  is given alone in  one or two drachm doses,
in milk  or  molasses; or thirty grains of sulphur combined with two
drachms of bitartrate  of  potassa.   One serious objection  to  its use
is, that it renders the stools, and even the insensible transpiration, insup-
portably fetid;  which arises  from its being converted within the body
into sulphureted hydrogen;  if the sulphur  contains acid, its operation
will be attended with more or less  griping.  The soda of the  bile is sup-
posed to render the sulphur soluble.   In chronic catarrh, chronic rheu-
matism, cutaneous diseases, and in the chronic stage of pertussis, it may
be administered two or three times a day, in doses of twenty or thirty
grains.
  Externally, sulphur is used in various cutaneous diseases of the vesi-
cular, scaly, or papular kind.   Sulphur-baths are likewise found bene-
ficial  in  scrofula,  chronic palsy, chronic rheumatism,  scabies, and all
kinds of scaly cutaneous disorders;  the sulphurous  acid gas is applied 
920
Materia Medica.
to the body,  the  head being  protected.   The effects occasioned are
warmth, redness, and pricking  of the integuments, followed by consid-
erable sweating and excitement of the circulation.  If the gas should be
inhaled, it will prove powerfully irritating to the glottis, and altogether
irrespirable, even when diluted Avith  atmospheric air.  The effects of sul-
phur, and of sulphurous acid in  cutaneous diseases and rheumatism may
be obtained by using the sulphuret of potassa in the form of bath, say
two or three ounces to one hundred  pounds of water.
   Off. Prep.— Confectio  Sennae Composita; Ferri  Sulphuretum;  Po-
tassae Sulphas cum Sulphure; Potassii Sulphuretum; Sulphur  Praecipi-
tatum; Unguentum Sulphuris; Unguentum Sulphuris Compositum; Vinum
Cinchonae Compositum.
                  SYMPHYTUM  OFFICINALE.
                              Comfrey.
       Nat. Ord.—Boraginacea?.  Sex.  Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                             THE  ROOT.
   Description. — Comfrey has an  oblong, fleshy,  perennial root, black
externally, and a pilose, herbaceous stem, three or four feet high, branch-
ing above, and winged by  the  decurrent bases of the pointed, Avavy,
rough-edged leaves; the lower leaves and radical  are ovate-lanceolate,
tapering into a  petiole ; the upper and floral lanceolate.  The flowers are
white or of a rose color, and disposed in terminal,  revolute  racemes.
The calyx is five-parted, with  lanceolate, acuminate sepals; the corolla
tubular-campanulate;  limb  with five recurved teeth.  Stamens  five,
included;  anthers elongated.   Style filiform.  Nutlets smooth, ovate,
fixed  by a large excavated (perforate) base.   The whole plant is rough
with dense hairs.
   History.—This is a European plant,.much cultivated in our gardens
for medical uses, and flowering through the summer.  The root is the
officinal part; it is spindle-shaped, branched, sometimes  more than an
inch thick  and  a foot  long,  externally smooth  and blackish, internally
white, fleshy,  and juicy,  containing  much  mucilage. When dried it
becomes  wrinkled,  of a  firm, horny consistence, and of a  dark  color
within.   It is nearly inodorous, and has a mucilaginous, feebly astrin-
gent taste.  It contains a small quantity of tannin, and a great abundance
of mucilage, which it yields  to water.
   Properties and Uses.—This plant is demulcent and slightly astringent.
With  other mucilaginous  agents, it  is considered  inert or  of  but little
medical importance by many writers; but this is an erroneous view, the
result of deficient investigation.  All mucilaginous agents  exert an influ-
ence on mucous tissues, hence the cure of many pulmonary and other
affections, in which these tissues have  been  chiefly implicated, by their 
Symplocarpus Fcetidus.
921
 internal use.  Physicians  must not expect a  serous disease to yield to
 remedies which act  on  mucous membranes only ;  and to determine the
 true value of a medical agent, they must first  ascertain the true charac-
 ter of the affection, as Avell as of the tissues involved.  Again, mucila-
 ginous agents  are always beneficial in scrofulous  and anaemic habits.
 Comfrey root is very useful in diarrhea, dysentery,  coughs, hemoptysis,
 other pulmonary affections, leucorrhea, and female debility ; these being
 principally mucous affections.  It may be boiled in water, wine, or made
 into a syrup, and taken in doses  of from one  to four fluidounces of the
 preparation, two or three times a day. Externally, the fresh root, bruised,
 forms an excellent application to bruises,  ruptures, fresh wounds, sore
breasts, ulcers, white swellings, etc.
   Off. Prep. — Syrupus Araliae  Compositus;  Vinum Symphytii  Com-
positum.
                   SYMPLOCARPUS FOilTIDUS.
                           Skunk Cabbage.
         Nat.  Ord.—Araceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Tetrandria Monogynia.
                        THE ROOT AND SEEDS.
   Description. — This  plant has been a  difficult one for Botanists  to
 arrange ; thus Willdenow attached it to the genus Dracontium; Michaux
 and Pursh to that of Pothos, and  Bigelow to Idodes.  Nuttall calls it
 Symplocarpus, which is adopted by many  botanists, and which we deem
 it best  to  retain.   It is a very curious plant, having a  large, abrupt,
 perennial  root or tuber, with numerous verticillate, fleshy fibers, which
 penetrate  to the depth of two or more feet.  The spathe  appears before
 the leaves, and is  ovoid, roundish,  cucullate, turgid, various in width,
 spotted and sometimes nearly covered with brownish-purple blotches,
 varied with red, yellow, and green, the  top  acuminate and incurved,
 the edges  folded inward, auriculate  at base,  and  at length coalescing.
 Within the spathe,  the flowers, which resemble it in color, are placed  in
 great numbers upon a globose, pedunculate, simple spadix, for which they
 form a compact covering.   The flowers are tesselately imbricate, adnate.
 The calyx is composed of four  fleshy, cuneate, truncate sepals, the top
 and edges inflected, at length becoming very thick.  Corolla none.  Sta-
 mens four, opposite the sepals, with  subulate fllaments, equal in length
 to the calyx, and oblong, exserted, two-celled anthers.   The style is four-
 sided, tapering;  stigma minute, pubescent; ovary  roundish,  concealed
 within  the  spadix.   After  the  spathe decays, the  spadix continues to
grow, and with it every part of the flowers except the anthers.  When
 the fruit is ripe, the spadix has attained many times its original dimen-
sions, while the calyx, filaments and style are larger, very prominent and
separated from each other.  Within the spadix, at the  base of each style, 
922
Materia Medica.
is a naked, round, fleshy seed, as large as  a  pea,  white,  tinged  with
green and purple, invested Avith a separate membranous coat, and with a
prominent  embryo situated  in a depression at top,  and  umbilicately
attached to a large, solid perisperm.  Sometime after the flowers, numer-
ous, large, crowded leaves appear,  which are  oblong, cordate, acute,
smooth, with numerous fleshy veins of  a pale color, on long, channeled
petioles,  furnished  with large oblong sheaths,  bright-green, and often
twenty inches long by twelve broad.
  History.—This is an indigenous plant, growing  abundantly in various
parts of the United States, in moist situations, flowering  in March and
April, and  maturing its fruit in  August.  The whole  plant, especially
when bruised, emits a very disagreeable alliaceous  odor, which has given
rise  to  the several names,  Skunk-weed,  Skunk-cabbage, Polecat-weed,
and  Meadow-cabbage.   The root is  the  officinal part, and  should be col-
lected in autumn or early in spring, and dried with care.  It has a disa-
greeable, fetid odor,  and  an acrid taste.   When properly dried and
whole, it is cylindrical, or in  the shape of a truncated cone, two or three
inches long, by about an inch in  thickness, dark-brown externally, and
very rough from the  insertion of radicles, internally white and amyla-
ceous.   When in transverse slices, they are of various lengths, about as
thick as a  quill, very much  flattened and Avrinkled, Avhite within, and
coArered  by a yelloAvish reddish-brown epidermis, considerably  lighter
colored than  the body of the root.  Drying lessens the odor, as well as
the acrimony of the plant, and age and exposure dissipate  them entirely,
consequently the root should be renewed annually.   The seeds are fre-
quently used and preferred, as being more energetic than the root; they
have an exceedingly acrid  taste, and emit the peculiar odor  of the plant,
only when  bruised.  They preserve their  virtues  longer than the root.
The properties of this plant chiefly depend  upon a volatile  principle,
which is materially diminished by drying, and is entirely dissipated by
heat. Alcohol or water extracts its virtues, and  the  aqueous  infusion
should be made by displacement.   The roots and  seeds contain volatile
fatty matter,  volatile oil, fixed oil, of which  the seeds yield twenty per
cent., starch, etc.
  Properties  and  Uses.—In  large doses, Skunk-cabbage will  occasion
nausea,  vomiting, headache,  vertigo, and  dimness of sight.  In medici-
nal  doses,  it is  stimulant,  antispasmodic,  expectorant,  and  slightly
narcotic.  It has  been successfully  used in  asthma, hooping-cough,
nervous irritability, hysteria, epilepsy, and convulsions  attending preg-
nancy and parturition;  likewise in  chronic catarrh,  pulmonary,  and
bronchial affections.  The  powdered root or seed may be given in doses
of from ten to forty grains,  three times a day ; but the  most eligible
mode of administration is a saturated tincture of the fresh root, of which
one or two  fluidrachms may be given for a dose. 
Tamarindus  Indica.
923
   Off. Prep. — Pulvis Lobelia? Compositus; Pulvis Asclepiee  Compo-
situs ;  Tinctura  Symplocarpi; Tinctura  Lobeliae Composita;  Tinctura
Lobeliae et Capsici;  Tinctura Sanguinariae Composita ; Tinctura Sangui-
nariae Acetata ; Tinctura Viburnii Composita.
                     TAMARINDUS INDICA.
                             Tamarind.
        Nat. Ord.—Fabaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Monadelphia Triandria.
                       the preserved fruit.
   Description. — This is a large tree, with numerous spreading branches,
 and an erect, thick trunk, covered with a rough, ash-colored bark.   The
 leaves are alternate and  pinnate, consisting of many pairs of opposite
 leaflets, which  are subsessile, entire, obtuse, elliptic-oblong, unequal at
 the  base, about six lines long by two broad, smooth on both sides, and
 of a yellowish-green color ; the petioles are from four to six inches long,
 and channeled; stipules small,  deciduous.   The leaflets  close in  the
 evening, or in cold, moist weather, like those of the sensitive plant.  The
 flowers are in  simple, lateral and terminal  racemes; the calyx is four-
 leaved, cruciate, expanding, deciduous, somewhat  tubular at base, bila-
 biate,  the  upper-lip  tri-partite,  the  lower broad,  two-toothed.    The
 corolla is  somewhat papilionaceous,  erect,  unilateral, the length of the
 calyx.  The vexillum or middle petal is oblong,  its margins involute and
 curled; wings oval, margins curled; all three are beautifully variegated
 with red and yellow;  Keel  two short subulate  processes  under  the
 stamens.  The  stamens are ten, of which seven are very short and sterile,
 and  three  long, purplish, curved, united at base,  bearing large, ovate,
 incumbent anthers.  The ovary is oblong,  compressed,  incurved,  and
 supports a subulate style with an obtuse stigma.  The  legume is oblong,
 compressed,  one-celled, two  to  twelve seeded, filled with a firm,  acid
 pulp, covered with a hard, scabrous bark, which never separates  into
 valves; under  the bark run three fibers, one  down the upper concave
 margin, and the other two at equal distances from the inferior or convex
 edge.  Seeds from six  to  twelve, somewhat trapeziform,  compressed,
 covered with a smooth, hard, brown shell,  and inserted into the convex
 side of the pericarp.
  History.—The  Tamarind tree  grows in the East and West Indies,
 Egypt and Arabia. The fruit is the officinal portion ; in the recent state
they have an agreeable, sour taste, without any mixture of sweetness.
As usually obtained, they are in  the  preserved state, made by placing
the pods previously deprived of their shell,  in layers in a  cask, and then
pouring boiling syrup over them ; thus prepared, they form a  dark-
colored adhesive  mass,  consisting of syrup  mixed with the pulp, mem-
branes, strings  and seeds of the  pod, and of  a sweet acidulous  taste. 
924
Materia  Medica.
The seeds should be hard, clean, and not swollen, the strings tough and
entire, and the  odor without mustiness.  The presence of copper may
be ascertained by the reddish coat imparted to the blade of a knife which
has been immersed in the tamarinds.   According to an old  analysis by
Vauquelin, they contain a little sugar, pectic acid,  and parenchymatous
fiber, with 9.4 per cent, of citric acid,  1.5 of tartaric acid, 0.5 of malic
acid, and 3.25 of bitartrate of potassa.  It readily parts with its proper-
ties to water.
  Properties and Uses.—Tamarinds are laxative  and refrigerant,  and
infused in water form a grateful drink in febrile diseases.  During con-
valescence,  the  addition of  the pulp to the patient's diet,  is not only
agreeable, but tends to keep the bowels in a soluble  condition.  A con-
venient cooling laxative is Tamarind-whey, made by boiling an ounce of
the pulp in  a pint of milk, and straining the product.  Combined with
senna, or  resinous cathartics it is said to weaken their purgative power.
Dose, from a drachm to two ounces.

                    TANACETUM VULGARE.
                              Tansy.
        Nat. Ord.—Asteraceae.   Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Superflua.
                             THE  HERB.
  Description.—Tansy has a perennial, moderately creeping root, and an
erect,  herbaceous, obscurely  hexagonal,  leafy, solid, striated, smooth
stem,,  two  or three feet in hight, and branched above into  a handsome
corymb of flowers.   The leaves are smoothish, dark-green, doubly and
deeply pinnatifid; the  segments  are oblong-lanceolate, pinnatifid  and
incisely serrate ; the margined petiole  cut-toothed.   The  flowers are
golden yellow, and arranged in dense, terminal, many-headed, fastigiate
corymbs ; each  flower is composed of numerous florets, of which those
constituting the disk are perfect and five-cleft, those of the  terete rays,
very few, pistillate, and  trifid.  Scales  of the involucre scarious at the
apex, small, obtuse, imbricated.  The pappus short, equal, membranous,
five-lobed;  achenia  with a  quadrangular  entire crown.    There is  a
variety called Double Tansy, Tanacetum  Crispum, with crisped and dense
leaves.
  History.—Tansy is a native of Europe, extensively cultivated in the
gardens of this  country, and likewise found growing wild in the roads
and old  fields, flowering from July to September.   The whole herb  is
officinal;  it has a strong, peculiar,  and  fragrant odor, but which is dis-
agreeable to some,  and a warm, aromatic, bitter, and somewhat acrid
taste.  Its odor is much diminished by drying.  It imparts these proper-
ties to alcohol, or boiling water in infusion,  and which depend on bitter
extractive, and a greenish-yellow volatile oil which has the flavor  of the 
Taraxacum Dens-Leonis.
925
plant, is lighter than water, and deposits camphor upon standing.   Ac-
cording to analysis, the leaves contain volatile  oil, in greater  proportion
than in the seeds, fixed oil, wax or stearin, chlorophylle, yellow resin,
yellow-coloring matter,  tannic and gallic acids, bitter extractive, in less
proportion  than  in  the  seeds, gum, lignin, and a  peculiar acid called
tanacetic, which  precipitates  lime, baryta, oxides  of lead, and  copper.
  Properties and  Uses.—Tansy is tonic, emmenagogue and diaphoretic.
In small doses, the  cold infusion will be  found useful in convalescence
from  exhausting diseases, in  dyspepsia  with troublesome  flatulence,
hysteria,  jaundice,  and worms.  A warm infusion is diaphoretic and
emmenagogue,  and  has been found  beneficial  in intermittent fever,
suppressed menstruation, tardy labor-pains, and as  a preventive of the
paroxysms of gout.   The seeds are  reputed the most effectual as a
vermifuge.  The oil is likewise used as an anthelmintic, and as an  abor-
tive ; but  for this  last purpose it is highly dangerous.  Tansy is much
employed  in the  form  of  fomentation to swellings  and  tumors,  local
inflammations, etc., and  applied to the bowels in amenorrhea, and painful
dysmenorrhea.   The vinous  infusion is said to be  beneficial in stran-
gury, and other urinary  obstructions,  and in debility  of the kidneys.
The dose of the powder is from thirty to sixty  grains, two or three  times
a day; of the infusion, from one to four fluidounces; of the tincture,
one or two fluidrachms ; of the oil,  from two to ten drops.
   Off. Prep.—Infusum  Tanaceti; Tinctura Laricis Composita.
                  TARAXACUM  DENS-LEONIS.
                             Dandelion.
        Nat.  Ord.—Asteraceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia iEqualis.
                             THE  ROOT.
  Description.—This plant is placed in the Natural Order Cichoracece by
Lindley, and is the Leonlodon Taraxacum of Linnaeus.   It  is a herba-
ceous  plant,  with a  perennial, fusiform,  fleshy, whitish,  milky root,
covered Avith a brown epidermis.   The leaves are radical, sessile, nume-
rous, runcinate, toothed, smooth, of a fine green color, and spreading.
The scape or flower-stem rises from the midst of the leaves, six inches or
more in hight; it is  erect, round, naked, smooth, brittle, fistulous, and
terminated by a single head of floAvers  of a golden-yellow color, which
expand in fine weather and in the morning only, and close in the even-
ing;  the  heads are about an inch  and a ha]f wide.  The  involucre is
imbricated, oblong, and double; the exterior scales being linear-oblong,
appressed, spreading,  and reflexed;  the  inner  are  in  a single series,
larger  and erect.  The florets are numerous, equal,  ligulate, truncated,
and five-toothed.   The stamens have capillary filaments with conjoined
anthers.  The ovary is obovate, crowned with a slender, cylindrical style, 
926
Materia  Medica.
with two revolute stigmas.   The receptacle is convex, naked, and punc-
tate.  The achenia are solitary, oblong, and supporting a simple, radiated
pappus on a long pedicel.  After blossoming the inner  involucre closes
for a time, the slender beak elongates and raises up the pappus while
the fruit is forming, the whole involucre is then reflexed, exposing to the
wind the  naked fruits with the  pappus displayed in an open globular
head nearly two inches in diameter.
   History.—This plant grows spontaneously in most parts of the globe,
in fields,  grass-plats, and along roadsides, flowering from the commence-
ment of spring to late in the autumn.  There are several species named
by Botanists, but which  appear  to  be mere  varieties of this one, and
which  possess  the  same physical  characters.   The young  leaves  are
much used  as a salad or greens.  The whole plant abounds in a milky,
bitter juice, whose sensible qualities are  said to be  greater just before
inflorescence.   The  root is the officinal part, and yields its properties to
boiling water; it should be collected in the months of July, August, and
September.   When recent, it is  several inches in length, from a quarter
of an inch to three-quarters  of an  inch  thick, round,  tapering, some-
what branched,  brownish, or brownish-yellow externally, whitish inter-
nally, with a yellowish  ligneous cord running  through its center, and
abounding in a milky juice.   On  drying, it loses  more than half its
weight, and  becomes shrunk, wrinkled  longitudinally, brittle,  with a
shining, somewhat resinous fracture.  It is inodorous,  with a sweetish,
herbaceous, mucilaginous, bitter taste.  The milky juice has been found
on analysis to contain gum, bitter extractive, gluten, caoutchouc, saline
matters, a trace  of resin, and a free acid; beside which, the root contains
starch and  saccharine matter.  When changed by exposure, mannite
has been obtained.   M. Pollex has  obtained Taraxacin by boiling  the
milky  juice of the root in  distilled water, which removes albumen and
resin;  filter the liquid,  concentrate, and  allow it to evaporate sponta-
neously in a warm place.  The  taraxacin forms in crystals, and may be
purified  by repeated solution  and crystallization in alcohol or water.   It
is in stellated and dendritic masses, bitter, and somewhat acrid, neutral,
fusible, permanent,  very soluble in alcohol,  ether, or boiling water,
sparingly soluble in  cold water.  Too long  boiling, impairs the virtues
of Dandelion root, and which should always be used while recent.
   Properties and Uses. — Dandelion root when dried exerts but little
therapeutic  influence upon  the system;  but  in its recent state it is
slightly tonic, diuretic, aperient, and alterative.   It is  supposed to act
especially upon  the liver, proving effectual in torpor and chronic engorge-
ments  of that organ, as well as of the spleen.   It is also reputed useful
in dropsical affections depending on an abnormal condition of the abdo-
minal organs, in uterine obstructions, cutaneous affections, and in derange-
ments of the hepatic and digestive systems.  Its diuretic and aperient 
Tela Arane^e — Thea Chinensis.
927
effect is augmented by the addition of bitartrate  of potassa.   As  far as
my own  experience with this article goes, I think its virtues have been
overrated.   The existence  of an irritable condition  of the  stomach or
bowels, or acute inflammation contra-indicate its employment.  Dose of
the decoction one or two ounces;  of the extract from five to thirty grains.
   Off.  Prep. — Decoctum  Taraxaci; Extractum Taraxaci;  Extractum
Taraxaci Fluidum; Pilulae Taraxaci Compositae.
                        TELA  ARANE^E.
                       Cobweb.  Spidersweb.
  History. — The medicinal  species of spider from which the web  is
obtained is the Tegeneria Medicinalis of this country, which are found  in
cellars, barns, and other dark places; they are of a brown or blackish
color.  The web of the field-spider is said to be of no account, medici-
nally, while that of the house-spider is reputed to possess extraordinary
virtues.  There are various opinions among medical  men as to the
modus operandi of cobweb, some attributing it entirely to the control of
the imagination, while others view it  in  a different light, and entertain
favorable opinions of it as a powerful  therapeutical agent.
  Properties  and Uses.—Febrifuge, sedative, and antispasmodic.   Said
to have been found useful in the cure of intermittents Avhen all other
agents have  failed;  also recommended in various nervous and spasmo-
dic diseases, for the  purpose of controlling and  tranquilizing irregular
nervous action, exhilarating the spirits, and  disposing to sleep, without
any narcotic  action  on the brain, as  in  periodical headache, hysteria,
asthma, chorea, hectic fever, and nervous irritations attended with mor-
bid vigilance  and irregular muscular action.   Dose, is five or six grains,
every three or four hours, in the form of pill.  Externally, it is asserted
to have  been advantageously employed as a styptic in wounds, and a
healing application in superficial ulcers.
  The small silver-headed spider, given in a dough-pill, is said to be a
prompt and efficacious  cure for ague.
                       THEA  CHINENSIS.
                                Tea.
    Nat.  Ord.—Ternstromiaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Monadelphia Polyandria.
                           THE LEAVES.
  Description.—The Tea-plant is a shrub or small tree, which in a state
of nature  may attain  a  hight  of twenty-five or thirty feet, but which,
when cultivated, seldom exceeds six or seven.   The leaves are alternate,
with short petioles, very  smooth,  ovate-oblong, somewhat acuminate, 
928
Materia  Medica.
 stiff,  coriaceous, slightly dentate, green, shining,  and marked with  one
 rib and many transverse veins.  They are two or three inches long,  and
 from half an inch to an inch broad.   The flowers are Avhite, axillary,
 and single, or supported two or three together on  short, glabrous pedun-
 cles.   The calyx  is persistent, short, green, with  five ovate, rounded,
 obtuse divisions.   The corolla is much larger than the calyx, and con-
 sists of from four  to nine large, unequal, rounded,  very concave petals.
 The  stamens are very numerous, rather shorter  than  the  corolla, with
 subulate  white  filaments,  bearing rounded,  reniform,  yellow  anthers,
 opening  at the sides.   The  ovary  is ovate,  downy, surrounded  by a
 fleshy ring at base, three-celled, each cell  containing two ovules.  The
 styles are  three, free above, with obtuse stigmas.   The fruit is a three-
 celled capsule,  each cell containing one, sometimes  two seeds.
   Several species  have been  named  by Botanists, but at present, it is
 believed that only one has  been described,  and the  others are  mere
 varieties  in which there exists a uniformity  of character.    There may
 be other  species,  but  it is  not  positively determined.  Either of  the
 varieties described as Thea Bohea, or Thea  Viridis,  will afford black or
 green tea according to the mode of manufacture.  These varieties  differ
 thus: Thea Viridis.  Leaves  ellipto-lanceolate,  acuminate, emarginate,
 and undulate; flowers axillary, solitary; this variety furnishes the green
 tea principally.  Thea Bohea.  Leaves smaller and flatter, darker-green,
 coriaceous, terminating gradually in a point,  not acuminate or emargin-
 ate; flowers axillary,  aggregated;  this affords the black tea.
   History.—The Tea plant is a native of China and Japan. It is an  ever-
 green shrub from four to eight feet  high, and in  favorable situations
 even  to thirty feet.  It is divided into the  green  and  black  teas.  The
 green tea  is  characterized  by a  dark-green  color,  sometimes inclining
 more or less to blue or brown.  It has a peculiar, refreshing, somewhat
 aromatic odor, and an astringent, slightly pungent, and agreeably bitter-
 ish taste.   Its infusion  is of  a pale greenish-yellow  color, with the taste
 and odor of the leaves.   Green tea contains gallic  acid,  tannic acid, gum,
 gluten, lignin, bitter extractive, and volatile matter.   Black tea is distin-
 guished by a dark brown  color; usually less firmly rolled and lighter
 than the green.  Its odor is fainter, and of a somewhat different charac-
 ter, though still  fragrant.   Its taste  is astringent and bitterish; less
pungent and less agreeable than the green.   It contains tannic  acid, gum,
gluten, lignin, and volatile matter.
   Properties and Uses.—Gently excitant, astringent  and  stimulant, and
the finer varieties  exert a decided  influence over the  nervous system,
evinced by the feeling  of comfort, and even  exhilaration which it pro-
duces, and the unnatural wakefulness to which it  sometimes gives  rise.
In moderation, the infusion  is a grateful  and harmless beverage, but
long continued, or in  excessive quantity, it  induces  unpleasant, nervous 
Thuja Occidentalis.
929
and dyspeptic symptoms.   Black tea, on this account, is  preferable to
green.   Green tea may be used in diarrhea, in debility after an emetic,
cathartic, or sudorific, and  as a grateful stimulant and diaphoretic in
colds  and some  fevers.   Externally, the infusion  has been used with
advantage as a collyrium.
   Off. Prep.—Lotio Hydrastis Composita.
                    THUJA OCCIDENTALIS.
                            Arbor  Vitae.
        Nat. Ord.—Pinaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Monadelphia.
                            the leaves.
  Description.—This tree, also called False White Cedar, from its resem-
blance to the white cedar, ( Cupressus  Thyoides), is indigenous to this
country, and attains the hight of from thirty to fifty feet.   The trunk is
crooked, rapidly  diminishing  in size  upAvard, throwing  out recurved
branches from base to summit; the branches ancipital, flat and broad.
The wood is very light and soft, but  exceedingly durable.  The leaves
are evergreen, rhomboid-ovate, with a gland  on the  back, squamose,
appressed, imbricated in four  rows.   Cones terminal, oblong, nodding;
scales pointless, one-seeded ; seeds broadly Avinged.
  History.—This evergreen tree  grows wild in various parts of the United
States  from  Canada to Carolina, on  the rocky borders of streams  and
lakes, and in swamps, flowering in May.  It  abounds especially in Canada
and the Northern States;  it is said to attain only the hight of thirty-six
feet, and fourteen inches diameter when  one hundred and fifty years old.
The leaves and twigs are the parts  used; they have an agreeable  bal-
samic odor,  and a strong, balsamic,  camphorous and bitter taste.  A
yellowish-green volatile  oil  may be obtained from  them by distillation.
Water or alcohol extracts their virtues.
  Properties and  Uses.—A decoction of the leaves  has been a popular
remedy in intermittent fever, remittent fever, rheumatism, cough, scurvy,
etc.  Made  into an  ointment Avith  lard or other animal fat, the fresh
leaves are useful as a local application in rheumatic and neuralgic affec-
tions ; a poultice of the cones and powdered Podophyllum in milk, will, it
is asserted, remove the Avorst rheumatic pains.  The  oil has been success-
fully employed as a vermifuge.  The expressed juice or tincture of the
leaves is highly recommended as an application to condylomata, remov-
ing these growths in from three to  four  weeks.  The  tincture to be
made by bruising an ounce of the  fresh leaves, and  macerating it for
several days in half a pint of alcohol.   The condylomata should be kept
constantly moistened  with the  tincture by means of lint dipped in it.
By some it is said to act as a powerful excitant, others again deny this.
            69 
930
Materia Medica.
                      THYMUS  VULGARIS.
                              Thyme.
      Nat.  Ord.—Lamiaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.
                             THE herb.
  Description.—Thyme is a small undershrub, with erect, suffruticose,
numerous,  branched stems, procumbent  at base, and  from six to ten
inches in hight.  The leaves are oblong-ovate and lanceolate, numerous,
revolute at the sides.   The flowers are bluish-purple, small, and in ter-
minal, leafy, whorled  spikes.
  The Thymus Serpyllus, Wild Thyme or  Mother of Thyme,  with  a
decumbent stem, flat,  entire,  elliptical, punctate, obtuse,  and  petiolate
leaves, ciliate  at base, and purple, spotted, capitate  flowers, has  similar
virtues to the above.
  History.—These two plants are natives of Europe, introduced into this
country, and extensively cultivated in gardens as culinary plants, espe-
cially the T. Vulgaris; they blossom  during  the summer.  The whole
herb is the  part used; it should be collected Avhen  in flower,  and care-
fully dried.  It has a  strong, aromatic, peculiar, agreeable odor, which
is retained  when properly dried, and  a pungent, aromatic,  and  camphor-
ous taste.  Its active properties depend upon a pale-yellow, or greenish
volatile oil, (oleum thymi), of specific  gravity 0.905, and Avhich may be
obtained  by distillation with water.  In the shops it is frequently met
with of a brown color, under the name  of " Oil of Origanum."  The
herb yields its virtues to alcohol or boiling water by infusion.
  Properties and Uses.—Thyme is tonic, carminative, emmenagogue and
antispasmodic.  The cold infusion  is  useful in dyspepsia with weak and
irritable stomach,  and as  a  stimulating  tonic  in  convalescence  from
exhausting diseases.  The warm infusion is beneficial  in hysteria,  dys-
menorrhea,  flatulence,  colic,  headache,  and  to promote  perspiration.
Occasionally, the leaves have been employed externally, in fomentation.
The oil is valuable as a local application to neuralgic and rheumatic
pains; and internally, to  fulfill any of the indications for which  the plant
is used.  Dose  of  the infusion from one to three fluidounces ; of the oil,
from two to ten drops on sugar, or in emulsion.


                     TRIFOLIUM PRATENSE.
                            Red  Clover.
         Nat. Ord.—Fabaceaa.   Sex. Syst—Diadelphia  Decandria.
                           the blossoms.
  Description.—Red Clover is a biennial plant with several stems arising
from  the same root, ascending, somewhat hairy, and varying  much in 
Trifolium Pratense.                     931
 its hight.  The leaves are ternate;  the leaflets oval or obovate, entire,
 nearly smooth, often notched at the  end,  and lighter colored in the
 center.  The stipules are ovate, mucronate.   The flowers  are  red, fra-
 grant, and disposed in short, dense,  ovate, sessile  spikes or heads.   The
 corollas unequal, monopetalous; the  lower tooth of the calyx longer than
 the four  others, which are equal,  and  all shorter than the  rose-red
 corolla.
   History.—This  plant  is common to the United  States,  being exten-
 sively cultivated in grass lands, with herds-grass (Phleum Pratense) and
 other grasses, and often alone; it  flowers throughout the summer.   The
 blossoms  or flowers are the parts  used.   A  strong decoction is  made of
 them, which is evaporated to the consistence of an extract.
   Properties and Uses.—The extract spread on linen or soft leather,  is
 said to be an excellent remedy for cancerous ulcers.  It is also highly
 recommended in ill conditioned ulcers of every kind, and deep, ragged-
 edged, and otherwise badly conditioned burns.  It possesses  a  peculiar
 soothing property, proves an efficacious  detergent, and promotes a health-
 ful granulation.
   There are two  other varieties  of clover which are  occasionally em-
 ployed by practitioners, viz:  the  Melilotus Officinalis, of Willdenow, or
 M. Vulgaris, of Eaton,—Yellow  Melilot  Clover, with an erect, sulcate
 stem, about  three  feet high, with spreading  branches.   The  leaves are
 pinnately trifoliate ; leaflets obovate-oblong, obtuse, smooth, with remote,
 mucronate teeth.  The flowers are  yellow, and disposed in one-sided,
 spicate, axillary, loose, paniculate racemes; calyx half as  long as  the
 corolla ; legume  ovoid, two-seeded.  It is an indigenous annual,  growing
 in alluvial meadows, and flowering in June.   The whole plant is  scented,
 having nearly the odor of the sweet-scented vernal grass, Anthoxanthum
 Odoratum.  The other is the Melilotus Leucantha, of Koch,  M. Alba, of
 Nuttall, and Trifolium Officinale, of Linnaeus,—White Melilot  Clover, or
 sweet-scented clover, a biennial,  with an erect, robust,  Arery branching,
 sulcate stem, from  four  to six feet  high ; leaflets variable,  oval, ovate,
 ovate-oblong,  truncate, and  mucronate  at the  apex, remotely  serrate,
 and one or two inches long; stipules setaceous.  The flowers are white,
 numerous, the  racemes more loose  and longer than in the  preceding
 species.  Petals unequal, banner longer than wings or keel; calyx shorter
 than the corolla  by more than one-half.  This plant grows  in similar
 situations with  the last,  flowering in July and August, and  having  a
sweet fragrance, which is improved upon  being dried.  The leaves and
flowers of  these  two plants are boiled in lard, and formed  into  an oint-
ment, which is found of  utility as  an application to all kinds  of ulcers.
 The Vanilla or Seneca Grass, used for a stimulant purpose, is the Hiero-
chloa Borealis. 
932
Mateiua  Medica.
                     TRILLIUM PENDULUM.
                             Bethroot.
         Nat. Ord.—Trilliaceae.  Sex.  Syst.—Hexandria Trigynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—This is one of an extensive genus of North American,
herbaceous, perennial plants, Avhich are  variously  known under the
names of Wake-Robin, Birth-root, Indian Balm, Lamb's Quarter, Ground
Lily,  etc.   It has an oblong,  tuberous root, from which arises a slender
stem, from ten to fifteen inches in hight.   The leaves are three in number,
whorled at the  top of the stem, suborbicular-rhomboidal, abruptly acu-
minate, from three to five inches in  diameter, and  on petioles about a
line in length.  The flowers are white, solitary, terminal, cernuous, on a
recurved peduncle from  an  inch to  two and  a half inches long.  The
sepals are green, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, an inch long; the petals
are oblong-ovate, acute, and  an inch and a quarter in length by half an
inch broad.  Styles three, erect, with recurved stigmas.
  History.—This plant is common to the  Middle and Western States,
growing in rich soils, in damp, rocky, and shady woods, and flowering in
May and June.  Nearly  all the species of the genus Trillium,  are medi-
cinal, and possess analogous properties ; and among them the T Erythro-
carpum, T. Grandiflorum, T.  Sessile, T. Eredum  and T.  Nivale, are the
most  common, and consequently the  most  frequently collected and em-
ployed.  These plants may generally be known by their three verticillate,
net-veined leaves, and their solitary, terminal  flower, which  varies in
color in  the  different species, being white, red, purple,  Avhitish-yellow,
or reddish-white ;  the peduncle Avill  also be found erect in some species,
and recurved in others.  The roots of these plants are oblong  or terete,
somewhat  tuberous,  dark or  brownish  externally, white internally, from
one to five inches in length, and from half  an inch to an  inch and a half
in diameter, beset with a few branching fibers laterally.   They have a
faint, slightly terebinthinate odor, and  a peculiar aromatic and sweetish
taste  ; when chewed they impart an acrid astringent impression  in the
mouth, causing a flow of saliva, and a sensation of heat in the  throat
and fauces.  The root is said to contain volatile oil, gum, resin, extrac-
tive,  tannic acid, and fecula.  It yields its active properties  to water,
and its tonic and stimulant virtues to diluted alcohol.
   Properties and  Uses.—Bethroot is astringent, tonic, and antiseptic; it
has been employed successfully in hemoptysis, hematuria, menorrhagia,
uterine hemorrhage, leucorrhea, cough, asthma,  and difficult breathing,
and is said to have been  much  used by the Indian women to promote
parturition.  The most astringent are  used in hemorrhages ;  the most
acrid in asthma, hectic fever, and catarrhal cough;  and  all are service-
able in leucorrhea, and morbid discharges from mucous tissues.   Boiled 
Triosteum Perfoliatum.
933
in milk, it has been administered with benefit in diarrhea and dysentery;
and an infusion of  equal parts of Trillium and Lycopus Virginicus, has
been highly recommended for the cure of diabetes.  Externally, the root
made into a poultice, is very  useful in tumors, indolent or offensive
ulcers, carbuncles, bubos, stings of insects,  and  to restrain gangrene.
In some instances its efficacy has been increased by combination with
bloodroot.  Mr. W. S. Merrell  states that the red bethroots will check
ordinary epistaxis, by merely smelling the freshly exposed surface of the
recent root, and he supposes therefore that they contain  an astringent
principle of a volatile  nature.   The leaves of the beth-plants, boiled in
lard have been much  used, in some sections of country, as an application
to ulcers, tumors, etc.  Dose of powdered bethroot one drachm, to be
given in hot water; of the strong infusion, which is the most common
form of  administration, from two to four  fluidounces.   These plants
undoubtedly possess active properties, and deserve further investigation.
                  TRIOSTEUM PERFOLIATUM.
                            Fever-root.
      Nat. Ord.—Caprifoliaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                        BARK OF THE ROOT.
  Description.—This plant  is known also by the names of  Wild Ipecac,
Horse- Gentian,  Wild Coffee, and Dr. Tinker's Weed.   It is indigenous,
with a perennial,  thick and fleshy root, subdivided  into numerous hori-
zontal branches.   The  stems  are several from the same root, simple,
stout, erect,  round, hollow, soft, pubescent, and from  two to four feet
high.  The leaves are opposite,  oval-acuminate, mostly connate, entire,
abruptly contracted at base, nearly smooth above, pubescent beneath,
prominently veined, and six inches long by three broad ; in some plants
the upper  leaves  are almost  amplexicaul.   The flowers  are  of  a dull
purple color,  axillary, sessile, mostly in clusters of  three or five in the
form  of whorls, rarely solitary.   The  calyx is composed of five linear
segments of a  purplish  color,  with a single bract ; the corolla is  rather
longer than the  calyx,  tubular, five-lobed, viscid-pubescent, the  lobes
rounded, and the  lower part of the tube gibbous.   The stamens are five,
included, with  hairy filaments.  The  ovary  is inferior, roundish, and
supports a long, slender style,  with  an oblong stigma.   The fruit is an
oval berry, about nine lines  long and six thick, of an orange-red or
purple color when ripe,  hairy, somewhat three-sided,  crowned with the
persistent calyx, three-celled, each cell containing a hard, bony, furrowed
seed.
  History.—Fever-root is  found in  many parts of the United States, in
shady and'rocky situations, and in rich soil, flowering in June and  July.
The bark of  the  root is the officinal part; it is horizontal, long, from 
934
Materia Medica.
half an inch to three-quarters of an inch in diameter, of a brownish  or
yellowish color  externally, whitish within, and furnished with fibers.  It
has a nauseous odor, and an unpleasant, bitter taste, and when dried is
brittle, and easily pulverized.  Water or alcohol takes up its virtues.  It
has not been analyzed.   The  Triosteum Angustifolium, smaller than the
above,  with  a bristly,  hairy stem,  lanceolate,  and sub-connate  leaves,
tapering to the  base, peduncles  opposite, one-flowered,  and flowers  of a
greenish-cream color, possesses analogous properties, and may be substi-
tuted as an equivalent for the above.
  Properties  and Uses.—The bark of the root is emetic  when recent, or
when taken in large doses of the powder.  In  doses of from  a scruple
to a drachm, the powder is a mild, but slow cathartic, with  a tonic influ-
ence.  In the early stages of fever, it may be given in all cases where a
gentle action on the bowels is desired.   It has been recommended as a
laxative-tonic in dyspepsia, and autumnal fevers, also in hysteria,  hypo-
chondria,  and convalescence after febrile diseases.   Some have stated it
to possess diuretic properties, and have employed  it in chronic rheuma-
tism with  success.  Rafinesque considers the leaves to be diaphoretic.
The hard  seeds are said to be a very excellent substitute for coffee, when
properly prepared.   Dose of the tincture from one to four fluidrachms;
of the extract, which is the best  form  of administration,  from five to
fifteen grains.

                    TRITICUM  HYBERNUM.
                              Wheat.
        Nat. Ord.—Graminaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Triandria Digynia.
                        FLOUR OF THE SEEDS.
  Description.—This plant, the common Winter Wheat, described as T.
Sativum,  and T. Vulgare, has a fibrous root, and  one  or more  erect,
round, smooth, jointed  stems, from three to five feet in  hight, with the
internodes somewhat inflated.  The leaves are linear, pointed, entire,  flat,
many-ribbed, rough, somewhat glaucous, with truncate, jagged-bearded
stipules.  The flowers are in a solitary, terminal, dense, smooth, imbri-
cated, somewhat four-sided spike, two or three inches long, with a  tough
rachis.   Spikelets crowded,  broad-ovate,  about four-flowered ; glumes
ventricose, ovate,  truncate,  mucronate, compressed  below the  apex,
round and convex at the back, with a prominent nervure.  Paleas of the
upper florets somewhat bearded.   Grains loose.
  History.—Several species of Triticum are cultivated in different  coun-
tries, among  which may be named  the T. Vulgare, the  species most
generally  raised in this country and Europe.   It  has two varieties, T.
Vulgare JEstivum or Spring-Wheat, and  T. Vulgare Hybernum,  or Win-
ter-Wheat.  Linnaeus considered these as distinct species, but Botanists 
Triticum Hybernum.
935
of the present day generally refer them to one common stock.   Wheat
differs from barley and oats, in not having the  perianth adherent to the
grain.   Its  native country is unknown, but is commonly supposed to
have been Central Asia.   The officinal part of the plant  is the flour of
the seeds; these are first deprived of their husks, and  are then reduced
to flour  by grinding and  sifting; the  interior  farinaceous part forming
the farina or flour, which varies  in its  degree of fineness, while  the
covering or  external coat, which constitutes from 25 to 33 per  cent, of
the seeds, furnishes what is called bran.
   Wheat flour is very white, of a faint, peculiar odor, and nearly taste-
less.  It consists chiefly of starch, gluten, albumen, saccharine matter,
gum, a little ligneous fiber, and  some moisture, which vary considerably
in their proportions,  in different samples.   The starch  is the  most abun-
dant ingredient, and is of finer quality and of greater  density than that
obtained from most other  sources.  (See Amylum.) The gluten of wheat
is generally assumed as the most perfect form of that principle, and is
more abundant in wheat than any other grain;  and it is  to  the greater
proportion of this principle, that wheat flour owes its superiority over
that from other grains for  the preparation of bread.  When wheat flour,
inclosed  in  a  linen bag, is exposed  to the action of a stream of water,
and at the same time pressed with the fingers till the liquor comes away
colorless, the portion which is left in the bag consists of gluten and
vegetable albumen, which  may be separated by boiling in  alcohol.  The
gluten  being dissolved by the alcohol, and the vegetable albumen  not
being affected by it.   Each of  these substances contain  nitrogen, and
when left to  themselves  in  a  moist  state, undergo putrefaction.   By
placing the alcoholic solution of gluten, previously filtered while  hot,
into water, and distilling off the  alcohol, the gluten will float on the top
of the  water in large cohering flakes.   It  may be still further  purified
by treating it with ether, to remove  fat oil.
  Pure gluten, at present called Vegetable Fibrin, is a pale-yellow, adhe-
sive, elastic substance, becoming darker-colored and  translucent when
dried,  somewhat like horn.  It is insoluble in water, ether, and in the
fixed and volatile oils.  Boiling alcohol  dissolves it more readily than
cold.   It forms soluble compounds with  diluted acids  or  alkaline solu-
tions ;  and  nearly insoluble compounds with  the  earths and  metallic
oxides, which are precipitated when the earths or oxides are added to
the solution of gluten in liquid potassa.  Its acid or alkaline solutions
are precipitated  by corrosive sublimate, which, on being added in solu-
tion  to moist  gluten,  forms  a  compound, which,  when  dry, is hard,
opake  and  incorruptible.   Infusion of  galls  also precipitates  gluten.
This principle exists in most of  the farinaceous grains, and in the seeds
of some leguminous plants.
   Vegetable  Albumen possesses no  adhesiveness,  and, when  dried, is
opake, and of a white, gray,  or brown color.  It exists in a soluble 
936
Materia  Medica.
form in vegetables, and especially in the oily seeds, along with caseine.
Before coagulation it is soluble in water, but insoluble in alcohol.  When
heated  to  from 140° to 160°, it  coagulates, and becomes insoluble in
water.  Its solutions are  also coagulated  by acids, infusion of galls,
creosote, and corrosive sublimate.  It is dissolved by solutions of the
caustic alkalies.  When a fresh vegetable juice is filtered and boiled, it
yields a coagulum, which is nearly pure  albumen.  It is a constituent
of all the seeds which form a milky emulsion with water, and in most
of them is  associated with gluten.
   It is to vegetable fibrin and albumen, aided  by a moderate  heat  and
the presence of water, that starch is  converted partly into gum  and
partly into sugar,  as in the  germination of seeds  ; the  gluten becoming
acid in the process, loses its power of reacting on the starch.
   As far as ascertained, vegetable albumen is identical with animal albu-
men, and the gluten of vegetables with animal fibrin ; and these, Avith casein,
a principle existing in both  the animal and vegetable kingdoms, consist
of protein in combination with a small proportion of mineral substances, as
sulphur and phosphorus.  Protein is compounded  of nitrogen, carbon, hy-
drogen and oxygen, its formula being Ne Ci8 H3J Ou. It may be obtained
by dissolving any  of the above-named substances in a strong solution of
potassa, heating for some time to 120°, and precipitating with acetic acid.
   Bread is formed by making a thick paste with  wheat flour and water,
adding  a  little salt, and some yeast,  setting  it  aside  to ferment,  and
then baking it.   The carbonic acid gas which is extricated during the
fermentation, is retained by the tenacity of the gluten, forming numerous
small cells through the mass, and  thus  renders the bread light.
   Properties and Uses.—Wheat flour  in its  unaltered state is seldom
used in  medicine.  It is sometimes  sprinkled on the skin in erysipelatous
inflammation, and various itching  or burning  eruptions, particularly the
nettle-rash ;  though rye-flour is generally preferred for  this purpose.
In the state of bread it is much more employed.  An infusion of toasted
bread in water is a pleasant, somewhat nutritive drink, very well adapted
to febrile complaints.   Within our experience, no drink has been found
more grateful in such cases than  this infusion  sweetened with a little
molasses,  and flavored by lemon-juice.  Boiled Avith milk, bread consti-
tutes the common  suppurative poultice, which may be improved by  the
addition of a small proportion of perfectly fresh lard. Slices of it steeped
in borax water, or the crumb mixed with the fluid and confined within a
piece of gauze, afford a convenient mode of applying this preparation to
local inflammations.   The crumb—mica panis—is, moreover, frequently
used to give bulk to minute doses of very  active medicines  administered
in the form of pill. As bread contains salt, its incompatibilities, as for in-
stance, nitrate of silver, should be remembered, when forming pills with it.
  Bran is  sometimes used in decoction, as a demulcent in catarrhal
affections and complaints of the bowels.  It has, when taken in substance, 
Triticum  Hybernum.
937
 laxative properties,  and is  used by some persons habitually and with
 great advantage to  prevent costiveness.  Bran bread, made from the
 unsifted flour, forms an excellent laxative article of diet in some dys-
 peptic cases.  The action of the bran is probably altogether mechanical,
 consisting in the irritation produced upon the mucous membrane of the
 stomach and bowels  by its coarse particles.
   We are indebted to Dr. T. J. Wright, of Cincinnati, for the following
 remarks on wheat, the  correctness of which has been corroborated by
 other physicians who have made use of it according to his method.   His
 mode of preparing and using it is as follows:
   " The seeds of wheat should be well  cleaned before cooking them, in
 the following manner : Take of the seeds of wheat a sufficient quantity,
 and place them in clear, cold water, stir it, and skim off the light grains
 which rise to the surface in connection with foreign substances ;  then
 change  the water, stir the grain, and skim as before, and thus continue
 till the  wheat is perfectly clean, and all  the light grains and extraneous
 substances are removed.  To the wheat, thus cleansed, add a sufficient
 quantity of  water to cover it, and allow it to stand for twelve hours, or
 until the next morning, if this is done at night; then pour off the liquid,
 and add of some clean water a sufficient quantity, and boil for from two
 to four  hours,  or until  the  spermoderm is cracked, when remove  the
 wheat from the water, let it cool,  and it  is ready for use.  Of this  pre-
 pared wheat, small quantities ought to be made  at  a time, especially in
 warm weather, as it is apt to become sour; enough for one or two days
 at the most, is sufficient, and it should always be kept in a cool place.
   " There are several ways in which this preparation  can  be used, viz:
 It may  be  eaten with molasses or sugar, as boiled  rice  is sometimes
 eaten  ; or it may be  made into a frumenty, by boiling a sufficient quan-
 tity of milk, and thickening it with flour to the consistence of gruel;
remove  from  the  fire, add  as much prepared wheat as desired, and
sweeten.  But the preparation which I  prefer, is to  use water instead
of milk, and thicken with Indian  meal  to the consistence of gruel, then
remove  from the fire, add prepared Avheat in quantity to suit the patient
and sweeten.  Wheat thus  prepared,  undoubtedly  acts mechanically,
 owing to the action of the coarse particles upon the  intestinal  mucous
lining membrane, which maintain the  peristaltic motion and keep  the
boAvels in a soluble condition ;  and in addition to its  nutritive qualities,
prepared wheat is one of the most valuable articles of diet for patients,
and may be  used either in  a  loose or torpid  state of the bowels.   In
 dyspepsia,  fistula  in ano,  hemorrhoids,  constipation, as well as  the
 opposite condition, the employment of it is not only beneficial, but mate-
 rially  assists in their  cure.   I  have extensively used the above in obsti-
nate constipation, chronic diarrhea,  and  other diseases, with  decided
 advantage in every case, and  can, therefore, confidently recommend i<
 to my medical brethren." 
938
Materia Medica.
                     TUSSILAGO FARFARA.
                             Coltsfoot.
        Nat.  Ord.—Asteraceae.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia Superflua.
                            THE  LEAVES.
  Description. — Coltsfoot  has a  long, perennial  root, with the leaves
radical, cordate, on  downy,  furrowed petioles  somewhat lobed  and
toothed,  smooth and  dark-green  above, Avhite, veined, and tomentose
beneath, and from five to eight inches long, by three to six wide; when
young, the leaves are revolute, and covered with  a cottony down; they
arise  after  the  flowers have withered.   The scapes  are  several,  and
appear before the leaves;  they are  erect,  slender, round, varying in
color  from pale-green to reddish-brown,  one-flowered, and beset with
numerous lanceolate scales  ; their  hight is from five to six inches.   The
fiowers are large, yellow, compound;  the florets of the ray being ligulate,
numerous, and  fertile, while  those of  the  disk  are few,  tubular,  and
barren.   The scales of the  involucre are linear-lanceolate,  equal to the
disk, at first erect, but finally reflexed.  The achenia are smooth,  oblong,
and compressed; the pappus is pilose, sessile, silvery, and permanent.
  History. — This  plant is very common in Europe,  and has  become
naturalized in this  country, especially in the Northern States;  it flowers
in April.  The  root is mucilaginous, bitterish,  creeping  horizontally,
with  many fibers.  It grows in wet  places  and low meadows.   The
flowers  have an agreeable odor,  which they retain when dried.   The
whole plant is medicinal, but the leaves are principally employed. They
should  be gathered  after  their full  expansion,  but before they have
attained their greatest magnitude.   The dried leaves and root are inodo-
rous,  and have a rough,  bitter,  mucilaginous taste,  and impart their
properties to boiling water.   No analysis has been made of them.
  Properties and Uses.—Coltsfoot is emollient, demulcent, and  slightly
tonic.  Useful in coughs, asthma,  hooping-cough,  and other pulmonary
affections ; and is said  to have been useful in scrofula.  The powdered
leaves form a good errhine, for giddiness, headache, nasal  obstructions,
etc.   Used externally in form of poultice to scrofulous tumors.
                       TYPHA LATIFOLIA.
                            Cat-tail  Flag.
         Nat. Ord.—Typhaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Triandria.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—Cat-tail Flag, or Reed Mace, as it is sometimes  called, is
a perennial  plant, with a smooth, round  stem, from three to  five  feet
high, leafy below, and terminated by large cylindric spikes.  The leaves
are flat, erect, ensiform, slightly concave within near the base,  from two 
Ulmus Fulva.
939
to four feet long, and nearly one inch wide.  The flowers are very nu-
merous.   The spikes are of a brownish color, from  six to ten inches in
leno-th, and  about  one inch in diameter, and are composed of  slender,
downy flowers, so compact, particularly the fertile ones, as to be of con-
siderable hardness.   The upper portion is smaller, and composed of the
sterile  flowers, so  that  the staminate and  pistillate parts of the spike
approximate, or are almost continuous.
   History.—This plant is common to all parts of the United  States, and
is  found growing in ditches, muddy pools, borders of ponds, and other
wet places, flowering in July.   The leaves are called Flags, and are used
for weaving the seats of chairs;  the flowers have been used for making
beds.  The  root is the part used; it yields its properties to water.
   Properties and Uses.—Astringent and emollient.  Boiled with milk, it
has been found useful in dysentery, diarrhea, and infantile summer com-
plaint,  and a decoction of it has been beneficial in gonorrhea.   Exter-
nally, the root, in combination with elm and aromatics, forms an excellent
poultice for white swellings, tumors, and ulcers.  The root, bruised until
it  becomes like  a  jelly, forms an  excellent application  for burns and
scalds, erysipelas, ophthalmia, and all local inflammations.
                         ULMUS  FULVA.
                           Slippery Elm.
         Nat.  Ord.—Ulmaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Digynia.
                         THE INNER BARK.
  Description.—Slippery Elm, also called Red Elm, is a tree from twenty
to sixty feet in hight,  and one or two feet in diameter.  The bark of the
trunk is brown, that of the branches rough and whitish.  The leaves are
oblong-ovate,  acuminate,  nearly equal at the base,  unequally  serrate,
pubescent and very rough on both sides, four or five inches long by two
or three in breadth, and supported on short footstalks.  The  buds are
covered with fulvous down.   The flowers  appear before the leaves, are
reddish, sessile, and in  clusters  at  the  ends of the young shoots ; the
bunches of flowers are surrounded  by scales, which are downy like the
buds.  The calyx is downy and sessile; corolla none ; stamens five or
seven, according to  the number of calyx lobes, short, and of a pale rose
color.  The fruit is a membranaceous capsule or samara, nearly orbic-
ular, containing in the center one round seed, without any fringe.
  History.—The Slippery Elm is a lofty tree indigenous to all  parts of
the United States, but found in the greatest abundance  west of the Alle-
ghany mountains, in open and elevated situations, in rich, firm soil, and
flowering in April.  The inner bark is  the part used in medicine ; it is
in long, flat pieces, from one to two lines  in thickness,  of a fibrous tex-
ture, a tawny color, which is  reddish on  the  inner  surface, a  peculiar 
940
Materia Medica.
sweetish,  not unpleasant odor,  and a highly  mucilaginous taste when
chewed.  By grinding,  it is  reduced to a light, grayish-fawn-colored
powder.  Water takes up its mucilage, which is precipitated by solutions
of acetate and subacetate of lead, but not by alcohol.
  Properties and Uses.—Elm bark  is nutritive, expectorant, diuretic,
demulcent,  and emollient, and  is a very valuable remedial agent.   In
mucous inflammations of the lungs, boAvels, stomach, bladder or kidneys,
used freely  in the form  of a mucilaginous drink, it is highly beneficial,
as well as in diarrhea, dysentery, coughs, pleurisy, strangury, and sore
throat, in  all of which it  tends powerfully to allay the inflammation.   A
tablespoonful of the powder boiled in a pint of  new milk affords a nour-
ishing  diet  for infants weaned  from the breast, preventing the bowel
complaints  to which they are  subject,  and  rendering  them  fat and
healthy.  Some physicians consider the  constant use of  it, during and
after the seventh month  of gestation, as advantageous in facilitating and
causing an easy delivery; a half pint of the  infusion  to be drank  daily.
Elm bark has likewise  been  successfully employed externally  in cuta-
neous  diseases,  especially in obstinate cases of  herpetic  and syphilitic
eruptions, and certainly possesses higher curative powers than are gene-
rally admitted.  As  an emollient poultice, the bark has been found very
serviceable as an application to inflamed parts, suppurating tumors, fresh
wounds, burns, scalds,  bruises, and ulcers ;  and  in the excruciating
pains of the testes Avhich accompany the  metastatis of cynanche paroti-
daea, Avhether of recent  or long standing, the constant use of an elm
poultice regularly  changed  every four hours will be found a superior
remedy.  As  an injection, the  infusion  will prove useful in diarrhea,
dysentery,  tenesmus, and hemorrhoids,  also  in gonorrhea and gleet.
The powder, sprinkled on the  surface of the body, will prevent and heal
excoriations  and chafings, and allay the itching and heat of erysipelas.
As  the bark increases in  bulk  by imbibing moisture, it has been recom-
mended to form bougies  and tents of it for the dilatation of  strictures,
fistulas, etc., but in urethral  strictures it has proved  troublesome, from
liability of the part behind the  stricture, breaking off  in the attempt  to
withdraw  it, and passing into  the bladder.   The infusion of the bark is
the common form of administration, and may be  drank ad libitum.
   Off. Prep.—Cataplasma Ulmi; Infusum Ulmi.
                        URTICA DIOICA.
                          Common  Nettle.
         Nat. Ord.—Urticaceaa.  Sex.  Syst—Moncecia Tetrandria.
                       THE ROOT AND  LEAVES.
  Description.—This  plant, also called great Stinging Nettle, is a peren-
nial, herbaceous,  dull-green  plant, armed Avith minute  rigid  hairs or 
Urtica Dioica.
941
 prickles, which  transmit a venomous fluid when pressed.  The stem is
 obtusely four-angled, branching, and from two to four feet  high,  and
 arises from a creeping and branching root, with fleshy shoots  and many
 fibers.  The leaves are opposite, petiolate, cordate, lance-ovate, spread-
 ing, conspicuously acuminate, coarsely  and acutely serrate,  the point
 entire, armed with stings, three or four  inches long, and about half as
 wide.   The flowers are small, green, monoecious or dicecious, in branch-
 ing, clustered, axillary, interrupted spikes, longer than the petioles.
   History.—This  is a well known plant, common to Europe and  the
 United States, growing in waste places, by wood-sides, in hedges, and in
 gardens, flowering from June  to  September.   A decoction of the plant
 strongly salted, will coagulate milk as readily as rennet, without impart-
 ing to it any unpleasant flavor.  The leaA'es and root are generally used,
 and yield  their virtues to Avater.   No analysis has been  made of the
 plant.   The young shoots have been boiled and eaten as  a remedy for
 scurvy.   The irritation caused by applying the sharp hairs of the nettle
 to the skin, is said to be owing to the presence of free formic acid in
 them.
   Properties and Uses.—Common Nettle is astringent, tonic, and diure-
 tic.  A decoction is valuable in diarrhea, dysentery, hemorrhoids, vari-
 ous hemorrhages, and scorbutic affections, and has been  recommended
 in febrile  affections, gravel, and other nephritic complaints.  A strong
 syrup made of the root, combined with suitable quantities of wild cherry
 bark  and blackberry root, forms  an excellent  remedy for all summer
 complaints of children, and bowel  affections of adults.  The  leaves of
 the fresh plant, stimulate, inflame, and even raise blisters on those  por-
 tions of the skin Avith which they come  in contact, and have, in conse-
 quence, been used as a powerful rubefacient.  Paralysis is said to have
 been cured by whipping the affected limbs Avith them.   Applied to bleed-
ing surfaces they are an excellent styptic.  The seeds and flowers, given
in wine, in doses not to exceed one drachm, have been reputed equal to
cinchona in tertian and quartan agues — larger doses will, it  is said,
induce a  lethargic sleep.   The seeds, in  doses of fourteen or sixteen
seeds,  and repeated three times  daily,  are highly recommended as  a
remedy for  goitre,  and to reduce excessive corpulence;  they are also
considered anthelmintic.   Dose of the  poAvdered  root or leaves from
twenty to forty  grains ;  of  the decoction  from two to four fluidounces.
   Urtica, Urens,  or Dwarf Nettle,  possesses similar properties, and  has
been found very efficacious in uterine hemorrhage.  It has a branching,
hispid, stinging stem, one or tAvo feet high, with  broadly elliptic, acutely
serrate leaves, about five-veined, on short petioles, one or two  inches
long,  and about two-thirds  as broad.   The flowers are in  drooping,
pedunculate, nearly simple clusters, two in each axil, and shorter than
the petioles.  This is an annual, introduced from Europe. 
942
Materia  Medica.
   Urtica Pumila, Cool-weed, Rich-weed, or Stingless Nettle, has a pecu-
liar, grateful, strong smell, indicating active properties ;  it is stated that
the leaves bruised give immediate relief in inflammations, painful swell-
ings, ecchymosis, erysipelas, and the topical poison of rhus; and that an
ointment made from it is beneficial  in inflammatory rheumatism.  It is
the Pilea Pumila of Lindley, and has  a smooth, shining,  ascending,
weak and succulent, often branched, and translucent stem, from four to
eighteen inches high, and, together with the whole plant, destitute of
stings.  The leaves  are on long petioles, opposite, rhombic-ovate, cre-
nate-serrate, membranaceous,  glabrous,  pointed, three-nerved, about
two inches long, and two-thirds as broad.  The flowers are monoecious,
triandrous, in axillary, corymbed heads shorter than the petioles.  Sepals
of the fertile  flowers lanceolate, and  a little unequal.   This plant is
worthy of further investigation.
                       UVARIA  TRILOBA.
                              Papaw.
        Nat. Ord.—Anonaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Polyandria Polygynia.
                             THE SEEDS.
  Description.—This is the Porcelia Triloba of Michaux, and the Asi-
mina Triloba of Adamson, it is a small and beautiful indigenous tree,
growing from ten to twenty feet high.   The young shoots and expanding
leaves clothed with a rusty down, soon  glabrous.  The leaves are thin,
smooth,  entire, ovate-oblong,  acuminate,  from  eight to  twelve  inches
long, by three or four broad, and tapering to very short petioles.   The
flowers are dull purple, axillary and  solitary;  the petals veiny, round-
ovate, the outer ones orbicular and three or four times as large  as the
calyx.  The flowers appear with the leaves,  and are about an inch and
a half wide.  The fruit is a yellowish, ovoid-oblong, pulpy pod, two  or
three  inches long  by about an inch  in diameter, fragrant,  sweet and
edible in autumn, and containing about eight seeds.
  History.—The Papaw or Custard Apple-tree is an  inhabitant of the
Middle, Southern, and Western States, growing in rich soil, and on the
banks of streams, and floAvering from March to June.   The fruit is large
and fleshy,  and has an unpleasant smell, but when ripe and  after frost,
the pulp is sweet, luscious, and yelloAv, similar  to custard; it is consid-
ered a healthy fruit, and is sedative and laxative.  The seeds, which are
the  parts used, have a fetid  smell,  similar  to stramonium; they are
covered with a tough, hard, exterior coat,  of a light-brownish color and
smooth externally,  lighter and wrinkled internally, inclosing a  kernel of a
whitish-yellow color, compressed, deeply fissured  on both sides,  nearly
inodorous,  very faintly  bitter and sweetish, and dry and branny when
chewed, leaving a very persistent, faint,  but rather unpleasant sensation 
UVULARIA  PERFOLIATA.
943
of nausea.   They are of various shapes, being flat, ovoid, nearly circu-
lar, or somewhat reniform, with a longitudinal furrow or depression along
the center of each of the flat surfaces, and frequently a ridge  or  eleva-
tion instead of the furrow.   They yield their properties  to alcohol.
   Properties and Uses.—Emetic ; for which  purpose a saturated tincture
of the bruised seeds is employed, in doses of from ten to sixty  drops.
The bark is said  to be a bitter tonic, and  has  been used  as such in
domestic practice.   The medical properties of this agent have  not been
fully investigated.
                   UVULARIA  PERFOLIATA.
                              Bellwort.
         Nat. Ord.—Liliaceas.   Sex. Syst.—Hexandria Monogynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—Bellwort has a perennial, creeping rootstock, and a stem
from  eight to fourteen  inches  high, dividing at top into two branches.
The leaves are clasping-perfoliate, elliptical, rounded at base,  acute at
apex, tAvo or three inches long by one-third  as  broad, smooth, glaucous
underneath.  The flowers are solitary,  pale-yellow, about  an inch  long,
and pendulous from the end of one of the branches; perianth  subcam-
panulate, tuberculate-scabrous within ;  segments linear-lanceolate, about
an inch long, twisted; anthers cuspidate, three-fourths  of  an inch  long.
Capsule or pod obovate-truncate, divergently three-lobed  at top ;  lobes
with convex sides.
  History.—Bellwort is  a smooth, handsome plant common to the United
States, growing in moist copses, woods, etc., and flowering in May. The
root is the  part  employed, which, when  recent, is acrid and mucilagi-
nous.  It imparts its properties to water.
  Properties and Uses.—Bellwort is tonic, demulcent,  and nervine, and
may be used in decoction or powder, as a  substitute for  cypripedium.
The decoction has proved beneficial in sore mouth and affections of the
throat, also inflammation of the gums.   A poultice of it  is useful in
wounds and ulcers.  Boiled in milk,  and the  decoction  drank freely,
with a poultice of the root applied  to the wound, it  has considerable
reputation as an alexipharmic in the bites of venomous snakes.  A poul-
tice of the  green or dried root, in powder, and mixed with  hot new milk,
is very highly recommended in all  stages of erysipelatous  inflammation,
to be  renewed when dry;  the  same application has been used benefi-
cially in acute ophthalmia.   An ointment made by simmering the pow-
dered  roots and  green tops in lard, for an  hour, over a  slow  fire, and
straining by pressure, is useful  in herpetic affections, sore  ears, mouths,
etc., of children,  and also in mild cases of erysipelas. 
944
Materia  Medica.
                   VACCINIUM  FRONDOSUM.
                        Blue  Whortleberry.
       Nat.  Ord. — Ericaceaa.    Sex.  Syst. — Decandria Monogynia.
                            THE fruit.
  Description.—This is a shrub from three to six feet high, with a gray-
ish bark, and round, smooth, slender and divergent branches. The leaves
are deciduous, obovate-oblong,  obtuse,  entire,  pale,  glaucous  beneath,
and covered with minute resinous dots, the margin being slightly revo-
lute.  The flowers are small, nearly globose, reddish-white, and arranged
in loose, slender,  lateral, bracteate racemes;  bracts oblong or  linear,
rather deciduous, shorter than the pedicels ; pedicels from five to ten lines
long,  slender, drooping, bracteate near the middle.  Corolla ovoid-cam-
panulate, with acute divisions,  and  inclosing the stamens.   Fruit large,
globose, dark-blue, covered  with  a glaucous bloom,  sweet and edible.
  Vaccinium  Resinosum, Black Whortleberry or Huckleberry, is a bushy
shrub from one to three feet in hight.   The branches are cinerous-brown,
and villose when young.   The leaves are  deciduous,  oblong-ovate, or
oblong-lanceolate,  rather  obtuse, entire, petiolate,  one or two  inches
long,  and about one-third  as  Avide, thickly covered with shining resinous
dots beneath.   The flowers are  reddish, tinged with green, or yellowish-
purple, and disposed in lateral, secund, dense, corymbose racemes, small
and drooping; pedicels about the  length of the  flowers, sub-bracteolate ;
brads and bractlets reddish, small, and deciduous.   The corolla is ovoid-
conic, at length subcampanulate,  five-angled, contracted at the mouth,
and longer than the stamens, but shorter than the style.   Fruit globose,
black, Avithout bloom,  sweet and  edible.
  History.—These  plants are common to the Northern  States, growing
in woods  and pastures, floAvering in May and June, and ripening their
fruit in August.   The fruit, or berries, together Avith  the  bark of the
root are the parts used.  They yield their virtues to Avater.
  The different varieties of  Whortleberry possess similar properties, as
the V. Dumosum,  or Bush-Whortleberry, V.  Corymbosum,  or  Giant-
Whortleberry,  V. Pennsylvanicum, or Black-blue-Whortleberry, V. Vitis
Idcea, or Bilberry,  and several others.  Several species are  found grow-
ing in the mountainous regions of some of the Southern States.  Torry
and Gray have removed the V. Frondosum, V. Resinosum,  and V. Du-
mosum, from the genus Vaccinium,  and placed them in a new one called
Gaylussacia, in honor  of the distinguished chemist,  Gay-Lussac.
  Properties and  Uses. — Diuretic and astringent.   The fruit is very
useful,  eaten alone,  with milk  or sugar, in scurvy, dysentery, and
derangements of the  urinary  organs.   The berries and root, bruised
and steeped in gin, form an  excellent diuretic, which has proved of much 
Valeriana Officinalis.
945
benefit in dropsy and gravel.   A decoction of the leaves or bark of the
root is astringent, and may be used in diarrhea, or as a local application
to ulcers, leucorrhea, and ulcerations of the mouth and throat.   Both the
berries and  root-bark of V. Arboreum, or farkleberry,  are very astrin-
gent, more so than the other varieties above-named, and may be used in
all cases where this class of agents is indicated.
                  VALERIANA OFFICINALIS.
                             Valerian.
       Nat.  Ord.—Valerianaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Triandria Monogynia.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—The officinal Valerian,  sometimes known as Great  Wild
Valerian,  is  a  large, handsome, herbaceous  plant, with a  perennial,
short, tuberculated  rhizome, from which issue many long, slender fibers
of a dusky-brown color, and  having a fetid smell.  The stem is erect,
hollow, smooth, furrowed, and  about three or four feet high.   The leaves
are of  a deep glossy-green, serrated, somewhat hairy beneath, opposite,
pinnate, but differing in the number of  leaflets.    The loAver leaves are
generally furnished Avith ten pairs, those of the  stem with nine, and the
upper ones with from five to seven;  the leaves of the stem are attached
by  short broad  sheaths, the  radical  ones  are  larger,  and have  long
petioles.   The leaflets of the stem are lanceolate and partially dentate,
those of the radical leaves are elliptical  and deeply serrate.  The flowers
are small, of a reddish-white color, fragrant,  and disposed  in dense
corymb-like  panicles, terminal  and perfect.   Bracts ovate-lanceolate,
acuminate, herbaceous,  membranous  at  the  edge, appressed, rather
longer  than the ovary.  The calyx is superior, rolled inward in the form
of a rounded thickened rim, finally expanding into  a kind of  pappus to
the seed.   The corolla is funnel-shaped and smooth; the tube gibbous at
the base on  that  side of the  flower turned away from the axis,  hairy
internally;  limb  spreading, divided into  five  nearly  equal, concave,
linear,  rounded  segments.   The stamens  are three, exserted, subulate,
white,  from the middle  of the corolla-tube, with oblong yellow anthers.
The ovary is inferior, narrow-oblong,  compressed, one-celled, with  a
single  pendulous ovule; style  filiform;  stigma divided into three filiform
lobes.  Fruit light-brown, linear-ovate, compressed, with a slightly ele-
vated  ridge  on  one side, terminated  by the twelve filiform, plumose,
recurved segments of the calyx-limb.
  History.—Valerian is a European plant growing  in damp woods and
meadows, and  sometimes in  dry banks; those found  in dry  elevated
situations, present botanical differences of a marked character, and are
considered superior to the others in medicinal virtue.  The plant flowers
in June and July.   There are  several varieties growing  in this country.
            60 
946
Materia  Medica.
The root isj&the officinal portion, and consists of long, slender, cylindri-
cal fibers,  about four inches  in length, and half a line in thickness,
issuing from a tuberculated head or rhizoma.  It should be collected in
spring before the stem begins to shoot, or in the autumn when the leaves
decay, and  should  be dried  quickly and kept in a dry place.   Exter-
nally, its color is yellowish or brown,  and  internally white, and when
dried it possesses a strong, peculiar odor, very disagreeable to many per-
sons, and a taste at  first sweetish, afterward bitter  and aromatic;  its
powder is yellowish-gray.   It imparts its properties readily to water, rec-
tified spirit, or ammoniated spirit.  The best valerian is obtained from
England.  Valerian contains volatile oil, a peculiar  extractive  matter,
soluble in water,  insoluble in ether or alcohol, and precipitated by me-
tallic solutions, gum, soft odorous  resin, and lignin.   Among these  the
most important is  the essential oil, in  which the virtues of the root
chiefly reside;  it is of a pale-greenish color, becoming yellow and viscid
by  exposure,  of specific gravity  0.934,  with a  powerful,  penetrating
valerian  odor, and a warm  aromatic taste.   It may be obtained  by dis-
tillation of the root with Avater.   An  acid,  termed  Valerianic acid, is
obtained  by oxidation of  the volatile oil; it  is a colorless liquid, oleagi-
nous  in consistence, having a valerian  odor, a  very strong, sour, disa-
greeable  taste, and  forming salts with salifiable  bases.   This acid' can
likewise be obtained by the action of caustic potassa on the oil of potato
spirit.   Valerianic acid may also be prepared by  distilling  100 parts of
valerian  root with 500 of water, 10 of  sulphuric acid, and 6 of bichro-
mate of  potassa; or, boil valerian  root  for three  hours  in  rather more
than its bulk of water, in  Avhich an ounce  of carbonate  of  soda  is dis-
solved for every pound of the root,  replacing the Avater as it evaporates.
Express  strongly, and boil the residuum twice Avith the same quantity
of Avater, expressing each  time as before.  Mix the liquids, add two
fluidrachms of strong sulphuric acid for every pound  of the root, and
distil till  three-fourths of the  liquid have passed over.  Neutralize this
with carbonate of soda, concentrate the liquid, decompose the valerian-
ate of soda contained in it by sulphuric acid,  and separate the valerianic
acid now set free, either by a separatory or by distillation.   Gruneberg
recommends the following:  Take 2| lbs of bichromate of potassa, intro-
duce it into  a retort, and  pour 41 lbs of hot water upon it.  A  cooled
mixture  of  1  lb  of fusel oil and  4 lbs  of sulphuric acid diluted with
2 lbs of Avater  is to be alloAAred to flow very slowly and in a thin  stream
into the  liquid in the retort, and the whole is then to be  distilled.  The
distillation  goes  on  quietly, and  9 ounces of oily valerianic acid are
obtained.
  Properties and Uses.—Valerian is tonic, antispasmodic, and calmative.
In large  doses it  produces a sense of heaviness and dull pain in the head,
with other effects indicating nervous disturbance.  It is useful in cases
of irregular nervous action, as in the restlessness and irritability occur- 
Vanilla Aromatica.
947
ring in hysterical constitutions, in the morbid vigilance of fevers,  in
hypochondriasis, epilepsy, hemicrania, and occasionally  in intermittent
and  remittent fevers.  It may be used in powder or infusion, the latter
being less  liable  to  irritate the alimentary canal; the tincture is also
officinal.  The extract or decoction should not be employed, as the virtue
of the root resides in a volatile oil.  Dose of the powder from  thirty to
ninety  grains, three or four times a  day;  of the infusion  from one  to
two fluidounces;  of the  tincture from half a fluidrachm to two  fluid-
drachms; of  the oil from four to six drops.
   Off.  Prep.—Acidum Valerianicum; Extractum Valerianae Fluidum ;
Infusum Valerianae;  Oleum Valerianae; Pilulae  Valerianae Compositae;
Tinctura Valerianae; Tinctura Valerianae Ammoniata.
                    VANILLA AROMATICA.
                              Vanilla.
        Nat. Ord.—Vanillaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Gynandria Monandria.
                        THE  FRUIT OR PODS.
  Description.—Vanilla Aromatica is a shrubby, climbing, aerial parasite,
it commences its growth in the crevices  of rocks, or on the  trunks  of
trees, suspending itself to  contiguous  objects,  and finally becomes  de-
tached from its original support, being truly an  aerial plant.  Planted
in the woods or  in warm ravines, it grows rapidly, fastening upon  the
trees  in  its neighborhood, especially  those  whose barks  are soft and
spongy.  The stem is  round,  about as thick as the finger, from twenty
to thirty feet in length, and often smaller at the base than at the sum-
mit.   The leaves are alternate,  oblong, entire, on short petioles, glaucous,
green, fleshy, and pointed  by a species of abortive tendril, which is a
continuation of the midrib; opposed to each leaf  are one or  two aerial
roots, which attach themselves to surrounding objects.  The flowers  are
axillary, paniculate, yelloAvish-white  at base, and attended  with one
green bract; they expand  one after another and  endure only  for a day.
The  ovaries appear  at first view to be peduncles, they are erect after
fecundation, and then become  pendulous as they  enlarge.  The fruit is
a silique or species  of  bean, yellow or buff color, of  an agreeable aro-
matic odor, and filled with a  pulpy matter containing acicular crystals
of an impure  benzoic  acid.  They must be dried with care or they lose
their properties.
  History.—Vanilla grows  in the West Indies,  Mexico, and South Ame-
rica.  The pods  are  collected before  they are quite ripe, dried in the
shade, covered over with a coat of  fixed oil, and then  tied in bundles,
which are  surrounded with  sheet-lead, or inclosed in small metallic
boxes, and sent into the market.  There are several varieties  of  vanilla
in commerce, the  most valuable  consisting of  cylindrical,  somewhat 
948
Materia  Medica.
flattened pods, six or eight inches long, three or four lines thick, nearly
straight, narrowing toward the extremities, bent at the base, shining,
and  dark-brown externally, wrinkled  longitudinally, soft and flexible,
and  containing within their tough  shell a soft black  pulp, in which
numerous minute, black glossy seeds  are  imbedded.   It  possesses  a
warm, aromatic, sweetish taste, and a strong,  peculiar, but agreeable
odor.  It yields its virtues to water or alcohol.
  Properties and Uses.—Aromatic stimulant.  Useful in infusion in hys-
teria, rheumatism, and low forms of fever.   It is  also considered an
aphrodisiac, powerfully exciting the generative system.   Much used in
perfumery, and to flavor  tinctures, syrups, ointments,  chocolate,  ice-
cream, etc.  Dose of the powder,  from eight to ten grains;  of the infu-
sion, made in the proportion of half an ounce to a pint of boiling water,
half a fluidounce, three or  four times a day.
                      VERATRUM  ALBUM.
                          White Hellebore.
       Nat. Ord.—Melanthaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Polygamia Moncecia.
                            THE RHIZOMA.
   Description.—By some Botanists this plant is placed in the class and
order of the Sexual System, Hexandria Trigynia.  Veratrum Album is
a herbaceous plant, with a perennial, fleshy, oblong, somewhat horizon-
tal, premorse rhizoma, about  the  thickness of a finger, blackish, or yel-
lowish-white externally,  whitish,  or  pale yellowish-gray internally, and
beset with long cylindrical fibers of a grayish color, which constitute
the true root.   The stem is erect, thick, round,  striated, and from one to
four feet in hight.  The leaves are alternate, broad-ovate, acute,  entire,
plaited longitudinally, and about ten inches long by five broad; they are
of a yellowish-green color, and embrace the  stem  at their  base.  The
flowers  are yellowish-white, green at the back, eight lines in diameter,
and disposed in a terminal panicle; the segments spreading, serrulate, and
somewhat wavy.   In other respects it resembles the Veratrum Viride.
   History. —White Hellebore is a  native of  Europe,  growing  in the
mountainous regions of that  country, especially on the Alps  and Pyr-
enees.  The Avhole plant is active and poisonous, but the rhizoma only is
officinal.   When dried it is usually found  in pieces, from one to three
inches long, and nearly an inch in diameter, cylindrical, or in the shape
of a truncated cone, whitish or grayish-brown internally, blackish exter-
nally, wrinkled, and rough with  the remains of the fibers which have
been cut off near their origin.  It deteriorates  by keeping.   Its odor is
disagreeable when recent, but which is lost by drying, and  its taste  at
first SAveetish,  becomes  intensely and permanently bitter,  acrid, and
burning.   Diluted alcohol is its best solvent.   The pulverized root is of 
Veratrum Sabadilla.
949
a grayish color.  It contains supergallate of veratria, an  oily substance
consisting of olein, stearin, and  a volatile acid,  yellow coloring matter,
starch, gum, lignin, silica, and various salts  of lime and  potassa.  Tavo
other principles have likewise been detected by Simon, named barytina
and jervina.   Its properties are owing to the veratria it contains.  (See
 Veratria.)
  Properties  and Uses.—White Hellebore is a violent emetic and purga-
tive, and has been used  in mental diseases,  as a diaphoretic in  chronic
cutaneous diseases, and  as a sternutatory in headache, amaurosis, and
ophthalmia.  Seldom used, however, except externally in the form of
decoction or ointment for the cure of itch and other cutaneous eruptions,
and as an errhine, diluted with six or seven  parts of some mild powder,
in gutta  serena and  lethargic affections.  A mixture of three parts of
the wine of White  Hellebore, and  one of the wine of opium has been
considerably employed in gouty and rheumatic affections.  White Helle-
bore is a violent, irritant poison, producing, when snuffed  up into the
nostrils, severe coryza, and when swallowed, urgent vomiting, and pro-
fuse diarrhea.  When it proves fatal, narcotic symptoms, as stupor and
convulsions, are superadded.  Dose of the  powder, from one to  eight
grains  gradually and  cautiously increased, commencing with one grain;
of the  vinous tincture, from  twenty to sixty minims.   Its  use always
requires great care.
   Off. Prep.—Unguentum Sulphuris  Compositum; Unguentum Veratri
Albi.
                   VERATRUM  SABADILLA.
                             Cevadilla.
        Nat. Ord.—Melanthaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Polygamia Moncecia.
                             THE SEEDS.
  Description. — The  precise origin of this remedy is  yet  involved in
uncertainty;  by some, Cevadilla is referred  entirely to the Veratrum Offici-
nale, which has been variously  denominated Helonias Officinalis,  and
Asagrcea Officinalis ;  while others consider  it the product of the V. Saba-
dilla and A. Officinalis, Avith other plants of  the same order.  More exact
information is required  before its origin can be positively  determined.
The following is a description of  two plants from which it is reputed to
be obtained:—
  Veratrum Sabadilla of Retzius  is a plant  three  or four  feet high,
with the leaves radical, numerous, spreading on the ground, ovate-oblong,
obtuse, with from eight to fourteen ribs, and glaucous beneath.   The
scape or flower-stem is erect, simple, and round, and bears a spreading,
simple,  or but slightly  branched panicle of somewhat nodding flowers,
supported upon very  short pedicels.  The  floAvers  are blackish-purple, 
950
Materia Medica.
approximate in twos and threes;  the fertile eventually becoming turned
to one side, and the sterile falling off and leaving a scar.  The segments
of the perianth are ovate-lanceolate, and veinless.   The ovaries are three,
oblong, connate, obtuse ; styles acute, dilated downward; stigmas simple.
Capsules three, in  form resembling those of Larkspur, occupying only
one side of  the  stem, and  opening at the apex inside.   Seeds  three in
each  cell, imbricated, curved, blunt on one  side,  sooty, acrid.  This
plant grows in Mexico and the West Indies.
  Asagr^ea Officinalis, Lindley, Veratrum Officinale, Schlechtendahl,
and Helonias  Officinalis of Don, is a caespitose plant, bulbous, with the
leaves linear, tapering to a point, even, smooth, entire, channeled above,
carinate at  the  back, about  four feet long, by three lines broad.  The
scape  is naked, about six feet high, round, simple, terminating in a very
dense, straight,  spike-like raceme, eighteen  inches  long.  The perianth
is deeply six-parted, spreading, yellowish-white, permanent,  with linear,
thick, veinless, obtuse segments, three of which are rather broader than
the others.  Filaments  six, somewhat clavate, those opposite the broad
segments of the perianth longer than the others, and all longer than the
perianth.   Anthers large,  yellow,  cordate, obtuse.    Ovary formed of
three  cells,  united  by their sutures, Avith an obscure stigma.   Follicles
three, acuminate, papery ;  seeds  scimitar shaped,  corrugated, winged.
This plant is a native of the eastern side of the Mexican Andes, near
Barranca  de Tioselo, by the Hacienda de la Laguna, in grassy places.
  History.—Cevadilla seeds  are  brought from Vera Cruz, and usually
occur mixed with the fruit of the plant.  This  consists of  tri-capsular
follicles, which open aboAre, and present the appearance of single capsules
with three cells ; they are  about three or four lines long,  a line and a
half thick, obtuse  at the base, light brown, or  yellowish, smooth, and
containing in each capsule, one or two seeds.  The seeds are elongated,
pointed at each end, flat on one side and convex on the other, somewhat
curved, two or three lines long, wrinkled, slightly winged, black or dark
brown on the outside, whitish within, hard, inodorous, and of an exceed-
ingly acrid, burning, and persistent taste.   They contain veratria  com-
bined with gallic acid,  fatty matter, cevadic  or sabadillic acid  being a
peculiar, volatile fatty acid,  yellow coloring  matter, wax, gum, lignin,
and other unimportant constituents.   They yield about 0.58 parts  of
Areratria to every one hundred.  Merck has also discovered a peculiar
acid, which  he has named veratric acid; it occurs in colorless crystals,
is fusible and volatilizable without decomposition, but slightly soluble in
cold water,  more  soluble in hot  water, insoluble  in  ether, soluble in
alcohol, reddens litmus paper,  and forms soluble salts with the alkalies.
(See  Veratria.)
  Properties and Uses. — Cevadilla seeds have  been employed as  an
anthelmintic, but require much caution in their administration, as they 
Veratrum Viride.
951
are a dangerous, acrid, drastic emeto-cathartic.   They have  also been
employed for the destruction of vermin in the hair, but should never be
advised for this purpose, as dangerous consequences have resulted from
this  application of them.   Externally applied they are very  irritating.
The  dose is from  fiAre to thirty grains,  for the expulsion of taenia, and
other worms. An extract has proved beneficial in painful rheumatic and
neuralgic affections.  At present, they are seldom used in practice, their
chief employment being for the preparation of veratria.
   Off. Prep.—Veratria.
                      VERATRUM VIRIDE.
                        American Hellebore.
         Nat. Ord.—Melanthaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Polygamia Moncecia.
                            THE RHIZOMA.
   Description.—This plant, known also by the names of Swamp Helle-
 bore, Indian Poke,  and  Itch-weed, has a  perennial, thick and  fleshy
 rhizoma, tunicated above, solid  below,  and sending forth numerous
 whitish radicles.  The stem is annual, round, solid, striated, pubescent,
 and from three to six feet high, being, throughout the greater part of its
 length, closely invested with the sheathing bases of the  leaves.  The
 leaves are alternate, and  gradually decrease in size as they ascend; the
 lower  are  from six  to twelve inches long, oval, acuminate, pubescent,
 strongly ribbed and plaited, the lower part of their edges meeting round
 the stem;  the upper leaves are gradually narrower;  the uppermost or
 bracts linear-lanceolate.   The flowers are numerous, yellowish-green,
 and arranged in compound racemes, axillary from the upper leaves, and
 terminal ; each  flower is accompanied with a boat-shaped, acuminate,
 downy bract, much longer than  its pedicel; peduncles roundish, downy.
 The perianth is divided  into six  oval, acute, nerved segments,  of  which
 the alternate ones are the longest, and all  contracted at the base into a
 sort of claw with a thickened or cartilaginous edge.  The stamens are
 six, with recurved filaments,  and roundish,  two-lobed anthers.   Ovaries
 three, cohering, with acute recurved styles as long as the stamens. The
fruit consists of three capsules,  united together, separating at top, and
 dehiscing on their inner  side.  Seeds flat, winged, imbricated.   A part
 of the flowers at the upper end of the branchlets are barren,  and have
 only the  rudiments of styles, those on the lower portion are fruitful.
  History. — American Hellebore  is indigenous to many parts  of the
 United States, usually growing in swamps,  wet meadows, and  on the
 banks of mountain streamlets, flowering from May to July.  The rhizoma
 is the officinal part; it should be collected in autumn, and not kept longer
 than one year, as its virtues are rapidly impaired by age.   It consists of
 a tunicated top, with a  thick,  fleshy base, having  numerous radicals 
952                     Materia Medica.
attached.   When recent it has a disagreeable, fetid odor, which  disap-
pears on  desiccation.  The taste is  at  first sweetish, afterward  bitter,
followed by an acrid, pungent, and persistent sensation.  In its appear-
ance, as well  as  its sensible  properties, it somewhat resembles white
hellebore, and according to Mr. Worthington, of  Philadelphia, it con-
tains  veratria, gallic acid, extractive, etc.  Mr. W. precipitated a cold
infusion of the root with  subacetate of lead, separated  the excess of lead
with sulphureted hydrogen, evaporated to one-half,  boiled with an excess
of magnesia.  The precipitate was  collected  on a filter, dried, treated
with boiling alcohol and  animal charcoal, and the filtered alcoholic solu-
tion evaporated.  The light-colored pulverulent residue was nearly inso-
luble in water, more soluble in ether, and very soluble in alcohol.  It
melted when heated, and burned without residue ;  had a burning acrid
taste, acted powerfully as a sternutatory, and formed salts with the acids,
of which  the  sulphate, tartrate,  and  oxalate  only were crystallizable.
From these properties, Mr. Worthington  infers its identity Avith veratria;
but it is probable  that  it is  not veratria, but  like colchicia, a distinct,
though analogous principle.
   Properties and Uses.—Its effects upon the system are similar to those
of the V. Album, although its cathartic action is denied by Dr.  Osgood,
who states that it reduces the  frequency and  force of the  pulse,  some-
times as low as thirty-five strokes in  the  minute.  It is also an emetic,
and the action is often violent and long continued.  In  addition to which,
it is  said to increase  most of  the secretions, and when freely taken, to
exercise a powerful influence over the nervous system,  indicated by faint-
ness,  somnolency,  vertigo,  headache,  dimness  of ATision, and dilated
pupils.  Prof. Tully, of New Haven,  regards it as an excellent substitute
for colchicum, in gouty, neuralgic and rheumatic affections, to  which
diseases it seems best adapted.   It is a remedy deserving the attention
of the profession.   The best forms of administration are the tincture or
extract; and  it  should never  be given  in doses  sufficient to  produce
vomiting.  Dose of the powder, from four to six grains; of a saturated
tincture, ten drops gradually increased until some effect is produced; of
the extract, or inspissated juice, one-third of a grain, gradually increased.
The V. Parviflorum and V. Angustifolium, of this country, are probably
active, and should be examined.
   Dr. W. C. Norwood, of Cokesbury, S. C, in some  recent communi-
cations published in the  Southern Medical and Surgical Journal,  states
that from actual experiments made by himself this plant has proved:—
   1.  Slightly  acrid, and  confining this  action mostly to the mouth and
fauces.
   2.  Expectorant, and unsurpassed  by  any other  article for which this
property is claimed.
   3.  Diaphoretic, being one of the most certain belonging to the Materia
Medica; often exciting great coolness or coldness of the surface;  some- 
Veratrum Viride.
953
times rendering the skin merely soft and moist, and at others producing
free  and  abundant perspiration,  without reducing or exhausting  the
system.
  4. Adanagic,  deobstruent,  or alterative, far surpassing iodine, and
from which much advantage may be expected in the treatment of cancer
and consumption.
  5. Nervine, and never narcotic.   This property  renders it of great
value in the treatment of painful diseases, and such as are accompanied
with spasmodic action, convulsions, morbid irritability, and irritative mo-
bility,  as  in  chorea especially,  epilepsy, pneumonia, puerperal fever,
neuralgia, etc.  And it produces its effects in this respect, without stupe-
fying and torpifying the system, as opium is known to do.
  6. Emetic ; it is slow, but certain  and efficient, rouses  the liver to
action during its operation, and vomits without occasioning  the prostra-
tion or exhaustion  which follows the action of most other  emetics.  It is
also superior  to  the majority of emetics,  in not being  cathartic.  It is
peculiarly adapted as an emetic in hooping-cough, croup, asthma, scarlet
fever, and in  all  cases where there is much febrile or inflammatory action.
  7. Arterial sedative.  This he considers its most valuable and inter-
esting property,  and for which it stands unparalleled  and unequaled as
a therapeutic agent.
  8. In small doses, it creates and promotes appetite, beyond any agent
with which we are acquainted.
  Dr.  Norwood recommends  the  following  formula  for the  tincture:
Take of the dried  root of Veratrum Viride, eight ounces;  alcohol .835
sixteen  ounces.  Macerate for  two weeks, express, and  filter.   To  an
adult, eight drops  are  given, and which  must be repeated every three
hours, increasing the dose one or two drops every time, until nausea or
vomiting,  or a reduction of the  pulse  to 65 or 70 ensue;  then reduce to
one-half in all cases.  Females and persons  from  fourteen to eighteen,
should commence with six drops, and increase as above ; children from
two to five years to begin with  two drops, and increase one drop only;
below  two years of age, one drop.   When nausea, vomiting, or other
unpleasant effects ensue from its administration according to the above
directions, they may be speedily relieved  by one or two portions of syrup
of morphia and tincture of ginger, or brandy and laudanum.  He has
reduced the pulse by its use, to 35 beats per minute, without exciting
the least nausea or vomiting.   In pneumonia, typhoid fever, and many
other diseases, it must be continued for from three to five or seven days
after the symptoms have subsided; and  in typhoid fever, while using
the veratrum, quinia is absolutely inadmissible.  It is administered in a
little sweetened water.   Its employment  may be continued indefinitely,
in moderate doses, or short of  nausea, without the least  inconvenience.
The  correctness of Dr. Norwood's statements will  be determined by
future investigations. 
954
Materia Medica.
                     VERBASCUM THAPSUS.
                              Mullein.
     Nat. Ord.—Scrophulariaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
                     THE  LEAVES AND FLOWERS.
  Description.—Mullein is  a biennial plant, with an erect, round, rigid,
stout, hairy stem,  from three to five feet in hight, and winged  by the
decurrent bases of the leaves.   The leaves are alternate,  oblong, acute,
decurrent, indented at the margin, rough, and densely tomentose on  both
sides.   The flowers are of  a golden yellow color, rotate,  nearly sessile,
and  are  arranged in  a dense,  spiked, club-shaped raceme;  calyx  five-
parted and downy; corolla five-lobed,  rotate, lobes broad and rounded,
somewhat unequal; stamens five, the two lower smooth, the rest downy.
Capsule or pod, ovoid-globose,  two-valved, many-seeded.
  History. — Mullein  is  common to  the  United States,  growing  in
neglected fields, along roadsides, and in newly  cleared places, floAvering
from June to August.  Some Botanists consider it to  have been intro-
duced from Europe.   The leaves and flowers are the parts used.  They
have a  slight, somewhat narcotic  smell, rather agreeable, and a feebly
mucilaginous,  herbaceous,  and  bitter  taste, and  yield their virtues  to
boiling water.   The flowers are said to contain volatile oil, yellow resin,
saccharine matter, chlorophylle, malic and phosphoric acids.
  Properties and  Uses. — Mullein is  demulcent, diuretic, anodyne  and
antispasmodic.  The  infusion is useful in coughs, catarrh, hemoptysis,
diarrhea, dysentery and piles.  Its diuretic  properties  are rather weak,
yet it is very useful in allaying  the acridity of  urine, which is present in
many diseases.   It may be boiled  in milk,  sweetened,  and rendered
more palatable by the addition  of aromatics, for internal use, especially
bowel complaints.  A fomentation of the leaves also forms an excellent
local application for inflamed piles, ulcers and tumors.   The  leaves and
pith  of  the stalk form a valuable  cataplasm  in  white swellings,  and
infused  in  hot vinegar or water, it  makes an  excellent poultice to be
applied  to  the throat in cynanche  tonsillaris,  cynanche maligna, and
mumps.   The seeds,  it is said,  will rapidly pass through  the intestines,
and  have been successfully  used in intestinal obstructions.   They are
narcotic, and have been used  in asthma, infantile  convulsions, and  to
poison  fish.  The infusion may be  drank freely.   The flowers, placed
into  a well-corked bottle, and exposed to the action of  the sun,  are  said
to yield a fine relaxing oil.
   Off. Prep.—Cataplasma  Verbasci. 
Verbena Hastata.
955
                      VERBENA HASTATA.
                              Vervain.
      Nat. Ord.—Verbenaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.
                             THE ROOT.
   Description.—Vervain, sometimes known  by the names of Wild Hys-
 sop, or Simpler's Joy, is an erect, tall, elegant, and perennial plant, with
 an obtusely four-angled stem, three or four feet high, and having oppo-
 site, paniculate branches above.  The leaves are  opposite, petiolate,
 lanceolate,  acuminate, rough,  and incisely serrate ; the  lower  often
 lobed or somewhat hastate.  The flowers are small, purplish-blue, sessile,
 tetrandrous, and arranged in long, erect, slender, imbricated, terminal
 and axillary, panicled spikes.   Calyx five-toothed ;  corolla funnel-form,
 limb five-cleft, nearly equal; seeds four.
   History.—Vervain is indigenous to the United States, growing along
 roadsides, and  in dry, grassy fields, flowering from  June to September.
 The root is  the part used; it is woody  and  fibrous,  faintly odorous and
 of a bitter, somewhat astringent, nauseous taste, and imparts its proper-
 ties to water.   There are several varieties of this plant, as the V.  Urti-
 cifolia, or nettle-leaAred vervain, with white flowers, the V. Spuria, with
 blue flowers, and others, the roots of which possess similar properties,
 but in a milder  degree than the V. Hastata.  Sometimes the leaves of
 V. Hastata are used instead of  the root, but  they are less active.
   Properties and  Uses. — Vervain is  tonic, emetic, expectorant,  and
 sudorific.  As an emetic and sudorific it has  proved  beneficial in inter-
 mittent fever,  given in warm infusion   or in powder.  In  all cases of
 colds and  obstructed menstruation it may be used as  a sudorific.  Taken
 cold, the infusion forms a good tonic in some cases of debility, anorexia,
 and  during  convalescence  from acute diseases.   It has been reputed
 valuable in scrofula, visceral obstructions, gravel and worms.   The fol-
lowing application has been recommended as effectual in promoting  the
 absorption of the  blood effused in bruises, and in allaying  the  attendant
pain : Take  of vervain, senna  and white pepper, of each equal parts.
 Make a cataplasm by mixing with the white of eggs.  Dose of the  pow-
 dered root, from one to two scruples ;  of the  infusion, from  two to four
fluidounces,  three or four times a  day, or oftener if it is desired to vomit.
 The root of  V.  Urticifolia boiled in milk and water, with the inner  bark
of Quercus Alba,  and the decoction drank freely, is said to be an excel-
lent  antidote for  poisoning from the   Rhus  Toxicodendron.  The  V.
 Officinalis is a  European plant, possessing  similar properties with the
above, but less  active. 
956
Materia Medica.
                  VERNONIA  FASCICULATA.
                             Ironweed.
         Nat. Ord.—Asteraceae.  Sex. Syst.—Syngenesia .Equalis.
                             THE ROOT.
  Description.—This is an indigenous,  perennial, coarse, purplish-green
weed, with a tall  striate or grooved, tomentose stem, from  three  to ten
feet in hight.  The leaves are from four to eight inches  long, by one or
two broad, narrow-lanceolate, tapering to each end, serrulate, alternate,
smooth above, the lower ones petiolate.  The flower-heads are numerous,
in a compact or loose, somewhat fastigiate cyme.  The corolla is showy,
dark purple, tubular, twice as long as the involucre.   Involucre smooth,
ovoid-campanulate; scales appressed, all  but the  lowest rounded and
obtuse, without appendage.
  History.—Ironweed is a very common  plant in the Western States,
growing in the woods and prairies, and along  river-streams, and flower-
ing from July to September.  The root, which is the part used, is bitter,
and imparts its properties to water or alcohol.   The Vernonia Novebora-
censis, growing in  the Eastern, Western, and Middle States, and  its
variety  V.  Praealta, hearing purple flowers, and the V.  Tomentosa, with
some  other species, possess similar medicinal  properties.
  Properties and  Uses. — Ironweed is  a  bitter tonic, deobstruent, and
alterative.   In powder or decoction, the root is beneficial in amenorrhea,
dysmenorrhea, leucorrhea, and menorrhagia.  In intermittent, remittent,
and bilious fevers, the decoction or a saturated tincture has been recom-
mended.  Said to have  been useful in scrofula,  and some  cutaneous
diseases.  Dose of the decoction, one or two fluidounces ; of the tincture,
one or two  fluidrachms.   The  leaves or powdered root in the form of
poultice make an excellent discutient application to tumors.
                   VERONICA OFFICINALIS.
                            Speedwell.
      Nat. Ord.—Scrophulariaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Diandria Monogynia.
                       THE LEAVES AND  TOPS.
  Description. — This is a roughish-pubescent plant, the stem of which
is prostrate, rooting  at  the base, from six to twelve  inches long, with
ascending  branches.    The leaves  are opposite,  vary  from ovate  to
obovate, but  are  generally  elliptical,  short-petioled,  obtuse,  serrate,
mostly narrowed to the base, and  an  inch  or an inch and a half long.
The flowers are pale-blue, and arranged in  long, axillary, erect, dense,
many flowered, pedunculate racemes;  pedicels shorter than the calyx.
Calyx four-parted ;  corolla rotate.   The pod or  capsules is puberulent,
obovate-triangular, emarginate, strongly flattened,  several seeded. 
Viburnum  Opulus.
957
   History.—Speedwell is a native of Europe, and now very common in
North America, growing on  dry hills, and in  woods  and open fields,
flowering from April to August.  The leaves and tops are employed;
they have a faint odor,  and a slightly bitter and aromatic taste.  The
 V. Beccabunga, or brook-lime, is found in most of the Eastern and Nor-
thern  States, growing in small streams and near watercourses;  this,
together with the V. Anagallis,  V. Scutellata, V. Agrestis, and V. Pere-
grina, possesses somewhat similar  properties.   They all impart their
virtues to water.
   Properties and Uses. — Speedwell is tonic, expectorant, diaphoretic,
and diuretic.  It was formerly administered in pectoral  and nephritic
complaints, diseases of the skin,  icterus, and in the treatment of wounds.
Likewise reputed beneficial in scrofula, and other diseases where altera-
tives are indicated, especially the V. Peregrina; to be given internally,
and used as a  wash.  The V. Beccabunga is  antiscorbutic,  diuretic,
febrifuge, and  emmenagogue,  and  said  to be beneficial in cases  of
obstructed menstruation, scurvy, fevers, and coughs.   The decoction of
the plants may be used freely.
                      VIBURNUM OPULUS.
                         High Cranberry.
       Nat. Ord.—Caprifoliaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Trigynia.
                            THE  BARK.
  Description.—This is the Viburnum  Oxycoccus of Pursh; it is a nearly
smooth and upright shrub or small tree, rising from five to twelve feet
in hight;  the stems  are  several from  the same root, branched  above.
The leaves are three-lobed, three-veined, broadly wedge-shaped or trun-
cate at base, broader than long ; the lobes divaricate, acuminate, crenate-
ly-toothed  on the sides,  entire in the  sinuses;  the petioles have two or
more  glands  at the  base, and are channeled above.   The flowers are
white or reddish-white, and  are disposed in rayed, pedunculated cymes;
the marginal flowers are large and  sterile, the inner flowers much smaller
and fertile.  The fruit is  ovoid, red, very acid, ripens late, and remains
upon the bush after the  leaves  have  fallen; it resembles the common
cranberry, and is sometimes substituted for it.  The V. Roseum, Snow-
ball,  or Guelder-rosetree, is a cultivated European variety,  with  the
whole cyme turned into large sterile flowers.
  History.—This is a handsome indigenous shrub,  growing in low rich
lands, woods, and borders of fields, in  the northern part of the United
States and Canada, flowering in June, and presenting at this time a very
showy appearance.   The flowers are  succeeded by red and very acid
berries, resembling low cranberries, and which remain through the win-
ter.  The bark is the officinal part; as met with in the shops, it  is in 
958
Materia Medica.
thin, longitudinally curved pieces, from one-fourth of an  inch to two or
three inches in length, and from two to six  lines in width, with a dark-
grayish epidermis, and whitish-yellow,  or reddish-yellow  internal  integ-
ument ; it has no smell, and  a peculiar, not unpleasant, bitterish  and
astringent taste.   It is frequently put up  by the Shakers, when it is
somewhat flattened from pressure.   It  yields its properties  to water or
diluted alcohol.   The Pharmaceutical Institute of the city of New York,
profess to have obtained  the active  principle of this plant,  which they
have called Viburine.  I have not been able to learn its mode of prepara-
tion, nor have I seen any of it, and therefore cannot recommend it. There
is a great disposition among some of the manufacturers of our  concen-
trated remedies to keep their  processes secret; this is very reprehen-
sible, and the maxim cannot be too frequently repeated—" Never use a
prepared remedy unless its mode of preparation is made known"—to do
differently savors of  charlatanism.  Beside, great imposition  may be
practiced upon physicians by designing and speculating individuals.
  Properties and  Uses.—High-Cranberry-bark  is a powerful antispas-
modic, and in consequence of this property, it is  more generally known
among Eclectic practitioners by the name  of Cramp Bark.   It is very
effective in relaxing cramps and spasms of all kinds, as asthma, hyste-
ria, cramps  of the limbs or other parts in females, especially during
pregnancy, and it is said to be  highly beneficial to those who are subject
to convulsions during pregnancy, or at the time of parturition, prevent-
ing the attacks entirely, if used daily for the last twro  or three months
of  gestation.   The following,  forms an excellent preparation  for the
relief of spasmodic attacks, viz :  Take  of  Cramp Bark two  ounces,
Scullcap, Skunkcabbage, of  each one ounce, Cloves half an ounce, Cap-
sicum two drachms.   Have all in powder, coarsely bruised, and add to
them  tAvo quarts  of good sherry or native  wine.  Dose, one  or two
fluidounces, two or three times a day.  Dose of the decoction, or vinous
tincture of Cramp Bark, two fluidounces, two or three  times a day.  It
may be proper to remark here that I have found a poultice of low cran-
berries very efficacious  in indolent and malignant ulcers ; and applied
round the throat in the inflammation and swelling attending scarlatina-
maligna, and other diseases, it gives prompt and marked relief.  Pro-
bably, the High-Cranberries will effect the same results.   (See  Cata-
plasma  Oxycocci.)
  Viburnum  Dentatum, Arrow-wood, or  Mealy-tree,  called  by  the
former name on account of its long, straight, slender branches or young
shoots, is  a somewhat  smooth shrub, from  six  to twelve feet in hight,
growing  in  low   grounds, damp woods and thickets,  throughout  the
United States, with roundish-ovate, dentate-serrate, furrow-plaited leaves,
on long, slender petioles.  The leaves are two or three inches in diame
ter, the  upper pair oval, the  veins beneath  prominent, parallel,  and 
Viburnum  Prunifolium.
959
pubescent in their axils.  The flowers are white, in pedunculate cymes,
and  appear in June.   The fruit  consists  of small ovoid-globose, dark-
blue berries.
  The bark of this tree is ash-colored, and  is employed  as  a diuretic
and  detergent, and has been highly recommended as  an internal and
external agent to cure cancer ;  the  infusion to be used freely.  It cer-
tainly deserves the attention of the  profession  in their treatment  of this
formidable disease.   It may also  be used in extract, pills, or plaster.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Viburni Hydro-alcoholicum  ; Tinctura Viburni
Composita.
                  VIBURNUM  PRUNIFOLIUM.

                            Black Haw.
        Nat. Ord.—Caprifoliaceaa.   Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Trigynia.
                      THE BARK  OF THE ROOT.
  Description.—This shrub or tree, also known by the name of Sloe, is
indigenous to this country, growing to the hight of from ten to twenty
feet.  The branches are spreading, some of them often stinted and naked,
giving the plant an unthrifty aspect.   The leaves are  about  two  inches
long,  and nearly as wide,  roundish-ovate, smooth, shining above,  obtuse
at both  ends, acutely serrate, with uncinate teeth, and situated on short
petioles, slightly margined with  straight,  narrow wings.   The flowen
are  white, in large, terminal, and  sessile cymes.   The fruit consists  of
OAroid-oblong, sweet, edible, blackish berries.
  History.—This tree is found throughout the United States, being most
abundant in the Middle and Southern States.   It floAvers from March  to
June, and  presents at this time  a  very handsome appearance.  It is
usually  found in woods and thickets.   The bark of  the  roots, stem, and
branches are medicinal, but that of the root  is preferred.   It is  fawn-
colored  externally, with a feeble odor, and a very bitter,  slightly aroma-
tic taste.  Water or alcohol extracts its properties.  It is readily pulver-
ized when  dry, and affords a reddish-colored  poAvder  tinged with gray.
It is said to contain  extractive matter, gum, tannin, gallic  acid,  and a
peculiar resinous principle, for which  the name of Viburnin has been
proposed. It is obtained by the usual process for  separating the resinous
principles from plants, and is  a light  reddish-brown powder, intensely
bitter, possessing the properties of the bark in a concentrated form.
  Properties and  Uses. —Black  Haw is tonic, astringent, diuretic, and
alterative ; the decoction has been used as a gargle in aphthae, as a wash
to indolent ulcers, and ophthalmic affections ; and  internally in chronic
diarrhea, dysentery, and  palpitation of the heart.  It appears to exert
an especial tonic influence upon the  uterus, and is highly recommended 
960
Materia Medica.
in cases of threatened abortion, and as a preventive in cases of habitual
miscarriage ; in the latter case its use  should commence a week or two
previous to the aborting period, and be continued through the  remaining
period of pregnancy.  It has also proved useful in relieving  severe after-
pains.   The  infusion may be given  in  half fluidounce doses, several
times a day; or the tincture, in doses of a fluidrachm, four  or five times
a day.   The powder may be given in half drachm, or drachm doses.


                        VIOLA PEDATA.
                            Blue Violet.

        Nat.  Ord.—Violaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.

                         THE WHOLE  PLANT.
  Description.—Blue-Violet, or as it is  sometimes  called, Bird's-foot
Violet, is an indigenous, stemless plant, glabrous, with the leaves and
scapes all  from perennial,  fleshy, premorse, subterranean rootstocks.
The leaves are pedately five to nine-parted ; the lobes being linear-lan-
ceolate, obtuse,  and nearly entire.  Petioles with long, ciliate stipules at
base.  The flowers are  large, very showy, an inch broad, pale or deep
lilac-purple, and fragrant.   Peduncles  somewhat four-sided, much longer
than the leaves.  The  divisions of the calyx  are linear, acute-ciliate,
emarginate  behind.   Petals  veinless, entire, and beardless.   Spur  or
beak obscure.   The stigma is large, compressed M the sides,  obliquely
truncate, and perforate at the apex.
  History.—This plant  is common to the  United  States, growing from
New England to Carolina, and west to Missouri, in dry sandy  fields and
rocky woods, flowering in May and June.   The herb and root  are used,
and impart their virtues to water.
  The Viola Odorata or Sweet Violet of Europe, is much cultivated  in
this country on account of  its beautiful flowers, which appear in April
and  May.   It is a small,  pretty, creeping plant, the runners of  which
are furnished with  fibrous roots, and send up annually tufts  of leaves
and flowers.  The leaves are cordate, crenate, nearly smooth,  and sup-
ported on long petioles.   The flowers are small and fragrant,  at the sum-
mit of  delicate, quadrangular,  channeled, bracted,  radical peduncles.
The stipules are lanceolate and toothed.   The petals are obovate, obtuse,
unequal, bluish-purple, or deep violet color, except at the claws,  which
are whitish, and longer than the obtuse, ovate sepals.  The  two lateral
petals are spreading, with a hairy line toward the base, the inferior furn-
ished with a large blunt spur, and the  two upper reflected.    The stamens
are in the center with very short filaments, and anthers slightly cohering
by an orange-colored  membranous expansion.  Stigma hooked, naked ;
capsules turgid,  hairy ; seeds turbinate, pallid. 
Viscum Flavescens.
961
   The  flowers  of this species have a very slightly bitter taste, and a
peculiar, agreeable odor, which, however, occasions faintness and giddi-
ness with some persons.   Their odor is lost by drying.   They should be
gathered before being fully blown, deprived of their calyx, and rapidly
dried in a heated room.   An infusion of them affords  a very delicate
test for acids and alkalies, the former changing it to red, the latter to
green.  Three or four drachms of the  seeds, made into an  emulsion
with sugar  and water, act as  a mild and  pleasant purgative.   The roots
are emetic  and purgative, but are very uncertain in  their action.   A
peculiar  alkaline principle has been detected in this plant, called  Violia,
it  bears some resemblance to Emetia.   It is probably contained in other
species of Viola.
   Properties and Uses. — Blue Violet  is mucilaginous,  emollient, and
slightly laxative; also antisyphilitic, and forms a valuable remedy for
this disease, when combined with Corydallis Formosa.   Has been used
in pectoral,  nephritic, and  cutaneous affections, especially crusta  lactea.
The plant should be used  when fresh, as drying destroys its active pro-
perties.   The seeds of the European sweet violet, Viola Odorata, have
been used  in  graArel, and  for similar purposes as the  V. Pedata.   The
V.  Tricolor, or pansy,  may be used as a substitute.  The roots of these
plants are bitterish and slightly acrid, and in doses of  from eight to ten
grains are tonic; from twenty-five to thirty grains, purgative;  and from
forty to sixty grains, emetic.
   The Viola. Ovata, or rattlesnake violet, has been highly recommended
in the bites  of rattlesnakes, the infusion to  be  freely administered; and
the infusion used internally,  Avith a fomentation of the leaves locally
applied, have proved efficacious in  obstinate chronic ophthalmia; a simi-
lar course is reputed very  valuable in scrofulous diseases.   Probably all
the species  possess analogous properties;  they are undoubtedly  more
active agents than generally supposed, and deserve further investigation.
                     VISCUM  FLAVESCENS.
                              Mistletoe.
        Nat.  Ord.—Loranthaceaa.  Sex. Syst.—Dioacia Tetrandria.
                            the leaves.
  Description.—This is the  Viscum Verticillatum of Nuttall, and Viscum
Album of Walter;  it is a yelloAvish-green, succulent parasite, growing
on the branches  and trunks  of old  trees, especially  elms, oaks, hicko-
ries, etc.   The stems are jointed, an inch or an inch and a half in length,
rather thick, with many round, spreading, opposite, and sometimes ver-
ticillate,  terete branches.  The  leaves  are  opposite,  cuneate-obovate,
three-veined, obtuse, smooth, entire,  contracted  at the base into a short
petiole, and from nine to sixteen lines long, by from  four to nine broad.
            61 
962
Materia Medica.
The flowers are small, greenish-white, sterile ones mostly three-parted,
and arranged in  axillary, solitary spikes, about as long  as the  leaves.
Fruit globose, yellowish-Avhite, smooth, semi-transparent, with a viscous
pulp,  in clusters,  and contain  one fleshy seed; they remain throughout
the winter.
  History.—This parasitic shrub is found growing on various  trees;  but
that which is found on the oak is preferred.  The bark and leaves have
a peculiar  disagreeable odor, and a nauseous, sweetish, slightly bitter
taste.  The proper  time for collection is in November, when it  should
be  gradually dried,  pulverized, and kept in a well-stopped bottle.   It
should never be kept more than a year, as age impairs  its active quali-
ties.  The  mistletoe growing  on  the water or black elm ( Ulmus  Nemo-
ralis), and on the water-oak ( Quercus Aquatica), is reputed to possess
the most energetic medicinal virtues.
  Properties and Uses.—Narcotic, antispasmodic, and tonic.   Has been
found  beneficial in epilepsy, insanity,  paralysis,  and other nervous dis-
eases.  In  using this agent it is always necessary to regulate  the condi-
tion of the stomach and boAvels, and the menstrual discharge, and other
faulty secretions,  and remove worms, if any are present, previous to its
exhibition.   It may be given in doses of from thirty to sixty grains, and
gradually increased to three or four drachms, three or four times  a day,
and if it produces  sleep  or other narcotic  effects, the  doses must be
diminished.  This plant is  by no means inert,  and its failures  in  the
hands of some  practitioners must be attributed  to the want  of proper
doses,  or to the employment of an article which  age or exposure to  the
air  had injured.   The powder is best given in an  infusion of valerian.

                        VITIS VINIFERA.
                            The Grape.
        Nat. Ord.—Vitaceaa.  Sex.  Syst.—Pentandria Monogynia.
               the  fruit,  and its fermented  juice.
  Description.—The  Grapevine is well known nearly all over the globe;
yet it  is so  variable in its character that no description will apply to  all
the kinds.   The leaves are more or less lobed, sinuated, smooth, pubes-
cent, downy, or naked;  are flat, crisped, or  even plaited, and either of
a pale-green or  dark-green color.  The  branches  may  be  prostrate,
climbing, or erect, and tender or  hard; the racemes or bunches are loose
or compact, ovate or cylindrical.   The fruit  or berries are red, yellow,
purple, white, or pale;  globose, ovate, or oblong in form; and  sweet,
murky, or  austere in taste.   The seeds  are variable in number, and
sometimes by abortion are wholly wanting.
  History. — The  Grapevine  grows wild in the  south of Asia and in
Greece, and was,  probably,  first  cultivated  in the  East, but at what
period, it is impossible to say; it must have been  known to the antedilu- 
VlTIS VlNIFERA.
963
 vian world, as we are told in Scripture, that Noah, after leaving the ark,
 planted a vineyard, and drank of the wine.  At present it is cultivated
 in the warm temperate climates  of Europe and America.   The leaves
 and tendrils are somewhat astringent, and were  formerly employed in
 diarrhea, hemorrhages, and other morbid discharges.  The juice of the
 stem  has also  had medicinal virtues attributed to it, and is often added
 at the present day to washes for improving the hair  and removing bald-
 ness.   The juice of the unripe  fruit is called  Verjuice,  and  contains
 malic, citric, tartaric, and racemic acids, with  bitartrate of potassa, sul-
 phates of potassa and  lime, a little tannic acid, etc.  The juice of the
 ripe fruit is called Must,  and contains sugar, gum, malic acid, bitartrate
 of potassa,  various  inorganic salts, etc.:  when  fermented  it is called
 Wine.  So  long as  the  ripe grape remains  entire, it undergoes  little
 change beyond gradual desiccation  and  a conversion of its acid into
 sugar; but if the grape be  crushed, or its juice expressed, and the tem-
 perature  maintained at between  60°  and 70°, fermentation ensues
 through  the action of the air, and  of the  insoluble  glutenoid principle
 existing in the husk, which  acts the same  part as that of yeast in the
 fermentation of malt or  solutions of sugar.  The consequence is, the
 must becomes warmer, the sugar  gradually disappears and carbonic acid
 escapes, which causes a head—the name given to the more  solid parts
 which are thrown to the surface in a hemispherical mass  of froth;  alco-
 hol is now formed, changing the liquor from a sweet  to the vinous flavor,
 and if the grapes were red,  the liquor assumes a deep-red color.   After
 a while the fermentation  slackens, when it becomes necessary to  acce-
 lerate it by thoroughly mixing the contents of the  vat.  When the juice
 contains  too large a proportion of sugar, some tartar is added to it, and
 where  the saccharine  matter is  deficient, sugar is  added.  When the
liquor has acquired a strong vinous  taste,  and becomes perfectly clear,
the wine  is considered formed, and is racked off into casks; but even at
this stage of the process, the fermentation continues for several months
longer; during which period, a frothy matter is formed, which for the
first few days collects round the bung, but afterward precipitates along
with coloring matter and tartar, forming a deposit which constitutes the
 Wine  Lees.
  Climate, soil,  and many  other circumstances, have much influence
upon the quality of the wine ; and  during its preparation, not only  does
it require different treatment, according to the character of the wine,
but it also requires  great care, attention,  and practical skill to  manage
the fermentation properly.
  Wines  are divided into the Red  and White, according to their color ;
 and according to their taste and other qualities, are either spirituous,
 sweet, dry, light, sparkling, still, rough  or acidulated.  Red wines are
prepared from the must of black grapes, fermented with their husks;
 White  wines, from  white grapes, or  from the juice of black grapes 
964
Materia  Medica.
fermented apart from their husks.  When the process of fermentation is
arrested at an early stage, while a considerable part of the sugar remains
unaltered, Sweet wines  are formed.  When the wines are bottled before
the fermentation is fully completed, the  process continuing gradually in
the bottle, impregnating the liquor with  the carbonic acid which is gen-
erated and cannot  escape, it renders it effervescent,  forming the Spark-
ling wines.   When from the presence of a large proportion of saccharine
matter, fermentation  proceeds until checked by the alcohol produced,
generous or  Spirituous wines are the result.  When the sugar and fer-
ment are in  considerable amount, and in the proper relative proportions
for mutual  decomposition, the  wine  will be  strong-bodied  and sound,
without any sweetness or acidity, and is  called Dry.  The Still wines are
those in which fermentation proceeds, until the greater  part of the sugar
has disappeared ; they do not effervesce. Light wines are those in which
only a small proportion of saccharine matter exists in the  grape-juice,
and consequently  a small amount only  of alcohol  is  generated.   The
Rough or Astringent wines owe  their flavor to  a portion  of tannic acid
derived from the husks of the grape,  and the Acidulous and Sparkling
wines to the presence of carbonic acid, or in  the former instance to an
unusual proportion of  tartar.   Wines are  manufactured in  many coun-
tries, and are known by various names, according to their source. Those
most usually employed in medicine are  Port, Sherry, Claret, Madeira,
and Malaga wines.
   Port wine is of a deep purple color, and when recent is rough, strong
and slightly sweet; it  is the strongest of wines  in  common use; when
too  long  kept  it  becomes  deteriorated.   Considerable quantities of
brandy are  generally added  to  it, which causes its heating quality on
the palate.
   Sherry is of a deep-amber color, and  when good  possesses a dry, aro-
matic flavor and  fragrancy, without  any acidity; it  ranks among  the
stronger white wines, and is indicated in this country and England as the
officinal wine.
   Claret is a red wine, and ranks as a light wine; it has  a deep purple
color, and when good, a  delicate taste, in which  the vinous flavor is
blended with slight acidity and astringency.  The most esteemed kinds
are the Medoc clarets,  called Chateau-Lafite, Chateau-Margaux, Chdteau-
Latour, and Chdteau-Haut Br ion.
   Madeira is the strongest white wine in general use.   It is  a  slightly
acid wine, and when of proper age  and in good condition, has a rich,
nutty, aromatic flavor.  All these wines, are, however, much  subject to
adulteration, and  some care must be taken, in  order  to  obtain a pure
article.
   The intoxicating ingredient  in all Avines  is the alcohol which  they
contain ;  and hence their relative strength  depends upon  the quantity 
VlTIS  VlNIFERA.
965
of this substance entering into their composition.  The alcohol, however,
naturally in wine, is so blended with  its other constituents as to be in a
modified state, which renders it less intoxicating and  less injurious than
the same quantity of alcohol separated by distillation and  diluted with
water.   Mr. Brande has  published a very interesting table, giving the
per centage by measure  of alcohol of sp. gr. 0.825 in different kinds of
wine.  The following abstract contains his principal results:—
                             Alcohol.
                             per cent.
Lissa, average..................25.41
Eaisin wine, average............25.12
Marsala, [Sicily Madeira,] average 25.09
Port...........................  25.83
Ditto..........................  24.29
Ditto..........................  23.71
Ditto.......................... 23.39
Ditto..........................  22.30
Ditto..........................  21.40
Ditto..........................  19.00
    Average....................  22.96
Madeira........................  24.42
Ditto..........................  23.93
Ditto (Sercial)..................  21.40
Ditto.........................  19.24
    Average...................22.27
Sherry.........................  19.81
Ditto..........................  19.83
Ditto..........................  18.79
Ditto..........................  18.25
    Average...................  19.17
Teneriffe.......................  19.79
Colares........................  19.75
Lachryma Christi...............  19.70
Constantia, white...............  19.75
Ditto,      red.................  18.92
Lisbon.........................  18.94
Bucellas.......................  18.49
Red Madeira, average...........20.35
Cape muschat..................  18.25

  Beside the grape, a number of other fruits  yield  a juice susceptible
of the vinous fermentation.   The  infusion  of malt,  also, is  capable of
undergoing this process, and  becomes converted into the different kinds
of porter and  ale.   The product in all these cases,  though not commonly
called  a  wine, is nevertheless a vinous liquor, and may be classed among
the wines  properly so called.   The following  is a list  of  these vinous
liquors,  together with the per-centage of alcohol which  they contain, as
ascertained by Mr. Brande.   Currant  wine,  20.55; gooseberry wine,
11.84 ; orange  wine, 11.26; elder Avine, 8.79 ; cider,  from 5.21  to 9.87;
perry, 7.26; mead, 7.32;  Burton  ale,  8.88; Edinburgh  ale,  6.20;
brown stout, 6.80;  London porter, 4.20; small beer, 1.28.
                             Alcohol.
                             per cent.
Cape Madeira, average...........  20.51
Grape wine.....................  18.11
Calcavella, average..............  18.65
Vidonia.......................  19.25
Alba flora......................  17.26
Malaga........................  17.26
White Hermitage...............  17.43
Rousillon, average..............  18.13
Claret.........................  17.11
Ditto..........................  16.32
Ditto..........................  14.08
Ditto..........................  12.91
    Average...................  15.10
Malmsey Madeira...............  16.40
Lunel.........................  15.52
Sheraaz........................  15.52
Syracuse.......................  15.28
Sauterne.......................  14.22
Burgundy, average..............  14.57
Hock, average..................  12.08
Nice ..........................  14.63
Barsac.........................  13.86
Tent..........................  13.30
Champagne, average............  12.61
Red Hermitage.................  12.32
Vin de Grave, average...........  13.37
Frontignac, Rivesalte............  12.79
Cote Rdtie......................  12.32
Tokay.........................   9.88 
966                      Materia  Medica.
   The native Catawba grape, introduced to public notice by Major Adlum,
of Washington city, is a superior wine  grape, producing a most excel-
lent wine, Avhich will undoubtedly supersede the use of all foreign Avines,
at least, for medical  and pharmaceutical uses.  Mr. N. Longworth, of
Cincinnati, has been for a long time  engaged  in  the cultivation of this
and other kinds of grapes, as well as  in the manufacturing of native wines,
and by dint of  perseverance and  careful investigation has succeeded in
preparing wines which are fully equal to those of foreign origin.  Long-
worth's Catawba, and Sparkling Catawba, are  becoming known through-
out the country as superior articles,  and their purity and freedom from
adulterations render them preferable in all instances where these agents
are indicated or required.
   Wines consist chiefly  of water and alcohol, with grape-sugar,  gum,
extractive, coloring matter, tannic, malic, and carbonic acids, bitartrate
of potassa, tartrate of lime, volatile oil,  and cenanthic  ether.   The pre-
sence of  these constituents varies according to the  kind of  wine, a part
being absent in some and present in others; thus sugar is  present in
sweet wines, tannic acid in rough wines,  and carbonic acid in the spark-
ling varieties.
   Many  of the imported wines  are  subject  to  adulteration,  some  of
which  it is difficult to detect.  The addition of lead may be ascertained
by the black precipitate occasioned on testing  the wine with sulphureted
hydrogen; the  presence of  lime by the  large  amount  of precipitate
occasioned by the addition of a solution of oxalate  of ammonia.  Many
counterfeit or spurious Avines are also prepared, some of which are decid-
edly injurious in their effects upon the  stomach, and when  relied  upon
as therapeutic  agents, always produce  mischief and  disappointment.
Port is frequently imitated with a mixture  of real port, cider, juice of
elder-berries, brandy, logwood and alum.  Madeira  is likewise frequently
met with of a spurious character.   Champagne  is seldom  met with  in
this country,  unless it be an imitation, hence,  the great preference given
all over the country to Longworth's Sparkling Catawba, which is fully
equal to the imported Champagne. An excellent imitation of Champagne
wine is made as follows:  Take of good  cider, (crab-apple  cider is the
best),  twenty-eight gallons; fourth-proof  brandy  one  gallon; genuine
Champagne wine five gallons;  milk one  pint, bitartrate of potassa, half
a pound.   These are mixed together, allowed to stand for a  time, and
bottled while fermenting.
   When quite ripe, the grape is a most  pleasant and grateful  fruit, and
on account of its refreshing properties, is admirably adapted  to febrile
complaints; in  large  quantities it is diuretic and  gently laxative, but
eaten moderately will be  found beneficial to those disposed  to diarrhea
or dysentery ;  it is also useful in many instances of acid stomach. Grapes
are also dried in several ways ; the most esteemed is to partially cut  the
stalks  of the bunches before  the grapes are perfectly ripe, and  allow 
VlTIS VlNIFERA.
967
them to dry upon the vine;  or, they may be picked when properly ma-
tured, steeped for a short time in an alkaline ley, and then dried.  Dried
grapes are the raisins (uva passa) of commerce, of which  there  are
several varieties, the Malaga, Smyrna, and Corinthian raisins or currants,
as they are commonly called in this country, of which the first named is
considered the best.  The raisins of commerce  are prepared from  the
grapes of the Mediterranean countries.   They contain more sugar than
grapes, as may often  be  seen by its efflorescence  on  the surface of  the
raisins or its concretion in small masses within their substance.  Grape-
sugar is not so sweet as cane-sugar, is less soluble  in cold water, is more
soluble in cold alcohol, forms a syrup of less viscidity, and is identical
with sugar of starch.
  Properties and Uses.—Wine is consumed in most civilized countries;
but in a state of health it is at least useless, if not  absolutely pernicious.
The degree of mischief which it produces, depends very much on  the
character  of the Avine.   Thus the light wines of  France are  compara-
tively innocuous; Avhile the habitual use of the stronger ones, such as
port, madeira, sherry, etc., even though taken in moderation,  is always
injurious, as having a tendency to  induce  gout and apoplexy, and  other
diseases dependent on plethora and  over-stimulation.   All wines, how-
ever, when used  habitually in  excess,  are productive of bad  conse-
quences.   They weaken the stomach, produce diseases of the liver, and
give rise to dropsy, gout, apoplexy, tremors, and not unfrequently mania.
Nevertheless,  Avine is an important  medicine,  productive  of the best
effects in certain diseases and states of the system.   As an article of the
Materia Medica, it ranks  as  a stimulant and antispasmodic.   In the con-
valescence from protracted fever, and in sinking of the vital  powers, it
is frequently the best remedy that can be employed.   In certain stages
of typhoid fevers, and in extensive ulceration and gangrene, this remedy,
either alone, or conjoined Avith bark or opium, is often our main depend-
ence.  In Ioav febrile affections, if it increase the fullness and lessen the
frequency of the  pulse, mitigate  delirium,  and produce a  tendency to
sleep, its further use may be deemed proper ; but on the contrary, if it
render the pulse quicker, augment the heat and thirst, produce restless-
ness, or increase  delirium, it should be immediately  laid aside as inju-
rious.  In  some  convulsive  diseases,  as for  example tetanus,  wine,
liberally given, has been found useful.
  Wine, when used medicinally, should be sound,  and good of its kind;
for  otherwise it will disagree with the stomach, and prove  rather  detri-
mental than useful.  The individual Avine selected  for internal exhibition
must be determined  by the  nature  of the disease, and the  particular
object in vieAV.   Teneriffe is a good variety of white wine for  medicinal
use, being of about a medium strength, and agreeing very  well with
most stomachs.   Sherry, when in good  condition, is  also a  fine wine,
and, being free from all acid, is to be preferred whenever the stomach is 
968
Materia Medica.
 delicate, or has a  tendency to dyspeptic acidity.  Unfortunately, how
 ever, it is of very unequal quality.  Good Madeira is the most generous
 of the white wines, particularly adapted to the purpose of resuscitating
 debilitated constitutions, and of  sustaining the sinking energies of the
 system in old age.   The slight acidity, however, of pure Madeira causes
 it to disagree with  some  stomachs, and renders it an improper wine for
 gouty persons.  Port is generally used in cases of pure debility, espe-
 cially when attended with a loose state of the bowels, unaccompanied by
 inflammation.  In  such cases, it  often acts as a powerful tonic as well as
 stimulant, giving increased activity to all the functions, especially diges-
 tion.   Claret is much less heating, and is often useful on account of its
 aperient and diuretic qualities.
  All  the  acid and acidulous wines  are contra-indicated in the gouty
 and uric acid diathesis, as they are very apt to  convert the existing  pre-
 disposition into disease.  They  are useful; however, in  what is called
 the phosphatic diathesis, their acidity tending to prevent the deposition
 of the  earthy phosphates.
  The quantity of  wine which may be given with advantage in disease,
 is necessarily very  variable.   In  Ioav fevers, it  may be administered to
 the extent of a bottle or more in twenty-four  hours, either pure, or in
 the form of wine-whey.  This is made by adding  from a  gill to  half a
 pint of wine to a pint of  boiling milk, straining without pressure to sepa-
 rate the curd which is formed, and sweetening the clear whey with loaf-
 sugar.   Wine-Avhey forms a peculiarly safe and  grateful  stimulus in
 typhoid fevers and other febrile  affections, which, after  depletion, may
 tend to a state of deficient action and  be  accompanied with a dry skin.
 Under these  circumstances, it often acts as a diaphoretic, and, if used of
 moderate strength, without  stimulating the  system  in  any  marked
 degree.— U.  S. Disp.
  Wine is employed  as  a menstruum  to extract the virtues of  several
 plants, and the preparations thus formed  are called Vinous tinctures or
 Medicated wines.
  The chief medical use of raisins  is  to flavor demulcent  beverages;
 taken in substance  they  are  gently laxative, but are also  flatulent  and
 difficult of digestion,  and when  largely eaten  sometimes produce  un-
 pleasant effects, especially in children.   An excellent, pure,  and  spark-
 ling wine may be made as follows : Take twelve pounds of good raisins,
 cut each raisin in two, and put them into a five  gallon demijohn, nearly
 filled with  clean  soft  water; let  it stand  uncorked  for about fourteen
 days,  then filter, bottle,  and cork well.   Upon the residue, after the
wine is poured off,  put as much water as before, let it stand a sufficient
time, and the result will be a good white wine vinegar. 
Xanthorrhiza Apiifolia.
969
                 XANTHORRHIZA APIIFOLIA.
                             Yellowroot.
       Nat. Ord.—Ranunculaceae.  Sex. Syst.—Pentandria Polygynia.
                             the root.
   Description.—This is an indigenous shrub, two or three feet in hight,
with a thick  horizontal root, throwing up numerous suckers.   The  stem
is short, woody, leafy above, with a smooth bark, and  bright  yellow
wood.  The leaves, Avhich stand thickly at the upper part of the stem, are
pinnate, about eight inches long, including the long petioles,  which em-
brace the stem at their base, glabrous, consisting of about three pairs of
leaflets with an odd one ;  the leaflets are two  or three inches long, ovate
or rhomboidal, lanceolate, acute, sessile, incisely lobed and  dentate.  The
fiowers are small,  dark-purple, and arranged in long, drooping, divided,
and axillary racemes;  they are also many, and  appear with  the leaves.
The petals are obovate, two-lobed ;  the ovaries from five to nine.  Folli-
cles or capsules spreading, a line and a half  long, inflated, compressed,
one-celled, two-valved, opening at the apex; seeds oval, flattened.
   History.—This is a  native of the Southern States, being  principally
restricted to the mountains ; it is likewise abundant in some of the West-
ern States, and along the lower parts of the Ohio.  It flowers in  March
and April.  The root is the part directed to be used ;  it is from three
inches to a foot in length, about half an  inch in  thickness, of a  yellow
color, and of a simple,  but extremely bitter taste.  It imparts its virtues
to water, and the infusion is not  affected by a solution of the sulphate of
iron.   The bark of the stem is equally as efficacious as the root.   It was
well  known to the Indians on account of  its  tinctorial  properties; it
imparts a  drab color  to wool, and a rich yellow to silk, but is said to
have no effect on cotton or linen.  With  Prussian blue it affords a dull
olive green.
   Properties and Uses.—Yellow root is a pure,  bitter  tonic ;  considered
by the late Professor Barton to be superior to Colombo.   It may be used
for all purposes in which  the other simple tonic bitters are  applicable.
It may be given  in decoction, tincture, or powder; two scruples of the
powder agree well with the stomach.  From the intensely bitter char-
acter of the resin, alcohol would appear to be the best menstruum.
                XANTHOXYLUM FRAXINEUM.
                           Prickly Ash.
       Nat. Ord.—Xanthoxylacea?.  Sex. Syst.—Dioecia Pentandria.
                      THE  BARK AND BERRIES.
  Description.—This shrub  is  the Xanthoxylum Americanum of Miller,
the  X. Fraxinifolium  of Marshall, the X. Ramifiorum of Michaux, and 
970
Materia Medica.
 the X. Tricarpum  of  Hooker.   It  is known by the  various names of
 Northern Prickly Ash, Toothache-bush,  Yellow-wood, etc.   It  is an indi-
 genous shrub, ten or twelve feet in hight, with alternate branches, which
 are covered with  strong, conical,  brown  prickles, Avith  a broad base,
 scattered irregularly,  though most  frequently in  pairs at the insertion
 of the young branches.  The leaves are  alternate and pinnate; the leaflets
 about five pairs with an odd one, nearly sessile, ovate, acute, with slight
 vesicular serratures, somewhat doAvny underneath.  The common petiole
 is round, usually prickly on the back, and  sometimes unarmed.   The
 flowers are in small, dense, sessile umbels, near the origin of  the young
 branches,  they  are small, greenish, dicecious or  polygamous,  appear
 before the leaves, and  have a somewhat aromatic  odor.   In  the  sterile
 flower the calyx is  five-leaved, with oblong, obtuse, erect segments,  five
 stamens with subulate filaments, and sagittate, four-celled anthers ;  the
 ovary is abortive.  In the hermaphrodite or perfect floAver, the calyx  and
 stamens  are like the last, ovaries three or four, pedicelled, Avith erect,
 converging styles nearly as long as  the  stamens.   The fertile or female
 floAvers grow  upon a  separate tree, are apetalous, with  a smaller  and
 more compressed calyx, and five pedicelled ovaries, with  styles converg-
 ing into close  contact at top, and a little twisted ; stigmas obtuse.  Each
 fruitful flower is followed by as  many capsules as  it had  ovaries.  The
 capsules  are  stipitate,  oval, covered with excavated dots, varying from
 green to red, two valved, and one-seeded ; seeds oval and blackish.
  History.—The Prickly  Ash is a  native of North America, groAving
 from Canada to Virginia, and West to the Mississippi, in woods, thickets,
 and moist shady places, and flowering in April  and May before  the
 appearance of the  leaves.  The whole plant is  endowed with active
 qualities; the  leaves and  fruit abound  in a fragrant, volatile oil, some-
 what resembling in odor that of lemons  ; and the bark  is acrid, pungent,
 and aromatic.   Both  the bark  and fruit (berries) are  officinal.   As
 found  in the shops, the bark is in  quilled fragments, a  line or two in
 thickness, with a grayish-white epidermis,  which is frequently removed,
 internally of a whitish color, and somewhat shining; that from the small
 branches  is beset with prickles.  It is  light, brittle, with a somewhat
 amylaceous fracture, and when dry nearly  inodorous, having a taste  at
first sweetish and aromatic, but ultimately bitterish and acrid.  It yields
its properties to boiling water or  alcohol.   The fruit or berries  as met
 with in the shops, consists of an open, bivalved,  oval capsule, about
 three lines in length and two in diameter, brownish and  covered Avith
 excavated  dots  externally, whitish-yellow, and smooth internally, and
usually with  a  portion of the  stalk appended ; they inclose an  oval,
shining, black, wrinkled  seed, which in the  dried state  is hollow, and
grayish-yellow,  or  light  brownish-yellow  internally,  inodorous,  very
brittle, and having the  peculiar taste of the capsule in a very faint degree;
this seed is more often absent than  present in the capsule, from whose 
Xanthoxylum Fraxineum.
971
 opening it escapes, and may be generally found separated from  it, but
 mixed up with the mass.  The medicinal virtues of the  fruit reside  in
 the capsules, which have a faintly aromatic, peculiar odor, and a warm,
 pungent, peculiar, aromatic, and pleasant taste, both of which properties
 are more energetic in the recent than in  the  dried  fruit.   They depend
 upon a volatile oil for their properties,  which they yield  to  alcohol or
 ether.
   The bark has  been analyzed  by Dr.  Staples, who found it to consist
 of a volatile oil, a greenish  fixed oil, resin, gum, coloring matter, and a
 peculiar  crystallizable principle which he calls Xanthoxyline, but the
 properties  of which  are not  yet determined.  Mr. W. S. Merrell has
 prepared an oil from the  berries, which he calls Oil of Xanthoxylum; it is
 obtained by macerating the  bruised berries in alcohol or ether, filtering,
 and  evaporating.   That made by the  agency  of alcohol is the  most
 turbid and probably contains resin and extractive.  It is of a dark-brown
 color, of a faint, peculiar odor, and of the taste peculiar to the berries in
 a high degree of concentration,  being aromatic,  and very warm and
 pungent.   One pound of the berries  yields about four fluidounces of the
 oil; and one fluidounce of this to thirty-two fluidounces of alcohol makes
 a good strong tincture, equal to one  made by  macerating two  ounces of
the berries in a pint of  alcohol.
  Mr. J. B. Robinson of this city has  prepared an ethereal oil  from
Prickly Ash Bark; he makes a tincture with ether, filters,  and then eva-
porates or distils off the ether.  Four pounds of the bark thus treated
yield one pound of oil.   The oil made by Mr. Robinson is dark green-
ish-black in bulk, yellowish-green  in thin layers, very  fluid,  possessing
an odor of ether, and the  peculiar taste of the  bark in an eminent degree.
It is soluble in alcohol, ether, and alkaline solutions, and will probably be
found to  possess the active principle of the bark  in a concentrated form.
  Properties and  Uses.— Prickly Ash Bark  is  stimulant, tonic, altera-
tive, and sialogogue.   When  swallowed, it produces a  sense  of heat in
the stomach, with more  or  less arterial  excitement, and  a tendency to
diaphoresis.  It is used  as  a stimulant  in languid states  of the system,
and as a  sialogogue in paralysis of the tongue and mouth.   It has proved
highly beneficial in chronic rheumatism,  colic, syphilis, hepatic derange-
ments, and wherever a stimulating alterative  treatment is required.
Combined with equal parts of pulverized blueflag and mandrake,  it will
bring on salivation, and is  useful on  this account in the treatment of
scrofulous,  syphilitic  and other diseases, where there is a want of sus-
ceptibility to the influence of other alterative agents ; the mixture  must
be given  in small doses,  and repeated at short intervals.  Externally,  it
forms an excellent stimulating application to indolent and  malignant
ulcers. Dose of the powder, from ten to thirty grains, three times a day.
  Prickly Ash  Berries are  stimulant,  carminative,  and antispasmodic,
acting especially on mucous tissues.   Combined with pokeberries, in the 
972
Materia Medica.
form of tincture, they are invaluable in chronic rheumatism, and tertiary
syphilis.   The tincture is also useful in all nervous diseases,  spasms of
the bowels, flatulency, and in diarrhea.  In tympanitic distension of the
bowels, during peritoneal inflammation, it is a safe and superior remedy,
used internally  and as an injection ; half a fluidrachm  to a fluidrachm,
internally, every hour or two in sweetened water—and half a fluidounce
of the tincture, with occasionally  ten  or twenty drops  of  laudanum
added, according to the symptoms, given by enema every fifteen or thirty
minutes.   In Asiatic cholera, it was extensively used by the Eclectic
physicians of Cincinnati, and with great success — it  acted like  electri-
city, so sudden  was its influence over the system; indeed, many patients
likened its action  to an electric  shock, which seemed to diffuse itself
throughout the  whole frame.  We gave it in teaspoonful doses, slightly
diluted, and  repeated, according to circumstances, every five,  ten  or
fifteen minutes, with an injection, prepared  as above-mentioned, which
was given immediately after each discharge from the bowels, and retained
by the patient  as  long  as possible.   This is one of our most valuable
agents.  The dose of the tincture of the  berries, as a carminative and
antispasmodic, is from ten to thirty drops, three or four times a day.
Used by some, during the  intermissions, as a remedy in intermittent
fever, which it is said to remove speedily.  There is a material difference,
in their influence on the system, between the tincture of the bark, or that
of the berries,  which should always  be had in view.  A patient with
cholerine came  very near losing life, in consequence of using the tincture
of the bark, instead of the  berries, as prescribed ; the druggist who filled
the prescription supposed the properties of  each  were similar, and that
they could be safely substituted the one for the other.  The oil  of xan-
thoxylum may be used  for the same  purposes as the berries, in doses
of from two to ten drops in mucilage, or on sugar; and its tincture, made
according to the formula above, may be administered in the same doses
as the tincture of the berries.
   The Aralia Spinosa is frequently but erroneously called by the name
of Southern Prickly Ash ; it  differs from the xanthoxylum in its botanical
character, as Avell  as in its  medicinal virtues.  Mr. W. S. Merrell,  has
been for  some time engaged in the investigation of the true character of
these plants, and he informs me that he is confident that the agent Avhich
was employed during the cholera, and has been used since, as  the Aralia
Spinosa,  is really  a Xanthoxylum.  It  is  to  be regretted that so much
confusion should exist in relation  to the identity of some of our valuable
agents, and Avhich is principally owing to the similarity of vulgar names
among different plants, and  an inattention to their systematic names and
characters.  We hope that the above doubt  may be satisfactorily solved
by those  having the proper opportunities to effect it.
   Off. Prep.—Enema  Xanthoxyli; Extractum Xanthoxyli  Fluidum ;
Tinctura Laricis Composita ; Tinctura Xanthoxyli. 
Xanthoxylin.
973
                          XANTHOXYLIN.
                             Xanthoxylin.
          the oleo-resinous  principle  of  prickly ash bark.
   Preparation.—Prepare  a  saturated  tincture of  Prickly Ash  Bark,
 filter, distil ofl' the alcohol, and to the residue add water,—the oleo-resin
 precipitates to the  bottom.  After precipitation has ceased, collect the
 oleo-resin, and wash  it in clear water;  allow  it to subside,  and  then
 separate it from the water.
   History.—The profession are indebted to  Mr. W. S. Merrell for the
 preparation of this  valuable  agent,  which  possesses  all the  medicinal
 properties of the bark in a concentrated  form.   When in  mass  it is
 blackish, but  of a reddish-brown color in thin layers;  it has a peculiar
 odor, somewhat similar to  that of most oleo-resins, and a peculiar, bitter-
 ish taste, quickly succeeded by a persistent pungency in the mouth and
 fauces.  It is insoluble in water ; partially soluble in aqua ammonia and
 liquor potassa, forming a solution with a soapy feeling; soluble in ether,
 from  which aqua ammonia removes a portion without much change of
 color; soluble in oil of turpentine, and to a greater or less  extent  in oil
 of savin, and some  other  essential oils ; and soluble  in alcohol,  from
 which water  precipitates it,  forming a dirty-Avhite solution.    Acetic,
 nitric, sulphuric, and muriatic acids,  when added to the alcoholic  solu-
 tion, occasion no precipitate.
  Properties and  Uses.—Xanthoxylin is stimulant, tonic, alterative and
 sialogogue, and may be used in all  cases where it is desired to stimulate
 and strengthen mucous tissues.  It forms an excellent remedy for rheu-
 matism unaccompanied with inflammation, or where there is an asthenic
 condition of the  system, and I have often used it for  this purpose with
 cimicifugin, in doses  of one  grain of each, every one, two,  or three
 hours, with much advantage.  Combined with  quinia, it will be found
 very beneficial in cases where quinia alone  appears to  exert no influ-
 ence,  and will prove  a valuable agent  in dyspepsia, accompanied with
 want of appetite, flatulence, and distress  after eating, given in conjunc-
 tion with ptelein.   In low typhoid fever, Xanthoxylin will be  found a
 valuable  and permanent stimulating tonic, and may, Avhen necessary, be
 added to laxatives, in that  disease,  to prevent too much prostration—it
must, however, be employed  only  during the stage of prostration.  It
may be used alone as a stimulating ijjbnic and alterative.  Where a  stim-
ulating tonic is required for children after diarrhea, dysentery, or other
 debilitating diseases, a combination^ of hydrastin with  xanthoxylin, will
 admirably fulfill the indication.  In chronic rheumatism  I have found the
 following preparation highly beneficial :  Take of Cimicifugin, Xanthoxy-
lin and Apocynin, of  each one drachm, Proof Spirits  or  Whisky one
pint;  mix.  Of this, the dose is a tablespoonful  three times a day, or 
974
Materia  Medica.
sufficient to slightly affect the head, at the same time  attending to the
surface  and excretory functions.  Sometimes  I add  two drachms of
guaiacum to the above.   The dose of Xanthoxylin is from one to  three
grains, three or four times a day.
                            ZEA MAYS.
                            Indian  Corn.
         Nat. Ord.—Graminacea?.  Sex. Syst.—Moncecia Triandria.
                        THE FRUIT  OR SEEDS.
  Description.—Indian  Corn is a monoecious paniceous grass, annual,
with a fibrous root, and an erect, leafy stem, channeled on one side, and
from five to ten, and in  some varieties, from fifteen to twenty feet high.
The leaves are lance-linear, entire, keeled, and two or three feet in length;
seeds immersed in  an oblong receptacle, mostly  eight-rowed.
  History.—This plant is a native of the warm latitudes of America, and
its varieties are exceedingly numerous.   Corn  is universally cultivated
in the United States, and also in the southern  countries of Europe, and
partially in Asia.  In  America, especially in  the warmer portions, it
forms the main article  of food.  It  is extremely wholesome and nutri-
tious, and  is employed in a variety of forms;  as it contains no  gluten,
the meal does  not undergo  the fermentation called " rising," as with
Avheat, rye, etc.  The young ears boiled,  are in general a nutritious and
digestible article of diet, but should be eaten with caution by those pre-
disposed to, or  suffering from disease of the bowels.  According to Dr.
Gorham, corn contains  77 per cent, of starch, 3 of a  principle  analo-
gous to gluten, called  Zein,  2.5 of albumen, 1.45 of sugar, 0.8  of ex-
tractive,  1.75 of gum, 1.5 of sulphate and  phosphate of lime, 3 of lig-
nin, and 9 of water.  A yellow oil has likewise been procured from corn,
which  has  been much  used, instead of lard or fish oils, in lamps,—it
consists of  carbon 79.68, hydrogen 11.53, and oxygen 8.79.
  Properties and  Uses.—The meal  is  prepared into  a gruel, which  is
sometimes more grateful to the  sick than that made  from oat-meal ; in
the form of mush  it is an excellent and nutritious diet for patients during
convalescence,  and makes an  excellent emollient poultice,  for ulcers,
swellings, rheumatic pains, etc.  An infusion of parched corn is  useful
in allaying  the  nausea  and vomiting attendant  upon many diseases;  it
may be drank freely.
                        ZINCI SULPHAS.
                         Sulphate  of Zinc.
  Preparation.—Take  of Zinc, in small  pieces,  four ounces, Sulphuric
Acid six ounces, Distilled Water four pints.  To the  zinc  and water, 
Zinci  Sulphas.
975
 previously introduced into a glass vessel, add  by degrees the sulphuric
 acid, and, when the effervescence shall have  ceased, filter  the  solution
 through paper ; then boil it down till a pellicle begins to form, and  set
 it aside to crystallize.
   When  Zinc is brought into contact with  strong  sulphuric acid, very
 little action  ensues;  but, when  the  acid  is  diluted, the water is decom-
 posed, its hydrogen  escaping with  effervescence, and  its oxygen  com-
 bining with the zinc forming an oxide.  This oxide is dissolved by the
 acid, forming a sulphate of  the oxide of  zinc,  which may be obtained in
 fine, transparent colorless crystals by evaporation.   The object in adding
 the  sulphuric acid  gradually,  is to avoid the excessive effervescence
 which takes place when the materials are mixed at once.   Impure Sul-
 phate  of  Zinc, called White Vitriol,  is prepared by roasting the native
 sulphuret of zinc, or Zinc-blende  of mineralogists, in a reverberatory
 furnace, then exposing it to  the air in a moist state until the sulphuret is
 converted by oxidation of its sulphur and metal into the sulphate ; this
 is lixiviated, and the solution, concentrated by evaporation, is poured
 into molds,  where it concretes into  cakes like  loaf-sugar.   In this state
 it contains many impurities,  as copper, lead,  cadmium,  and especially
 iron, in the  form of sulphates ; and from which it may be purified by dis-
 solving the mass in water, and adding oxide of zinc to it, which precip-
 itates the metallic bases, and unites with their sulphuric acid, forming
 sulphate  of zinc.   The  solution may then be filtered, and crystallized
 by sufficient evaporation.
  History.—Sulphate of Zinc is a colorless,  transparent salt, having  an
 intense, disagreeable, metallic, styptic taste, and crystallizing usually in
 small four-sided prisms.  It effloresces on exposure to the air, is  insol-
uble in alcohol, but soluble  in two parts and a half of  temperate water,
 and in considerably less boiling Avater.  When heated, it first fuses in  its
water of crystallization, which is subsequently driven off; and  at  a still
higher temperature, the anhydrous salt parts with a portion or the whole
of its acid, and  the  oxide of zinc only remains.  Its watery solution is
precipitated white by the  alkalies or their carbonates, oxide or carbonate
of zinc being  thrown  down ;  and   either precipitate  is  soluble  in  an
excess of  the alkali.  Of course, if  iron  be  present, which  is generally
the case, it is not  redissolved.  Ferrocyanate  of potassium  and hydro-
sulphate of ammonia also  occasion a white  precipitate.   Crystallized
sulphate of  zinc is composed of one equivalent of oxide of zinc  40.3,
one of acid 40.1, and seven of Avater 63=143.4.  Its formula is Zn O-f-
S03 -|-7Aq.   The  commercial White  Vitriol contains but  three equiva-
lents of water.   Sulphate of Zinc is incompatible with alkalies and  alka-
line carbonates, hydro-sulphates, lime-water,  and  astringent vegetable
infusions.
  Properties  and  Uses.—By a certain class of practitioners, Sulphate  of
Zinc is used as a tonic, astringent, and emetic.  As a tonic it has been 
976
Materia Medica.
used  in doses of a grain or two, in dyspepsia, obstinate intermittents,
epilepsy, chorea, pertussis, debility attended with irritation, etc.  As an
astringent, its solution has been applied to bleeding surfaces, and chronic
inflammation of mucous surfaces.  As an  emetic, the dose  is from  ten
to thirty grains,  and it usually produces vomiting very rapidly.  In large
doses it is an irritant poison, but seldom produces dangerous effects, as the
patient  is relieved  by the vomiting which  it occasions.  This  agent is
never used  internally by Eclectics, but is  sometimes employed  in solu-
tion,  from one to six  grains  to  an ounce  of  water, as a  collyrium in
chronic ophthalmia, as  an injection in chronic gonorrhea, gleet,  and leu-
corrhea, as a gargle in aphthous sore-throat,  and relaxation of the uvula;
and as a desiccative lotion in old ulcers with excessive discharges.   It is
also very much used as a local application to cancer, in which disease it
has  accomplished  very beneficial results.  Combined with powdered
bloodroot, it has been successfully used in nasal polypi,  and  also in
chancres.   Prof. R. S.  NeAvton has  recently discovered it to  possess
antiseptic properties, and has extensively and successfully employed it in
gangrene  or mortification ;  as this is a matter of some moment to  the
profession, we extract from  his remarks on the subject, as published in
the Eclectic Medical Journal, May, 1849, Vol.  I, No. 5, as follows :
   " I am of  the opinion, that as far as  a constitutional treatment is indi-
cated, it will be important to consider the  nature of  the complaint, and
prescribe accordingly ; but in reference to the local  application, I  think
that one single  remedy is sufficient to fulfill every indication, and  that
more dependence may be placed  upon it,  than upon any constitutional
treatment, and there is  no  doubt but  that  the  profession will  willingly
hail this discovery.   My practice in this malady, has led me to step  out
of the old beaten track, in search of some  agent that can be relied upon
for its efficacy, its general  application with  safety in all cases, with  but
little  modification, and one that will remove the necessity  of so much
attention to  constitutional remedies, in many cases entirely.
   This agent may also be used in  the treatment of some varieties of ery-
sipelas,  which will  be  referred  to  hereafter.   Sulphate of zinc is  the
article to which I wish  to draw the attention of  practitioners, as a remedy
for mortification, and to show its beneficial results, by the description of
a feAv cases treated  by it.  It may be argued, that the use of any remedy
that will of  itself produce active inflammation, could  not be applied to a
highly inflamed  part, without producing fatal  consequences, by increas-
ing the disease  beyond the  reach of remedies.  This will doubtless
appear true  to many, but  experience has proved to the contrary, for it
has been  used  in cases where  the parts were in  the  highest  state of
inflammation, and although  this was  increased  for a few hours by its
action, yet in no case have I found it to produce any  bad effect, or to so
augment this condition, as  to  present any difficulty in  the  subsequent
treatment.   It will be  remembered that all cases of mortification are 
Zinci Sulphas.
977
 attended with a very offensive fetor, which  is one of the characteristic
 symptoms of this disease, and which is caused by a decomposition of the
 healthy structure  of the parts  attacked, and this very cause produces
 the continuance of the disease, the changing of  which is the indication
 to be fulfilled in every variety of treatment that has been adopted.
   No agent will act  so immediately in producing this change as the sul-
 phate of zinc;  the most extensively mortified surface, with the offensive
 fetor  arising from it, can be stopped in a few hours after its application,
 and after one or two applications, the parts  become  hardened, and the
 fetor  entirely removed.   It fulfills  two indications in this respect, viz.:
 arresting the  decomposition  going on in the parts, and  correcting all
 unpleasant fetor which may exist;  and it  should  be borne in mind, that
 as long as this  fetor  is present, the disease is not arrested.   The follow-
 ing cases will be illustrative of the  method  of using it, in which I have
 found it useful.
   Case I.—Mr. F., aged 25, residing in Fulton, came to consult me in
 December, 1846, with an extensive mortification of the Avhole palatine
 arch and gums of the superior maxillary,  succeeding a mercurial action
 which had  been produced and continued a  long time, and which had
 resisted the usual treatment for its  arrest.  I was  induced to try the sul-
 phate of zinc, and mixed a small quantity  of it  in fine powder, with a
 sufficient quantity of flour  and water  to make a paste; this, I spread
 upon  soft leather, and applied over the parts affected,  retaining it there
 until the paste sufficiently adhered, by a sponge placed  upon the tongue.
 I would  here remark, that  this  was a well-marked  case.   The fetor
 arising from the mouth, was such, that one  could scarcely stay in the
 room with him.   On the  succeeding day, I found the fetor much dimin-
 ished, and the parts secreting but little, with  a portion entirely hardened.
 I made a second application, in a similar manner, and on the next morn-
 ing the unpleasant  fetor was entirely removed,  and the  whole of the
diseased parts covered with a dry, hard surface, and no vestige of secre-
 tion from any part of it.   I  considered this to  have  been carried  far
enough, and made no further application of the zinc, but recommended
the mucilage of ulmus and warm water to be used freely in the mouth,
which was pursued for three days, when the entire portion upon  which
the zinc  had been used, sloughed off, leaving a healthy appearance of
the parts.   It may be well  to state here, that the  entire structure of the
arch, with a large portion of  the bone, came  away, after which it  was
treated as a common ulcer, and healed in about ten days,  since  which
 time he has remained in good health.
  Case II.—Mrs. S. was under treatment for a cancerous condition of
the breast.   It had ulcerated, and was attended with all the unpleasant
symptoms of such a  condition.  I made use of caustic applications for
its removal, but found upon  the second day,  that the  whole gland was
in a state of mortification, and that the system was fast failing from its
          62 
978
Materia  Medica.
 effect.  I immediately applied the zinc, in the form of powder, covering
 the  affected parts with it;  in less than six hours a change of the fetid
 smell Avas very perceptible,  but the inflammation continued without any
 abatement during twenty-four hours.   On the next day I found that the
 remedy had dried and hardened a portion  of the  diseased surface;  I,
 therefore, again applied it  and  covered the medicine with a poultice of
 elm  bark, mixed with cold water; this dissolved  the zinc in a few hours,
 and  had the desired effect of changing  and  arresting any further exten-
 sion of the  mortification.   In this case two applications were  sufficient.
 It will be found, that  in some cases, the zinc will produce a  hardened
 surface, so  as to prevent a sufficient  quantity from  acting  throughout
 the  diseased parts; this can be remedied by applying an elm poultice
 after the  zinc is used, which will soften the surface enough to allow its
 full  action, which is known,  as before said, by absence of the fetor.  All
 the dressing that is required, is the elm poultice, both before  and after
 the use of the zinc;  if the first application increases the inflammation to
 any  extent,  apply the elm for ten or fifteen hours, after which  apply the
 zinc.  The part will usually slough off in three or four days.
   Case III.—J.  F., aged forty-eight, had an encephaloid tumor, situ-
 ated on the  leg, which required to be removed by an operation, previous
 to the application of medicine  for  its permanent cure.   J. King, M. D.,
 assisted me  in removing the tumor, which had arrived at several  inches
 in diameter.   It was removed without any unnatural appearances attend-
 ing the case.  But on the second day, the whole incision, and  for three
 inches around, became gangrenous, and accompanied with a high degree
 of inflammation.  I  immediately applied the zinc, and  continued it for
 three days,   when it became  completely arrested, and in three  days
 longer the diseased  parts sloughed off, leaving a  healthy condition of the
 remaining integuments, which  were then treated without any  further
 difficulty.
   I have made use of this agent in forty-five  cases, and in each it proved
 highly successful, so much so, that in only five cases was a slight consti-
 tutional treatment demanded.  As these cases  are  all  similar to those
 given, I deem it unnecessary to particularize any further.  In four cases
 of ulcerated  erysipelatous inflammation, I have used the zinc with simi-
 lar success,  though in these instances, it required a smaller quantity of
 the article,  a greater number of applications, and  at greater  intervals
 between  the applications.  At  some future  time, I may again refer to
this article, and its effects in other forms of disease."
   Off. Prep. — Lotio Hydrastis  Composita;  Lotio Myrrhae Composita;
 Lotio Sodii Composita;  Lotio Zinci Composita;  Unguentum Zinci Sul-
phatis; Unguentum Zinci Compositum. 
Zingiber  Officinale.
979
                    ZINGIBER  OFFICINALE.
                              Ginger.
        Nat. Ord.—Zingiberaceae.  Sex.  Syst.—Monandria Monogynia.
                           THE  RHIZOMA.
   Description.—The Ginger plant has a biennial, creeping, tuberous root
or rhizoma;  the stems are erect, oblique, round, solid, annual, invested
by the  smooth sheaths of the leaves, and  two or  three feet in hight.
The leaves are subsessile, on  long  sheaths, alternate, lanceolate, linear,
acute, smooth above and nearly so beneath, bifarious, and five or  six
inches long by an inch broad; the sheaths are smooth, and crowned with
a bifid ligula.   The scapes are radical, solitary, a little removed from  the
stems, from six to twelve inches high, enveloped in a few obtuse sheaths,
the uppermost of which end in tolerably long leaves, and terminate in
oval, obtuse, bracteal,  imbricated spikes, about the  size of the thumb.
The exterior bracts are  imbricated, one-flowered, obovate, smooth, mem-
branous at the edge, faintly striated length Avise;  the interior enveloping
the  ovary, calyx, and the greater part of  the tube  of the  corolla.
Flowers small, of a  dingy-yellow color, and appear two or three at a
time between the bracteal scales.   The calyx is tubular,  opening on one
side, three-toothed; corolla with a double limb; outer of three, nearly
equal, oblong segments; inner a three-lobed lip, of  a dark purple color.
Sterile stamens subulate ; filament short.  Anther oblong, double, crowned
with a long, curved, tapering,  grooved horn.   Ovary oval, three-celled,
with many ovules in  each; style filiform ; stigma funnel-shaped, ciliate,
lodged just under the apex of the horn  of the anther.
  History.—Ginger is supposed to be a native of Hindostan, and is cul-
tivated in  the East and West Indies, and at Sierra Leone in Africa. The
flowers and the stems when bruised, have an aromatic odor, but the
root is the officinal part.   In a young state these roots are preserved in
sugar, forming a well known sweetmeat;  when old, they are  taken up,
scalded in hot water,  to  prevent germination, and dried, constituting
the black ginger of commerce ; or if they are scraped previous to being
dried, they form  the white ginger.  The roots are gathered in January
and February, after the stems have withered.  The East Indian  vari-
ety is  generally imported from  Calcutta,  while the West Indian  is
derived from the West  Indies, usually by way of England.   The recent
root is from one  to four inches long, somewhat flattened on its upper and
under  surface,  knotty,  obtusely  and irregularly branched  or lobed,
externally of  a light ash color, and marked with circular rugae.   Inter-
nally, fleshy and yellowish-white.  The two varieties met with in com-
merce, are the Jamaica or  White Ginger, and the Common East India or
Black Ginger.   The latter  is most extensively used  in this country.   In
shape it is the  same as above described, but has  a dark, ash-colored 
980
Materia Medica.
epidermis, which being removed in some places, exhibits patches of an
almost black color, apparently the result of  exposure.   Beneath the
epidermis is  a brownish, resinous, almost horny cortical portion.   The
interior parenchyma is whitish and somewhat farinaceous.  The powder
is of a light yellowish-brown color.  The former differs in being deprived
of epidermis, and white  or yellowish-white on the outside.  The pieces
are rounder and thinner, firm and resinous, and possess more of the sen-
sible  qualities of ginger than the black variety.   The  powder  is  of a
beautiful yellowish-white color.  Ginger is of an aromatic and penetrat-
ing odor, with a pungent, hot, spicy and biting taste.  It yields its vir-
tues to water,  proof  spirit  or  rectified  spirit.  Age  or  long  exposure
diminishes its activity.  Pieces which are very fibrous, light and friable,
or worm eaten, should be rejected.  Ginger consists of a greenish-blue
volatile oil;  a soft,  acrid, aromatic resinous matter, soluble in ether or
alcohol;  a sub-resin  insoluble in ether; osmazome ; gum;  starch;  a
vegeto-animal matter;  sulphur; acetic  acid; acetate of potassa ; and
lignin.  The  flavor  of the root probably depends on the volatile oil, and
its pungency on the resinous extractive.
  Properties  and Uses.—Ginger  is stimulant, rubefacient, errhine, and
sialogogue.   When  chewed it occasions an increased flow of saliva, and
when swallowed it acts as a stimulating tonic, stomachic and carminative,
increasing the secretion of gastric juice, exalting the excitability of the
alimentary muscular  system, and  dispelling gases  accumulated in the
stomach and  bowels.  It is much used to disguise other drugs, conceal-
ing their nausea, or preventing their tendency  to cause tormina.  When
snuffed into the nostrils it causes violent sneezing.   It has been used in
combination with  astringents or other agents, in diarrhea and dysentery;
prepared with rhubarb,  in the form of cordial  or syrup, few articles are
more valuable in cholera morbus, and cholera infantum.   It is eminently
adapted to flatulent habits, dyspepsia, hysteria, and the feeble state of
the alimentary canal  attendant upon atonic gout; and  is excellent to
relieve nausea, pains  and cramps in the stomach  and  bowels, and to
obviate tenesmus.   Combined with black willow bark, it forms an excel-
lent poultice  for indolent ulcers;  and is sometimes employed as a local
remedy in relaxation of the uvula, and paralysis of the tongue.  Dose of
the powder,  from  ten  to thirty  grains; of the  infusion, prepared by
adding half  an ounce of the powdered or bruised root to a pint of boil-
ing water, one  or two fluidounces.  A large  quantity of ginger taken
internally might produce serious effects.
   Off. Prep.—Acidum Sulphuricum Aromaticum ; Infusum Zingiberis ;
Pulvis Asclepiaa Compositus ; Pulvis Jalapae Compositus ; Syrupus Zin-
giberis ;  Tinctura Zingiberis. 
PART   III.
PHARMACY.
      COLLECTION  AND  PRESERVATION  OF  PLANTS.

   It  is of vital importance to the practitioner that the agents which
he employs in practice be as perfect in their character as circumstances
will admit; for, no matter how excellent a remedy may be when properly
prepared, an inattention to the requisites demanded  for their purity and
excellence may prove very serious in its results.   The  custom pursued
by some apothecaries  of retaining  on hand an old  and inert stock of
medicine, and palming it off upon the physician or his patient as genuine,
is  very reprehensible, and cannot be too severely discountenanced, and
we are glad that this practice is confined to but very  few.  It is the posi-
tive duty of the apothecary to furnish himself with good  articles of medi-
cine, to take especial care in preserving them, that they do  not become
soiled or otherwise injured, to prepare them, when called for,  in a neat,
scientific, and expeditious method, and to  dispense them strictly accord-
ing to the physician's prescription, without using his own judgment in
the matter, or substituting other agents for those which may not be in
his store, because, it is not to be expected that he should know the indi-
cations which the practitioner desires to fulfill, nor the especial object in
view which originated the prescription.  One exception, perhaps, may
be made, in which the agents are of a deleterious or poisonous character,
when, should the apothecary consider, from the largeness of the article,
or its  dose, if that can be ascertained, that a mistake or oversight may
have occurred, it is then his  duty, not to alter or modify the prescrip-
tion, but to send it back to the physician, or present it himself in person,
that it may be examined and corrected.   As by far the  greater number
of agents used in Eclectic practice are derived from  the vegetable king-
dom,  an attention to  the following observations will, as a general rule,
insure pure and active medicines.
                                                        (981) 
982
Pharmacy.
   All medicinal plants, with but a few exceptions, have their active quali-
ties more or less impaired  by long keeping; hence, the pharmaceutist
should, as a general rule, reject the supply of the previous year, and
provide himself with fresh agents; with our indigenous remedies this is
more especially necessary, as  these  can  be, and should be, freshly col-
lected  every year.   Plants should be  gathered  at a proper period,
according to the portion designed for use, and which is  generally recog-
nized as being at the time when the natural juices  of such part exist in
it more abundantly.   Great attention should be bestowed upon this mat-
ter;  as the reputation of  an agent depends entirely upon its careful col-
lection and preservation;  thus many of our most active agents possess
but little medicinal  powers when  young, and  are  at this early period
often eaten with  impunity as greens, among which may be named the
young shoots of poke, asclepias, dandelion, etc.  Soil, climate, and cul-
tivation exert a remarkable influence on the  properties of plants, and,
with the exception of the Labiatae, whose aroma becomes much improved
by cultivation, nearly all other plants become deteriorated and useless as
medicines when reared under the hand of the cultivator.  Plants found
in  their places of natural growth present the greatest degree of medi-
cinal activity, consequently, it is recommended to  collect these  and  no
others.   Most of the Umbelliferae growing in  a dry soil  are aromatic,
while those peculiar to wet places are narcotic and  poisonous.  The
Cruciferae thrive best in damp localities,  while the Labiatae found in dry
soils are to be  preferred.   The attention  of the herb-collector  should
always be directed to these  several points.
   Roots.—Roots  must be collected according to the character  of  the
plant;  thus an  annual plant will yield  the most actively  medical root,
just previous to the flowering season; though the generality of this class
of roots are erroneously gathered  after the flowering period, and conse-
quently are less active and do not  retain  their qualities  for any reliable
time.  The roots of  biennial plants are most energetic  if collected after
the vegetation of the first year has ceased, or  on the  disappearance of
the first year's  leaves.  The roots of perennial plants are  best collected
in  the  winter  or  early in the  spring,  previous to vegetation.  Bulbs
should be collected when  the new  bulb  is  perfected, but not  yet vege-
tated, or about the time the leaves decay.
   Stems.—Herbaceous stems are best  gathered after the appearance  of
the leaves, but before the time of  floAvering.   Ligneous  or woody stems
during the winter, as then the wood contains more  extract.
   Barks.— Barks from the root,  body, or stems, should be collected
when they can be most easily separated from  the wood,  and which is
generally either previous to the appearance of the flowers,  or  in the
autumn, after the termination of the reproductive  process.  Too much
care cannot be displayed in selecting barks; those which are very young, 
Collection and Preservation of  Plants.          983
or somewhat old,  and especially decayed portions, should be at once
rejected.
  Leaves. — Leaves should be collected  after their  full  development,
before the fading of the flowers, or previous to the ripening of the fruit
or seeds.  It must be remembered that the leaves of biennial plants,  are
not in full perfection until the second year;  consequently, they should
be gathered only at this period.
  Flowers. — Flowers must  be gathered either  before or immediately
after they have fully expanded, and some while  yet in the bulb.   Aro-
matic herbs are best when gathered during the season of flowering.  Stalks
and twigs should  be collected in autumn;  and seeds  as  soon as they
have  fully ripened.   Berries and succulent fruits generally,  are to be
collected only when ripe.
  Drying of  Plants.—This is a very important process in the preserva-
tion of medicinal  plants,  as the activity of an agent depends, probably,
as much upon the method  adopted in drying  it, as upon its inherent
qualities.   Many  remedies are often injured or rendered inert  by an
improper  or  careless mode  of drying.  Leaves,  herbs,  and flowers,
should always be gathered  in dry weather; in  the morning after  the
evaporation of the dew is the best period.  Much care is necessary,  not
only in  drying roots, but the other parts of plants  ; in  general, they
should be dried in a well  ventilated room, and with as much rapidity as
may be  necessary  for their proper preservation; and  during  damp
weather,  it will be advantageous to heat  the room artificially by means
of a small  stove,  or drum, allowing  the  temperature to range between
70° and  100° F.   The articles to be dried should be so  arranged that
the currents of air may pass  over and through them, and they should be
frequently stirred.  Roots should be washed, and the fibers, if not used,
separated ; then,  especially if large and succulent, cut into  transverse
pieces, from one-fourth to half an inch in length, and dried in the sun,
or in  the drying  room at 100° F. ; in order to prevent  molding, they
should be frequently turned.  Fibrous roots may likewise be dried in  the
sun, or in a temperature  not to exceed 85°.   Bulbs may be dried simi-
larly, after first having had the outer membranes removed.
  Barks, stems, woods, and twigs, during the process  of drying, may be
arranged in thin  layers,  or  hung up in small, loose bundles,  and dried
in the open air.  Leaves are  to be dried in a manner which will preserve
their  natural color;  they should be freed from the stalks, and as much
as possible from external  moisture, then  laid in thin  layers, and loosely
strewed in a dark room, the  temperature  of which must not be less than
130°  or 140° F. and in which they must  remain for three or four hours,
or until they begin to shrivel.  They should then be turned, in the same
temperature,  which should be maintained for six or eight hours longer;
when the operation is finished, which may be known by the leaves readily 
984
Pharmacy.
 crumbling in the hand.  Leaves thus dried retain their color and medical
 properties in a high degree, and should be kept in well-stopped vessels,
 and carefully excluded from light and moisture.  The usual method of
 drying leaves is to strip them from the stem, lay them  loosely on the
 floor of a dark room,  and turn them  several  times; and when  dried,
 press them in packages.  The custom of moistening or steaming  leaves
 and other preparations previous to packing them in bundles, for the pur-
 pose of  causing them  to pack more solidly, and which  is pursued by
 many collectors of medicinal plants,  is exceedingly improper.   The arti-
 cles become very much deteriorated in quality thereby, and soon  mold.
 Flowers are  frequently very difficult to dry, so as to retain both their
 odor and color.   They should be dried  rapidly, in  the manner recom-
 mended for  the  drying of leaves ;  and as soon  as thoroughly  dried
 should be firmly compressed  into packages, and kept in dry situations.
 Some flowers cannot be completely dried, without destroying their active
 properties at the same time;  these may be kept loosely in proper jars.
 Berries and succulent fruits may be  suspended in bunches and  dried, or
 removed from the branches and spread in thin layers on a wicker  frame
 in a dry and  darkened  room ; they  should  be frequently  stirred during
 the  drying process.   Seeds may be dried, when  this is  necessary, by
 spreading them out thinly, and drying in a dark room.  Aromatic  herbs,
 and annual plants generally,  when not too juicy, may be tied in small
 bundles, and suspended on lines stretched across the drying-room.
   In the drying of plants,  there is considerable loss of water, and some
 of the volatile constituents.  The Edinburgh Dispensatory gives the fol-
 lowing  table, as showing the  amounts obtained from 1000 parts of the
 respective articles named, after having been dried:
 Roots of Angelica Arch'l.......... 263  Twigs of Sola. Dulcamara......... 308
    . Aspi'in Filix Mas........... 500  Leaves of Atro. Belladon.......... 140
      Inula Helenium............ 187       Conii Maculatum........... 185
     Valeriana sylves............ 316       Datura Stramon'm.......... 110
 Bark of the Oak.................. 410  Leaves of Digitalis purpur.......180
          Elder................. 292       Hyoscyamus niger.......... 135
          Elm.................. 375       Melissa officinalis..........220
 Leaves of Salvia officinalis........220 ; Flowers of Lavandula vera........510
 Tops of Mentha piperita........... 215 J        Sambucus Ebulus........ 256
 Flowers of Anth's nobilis.......... 338  Petals of Papaver Rhceas..........  84
      Borago officinalis...........  96 I        Rosa rubra............... 330
   In relation to the preservation of medicines, Avhich is of much impor-
tance to apothecaries, the following rules have been recommended.  The
store-room should be quite dry, exempt from vermin,  and capable of
being ventilated when  desired.  Drugs should not be put away until
thoroughly dried, and should be kept from the light, and on the addition
of new parcels to the old, the latter should be examined, and freed from
all impurities.  Roots, barks and woods may be kept in barrels or boxes,
with well fitted covers, and other drugs can be well kept in tin canisters, 
Weights  and Measures.
985
or in glass or earthenware vessels.  All  medicines should be frequently
inspected, particularly in warm weather, to prevent injury from insects or
dampness, and when the former are discovered, they may be destroyed
by  suspending an open vial containing chloroform in the canister or
vessel  holding  them, which is to be securely closed, and thus saturate
the atmosphere of the vessel with its vapor.   Oils, fixed or volatile, are
best kept in a dark place, and  in a temperature ranging from  60° to
65° F.  Care should always be taken to separate  the various drugs from
admixtures, inert substances  and  dirt,  and the  finest  quality  should
always be preserved separate from that of the second.
  Aromatic leaves, flowers, and  pulverized  drugs  should  be kept in tin
vessels, or glass jars, and excluded from the light as much as possible,
as the  action of  light  upon them impairs their  activity.  All parts of
plants  requiring to be kept fresh for as long a time as possible,  should
be buried in dry sand,  especially roots, bulbs, and succulent fruits.
                   WEIGHTS AND  MEASURES.
   In this country the apothecary makes use of the Avoirdupois weight
in buying and  selling  medicines,  but employs  the  Troy measure  of
weight in compounding  and dispensing them, which is divided for the
convenience of the apothecary, into grains, scruples, and drachms; thus,
twenty grains being equal to one scruple ;  three scruples to one drachm ;
eight drachms  to  one ounce;  and twelve ounces to  one pound ; this
measure  is frequently termed " apothecaries weight."  The fluid meas-
ures recognized are the wine gallon and  pint.   Other measures of  an
approximative character are also  employed in dispensing medicines, as
the wineglass, tablespoonful, dessert-spoonful, tea-spoonful, and drops.
(See Weights arid Measures in the Appendix.)  For the measurement of
liquids, graduated glass measures,  varying from four to sixteen ounces,
are made use of,  in  which any quantity not less than one fluidrachm
may be proportioned; and for  obtaining  fractions of a fluidrachm, the
minimeter, graduated into sixty parts or  minims is a ver}*- convenient
instrument.   The  mode pursued  by  many apothecaries, of   dropping
liquids from the lip of the bottle, is very inaccurate and  objectionable,
from the  fact, that the drops of various liquids vary considerably in  size,
and  even those of the same liquid vary considerably,  according to the
size of the vessel from which they are dropped,  as the following results
of Mr. Alsop's investigations verify.
One fluidrachm of Diluted sulphuric acid, yielded
      "      of Scheele's hydrocy. acid,   "
      "      of Distilled water,         "
             of Solution of Ammonia,    "
      "      of Tincture of Opium,      "
      "      of Rectified Spirit,         "
      "      of Tine, of Muriate of Iron,  "
dropped from	When dropped from
rge Bottle.	a Small Bottle.
24 drops,	84 drops.
35 "	70 "
31 "	54 »
40 «	48 "
84 "	135 "
100 "	130 «
100 "	150 '
 
9Sfi
Pharmacy.
  From this table will be seen the disadvantages of measuring medicines
by drops.   To obviate the difficulty heretofore experienced in measuring-
fractions of a fluidrachm, Mr. Alsop has invented a minimeter, which is
probably the most convenient and accurate instrument for such purposes;
it consists of a very slender glass  syringe, graduated into  sixty parts,
each being equal to a minim.
        DETERMINATION OF  SPECIFIC  GRAVITIES.
  It is often a matter of importance  to  the apothecary to determine the
specific gravity of an article, in order to test its purity.   The instrument
generally  used for this purpose, when applied to liquids,  is Baume's
hydrometer.   It consists  of a glass bulb, properly loaded at one end,
drawn out at the other into  a tube,  on  which the scale is accurately
marked.   In order that this instrument may be used in small vessels, it
should have a very short tube, and especially when intended for syrups,
be graduated from 20° to 40° of Baume's scale for heavy liquids.   The
specific gravities of syrups, acids, and saline solutions are usually ascer-
tained by  hydrometers.  When used  for  alcohol, the  instrument  is
graduated by loading it until it sinks to the foot of the  stem (which is
marked zero) in a solution of  nine parts of water to one of common salt.
It is then placed into water, and the  place to which it sinks marked 10°
of the scale, which is constructed from these data.  For liquids heavier
than  water, the instrument is loaded  until it sinks, when in distilled
water, nearly to the top of the stem, which is the  zero of the scale.   It
is then placed in a solution of  fifteen parts of salt in eighty-five parts of
water, and the place to which it sinks  marked 15°, and the scale  pro-
perly divided  off into fifteen  equal  divisions  or degrees, and as many
more degrees added as the length of the stem will admit of.
  Other means are sometimes  employed.  Thus, a bottle which will hold
exactly a thousand grains  of water, at 60°, will give the specific gravity
of any liquid which it will hold, by the weight in grains of that quantity of
the liquid.   Such bottles, made very accurately, can be had in the shops.
Or  an ordinary vial may be  employed, and  the  weight of the liquid
examined,  being divided by the weight of the water, will give its
specific gravity.
  The centesimal alcoholmeter of Gay  Lussac will  indicate the per-cent •
age of absolute alcohol in any mixture of  pure spirit and water.
  There  are several  other hydrometers in use, as Fahrenheit's,  Nichol-
son's, which is  also applicable for taking  the  specific gravities of solid
substances, Cartiers', for liquids lighter than water, Twaddle's, Zanetti's,
Sike's, and various others.  Also hydrometers for determining the den-
sity of syrups  called  Saccharometers; the  purity of oil, called Elaeome-
ters; the density of urine, called Urinometers, and for ascertaining the
quality of milk, called Galactometers. 
Pulverization of Medicines.               987
  To obtain the specific gravity of a solid, it  must be first weighed  in
air and then in water, and the difference  between  the two divided into
the former weight.  If the body be lighter than water, after first weigh-
ing it in the air, weigh it again in air  and water, in  connection with a
heavier body, which last has been previously weighed  in air and  in
water.  The weight of the lighter body in the air should be divided by
the excess of the  difference between the  weights in air and water of the
two  conjoined, over that of the weights in air and water of the heavier
body alone.   If the body be soluble in water, its relative weight to that
of some other liquid of known specific gravity should be ascertained in
the manner above  directed, and its weight multiplied by the specific
gravity of the liquid.
              PULVERIZATION OF  MEDICINES.
  In order to reduce medicinal agents to a state of minute division, or
to more readily extract their virtues, various processes are employed, as
slicing, bruising, rasping, filing, trituration, grinding, sifting,  levigation,
and  elutriation.   The  most important drugs  are,  hoAvever,  purchased
already pulverized, thus  saving  the apothecary considerable  time and
labor;  yet as much fraud is perpetrated in this department of medicinal
preparations, too much care cannot be observed that they are  obtained
from honest individuals.  As it is often necessary, however, to pulverize
small quantities of medicines not usually kept in  the form of powder,
the apothecary should be  provided with iron, brass, and Wedgewood
mortars, also of glass and marble, several sieves  of various degrees  of
fineness, a hand-mill, cutting-knives, rasp, and a pair of pruning-shears.
  Pulverization is, under the  above-named circumstances, usually per-
formed in  an iron or brass mortar, with the pestle suspended on a spring
so as to assist in elevating it;  and to prevent loss, the mortar is covered
with a piece  of leather, firmly attached to its  outer  edge, and through
the center of which  the pestle passes, having the  leather fastened to it
at that place.  The operator should be careful not to introduce too great
a quantity of the article at a time, and should also guard himself against
the powder or vapor  of acrid substances, by  covering his mouth and
nostrils with a wet cloth, or otherwise.  After contusion has been carried
on for  some  time, the finer particles should be separated by the sieve,
while the  coarser  particles  are to be returned to the mortar for further
bruising, and this course must be pursued alternately from time to time,
until complete pulverization is effected.
  For the coarse  division  of  drugs,  the  hand-mill may be  employed;
Swift's drug-mill is  probably the best of the  kind; and in using it for
fibrous roots or barks,  as elm bark or sarsaparilla, they should be sliced
transversely, in short sections.
  Trituration is most generally applied to friable  and other substances,
where it is desirable  to bring them to a uniform state of division, and is 
988
Pharmacy.
 accomplished by a  circular  motion being given to the pestle,  accompa-
 nied with more or less pressure, the circular movement being so made
 as to bring the  pestle alternately in contact with all portions of the  sur-
 face of the mortar.  For  this purpose, the glass or Wedgewood mortar
 is usually selected.
   Levigation is  the  same  as trituration  in its  principles, the difference
 consisting in its being effected between the flat surfaces  of a slab and
 muller, which are usually made of glass, porphyry, marble, or Wedge-
 wood ware; it divides the  particles of a substance more uniformly, than
 the trituration carried on between the curved surfaces of a mortar  and
 pestle.   The powder is generally brought into a pasty consistence by
 means of water, alcohol, or some other fluid in which it is insoluble.
   Elutriation consists in agitating a powder obtained either by tritura-
 tion or levigation, in a large quantity of water,  allowing the coarser par-
 ticles to subside, and pouring off the supernatant fluid, holding the finer
 particles in suspension, that they may settle  separately.  The  pasty
 thick mass, which  is left when the clear liquid is decanted, is then put
 into a funnel, and dropped in small  portions on a  chalkstone  so  as to
 form small conical masses.
   In all  cases, in order  to facilitate  the operation of pulverization, all
 parts of vegetables must be thoroughly dried, especially those contain-
 ing volatile  principles, and resins, gums, and gum-resins must be pow-
 dered in cold frosty weather; tragacanth and nux vomica must be dried
 in a stove and  powdered  while  hot.  The efflorescent salts may be
 obtained in fine  powder,  by exsiccation;  and those which  are  insoluble
 in alcohol, may be precipitated from their aqueous solutions, in an impal-
 pable powder, by this liquid.   Insoluble substances are best reduced to
 powder by levigation.  Squill and colocynth are best powdered in a dry
 atmosphere, after being thoroughly dried by a stove-heat.  Cloves, cap-
 sicum pods, cantharides, and the  aromatic seeds may be ground  in a
 hand-mill, and afterward triturated.  Fibrous roots should always be cut
 into  transverse slices previous to powdering.  Magnesia, white lead, and
 agaric  may be  reduced  to powder  by gently  rubbing through  a fine
 wire-sieve; or agaric may  be beaten into a paste with water, then dried
 and  triturated.   Some agents require the aid of an  intermedium before
 they can be reduced to powder; thus, camphor and  the hard compound
 extract of  colocynth  require the  addition  of a few  drops of  alcohol;
vanilla, gold-leaf, mace, and oily aromatic substances require the addi-
tion  of sugar before they can be powdered; phosphorus  may be pow-
dered by means of lime-water and heat, and  the mixture is to be stirred up
till it cools.  Some articles  are prepared for  pharmaceutical purposes  by
filing and rasping, as  horn, ivory, nux vomica, iron, etc.; some by turn-
ing in  a lathe,  as  quassia, guaiacum-wood, iron-wood, etc.; some  by
cutting with large shears or a cutting instrument, as  herbs, some  roots,
stalks, etc.; and tin or zinc are  granulated by melting them and pouring 
Separation of Mixed Substances.
989
them into a mortar, heated a little above their melting point, and agitat-
ing them rapidly as they cool.   In all pharmaceutical preparations, the
inert portions of the substances  entering into them should be rejected,
as the dead epidermis of various barks, inert central woody portions of
various roots and stems, etc.
            SEPARATION OF MIXED  SUBSTANCES.
   Solids are separated  from liquids in which they are insoluble, or  in
which they  are not acted upon chemically,  by being allowed to subside,
and then carefully pouring off or decanting  the supernatant liquid,—or a
syphon may be used to drain it off, or it may be filtered.  Decanting  or
precipitating jars are larger  at the  bottom than at the top, and are  furn-
ished with a lip for pouring; the process of decantation may be facili-
tated by holding a glass rod in a  slightly  inclined vertical position, one
end of which is placed in the receiving vessel; the  lip of the decanting
jar is brought nearly or quite in contact with the upper part of this rod
and the liquid poured upon  it.   The glass rod attracts and gives a direc-
tion to the current, and prevents any of the fluid from running down the
sides of the vessel.  If the  circumference of  the vessel be so large as to
render it impossible to pour with the guiding rod, which is very apt to be
the case if its sides be  perpendicular, with  no lip present, and the fluid
contained nearly filling it,—a little grease  rubbed over the part of the
vessel at which it is designed for  the liquid to flow, will by preventing
any adhesion of  it to the surface of the  vessel at that point, cause it  to
flow in a more cylindrical stream, and with less  liability of overrunning
the sides of  the vessel.
   Cases,  however, occur where, from  the character of the fluid, the
shape or size of  the vessel containing it, or from the disturbance occa-
sioned to the precipitate upon motion, decantation is difficult or impos-
sible ; in such cases the syphon will effect  the separation.  The syphon
is a bent tube somewhat resembling the letter U, having one leg shorter
than the other.  By filling it with  fluid, and placing the short leg  into
the fluid to be draAvn off, a current is established toward the longer limb,
owing  to  the greater weight of its contents, and all the fluid may be
removed as  long as the short limb  is kept beloAv its surface.
   Pipettes are instruments used for removing small quantities of liquids
from the surface of precipitates or  from places from Avhich it would be
difficult otherwise  to remove them.  A pipette is a  slender glass tube
with one end drawn to a very small point and capillary orifice, and at an
inch or so from Avhich a bulb is blown.   The instrument may be straight,
or it may be bent above the  bulb at an  oblique angle.   To remove the
liquid the small  point of the instrument is carefully placed  in contact
with it, while with the mouth, or which is better, by means of a syringe
attached to  the upper  part of  the instrument, suction  is made  and 
990
Pharmacy.
continued until the bulb is filled—this is then removed, and the process is
to be continued until all the liquid has been removed.
   When it is desired to separate liquids which are immiscible with each
other, as oils and water,  ether  and water, etc., separating funnels or
separators are employed, of which there are three or four varieties.
   Filtration is the pouring a mixture on a porous  surface, called a filter
or strainer, through which the fluid only can pass, and which separates
the solid from the fluid, presenting the latter in a clear form.  Filters are
generally made of unsized paper, cotton, linen, woolen cloth, charcoal,
glass and sand.  Tinctures are usually filtered through paper;  syrups
through flannel; acids through siliceous sand; oils, syrups, and oxymels
through coarse paper, or muslin;  melted fats, resins or wax, and plasters
through  muslin, hair cloth, or wire gauze.  Liquids which  are  affected
by exposure to the atmosphere, or which evaporate readily should have
the filter in which they are  placed  covered with  a  sheet of tin foil or
plate of glass luted, with a small hole in the cover, or a small tube may
be placed within and against the  side of the funnel,  extending nearly to
the top, so as to form a communication between the  atmosphere of the
receptacle and that of the  funnel.
   Expression is usually accomplished by screw-presses, for the purpose
of separating the  last  portions  of'tinctures,  infusions, etc., from the
dregs.  Fresh plants require to  be well beaten, before being pressed,
water being added to those which are hard and dry.  Succulent fruits
may be placed in strong flannel  bags,  filling  about  two-thirds, and the
juices expressed.  Seeds containing  oil are to be first bruised, put in
strong bags, and then subjected to strong, sudden pressure.  Cylinders
of strong sheet tin, having  the sides pierced with small holes, are usually
employed to contain the substance to  be pressed ; a block  of wood which
fits the cylinder, like  a piston, being  placed upon  the substance, and
gradually brought to bear upon it, by means  of the  screw-press.  The
liquid flows through the small holes,  and is received into a tray of tin
placed below on the  lower platform  of the press, and  from which it is
passed into other vessels.
   Clarification of liquids may nearly always be accomplished, by beat-
ing  the white of an  egg with water, adding it to the  liquid, and  then
coagulating with a gentle heat.  Expressed oils are clarified from muci-
lage by boiling them with water.   The expressed  juices of  many plants
may be clarified by the vegetable acids.
                    FLUID PREPARATIONS.
  The active principles of vegetables are obtained by infusion, macera-
tion, digestion, decoction, lixiviation, or by displacement.
  Infusion is the subjecting a substance containing soluble principles, to
the action of some menstruum, as alcohol, etc., but most usually water. 
Fluid  Preparations.
991
Hot infusions are made by pouring boiling water on the substance, cover-
ing it, and allowing it to remain till cold.   Cold infusions are made with
cold water, and require more or less time to attain their full  strength,
according to the ready solubility of the active principle.   When liquids
are allowed to act upon medicines for some time, at a temperature rang-
ing  from 60°  to 90°,  it is termed maceration; if the temperature  be
higher, but below the boiling point of the liquid, it is termed  digestion.
Decoction is, when the article has been boiled for a longer or a  shorter
time, according  to the  readiness with which its virtues  are extracted.
The employment of  either of these processes depends entirely upon the
character of the article to be extracted ;  thus, many plants  are  injured
by long boiling, others require it—some  yield their properties  to cold,
others to hot water;  and volatile principles  are  easily dissipated  by
boiling.
  Lixiviation is a process used to separate a soluble  from a porous insol-
uble body ; as for instance, the  procuring lye, by lixiviating wood ashes.
The method of displacement, or percolation, is an improvement upon this
process.   It consists in reducing the article to be acted upon  to a proper
degree of fineness, then soaking  it for a few hours with  a sufficiency of the
spirit to make  it into a stiff pulp ; it is then to be packed in a cylinder
with the requisite degree of pressure, which can only be learned from
experience, and the alcohol or spirit poured over it.  The cylinder may
be made of tin, twelve  inches in length, two and a half inches in diame-
ter, or fourteen by four, or  seventeen by six ; the  lower part of this
cylinder is  made funnel-fashion, to the base of which a metallic plate
pierced Avith holes is accurately fitted, and which, when in operation,
should have a thin  stratum  of carded cotton laid over  it, previous to
placing in the  powder.
  The solution which first passes through is always in a state of high con-
centration,  and  should be set aside.   The others are weaker, and  may
be evaporated to the proper strength, or mixed with the  first portion, as
required.   The  United States Pharmacopoeia gives the  following direc-
tions for this process :
  " The kind of filtration  commonly designated as the Process of Dis-
placement, which is employed in many of  the processes of this  Pharma-
copoeia, is  to  be effected  in  the  following manner, unless otherwise
specially directed: A holloAV cylindrical instrument, called a percolator,
is to be used, somewhat conical toward the inferior extremity,  having a
funnel-shaped termination, so  as  to admit  of  being inserted into  the
mouth of a bottle, and provided internally, near  the lower  end, with a
transverse partition or  diaphragm, pierced with numerous minute holes,
or, in the absence of such  a partition, obstructed with  some  insoluble
inert substance,  in such a manner that a liquid poured into  it may per-
colate slowly.   The  substance to be acted upon having been  reduced to
a coarse powder  and mixed with enough of the menstruum to moisten 
992                         Pharmacy.
it  thoroughly,  is, after a maceration of some hours, to be introduced
into the instrument, and slightly compressed upon the diaphragm.  Any
portion of the macerating liquid which may not have been  absorbed by
the poAvder, is afterward to be poured upon the mass in the instrument,
and allowed to percolate.   Sufficient of the  menstruum is then to be
gradually added to drive before it, or displace the liquid contained in the
mass ; the portion introduced is in like manner to be displaced by another
portion ;  and so on till the required quantity of filtered liquor is  ob-
tained.   If the liquor Avhich first passes should be turbid, it is  to be
again introduced into the  instrument.   Care  must be  taken  that  the
powder be not, on  the one hand, too coarse or loosely pressed, lest it
should allow the liquid to pass too quickly, nor,  on the  other hand, too
fine or compact, lest it should offer an unnecessary  resistance.  Should
the liquor flow  too rapidly, it is to be returned to the instrument, which
is then to be closed beneath for a time,  in  order that the finer parts of
the powder may subside, and thus cause a sloAver percolation."
  (For further and more detailed accounts of the various manipulations
required  in  Pharmacy, the reader is referred to " Mohr and Redwood's
Practical  Pharmacy,  by Wm. Procter, Jr., a very valuable work which
should be in  the possession of  every  physician and  druggist in  the
country.)
                 DISPENSING OF MEDICINES.
  The dispensing of medicines from the  counter, in which they are
extemporaneously combined and prepared in divers modes, constitutes a
major portion of the  apothecary's duties ; and  to  perform it correctly,
neatly and expeditiously, requires a  thorough knowledge of  his profes-
sion, united with a quick perception, accurate judgment, physical agility,
and an expertness at manipulating.  In connection with these, cleanli-
ness and  urbanity are indispensable requisites.   The apothecary who
attends  to  the  dispensing of medicines  should  never be found doing so
in his shirt-sleeves; there is not a shadow of excuse for it, and no matter
how warm the weather may be, a  thin light coat should  always be
worn.   Some  apothecaries I have  seen who lick the mouths of their
bottles,  after  having poured the required quantities of fluid from them,
or who, in helping themselves to syrups or other preparations kept in
bottles,  apply the mouth of the bottle  to their own mouth, instead of
pouring it into some  proper vessel from which they could drink it;  these
are very disgusting habits, of which  no properly bred person would be
guilty, and which alone should be sufficient cause  for a withdrawal of all
public patronage.  And if these  are valid reasons  for bestowing custom
upon some more cleanly  dispenser of medicines,  what can  be  said of
those individuals who scratch  their heads, and  blow their  noses with
their fingers,  not only while in the act of preparing medicines, but even 
Dispensing  of Medicines.
993
in sight of their patrons ?   A man  of coarse mind, possessing none of
the polish of refinement, and  having no regard or care for the views or
sentiments of others relative to the above points, is no more fit to dispense
medicines than the most ignorant boor.   Medicines are, in general, suf-
ficiently repulsive, without  having extra-aversion added to them through
disgusting and uncleanly habits, and the  apothecary should  so observe
and regulate his actions as  to win the confidence of the most fastidious
individuals.   A neat, cleanly  and  orderly store, a polite, attentive, and
cleanly  apothecary or clerk,  devoid of  all  offensive  habits whatever,
together Avith  accuracy, neatness and dispatch in filling prescriptions,
will always command  the  confidence and  patronage of physicians, as
well as patients.
   In Eclectic practice, decoctions  and infusions are seldom  ordered in
prescriptions;  but where they do occur, the  infusion mug of Mr. Alsop
of London, will be found one of the best instruments for facilitating  the
process.   If an infusion  or decoction be  strained  while hot,  and  bottles
heated previously in order  to prevent their cracking, be filled with it, it
may be kept for some months, even in hot Aveather, provided the bottles
be so stopped with accurately ground stoppers, as  to  have the stopper
displace its own bulk of the liquid.   The  hotter the liquid, and the freer
from  air-bubbles,  the  longer will  the  infusion be  preserved.   Cork
stoppers may answer the same purpose, provided  the  orifice  in the neck
of the bottle be instantly closed, and  the cork covered with sealing wax.
   Aromatic waters may be made extemporaneously, by rubbing together
two drops of any essential  oil with  five  or  six grains of carbonate of
magnesia  for  every fluidounce  of water, adding  the water gradually
while rubbing, and then filtering.   Water  may likewise be saturated
with camphor,  by  triturating the gum Avith carbonate  of magnesia first,
and  then  gradually adding the water.   The oils, solid fats, and gum-
resins triturated with camphor, render  it miscible Avith water; one-fifth
of gum-myrrh will render a  large proportion of the  camphor  miscible
wish Avater.  Camphor softens the gum-resins.  In  the  prepara'ion of
emulsions, the gum-resins  should be  triturated until all the particles are
sofcened, and then strained.   Ether becomes more soluble in water  by
trituration with spermaceti, separating the excess of spermaceti by filtra-
tion.  Elaterium may be thoroughly  incorporated with other  articles, by
rubbing it at first with a little  alcohol, and then  with sugar or syrup.  A
little olive oil added to a few drops of croton oil, ordered in  a mixture,
will render the mixture more  permanent.
   All vessels  used by the apothecary should be  cleansed immediately
after  using them, wiping  them  perfectly dry.  Fatty substances  and
resins may be removed by pearlashes or  other  alkali, or  alcohol; prus-
siate of  iron by pearlash ; metallic substances by nitric or muriatic acids;
the odor of essential oils, musk, etc.,  may be removed  by bruised peach-
kernels, or peach-leaves, or other articles containing hydrocyanic acid—
          63 
994
Pharmacy.
in all cases having first removed fats, if present, by some alkaline  solu-
tion,  and  resins  by alcohol.  The dispensing  scales should  be kept
constantly clean,  and in some place  not exposed  to the  dust, as  for
instance, in a glass case, and they should be  frequently examined to
ascertain whether they continue  properly adjusted.   Scales  adjusted to
weighing grains  and parts of an ounce, are easily rendered inaccurate
by being placed  in situations where they are exposed to much jarring,
or frequent unnecessary handling; the apothecary Avill do well to observe
this statement, and act in accordance with it.
  In  some parts of this  country, it is not uncommon for the dispensing
office to contain one or more idlers or loungers, during a portion of every
day, who, from their continual staring at lady-customers, as well as their
tobacco-spitting  and smoking, drive the respectable  portion of patrons to
other shops ; these are more generally the associates of the assistants
or clerks, who,  without intending offense  frequently  offend very seri-
ously.  A proper course should be adoped in  relation  to this  class of
visitors.
COMPOSITION  OF  VEGETABLES,  AND THEIR PROXIMATE
        PRINCIPLES AND PROGRESS IN  PHARMACY.
                        BY W. S. MERRELL, A. M.
  The Vegetable Kingdom  is the  great source  from which all animal
life derives its nutriment in  health, and  for the most  part its medicine
in disease.   All vegetable matter is composed of a very few elementary
substances—carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and  nitrogen, constitute nineteen-
twentieths of all the innumerable variety of the vegetable world.  The
small quantity of silex, potassa, soda, lime, iron, etc., which compose
the ashes after combustion, constitute the rest.  But  these feAV primary
principles enter into a great variety of definite combinations,  which
form  distinct organized substances, which we  term proximate principles.
These,  although composed of the same primary elements, yet, in  conse-
quence of the  different proportions of them, and the different arrange-
ments of their particles, possess  properties altogether  peculiar  and
different from each other.
   Of these proximate  principles of vegetable matter, the most abundant
is the Lignin, or Woody Fiber, which constitutes the frameAvork, and, as it
were, the bones of all vegetation.  It is insoluble in all ordinary menstrua,
and is that portion of a plant which is left after having been fully digested
in water, alcohol,  ether, or dilute acids.   It is, therefore, considered
inert, and as possessing neither nutritive, nor  medicinal properties.
   Next  in abundance, and  first  in  importance in  the constituents of
plants, are those proximate principles which are capable of being digested
or  changed by the action of the gastric fluids, and Avhich are thereby
assimilated to the principles of the animal organism, and thus nourish 
Composition  of Vegetables.
995
and sustain animal life.  Such  are starch, gum, mucilage, sugar, fixed
oil, vegetable albumen, gluten, and a few others analogous to these.   AH
vegetables in which these constitute a  large proportion unmixed with
other constituents that are deleterious, are useful for the food of man and
animals.
   But, beside these, there are a great number of other organized com-
pounds or proximate principles found in the vegetable kingdom, which are
incapable of being so assimilated, and, therefore, afford no nourishment to
the animal tissues, but which, nevertheless, when taken into the system,
or applied upon its surface, change, or in some way affect the action of
the animal functions.   Many of these, if taken in considerable quanti-
ties, derange, and even destroy the healthy action  of  those  functions,
and are thus regarded as poisons ; yet, when those functions are deranged
by disease, they serve, Avhen  administered in appropriate doses, to arrest
such morbid action, and to restore such  functions to their normal con-
dition, and thus they become  important medicines.  It is the study of the
nature of these  substances, and their proper application to the preservation
or restoration of health,  that constitutes the high calling of the physician ;
and the proper mode of preparing  and  dispensing them, constitutes the
scarcely  less  important  avocation of the pharmaceutist and the apothe-
cary.
   In their earlier application to  the healing art, those vegetables which
contained medicinal  properties were  either administered in substance, in
the form of powder, in  which case all the woody fiber and other inert
elements were  thrown  together into the stomach,  often  in large and
repulsive doses, or else  their more soluble principles were extracted by
infusion  or decoction, and given in copious and nauseating draughts.
   The first of these forms is  now seldom eligible, except for administer-
ing those vegetable products which  nature  herself  has  presented  in a
high degree of  concentration, or of those whose medicinal principles are
so very active,  that the  bulk  thus required is not objectionable ; and the
latter may now be dispensed  with, except in cases where it is desirable
to present the medicine  to the stomach very much diluted, or where the
indications to be fulfilled make it expedient to accompany it Avith large
draughts of hot or tepid fluids.
  It was one step in progress,  from these forms,  to dissolve out  the
medicinal principles of  plants or roots by Wine or  Spirits, and present
them in  the form of medicinal tinctures.  This was, in many cases, an
improvement on the watery infusion or decoction, because such tincture
could be  preserved for some  time  unchanged, and thus  be kept ready
prepared for immediate use, but chiefly, because alcohol is an almost uni-
versal solvent of the medicinal proximate principles,  many of which are
scarcely soluble in aqueous fluids, and are, therefore, not extracted by such
menstruums.   But in many cases, even this form of dispensing medicine
is very objectionable, on account  of the large proportion of alcoholic 
906
Pharmacy.
stimulus with which the medicinal principles are thus combined, and
which renders them almost inadmissible  in  diseases of an inflammatory
type.  Of such a character are many of the numerous officinal tinctures
still  found in the pharmacopoeia of the so-called  regular practice.  A
feAv preparations of this kind may be still properly retained in the Eclec-
tic Materia  Medica, but it should  be only  those of the more powerful
medicines of which  the  dose is sufficiently small, and  these should be,
mostly, saturated tinctures, containing as much of the medicinal principle
of the substance  as the menstruum will  hold in solution.  (See Art.
Tinctures.)
  Another improvement on  the crude  administration of vegetable medi-
cines, was the formation of  Aqueous Extracts, by dissolving out all the
constituents of a plant that are soluble in boiling water, and then evapo-
rating off the liquid until the exhausted matter was of a  suitable  con-
sistence to be  formed into  pills.   By this  means, the bulky and  inert
lignin is dispensed with,  and the medicinal  agents presented in a  form
and bulk somewhat less  objectionable.   This  is still  an eligible form of
presenting many valuable medicines.  (See  Art. Extracts.)  But in  most
cases, it is liable to several objections, as, Avhen the active principle  is of
a resinous or oleaginous  character, it is very imperfectly soluble in water,
and, therefore, the aqueous extracts of  vegetables containing such  prin-
ciples are comparatively worthless, from the  fact  that  the real active
agent is still left behind in the refuse;  again,  if the medicinal principle
is volatile, as it is in many instances, then it is dissipated and lost in the
process.   In other cases the active principle is of so delicate a nature as
to be chemically decomposed and  destroyed by the continuous action of
the hot water necessary to the process.   This is the case with the arum,
sarsaparilla, stillingia, and many other most valuable remedies.  More-
over, in this process, the starch,  gum,  mucilage,  coloring matter, and
all the other non-medicinal principles are extracted, as well  as the medi-
cinal, and as we do  not know what proportion the  latter  bear to the
former, in different specimens of the plant, the extract may appear  well,
and yet be almost inert.
  The next great step,  therefore, in the progress of pharmacy was to
unite the principles of these  two improvements, and form the Alcoholic
Extracts.   Alcohol, as  before observed, is  an almost universal solvent
of those proximate principles of vegetables on which their medical vir-
tues depend.   I  know of no principle of  such  activity as to  deserve
the name  of medica], which, in its native combination,  is  not dissolved
by this agent,  either pure, or Avhen diluted to the strength of proof
spirit.  The  alkaloids,  resins, essential and fixed  oils, acids, salts, and
neutral principles, all, as they are found in their native combinations, are
soluble in  these  menstrua;  while  on the other hand, the non-medicinal
principles, as starch  and gum, which,  next  to the  lignin, are the  most
abundant elements in  most vegetables, are quite insoluble  in  pure 
                    Composition  of Vegetables.                 997

alcohol, and but partially soluble in dilute.   By obtaining, therefore, an
alcoholic or hydro-alcoholic tincture, either by digestion or displacement,
and then distilling off the alcohol and carefully reducing the residue to
a pilular  consistence, an extract is obtained which, in the first place,
fully contains all the medicinal principles of the substance in their native
proportions, and, in  the  second place, is diluted by but a small propor-
tion of those non-medicinal substances which abound in the watery pre-
parations.  These extracts, moreover, will generally  keep unchanged,
while those obtained by water, and especially  the inspissated juices,
which are  the  best  preparations of that class, are liable  to  mold, or
become  otherwise  decomposed.
  Another important form of the alcoholic extract, and one that is justly
becoming very  popular, is that in Avhich the concentration of the tincture
is not carried to the  pilular consistence, but is left in a fluid or semifluid
state, and preserved from decomposition by the little alcohol in it, or by
the addition of  a sufficient quantity of sugar or other antiseptic.   These
are called Fluid Extracts, and will be referred to  again, when the cases
in which they should be preferred, and their peculiar advantages will be
noticed.   (See  Fluid Extracts.)
  Almost every article of the vegetable Materia Medica, might properly
be prepared and presented in the form  of alcoholic, or hydro-alcoholic
extracts, either inspissated  or fluid;  for even where  the active principle
of a plant has been fully isolated, these preparations will often be found
convenient.   Still they  are not perfect pharmaceutical  preparations,
for even alcohol dissolves  the  sugar, coloring matter, and other inert
principles of vegetables with which the real medicine  is combined, and
as these are not uniform  in their proportions, but vary according to the
season of gathering, and  other  circumstances, such  extracts are  not,
therefore, definite and  uniform  in  their strength, even when made with
the greatest care.   And a source of still greater disappointment, is their
ever varying  quality, according  to  the  skill and honesty of those who
prepare them, and their strength is subject to no  convenient test but
that of actual  demonstration.   Therefore, when  employed, those only
should be relied on, which are made by pharmaceutists of acknowledged
skill and integrity.
  But another  step has been taken: these  objections  are obviated, and
pharmacy placed among the exact sciences of the age.  This consists in
separating that proximate principle,—that peculiar  organized  substance
on which the medicinal virtues of a plant depends,—from  all the other
substances with which it  is combined, and  thus presenting  the very
medicine itself,  in  a pure isolate state.
  One great advantage of this improvement, is the smallness of the bulk
to which  medicines are  thus  reduced.   Of these  preparations, the
physican can carry in his pocket an assortment, which once required a
horse-load, and can administer in a single pill or delicate powder, a dose 
998
Pharmacy.
at which, in its cruder forms, the stomach revolted.  But it has another
and even more important advantage than  this, and that  is the definite-
ness with which medicines so prepared can be apportioned.
   In every other form in which vegetable  medicines can be presented,
their strength, as has been observed, is constantly subject to variation,
and the physician is  not only often in doubt what doses to prescribe,
but is frequently at a loss whether  to  attribute his failure in  obtaining
the desired result, to the inertness  of the  medicine, or to his misjudg-
ment  in selecting the proper agent.  Thus, for example, two samples of
Peruvian Bark,  or  the ordinary  tinctures  or extracts  obtained, may
appear equally fair,  and both be unadulterated, and yet one contain ten
times the medicinal virtue of the other.   But with regard to the proxi-
mate principles, this does not  occur; the  physician who  prescribes one
grain  of quinia, knows  just how much of the  real  medicinal  substance
he is administering,  and it matters not whether it required twenty or two
hundred grains of the bark to  yield that amount,—itself, is definite and
invariably of the same strength.  In relation to these principles, the only
question  is, are they pure?  And  being  definite  chemical substances,
their purity may in most cases  be easily tested.
   These proximate principles are  divided into several general classes,
distinguished by their  general  characteristics  and  reactions with other
substances.   These  are the Acids, Fixed Oils,  Essential  Oils, Resins,
Resinoids, and  the  Alkaloids, and perhaps a  few others that  cannot
properly be classed with either of these.
   Every medical  plant, as has been before intimated, contains one or
more  of these principles, on which  all its virtues as a medicine depends;
and  all  the  skill of the enlightened pharmaceutist is now called into
requisition to separate these from their native  combinations, and present
them  in their purest and most  eligible forms.
   Acids are, in general, readily recognized as those substances which
give a  sensation  of sourness  to the taste;  but the term is chemically
applied to all substances which redden vegetable blues, are electro-nega-
tive in relation  to  other  principles, and  combine with alkalies to form
neutral compounds.  The  acidity  of certain fruits, and  other parts of
vegetables must  ever  have been  noticed,  but  it  is of comparatively
modern date that the  different vegetable acids were distinguished from
each other.  We now recoeuize the Malic, Citric, Tartaric and Oxalic acids,
as existing abundantly  in fruits, etc., either pure, or combined with po-
tassa  in form of bi-salts, or those in which the acid predominates.  In
general, they are isolated  from their native  combinations by saturating
them with an alkali or metallic  oxide, and in this state, separating them by
precipitation or crystallization, and then decomposing such neutral com-
pound, and removing the alkaline or earthy base,  by the superior affinity
of some  stronger acid, generally the sulphuric.   After  which, except-
ing the malic, they  may be further purified by repeated crystallization. 
Composition  of Vegetables
999
   These acids  are used, in their uncombined state, to form coolino- and
 febrifuge draughts, also as antiscorbutics, and in combination  they form
 valuable hydragogue aperients.  Beside these four vegetable acids, Avhich
 are so manifestly distinguished by their sourness, there are several other
 electro-negative principles  found  in  certain vegetables, as the benzoic,
 tannic, gallic, and other acids, all possessed of  peculiar and valuable
 medical qualities ; and by natural decay  and destructive  decomposition,
 an almost indefinite  number of similar  organic  substances  are  found,
 capable  of uniting with  alkaline bases, and forming an  endless variety
 of neutral compounds.   But few of these have yet been examined, with
 reference to their medicinal action, and, therefore, Avith the exception of
 the well-knoAvn  article, vinegar, which is formed by the combination of
 oxygen Avith liquids  that  have undergone the vinous fermentation,  they
 form no part of the Materia Medica.
   The Fixed Oils too were  obtained  and used in medicine at an early
 period.  They are analogous to the acids in being electro-negative, and
 as such, they combine with alkalies, and  form  compounds called  Soaps.
 They are obtained in abundance from many seeds and fruits  by simple
 grinding and expression; but most of them, as of the olive and linseed,
 possess feeble medicinal powers, and are  useful for food and in the  arts,
 rather than as  sanative agents.   Indeed, it is probable that the medici-
 nal virtues of most  of the expressed oils  depend, not on the oil itself,
 but on other peculiar principles held in solution by it, the same  as the
 peculiar flavor and medical qualities of different kinds of spirits, as rum,
 brandy,  gin, etc., depend not on any  singularity of the alcohol itself, but
 on certain volatile oils dissolved in it.  In some cases at least,  as in that
 of mustard, the fixed oil  may be  obtained,  by expression, bland and
 almost tasteless, while the more active principle is left behind, and may
 be afterward obtained by other means.  A few of the expressed  oils,
 however, as those of ricinus and croton tiglium, are powerful  and valu-
 able articles of the Materia Medica.
   The Essential Oils constitute  another important class of proximate
 medical  principles.   These differ from  the fixed or  expressed oils  in
 being volatile without decomposition, and in being, for the most  part,
 warm and pungent to the taste, and powerfully stimulant in their medici-
 nal character.   As the process of separating them from other substances
 is simple, many of them were long since discovered and prepared.  They
 are mostly procured by the simple process  of distillation; the plant, or the
 part of it containing the oil—usually in its  recent state—is put into a large
 still, with a portion of water, and by converting the latter into steam, the
 volatile oil of the plant is carried over in vapor with it, and is condensed
 by passing through a suitable worm  or condenser of other form.    The
 oil separates from the water, for which it has no  chemical affinity, and
either floats or  sinks, according as its specific gravity is  greater or less
than the  water, and is thus easily separated. 
1000
Pharmacy.
   In this  manner  are  obtained  the  oils of mint, sassafras, cloves, etc.,
and with a few  exceptions, all  others of a valuable character.   Gum
camphor, so called,  belongs  to  this class  of  medicines, being only an
essential oil in a concrete  or  congealed state,  at ordinary temperature;
and several others, as those of the anise and the rose, assume this con-
crete form Avhen the temperature is  only moderately reduced.  Several
medicines  of this class are used, and  highly esteemed, in  the  Eclectic
practice, which are  yet wholly unknown  to  the old pharmacopoeias,
among  which  are the  oils  of  Erigeron   Canadense  and Erechthites
Hieracifolius.
   From these oils we pass, by an easy  transition, to another class  of the
proximate  principles, viz.: the Resins, many  of which appear  to  be
formed  from the  volatile oils by the absorption  of oxygen, which renders
them fixed and concrete.   Thus, the purest Camphene, or oil of turpen-
tine, by exposure to  the air,  combines with its  oxygen, and is gradu-
ally changed into a diminished quantity of common rosin; and almost
all essential oils become thickened and resinous by long standing, unless
entirely excluded from the  air.
   The  pure resins, and many gums with  which  they are compounded,
were early found and recognized as dried exudations from certain  trees.
Their distinguishing  characteristics  are ;  their fusibility by heat, great
inflammability, insolubility  in water, solubility in alcohol or essential oils,
and their capability of combining with alkalies,  forming  saponaceous
compounds.  The resins (or so called  gums)  of the various  species of
pine, spruce, and larch are of this character.
   The Gums, properly so called, are distinguished by the opposite  char-
acteristics, not being fusible by heat, not readily inflammable, not soluble
in pure  alcohol, but soluble in  Avater  forming a viscid fluid,  called  muci-
lage ; such are the gums of  acacia, prunus,  amygdalus persica, etc.
These are articles of diet rather than medicine, and are used in pharmacy
only as demulcents and vehicles to  shield the  action  of  more  active
agents.
   There are, however, an intermediate class  of articles called  Gum-
resins, partaking in part, of the properties  of each of the above, and
which are active and important articles of the Materia Medica; such are
the gum myrrh, assafetida, ammoniac, and  gamboge; but of  these, the
resinous portion  is the medicinal one,  for  alcohol, which dissolves the
resin and leaves the true gum, holds in solution all their medical virtues.
   But there is another class of resinous substances, less abundant than
those, which exude from the trees that  contain  them, and which possess
medical virtues of a much  higher degree.   They exist in roots, and,  in
some cases, other parts of numerous plants, but  combined with  such
large proportions of woody fiber and other principles, that  they can be
separated  only by  chemical  agency.  These  possess, in general, the
properties of the common resins, viz;  fusibility,  inflammability, solubility 
Composition of Vegetables.      •         1001
in alcohol, and not in water, etc., but as they are not fully liquifiable by
heat, and differ somewhat in other respects  from the pure resins, Ave
term them Resinoids.
   Many of them may be obtained by the following simple process; form
a saturated tincture of the root or plant desired, which is best done by
displacement, or leaching alcohol through the ground  material.  From
this tincture, distil or evaporate off  the alcohol, having previously added
plenty of water; the alcohol, which held the resin in solution, being thus
removed, and  the  resin not being soluble in water, it is precipitated,
while  the other substances which  the  alcohol had dissolved out, as the
extractive and coloring matter, being also soluble in water, are held in
solution by the water and thus separated from the resinoid.   The pre-
cipitate is  then collected  and purified by frequent Avashing,  or by being
redissolved  in  alcohol, and again precipitated—and  is then dried  and
powdered for use.  Thus  may be obtained the resins  of podophyllum,
cimicifuga, leptandra,  etc.
   By this process  alone,  the  resinoid is  not  obtained  in its chemically
pure state: it probably still contains from two to five per  cent, of color-
ing and  extractive  matter, which, however, does not sensibly affect its
use as a medicine.  While a further purification would  not  only add to
its cost, but might even endanger its activity.   Its complete  purification
must be effected by redissolving it in alcohol, digesting the solution with
animal charcoal, then filter, and again precipitate by water.
  In some analyses, the  resin has been separated by boiling the sub-
stance  in milk of lime, or  some  other alkali,  by which the resin is sepa-
rated and rendered soluble, and from which solution it is precipitated by
neutralizing  the alkali with an  acid.  By this  means the  resinoid is
obtained very cheaply, and very fair in  appearance, but its medical pro-
perty is nearly or quite destroyed.  It is, indeed, no longer the resinoid,
but  probably bears the same relation  to it that stearic acid, which has
passed through  the same process,  does  to stearin, and the  precipitate
thus obtained from podophyllum is not podophyllin, but podophyl-/wM*c
acid.   The process is an  eligible  one  for scientific analysis, for as the
stearic acid obtained is a correct indication of the amount  of stearin con-
tained  in a given quantity of fat, so would this acidified resin be of the
true resin or resinoid in  a given  quantity of the  root.  This was  the
process pursued by Mr. Wm. Hodgson  of Philadelphia, in his  analysis
of podophyllum, as published in the United States' Dispensatory;  but
the process is entirely inapplicable in pharmacy, as the product is worth-
less.  Mr. Hodgson did not obtain podophyllin, but podophyllinic acid;
and yet Dr. J. Kost, who now professes to have made and recommended
many of the  resinoids  before they were introduced at the Eclectic Insti-
tute in the summer of 1848, not  only does not mention them  in his
" Family Physician," published one  year previous, but in  his Materia
Medica, published in 1849, gives the above futile process for preparing 
1002
Pharmacy.
them, plainly  showing that up  to  that period, he  had  never made a
genuine article.
  The introduction of these and  analogous preparations into the Materia
Medica, Avhich is of very recent date, constitutes an  era in medical prac-
tice, especially in that of the  Eclectic schools of medicine.  The distin-
guished and lamented Prof.  T. V. Morrow, pronounced  the  discovery
of the podophyllin  alone, the greatest  improvement in  pharmacy that
had been made for the last thirty years.
  Until within the present century, the science of vegetable analysis Avas
unknown; and within the last few years, the researches  of  chemists in
this field had shown that many vegetables contained, among other proxi-
mate principles, those of a resinous or resinoid character;  but,  for the
most  part, such  discoveries lay  as dead and useless facts in the records
of science, without  being applied to  any practicable use.   Nor  was it
even  ascertained, in most cases, that such resins contained  any medical
power, much less that they Were the depositories of the principal, if not
the whole medical virtues of  the plants that contained them.  To this
there Avere a few exceptions;  the resin  of jalap Avas known to the pro-
fession, and used as an active medicine.   Professor Tully, of NeAv Haven,
Connecticut, had obtained the resin of cimicifuga, and  perhaps of some
others, and recommended them to the attention of his medical brethren;*
but it is not  known that any other one eArer prepared or used it.   Profes-
sor John King, the author of the present volume, first discovered and sepa-
rated the  resins of the podophyllum, cimicifuga, iris, and several  other
roots, and used  them  successfully in his own practice for a series of
years; and  as early as July, 1844, in the "New York Medical  Philo-
sophical  Journal," and again in April, 1846, in the "Western Medical
Reformer," he introduced and recommended them to the Eclectic Medi-
cal profession, as valuable agents in several forms of disease;  but these
discoveries  and recommendations  had passed  unheeded, and were
unapplied, chiefly, it is presumed, because other practitioners  could not
devote the time and skill necessary to their preparation, and because no
pharmaceutist had undertaken their manufacture.   But in  the summer
of 1848, the Avriter of this article separated them, with several  others
of his own  discovering, and  having the advantage of being engaged in
the sale instead of the administration of medicines, immediately put them
up in a neat and eligible form, and thus directly presented them  to the
notice of the profession.
  Since that time their sale and  use have increased  with an unexampled
rapidity, which shoAvs how high  an estimate is placed on them.  To the
Eclectic branch of the profession belongs the honor of first  discovering,
testing and  adopting  them.   Physicians of the  Physo-medical  school
  * I am not aware that Prof. Tully ever obtained this resin, though he mentioned
its existence to me.—J. K. 
Composition of Vegetables.
1003
soon followed in the use of them, and their pharmaceutists in their pre-
paration and sale.   And at the present time, hundreds of physicians of
the old Allopathic schools are testing and adopting  them.
   The names applied  to these  resinoids, by the writer of this, on pre-
sentino- them to the profession, have now become generally adopted, and
which are formed by changing  the  termination of the generic name of
the plant into in, after the analogy of Resm, or Rosm/ thus from Podo-
phyllum, we have  Podophyllin ; from Leptandra, Leptandrin, etc.
   The most important of  these Resinoids, when properly prepared, are
dry and pulverizable, and are prepared  for the profession in that form ;
but a larger proportion of this class of principles possess  so  much of an
oleaginous  character, or the  resin is so combined Avith a fixed oil, that
they cannot be  reduced to the powdered  state without injuring, if not
destroying  them.   These we denominate  Oleo-resins, and  they are of
all degrees of consistence, from the almost perfect  fluid of  the Ptelein,
to the  buttery spissitude  of the Xanthoxylin,. and the tough, gummy
compactness of the Cypripedin and Asclepidin.  But they all belong to
the same general class  of proximate  principles, and are obtained pre-
cisely in the same  manner as the dry resinoids, above described.  And
they are less popular and less used than the powdered resinoids, because
they cannot be so conveniently  combined with other medicine, and are
not so easily administered as  the dry.  But they possess all the advan-
tages of great concentration  of  medical power, and of perfect definite-
ness of  strength, which is  the distinguishing character of the pure prox-
imate principles.
   There is  one class more of these medical principles, which deserves
our special  notice,  and which, together with the resinoids just  noticed,
forms the  acme of improvement in scientific  pharmacy.   This is the
Alkaloids.
   The Resinoids are electro-negative substances; the Alkaloids, electro-
positive ; those combine with alkalies and form saponaceous compounds,—
these combine with acids and form salts ;—those are mostly colored and
opake—these mostly white and crystalline.  The great pioneers in this
branch of Pharmacy were Pelletier and  Caventou of France, who per-
fected  the  discovery of Morphia, Cinchonia, and  Quinia, and who were
the first to clearly define the  chemical character  of these  agents, in
about 1820.  I say, perfected the discovery, for like every great improve-
ment in art or science, there were previous discoveries approximating to
the result.
   The Alkaloids do not generally exist in vegetables in their pure state,
but in the form of salts produced by their combination with  some pecu-
liar acid.  Thus, morphia  is found in opium combined with meconic acid,
forming meconate of morphia, and quinia exists in  the barks combined
with kinic acid, forming a  kinate of quinia.   These native salts are in  a
greater or less degree soluble in water;  but the pure alkaloids are very 
1004
Pharmacy.
sparingly soluble in that menstruum, although soluble in hot, and most
of them, in cold alcohol.  But as the  processes of separating and puri-
fying them are various  and complicated,  and are  abundantly described
in different works on the subject, the student is referred to them for that
instruction.   By  these  and similar  processes, those substances Avhich
were once considered as homogeneous, have been analyzed, and made
to yield  those  principles on which their virtues depend, pure and iso-
lated.  And those agents which are provided for the healing of our infir-
mities, are presented in doses, small, definite, and less repulsive.
  But while  we  refer with pride  to the work which has already been
accomplished, we  must not forget that the  field has, as yet, been  just
entered.   A vast expanse  is yet  to be explored.   Not one-tenth of the
articles of the Materia Medica have yet been analyzed, and in most of
these even, the examination has been partial and imperfect.   The physi-
cian, however, should not  rest satisfied, nor the pharmaceutist stay his
hand, until, as in the mineral, so in the vegetable kingdom, every known
substance should be made  to yield both its elementary and its proximate
principles, separate and isolated  ; and the  action of the latter on the
animal economy, should be tested and made known.
                             ACETA.

                             Vinegars.
  These are officinal liquid medicines, formed of vinegar, and  charged
by maceration with different medicinal principles.  Many medicines con-
tain active principles which are not readily soluble in water or alcohol,
or are, perhaps, insoluble in them, but which are freely soluble in vine-
gar ; others again, although soluble in water or alcohol, are not  as effi-
cient and energetic thus prepared, as when tinctured in vinegar ; on this
account, medicated vinegars  are especially useful in many instances. The
vinegar of commerce  is very apt  to  contain  impurities and principles
which lead to its decomposition, hence, when used as a solvent for phar-
maceutical purposes, it should always be purified by distillation.  The
solvent  property of vinegar depends  chiefly upon the acetic acid which
it contains, and which  renders it an excellent menstruum of the organic
alkalies, which it converts into acetates, thereby in many instances pro-
ducing more efficient preparations from them.   Alcohol  is usually added
to medicated vinegars, on account of  their proneness to spoil, and owing
to which, it is preferable to prepare them only in small quantities that
they may not be kept  for any considerable length of time.   Mr. W. S.
Merrell states  " that  in the vinegars  of lobelia, and  sanguinaria (or
where the color of the preparation is  necessarily dark), good cider or
wine vinegar is to be preferred to distilled vinegar; and in these prepa-
rations the alcohol necessary for their preservation should he first added 
ACETA.
1005
to the powdered ingredients so as to aid in dissolving their oily and res-
inous principles, and then displaced  or expressed Avith the vinegar.
When  a pure vinegar is desirable, the acetic acid of the shops  diluted
with six parts of pure water, forms a more definite, and therefore,  more
eligible preparation than the Acetum  Destillatum."
  Acetum Destillatum.  Distilled Vinegar.
  Preparation.—Take of Vinegar a gallon.   Distil, by means of a sand-
bath, from a glass  retort into a glass  receiver, until seven pints  have
been distilled, when discontinue the process.   Keep the seven pints for
use.— U. S.
  History.—In this distillation, the first  portion Avhich passes into the
receiver, contains alcohol and  pyro-acetic spirit, these being the most vol-
atile ingredients ; secondly, the  acetic acid  passes over in a purified
condition, but being less volatile than  water, it is weaker  than it  existed
in the  vinegar.  A good substitute for distilled vinegar may be made by
adding one part of strong acetic acid to five or six  parts of distilled
water,  or sufficient to give the density  of distilled vinegar, Avhich is  1.005
to  1.006.   A  fluidounce of distilled  vinegar should be saturated by
thirty-five  grains  of crystallized  bicarbonate of  potassa,  which  is a
proper test of its strength.
  Wine vinegar is usually preferred to cider or malt vinegar, as  it furn-
ishes a stronger and more  aromatic distilled  article ; and  when distilled
it should be  in  glass vessels, as the use of lead or copper vessels  or
tubes is extremely hazardous, from the danger of metallic impregnation.
The surest test of the purity of distilled vinegar, is its saturating poAver,
as above-mentioned ; its specific gravity cannot be depended upon, as it
will vary according to the  amount of alcohol or pyro-acetic  spirit which
may be present.
  Distilled  vinegar is a  clear, colorless liquid, having a faint but  percep-
tible acetous odor and taste, less agreeable, however, than those  of com-
mon vinegar.  It is wholly evaporated by heat.  It usually contains a
small  portion  of  organic  matter  which  passes over in the distillation,
which  is liable to partial decomposition,  and Avhich, when thus  decom-
posed, causes  the reddish or brownish  color upon  saturation with  an
alkali.   Pure distilled vinegar is  devoid  of  any empyreumatic taste, or
sulphurous  odor ; but that generally met with is slightly empyreumatic.
It may be  rendered unfit  for pharmaceutical purposes  by the presence
of metals or mineral  acids.  If copper be present, saturate the  vinegar
with ammonia, and add ferrocyanuret of potassium, Avhich occasions a
brown  cloud.   If lead  be present, the addition of iodide of potassium
causes a yelloAv precipitate.   If it be  tainted with tin, the addition of a
solution of chloride of gold will occasion a purplish color.  Sulphureted-
hydrogen occasions a dark-colored precipitate, when either of the two
last metals  are present and its non-action proves the absence of metals
generally.   Sulphuric acid may  be  detected by acetate  of lead,  or 
1006
Pharmacy.
 chloride of barium ;  muriatic acid by forming a precipitate with nitrate
 of silver ; and nitric acid by the solution of silver digested in the vine-
 gar, which metal may subsequently be  detected by muriatic acid.
   Properties  and Uses.—The properties of distilled vinegar are similar
 to those of ordinary  vinegar, (see page 151).
   Acetum Lobeliae.   Vinegar of Lobelia.
   Preparation.—Take of Lobelia Seed, in powder, four ounces ; Dis-
 tilled Vinegar two pints.   Macerate the Lobelia Seed with the Distilled
 Vinegar, in a close glass vessel, for seven days ; then express the liquor,
 filter, and add to the filtered product, Alcohol one fluidounce.
   History.—In this preparation, Diluted Acetic Acid may be used as  a
 substitute for the Distilled Vinegar.  The Alcohol is added to retard the
 decomposition, and as its  quantity is very small, no objection can reason-
 ably be made to  its presence.  We have known this preparation to retain
 its activity for two years, when kept well corked and not exposed to the
 action of light.
   Properties and Uses.—Vinegar of Lobelia is an emetic,  nauseant, and
 expectorant, and is a valuable relaxant in spasmodic affections.  It may
 be given to fulfill all  the indications for which lobelia is administered.
 Externally, it forms an excellent  application in several cutaneous dis-
 eases, as  salt-rheum,  erysipelas,  poisoning by  rhus,  etc.  Dose, as an
 emetic, from one  to four fluidrachms, repeated every fifteen minutes; as
 an expectorant, from  five to thirty drops or more, every half hour or
 hour, in elm or flaxseed infusion.
   Acetum Sanguinariae.    Vinegar of  Bloodroot.
   Preparation. — Take of  Bloodroot, in  powder, four  ounces;  Distilled
 Vinegar, two pints.  Macerate the Bloodroot with the Distilled Vinegar,
 in a  close glass vessel, for seven  days ; then express  the  liquor, filter,
 and  add to the filtered product,  Alcohol one fluidounce.
   History.—In this preparation, Diluted Acetic Acid may be used as a
 substitute for the Distilled Vinegar.  When kept well corked and in the
 dark, it may be preserved for a long time.
   Properties and Uses. — Vinegar of  Bloodroot is seldom used  as  an
 emetic, except in combination with other agents of this class.  Its chief
 employment internally is as an expectorant, hepatic, and alterative.  As
 an external application it is useful in many cutaneous  affections.   Dose,
 from ten to thirty drops, in some mucilage or syrup, and repeated three
 or four times a day.
   Acetum Scillae.   Vinegar of Squill.
   Preparation.—Take of Squill,  sliced or bruised, four ounces; Dis-
 tilled Vinegar, two pints.  Macerate the Squill with the  Distilled Vinegar,
 in a  close glass vessel, for seven days;  then express the liquor, and set
it by that the  dregs may subside ; lastly, pour off the clear liquid, and
 add  Alcohol one fluidounce. 
-5Ctherea.
1007
  History.—In this preparation, Diluted Acetic Acid may be used as a
substitute for the Distilled Vinegar.  When either of the above prepara-
tions  are made with Diluted Acetic Acid, the addition of the Alcohol
may be omitted.  The  Vinegar of  Squill,  when long kept,  deposits,
according to Vogel, a precipitate of citrate of lime and tannic acid.
  Properties  and Uses.—Vinegar  of Squill contains  all the  medicinal
virtues of the Squill.   It is frequently  prescribed as a diuretic and ex-
pectorant in several forms of  dropsy, and in pulmonary affections.   The
syrup and oxymel are generally preferred, as they are less  unpleasant
to the taste, and do not decompose so soon.   The dose is from half a
fluidrachm to two fluidrachms; vomiting is likely to  be caused by the
latter quantity.  It should be given in cinnamon-water, mint-water, or
some  other aromatic  liquid calculated  to  conceal its  taste, and obviate
its nauseating effect.  Its principal use, however, is in  making the Syrup
of Squill, which  see.
                            ^ETHEREA.
                               Ethers.
   Ethers are liquids resulting from the action of acids on alcohol.   They
 are  of a very volatile and inflammatory nature,  possessing a peculiar
 fragrance, with  some sweetishness, and  vary in composition,  according
 to the acid employed in generating them.  On account of their  highly
 inflammable character, too much care cannot be taken to avoid decanting
 them near a flame, as in the  vicinity of a lamp, candle, or gas-light.
 They require  to be  kept in accurately stopped  bottles, and in a cool
 place,  otherwise considerable  loss  may ensue  in  consequence of their
 evaporation.  Chemists admit three kinds of ethers, viz., 1. Those con-
 sisting of etherine and water, or where the acid does not enter into  the
 composition of the ether generated, but merely acts as a chemical agent
 on the alcohol;  of Avhich we have an example in  sulphuric ether.  2.
 Those consisting of an acid, etherine, and water, as  in the case of hyponi-
 trous ether.  3.  Those consisting of an acid  and etherine only, as with
 muriatic  or hydrochloric ether.  Of these the  first  two are more gene-
 rally used  in medicine.
  ./Ether  Aceticus.  Acetic Ether.  Acetate of Oxide of Ethyle.
  Preparation. — Acetic  ether  may  be  formed  by several processes,
 amono- which may be named the following :  1.  Mix one hundred parts of
Alcohol (sp. gr. 0.83} with sixty-three parts of concentrated Acetic Acid,
and seventeen parts of strong Sulphuric Acid, and distil one hundred and
taenty-fi.ve parts  into a receiver, kept cold with wet cloths.   2. Distil a
mixture of ten parts of Acetate of Soda, sixteen of Sulphuric Acid, and six
of Alcohol.  Rectify the product over lime and chloride of calcium.  3.
Distil to dryness, a mixture of three parts of Acetate of Potassa, three
of Alcohol, and two of Sulphuric Acid, and mix the distilled product with 
1008
Pharmacy.
one-fifth of sulphuric  acid, and distil a second time an amount of ether
equal to the alcohol employed.   It may also be obtained by distilling any
sulphovinate Avith strong acetic acid ; the acetic acid is brought in contact
with nascent ether, and combines Avith it.
  History. — Acetic  ether is a colorless  liquid,  of  a refreshing, very
grateful odor,  and a peculiar, agreeable  taste.   It boils at 160°, and its
specific gravity is 0.866.  It does not decompose by keeping, but  is
easily changed by alkalies, yielding an acetate  and alcohol;  acids  also
decompose it.   It is  very combustible, burning readily  when brought
into contact Avith flame, at the same time, diffusing an acid odor.   It  is
always present, in small quantity, in wine vinegar,  which oavcs its flavor
to this compound.  It dissolves  in seven and a half parts of water,  and
unites with alcohol in all proportions.  It consists of one equivalent of
acetic acid 51, one of etherine 28, and one of water 9=88.  Its formula
is given as Ct H> O+Ci H3 Os, and by Gregory as Ae 0, Ac  03.
  Properties and Uses. —Acetic ether is stimulant and  antispasmodic,
and is occasionally used to fulfill these indications.  Sometimes it  is
applied externally, by frictions, to relieve rheumatic and neuralgic pains,
and as a resolvent.  The dose is from fifteen to thirty drops,  sufficiently
diluted with water.
  tEther  Hydriodicus.   Hydriodic Ether.
  Preparation.—Mix four parts  of  Iodine with ten parts of Alcohol 38°.
Add little by little one part of Phosphorus, and submit the whole to dis-
tillation.   When the  larger part of the  alcohol has  distilled over,  add
three parts more, and distil to dryness.  The product of the  distillation
is mixed Avith water to separate  the alcohol from  the ether,  which  last
is then rectified from chloride of calcium.
  History.—Hydriodic ether has no acid reaction.   Its odor is ethereal,
its  taste pungent, but less sharp than that of sulphuric ether.  Its den-
sity is  1.9206  at 72° F. ;  it boils  at  110° F., and is  not inflammable.
When  throAvn on burning coals, it expands in purple vapors.   It  is not
decomposed  immediately by potassa, nor by nitric or sulphurous acids,
but sulphuric acid decomposes it, and sets free a part of the iodine.  The
action  of the  air discolors it slightly by liberating a little iodine,  which
may be readily removed by  the alkalies, or mercury, a globule of which
thrown into the vial,  is sufficient to retain the ether in a state proper for
inhalation.  Its density admits  of  its  being kept under water, in  which
it is insoluble.   Its formula is Ci Ha I.
  Properties and Uses.—Hydriodic ether, is recommended by Dr. Huette,
by  way of inhalation, as a remedial agent in several  diseases, especially
in pulmonary consumption, tubercular affections in any part of-the body,
and where it  is desired to saturate the system quickly Avith iodine ;  it
appears  likely to play an important part in  medicine.  Fifteen to thirty
grains of the  hydriodic ether are transferred, by means  of a graduated 
^Etherea.
1009
pipette, into  a little ground stoppered bottle, (3 or 4 centimetres) an
inch to an inch and a half high.   The ether is covered with a stratum
of water about two or two  and  a half millimetres thick, the object of
which is  to moderate the evaporation;  when the vial is applied to one of
the nostrils, and  the air contained Avithin it is drawn  by an inspiration.
The ethereal vapor is sufficiently diluted with  air before reaching  the
lungs.  The  evaporation  of  the  ether may be  accelerated by inclining
the vial to  one side, so that the continuity of the watery layer  may be
broken ;  and the  heat of the hand may be  applied to the same object.
Fifteen or twenty inspirations suffice for the impregnation of the system
with iodine, and  a quarter of an hour after the cessation of the  inhala-
tions, iodine is found  in  the  urine, and  has also  been found present in
fifty or sixty hours afterward.
   The physiological effects of this ether, are said to  be,  " After some
inhalations, an impression of calmness and  satisfaction  announces that
the hydriodic ether acts at first conformably with the sedative properties
of the other ethers employed in medicine.  The respirator)'  motions are
carried on with a readiness and fullness, advantageous  to the  circulation;
but  the  antispasmodic action  of  the  ethereal  vapor  which  favors  the
absorption  of the remedy,  is soon followed  by the  influence of  the
absorbed iodine.   The increase  of vigor ceasing to  be limited  to  the
thoracic  muscles, extends  to  the muscular system.   The appetite is
developed, the secretions are increased, the genital feelings become more
sensitive, the pulse  acquires fullness, and  the vivacity of the feelings,
and  the  activity  of the  intellect,  prove  that the impulse given to  the
other organs  extends to the brain also.   Such  are  the effects that four
daily inhalations of ten minutes  each  produced on  Dr. Huette.   As to
accident, he  never experienced anything but a little corvza, and fre-
quently Avhen the vapor has been too concentrated, a slight feeling of
pressure  in the temples."
   He thinks, that in  many cases  there  will be an  advantage in substi-
tuting the  inhalation of hydriodic ether, for the other preparations of
iodine, observing that inhalation permits the fraclioning of the doses to
any extent, and causes the absorption  of the medicine  by more extended
surfaces,  more generally accessible in all their parts, and better calcu-
lated for the  absorption of the smallest medicinal atoms, than  are  the
digestive organs.
   Spiritus ^Etheris Nitrici.  Sweet Spirit of Nitre.  Spirit of Nitric
Ether.  Solution  of the impure Hyponitrite of Oxide of Ethyle in Alcohol.
   Preparation. — Mix,  in  a large glass retort, Nitrate of  Potassa, in
coarse powder, two pounds, with Alcohol nine pints and a half; then gra-
dually pour in Sulphuric Acid a pound and a half,  and digest with a
gentle heat for two hours ; then raise the heat and distil  a gallon.  To
the distilled liquor add Diluted Alcohol a pint, and Carbonate of Potassa
one ounce, and again distil a gallon.— U. S.
         64 
1010
Pharmacy.
  History.—The officinal spirit of nitric ether is composed of hyponitrous
ether and rectified spirit, in variable proportions.   When  a reaction is
effected between  alcohol and  nitric acid, directly, or between alcohol
and the ingredients  from which nitric  acid may be generated, as from
nitre  and sulphuric  acid, the result is  always hyponitrous  ether ;  but
when the ingredients for forming the ether hold alcohol in excess, this
distils over with the ether, forming  the spirit of nitric ether.
  In  the process  for preparing this  ether, given above, the sulphuric
acid being gradually added to the  mixture of nitre  and alcohol  in  the
retort, and a gentle heat applied, nitric acid is evolved, which reacting
upon  a portion of  the alcohol, generates the hyponitrous ether.   When
the temperature is subsequently increased, the ether, together with  the
remaining  alcohol, passes over as  the  SAveet  spirit of  nitre, holding a
portion of acid in the solution,  from which it is purified  by the last dis-
tillation from  carbonate of potassa.   The  object  in  adding the diluted
alcohol previous to the last distillation, is,  that a quantity of the spirit of
nitric ether may be obtained, equal to that procured  by  the  first distilla-
tion Avithout  reducing the mixture in the retort to dryness, and thereby
give rise to the formation of empyreuma.  Were the alcohol  and sul-
phuric acid to be first mixed together, instead  of the  alcohol and  nitre,
ordinary sulphuric ether would probably be generated, and the addition
of the nitre Avould not give rise to the desired  spirit of nitric ether.   In
conducting this process the retort should be of sufficient capacity to hold
double the amount of articles employed.
  Spirit of nitric  ether, according to its strength, is  either colorless or
of the lightest straw color.   When  properly prepared it is a colorless,
volatile liquid, requiring to be  kept  in well stopped  bottles, possessing a
peculiar and  fragrant ethereal odor,  some-Avhat  resembling that of apples,
and  a pungent, sAveetish, cooling,  sharp  taste ;  its  specific gravity is
between 0.834 and 0.837, and  it boils, when heated by means of a water
bath,  at  160°.  It gradually becomes acid by long  keeping, in which
state  it becomes unfit for medical use, on  account of its chemical reac-
tions  Avith other substances with which it may be   united, in many in-
stances greatly impairing the efficacy of the mixture ; these effects may
be obviated by  keeping the  sweet spirit of nitre standing on crystals of
bicarbonate of potassa. It is very inflammable and  burns Avith a whitish
flame.  It reddens litmus paper, but does not  effervesce with carbonate
of soda, unless it becomes  acid.  It is soluble in alcohol or Avater in  all
proportions.
  SAveet spirit of nitre is very subject  to impurities.  When it  is the
product of a  too long continued distillation, it contains at first, aldehyd,
which subsequently becomes, by the  absorption of  oxygen,  acetic acid.
Aldehyd may be detected by the addition of a weak solution of potassa,
which forming an  aldehyd resin, communicates a yellow tint to the liquid
containing it, in addition to which a pungent odor, with  acridity will be 
^Etherea.
1011
observed.   An equal volume of sulphuric acid added to  sweet spirit of
nitre  hardly affects  it if good; but  if much  aldehyd be present,  the
mixture will become dark-colored.  Acids may be detected by the effer-
vescence of the preparation when the alkaline carbonates or bicarbonates
are added to it.  Alcohol and Avater are frequently added to sweet spirit
of nitre, thereby very much  impairing its value ; it is extremely difficult
to detect these adulterations.
   Properties and  Uses.—Sweet spirit of nitre is a stimulant, antispas-
modic,  diuretic  and diaphoretic.   It is  considered  useful in  dropsy
associated Avith diseased  heart, more so than when connected with dis-
eased kidney; being a stimulant  diuretic,  it is best adapted to asthenic
Conditions.  In dropsy  it may be  advantageously combined with  other
diuretics,  as syrup of squill, acetate of  potassa, nitre,  bicarbonate  of
potassa, or tincture of digitalis.   It is useful in strangury, and is a good
addition to copaiba as a diuretic for diluting the  acrimony of the  urine.
It is often used in febrile affections, either alone or in conjunction with
sedative or diuretic agents, for  the  purpose of inducing diuresis and
diaphoresis.   If the preparation becomes  old, nitrous acid is, probably,
formed, and when taken internally, it  will  give  rise  to pain  in the
stomach and  griping.   Spirit of  nitric ether  is  a  narcotic  poison ; the
accidental inhalation of  its vapor during  sleep, has occasioned  death.
Dose, from half a fluidrachm to two fluidrachms, three or four times a
day in Avater,  or according to the indications to be fulfilled.
   Off. Prep.—Mistura Copaibae Composita.
   ./Ether Sulphuricus.   Sulphuric  Ether.   Oxide of Ethyle.
   Preparation. — Gradually  add in an open vessel, fourteen, fluidounces
of Sulphuric  Acid, to Alcohol two pints, stirring them together fre-
quently.  While still hot, pour the mixture into a glass tubulated  retort
placed upon a sand-bath, and connected by a long adapter Avith a receiver
kept cold by  ice  or iced Avater; then raise the heat quickly until the
liquid begins to boil.   When about half a pint of the ethereal liquid has
passed over, gradually introduce into the retort through a tube reaching
nearly to its bottom, Alcohol  two pints previously mixed with  Sulphuric
Acid two fluidounces.   Care  must be taken that this mixture flow in a
continuous stream, and  in sufficient quantity to supply the place  of  the
liquid which distils over; this may be accomplished by having the tube
through which it  flows furnished with  a  stop-cock to regulate the size
of the  current — the tube itself being passed through a cork accurately
fitted into the tubulure.   Then  continue the distillation until about three
pints have passed  over, or until white vapors appear in  the retort.  To
this  distilled product add Potassa six drachms, previously dissolved  in
Distilled Water three fluidounces, and shake  them frequently.  At  the
end of twenty-four hours  pour off the  supernatant liquid into a  retort,
and with a gentle heat  redistil it, until two pints of ether shall  have 
1012
Pharmacy.
 passed over, or until the distilled liquid becomes of the specific  gravity
 0.750.— U. S.
   History.—Ether is formed from the action of sulphuric acid upon alco-
 hol, and consists  of four equivalents of carbon, five of hydrogen, and
 one of oxygen; its  proximate  constituents may be considered to be one
 equivalent of etherine, and one of water.   It is commonly but impro-
 perly  called Sulphuric Ether, probably on account of  the sulphuric acid
 employed in its preparation; but no sulphuric acid enters into its com-
 position, and the action of other acids  on alcohol, will, it is stated, pro-
 duce an identical  ether.
   The view taken of the formation of ether has been that, as alcohol is
 a hydrated oxide of ethyle, and ether, oxide of ethyle Avithout Avater,
 the abstraction of  the  water from alcohol  is  all that is required to
 convert it into ether.  To effect this removal of  the water from alcohol,
 sulphuric acid is  employed on  account  of its great  affinity  for water.
 The action, hoAvever, of the acid, is not direct but intermediate  ; when
 two equivalents of sulphuric acid are mixed with one equivalent of alco-
 hol, the bi-sulphate  of oxide of ethyle (sulphovinic acid), is formed, or
 a double  sulphate of ether  and Avater.   When  this is heated to about
 285°,  and  the liquid kept in steady ebullition, it becomes decomposed,
 and the sulphuric  acid  seizing upon the  water, prevents the ether from
 reuniting with  it to  reproduce  alcohol, and the  ether  consequently dis-
 tils over, leaving two equivalents of sulphuric acid with one of water in
 the retort, and one equivalent of ether in the receiver.
   Ether, has,  however, been produced without distillation, or the forma-
 tion of the bi-sulphate of oxide of  ethyle, by using a  larger  proportion
 of alcohol than is  commonly emploj'ed, and causing the reaction  to take
 place in glass  tubes  sealed and exposed for a short time to a temperature
 of 320°.  From which it appears that the theory above given is a ques-
 tionable one.
   In the formula above given for the preparation of ether, the process
 is to be commenced  by using only  a part of the alcohol, and  Avhen de-
 composition has ensued and a portion of ether distilled over, the remain-
 der of the alcohol is to be gradually added, so as to replace that  which,
 during the progress  of the  distillation,  is constantly disappearing by its
 conversion into ether.   If, instead of this course, the whole of the alco-
 hol were added at the  first, a  large portion of it would distil over with
 the ether.  The small amount of acid added to the last portion, is deemed
 advantageous, on account of the weakness  effected in  the  acid  in the
 retort.   The appearance  of the white vapors during  the distillation  is
 indicative of the commencement of new reactions unlike  those  which
generate the ether.  However carefully the process may have been con-
 ducted, the  ether  is usually impregnated with sulphurous  acid,  heavy
oil of Avine, alcohol, and water, and consequently its purification becomes
necessary.   This is accomplished by the addition  of potassa for sulphu- 
^Ethera.
*  1013
 rous acid and water, and water for alcohol, agitating the  crude ether
 with the purifying agent, and redistilling at a gentle heat.
   Ether is a colorless, very mobile, highly refracting liquid, having  a
 penetrating  and sweet  odor, and  a cooling,  pungent, aromatic  taste.
 When  pure it  has  the  specific gravity 0.713, boils  at 95°, forming  a
 vapor of the density 2.586.   It does  not freeze  at  160°  below zero.
 When imperfectly prepared or too long kept, it reddens  litmus  paper,
 but not Avhen pure.   It  is very combustible, and its vapor is apt to form
 dangerous explosive mixtures with air.  When slowly oxidized, it yields
 aldehyde, aldehydic acid, acetic and formic acids.
   For medicinal purposes the density should not be greater than 0.750.
 It is extremely volatile, evaporating speedily in the open air with  the
 production of much cold.   It is highly inflammable, on  which account
 it should never be brought  near a lighted candle, or other flame; water
 and carbonic acid are the products of its combustion.  It is  decomposed
 by too  long keeping, and is partly converted  into  acetic acid.   Iodine
 and bromine are dissolved by it, and sulphur and phosphorus sparingly.
 It also dissolves fixed and volatile oils, many resins and balsams,  caout-
 chouc, tannic acid, and most of the organic vegetable alkalies.  It differs
 from alcohol in  not dissolving potassa or soda ; and it unites with alcohol
 in all proportions.
   Dr. C. F.  Schonbein states that  if a little pure  ether be put  into a
 bottle filled with pure oxygen or  atmospheric air, and exposed to dif-
 fused light, the bottle  being occasionally shaken, the ether,  after  the
 lapse of four months, will have acquired new properties.  Although pro-
 ducing no action upon blue  litmus  paper, it will  discharge the color of
 solution  of indigo, convert  pure phosphorus, Avhen immersed in it, into
 phosphorus acid, eliminate iodine from  iodide of potassium, change pure
 sulphate of protoxide of iron to the basic and acid sulphate  of the deu-
 toxide,  transform  yellow prussiate of potassa into  the red salt, convert
 sulphuret of lead into the sulphate, etc.   Similar  effects are produced
 with oil of turpentine  and oil of lemons, when treated in the same way
 as the ether.  He expresses an opinion that the property which these
 substances thus acquire, is due to the presence of oxygen in a chemically
 exalted  condition.
  Ether is frequently impure from the presence of foreign substances.  If
 the impurity be  an acid, it may be detected by litmus paper, and removed
 by  agitation Avith potassa;  if fixed  substances are  present, they will
 remain upon  the evaporation of the ether.   If heavy oil of wine is the
 impurity,  it may be known by the  milky appearance  of the  ether upon
being agitated with Avater.  In the  officinal ether a portion of alcohol is
generally present, but if there be  too  large a  proportion of it, it will
increase the density  of the ether to too  high a point.  When this  is the
 case,  the alcohol may be removed  by agitating the  ether with twice its
bulk of water; this fluid  unites with the alcohol, and upon resting,  forms 
1014
Pharmacy.
a heavy layer upon which the ether  floats.  The latter may be poured
off, and purified by agitation with fresh burnt lime, and subsequent dis-
tillation.
  Properties and  Uses.—Ether is a powerful diffusible stimulant, and ia
likewise possessed of narcotic, antispasmodic, and expectorant properties.
When applied externally,  and allowed to evaporate, it acts as a refriger-
ant ; but if its  evaporation be repressed, it becomes a powerful rubefa-
cient, and even vesicant.  As a stimulant and  antispasmodic it is used
beneficially in  low fevers  attended  with subsultus  tendinum, nervous
headache, cramp of  the  stomach,  fainting,  asphyxia,  flatulent colic,
gastrodynia,  hysteria, asthma, dyspnoea, palpitation, and gout of the
stomach;  it is also efficacious when given alone, or in combination with
oil of turpentine,  in relieving the pain and spasm caused by the passage
of biliary calculi.  As  an antispasmodic, it will be  found useful in all
forms of spasmodic action, unattended by inflammation,  as chorea, epi-
lepsy, tetanus,  etc.  The dose of ether  is from ten to sixty drops, to be
frequently repeated when  the full effect of the remedy is desired.
  When applied  locally as a  refrigerant, allowing it to evaporate, it is
useful  in nervous and other headaches,  in  external  inflammations,
strangulated  hernia, etc.  As a rubefacient, it may be employed in all
cases where  this  effect is indicated, by checking its evaporation.
  The virtues of  many agents containing vegetable oils and resins, may
be taken up by ether  in the form of tincture,  when, by evaporating the
ether, the desired  active  product is  left behind; this  is  the case with
lobelia seeds, capsicum, Scutellaria, podophyllum, ptelea, stillingia, xan-
thoxylon berries, iris, and several other officinal  preparations.   Under
the name of Letheon, ether  is sometimes employed as  an anaesthetic
agent, for the prevention and removal of pain  and  spasm, and Avhenever
severe operations  are about being performed.  It has also been employed
in this manner, in severe dysmenorrhea, as Avell as during parturition.
To use it, a soft sponge, hollowed out on one side,  is saturated with pure
ether—this is applied to the nostrils of the patient, and inhaled by him;
at first a short cough  is generally produced, which soon disappears, and
in from two to  five minutes, or Avhen about two fluidounces of ether have
been expended, the anaesthetic effect takes place.  A feeble and slow
pulse during  its use, or convulsions, indicate its discontinuance, and  in
the latter case, a free application of cold water.  To produce anaesthesia
chloroform is more commonly preferred.   The practice of frequently
inhaling ether is  dangerous, often causing inflammation of the brain,  or
inanity.
   Off. Prep.—Lotio ^Etheris Composita. 
Preparations of Ammonia.
1015
                 PREPARATIONS OF  AMMONIA.

    Ammonite  Carbonas.    Carbonate of Ammonia.  Sesquicarbonate of
 Ammonia.  Mild VolatUe  Alkali.
    Preparation.—Take of Muriate of Ammonia a pound;  Carbonate of
 Lime, (Chalk)  dried, a pound and a half.  Pulverize them separately,
 then mix them thoroughly,  and  sublime with a  gradually  increasing
 heat, from an earthenware retort, into a receiver kept cold.— U. S.
    History.—By the above process the  following reactions happen; the
 muriatic  acid unites with  the  lime, forming  chloride of calcium  and
 water, while the carbonic acid unites with the  ammonia producing car-
 bonate of ammonia.  During sublimation  the carbonate and water pass
 off together as  a hydrated carbonate  of ammonia, and the chloride of
 calcium is left behind.   The  retort used  in  this process should have  a
 wide cylindrical neck, and for the purpose of facilitating the  extraction
 of the sublimate, the receiver should be cylindrical.   One equivalent of
 chalk, and one of  muriate  of  ammonia,  mutually  decompose each
 other, but, as in the above formula, when an excess of  chalk is added it
 causes  a perfect decomposition  of the muriate of  ammonia,  without
 which, a  portion of this latter salt would sublime also, and thereby ren-
 der the carbonate impure.
   On the large  scale, carbonate of ammonia is prepared by sublimation
 of the materials employed, from  an iron  pot, into  a  large earthen or
 leaden receiver.  It may be manufactured from sulphate  of  ammonia,
 and indirectly, from gas-liquor, and bone-spirit.
   Carbonate of ammonia is  usually  met  with  in  white,  translucent,
 fibrous and somewhat crystalline masses, moderately hard, of a power-
 ful ammoniacal  odor, and a strong, penetrating, alkaline and ammoniacal
 taste.  When exposed to the air, it gradually becomes opake and friable,
 loses ammonia, and falls to a powder of bicarbonate of ammonia.  It is
 soluble in about four times its weight of cold Avater, and abundantly so
 in diluted alcohol; boiling water  decomposes it, disengaging ammonia
 with effervescence.  Acids decompose it, as do likewise the fixed  alka-
 lies and their  carbonates, lime-water, magnesia, solution of chloride of
calcium, alum, acid salts, solutions of iron, corrosive sublimate, acetate,
and subacetate of lead, and sulphates of iron, and zinc.
   It is sometimes, from faulty preparation,  rendered  impure by the pre-
sence of the sulphate or muriate  of ammonia; the  former may be de-
tected by  the solution, when neutralized with nitric acid, giving a white
precipitate with  chloride  of barium, and the latter,  by the  neutralized
solution yielding a precipitate with nitrate of silver.   If turmeric  paper
held over  it, undergoes no change, it has passed into  the bicarbonate.
   Carbonate of ammonia consists  of two equivalents of ammonia 34.3,
three of carbonic acid 66.36, and two of water 18=118.39. 
1016
Pharmacy.
   Properties and Uses.—In large doses carbonate of ammonia is a pow-
erful narcotic and irritating poison ; in small doses it is an energetic dif-
fusible stimulant, diaphoretic, antispasmodic, and antacid.   As  a stimu-
lant it is used in low stages of continued fever, in which it augments the
action of the heart and arteries  without producing  an  undue excitement
of the brain, for which purpose it is also employed,  as well as for its
antacid  properties, in atonic gout, and in derangements of the stomach
arising  from dissipation.   In  conjunction with guaiacum, it has  proved
beneficial in  chronic rheumatism.  It has also proved  very beneficial in
epilepsy, chorea, and scrofula, especially when attended with much acid-
ity of the stomach.  It has likewise proved serviceable in some cases of
diabetes.   It is rarely employed as  an  emetic in cases of  paralysis in
the dose of thirty or forty grains.  It  is much  used as a stimulant in
hysteria and fainting, combined Avith  some aromatic oil, and known as
Smelling  Salts.   Externally it is a gentle rubefacient,  but is seldom em-
ployed in this Avay.   The dose is from five to twenty grains every three
or four hours, in the form of pill, or dissolved in some aqueous  vehicle.
   Ammonite  Liquor.   Liquor Ammoniae.   Aqua Ammoniae.  Solution
of Ammonia.  Water of Ammonia.
   Preparation.—Take of  Muriate of Ammonia, in very fine  powder, a
pound;  Lime, recently burnt, a ]->ound and a half; Distilled Water a
pint; Water nine fluidounces.  Break the lime in  pieces, and pour the
water upon it, in an  earthen or  iron vessel; then cover the vessel, and
set it aside till the lime falls  into powder, and becomes cold.  Mix this
thoroughly with the  Muriate of  Ammonia, in a mortar, and immediately
introduce the mixture into  a glass retort.  Place the retort upon a sand-
bath, and  adapt  to  it a receiver, previously connected, by means  of a
glass  tube, with a  quart  bottle, containing the distilled water.  Then
apply heat, to be gradually increased till the  bottom  of the iron vessel
containing the sand becomes red-hot; and continue the process  so long
as the ammonia comes over.   Remove the liquor contained in the quart
bottle, and for every fluidounce  of it add three and a half fluidrachms of
Distilled water, or so much as may be necessary to  raise its specific  gra-
vity to 0.96,  and preserve it in small  vials well stopped.   Or it  may  be
prepared  by combining one  part, by measure, of Stronger Solution  of
Ammonia, with two  parts of  Distilled Water.— U.  S.
  History.—In the  above process the  muriatic acid  of the ammonia
having a greater affinity for the  lime, combines with it forming chloride
of calcium and water, while the  ammonia is set free, and passes  into the
receiver, where it is  absorbed by the water.  With  this absorption there
is an augmentation of the bulk  of the fluid in the receiver, hence the
receiver should be larger than  required to hold the  exact amount  of
water.   Equal weights  of muriate of ammonia and lime are sufficient
for the  production of the ammoniacal gas, but  by the  addition of an 
Preparations of  Ammonia.
1017
 excess of lime, the complete decomposition of the  muriate of ammonia
 is insured.
   Water is capable of absorbing 670 times  its volume of ammoniacal
 gas at 50°, at the same time increasing its bulk about two-thirds.  In
 the above process  it contains about ten per  cent,  of ammonia.   When
 prepared on a large scale, it is  usually obtained from  the sulphate of
 ammonia.
   Liquor ammonia is a colorless, strongly alkaline liquid, having a pecu-
 liar, pungent odor, and a caustic, acrid  taste.  It is  incompatible with
 acids, acidulous, and most earthy and  metallic salts, and is much used
 for various  pharmaceutical purposes.  The  salts  of lime, baryta, and
 strontia,  are not decomposed by it, and those of magnesia only partially.
 Lime-water causes a precipitate  if the ammonia  be partly carbonated.
 Upon neutralizing it with nitric acid, it will yield no precipitate, if pure,
 with chloride of barium, carbonate of ammonia, or nitrate of silver; if
 the first  occasions  a precipitate,  it indicates the presence of sulphuric
 acid, or  a sulphate; if  the second, earthy matter is present; and if the
 third produces a precipitate, muriatic acid, or a muriate is indicated.  A
 large proportion  of the liquor ammonia  of commerce  is obtained from
 coal-gas  liquor, and is liable to contain pyrrol, naphtuline, and other im-
 purities.   These may be distinguished by nitric acid, which reddens the
 solution,  and by the liquor imparting a rich purple color to a strip of
 fir  Avood, after having been  previously  supersaturated with  muriatic
 acid.
  Properties and  Uses. — Liquor ammonia  is a powerful  irritant  and
 narcotic  poison,  producing  in  large  doses tetanus and coma, and in
 smaller quantity inflammation or ulceration.   In  medicinal  doses it is
 stimulant, sudorific, antacid, and  rubefacient.   It more  especially stimu-
 lates the  heart and arteries, without unduly exciting the brain.   As an
 antacid it has been  used in acidity of the stomach, sick-headache caused
by acid stomach, heartburn, etc.   It has likewise been  used as a stimu-
lant and  antispasmodic in neuralgia  of   the  face and head, asthma,
pertussis, and  delirium-tremens  ; and is highly  recommended  as an
internal stimulant in cases of retrocession  of old and obstinate cutaneous
eruptions.   Applied to the nostrils, it is sometimes beneficial in syncope,
asphyxia, hysteria, and similar affections  ; and has been  recommended
 as a rubefacient  application to burns.  It  is employed  externally  in the
 form of liniment,  combined with  oils, as a rubefacient.   I have used the
liquor  ammonia  successfully in  the  treatment  of hydrophobia, an
account of which  will be found in the  Western  Medical Reformer, Vol.
VI, October, 1846, No. 4, page  83.   The dose of liquor ammonia is
from ten to thirty  drops,  largely diluted with  water, to  prevent its
 caustic influence on the  mouth and throat.   When SAvallowed undiluted,
or in an overdose,  it acts as a corrosive poison, and the  best antidotes to 
1018
Pharmacy.
its dangerous effects are vinegar or lemon-juice, Avhich must be promptly
administered;  they act by neutralizing the ammonia.
   Off. Prep.— Linimentum Ammonite ;  Linimentum Capsici Composi-
tum ;  Linimentum Saponis Camphoratum.
  Ammonite Liquor  Fortior.   Liquor  Ammonite  Fortior.   Stronger
Solution of Ammonia.
  Preparation.—The process for  obtaining this is similar to that em-
ployed in procuring the Liquor Ammonia,  the difference consisting only
in the specific  gravities of the two solutions, that of the present stronger
solution being 0.882.
  History.—Its properties are very similar to those of the Liquor Ammo-
nia,  being,  however, more highly  caustic,  acrid, and alkaline.  Its
impurities are  also similarly distinguished.   In purchasing or  preparing
the solutions of ammonia, the apothecary  should always ascertain their
densities by the hydrometer ; the stronger solution should be 0.882, the
officinal solution 0.96.  Both of these solutions should  be kept  in small
vials, and well stopped, as they rapidly  lose their ammoniacal  strength
by contact with the atmosphere.
  Properties and Uses.—Undiluted, this  solution of  ammonia is entirely
too strong  for medicinal use.   Its principal employment is externally as
a rubefacient, vesicant, and caustic.  The vesicating ammoniacal oint-
ment of Dr. Gondret  is prepared as  folloAvs: melt together by  a gentle
heat,  thirty-two parts of lard and two parts of oil  of  sweet  almonds,
and  pour the melted mixture  into  a bottle Avith  a  wide mouth.  Then
add  seventeen parts  of solution  of  ammonia of 25°, and mix, with
continued  agitation,  until  the  Avhole  is  cold.   Preserve in  ground-
stopper bottles, and in  a  cool  place.  If well prepared, it will vesicate
in ten minutes.
  Liquor Ammonite Acetatis.   Ammonite Acetatis Liquor.   Solution
of Acetate of Ammonia.  Spirit of Mindererus.
   Preparation.—Take of Diluted Acetic  Acid a pint; Carbonate of Am-
monia, in powder, a sufficient quantity.  Add the Carbonate of Ammonia
gradually to the Acid, stirring  constantly, until effervescence ceases.
The Diluted Acetic Acid, directed  in this formula, is  to be made by
mixing together Acetic Acid (sp. gr. 1.041) a pint, with Distilled Water
seven pints.
   This liquor may likewise be made by  dissolving Carbonate of Ammo-
nia one scruple, in Distilled Water seven fluidounces, and then gradually
adding Acetic Acid,  with  frequent agitation, a sufficient quantity, until
saturation, which is known by the cessation of  effervescence.  Owing to
the unequal strength of the acetic  acid  of commerce, the latter is the
more definite  formula.
   History.—In this process the carbonate of ammonia  is decomposed
by the  acetic acid, the carbonic  acid being evolved with effervescence, 
Preparations of Ammonia.
1019
while the acid unites with the ammonia, forming an acetate of-ammonia;
the result of  this action is  an aqueous solution of acetate  of ammonia.
The point  at  which saturation is  reached may be  ascertained by the
alternate use  of litmus and turmeric paper;  and it is recommended to
allow a slight acidity to prevail, which is OAving to a small amount of car-
bonic acid being dissolved in the liquid, but which will become removed
by time.
  Solution  of acetate of ammonia is a transparent and colorless liquid,
with scarcely  any odor, and a faint, mawkish, saline taste, but bitter
when it contains an excess of alkali.   It  is very apt  to spoil, and hence
should be made only in small quantities at a time.   It may be readily
known by setting free acetous acid on the addition of sulphuric, and by
giving an ammoniacal odor on the  addition of caustic potassa; solution
of sulphate of iron renders  it reddish-brown.  When evaporated in
vacuo, very deliquescent crystals may be  obtained.   The pure solution
is not colored by hydrosulphuric  acid, nor precipitated by chloride of
barium.  Sulphureted  hydrogen occasions a black precipitate if copper
or lead enters into the solution; nitrate of baryta causes a white precipi-
tate if sulphuric acid be present;  and nitrate of  silver a white precipi-
tate if muriatic acid be present.
  If the solution of acetate of ammonia is kept ready prepared in the
shop, it should be left slightly acidulated; and when  dispensed a small
particle of carbonate of ammonia should be added to impregnate it anew
with the  carbonic acid gas which exhales by standing.
  Solution  of acetate of ammonia is incompatible with  acids, the fixed
alkalies and their carbonates, lime-water, magnesia, sulphate of magne-
sia, corrosive  sublimate, the  sulphates  of iron, copper, and  zinc,  and
nitrate of silver.
  Mr. W. S. Merrell recommends the following preparation as an elegant
and pleasant anodyne, and diaphoretic in  fevers, worthy the notice of the
profession; he calls it Liquor Amnion. Acetat. et Morphiae: Take of Solu-
tion  of Acetate of  Ammonia  one fluidrachm; Acetate  of  Morphia one
grain;  Syrup  of Lemon one fluidrachm; mix together.  The  dose is
from  half a fluidrachm to a fluidrachm, to be taken in water.  Each
fluidrachm  contains one-eighth of a grain of acetate of morphia.

  Properties and Uses.—Solution of  acetate of ammonia is diaphoretic
and diuretic, and is used in febrile and inflammatory diseases.  Ii proves
diuretic Avhen the  patient is kept cool, and diaphoretic Avhen he is kept
warm.  Externally, it has been used as  an application, on  hot flannel,
to mumps,  and likewise applied, by compresses kept  constantly moist, in
the hydrocele of children.  In chronic ophthalmia, it forms an excellent
collyrium, in  the quantity of one fluidounce to seven fluidounces of rose-
water, and two fluidrachms of  laudanum.  In porrigo  of  the scalp, it
has been effectual, used as a lotion.   The dose is from half an ounce to 
1020
Pharmacy.
one and a half fluidounces, every three or four hours, mixed with sweet-
ened Avater.
   Off. Prep.—Lotio ^Etheris Composita.
                      AQU^E MEDICATE.
                         Medicated Waters.
  These consist  of water variously impregnated  with  some  medicinal
substance; and as Eclectics occasionally employ them, a brief reference
to them will be necessary.
  When water is distilled from aromatic plants, it acquires their peculiar
flavor  as well as a portion  of  their  medicinal  qualities; this  is chiefly
owing  to  the  volatile oil of the plants  rising Avith the aqueous vapor
and condensing with it in the receiver; but from the incapability of water
holding much  oil in solution, these preparations are  generally possessed
of but little strength.   The most simple and easy  process for the prepa-
ration  of medicated waters, is to impregnate distilled water with  the
volatile oil  by  trituration  with carbonate of magnesia, and then filtering;
this course is now generally pursued in the preparation of most aromatic
waters.  The  object of the  carbonate of magnesia is to cause the oil to
be more minutely divided,  that it  may present a larger surface to the
action of the solvent.   Other agents have been recommended  for  this
purpose, as finely poAvdered glass or silica, porcelain-clay, and pumice-
stone.   It  is very important that pure  distilled Avater be  used  in  the
preparation of medicated waters,  as  any other  may contain  articles
which will  decompose or destroy the virtues of the oil.
  Aqua Acidi Carbonici.  Carbonic Acid Water.   Soda Water.  Mine-
ral  Water.   Artificial Seltzer Water.
  Preparation. — By  means of a forcing-pump,  throw into a suitable
receiver, nearly filled with Avater, a quantity of Carbonic Acid Gas equal
to five  times the bulk of  the water.   Carbonic acid gas is obtained from
powdered marble by means of  dilute sulphuric acid.— U. S.
  History.—Under common  atmospheric pressure, water takes up its
volume of  carbonic acid gas;  if the pressure  be  doubled, the quantity
of the  gas absorbed will also be doubled,  and so on.  Consequently, in
saturating the water as above, with five  times its volume of carbonic acid
gas,  it  must be subjected to a pressure of five atmospheres.
  Carbonic acid water is a sparkling liquid, having a pleasant, pungent,
and  slightly acidulous taste.   It is known familiarly by the name of
"soda Avater," or, when put up in  bottles and mixed with syrups of
various kinds, as  " mineral water."   The vessels which contain it should
be kept  in a  cold  place, and  be perfectly tight,  otherwise  the gas will
escape and the  water lose  its briskness.  Too much  care cannot be
taken to avoid metallic  impurities, especially of lead.  The first daily 
Aqu^e Medicate.                     1021
draught of carbonic acid water, from a fountain furnished with tubes of
lead, should  invariably be throAvn  away, as its use  might give rise to
unpleasant symptoms.
   Carbonic acid, formerly called fixed air, is a colorless gas, of an  odor
someAvhat  subacid  and pungent, and  a slight acidulous taste.   It  com-
bines with salifiable bases, forming salts which are called Carbonates, and
from which it is driven off by all the  strong acids.   It reddens  litmus,
although the blue  color is restored by boiling, the gas being given off.
It extinguishes flame, and is quickly fatal when inhaled.  If a light be
introduced  into a well, pit, mine, or other place, it will  burn dimly or be
extinguished if this gas be present, and the  air of such place will cer-
tainly destroy life if respired.   Its specific gravity is 1.527; and it is so
much  heavier  than air that it may  be  poured  from one vessel  into
another.  The  sparkling  and effervescing properties of many kinds of
wine, beer, cider, etc.,  are owing to the presence  of  carbonic acid gas.
It is liquefied  by a pressure of 36 atmospheres; and is solidified by
removing the pressure, and allowing  the gas, which  almost instantly
evaporates, to escape through a jet; this produces such a degree  of cold
as to freeze a part of the gas into a white solid like snow.  When car-
bonic acid  has accumulated in cellars or other places, so as to render
them fatal to animal life, it may be removed by sprinkling about some
liquor ammoniac;  this combines with the carbonic acid to form  carbonate
of ammonia,  and fresh air rushes in to fill up the space  produced by the
condensation  of the acid.   It is  composed of one equivalent of carbon 6,
and  tAvo of oxygen  16=22;  its  formula is CO2.
   Properties and Uses.—Carbonic acid water is diaphoretic, diuretic, and
anti-emetic.  It forms a pleasant drink in fevers, allaving thirst,  lessen-
ing nausea and gastric uneasiness, and promoting diuresis.  It may be
administered four  or  five times daily in doses  of from three  to six
fluidounces.
   Aqua Ammonias.  (See Ammoniae Liquor.)
   Aqua Amygdalae Amar^e.  Bitter Almond Water.
   Preparation.—Rub Essential Oil of Bitter Almonds sixteen minims,
with Carbonate of Magnesia one drachm,  and gradually add, while con-
tinuing  the trituration, Distilled  Water  two pints;  filter through  paper.
   History.—This preparation is very liable to  spontaneous decomposi-
tion, and should, therefore,  be  prepared  only in  small quantities  at  a
time, or as  required for use.   If a  drop of sulphuric  acid be added to  a
pint  of  the mixture, and it  be kept closely stopped and excluded  from
the light and air, it may be preserved for a long time.  This is a pre-
ferable preparation  to that made by distilling bitter almonds with water,
which is much stronger than that made according  to the above formula,
and  has been prescribed with fatal effects. 
1022
Pharmacy.
   Properties and Uses.—It is a sedative, affecting the system similarly
to medicinal hydrocyanic  acid, and has been employed alone, and in
combination  with other  agents,  in  nervous cough,  and various  spas-
modic affections.  The dose of it, when freshly made, is two fluidrachms,
which  may be carefully and  gradually  increased  to six  or  eight
fluidrachms, and Avhich may  be repeated two or three times daily.
   Aqua Calcis.   Lime-Water.
   Preparation.—Add about four ounces of Unslaked  Lime to Distilled
Water one gallon.   Stir it up well, and then set it aside for three or four
hours.  Then pour off the clear liquor as it may be wanted.
   History.—This is a solution of  lime in water, and may be made with
pure  spring or river water, instead  of distilled water.  Water  dissolves
but a very small proportion of lime, and  in larger quantity when cold
than when hot; hence the propriety of employing cold water in the pro-
cess.   Lime-water is colorless, inodorous, and of a disagreeable alkaline
taste;  it forms an imperfect soap with oils, and  changes vegetable blues
to green.   It attracts carbonic acid from  the atmosphere, Avith the for-
mation of  carbonate of lime, on which account it should be kept in closely
stopped bottles, or  what is more convenient, in bottles containing an
excess of  lime.
   Properties and Uses. — Lime-water  is  antacid, anti-lithic,  tonic, and
astringent.  It has been  recommended  in epilepsy,  palpitation of  the
heart, and spasmodic  diseases generally, accompanied  with  acidity of
stomach, also in painful affections  of the  stomach dependent on disor-
dered digestion, as pyrosis and gastrodynia.   It is likeAvise beneficial in
chronic dysentery and diarrhea, and diabetes, especially Avhen given in
combination with a decoction  of white oak-bark.   In dyspepsia, phthisis,
and other forms of disease, where from acidity of the  stomach the usual
food is rejected, or if retained gives rise to much uneasiness and unplea-
sant symptoms, one part  of  lime-water  added to three  parts of  good
SAveet milk,  has been found useful both as medicine and  diet.   A table-
spoonful of lime-water will often allay vomiting.   It has been advan-
tageously  used as an injection in gleet, gonorrhea, leucorrhea, ulceration,
and increased discharges  from the bladder; in all instances during the
absence of inflammation.   Externally, it has been applied as  a Avash in
tinea capitis, scabies, foul  and gangrenous ulcers, and when mixed with
linseed oils forms a liniment of much value in burns and scalds.  It has
frequently been employed as a vermifuge in combination with worm-
seed oil, or some other anthelmintics.  If its use be too long continued,
it debilitates the stomach.  An overdose produces unpleasant symptoms;
the remedies for which are bland and mucilaginous drinks.   The dose
of lime-water is from four fluidrachms to four fluidounces; it is best taken
in an equal measure of milk.
   Off. Prep.—Linimentum Calcis. 
Aqu^e Medicate.
1023
   Aqua  Camphorae.   Camphor Water.
   Preparation. — Triturate Camphor  two drachms  with Alcohol forty
 minims, then  add Carbonate  of Magnesia four drachms,  and continue
 the  trituration,  and finally, gradually  add Distilled Water two pints;
 when all is well rubbed together, filter  through paper.
   History.—By the above  process  one  fluidounce of water is made  to
 contain over  three grains of camphor.  The first  trituration with the
 alcohol, deprives the camphor of its cohesiveness, and renders it more
 readily pulverizable, and  the  subsequent trituration with  carbonate  of
 magnesia effects a very minute  division of it, so that a permanent solu-
 tion of camphor is obtained, of sufficient strength to exert an influence
 on the system.  The filtration separates the magnesia.
   Properties and Uses.—Camphor water is chiefly  used in low fevers
 and typhoid conditions, for the purpose of quieting restlessness and other
 symptoms of  nervous  derangement or  debility.   It  has also  been em-
 ployed  to  allay uterine after-pains, and in  all cases where camphor  is
 indicated.  The dose is from half a fluidounce to two fluidounces repeated
 every one or two hours.
   Off. Prep.—Mistura  Camphorae Composita.
   Aqua Cinnamomi.   Cinnamon Water.
   Preparation.—Triturate Oil  of Cinnamon  half a fluidrachm with Car-
 bonate of Magnesia a drachm, and  then with Distilled Water two pints,
 to be gradually added ;  finally filter through paper.
   Properties  and Uses. — Cinnamon water should  be cautiously used  in
 inflammatory complaints.   It is useful in passive hemorrhage from the
 lungs, stomach,  kidneys, or uterus,  and  in chronic diarrhea and dysen-
 tery; and  is  much employed  as  a vehicle for  other  less agreeable
 medicines.   It will sometimes allay vomiting.   The dose  is from two
 fluidrachms to two fluidounces.
   Aqua Destillata.   Distilled Water.
   Preparation.— In a  clean  retort kept only for this  purpose, place
Water  ten  gallons.   First distil  two pints and throw them  away; then
distil eight gallons.   Keep the Distilled water  in  glass  bottles, well
stopped.
   History.—Distilled water, although not a medicated water,  is intro-
duced here, partly to avoid a separate place for it, and partly on account
of its extensive employment in  the preparation of medicated waters.   For
medicinal  purposes, distilled water  should undergo  no change  by sul-
phureted hydrogen, nor on the  addition of tincture of soap, subacetate
of lead, chloride  of barium, oxalate of ammonia, nitrate of silver, or lime-
water, and  should evaporate without residue.  In many pharmaceutical
and  chemical  processes, distilled Avater is very essential, while in others
pure spring or river, or rain Avater will be  sufficient.  As the first portion of 
1024                       Pharmacy.
water which comes over during distillation is apt to  contain carbonic
acid, or other volatile impurity, it is commonly rejected.   For the pro-
perties and uses of Avater, see Aqua in Part I.
  Aqua  Mentha  Piperita.  Peppermint Water.
  Preparation. — Triturate  Oil of  Peppermint half a fluidrachm, with
Carbonate of Magnesia  a  drachm,  then Avith  Distilled Water two pints,
to be gradually added ;  finally, filter through paper.
  Properties and  Uses.—Peppermint water is used as an antispasmodic
and carminative, in  flatulence and flatulent colic, to allay nausea and
A'omiting, and  as  a gentle  aromatic  stimulant.  The  dose is from four
fluidrachms to two fluidounces, three or four, or more times  a day.
   Off. Prep.—Mistura  Camphorae Composita.
  Aqua  Mentha Viridis.  Spearmint Water.
  Preparation.—Triturate Oil of Spearmint half a fluidrachm, with Car-
bonate of Magnesia a drachm,  then with Distilled  Water two  pints, to be
gradually added; finally, filter through paper.
  Properties and Uses.—Similar to those of peppermint water, to which
some persons prefer it.  The dose is also the same.
   Off. Prep.—Mistura Camphorae  Composita.
  Aqua  Picis  Liquids.  Tar Water.
  Preparation.—Take of Tar two  pints, Boiling Water a gallon.  Mix
together, and stir with  a wooden rod  for fifteen  minutes.   When cold,
and the  tar has subsided, strain the liquor and keep it in well stopped
bottles.
  Properties and Uses.—Tar Avater is stimulant and diuretic, and  exerts
an influence more especially on mucous membranes, hence  it has been
found useful in chronic catarrhal and urinary affections, in doses of one
or two pints daily.  Sometimes tar Avater is prepared in pulmonary affec-
tions,  as  above-named, Avith  an addition of Honey  two pints.  Externally,
it is useful  as a Avash in several chronic cutaneous diseases.
  Aqua  Piment^e.  Pimento  Water.
  Preparation.—Triturate Oil of Pimento two fluidrachms, with PoAvdered
Silex two drachms, then  with Distilled Water one gallon, to be gradually
added ; finally, filter through paper.
  Properties and Uses.—Carminative in the  dose of one  or two fluid-
ounces.
  Aqua  Hedeom,e Pulegioides.   Pennyroyal Water.
  Preparation.—Triturate Oil  of American Pennyroyal half a fluidrachm,
with Carbonate of Magnesia  a drachm, then with Distilled Water two
pints, to be gradually added ;  finally, filter through paper.
  Properties and Uses. — Pennyroyal water may  be used  for  the same
purposes and in the  same doses as peppermint and spearmint waters, to
which  some persons prefer it. 
Cataplasmata.
1025
   Aqua Ros^e.   Rose Water.
   Preparation.—To the fresh petals of Hundred-leaved  Roses  eight
pounds, add Water two gallons.   Distil one gallon.
   History.—When  thus  prepared rose water has the fragrance of the
rose in great perfection ;  but  is liable to spoil by long keeping, especially
if exposed to the action of light and air.  It may also be  prepared in
the  same manner as pursued for Cinnamon Water;  or  by  distilling
together water and the oil  of roses.
   Properties and Uses.—Rose water is destitute of any irritating proper-
ties, and is  much used in  collyria and other lotions,  chiefly on account
of its agreeable  odor; applied to the eye, it has a slightly stimulating
and  cooling influence.
   Aqua Sambuci.  Elder Flower Water.
   Preparation. — To  Fresh Elder Flowers ten pounds,  add Water two
gallons, distil one gallon.
   Elder flowers  yield very little oil;  the Avater  distilled from them is
sometimes used in collyria and other lotions.
   N. B.  Medicated  Waters are frequently mau by adding  to a few
pounds of the leaves or flowers of the  article required, six or seven fluid-
ounces of  proof spirit, and  two gallons of water; from which one gallon
is distilled.   In  this  way  was  formerly obtained nearly  all  of these
preparations, but the processes given  above, are now esteemed the  best.
Aqua Florum  Aurantii,  Orange  Flower Water, Aqua Fceniculi, Fennel
Water, Aqua Menthee Piperitae,  Peppermint Water, Aqua Mentha)  Viri-
dis,  Spearmint Water, together  with  several  others  may  be  procured
from the plant  or flowers, by the mode of distillation just referred to.
                       CATAPLASMATA.
                            Cataplasms.
  Cataplasms or poultices are substances intended for local application;
they are always moist,  and of a consistence  not to adhere firmly to the
skin, nor to  spread  over the parts  adjacent to their  application.   They
are  of various kinds ;  some are discutient,  others  favor  suppuration ;
some again are refrigerant, and others emollient, or  stimulating.   They
are  usually  applied tepid or warm, and  should not  be allowed to dry
previous to being renewed.
  Cataplasma Carbonis.   Charcoal  Cataplasm.
  Preparation.—Macerate Bread, two ounces, with Water ten fluidounces,
for a short lime near the fire ; then gradually add  and mix with it  Pow-
dered Flaxseed  ten drachms, stirring so as  to make a soft cataplasm.
With this mix Powdered Charcoal two drachms, and  when  prepared for
application, sprinkle one drachm of  charcoal on the surface of the  cata-
plasm.
         65 
1026
Pharmacy.
  Properties and Uses.—As recently prepared charcoal absorbs the prin-
ciples on which the offensive odor of putrid animal matter  depends,  this
cataplasm will be found an excellent application to foul and gangrenous
ulcers, correcting their fetor, and improving their condition.   It should
be renewed two or three times in every tAventy-four hours.
  Cataplasma Dauci.   Carrot  Cataplasm.
  Preparation.—Take of  Garden  Carrots, scraped, four ounces, Indian-
meal  one ounce, Boiling Water a sufficient quantity to form a  cataplasm
of the proper consistence.
  Properties and Uses.—This will be  found a valuable  application to
indolent and gangrenous ulcers,  and painful tumors.
  Cataplasma Fermenti.   Yeast Cataplasm.
  Preparation.—To one pint of Milk, tepid, add Yeast four fluidounces,
and fine Slippery Elm bark a sufficient quantity to form a cataplasm of
the proper consistence.
  Properties and  Uses.—This is valuable  as an  antiseptic application.
It will be found especially serviceable in gangrenous ulcerations,  the
fetor of Avhich it corrects, while it hastens the suppuration of the slough.
  Cataplasma Lini.   Flaxseed  Cataplasm.
  Preparation.—To Boiling Water ten fluidounces, add gradually, Pow-
dered  Flaxseed four ounces and a half, or a sufficient quantity ; stir con-
stantly, so as to make a cataplasm.
  Properties and Uses.—This forms a convenient emollient poultice, to
relieve the tense condition of the vessels in inflammation, and to promote
suppuration.  Fresh lard, or olive oil spread  over its surface, will pre-
serve its softness, and prevent it from adhering to the skin.
  Cataplasma Lobeliae.  Lobelia Cataplasm.
  Preparation.—To equal parts by weight of Powdered Lobelia and
fine Elm bark,  add a sufficient quantity of weak Ley, Avarm,  to  form a
cataplasm.
  Properties and Uses.—This forms  an excellent application to felons,
white-swelling, wounds,  fistula,  inflammation  of  the breast and  other
parts, stings of insects, erysipelatous inflammations, and painful swellings
or ulcerations.   It should be frequently renewed.
  Cataplasma  Oxycocci.   Cranberry  Cataplasm.
  Preparation. — Take of  ripe  Cranberries any quantity, and  bruise
them  to form a cataplasm.
  Properties and Uses.—Applied  around the  throat in quinsy, and in
swelling of the glands of the  throat in scarlatina and other diseases, I
know of no more useful agent;  its action is very prompt, relieving in a
few hours.   It has been likewise reputed useful in cancerous ulcers, ery-
sipelatous inflammations, and gouty-rheumatism. 
Cerata.
1027
   Cataplasma Phytolacca.  Poke-root Cataplasm.
   Preparation.—Place fresh Poke-root in hot ashes to roast, when suffi-
ciently done, mash it, and form a cataplasm.
   Properties and Uses.—This may be applied to all kinds of tumors in
order to discuss them; or if they be too  far advanced, it will hasten
suppuration.  In the latter instance its action is accompanied with much
pain.   It is especially valuable in  tumors of an indolent character,  as
bubos.  It should be renewed two or three  times a day.
   Cataplasma Stramonii.   Stramonium Cataplasm.
   Preparation.—Take of the fresh Leaves  of Stramonium any quantity,
bruise them, and add a small quantity of hot Water to form a sufficiently
moist cataplasm.
   Properties and Uses.—I have found this  a decidedly efficacious  appli-
cation in peritoneal  inflammation,  the whole abdomen is to be  covered
with it; likewise in acute rheumatism, and in gastro-intestinal inflamma-
tions.  Applied to the perineum in enlargement of the prostate, for  the
purpose of securing  the passage of the  catheter in case of retention  of
urine, when it cannot otherwise be entered  into the bladder,  I know of
no better  agent—it should remain  on the parts about an hour, before
attempting the introduction of the  catheter.  It will  be found valuable
in all  rheumatic or neuralgic pains.
   Cataplasma Ulmi.  Elm Cataplasm.
   Preparation.—Take of Powdered Elm bark a sufficient quantity ; stir
it in hot Water, or Milk and Water, to the consistence of a cataplasm.
   Properties and Uses.—This cataplasm is  of almost universal  applica-
tion, and is superior, in many respects, to every other.  As an  applica-
tion to painful swellings, inflammations,  ulcerations, and to facilitate the
separation of the slough produced by  caustics, and for various other
purposes, it stands, and justly too,  in high repute among Eclectic physi-
cians.
                             CERATA.

                              Cerates.
  These are substances of an  unctuous character, and are usually com-
posed of lard or oil combined by means of heat with wax, spermaceti, or
resin, and to which various medicinal agents are often added.  They have
a consistence between those of ointments and plasters, and at the ordinary
temperature of the atmosphere, are capable of being spread upon linen
or leather, by means of a spatula ; and when applied to the surface of the
body, they do  not  melt or run.   In  the preparation  of cerates,  the
apothecary should be very cautious not to employ oil or lard which pos-
sesses the slightest degree of rancidity;  fresh and sweet articles of this 
1028
Pharmacy.
kind must alone be used.  A gentle heat will be sufficient  to  effect the
fusion, and this is best obtained by means of a water bath;  and when
the mixture is  cooling, it should be constantly stirred, and the portions
which concrete on the sides of the vessel should be  removed  from time
to time, and  mixed thoroughly with the more fluid portion,  until the
whole attains the proper consistence.  In the preparation of a large quan-
tity of cerate, it is better to  heat the vessel in which the cooling takes
place,  previous to pouring in the mixture, so that  the  portion  next the
vessel may not cool too suddenly and render the mixture  less uniform in
its consistence.
   Ceratum  Calamine.   Calamine Cerate.   Turner's  Cerate.
   Preparation.—Take of  Yellow Wax  three ounces, Lard one  pound,
melt them together, and when upon cooling they begin to thicken, add
Prepared  Calamine three  ounces, and stir  the mixture constantly until
cool.
   Properties and Uses.—This  cerate is mildly astringent, and  may be
used in excoriations and superficial  ulcerations, produced by irritating
secretions, chafing of the skin, burns, scalds, or other causes.
   Ceratum Cetacei.   Spermaceti Cerate.
   Preparation.—Melt  together White Wax three ounces, and Spermaceti
one ounce; then add of Olive Oil, previously heated,  six fluidounces, and
stir the mixture until cool.
   Properties  and Uses.—This cerate is employed as a mild dressing for
blisters,  wounds, and excoriations;  and  as  the basis of more active
preparations.
   Ceratum Crotonis.  Croton Oil Cerate.
   Preparation.—Melt  Lard five ounces, with White Wax one ounce, and
when nearly  cool, add  Croton Oil two ounces, and stir until cool.
   Properties  and Uses.—Croton oil cerate is a rubefacient and A-esicant,
and may be used in all cases where such actions, or counter-irritation,
are demanded.
   Ceratum Resinae.  (Unguentum Resinae Albcc.)  Resin Cerate.  Ba-
silicon Ointment.
   Preparation.—Melt  together. Rosin five ounces, Lard eight ounces ; Yel-
low Wax two ounces; then strain through linen to remove impurities which
are apt to be present in the  rosin, and stir the mixture constantly until cool.
  Properties  and  Uses.—This cerate forms a gently stimulant applica-
tion to blistered surfaces, indolent ulcers, burns, scalds, and chilblains.
   Ceratum Sabin^e.  Savine Cerate.
  Preparation.—Take of Savin, in powder, two ounces; Resin  Cerate a
pound.   Mix together.
  Properties and Uses.—Savine Cerate is used as a dressing to perpetual
blisters,  in preference to  the fly  ointment,  as  it has no  tendency  to 
Cerei — Cereoli.
1029
produce strangury.   It has a fine deep-green color, with the odor of the
leaves,  and as exposure  impairs  its properties,  it should  be kept in
closely covered vessels.   The Avhite coat which forms upon the blistered
surface during the use of this cerate, should  be  occasionally removed,
as it prevents its contact with the surface.
   Ceratum Simplex.  Simple Cerate.
   Preparation.—Melt together,  Lard  eight  ounces, White Wax  four
ounces;  and stir constantly until cool.
   Properties and Uses.—Simple Cerate is a  very mild application to
irritated surfaces,  and is  used  for dressing  blisters, wounds, etc.; and
also improperly employed as a vehicle for many substances to be  applied
by inunction.  The lard employed in its preparation should be perfectly
free from rancidity, and the heat  should be as gentle as possible, so as not
to produce the least decomposition.  It should be put up in small jars,
and closely covered with tin foil, in order to exclude the air.
                        CEREI.   CEREOLI.
                              Bougies.
   Preparation.—Bougies are made by dipping strips of soft linen cloth,
rather wider at one end than at the other, into certain emplastic or elas-
tic compositions, folding them closely,  and rolling them firmly  on a
smoo'h slab.   For elastic bougies,  pieces of catgut, bundles of thread,
etc., are sometimes used.   The following are some of the compositions
held in most repute :—■
   1. Bell's.—Lead plaster four ounces; Yellow Wax owe ounce and a
half; Olive Oil three  drachms.
   2. Hunter's.—Olive Oil three pounds ; Yellow Wax one pound; Red
Lead one pound and a half; boil together over a slow fire till combined.
   3. Savediaur's  White. — White  Wax one pound;  Spermaceti three
drachms ;  Acetate of  Lead from two drachms to one ounce; boil together
slowly.
   4. Piderit's Wax.—Yellow  Wax six parts; Olive Oil one part.
   5. Goulard's.—Yellow  Wax six ounces; melted and  mixed by stir-
ring Avith Goulard's Extract of  Lead from two drachms to two ounces.
  6. Elastic—Boiled Linseed Oil twelve ounces; Amber four  ounces;
Oil of Turpentine  four ounces, in which is dissolved  Caoutchouc five
drachms.  Melt and Mix the articles well together, and  spread the com-
pound  at three successive intervals upon a silk cord or web.  Place the
pieces, so coated,  in a stove-oven heated to  150° F., and  leave them in
it for twelve hours adding  fifteen or sixteen fresh layers in succession,
until the instruments  have  acquired the proper  size.   Polish first with
pumice-stone,  and  finally smooth with tripoli and oil. 
1030
Pharmacy.
  Bougies are usually employed for dilating strictures, as of the urethra,
vagina, neck of the uterus, and rectum.   The largest size that can be
conveniently introduced is first used, and the size gradually increased as
the treatment progresses.  The wax bougie is often employed for obtain-
ing the form of an urethral stricture, its  location and distance from the
external orifice.
                         CONFECTIONES.
                      Confections or Conserves.
   Confectio  Ros^e.   Conserve  of Roses.   Confection of Roses.
   Preparation.—Rub  Red  Roses,  in  powder, four  ounces, with Rose
 Water eight fluidounces, heated to 150°;  then gradually  add Refined
 Sugar, in powder, thirty ounces ; Clarified  Honey six ounces.  Beat the
 whole together in a marble mortar, until thoroughly mixed.  An iron
 mortar will not answer.
   Properties and  Uses.—This confection is  slightly astringent,  but  is
 almost  exclusively used as a vehicle  of other  medicines, or to  impart
 consistence to the  pilular mass.
   Confectio Sennae.  Confection of Senna.  Electuary of Senna.   Leni-
 tive Electuary.
   Preparation. — Take of Senna eight ounces;  Coriander  [seed], four
 ounces; Liquorice Root, bruised, three ounces ;  Figs a pound; Pulp of
 Prunes, Pulp of Tamarinds, Pulp of Purging Cassia each half a pound;
 Sugar [refined], two pounds and a half; Water four pints.  Rub the
 senna and coriander together, and separate  ten ounces  of the  powder
 with a sieve.  Boil the residue with  the  figs and liquorice root, in the
 water, to  one-half; then press out the  liquor and strain it.  Evaporate
 the strained liquor by  means of  a water-bath to a pint and a half; then
 add the sugar and form a syrup.  Lastly, rub the pulps  gradually with
 the syrup, and having  thrown down the sifted  powder,  beat the whole
 together till they are thoroughly mixed.— U. S.
   History.—The confection of Senna, Avhen properly made, is an elegant
 preparation.   The pulp of purging cassia is most conveniently obtained
 by boiling the bruised pods in water, straining the decoction, and evapor-
 ating  to the consistence of an electuary.   The  pulp  of prunes may be
prepared by boiling the fruit in a small  quantity of water  to soften it,
then pressing it through  a  hair sieve,  and evaporating to a proper con-
sistence.   The  tamarinds, when too dry  for immediate use, may be
treated in  the same manner.  In each  case, the evaporation should be
completed by means of a water-bath, in order to prevent  the pulps from
being burnt.
   Properties and Uses.—This is one of our best  and most pleasant laxa-
tives,  being admirably adapted to cases of habitual costiveness, especially 
Decocta.
1031
in pregnant women and persons affected with piles.  It is also very use-
ful in the constipation which is  apt to attend convalescence  from fevers
and  other  acute diseases.  The mean dose is  two drachms, to be taken
at bed time.— U S. Disp.
   Off. Prep.—Confectio Sennae Composita.
   Confectio Sennae Composita.   Compound Electuary of Senna.   Pile
Electuary.
   Preparation.—Take of Cream of Tartar and Pulverized Jalap of each
one ounce; Confection of Senna two ounces;  Flowers of Sulphur and
Nitrate of Potassa, of each,half an ounce;  Molasses, sufficient to make a
thick pill mass.
   Properties and Uses.—Excellent for the blind and bleeding piles, and
constipation.  Half a drachm  to  a  drachm may be  taken  every night
dissolved in water;  or it may be made into four-grain pills, of which four
may be taken night and morning.
                            DECOCTA.
                             Decoctions.
  Decoctions are solutions of the medicinal virtues of various parts  of
plants, obtained by boiling these parts in water.  The soluble principles
of medicinal plants are generally more readily removed by water main-
tained at the boiling point, than at a lower temperature;  consequently
decoction, in many instances, is preferred as a method of extracting the
greatest degree of activity of the medicinal virtues of plants.   The pro-
cess of boiling should always be conducted in a vessel so  covered  as to
confine the vapor over the  surface of the liquid, and  at the  same time,
prevent the access of atmospheric air, which  frequently exerts an  inju-
rious influence upon the active principle;  and as a general  rule, the
boiling should not be long continued, as the various principles existing in
the plants may react upon each other, and impair  their  therapeutical
influences.  Vegetables, in which the  active principle is volatile,  in
which ebullition would produce an  unfavorable  change so as to impair
its activity, or in which it exists in combination with  some  inert or dis-
agreeable principles not required, are not proper subjects for decoction,
and in the latter instance,  especially when  the objectionable principles
are to be obtained only at the boiling point.   Decoctions should always
be strained while hot.
  Dry substances, as roots, barks, woods etc., submitted  to  decoction,
should be powdered, sliced, or bruised, according to their character, and
the purest and safest water should be selected for use.  Sometimes  pre-
vious maceration will be found  beneficial by removing the cohesion of
the vegetable fiber.  In compound decoctions, where seAreral  articles are
to be boiled together, the various ingredients should  be added at diffe-
rent periods of the process, according to the length of time required to 
1032
Pharmacy.
 extract their A'irtues; and should any of them  possess a volatile active
 principle, it should be added at the last stage of the  boiling to the  hot
 decoction, which should be allowed to cool in a covered vessel.
   Tin or iron  vessels are most  commonly preferred in the preparation
 of decoctions;  but iron utensils  should  never be used when astringent
 vegetables are employed.  In some cases, glass or earthenware vessels
 are the best, as those made of metals are frequently corroded by  the
 ingredients of the decoction.
   Decoctions are very seldom ordered  from  the apothecary, but almost
 always  are  made  a matter of domestic management, hence, a list of
 decoctions is omitted as unnecessary, an explanation of the general rules
 relative to them being deemed sufficient.   The ordinary mode  of pre-
 paring decoctions, among Eclectics, is to alloAv one ounce of the article
 used to one  pint of water, and the dose of which is  from one  to four
 fluidounces,  depending on the activity of the agent, or the physiological
 effect which  is  required.   Where the proportions  are different  from
 these, it wi 1 ] be referred to in the description of the properties and uses
of the article.
  From various influences, decoctions  are very liable to speedy change
or decomposition ;  consequently  they  should be prepared only when
required for use, and should not be kept, especially in  warm weather,
for a longer  period than forty-eight hours.
                           EMPLASTRA.
                              Plasters.
  Plasters are employed as external applications.  They usually possess
an amount of solidity requiring  the aid of heat to spread them, and are
adhesive at the usual temperature of the body.
  In the formation of plasters, the application of too  much or too long-
continued heat must be sedulously avoided, lest decomposition of  one or
more of the articles  entering  into their composition ensues, or perhaps
some  volatile principle,  necessary  to their activity, he driven  off.
After the ingredients composing them have been properly combined, it
is usual to form them into cylindrical  rolls or long square sticks, and
cover them with paper, so as to exclude the air, the  action of which is
apt to change their color, and render them hard and brittle; when this
condition takes place, it may, in a great degree, be remedied by melting
the plaster with a moderate heat, and then a sufficient quantity of oil to
impart to it the proper consistence.  Plasters should be neither too soft
nor too hard ; at ordinary temperatures they should be firm, should spread
easily when moderately heated,  and after  being spread,  should remain
soft, pliable, and adhesive, without melting at the temperature of the body.
  Plasters are spread  upon various  articles according to  the  particular
purposes they are  intended to fulfill; when they are to be applied  to the 
Emplastra.
1033
 sound skin, leather is generally preferred ; and when used as a dressing
 to ulcerated or abraded surfaces, or for  the  purposes of approximating
 and retaining in contact the sides of wounds, either linen  or muslin are
 employed.  Sometimes oil-silk  or  India-rubber cloth is employed, and
 where economy is desired, they are spread on stout paper.  The leather
 generally used  for spreading plasters is white sheep-skin.   After having
 cut  the leather to the required shape  and  size,  the plaster is spread
 thinly and evenly upon it, leaving a margin  from  a  quarter of an inch
 to half an inch  uncovered, in order  to prevent the  edges from soiling the
 clothing which may come in contact with  it, as well as to facilitate its
 removal.   This margin is accurately obtained by pasting strips of paper
 along the  edges of the leather, of the  desired width, leaving a space of
 the required dimensions in the center, and  then removing them after the
 spreading  has  been effected.   Or  the same object  mny frequently be
 accomplished by employing two narrow  rules of sheet tin, graduated in
 inches, and so  shaped  that each of them may form two  sides of a rec-
 tangle, being someAvhat similar in shape  to a  carpenter's square, but
 much  smaller.   These may be  applied so as  to inclose any given rectan-
 gular  space, and  may be fixed upon the leather while  spreading the
 plaster by means of weights.   When  other  shapes are  required,  as in
 the instance for plasters on the breast, or behind the ears, pieces of tin,
 having a vacuity within corresponding to the required outline, maj' be
 employed.   A  plaster  may  be  spread  by means of a common spatula,
 but the most convenient method is by means of a peculiar iron instru-
 ment made expressly  for the purpose.  This is  heated by means of a
 spirit lamp, care  being taken  that  its temperature be not so elevated as
 to discolor or  decompose  the plaster, or drive  off  any  of its volatile
 ingredients.  A sufficient quantity of  the plaster  should be first melted
 by the heated instrument, and received on a piece  of coarse, stiff paper,
 and, when  nearly cool, should be transferred  to the leather, and applied
 evenly over  its extended surface.   This method prevents the melted
plaster from penetrating the leather, which it is apt to do when applied
 too hot.  When linen or  muslin is employed, and  the plaster is to  be of
large dimensions, it is  recommended  to  pass the  cloth "on which the
plaster has been laid, through a. machine formed  of a spatula  fixed by
screAvs at a proper distance from a plate  of polished steel."   When it is
desired to  obtain  quantities of plasters,  they are  spread  by a machine
 made for the purpose,  for an account of which the reader is referred to
 " Pharmacy, by Mohr, Redwood and Procter."
  Plasters are used for the purposes of affording mechanical support or
pressure to the  parts to which they are applied; for binding up wounds;
for  preventing  atmospheric  contact, and as  anodyne, discutient, stimu-
 lant, or epispastic applications.
  Emplastrum  Belladonna.   Plaster of  Belladonna. 
1034                       Pharmacy.
   Preparation.—Take of Extract of Belladonna one ounce and a half;
Resin Plaster three ounces ;  place the plaster in an  eartheinvare mortar,
and put this in hot water.  When the plaster  commences to  melt, add
the Extract of Belladonna, and rub the ingredients well together. Then
take the mortar from the  water-bath, and continue the  trituration till the
mixture cools.   Before the Belladonna is added to the plaster, it must
first be brought into solution with water, so as  to form a uniformly soft
mass, and then Avhile the evaporation of the water is going on, the mix-
ture must be constantly stirred ; without these precautions the extract
cannot be made to diffuse uniformly through the plaster.
   Properties and  Uses. — This  forms a  useful anodyne  application in
rheumatic, neuralgic and  syphilitic pains; and if too long used is apt to
produce the constitutional effects of the belladonna.
   Emplastrum Belladonnas  Compositum.   Compound Plaster of Bel-
ladonna.
   Preparation.—Take of Resin  Plaster five ounces; Extract of Bella-
donna one ounce and a half; Extract of Conium Maculatum  one ounce
and a  half; Pulverized Iodine  two scruples.   Place the plaster in an
earthenware mortar, and put this in hot water.   When the plaster com-
mences to melt, add the  Extracts of Belladonna and Conium, and  rub
the ingredients well together ; then  take the  mortar  from the  water-
bath, continuing the trituration, and when nearly cool,  add the Iodine.
   N. B. The inspissated  juices of  the above narcotics are preferable to
the ordinary extracts in preparing this plaster.
   Properties and  Uses.—This plaster may be  used for the same pur-
poses as the Belladonna Plaster, and is also an excellent application over
scrofulous and other tumors, white-swelling, and goitre ; and  may like-
wise be applied over the region of  the liver and spleen for chronic affec-
tions of these organs, and over the lumbar vertebrae in severe  dysmen-
orrhea.—J. K.
   Emplastrum  Capsici  Compositum.   Compound Capsicum Plaster.
Common Strengthening Plaster.  Sear Cloth Plaster.
   Preparation.—Take of Rosin one pound; Beeswax four ounces ; Cap-
sicum four ounces ; Spirit one quart.   Simmer the pepper, inclosed in a
linen bag, in the spirit for one hour, then strain. Melt the other articles
together, and add  the tincture ; simmer till the spirit is  nearly evapo-
rated.   Then take it from the fire, and when nearly cold, add Powdered
Camphor two ounces ; Oil  of Sassafras three drachms.  Stir till cold.
   Properties and Uses.—This forms  a gently stimulating and  strength-
ening plaster, and  may be used in  all cases where, artificial support, pre-
vention of the contact of atmospheric air, or mild stimulation is  required.
   Emplastrum  Extracti  Aconiti  Radicis.   Plaster of  Extract  of
Aconite Root. 
Emplastra.
1035
  Preparation.—Take of Aconite Root, in  coarse powder, four ounces ;
alcohol, sp. gr. 0.835, a sufficient quantity ;  Adhesive Plaster three ounces
and a half.  Moisten the powdered Aconite root with six ounces of Alco-
hol, and permit  it to macerate twenty-four  hours, then put it in a perco-
lator,  and when properly packed, pour on gradually sufficient Alcohol to
make a pint of  tincture.   Distil off three-fourths of the Alcohol,  evapo-
rate the residue  on a water-bath to a thick, syrupy consistence, then add
the Plaster,  previously liquefied, and  stir constantly, until it is properly
incorporated Avith the soft resinous extract, and cools.
  History.—This formula is recommended by Wm. Procter, Jr., as supe-
rior to that in which only the aconitia enters,  being more uniform in its
strength and of  equal efficacy.  It has a brown color, and homogeneous
consistence,  and Aveighs about four Troy ounces.  It should be spread in
a thin layer on skin or oiled silk, and may be  used several  times when
its application has not been  too long continued at first.
  Properties and Uses.-—This extract is  anodyne, and may be used as an
application to painful and inflamed parts.   It has been  found  decidedly
beneficial in neuralgia of the head, and in painful tumors of the breast.
  Emplastrum Myrice.  Bayberry Plaster.   Green Salve.
  Preparation.—Take of White Gum  Turpentine and Bayberry Wax,
of each half a pound.  Melt  together, strain, and stir till  cold.   In
winter a small quantity of Olive Oil may be added.
  Properties and Uses.—This forms a very  valuable and efficacious appli-
cation to scrofulous and other ulcers, also to many cutaneous  affections.
It is often prepared of the consistence of an ointment for these purposes.
See Bayberry Ointment.
  Emplastrum Picis Compositum.  Compound Tar Plaster.   Irritating
Plaster.
  Preparation.—Boil Tar three pounds, for half an hour ; then add Bur-
gundy Pitch one pound and a half; White Gum Turpentine one pound,
(having previously melted  them  together, and  strained).   Stir them
together, remove from the fire, and add finely  powdered Mandrake root,
Blood  root,  Poke root, Indian Turnep, of each ten ounces.  Incorporate
well together.
  Properties and Uses.—This plaster is irritant, rubefacient and suppu-
rative.  It is  used extensively in all  cases where counter-irritation or
poAverful revulsion  is indicated, in neuralgia, rheumatism, and in all
painful  chronic  diseases.  It acts more  efficiently, and is  much more
adhesive when spread quite thin, on soft leather, than when spread on
any kind of cloth ;  though  it  may be  spread on  oil-silk, india-rubber
cloth, or other substance that will not absorb its moisture.  When applied
to a part of the body, it must be removed daily, for the purpose of thinly
respreading  the  same leather with the  plaster, which is to  be immedi-
ately  reapplied.   This course  is to be  continued  until the  surface to 
1036
Pharmacy.
which it is applied commences discharging matter, after which it should
be  removed  tAvo or three times a day, wiping  it quite  dry  each  time
before respreading it, and likewise carefully drying the sore as much as
possible.  This latter is  best accomplished by laying a  dry, soft cloth
upon the sore, pressing it down lightly for a few minutes, so as to absorb
all the pus or matter.  The practitioner must bear in mind that he is
never,  under any circumstances whatever, to wet the sore, as it will
cause it  to become irritable and inflamed, to cease suppurating healthily,
and in the  majority of instances, to require rapid healing.
  Whenever the application of this  plaster becomes so  irritating and
painful as to  disturb the patient's sleep, or cause him to complain loudly,
it must be  removed, and a slippery elm poultice substituted ; otherwise,
its longer  employment will be  apt 10  aggravate the local disease  for
which it is  applied.  Many practitioners consider the disturbance of sleep
alone, as an indication for its removal.  As soon  as the elm poultice has
relieved  all  the local irritation, the  plaster  may be  reapplied,  if it is
required to maintain the suppurative discharge  for a longer period  of
time.   If this is not required, the  sore may be healed by some simple
application, as an ointment made of beeswax and  mutton  tallow, which
is, probably,  better than  any other, as it does not stop the discharge too
suddenly ;  in some instances, the black-salve will be found  an elegant
healino-  application.   Whenever the plaster, poultice,  or healing applica-
tion is removed, the sore should, each and every time, be  cleansed from
matter,  in the manner referred  to above.   The active principles of the
inoredients entering into the composition of this plaster, are, undoubt-
edly, absorbed into the system  and exert an alterative influence, as their
peculiar odors may be readily detected in the excretions.   The Irritating
Plaster  is especially an Eclectic agent, not being  used by  the practition-
ers of other schools.—T.  V. M.
  Emplastrum Plumbi Oxidi  Rubrum.  Red Oxide of  Lead  Plaster.
Black Salve.
  Preparation.—Take of Olive  Oil three  quarts; Rosin,  Beeswax,  of
each three ounces.   Melt  together, and  raise  the  mixture  nearly to  the
boiling point ; then gradually add  Pulverized Red Lead two pounds and
a quarter.  Stir constantly, and when the lead is  taken up  by the oil, the
mixture becomes brown, or a shining black;  then remove from the fire,
and when nearly cold  add of Pulverized  Camphor  half  an ounce.   It
should remain on the fire till it forms a proper consistence for spreading,
and which  may be known by dipping a spatula or knife into it from time
to time, and  allowing  it to cool.   In the preparation of this  plaster, it
must be remembered that the oil will require a heat  of about 600° for
ebullition ; and should bubbles be observed when the heat is only 212°,
it will probably be owing to the presence of water.  If the  oil, itself, is
not brought to the boiling point, the  red  lead will not be acted upon; 
Emplastra.
1037
hence, the operator should not add it until the oil has been so far heated
as to scorch a feather when dipped into it.
   Properties and Uses.—This is also another agent peculiar to Eclectic
practice,  and forms a  valuable application  in burns,  many  cutaneous
affections, and in syphilitic, scrofulous, fistulous, and all other species of
ulcers.
   A preparation similar to the above is employed by many practitioners
in preference;  it is made as follows :  Boil two quarts of linseed oil until
it will scorch a feather, then  gradually add  one pound of red lead in
powder, when the red lead is taken up by the oil, and the  mixture is
black, remove from the fire, and when nearly cold add  tAvo ounces of oil
of turpentine, and stir until the mixture is cold.
  Emplastrum  Plumbi.  Lead Plaster.  Litharge Plaster.
  Preparation.—Take of Semivitrified Oxide of Lead,  in very fine pow-
der, five pounds;  Olive Oil a gallon;  Water two pitds.  Boil them
together over a gentle fire, stirring constantly until  the  oil and oxide of
lead unite in a plaster.  It will be proper  to add a little boiling Avater,
if that employed at the commencement be nearly all  consumed before
the end of the process.— U. S.
  When the plaster is formed it should  be removed from the fire,  and
after a short  time cold water should be  poured upon it; portions should
then be detached from the mass, and, having been  Avell kneaded under
water, in  order to separate the viscid liquid  contained in the interior,
should be formed into cylindrical rolls, and wrapped in  paper.
  History.—In the preparation of this  plaster, there ensues  a reaction
between  the oil and water, which gives rise to a  sweetish  substance,
glycerin, and to the development of oleic and margaric  acids, and, when
animal fat is substituted for the olive oil, to a third acid, tie stearic.  The
union of these  acids with the  oxide of lead, forms the  plaster, Avhich is
a true oleo-margarate of lead.  The  glycerin becomes mixed Avith  the
plaster, or remains dissolved in the water.  According  to recent chemi-
cal  views  it is the oxide of glyceryle which exists in  the  oil, and which is
developed with the fatty acids in  the  above  process; this becomes gly-
cerin  by  taking an equivalent of water.   Glyceryle is a hypothetical
compound of carbon and hydrogen, (&> H7 ) and forms oxide of glyce-
ryle on uniting with five equivalents  of oxygen,  (C6 Ht 0 ),  likewise a
hypothetical  compound, and with an additional  equivalent of water it
forms glycerin (Co H:  0; +H0).
  In preparing lead plaster it is very important that  the oil employed be
pure and free  from rancidity, otherwise an imperfect  product only  will
be obtained.   A good plaster  has been made  by substituting- lard for the
oil,  in the  proportion  of eight pounds of lard to five of litharge.  The
only oily matters Avhich can be substituted  for olive oil, are animal fats,
and the only substitutes for the litharge are  massicot, and minium,  but 
1038
Pharmacy.
 these require a much longer time to perfect the process, than when the
 officinal formula is followed.   In making lead plaster first introduce the
 oil into a vessel  capable  of holding tAvice the quantity of  oil used, and
 then by means of a fine  sieve, sprinkle in the litharge, and  constantly
 stir the mixture ; this course  prevents the oxide of lead from cohering
 in small masses, and allows the oil to easily penetrate it, thus facilitating
 the process.  The water  not only exerts an important agency chemically
 considered, but prevents too high a temperature, which Avould decompose
 the oil, and reduce the oxide  to the metallic  state.   It must, therefore,
 be supplied by  fresh additions of boiling water, from time  to time, as
 directed in the  formula; cold Avater Avould not only  delay the process,
 but might cause a dangerous explosion.  The articles should be con-
 stantly stirred during the process of boiling, and  care taken to prevent
 the oxide from sinking to the  bottom of the vessel;  and as  soon as the
 articles have completed their  union the boiling should cease.   This may
 be  known by the litharge gradually becoming paler, until, when the pro-
 cess is complete, the  mixture  is nearly Avhite.   In the early part of the
 boiling the materials swell up  considerably, OAving partly to the evapora-
 tion of the Avater, and partly to the escape of carbonic acid gas, which is
 set free by the action of the oily acids upon carbonate of lead which  is
 generally contained in greater or less quantity in the litharge.  The con-
 sistence  of the mass  increases Avith the boiling, and  toAvard its termi-
 nation,  or  when  the  mass is  sufficiently  thick, a portion  of it may be
 removed by means of a spatula, and cooled, when it will be found pos-
 sessed of sufficient firmness not to adhere to the fingers.   When per-
 fected the plaster will present  no red points of uncombined litharge ; and
 should  these exist they must  be  broken  down  by trituration, and the
 boiling continued until they have all disappeared.   Too much heat must
 not be employed  in the operation, lest the plaster become burned.
  Properties and Uses.—This  plaster  is more  commonly known by the
 name  of Diachylon,  and is chiefly  used in   the preparation of other
 plasters.  It is likewise  employed  as an application  to slight wounds,
 blistered and  chafed  surfaces, and occasionally to  some ulcers, all of
 which it serves  to protect from atmospheric   influence.  The sedative
 character of the  lead entering into  its formation, probably, assists its
beneficial action.
  An ointment is in  considerable use as a dressing  for burns, scalds,
 chilblains, and various cutaneous affections accompanied with a burning
 or smarting sensation.  It is prepared as follows :  Take of Lead Plaster
one pound and a half; melt it by a gentle heat, and when melted, add
 to it, Oil of Turpentine nine fluidounces ;  Linseed Oil three fluidounces ;
 Oil of Origanum one pound; Tincture of  Opium  three fluidounces.   Stir
the articles constantly until the mass has  sufficiently cooled.  This is
 applied by completely and thickly covering the affected part with  the
ointment, over which  a layer of raw cotton is  to be placed, and allowed 
Emplastra.
1039
to remain until the part is well.  In the case of deep  burns, should the
pain return after a few hours, the ointment should be removed, softening
it Avith some warm oil, and a cataplasm of elm bark, or flaxseed, be
applied.   It is said to afford prompt relief.
   Emplastrum Resinae.   Resin  Plaster.  Adhesive Plaster.
   Preparation. — Take of Rosin  half a pound; Lead  Plaster  three
pounds.   Melt the Lead Plaster over a gentle fire, add the Rosin, and
mix them.— U. S.
  History.—This preparation  is the  common  adhesive plaster of the
shops, and is usually spread upon muslin, by means of a machine made
for the purpose.  Long exposure to the air lessens its adhesiveness, in
consequence of which  the supply should be frequently renewed.   Soap
is sometimes added to  the mixture, which increases its pliability without
impairing its adhesiveness, beside  lessening its liability to  crack during
cold weather.   The following formula is stated to give an elegant plaster
of this kind;  take of  Resin Plaster three ounces; Lead Plaster thirteen
drachms and a half; Soap, sliced, two drachms and a half.   Melt together
and spread on linen.
  Properties and Uses.—This is more  stimulating than the lead plaster,
and also more adhesive.   It  is generally  employed for  retaining the
sides  of Avounds in contact, and likewise for  dressing  ulcers, drawing
the edges toward each other, and giving a firm support  to the  granula-
tions.  The additions of turpentine or Burgundy pitch to it, are objection-
able, as they increase  its tendency to irritate,  which should always be
avoided as much as possible.
  An  adhesive  plaster is prepared by Pettenkofer, which contains no
oxide of lead ; it is made by decomposing a solution of soap by means
of  a  solution of chloride  of  calcium.  The  precipitate  is expressed,
dried, and powdered with half its  weight of turpentine dried by heat;
and the mixture is then melted  along with  an  eighth  part of suet, in
boiling water.   The boiling is continued, aintil the  mass melts into a
homogeneous  fluid, when it  is  worked by  the hand, in  the  ordinary
manner,  in  cold water.   Should portions of  the  above precipitate of
calcareous soap not melt, they should be separated by straining through
flannel.
  Emplastrum Resinae Compositum.   Compound Resin Plaster.  Ad-
hesive and Strengthening Plaster.
  Preparation. — Take of White  Rosin three pounds; Beeswax four
ounces;  Burgundy Pitch four  ounces;  Mutton  Tallow four ounces.
Melt  these together,  and  add,  Olive Oil,  Pulverized Camphor,  and
Sassafras Oil, of each half an ounce;  West India Rum four fluidounces.
Incorporate well together, and then pour the whole into cold water, and
Avork  it in the hands till cold, forming it into rolls or sticks. 
1040
Pharmacy.
   Dr. W. P. Watrous, of Mount Sterling. Ivy., prefers the following :—
 Melt together,  Rosin three founds; Bees wax four ounces; take from
 the fire,  and when  nearly cold add, gradually,  Camphor half an ounce,
 dissolved in  Oil of Hemlock, Oil of Sassafras,  and Olive Oil,  of each
 one ounce, Oil of Turpentine half an ounce.   Work in water as above.
   Properties and  Uses.—This forms  an  adhesive  and  stren«-theninc
plaster useful in rheumatism, weakness of the  joints, Avounds, ulcers,
etc.   It is possessed of considerable stimulating property, and has been
frequently used by Eclectic  practitioners ; yet, notwithstanding it is an
unscientific  preparation, as  the  Rum and Tallow will not be  found to
unite  readily.   The Emplastrum Capsici Compos, is a much better article
to use for  the  same  purposes.   The formula of Dr. Watrous,  will be
found a good one, forming an elegant plaster.
                            ENEMATA.
                        Injections or Clysters.
   Injections are  liquid  substances,  sometimes  containing powdered
 ingredients, and Avhich  are intended to be thrown  into the rectum either
 for the purpose of effecting a speedy evacuation from  the bowels, for
 producing the  impression of a particular agent upon the inferior portion
 of  the alimentary canal and  the  adjacent  tissues  and organs,  or for
 effecting an influence generally upon the system, through  the  medium
 of the surface,  to  Avhich they are applied.   They are also thrown into
 the vagina to aid in restoring the normal condition of its walls, to remove
 vaginal leucorrhea, to aid in the  cure of excoriation or ulceration of the
 cervix, etc.
  When thrown up the rectum, they are frequently employed to assist
 the action of remedies taken by the mouth, or to act as a substitute for
 them when the stomach rejects them, or is not susceptible to their influ-
 ence, and are also used when  the rectum or  its  vicinity is the  seat of
 disease.   As a general  rule, about double the quantity of an agent may
 be used as an injection  per rectum, as Avould be required to produce an
 effect when taken into the stomach ; yet with  regard  to very aeuVe
 remedies, this rule should be acted  upon with caution.  Again, it must
 be borne in mind that the impression of an agent upon the stomach may
 be very much diminished by its frequent use, while the rectum will con-
 tinue to preserve its ordinary susceptibility to the  action of such agent
 when used in enema.
  When  an evacuation of the bowels is  designed, the quantity  of fluid
 administered by injection, should be very large ;  thus, for an adult, a
pint  or even a quart,  may be employed, and  which  in some instances,
as in bilious colic,  will require a repetition of this quantity in the course
of ten or fifteen minutes ; for a child from nine to twelve years  of age, 
*
                              Enemata.                        1041

 half that quantity may be  used; and for infants less than a year old,
 from one to three fluidounces.
   When the peculiar impression of the remedy upon the parts, or upon
 the system generally is intended, it should be given in as little quantity
 of fluid  as is compatible with its activity or character, and  should  be
 retained within  the  rectum as long as possible.  Any immediate  desire
 to discharge the injected  fluid, should  in all cases be resisted by the
 patient; and it may  frequently be required on the part of the nurse  or
 physician to aid its retention, by making a moderately firm pressure
 upon the fundament, with  a warm compress  of linen or muslin.
   Injections  are a very valuable mode of treatment in  many diseases;
 indeed some affections cannot be readily nor permanently cured without
 them.   They are found  especially beneficial  in bilious colic, in bilious,
 typhus, yellow, and congestive forms of fever, in dysentery and diarrhea,
 etc.   In infants, life has often  been  preserved by their timely  applica-
 tion; and the pains and dangers of the parturient woman, have frequently
 been very materially lessened by their  use.   And  yet, notwithstanding
 their value and importance, there are hundreds of families, especially in
 country places, who  do not supply themselves with the articles necessary
 for their administration, but who depend  entirely upon the physician,
 or perhaps a neighbor, for  the  use of a syringe.  This is a very repre-
 hensible omission, and although not exactly  within the province of this
 work, yet, from the evil results which  I have seen depending upon a
 negligence of the above  character,  I  cannot  refrain  from making  a few
 brief advisory remarks.   Every individual,  and  more especially  every
 family, is liable to sickness which may require the use of a syringe, and
 to depend upon  the  physician for its  supply  is certainly bad policy, for
 very few, especially among those practicing in the country,  furnish
 themselves with a quantity sufficient to meet  the demands of the various
 families under their professional care; beside, very few physicians  carry
 an article of  this kind, and in some  diseases, the  delay occasioned by
 sending for it, may  be death  to the patient.  No doubt, an immense
 number of patients,  and  more particularly  among those residing in the
 country, die yearly solely from the Avant of an instrument with which  to
 administer an injection.  It is therefore a matter  of duty with the  prac-
 titioner, both to  himself  and to his patients, to strongly impress  these
facts upon those who patronize him professionally, and urge them by all
 means to make the necessary provision.  A metallic syringe capable of
holding a pint, and a smaller one of  three or four  fluidounces, should
be found in the possession  of every family, as  these  can be  adapted  to
meet any emergency requiring their use.
  Injections are emollient, stimulant, anodyne, purgative, antispasmodic,
 etc.,  and  are most  generally prescribed by the  physician to suit the
 emergency of the case, without regard to officinal directions.  For pur-
poses of nutrition,  as well as  to  reduce inflammation  of the lower
           66 
1042
Pharmacy.
intestines, infusions of starch, of elm bark, of flaxseed, and of corn meal,
are usually injected into the rectum, Avith a portion of laudanum added
when inflammation is present;  and in cases where the  stomach rejects
all  food  and medicine, and when this condition is accompanied Avith
prostration, a proper quantity of wine, brandy, or some similar stimu-
lant may be added to the nutrient clyster, and repeated as often as the
circumstances require.   The following are among the agents of this class,
in more common use.
  Enema Aloes  Composita.   Compound Clyster of Aloes.
  Preparation.—Take of Aloes two scruples ; Carbonate of Potassa fifteen
grains; Tincture  of  Assafetida  three fluidrachms; Infusion of Boneset
half a pint.  Mix, and rub them together.
  Properties and  Uses.—This  is a stimulant, cathartic, and vermifuge
clyster, and may be  used with  advantage in  cases of ascarides in the
rectum, and of  amenorrhea attended with constipation.—J. K.
  Enema Assafcetida  Composita.   Compound  Clyster of Assafetida.
  Preparation. — Take of  Mandrake root two drachms ; Balmony four
drachms; Water  half a pint.   Make  a decoction, strain,  and  add to  it
Tincture of Assafetida three fluidrachms.
  Properties  and Uses. — This  is used with children  troubled with
ascarides in the  rectum.   To a child two or three years old, about one
half of the quantity may be used at a time, and repeated according to
circumstances.—J. K.
  Enema Catharticum.   Cathartic Clyster.
  Preparation.—Take of Common Salt half an ounce, or a tablespoonful;
Olive or Castor Oil a fluidounce, or two tablespoonfuls; Molasses a fluid-
ounce; Warm Water a pint.  Mix together.
  Properties and  Uses. — This is a very common laxative  clyster, and
possesses the advantage of consisting of  materials which  are always at
hand in families.   It is generally employed in cases of constipation, or
where a  speedy evacuation of the boAvels is  desired.   An injection is
sometimes used for the aboAre  purposes, and in diarrhea and dysentery,
and, indeed, in almost every case where one  is  indicated, composed as
follows:  Take of Sweet Milk  half a pint; Infusion of Elm Bark half a
pint; Olive Oil two fluidounces ; Molasses four fluidounces;  Bicarbonate
of Potassa half an ounce.   Mix these articles together.   When there are
pains and gripings in the  lower intestines, laudanum half a fluidrachm,
may be added to each injection.
  Enema Cimicifugae Composita.  Compound Clyster of Black Cohosh.
  Preparation.—-Take of  Black Cohosh root, in powder, two ounces;
Cranesbill root, in powder, two ounces; Water four pints.  Mix them
together, make a decoction, and strain. 
Emplastra.
1043
  Properties and Uses. — This is an  astringent preparation, combining
with it a peculiar influence on the vaginal walls and cervix uteri, and is
much employed  in leucorrhea,  prolapsus uteri, relaxation of the vaginal
walls, etc.  It should be used with a female syringe, and repeated three
or four times a day; the patient being  placed in a recumbent position on
her back, with the hips elevated, so as to retain the injection some ten
or fifteen minutes, each time.—T. V. M.
  Enema  Lobeli.e Composita.   Compound Clyster of Lobelia.   Anti-
spasmodic Clyster.
  Preparation.—Take of Water half a fluidounce ; Compound Tincture
of Lobelia and Capsicum half a fluidrachm.  Mix together.
  Properties and Uses. — This  is a relaxant and  antispasmodic clyster,
and is used in cases of tetanus, convulsions, rigidity of  the os uteri, and
whenever its peculiar actions are indicated.  The proportions as given in
the above formula, are adapted to an infant from several weeks to a year
old, laboring  under an attack of convulsions ; for adults, half a fluid-
ounce, or even more of the  tincture, may be added to a sufficient quan-
tity of water ; and so in proportion.
  Enema Opii.   Clyster of Opium.
  Preparation.—Take of  Decoction of Starch, or Infusion of Elm Bark
one fluidounce, Tincture of Opium twenty minims.  Mix  them.
  Properties and  Uses. — This clyster is useful  in obstinate vomiting,
strangury from  blisters, painful affections of the kidneys,  bladder, and
uterus, and in the tenesmus of dysentery.  It should be retained  in the
rectum  as long as possible, and may  be repeated every one, two, or
three hours, and in severe cases, even oftener, according to the urgency
of the symptoms.  If frequently employed it will produce the  constitu-
tional effects of the opium.
  Enema Sennae  Composita.   Compound Clyster of Senna.
  Preparation. — Take of  Senna and  Boneset,  of each, four ounces;
Boiling Water one quart.  Pour the water on  the herbs and macerate
them by a moderate  heat for  about  ten minutes; then strain, and add
while yet hot, Molasses four fluidounces; Common Salt, and Powdered
Lobelia Seed,  of each two drachms ; Powdered Bayberry Bark two ounces;
Powdered Capsicum two drachms.
   Properties  and Uses. — This is one of the  best clysters that can be
used  in  bilious  colic; it  should  be given as warm as the patient can
bear, one-half the above quantity at a time, and may be repeated in fifteen
minutes; of course, in connection with this, the internal administration
of a decoction of Dioscorea Villosa, and local applications of cloths wet
with hot water are to be  employed.—J.  K.
   Enema Terebinthinje  Composita.   Compound Clyster of Turpentine. 
1044
Pharmacy.
   Preparation.—Take of Castor Oil half a fluidounce ; Oil of Turpentine
two fluidrachms ; Camphorated Tincture of Opium one fluidrachm.  Mix
together.
   Properties and Uses.—This injection is principally employed in flatu-
lency, and  tympanitic  tension of  the  abdomen, especially during  an
attack of peritonitis.   It  may be  repeated two, three, or  four times a
day.   It may likewise  be used in ascarides, obstinate constipation, and
amenorrhea.
   Enema Xanthoxyli.  Clyster of Prickly Ash.
   Preparation.—Take of Water one fluidounce; Tincture of Prickly Ash
Berries one fluidrachm; Tincture of Opium twenty minims; mix  together.
   Properties and  Uses.—This clyster will be found very beneficial  in
tympanitic distension  of the abdomen from any  cause.   It will likewise
be found efficacious in  Asiatic cholera, and in  diarrhea;  in these last
diseases it should be given and repeated  immediately after  each  opera-
tion from the boAvels,  and should be retained in  the rectum as long  as
possible.  I have  also used  it with much benefit in  the tympanitic
abdomen of children, which so generally proves  fatal, and which attends
or follows an attack of diarrhea or summer complaint.—J. K.
                           EXTRACTA.
                              Extracts.
  Extracts, in medicine, are solid or semi-fluid  substances obtained by
evaporation of the decoction,  infusion,  tincture,  or  juice of vegetable
principles.   The object in preparing them is to obtain  as large an amount
of the active principles of a remedy,  with as little of its inert constituents
as possible.  Sometimes it becomes necessary to separate these active
principles from  each  other,  especially when their influences upon  the
system vary considerably; and this is generally accomplished by means
of a  menstruum which dissolves the  principle required,  leaving  the
others untouched.  Extracts vary very much in their composition, and
which  is OAving  to the  peculiar character of the remedies from which
they are obtained, to the nature of the menstruum employed in dissolving
their  active principles,  and to  the  process  pursued for preparing them.
The principles of plants most generally obtained by means of water,  are
gum, starch, sugar,  tannin, extractive, coloring  matter, various  salts,
together with certain  principles peculiar to  each plant; when  alcohol is
employed,  resins,  fatty  matters, essential oil, and other  principles  not
soluble in water are also obtained.  And among  these principles only
such are  selected as contain the active medicinal properties of the plant
employed.   The principles of plants are obtained either in a liquid state
by expression of the plant, or by the agency of a proper solvent.  When
by expression, the plant must be fresh, cut into pieces, and  bruised in 
EXTRACTA.
1045
a stone mortar or mill,  till brought to a pulpy consistence; and  if it  be
not  very succulent, a little water  must  be added to dilute the  juice.
The pulp  is then  introduced into  a linen or canvas bag, and the  liquid
expressed.  After  filtering, it should be  evaporated  by a  very gentle
heat to the proper consistence.  Should the juice hold in solution starch,
or other inert principles which may be removed by heat without  injuring
its  medicinal properties,  it may be heated to about  160° previous  to
filtration, which  will precipitate the inert  substances.   Extracts thus
prepared are  sometimes  called  Inspissated  Juices  (Sued  Spissati).
When obtained by  solution, dried vegetable agents  are commonly  used,
though occasionally  they require  to be recent,  and  the  menstruum
employed is either  water, alcohol, or a mixture of the two, depending  on
the solubility of the active principles in these fluids, ether, or acetic acid.
Extracts obtained by the agency of water, are called Watery or Aqueous
extracts; those by  means of alcohol, Alcoholic extracts;  those in which
both Avater and alcohol  are employed, Hydro-alcoholic extracts; and those
obtained by means  of ether, Ethereal extracts.  Wine and acetic  acid  as
solvents, yield vinous  and acetic extracts.   In the preparation for  an
extract, the operator should previously acquaint himself with the nature
of the principles contained in the  drug,  their solubility, their relations
to heat and  air, their  volatility, etc., so that  he may adopt  the  men-
struum best calculated  to remove the greatest  amount of  active matter,
and  control the  evaporation, so that this may not be injured by heat,
nor lost by volatilization.
  In forming the solution for aqueous extracts, rain,  river, or distilled
water  only should be  used,  and the vegetable  should be thoroughly
bruised, or reduced to  the state of coarse  powder; if too finely pulve-
rized a precipitate of the  inert or undissolved portions is apt to  readily
take place.  Boiling water should then be poured on,  and a gentle heat
maintained for  twenty or thirty minutes, according to the greater or less
degree of solubility of the active principles,  the vessel  inclosing the arti-
cles  being covered.  Successive portions of water must be employed
until the whole of  the  active matter is extracted.   Filter the  solutions,
and  evaporate  in a sand  or Water-bath, until the proper consistence is
attained.   The evaporation should be conducted as quickly as the nature
of the  solution  will admit,  using a broad, shallow-dish, and  toward the
end of the  process,  it should  be constantly stirred  with  a spatula.  Long
boilino-, and even the boiling temperature,  causes the  decomposition  of
many vegetable principles, or at least so modifies them as to render them
inert;  it is, therefore, recommended to substitute  for decoction, the pro
cess  of maceration  in Avhich the liquid acts without  heat, which  may be
employed where  the  matter  is  readily soluble  in cold Avater;  that of
digestion in which the action of the liquid upon the  vegetable principles
is assisted by a  moderately increased temperature, sustained  for a length
of time ; or that of  infusion, where the water is poured boiling hot upon 
1046
Pharmacy.
the plants, and allowed to stand for a short time in a covered vessel, and
which is used where the virtues of the  plant  are not readily yielded to
cold water.  Long continued evaporation injures an extract more or less,
hence it is always  desirable to obtain  the  solution at  first, as concen-
trated as possible, in order to avoid this result.  And in those  instances
where successive portions of water are used, those which are  the least
impregnated  should be evaporated first, and brought to the strength of
the stronger solution before mixing them, so that the latter may not be
exposed to unnecessary heat.
  Alcoholic Extracts are made  from tinctures of vegetables, the alcohol
being either distilled off,  or evaporated in the open  air.   Hydro-alcoholic
Extracts should be prepared by exhausting the vegetable with each fluid
separately, evaporate  separately, and  then combine the  two  extracts
while hot.  When the active principle of a plant is soluble in water,  an
Aqueous  extract is commonly  prepared ;  when it depends  upon a resin,
oil, or other  substance insoluble in water, an Alcoholic extract is pre-
pared ;  and a Hydro-alcoholic extract, when both of these  liquids  are
required to take it up.   And whatever  mode may  be employed in pre-
paring  the extract, occasional  agitation or stirring, will always be re-
quired.
  Ether is much  employed in  the  preparation of extracts, and is espe-
cially adapted to those articles  whose medicinal properties are  contained
in a volatile oil or resin,  or in both combined.   An Ethereal tincture is
first prepared by displacement, and  the  ether is then  distilled off at a
very moderate heat, or allowed  to escape by spontaneous  evaporation.
Mr. W. S. Merrell has invented an instrument, by means of which as the
percolated tincture  falls into the  receiver, the ether is driven off to pass
again through  the  articles, and thus  continue until all their strength is
exhausted ; the whole process of tincturing and forming an extract being
thus performed at the same time.   These ethereal extracts are generally
of a semifluid consistence.
   In the preparation of extracts, the employment of " Smith's Patent
Vapor  Displacement Apparatus," or an apparatus upon a similar prin-
ciple, is decidedly the  best that  can  be used, both for  obtaining all the
active principles of plants in solution,  and for procuring  extracts of supe-
rior quality; and when largely manufactured, this apparatus cannot av ell
be  dispensed with.  It is to the employment of an improved apparatus
invented by himself, and  embracing this principle, that the various syrups,
extracts,  etc.,  of our Pharmaceutist,  William  S. Merrell,  owe their
superiority to all  others.   Although Mr. Smith has patented  this mode,
yet we  have  understood  that it was in operation many years  ago, and is
not a new discovery.   In  order to keep well, extracts should be placed
in glass,  stone, or porcelain  jars, and  completely prote :ed  from  the
access of the air; and the application of alcohol to the  surface, while it
does not injure the extract, has a tendency to prevent moldiness. 
ExTRACTA.
1047
   Extractum Aconiti Alcoholicum.   Alcoholic Extract of Aconite.
   Preparation. — Take  of Aconite  Root, or  recently dried  Leaves, a
 pound;  Diluted  Alcohol four pints.  Moisten the Aconite with half a
 •pint of the Diluted Alcohol, and, having allowed it to stand for tAventy-
 four hours, transfer it to an apparatus for displacement, and add gradu-
 ally the  remainder of the Diluted  Alcohol.   When the last portion of
 this shall have penetrated  the Aconite,  pour in sufficient Water  from
 time to time to keep the powder covered.  Cease to filter when the liquid
 which  passes begins to produce a precipitate, as it falls, in that which
 has already passed.   Distil  off the  Alcohol from the filtered liquor, and
 evaporate the residue to the proper consistence.— U. S.
   History.—Care must be taken in the evaporation, that the heat be not
 greater than that produced by a vapor-bath, otherwise  decomposition
 Avill be apt to ensue ;  a water-bath  is preferable on this account, to heat
 directly applied.   The addition of water in the latter part of the displace-
 ment, is  for the purpose of  expelling the spirituous solution which has
 been absorbed by the Aconite; and as a precipitate ensues as soon as
 the water passes  off, the filtration is directed to cease as soon as the pre-
 cipitate appears.   When the process is properly  performed, the  extract
 procured is much better and more active than the inspissated juice;  it is
 the only  extract of this drug which should be  used.
   Properties and Uses.—Extract of Aconite  possesses the properties of
 the plant in a powerful degree ; it may be used in rheumatism, neuralgia,
 gout, scrofula, cutaneous diseases, inflammatory and febrile diseases, and
 in all cases in which the use of aconite is admissible.   The dose is  from
 half a  grain to  a grain, to be repeated  two or  three times a day, and
 gradually increased if necessary.
   The extract prepared as above, from the root, is said to be more ener-
getic than that from the leaves, and is to be given  in doses of  one-sixth
 or one-quarter of  a  grain,  two or three times  a day, and gradually
 increased.
   Extractum Aletris  Alcoholicum.   Alcoholic Extract of Unicorn
 Root.   Aletridin.
   Preparation.—Take of coarsely powdered Unicorn Root, two pounds ;
 Alcohol, ninety per cent., a sufficient  quantity.   Moisten the Unicorn root
 with two pints of  Alcohol,  and let it stand twenty-four hours ;  then
 transfer it to a displacement apparatus, and gradually add  Alcohol  until
 it passes off without any taste of the root.  Distil off the greater part of
 the Alcohol from this filtered tincture, and evaporate  the  residue to the
 proper consistence.
   To  the powder in the displacement apparatus, add gradually a suffi-
 cient quantity of  Water, until the liquid passes but slightly impregnated
 with the  properties of the Aletris.   Heat the filtered liquid to the boiling
 point, strain, and evaporate by a gentle heat  to the proper consistence. 
1048
Pharmacy.
Mix the alcoholic and aqueous extracts while each are hot, and stir con-
stantly until cold.
  Properties and Uses.—This forms a very elegant and useful prepara-
tion of Unicorn Root.  It may be used as a tonic in cases of debility of
the digestive organs, and will be found valuable in uterine difficulties, as
prolapsus, amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, etc.  The dose is from half  a
grain  to two grains, three times a day.— W. S. M.
  Extractum  Anthemidis.  Extract of Chamomile.
  Preparation.—Take of Chamomile Flowers, bruised, a pound; Diluted
Alcohol a sufficient quantity. Moisten the Chamomile Flowers with Diluted
Alcohol, and let them  stand twenty-four hours ; then  transfer to a per-
colator, and  add gradually Diluted Alcohol until the liquid passes without
the taste of the  Chamomile.  Distil off the Alcohol  from  the filtered
liquor, and evaporate the residue to the proper consistence, by a heat
below the boiling point.
  Properties and Uses.—Extract of Chamomile is a tonic, and may be
used in all cases where the crude article is indicated.   It may be bene-
ficiall)' combined Avith other extracts, as of scullcap, cramp-bark, black-
cohosh, golden-seal, ladies' slipper,  etc.  The dose is from one to five
grains, three times  a day.
  Extractum  Apocyni  Hydro-alcoholicum.  Hydro-alcoholic Extract
of Bitter Root.
  Preparation.—Take of coarsely  powdered  Bitter Root,  (Apocynum
Cannabinum,)  two pounds; Alcohol  a sufficient quantity.   Moisten the
Bitter Root Avith two pints of Alcohol; let it stand twenty-four hours, and
then transfer it to a displacement apparatus, and gradually add Alcohol
until it passes  off Avithout the taste of the Root.   Distil off the greater part
of the Alcohol from this filtered tincture, and evaporate the residue to the
proper consistence.
  To  the powder in the displacement apparatus, add  gradually a suffi-
cient quantity of Water, until the liquid passes but slightly impregnated
with  the properties of the Bitter Root.  Heat  the filtered liquid to the
boiling point,  strain, and evaporate to the proper consistence.
   Mix the  alcoholic and  aqueous  extracts while each are hot, and stir
constantly until cold.
  Properties and Uses.—This extract is purgative, and, either alone or
in combination with leptandrin, is  much employed in affections  of the
liver  and stomach,  in intermittents and  in the  low stage  of typhoid
fevers.   It  has also been employed with  advantage as a diuretic and
emmenagogue.   The dose is from  one to ten grains, two or three times
a day.— W. S. M.
  Extractum Arctii.  Extract  of  Burdock.
  Preparation.—Take of the Root of Burdock, in coarse powder or pieces,
a pound; Water a  sufficient quantity.  Mix the  root with a pint of the 
EXTRACTA.                        1049
Water, and after  allowing the  mixture to stand for twenty-four hours,
introduce it into a  displacement  apparatus, and pour Water upon it gra-
dually, until the liquid passes but slightly impregnated with  the properties
of the Burdock.   Heat  the  filtered liquid to the boiling point, strain,
and carefully evaporate to the proper consistence.
   Properties and Uses. — Extract of Burdock is used principally as an
alterative, in scrofula,  syphilis,  cutaneous affections, etc.  The dose  is
from five to twenty grains, repeated three times a day.
   Extractum Asclepijj: Hydro-alcoholicum.  Hydro-alcoholic Extract
of Pleurisy Root.
   Preparation.—Take of coarsely powdered Pleurisy Root two pounds;
Alcohol  a sufficient quantity.   Moisten the Pleurisy Root with two  pints
of Alcohol,  let it  stand twenty-four hours, then transfer it to a displace-
ment apparatus, and gradually add Alcohol until it passes off without the
taste of  the root.  Distil off the greater part of  the Alcohol from this
filtered tincture, and evaporate the residue to the proper  consistence.
To the powder in  the displacement apparatus, add  gradually a  sufficient
quantity  of Water, until  the  liquid passes but slightly impregnated with
the properties of  the  Pleurisy  Root.   Heat the  filtered  liquid to the
boiling point,  strain, and evaporate to  the proper consistence.
   Mix the  alcoholic  and  aqueous  extracts while each are hot, and stir
constantly till cold.
   Properties and  Uses. — Hydro-alcoholic  Extract  of Pleurisy Root is
expectorant, tonic, laxative, and antispasmodic.  It will be found useful
in chronic  and acute catarrhal  coughs, rheumatic affections, dysentery,
etc.   From its peculiar action upon the ligaments of the uterus, it proves
highly beneficial in  prolapsus,  and other displacements of  this organ.
The  dose is from three to  ten or fifteen  grains three times a day.—
 W. S. M.
   Extractum  Baptisiae Hydro-alcoholicum.  Hydro-alcoholic Extract
of Wild Indigo.
   Preparation.—Take of the Bark of Wild Indigo Root, in  coarse pow-
der,  two  pounds;  Alcohol a sufficient  quantity.   Moisten  the Bark with
two pints of Alcohol, let it stand tAventy-four hours, then transfer it to a
displacement  apparatus, and  gradually add Alcohol until it passes  off
without the taste of  the  bark.   Distil off the greater part of  the Alcohol
from  this filtered  tincture,  and evaporate  the  residue to  the proper
consistence.
   To the powder  in the displacement apparatus, add gradually a  suffi-
cient  quantity of Water, until  the liquid passes but slightly impregnated
with  the  properties of the Wild  Indigo Bark.   Heat the  filtered liquid
to the boiling point, strain, and evaporate to the proper consistence.
  Mix the  alcoholic and aqueous  extracts while  each are hot, and stir
constantly till  cold. 
1050
Pharmacy.
   Properties and Uses.—This extract is antiseptic, with purgative and
emetic properties when taken in large doses.  It is especially advanta-
geous in typhoid conditions  of the  system, in malignant ulcerations  of
the mouth and throat, in  scarlatina, and  in  all cases where there is a
tendency to putrescency or gangrene.  It exerts a powerful stimulant
effect on the glandular and nervous systems,  and will be found useful in
scrofula, obstinate hepatic torpor, etc.   Its virtues are increased by com-
bination with leptandrin, podophyllin, or cimicifugin.   The dose is one-
fourth of a grain gradually increased to one or two grains, and repeated
three times a day.—/. K.
  Extractum  Belladonnae  Alcoholicum.  Alcoholic  Extract of Bel-
ladonna.
  Preparation.—Take of Belladonna Leaves, in coarse powder, a pound;
Diluted Alcohol four pints.  Moisten  the  Belladonna with  half a pint
of the Diluted Alcohol, and, having  allowed it to stand for twenty-four
hours, transfer it to a displacement apparatus,  and  add gradually the
remainder  of  the Alcohol.  When the last portion of this  shall  have
penetrated the Belladonna, pour in sufficient Water from time to time  to
keep the powder covered.  Cease to filter when the liquid which passes
begins to produce  a precipitate, as it  falls, in that which has  already
passed.   Distil off  the Alcohol  from the filtered liquor, and evaporate
the residue to the proper consistence.  ( See Alcoholic Extract of Aconite.)
The  heat in the evaporation should not be greater than  that produced
by a vapor-bath, otherwise decomposition will be apt to ensue.
  Properties and Uses.—This extract possesses all the virtues of Bella-
donna, which see, and  is the most  usual form of administration.  The
dose is  from one-eighth of a grain to half a grain, or even a grain,  to
be repeated two or  three times a day.
  Extractum  Caulophylli Hydro-alcoholicum.  Hydro-alcoholic Ex-
tract of  Blue Cohosh.
  Preparation.—Take of coarsely powdered Blue  Cohosh  Root two
pounds; Alcohol a sufficient quantity.   Moisten the Cohosh with  two
pints of Alcohol, let it stand twenty-four'hours, then transfer it to a dis-
placement apparatus, and gradually add Alcohol until it passes off without
the taste of the root.  Distil off the greater part  of the Alcohol  from
this filtered tincture, and evaporate the residue to the proper consistence.
  To the powder  in the displacement apparatus, add gradually a  suffi-
cient quantity  of Water, until the liquid passes but slightly impregnated
with the properties  of the Cohosh.   Heat the filtered liquid to the boil-
ing point, strain, and evaporate to the proper consistence.
   Mix the alcoholic and  aqueous extracts while  each are hot, and stir
constantly till cold.
   Properties and  Uses. — Hydro-alcoholic Extract of  Blue  Cohosh  is
antispasmodic and parturient.   It may be advantageously combined with 
Extracta.
1051
dioscorein in bilious colic, flatulency,  and griping pains arising from the
use of drastic purgatives; with xanthoxylin, hydro-alcoholic extracts of
cimicifuo-a,  or  Scutellaria, in  rheumatic  affections; and with  senecin,
cimicifugin, aletridin,  asclepidin, or extract of cramp bark in uterine dis-
eases.   It will be found very useful in amenorrhea and dysmenorrhea;
and forms with hydrastin an elegant remedy for deranged conditions of
the stomach, dyspepsia, etc.   It has also been found serviceable in after-
pains.   The dose is from one to five grains, three  times a day.—J. K.
   Extractum Cimicifugae  Hydro-alcoholicum.  Hydro-alcoholic  Ex-
tract of Black Cohosh.
   Preparation.—Take of Black Cohosh Root, in moderately fine powder,
two pounds; Alcohol a sufficient quantity.   Moisten the Cohosh with two
pints of Alcohol, let it stand twenty-four hours, then transfer it to a dis-
placement apparatus,  and gradually add alcohol until it passes off without
the taste of the root.   Distil off the greater part of the Alcohol from this
filtered tincture, and evaporate the residue to the  proper consistence.
   To the poAvder in the displacement  apparatus add gradually a sufficient
quantity of  Water,  until  the liquid passes off but slightly impregnated
with the properties of the Cohosh.   Heat  the filtered  liquid to the boil-
ing point, strain, and  evaporate to the proper consistence.
   Mix the  alcoholic  and aqueous extracts while  each are hot, and stir
constantly till cold.
   Properties and Uses.—Hydro-alcoholic Extract of Black Cohosh pos-
sesses  all  the  virtues of the root, and in  nervous  derangements, as
chorea, epilepsy, etc., is much superior to the cimicifugin in  action  and
efficacy; it is decidedly more narcotic and antispasmodic than this resi-
noid.   I make extensive and  successful use of  it in epilepsy, chorea,
delirium tremens (in  which I combine  it with  quinia), nervous excita^
bility,  and  many spasmodic affections.   Persons subject  to cramps will
be speedily  and permanently relieved by the employment of this extract
combined with the extract of cramp bark.   The hydro-alcoholic extract
of black cohosh  may be used in  all instances where the employment of
the root is indicated.   The dose is from  one  to  five or  ten grains, three
times a day.—/. K.
   Extractum Colocynthidis.  Extract of Colocynth.
   Preparation.—Take of Colocynth, sliced  and  deprived of its seeds,
three pounds; Diluted Alcohol half a gallon.  Macerate the  Colocynth
in the  Diluted Alcohol for thirty-six hours, occasionally pressing it with
the hand.    Express the liquor strongly and  strain.  Finally,  evaporate
to the  proper consistence.
   Properties and  Uses.—This  extract is cathartic, and may be used in
the dose of  from five  to thirty grains.
   Extractum Colocynthidis Compositum.   Compound Extract of Colo-
cynth. 
1052
Pharmacy.
   Preparation.—Take of Colocynth, deprived of the seeds and sliced,
 six ounces; Aloes, in powder, twelve ounces; Scammony, in  powder, four
 ounces;  Cardamom, in powder, two ounces;  Castile Soap three ounces;
 Diluted Alcohol a gallon.   Macerate the Colocynth in the Diluted Alco-
 hol, with a gentle heat, for four days.   Express and filter the liquor, and
 add to it the Aloes, Scammony and Soap;  then evaporate to the proper
 consistence, and, near the end of the  process, mix the  Cardamom with
 the other ingredients.
   History.—Diluted Alcohol is a much better solvent of colocynth than
 water, hence it is directed in the above formula.   The soap is added to
 improve the consistence of the extract, to render it more soluble in the
 fluids of the  stomach, and  to qualify the irritating action  of the aloes
 and scammony.   By exposing thin layers of this extract to dry  air for a
 few days, it  will be  evaporated to  dryness, in which  state it may be
 powdered for admixture with other substances.
   Properties and Uses.—Compound  Extract of Colocynth is an active
 cathartic, and may be employed in all cases where  catharsis is indicated.
 From the difficulty with which pure scammony can be obtained in  this
 country, I would suggest  as a  substitute for  it, in the  above  formula,
 Podophyllin, in powder, two ounces, and which will by no means lessen
 the value or efficacy of the preparation.   This  extract may be especially
 used in obstinate constipation, and congestion of the liver or portal sys-
 tem.  The dose is from five to thirty grains.
   Extractum Conii Alcoholicum.  Alcoholic Extract  of  Poison Hem-
 lock.
   Preparation. — Take  of the recently dried and coarsely powdered
 Leaves of Conium Maculatum half a pound; Diluted Alcohol four pints.
 Moisten the Leaves with half a pint of the Diluted Alcohol, and having
 allowed the mixture to stand for twenty-four hours, transfer it to a per-
 colator, and add gradually the remainder of the Diluted Alcohol.  When
 the last portion  of this shall have penetrated the powder, pour  in suffi-
 cient water from time to time to keep the mass covered.   Cease to filter
 when the liquid which passes begins to produce  a precipitate, as it falls,
 in that which has already passed.  Distil off the Alcohol from the filtered
 liquor, and evaporate the residue to the proper consistence.   (See Alco-
 holic Extract of Aconite.)   The  heat in  the preparation of this extract
 must be very moderate, or decomposition will ensue.
   Properties and Uses.—This  extract is narcotic,  and may be  used  in
 all cases where its peculiar influence is desired.  The dose is from one-
 eighth of a grain, to one, two, or three grains, two  or three  times a day.
   Extractum  Cornus Florida.  Extract of Dogwood.
   Preparation.—Take  of Dogwood Bark, in coarse powder, a pound;
Water a sufficient quantity.   Mix the Bark with a pint of the Water, and,
 after allowing the mixture to stand for twenty-four hours, introduce it 
Extracta.
1053
into a displacement apparatus, and pour Water upon  it gradually until
the  liquid passes  but slightly impregnated  with  the  properties  of the
Dogwood.  Heat the filtered liquid to the boiling point, strain, and care-
fully evaporate to the proper consistence.
   Properties and Uses.—Extract of  Dogwood  is tonic and antiperiodic,
and may be used as a substitute for quinia, in all cases.  It will be found
useful in dyspepsia, debility of the stomach, and as a  tonic in dropsical
affections after the water has been evacuated.  The dose is from one to
five grains, three times a day.
   Extractum Corydalis Hydro-alcoholicum.  Hydro-alcoholic Extract
of Turkey Corn.
   Preparation.—Take of the coarsely powdered Root of  Turkey  Com
two pounds;  Alcohol a sufficient  quantity.   Moisten the poAvdered Root,
with two pints of Alcohol, let it  stand twenty-four  hours, then transfer
it to a displacement apparatus, and gradually add Alcohol  until it passes
off without the taste of the root.   Distil off the greater part of the Alco-
hol from this filtered tincture, and evaporate the  residue  to  the proper
consistence.
   To the poAvder in the  displacement apparatus, add gradually a suf-
ficient quantity of Water, until the liquid  passes but slightly impregnated
with the properties  of the Corydallis.  Heat the  filtered  liquid  to the
boiling point, strain, and evaporate to  the proper consistence.
   Mix the alcoholic and aqueous extracts while each are hot, and stir
constantly till cold.
   Properties and Uses.—This  extract is tonic and alterative, and may
be  employed in  all  cases where tonics  are indicated.   It is useful in all
scrofulous affections ;  and in syphilitic  diseases, both primary and secon-
dary, it will be found among our most efficient agents.   The dose is from
one  to five grains, three  times a day.—J. K.
   Extractum Cypripedii Hydro-alcoholicum.   Hydro-alcoholic Ex-
tract of  Yellow Ladies' Slipper.
   Preparation.—Take of coarsely powdered Yellow Ladies' Slipper Root
two pounds;  Alcohol a sufficient quantity.   Moisten the Root  with
two pints of Alcohol; let it stand twenty-four hours, then transfer  it to a
percolator, and gradually add Alcohol  until it passes off without the taste
of the root.  Distil off the greater part of  the Alcohol from this filtered
tincture, and evaporate the residue to  the proper consistence.
   To the powder in the percolator, add gradually a sufficient quantity of
Water, until  the liquid passes off but slightly impregnated  with  the pro-
perties of the Cypripedium.   Heat  the filtered liquid  to nearly the boil-
ino- point, strain, and evaporate  to  the  proper consistence.
  Mix the alcoholic and aqueous extracts while each are  hot, and stir
constantly till cold. 
1054
Pharmacy.
  Properties and Uses.—This extract is  tonic and  antispasmodic, and
may be used to fulfill all the indications of the  crude root in hysteria,
chorea, nervous headache, and nervous irritability.  It may be combined
wfth the Hydro-alcoholic  Extract  of Scullcap, in many  cases advan-
tageously.   Its dose  is  from one  to five grains, two or  three times a
daj.— W.S.M.
  Extractum Dulcamara.  Extract of Bittersweet.
  Preparation.—Take of Bark of the Root, and Twigs of Solanum Dul-
camara a pound;  Water a sufficient quantity.  Mix the Dulcamara with a
pint of the Water, and after allowing the mixture to stand for twenty-four
hours,  introduce it into a displacement apparatus,  and pour Water upon
it gradually until the liquid passes  but  slightly  impregnated with the
properties of the Dulcamara.  Heat the filtered  liquid to the boiling
point, strain, and carefully evaporate to the proper consistence.
  Properties and  Uses.—The Extract of Bittersweet possesses the active
properties of the plant, and  may be beneficially employed in scrofula,
syphilis, cutaneous  diseases,  and wherever the plant is indicated.   The
dose is from two to ten grains, three times a day.
  Extractum Eupatorii.  Extract of Boneset.
  Preparation.—Take of the Tops  and  Leaves of Boneset  a pound;
Water  a sufficient quantity.   Mix  the  Boneset with a pint of the Water,
and  after allowing the mixture to stand for twenty-four hours, introduce
it into  a percolator, and  pour Water upon it gradually until the liquid
passes  but  slightly impregnated with the properties of  the  Boneset.
Heat the filtered liquid to the boiling  point, strain, and carefully evapo-
rate  to  the proper consistence.
  Properties and  Uses.—Extract  of Boneset is  tonic  and  aperient, and
may be given with advantage in convalescence from exhausting diseases,
intermittent fever, dyspepsia, debility of the digestive organs, and gene-
ral debility.  The dose is from one  to ten grains, two  or three times  a
day.
  Extractum Gentians.  Extract of Gentian.
  Preparation.—Take of Gentian, in coarse powder, a pound; Water a
sufficient quantity.   Mix  the  Gentian with  a  pint of  Water,  and, after
allowing the mixture  to stand for twenty-four hours, introduce it into a
displacement apparatus, and pour Water upon it gradually until the liquid
passes  but slightly impregnated with the properties of the Gentian.
  History.—Extract of Gentian is of  a shining dark-brown color, nearly
black,  inodorous,  very bitter, and tenacious.
  Properties and Uses. — This  extract   is a tonic, and  may be  used
wherever this  indication is present,  either alone  or in conjunction with
other tonics.  The dose is from one to ten grains.
  Extractum Gossypii.   Extract of  Cotton Bark. 
Extracta.
1055
   Preparation.—Take of the inner Bark of the Root of the Cotton Plant,
in coarse powder, a pound; Water a sufficient quantity.   Mix the Bark
with a pint  of the Water, and  after allowing the  mixture to stand for
twenty-four hours, introduce it into a displacement apparatus, and pour
Water upon it gradually until the liquid passes but slightly impregnated
with the properties of the Cotton Bark.  Filter the liquid, and heat it to
the boiling point, strain, and carefully evaporate to the proper  con-
sistence.
   Properties and Uses.—Extract  of  Cotton  Bark  is emmenagogue and
abortivant.  It will be found useful  in amenorrhea and  dysmenorrhea,
combined with belladonna and quinia.  The dose is from one to five or
ten grains, three times a day.— J. K.
   Extractum H^ematoxyli.  Extract of Logwood.
   Preparation.—Take of Logwood, rasped, a pound; Water a gallon.
Boil down to four pints, and strain the liquor while hot;  then evaporate
to the proper consistence.
   History.—The evaporation  of  this extract should be  carried to  the
extent of  making it dry and brittle when cold.   One hundred weight of
logwood is  said to yield about  twenty pounds  of extract.  It is  of a
deep red  color, and a sweetish astringent taste, and  if made into  pills
and  kept  any length  of time,  it becomes  so hard that the pills pass
through the bowels unchanged.
   Properties and Uses.—Extract of Logwood is astringent and tonic, and
will  be found useful in diarrhea, dysentery, relaxed  conditions of  the
bowels succeeding cholera infantum, and in chronic laryngitis or bron-
chitis accompanied with  considerable mucous expectoration.   The dose
is  from five to thirty grains, two or three times a day.
   Extractum Helenii Hydro-alcoholicum. Hydro-alcoholic Extract
of Elecampane.
   Preparation. — Take of  coarsely  powdered  Elecampane  Root  two
pounds; Alcohol a sufficient quantity.  Moisten the Root with two  pints
of Alcohol, let it stand twenty-four hours, then transfer  it to a percolator,
and gradually add Alcohol until  it passes  off without the taste of the
root.  Distil off the greater part  of  the Alcohol from  this filtered tinc-
ture, and evaporate the residue to the proper consistence.   To the pow-
der in the percolator,  add gradually a sufficient  quantity of Water, until
the liquid  passes but slightly impregnated with the  properties of the
Elecampane.  Heat the filtered liquid  to  the boiling  point, strain, and
evaporate  to the proper consistence.
   Mix the alcoholic and  aqueous extracts while  each  are hot, and stir
constantly till cold.
   Properties and Uses.—This extract is stimulant  and tonic, and is very
useful in chronic pulmonary affections, debility of  the  digestive organs, 
1056
Pharmacy.
torpor of the liver, dyspepsia, and chronic cough.  The dose is from one
to ten grains, three times a day.— W. S. M.
   Extractum  Hydrastis  Hydro-alcoholicum.  Hydro-alcoholic   Ex-
tract of Golden Seal.
   Preparation.—Take of the Root of Golden Seal, in powder, two pounds;
Alcohol a sufficient quantity.   Moisten the powdered Root with two pints
of Alcohol, let it stand twenty-four hours, then transfer it to a percolator,
and gradually add Alcohol until  it passes off without the  taste of the
Root.  Distil off the greater part of the Alcohol from this  filtered tinc-
ture,  and evaporate the residue to the proper consistence.
   To the powder in  the percolator, add gradually a sufficient quantity of
Water, until the liquid passes but slightly impregnated with the proper-
ties of the Golden  Seal.  Heat the filtered  liquid to the boiling point,
strain, and evaporate to the proper  consistence.
   Mix the alcoholic  and aqueous extracts while each  are hot, and  stir
constantly till cold.
   Properties and Uses.—This extract possesses all the  tonic virtues of
the root, and may be used in all cases where that is indicated.   In many
instances it will be preferable to hydrastin, on account of the insolubility
of the latter.  The  dose  is from  two to five grains, three  times  a
day.—J. K.
   Extractum Hyoscyami Alcoholicum.   Alcoholic Extract of Henbane.
   Preparation.—Take of recently dried Henbane Leaves, in coarse pow-
der,  a _/)own(/; Diluted Alcohol four pints.  Moisten the Henbane with
half a pint of the  Diluted Alcohol, and, having allowed it to stand  for
twenty-four  hours, transfer it  to a percolator, and add gradually  the
remainder of the Diluted Alcohol.   When the last portion of this shall
have  penetrated the  Henbane, pour in sufficient  water from time to time
to keep the powder covered.   Cease  to  filter when  the  liquid which
passes begins to produce  a precipitate, as  it  falls, in  that which  has
already passed.  Distil off the Alcohol from the filtered liquor, and evap-
orate the residue to the proper consistence.   The heat in  the  evapora-
tion should not  be greater than  that produced by a vapor-bath, otherwise
decomposition will be apt to ensue.   (See Alcoholic Extract of Aconite.)
   Properties and  Uses,—This extract contains all  the  medicinal virtues
of the Henbane, and may be  administered Avhenever this drug  is indi-
cated.  The dose is from one-fourth of  a grain, to two or  three grains,
three times  a day.   The smallest  dose must  first be given,  and  the
quantity gradually increased until the desired influence is obtained.
   Extractum Iridis Hydro-alcoholicum.  Hydro-alcoholic Extract of
Blue  Flag.
   Preparation.—Take of the coarsely powdered Root of Iris Versicolor
two pounds;  Alcohol a  sufficient quantity.  Moisten the Blue Flag with 
Extra cta.
1057
 two pints of Alcohol, let it stand twenty-four hours, then transfer it to a
 disphicement apparatus, and gradually add Alcohol  until it  passes off
 without the taste of the Root.  Distil off the greater part of the Alcohol
 from this filtered tincture,  and evaporate the residue to the proper con-
 sistence.
    To the powder in the displacement apparatus, add gradually sufficient
 Water until the liquid passes but slightly impregnated with the properties
 of the Blue Flag.  Heat the filtered liquid to the boiling point, strain,
 and evaporate to the proper consistence.
    Mix the alcoholic and aqueous  extracts while each are hot, and stir
 constantly till cold.
    Properties and Uses.—The Hydro-alcoholic Extract of Blue Flag is  a
 valuable cathartic and alterative.  In doses of from one  to  five grains
 or more, it will be found a useful purgative in cases of obstinate  consti-
 pation, hepatic torpor, indigestion, amenorrhea, etc.   In  larger doses it
 will  produce hydragogue results, and may be given with advantage in
 chronic pulmonary affections,  dropsy, worms,  etc.  In  doses,  to  fall
 short of catharsis, it  becomes  a valuable alterative, and  will be found
 especially useful in rheumatic  diseases, scrofula, syphilis, etc., and will
 frequently cause ptyalism.  A few grains of ginger or  capsicum will
 prevent any harshness of action.  As an alterative, the dose is from one-
 fourth of a grain to one grain, three times a day.—J. K.
   Extractum sive Resina Jalapae.  Extract or Resin of Jalap.
   Preparation.—Take of Jalap, in moderately fine powder, two pounds ;
 mix it thoroughly with a sufficient quantity of Rectified Spirit to moisten
 it well, let it stand twenty-four hours, and then transfer it to a percola-
 tor, and gradually add Rectified  Spirits until it passes off without any
 of the taste of the Jalap.  Distil off the greater part of the Alcohol from
 this filtered tincture, and evaporate  the  residue OATer a vapor-bath, to the
 proper consistence.
   History.—This resin is dark-colored, brittle and of a shining fracture;
 and is sufficiently pure for practical  purposes.  The pure resin of jalap
 is  white as flour, and is an active cathartic in doses of from three;  to five
 grains.  Jalap resin may, according  to G.  A. Kaiser, be known from all
 other resins by its gradual solution  in concentrated sulphuric  acid, and
 subsequent deposition of a brown, soft, viscid matter, on standing for a
 few hours.  Guaiacum resin  is  frequently added  to it; this fraud may
 be detected by making an alcoholic solution of the  suspected  resin, and
 adding to  it  a few drops of chloride of soda, or of lime; if guaiac be
present, it produces a green color.
  Properties  and  Uses.—The  purgative  principle of Jalap  depends
entirely on its resin, and its diuretic properties on its gummy extractive.
The resin  prepared as above  is an active cathartic in the  doses of from
          67 
1058
Pharmacy.
four to ten grains, with much pain and griping, but which may be obvi-
ated by trituration with Castile soap, caulophyllin, or loaf sugar.
   Extractum Juglandis.  Extract of Butternut.
   Preparation.—Take of  the Inner Bark of the Root of Juglans Cinerea
a pound;  Diluted  Alcohol a sufficient quantity.  Mix the Bark with a
pint of the Diluted Alcohol,  and after allowing the mixture to stand for
tAventy-four hours, introduce it into a displacement apparatus, and pour
diluted Alcohol upon it gradually until the liquid passes but slightly im-
pregnated with the properties of the Butternut.   Heat the filtered liquid
to the boiling point, strain, and carefully evaporate  to  the proper con-
sistence.
   History.—Extract of Butternut is of a black color, sweetish odor, and
bitter, astringent taste.   The  extract prepared by the country people is
of an inferior kind, and should  never be purchased by the apothecary.
It is usually made Avith water, which does not extract  all the medicinal
virtue of the bark, and is likeAvise apt to be more  or less  injured by the
improper application of heat.  Hence, many practitioners, having used
the country prepared extract, and found it uncertain in  its effects, decry
all other extracts.   In preparing the extract, the bark of the root should
be collected in May  or June, and used while fresh.
   Properties and Uses.—A mild cathartic, acting upon the bowels Avith-
out disposing them to subsequent constipation.   The dose is from ten to
thirty grains.
   Extractum Krameri^e.  Extract of Rhatany.
   Preparation.— Take of the Bark of Rhatany Root, in moderately fine
powder, a pound;  Water a sufficient quantity.  Mix the Bark of the Root
with a pint of the Water, and after allowing the mixture to stand for
twenty-four hours, introduce it into a displacement apparatus,  and pour
Water upon it gradually until the liquid passes but slightly impregnated
with the properties  of the Rhatany.   Rapidly evaporate the filtered
liquid to such a consistence, that Avhen cold the extract may be dry.
   History.—Good  Extract of Rhatany is of a reddish-brown color, with a
smooth, shining fracture,  very astringent taste, and is almost completely
soluble in water.   In  the above formula for preparing this extract, the
evaporation should  be conducted  rapidly, or  in a vacuum,  because,
when the infusion  is exposed for a length of time to the action of the
air, there  is  an  absorption of oxygen,  and the production of  insoluble
apotheme.   The  extract  made  by alcohol, or by decoction, is inferior
to that made by the above process; the former containing from twenty
to thirty per cent,  less of  the active principle than the officinal,  and the
latter containing nearly fifty per cent, of  insoluble matter.  By the for-
mula given, the wood of the  root yields 6.8 per cent, of extract, and the
bark 33 per cent.  Much of the Extract of Rhatany found  in,the shops is
of an inferior quality. 
ExTRACTA.
1059
   Properties and Uses.—Extract of Rhatany may be used whenever an
astringent is required ;  in some cases it will be found preferable to any
other agent of this class.  The soft extract may be advantageously used
as a local application to ulcers, hemorrhoids, and  fissures of the anus.
The dose is from five to twenty grains, three or four times a day.
   Extractum Leonuri  Hydro-alcoholicum.   Hydro-alcoholic Extract
of Motherwort.
   Preparation.—Take of the recently dried herb Leonurus Cardiaca, in
coarse powder, two pounds; Alcohol a sufficient quantity.  Moisten the
Motherwort with tAvo pints of  Alcohol, let it  stand twenty-four hours,
then transfer it to a percolator, and gradually add Alcohol until it passes
off without the taste of the herb.   Distil off the greater part of the Alco-
hol from this filtered  tincture, and  evaporate  the residue to the proper
consistence, by means of a very moderate heat.
   To the poAvder in the displacement apparatus,  add gradually a. suffi-
cient quantity of Water, until the liquid  passes  but  slightly impregnated
with  the properties of  the Motherwort.   Heat the  filtered liquid to
nearly the boiling point, strain, and carefully  evaporate  to the proper
consistence.
   Mix the alcoholic and aqueous extracts while each are hot,  and stir
constantly till cold.
   Properties and Uses.—Extract of  Motherwort is emmenagogue, ner-
vine,  and antispasmodic, and may be used with advantage in all  forms
of disease in  which the cold infusion of the herb is recommended.   The
dose is from three to six grains, every two or  four hours.   It  may be
advantageously combined with  asclepidin, or the hydro-alcoholic extracts
of black cohosh, nerve-root, cramp-bark, scullcap, etc.— W.  S.  M.
  Extractum Leptandra  Hydro-alcoholicum.   Hydro-alcoholic Ex-
tract of Blackroot.
  Preparation.—Take of the recently dried root of Leptandra Virginica,
in coarse powder, two pounds; Alcohol  a sufficient quantity.   Moisten
the Blackroot with  two pints of Alcohol, let it  stand twenty-four hours,
then transfer it to a displacement apparatus, and gradually add  Alcohol
until it passes oft"  Avithout  the taste of the root.  Distil off the greater
part of the Alcohol from this filtered tincture, and evaporate the residue
to the proper consistence.
  To the powder in the percolator, add gradually a sufficient  quantity of
Water, until  the liquid passes but  slightly impregnated Avith  the pro-
perties of the Blackroot.   Heat the filtered  liquid to the boiling point,
strain, and evaporate to the proper consistence.
  Mix the alcoholic and aqueous  extracts while each are hot,  and stir
constantly till cold.
  Properties and Uses.—This extract possesses all the  medicinal proper-
ties of the Blackroot, and may be used wherever that is indicated.   The 
1060
Pharmacy.
dose  is from  one to ten grains.  It may be beneficially combined with
the hydro-alcoholic extract  of Wild  Indigo, in typhoid diseases, and
where an action upon the liver is desired without active catharsis.
   Extractum Lupulin^e.  Extract of Lupulin.
   Preparation. — Take of Commercial  Lupulin four ounces; Alcohol
eight fluidounces.   Place the  Lupulin loosely in  a percolator, cover with
Alcohol, and allow it to stand an  hour.   Then gradually add Alcohol
until two pints of  filtered liquor are  obtained.   Pour this liquor in a
shallow dish and set aside to evaporate spontaneously.
   History.—Commercial  lupulin is more or less mixed with hops, and
consequently varies in its activity.   The above extract contains the me-
dicinal principles of the hops unimpaired, is of uniform strength, and is
in a form  convenient  for pills.   In  making  larger quantities of extract,
it would be economical  to distil off about three-fourths of  the alcohol,
previous to spontaneous evaporation.   Commercial lupulin yields  about
two scruples of extract to a drachm of the grains.
   Properties and Uses.—This extract possesses  the active properties of
the hops  in  an eminent degree, and may be used in all  cases where
lupulin is admissible.   The  dose  is from two to ten grains three times
a day.
   Extractum Mitchells.   Extract of Partridge Berry.
   Preparation.—Take of the recently dried herb Mitchella Repens, in
coarse powder, a pound; Water a sufficient quantity.   Mix the herb with
ajpint of the Water, and after allowing the mixture to stand for twenty-
four  hours, introduce it into a displacement apparatus, and pour Water
upon  it gradually until the  liquid  passes but slightly impregnated with
the properties of the plant.  Heat the filtered liquid to the boiling  point,
strain, and carefully evaporate to the proper consistence.
   Properties and  Uses.—This extract  is an invaluable preparation, and
possesses  the active medicinal virtues of the plant.   It is  employed more
especially on  account of its  tonic influence  upon the  uterus; and in
diseases of this organ,  it may be usefully combined with  cimicifugin,
caulophyllin, aletridin, senecin, etc.  The dose is from one to ten grains
three  times a day.—J. K.
   Extractum Nucis Vomice Alcoholicum.   Alcoholic Extract of Nux
Vomica.
   Preparation.— Take of Nux Vomica a pound; Alcohol a sufficient
quantity.  Expose the Nux Vomica  to  steam till it is  softened ; then
having sliced and dried it, grind it into poAvder.  Introduce it  into a
displacement  apparatus, and  pour  Alcohol upon it gradually, until the
liquid passes  without bitterness.    Distil off the greater  part of  the
Alcohol from the filtered liquor, and evaporate the residue to the proper
consistence. 
Extracta.
1061
   Properties and Uses.—This is an active preparation of nux vomica, but
owing to the variable proportion of strychnia in the seeds, it is not always
of uniform strength.  It may  be employed in cases where the action  of
this agent is required.  It is very useful  in cases of  obstinate constipa-
tion, and may be employed in the following combination :  Take Extract
of Butternut two grains ;  Podophyllin one sixteenth of a grain;  and Al-
coholic  Extract  of  Nux Vomica  one-fourth of a grain; mix thoroughly
together and form  a pill, which  is a  dose, and may be repeated tAvo  or
three  times daily, or until the  desired effect is produced.   The dose  of
the above  extract of nux vomica is  from one-fourth of a grain to two
grains, repeated two or three times a  day.
   Extractum Phytolacca  Alcoholicum.  Alcoholic Extract of Poke.
   Preparation. — Take of the  recently dried Leaves of Poke, in coarse
powder, a pound; Diluted Alcohol four pints.  Moisten the leaves  with
half a pint of the Diluted Alcohol, and  having alloAved it to stand for twen-
ty-four hours, transfer it to a displacement apparatus, and add gradually
the remainder  of the Diluted  Alcohol.  When the last portion of this
shall have  penetrated the Poke, pour in sufficient Avater  from  time  to
time to keep the powder covered.  Cease to filter when the liquid which
passes begins  to produce a precipitate, as it  falls, in that which has
already  passed.   Distil off the Alcohol  from  the filtered liquor,  and
evaporate the residue to the proper  consistence, by means of a gentle
heat.  (See Alcoholic Extract of Aconite.)
   History —Extract of Poke prepared in this manner, is superior to that
prepared in the ordinary way with water.  The leaves employed in the
preparation of the extract should be  gathered  immediately previous  to
the ripening of the berries, at Avhich period they are the most active. An
extract may be prepared from the Poke-root in  the same manner, but it
is somewhat doubtful whether it is as  energetic  as that from the leaves.
An extract formed by evaporating the expressed juice of the recent ripe
berries is frequently employed, but it  is presumed to be  inferior in point
of efficacy  to that from the leaves.
   Properties and Uses.—These various extracts of Poke, are emetic and
purgative in large doses;  in medicinal doses they are alterative  and are
especially useful in syphilitic, mercurio-syphilitic, and rheumatic  dis-
eases, and particularly in the osteocopic pains of mercurio-syphilis. They
lose their virtues by age,  and  should be  freshly prepared every year.
The dose is from one  to five grains, or more, three times a day.
   The inspissated juice of Poke-berries, (Succus Inspissatus Phytolaccae,
Baccce.)  is frequently  employed as a valuable agent in rheumatism ;  it  is
milder than the extract prepared from the root, or leaves.
  Extractum Plantaginis Cordate  Hydro-alcoholicum. Hydro-alco-
holic Extract of Water Plantain.
  Preparation.—Take of the recently dried Root  of Water Plantain,  in
coarse powder, two  pounds; Alcohol  a sufficient quantity.   Moisten the 
9-
1062                        Pharmacy.

Root with tAvo pints of Alcohol, let it stand twenty-four hours, then trans-
fer it to a displacement apparatus, and  gradually add  Alcohol until it
passes off without the  taste of the  root.  Distil off  the greater part of
the Alcohol from this filtered tincture, and evaporate the residue to the
proper  consistence.   To the powder in the percolator,  add gradually a
sufficient quantity of Water, until the liquid passes but  slightly impreg-
nated with the properties of the Water Plantain root.  Heat the filtered
liquid to the boiling point, strain, and evaporate to the proper consistence.
   Mix the alcoholic and aqueous extracts while each  are hot, and stir
constantly until cold.
   Properties and Uses.—Hydro-alcoholic Extract of Water Plantain is
astringent, and  has been  used with much success  in  Asiatic cholera,
diarrhea, and dysentery.   The  dose is from one to ten  grains, repeated
every one, tAvo, or  three hours, as  the  urgency of the  case requires.—
W. S. M.
   Extractum Polygoni.   Extract of  Water Pepper.
   Preparation.—Take of the recently dried herb of Water  Pepper, in
coarse poAvder, a pound; Water a sufficient quantity.  Mix the herb  with
a pint of the Water, and after allowing the mixture to stand for twenty-
four hours, introduce it into a percolator, and pour Water upon it gradu-
ally until the liquid passes but slightly impregnated with the  properties,
of the Water Pepper.   Heat the  filtered liquid to the  boiling point,
strain, and carefully evaporate to the proper consistence.
   Properties  and Uses.—Extract of  Water Pepper is stimulant, diuretic,
and  emmenagogue, and is  especially useful in  amenorrhea, and chronic
affections of  the kidneys.   The dose is from two to ten  grains, three or
four times a day.
   Extractum Pteleae Hydro-alcoholicum.  Hydro-alcoholic Extract of
Shrubby Trefoil.
   Preparation.—Take of the recently  dried Bark of the Root of  Ptelea
Trifoliata, in  coarse powder,  two pounds;  Alcohol a sufficient quantity.
Moisten the Bark with  two pints of  Alcohol, let it stand for twenty-four
hours, then transfer it to a  percolator, and gradually add Alcohol until it
passes off without the taste of the bark.  Distil off the greater part of
the Alcohol from this  filtered tincture, and evaporate the residue  to the
proper consistence.
   To the powder in the percolator, add  gradually a sufficient quantity of
WTater until the liquid passes but slightly impregnated with the properties
of the Ptelea.  Heat the filtered liquid  to the boiling point, strain,  and
evaporate to the proper consistence.
   Mix the alcoholic and aqueous  extracts while each are  hot, and stir
constantly until cold.
   Properties and  Uses.—This extract is  an elegant preparation, and may
be used in all cases where  the Ptelea is indicated.   Its  use is at the 
ExTRACTA.
1063
present time superseded  by that of the Ptelein.  The dose is from two
to ten grains. — W. S. M.
   Extractum Rhei.  Extract of Rhubarb.
   Preparation.—Take of Rhubarb, in coarse powder, a pound; Diluted
Alcohol a sufficient quantity.   Mix  the  Rhubarb with an equal quantity
of coarse sand, moisten  it thoroughly with Diluted Alcohol, and allow it
to stand for twenty-four hours ;  then transfer it to a displacement appa-
ratus, and  add Diluted Alcohol gradually  until  four pints  of filtered
liquor are obtained.   Evaporate this to the proper consistence by means
of a water-bath.— U. S.
   History.—As the purgative principle of rhubarb is injured to a greater
or less extent by heat, the above process must be performed with much
care, employing only a moderate  degree  of heat.  W'hen the drug  is
boiled in Avater, the tannin and starch, which form a part of its composi-
tion,  combine and give rise to a compound insoluble in cold water, and
which, probably carries with it a portion of the purgative  principle.   It
is supposed, also,  that this principle is volatilizable  by heat,  and that a
portion of it escapes with  the vapor.
   Properties and Uses.—Extract of Rhubarb possesses virtues similar to
the drug itself, and has the advantage of smallness of dose, and its capa-
bility of being  given in solution.  The dose is from ten to thirty grains.
   Extractum Rumecis  Hydro-alcoholicum.   Hydro-alcoholic Extract
of Yellow Dock.
   Preparation. — Take  of coarsely powdered YelloAv Dock  Root two
pounds; Alcohol  a sufficient quantity.  Moisten the Yellow Dock  Root
with  two  pints of  Alcohol, let it stand  twenty-four hours,  then  transfer
it to a displacement apparatus, and gradually add Alcohol until it passes
off without the taste of the root.  Distil off the greater part of the Alcohol
from  this filtered  tincture, and evaporate the residue to the proper  con-
sistence.
   To the powder in the percolator, add gradually  a sufficient quantity of
Water until the liquid passes but slightly impregnated with the proper-
ties of the Yellow  Dock.  Heat the filtered liquid to  the boiling point,
strain, and evaporate  to the proper consistence.
  Mix the  alcoholic and  aqueous  extracts while each are hot, and stir
constantly until cold.
  Properties and Uses.—This extract is  tonic and alterative, and is effica-
cious  in scrofula, and  cutaneous  diseases.  It is most generally given in
combination Avith some other alteratiA-e, as extract of Poke, Cimicifuga,
Dulcamara,  Corydallis,  etc.   The  dose is from  one to five grains, three
times a day.— W.  S. M.
  Extractum Sanguinariae Hydro-alcoholicum.   Hydro-alcoholic Ex-
tract of Bloodroot.
  Preparation. — Take  of coarsely powdered  Bloodroot  two pounds; 
1064
Pharmacy.
Alcohol  a sufficient quantity.  Moisten the Bloodroot with  two pints of
Alcohol, let it stand twenty-four hours, then transfer it to a displacement
apparatus, and gradually add Alcohol until it passes off without the taste
of the root.   Distil off the greater part of the Alcohol  from this filtered
tincture, and evaporate the residue to  the proper consistence.   To the
powder in the displacement apparatus, add gradually a  sufficient quantity
of Water, until the liquid passes but slightly impregnated with the pro-
perties of the Cohosh; then evaporate  the filtered liquid to the proper
consistence.
   Mix the alcoholic and aqueous  extracts while each are  hot and stir
constantly.
   Properties and  Uses.—This  preparation of Bloodroot is  expectorant,
alterative, and emmenagogue, and may be used with  benefit in  pulmo-
nary  and hepatic  diseases, jaundice, and amenorrhea.  Externally,  it
forms  a  mild caustic,  and  may be advantageously applied to indolent
ulcers and fistula-in-ano.  It possesses the virtues of the root.   The dose
is  from one-eighth of a grain to a grain.—J.  K.
   Extractum Scutellariae Hydro-alcoholicum.  Hydro-alcoholic Ex-
tract of Scullcap.
   Preparation. — Take of the  recently dried Herb, Scullcap,  in coarse
powder, two pounds ; Alcohol a sufficient quantity.  Moisten the Scullcap
with two pints of Alcohol, let it stand twenty-four hours, then transfer it
to a displacement  apparatus, and gradually add Alcohol until  it passes
off Avithout the taste of the root.  Distil off the greater part of the Alcohol
from this filtered tincture,  and evaporate the residue to the proper con-
sistence.
   To the powder in the displacement apparatus, add gradually a sufficient
quantity of Water, until the liquid passes but slightly impregnated with
the properties of the Scullcap.  Heat the filtered  liquid to the  boiling
point, strain,  and evaporate to the proper consistence.
   Mix the alcoholic and aqueous extracts while each are hot, and stir
constantly until cold.
   Properties  and Uses.—The Hydro-alcoholic Extract of Scullcap  is
tonic, nervine, and antispasmodic.  It has been used with advantage in
cases of  nervous excitability, chorea, wakefulness,  and restlessness ;  it
may be used alone or in combination with the hydro-alcoholic extracts
of cimicifuga, cypripedium, or asclepias   The dose is  from one to five
grains, three or four times  a day.— W. S. M.
   Extractum Stillingle  Hydro-alcoholicum.   Hydro-alcoholic Ex-
tract of (Queen's Root.
   Preparation.—Take of  the  recent Root of Stillingia, cut into small
pieces, two pounds ; Alcohol a sufficient quantity.   Moisten the  Stillingia
with two pints of Alcohol,  let it stand twenty-four hours, then transfer it
to a displacement apparatus,  and gradually  add  Alcohol until it passes 
Extract a.
1065
off without the taste of the Root.   Distil off the greater part of the Alco-
hol from this filtered  tincture, and evaporate the residue to the proper
consistence.  To the root in the percolator, add gradually a sufficient
quantity of Water, until the liquid passes but slightly impregnated Avith
the properties of the  Stillingia.   Heat  the  filtered liquid to the boiling
point, strain, and evaporate  to the proper consistence.
  Mix the alcoholic  and aqueous extracts while each are hot, and stir
constantly till cold.
  Properties and Uses. — In large doses the Hydro-alcoholic Extract of
Stillingia is emetic and  cathartic, for which actions  it is but little em-
ployed in medicine, on account of the nausea, prostration, and burning
sensation at the stomach caused by it.  In small doses  it is a valuable
alterative, peculiar to Eclectic practice, and may be efficaciously used in
all  diseases requiring alterative remedies.   It is usually given in combi-
nation Avith other alteratives, the  virtues of  which it appears  to increase.
The Compound  Syrup of Stillingia is now more generally used in  prac-
tice, but this  extract will be found useful  in cases where pills are pre-
ferred to fluid preparations.   The dose is one, two, or three grains,  three
times a day.— W. S. M.
  Extractum Stramonii Alcoholicum. Alcoholic Extract of Stramonium.
  Preparation.—Take of recently dried Leaves of Stramonium a pound;
Diluted Alcohol four pints.   Moisten the leaves with  half a pint of the
Diluted Alcohol, and, having allowed it to  stand for twenty-four hours,
transfer  it to a percolator, and  add gradually the  remainder of the
Diluted Alcohol.  When the last portion shall have pentrated the  Stra-
monium, pour in sufficient  water from time to  time to keep the powder
covered.   Cease to filter when the liquid which passes begins to produce
a precipitate, as it falls, in that which has already passed.  Distil off the
Alcohol from  the filtered liquor, and evaporate the residue to the proper
consistence.   The heat in the evaporation  should not be greater than
that produced by a vapor-bath,  othenvise  decomposition will be apt to
ensue.   (See Alcoholic Extract of Aconite.)
  An Alcoholic Extract  may be  also made by  substituting the Stramo-
nium Seed, ground into  poAvder, for  the Leaves.  The seeds are sup-
posed to furnish a more  energetic preparation.
  Properties and Uses.—The Alcoholic  Extract of Stramonium is pre-
ferrable either to an aqueous extract of  the  leaves, or their inspissated
juice.   It is, in  large doses, a narcotic poison; in medicinal  doses it  is
anodvne and  antispasmodic, and may be  administered with benefit in
painful and periodic diseases, nervous excitability or irritability, gastritis,
enteritis, peritonitis, dysmenorrhea, rigidity of the os  uteri, etc., etc.  It
may also be applied externally in rheumatic and neuralgic pains, and to
reduce local inflammations.   The dose is from an eighth  of a grain to a
grain, three times a day. 
1066
Pharmacy.
  Extractum Taraxaci.   Extract of Dandelion.
  Preparation.—Take of the recent Root of Dandelion, gathered in Sep-
tember, five pounds.  Cut  the root  into  small  slices, and place it in a
stone mortar; sprinkle on it a little water,  and bruise it, until  it is
reduced to a  pulp;  then  express the juice, strain,  and evaporate in a
vacuum, or in a shalloAv dish over a water-bath, constantly stirring, until
it is of the proper consistence.
  History.—In the  evaporation of this  extract, too much heat or too
long an exposure to  the action of the air, causes the extract to lose part
of its bitterness and become sweetish, which is a sign of inferiority.  To
be good, the extract must be bitter and entirely free  from any sweetness.
The roots furnish a thirl, watery, feeble-flavored  juice Avhen collected in
the spring; while those gathered in autumn yield a thick, cream-colored,
and  bitter juice,  amounting  frequently  to one-half the Aveight  of the
root.   Age deteriorates  this  extract, hence, it  should be  freshly made
annually.
  Properties and  Uses. — Extract of Dandelion is  tonic,  diuretic, and
aperient.   It  is  much recommended in affections of the  liver,  spleen,
and  kidneys, in dropsical diseases, etc.   I have  made much use of vari-
ous  preparations of dandelion,  and  the  effects  are far from being so
decided and beneficial as  the testimony  of writers  led me to suppose;
we  have several agents vastly superior to it in medicinal efficacy, in the
diseases for which it is prescribed.   The dose of it is from ten to sixty
grains three times a day.
  Extractum Viburni Hydro-alcoholicum.  Hydro-alcoholic Extract
of High Cranberry Bark.   Hydro-alcoholic Extract of Cramp Bark.
  Preparation.—Take of coarsely powdered Bark of Viburnum Opulus
two pounds; Alcohol a sufficient quantity.  Moisten  the Bark with two
pints of Alcohol, let it stand twenty-four  hours, then transfer it to a dis-
placement apparatus, and gradually  add  Alcohol until it passes off with-
out the taste of  the  High  Cranberry Bark.  Distil  off the greater part
of the Alcohol from this filtered tincture, and evaporate the  residue to the
proper consistence.
  To the powder in the displacement apparatus, add gradually a suffi-
cient quantity  of Water, until the liquid  passes but slightly impregnated
with the  properties of the  High Cranberry Bark.  Heat the filtered
liquid to the boiling point, strain, and  evaporate to the proper consistence.
  Mix the alcoholic and  aqueous  extracts while each are hot, and stir
constantly  till cold.
  Properties and  Uses. — Hydro-alcoholic Extract  of High Cranberry
bark is tonic and antispasmodic, and may be used in all cases in which
the High  Cranberry bark is indicated.  In uterine difficulties  it may be
advantageously combined with some  uterine tonic, as cimicifugin, aletri-
din, senecin, caulophyllin,  etc.  In bilious and flatulent colic,  and  spas- 
EXTRACTA FLUIDA.
1C67
modic pains of the stomach and bowels, it will be found very efficacious
in combination with dioscorein.   The dose of it is from one to ten grains,
three times a day.—J. K.
                       EXTRACTA  FLUIDA.
                           Fluid Extracts.
   These are concentrated medicinal principles, not reduced to a solid  or
 nearly semifluid  consistence as with extracts, and have the advantao-e
 over ordinary extracts in being prepared with less evaporation, and con-
 sequently less heat, whereby their activity  is not so liable to  impairment.
 With some medicines, as for instance, Cubebs, in which the  medicinal
 virtue depends entirely upon a fluid  substance, and cannot be reduced to
 a solid extract, the Fluid Extract presents a valuable mode of administra-
 tion.  The  menstruum  employed  in  the  preparation  of fluid extracts
 varies according to the character of the constituents comprising the vir-
 tues of the plant;  thus, many agents require only Water,  and  those
 containing oil and resin require Alcohol or Ether, according to the deo-ree
 of solubility in  these  menstrua, and  their  action upon non-medicinal
 principles which  may  exist  in  the substance under  operation.   One
 great difficulty relative  to fluid extracts  is  their liability to spontaneous
 decomposition; this may be counteracted to a great extent by the  addi-
 tion  of loaf-sugar, in the proportion of one ounce  to  every fluidounce
 of the extract;  or other preservative agents may be employed in  some
 cases, as alcohol, etc.  When prepared by means of ether, these extracts
 generally keep well and for a long time, without any material unfavor-
 able change.
                           Fluid Extracts.
                         by  w. s.  merrell.
  In our article on the  " Progress of Pharmacy," it was obseived  that
 the Fluid Extract was a neAv and very eligible form, in  the present  state
 of the science,  of exhibiting many  valuable  remedies.  The medical
 powers of vegetables, as  has  been stated, depend on certain proximate
principles, as acids,  essential oils, resinoids, alkaloids, etc., and to obtain
these in their separate and  pure state, constitutes  the  climax of phar-
maceutical progress; but there are many  valuable plants of which the
requisite analysis  has not been made; others, in which the  principle in
which the chief  medical activity resides is  combined with some native
acid, or with other principles of an extractive or mucilaginous character,
which modifies  their pathogenetic action;  and  in other cases again, we
wish to obtain, in combination, the medical properties of several articles,
of which the proximate principles are diverse, and to obtain them  pure
would  require separate  and dissimilar processes.   Now, as  nearly all
medical principles are soluble in alcohol, either pure or dilute, all these 
1068
Pharmacy.
properties of an article or a compound, may be extracted by this men-
struum, and  presented together  in  their native state  and proportions;
and althouo-h such  extracts  are  not as concentrated nor as definite in
their strength  as  the  pure proximate  principles,  yet, if skillfully pre-
pared, they are sufficiently so for use in most cases.
   The strength and  quantity of Alcohol may properly be varied, as the
ingredients are more or less resinous in  their character.   But the follow-
ing formula will be found sufficiently definite in most cases:

   R-   Ingredients to be extracted,...........one pound.
       Alcohol, 76 per cent.,................four pints.
       White Sugar,.......................four ounces.
       Water.............................a sufficient quantity.

   Add to the ingredients, in  a convenient close vessel, enough  Alcohol
to thoroughly wet them, and digest with as much warmth as can  be used
without distilling off  the Spirit for twenty-four hours.  Then transfer the
whole to a percolator or displacement apparatus,  and gradually  add  the
rest of the Alcohol, returning a little of the first that comes through, till
it runs clear.   Reserve, by itself, of the first or strongest running, four
fluidounces ;  evaporate  the  remaining Alcoholic Tincture that comes
through to four fluidounces, and likeAvise set it aside.   Then pour  hot
water on  the residuum  in the percolator, until  the liquid that comes
through has very little of the color or taste of the  medicine; evaporate
this latter solution to half a pint, then add the Sugar, continue the eva-
poration until the syrup is reduced to eight fluidounces, and while Avarm
mix in the reserved  Tincture and Extract,  and make one pint of Fluid
Extract.   If necessary, from ten to twenty drops of any desired essential
oil, as cloves, mint,  or caraway, may be added  to  cover the taste and
prevent nausea or griping.
   This process is believed to be the best, that can be pursued with  the
apparatus usually accessible  to physicians and apothecaries.   But  the
method pursued by me in preparing these Extracts, Syrups, etc., in larger
quantities, secures the object in every respect more perfectly.  This con-
sists in placing the  ingredients, previously ground, and  in some cases
macerated, into  an appropriate vessel, in form like a common displace-
ment apparatus or percolator,  and  driving the Alcohol,  Water, or other
menstruum, in the state of Vapor,  downAvard through them.
   Steam or the  Vapor of Alcohol, penetrates everv fiber of vegetable
substances much more  readily  and perfectly than liquids, and brings all
their proximate principles, especially the Resinoids, into a soluble state;
but dry steam has no solvent power, it may soften, and expand, and fuse,
but it cannot  dissolve and carry out those principles, without a liquid as
a vehicle.  Therefore,  to render the  process perfect, we must obtain the
combined action of Vapor and Liquid.  Of Vapor to penetrate and soften,
and of Liquid to dissolve and carry out. 
EXTRACTA FLUIDA.
1069
   The steam  displacement  apparatus, patented  by Mr.  C. Augustus
 Smith, is designed to attain  this object, but unless the process is con-
 ducted slowly  and with much skill, it  is done very imperfect] 3^.   For if
 the vapor be condensed at the top of  the  apparatus, which  will be the
 case if the surrounding condenser be kept full of cold water  as directed,
 the menstruum will only percolate through in the state of liquid, and
 will effect no more than if poured on  in  the state of warm liquid.  On
 the other hand, if the  steam  be not  condensed  above, but passes  on
 through the ingredients dry, it affords no vehicle  to carry with it the
 soluble substances.   My mode perfects the process by obtaining the con-
 tinually combined action  of  the  solvent in Vapor  and in Fluid.   A full
 description of the apparatus and all the steps of the process in using it,
 cannot be given  here without too greatly  extending  this  article,  nor
 could  they be readily understood without the  aid of appropriate  draw-
 ings, and must, therefore, be omitted.
   The lower end of the  displacement vessel is connected Avith a worm,
 so  that  the liquid is fully condensed and cooled before it comes to the
 air.  If the process be properly conducted  the first portions displaced
 by the vapor will be very strong, and contain most of the  Aroma and
 Essential Oils belonging to the ingredients.
   Therefore, to prepare a Fluid Extract by this process, of the  standard
 strength of one Fluidounce from one Avoirdupois ounce of the substance,
 we displace with the Vapor of Alcohol, combined with sufficient Alcohol
 to serve as a vehicle. Of the first and strongest solution or tincture thus
 obtained, set aside a portion  equal in weight to half the ingredients that
 are acted on.   This contains a large portion of the strength,  and nearly
 all the essential oil and aroma, and is not to be submitted to  heat at all.
 Continue the process until  the  strength is exhausted, and the liquid
 comes  through but  little  impregnated with the flavor of the substance.
 Then turn on the steam of water, until the alcohol remaining in the sub-
 stance can be driven out and condensed.  From this second portion of
 solution distil off, at a low heat, in vacuo.
  If the  root  or  other substance  is  believed to contain any medicinal
 virtues not soluble  in alcohol, then continue  the  operation  with steam
 of Avater  till  these  are extracted, and evaporate  this  Avatery solution
 to a semifluid extract.  Mix this  and the residuum  from which the alco-
 hol has been distilled, and add refined sugar equal to one-fourth of the
 ingredients used, and with a  moderate  heat evaporate the syrup to half
the number of pints that there were pounds avoirdupois  of the substance
operated upon.   To this, while simply  warm, add  the first solution that
 Avas obtained  and  set aside, and  mix the two thoroughly.   Then, if it
be necessary,  add  a  few drops of any Essential Oil,  as before stated, to
cover the taste, etc.   Thus making from every pound of ingredients one
pint of the fluid extract.
  It may be  asked, why so particular  to use very  moderate  heat, 
1070
Pharmacy.
or distil in  vacuo,  to reduce the  liquid to the proper quantity, after
having acted on it by steam  during the process of obtaining  it.   The
reply is: 1st, that the temperature of the Vapor of Alcohol is not so high,
by many degrees, as that of  Boiling Water; and 2d, it is not  the  heat
itself that destroys these delicate substances, but it is by  the combined
action of heat and water, and in most cases, of  air also, that the more
easily destructible proximate principles are oxidized and rendered inert.
It is not, therefore, heat alone, but long boiling in water that dissipates
all the volatile principles, as  the essential oils, and decomposes others,
and thus renders  extracts prepared in  the  ordinary way comparatively
worthless.
  All Fluid Extracts are not made according to the above standard of
concentration.  In the Fluid Extract of Lobelia, all the Alcohol is evapo-
rated off, and only the oil and  extractive  left; this is, therefore, con-
densed  only two  or  three  ounces from the pound, according to the
quality of the seed.
  In the Fluid Extract of Stillingia, on the other hand, the  concentration
is less than half that of the above-named standard, as the  medicine is so
powerful that a greater degree of concentration is not thought expedient.
  (In  the preparation I now make under  the name of ' Concentrated
Fluid Extracts,' I use Alcohol only, having  become satisfied that all the
medical virtues of every plant are  extracted  by that menstruum, if
properly managed.   And by thus rejecting the starch, gum, and extrac-
tive that are  dissolved by the water, we are able to make  a preparation
four times the  above strength and  still retain its fluidity.   In most of
our fluid extracts, therefore, each ounce contains  the virtues of a quarter
of a pound of the ingredients—and some contain much more.— W. S. M.)
  Medical Syrups are prepared after the  same  method as the fluid
extracts, with the exception  that  they are  less concentrated,  and less
alcohol and more  sugar is employed in their composition.   For, as they
are  taken in  proportionably larger doses, the presence of spirit in them
Avould be more appreciable and injurious."
  Extractum Anthemidis Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of Chamomile.
  Preparation. — Take of bruised  Chamomile  FloAvers twelve ounces;
Alcohol, Water, of each, a sufficient quantity.  Mix the Chamomile  with
a sufficient  quantity of Alcohol, and  allow it to stand for tAventy-four
hours ; then transfer it to a percolator and pour  Alcohol gradually upon
it until a pint and a half of filtered liquid is obtained.   Place this in an
evaporating dish,  and allow it to evaporate  spontaneously until reduced
to six fluidounces.
  To the Flowers in  the percolator, add gradually a sufficient quantity of
Water until  it passes without any of the taste of the Chamomile.   Evap-
orate this portion  in  a water-bath to six fluidounces.
  Mix together the alcoholic and aqueous solutions. 
EXTRACTA  FLUIDA.
1071
   Properties and Uses.—This Fluid Extract of  Chamomile Flowers  is
 tonic, and possesses all the properties of the crude article.   Each fluid-
 ounce of the Extract represents a fluidounce of the Flowers; hence the
 dose is  from  half a fluidrachm to a fluidrachm three times a day.   It
 may be  advantageously combined with the fluid  extracts of cimicifuga,
 valerian, cypripedium, Scutellaria, etc.
   Extractum  Buchu Fluidum.  Fluid Extract of Buchu.
   Preparation.—Take of the coarsely powdered  Leaves of Buchu  eight
 ounces;  Ether four  fluidounces;  Alcohol  twelve fluidounces;  Diluted
 Alcohol, or good Holland Gin, a sufficient quantity.   Mix the Ether and
 Alcohol, and having  incorporated the  Buchu with  one-half of the  mix-
 ture, introduce it into a percolator, and  gradually pour in the remainder.
 Then add Diluted Alcohol or good Holland  Gin, until  the whole liquid
 which has passed shall amount to a pint.  Put the Ethereal Liquid thus
 obtained into a shallow vessel,  and allow it to  evaporate spontaneously
 until reduced  to five fluidounces.  Upon the mass in the percolator pour
 gradually Diluted Alcohol or good Holland  Gin until ten fluidounces of
 Tincture have passed.  With this mix the five  fluidounces left after the
 spontaneous evaporation, taking care to dissolve in  a little  Alcohol any
 oleo-resinous matter which  may have been  deposited,  and to  add it to
 the rest.  Allow the mixture to stand, with  occasional agitation, for four
 hours, and then filter.   The  resulting  Fluid Extract should measure a
 pint; and if it be less than that quantity, the deficiency should be sup-
 plied by the addition  of good Holland Gin.
   Properties and Uses.—Fluid Extract  of Buchu is a gently stimulating
 diuretic, and  may be used  in  chronic  catarrh of the  bladder, gravel,
 morbid irritation of the bladder  and urethra,  and other affections of
 the  urinary organs.   The dose is one  or two fluidrachms, three times
 a day.
   Extractum Cimicifugae Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of Black Cohosh.
   Preparation.—Take of recently dried Black  Cohosh  Root, in moder-
 ately fine powder, sixteen Troy ounces;  Alcohol one pint; Ether  half  a
 pint;  Diluted Alcohol a sufficient quantity.  Mix the  Cohosh with an
 equal weight of Sand, moisten it with a portion of the Alcohol, transfer it
 to a  displacement apparatus  for volatile  liquids,  and pour on the remain-
 der of the Alcohol and the Ether.   When the liquid commences to pass,
 close the orifice so  that its  passage shall be by drops ; and Avhen  the
menstruum disappears above, immediately add Diluted Alcohol  until the
filtered tincture measures a pint and a half.   Set this aside in a capsule
in a Avarm place until it is reduced to half a pint, and has lost its ethereal
odor.
  Meanwhile,  continue the  percolation  with Diluted  Alcohol until  two
pints more tincture are obtained.  Evaporate  this in  a water-bath to
eight fluidounces, and  mix it gradually Avith the first product  so as to 
1072                        Pharmacy.
avoid as much as possible the precipitation of the  resin from the latter.
After standing a few hours the Fluid Extract should be filtered, and if it
does not measure a pint add a sufficient quantity of Alcohol to mtike that
measure.
  If the amount of resin precipitated is considerable, it may be separated
by a cloth-strainer, redissolved in a little Alcohol, and added to the solu-
tion, which should then be filtered.
  History.—This Fluid Extract is  prepared  after the manner of W.
Procter, Jr.   It  has a dark-reddish brown color like laudanum, is trans-
parent,  and  possesses the bitter, disagreeable taste  of  the root in a
marked degree.   Its  flavor may be  improved by the addition of one
pound Avoirdupois of white sugar, and  a  small  portion of some aro-
matic essence.
  Properties  and Uses. — The Fluid Extract of Black  Cohosh possesses
tonic, narcotic, antispasmodic,  alterative, and  emmenagogue properties.
It may be used with advantage  in rheumatism, neuralgia, scrofula,
syphilis, amenorrhea,  dysmenorrhea, chorea, and  all diseases in which
the Root is  indicated.  The dose  is  from  half  a  fluidrachm  to  two
fluidrachms.
  Extractum Cinchonae  Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of Cinchona.
  Preparation.—Take of Calisaya Bark,  in  a uniform coarse  powder,
eight troy  ounces, moisten it with  Diluted Alcohol, and  after  standing
twelve hours, pack the moist Bark  properly in a percolator, and pour
Diluted Alcohol  on it gradually  until four pints of tincture have passed,
or until its bitterness  is exhausted.   Evaporate  the tincture in  a water-
bath (or a still), to nine  fluidounces;  then add of Sugar fourteeen troy
ounces, continue  the heat until it is dissolved, and strain while hot.
  Properties and Uses.—Same as Peruvian bark, and may be used alone
or  in combination  with  other  agents.  Dose, one  fluidrachm.—A. B.
Taylor.
  Extractum Cornus Floridae Fluidum.  Fluid Extract of Dogwood.
  Preparation.—Take of  DogAvood Bark, in coarse poAvder, one pound;
Alcohol 76 per cent., four pints; White Sugar six ounces; Water a suffi-
cient quantity.  Moisten  the  Bark  thoroughly with Alcohol and let it
stand for twenty-four hours; then transfer it to a percolator, and gradu-
ally add the rest  of the Alcohol, returning a little of the first that
passes, till it runs  clear.   Reserve, by itself, of the first running, four
fluidounces;  evaporate  the  remaining alcoholic  tincture  tha1:  comes
through to four fluidounces, and likeAvise  set  it aside.  To  the Powder
in the percolator add gradually cold Water a sufficient quantity, until the
liquid that passes is but slightly impregnated with  the  properties  of the
Dogwood ; evaporate this latter solution  to half  a pint, then  add the
Sugar, continue  the evaporation until the syrup is reduced to eight fluid- 
EXTRACTA FLUIDA.
1073
 ounces, and while Avarm, mix in the reserved tincture and  extract, and
 make one pint of Fluid Extract.
    Properties and Uses.—Fluid  Extract of Dogwood is tonic, stimulant,
 and slightly astringent.   It  may be  used in  all cases where  tonics  are
 indicated, and Avill be found  beneficial in female debility, leucorrhea, etc.
 The dose is from half a fluidrachm to  two fluidrachms.
    Extractum  Cubebae  Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of  Cubebs.
    Preparation.—"Take of Cubebs, in poAvder, a pound; Ether a sufficient
 quantity.   Put the Cubebs into a percolator, and, having packed it care-
 fully, pour  Ether gradually upon it until two pints of  filtered  liquor  are
 obtained; then  distil off by means of a water-bath, at a gentle heat, a
 pint and  a half of the Ether, and expose the residue in a shallow vessel,
 until the Avhole of the Ether has evaporated."—U.  S.
    History.—This preparation consists principally  of the Aolatile  oil and
 resin of the Cubebs, with some cubebin and waxy matter.   Its consis-
 tence  varies according to  the  amount of  volatile oil existing in the
 Cubebs, and its color is brownish,  with more or less of a greenish tint,
 according to the quantity of chlorophylle present.  On long standing,
 waxy matter and crystals of cubebin are deposited.
   Properties and  Uses.—This preparation possesses the virtues of Cubebs,
 and may  be given in the dose of from  five  to thirty minims, suspended
 in water or  emulsion, and repeated three times a day.
   Extractum Cypripedii  Fluidum.   Fluid Extract  of Yellow Ladies'
 Slipper Root.
   Preparation.—Take of Yellow Ladies'Slipper Root, in coarse powder,
 one pound;  Alcohol 76 per cent., four pints ; White Sugar  sex ounces;
 Water a sufficient quantity.   Moisten  the Root thoroughly with some  of
 the Alcohol, and let it stand  for twenty-four hours ;  then transfer it to a
 percolator, and gradually add the rest of the  Alcohol, returning  a  little
 of  the first  that  passes, until it runs clear.   Reserve, by itself, of the
 first running, four fluidounces; evaporate the remaining Alcoholic tincture
 that comes  through to four fluidounces; and likewise  set it  aside.  To
 the Powder in the  percolator add  gradually a sufficient  quantity of cold
 Water, until the  liquid that passes  is but slightly  impregnated with  the
 properties of the  Cypripedium;  evaporate this latter solution  to half  a
 pint, then add  the Sugar, continue the evaporation until the syrup  is
 reduced  to  eight fluidounces,  and Avhile Avarm,  mix in the  reserved
 tincture and extract, and make one pint of fluid extract.
   Properties and Uses.—The Fluid Extract of Cypripedium  is tonic,
 nervine, and  antispasmodic, and  may be beneficially employed in chorea,
 hysteria, nervous headache,  and  all cases of nervous  irritability and
 excitability.   A few drops of oil of anise may be added to it  to improve
its  flavor.  The  dose  is from half a fluidrachm to a  fluidrachm  three
times a day.—J. K.
          68 
1074
Pharmacy.
   Extractum Epigjeje Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of Trailing Arbutus.
   Preparation.—Take of the recently dried Leaves  of Epigaea Repens,
in coarse  powder,  one pound ; Alcohol, 76 per cent., four pints ; White
Sugar six ounces;  Water  a sufficient quantity.  Moisten  the Leaves
thoroughly with some of the Alcohol, and let it stand for twenty-four
hours;  then transfer it to a percolator, and gradually add the rest of
the Alcohol, returning a little of the first that passes, until it runs clear.
Reserve,  by itself, of the first running, four fluidounces; evaporate  the
remaining Alcoholic tincture that comes through to four fluidounces, and
likeAvise set it aside.  To the Powder in the percolator add gradually a
sufficient  quantity  of cold  Water,  until the liquid  that passes  is  but
slightly impregnated with the taste of  the Leaves; evaporate  this  latter
solution to half a  pint, then add the  Sugar, continue the evaporation
until  the  syrup is  reduced to eight fluidounces, and while Avarm, mix
in the reserved Tincture and Extract, and make one pint of Fluid Extract.
   Properties and Uses.—The Fluid Extract of Trailing Arbutus possesses
diuretic and  astringent  properties, and will be found superior  to  the
preparations  of uva ursi, buchu, etc.,  in gravel, and various  other dis-
orders of  the urinary organs.  It may likewise be used in  chronic diar-
rhea and  summer complaint; the dose is one  fluidrachm, three or four
times a day.—J. K.
   Extractum ErgotaE Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of  Ergot.
   Preparation.—Take of fresh Ergot  in powder,  eight ounces;  Ether
four fluidounces ; Alcohol twelve fluidounces,  Water a, sufficient quantity.
Moisten the Ergot with some of the Ether, let  it stand for twenty-four
hours, and then transfer to a percolator, and add gradually the remain-
der of the Ether.   When  all has passed through, allow the Ethereal
tincture to evaporate spontaneously.   To the Powder  in the  percolator
add  gradually the Alcohol, and  when all has passed, evaporate  the
filtered tincture to four fluidounces.  Again add gradually to the Powder
in the percolator, a sufficient quantity of Water, until the  liquid passes
without the taste of the Ergot; evaporate this liquid to four fluidounces
and  add to it six ounces of  White Sugar, and again evaporate to four
fluidounces.
   Mix the alcoholic  and aqueous solutions while hot, and when cold
add the residuum  of the evaporated Ethereal Tincture, and thoroughly
incorporate by agitation.
   History.—The ether in this preparation takes up a portion of the active
principle in combination with the inert  fixed oil; while the other agents,
undoubtedly, take  up certain proportions  of  the active principle  not
touched by the  ether.  The spontaneous evaporation of the ether gives
the oil and active principle combined, and which must be well mixed with
the other  solutions.  The heat, in evaporating the alcoholic and aqueous
solutions,  should be below 212°.  As there is yet some doubt in relation 
Extracta Fluida.
1075
 to the active principle of Ergot, a preparation which will represent the drug
 in its natural form, is desirable, and which is had in this fluid extract.
   Properties and Uses.—This Fluid Extract may be used as a substitute
 for ergot in all cases, it is pleasant to the taste, is  always ready for use,
 requires a small dose, and acts  promptly without nausea.  The dose is
 from half a fluidrachm  to a fluidrachm;  the latter dose is about equal to
 two doses of powdered ergot.
   Extractum Gentianje Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of Gentian.
   Preparation.—Take of Gentian, in coarse powder, sixteen Troy ounces;
 French Brandy six fluidounces; Water  a sufficient quantity.   Macerate
 the  Gentian  in two and a half pints of Water for twelve  hours, and
 having introduced it into a percolator, allow the infusion to pass slowly,
 adding gradually Water until five pints of liquid have passed.  Evapo-
 rate this  to ten fluidounces by means of a water bath, add the Brandy,
 and strain through cotton flannel.
   History.—This  extract has a thin syrupy consistence, a dark brown
 color, free from sediment, and transparent  in  thin  strata.  With water
 it forms a clear mixture.
   Properties and Uses.—Tonic, and may be given in doses of from half
 a fluidrachm  to a drachm, which represent half a drachm  to a drachm
 of Gentian Root.   It may be variously  combined with other agents  to
 meet particular indications.   For instance, should an aperient tonic with
 antacid properties  be desired, the following  form may be used: Take  of
 Fluid Extract of Gentian,  two fluidounces;  Fluid Extract of Rhubarb,
 two fluidrachms; Bicarbonate of Potassa one drachm; Tincture of Ginger
 two fluidrachms.   Mix.   One fluidrachm  of this mixture will be equal to
 about forty grains  of gentian, six of rhubarb, and  three of bicarbonate
 of potassa.
   If a chalybeate tonic is desired, the  following may be  employed :
 Take of Citrate  of Iron and Quinia one drachm; Water six fluidrachms;
 dissolve  and add  Fluid Extract of  Gentian  two fluidounces.   A  fluid
 drachm of this mixture will represent about forty-five grains  of gentian,
 and three grains of citrate of iron and quinia. — Wm. Procter, Jr.
  Extractum  Gentians  Fluidum  Compositum.   Compound  Fluid
Extract of Gentian.
  Preparation.—Take of Gentian,  in coarse  powder, sixteen Troy ounces;
 Bitter  Orange Peel, Coriander Seeds, of each,  in  coarse  powder, four
ounces; Water,  Alcohol, of each, a sufficient quantity.   Macerate the
 Gentian in two and a half pints of water  for twelve hours, and introduce
it into a percolator ; allow the infusion to pass slowly, adding Water  at
intervals until five  pints  of liquid  have passed.   Evaporate this to ten
fluidounces.
  Macerate the Orange  Peel and  Coriander Seeds in a mixture of  eight
fluidounces of Alcohol, and four fluidounces of Water for twelve hours 
1076
Pharmacy,
introduce them into a percolator, and add gradually a sufficient quantity
of Diluted Alcohol to displace twelve fluidounces of tincture.  Evapo-
rate this  to six fluidounces  by a gentle heat, (120° F.) add  it  to  the
solution  of Gentian  while hot, and  strain.   When finished, the Fluid
Extract should measure a pint.— Wm. Procter, Jr.
   History.—The Compound Fluid Extract of Gentian is a colored, thin,
syrupy liquid.  In the preparation of it I should prefer Prickly Ash Ber-
ries  to the Coriander, both on account of their flavor, and well known
influence on mucous tissues.
   Properties  and  Uses.—Tonic and  carminative, and may be given in
doses of from half a fluidrachm to a fluidrachm.
   Extractum  Hyoscyami Fluidum.  Fluid Extract of Henbane.
   Preparation. — Take of  the recently dried Leaves  of Henbane, in
coarse powder, eight Troy ounces ; Diluted Alcohol a sufficient quantity;
Sugar eight Troy ounces.   Macerate the Henbane in a pint of Diluted
Alcohol for twenty-four  hours, transfer it to a percolator, and  add gra-
dually Diluted Alcohol, until three pints of tincture have passed.  Evap-
orate the tincture to ten fluidounces, and dissolve the Sugar in it while
hot;  when  cold add Alcohol, sp. gr.  0.835, two fluidounces, or sufficient to
make a pint of Fluid Extract, and strain through fine muslin.
   History.—This forms an elegant and durable preparation  of  Hyo-
scyamus.  In percolation the fluid should be allowed to pass  very slowly,
that  thorough exhaustion of the leaves may take  place.
   Properties  and Uses.—This extract possesses  all the virtues of Hyo-
scyamus, and may be given wherever the influence of the plant is desired.
The  dose is from ten to sixty minims.— C. A. Smith.
   Extractum Iridis  Fluidum.  Fluid Extract of Blue Flag.
   Preparation.—Take of  recently dried Blue Flag Root, in  coarse pow-
der,  eight ounces;  Ether four fluidounces ;  Alcohol  twelve fluidounces;
Diluted Alcohol a sufficient quantity.  Mix the Ether and Alcohol, and
having incorporated the Blue Flag with one-half of  the  mixture, intro-
duce the mass  into a  percolator,  and gradually pour in  the remainder,
Then add Diluted Alcohol until the whole liquid  which has  passed shall
amount to  a pint.  Put the Ethereal liquid thus obtained into a shallow
vessel, and allow it to evaporate spontaneously until reduced  to five fluid-
ounces.
   Upon the mass in the percolator pour gradually Diluted Alcohol until
ten fluidounces  of tincture  have passed,  and evaporate  to five fluid-
ounces.  With this mix the five fluidounces left after spontaneous evapo-
ration, taking care to dissolve in a little Alcohol any oleo-resinous matter
which  may have been deposited, and to add  it to the rest.   Allow the
mixture to stand, with occasional agitation, for  four  hours, and  filter.
The  resulting Fluid Extract should be ten fluidounces; and if it be less 
EXTRACTA FLUIDA.
1077
 than that quantity, the deficiency should be supplied by the addition of
 Alcohol.
   Properties and Uses.—This holds the virtues of Blue Flag in a con-
 centrated state, and  may be used in  syphilis, dropsy, scrofula, and  all
 diseases in which the crude article is indicated.   The dose is from ten to
 thirty  minims.—J.  K.
   Extractum  LeptandraE  Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of Black Root.
   Preparation.—Take of the  recently dried Root  of Leptandra Virgin-
 ica,  in  coarse powder, one pound;  Alcohol, 80 per cent., four pints;
 White Sugar four ounces;  Water a sufficient quantity.  Add to the Root,
 in a convenient close vessel, enough Alcohol to thoroughly moisten them,
 and let the mixture stand  for twenty-four hours ;  then transfer  it to a
 percolator, and add gradually the rest of the Alcohol, returning a little
 of the first that comes through, till it runs clear.  Reserve, by itself, of
 the  first  running,  four fluidounces; evaporate the remaining Alcoholic
 Tincture that comes through to four fluidounces, and likewise set it aside.
 Then pour Hot Water on the residuum in the percolator, until the liquid
 that passes has very little of the color or taste of the Blackroot;  evapo-
 rate this latter solution to half a pint, then add the Sugar, continue the
 evaporation until  the syrup is reduced to eight fluidounces, and while
 warm mix in the reserved  Tincture and Extract, and make one  pint of
 Fluid  Extract.
   Properties and Uses.—This Extract is laxative, cholagogue, and tonic,
 and  may be advantageously substituted  for the Root in all cases.  The
 dose is from ten to sixty minims, one,  two, or three times a day.   As  a
 laxative it is preferable to Leptandrin.—J. K.
  Extractum Lobeliae Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of Lobelia.
   Preparation.—Mr. Procter employs the following process in preparing
 a Fluid Extract of Lobelia Herb:  Macerate for twenty-four hours, Lobelia,
 finely bruised, in Diluted Alcohol one pint and a half, and Acetic Acid
 one fluidounce ;  introduce the mixture into an earthen displacer, and pour
 on slowly Diluted Alcohol one pint and a half, and afterward Water until
 three pints of tincture are  obtained; evaporate this in a water-bath  to
 ten fluidounces, strain, add Alcohol six fluidounces, and when mixed filter
 through paper.   This process  is based  on the fact,  that in the presence
 of an excess of acid, the lobelina of the natural salt, which gives activity
to the   drug, is  not decomposed  and  destroyed  by the heat used.  A
 fluidrachm of this extract is equal to half a fluidounce of the tincture.
  That which is commonly used by Eclectics is  prepared  according  to
the previous instructions by W.  S. Merrell.
  Properties and Uses.—The Fluid Extract of Lobelia possesses all the
properties of the plant in  a concentrated degree.   It  may be used
wherever  lobelia is indicated.   The  dose  is from  five  minims  to a 
1078
Pharmacy.
fluidrachm, according to the effect required ; and which are equivalent
to five grains or a drachm of the powder.
   Extractum Lobeliae Fluidum  Compositum.  Compound Fluid Ex-
tract of Lobelia.
   Preparation.—Take of the recently  dried Bloodroot, Skunkcabbage
Root, and  Lobelia Seeds and Leaves, of  each,  coarsely powdered, five
ounces and a half; Alcohol, 80 per cent, four pints ;  White Sugar four
ounces ; Water a sufficient quantity.   Moisten the articles mixed together
with sufficient Alcohol, and let them stand for  twenty-four hours ; then
transfer the mixture to a percolator, and  gradually add the rest of the
Alcohol, returning a little of the first that passes, till  it runs clear.  Re-
serve, by itself, of the first or strongest running, four fluidounces ; evap-
orate the remaining Alcoholic tincture that  comes through to four fluid-
ounces, and likewise set it aside. Then pour Hot Water on  the residuum
in the percolator, until the liquid that comes through has very little  of
the color or taste of the medicine ; evaporate this latter solution to half
a  pint,  by a  heat considerably below the boiling point, then add the
Sugar, continue the evaporation until the syrup is reduced  to eight fluid-
ounces, and while warm mix in the reserved tincture and extract, and
make one pint of Fluid  Extract.
   Properties and Uses.—This fluid  extraot is  emetic, expectorant, and
antispasmodic, and may be used as  a substitute for the Acetated Tinc-
ture of Bloodroot.   A fluidrachm of the extract is equivalent to about a
drachm of the powder; the dose is from ten to sixty minims according
to the desired effect.— W. S. M.
   Extractum Polygoni Fluidum.   Fluid Extract  of Water Pepper.
   Preparation.—Take of the recently dried Leaves of Water Pepper, in
coarse powder, one pound; Alcohol, 76  per cent., four pints; White
Sugar four ounces;  Water  a, sufficient quantity.  Moisten  the Leaves
thoroughly with Alcohol, and let them stand for twenty-four hours; then
transfer them to a percolator, and gradually add the rest of the Alcohol,
returning a little of the first that  comes through, till it  passes clear.
Reserve, by itself, of the first running, four fluidounces ; evaporate the
remaining Alcoholic tincture that passes to four  fluidounces, and likewise
set it aside.  Then  gradually add a sufficient quantity of Water to the
residuum in the percolator, until the liquid that comes through has very
little of the color or taste  of the Water Pepper; evaporate this latter
solution to half a pint, then add the Sugar; continue the evaporation
until the syrup is reduced to eight fluidounces,  and while warm, mix  in
the reserved tincture and extract, and make one pint  of  Fluid Extract.
   Properties and Uses.—Fluid  Extract of Water Pepper possesses the
properties of the herb in a concentrated form, and  may  be given when-
ever that is indicated.   It is especially useful in uterine  diseases.  The
dose is from ten to sixty minims, three or  four times a day. 
EXTRACTA FLUIDA.
1079
   Extractum Rhei Fluidum.  Fluid Extract of Rhubarb.
   Preparation.—Take of Rhubarb, in coarse powder, eight ounces ; Sugar
five ounces; Tincture of Ginger lialf a fluidounce; Oil of  Fennel, Oil of
Anise, each four minims ;  Diluted Alcohol a sufficient quantity.  To the
Rhubarb, previously mixed with  an equal bulk of coarse Sand, add twelve
fluidounces of Diluted Alcohol, and allow the mixture to stand for twenty-
four hours.   Transfer the mass to a percolator, and gradually pour upon
it Diluted Alcohol until the liquid which passes has little  of the odor or
taste of Rhubarb.  Evaporate the tincture thus obtained, by means of a
water-bath, to five fluidounces ;  then add the Sugar,  and, after it is dis-
solved, mix thoroughly with the resulting Fluid Extract, the Tincture of
Ginger holding the oils  in solution.— U. S.
   Properties and Uses.—This forms a good preparation of Rhubarb, the
root being nearly exhausted by the menstruum, and the active principles
not being injuriously affected, if the evaporation be carefully conducted,
without too great a degree  of heat.   The dose is half a fluidrachm for
an  adult, which  is equivalent to half  a  drachm  of  rhubarb.  This is
inapplicable to acute inflammatory affections, on account of the stimulus
it contains, in the alcohol and oils.
  Extractum Rhei et Potassae  Fluidum.  Fluid Extract of Rhubarb
and Potassa.  Fluid  Neutralizing Extract.
  Preparation.—Take of the  Root of the best India  Rhubarb, and  Bi-
carbonate of Potassa,  of each, two pounds Avoirdupois ; Cassia or Cinna-
mon, and Golden Seal, of each one pound; good French Brandy, fourth
proof, one gallon;  Oil  of  Peppermint  one fluidrachm; Refined Sugar
three pounds ; Water a  sufficient quantity.   Grind, or coarsely bruise the
Rhubarb, Cassia, and Golden Seal, and mix them.   Macerate them  for
twenty-four hours, or longer  in the  Brandy ;  then express the  tincture
with strong pressure,  and add to it the Oil of Peppermint previously dis-
solved in a little Alcohol.  Break up the cake, or  compressed  residue
from the press, place it in a percolator,  and gradually add warm Water,
until the strength of the articles  is exhausted.   Evaporate this  solution
to four pints, and while the liquor is still hot, dissolve in  it the Bicarbo-
nate of Potassa and Refined Sugar.   Continue the evaporation, if neces-
rary, until, when added to  the tincture first  obtained, it will make one
gallon  and a half of Fluid Extraet, aud mix the two  solutions together.
In adding the Bicarbonate of Potassa the liquid must  not be too  hot else
it will be converted into the sesquicarbonate.
  Properties and  Uses.—This is  an elegant and superior preparation,
being an improvement upon the Neutralizing Cordial.   It  is used for the
same diseases as the Compound Powder of Rhubarb,  and is a more eli-1
gible form of administration.  Two fluidrachms of this Fluid Extract are
equivalent to one  drachm of the powder.— W. S. M. 
1080
Pharmacy.
  Extractum Rhus Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of Sumach.
  Preparation. — Take of the recently dried Bark of Rhus Glabrum, in
coarse powder, one pound; Alcohol, 76 per  cent., four pints; White
Sugar four ounces; Water a sufficient quantity.  Add sufficient Alcohol
to the Bark to thoroughly moisten it, and let it macerate for twenty-four
hours ; then transfer the mixture to a percolator, and gradually add the
rest of the  Alcohol, returning a little of the first that passes, till  it runs
clear.  Reserve, by itself, of the first running, four fluidounces ;  evapo-
rate the remainder of the Alcoholic  tincture  that passes, to four fluid-
ounces, and likewise set it aside.  Then pour Hot Water on the residuum
in the percolator, until the liquid that comes through  has very little of
the taste of the Sumach ;  evaporate  this latter solution to half  a pint,
then add the sugar; continue the evaporation until the syrup is reduced
to eight fluidounces, and while warm mix  in the reserved tincture and
extract, and make one pint of Fluid Extract.
  Properties and Uses.—The Fluid Extract of Sumach is tonic, astringent,
and antiseptic.  It will be found beneficial  in  scrofula, gonorrhea, diar-
rhea, dysentery, and in mercurial sore mouth and salivation.   The dose
is from half a fluidrachm to a fluidrachm, three times a day.
   Extractum Sarsaparillae Fluidum Compositum.   Compound Fluid
Extract of Sarsaparilla.
  Preparation. — Take of Sarsaparilla Root, sliced  and bruised, sixteen   «
ounces; Liquorice root, bruised, Bark of Sassafras Root, bruised, of each,
two ounces; Mezereon, sliced, six drachms; Diluted Alcohol eight pints;
White Sugar twelve ounces.  Macerate all the articles together, excepting
the Sugar,  for fourteen days ; then  express and filter.  Evaporate the
tincture,  by means  of  a water bath, to twelve  fluidounces, and add the
Sugar to it while  hot.  Remove from the bath as soon as the Sugar is
dissolved.
  Properties  and  Uses. — This fluid extract  is alterative, and  maybe
used  in  serofula and  secondary syphilis.  The dose  is a fluidrachm,
which is equivalent to a drachm of the root,  three or four times a day.
With the exception of the omission of Guaiacum Wood, this formula is
the one proposed by W. Hodgson, Jr.
  Extractum Scutellariae Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of Scullcap.
  Preparation.—Take of the recently dried Leaves of Scullcap, in coarse
powder,  one pound;  Alcohol, 76 per  cent., four pints;  White Sugar
four  ounces; Water  a sufficient quantity.   Add a  sufficient quantity of
the Alcohol  to  the  Scullcap to  thoroughly moisten it, and  alloAv the
mixture  to macerate for twenty-four hours ; then transfer it to a perco-
lator, and  gradually add  the rest of the Alcohol, returning  a little of
the first that comes through, till it runs clear.  Reserve, by itself, of
the first running,  four fluidounces ;  evaporate the remaining Alcoholic
tincture that passes to four fluidounces, and likewise set it aside.  Then 
'EXTRACTA FLUIDA.
1081
pour gradually on the residuum in the percolator a sufficient quantity of
Hot Water, until the liquid that passes is but slightly impregnated Avith
the properties of the  Scullcap ;  evaporate  this latter solution to half a
pint, then add the Sugar, continue the evaporation until  the syrup  is
reduced to eight fluidounces,  and while warm mix in the reserved tinc-
ture and extract, and make one pint of Fluid Extract.
  Properties and Uses.—Fluid Extract of Scullcap is tonic, nervine, and
antispasmodic, and is a very convenient and  eligible form of administering
the active principles of the plant.   It may be used in all cases where the
herb is indicated.  The dose is from half a fluidrachm to a fluidrachm,
three  or four times a day.—J. K.
  Extractum Senecii Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of Life-root.
  Preparation. — Take  of the recently dried  Herb  Senecio Aureus,  in
coarse powder, one pound; Alcohol, 76 per  cent., four pints; White
Sugar four ounces; Water a sufficient quantity.  Add a sufficient quan-
tity of the Alcohol to the Herb to thoroughly moisten it, and allow the
mixture  to  macerate  for twenty four hours ; then transfer it to a perco-
lator,  and gradually add the rest  of the Alcohol, returning a little of the
first that passes, till it runs clear.   Reserve, by itself, of the first running,
four fluidounces ; evaporate the remaining Alcoholic tincture that passes
to four fluidounces, and  likewise set that aside.  Then pour gradually on
the residuum in the percolator a  sufficient  quantity of Hot Water, until
the liquid that passes is but slightly impregnated with  the properties of
the Life-root Herb ; evaporate this latter solution to half a pint, then add
the Sugar, continue the evaporation until the syrup is reduced to eight
fluidounces, and while warm  mix  in the reserved tincture  and extract,
and make one pint of Fluid Extract.
  Properties and Uses.—This Fluid Extract possesses  the medical vir-
tues of the Life-root, and  forms a useful  agent in  amenorrhea, either
alone, or in combination with the fluid extracts of black cohosh, water-
pepper, etc. It may, likewise, be used advantageously in the other diseases
in which the root is round efficient. The dose is from half a fluidrachm
to a fluidrachm; three or four times a day.—J. K.
  Extractum Sennae Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of Senna.
  Preparation. — Take  of Senna, in coarse powder, two pounds and a
half;  Sugar twenty ounces; Oil of Fennel a fluidrachm; Hoffman's Ano-
dyne  two fluidrachms ; Diluted Alcohol four pints.   Macerate the Senna
with the Diluted Alcohol for twenty-four hours, then introduce the mix-
ture into a percolator,  and gradually add Water mixed with one-third
of its bulk of Alcohol,  until  a gallon  and a  half of liquid shall have
passed.  Evaporate the liquid by means of a water-bath to twenty fluid-
ounces ;  filter, add the  Sugar while the Fluid is hot,  and when it is all
dissolved, add the Oil of Fennel dissolved in Hoffman's Anodyne. 
1082                       Pharmacy.
   Properties and  Uses. — This  forms a neat preparation of Senna ; the
addition of Hoffman's Anodyne  is to prevent fermentation.  The dose
for an adult is half a fluidounce.—Duhamel.
   Extractum Sennae et Jalapae Fluidum.  Fluid Extract of Senna and
Jalap.  Fluid Extract of Antibilious  Physic.
   Preparation.—Take  of  Senna, in  coarse  powder, one pound; Jalap
Root, in coarse powder, half a pound; Alcohol, 76 per cent., six pints;
Carbonate of Potassa six drachms;  White Sugar eight ounces ;  Diluted
Alcohol a  sufficient  quantity; Oil of Cloves forty minims; Hoffman's
Anodyne one fluidrachm and a half.  Mix the Senna and Jalap together,
and add a sufficient quantity of Alcohol to thoroughly moisten them, and
let the mixture stand for twenty-four hours ; then transfer it to a perco-
lator, and gradually add  the rest of the Alcohol,  returning a  little  of
the first that  passes, till  it  runs clear.  Reserve, by itself,  of the first
running, six fluidounces ; evaporate the  remaining Alcoholic  tincture
that comes through to six  fluidounces, and likewise set it aside.   Then
add a sufficient quantity  of  Diluted Alcohol to  the residuum  in the
percolator, until the liquid passes but very little  impregnated with the
properties of the  medicines; evaporate  this latter  solution to  twelve
fluidounces,  then  add the  Sugar, and continue the evaporation until the
syrup  is reduced to twelve fluidounces, and while warm add the  Car-
bonate of Potassa, the  Oil of Cloves previously dissolved in Hoffman's
Anodyne, also the reserved tincture and extract, and make one pint and
a half of Fluid Extract.
   Properties and  Uses.—This is  a concentrated form of the Compound
Powder of Jalap, and  may be given with safety  in all  cases where a
purgative is required.  Should any resinous matter be deposited, it must
be dissolved in Alcohol and  combined with the extract; the addition  of
the Carbonate  of  Potassa is to  enable the  resinous matter deposited
during  evaporation,  to be dissolved, also  to aid  in counteracting the
griping property of the  medicine.  The dose for an adult is a  fluidrachm,
which is about equivalent  to one  drachm of the powder.— W. S. M.
   Extractum Sennae et  Rhei Fluidum.   Fluid  Extract of Senna and
Rhubarb.
   Preparation.—Take of Senna,  in coarse powder, twelve ounces (Troy);
Rhubarb, in coarse powder, four ounces;  Bicarbonate of Potassa half an
ounce;  Sugar eight  ounces;  Tincture  of  Ginger  a fluidounce;  Oil  of
Cloves eight minims; Oil of Anise sixteen minims;  Alcohol, and Water,
of each, a  sufficient  quantity.  Mix  the Senna and  Rhubarb together,
pour upon them two pints  of  Diluted Alcohol, and allow them to mace-
rate for twenty-four hours; then  introduce the mixture into a percolator
furnished below with a stop-cock or cork to regulate the flow.   A mix-
ture of one part of Alcohol and three of Water should now be gradually
added, so as to keep a constant but slow displacement  of the absorbed 
EXTRACTA FLUIDA.
1083
menstruum, until one gallon of tincture has  passed.   Evaporate this in
a water-bath to eleven fluidounces, dissolve in it the Sugar and Bicar-
bonate  of  Potassa,  and after straining,  add  the  Tincture of  Ginger
holding the Oils in solution, and mix.  When finished the whole  should
measure a pint.
  History.—If the percolation has been properly conducted, the ingre-
dients will  have been sufficiently exhausted when six  pints of fluid  have
passed.   As by far the larger portion of the soluble matter passes in the
first two pints, it is well to set  these aside and evaporate them separately
to six fluidounces, subsequently adding it to the other liquid when it has
been reduced to five  fluidounces.  As the cathartic principles of senna and
rhubarb are very susceptible  to injury from heat,  especially in contact
with the air, the propriety of using the  best available means for con-
ducting the evaporation need not be  urged.  When  the  evaporation is
conducted  in  open  vessels, some  advantage is gained by adding the
sugar to the tincture and continuing the process until it measures fifteen
fluidounces.  The sugar protects the  extractive matter from oxidation,
and more completely suspends or dissolves the  resinous part of the  rhu-
barb contained in the tincture.  The bicarbonate of potassa should not
be added to the extract while it is above 140° F., and should be reduced
to powder previously.
  Properties and Uses.—Senna has little, if  any, tonic influence on the
alimentary surfaces; an overdose has a  depleting effect, often inconve-
nient, and its exhibition is frequently attended with griping.   Rhubarb,
on the other hand, possesses both a purgative and  astringent property,
the latter coming into  play after the former has manifested  itself, and
thus repairing, as it  were, its effects.   This astringent or tonic action of
rhubarb is so strongly marked, that, in most cases, when a simple cathartic
is needed, it becomes necessary to  combine this drug with some other
cathartic to overcome or modify this peculiarity.  By the union of senna
and rhubarb in the concentrated form presented by a fluid extract, and in a
due proportion, a resulting cathartic is obtained which is safe, unattended
by  unpleasant  symptoms,  and not folloAved  by constipation  when the
dose has been properly graduated.  The association of alkalies and  alka-
line salts with rhubarb and  senna, has  a  tendency to prevent  their
griping, and in the case of senna,  to  increase its activity.  The dose of
this fluid  extract, for an  adult, is from  half  a fluidrachm  to  a  fluid
drachm.— Wm. Procter, Jr.
   Extractum  Serpentariae  Fluidum.   Fluid  Extract  of Virginia
Snakeroot.
  Preparation. — Take of  Virginia Snakeroot, in coarse  powder, twelve
ounces; Alcohol and Water, of each, a sufficient quantity.   Mix the Ser-
pentaria with twelve ounces of Alcohol, and allow it to stand for twenty-
four hours; then transfer  it to a percolator and gradually add Alcohol 
1084
Pharmacy.
until a pint and a half of filtered liquor is obtained.  Place this in an
evaporating dish, and allow it to evaporate spontaneously until reduced
to six fluidounces.   To the root in the percolator, exhausted by alcohol,
add gradually a sufficient quantity of Water, until it is exhausted, or until
about three pints have passed; (to which, if required, Sugar six ounces
may be added and dissolved).   Evaporate this last aqueous solution in
a water-bath, to six fluidounces, and while warm, add the six fluidounces
obtained by spontaneous  evaporation of the  alcoholic  tincture,  mix
together, and strain.
   Properties and Uses.—This fluid extract forms a useful tonic, which
may be used in cases where  the root is admissible.  Each  ounce of it
represents an ounce of the root.   The dose is from fifteen to forty-five
minims, three or four times a day.—A. B. Taylor.
   Extractum SpigelIaE et Sennae Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of  Spige-
lia and  Senna.
   Preparation. — Take  of Pink Root, in  coarse  powder, one pound;
Senna, in coarse powder, six ounces ;  Sugar one pound and a half; Car-
bonate of Potassa six drachms;  Oil of Caraway, Oil of Anise, of each,
half a fluidrachm;  Diluted Alcohol a sufficient quantity.   Macerate the
Pink Root and Senna for two days, with Diluted Alcohol two pints; then
transfer the mixture to a percolator, and gradually add Diluted Alcohol,
until half a  gallon of liquid  has passed.  Evaporate the tincture  thus
obtained, by means of a water-bath, to a pint; then add the Carbonate
of Potassa, and  after it has  dissolved the  resinous sediment, add the
Sugar  previously triturated with the  Oils, effecting its  solution by a
gentle heat.— U. S.
   Properties and Uses.—This fluid extract combines the  cathartic pro-
perties  of senna, with the anthelmintic virtues of pink root;  it is not
offensive to the taste, and is generally acceptable to the stomach.   The
dose is  half a fluidounce for an adult; a fluidrachm  for a child two
years old.
   Extractum Stillingiae Fluidum.   Fluid  Extract of  Queen's Root.
Bronchial Elixir.
   Preparation.—Take of the recently  gathered Root of Stillingia, cut
into small pieces, one pound;  Alcohol,  76 per cent., four pints;  White
Sugar  eight ounces; Oil of Caraway  a fluidrachm; Water  a sufficient
quantity.  Cover the Root with Alcohol, and let the mixture stand for
twenty-four hours; then transfer it to a percolator, so packed as to admit
of a slow running,  and  add gradually the remainder  of the  Alcohol,
returning a little of the first that passes, till it runs clear.  Reserve, by
itself, of the first running, four fluidounces; evaporate the remainder of
the Alcoholic tincture that comes through to four fluidounces,  and like-
wise set it aside.  Then pour Hot Water on the residuum in the percola-
tor, until the liquid  that comes  through is but slightly impregnated with 
EXTRACTA FLUIDA.
1085
 the  properties of the Stillingia;  evaporate  this solution to half a pint,
 then add the Sugar, continue the evaporation until the syrup is reduced
 to eight fluidounces, and while warm, mix in the reserved  tincture and
 extract, and then the Oil of Caraway, and make one pint of Fluid Extract.
   Properties and Uses.—This  fluid extract possesses all the active pro-
 perties  of the Queen's Root,  in a concentrated  form, one fluidrachm
 being equal to one drachm of  the root.   On account of its great activity
 it is never used in scrofula, syphilis, etc., in which the  more  agreeable
 and  sufficiently active  and efficacious Compound  Syrup of Stillingia is
 preferred.   It has  been, however, found  very efficient  in bronchitis,
 laryngitis, and various pulmonary affections.   The dose is  from two to
 five  or ten drops, to be placed upon the tongue, and allowed  to pass very
 slowly into the stomach.— W. S. M.
   Extractum Taraxaci Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of Dandelion.
   Preparation.—Take of the recently-dried  Root of Dandelion, in coarse
 powder, four pounds; Alcohol twelve fluidounces; Sugar two pounds;
 Water a sufficient quantity.   Moisten the root with  Cold Water, and let it
 stand for twenty-four hours;  then express, filter, add the Alcohol, and
 set the liquid aside.  Break  up the cake  produced by  the pressure,
 cover it with Cold Water, and let it stand twenty-four hours; again ex-
 press, filter, and add the Sugar to the  liquid.   Evaporate in  shallow
 vessels  by means of a water-bath, to a quantity  that shall just make
 forty-eight fluidounces on the addition of the first reserved solution, and
 mix  the two liquors.
   History. — Dandelion is very much injured in its medicinal properties
 by heat, hence, the  importance of  employing  as  little heat in  makino-
 the above fluid extract as possible.  Mr. Wm. Procter, Jr., offers the fol-
 lowing mode of obtaining the virtues of dandelion, by which the natural
 juice may be preserved  unimpaired: Take of fresh  Dandelion  Roots
 (collected in September or October) twenty pounds, Avoirdupois;  Alco-
 hol,  sp. gr.  0.835,  four pints.  Slice the  roots  transversely  in short
 sections, and by means of a mill or mortar  and pestle reduce them to a
 pulpy mass; then add the Alcohol  and mix them thoroughly.   The
 mixture thus  far prepared  at  the  season when the root  is proper for
 collection, may  be  set aside  in suitable vessels; stoneware jars are
 appropriate;  and extracted as the preparation is needed through the
 other seasons.  After having  stood a week, or until a convenient time,
 the pulpy mass  is subjected to powerful pressure,  until as much as pos-
 sible of the  fluid is  removed.   This is then filtered and bottled  for use.
It is necessary that sufficient time  should elapse  after  the  pulp  is set
 aside, for the alcohol to penetrate the fibrous particles  and commingle
with the natural juices, as Avell as for the Avoody structure of the  root to
lose its elasticity, that it may yield  the juice more completely on pres-
 sure.  When the pulp has stood six months in this manner it yields the 
1086
Pharmacy.
 juice with great readiness, and is possessed of the sensible properties of
 the dandelion in a marked degree.  When  eight  pounds, Avoirdupois,
 of the root  is thus treated, after standing several months, the practical
 result is about six  pints  of fluid, with an ordinary screw-press.  This
 yield will vary in amount  with the condition of the root when collected,
 and the length of time it  is exposed afterward, as well as the power of
 the press used.   Should  the  alcohol in this preparation be contra-indi-
 cated, it might be partially removed by exposure  in a water-bath until
 the juice was reduced to five-sixths of its bulk, and then for every pint
 of the residue,  eight ounces, Troy, of Sugar  may be added and dis-
 solved in it.
  Properties and Uses.—Fluid Extract of Dandelion may be administered
 in all cases when the influence of this drug upon the system is desired.
 The  dose is one or two  fluidrachms three times a day.  Some practi-
 tioners  speak very  highly of the therapeutical influence  of dandelion ;
 others,  myself among  the number, do not; probably,  in the latter
 instances, the cause may exist in using preparations rendered inert by
 the heat employed in their manufacture.
  Extractum Valerianae Fluidum.   Fluid Extract of Valerian.
  Preparation. — "Take  of Valerian,  in coarse  powder, eight ounces;
 Ether four fluidounces; Alcohol twelve fluidounces; Diluted Alcohol a
 sufficient quantity.  Mix  the Ether and Alcohol, and having incorporated
 the Valerian with  one half of the  mixture, introduce the mass  into a
 percolator,  and  gradually pour  in the remainder.   Then add Diluted
 Alcohol until the whole  liquid which has passed shall amount to a pint.
 Put the ethereal liquid thus obtained into a shallow vessel, and allow it
to evaporate spontaneously until reduced to five fluidounces.   Upon the
mass  in  the  percolator  pour gradually Diluted Alcohol  until ten fluid-
 ounces of tincture have  passed.   With this mix the five fluidounces left
after  the spontaneous evaporation,  taking care  to  dissolve in a little
Alcohol any Oleo-resinous matter which may have been deposited, and to
 add it to the rest.   Allow the mixture to stand, with occasional agita-
tion,  for  four hours, and then filter.   The resulting Fluid Extract should
measure a pint; and if it be  less than that  quantity,  the deficiency
 should be supplied by the addition of alcohol." — U. S.
  Properties and Uses.—This holds the virtues of  Valerian in a con-
centrated state, and may be used when desired to obtain the influence
of that agent.  It may also be combined with various other fluid extracts,
 as of cimicifuga, cypripedium,  senecio,  etc.   The dose is one or two
fluidrachms, three times a day, or oftener if required.
  Extractum Xanthoxyli Fluidum.   Fluid extract of Prickly Ash.
  Preparation.—Take of  Prickly Ash  Bark, in  coarse powder, one
 pound; Alcohol, 76 per cent., four pints; White Sugar four ounces ; Di-
 luted Alcohol a sufficient  quantity.   Moisten the bark thoroughly with 
Ferrum.
1087
Alcohol, and let it stand twenty-four hours; then transfer the mixture to
a percolator, and gradually add the rest of the Alcohol, returning a little
of the first that passes,  till it runs clear.  Reserve, by itself, of the first
running four fluidounces;  evaporate the remaining Alcoholic tincture
that comes through to four fluidounces, and likewise set it aside.  Then
add a sufficient quantity of  Diluted Alcohol to the  residuum in the per-
colator, until the  liquid  that comes through has very little of  the  taste
of the medicine; evaporate  this latter solution  to half a  pint,  then  add
the Sugar, continue the evaporation until the syrup is  reduced  to eight
fluidounces, and while warm mix in the reserved tincture  and extract,
and make one pint of Fluid Extract.
  Properties and Uses.—Fluid  Extract of Prickly Ash Bark is a stimu-
lant, tonic,  alterative,  and  sialogogue, and  may be used  in  all cases
where  the bark is indicated or desired.  The dose is from ten  to thirty
minims, three times a day.—J. K.
                             FERRUM.
                        Preparations of Iron.
   Ferri Acetas.   Acetate of Iron.
   Preparation.—Take of Carbonate  of Iron one ounce; Acetic Acid six
ounces.   Digest for three days,  and filter.
   History.—This solution has a  deep red color, and an  acid and strongly
chalybeate taste.  It is incompatible with alkalies  and  their carbonates,
the strong acids, and vegetable  astringent infusions.
   Properties and Uses.—Tonic and astringent, and possesses the general
medical properties of the preparations of iron.   A diluted solution of it,
with a few drops of creosote, will be found a valuable  injection  in  leu-
corrhea.   Dose, five  to  twenty drops, in water.  (See  Tinctura Ferri
Acetatis.)
   Ferri Carbonas Saccharatum.  Saccharine Carbonate of Iron.
   Preparation.—Take of Sulphate of Iron four ounces ;  Carbonate of
Soda/bar ounces and a quarter; Sugar two ounces; Boiling Distilled Water
four pints,  Imperial measure.    Dissolve separately  the  Sulphate of
Iron, and Carbonate of Soda, each in two pints of the Water.  Mix the
solutions while still hot, and  set the mixture aside, that  the Carbonate
of Iron may subside.   Then, having  poured  off the  supernatant  liquor,
wash frequently the precipitated  Carbonate.  To this  add the  Sugar,
dissolved in  two fluidounces  of  Water,  and  evaporate  the mixture by
means of a water-bath until  the powder is  dry.   Keep this  in a  Avell
stopped bottle.—Lond.
   History. —When a solution of sulphate of iron  is mixed with a solu-
tion of carbonate of potassa, a  double decomposition  ensues,  resulting
in a precipitate of carbonate  of  protoxide of iron, which falls of a pale-
bluish  color, and sulphate  of soda,  which  remains  in solution.   The 
1088
Pharmacy.
precipitate formed by this action, absorbs oxygen very rapidly  Avhen
exposed to the air, and soon changes  into the  sesquioxide of iron, which
together with its preparations are not so much esteemed in medicine  as the
protoxide and its preparations.  The  sesquioxide formed  from this preci-
pitate usually  retains some of the  carbonate of the protoxide which has
remained unchanged.  As saccharine matter  prevents the absorption of
oxygen, and consequently preserves the carbonate of the protoxide of
iron from passing into sesquioxide, sugar is added  to  effect  this object.
  Saccharine  Carbonate  of Iron  is  of a grayish-green  color,  with a
sweet and strongly chalybeate taste, is permanent in the air, and readily
dissolves in muriatic acid with effervescence.
  Properties and Uses.—This forms  an  excellent chalybeate tonic, and
is superior to  the  subcarbonate of iron, but inferior to  Vallet's Ferru-
ginous mass, which has the advantage of being prepared with  the  anti-
oxidizing influence of sugar from the commencement.  ( See Pilula;  Ferri
Carbonalis.)   The stools are rendered greenish-black by its use.   The
dose is five to thirty grains, in the form of pill.
  Ferri Citras.  Citrate of Iron.
  Preparation.—Take of  Citric Acid five ounces and a  half;  Distilled
Water five fluidounces; moist Hydrated Oxide  of  Iron (prepared accord-
ing to the formula given  hereafter),  a sufficient quantity.  Dissolve the
Acid in the Water, in a  platinum capsule ; heat the  Solution  to about
150°, maintain it at this temperature, and gradually add the Hydrated
Oxide, in  its moist  and  recent  state, as long as  any is dissolved,
and until  the  Acid is fully saturated.  Filter  the liquid, and evaporate
it to the  consistence of thick molasses.   Then spread it out  thinly on
glass  or porcelain plates, where it speedily dries in thin layers, which
are to be  detached from the plates, and broken into fragments.
  History.—In  this process, the  temperature  directed  promotes the
solution of the sesquioxide ;  while a higher  temperature would lessen
its solubility.   Citrate of Iron, is of a  beautiful garnet-red color, un-
crystallizable, slowly soluble in  cold water, but readily soluble in boiling
water, with an acid, not unpleasant chalybeate taste.  It consists of one
equivalent of  Citric Acid  165, and one of Sesquioxide of Iron 80=245.
  When the excess of acid in this salt is neutralized by adding Solution
of Ammonia to its solution, the double salt, called Ammonio-citrate of
Iron (Ferri Ammonio-Citras), is formed in solution.  By evaporating this
to the  consistence of syrup, pouring it  in  thin  layers on earthenware
plates, and drying with  a gentle heat, the  salt is obtained in scales.
The heat, however, drives off a great portion  of the Ammonia.   Ammo-
nio-citrate of  Iron is in scales of a garnet-red  color, much more  readily
soluble in cold water than the Citrate of Iron, and  possesses an acidu-
lous, slightly chalybeate taste.  Potassa  and lime-water decompose it,
with evohuion of ammonia, and a precipitate of the sesquioxide of iron;
ferrocyanuret  of  potassium does not render it  blue. 
Ferrum.
1089
  Properties and Uses.—These salts are pleasant chalybeate tonics, and
may be given in doses of from four to ten grains of either, in pill or solu-
tion, and repeated four  or five times a day.  The citrate is best given in
the form of pill.
  Ferri et Quiniae  Citras.   Citrate of Iron and Quinia.
  Preparation.—Take  of  Citrate of Iron five ounces;  recently precipi-
tated Quinia one ounce ; Citric Acid two drachms; Distilled water twelve
fluidounces.  Mix these together  in a capsule, and  apply heat, but not
sufficient to produce  ebullition; stir constantly.  When the articles  are
all dissolved, evaporate the solution carefully to the consistence of syrup,
and spread it in thin layers on glass, to dry.
  History.—Citrate  of  Iron and Quinia  is in the form of scales,  which
are shining, and of  a more or less deep garnet-color.   It may also  be
made in the following manner;   Dissolve  Citrate of  Iron four  parts,
Citrate of Quinia, one part, in  Distilled Water,  and evaporate the solution
to dryness, as  directed  for Citrate  of Iron.
   Properties and Uses. — A valuable tonic.   Dose,  five  to  ten grains,
three times a day, either in solution or pill.
  Ferri et Morphiae Tartras.  Ferrotartrate of Morphia.  Tartrate of
Iron and Morphia.
   Preparation.—Tnke  of  crystallized  Tartaric Acid,  Distilled Water,
each, by weight, two ounces;  moist Hydrated  Sesquioxide of Iron, pure
Morphia, of each, a sufficient  quantity.  Boil the  Tartaric Acid and the
Distilled Water together,  in  a glass  or platina vessel; as soon as  the
Acid is dissolved, add the Iron until  the fluid  will dissolve  no  more.
Heat the mixture until the deep blood-red fluid becomes clear, and then
add  the  Morphia  until the fluid  ceases to  dissolve it.   Evaporate the
solution  by means of gentle heat,  to the consistence of thick syrup, and
spread it in thin layers  on glass, to dry.
  History.—This salt was first prepared by  Professor J. Milton Sanders,
formerly Professor  of  Chemistry  in the  Eclectic Medical Institute  of
Cincinnati,  and previously my colleague in the Memphis Institute.   It is
in pellicles of a deep crimson color, and  belongs to that class of non-
crystallizable or factitious  salts, as the Ferro-citrate  of  Iron and Quinia,
so popular with the  Medical  profession for  the last eight or ten years;
on account of its ready solubility  and  promptness of action it is  much
employed  among Eclectics, with whom  it constitutes a valuable  agent.
It is incompatible with astringent vegetable infusions, strong acids, alka-
lies, and their carbonates.
   Properties and Uses.—This salt is an  active and efficient tonic and
sedative, and may be employed in  all cases of debility, chlorosis, anemia,
etc., connected with an irritable or excitable condition of the system.  In
the intermission or remission of fevers, it may be used with much advan-
tage, assisting materially  in  lessening  the  severity of  the  subsequent
           69 
1090
Pharmacy.
  febrile exacerbations, or breaking them up entirely.  Professor Z. Free-
  man, myself, and various other  practitioners  have administered  it with
  much benefit.   The  dose for an adult is from half a grain to a grain,
  every two or three hours, or until its sedative  influence is fully obtained.
    Ferri  et Quiniae  Tartras.   Ferrotartrate of Quinia.   Tartrate  of
  Iron and Quinia.
    Preparation. — Take  of Crystallized Tartaric  Acid, Distilled Water,
  each, by  weight, two ounces; moist Hydrated Sesquioxide of Iron, pure
  Quinia, of each, a sufficient quantity.  Boil the Tartaric Acid and the Dis-
  tilled Water together, in a glass  or platina vessel;  as  soon as the Acid
  is dissolved, add the Iron as long as the fluid  will dissolve it.  Heat the
  mixture until the deep blood-red fluid becomes clear,  and then add the
  Quinia until the fluid ceases to dissolve it.  Evaporate the  solution  by
  means of gentle heat, to the consistence of thick syrup, and  spread it in
  thin layers on glass, to dry.
    History.—This salt was, likewise, first prepared by Professor J.  Milton
  Sanders,  and is superior to the Citrate of Iron and Quinia, on account
  of its  greater solubility, and its  activity as a remedial agent.  It forms
  into scales of a beautiful  crimson color.  It is incompatible with  astrin-
  gent vegetable infusions, strong acids, alkalies, and their carbonates.
    Properties and Uses.—The Ferrotartrate of Quinia !% a valuable tonic,
  and may  be used with benefit in  chlorosis, amenorrhea, debility, anemia,
  and during the remissions or intermissions from  fever; also in scrofula,
  and wherever the  union of quinia with a chalybeate is indicated.  The
  dose is from three to five grains,  three times a day, either in solution, or
  in the form of pill.
    Ferri  et SalicinIaE  Tartras.  Ferrotartrate  of Salicin.   Tartrate
  of Iron and Salicin.
    Preparation.—Take of  Crystallized Tartaric Acid,  Distilled Water,
  each, by weight, two ounces ; moist Hydrated  Sesquioxide of Iron, pure
  Salicin, of each, a sufficient quantity.   Boil the Tartaric Acid and the Dis-
  tilled Water together in a glass or platina vessel; as soon as the Acid is
  dissolved, add the Iron as long  as the fluid will dissolve it.  Heat the
,  mixture until the deep blood-red fluid becomes clear, and then add the
  Salicin until the fluid ceases to dissolve it.  Evaporate the  solution  by
  means of gentle  heat, to the consistence of thick syrup, and  spread it in
  thin layers on glass, to dry.
    History.—This salt was first prepared by Professor J. M. Sanders.
  Although Salicin appears  to be  a neutral substance, still, prepared ac-
  cording to the above  process,  it enters into combination with the other
  agents, forming  a compound which possesses the  active virtues  of the
  Salicin in a remarkable degree.   It is incompatible with astringent vege-
  table infusions, strong acids, alkalies, and their carbonates. 
Ferrum.
1091
  Properties and Uses.—Similar to those of the Ferrotartrate of Quinia.
In the hands of several physicians of the South, this preparation has been
found equal to the analogous one of Quinia in intermittent fevers.  The
dose is from three to ten grains, three times a day, either in solution or
in the form of pill.
  Ferri Ferrocyanuretum.  Ferrocyanuret of Iron.  Pure Prussian
Blue.  Prussiate of  Iron.
  Preparation.—Take of Sulphate of Iron, four ounces ;  Sulphuric Acid
three fluidrachms and a half; Nitric Acid six fluidrachms or a sufficient
quantity ;  Ferrocyanuret of Potassium four ounces and a half; Water two
pints.   Dissolve the Sulphate of Iron in a pint of the Water, and having
slowly and carefully added the Sulphuric Acid, boil the solution.   Pour
into it the Nitric Acid gradually and in small portions, boiling the liquid
for a minute or two  after each addition, until a dark color is no longer
produced; then allow it to cool.  Dissolve  the Ferrocyanuret of Potas-
sium  in the remaining pint of Water, and add this solution gradually to
the first liquid, agitating the mixture  after each addition ; then pour it
upon a filter.  Wash the precipitate with boiling water until the wash-
ings pass tasteless.   Lastly, dry it and rub it into powder.— U. S.
  History.—In  the  above process, the Sulphate of Iron  (protoxide)  is
acidulated with sulphuric acid, and then, on the addition  of nitric acid is
changed into the tersulphate of iron (sesquioxide).  The saturating
power of the sesquioxide over the protoxide, is increased by the addition
of the sulphuric acid, and thus a  precipitate of the subsulphate of the
sesquioxide is prevented.   By the addition of the solution of the ferro-
cyanuret of potassium to that of the  tersulphate of the  sesquioxide of
iron, a decomposition ensues;  three equivalents of the former, and two
of the latter are mutually decomposed, giving rise to one  equivalent of
Prussian blue,  which precipitates,  and six equivalents  of sulphate of
potassa, in solution.   Prussian blue contains tt^elements of six equiva-
lents of water,  and the salt is decomposed when these are separated.   It
may therefore, as a hydroferrocyanate of the sesquioxide  of iron, be rep-
resented by the formula 3 Cfy Hi, Fei  03; and the anhydrous  com-
pound, which contains nine equivalents of cyanogen, and seven of iron,
by 3  Cfy, 4 Fe.  Gregory gives  as the true formula of  Prussian blue,
Cfya Kg + Fei  Cla = 6 K CI + Cfys Fe4.
  When manufactured on a large  scale, it is obtained by fusing in an
iron vessel,  animal  matter, as dried blood, horn, hair, etc., with equal
parts of carbonate of potassa; throwing the mass when cold, gradually
into twelve  or fifteen times its weight of water, and constantly stirring
for half an  hour; then  filtering through linen, and  adding to the clear
solution, a mixture of two parts of  alum and one of the sulphate of pro-
toxide of iron, in solution.  Carbonic acid is evolved with effervescence,
and a blackish-brown precipitate is thrown  down in abundance, which is 
1092
Pharmacy.
washed by means of a large quantity of water,  every twelve hours.
These washings last for nearly a  month,  and the precipitate changes
successively to greenish-brown, bluish, and deep blue.  It is then drained
upon  a cloth, divided into  cubical  masses and  dried.  As prepared  in
this manner, it is impure, and  unfit for medicinal purposes.   It always
contains a portion of alumina, uncombined sesquioxide of iron, and ferro-
cyanide of potassium.
  Pure Prussian Blue is of a rich deep blue color,  tasteless,  and insolu-
ble in water and alcohol.   Diluted  acids do not act on it, but the strong
acids  decompose it, with a variety of phenomena.   The alkalies  also
decompose it, forming ferrocyanates.  At a red heat it takes fire, burn-
ing slowly, and  yielding sesquioxide  of  iron.   When Prussian  blue is
boiled with diluted muriatic acid, filtered, and  ammonia added to it, no
precipitate takes place if the drug be pure—should one ensue however,
the article is impure.
  Properties and  Uses.—Prussian  Blue is tonic, sedative, and febrifuge,
and is much employed in febrile  diseases, by Eclectics, in conjunction
with sulphate of quinia ;  it was introduced to the profession for this  pur-
pose,  by Professor I.  G.  Jones, formerly one  of my colleagues in the
Eclectic Medical Institute, Cincinnati, who has used it with immense suc-
cess, and who does  not regard febrile or  inflammatory symptoms in its
administration, provided the disease be, in the least degree,  of a peri-
odica] character.   It is now successfully used in intermittent, congestive,
bilious,  and typhoid fevers, especially during the remissions, and also in
typhoid pneumonia; the dose  is three or four grains, combined with the
same  quantity of sulphate  of quinia, and which is  to be repeated every
three, four, or five hours, according to the nature of the case.  Prussian
blue,  or as more commonly called among  physicians, Prussiate of  Iron,
has likewise  been successfully used  in diarrhea, summer complaint of
children,  pertussis,  dyspepsia, epilepsy,  hysteria, chorea,  and facial
neuralgia.   The dose is usually from one to five grains, three times a day.
  Ferri Iodidum.  Iodide of Iron.
  Preparation. — Take of  Iodine two ounces;  Iron  Filings one ounce;
Distilled Water a pint and a half.   Mix  the Iodine with a pint of the
Distilled Water, in a porcelain or glass  vessel, and gradually add the
Iron  Filings, stirring  constantly.   Heat  the mixture gently,  until the
liquid acquires alight greenish color; then filter, and after the liquid
has passed, pour upon the filter   he  remainder of the Distilled Water
boiling hot.  When this has  passed, evaporate the filtered liquor at a
temperature not  exceeding 212°,  in  an iron vessel,  to dryness.  Keep
the dry Iodide in a closely stopped bottle.— U  S.
  History.—In  this  process,  iron  is made  to  combine with iodine by
means of water; when the iron is  added  to the liquid, it is at first red
or orange-colored, but as soon as all  the  iodine has united with the  iron
by the application of heat,  it changes to a greenish  color, which is a solu- 
Ferrum.
1093
 tion of the iodide of iron, and yields the salt by evaporation.  The iodine
 unites  Avith about half its weight of iron.  In its preparation according
 to the  above formula, the iron is rapidly  oxidated at the expense of the
 water,  the protoxide being  formed; while the hydrogen of the water
 combines with the iodine to form hydriodic acid.   The result is  a  solu-
 tion of  hvdriodate of protoxide of iron, or, according to  some chemists,
 a solution of protiodide of iron, which is believed to be the best prepa-
 ration for medicinal use.   It is very difficult to procure this salt perfectly
 pure, on account of the tendency of the solution to absorb oxygen, which
 partly converts it into an iodide of the sesquioxide instead of the protox-
 ide of iron ; this action is nearly overcome by the evaporation to dryness
 being effected in an iron vessel.
   Iodide of iron has a crystalline or irregularly foliated texture, accord-
 ing to  its method of preparation, is sometimes of a dark grayish-black
 metallic appearance,  but, when made according to the above formula, is
 greenish-black, and has a strong styptic, chalybeate  taste.  When ex-
 posed to the  air, it deliquesces rapidly, sesquioxide  of iron separating.
 At a moderate heat it fuses, and becomes, on cooling,  an iron-gray,
 opake,  crystalline mass, having a metallic luster.  If the  heat be higher
 the protiodide parts with  iodine in violet fumes, until the sesquioxide of
 iron alone remains.   Iodide of Iron is very soluble in Water or  Alcohol.
 If the solution be evaporated OA'er quicklime, with as little  contact of
 air as possible, and  without artificial heat, large,  transparent, tabular
 crystals of a pale yellowish-green color  may be  obtained.  The anhy-
 drous salt  consists of one equivalent of  Iodine  126.3, and one of iron
 28=154.3.   The crystallized salt contains  in  addition five equivalents
 of water 45=199.3.   The  formula of the anhydrous salt is Fe I, that
 of the crystallized Fe I+5HO.   It is incompatible with alkalies and their
 carbonates, lime-water, and with all other substances by which  sulphate
 of iron  is decomposed.  Its solution  may be kept from decomposition,
 by placing in it a coil of iron wire.
   Properties and Uses.—Iodide  of Iron is a tonic, alterative, diuretic and
 emmenagogue, and influences the system  more like the ferruginous salts
 than those of iodine.   It improves the appetite, invigorates the digestive
 organs,  blackens the alvine evacuations with a diminution  of their fetor.
 Sometimes it acts as a laxative, but more  generally as a diuretic.  It
 has been efficaciously  used in scrofula, chlorosis, secondary  syphilis,
 amenorrhea, chronic rheumatism, chronic cutaneous diseases, leucorrhea,
 asthenic dropsy, old visceral  engorgements, atonic dyspepsia, and in all
 cases where there is torpor in the system of nutrition, where there is
paucity  of red globules in the  blood, and the fluid is  too  thin.   On
 account of its tendency to decomposition when  exposed  to  the air, it
 should always be given in solution.   (See Liquor Ferri Iodidi.)   It has,
however, been  given  in pill form,  being protected from deleterious
agencies by the use  of honey and tragacanth.   The   Liquor Ferri 
1094
Pharmacy.
Iodidi, evaporated to a proper consistence for making pills, would proba-
bly form a better mode of administering this salt in a solid state, than
when made by the above process.  (See  Pilulos Ferri Iodidi.)   The
dose of Iodide  of  Iron  is three grains,  three  times a day, gradually
increased to eight or ten grains.
  Ferri Lactas.  Lactate of Protoxide of Iron.   Lactate of Iron.
  Preparation.—Take of Lactate of Lime twelve and a half ounces ; pure
Crystallized Sulphate of Protoxide  of Iron eight and a half ounces;  Boil-
ing Water, cold Distilled Water, of each, sixty two and a half ounces by
weight;  Lactic Acid a sufficient quantity.   Dissolve the Lactate of Lime
in the Boiling Water; also  dissolve the Sulphate of Iron in the cold
Distilled Water; then filter  each of these solutions, mix  them  in a
matrass, acidulate  slightly with  Lactic Acid, and heat  in  a salt-water
bath, stirring  frequently until  the  double decomposition  is completed.
Then filter to separate  the Sulphate  of  Lime, which  precipitates, and
evaporate  rapidly to one-half, either in an  iron vessel, or in a porcelain
capsule containing a few Turnings of Iron.  Filter again, and set aside to
crystallize;  and  having washed the Crystals of Lactate of Iron in a
funnel with a little  Alcohol, dry them on bibulous paper.
  History. — Lactic Acid, according to the  experiments of Bernard and
Barreswil,  exists in a number of  the secretions of the human body, and
especially in the gastric juice; it has therefore been supposed by medical
men, that as  this acid in  its action on the salts of  iron taken into the
stomach, may convert them into  a lactate, this salt  already  formed
might prove a valuable agent; hence the  preparation of Lactate of Iron,
introduced to  the profession  by Gelis and  Cont6.  When pure, lactate
of iron  is  in  very white, crystalline  plates, nearly permanent in  the
air, sparingly soluble in water,  and  its  solution  quickly changing to
yellow,  from higher oxidation of the iron.   It has an acid reaction, and
a mild chalybeate  taste, and dissolves in  forty parts of  boiling water.
If the powder  is yellowish or greenish-white it is impure.  It is liable to
adulteration, and on  this account  should always be purchased in  crys-
talline plates,  and in no other form.
  The Lactate  of  Lime used in the above process, may be made as
follows: Add  to two pints of Skim-milk, diluted with  twice its bulk of
Water, and contained in an earthen pan, sixty-four drachms of Powdered
Lactin,  (sugar  of  milk,)  and flfty-one drachms of Powdered  Chalk.
Allow the whole to ferment for eleven or  twelve days, at a temperature
of from 80° to 90°, supplying water as it evaporates.  Transfer the liquor
to a capsule, heat it gradually to boiling, and stir it constantly.  Boil for
a quarter of an hour to coagulate casein,  allow the insoluble matters to
subside, and strain  the  liquid through flannel.  The  clear liquid  is a
solution of Lactate of  Lime—which may be  concentrated to dryness.
The casein  of the  milk, in this operation, acting as a ferment, converts 
Ferrum.                         1095
 the  Lactin of the  Milk,  and the  Lactin  which has  been  added, into
 Lactic Acid.  This result would not ensue, were it not for the  addition
 of Chalk,  which saturates the Lactic Acid as it becomes formed, and
 prevents it from uniting with the casein, whereby the power of the latter
 as a ferment would be destroyed.
   Properties and Uses.—Lactate of Iron is considered  a valuable chaly-
 beate tonic.   Its use  effects a decided improvement in the appetite, and
 in chlorosis, and anemic  conditions it has been found very efficacious.
 The dose  is one or two grains, repeated at intervals and gradually in-
 creased.   As much as twelve or even twenty grains have been  given in
 the course of the day, with good  results.  It may be used  in the form
 of lozenge, pill, or solution.   The lozenge may be made of one  grain of
 the Lactate to twelve of Sugar; the pill, of one grain to the same weight
 of Liquorice Root,  and sufficient Honey.   A syrup is  made  by rubbing
 Lactate of Iron a drachm, with White Sugar six ounces, until it is all in
 fine  powder ; then  dissolve  the mixture quickly in Boiling  Water, dis-
 tilled, six  and a half fluidounces.   Pour  the solution into a  matrass
 placed  on a  sand-bath, and  add  to  it six and a half ounces of White
 Sugar, in small pieces.  When the Sugar is dissoh^ed, filter, and as soon
 as cold, pour the syrup  into bottles and  keep them well closed.  The
 syrup  is of a light amber  color,  and contains about four grains of  the
 salt to the  fluidounce.   The dose is from two  to four fluidrachms.
  Ferri Oxidum Hydratum.   Hydrated Sesquioxide of Iron.  Hydrated
 Peroxide of Iron.  Hydrated Oxide of Iron.
  Preparation.—Take of Sulphate of Iron  four ounces ; Sulphuric Acid
 three fluidrachms and a half; Nitric Acid six fluidrachms, or a sufficient
 quantity;  Solution  of Ammonia a sufficient quantity;  Water two pints.
 Dissolve the Sulphate of Iron in the Water, and, having added the Sul-
 phuric Acid, boil the solution ;  then  add the Nitric Acid in small por-
 tions, boiling the liquid for a minute or two after each addition, until the
 Acid ceases to produce a dark color.  Filter the  liquid, allow it to cool,
 and  add Solution of  Ammonia in excess, stirring the mixture  briskly.
Wash  the  precipitate with Water until  the washings  cease  to  yield a
precipitate  with  Chloride  of Barium, and  keep it in close bottles with
sufficient Water to cover it.— U S.
  History.—In the above  process,  the Sulphate of Protoxide of Iron  is
first converted into the tersulphate of the  sesquioxide, the same  as in
the preparation of pure Prussian Blue ; the addition of ammonia in ex-
cess, after  this change has  been effected,  causes the sesquioxide just
formed to be precipitated in the hydrated state, and which is  freed from
any adhering sulphate of  ammonia, by the  washings, repeated until the
barytic salt no longer  causes a precipitate.  The preparation should then
be kept under water in close bottles, as the most  convenient  method for
U6e when required. 
1096
Pharmacy.
   Hydrated Oxide of Iron, as prepared by the formula given, is a soft,
moist, reddish-brown magma.  When  dried at a heat not exceeding
180°,  and then pulverized,  a reddish-brown powder  is obtained, not
influenced by the magnet, and which is  the sesquioxide in the form  of
hydrate, containing about 18 per cent, of water, and which  is soluble in
muriatic acid  Avithout effervescence.   A red heat drives oft' the com-
bined water, and it then becomes the  anhydrous  sesquioxide, which is
not so readily soluble in acids, and having no antidotal  effect  becomes
unfit for medical use.   The hydrated oxide of iron consists of one equiv-
alent  of sesquioxide 80, and  two of water 18=98, and is represented by
the formula Fea O3 + 2HO.

   Properties and  Uses.—This preparation, as with other Chalybeates,
possesses tonic properties.  But it is principally used in cases of poison-
ing by arsenic,  in Avhich it proves a valuable  antidote.  When this
hydrated oxide of iron is placed into an aqueous  solution of arsenic, it
removes the arsenious acid so thoroughly, forming an insoluble substance,
that even  sulphureted  hydrogen will  not indicate the  presence  of the
poison.  This insoluble substance, formed by a transfer of oxygen from
the oxide  to the acid, is subarseniate of protoxide  of iron.  The hydrate
should be used in  the moist or pulpy state, and in doses of a tablespoon-
ful to an  adult,  or a dessert  spoonful  to  children, which must be
repeated every five or ten  minutes, until relief  is  obtained.   Twelve
times  the amount of arsenic swallowed,  should be given of this prepara-
tion of iron, and as it is a harmless article, even more may  be advanta-
geously administered.  Of course,  the sooner it is given after the poison
has been taken,  the more prompt and  efficacious will  be its  action.
Amorphous hydrated oxide of iron, when long kept in water, becomes
crystalline, loses half  its water of crystallization, and is much less easily
soluble in Aveak acids ; consequently, it is of some importance in cases
of poisoning by arsenic, that it be  recently made.   It is recommended
to remake it every six  months from the old oxide, by dissolving  it  in
muriatic acid,  and re-precipitating  it with ammonia.  The  dry hydrate
rubbed up with water, is much less efficient than the moist.  As a tonic,
it may be employed in doses  of from five to twenty grains.
   In  relation  to  this uniformly  successful antidote to poisoning by
arsenious  acid, Prof. W. Procter, Jr., has recently furnished a formula
which is easily executed, and which furnishes a concentrated solution of
the ter-sesquisulphate of iron of known strength, so that the  operator
can graduate  the precise  quantity of oxide by means of his measure
glass.   The formula,  together with Prof.  P.'s remarks are given entire :
Take  of Proto-sulphate of Iron, well crystallized, sixty-four ounces, Troy;
Sulphuric Acid seven fluidounces ; Nitric Acid, sp. gr. 1.38, twelve fluid-
ounces ; Water a sufficient quantity. 
Ferrum.
1097
   Reduce  the  Sulphate of Iron  to moderately fine powder in an iron
mortar, mix together the Acids and five  fluidounces of Water, put the
mixture in a large porcelain capsule on the sand-bath  or other regular
source of heat, and add the poAvdered Sulphate,  about tAvo ounces at a
time, stirring after each  addition, till  the  effervescence  ceases, until  all
has been added, and  the  elimination  of nitrous fumes has censed.   In
the absence of  a porcelain capsule and sand-bath, the operator may use
a gallon glass jar, supported in a vessel  of Boiling Water ; in either case,
the vessel should be large enough to allow for  active effervescence, and
it  is hardly necessary to say that  the  operation  should be performed
under a chimney-hood, or in the open air, to avoid the noxious fumes of
Nitrous Acid.   The dense solution thus obtained  should then  be diluted
with Water until it measures four and a half pints, (wine measure,) and
then filtered through thick muslin.
   Solution of Ter-sulphate of Iron thus prepared, has a dark, reddish-
brown color in  quantity, the specific gravity of  1.587 at 60° F., but little
if  any odor, a powerful styptic taste,  and  mixes  readily with  Water, so
as to form  a solution with more color in proportion  to its  dilution than
the strong  liquid.   Each fluidounce of  this solution contains  a fraction
more than  120 grains of Sesquioxide ;  each fluidrachm 15 grains, and
each minim a quarter of  a grain ; and as it is equally applicable for pre-
paring the  Oxide for chemical  as for antidotal purposes, this correspond-
ence of weights with measures gives great facility in calculating any
precise quantity desired.
   It is this solution which  I have proposed  should  be kept by  every
apothecary as the source of Hydrated Sesquioxide of Iron.   Its strength
is such that it  requires about an equal  measure  of commercial solution
of  Ammonia  (sp. gr. .940,) to decompose it.  The  apothecary who is
suddenly  called upon for the antidote will proceed in the  following
manner :
   Take of Solution of Ter-sulphate  of Iron  half a pint; Solution  of
Ammonia half a pint (or a sufficient quantity) ;  Water a sufficient  quan-
tity.   Pour the Solution of Iron into a half gallon jar, add two pints  of
Water, and then add the Ammonia, stirring  constantly until  in  slight
excess.   This is known when, after displacing the air in the jar by  bloAV-
ing, it continues to smell slightly of Ammonia.   The contents of the jar
are then thrown on a piece of  strong muslin, previously well moistened,
and the liquid, holding in solution Sulphate of Ammonia, expressed from
it as quickly as possible,  until  the Oxide remains  in the cloth of a  pasty
consistence. The cloth is then opened on a dish, Water added and incor-
porated with the Oxide by means of a spatula, and then again expressed.
If  the demand  is urgent, the Oxide may be sent Avithout further wash-
ing, if not urgent, the washing may be repeated twice more.   It is then
quickly removed by a spatula from the  cloth to a  quart mortar, and 
1098                          Pharmacy.

Water  mixed with it  by trituration, until  it  measures a  pint, when it
should  be poured into a wide-mouthed bottle, corked,  and the following
label attached, viz :
 HYDRATED  SESQUIOXIDE OF IRON.

    (Ferri Oxidum Hydratnm U. S. Pharm.)

           Antidote  to  Arsenic.

  This preparation consists of Hydrated Sesquioxide of Iron and Water,
iu such proportion  that each tablespoonful contains thirty grains  of
the dry Oxide; and is intended to neutralize the poisonous effects  of
Arsenious Acid, or common White, Arsenic, when taken into  the sto-
mach.  It is well to precede the administration of this  antidote by an
active emetic of Ipecacuanha or of Mustard, so that any undissolved
arsenic may be thus mechanically removed, if possible. If, however,
this has not been done before obtaining the antidote, no time should  be
lost in giving it. The patient should take a tablespoonful for a dose
every five or ten minutes, but if vomiting should intervene, let a dose
be given immediately after each attack, unless otherwise directed  by
the physician in attendance.
  When the poisoning has been caused by Arsenite of  Potassa, (Fowl-
er's Mineral Solution) Soda, or Ammonia, or by the Salts  of Arsenic
Acid, after giving the first dose add six tablespoonfuls of Vinegar to
the contents of the bottle, and shake it a few minutes, until the acidity
is neutralized, and then give it as above.
  When the Oxide is intended for other ferruginous preparations, as, for
instance, Citrate of Iron, it should be washed by displacement on a cloth
filter, till the washings  cease to precipitate Chloride  of Barium.   The
small amount  of Sulphate of Ammonia  remaining in the  Oxide, when
prepared hurriedly as  above, is of no account in  a case of poisoning.
The detail in the above label is  not  objectionable, as it will be often  of
use even to the experienced  physician, not to speak  of the very  many
who have had  little if  any experience in  poisoning cases, and will like-
wise enable any person of  ordinary ability  to administer the antidote
without loss of time.  When it is so  easy to be prepared for these occa-
sions, every apothecary who has a proper regard for his reputation and
duty, will provide the means above detailed, and be ever ready.
   Ferri Oxidum Nigrum.  Black Oxide  of Iron.
   Preparation.—Take  of Sulphate of Iron  six ounces; Sulphuric Acid
(commercial)  two fluidrachms and two fluid scruples; Pure Nitric Acid
four fluidrachms and a half; Stronger Aqua Ammonia? four fluidrachms
and a half; Boiling Water  three pints  (Imperial measure).   Dissolve
half the Sulphate  in half  the Boiling Water, and gradually add the Sul-
phuric Acid; boil;  add  the Nitric Acid by degrees, boiling the liquid after
each addition  briskly for a feAv minutes.   Dissolve  the rest  of the Sul-
phate  in  the  remainder of the  Boiling  Water; mix the two  solutions
thoroughly ; and immediately add the Ammonia in a full stream, briskly
stirring the mixture at the  same  time.   Collect the black powder on a
calico  filter;  wash it with Water till the water is scarcely precipitated. 
Ferrum.                        1099
by  a solution of Nitrate  of  Baryta,  and dry it at a temperature not
exceeding 180°.
  History.—In the above  process, the first half of the sulphate of iron,
after  its solution in the  water and  acidulation with  sulphuric  acid,
becomes, on the addition of the nitric acid, changed into the tersulphate
of the sesquioxide of iron.  The sulphuric acid is added for the same
purpose as mentioned  under Ferri Ferrocyanuretum, which see.   The
remaining half of the  sulphate, dissolved in the balance of the water,
forms a solution of the sulphate  of the protoxide of  iron.  On  mixing
these two solutions, a compound one is formed, of sulphate of protoxide
and sulphate of sesquioxide of iron; ammonia added to this, precipitates
simultaneously the  protoxide and sesquioxide, which chemically  com-
bine and form the Black Oxide.
  The Black Oxide of Iron is of a dark grayish-black color, presenting
a shining fracture, when a piece dried in mass is broken, is  permanent
in the air, and is strongly  attracted by the magnet.  It dissolves without
effervescence  in muriatic  acid, from  which it may be precipitated by
ammonia.  Heated in  close  \ressels  it parts with water, undergoing no
other change;  but  heated in open vessels, it absorbs oxygen, and soon
passes entirely to the state of  a brownish-red sesquioxide.  It is com-
posed of two equivalents  of protoxide and one  of  sesquioxide of iron,
and two of water, its formula being 2 Fe 0+Fe2  03+2 HO.
  The scales which  are struck  from red-hot  iron  by the blacksmith's
hammer, the JEthiops Martis of the old Materia  Medicas,  consist of
chemical combinations of  the protoxide and sesquioxide of iron in vari-
able proportions.  They  are prepared for  medicinal use by washing
them, freeing  them from impurities by the magnet; triturating them,
and separating the fine powder by the method directed for  making pre-
pared chalk.   It is, however, inferior in medicinal virtue  to the black
oxide prepared as above.
  Properties  and Uses.—This is a valuable chalybeate, possessing the
advantages of uniformity of composition and unchangeableness when
exposed to air and moisture.  Its dose is from  five to twenty grains, two
or three times a day.
  Ferri Phosphas.  Phosphate of Iron.
  Preparation.—Take  of  Sulphate of Iron five ounces; Phosphate of
Soda  six ounces; Water  a gallon.  Dissolve  the Sulphate of Iron and
Phosphate  of  Soda,  each separately,  in  four  pints  of the Water;
then mix the solutions,  and set the  mixture aside,  that the powder
may precipitate; lastly,  having  poured off  the  supernatant  liquor,
wash  the Phosphate of Iron with hot water,  and  dry it with a gentle
heat— U. S.
  History.—In the above  process a  double  decomposition takes  place,
the sulphuric acid of the sulphate of iron is set free, and combines with 
1100
Pharmacy.
 the  soda,  forming a solution of sulphate of soda; while at the same
 time, the phosphoric acid of the  phosphate of soda, also being set free,
 unites with the protoxide of iron, forming  a precipitate of phosphate
 of iron.
   Phosphate of  Iron,  when prepared from  a perfect sulphate  of the
 protoxide,  is at first of a white  color, but from absorption of oxygen,
 it soon becomes bluish-white.  It is usually met with  in  the form of a
 powder,  of a bright slate-color, insoluble in water, but soluble in  dilute
 muriatic acid.
   Properties and  Uses.—Phosphate  of  Iron is  a valuable chalybeate
 tonic.  It  has  been recommended as a  remedy in cancer, to be used
 internally,  and  also applied  to the diseased part;  likewise to restore and
 invigorate  the virile powers.   Professor Z. Freeman prefers it, in  many
 instances, to the prussiate of iron in febrile  diseases,  and has derived
 marked advantage from it in this class of maladies. The dose is from
 one to ten grains, three times a day.
  Dr. Routh has met with much success  in some cases of anemia and
 debility,  brought  on by  venereal  or other  excesses,  over-study, and
 depressing diseases, by the  use of  a new preparation  of Phosphate of
 Iron, which he  has found better adapted for a speedy cure than other
 preparations of  iron; it has likewise been of much benefit in cases of
 virile weakness from onanism, or other causes.  It is  prepared by add-
 ing as much phosphate of  iron  as the  monobasic phosphoric acid in a
 boiling state would  take up, and allowing it to cool.   The proportions
 will be found nearly two of  acid to  one of the phosphate.  The solution
 obtained  is of a semitransparent, greenish or slaty hue, which hardens on
 exposure to the air for a day  ; but mixed with liquorice powder or flour, it
 can be at once made up into pills.   The compound is soluble in any pro-
portion of water, and free from any nauseous, inky taste.  It is not yet
analyzed, to know whether it is a superphosphate of iron, or a mere solu-
tion of the phosphate  in  the acid.   It does not gripe or constipate, and
has proved beneficial in cases of debility, where there is a prevalence of
nervous symptoms, or a large quantity  of phosphates voided by urine.
Dose, one or two grains, three times a day—in some instances combined
 with an equal proportion of  phosphate of quinia.
  Ferri  Pulvis.  Powder of Iron.   Reduced Iron.  Iron by Hydrogen.
  Preparation.—Take  of Subcarbonate  of Iron, previously calcined in
 an open vessel,  two pounds  and a half, or a convenient quantity.  Into a
wrought-iron reduction tube, of about four inches in diameter, introduce
the Subcarbonate, contained in an  incomplete sheet-iron tube, open at
both ends,  made by bending the  iron into the form of a cylinder, and
of such a size  as  to fill loosely about seven-eighths  of the reduction-
tube.   Place the reduction-tube longitudinally in an  oblong charcoal-
fufnace;  and, by  means  of a self-regulating generator of Hydrogen, 
Ferrum.
1101
pass through it a stream of that gas, previously purified  by bubbling
successively through solution of subacetate of lead, diluted with three
times its volume of water, and through milk of lime, severally contained
in half-gallon bottles, about one-third filled.  Connect with the further
extremity  of the reduction-tube a lead tube bent so as to dip into water.
Make all  the junctions air-tight by appropriate  lutes; and, when the
Hydrogen has passed long enough to fill the whole of the apparatus to
the exclusion of atmospheric air, light the fire and bring that part of the
reduction-tube occupied by the  Subcarbonate  to  a dull-red heat, which
must be kept up so long as the  bubbles of Hydrogen, breaking from the
water covering  the orifice of the lead  tube, are smaller than those pass-
ing through the milk of lime.   When the reduction is completed, remove
the fire, and allow  the whole to cool  to the ordinary temperature,
keeping up, during the refrigeration, a moderate current of Hydrogen
through the apparatus.  Lastly, withdraw the reduced  Iron  from the
reduction tube,  detach it from the sheet-iron tube, and, having powdered
it, keep  it in well-stopped bottles.   When two pounds and a half of Sub-
carbonate  of  Iron are  operated on, the process  occupies from five to
eight hours.—U. S.
   History.—This preparation is a fine  powder of metallic iron,  procured
by reducing the  sesquioxide of iron  by hydrogen, at a dull-red heat.
The subcarbonate of iron is  calcined, which removes its water, and is
then subjected  to the  reducing  influence  of hydrogen,  purified in the
manner  named.    The oxygen of the sesquioxide unites with the hydro-
gen, forming water, and the iron is left in its metallic state.  Much care
is necessary in preparing this article.  If the subcarbonate of iron  has
not been freed from sulphate of soda by thorough washings, a sulphuret
of sodium will be formed, and the pulverized  iron spoiled;  if the heat
be below  dull  redness, some of  the oxide  will escape reduction; if it
exceed  that point, the reduced iron will agglutinate  and be difficult to
powder.   Souberain and  Dublanc have given full directions for the
manufacture of  powder of iron,  including the purifying of the hydrogen,
the construction of the  furnace, regulation  of the  heat, avoiding explo-
sions, etc.,  and  which may be found in the American  Journal  of Phar-
macy, Vol. XVIII, page 303.  Prof.  Procter, in  Vol. XIX,  page 11  of
the same journal, has made known some valuable improvements in their
process.   To both of which  the manufacturer is referred.
   Powder of Iron, when fully deoxidized, is of an iron-gray color, and
tasteless.  When black it is imperfect, and should be rejected.   Dilute
acids cause Avith it an evolution of hydrogen with effervescence.   Placed
on an anvil and struck  with a smooth hammer,  a brilliant metallic scale
is formed.  It  oxidizes rapidly,  and  hence should  be kept in dry and
well-closed bottles.
   Properties and Uses.  — A valuable  tonic, and is considered to be the
best form of metallic iron for medicinal employment.   It may be used 
1102
Pharmacy.
in chlorosis, anemia, and all diseases  in which the coloring  matter of
the blood is deficient.   The dose is from three to six grains, four or five
times a day, and is best given in the form of pill.
  Ferri  Sesquioxidum.   Sesquioxide of Iron.   Red Oxide of Iron.
  Preparation.—Expose  Sulphate of Iron to heat, until the water of
crystallization is expelled.   Then  roast it by an intense  fire  so  long afe
acid vapors arise.  Wash  the Sesquioxide  until  the washings,  when
examined by litmus, appear free from acid.   Lastly, dry it on bibulous
paper.
  History.—Sesquioxide of Iron  is a reddish-brown, tasteless, insoluble
powder, called Colcoihar.  It is an anhydrous sesquioxide of iron, and is
soluble in muriatic acid.
  Properties and Uses.—It possesses tonic and somewhat styptic proper-
ties, and is used principally in strumous and neuralgic affections, in com-
bination with extract of  conium.   The dose is from two  to eight  grains,
three or  four times a day.
  The Red or Styptic Powder is prepared by merely submitting sulphate
of  iron to  a red-heat, and continuing it until a  reddish substance is
formed ;  it undoubtedly  contains  a portion of acid.  It is powerfully as-
tringent and styptic, and is used as an application to bleeding piles, and
external  hemorrhages ;  it is usually applied in the form of ointment, and
may also be given internally for the same purposes.
   Ferri Subcarbonas.   Subcarbonate of Iron.  Precipitated Carbonate
of  Iron.
   Preparation.—Take of Sulphate of  Iron  eight ounces ;  Carbonate of
Soda nine  ounces; Boiling Water a gallon.   Dissolve the Sulphate of
Iron, and Carbonate of Soda, each, separately, in four pints of the Water;
then mix  the  solutions; and having stirred the mixture, set it  by that
the powder may  subside.  Lastly, having poured off  the  supernatant
liquor, wash the Sub-carbonate of Iron with hot water, wrap it in bibu-
lous paper, and dry it with a gentle heat.— U.  S.
   History.—In  the above process a double  decomposition takes  place;
the sulphuric  acid of the sulphate of iron unites with the soda forming a
solution  of sulphate of soda ; while the carbonic acid of  the carbonate of
soda,  at the  same time,  unites  with the iron, forming a  precipitated
hydrated  carbonate of  protoxide of iron.   During the washing and
drying, the precipitate  absorbs   oxygen and  parts  with  nearly  all its
carbonic acid, and forms a sesquioxide of iron with a small portion of
carbonic acid present.  Hence the name, Subcarbonate of Iron, is given
to  it, to  distinguish it from the sesquioxide, made by calcining  sulphate
of  iron until  all its acid is removed.   If carbonate of potassa  be used
instead of  soda, the sulphate of potassa formed will be found less solu-
ble, and not so easily removed by washing. 
Ferrum.
1103
  The powder of subcarbonate of iron, is of a reddish color, and has an
unpleasant,  slightly styptic  taste ; it  is insoluble  in Avater, but  readily
soluble in muriatic acid, evolving carbonic acid with effervescence.  Am-
monia or potassa precipitates the sesquioxide of iron from its solution in
muriatic  acid, and when properly prepared, sulphureted hydrogen, or
ferrocyanuret of potassium  added to  the supernatant liquor,  should
give no signs of the presence of any metal in solution.  Subcarbonate of
iron, is a hydrated sesquioxide, containing a small amount of protoxide
and carbonic acid.  It is incompatible with  acids and acidulous salts.
  Properties and Uses.—Subcarbonate  of  iron is  tonic,  alterative,  and
emmenagogue.   In large  doses it may produce  a sense  of weight or
fullness at the stomach, or a slight nausea, but no other unpleasant effects.
The stools  are  colored black  by its  use.  It is one of our  best chaly-
beates, and has been  successfully used in neuralgia, especially Avhen
connected with  functional  derangement of the stomach, chorea,  chloro-
sis, and those leucophlegmatic states  of the system in which  the blood is
deficient in  coloring matter.  Sometimes used in intermittent  fever, when
connected Avith  an anemic condition or where the  nutritive functions are
deranged.   In  chronic diarrhea and dysentery, enlargement of the liver
and  spleen,  epilepsy, dropsy,  cancer,  scrofula,   and diseases  of the
urinary organs,  connected with  debility, it has  been successfully used.
The dose is from five grains  to two drachms, three times a day; no
nicety need  be  observed in the dose.
  It is not  so  powerful  an  antidote  in poisoning by  arsenic, as the
hydrated sesquioxide of iron in the  form of magma, yet it should always
be used,  until the latter can be obtained.
   Off. Prep.—Tinctura Ferri Chloridi.
  Ferri Sulphas.  Sulphate of Iron.   Sulphate  of Protoxide of  Iron.
Green Vitriol.   Copperas.
  Preparation.—Take of Iron Wire,  cut in pieces, twelve ounces ;  Sul-
phuric Acid eighteen ounces;  Water one gallon.  Mix the Sulphuric Acid
and Water,  and add  the Iron Wire ; then heat the mixture  until effer-
vescence ceases. Pour off the solution, and having added half a  drachm
of Sulphuric Acid, filter through paper, allowing the lower end of the
funnel to touch the  bottom of the receiving  vessel.  Evaporate the
filtered liquor  in  a matrass until sufficiently concentrated,  then set it
aside in a covered Aressel to crystallize.  Drain  the crystals  in a funnel,
dry them on bibulous paper, and keep them in closely stopped bottles.—
 U.  S.
  History.—When concentrated  sulphuric acid is  in contact with iron, it
does not readily act upon it;  but if it be diluted with  water, the oxygen
of the water changes the iron into a protoxide;  the sulphuric acid unites
with  this,  forming  a solution  of  sulphate  of protoxide of iron, and
hydrogen is set free.  An excess of  iron is advantageous, as it  secures 
1104
Pharmacy.
a perfect sulphate.   The  addition of a small portion of sulphuric acid
previous to filtering the solution, is for the purpose of holding in solution
any sesquioxide that may have been formed, and  thereby enabling  the
salt to crystallize on evaporation, entirely free from the sesquioxide ; and
the direction to have the funnel come in contact with the bottom of  the
receiving vessel, is for the purpose of avoiding, as much as possible,  the
contact of air, which favors the conversion to sesquioxide.  For the same
reason, after concentration of the solution by evaporation,  the vessel in
which it crystallizes should be kept covered.
  Sulphate  of  iron is  an  efflorescent  salt,  forming transparent, pale
bluish-green crystals, with  the shape of  oblique rhombic prisms.   It
possesses a strong acid, astringent taste, and an acid reaction.  Exposed
to the air, it absorbs oxygen, and becomes  finally covered with an efflo-
rescence of a yellow color,  which  is  the insoluble subsulphate of the
sesquioxide.  When the salt is entirely green, or approaches green more
than blue, it is  an indication of the presence of some sesquioxide.  It is
soluble in water, but is insoluble in alcohol.   Twice its weight of cold,
and three-fourths its weight of  boiling water are required to dissolve it,
and the  solution is  bluish-green ; but it soon becomes green  and then
reddish,  when  exposed to the  air, in consequence of the absorption of
oxygen, which  precipitates a small amount of sesquisulphate of the ses-
quioxide of iron.  A few drops of sulphuric  acid added  to the solution
prevents, or greatly retards this change.  Exposed to a moderate  heat,
it fuses in its water of crystallization, six-sevenths of Avhich passes off,
leaving a grayish-white anhydrous salt.  If the temperature be  increased
to a red  heat, it parts with its acid,  and is changed into  the anhydrous
sesquioxide of iron, called Colcothar.  It is incompatible with  the alkalies,
and their carbonates, soaps, lime-water, the chlorides  of  barium and
calcium, the borate and phosphate of soda, nitrate of silver, acetate and
subacetate of lead, and astringent vegetable infusions ; with the latter of
which, it forms with their tannic and  gallic acids, a black  substance  of
an  inky nature.  The impure commercial  sulphate of iron is  unfit  for
medicinal purposes.   Crystallized sulphate of iron, consists of one equiv-
alent  of acid 4J, one of protoxide 36, and  seven of water  63=139; its
formula is Fe O+S 0; +7 HO.
  Copper and  Zinc are sometimes present in sulphate of  iron ; copper
may be detected by dipping into the solution a bright, polished plate of
iron, which  becomes covered with  a broAvn cupreous crust,  deposited
from the solution.  If a solution of the salt be sesquioxidated by boiling
with nitric acid, and  the  iron be precipitated by an excess of ammonia,
and then filtered, it will  be of a blue  color if copper be  present; but
if zinc be present,  the white oxide  will separate  in flakes, on apply-
ing heat to the  solution  and boiling to drive off the ammonia.   Pure
sulphate of iron is  precipitated from  its solution  by  ferrocyanuret  of
potassium, of a white color, which in the impure  kinds is  more or less 
Ferrum.
1105
blue, according  to  the proportion of  sesquioxide of  iron which  is
present.
   Properties and Uses.—Sulphate of Iron is  irritant, tonic, and astrin-
gent.  Nausea and  vomiting,  and gripings of the  bowels,  are apt to
follow the  administration of  large doses;  and the stomach  is  more or
less  injured by a long  continued use of it.   It has been  used as a tonic
in scrofula, dyspepsia, chlorosis,  amenorrhea, and in debility following
protracted  diseases.   In phthisis  pulmonalis  the  following preparation
has been found very serviceable ; it relieves cough, assists expectoration,
improves the appetite and digestive functions,  and invigorates the whole
system:—Take of commercial sulphate of iron six  drachms ;  Whisky
or good  Holland Gin, half a pint; mix together.   The  dose is half a
fluidrachm every two hours.   As an astringent, sulphate of iron  is given
in diseases  attended with immoderate discharges, as  passive  hemor-
rhages,  colliquative  sweats,  diabetes,  chronic mucous  catarrh,  leucor-
rhea, gleet, etc.   The  dose is from one to five grains in the form of pill.
In an overdose, it acts as a poison.  Externally, the  solution is  used in
eruptions of the face, chronic ophthalmia, and gleet, of various strengths,
from one or two, to  eight or ten  grains of the salt to the  fluidounce of
water.
   Off. Prep. — Ferri  Carbonas  Saccharatum;  Ferri Citras; Ferri  et
Quiniae Citras ; Ferri Ferrocyanuretum ; Ferri  Oxidum Hydratum ; Ferri
Oxidum  Nigrum; Ferri Phosphas;  Ferri  Subcarbonas;  Ferri  Sulphas
Exsiccatum;  Ferri Valerianas;  Pilulae Ferri  Carbonatis;  Pilulae Ferri
Compositae ; Tinctura Ferri Acetatis.
  Ferri  Sulphas Exsiccatum.  Dried Sulphate of Iron.
  Preparation.—Expose any convenient quantity of Sulphate of Iron to a
moderate heat, in a porcelain or earthenware vessel, not glazed  with
lead, till it is converted into a dry, grayish-white  mass, which  is to  be
reduced to powder.
  History.—By this  process  about six-sevenths of the water of  crystal-
lization of  the  sulphate  of iron is expelled.   If the heat used should
exceed 400°,  the salt would become decomposed, hence it must not
extend beyond it.
  Properties and  Uses.—Same as Sulphate of Iron;  to be used in pill
form.  Three  grains of the dried sulphate of iron are equivalent  to
five of the crystallized sulphate.   Externally,  in solution,  as an astrin-
gent lotion  for indolent ulcers, and  as an injection in  leucorrhea, and
gonorrhea of females.
   Off. Prep.—Lotio Hydrastis Composita ; Pilulae Polygoni Compositae.
  Ferri  Sulphuretum.   Sulphuret of Iron.
  Preparation.—The best Sulphuret of Iron is made by heating an iron
rod to a full white-heat in a forge, applying a stick of sulphur to  the end
          70 
1106
Pharmacy.
of the rod, and alloAving the fused globules of Sulphuret which form to fall
into a deep vessel filled with water.  These should be freed of sulphur
and kept in a close vessel.
  An inferior kind, but  sufficiently good for pharmaceutic purposes,
may be obtained by mixing thoroughly together, Sublimed  Sulphur one
part, and Iron Filings  three parts.   Heat the mixture in a covered cruci-
ble till it becomes red-hot, then  remove  the  crucible from  the fire, still
keeping it covered, and allow the  action to go on without  any further
heat.
  History.—There are a number of Sulphurets of Iron, among the most
important of which are the Proto-sulphuret, or Sulphuret of the protox-
ide ; the Sesquisulphuret, or Sulphuret of the Sesquioxide, the Bisulphu-
ret or Cubic Pyrites, and the Magnetic  Pyrites, which consists of five
equivalents of protosulphuret,  and  one of bisulphuret; this last dissolves
in acids, yielding sulphureted hydrogen and a residue of sulphur.   The
protosulphuret, however, is the  one more  generally used in Pharmacy
for the production of hydrosulphuric acid gas, (sulphureted hydrogen).
When  solid sulphur  is applied to a  rod  of iron heated to a full white
heat, the product is similar to magnetic pyrites; but Avhen the proto-
sulphuret is obtained by heating Flowers of Sulphur with  Iron Filings
in excess, it always  contains an excess of iron.   In the first instance,
when sulphur is applied to white-hot iron, the metal apparently becomes
hotter, the two bodies  combine with the emission of brilliant sparks, the
protosulphuret  is instantly formed, and falls down in  a fused and incan-
descent state, and  on  being received in the water, broAvnish-yellow glo-
bules  are obtained, having a somewhat crystalline texture.   When pure,
the officinal sulphuret of  iron furnishes a yellow poAvder, and is easily
dissolved  in  diluted sulphuric or muriatic acid, evolving  sulphureted
hydrogen, and not leaving a residue of sulphur.  As ordinarily prepared,
however, it is not completely soluble in diluted sulphuric acid, and leaves
a residue of uncombined sulphur.  Pure protosulphuret of  iron  consists
of one equivalent of iron  28, and one of sulphur 16.12=44.12; its for-
mula is Fe S.   The fused globules have the composition of 5 Fe S+Fe
S2, or according to some,  5 Fe S+Fe2 Si.
  Properties and Uses.—This  preparation is employed in Pharmacy only
for the production of hydrosulphuric acid gas,  (sulphureted hydrogen).
Diluted sulphuric or muriatic acid is added to it,  in a proper vessel, and
the sulphureted hydrogen is disengaged as a gas, and may  be collected
over warm water, or solution of salt.  In  this process water is decom-
posed, and its hydrogen forms hydrosulphuric  acid, by uniting Avith  the
sulphur, while the oxygen changes the iron into a protoxide, which com-
bines with  the  sulphuric acid.   Sulphureted Hydrogen  is a transparent
and colorless gas, having  a very offensive  and  peculiar smell, similar to
that of  putrid eggs.   When respired, even although  much  diluted with 
Ferrum.
1107
air, it  is highly deleterious.   It  is combustible, burning with  a bluish
flame,  and producing sulphurous acid gas and water.  Its specific gravity
is  1.178.   Water  absorbs two or three times its volume of the  gas, and
acquires its smell, and a nauseous sweetish taste; the action of the air
upon the solution,  gradually  decomposes it, with the formation  of water
and  deposit of sulphur.  Hence, the solution should always  be kept in
small vials, quite full  and closely stopped.  Hydrosulphuric acid satu-
rates bases, forming salts known as Hydrosulphates, Sulphohydrates,  or
Htfdrosulphurets.   It consists  of one equivalent of sulphur 16,  and one
of hydrogen 1=17 ; its formula is HS.
   The following has cured  several cases of syphilis: Heat a piece of
Steel to a welding  heat, apply a roll of Sulphur to it, and let the drops fall
in  Cold Water.  Pulverize these  globules or drops, and add  one table-
spoonful to a pint of Whisky.  Let the mixture macerate for a few days.
The  dose is a tablespoonful five or six times a day.
   Ferri Tannas.    Tannate  of Iron.
   Preparation.—Take of pure Tannic Acid  nine ounces;  Precipitated
Subcarbonate of Iron forty-four ounces ; Water a sufficient quantity.   Dis-
solve the Tannic Acid  in sufficient water, and boil the solution, to which,
while boiling, add gradually the Subcarbonate of Iron, moderately dried ;
agitate the solution till effervescence ceases.  Evaporate the solution  in
a porcelain vessel,  at a temperature of 176° F., until  it becomes thick ;
then spread it on glass or porcelain to  dry in a stove at 95°.
   History.—Thus  prepared,  Tannate of Iron is in flat pieces, of a crim-
son color, tasteless, and insoluble in  water.
   Properties and Uses.—Tannate of Iron possesses tonic and astringent
properties.  It has  been used with benefit  in chlorosis,   amenorrhea,
chronic diarrhea, and  in the  diarrhea accompanying  some febrile  dis-
eases,  etc.   The  dose is  two or three grains,  made  into  pills,  and
gradually increased, so that in the course of a day thirty grains may be
given.
   Ferri Valerianas.    Valerianate  of Iron.
   Preparation. —To clean Iron Filings, in a Wedgewood  mortar,  add
gradually an equal weight of Valerianic Acid, and stir constantly.   In
an hour, add  Distilled Water; gently warm  the whole  in  a flask,  and
filter.  The surface  in contact with  the air  becomes covered over with
a crystalline layer  of the Valerianate;  collect this, and expose as before,
repeating the process as long  as  it continues to yield  crystals.  Or, it
may  be prepared by adding a cold solution of Valerianate  of Soda to a
solution of three parts of Sesquichloride of Iron in one hundred of Water.
The  solution of Valerianate  of Soda, proper for the reaction,  is made
by saturating five parts of oily Valerianic Acid in sixty of Water with
Carbonate  of Soda, and then  boiling the liquid to expel all the Carbonic 
1108
Pharmacy.
 Acid.   The precipitated Valerianate of Iron is washed with a little  Cold
 Water, and dried at a temperature not exceeding 68°.
   The  Dublin Pharmacopoeia of 1850, gives the following process for
 obtaining this  salt: Take of Valerianate of Soda five ounces and  three
 drachms, (Dublin weight); Sulphate of Iron four ounces, (avoirdupois);
 Distilled Water one pint, (Imperial measure).   Convert the Sulphate of
 Iron into a tersulphate of the sesquioxide,  (as  directed in the formula
 for Prussian  blue), and add  Distilled Water until the solution be  aug-
 mented to the bulk of eight fluidounces, (Imperial measure).  Dissolve
 the Valerianate of Soda  in ten fluidounces of the Water, and mix the
 two solutions cold; then, having placed  the  precipitate  which forms,
 upon a  filter, and washed it with the remainder of the Water, dry it, by
 wrapping it in bibulous paper, and allowing it to stand on a porous brick
 for some days.   When  dried, it should be kept in well stopped bottles.
   History. — In  this latter process after having converted the sulphate
 of protoxide of iron into the tersulphate of sesquioxide, a double decom-
 position is effected between  this latter salt and  the valerianate of soda,
 in which sulphate of soda is formed, and  remains in solution, while the
 tervalerianate of  sesquioxide of iron  is precipitated.   Or, three equiva-
 lents of valerianate of soda, reacting on one of tersulphate of sesquiox-
 ide of iron, result in three  equivalents of sulphate of soda, and one of
 tervalerianate of  sesquioxide of iron.
   Valerianate of  Iron is in  the form of a loose, amorphous powder  of a
 dark tile-red  color, and having a slight taste and odor of valerianic acid.
 It is insoluble  in cold water, soluble in  alcohol, and is decomposed by
 boiling water, which removes its acid and leaves the sesquioxide of  iron
 remaining.   A fraudulent article is sometimes sold, consisting of tartrate
 or citrate of iron, to which oil of valerian  has been  added.  It may be
 detected, by observing that the genuine salt gives oft' an odor of valeri-
 anic acid when treated with dilute muriatic acid.
   Properties and Uses.—Valerianate of Iron  is a nervo-tonic, and will be
 found  serviceable  in  nervous  disorders,  hysteria,  chorea,  neuralgia,
chlorosis, and anemic  conditions with  excitability or irritability of the
nervous system.   The dose is one or two grains, in pill form, repeated
three or four times a day.
                              INFUSA.
                              Infusions.
  Infusions are solutions of vegetable principles in water, effected with-
out boiling, and to which, when not contra-indicated, some kinds of Spirit
are occasionally  added for the purpose  of preserving them.  The addi-
tion of any Alcoholic mixture is, however, only made in cases Avhere the
medicinal action of the liquor  itself is desired.   The almost universal
method of preparing infusions is  by pouring water on  the vegetable 
Infusa.
1109
 substances, previously cut or bruised, and macerating in a close vessel till
 cool.  Sometimes a prolonged application  of a  low heat, by the side of
 a fire or otherwise, is required, for the purpose  of extracting certain
 principles not so readily soluble by other means.   When the active prin-
 ciple is  volatile or  impaired  by heat, or when  the vegetable contains a
 substance  not  readily soluble  at a low temperature, and which it is re-
 quired to avoid in the infusion, Cold Water will be found preferable to Hot.
   Infusions form a very convenient  mode of  administering  vegetable
 medicines, as  the greater part of them  are easily  exhausted of their
 active principles in this way, without requiring to be  very finely divided.
 The principal objection to them, is the difficulty of keeping them for any
 length of time, in  consequence of which  they require  to  be prepared
 extemporaneously, and in small quantities at a. time.   Mr. Alsop, how-
 ever, states, that they may be preserved for months, by pouring them
 while boiling hot into bottles, up to the top, and forcing in corks of good
 quality.   The  water employed in making infusions should be pure, as
 fresh river, rain, or distilled water, instead of water from pumps, springs,
 or holding in solution saline principles.  For the preparation of infusions,
 Mr.  Alsop has  introduced a mug or jar, having a perforated diaphragm
 about one-third way from the  top  of the pot, on which are placed  the
 solid ingredients.  The diaphragm is movable, and is supported on ledges
 placed on the inside of the vessel; it may be used  to prepare infusions
 by Hot or Cold Water, or where digestion is required for some time.   As
 the water in the jar becomes impregnated, the increased specific gravity
 it acquires causes it to descend, and its place is immediately supplied by
 fluid of less specific gravity, so that a continual  circulation takes place
 until the whole of the soluble principles are extracted.
   In making infusions with Boiling Water, starch and other principles are
 often taken up, whose presence disposes to acidity  or moldiness, or per-
 haps  favors reactions which  materially impair  the  infusions; on  this
 account percolation by Cold Water is preferable, as it avoids these incon-
 veniences, beside which these infusions have a less tendency to decay than
 those made at a boiling temperature.   The process of percolation or dis-
 placement by Cold  Water, affords infusions of very great strength, and
 is preferred to any other mode ; it requires, however, that the articles
 should be more  finely powdered, as a general  thing, than is customary
 in preparing infusions in the ordinary  way.  When of too much strength,
 the infusion may be reduced by dilution with water.
  The usual rule for preparing infusions is, to add from half an  ounce
 to an ounce of the coarsely bruised  herb  or root to a pint of water,
 of which, when prepared,  the dose  is from  one to two  fluidounces.
They are better when prepared in  glazed earthenAvare or porcelain
vessels fitted with  covers, than when prepared in metallic  vessels, on
account of a liability to chemical  alteration from  metallic influence,  and
which frequently impairs  the  preparation.  Infusions  containing  acids, 
1110
Pharmacy.
 or saline substances should  always be prepared and kept in glass or
 china vessels.
   In the preparation of infusions, the reactions of agents should  always
 be kept  in  view.   Thus — Infusion of Chamomile flowers yields pre-
 cipitates  with nitrate of silver, sulphate of iron, gelatin, yellow Peru-
 vian bark,  tincture of chloride of  iron,  corrosive sublimate, and  the
 acetates  of  lead.   Infusion of horse-radish  becomes  turbid from depo-
 sition of vegetable albumen,  and  speedily runs into the putrefactive
 fermentation in warm weather.   It likewise gives precipitates with infu-
 sions of galls, and Peruvian bark, with nitrate of silver, corrosive subli-
 mate, and the alkaline carbonates. Infusion of cloves affords precipitates,
 with the  soluble salts of antimony, iron, lead, silver, and zinc, and also
 with lime-water.   Infusion of Cascarilla, yields  precipitates with acetate
 and subacetate of lead, sulphate of  iron,  sulphate of zinc, lime-water,
 nitrate  of silver,  acetates of lead,  and  infusion of galls.  Infusion  of
 Yellow  Peruvian bark is  incompatible with  the  alkalies, alkaline earths,
 vegetable astringents, tartaric acid, oxalic acid,  and the soluble tartrates
 and oxalates.  It  also affords precipitates  with other agents, which,
 however, do  not  always injure its efficacy or active principle, as  corro-
 sive sublimate, arsenious acid,  tartar  emetic, gelatinous solutions, soluble
 salts  of iron, silver, and  zinc, and  many  vegetable  solutions,  as those
 of cloves, chamomile,  columbo,  cascarilla, galls, horse-radish,  catechu,
 digitalis, senna, orange peel, rhubarb, valerian, and simaruba.   Infusion
 of Colombo is best prepared by exhausting with cold water, which  leaves
 the starch behind, and  then heating the infusion to the boiling  point in
 order to coagulate the albumen, and strain.   Infusion of digitalis affords
 precipitates with the acetate  of lead, sulphate of iron, and infusion  of
 Peruvian  bark, etc.
  As nearly  all vegetable medicines are occasionally administered  in the
 form  of infusion, it would be useless to  enter into an especial relation
 of them,  further  than  already explained  in the  above general rules;
 they are more commonly prescribed as secondary 04' auxiliary measures,
 and are left for the  nurse or family to prepare.   However, there  are a
 few compound infusions, some  of which  are of a  spirituous  nature,
 which  it  may be advisable  to describe on  account  of their extensiA*e
 employment, and  superior  efficacy in the  diseases for which  they are
 recommended.
  Infusum Apii Compositum.   Compound Infusion of Parsley.
  Preparation.—Take of  Parsley Roots and Seeds,  coarsely bruised,
 Subcarbonate of Iron, each, four ounces;  Horse-radish  Root,  in  small
pieces,  two ounces;  Juniper Berries, Squill, White Mustard-seed,  Man-
drake Root,  and Queen of  the Meadow,  of each, finely bruised, one
ounce; Good  Cider six quarts.   Boil the Cider and pour it on the rest  of
the  articles mixed together, in an earthen vessel; cover the vessel, and
digest with a gentle heat for twenty-four hours. 
Infusum.
1111
   The cider should not be hard, nor too new, but sparkling and pleasantly
 tart, and after digestion by heat, it should be allowed to remain upon
 the  articles, without straining it off.   By this course, the liquid becomes
 still further impregnated with the properties of the medicines.
   Properties and Uses.—This  is a most excellent preparation  in several
 varieties of dropsy, for which alone it is  used ; it increases the action of
 the  kidneys, regulates the bowels, improves the digestive functions,  and
 promotes activity of the absorbent  vessels.   The dose is one or  two
 fluidounces, three times a day.   In the summer  season, half  the above
 quantity may be made at one time, as, otherwise, it becomes very sour
 and moldy.  It should always be used immediately after its prepara-
 tion.—J. K.
   Infusum Epig^e,e  Compositum.  Compound Infusion of Trailing Arbu-
 tus.   Diuretic Compound.
   Preparation.—Take of Trailing Arbutus, Queen of the Meadow Root,
 Dwarf Elder Bark, Marsh-mallow Root, each,  coarsely  bruised, half an
 ounce ; Boiling Water, good  Holland  Gin, of each, one pint; Honey a,
 sufficient quantity.  Pour the Boiling Water and Gin, on the plants, and
 digest them with gentle heat, in  a close  covered vessel, for six hours;
 then remove from the fire, strain,  and add  sufficient Honey to render it
 pleasantly sweet.
   Properties and Uses.—This  is a very valuable remedy in gravel, sup-
 pression  of urine, high colored or scalding urine, inflammation of  the
 urethra,  and other disorders of the urinary organs.  In oxalic deposits,
 however, it is of no  utility.   The dose is  about  two fluidounces, three
 or four times a day;  in severe  cases, this dose may  be  given every
 hour until relief  is obtained, after which every three or four hours.
 In cases of gravel,  a corresponding quantity of Wild  Carrot Root and
 Seed may be advantageously added to the articles.—J. K.
   Infusum Geranii  Compositum.   Compound Infusion  of  Cranesbill.
   Preparation.—Take  of Cranesbill,  Witch Hazel, Black  Cohosh, and
 Golden Seal, each, coarsely bruised, half an ounce; Boiling Water  two
 pints.  Mix the articles  together, and digest with a gentle heat, in a
 close vessel, for two  hours;  remove from  the  fire,  and strain.  If
 required, alum one drachm, may  be added.
   Properties  and  Uses.—This forms  an  efficacious astringent wash in
 aphthous and other diseases of the mouth and throat,  when  unaccom-
 panied with inflammation ; and is also  useful  as an injection in leucor-
 rhea, prolapsus ani, and prolapsus uteri.—J. K.
  Infusum Hydrastis Compositum.  Compound Infusion of Golden Seal.
   Preparation.—Take  of Golden  Seal, Blue  Cohosh, Witch  Hazel, of
each 'in powder, half an ounce; Boiling Water one pint; pulverized Alum
one drachm; Honey a sufficient quantity.  Add the plants to the  Boiling
Water, and digest with a gentle heat,  in a close vessel, for half an hour, 
1112                       Pharmacy.
remove from the  fire, strain, add  the  Alum, and sufficient  Honey to
thoroughly sweeten the infusion.
   Properties and Uses.—This infusion  is very valuable as a wash or
gargle in various forms of sore mouth, and ulcerated sore throat.—J. K.
   Infusum Salvia Compositum.   Compound Infusion of Sage.
   Preparation.—Take  of Sage Leaves, Hyssop  Leaves, of each,  one
ounce; Boiling  Water two pints; pulverized Borax one drachm.   Place
the Herbs in the Boiling  Water, allow them to digest for half an hour,
then strain and add the Borax.
   Properties and Uses.—This infusion is employed as a wash and gargle
in aphthae,  sore throat,  and  quinsy, when accompanied Avith inflam-
mation.
                           LINIMENTA.
                             Liniments.
   These preparations are designed for external  application, and should
always be of a consistence which will enable them to be applied to the
skin by gentle friction with the naked hand, or flannel.   They are usu-
ally composed of Oily, Spirituous, Gummy, or Saponaceous substances,
are  thinner than  ointments,  more  consistent  than  water, and at the
temperature of the body are always liquid.  The benefit  derived from
them,  depends either upon their  counter-irritating influences, or from
absorption of their active constituents.  Liniments are usually prescribed
extemporaneously by physicians,  each  having a  preference ; yet it  is
absolutely necessary that  there be some established rule in  relation to
them,  and that the officinal preparation  be  generally known.
   Linimentum Aconiti.  Linimentum Aconiti Radicis.  Aconite Liniment.
   Preparation.—Take of Aconite Root, in powder, four ounces; Glycerin
two fluidrachms;  Alcohol a sufficient quantity.  Macerate  the Aconite
with half a pint of Alcohol for twenty-four  hours, then  pack  it in  a
small displacer, and  add Alcohol gradually until a pint of tincture has
passed.  Distil off twelve fluidounces, and  evaporate the residue until  it
measures twelve fluidrachms.   To this add Alcohol two fluidrachms, and
the Glycerin, and mix them.
   History.—This preparation is offered by  W. Procter, Jr., as a substi-
tute for aconitia as an external  anaesthetic  application.   It is tAvice the
strength of the root, and is  exceedingly active.  The Glycerin is added
for the purpose of retarding evaporation after application of the liniment
to the skin, and which may  be further secured by using oiled silk.
   Properties and Uses.—This liniment may be used in all cases in which
aconitia would prove useful,, as in gout,  neuralgia, and rheumatism.  It
is to be used as follows :   Cut a piece of lint or muslin of the size and
form of the part to be treated, lay it on a plate or Avaiter, and by means 
Linimenta.
1113
 of a camel's hair brush, saturate it with the liniment.  Thus prepared it
 should be applied to the surface, a piece of oiled silk laid over and kept
 in place by an adhesive edge, or by a bandage.  Care should  be  taken
 not to apply it to an abraded surface,  and in its use the patient should
 he informed of its character, and  avoid  bringing it in contact with the
 eyes, nostrils, or lips.
   Linimentum ^Eruginis.  Mel yEgypticum.   Verdigris Liniment.
   Preparation.—Take of Verdigris (Subacetate of Copper), in powder,
 one ounce; Vinegar seven fluidounces ;  Honey fourteen ounces.  Dissolve
 the Verdigris in the Vinegar, and strain through linen; then gradually
 add the Honey, and boil down to the proper consistence.
   Properties and Uses.—This is an external stimulant and escharotic,
 and is sometimes employed to repress or destroy fungous  growths.  It
 may be used undiluted or rubbed up with some unirritable ointment, in
 which  latter state it  forms  an  excellent  stimulant to  indolent ulcers.
 When diluted Avith water it  has  been applied to venereal ulcers in the
 mouth  and  throat, by means  of a camel's  hair  brush,  or used  as a
 gargle.— U. S.
   Linimentum Ammonite.  Liniment of Ammonia.   Common or Volatile
 Liniment.
   Preparation.—Take of Solution of  Ammonia  a fluidounce; Olive Oil
 two fluidounces.  Mix them.— U. S.
   History.—In this liniment a soap is formed by the union of the oil and
 ammonia, which  is but imperfectly dissolved, and a white, opake emul-
 sion is obtained.
   Properties and Uses.—This preparation is used  as a rubefacient in
 rheumatic pains, inflammatory diseases of the throat, and catarrhal and
 other pectoral affections of children.   The skin  is to be gently rubbed
 with it, or it may be applied over the part  on a piece of  flannel mois-
 tened with it.  If it becomes too active, it must be diluted with a  suffi-
 cient quantity of oil.
   Linimentum Ammonite  Compositum.    Compound Liniment of Am-
 monia.
   Preparation.—Take of Stronger Solution of Ammonia five fluidounces ;
 Tincture of Camphor two fluidounces; Spirit of Rosemary one fluidounce.
 Mix them well together.   This  liniment  may also  be made weaker for
 some purposes with three fluidounces of Tincture of Camphor, and two
 of Spirit of Rosemary.
  History.—This liniment of  the two strengths given, is a mere dilution
of the  stronger  Solution  of  Ammonia, in two  different degrees;  the
ammonia itself being too poAverful  for use. It closely resembles Gran-
ville's Counter-irritant  Lotion.  The camphor and  rosemary serve but
little other purpose here than that of diluting agents. 
1114
Pharmacy.
   Properties and Uses. — These liniments act promptly and powerfully,
and may be employed as rubefacients, vesicatories, or escharotics.   For
mere  rubefaction the weaker preparation may be used, and even  for
vesication; but where immediate action is  desired, the stronger one must
be employed.  In applying them, a piece of linen folded  two or  three
times, is saturated Avith the fluid, applied over the part, and prevented
from evaporating by dry cloths placed over it;  the  degree  of  action
depends entirely on the length of time in which it is thus kept in contact
with the skin.   A very good plan is to select a box the size of the part
to be acted upon, introduce patent lint, saturated with the fluid, into the
box, and  hold it firmly upon  the part.   In  from one to five or  eight
minutes, rubefaction is produced; in from three to  eight  or ten,  vesi-
cation ;  and somewhat  longer for its escharotic effect.  It is usually
employed in neuralgic, gouty, spasmodic, rheumatic, and other affections,
where.speedy  and powerful counter-irritation is demanded.
   Linimentum Cajuputi  Compositum.   Compound Cajeput Liniment.
  Preparation,—Take of Oils of Sassafras, Cajeput, and Hemlock, each,
one ounce; Soap a sufficient  quantity.   Mix them together and form  a
liniment.
  Properties and Uses.—This  forms  a valuable  stimulating and discu-
tient application ; it is principally used in indolent  scrofulous tumors.—
J. K.
  Linimentum Calcis.   Liniment of Lime.
  Preparation. — Take of Lime-Water, Linseed Oil,  each, a fluidounce.
Mix them together and form a liniment.
  History.—The Oil and Lime unite and form a Soap;  and the oil being
in excess separates upon standing.  This is also called Carron Oil.
  Properties and Uses.—This is a very useful application to recent burns
and scalds ; it is best applied on carded  cotton.  The following is also
reputed beneficial in burns ;  take of Lime-Water two fluidounces ; Oil of
Turpentine, Olive Oil, each,  one fluidounce.  Mix.  If to be used imme-
diately after the accident,  add Oil of Pennyroyal one fluidounce.
  Linimentum Camphors.  Camphor Liniment.
  Preparation.—Take of Camphor an ounce and a half; Chloroform two
fluidrachms; Olive  Oil two fluidounces.  Dissolve the Camphor in the
Oil and Chloroform mixed together.
  Properties and Uses.—This forms  an anodyne application in sprains,
bruises, rheumatic and neuralgic pains, as well as other local pains.
  Linimentum Caoutchouc   Caoutchouc Liniment.
  Preparation.—Take of Caoutchouc, in fine pieces, a convenient quan-
tity; Oil of Origanum a sufficient quantity.  Dissolve the Caoutchouc in
the Oil.
  History.—In this manner Caoutchouc may be dissolved in any of the
stimulating essential oils.   If the mixture be spread on paper, allowed 
Linimenta.
1115
tc dry, and again spread, a valuable stimulating plaster may be had.
A stimulating liniment was at one time much used by a certain class of
practitioners, prepared as follows : Take of Caoutchouc, in small pieces,
four ounces;  Linseed Oil  one pint.   Mix  together, and dissolve the
Caoutchouc by means of a charcoal fire ; then add Tallow three-fourths
of a pound; Antispasmodic Tincture, Oil of Spearmint, of each, two fluid-
ounces ;  Oils of Peppermint and  Pennyroyal, of each, one fluidounce.
This may be applied with much friction, or  spread on a bladder.
   Properties and Uses. — These preparations  may be  used Avhenever
stimulating applications are desired.   We give them  here, because they
are sometimes  employed by physicians of various schools.   Probably,
the addition of the Caoutchouc increases the non-conducting properties
of these liniments.
   Linimentum  Capsici Compositum.   Compound Capsicum Liniment.
   Preparation.—Take of Tincture of Capsicum two fluidounces ; Tincture
of Opium, and Aqua Ammoniae, of each, three fluidrachms ; Oil of Ori-
ganum, two fluidrachms ; Oil of Cinnamon, and Tincture of Camphor, of
each, one fluidrachm.   Mix.
   Properties and Uses. — This  is a very efficacious application in rheu-
matic, pleuritic, neuralgic,  and  other pains.
  Linimentum Crotonis.  Croton  Oil Liniment.
  Preparation.—Take of Croton Oil one fluidounce ; Oil of  Turpentine
seven fluidounces. Mix together with agitation.
  Properties and Uses. — This  acts as a prompt rubefacient; and when
used for some time, produces pustulation.   From ten  to thirty minims
may be placed upon a limited surface, and rubbed in ; and when pustu-
lation is required, this should be repeated two or more times every day.
  Linimentum Nigrum.   Black Liniment.
  Preparation.—Take of Olive  Oil one ounce and a half; Sulphuric Acid
one fluidrachm; mix well together, and then  add, Oil  of Turpentine half
an ounce.
  Properties and Uses. — An active  counter-irritant,  but does not vesi-
cate.  To be rubbed  on the part with a piece of lint, twice a day, until
the skin becomes tender and  inflamed.  It may be used  in indolent
swellings of joints, rheumatic pains, and wherever active counter-irrita-
tion is indicated.—Brodie.
  Linimentum  Olei.   Liniment of Oils.
  Preparation.—Take of Oils of Cedar,  Cajeput, Cloves, and Sassafras,
of each, one fluidounce.   Mix.
  Properties and Uses. — This  forms an efficacious application to rheu-
matic and other painful affections ;  it should be rubbed on the  affected
part, three or four times daily. 
1116
Pharmacy.
   Linimentum Olei Compositum.  Compound Liniment of Oils.  Con-
centrated Liniment.
   Preparation.—Take  of Oils of Origanum, Hemlock, and Cajeput, and
Camphor, each,/crar ounces, by weight; Capsicum two ounces.   Mix the
Oils and dissolve the Camphor in the mixture; then add the Capsicum,
and let it macerate for  fourteen days, frequently agitating.   Then filter.
   Properties and Uses.—This is a powerful counter-irritant, and may be
employed Avith advantage in indolent tumors, indurated mammae, rheu-
matic  and  other pains, and to the  spine, in epilepsy, nervous debility,
etc.—J. K.
   Linimentum Opii.   Liniment of Opium.  Anodyne Liniment.
   Preparation.—Take  of Castile Soap six ounces;  Opium an ounce and a
half; Camphor three ounces; Oil of Rosemary six fluidrachms ; Rectified
Spirit two pints.  Macerate the Soap  and Opium  in the Spirit for three
days; filter, add the  Oil and Camphor, and agitate briskly.
   Properties and Uses.—This is an anodyne and mild  rubefacient appli-
cation in sprains, bruises, rheumatic, and gouty pains.
   Linimentum Saponis Camphoratum.   Camphorated Soap  Liniment.
Opodeldoc.
   Preparation.—Take of Common White Soap two ounces;  Camphor one
ounce; Oil of Rosemary three drachms;  Oil of Origanum two  drachms;
Aqua Ammonia F F F, one ounce ; Alcohol one pint and a half.  Digest
the Soap with the Alcohol, by means of a sand-bath, till it is dissolved;
then add the Camphor, Oils, and Ammonia, and when they are dissolved,
pour the liquor into broad-mouthed bottles.   This liniment has,  when
cold, the consistence  of a soft ointment.
   History.—This Liniment is prepared with White  Soap, which is made
with animal fat, while Castile Soap is made with  Olive  Oil, in conse-
quence of which, Avhen  the Alcoholic solution cools, the liniment assumes
an appearance of solidity.   Under the name of Opodeldoc it is placed
into wide-mouthed glass vials, holding about four ounces each, and  is
extensively employed throughout  the  country.  It forms  a soft, trans-
lucent, uniform, yellowish-white mass, which  melts at the temperature
of the body.  The formula above given, I consider to be much preferable
to the one ordinarily  followed in manufacturing the article.
   Properties and Uses. — Camphorated Soap Liniment is an excellent
anodyne embrocation in sprains, bruises, rheumatic and other pains.
  Linimentum  Stillingiae  Compositum.   Compound Liniment of Stil-
lingia.
  Preparation.—Take of Oil of Stillingia one fluidounce; Oil of Cajeput
half a fluidounce ; Oil of Lobelia two fluidrachms ; Alcohol two fluidounces.
Mix together.—R.  S. N. 
LlNIMENTA.
1117
   Properties and  Uses.—This forms a peculiar kind of Liniment, pos-
sessing stimulant and relaxant properties.   It is used in chronic asthma,
croup, epilepsy, chorea, etc.   In asthma  and croup, the throat,  chest
and neck is to be bathed with it, three or four times a day.   In chorea,
epilepsy, and  spasmodic diseases, the whole vertebral column is  to be
bathed with it.  In  rheumatism,  sprains,  and painful affections, the
diseased parts are  to be bathed with it.  In  asthma its action is very
prompt and effectual, relieving and ultimately curing the most obstinate
cases.   In the majority of instances, when  applied to  the chest,  neck,
etc., the patient experiences a  peculiar taste in the mouth,  somewhat
resembling that of the Lobelia and  Stillingia  combined.  It is often used
of less strength, as — Take of  Oil of Stillingia half a fluidounce; Oil of
Cajeput half a fluidounce ; Oil of Lobelia one fluidrachm ; Alcohol three
fluidounces.   Mix.   It is an agent  peculiar  to  Eclectic  practice, and  is
very active  and efficacious.
   Linimentum  Succini Compositum.  Compound  Liniment  of Oil of
Amber.
   Preparation.—Take of Oil of  Stillingia, Rectified Oil of Amber,  each,
one fluidounce;  Oil of Lobelia  three fluidrachms;  Olive Oil two fluid-
ounces.  Mix together.
   Properties and Uses.—I have  found this preparation very  efficient  in
chronic asthma, croup, pertussis, chorea, epilepsy, rheumatism, sciatica,
and  various other spasmodic and painful affections ;  in  many instances
being much  superior to the Compound Liniment of  Stillingia.   Its  man-
ner of  application is the same as recommended for the preceding Lini-
ment.   In very severe cases, it may be applied every hour, or  half hour,
and  continued until vomiting ensues.  It acts as a stimulant, relaxant,
and  antispasmodic.   In many of the above diseases it will effect a  cure
without the exhibition of any internal medicine; and is especially useful
among children  to whom  it is difficult to administer remedies by mouth,
or in cases where the stomach rejects all medicines.   Care must be  taken
not to  use too much of this liniment at any one  application.—J. K.
   Linimentum  Terebinthinae  Compositum.   Compound Liniment of
Turpentine.   White Liniment.
   Preparation.—Take of Rose Water two and a half fluidounces;  Yelk
of Egg one; Oil of Turpentine  three fluidounces; Oil  of Lemon half a
fluidrachm; Pyroligneous Acid, (or in its  absence, Acetic   Acid) one
fluidounce.  To the Yelk slowly add the  Rose Water, and rub together
in a  mortar ; then add the  Turpentine  and  Oil of Lemon.   Pour the
mixture into a pint  bottle, and agitate to mix thoroughly ; then add the
Acid, and agitate quickly and briskly.  It must be  kept well  corked.
  Properties and Uses.—Used in asthma and inflammation of the lungs,
rubbino- it on the throat and chest with a sponge or cloth, from the epi-
glottic  region to the epigastric;  also useful wherever a counter-irritant
is required. 
1118
Pharmacy.
                             LIQUORES.
                        Liquors, or Solutions.
   Liquor Ferri Iobidi.  Solution of Iodide of Iron.
   Preparation. — Take  of Iodine  two ounces ; Iron Filings an ounce;
 Powdered Sugar twelve  ounces;  Distilled Water  a sufficient quantity.
 Mix the Iodine with  five fluidounces  of Distilled Water, in a porcelain
 or glass vessel, and gradually add the Iron Filings, stirring constantly.
 Heat the mixture gently until all  the Iodine  is dissolved, or until the
 liquid acquires a light-greenish tint.   Then filter the solution into a glass
 bottle, containing the Sugar, and,  after it has passed, pour  Distilled
 Water gradually upon the filter, until the filtered liquor, including the
 Sugar,  measures twenty fluidounces.  Lastly,  shake the bottle until the
 Sugar is dissolved,  and keep it closely stopped.— U S.
   History.—By this process, the Solution  of Iodide of Iron, is preserved
 from change by the addition of sugar.  The iodine used should be dry,
 otherwise, less of the iodide will  be formed, and  the solution will be
 weaker.  An excess  of iron is employed, in order to prevent the absorp-
 tion of oxygen while filtering, from producing any change, previous  to
 the contact of the  liquor with the sugar.   When all the iodine is  con-
 verted  into iodide  of iron, the solution will contain  seven grains and  a
 half of the dry iodide to every fluidrachm.
   In forming the solution, the iron is rapidly oxidated at the  expense of
 the water, the hydrogen of which unites with the iodine to form hydrio-
 dic acid.  This unites with the iron forming a hydriodate of protoxide of
 iron, or, according  to some  chemists, a solution of protiodide of iron.
 This solution, however, as with all solutions in which iron is united with
 one  equivalent of oxygen  or  chlorine, is exceedingly subject  to decom-
 position  by exposure to air and light, in which the oxide of iron  passes
 into  a sesquioxide,  forming a  solution of the hydriodate of sesquioxide
 of iron.   To obviate  this tendency to sesquioxidation, M. Frederking of
 Riga, and Professor  Procter  of  Philadelphia, proposed the addition of
 saccharine matter,  which  they found to exert a protective action, and
 which fact has since  been amply confirmed by many eminent chemists.
 Hence, the sugar is added to protect the solution of iodide of protoxide
 of iron  from becoming converted into one  of the sesquioxide.
   Solution of Iodide  of Iron is of a transparent, pale-green color, nearly,
 if not quite,  destitute  of any  sediment.   If the  addition  of starch
 changes it to a blue color, it  is not perfect, but holds free iodine.  Sul-
 phuric acid added to  it changes it  to a  brown color, with evolution of
 violent vapors on being heated.
  Properties and  Uses.—The medical properties are the  same as men-
tioned under  the head  of Iodide of Iron; the dose is from  twenty to
forty drops, three times  a day.  It  should be well  diluted with water, 
LlQUORES.
1119
and the mouth should be carefully washed after each dose, in  order to
protect the teeth.
  Liquor Ferri Nitratis.  Solution of Nitrate  of Iron.   Solution of
Pernitrate of Iron.   Solution of Ternitrate of Sesquioxide of Iron.
  Preparation.—Take of Iron  Wire, cut  in  pieces, an ounce; Nitric
Acid, (sp. gr. 1.42) three fluidounces ;  Distilled Water a sufficient quan-
tity.   Mix the Acid with a pint of Distilled Water, add the Iron, and
agitate occasionally until gas ceases  to  be disengaged ; then  filter the
solution, and add to it sufficient Distilled Water to make it measure thirty
fluidounces.— U. S.
  History.—This preparation was introduced  to  the profession by Mr.
William Kerr, of Scotland, in 1832.  It is a very astringent liquid,  of a
transparent red color, and is apt to  become turbid on standing,  and to
deposit sesquioxide.   The tendency to this change was obviated by Mr.
Kerr, by adding a  small portion of muriatic acid  to it.  It is also  pro-
posed to add sugar to the solution for the same purpose.  The salt,  Ter-
nitrate of Sesquioxide of Iron, is in crystals having the form of oblique
rhombic prisms, colorless, or of a delicate lavender color, somewhat deli-
quescent, soluble in water, not fully  soluble in nitric acid, and consists
of three  equivalents of  nitric  acid  162.76, one  of sesquioxide of iron
80.03, and one of water 9=251.79.
  On account of the great liability to change in this preparation, various
suggestions  have been made for the purpose  of procuring a permanent
solution ; among them is the  following, offered, by W. Procter,  Jr., of
Philadelphia :  Take of Iron Wire (card-teeth) cut in pieces, an ounce;
Nitric Acid,  (sp. gr. 1.42) three fluidounces ; Water thirteen fluidounces;
Sugar, in  powder, two pounds.   Put the Iron in  a thin wide-mouthed
bottle, which should be  kept cool by standing in  cold"water, and pour
upon it three fluidounces of Water.   Then mix the Acid with ten fluid-
ounces of Water, and  add the mixture  in  portions of half a fluidounce
to the Iron, agitating frequently until the Acid is saturated, using litmus
paper to determine the saturation.  When all  the  Acid  has  been com-
bined, filter the solution into a bottle containing the Sugar and marked
to contain thirty fluidounces.  If the whole does not measure that bulk,
pour Water on the  filter until it does.   When  all the Sugar is dissolved,
strain, if necessary, and introduce the syrup into  suitable vials  and seal
them.   This forms  a  syrup of the  iVofonitrate  of Iron.   Mr. Joseph
Laidley,  of Richmond,  Va., has  ascertained the formation of  Oxalic
Acid in the syrup of the Sesqumitrate of  Iron, and  considers it  an un-
scientific and ineligible preparation ; for, without an excess of Acid,  it is
a mixture of proto  and  pernitrate, and with that  excess  the Acid gene-
rates  Oxalic Acid.   He  has  found the solution  of the protonitrate, as
given by Prof. Procter, to keep perfectly well,  even without  the addition
of the sugar, which, as the iron salt is already per oxidized, he considers 
1120
Pharmacy.
of no use for preventing what would not occur, viz :  the further absorp-
tion of oxygen from the atmosphere.
   Properties and Uses.—Solution of Nitrate of Iron is  tonic and astrin-
gent, and has  been used  successfully in chronic mucous diarrhea not
attended Avith ulceration of the intestines, and in weak,  nervous constitu-
tions, where there  are  no  existing  indications of inflammation.  It has
been effectually employed in menorrhagia;  and in leucorrhea it may be
administered both internally and by injection.  In the colliquative  diar-
rhea of tubercular phthisis  it has afforded  much benefit, as well as in
chronic diarrhea and cholera infantum of  anemic or scrofulous patients.
The dose is seven or  eight  drops, sufficiently diluted, which  may be
repeated three or four times a day,  and gradually increased to twenty or
twenty-five  drops.  When used as  an  injection into the vagina, it should
be diluted sufficiently to occasion only  a slight heat  and smarting.
  W. W. D. Livermore offers the following formula for the  preparation
of a permanent solution of this ferruginous  salt; it furnishes nearly the
same result  as obtained by Procter's method given above :  Take of Sul-
phate of Iron eight ounces ;  Carbonate of  Soda ten ounces; White Sugar
twenty ounces;  Nitric  Acid,  (sp.  gr. 1.42)  five fluidounces  and five
fluidrachms  ; Boiling Water, Simple Syrup, of each, a sufficient quantity.
Dissolve the Sulphate of Iron and  Carbonate of Soda, each,  in tAvo pints
of the Water,  filter, and add to  each solution two  ounces of Simple
Syrup.   Mix the solutions, and allow the precipitate to subside.   Pour
off  the supernatant liquid,  and wash the precipitated carbonate carefully
with Sweetened Water, until the washings have no longer a  saline taste.
Collect the Precipitate upon a fine muslin strainer, and with gentle pres-
sure express as much of the Water as  possible.   Transfer to a porcelain
capsale,  and add gradually the Nitric Acid, previously diluted  with  an
equal measure  of Water.  Mix the  Sugar with the solution, and dissolve
over a water-bath, stirring  from time  to time with a glass rod.  When
done, the syrup should  be  made to measure thirty fluidounces, by the
addition  of  a sufficient quantity of Water.    Each  fluidrachm  of this
syrup contains  ten  grains of Dry  Nitrate of Iron, and the dose varies
from twenty to forty drops.
  Liquor Iodini Compositus.   Compound Solution of Iodine.
  Preparation.—Take  of Iodine six drachms ; Iodide  of Potassium an
ounce and a  half; Distilled Water a pint.   Dissolve the Iodine and the
Iodide of Potassium in  the Water.— U. S.
  History.—Iodine is but sparingly soluble in water, but dissolves freely
in a solution of Iodide  of  Potassium.   In preparing this solution two
parts of the iodide  are generally added with one of iodine, forming  a
concentrated solution of iodine, which is the active  medicinal agent in
the solution.  The solution  loses its strength  by exposure to the air, in
consequence of the evaporation of the iodine ; light also appears to exert 
LlQUORES.
1121
a deleterious  influence upon it.   It  should, therefore, be kept  in well
stopped bottles, and in a dark place.
  Properties and Uses.—Compound Solution of Iodine possesses all the
virtues of iodine, and may be used advantageously in scrofulous, syph-
ilitic, and all tuberculous diseases, or wherever iodine is indicated.  The
dose is six drops, in one  or  two tablespoonfuls  of sweetened water,
repeated three times a day, and gradually increased  to twenty or thirty
drops.   Twelve drops is equal  to about half a grain of iodine.
  Liquor Magnesia  Citratis.   Solution of Citrate of Magnesia.
  Preparation.—Take of Carbonate of Magnesia five drachms ; Citric
Acid seven drachms and  a half;  Syrup of  Citric Acid two fluidounces;
Water a sufficient quantity.   Dissolve the Citric Acid  in four fluidounces
of Water, and add to the solution  four drachms  of the  Carbonate of
Magnesia, previously rubbed with  three fluidounces  of Water.  When
the reaction has ceased,  filter the  solution  into a strong glass bottle, of
the capacity of twelve fluidounces, into which the  Syrup of Citric Acid
has been preA'iously introduced.  Rub the remaining  Carbonate of Mag-
nesia with tAvo fluidounces of Water, and pour the mixture into the bottle,
which  is  then to be  tightly corked, and secured with  twine.   Lastly,
shake the mixture occasionally  until it becomes transparent.— U. S.
  History.—This preparation is an aqueous  solution of Citrate of Mag-
nesia ;  it contains Citric Acid in excess to the quantity of about fourteen
and a half  grains, with Carbonic Acid and  syrup to render it more pal-
atable.   If the  magnesia  be good, it will be wholly dissolved  by the
citric acid;  if it be impure  there will be more or less of a sediment in
the solution.  When the first four-fifths of the magnesia  are dissolved
in the acid,  an acid citrate  of magnesia  is  formed ;  this being  filtered
upon the syrup of citric acid, has its acidity increased.  The addition of
the remainder of  the magnesia  gives rise to  a further  quantity of citrate
with disengagement of carbonic acid, which is retained within the bottle
by immediately corking it.
  It forms  a  transparent solution, having  an  agreeable, lemonade-like
taste, and consists of one equivalent of citric acid and  three of magnesia.
It is not permanent in its character, but forms a deposit on keeping, and
is  intended as  an  extemporaneous solution,  to  be  prepared   only as
required.
  Properties and  Uses.—Solution of Citrate of Magnesia, is  a pleasant,
cooling  purgative,  acting  mildly upon  the bowels.    The  dose  as  a
cathartic is about twelve fluidounces ;  as a laxative, half that quantity.
  Liquor Potassae.  Solution  of Potassa.
  Preparation.—Take of Carbonate  of Potassa a pound; Lime half a
pound;  Boiling  Distilled Water a gallon.  Dissolve the Carbonate of
Potassa in half a gallon of the Water.  Pour a little  of the Water on
the Lime, and when it is slaked add the remainder.  Mix the  hot liquors,
          71 
1122
Pharmacy.
and boil for ten minutes, stirring constantly ; then set the mixture aside,
in a covered vessel, until it becomes clear.   Lastly, pour off the  super-
natant liquor and keep it  in well  stopped bottles of green glass.   The
specific gravity of this solution is 1.056.— U. S.
   History.—In this process, the potassa is obtained in a caustic state by
means of the hydrate of lime, the lime of which unites with the carbo-
nic acid of the carbonate of potassa, and forms a precipitate of carbonate
of lime; while its water combines with the potassa forming a solution
of potassa.  The  solution  should not be  strained, on account of the
tendency to absorb carbonic acid by prolonged exposure to the air, and
which, of course, would deteriorate its strength and value.   The reason
for directing it to be  kept in  green glass bottles, is, that the solution
exerts an action on white flint-glass.
   Solution of Potassa is  an alkaline,  inodorous,  transparent, colorless
liquid, having an acrid, caustic taste.   It dissolves animal  and vegetable
substances, as gum, resins, and extractive matter, and forms soaps with
fats and  oils.  When rubbed  between the fingers it produces a soapy
feeling, owing  to the  cuticle being partially acted upon  by it.   When
prepared for medical purposes it is commonly more or less impure, con-
taining either some free lime, undecomposed carbonate,  or other foreign
matters ;  for chemical purposes, it requires to be pure.  When exposed
to the air it absorbs carbonic acid, for which it has a strong affinity, and
should therefore  always  be preserved in thoroughly-stopped  bottles.
It is incompatible with all salts of ammonia,  calomel, corrosive sublimate,
acids,  acidulous salts, and acidulous solutions of  metallic  and earthy
preparations.
   Properties and Uses.—Solution of Potassa is employed in medicine as
an antacid, antilithic, and diuretic.   Although it  can exert no  solvent
influence upon calculi once formed in the bladder,  yet it may overcome
the tendency to an excess of uric acid or the insoluble urates, which so
often  give rise to  gravel  and  stone.   For this purpose,  however, it is
inferior  to solutions of the carbonated alkalies, which may be adminis-
tered  for a longer time  without occasioning any  injurious influences.
The long-continued use of solution of potassa debilitates the stomach,
and otherwise impairs the system.  As an  antacid, the solutions  of the
carbonates are preferable.  In scalding of the urethra  accompanying
gonorrhea, combined with ten or  twelve  drops  of laudanum,  liquor
potassa will be found to afford prompt relief.  The dose is from ten to
thirty minims, repeated two or three times a day;  and it may be admin-
istered in sweetened Avater, or  in some  mucilaginous liquid.   When
taken in quantities to injure the stomach, or in an  undiluted state,  oils,
vinegar,  and lemon-juice,  which  neutralize the  alkali, are  the proper
antidotes.
    Off. Prep.—Potassa cum Calce. 
LlQUORES.
1123
  Liquor Potassae Citratis.  Solution of  Citrate of Potassa.   Neutral
Mixture.
  Preparation.—Take of Citric Acid half an ounce; Oil of  Lemons two
minims; Water half a pint; Bicarbonate of Potassa a sufficient quantity.
Rub the Citric Acid with the Oil of Lemons, and afterward with the
Water till it is dissolved; then add the Bicarbonate of Potassa gradually
till  the Acid  is  perfectly saturated;  lastly,  filter: or,  Take of Fresh
Lemon-juice half a  pint; Bicarbonate of Potassa  a  sufficient quantity.
Add the Bicarbonate  gradually  to  the Lemon-juice till it  is  perfectly
saturated;  then filter.— U.  S.
  History.—In these  formulae the citric acid combines with the potassa
of the bicarbonate, and  carbonic  acid  is set  free, forming a solution of
Citrate  of Potassa, containing  free carbonic acid.  The citric  acid and
oil of lemon, in the first process, are intended to supply the absence of
fresh lemon-juice.   When  the solution  is made with  citric  acid  it is
colorless, and when with  lemon-juice, it is greenish.  Filtering is directed
for  the  purpose  of removing any  foreign  or undissolved  substances.
The point of saturation may be known by the liquid effecting no change
in blue  and red litmus paper.
  Properties  and Uses.—This  solution  is a refrigerant diaphoretic, and
may be used in all fevers attended Avith a dry, hot skin; it is also useful
in allaying irritability of  the stomach.   It forms a very grateful draught
to the patient.  Spirits of Nitre, Solution of Sulphate of Morphia, Tinc-
ture of  Aconitum or Digitalis, are frequently added  to assist in fulfilling
required indications.   The  dose  is half a  fluidounce,  or an  ordinary
tablespoonful, diluted with water,  and repeated every one, two, or three
hours according to the urgency of the symptoms.  It may be sweetened
with sugar if desired.
  Liquor Sod^e Chlorinate.   Solution of  Chlorinated  Soda.  Labar-
raque's  Disinfecting Liquid.
  Preparation.—Take of Chlorinated Lime  (chloride of lime) a pound;
Carbonate  of Soda two  pounds; Water a gallon, and a half.   Dissolve
the Carbonate of Soda in three pints of the  Water, with the  aid of heat.
To  the  remainder of  the Water add, by small portions at  a time, the
Chlorinated Lime previously well  triturated;  stirring the  mixture after
each addition.  Set the mixture by for several hours that the dregs  may
subside; then decant  the clear liquid, and  mix it  with the solution of
Carbonate  of Soda.  Lastly, decant  the  clear liquor from  the precipi-
tated Carbonate  of Lime, pass it through  a linen  cloth, and  keep  it in
bottles secluded from the light.— U. S.
  History. — This preparation  was originally introduced by a Parisian
apothecary, named Labarraque, as a disinfecting  agent.  By the above
process, a solution of carbonate of soda is decomposed by one of chlori-
nated lime; the  carbonic acid of the soda unites with the  lime  and 
1124.
Pharmacy.
precipitates as carbonate of lime, Avhile the  chlorine of the chlorinated
lime combines with the soda, forming a chlorinated soda in solution; the
solution is rendered more permanent by the excess of carbonate of soda,
which is present, when  prepared  as above.  Further analyses  are
required to  determine the exact constitution of this solution.
   Properties and Uses.—Solution of Chlorinated Soda is a powerful dis-
infectant,  antiseptic,  stimulant, and resolvent.  Its disinfectant property
is owing  to  its  absorption of carbonic acid, and gradual  evolution  of
chlorine, when exposed to the  air; and  for which purpose it  may  be
used in the  rooms of patients with infectious diseases, by sprinkling some
of it on the bed, floor, or other parts of the room.
   As an  internal agent it is used  in putrid or malignant diseases,  as
scarlatina, typhus, small-pox, etc.,  especially when  attended with great
debility, offensive evacuations, and a dry, brown-furred tongue; in which
it promotes  the secretions and evacuations, increasing the urine, and pro-
ducing gentle diaphoresis, with a beneficial  change in the condition of
the tongue.   It has likewise  been efficaciously employed in dysentery,
and diarrhea, attended with  very  offensive  evacuations, in dyspepsia
accompanied with eructations of a fetid nature, also in glandular  enlarge-
ments, and in mucous discharges of a chronic character.   In asphyxia
caused by sulphureted hydrogen, it is an  efficient antidote.   It has also
been highly recommended in various other diseases, as scrofula, chronic
diseases  of  the  skin, secondary syphilis, amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea,
and bilious affections.  From thirty drops to half a fluidrachm, in a cup-
ful of water, is the dose, and which may be repeated every two  or three
hours.  As  an external remedy, it forms a valuable application to can-
cerous, scrofulous, syphilitic, and gangrenous ulcers, and other affections
attended with fetor, as carbuncle, ozcena, ulceration  of the gums, putrid
sore-mouth  and throat, mercurial sore-mouth, fetid  discharges from the
vagina, uterus, and bladder; and has been successfully applied to burns,
and cutaneous diseases, as tinea capitis,  scabies, herpes,  psoriasis, etc.
Applied frequently to sore nipples, it is a superior remedy.  When used
externally, it  may be diluted with  from  five to thirty parts of water,
according to circumstances.     ______

                            LOTIONES.
                         Lotions, or Washes.
  These  comprise all compounds used as external  washes and collyria,
in which  vegetable  or  mineral substances  are  dissolved  in water or
spirits, but  which do not strictly class with infusions, liniments, mix-
tures, or tinctures.
  Lotio Alkalina.   Alkaline Wash.
  Preparation.—-Take of Carbonate of Soda (Sal   Soda) two drachms;
Warm Rain-Water one quart.   Dissolve:  or,
  Make a weak Ley by adding Hard Wood Ashes to Hot Water. 
LOTIONES.
1125
   Properties and Uses.—This Avash  is extensively and  efficaciously em-
 ployed by Eclectics, as  an application to  the surface  of the body and
 limbs in all febrile and inflammatory diseases, and in chronic affections.
 In the former cases  it  is applied several times a day, especially when
 the  acute  symptoms  run high; in the latter affections it is commonly
 used once or twice a week.   The  surface should always be well rubbed
 and dried immediately after each application.   Frequently, when exter-
 nal stimulus is also required,  the above proportion of water  is lessened
 one-fourth or one-half, and the balance of  the quantity made up by the
 addition of  whisky or  other spirit.
   Lotio -^Etheris Composita.   Compound  Ethereal Lotion.  Evaporating
 Lotion.
   Preparation. — Take  of Sulphuric Ether, Rectified Alcohol, Solution
 of Acetate of Ammonia, each, one ounce and a half;  Rose-Water three
 ounces and a half.  Mix together.
   Properties and Uses.—This lotion may be used to produce a refrige-
 rant  or stimulant  influence  according  to its  mode  of  employment.
 Applied to a surface and allowed to evaporate by free exposure, it acts
 as a refrigerant;  but if the evaporation is prevented by covering the part
 to which it is applied with the hand  or a cloth, it acts as a stimulant.
 The Solution of Acetate of Ammonia, largely diluted, (without the addi-
 tion of ether or alcohol), is a superior cooling  lotion in all cases of fever
 where there is a hot and dry state of the surface, often  of itself inducing
 diaphoresis.
   Lotio Boracis.  Borax Lotion.   Cooling Wash.
   Preparation.—Take of Borax, in powder, one ounce ; Rain Water one
 quart.  Dissolve.  In  this preparation, soft River Water may be substi-
 tuted for Rain Water,  when this latter  cannot be obtained.
   Properties and Uses.—This forms a cooling application, and may be
 used  in inflammation of  the eyes, sore and inflamed nipples, aphthous
 ulcerations of the mouth and fauces, and other irritated or inflamed mu-
 cous surfaces.
   Lotio Boracis cum  Morphine.   Borax Lotion with Morphia.
   Preparation.—Take of Borax, in powder, half an ounce;  Sulphate of
 Morphia six grains; Decoction of Golden Seal eight fluidounces. Dissolve
 the Borax and Morphia in the Decoction.
   Properties and Uses.—This forms a cooling and mild anodyne wash,
 and may be used in inflammation of the eyes, sore and inflamed nipples,
pruritus vulva, aphthous ulcerations of the  mouth and fauces, and other
irritated or inflamed mucous surfaces.
   Lotio  Glycerini.    Glycerin Lotion.
   Preparation.—Take  of Glycerin half an  ounce ; Distilled Water half
a pint. Mix. 
1126
Pharmacy.
  Properties  and Uses.—This  lotion has been recommended in eczema,
lichen, and other cutaneous  diseases; also as  an application to the
meatus externus in cases  of deafness owing to  a want of secretion  of
cerumen.
  Lotio Hydrastis Composita.   Compound Lotion of Golden Seal.
  Preparation.—Take of Strong Decoctions of  Green Tea, and Golden
Seal, each  one pint; Sulphate of Zinc, Gunpowder, dried  Sulphate  of
Iron, of each two drachms.  Mix the decoctions, then add the remainder
of the  articles,  and agitate briskly.  After solution and decomposition
have ceased,  and the precipitate has subsided, pour off the supernatant
liquid.
  Properties  and Uses.—This  lotion is principally employed as a colly-
rium in chronic  ophthalmic  diseases, but it  may be  advantageously
employed  in  all chronic affections  of mucous surfaces, as an external
application.   The affected parts are to be bathed with it several times a
day.
  Lotio Hydrastis et Aconiti.   Lotion of Golden Seal and Aconite.
  Preparation.—Take of Golden Seal, in powder, four drachms ; Boiling
Water four fluidounces ; Tincture of Aconite one fluidrachm.  Add the
Golden Seal to the Water, and digest for three  hours by a gentle heat;
then filter and evaporate to two fluid ounces, to which  add the Tincture
of Aconite.
  Properties  and Uses. — This forms a superior application to  the eye
in many cases of disease of that organ; it may be applied by means of
a camel's hair pencil, or by dropping a minim or two on the eyeball.   I
have likewise found immense  benefit in these cases, by substituting for
the Tincture  of Aconite, a fluidrachm or two of the Saturated Tincture
of Black Cohosh.  Some physicians employ Hydrastin  in preparing the
above formula, but as this is insoluble in water,  it  can effect  but  little
influence.   This preparation  will also be found of service in chronic
mucous difficulties, as vaginal  leucorrhea, etc.,  used as a wash or injec-
tion.—J. K.
  Lotio Juglandis.   Walnut Lotion.
  Preparation.—Take of  Extract  of  green Walnut Shells  six grains;
Distilled Water fifty grains.   Mix and dissolve.
  Properties  and Uses.—This  is recommended as an efficacious agent in
enlargement of the tonsils, and is stated to be very prompt in its effects.
It is applied to  the parts by means  of a camel's hair pencil.
  Lotio  Lobelia Composita.   Compound  Lobelia Lotion.   Herpetic
Wash.
  Preparation.—Take of Bayberry Bark, Lobelia Leaves and Seed, Yel-
low Dock  Root, each, in powder, two drachms; Vinegar one pint.   Mix
all together, and allow them to macerate for  seven days, and filter;  or
make the lotion by displacement. 
Lotiones.
1127
  Properties and Uses.—This preparation forms an excellent local appli-
cation  to  several species of cutaneous  disease, also to erysipelas and
erysipelatous inflammations.    It is frequently prepared  with Spirits
instead of Vinegar, especially where more active stimulation is desired.
In erysipelas, half a pint of a saturated solution of Muriate of Ammonia,
may be added to the above quantity, with advantage.
  Lotio  Myrrhae Composita.   Compound Myrrh Lotion.   Stimulating
Eyewater.
  Preparation.—Take of Myrrh, in powder, one ounce ; Sulphate of Zinc,
Acetate of Lead, of each half an ounce;  Boiling Water two quarts.  Add
the Myrrh and the Salts to the Water,  and allow them to macerate for
seven days,  and then filter.  In the preparation of this lotion, a decom-
position necessarily ensues.
  Properties and Uses.—Compound Myrrh Lotion is chiefly employed in
cases of chronic ophthalmia; it will,  however, be  found  useful  in all
chronic mucous  diseases.   It is usually  applied three or four times a day,
and must not be used during the presence of  inflammation.  When too
severe it may  be diluted with water.
  Lotio  Refrigerans.   Cooling Lotion.  Saline Wash.
  Preparation.—Take of fine  Salt an ounce;  Spirits, Vinegar, and Rain
Water, of each, half a  pint.   Mix  the fluids together, and then add the
Salt.   In the  absence of  Rain Water, clear river water  may be substi-
tuted.
  Properties and Uses.—This Lotion is extensively employed as a cooling
application,  in cases of  pain or determination to the head, during fevers,
inflammation of the brain,  dropsy, etc.   It is used cold or tepid, accord-
ing to  the benefit received from its  application at these temperatures.
  Lotio  Sassafras.  Sassafras Lotion.
  Preparation.—Take  of Pith of Sassafras  one ounce; Rose  Water  a
sufficient  quantity.   Mix, let them stand for an hour or two and filter.
   Properties and Uses.—This is an extemporaneous  preparation, and  is
principally used in acute ophthalmia.   A  similar preparation of Marsh
Mallow  Root,  Elm  Bark, or  Buckhorn Brake, will  be found equally
available.
  Lotio Sodii Composita.  Compound Soda Lotion.
  Preparation.—Take of Rock Salt three ounces ; Sulphate of Zinc one
ounce; Red Oxide of Iron (Sesquicarbonate) eight grains; Rain Water,
or clear River Water one pint.  Add  the articles together,  and form a
solution;  and when  the precipitate formed,  has subsided, pour off the
supernatant liquid.
  Properties and Uses.—Used as a stimulating collyrium in chronic oph-
thalmic diseases. 
1123
Pharmacy.
  Lotio Zinci Composita.   Compound Lotion of Zinc.
  Preparation.—Take of Sulphate of Zinc, Rock Alum, each, one scru-
ple ;  Distilled Water two pints.  Mix, and when dissolved filter.
  Properties  and Uses.—This lotion is used as a stimulating application
to the eye in  cases of films, specks, opacities, etc.; to abnormal growths
on mucous surfaces; to  indolent ulcers with fungous groAvths; and to
gangrene.
                            MISTUR^E.
                              Mixtures.
  By mixtures is meant all  those preparations, containing Oleaginous,
Mucilaginous, Albuminous,  or Saccharine  Substances, which are  used
internally,  and cannot properly be classed with infusions, decoctions,
syrups, tinctures, etc. ; also compounds in which Insoluble Substances,
whether liquid or solid, are suspended in aqueous fluids by the interven-
tion of some viscid matter.
  Mistura Camphors Composita.   Compound Mixture of Camphor.
  Preparation. — Take  of Camphor  Water,  Peppermint  Water,  and
Spearmint  Water,  each,  one fluidounce;   Camphorated Tincture  of
Opium two fluidrachms.  Mix together.
  Properties  and Uses. — This is a very efficacious  agent  in  allaying
nausea and vomiting.  It was extensively and successfully employed by
the Eclectics in the nausea and vomiting attending Asiatic  cholera.  It
possesses the virtues of the several articles  entering into its composition,
without the stimulating influence of the  alcohol, which enters into  their
tinctures, upon already partially inflamed  mucous surfaces.   The  dose
is from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful every five minutes, if the patient
be vomiting ;  and every ten minutes if he be only nauseated.
  Mistura Cajuputi Composita.  Compound Cajeput Mixture.  Hunn's
Drops.
  Preparation. — Take of Oils of  Cajeput, Cloves,  Peppermint,  and
Anise, each, one fluidounce;  Rectified  Alcohol four ounces.  Dissolve
the Oils in the Alcohol.
  Properties and Uses.—This is a very valuable stimulant and antispas-
modic preparation, and has been successfully used in colic, cramp of the
stomach or elsewhere, flatulence, pains in the stomach or bowels, painful
diarrhea, cholera-morbus, Asiatic cholera, and in all cases where stimu-
lant and antispasmodic action is desired.   During the cholera of 1849-
50-51, it Avas extensively used by the Eclectics for the purpose of over-
coming violent spasmodic action, in the doses of one or two fluidrachms,
every ten  or fifteen  minutes ; one or two doses, generally succeeded in
relieving the pains and spasms when all other means had failed.  The 
MlSTUR^E.
1129
 ordinary dose is from ten drops to half a fluidrachm.  It should be given
 in simple syrup, mucilage of slippery elm, or in hot brandy and water,
 sweetened.   Care should be taken not to introduce too much of this pre-
 paration into the  stomach at any one  time, as a large  proportion of it
 would produce inflammation of the stomach.   It is a very valuable agent,
 when properly used, and should always be kept by every physician and
 druggist.
   Mistura  Chenopodii Composita.    Compound Wormseed  Mixture.
 Worm Mixture.
   Preparation. — Take  of  Castor Oil  one fluidounce;  Wormseed Oil,
 Anise Oil, and Tincture of Myrrh, of each, one fluidrachm.   Mix.
   Properties and  Uses.—This is an excellent vermifuge, and may  be
 used in  doses of one teaspoonful for an adult, to be repeated  three  or
 four times a day, and after having been taken for three successive days,
 to be folloAved by a cathartic.  This somewhat resembles "Fahnestock's
 Vermifuge," which is said to be composed of, Castor Oil one fluidounce;
 Oil of Wormseed one fluidounce; Oil of Anise half a fluidounce ;  Tinc-
 ture of Myrrh half a fluidrachm ; Oil of Turpentine ten minims ; Croton
 Oil one minim.  Mix.  The dose is a teaspoonful for an adult, every two
 hours, to be continued for ten or twelve hours.
   Mistura Copaibae Composita.  Compound  Copaiba Mixture.  Diuretic
 Drops.
   Prepjaration.— Take of Spirit of  Nitric Ether  and Oil of Almonds,
 each two fluidounces ;  Copaiba, and Oil of Turpentine, of each, one fluid-
 ounce ;  Camphor, in powder, one scruple. Mix together the liquids, then
 add the  Camphor, and agitate briskly.
  Properties and Uses.—This  forms  a  diuretic mixture,  which  has been
 successfully  and extensively  used in gonorrhea, gleet, scalding  of urine,
 and urinary affection*.   The  dose is one fluidrachm, three times a day,
 in some  tea or mucilage.   It should be well agitated previous to taking
 it.  There are various mixtures of Copaiba in use for the cure of gonor-
 rhea, and as several of them have been found efficacious, I give the for-
 mula for preparing  them :—
   1. Take  of Copaiba, Spirit  of Nitric Ether, Compound Spirits  of
 Lavender, Tincture of Muriate of Iron, of each, one fluidounce.  Mix.
 The dose is a teaspoonful three times a day.
   2. Take of Oil of Cubebs, Oil of Anise,  Copaiba, Tincture of Opium,
 Tincture of Muriate  of Iron, of  each, one fluidounce.   Mix.  The dose
is a teaspoonful three times a day. The two preparations above are very
 disagreeable  to  the taste, but very efficacious in  gonorrhea, after the
 active symptoms have subsided.  They must be  agitated  thoroughly,
previous  to taking each dose, and in order to protect the teeth  from the
injurious action  of the  acid  in  the Tincture  of Muriate of Iron, it  is 
1130
Pharmacy.
recommended to  rinse the mouth immediately after taking each dose,
with a solution of Bicarbonate of Potassa.
  3. Take of Solidified Copaiba two ounces ; White Wax one ounce; Oil
of Cubebs,  Oil of Spearmint,  of  each,  one fluidrachm;  Nitre,  finely
pulverized, two drachms.  Melt the Wax, add  the  Oils, and  then the
Copaiba ;  stir all  well together, and finally, add the Nitre.   This  forms
a paste much used for the cure  of gonorrhea.  The  dose, is  a  quantity
about the  size of  a small chestnut, three times a day.
  4. Take of Alum, in powder, one drachm; Precipitated Carbonate of
Iron half an  ounce;  Pulverized Cubebs one ounce ;  Copaiba  a  sufficient
quantity to form a kind of paste.  The dose is the same as in the pre-
ceding preparation.
  Mistura Glycyrrhiza Composita.   Compound Liquorice Mixture.
  Preparation.—Take of Extract of Liquorice, in powder, Gum Arabic,
in powder, Sugar, each, half an ounce; Camphorated Tincture of Opium
two fluidounces;  Tincture of Bloodroot  a fluidounce;  Spirit  of Nitric
Ether half a fluidounce ; Water twelve fluidounces.   Rub the Liquorice,
Gum Arabic  and Sugar with the Water  gradually poured upon  them;
then add the other ingredients,  and mix.
  Properties  and  Uses.—This forms an  excellent  cough mixture, and
may be used  in catarrhal affections, after the  subsidence of the more
active symptoms, and when expectoration is present.  For an  adult the
dose is a tablespoonful; for a child two or three years old a teaspoonful.
It should be well  agitated previous to taking it.
  Mistura Olei  Camphorata.   Camphorated Mixture of Oils.
  Preparation.—Take of the Oils of Cloves,  Cajeput and Amber, (rec-
tified), and Camphor, each,  half an ounce.  Mix the Oils together, and
dissolve the Camphor in the mixture.
  Properties  and Uses.—This is intended for  the  relief of toothache.
The decayed portion of the tooth is to be cleansed  and dried, and  then
a few drops of the mixture on cotton applied  to the part; continue the
application two or three times in the same manner, and leave the  last in
the tooth.   This  has proved very  efficacious, and has been extensively
sold throughout the country  as  " Parisen's Vegetable Specific."
  It will not be amiss to give, at this place, another preparation for tooth-
ache, which I have found of service.  Take  of Opium, and Nitre,  each,
two ounces; Camphor an ounce and a half; Galls, in powder, four ounces;
Alcohol a  pint and a half  Place the articles in the Alcohol, macerate
for  fourteen  days, and filter.   To be applied the same as with the pre-
ceding mixture.  Various other agents,  as Solution of Tannic Acid, or
Gallic  Acid  in Alcohol,  etc.,  have  been recommended for  relieving
toothache, but the above will be found to answer the purpose admirably.
(See Carvacrol.) 
Morphia,
1131
   Mistura Olei Composita.   Compound Mixture of Oils.  Vermifuge
 Oil.
   Preparation.—Take of Castor Oil, and Wormseed Oil, each, one ounce;
 Oil  of Turpentine,  and Oil of Anise, of each, half an  ounce.   Mix
 together.
   Properties and Uses.—This forms  an efficacious remedy for  worms,
 and may be given in teaspoonful doses to an adult, and repeated every
 two hours.   After its employment for two  or three days, a purgative
 must be administered.— T. V. M.
   Mistura  Sanguinaria Composita.  Compound Mixture of Bloodroot.
 Cough Drops.
   Preparation.—Take of Syrup of  Ipecacuanha, Syrup of  Squill, Tinc-
 ture of  Bloodroot, Syrup of  Balsam Tolu,  Camphorated  Tincture  of
 Opium, each, one ounce.   Mix together.
   Properties and Uses.—This is  a very efficacious preparation in severe
 cough from colds, catarrhal  or  bronchial  irritations.  The dose  is from
 half a fluidrachm to a fluidrachm whenever the fit of coughino- is  severe.
 I have  used it for many years in practice, with much benefit.   A very
 pleasant preparation for cough, is composed of Oil of Anise, Oil of Sweet
 Almonds, Tincture  of Balsam  Tolu, Canada Balsam, Madeira  Wine,
 each, one ounce.  Mix.  The  dose  is from  ten  to  twenty  drops, three
 or four times  a day, in a little elm  or flaxseed  infusion.  It  assists
 expectoration, and affords  great  relief in tickling coughs.—J. K.
  Mistura Spiritus Vint  Gallici.   Brandy Mixture.
  Preparation.—Take  of Brandy, Cinnamon Water,  each, four fluid-
ounces ; the  yelks of two Eggs; Refined Sugar  half  an ounce;  Oil  of
 Cinnamon two minims.   Mix together.
  Properties and  Uses.—This forms  a  nutritive and stimulating prepara-
tion, especially adapted to the stage  of prostration in low forms of fever,
and in cases  of much debility from various other causes.
                            MORPHIA.
                     Preparations of Morphia,
  Morphia.  Morphia.
  Preparation.—Take of Opium, sliced, a pound; Solution of Ammonia
six fluidounces ; Distilled Water, Alcohol, and Animal Charcoal, of each,
a sufficient quantity.   Macerate the Opium  with four pints  of Distilled
Water for  twenty-four hours, and, having worked it with the hand,
digest for twenty-four hours, and strain.  In like manner, macerate the
residue twice successively with the same quantity of Distilled Water,
and strain.   Mix the  infusions, evaporate to six pints, and filter; then
add firstly, five  pints of Alcohol, and afterward three fluidounces of the 
1132
Pharmacy.
Solution of Ammonia,  previously  mixed with half a pint of Alcohol.
After twenty-four hours, pour in the remainder of the Solution of Am-
monia, mixed, as before, with half a pint of Alcohol; and set the liquor
aside for twenty-four hours,  that crystals  may form.  To  purify these,
boil  them with  two pints  of Alcohol  till  they are dissoh'ed, filter  the
solution, while hot, through Animal Charcoal, and set  it aside to  crys-
tallize.— U S.
  History.—Water will  extract Morphia from Opium  as well as Acetic
Acid, especially  if  the  opium  be, as directed, properly  comminuted
by working it with the  hand, beside which, it possesses an  advantage
over acids in taking  up less of the narcotina.  The several macerations
in water, assisted  each  time by kneading, nearly, if not quite, exhaust
the  drug of its morphia.   The next step is to concentrate the infusions
after having mixed them  together ; after this is effected,  solution of
ammonia is added to the concentrated infusion for  the purpose of decom-
posing the  meconate or other salt of morphia which may  be present in
it.  The ammoniacal solution unites with  the acid, and  the vegetable
alkali is precipitated ; but as it usually carries with it a large proportion
of coloring matter, which is very troublesome to remove, alcohol is pre-
viously added to the  infusion.  The alcohol dissolves the coloring matter
as soon as it is separated  by the ammonia, in consequence  of which a
much purer  morphia is thrown  down.   By adding the ammonia in two
portions, and at  different  stages of the process,  the  morphia is  more
slowly separated, and its impurities can be more readily removed, than
if the whole were  disengaged at once.  Care must be taken to add no
more ammonia than  is necessary to saturate the acid present, for if there
be an excess of ammonia,  it will dissol\re a portion of the morphia, and
thus lessen the  product.   The  first crystals obtained have  a light-yel-
lowish color; these are boiled in alcohol, and the solution filtered through
animal charcoal, which removes  all coloring matter.
  In this process alcohol at 25°  Baume (sp. gr. 0.9032) is preferable to
highly rectified spirit, as it is less liable to  hold the morphia  in solution
when cold ; and  likeAvise, care should be observed in using a solution of
ammonia of the officinal standard.  Any morphia  which  may remain in
the alcohol may be  obtained by distillation of the latter, and when suf-
ficiently concentrated, be purified by a separate  operation.
  By this process, the morphia  obtained always  contains a portion of
narcotina, which may be removed by ether, which dissolves the latter
principle, and leaves the morphia untouched.  Or diluted  acetic  acid
may be added, which will dissolve the  morphia and leave the narcotina;
the  former may be obtained from the acetic solution by saturation of the
acid with ammonia.  Or, dissolve the morphia in dilute muriatic acid, and
boil the solution with lime,  which throws doAA'n the narcotina, and holds
the  morphia  dissolved.   The liquid being filtered yields  the morphia 
Morphia.
1133
upon the addition of muriate of ammonia.  Other means have been pur-
sued, but it is not necessary to name them here.
  Various  other processes for procuring  morphia  have been  pursued
and proposed, but, probably, none  are  better  adapted to the  purpose,
especially when small quantities are required, than the one given above,
from the United States Pharmacopoeia.
   As opium varies in quality, so likewise does it vary in  the proportion
of the morphia which it contains ; from nine per cent, to fourteen, is most
commonly  obtained, and much less than even nine per  cent, when  the
drug is of very inferior quality, or  when the process has  been carelessly
pursued and the opium not completely exhausted.   The average amount
of morphia yielded by opium  may be stated at from ten to twelve  per
cent.
   Morphia is in small, colorless, shining crystals, without odor, and quite
bitter.   At a  moderate heat  it parts with  its ay ate r of crystallization,
loses its crystalline form, and  becomes opake and Avhite; if the temper-
ature be increased, it melts and becomes  a yelloAvish fluid from  partial
decomposition,  which,  upon  cooling, assumes a Avhite  and crystalline
appearance.   When heated in the  open  air, it burns Avith a bright flame,
and is wholly dissipated at a red-heat.   It is  nearly, if not quite, inso-
luble in cold water or  ether; is  sparingly soluble in cold alcohol; is
soluble in  someAvhat  less than one hundred parts of boiling water; is
freely soluble in boiling alcohol, which  deposits  it  on  cooling;  and is
also partly dissolved by the fixed and vegetable oils.  Its alcoholic solu-
tion changes red litmus paper to blue, and yellow turmeric to brown.  It
enters  into combination with  the acids,  forming salts which are, for the
most part, soluble, and  decomposed by the alkalies.  It is dissolved by
solutions of potassa and soda, Avhich, when exposed to  the air, slowly
precipitate it  in consequence of the carbonic acid which  they absorb.
 Solution of ammonia likewise dissolves it; so that in precipitating mor-
phia by ammonia, great care must be taken to avoid adding it in excess.
 Nitric acid in contact Avith morphia or its salts, changes them to a blood-
 red color  Avhich finally becomes yellow.  A solution of iodic acid, or an
 acidulous  iodate is reddened  by them, with evolution of iodine.  With
 sesquichloride of  iron, or the  salts of the sesquioxide, morphia, its  ace-
 tate and oxalate, form a fine blue color, Avhich is destroyed  upon the
 addition of a large quantity of water, or  by acids or alkalies.   Pseudo-
 morphia, a principle discovered by Pelletier, and which  is not  possessed
 of poisonous properties, also becomes red under the action of nitric acid,
 and produces a blue color with the salts  of sesquioxide  of  iron,  so  that
 these  results  are not  positive indications of the presence of morphia.
 The terchloride of gold precipitates morphia at first yellow, then bluish,
 and finally violet.   Potassa or soda precipitates morphia from its  solu-
 tions, but  redissolves it, Avhen added  in excess.   Infusion of galls, and all
 vegetable solutions containing tannic acid precipitate morphia,  forming a 
1134
Pharmacy.
tannate of morphia soluble in acetic acid.   Pure gallic acid, according to
Dublanc, does not precipitate it.  The solutions of chlorine and morphia
when mixed, become of a dark-brown color on the addition of ammonia,
which is removed by a fresh addition of chlorine.  Anhydrous  morphia
is stated to consist of one  equivalent of nitrogen 14, thirty-five of car-
bon  210, tAventy of hydrogen  20,  and six of oxygen  48=292.   The
crystals contain  about 5.8 per  cent., or two  additional equivalents of
water 18=310.
  Properties  and Uses. — Morphia  is the  narcotic  principle  of opium,
somewhat differing from  this drug, however, in its effects upon the sys-
tem, and which difference is, probably, owing to  its peculiar combination
with other principles existing  in the  opium.  From its  insolubility in
water, it is less certain in its effects than some of its salts, as its manner
and extent of action depend greatly on the presence or absence of acid
in the stomach, as well as on the peculiar nature of the acid.   Hence,
its salts are always preferred, among which, the principal ones employed
are the  acetate, muriate, and sulphate.  All these are soporific, anodyne,
and  diaphoretic, but differ from the actions of opium, in being less stim-
ulating, less inclined to effect constipation, and less liable to produce the
subsequent symptoms of headache,  nausea, etc.  Their  principal em-
ployment is to abate pain, promote sleep, and  tranquilize the system
Avhen in a state of restlessness  from nervous irritation, or other cause.
Opium,  hoAvever, is more  efficient in low forms of disease, as a stimulant,
and also for the suppression of morbid discharges.   In delirium tremens
they are especially useful, and I have found more benefit in these cases,
from  the following  preparation, than any  other.   Take  of  Sulphate
of Quinia twelve  grains;  Sulphate of Morphia one grain ; mix, and
divide into six powders.   Of these give one powder every hour, until the
patient sleeps.   Generally but two or three powders  are required before
the patient falls  into a  quiet sleep, with considerable  moisture of the
surface.   Morphia and its salts are more  acceptable to the stomach, in
many cases, than opium  or its tincture, and where they cannot be em-
ployed  internally, from whatever  cause, they may  be  applied upon  a
vesicated surface from which the cuticle has been removed, in double or
triple the internal dose, and will exert the same influence upon  the  sys-
tem  as  when received into the stomach.   Thus  applied,  they are very
effectual in relieving severe neuralgic pains, and  in overcoming obstinate
sickness of the stomach.   The  proper way is to apply them as near the
affected part as possible,  or, when it is desired to bring the system under
its influence, to  the epigastric  region.   Given in doses not sufficient to
cause sleep, they frequently occasion troublesome  cerebral symptoms,
almost approximating delirium, but which gradually pass off sponta-
neously, or disappear upon the  administration of another dose.
  Given in large non-medicinal doses, morphia,  as well  as its salts, acts
as a  narcotic poison, requiring the same toxicological treatment as in the 
Morphia.
1135
case of poisoning by opium.  Strong coffee has been used as an antidote,
and with apparent benefit.
  The dose of  morphia and its salts, is from one-eighth of a grain to a
quarter; and one-sixth of a grain is about equivalent to a grain  of ordi-
nary opium.
   Off. Prep.—Morphiae Acetas;  Morphiae Murias; Morphiae Sulphas;
Ferri et Morphiae Tartras; Quiniae et Morphiae Tartras.
  Morphia Acetas.   Acetate of Morphia.
  Preparation.—Take of Morphia, in powder, (freed from narcotina by
boiling with Sulphuric Ether), an ounce;  Distilled Water half a pint;
Acetic Acid a sufficient quantity.  Mix the Morphia with the Water; then
carefully drop in the Acid, constantly stirring, until the Morphia  is satu-
rated and dissolved.   Evaporate the solution, by means of a water-bath,
to the  consistence of syrup.  Lastly, dry the Acetate with a gentle heat,
and rub it into powder.   It should be kept in a darkened vial,  as light
gradually decomposes  it—changing it to a dark color.— U S.
  History.—In this process, morphia  is saturated with acetic acid, which
is preferred to vinegar, on account of leaving no impurity in the  acetate.
The solution of  the morphia in the water, upon the addition of  a  suffi-
cient quantity of acetic acid, is  evidence  of its saturation; but a slight
excess of  acid is of no importance, as it is expelled during the evaporat-
ing process.  The employment of too great a degree of heat must, how-
ever, be avoided, lest the  salt become decomposed by losing a part of its
acetic acid, and  leaving a corresponding  portion  of its  morphia undis-
solved.   Crystals of acetate of morphia  may  be  obtained provided the
evaporation be checked at a certain point; but as  it is always a matter
of more or less difficulty, it is preferred to continue the  evaporation  to
dryness.   One advantage accruing from the use of diluted acetic acid
of sp. gr. 1.004, in the preparation of the acetate, is, that while it dis-
solves  the morphia,  it  leaves  the narcotina, should any be present,
untouched.
  Acetate of morphia is  in the form of a snowy white, obscurely crys-
talline  powder, or if crystallized, it is  in slender acicular and fasciculated
crystals.   It is  inodorous, but possesses an  intense,  peculiar, bitter
taste.  Water dissolves it readily, though not entirely,—this is owing to a
loss of some of its  acid during  evaporation  to dryness, so that there is
not enough present to hold  the  morphia in  solution.   Consequently,
when it is required to  use the acetate in solution, a few drops of distilled
vinegar added,  will render it  completely soluble.   It is  not so  readily
soluble in alcohol as in water.   A strong heat decomposes, and entirely
dissipates  it.   Its aqueous solution, moderately concentrated,  is affected
by heat, nitric acid, and sesquichloride of iron, in the same manner  as
morphia; and the alkalies or alkaline earths precipitate morphia from it,
but redissoh e it  if added in excess.   Diluted  sulphuric  acid added  to 
1.136
Pharmacy.
the salt, disengages acetic  fumes,  and imparts an  acetous odor to the
solution.  It is supposed to consist of one equivalent of base 296.35,
one of acid 51.48, and one of water 9=356.83.
   OAving to unskillful preparation  it  may be adulterated with coloring
matter,  which may be knoAvn by the want  of its proper whiteness; but
it may likewise, be adulterated with various white powders.   In addition
to the above tests of its purity, the following formula of  the Edinburgh
College will be found generally sufficient to detect the most part of adul-
terations: " One hundred measures of a solution of  ten grains in  a half
a fluidounce of water and  five minims  of acetic  acid, heated to near
212°, and decomposed by a faint excess of ammonia, yield by agitation
a precipitate which in 24 hours occupies 15.5 measures of the liquid."
   Properties  and Uses.—Acetate  of Morphia exerts a similar influence
upon the system as the other salts of Morphia, and is preferred by some
practitioners to them; but I have not found the combination of any acid
to appreciably affect  the therapeutical  influence of the morphia.   It may
be substituted for opium, as a general rule, or for any of  the other salts
of morphia.  The dose to produce an  anodyne or soporific effect is from
one-eighth  of a grain to one-quarter;  but  under certain  excitable  con-
ditions  of the system, even more  may  be required.   One-sixth  of a
grain is about equivalent  to a grain  of  opium.  It is sometimes used
externally,  applied to vesicated surfaces,  for the purpose of affecting the
system.  Internally, it may be given either in the form of pill  or solu-
tion.  >A solution  (Liquor Morphias Acetatis) may be formed  by adding
ten grains of Acetate of Morphia to one fluidounce and a half of Distilled
Water, to which add half  an ounce of proof  Spirit  and five minims of
Diluted Acetic Acid.  The  dose of this is from ten to fifteen drops.  The
alcohol  is  added  to prevent spontaneous decomposition.  (See Ferri et
Morphiae Tartras.)
   Morphia Murias.  Morphia  Hydrochloras.   Muriate of Morphia.
Hydrochlorate of Morpldu.
   Preparation.—Take of Morphia, in  powder, an ounce; Distilled Water
half a pint; Muriatic Acid a sufficient quantity.   Mix the Morphia with
the Water; then  carefully  drop  in  the Acid, constantly stirring, till the
Morphia is saturated and dissolved.   Evaporate the solution by  means
of a water-bath, so that it  may crystallize  upon cooling.   Dry the crys-
tals upon bibulous paper.— U. S.
   History.—By the  above  process, Morphia  is saturated with  muriatic
acid, of which saturation its complete solution in the water is an indica-
tion.  An excess of acid may be known by litmus paper, which becomes
reddened if such be the case.
   Muriate  of Morphia is usually met  with in  the  form of a pure-white
powder; but when crystallized it forms beautifully radiated tufts of deli-
cate feathery or satiny needles.  It is  inodorous, intensely bitter, perma- 
Morphia.
1137
aent in the air, soluble in sixteen parts  of water at 60°, and in its own
weight at 212°, and is also soluble in alcohol.   A  concentrated  boiling
solution forms, on cooling, almost a firm crystalline mass.   Muriate of
Morphia is decomposed by diluted sulphuric  acid, with disengagement
of muriatic acid; strong nitric acid forms a deep-yellow solution with it;
spirit of  nitric ether slowly communicates a yellow color to its solution;
the alkalies, especially potassa, and lime-water precipitate morphia from
the solution, but redissolve  it when  added in excess.  Heat, and  ses-
quichloride of iron  affect it  in  the same manner  as  they do morphia.
Nitrate of silver  added to its solution gives rise to a precipitate of chlo-
ride of silver.   It consists of one equivalent of base 292, one of muriatic
acid 36.42, and six of water 54=382.42.  According to  Christison, the
pure salt, dried at 150°, contains 12.7 per cent, of water.
  Muriate of Morphia prepared by the above process is free from  narco-
tina or  other  impurity, and  the formula is sufficient  for its preparation
on a small scale; but when  to  be manufactured on  a large scale, the
process of Dr. Wm.  Gregory will, probably, be found the most economi-
cal, by  which  a large  and pure product may be  obtained.   By his
process,  the meconate of morphia existing in the opium is decomposed
by  chloride of calcium, which  forms, through double  affinity, a precipi-
tate of meconate of lime, leaving muriate of morphia  in solution, which
is obtained  in  crystals  by evaporation; these are  purified by repeated
solution, concentration, and  crystallization, and lastly decolorization with
animal charcoal.  It is  important to exhaust the opium with as little
water as possible,  so as to avoid protracted heat while  evaporating.
Other methods have been advised, but the one above given is sufficient
for all practical purposes of the physician or apothecary.
  White sugar is said to enter into muriate  of morphia as  an adultera-
tion ; it  may  be detected  by  the  test  of  fermentation.  The principal
impurities, however, that are met with, are  coloring  matter and mois-
ture,  the result of carelessness in its preparation.   According  to the
Edinburgh College, muriate of morphia should  be snow-white, entirely
soluble  in water, giving a colorless solution; its  loss of weight at 212°
should not exceed thirteen  per cent. ; and one hundred measures of  a
solution  of  ten  grains in half a fluidounce of water, heated nearly to
212°,  and decomposed  with agitation  by  a faint excess  of ammonia,
should  yield  a precipitate  which in  twenty-four  hours occupies  12.5
measures of the liquid.
   Properties and Uses.—Muriate of Morphia possesses properties  similar
to the other salts of morphia, having essentially all  the actions of opium.
It is much more extensively used in Great Britain than in this country;
and may be  employed as a substitute for opium, or the  acetate,  or sul-
phate of morphia.  Its dose is from an eighth of a grain  to a half; one-
sixth of  a grain is about equivalent to one grain of opium.   A solution
of the Muriate  of  Morphia (Liquor Morphiae Hydrochloras) is made by
            72 
1138
Pharmacy.
dissolving  one drachm and a half of Hydrochlorate  of Morphia,  in  a
mixture  of Rectified  Spirit five  fluidounces;  Distilled  Water  fifteen
fluidounces;  aided  by a gentle  heat.   Eighteen minims are equivalent
to a grain of opium.  The dose is from  twenty to forty drops.  The
alcohol is added to this solution to prevent spontaneous decomposition.
  Morphia Sulphas.   Sulphate of Morphia.
  Preparation.—Take of Morphia, in powder, an ounce; Distilled Water
half a pint;  Diluted Sulphuric Acid a, sufficient quantity.  Mix the Mor-
phia with the Water, then carefully drop in the Acid, constantly stirring
till the Morphia is saturated and dissolved.   Evaporate the solution by
means of a  Avater-bath, so  that it may crystallize upon  cooling.  Dry
the crystals upon bibulous paper.— U. S.
  History. — In this  process, as soon  as the  morphia in the water
becomes completely dissolved, its saturation is indicated: to determine
Avhether there has been an  excess of acid added, litmus  paper may be
employed.  The morphia used should be pure;  if, however, it contains
narcotina, this  will remain  in the  mother-liquor, which generally con-
tains a small portion of morphia with  impurities, after the  first crystal-
lization.   It should be purified, filtered, and again evaporated to obtain
the remainder of the sulphate.  It should be observed, that if the heat
during  evaporation  be carried  too far, decomposition will ensue, and a
new body be formed destitute of morphia.  Sulphate of morphia may also
be obtained by dissolving the morphia in boiling alcohol  of 36° Baume
(sp. gr. 0.8428), saturate  it with sulphuric acid, while it is hot, add
purified  animal charcoal, boil for a  feAv minutes, and filter the solution
while at the boiling temperature.   Most of the sulphate is  deposited on
cooling, and the rest  may be procured by  evaporation of the mother-
liquor.
   Sulphate of  Morphia is obtained in white, mossy tufts or feathery
crystals,  which are inodorous, bitter  to the taste, soluble in cold water,
and in twice their weight  of boiling water.   According to Liebig they
consist  of 10.33 of sulphuric acid, 75.38 of morphia, and  14.29 of water.
A heat of 248° will deprive them of 9.66 parts  of their water, but any
further loss will occasion decomposition.   Their equivalent composition
is given as one equivalent of base 292, one of acid 40, and six of Avater
54=386; five equivalents  of the latter are water of  crystallization, and
may be separated by  heat.   The  tests for its purity  are those  for sul-
phuric acid and for morphia.  Pure  Sulphate of Morphia is readily and
entirely soluble in water, and nearly so in alcohol.
   Properties and  Uses.—Sulphate of Morphia is probably more  often
 employed in this country than  any other of the salts of this alkali, and
is considered to be more uniform in its action on the system. It possesses
 the usual properties belonging to Morphia and its various salts, and is
 used in cases where these are indicated.  The dose is from an eighth of a 
Olea Destillata.
1139
grain to a quarter, which may be given in pill or solution.   One-sixth
of a grain is about an equivalent of one grain of opium.  A Solution of
Sulphate of Morphia, (Liquor Morphiae Sulphatis,) is made  by dissolv-
ing eight grains of the Sulphate  of Morphia in half  a pint of Distilled
Water.   This forms a convenient solution, in which the morphia may be
administered in minute  or ordinary doses  to suit the occasion; it will
keep for a long time unchanged.   For an adult the full dose is  one or
two fluidrachms, which contain from an eighth  of a grain to a quarter of
the sulphate.  Sometimes the sulphate of morphia is not entirely soluble
in water, which  may be  owing to adulterations, but most commonly to
the absence of care in its preparation, in which from  want  of  sufficient
water to hold the sulphate in solution, crystallization  commences before
the Avhole  of the  morphia has  been saturated  by the sulphuric  acid.
This difficulty may be overcome by the addition of a  few drops of Sul-
phuiic Acid, or  eight or ten drops of  Elixir Vitriol, and a fluidrachm of
Alcohol,  which Avill render the salt wholly soluble in water.
   There  are other salts of Morphia, as the  Nitrate, Phosphate  and Tar-
trate,  prepared as the Acetate, by substituting  the respective acids; also
the Hydriodate of Morphia, made by mixing together strong solutions of
Muriate of Morphia, two parts, and of Iodide of Potassium, rather more
than one part.   Wash the precipitate with a little Cold Water  ; press it
between folds of blotting paper, redissolve in Hot Water, and crystallize.
Doses of these,  same as the Acetate.  Iodide of Morphia is obtained by
dissolving  120 equivalents of dry Acetate of Morphia in eight times
the weight of Cold Distilled Water, adding, if necessary,  a few drops of
pure  Acetic Acid, and  mixing the filtered solution with a solution of
sixty  equivalents of Iodide of Potassium.   After some time the salt
crystallizes  in very  slender crystals, but  which may be obtained of
larger size,  by heating the mixture on a water-bath, and allowing it to
cool slowly.   It closely resembles in form, color, etc., the Sulphate of
Quinia.   It is  insoluble  in  Cold Water,   soluble in Hot Water,  and
readily in Alcohol; the solutions have a bitter  taste.


                       OLEA DESTILLATA.
                            Distilled  Oils.
   For an account of  Volatile, Distilled, or Essential Oils, see Olea Vol-
atilia, Part II, page 669.
   The United States Pharmacopoeia  gives  the following general direc-
tions  for the preparation of Distilled  Oils : " Put the substance  from
which the Oil is to be extracted into a retort, or other vessel suitable for
distillation,  and add  enough Water to cover it, then distil into a  large
refrigeratory.  Separate the Distilled Oil  from the Water which  comes
over with it.  In this manner prepare Oil of Anise from Anise ;  Oil of
 Caraway from Caraway; Oil of Cloves from Cloves;  Oil of  Wormseed 
1140
Pharmacy.
from Wormseed;  Oil of Cubebs from Cubebs ;  Oil  of Fennel from Fen-
nel Seed ;  Oil of Partridge Berry from Partridge Berry Leaves;  Oil of
Pennyroyal ( Oleum Hedeomoe), from Pennyroyal;  Oil of Juniper from
Juniper Berries ;  Oil of Lavender from Lavender Flowers ;  Oil of Pep-
permint  from Peppermint;  Oil of Spearmint from Spearmint;  Oil of
Horsemint from Horsemint;  Oil of Origanum  from Origanum, (Marjo-
ram) ;  Oil of Pimento from Pimento;  Oil  of Rosemary from Rosemary
Tops;  Oil of Savine from Savine ;  Oil of Sassafras from Bark of Sas-
safras Root; and  Oil of Valerian from  Valerian."  To which  I will add
 Oil of Fleabane from Fleabane ; and  Oil of Erechthites from Fireweed.
   The Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia gives the following general directions :
   " Volatile Oils are obtained chiefly from the  Flowers, Leaves, Fruits,
Barks, and Roots of Plants, by Distilling them with  Water, in which they
have been  alloAved to  macerate for some time.  Flowers,  Leaves, and
Fruits  generally yield the finest Oils, and in greatest quantity when they
are used fresh.   Many, however, answer equally well if they  have been
preserved by beating them into a pulp with about twice their weight of
Muriate of Soda, and keeping the mixture in Avell closed vessels.
  Substances yielding Volatile Oils must be distilled with Water, the proper
proportion of which varies for each article, and for  the several qualities
of each.   In all instances, the quantity must be such as  to prevent any
of the material from being empyreumatized before the whole Oil is carried
over.  In operations where the material is of pulpy consistence, other
contrivances must be resorted to for the same  purpose.   These consist
chiefly of particular modes of applying Heat, so as to maintain a  regu-
lated temperature  not  much above  212°.  On the small  scale, Heat
may be thus conveniently applied by means of  a Bath of a  strong Solu-
tion of Muriate of Lime, or by means of  an Oil-Bath, kept  at a station-
ary temperature with the aid of a thermometer.
   On the large scale  Heat is  often  applied by means  of Steam under
regulated pressure.   In other operations it is found  sufficient to hang the
material within the  Still in a cage or bag of fine  netAvork, and  sometimes
the material is not  mingled with the Water at all, but is subjected to a
current of Steam passing  through it.  The  best mode of collecting  the
Oil is by means of  a Refrigeratory, from which  the Water and Oil drop
together  into a tall  narrow vessel provided with  a lateral tube  or lip near
the top, and another tube rising from  the bottom to about a quarter of
an inch below the level of the  former.  It  is evident that  with  a Re-
ceiver  of this construction the Water will  escape  by the lower  tube ;
while the Volatile Oil, as it accumulates, will be  discharged by the upper
one,  except  in the  very few  instances where  the  Oil is heavier  than
Water.   By attending to the general principles now explained, Volatile
Oils  may be readily obtained, of excellent quality,  from the Flowers of
Anthemis Nobilis, Lavandula  Vera and Rula Graveolens; from the Fruit
of Anethum   Graveolens, bruised;  Carum Carui, bruised;  Eugenia 
Olea Destillata.
1141
 Pimento, bruised ; Fceniculum Officinale, bruised ; Piper Cubeba, around,
 and Pimpinella Anisum, ground ; from the undeveloped Dried Flowers of
 Caryophyllus Aromaticus; from the Tops of Juniperus Sabina, and Ros-
 marinus Officinalis; from the entire Herb of Mentha Piperita, M. Pule-
 gium, M. Viridis, and  Origanum Majorana; and also from the bruised
 Root of Sassafras  Officinale.

   The  Dublin Pharmacopoeia gives the following officinal directions :
   " The Volatile or Essential Oils may  be obtained by the following
 general process:    The substance from  which the Oil is to be extracted
 is macerated for twenty-four hours, with five times its weight  of Water,
 in  a sheet  tin, or  copper Still, and, a  condenser  being then attached,
 half  the Water is drawn  over by Distillation, on  the surface  of which
 the Oil will be found to float, unless (which is rarely the case) it should
 be heavier  than  Water,  when  it will be found  at the  bottom  of the
 receiA^er.  The Oil having been separated,  the aqueous  product, which
 is a saturated solution of the Oil in Water, is to be  returned to the  Still,
 and the distillation resumed, and continued till the  resulting liquid has
 the same volume as before.   The  Oil is again separated, the watery pro-
 duct  returned to the Still, and the distillation resumed ;  and this process
 is to be  repeated  until  it ceases to afford  any additional  Oily product.
 The Oil thus obtained  is to be separated as completely as  possible  from
 Water,  and  preserved in a well-stopped bottle.
   In this Avay Volatile  Oils may be  obtained from the  entire Herb of
 Mentha Piperita,  Mentha Pulegium,  Mentha Viridis; from  the Seeds or
 Fruit of Carum  Carui, Cubeba  Officinalis, Eugenia Pimenta, Foeniculum
 Officinale, Juniperus  Communis, Myristica  Moschata, Pimpinella Ani-
 sum; from  the Flowers of Anthemis Nobilis, Lavandula  Vera; from the
 undeveloped Dried FloAvers of Caryophyllus Aromaticus ; from the Tops
 of Juniperus Sabina, Rosmarinus  Officinalis;  from the Bark of Cinna-
 momum Zeylanicum.  The Water distilled over in the preparation of the
 several  Oils should be preserved for medical use."

   Volatile Oils are contained in cells,  generally peculiar,  and often so
 large as to be distinct to the naked eye.   They frequently  exist in such
 an abundance, that they may be obtained by mere  expression, as  with
 the  Oils of Lemon, Orange, Bergamot, and  Citron.  Sometimes  they
 exude spontaneously or from incisions, in combination with gum or resin,
 as in  the case of Turpentine.  And again, the Volatile Oil is not formed
 in the Plants, until the reaction of Water is obtained upon certain  con-
 stituent principles, as in the case of the  Oils of Black Mustard Seed, and
 Bitter Almonds, and perhaps Peach Leaves, Peach Kernels, etc.   Most
 commonly it adheres with more  or less force to the parts of the Plant
containing it, either becoming destroyed or dispersed when the Plant is
dried  or retained in part or altogether, even when  long kept. 
1142
Pharmacy.
  Volatile Oils may be obtained from substances either in the Recent or
Dried state ;  some  articles must  be used Fresh, from the  fact that the
Oil becomes lost by drying, as is  the case with Roses, Orange Flowers,
etc. ;  and the  greatest  yield is  obtained from most of the Aromatic
Plants by Distilling them while Fresh;  though some believe  that mode-
rate desiccation ensures a larger product.   When Dried  substances  are
to be submitted to distillation, they should first be sliced, rasped, shaved,
or bruised, according to the character of the agent, and then allowed to
macerate  in  Water, until it has thoroughly penetrated them.   Steam
Heat is the  best  for the preparation  of Oils, because it is less  apt to
injure them ; but some  Oils will not readily ascend  with Steam at 212°,
in consequence of which Water saturated with Salt is used, and which
does not boil under 230°.  It must be recollected that Volatile Oils  are
injured  by Heat, and that in  consequence, the temperature of the  Heat
employed in  the Distillation should be as low as may be consistent  for
the ascent of the Oil.
  The Water employed in distillation answers a  two-fold purpose, that
of regulating the  Temperature, and thereby preventing the  decomposi-
tion of  the vegetable substance,  and also that of  facilitating the vola-
tilization of the oil, which, though requiring a much higher temperature
Avhen distilled alone, yet readily  rises with the vapor of water.   Some
attention,  however, must be paid  to the quantity of  water used, because
if in too large a quantity it may hold the oil in solution when the mixed
vapors are condensed; and when in very large proportion, no oil  what-
ever may  be  obtained separate.   Again, if it be too small in quantity,
the whole of the  oil will  not pass over, and  the plant, by adhering to
the sides of the  vessel,  will  be burnt.  More  water is required for
dried plants than for recent ones, and enough should always be added to
cover the  whole solid ingredient.   The quantity of water together with
that of the plant combined, should never exceed  three-fourths  of  the
capacity of the alembic,  lest  the  liquor boil over.   In cases where  the
oil is so small in  quantity that  it becomes dissolved  in the water, it is
removed by cohobation;  a process which consists in redistilling the same
water several times from fresh portions of the plant, till the quantity of
oil which  comes  over exceeds the solvent power of the water.   As  the
mixed vapors of oil and  water are generally of a milky character when
condensed, distillation should be continued as  long as this milky appear-
ance is  observed in the  condensed fluid which comes  over.   The  oil is
separated from the water by instruments adapted for the purpose, called
Separatories, of which there  are several in use, known as the Florentine
Receiver,  Oil-separators, etc.  (See Procter's Mohr and Redwood's Phar-
macy, pages 351-356.)
  Volatile oils which have at  first an unpleasant  empyreumatic  odor,
should  be allowed  to remain for a few days in vessels loosely covered
Avith  paper, or until this peculiar odor has disappeared.  They should 
Olea Destillata.
1143
always  he  kept in well  closed, dark bottles;  otherwise  they  absorb

oxygen from the atmosphere, become turbid,  deposit resin, and lose the

purity and richness of their aroma.  These may, in a great measure, be

restored by agitating  them with  animal charcoal  recently heated;  this

will also answer the purpose of freeing them  from water, which  injures

some  oils.

   " The following Table, showing the proportion of Volatile Oil obtained

from  the chief Medicinal Vegetable Substances, according to  the most

recent experiments, will be found useful in several  ways.  Among other

things it illustrates several of the general statements now made as to the

influence of modes of preparation and circumstances in vegetation upon

the quantity of oil.   The data are  chiefly extracted  or calculated from

experiments by M. Raybaud in  the Journal de Pharmacie, xx.—by Dr.

Martius  in  Reperlorium fur die  Pharmacie, xxxix.—by Dr. Bley in  the

same  work, xlviii.—by M. Dann  and by M. Voelter in  the same work,

lv.;—and a few have  been  added from experiments  of my own.  The

numbers represent the number  of ounces obtained  from  100  pounds

avoirdupois.  The experiments of the continental  authorities were com-

monly made on the large  scale.   My own were made  on a small scale

with  the apparatus at page vii., and the graduated  receiver at page

xxxi.; and from a comparative trial in one or two instances  upon  a large

scale, I am disposed to give the preference for accuracy to  small opera-

tions,  when they  are  carefully  conducted.   The  letters before  the

figures refer to the authority for each.

  Amygdalus communis.  Bitter almond,..........................Ra.
  Amygdalus communis.  Bitter almond,..........................Vo.
  Amygdalus communis.  Bitter almond (Duflos),................0.8 to.
  Angelica Archangelica,—dried root,..............................Ra.
  Anthemis nobilis,—fresh flowers raised at Grasse,.................Ra.
  Anthemis nobilis,—dried flowers,      do........................Ra.
  Anthemis nobilis,—dried flowers, long kept, Germany,.............BI.
  Anthemis nobilis,—flowers fresh dried,.........................Steer.
  Anthemis nobilis,—flowers 12 months dried,....................Steer.
  Apium graveolens,—dried fruit,.................................Ra.
  Apium Petroselinum,—fresh herb, after flowering,.................Ra.
  Apium Petroselinum,—dry fruit, France,.........................Ra.
  Apium Petroselinum,—dry fruit, Germany,........................Da.
  Artemisia Absinthium,—fresh herb, Paris,........................Ra.
  Artemisia Absinthium,—dried herb, recent, Germany,............. .Ma.
  Artemisia Absinthium,—dried herb, a year old, Germany,...........BI.
  Artemisia Absinthium,—dried herb, 3 years old, Germany,..........Ma.
  Artemisia----?  Wormseed of commerce,........................Ra.
  Artemisia----?  Levant wormseed,..............................Vo.
  Calamus aromaticus,—fresh root, Germany,...........  ...........Ma.
  Calamus aromaticus,—recently dried, Germany,....................BI.
  Calamus aromaticus,—long dried, Germany,.......................Da.
  Carum Carui,—dried fruit of French commerce,...................Ra.
  Carum Carui,—dried fruit of German commerce,..................Ma.
  Carum Carui,—    do            do.....■.....................Da.
  Carum Carui,—    do            do...........................Vo.
  Caryophyllus aromaticus.   Cloves, Bourbon,......................Ra.
  Caryophyllus aromaticus.   Cloves, Cayenne,......................Ra.
  Caryophyllus aromaticus.   Cloves,   do..........................BI.
  Caryophyllus aromaticus.   Cloves, Molucca: French commerce,.....Ra.
  Caryophyllus aromaticus.   Cloves,   do    English commerce,---Ra.
  0.38
  7.70
  4.80
  4.50
  0.75
  1.38
  4.50
  5.33
  3.0
  9.00
  3.3S
 12.0
 30.0
 12.0
  6.0
  8.75
  5.0
  3.0
 10.8
 16.0
 17.5
 14.3
 50.12
 665
 46 6
 70.0
144.0
152.0
125.0
148.0
112.5 
1144
Pharmacy.
Caryophyllus aromaticus.   Cloves, average German commerce,......Vo.
Caryophyllus aromaticus.   Cloves, finest,         do...............Da.
Caryophyllus aromaticus.   Cloves, German commerce,............Steer.
Cinnamomum zeylanicum, cinnamon of commerce,................Ra.
Cinnamomum Cassia,—cassia~bark of commerce,..................Ra.
Citrus Aurantium,—Sweet orange fiowers, 1 May, Nice,............Ra.
Citrus vulgaris,—Bitter orange flowers, 7 May, Nice,..............Ra.
Citrus vulgaris,       do.       do.   12 May, Carmet,.............Ra.
Citrus vulgaris,       do.       do.   16 July, Paris,..............Ra.
Citrus vulgaris,       do.       do.   14 Dec, Pan's,..............Ra.
Citrus Aurantium,—rind of 100 oranges, by expression,............Ra.
Citrus Aurantium,        do.         by distillation,.............Ra.
Citrus vulgaris,—rind of 100 oranges, by expression,...............Ra.
Citrus vulgaris            do       by distillation,..............Ra.
Citrus Limetta, rind of 100 limes, by distillation,..................Ra.
Citrus Bergamium, rind of  100 bergamots, by distillation,..........Ra,
Citrus Limouum, rind of  100 lemons by expression,...............  Ra.
Citrus Limonum,        do.         by distillation,...............Ra.
Cochlearia Armoracia,—fresh seeds,..............................Ra.
Coriandrum sativum,—dry  fruit of French commerce,..............Ra.
Coriandrum sativum,—dry fruit of German commerce,..............Da.
Croton Eleutheria,—cascarilla bark................................BI.
Cuminum Cyminum,—dry fruit of French commerce,...... .......Ra.
Cuminum Cyminum,—dry fruit of German commerce,..............BI.
Daucus Carota,—dry fruit,......................................Ra.
Daucus Carota,—fresh root,.....................................Ra.
Dracocephalum moldavicum, flowering herb,......................Ra.
Drimys Winteri,-Winter's bark (probably, however, only Canella alba), Ra.
Eugenia Pimenta,—pimenta berries, Jamaica......................Ra.
Fceniculum* officinale—dry fruit of French commerce,............Ra.
Fceniculum* officinale,—dry fruit of German commerce,............Ma.
Foeniculum* officinale,      do     German commerce,.............BI.
Fceniculum* officinale,      do     German commerce,............Da.
Foeniculum officinale,—flowering herb, Grasse,....................Ra.
Fceniculum officinale,—herb after flowering, Grasse,................Ra.
Galipea officinalis,—Casparia-bark of commerce,..................Ra.
Genista canariensis, Rhodium-wood,..............................Ra.
Geum urbanum,—dry roots,.....................................Ra.
Hyssopus officinalis,—flowering herb, Grasse,.....................Ra.
Illicium anisatum,—star-anise-fruit,..............................Ra.
Illicium anisatum,—star-anise-fruit,..............................Da.
Juniperus communis,—green berries, 12 Sept.,....................Ra.
Juniperus communis,—ripe berries, 1 Dec. France.................Ra.
Juniperus communis,      do.       fresh, Germany,...............Da.
Juniperus communis,       do.      a year old, Germany...........Ma.
Juniperus communis,      do.      a year old, Germany,...........BI.
Juniperus Sabina,—fresh twigs, 5 March, Grasse,..................Ra.
Juniperus Sabina,—fresh twigs, 2 Oct. Paris,..................... .Ra.
Juniperus Sabina,—dried twigs, recent, Germany,.................Ma.
Juniperus Sabina,—dried twigs, a year old, Germany,..............Ma.
Larix Cedrus,—fresh cedar wood, Paris,..........................Ra.
Larix Cedrns,—cedar Avood of commerce,.........................Ra.
Laurus nobilis,—fresh leaves, 26 Jan. Paris,.......................Ra.
Laurus nobilis,—leaves some years dried,  Germany, ................BI.
Laurus nobilis,— (fresh leaves) poor soil, low site,..............Chr.
Laurus nobilis,— yearly in Oct> poor soil, high site..............Chr.
Laurus nobilis,— (near Edinb.  ) very fine soil, low site,..........Chr.
Lavandula vera,—flowering herbs, 2 Aug. Grasse...................Ra.
Lavandula vera,        do       2 Aug. Grasse, north exposure,---Ra.
Lavandula A'era,—floAvering herb, 26 July Soureillas,...............Ra.
Lavandula vera,—herb after flowering, 26 Sept. Soureillas,..........Ra.
Lavandula Spica.—fresh  herb, 24 July, Paris,.....................Ra-
Lavandula Spica,—fresh  herb, 4 Aug. Grasse,.....................Ra.
Lavandula Stoechas,—dried spikes,..............................Ra.
Ligusticum Levisticum,—fresh  herb, Paris,..................... • -Ra.
Melissa officinalis,—fresh flowering herb,.........................Ra.
  * It does not appear what is the exact species or variety of feunel understood by the authors ol
these four experiments, as they use the vague name of Ancthum Fceniculwn. 
Olea  Destillata.
1145
  Mentha piperita,—fresh tops in flower, Grasse,...................  Ra.
  Mentha piperita,—fresh tops in flower, Paris,......................Ra.
  Mentha piperita,—dried tops in  flower, Germany,..................BI.
  Mentha piperita,—dried tops in flower, Germany,..................Ma.
  Mentha Pulegium, fresh flowering herb,...........................Ra.
  Myristica moschata —mace of commerce, finest,...................Vo.
  Myristica moschata,—       do.         fine,....................BI.
  Myristica moschata,—       do.         worm eaten,..............BI.
  Myristica moschata,—nutmegs of commerce, fine,..................BI,
  Myristica moschata,         do.         worm eaten,..............BI.
  Myrtus communis,—fresh leaves, Sept. 20—Grasse,................Ra.
  Myrtus communis,—fresh leaves, Sept. 6—Paris...................Ra.
  Origanum Majorana,—fresh flowering herb, Aug. 3—Grasse,........Ra.
  Origanum Majorana,—fresh flowering herb, Aug. 3—Paris,.........Ra.
  Origanum vulgare,—fresh flowering herb, Sept. 15—Paris,..........Ra.
  Pimpinella Anisum,—dry  fruit of French commerce,...............Ra.
  Pimpinella Anisum,—dry fruit new, German commerce,............Ma.
  Pimpinella Anisum,—dry fruit, old,—German commerce,......... .Ma.
  Pimpinella Anisum,—dry fruit of German commerce,..............Vo.
  Pimpinella Anisum,           do.       do.......................Da.
  Piper Cubeba,—Cubebs of French commerce,.....................Ra.
  Piper nigrum,—White  pepper of  do.............................Ra.
  Piper nigrum,—Black pepper of do..............................Ra.
  Prunus Lauro-cerasus,—fresh leaves, November 23,—Paris,.........Ra.
  Prunus Lauro-cerasus (fresh   leaves] undeveloped, June 7,......Chr.
  Prunus Lauro-cerasus J from the same I half-grown, June 7,........Chr.
  Prunus Lauro-cerasus 1 plants :  near j full-gr. 8 weeks on tree, Jy.15, Chr.
  Prunus Lauro-cerasus  ^Edinburgh,   J 12 months on tree, June 2,. .Chr.
  Prunus Lauro-cerasus  (Fresh leaves of the samej  3 mo. on tree,... .Chr.
  Prunus Lauro-cerasus  yplant, 1 Sept. 1836, Edin.)  15 mo. on tree,.. .Chr.
  Renealmia Catdamomum,—lesser cardamoms,.....................Ra.
  Rosa centifolia, fresh flowers, Grasse..............................Ra.
  Rosmarinus officinalis,—fresh flowering herb, Grasse,..............Ra.
  Rosmarinus officinalis,          do          Paris,...............Ra.
  Ruta graveolens, fresh flowering herb, 20 July, Grasse,.............Ra.
  Ruta graveolens,        do.          28 July, Paris,..............Ra.
  Ruta graveolens,—flowering herb, newly dried, Germany,...........BI.
  Ruta graveolens,—dried seeds, South of France,...................Ra.
  Salvia officinalis, v. minor,—fresh herb, 12 Mar. Grasse,.............Ra.
  Salvia officinalis, v. minor,—fresh herb, 14 June, Paris.............Ra.
  Salvia officinalis, v, major,—fresh herb, 12 Mar. Grasse,............Ra.
  Salvia officinalis, v. major,—fresh herb, 14 June, Paris,.............Ra.
  Santalum album,—sandal wood of commerce,.....................Ra.
  Sinapis nigra,—black mustard-seed, Germany, 12 months old,.......Da.
  Sinapis nigra,—black  mustard-seed, Germany, fresh,.............. Da.
  Sinapis nigra,—black  mustard-seed, France, fresh,.................Da.
  Sinapis nigra,—black  mustard-seed, France,......................Vo.
  Tanacetum vulgare,—fresh flowering herb, 9 July, Grasse,  .........Ra.
  Tanacetum vulgare,—fresh  flowering herb, 25 July, Paris,.........Ra.
  Tanacetum vulgare,—fresh tops,  Germany,........................Da.
  Tanacetum vulgare, dried flowering herb, Germany,................BI.
  Thuya occidentalis, ("fresh  "1 Aged, stunted tree; exposed.  Oct. 21. .Chr.
  Thuya occidentalis, J twigs  [Aged, vigorous; sheltered. Oct. 21, .. .Chr.
  Thuya occidentalis, | near  [Young, vigorous; exposed. Oct. 9,... .Chr.
  Thuya occidentalis, I Edin. J Young, vig.; exposed; fine soil. Sept.26 Chr.
  Thymus Serpyllum,—fresh flowering herb, 6 Aug., Grasse,.........Ra.
  Thymus Serpyllum,—fresh flowering herb, 5 July, Paris,..........Ra.
  Thvmus vulgaris,—fresh flowering herb, 16 Aug., Grasse,.........Ra.
  Thymus vulgaris,—fresh flowering herb, 13 July, Paris.............Ra.
  Valeriana officinalis,—dry root, a year old, Germany,...............BI.
  Valeriana officinalis,—the root, Germany,.........................Da.
  Valeriana officinalis,—the root, Germany..........................Vo.
  Verbena odorata,—fresh flowering herb, Paris,....................Ra.
  Zingiber officinale,—dry root of commerce,........................Ra.

  The facts in the preceding table seem to show that the flowers of Anthe-

mis Nobilis, the berries of Juniperus Communis, and the root of  Acorus 
1146
Pharmacy.
 Calamus  may be  both dried and long kept, Avithout material loss  of
 volatile oil; but that the herb of Artemisia Absinthium and  the tops  of
 Juniperus Sabina, though they may be  dried, cannot be long preserved,
 without loss.  It farther appears that the  seed of Sinapis Nigra cannot
 be long kept without material loss; and  that the mace and kernel  of
 Myristica Moschata suffer greatly in their proportion of oil, when attacked
 by worms.  The influence of season is well exemplified  in the  case  of
 the flowers  of  Citrus Aurantium, which is well knoAvn to floAver at dif-
 ferent periods of the year.   The effect of climate is equally well shown
 in many examples, such as the wood  of Larix Cedrus, the herb or flow-
 ering tops of Lavandula Vera, Lavandula, Spica,, Mentha Piperita, Myr-
 tus  Vulgaris,  Origanum  Majorana,,  Rosmarinus Officinalis,  Thymus
 Serpyllum,  Thymus Vulgaris, Tanacetum Vulgare, and  the  seeds  of
 Sinapis Nigra.  Under this head, the great superiority of Grasse, in the
 south of France, over Paris for raising plants for distilling oils, is remark-
 able.  The effect of soil or site is exhibited in my own experiments with
 the leaves of Laurus Nobilis and Thuya  Occidentalis;  and that of the
 progress of vegetation is excellently shown in the instances of  the herb
 of Fceniculum  Officinale and Lavandula, Vera, the  berries of Juniperus
 Communis, but above all, the leaves of Prunus Laurocerasus.   Farther,
 the table presents many examples, but especially under Caryophyllus Aro-
 maticus, Carum  Carui,  Coriandrum Sativum, and Illicium Anisatum,  of
 great differences prevailing in the relative  proportion  of volatile oil, and
 consequently in relative activity, betAveen  different specimens of the
 same vegetable  substances as it occurs in  ordinary commerce.   In con-
 clusion, it should be observed, that  the  circumstances most favorable  to
 the proportion of volatile oil  are not necessarily always  most favorable
 to its quality.   Raybaud mentions,  that the cloves of English commerce,
 which will be seen ( Caryophyllus Aromaticus) from  the table  to have
 furnished the lowest proportion of  oil, produce  it of finer quality than
 other kinds he  examined.   And lavender, which yields considerably
more volatile oil after flowering  than during inflorescence (Lavandula
 Vera), produces in the latter  case an oil of more delicate fragrance than
in the former; and it is not so acrid."
  The above useful information is extracted from Christison's Dispensa-
tory, and  will, undoubtedly, prove  serviceable to the  apothecary and
manufacturing chemist.
  As it is sometimes  required to  know the number- of drops which
certain volatile oils  yield to a fluidrachm,  the  following table, extracted
from the  TJ. S. Dispensatory, and made out by Professor Procter, will
be found of some value; although it must be recollected that, as the
size  and  number  of drops depend upon the shape of the part from
 which they fall, these results are only approximative and relative:
  " The columns of figures represent the number of drops in a fluid
 drachm of the oils respectively, the first column giving  those  obtained 
Olea Destillata.
1147
by dropping the oils from the bottles in which they are commonly kept,
the second by dropping them from a minim measure.
	.......85	86			... 103 109 .....89 94
	......106	108	" Menthae Vi		
	......103	103	" Rosmarini		
	.......97	100			....102 108
		102	" Sassafras .		....102 100
		96			.....92 111
	......102	103 101	" Valerianae		___116 110
					.....95 91
		91			
   Volatile oils  possess almost  universally the  peculiar medicinal pro-
 perties of the plants from which they are obtained.   They are most
 commonly used in the form  of alcoholic tincture, under the name  of
 Essences, but may also be given dropped on a lump of sugar, triturated
 with ten or twelve times their weight of sugar,  forming an oleo-saccha-
 rum, and then dissolved in water, or they may be made  into an emul-
 sion with water, sugar, and gum Arabic.
   Oletjm Anisi.   Oil of Anise.
   History.—This may be prepared according to  the process of the U. S.
 Pharmacopoeia; the seed yields, according to various authors, from 1.56
 to 3.12 per cent, of oil.   The oil  is colorless or yellowish, possesses  a
 powerful odor and taste of the  seed, and  its specific gravity varies from
 0.9768 to 0.9903, increasing with  its  age.  At 50° it forms a concrete
 crystalline mass, and does  not melt under 62°.  Alcohol of 0.840 dis-
 solves only 42 per cent, of the oil, but which is readily soluble in alcohol
 of 0.806.  It  contains Stearoptene, a principle of volatile oils which is
 solid at ordinary temperatures, and is  heavier  than water;  and Eleop-
 tene, another principle, which is fluid and more volatile.   Both principles
 are said to have the same ultimate composition, consisting of ten  equiva-
 lents  of  carbon, six of  hydrogen, and  one of oxygen (Cio  He O).
When  long kept the  stearoptene  becomes  liquid, which is oAving  to
 absorption of oxygen from the atmosphere.  Spermaceti, wax, or cam-
phor is sometimes added to oil of anise as adulterations; they  may be
 known by the odor of the latter, and  the insolubility of  the former  in
alcohol.   Nearly all the oil used in this  country is imported.
   Properties  and Uses.—Carminative and antispasmodic,  and especially
adapted to flatulency and colic of infants.  It likewise, in connection with
aqua ammonia, affords relief in  spasmodic cough.   The dose  is from
five to  fifteen drops.   The oil of star aniseed ( Oleum Badiani)  has the
fla,vor of anise, and is frequently substituted for it.
   Off.  Prep.—Extractum Spigeliae et  Sennae Fluidum;  Mistura Caju-
puti Composita; Tinctura Anisi;  Tinctura Opii Camphorata.
   Oleum Anthemidis.   Oil of Chamomile.
  History.—Oil  of Chamomile  is  obtained by distillation of Chamomile 
1148
Pharmacy.
Flowers with Water, a thousand parts of which  yield  about eight parts
of oil:  when first  obtained it is greenish or bluish, but finally becomes
yellowish-brown ; its specific gravity is about 0.9083.  It has the odor of
chamomile flowers, and  an aromatic,  somewhat pungent  taste.  It is
said to be a mixture of carbo-hydrogen with an oxygenated oil.  It is
prepared in Europe.
   Properties and Uses.—Oil of Chamomile is tonic and antispasmodic;
and has been found very serviceable in spasm of the  stomach, painful
dysmenorrhea, hiccough, pertussis, and to  prevent or lessen the  griping
influence of some  cathartics.  The dose is from five  to fifteen drops.
The Matricaria  Chamomilla furnishes a  thick,  opake,  dark-blue oil,
becoming brown  and  unctuous  by age, and which is sometimes  used
under the name of Oil of Chamomile.  It is less antispasmodic than the
true chamomile oil.
   Oleum Bergamii.   Oil of Bergamot.
   History.—Oil of Bergamot is the volatile oil of the  rind of the fruit
of Citrus Limetta, from which it is procured by expression, in the same
manner as for obtaining the oil of lemon.   It is imported from Italy,
Portugal, and the South of France.  It may be obtained by distillation,
but the product is  not so agreeable  as by expression.  The bergamot
tree has small and white flowers ; oblong-ovate, acute or obtuse, dentate
leaves,  paler on the under surface, with winged or margined petioles;
and the  fruit is roundish or pyriform, terminated  by an  obtuse point,
with concave receptacles of oil  in the  rind; its pulp is acid, rather aro-
matic,   and pleasant to  the  taste; its rind is pale-yellow,  shininc,
abounding in oil.   The  oil has  a peculiar, agreeable, rich fragrance,
somewhat  resembling oil of lemons but more  grateful,  a bitter, aro-
matic,  pungent taste,  and  a pale greenish-yellow color.   Its specific
gravity is 0.885, and it may be determined from oils  of orange and
lemon, by its ready solubility in liquor potassa, forming a clear solution.
In composition, it resembles the oil of  lemons.
   Properties and Uses.—Gently excitant; but is used almost exclusively
as a perfume.
   Oleum Cajuputi.   Cajeput Oil.
   History.—This oil is obtained from the leaves of Melaleuca Cajuputi,
a tree  growing in the Moluccas and neighboring islands, and belonging to
the Nat. Ord.—Myrtaceee,  Sex.  Syst.—Polyadelphia  Icosandria.  It is
a small tree, with an erect but crooked stem, and scattered branches,  the
slender tAvigs of which droop like those of the weeping willow, (Salix
Babylonica).  The bark is soft,  spongy, lamellated,  of a whitish  ash
color, throwing off its exterior layer from time to time in flakes, like  the
birch tree.  The petioles are short, and the leaves  are  alternate, lanceo-
late, sericeous when young, smooth when  full grown,  deep green, three
and five-nerved, slightly  falcate, entire,  from  three  to five inches in 
Olea Destillata.
1149
length, from one-half to three-quarters of an  inch broad, and exhalino-
a strong aromatic odor, when bruised.  The flowers are small, white,
inodorous, sessile, and  disposed in terminal  and axillary downy spikes,
with solitary, lanceolate, three-flowered bracts.  The filaments are three
or four times longer than the petals, and both  are inserted in the rim of
the calyx.
   Cajeput oil is obtained by distillation of the Leaves, which yield it only
in small proportion ; this, together with the extensive employment of it
in India, renders it a costly article.  It is imported from the East Indies
in glass bottles.   The  leaves  are collected in the autumn, allowed to
steep  for a night, and then distilled in copper  vessels.   The oil  is very
liquid,  transparent,  of  a  grass-green  color, a strong penetrating odor
partaking both of camphor  and of cardamom, and a  warm, pungent
taste, succeeded by an  impression of coolness.  Its green color may be
removed by rectification,  and  is  not essential; nor  is it owing to the
presence of copper,  as was at  one time supposed.   True, it sometimes
contains copper,  but the  pure  green oil has given no indications of the
presence of this  metal.   Copper may be added to imitate or preserve
the green  color, but its proportion is so small, as  not  to  interfere with
the internal use of the oil; from a pound of the oil of commerce, Guibort
procured only  two and a half grains of oxide of copper.  The  copper
may be separated from  the oil by distillation with water, or by agitation
with a  solution of ferrocyanuret of potassium.   Oil of Cajeput is vola-
tile, inflammable, leaving no residue after  burning, wholly  soluble in
alcohol, and of the specific gravity, varying from 0.914 to 0.9274.  Sul-
phuric and nitric acids  exert but little action on it.   When  distilled, a
colorless oil first comes over of  sp. gr. 0.897, and then a green oil,
denser, Aveaker in odor, but more acrid.  It is composed of ten equiva-
lents of carbon 60, nine of hydrogen 9, and one of oxygen 8=77.
   In  consequence of  its  high price it  is very subject  to adulteration.
Oils of rosemary or turpentine, impregnated with camphor and bruised
cardamom  seeds, and  colored with resin of  milfoil,  are often  sold as
genuine oil.  Zeller  considers iodine the best test, the addition of which,
reacts moderately energetic, with  but a slight increase  of temperature,
and a faint development of orange-colored vapors, after which inspissa-
tion takes place,  and soon results in a dry, greenish-brown, brittle mass.
The genuine oil, it must be recollected, burns entirely aAvay  leaving no
residue ; and beside the test above given,  copper may be detected  by
dissolving the residuum which  is left after  burning the oil in nitric acid,
which becomes violet-colored when ammonia is added in excess.
   Properties and Uses.— Cajeput  Oil is a powerful diffusive stimulant,
diaphoretic, and  antispasmodic.  When SAvallowed it occasions a sense
of heat, with an  increased action of the pulse, and occasionally  profuse
diaphoresis.  It is very  much esteemed in the islands of the Indian ocean,
the inhabitants of which employ it  extensively in rheumatism,  palsy, 
1150
Pharmacy.
epilepsy, and many other diseases; using it both internally and as a local
application.   It may be advantageously employed internally  in chronic
rheumatism, hysteria, colic, spasms or cramps of the stomach  or bowels,
cholera-morbus, Asiatic cholera,  in  the  typhoid stage  of fevers,  and
wherever a powerful stimulant is required.  It  should never be given
internally when inflammation is present.  Externally, it is very beneficial
as an application to rheumatic, neuralgic, and other pains, and may be
used alone, or in combination with other oils.  Applied to the  cavity of a
carious tooth,  it relieves toothache.   The dose is from one to  ten drops,
on sugar, or in emulsion.
   Off. Prep.—Mistura Cajuputi Composita ; Mistura Olei Camphorata ;
Tinctura Camphorae Composita.
   Oleum Cari.   Oleum Carui.   Oil of Caraway.
   History.—This oil is easily  separated by distillation  of  the  fresh  fruit
with water, which yields on an average about 4.7 per cent.  It is at first
pale-yellow, but becomes brownish  by time, possesses the odor of the
fruit, with an aromatic acrid taste.  Its specific gravity is variously given
as 0.946 and 0.931.   It consists  principally of a hydro-carbon, Cio Hs,
Carvene, and an oxygenated oil, Carvacrol.
   When Oil of  Caraway  is  distilled with hydrated  phosphoric acid,
the distilled liquor being poured back into the  retort until it ceases to
have the smell of caraway, an oily liquid separates from  the phosphoric
acid, having a very disagreeable odor, and a strong taste, which is called
Carvacrol.  Or, if a saturated solution of iodine be distilled with Oil of
Caraway, until no more hydriodic acid is  formed, a  red mass will be
formed  in the retort.   This must be acted upon by  potassa, and the
yellow  solution  distilled.   Carvene  passes over,  and  the  Carvacrol
remains ; this must be purified by redistillation.
   Properties and Uses.—Oil of Caraway is a warm diffusible stimulant
and carminative.   It is  frequently used to correct the griping and nau-
seating effects of medicines, also to increase their flavor.  It is consid-
erably used in cake and confectionary.  The dose is from one to five or
ten drops.  Carvacrol placed  on  cotton,  and inserted  into the cavity of
a carious tooth, is said to give immediate relief.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Spigelian et Sennas Fluidum.
   Oleum Caryophylli.   Oil of  Cloves.
   History.—Oil of Cloves  is  procured by distillation  of  bruised cloves
with water,  to which salt is usually added to increase  the temperature;
the cloves should be thoroughly exhausted by repeatedly distilling  from
the same cloves the water which comes  over.   Good cloves  yield  from
a fifth to a sixth of their weight of oil.  Formerly, the oil was imported
from  Europe  or the  East  Indies, but at present, it is prepared  in  this
country from the Cayenne cloves, seven to nine parts of which yield one
part of  oil. 
Olea Destillata.
1151
  When first obtained, oil of cloves is very fluid, transparent, and color-
less, but gradually becomes yellowish, and finally reddish-brown.  It has
the strong,  peculiar odor of  cloves,  and an aromatic, intensely acrid,
burning taste.  It sinks in water, in which it is  sparingly soluble, and is
completely soluble in alcohol, ether, acetic acid, and the fixed oils.   Its
specific gravity is between 1.034 and 1.061.   Nitric acid changes it to a
deep-red, and forms  oxalic acid by  the  application of heat.   It is less
volatile than most of the other essential oils, and congeals only at —4°
F.   It deposits a crystalline stearoptene on long  standing.   It consists of
two  oils, one of which is lighter than water, the other heavier.  They
may be separated by distilling the crude oil from a solution of potassa,
the light, colorless oil passes over with the watery vapor;  its density is
0.918, consists of, carbon and hydrogen, and is isomeric with pure oil of
turpentine, Cio H?.   It is said to be destitute of active properties.   The
heavier oil remains in union with the potassa, from which it may be ob-
tained by the addition of sulphuric acid, and then distilling.   It is like-
wise colorless, but becomes darker by age,  possesses the peculiar odor
and  taste of cloves, boils at 470°, is of the specific gravity 1.079, forms
soluble and crystallizable salts  with  the alkalies, earths, and oxides of
the common metals,  and is hence called Eugenic or Caryophyllic Acid.
It is composed of C24 His Oo.  The crude oil of cloves consists of carbon
20, hydrogen 12, oxygen 5.
  Oil of cloves is frequently adulterated with fixed  oils, oil of pimento,
and  copaiba.  It may be detected by observing that  the  pure oil sinks
in distilled water.  Zeller states that  its purity may be known by its
congealing into a crystalline mass with the alcoholic solution of potassa,
at the  same time being deprived of its peculiar odor.
  Properties and Uses. — Oil of Cloves is stimulant and  irritant, and is
much used as a corrector of other medicines, and as an external counter-
irritant.  It is frequently introduced on cotton into the cavity of a carious
tooth to relieve  toothache.  Its  dose is from two to six drops on sugar,
or in emulsion.
   Off. Prep.—Mistura  Cajuputi Composita; Mistura  Olei Camphorata;
Pilulae Aloes Compositae.
  Oleum Chenopodii.   Oil of Wormseed.
  History. — Oil of Wormseed is prepared in this country;  that which
is procured from manufacturers in the vicinity of Baltimore is the most
esteemed.  It is obtained by distillation of the bruised seed or ripe tops
of the  plant with water, and when first obtained  is of a light yellow color,
but becomes darker by age.   It  possesses the odor and taste of the plant,
and has the specific gravity of 0.908.   An  oil  of less strength is  pre-
pared  in  the  Western  States from the  leaves, stalks, and seed of the
matured plant, and, probably, possesses similar properties when given in
larger  doses.  That from the  seeds always commands the highest price. 
1152                        Pharmacy.
   Properties and Uses.—This oil  is used  only as  an anthelmintic.  Its
 dose is from four to eight  drops for a  child, repeated tAvice  a day for
 three or four days, and then followed by a brisk cathartic.  It forms the
 basis of several popular nostrums for worms.
   Off.  Prep.—Mistura Chenopodii Composita; Mistura Olei Composita.
   Oleum Cinnamomi.   Oil of Cinnamon.
   History.—Oil of Cinnamon  is obtained by macerating coarsely pow-
 dered  Cinnamon Bark for two days in Sea Water, adding Muriate of
 Soda, and then distilling.  About one-third of the oil which comes over
 is light and floats upon the Water, Avhile the rest  sinks, and  this sepa-
 ration of the two oils  continues for several  days.   The Water used in
 the  distillation being saturated Avith the Oil, is reserved for future distil-
 lations.   Cinnamon Bark  yields about  eight  ounces  of oil from eighty
 pounds, and even  less, if  the  bark be  a  few years old.  The two oils
 procured by the distillation, differ, apparently, only in density; and in
 the oil of commerce they are probably  united.   When freshly prepared
 Oil of Cinnamon is of a light yellow-color, which gradually changes to
 cherry-red.   It has the odor of cinnamon,  and also its taste in  a concen-
 trated state.   It is readily soluble in alcohol, and has the specific gravity
 varying from 1.035  to 1.041.  Exposed to  the air, it  absorbs oxygen,
 and  deposits colorless, sourish, volatilizable  crystals, which are soluble
 in alcohol, sparingly so in water, and which may be converted into ben-
 zoic  acid by the action of nitric acid and heat; these crystals are called
 Cinnamic or  Cinnamonic Acid, and may be frequently observed in bottles
 which have held the oil for a long time.  When taken internally, these
 crystals give rise to the presence of hippuric acid in the urine, the same
 as villi benzoic acid.  Two distinct resins  and water, are also the result
 of exposure  to atmospheric  action; one of  these  resins is  soluble in
 hot alcohol, but sparingly in cold, while the other is soluble in either.
 Concentrated nitric acid, added very gradually to oil of cinnamon to
 aAroid violent action, converts it speedily into a mass of crystalline scales,
 which are considered to be a compound of the oil and acid.   Cinnamyle
 (Cis Ht Os ) is the name given to a hypothetical compound  radical of
 oil of cinnamon, which forms oil of cinnamon by uniting with one equiv-
 alent of hydrogen,  and anhydrous cinnamic acid, Avhen united with one
equivalent of oxygen.
   Oil of Cassia, or Chinese Oil of Cinnamon, very much resembles the
 Ceylon  oil in color, odor, and taste; the latter, however, is inferior.  It
 is  sold  at a much  less  price than the  Ceylon Oil of  Cinnamon.   The
chemical reactions of the two oils are the same.  Zeller states that they
differ somewhat, the Chinese  oil being heavier than the Ceylon, less
liquid, and sooner rendered  turbid by  a decrease of temperature; that
iodine dissolves rapidly in the latter, with increase of heat, and  the pro-
duction of a tough residue  or extract, while in the  Cassia oil its solution
is quiet, slow, with  little heat, and a soft or liquid residue. 
Olea Destillatta.
1153
  Properties  and Uses.—Oil  of  Cinnamon is stimulant,  aromatic, anti-
spasmodic, and carminative.  It is frequently used to correct the taste of
medicines, and is given  as a stimulant in flatulent colic, gastrodynia, and
languor from gastric debility.  It undoubtedly exerts an influence upon
the uterus, and will be found valuable in uterine hemorrhage, in the form
of alcoholic tincture.   The tincture of the bark is frequently adminis-
tered for this purpose, but I know from experience, that although desti-
tute of astringency, yet the tincture or essence of the oil has the same,
if not a better action, in such cases; again, it  is  an unsafe remedy to
exhibit during pregnancy, as  it is very apt to produce miscarriage.  The
essence, or even cordial of cinnamon, stimulates  the generative organs,
and produces an  aphrodisiac influence.   The dose of oil of cinnamon is
one or two drops, given in emulsion ; of the essence from half a fluidrachm
to a fluidrachm, given  in a wineglass of sweetened water.  Ten drops
of oil of  cinnamon added  to  a  fluidrachm of  olive oil, gently heated,
and rubbed upon the  spine, will frequently  quiet a restless, fretful child
suffering with flatulence or colic, and cause it to sleep ; if the rubefacient
power requires to be increased, ten drops of aqua  ammonia may  be
added.
  Oleum Copaiba.   Oil of Copaiba.
  Preparation. — Take  of  Copaiba two  pounds; Water four  gallons.
Add the Copaiba to the Water in  a tinned still, and,  having adapted a
proper refrigeratory, distil three gallons.   Separate the Oil which comes
over from the Water, return the latter to the Copaiba, and again distil
three gallons.  Lastly,  separate the Oil obtained in  the  second distilla-
tion, add  to it that first  obtained, and keep the whole in a well stopped
bottle.—ET. S.
  History.—The more  recent the Copaiba  the greater is the amount of
vob'le oil obtained.  Usually about one-third or one-half of the Copaiba
is procured in oil, and it is stated that one specimen yielded 80 per cent.
The oil has  the taste and odor of copaiba, is  colorless, or pale-yellow,
according to  the  variety of copaiba employed, has the  specific gravity
of 0.910, boils at about  470°, and is very soluble in alcohol and ether.
It forms crystals of artificial camphor by absorption of muriatic acid gas,
is composed of carbon  10, hydrogen 8,  being  isomeric with pure oil of
turpentine.   It is considered a better preservative of  potassium  than
naphtha,  on account of  its entire freedom from oxygen.   It is best pre-
pared by  steam heat.  The fine greenish colored oil which comes  over
during the latter part of the distillation, may be rendered colorless by
redistillation.
  Properties  and  Uses.—The Oil of Copaiba exerts  an influence upon
the system, similar to that of copaiba, to which it is preferred on account
of the smaller dose required, and its non-tendency to cause nausea.   It
enters into many of the  nostrums of the day for  the cure of gonorrhea.
             73 
1154
Pharmacy.
 The dose is ten or fifteen drops, Avhich should be given in syrup, pep-
 permint or cinnamon water, mucilage, or emulsion.
   Oleum Cubebae.   Oil of  Cubebs.
   History. — Cubebs ground,  and distilled  with water, furnish  about
 seven per cent, of this oil.  It is a thick, colorless oil, but as commonly
 met with  has a greenish or yellowish tint.  It possesses  the peculiar
 taste and odor of the berries, is  lighter than water, being of specific
 gravity 0.929, and thickens on exposure to the air without being deprived
 of its odor;  occasionally it deposits crystals,  which are supposed to be a
 hydrate of  the oil.  It is composed of carbon and hydrogen, C15 H12.
   Properties and  Uses.—Oil of Cubebs may be substituted  for the pow-
 derd berries, in many instances, with benefit.  It is less pungent than
 the oleo-resin or fluid extract,  and is, probably, only one of the  active
 principles of cubebs.  The dose is ten or  twelve  drops, three times a
 day, gradually increased,  as the stomach will permit, or until it produces
 some decided results.  It may be given in syrup,  emulsion, or in the
 form of capsules, like copaiba.
   Oleum  Erechthiti.   Oil of Fireweed.
   History.—This oil is obtained by distilling the plant Erechthites Hiera-
 cifolius Avith water.   As obtained in the shops, it is quite  fluid,  trans-
 parent, yelloAvish  in color,  of a  strong, peculiar,  fetid  and slightly
 aromatic odor, and a fetid, bitterish,  burning  taste.  In its  odor  and
 taste it  somewhat resembles the Oil of Fleabane.  It is soluble in alco-
 hol.   No analysis  has been made of it.
   Properties and Uses.—The  therapeutical  actions  of  Oil  of Fireweed
 are not well understood.   It  seems to resemble the Oil of Fleabane in
 its influence upon various hemorrhages, and  for which agent it is fre-
 quently substituted ;  and is considered by many to be  the most  effica-
 cious, in such cases, of the two oils.  It also exerts a beneficial effect on
 mucous surfaces,  and has been successfully used in diarrhea,  dysentery,
 hemorrhoids, etc.   As an antispasmodic it has been found of value in
 spasms of the stomach and  bowels, colic, hiccough, hysteria, and per-
 tussis.   It is chiefly employed for  the same purposes as the  oil of flea-
 bane.   The dose is from  five to twenty drops on sugar,  or  in emulsion.
 When  triturated with the extract of stramonium, oil of  fireweed is said
 to form a valuable preparation  for piles.
   Oleum  Erigeroni.   Oil of Fleabane.
  History.—This is  obtained by distillation  of the Leaves  and Flowers
 of Fleabane Avith Water.  When first obtained it is  said to be of a light
yellow color, and transparent.   The specimen which I  have  before me
 is about six years old, it is quite fluid, of a wine-red color, clear, with
 a peculiar, rather pleasant, aromatic,  mint-like odor, and an aromatic,
 bitterish, not very agreeable, penetrating taste ; both the odor and taste 
Olea Destillata.
1155
recall to mind those  of oil of spearmint, combined with oil of amber.
The only change I have noticed in the oil in my possession is a deposit
of a reddish  color, resembling currant jelly, soft, tenacious, in flat or
tabular scales or crystals,  and which I have not had an opportunity of
analyzing.   This deposit  burns when brought into  contact with  flame,
giving off a dense smoke,  with an odor resembling that of cedar.   The
oil has not been analyzed.
  Properties  and Uses. — Oil of Fleabane is stimulant and carminative,
with scarcely any perceptible astringency.   It appears, notwithstanding,
to exert a very remarkable influence on the system  in hemorrhages, to
check which, it  is chiefly used.  It is said to be of superior value in all
hemorrhages,  but more especially when  from the uterus.   Further in-
vestigations with this remedy are required, in order to know its proper
therapeutical actions.  The dose is  from two to ten drops, dissolved in
alcohol, and administered  in mucilage  or sweetened water.  Combined
with five or six parts of Castor  Oil, or of Stramonium Ointment, it forms
a valuable application to piles.  (For further uses, see Erigeron Cana-
dense, part II, page 450.)
  Oleum Fceniculi.   Oil of Fennel.
  History.—Oil  of Fennel is prepared from Fennel seeds, by distillation
with water; it is colorless or pale-yellow, possesses the peculiar taste
and odor of the seeds, is crystallizable at 50°, and has a  specific gravity
of 0.997 to  0.999.   The  seeds  yield about 2.5 per cent, of volatile oil.
The oil contains Stearoptene and Eleoptene, the former of which is iden-
tical in composition  with that obtained from oil of  anise.    It consists of
carbon 13 equivalents, hydrogen 8 and oxygen 2.
  The oil employed in this country is imported, but is not very uniform
in its  character, and which is  supposed by some to be  owing to its
being the product of different plants or species.  One specimen examined
by Dr. Montgomery, remained fluid at 22°.
  Properties and Uses.—Oil of Fennel is principally used as a carmina-
tive, and for the purpose of correcting or concealing the  unpleasantness
of other medicines.   The dose is from five to twenty drops.
  Oleum  Gaultheria.   Oil of Wintergreen.
  History. — Oil of Wintergreen is prepared by distilling the plant with
water; when first procured it  is nearly colorless, but becomes more or
less of a deep-yellow or red color by age.  It has a peculiar and  agree-
able odor, and a SAveetish,  somewhat pungent, peculiar taste.  Its specific
gravity is 1.173, being the heaviest of the essential oils,  and it boils at
412°.   It possesses acid  qualities, and has, according to Cahours, the
same composition as the  salicylate of  methylene.  Its  purity may be
determined  by its unusual weight.   The  greater part of the oil used in
this country, is prepared in New Jersey. 
1156
Pharmacy.
   This oil is not peculiar to the Gaultheria alone, but has been detected
in the bark  of Betula Lenta, the root  of Polygala Paucifolia, and the
stems  and roots of Spirwa  Ulmaria,  Spiroza  Lobata,  and  Gaultheria
Hispidula.
  Properties and Uses.—This oil is stimulant and aromatic, and is princi-
pally employed to correct or disguise the taste of other medicines.  The
essence, or  the  oil dissolved in alcohol is stated to have been found
effectual in curing intermittent fever. The dose of the oil is from five to
ten or fifteen drops on sugar,  or in emulsion.
   Oleum  Hedeomoe.    Oil of Pennyroyal.
   History.—This oil is obtained from the Pennyroyal plant of this coun-
try,  by distillation with  water.   It  is of a light-yellow color, with the
agreeable odor of the  plant, and its warm, pungent taste, and has the
specific gravity 0.948.
   Properties and  Uses.—Oil of Pennyroyal is a stimulant, carminative,
antispasmodic, and emmenagogue.   It has been used  with benefit in
cramp of the  stomach, flatulent colic, nausea, amenorrhea, and  to
diminish the harshness of griping, as well as nauseating medicines.  It is
frequently employed for the purpose of occasioning abortion, but as with
all agents of this sort,  it is very dangerous.   It is  sometimes applied
externally as a mild rubefacient.   The  dose is from two to ten drops on
sugar,  or  in emulsion.
   Oleum  Juniperi.   Oil of Juniper.
  History.—Oil of Juniper is procured from the bruised berries by dis-
tillation with Avater ; it may likewise be procured from the leaves.  It is
nearly colorless, or pale greenish-yellow, lighter than water, being of
the specific gravity 0.911, has a turpentine odor, a warm, pungent taste,
and  is not  perfectly soluble in alcohol.   The  oil is imported into this
couptry from Europe, and is, probably, a mixture of that from the berries
and  leaves.   Like pure  oil  of Turpentine it consists of  ten equivalents
of carbon, and eight of hydrogen ; but does not become solid with muri-
atic acid.   The fraudulent addition of oil of turpentine, which frequently
occurs, may be knoAvn by the specific gravity of the mixture being much
less  than  that of the pure oil of Juniper.
   Properties and  Uses. — Oil of Juniper is stimulant, carminative, and
diuretic, and is frequently employed  to arrest chronic mucous discharges,
especially from the urethra.   It may also be used in cases of dropsy as
a diuretic, combined with other agents.   The dose is from five to fifteen
or twenty drops.   The  peculiar flavor and diuretic property of Holland
gin is owing to the presence of this oil.
   Off. Prep.—Pilulae  Saponi Compositae.
   Oleum  Juniperi Virginiana.   Oil of Cedar.
   History.—This oil is prepared by  distillation of the tops and leaves of
Red Cedar with Water.   It is quite fluid, transparent, of a light yellow- 
Olea Destillata.
1157
ish or reddish color, but becoming of a wine-red color by age, possesses
the peculiar odor, with the nauseous, bitterish, warm taste peculiar to
the leaves,  in a concentrated degree.  Upon  standing,  but very little
deposit ensues ; in a specimen before me of sixteen years' standing, and
about a  pint in quantity, can be observed a very slight  deposit of con-
fluent whitish granules or scales, somewhat resembling white wax.
   Properties and  Uses.—Internally this oil is stimulant and emmena-
gogue, possessing properties similar to those of the oil of savin; however,
it is very seldom administered internally.  It is chiefly used as a rube-
facient, and forms  an excellent local application in inflammatory rheu-
matism and other painful affections, either alone or combined Avith other
articles  to  form a  liniment.   The  dose, internally, is from two to  ten
drops, on sugar.
   Off. Prep.—Linimentum Olei.
   Oleum Lavandula.   Oil of Lavender.
   History.—Oil of  Lavender is procured from the flowers of Lavender,
by distillation with Water;  the commercial oil  is  generally prepared
from the flowers and flower-stems.   The dried flowers yield from 1 to 1.5
per cent, of oil.  Oil of lavender is  of a pale-yellow color, a pure, grate-
ful, lavender odor, and a bitter,  aromatic,  camphoraceous taste.  Its
specific  gravity varies from  0.893 to  0.948.  Berzelius  states  that  at
68° F., the  commercial oil has the specific gravity 0.898, which, upon
rectification, is  reduced to 0.877.   The oil prepared by distilling the
whole herb, has the  sp. gr. 0.920.  It is soluble  in all proportions in
alcohol of 0.830, in two parts of proof spirit, and  incompletely in acetic
acid.  Upon exposure  to the air,  it absorbs oxygen to the amount of
about 120 volumes in four months  and a half.  It consists of a  fluid oil
or Eleoptene, and a solid substance  or Stearoptene,  the latter of which is
isomeric with laurel-camphor.
   The broad lea\Ted variety of lavender, Lavandula Spica, furnishes the
Oil of Spike, it is not so fragrant as the preceding oil, and bears some
analogy  to oil of turpentine.  It is chiefly used  in the  preparation of
varnishes for artists.
   Properties and Uses.—Oil of Lavender  possesses  stimulant and car-
minative  properties, and is sometimes administered in hysteria,  nervous
debility and headache.   Its fragrance  renders it an important article in
perfumery, in which it is principally used.   The dose of it is from one
to five drops.
   Off.  Prep.—Tinctura Lavandulae Composita.
   Oleum Limonis.   Oil of Lemons.
  History.—Oil of Lemon is obtained by lightly grating the fresh rind of
the lemon, placing it in a fine cloth-bag, and then submitting it to pressure ;
the sediment is allowed to settle, and the clear oil is poured off.   It may 
1158
Pharmacy.
also be procured by distillation,, but being, when thus made, less fragrant,
the method by expression  is preferred.   The  oil  is imported from the
southern parts of Europe,  as Italy, Portugal, etc.
   It is of a pale-yellow color, but may be rendered colorless by distilla-
tion, has a rich lemon odor, a warm, aromatic,  penetrating taste, and is
very volatile.   Its specific gravity is 0.8517,  but is reduced to 0.847, by
distillation of about three-fifths of it.  In pure or anhydrous alcohol it
dissolves in all proportions, and is soluble  in  seven or eight parts of
ordinary alcohol.  The pure oil is isomeric with pure oil  of turpentine,
consisting  of  ten  equivalents of carbon, and  eight of hydrogen,  and
forms by absorption of  muriatic acid gas a sblid substance of a crystal-
line character, and an oily fuming liquid  of  a  yellow color.   The  solid
substance is composed of one equivalent of oil, and one of acid, and is
analogous to the artificial camphor formed from  oil of turpentine, the
latter of which has the formula  C20 Hi6,  HC1, while that from the
lemons is C20  H8, HC1.  When cooled to 8°  F.,  oil of lemon  deposits
some crystals, and when exposed to the air it absorbs oxygen.
   It is  frequently adulterated by alcohol, the fixed oils, or more fre-
quently by oil of turpentine.  Alcohol may  be detected by  the milky
fluid which forms upon agitating the oil with water.  The fixed oils may
be  known  by leaving a permanent stain upon  paper, which is not the
case with the  genuine  oil.  Oil of turpentine  may  be  detected by the
turpentine odor evolved when the impure oil is evaporated from  heated
paper.   M. Biott states that the camphor formed by the  oil of lemons
exercises no action on  polarized light, while the oil itself rotates a ray
to the right.   On the contrary, the camphor from oil of turpentine exer-
cises a power similar to that possessed by the isolated oil, of rotating to
the left.  These molecular properties establish  a difference between the
two oils, and may serve to detect adulteration and fraud.
  In order to remove mucilaginous and other matters existing in the oil
of lemons, it  is recommended by J. S. Cobb,  to agitate  the  oil with a
little boiling water, and  to allow the Avater to  remain in the bottle. A
mucilaginous mixture forms on the top of the water,  and acquires a cer-
tain tenacity, so that the oil may be poured off nearly to the last, without
disturbing the deposit.   The gradual decomposition  of  the oil, he  sup-
poses to be owing to the presence of these impurities, which enter during
the process  of expression  and decantation.  He recommends that  the
oil, as  well as all other essential oils, should  be kept in a cool, dark
place, where no very great changes of temperature occur.
  Properties and Uses.—Stimulant and aromatic.   Its chief use is in per-
fumery, and to impart  a  pleasant flavor to medicines.   It  has  been
recommended in certain cases of ophthalmia, as a local application.  A
very agreeable drink for the  summer and  for febrile patients may be
made of White  Sugar  four ounces, Oil of Lemon ten drops, triturate
together, and add Citric Acid tAvo drachms;  a  teaspoonful of this  to a 
Olea Destillata.
1159
tumbler of water forms a  pleasant, refreshing draught.  Tartaric  acid
may be substituted for the  citric, if desired.
   Oleum Mentha Piperita.    Oil of Peppermint.
   History. — Oil  of Peppermint is obtained by distilling the herb  with
water; which yields from the 170th to the 300th part of the oil.  When
fresh it is nearly colorless,  or pale greenish-yellow, but becomes darker
and even  reddish by age.   It has the strong aromatic odor of the plant,
together with its warm, pungent,  camphorous taste, is of the specific
gravity from 0.902 to 0.920, and is soluble in alcohol.  When taken into
the mouth and air admitted, a sense of coolness is  produced.  At 365°
it boils, and at—8° it deposits  fine needle-like crystals of Stearoptene,
which is said to have the same composition as the oil; these crystals are
also  deposited at ordinary temperatures, on long standing.   The compo-
sition of  the  oil is C21 H23  O2.   Its adulterations with alcohol and oil of
turpentine are not  infrequent; the latter may be detected by its imper-
fect  solubility in  cold alcohol, its odor,  and  its disposition  to explode
when iodine  is added; the former may be known by the  dirty-Avhite
liquor  formed by adding  an equal volume of water to it.   The  oil is
extensively manufactured in this country.
   Properties  and Uses. —  Oil of Peppermint is a powerful diffusible
stimulant, with carminative, antispasmodic, and anti-emetic properties.
It is  much employed to relieve flatulence, gastrodynia, nausea, spasms
of the  stomach  and  bowels,  and  to  cover  the  taste  of other drugs.
Externally, it is occasionally employed as a  rubefacient.   It  enters into
a liniment, which at one time was a popular  remedy for various painful
local affections; it is composed as follows: Take of Oil of Olives, Oil of
Peppermint,  Oil  of  Turpentine, Tincture  of Opium,  Alcohol, Aqua
Ammonia, each,  one fluidounce; mix.   To be applied  three  or  four
times a day.   It is  commonly used under the name of Essence of Pep-
permint, which is a tincture of  it.  The  dose of the oil  is  five or ten
drops on sugar.
   Off. Prep.—Aqua Menthae  Piperita?; Mistura  Cajuputi  Composita;
Tinctura Olei Menthae Piperitae.
   Oleum Mentha Viridis.   Oil of Spearmint.
   History. — By  distillation of  Spearmint herb with  water, from  the
170th to the  300th  part of  a pale-yellow or greenish oil is obtained.   It
becomes red  with age, has the peculiar odor and taste of the herb  in a
strono-  degree, is less agreeable than oil of peppermint, is soluble in
alcohol, boils at 320°, and  is of  the specific gravity varying from 0.914
to 0.975.   According to Kane its composition is represented by the for-
mula C35 H28 O.  It is extensively prepared in this country.
   Properties and  Uses.—Oil of Spearmint is carminative, antispasmodic,
and  diuretic.  It is used very frequently as a substitute for the oil of 
1160
Pharmacy.
peppermint, and is more often prescribed on account of its diuretic pro-
perties.  The dose of the oil is five or ten drops on sugar.
   Off. Prep.—Aqua Menthae Viridis; Pilulae Saponi Compositae; Pil-
ulae  Taraxaci  Compositae;  Tinctura Olei Menthae Viridis.
   Oleum Monarda.   Oil of Horsemint.
   History.—Oil of Horsemint is extensively  manufactured  in this country
from the fresh herb, by distillation with water.  It is of a reddish-yellow,
or brownish color, of a strong, aromatic odor, a hot, pungent, even acrid
taste, and is soluble in alcohol.   It is composed of a yellowish-red fluid,
Eleoptene, which has the odor of thyme, and passes over,  when distilled
with water, of a bright-yellow color—and  of Stearoptene, which  forms
in large crystalline fragments, having the odor and taste of the  oil, and
for which the  name of Monardin  has been  proposed.  The oil  has not
been accurately analyzed.
   Properties  and  Uses.—Oil of Horsemint  is stimulant,  antispasmodic,
and  anti-emetic, and in the form of the essence, has been much used to
allay nausea  and  vomiting in Asiatic cholera, cholera-morbus, etc.,  its
action in these cases being prompt and permanent.   The  dose of the  oil
is from two to five drops on sugar;  of  the essence, from ten to thirty
drops in sweetened water.  Externally, it is rubefacient and even vesi-
cant, and has  been advantageously used in low forms of fever, cholera-
infantum, paralysis, rheumatic and neuralgic pains, etc.  It soon causes
heat, redness,  and pain when locally applied, affording in many instances
almost immediate relief.
   Oleum Origani.  Oil of Origanum.
   History.—This oil is obtained from the  Origanum Vulgare, by distilla-
tion  of the plant with water;  about from four to six parts  of oil are pro-
cured from a thousand parts of the plant.  It is of a yellow color, Avhich
becomes reddish by age; too much heat during the distillation will also
give  it a reddish color.   Its odor is the  same as that of the plant, and
its taste hot and  acrid; it boils  at 354°, is  soluble in alcohol, has its
specific  gravity varying according to  several chemists, being  given  as
0.867, 0.909, and 0.940, and its composition  is represented by Cso Hto 0.
It is  imported  from Europe, and is commonly adulterated with oil of tur-
pentine.  Much of the oil of  origanum  sold in this country is said to be
the oil of thyme,  which is prepared from  the Thymus Vulgaris in the
South of France.
   The Oil of Sweet Marjoram obtained from the Origanum Majorana by
distillation, in  the proportion of from two and a half  to six parts from  a
thousand of  the plant, is of a lemon-yellow color, light and camphora-
ceous, and forms a deposit similar to camphor.  It is seldom employed
in the United States.
   Properties and Uses.—Oil of  Origanum is stimulant and rubefacient,
and  is chiefly employed  in the form of liniment  as  an  application  to 
Olea Destillata.
1161
 various parts suffering from painful affections. As with many other essen-
 tial  oils, it affords relief in toothache upon being introduced into  the
 cavity of the carious tooth, on lint or cotton.   It is  very seldom adminis-
 tered internally.
   Off.  Prep. — Linimentum  Capsici  Compositum;  Linimentum Olei
 Compositum ; Linimentum Saponis Camphoratum ; Tinctura Camphorae
 Composita.
   Oleum  Pimenta.   Oil of Pimento.
   History.—When Pimento Berries are bruised and distilled with water,
 they yield  from one to nearly five per  cent, of an oil, having the odor of
 the berries, and a hot, pungent  taste.  When  recent  it is colorless or
 yellowish,  but becomes brownish-red by age.  Its specific gravity is
 given as 1.021, but it is variable.  Nitric Acid  added to it, turns it red.
 Like the Oil of Cloves, it unites with  salifiable  bases, and  also  consists
 of a light oil and  a heavy oil.  When distilled with a solution of caustic
 potassa, the light  oil comes over, and  the heavy, which remains behind
 in combination with the potassa, may be obtained separately by distilling
 it with  Sulphuric  Acid.  The  light oil  is a pure carbohydrogen ;  the
 heavy forms crystalline bodies with the alkalies ;  these oils are nearly
 similar to the light and heavy oils of cloves.
  Properties and Uses.—Oil of Pimento  is stimulant and aromatic, and
 may be used for similar purposes as other oils of like character, in doses
 of from three to six drops.
   Off. Prep.—Aqua Pimentae.
  Oleum  Rosa.   Oil, or  Otto of Roses.
  History.—Oil of Roses is prepared in Egypt, Persia, and other Asiatic
 countries, by distilling the petals of Rosa Centifolia, Rosa  Damascena,
 Rosa Moschata, and some other species, with Water.   It is obtained  in
 very small quantity,  not exceeding three drachms of the oil  from a
hundred pounds of the petals.  It is a very high priced oil, and  is gen-
 erally imported in  small vials or bottles.   The  manufacturing season is
in March and April.
  It is also said to be obtained by bruising the petals in a mill, express-
ing, filtering the expressed fluid, then placing it in small glass vessels,
 and exposing it to  the sun ;  as the oil  gradually rises to the surface, it is
removed.   Notwithstanding the Oil of Roses is  prepared  in the Eastern
kingdoms,  it has not been obtained to  any degree in Europe or America.
  Oil of Roses is  at first  of  a  greenish  tint, but subsequently presents
various shades of  green, yellow,  or red ; but the color is  no criterion  of
its quality.   It has an agreeable, intense, most penetrating and diffusive
odor, concretes below 80°, becomes liquid  at or  above 84°,  and has the
 specific  Gravity, at 90°, of 0.832.   It dissolves in about 150 parts  of
alcohol.  It consists of carbon 23, hydrogen 23, and oxygen 3.  Two
oils enter  into  its composition, a  Fluid  Oil, Eleoptene, consisting  of 
1162
Pharmacy.
carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and a Concrete Oil, Stearoptene, consisting
only of carbon and hydrogen.   By pressing the Oil of Roses between
folds of blotting paper, the Eleoptene is absorbed, while the Stearoptene
remains.
  Owing to its  high  price, Oil of Roses is very subject  to  adulteration
with the  Oil  of  Sandal Wood, other volatile  oils, fixed oils, spermaceti,
etc.  In  those specimens  adulterated with volatile  oils,  they may be
known by not concreting at ordinary  temperatures ;  and those to which
fixed oils are added, leave a greasy stain on heated blotting paper.
  Properties  and Uses.—Oil of Roses is used altogether  as a perfume,
and is  frequentl}" added to  cerates,  ointments, liquors, etc., for the pur-
pose of rendering them fragrant.
   Off. Prep.—Aquae Rosae.
  Oleum Rosmarini.   Oil of Rosemary.
  History. — When the  fresh Leaves of Rosemary are  distilled with
Water, they yield from a half to one per cent, of Oil, which is colorless,
of specific gravity 0.911, soluble in Alcohol of 0.830, and possesses the
odor of the Plant.  Its  boiling point is stated by Kane, to be 365°, its
specific gravity 0.897, and  its combination C45 H38 O2.   When rectified
its sp.  gr. is reduced  to  0.8886 ; and at 64° it requires forty parts of
Alcohol 0.887 for solution.  Exposed to the air  a portion of it evapo-
rates,  and a  Stearoptene,  somewhat analogous to  Camphor,  is left,
amounting to about a sixteenth of the original weight of the Oil.  It  is
stated  that by digesting  the  Oil Avith its weight, or  one-half  its weight
of Potassa, and distilling, Camphor will be obtained.   Oil of Rosemary
is frequently  adulterated with Oil  of  Turpentine; the  adulteration may
be detected by adding to the suspected Oil an equal volume of Alcohol,
which  dissolves the Oil of  Rosemary, but leaves the  Oil of  Turpentine.
  Properties  and Uses.—Oil of Rosemary is stimulant and rubefacient;
it is principally employed, however, in perfumery.  A  very pleasant
Cologne may  be made as follows : Take  of Oil of Rosemary,  Oil of
Lemon, each, two fluidrachms ;  Oil of Lavender, Oil of Bergamot, of
each, one fluidrachm  ; Oil of Cinnamon, Oil of Cloves,  Oil  of  Roses,
of each,  eight minims;  Alcohol  one  pint.   Mix, agitate well, and after
allowing  the mixture to stand for a  few days, with  frequent agitation,
filter.  The dose of Oil of  Rosemary is from three to six drops.
   Off. Prep.—Linimentum Opii; Linimentum Saponis Camphoratum.
  Oleum Ruta.   Oil of Rue.
  History.—The fresh  Leaves and  Tops  of Rue, when  Distilled with
Water, yield about seven grains  in the thousand of a yellowish, acrid,
heavy-smelling Volatile Oil,  having the pure, intense,  penetrating odor
of the  Plant, of specific  gravity 0.837, and boiling at 446°.  It becomes
gradually brown with age.   Its composition is given as C28 H23 O3. 
Olea Destillata.
1163
   Properties and Uses.—Oil of Rue is stimulant, antispasmodic, and em-
 menagogue.  It has been used with advantage in hysteria, convulsions,
 pertussis, amenorrhea,  and dysmenorrhea, in the dose of from tAvo to
 five drops, three times a day.  It is sometimes criminally used  for the
 purpose of producing abortion, in which it is highly dangerous, having
 been folloAved by fatal consequences.
   Oleum Sabina.   Oil of Savin.
   History.—When the  Tops and Leaves of Savin are submitted to  dis-
 tillation with Water, they yield a  yelloAvish, clear Oil, having in an
 intense degree the peculiar odor of the Leaves, and  a bitter, acrid taste.
 The proportions of Oil  obtained, as given by authors,  vary very much,
 being stated  at from  one  to  sixteen per cent.   Its specific gravity is
 stated to be 0.915,  and  its boiling point 315.  It is  isomeric with Oil of
 Turpentine, being a pure hydro-carbon, composed of ten equivalents of
 Carbon, and eight of Hydrogen.  Sulphuric Acid added to it, will, it is
 asserted, convert it into an Oil very analogous to Oil of Thyme.
   Properties and Uses.—Oil of Savin is stimulant, emmenagogue,  and
 rubefacient ; and may be administered in all cases as a substitute for the
 plant.  It  has  been  found  especially  valuable  in  amenorrhea.   Ten
 drops of the oil on  sugar, repeated three times a day,  will, it is stated,
 positively produce abortion in from one to three weeks  ; but as with all
 other agents of  this kind, it is apt to be followed by very serious conse-
 quences.  The dose of  the  Oil, ordinarily, is from two  to five drops.
   Off. Prep.—Tinctura Caulophylli Composita.
   Oleum Sassafras.   Oil of  Sassafras.
   History.—The Bark of the Root of Sassafras, when submitted to  dis-
 tillation with Water, yields from two to three per cent,  of a heaA'y Vola-
 atile Oil, having the specific gravity 1.094.  When  first procured  it is
 colorless or pale-yellow but gradually acquires a reddish tint.   It  has
 the peculiar and agreeable  fragrance of Sassafras, and a hot, penetrating,
 aromatic taste.  It is said to be composed  of two  Oils, one of which
 sinks in Water, while the other floats;  but according to  Berzelius, the
 latter is frequently  nothing more  than Oil of Turpentine, which has been
 added as an  adulteration.    Sassafras  Oil  becomes  reddened by Nitric
 Acid, and most readily  inflames when fuming Nitric  Acid is added to it;
 Caoutchouc placed  in it, is dissolved after a short time.   Exposed to the
 air without agitation it  deposits crystals of Stearoptene, which  possess
 the odor of Sassafras, and are transparent.
   Properties and Uses.—Sassafras  Oil  is stimulant, diuretic, carmina-
 tive, alterative, and diaphoretic.  It may be used for all the purposes
for Avhich the bark is recommended.   It is said to be an  efficacious appli-
cation to wens.  It is  much used as a  local application to rheumatic
and  other pains.  The  dose is from two  to ten drops on sugar, or in
emulsion. 
1164
Pharmacy.
   Off. Prep.—Emplastrum Resinae Compositum ;  Linimentum Cajuputi
Compositum ;  Linimentum  Olei; Pilulae  Saponi Compositae ;  Tinctura
Camphorae Composita.
   Oleum Succini Rectificatum.   Rectified Oil of Amber
   Preparation.—Take of Oil  of Amber a pint; Water six 2>ints.  Mix
them in a glass retort, and distil until four pints of the Water shall have
passed with the Oil into the receiver ; then separate  the Oil from  the
Water, and keep it in well stopped bottles.— U. S.
   History.—The  Oil  of Amber, thus rectified, is sufficiently  pure for
practical purposes, yet it may be procured thinner, more limpid, and col-
orless by several successive distillations.  As ordinarily found, it is of an
amber, or light yelloAvish-brown color, with a peculiar, powerful, disa-
greeable odor, and a warm, acrid taste.   It is soluble in eight  parts of
alcohol of sp.  gr. 0.847 at 55°, in five parts of the sp. gr. 0.825, and in
all proportions in absolute alcohol.  It unites with  fixed oils, and imparts
its taste  and  odor to water, without any apparent solution.  The pure
oil has the specific gravity 0.758 at 75°, and boils at 186°.  Exposed to
the light and air,  it gradually changes its color and consistence, until it
finally becomes black and solid.  One hundred parts of it contain  88.46
parts of carbon, and 11.54 of hydrogen.
   The crude Oil of Amber is prepared as folloAvs :  Put  any quantity of
Powdered Amber, previously mixed with an equal weight of Sand, into
a glass retort,  which is to be only half filled; then distil, by means of a
sand-bath, with a gradually increasing heat, an acid liquor, an  oil, and
a concrete  acid impregnated with oil.  Separate the oil from the  other
matters,  and keep it in well-stopped bottles.— U S.
   In this process, the amber  becomes decomposed,  and yields, beside
other matters, thick,  very dark-colored, empyreumatic oil, which  floats
upon the surface of an acid liquor in the receiver.  The addition of the
sand is to prevent the amber from  SAvelling too much.   The oil may be
separated from the acid liquor by means of  a separating funnel.  When
the object is to decompose all the amber for the purpose of procuring as
much oil as it  will yield, the process of distillation should be carried on
in a  tubulated iron, or earthenware retort, as one of glass cannot support
the requisite heat.
   Properties and Uses.—Rectified Oil of Amber is the  only form in which
the oil of amber should be employed  for internal use.  It is stimulant,
diuretic,  and  antispasmodic ;  and has been employed  with benefit in
amenorrhea, hysteria, dysmenorrhea, tetanus, epilepsy, pertussis, infan-
tile convulsions, and  various other  spasmodic affections.  The dose is
from five to thirty drops  on sugar, repeated as often as required.   Ap-
plied externally it is a rubefacient, and has been efficaciously used as a
liniment  in  palsy, chronic rheumatism, pertussis, and infantile  convul-
sions ; in the latter affection it should be rubbed along the spine, either 
Pilula.
1165
alone, or combined with  an equal part of laudanum and  three or four
parts of  olive oil.  Roche's Embrocation, for pertussis and  some other
spas'modic affections, is composed of oil of olive, oil of cloves each, one
fluidounce, oil of  amber, half a fluidounce.  Mix.
   Off.  Prep.—Linimentum Succini Compositum.
  Oleum Tanaceti.    Oil of Tansy.
  History.—Oil of Tansy is prepared by  distilling the Herb with Water.
It is of a greenish-yellow color, with the flavor of the plant, and deposits
camphor upon standing.
  Properties and Uses. — Oil of Tansy possesses the properties of the
plant, but is seldom employed internally on account of its bitterness.   It
has been employed  to produce abortion, but almost always with fatal
results.   Dose of the oil, from two to five drops.
  Oleum Valeriana.   Oil of Valerian.
  History.—When the root of Valeriana Officinalis is distilled with Water,
it yields rather more than  one  per cent,  of a pale-greenish volatile oil,
of the specific gravity 0.934, possessing a powerful, penetrating valerian
odor, and a  warm, aromatic taste ;  and which becomes viscid and yellow,
when exposed to the  air.   It  is  a compound substance of a peculiar
nature, containing a carbohydrogen, equivalent in composition with pure
oil of turpentine,  a minute quantity of stearoptene, possessing an odor
resembling that of pepper and camphor, an oxygenated oil called Valerol,
( C20 H12 O ) which is changed into valeric or valerianic acid by the action
of the  air, and a  small proportion of valerianic acid, which, however, is
increased by exposure to the atmosphere.
  Properties and Uses.—Oil of Valerian possesses the properties of the
root in a concentrated degree, and may be substituted for it, in all cases
where the root is applicable.  It has been found especially useful in hys-
teria, chorea, restlessness, etc.   An efficacious preparation for nervous,
sleepless and hysterical cases is  composed of: Tincture of Lupulin,
Tincture of Hyoscyamus, of  each,  four fluidounces;  Camphor, one
drachm ; and Oil of Valerian, twenty-two minims.  Mix, and give one
or two fluidrachms for a dose.  The dose of the oil of valerian is four  or
five drops.
                             PILULE.
                               Pills.
  Pills  are  a very  convenient mode  of administering medicines which
are in  any way unpleasant, which are insoluble  in water, or which do
not require to be  given in large  doses.   There is, probably,  no form in
which medicines are more frequently administered, than that of the Pill;
and to make a good Pill-mass requires considerable knowledge, tact, and
judo-ment on the part of the operator.  The points demanded to prepare 
1166
Pharmacy.
 a proper pill mass, are to obtain sufficient consistency, that the particles
 may cohere together, and  to  have them firm enough to retain the glob-
 ular form; their component parts should be such as to prevent any ten-
 dency to moldiness, or  any absorption of moisture when exposed to the
 atmosphere.   Medicines which  are deliquescent,  should  not be made
 into pills, and efflorescent substances should  first  be deprived of their
 water of crystallization.  Neither should ingredients be added together
 which exert a mutual reaction upon each other ;  though this is frequently
 done, perhaps, to secure th% influence of the resulting formation.
   Many articles admit  of being made into pills at once, having sufficient
 consistence for that purpose, as with soft extracts, and some gum-resins ;
 or, the addition of a little water to the former, or a few drops of  alcohol
 to the latter,  will impart to them the necessary degree of softness and
 plasticity, should they require it.  Substances which do  not admit of
 being made into a pill mass by themselves, must have certain inert mat-
 ters added to them, called excipients; and such excipients  only should
 be employed as will give the  proper degree of consistence and tenacity
 to the mass, Avithout interfering in any way with the action of its medi-
 cinal agents,  or rendering the pills too large  or hard.   Excipients vary
 very much in their character,  according to  the nature of the articles to
 be made into pill form ; the most common are, syrup, mucilage, soap,
 bread-crumb, conserve of roses, water,  spirit,  gum, sugar, magnesia,
 starch, molasses, etc.   The dry, inert poAvders  of  starch,  bread-crumb,
 flour, gum arabic, etc., are incorporated  with soft or liquid  substances as
 extracts, confections, soap, oils,  syrup,  molasses, honey, mucilage, etc.
 The softer articles are  combined with hard, dry, or  not readily  soluble
 agents ;  and  among these molasses, and conserve of roses are the  most
 esteemed, especially when the  pills are to be kept for any length of time.
 The addition of too much gum arabic, or tragacanth to the pill mass, is
 objectionable, as it often causes the pill to become so hard  as to have its
 operation materially modified,  or perhaps, causing it to pass through the
 intestines without being dissolved.  Whenever the excipient is  named
 by the physician in his prescription, the apothecary should adopt it if
 practicable; but, if it  be not  practicable, then  he must follow his own
 judgment.   Indeed, it  would always be better  in prescribing  extempo-
 raneous preparations of pills, if the physician would omit  the excipient,
 and leave it to the more practical knowledge of the apothecary to supply.
   The best excipients for  dry powders, as jalap, rhubarb, ipecacuanha,
 ginger, digitalis,  conium, etc,  are molasses or conserve of roses; those
 for resinous extracts, resins, and gum-resins, are soap, proof-spirit, alka-
 line solutions, and sometimes mucilage ; and  those for the volatile oils
 and  oleo-resins,  are soap, magnesia, white wax, etc.  The proper selec-
tion of these,  however, depends entirely  upon the peculiar  nature of the
medicines ordered, and  requires a considerable degree of  practical
knowledge, not expected to be  possessed by the  practicing physician. 
Pilula.
1167
   The  medicinal ingredients of the pill  should be  accurately mixed
 together, and then the excipient, in most cases, must be added, and the
 whole beat in a mortar, till a mass  of perfect uniformity and plasticity is
 formed; care being taken that the pills are not made so hard as to resist
 the solvent power of the fluids of the stomach.   The mass, havino- been
 properly prepared, is rolled  into cylinders of precisely the same thick-
 ness throughout, and of a length depending upon the number of pills to
 be made, and is then divided, as equally as possible,  into the requisite
 quantity of pills.   This  is sometimes  done by means of a spatula, the
 spherical form being  given by rolling the pills between the fingers ;  but
 most apothecaries are furnished with  pill-machines, which  serve to
 expedite the process,  as well as  to secure a greater  degree of accuracy.
 A new pill-machine has been lately patented by a  Mr. Lewis, which is
 said to be superior to any other  yet used.  " It consists of two metallic
 cylinders or  rollers, having on  their surface  a series of hemispherical
 indentations  or cups,  corresponding in shape  and size to half a pill, so
 that when  the rollers  are brought into  contact side by  side, and  a rotary
 motion  given them, the hemispheres in each fall immediately and accu-
 rately opposite each other, forming a series of spherical molds, in which,
 during the process, the pills are  cast.   The arrangement for working the
 rollers  consists  of tAvo  uprights, in and between which they are fixed
 side by side so as to revolve on their axles.  Motion  is  communicated by
 means of a handle attached to a  small pinion, fitting a  cog-wheel at  the
 side of one of the rollers, at the other side of which is another cog-wheel
 fitting a corresponding one on  the other roller; these being accurately
 adjusted cause each other to revolve  with equal speed so as always to
 bring the hemispheres opposite each other.  The pill mass is introduced,
 by means of a small hopper, between the two rollers while in motion,
 and  as  from their being in  close  contact it cannot pass through, it is
 pressed into the hemispheres,  and the  pills are  thus formed, which  are
 collected from the outer sides of the rollers as they  continue to revolve.
 Thus far the simple plan of making or casting pills by means of a rotatory
 machine, with minor  modifications, has  been before attempted, but as
 frequently  abandoned from the pills remaining firmly imbedded in  the
 hemispheres of one or other of the rollers, and  the  want of contrivance
 to deliver  them freely, without the necessity for detaching them with
 the hand.   That difficulty, in the present machine, is entirely overcome,
 and  this achieArement is its principal  claim to originality and practical
 utility.   The arrangement by which  this long-sought  desideratum is
 accomplished, consists of a movable bolt or pin at  the bottom of each
 hemisphere, which, acted upon by springs at the interior of the rollers,
forces out  the  pills,  and detaches  them effectually from  the mold  in
which they have  been cast.   The only point of adhesion is now the end
of the pin, from Avhich they generally fall by their OAvn  inert gravity; but
to prevent the possibility of their being drawn back again into the hemi- 
1168
Pharmacy.
spheres by the return of the pins to their original position, they are gently
lifted off by being carried between  the teeth of a sort of rake pressing
against the outside of the  rollers.  Some of the pills thus formed have a
slight rim round them, giving them  the appearance of a seed or berry,
but in every other respect they are perfect; they may, therefore, be left
in their  original state, or subjected to  the usual process of mulling.
From this machine,  which had  only two bands or tiers  of hemispheres
round the  rollers, about  150 pills might be  turned out in a minute, or
9000 in an hour, working it very slowly.   There would be no difficulty
in doubling the speed of working, and the rapidity of  making might be
multiplied by increasing the  number of molds or  hemispheres on  the
rollers."  Several years ago, I saw a pattern machine  upon a somewhat
similar principle, but much more simple and perfect in its  arrangement
and action, the  invention of Mr. Semple of this city, which would  turn
out about six hundred  pills in a minute; and it is to be regretted that he
has been so much occupied since, as to lay aside his valuable invention.
   In order to prevent the pills from adhering to each other, or to  the
sides of the vessels in which they are kept, it is usual to  agitate  them in
some dry powder, Avhich gives them an external  covering, as well as
conceals their taste.   For this purpose, powdered  elm bark, powdered
liquorice root, carbonate of magnesia,  and starch are employed; starch
is almost too light, carbonate of magnesia may be incompatible with  one
or more of the  ingredients of the pills, and  the liquorice root, or elm
bark, Avill, as a general rule,  be found the best.  In Europe the powder
of Lycopodium is much employed; and in former times it was customary
to coat the pills  with silver or gold leaf.
   It has recently been proposed by  M. Garotto cover  pills with gelatin,
which answers the purpose of concealing their taste, without interfering
with their solubility in  the stomach.   He dips each pill, sustained on the
point of  a  pin, into  melted gelatin,  withdraws it with a rotary motion,
then fixes the pin in a  paste so as to allow the coating to dry in the air,
and having prepared about fifty pills in  this way, proceeds to complete
the operation by holding the  pin in the flame of a taper so as to melt the
gelatin near its point, and  then withdraAving it from the pill  so as to close
up the orifice.   The purest  glue should  be  selected  for  this purpose,
melted Avith the addition of tAvo or three drachms of water to an ounce
of the glue, and kept in the liquid state by means of  a salt-bath.   A
coating of collodion  has also been recommended,  but this is improper,
as the collodion  will  not readily dissolve in the stomach; also a mixture
of equal parts of gum-arabic, sugar and starch, in poAvder; the  pills to
be dipped in  a thin syrup, and then rolled  in the mixture.
   This process  is most applicable  to disagreeably odorous substances,
as castor, assafetida, valerian, etc., which  are  completely masked by it.
When the gelatin is previously colored with carmine,  the pills resemble
hawthorn berries. 
Pilula.
1169
  M. Calloud treats of the subject  of enveloping medicinal substances
in a  covering to  prevent  unpleasant  taste, in Journal de Pharmacie
XXIII, 301.   After having tried gum, starch  and sugar without satis-
faction, owing to the hygroscopic  tendency of the sugar and gum in
moist air or with a moist  mass, and their  tendency to crack when very
dry, he had  recourse to the  dried mucilage of flaxseed prepared with
sugar, with success.  His method is,—take of  flaxseed one part, white
sugar three parts, spring-water a sufficient quantity.  A thick  mucilage
is obtained by carefully  boiling the seeds, the  sugar is added, and the
whole of the  moisture evaporated by careful desiccation.   This mixture
is but very slightly hygroscopic, may be reduced  to fine powder, and
employed for covering pills.  This operation is effected extemporaneously
with great  facility.   The pills  slightly moistened, are rolled in the muci-
laginous powder, by which they are coated with  a layer of the compound.
He  has used  this chiefly for carbonate of iron pills, but it maybe applied
to other kinds.
  M. Calloud suggests another process applicable in certain cases, which
is the use  of butter of  cacao as a covering for pills, where  owing to
gastric irritation, the unmasked pills will cause  disagreeable symptoms.
The process  is very simple ; the prepared pills are thrown  into melted
butter of cacao, then removed with a perforated  skimmer, and finally
rolled in finely powdered sugar, or what is better, sugar of milk.
  Pills are much  better preserved in small glass  bottles, than in the
common wood or pasteboard boxes.
  Pilula  Aconiti Composita.  Compound Pills of Aconite.
  Preparation.—Take of Extract of Aconite half a, drachm ; Extract of
Stramonium  four  grains;  Valerianate  of  Quinia one  scruple.   Mix
thoroughly together, form a pill mass, and divide into sixty pills.
  Properties  and Uses.—These pills are  very efficacious  in  febrile  and
inflammatory complaints,  where nervous irritability, restlessness, or
wakefulness  is present,  also  in nervous  headache, and  other nervous
affections.  The dose is one pill every two, three, or four hours  accord-
ing to the urgency of the symptoms, and the effect caused by the use of
the pills.—J. K.
  Pilula  Aloes  Composita.  Compound Pills of Aloes.  Anti-Dys-
peptic Pills.
  Preparation.—Take of Extracts of Boneset,  Mandrake, and Ginseng,
each, two  ounces; Aloes, in  powder,  eight ounces;  Gamboge, Castile
Soap, of each, in  powder, four ounces; Capsicum  and Lobelia Seed, of
each, an ounce; Oil of Cloves  twenty minims. Mix the extracts together,
then  add  the powders,  beat   and  work  the mass well together,  and
finally, add the Oil of Cloves.   Divide the mass into pills of four grains
each.-— T.  V. M.
           74 
1170
Pharmacy.
  This pill is, by many, considered superior to the one originally given,
of which the following is  the  formula :  Take  of  Socotrine Aloes, in
powder, four ounces ;  Castile Soap, Colocynth,  Gnmboge, of each, two
ounces; Extract  of  Gentian four  ounces; Oil of Cloves two drachms.
Mix as above.  Dose same as above.
  Properties  and Uses. — This pill is  cathartic in doses of from two to
four  pills.  It has been found very useful in  dyspepsia,  constipation,
jaundice,  amenorrhea, and in  all  ordinary cases where cathartics are
required.
  Pilula  Assafcstida Composita.   Compound Pills of Assafetida.
  Preparation.—Take of  Assafetida,  Opium, Carbonate  of  Ammonia,
each, one drachm.  Mix the Assafetida and Opium  together by means
of a gentle heat, and Avhile soft add the Ammonia.  Divide the  mass
into seventy-five pills.
  Properties and Uses. — This  pill  is useful in many nervous and hys-
terical cases.  Each  pill contains four-fifths of a grain of opium.  The
dose is one or two pills, according to the  severity of the  case.
  Pilula  Baptisia Composita.    Compound  Pills of Wild Indigo.
  Preparation. — Take  of  Leptandrin  four grains; Podophyllin  eight
grains; Sanguinarin one grain; Hydro-alcoholic Extract of Wild Indigo
Root, a sufficient quantity to form a pill  mass.   Mix thoroughly together,
and divide into sixteen pills.
  Properties  and Uses.—These pills are  cholagogue, laxative, and anti-
septic ; they are  especially useful  in typhoid fevers, and  in all  typhoid
conditions, where it  is required to keep  the boAvels regular.   The dose
is one pill, to be repeated every two, three, or four hours  until  a mild
operation is produced; to be given  daily  or every other day.—J. K.
  Pilula  Cambogia Composita.    Compound Pills of Gamboge.
  Preparation.—Take  of Gamboge and  Scammony, each, in poAvder,
twelve grains ; Elaterium two grains;  Croton Oil eight minims ;  Extract
of Hyoscyamus a sufficient quantity.   Mix together, and divide into
twelve pills.
  Properties and Uses.—This is a  quick and certain cathartic, useful in
dropsy, obstinate constipation, etc.  The dose is one pill, repeated every
hour or two, till it operates.   It is contra-indicated when inflammation
of any of the abdominal viscera is  present.
   Pilula  Camphor a  Composita.   Compound  Pills  of  Camphor.
 Cholera Pills.
  Preparation.—Take of Camphor, Opium, Kino,  of each, in powder,
thirty grains; Capsicum five grains; Conserve of Roses a sufficient quan-
tity.   Mix  together and form a pill  mass, and divide into thirty pills.
  Properties and Uses.—These pills were much  employed  in  Asiatic
cholera,  as a stimulant, antispasmodic,  anodyne, and  astringent, and 
Pilula.
1171
with much success.   One pill to be given after each discharo-e from the
bowels, or oftener, if the urgency of the case require it.  Where pow-
ders are preferred, the conserve of roses may be omitted, and the mix-
ture be given in powder.—R. S.  N.
   Pilula Cimicifuga  Composita.   Compound Pills of Black Cohosh.
   Preparation.—Take of the Hydro-alcoholic Extracts of Black Cohosh,
and Scullcap, each, one drachm; Valerianate  of Quinia half a drachm.
Mix thoroughly together, form into a pill mass, and divide into sixty pills.
   Properties and Uses.—These pills will be found very useful in chorea,
and other derangements of the nervous system; also in fevers or other
diseases, attended with much restlessness or wakefulness, and in several
uterine affections.  The dose is one  pill every one, two, or three hours,
daily, according to the urgency of the symptoms.—J. K.
   Pilula Copaiba.  Pills of Copaiba.
   Preparation.—Take of  Copaiba and White Wax, of each, one drachm.
Melt the Wax,  mix in the Copaiba, and divide into thirty pills.
   These pills are frequently combined in other proportions, and with the
addition of Cubebs.   Thus:  take of  Copaiba one part; White Wax  one
part and a half;  Cubebs, in  powder, two parts.  Melt the Wax, add the
Copaiba and  Cubebs, and divide into four-grain pills.   This combination
is  suitable to warm climates.   Another combination is: take of Copaiba
one part; White Wax two parts ; Cubebs,  in powder, three parts.  Pre-
pare as above, and divide into four-grain pills.
   Properties and  Uses.—These pills  are useful in gonorrhea,  and other
affections where the medicinal agents  are  indicated.   The dose is two
to four pills,  three times a day.
   Copaiba is usually solidified into a pill mass by the use of magnesia.
The magnesia combines with the hard resin or copaibic acid, and absorbs
the volatile oil, in consequence of which the copaiba gradually loses its
fluidity, becoming at first  a  soft,  tenacious  mass, and  finally dry, hard,
and brittle.   The proportion of magnesia required to solidify the copaiba,
depends entirely upon its proportions  of  volatile oil and  hard resin.
Ordinarily, about one-sixteenth part of magnesia will be found  to solidify
the copaiba of the shops in  six or eight hours.   One advantage  in this
preparation is, that the copaiba  is made  into a pilular condition, with
but little increase of  its  bulk.  Care should be taken to divide the mass
into pills  before it  becomes  too hard, and that the magnesia employed
has not become hydrated by  exposure to a  moist air or otherwise.
   M. Thierry states that if one part of freshly prepared hydrate of lime
be mixed in a marble mortar with fifteen parts of copaiba, the mixture
then transferred to an open  vessel, placed upon  a sand-bath, and  the
heat be kept up for four hours, occasionally stirring, it will produce  the
same effect as magnesia.  About  a  twenty-fourth of the weight  of  the
mixture is lost,  which is chiefly the water of the hydrate. 
1172
Pharmacy.
  Pilula  Copaiba  Composita.   Compound Pills of Copaiba.
  Preparation.—Take of Solidified Copaiba one drachm ; Ethereal Ex-
tract of Cubebs half a drachm;  Podophyllin nine grains; Gum Myrrh
one drachm; Alcoholic Extract  of Nux Vomica fifteen grains.   Mix
thoroughly together, and divide into three-grain pills.
  Properties and Uses.—These pills are useful in gonorrhea, gleet, stric-
ture, and chronic inflammation of the prostate.  The dose is from two
to four pills, twice  a day.   For ordinary cases, the following preparation
will  be found  beneficial:  Take  of Solidified  Copaiba  two drachms;
Ethereal Extract  of  Cubebs  one drachm; Oil of  Juniper  a sufficient
quantity, not  to impair the pilular consistency of  the  mass.   Mix, and
divide into pills of four grains each.  The dose is the same as above.
  Pilula  Eupurpurini  Composita.  Compound Pills of Eupurpurin.
  Preparation. — Take  of Eupurpurin two  scruples;  Xanthoxylin one
scruple ; Strychnia one grain.   Mix thoroughly together, and divide into
twenty pills.
  Properties and  Uses.—This forms a stimulating diuretic, and will be
found  useful in suppression of urine, torpor or paralysis of the kidneys
or bladder, rheumatism, hepatic torpor, derangements of the  digestive
functions, etc.  The dose is one pill, to be repeated  three or four times
a day.—J. K.
   Pilula Ferri  Carbonatis.   Pills  of Carbonate of Iron.  Vallet's
Ferruginous  Pills.
   Preparation.—Take of  Sulphate of  Iron eight ounces; Carbonate of
Soda ten  ounces;  Clarified Honey three ounces; Sugar, in  powder, two
ounces; Boiling Water two pints;  Syrup  a sufficient quantity.  Dissolve
the Sulphate of Iron, and  Carbonate of Soda, each separately, in a pint
of the Water, having  previously added a fluidounce of Syrup to each
pint; then mix the two solutions when cold, in a bottle just large enough
to hold them, close it accurately with a stopper, and  set it by, that the
 Carbonate of Iron may subside.   Pour off the supernatant liquid, and
having washed the precipitate with Warm Water sweetened with Syrup,
in the proportion of a fluidounce  of the  latter  to a pint of the former,
until the washings no longer  have a saline taste, place it upon a flannel
cloth, to  drain, and express as  much of the  Water  as  possible ; then
immediately mix the precipitate with the Honey  and Sugar, and by
means of a  water-bath evaporate the mixture, constantly stirring, until
 it is so far concentrated as to have a pilular consistence on cooling.— U. S.
   History.—In  the  above preparation, the carbonate  of iron, which by
 the  ordinary processes, absorbs oxygen and loses a great proportion of
 its carbonic acid while washing and drying, is,  by the saccharine matter
 employed throughout the operation, almost completely prevented from
 such  injurious  change.   And to  preserve  the ferruginous preparation 
Pilula.
1173
 unaltered for medicinal use, it is evaporated to a pilular consistence, with
 the addition of Honey and Sugar, as related in the formula.  If the sul-
 phate of  iron used should be  impure, a portion  of sesquioxide will cer-
 tainly be present.
   When  properly prepared, this is in a soft mass, of pilular consistence,
 black throughout, of a strong, chalybeate taste,  and wholly and readily
 soluble in acids.
   Properties and Uses.—This pill  is  a ferruginous tonic, and may be
 employed in all cases where iron is indicated.   It  is  especially useful  in
 chlorosis, amenorrhea, and other female complaints; by its use the color-
 ing matter of the blood seems to be increased, and the capillary system
 rendered more active.  It may be divided into pills  varying from three
 to five grains each, of which from three to six  may be  given per day,
 and continued for several weeks, particularly if  an improvement of the
 health takes place.
   Pilula Ferri Composita.   Compound Pills of Iron.   Emmenagogue
 Pills.
   Preparation.—Take of Subcarbonate of Iron one drachm;  Podophyl-
 lin fifteen grains; White Turpentine half  a drachm.  Mix well together,
 and divide into thirty pills.
   Properties and  Uses.—This pill is used  chiefly  as an emmenagogue.
 The dose is one pill every three or four hours.
    Pilula  Ferri  Ferrocyanureti Composita.   Compound  Pills of
 Ferrocyanuret of Iron.
   Preparation.—Take of Ferrocyanuret of Iron, Sulphate of Quinia, and
 Hydro-alcoholic Extract of Black Cohosh, each, two scruples.   Mix, and
 divide into forty pills.
   Properties and  Uses.—These pills are tonic, alterative,  and  antiperi-
 odic,  and may be used in all diseases attended with periodicity,  as inter-
 mittent fever, chorea, epilepsy, etc.  They  will  be found  an excellent
 remedial  agent.   The  dose is one pill,  three or  four times a day, or
 oftener if required.—J. K.
   Pilula Ferri Iodidi.  Pills of Iodide of Iron.
   Preparation.—Take of Sulphate of Iron a drachm ; Iodide of Potas-
 sium four scruples ;  Tragacanth, in powder,  ten grains; Sugar, in pow-
 der, half  a drachm.   Beat the articles with  Syrup so as to form a mass,
 to be  divided into forty pills.— U. S.
   History.—By the above process, a double decomposition takes place  ;
 the sulphuric acid of  the crystallized sulphate of  protoxide  of iron  com-
 bines  with the potassium to form sulphate of potassa, while at the same
 time the iodine forms with  the iron an iodide of iron.   Consequently the
pill will contain  sulphate  of potassa; and also  a  portion of iodide of
potassium, this salt being  added in a greater quantity than is required 
1174
Pharmacy.
 to decompose all the sulphate of iron.  The sulphate and iodide are to
 be first rubbed together, and when  accurately mixed, the  sugar and
 tragacanth must be added, and then the syrup.   By the addition of the
 sugar, the iodide of iron is protected from oxidation.
   This pill should  never be kept or made, except for immediate use.  It
 is not very tenacious in its character, and at first evolves iodine ; it has
 a styptic, rather acrid taste, but is not so unpleasant as the Solution of
 Iodide of  Iron.   The presence  of sulphate of potassa and iodide of
 potassium renders  it complex and objectionable.
   Properties and Uses.—This pill has  the  same therapeutical applica-
 tions as the solution of iodide of iron.  Each pill contains  a  little more
 than  a grain and a half of iodide  of iron; one of which may be given
 for a dose, and repeated two or three times a day.
   In consequence of the intensely styptic taste of the solution of iodide
 of iron, as well  as the disagreeable stain it imparts to the teeth and lips,
 a serious inconvenience has arisen in its administration, and  many modes
 have been devised  to divest it of these objections, as well as of its ten-
 dency to change. Perhaps  the best mode of preparing it, is the following:
 Take of pure Iodine, Iron  reduced by Hydrogen, each, half a drachm;
 Honey, a sufficient  quantity to  give  the consistency of  thick molasses.
 Triturate the Iodine as finely as possible, then add the Iron and Honey,
 and continue the  trituration  until the  articles are thoroughly  mixed
 together, and  fumes  of iodine cease  to  be disengaged,  the mixture
 assuming a greenish tinge.  Then rub  in finely powdered Extract of
 Liquorice,  a sufficient quantity to make the  mass.   After the pills have
 been  made, for still further protection from  atmospheric influence, they
 may be dipped once or twice in an ethereal solution of  Balsam of Tolu.
   Pilula  Hyoscyami  Composita.  Compound Pills of Hyoscyamus.
   Preparation.—Take of Extract  of Hyoscyamus, Extract of Valerian,
 each,  two drachms ;  Extract of Aconite, Sulphate of Quinia,  of each, one
 drachm.  Mix thoroughly together, and divide  into pills of  three grains
 each.
   Properties and  Uses. — These  pills will be found  advantageous in
 neuralgia,  rheumatism, chorea, dysmenorrhea, and  many  affections of
 a similar character.   The dose is one pill every two, three, or four hours,
 according to circumstances.  As the  virtue of Valerian resides in its oil,
 it is probable the extract is nearly useless ;■ and one-half the quantity of
 the Oil of Valerian, or Valerianic Acid, could be  substituted for the
 extract, and form a much more efficacious pill.—/. K.
  Pilula Leonuri  Composita.   Compound Pills of Motherwort.
  Preparation.—Take  of the Hydro-alcoholic Extracts of Motherwort,
 and Unicorn Root, each, two drachms ; Leptandrin, Cimicifugin, of each,
cm,e drachm.   Mix thoroughly together, form a pill mass, and divide into
sixty pills. 
                                Pilula.                          1175

     Properties and Uses.—These pills are useful in many uterine affections,
  acting as a uterine tonic and alterative.  One pill may be given every
  one, two, or four hours, according to the  urgency of the case.__J. K.
     Pilula Leptandrini Composita.  Compound Pills of  Leptandrin.
     Preparation.—Take  of  Leptandrin one drachm ;  Podophyllin half a
  drachm; Extract of Rhubarb a  sufficient quantity.   Mix  together, and
  divide into sixty pills.  Some prefer making these pills with  Extract of
  Dandelion, instead of Rhubarb.
    Properties and Uses.—This is a valuable cholagogue pill, very benefi-
  cial in liver affections, obstinate  constipation, or wherever catharsis is
  required.  It will likewise be found useful in  dysentery.   The dose is
  from one to three pills, once or twice a day.
    Pilula Phytolacca Composita.  Compound Pills of  Poke.
    Preparation.—Take of Extract of Poke two  drachms;   Hydro-alco-
  holic Extract of Stillingia  one  drachm;  Extract of Stramonium  eight
  grains.  Mix thoroughly together, form into a pill mass, and divide into
  sixty-four pills.
    Properties and Uses.—These pills will  be  found of value in osteoco-
  pus, or pains in  the bones of a mercurial or syphilitic character,  and are
  also beneficial in rheumatism, syphilis, and scrofula.   The  dose  is one
  pill  every two, three, or four hours, as  the urgency of the  case  may
  require.   The fluid  Extract of  Stillingia, may be substituted  for the
  Hydro-alcoholic  Extract, and pulverized  Poke-root  added  as an exci-
  pient.—J. K.
   Pilula Podophyllini Composita.  Compound Pills of  Podophyllin.
   Preparation.—Take of Podophyllin, Scammony, Gamboge, each, in
 powder, one drachm; Castile Soap half a drachm.  Triturate  the pow-
 ders thoroughly together for about  half an hour, then add the Soap ;
 mix and beat the whole together till they are  thoroughly incorporated.
 Divide the mass  into one hundred and twenty pills.
   Properties and Uses.—This is a most  valuable pill for  all diseases
 where  cathartics are  required, and  has cured many cases of hepatic
 affections by a continued use  of them.   The  dose is  one or two pills,
 every night.   They  have no tendency toward  producing constipation,
 but  rather the reverse, and after using them for several days in succes-
 sion, thejr will generally be found so active that it will be necessary to
 omit them for a number of days, before  resuming  their administration.
 They may be safely used in all ordinary cases where purgation is desired ;
 they operate freely and thoroughly, and usually without causing nausea,
griping, or debility.
  In consequence of the difficulty  with  which  pure Scammony  is
obtained in  this  country, many practitioners substitute for  it,  in these
pills, Apocynin, or Extract  of Rhubarb,  or Iridin,  either   of which, 
1176
Pharmacy.
will, probably, be found preferable to an impure or counterfeit scam-
mony.—J. K.
  Pilula  Polygoni  Composita.   Compound Pills of Water Pepper.
  Preparation.—Take of Dried Sulphate of  Iron, and Cimicifugin, each,
one drachm ;  Iridin fifteen grains ; Extract of Water-Pepper a sufficient
quantity.  Mix well together, and divide  into sixty pills.
  Properties  and Uses.—These  pills  are emmenagogue,  and exert an
especial influence on the female organs of generation.  They have been
used with advantage in chlorosis,  amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea,  uterine
leucorrhea, etc.   The dose is one pill every  two or three hours.—J. K.
  Pilula  Pteleini Composita.   Compound Pills of Ptelein.
  Preparation. — Take  of Hydrastin, Cimicifugin, Ptelein, Aletridin, of
each, half a  drachm; Alcoholic  Extract of Nux Vomica four grains.
Mix the articles thoroughly together, and divide into sixty pills.
  Properties  and Uses.—These pills are very efficacious in dyspepsia,
attended with distress after eating,  flatulency, etc.  They act upon the
mucous coat  of the  stomach, gradually restoring it to a normal condi-
tion.  I have employed  them considerably, and prefer them  to any other
remedy which I have ever used.  If constipation be present, it must be
removed by  rhubarb  and potassa, podophyllin, or other proper  agents.
The dose is one pill three times a day, to be taken about an hour after
each meal, with the proper attention to diet and regimen.—J. K.
  Pilula  Quinia  Sulphatis.  Pills of Sulphate of  Quinia.
  Preparation. — Take  of  Sulphate of  Quinia one drachm;  Aromatic
Sulphuric Acid fortyfive drops.  Drop the Acid into the Quinia on a tile
or slab, and  triturate with a spatula  until it assumes a pilular consist-
ence ; then divide into sixty pills.
  History.—This method  of forming Quinia into a pill mass was made
known by  Mr. E. Parrish.   The  ingredients when mixed form  a fluid,
which soon thickens into a paste, and finally becomes  quite solid, and so
adhesive  as  to  be  readily divided and rolled  into pills;  care must be
taken not to allow the mass to become too dry and brittle before dividing
it, as  it  is liable  to do if allowed to remain too long.   In this form a por-
tion of the disulphate being converted into the soluble neutral sulphate,
the preparation more nearly resembles the solutions in composition, and
is believed to be more certain  and rapid in its action.  When it is desired
to incorporate other substances in powder with  the Quinia thus prepared,
as Prussiate  of Iron,  etc., they should be added to the mass when it is
just so soft  that, upon their addition, it will  immediately assume the
proper consistence.   It  is not, hoAvever, advisable to employ this  process
when any considerable  quantity of  other ingredients are prescribed with
the quinia, unless a little syrup or honey is also  added to  prevent the
too rapid hardening and consequent crumbling of the mass. 
Pilula.
1177
  Properties  and Uses.—For  the uses of these  pills, see Sulphate of
Quinia.  Each pill  contains a  grain  of sulphate of quinia, and twelve
are equivalent  to an ounce  of good Peruvian Bark.  The above pill
mass, may be made into five-grain pills if desired, which will not be
found inconveniently large.
  Pilula  Quinia  Composita.   Compound Pills of Quinia.
  Preparation.— Take of Sulphate of Quinia,  Cornine,  and  Tartaric
Acid, each, in  powder, one drachm,;  Hydro-alcoholic Extract of Black
Cohosh a sufficient  quantity.  Mix together, and  divide into four-grain
pills.
  Properties and Uses.—These pills are tonic and antiperiodic, and may
be  employed  in intermittent and remittent  fevers, and in  all  diseases
attended with  symptoms of periodicity.  The addition of  the tartaric
acid renders the quinia more readily soluble in the juices of the stomach.
The dose is  one pill every one, two, or three hours, according to the
severity or urgency of the symptoms.—J. K.
  Pilula  Saponi  Composita.   Compound Pills of  Soap.   Diuretic
Pills.
  Preparation. — Take of Oils of Spearmint,  Juniper, and Sassafras,
each, one fluidrachm; Castile  Soap one drachm and a half.  Beat the
Soap in an iron mortar, gradually adding the Oils, and when the ingre-
dients are thoroughly incorporated, divide into eighteen  pills.
  Properties and Uses.—These pills are stimulant and diuretic,  and are
very beneficial in gravel and all chronic urinary affections.   The dose is
three pills three times a day, or one pill every hour through the day.—
T.  V. M.
  Pilula  Taraxaci Composita.  Compound Pills of Dandelion.
  Preparation.—Take of Bloodroot, in powder, one drachm,; Podophyl-
lin half a scruple;  Extract of Dandelion one drachm; Oil of Spearmint
five minims.   Mix the Powders with the Extract, add the  Oil, beat up
thoroughly together, and divide into fifty pills.
  Properties  and Uses.—Laxative, nauseant, and diuretic.   They are
of much efficacy in jaundice, hepatic diseases, and affections of the  kid-
nevs.   The dose is  one or two  pills three  times a day, sufficient to pro-
duce a slight sensation of nausea.   This pill is superior to the one made
after the old formula.—T.  V. M.
  Pilula  Valeriana  Composita.   Compound Pills of Valerian.
  Preparation.—Take of the Hydro-alcoholic Extract of Scullcap,  and
Extract of Chamomile, each, two drachms ; Extract of Boneset, Sulphate
of Quinia,  of each, one drachm; Capsicum one scruple; Oil of Valerian
half a drachm, by  weight.  Mix the articles together, beat them  until
thoroughly incorporated, and divide into ninety pills. 
1178
Pharmacy.
  Properties and Uses.—These pills are tonic and nervine,  and may be
used in all cases where such a combination of action is  desired.   The
dose is one pill every two or three hours.
  Pilula Viburni  Composita.   Compound Pills of High Cranberry.
  Preparation.—Take of Hydro-alcoholic Extracts of High Cranberry,
Blue Cohosh, and Unicorn Root, each, half a drachm ; Extract of Par-
tridge  Berry one drachm.   Mix together, and divide  into  forty Pills.
  Properties and  Uses.—These pills are of superior efficacy in uterine
diseases, as amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, leucorrhea,  etc.  ; as a uterine
tonic in habitual miscarriages ; and may be given during pregnancy to
relieve cramps,  and  many other unpleasant sensations occurring at that
period.   The dose is one or two pills three times a day.—J K.
                            POTASSA.
                       Preparations of Potassa.
  Potassa.  Potassa Hydras.  Caustic Potassa.  Hydrate of Potassa.
  Preparation.—Take of  Solution of Potassa a, gallon.  Evaporate the
Water in a clean iron vessel over the fire, till  ebullition ceases, and the
Potassa melts.   Pour this into suitable  molds, and keep it, when  cold,
in well stopped bottles.— U S.
  History. — The Solution of Potassa used  in preparing  this Caustic,
should be one of recent manufacture, and the evaporation should be con-
ducted  in  an iron vessel, as glass or  earthenware are acted on by the
potassa ; and in using an iron vessel,  hoAvever clean  it may be, a  small
portion of Oxide-  of Iron will be imparted  to the caustic, but not in
quantity sufficient to interfere Avith its  medicinal applications.   The con-
tact of all organic substances should be carefully avoided.   The evapo-
ration must be completed  as  speedily as possible, so  as  to lessen the
liability to absorption of carbonic acid from the atmosphere.  Absorption
of carbonic acid will not take place, so long  as the temperature  is kept
at the boiling point; but if the  evaporation be  in any way interrupted,
and the liquid alloAA-ed to cool, the potassa becomes quickly carbonated.
The molds into which the  fused potassa is run, should be  made of iron,
and having a cylindrical shape.   As white flint glass is slightly acted on
by the caustic alkali, it should be kept in green glass  bottles with ground
stoppers.
  Potassa, as met Avith  in the shops, is either in  the  form of fragments
of plates,  or in cylindrical pencils  of a dingy gray or greenish  color,
with  sometimes a bluish  tint, a fibrous fracture, an  intense, corrosive,
alkaline taste, and an odor similar to that of  slaking lime.   It is exceed-
ingly deliquescent, powerfully attracting carbonic acid  from the  atmo-
sphere, and when moist  feels soapy.   It  is  readily soluble in water or
alcohol, its aqueous solution having  the properties  of Liquor Potassa. 
Potassa.                        1179
Acids  combine with it, causing much  heat, and forming crystallizable
salts.  It melts at a low-red heat, and is volatilized at a bright-red heat.
It usually contains many impurities, as sesquioxide of lime, silica, sul-
phate of potassa,  alumina,  chloride and teroxide of potassium, carbonate
of potassa, etc.   By dissolving  it in alcohol, which does not act upon
these impurities,  but takes up only the pure hydrated potassa, filtering
and evaporating to dryness, and  then  fusing the  dry mass obtained, a
pure hydrate of potassa may be procured, white, dry, hard, brittle, and
intensely caustic.   This is called  Alcoholic Potassa, and possesses  pro-
perties similar to the impure article above described.  When i*s solution
is added to an excess of tartaric acid, it yields  a crystalline precipitate
of cream of tartar, and when added to a solution of chloride of platinum,
a yelloAv precipitate is the result;  and which actions will serve to detect
it from  soda  and  lithia.  Independent of its  impurities, the officinal
potassa consists of one equivalent of dry potassa 47.2, and one of water
9=56.2.   Dry potassa  consists of one equivalent of potassium 39.2, and
one of oxygen 8=47.2.
  Properties and Uses.—Caustic Potassa is powerfully corrosive; when
applied to soft animal  textures, it first attracts their water,  and then
rapidly disorganizes them; after  Avhich extensive inflammation ensues
around the part, previous to  the separation of a deep slough.  It has  no
action  as a poison, except what  depends directly on the local  injury
occasioned; no direct influence being  exerted  through  the medium of
absorption.  Acids, as vinegar, lemon-juice, etc., and the fixed oils  are
antidotes to its  injurious  action,  producing  with it  harmless salts  of
potassa or soapy  solutions.
  It is administered internally only when  in solution, as an antacid, anti-
lithic,  and diuretic.  Externally, it is used, in its solid state, for making
caustic issues, opening  abscesses, and  destroying tumors, but from  its
extreme deliquescence, it  is very apt to spread, and act on  parts  not
desired.   To obviate this  the  integuments around the parts to be acted
on, should  be  protected  by two  or  three layers  of cloth, spread  Avith
adhesive plaster, and perforated with a hole in  the center, of the neces-
sary size.  Then a rod  of potassa, slightly moistened at the end, is to  be
gently rubbed over that portion of the  skin embraced in the perforation
of the  plaster.   It must  be rubbed until the  skin becomes discolored,
when  an elm, or bread-and-milk poultice must be applied.  In a few
days  the eschar  will be  detached.  After the slough separates,  the
retraction of the  surrounding skin always makes the surface of the issue
much  larger than  the  circle originally cauterized, the  extent of which
must be regulated accordingly.  In applying  the caustic, Avrap it  Avith
paper.    We occasionally employ this caustic in the destruction of tumors,
cancers, etc., and on the surface of unhealthy or malignant  ulcers.  A
very unscientific  application  of a solution of this caustic, applied to the
spine,  has been recommended in the treatment  of tetanus. 
1180                        Pharmacy.
  Equal parts of Caustic  Potassa and Quicklime, rubbed together, and
kept in well-stopped bottles, form  the  Vienna  Caustic  (Potassa cunt
Calce).  It is  milder  than the preceding, and  has  been particularly
recommended for cauterizing the neck of the uterus.   It is also prepared
in sticks.   (See Calx, Part II, page 284.)
  Potassa Acetas.  Acetate of Potassa.
  Preparation.—Take of Acetic  Acid a pint; Carbonate of Potassa a
sufficient quantity.  Add the Carbonate of Potassa gradually to the Acetic
Acid till it is saturated; then filter,  and  evaporate cautiously, by means
of a sand-bath, until a dry salt remains.   Keep this in closely-stopped
bottles.— U.  S.
  History. — It was formerly the method, in preparing this salt, to neu-
tralize distilled vinegar with carbonate of potassa, and  then evaporate;
but by pursuing  it, a  salt of a reddish  or  brownish color would  be
obtained, arising from the organic matter contained in the vinegar, and
which  required some trouble  and dexterity in manipulation to remove.
By  employing acetic acid  or  colorless  pyroligneous  acid, and a  pure
carbonate, a salt is obtained of sufficient purity and  whiteness for medi-
cal use.   Care should be  observed, that  no excess of alkali exists,  as in
this case it will react on the acid during  evaporation  and  give rise to
discoloration; a slight excess  of acid is not  liable  to such objections.
The  heat employed in drying the acetate of potassa should  be the chlo-
ride  of calcium bath on the small scale,  or steam under pressure on the
laro-e scale;  as that of a vapor-bath is too low for thorough desiccation
and that of a sand-bath may become entirely too  high.
  Acetate of potassa prepared by the above process  is  in the form of
soft  fibrous masses, and  when pure is  white, inodorous, soapy to the
touch, neutral, and of a warm, saline, pungent  taste.  As met with in
the shops, it  has a foliated texture, somewhat resembling spermaceti in
appearance, on  account of  which, it Avas formerly called  Foliated Earth
of Tartar.  It is  extremely  deliquescent Avhen exposed  to the  air,
becoming converted into an oily-like liquid, and should consequently be
kept in well-stopped bottles.  Heat fuses  it, and if continued  or increased,
decomposes it, converting the acetic  acid into  acetone and carbonic  acid,
leaving the carbonate of potassa remaining.  Acetate of Potassa is  solu-
ble in  half its weight of temperate water, and twice its weight of alcohol.
The salt exists in  the juices of many plants, and is  the chief source of
the carbonate of potassa existing in  wood-ashes.   It is incompatible with
the mineral acids,  sulphates of soda, and magnesia,  corrosive sublimate,
nitrate of silver, and several other earthy and metallic salts.  It is com-
posed  of one  equivalent of acid 21, one of base  47.2, and two of Avater
18=116.2, (A-L.KO+2 Aq.)
  As  noAv prepared, Acetate of  Potassa  is but  little liable to adultera-
tion ; but when impurities are present the  principal ones are sulphate of 
Potassa.
1181
potassa, tartrate of potassa, chloride of potassium,  and the salts of lead
and copper.  The salts of copper may be detected by ferrocyanuret of
potassium which gives a brown precipitate; those of lead by sulphureted
hydrogen which occasions a blackish precipitate.   Chloride of potassium
may be distinguished by adding nitrate of silver to a dilute solution; if
it  be added  to  a concentrated solution,  soluble crystals of acetate of
silver will be formed.  Tartrate of potassa will  remain undissolved,
when the salt is placed in alcohol; and the sulphate of potassa may be
ascertained by  the chloride of barium.
   Properties  and Uses.—Acetate  of Potassa  in doses of  from a scruple
to a drachm,  acts as a diuretic, and has been used with  good effect in
dropsy, uric  acid  diathesis, and  in other cases where diuresis is indi-
cated.  It has likewise been found beneficial in several cutaneous diseases,
as eczema, lepra, psoriasis,  etc.  In these cases it  acts energetically as
a diuretic, and effects cures in from three weeks to two months.  Half a
drachm of the salt dissolved in Avater, may be given, and  repeated three
times a day.  In doses of two or three drachms  it acts as  a mild cathar-
tic.  Two drachms of the carbonate of potassa  saturated with distilled
vinegar,  will produce a copious discharge of urine,  and,  in  dropsical
cases, ten or  twelve stools.   This salt was formerly called  Sal Diureticus.
   Off. Prep.—Tinctura Ferri Acetatis.
   Potassa Bicarbonas.  Bicarbonate of Potassa.
   Preparation.—Take of  Carbonate of Potassa four pounds; Distilled
Water ten pints.  Dissolve the Carbonate of Potassa  in  the Water and
pass Carbonic Acid through the solution till it is fully  saturated.   Then
filter, and evaporate  the  filtered  liquor that crystals  may form, taking
care that the heat does  not exceed  160°.   Pour off the supernatant
liquid, and dry the crystals  upon bibulous  paper.   Carbonic Acid is
obtained from marble by the addition of dilute sulphuric  acid.— U S.
   History. — By this process, the  carbonate  of potassa containing  one
equivalent of acid and one of base, becomes combined with an additional
equivalent of carbonic  acid.  The salt used  should ahvays be pure, or
else there will be siliceous impurities present, to separate which, is the
reason for the filtration ordered in the above formula.
   Bicarbonate  of Potassa  may  be made by several other  processes,
among which may be mentioned the forming  a solution of carbonate  of
potassa in its own weight of water, adding about half  its  weight of  ses-
quicarbonate of ammonia, heating the solution  to about 130°, and stir-
ring occasionally, until small crystals begin  to form.  In this process,
ammonia  is  evolved, and the  ammoniacal carbonate is taken up by the
potassa salt, and while slowly cooling, crystals of bicarbonate of potassa are
formed.   Christison recommends a quick, certain, and economical mode
of preparing  it.  Sesquicarbonate  of  ammonia, in very fine powder, is
to be thoroughly mixed with carbonate of potassa, by the aid  of a very 
1182
Pharmacy.
little  Avater,  triturating briskly until a perfectly smooth, thick, uniform
pulp is formed.   Dry this pulp by a gentle heat, not exceeding 130° or
140°,  and continue  the  drying until an  ammoniacal odor ceases to be
given  off.   By the drying,  ammonia is evolved, and its  carbonic acid
combines with the carbonate of potassa,  so that when the sesquicarbonate
becomes wholly  decomposed and all  its ammonia  volatilized,  a pure
bicarbonate of potassa  is left behind, which may be reduced to a fine
powder.
   A common mode of preparing Bicarbonate of Potassa, among manu-
facturers, is to suspend a solution of the pure carbonate, within a cask,
over a liquid undergoing the vinous fermentation, and allow it to remain
there for six or seven weeks;  the carbonic  acid evolved is absorbed by
the carbonate of potassa, and a bicarbonate is formed.   Distillers and
brewers often prepare  it in this  manner—and the Sal  a'eratus of com-
merce, which is between a carbonate and a bicarbonate  in its  composi-
tion, is made in this Avay.
   Bicarbonate of Potassa crystallizes  in  colorless, transparent,  right-
rhombic prisms, usually truncated on  the acute  edges; their  primitive
form is the  rectangular octaedre.  It  is inodorous,  slightly  alkaline  to
the taste, permanent in the air, soluble  in four parts  of cold water, but
insoluble in boiling  water without decomposition,  carbonic  acid  being
liberated and a sesquicarbonate of potassa formed;  it is also  insoluble
in alcohol.   At a red-heat it loses about 30.7 per cent.,  or all  its water
of crystallization, and half its carbonic acid, and is converted into a very
pure  carbonate.   It has  no power of  dissolving or disorganizing the
animal textures.   It consists of two equivalents of  acid  44, one of base
47.2,  and one of water 9 = 100.2, (2 C02+KO+Aq.).
   Bicarbonate of Potassa is subject to adulterations of  the sulphate  or
muriate of potassa, from having  employed an impure carbonate in  its
preparation ; and of carbonate of  potassa from some defect  in the process
of making it.  The sulphate and  muriate of potassa may be detected by
chloride of barium or nitrate of silver  causing a white precipitate in its
solution  supersaturated by  nitric acid.   Carbonate of potassa may be
known by adding a solution of corrosive  sublimate, which will cause  a
brick-red  precipitate, if even  the hundredth part of the  carbonate be
present; a solution of the pure bicarbonate in forty parts of water has no
effect,  or at most, produces  merely a Avhite haze.   The carbonate may
also be detected  by adding starch sugar to a heated  solution of the
bicarbonate under examination ; if the impurity be  present, the solution
becomes changed to yellow  or brown.
   Properties and Uses.—Bicarbonate of Potassa is antacid,  antilithic, and
diuretic, is less irritating and unpleasant than the carbonate, and maybe
used in larger doses.  It is preferred as a general rule to the Carbonate,
for which it may in nearly all  cases  be  used as a substitute.  Dose, ten 
Potassa.
1183
to tAventy grains as an antacid and antilithic ; one to two drachms, as a
diuretic.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Rhei et Potassae Fluidum; Pulvis Rhei Com-
positus ;  Syrupus Rhei et Potassae.
  Potassa Bichromas.   Bichromate of Potassa.
  Preparation.—Take of the neutral or yellow Chromate of Potassa any
quantity;  Water a sufficient quantity.   Dissolve the Chromate  in  the
Water, filter, warm the  filtered solution,  and while  warm  acidulate  the
solution Avith sulphuric acid; then set the  mixture aside for two or three
days, when  beautiful orange-red crystals of bichromate of potassa will
be formed.
  History.—The addition  of sulphuric acid to  the  filtered solution, as
above explained, separates one equivalent of potassa  from two of the
neutral  chromate, thus  converting the  salt into  a bichromate.  The
yelloAv chromate, from which is prepared the bichromate, may be obtained
by igniting four parts of powdered chrome-iron ore, with one  part of
nitre, and lixiviating the  resulting mass with water.  The solution when
evaporated, yields the chromate in  crystals.  By this process, oxygen is
furnished by the nitric acid of the nitre, and the sesquioxide of chro-
mium is  converted into  chromic  acid, which  then combines with  the
potassa of the same salt; the iron likewise becomes  sesquioxidized and
insoluble.
  Bichromate of Potassa is in anhydrous, prismatic crystals, of an orange-
red color, having a cooling, bitter taste, insoluble in  alcohol, and soluble
in ten parts of cold and much less boiling water.  It fuses at a red-heat
without decomposition, forming a red  liquid, which  on cooling congeals
into a crystalline mass and  then falls  to powder.   It  is manufactured
largely for the use of calico printers, and those engaged in  making it are
subject to painful ulcerations of the hands.  Paper impregnated with its
solution,  and dried,  forms excellent  tinder.  It is composed  of two
equivalents of chromic acid  104.06, and  one of potassa 47.2=151.26;
its formula is KO, 2 Cr,  0.
  Properties and, Uses.—Bichromate of Potassa is an irritant and caus-
tic, its only therapeutical use is as an external application; when brought
in contact with the skin,  its solutions cause very painful sores, which are
difficult to heal.  A  saturated solution of it has been  recommended as
an  application to warts,  excrescences, hemorrhoidal tumors, scirrhous
tumors,  tuberculous elevations, and to promote the healing  of ulcers.
About from half a drachm to a drachm of the  salt  may be  added to a
fluidounce of water.  When used as a caustic, it must be applied in the
form of powder.  Its solution possesses very powerful  antiseptic proper-
ties, and  will be found  advantageous in cases of gangrene, dry mortifi-
cation, etc.  This salt is also used as a source of chromic acid, of oxygen, 
1184
Pharmacy.
and in the forming artificial valerianic acid for the purpose of preparing
valerianate of soda.
  Potassa Bisulphas.  Bisulphate of Potassa.
  Preparation.—Take of the residuum, in the preparation of pure Nitric
Acid two pounds; commercial Sulphuric Acid seven fiuidounces and one
fluidrachm, (Imperial Measure) ;  Boiling Water six pints, (Imp. Meas.)
Dissolve the Salt in the Water, add the Sulphuric Acid, concentrate the
solution, and set it aside to cool and form crystals.
  History.—The salt which remains after the distillation of nitric acid is
a bisulphate of potassa ; but Mr. Phillips states that when it is dissolved
in Avater, and the solution allowed  to crystallize, some sulphate and much
sesquisulphate are obtained  instead of bisulphate,  owing to  the water
retaining  a part of the excess of  acid in solution.   By the  addition of
sulphuric acid this result is prevented, and the bisulphate forms in  crys-
tals.  The above is  the formula of the Edinburgh College;  the Dublin
College have given another, which also yields a pure bisulphate—it is as
follows:  Take of Sulphate of Potassa, in powder,  three ounces, (Avoir-
dupois) ;  Pure  Sulphuric Acid one fluidounce, (Imp. Meas.)  Place the
Acid  and Salt in a small porcelain  capsule, and  to  this apply a heat
capable of liquefying its contents, and which should be continued  until
acid vapors cease to be given off.  The Bisulphate, which concretes as
it cools, should  be reduced  to a  fine powder,  and preserved in a well
stopped bottle.
  Bisulphate  of Potassa crystallizes  in  small oblique, flattened, right-
rhombic prisms ; or when obtained by extreme concentration and cooling,
it has the appearance of a  firm, fibrous mass.  It is a white  salt, with a
bitter and strongty acid taste, the crystals being permanent in  the air,
Avhile the fibrous mass effloresces.   It is soluble in twice its weight of
cold,  and in  less than its weight of boiling water.  It  is insoluble  in
alcohol, Avhich precipitates the neutral sulphate from the aqueous  solu-
tion.   Exposed  to a moderate heat it fuses  and runs like oil;  at  a red
heat, it is deprived of water  and its excess of acid, and is converted into
the neutral sulphate.   It is incompatible with many of the metals, most
oxides, the alkalies, earths,  and  their  carbonates.   It may be distin-
guished from other  salts by its strong acid taste, and by its  brisk  effer-
vescence  with an alkaline  carbonate, the solution after effervescence,
presenting the characters of the neutral sulphate.  This salt was  formerly
known by the name of sal enixum.  It is composed of two  equivalents
of  acid  80.2,  one of  base  47.15, and  two of water  18=145.35; its
formula is 2  S03 +  KO, 2 Aq.
   Properties  and Uses. — Bisulphate  of  Potassa is laxative and  tonic,
and is  beneficial  in  constipation  accompanied with a deficient  appetite,
especially during convalescence from  acute  disease; and is said to form
a grateful adjunct to rhubarb.  A drachm,  each, of the bisulphate, and 
Potassa.
1185
of carbonate of soda, dissolved separately, each in two fluidounces of
water, and then mixed, forms a good aperient effervescent draught.  The
dose of the bisulphate is one or two drachms.
  Potassa Carbonas.   Carbonate of Potassa.
  Preparation.—Take  of Impure Carbonate  of Potassa, (pearlash) in
powder, three pounds; Water two pints and a half.   Dissolve  the  im-
pure carbonate of potassa in the water, and filter the solution, then pour
it into a clean iron vessel, and evaporate the  water over a gentle fire,
until the solution thickens ; lastly, remove it from the fire and stir it con-
stantly with an iron spatula until the salt granulates.— U.' S.
  History.—By the above process the impure Carbonate of Potassa is
purified.   The solution in cold water is allowed to stand for a few days,
frequently stirring it, and is then filtered, which removes its insoluble
impurities, as well  as  many foreign salts  which have not  as great an
affinity for water as the carbonate, and therefore are not dissolved.  The
filtered  solution is then placed in iron vessels, because glass is acted on
by the potassa, and evaporated.  In the latter part of the process, when
the solution is brought nearly to dryness, it is better  to keep it on  the
fire at a reduced heat,  removing it the moment the  solution  thickens.
   Carbonate of Potassa  is in small roundish  grains, white, opake, of a
nauseous  alkaline and caustic taste, soapy  to the touch when moist,  and
extremely deliquescent, forming, when exposed to the  air, an oily liquid,
termed by the  early chemists oleum tartari per deliquum.   It exerts an
alkaline reaction on vegetable colors, is very soluble in water, and insol-
uble in  alcohol.  On account of its deliquescence it should always be
kept in well  stopped bottles.   A red heat drives off 16 per cent, of its
water without any loss of  its carbonic acid ;  dilute sulphuric  acid decom-
poses it, evolving 26.3 per cent, of carbonic acid.   It is incompatible with
acids and acidulous salts, muriate  and  acetate of  ammonia, limewater,
chloride of calcium, sulphate of magnesia, alum, tartar emetic, nitrate of
silver, ammoniated copper, and  ammoniated  iron, sulphate of iron,  and
tincture of muriate of iron, calomel and  corrosive sublimate, acetate  and
subacetate of lead, and sulphate of zinc.   As it is not  decomposed by
the tartrate of iron and potassa,  it may be employed with it in prescrip-
tions.  It is composed of one equivalent of  acid  22, and  one  of base
47.2=69.2 (CO^+KO.)
   The most common impurities met with,  are excess of moisture, earthy
matter,  sulphate of potassa,. chloride of  potassium, and silica.   Its solu-
tion supersaturated with  nitric acid, will  show the presence of minute
portions of a  sulphate  by giving a faint cloudiness with  chloride of
barium ;  and of a chloride by yielding a slight precipitate Avith nitrate of
silver.  Should earthy matter be present,  carbonate of soda will precipi-
tate the nitric solution.   The pure commercial carbonate may be known
Dy five parts of it saturating 5.44 parts  of tartaric  acid, which has been
           75 
1186
Pharmacy.
gently dried so as not to drive off any of its water of crystallization.  As
nearly all samples of carbonate of potassa contain more or less moisture,
due allowance should be made for this in all chemical or pharmaceutical
operations.
  Properties and Uses.—All the carbonates of potassa are sufficiently
corrosive  to be  energetic  poisons.   They  occasion destruction of the
mucous membranes  of the fauces,  oesophagus, stomach, and  sometimes
of the intestines—indicated at first  by violent burning  pain, prostration
and vomiting, which is sometimes bloody,  and if death does  not  ensue
in consequence, in  a few days,  excessive  emaciation follows, and con-
stant irritation of the stomach and bowels.  The  proper  antidotes to
them  are vinegar, lemon-juice, or fixed-oil.
  Medicinally, Carbonate of  Potassa is antacid, antilithic and diuretic.
Useful in urinary affections, where  the  morbid  secretion consists of
lithic acid, and the lithates, for which about  thirty-five  grains should be
given  in the  course  of  the  day, in divided doses.  Some  prefer the
potassa carbonates to the soda, for antilithic purposes, on the supposition
that they are more energetic solvents.  It is sometimes used in solution,
as an  injection into the bladder, for  calculus.  It has also been employed
in dyspepsia, as an antacid; in dropsy, as a diuretic; and in some cases
of jaundice;  and combined  with cochineal,  it has considerable  repu-
tation  in  the  treatment  of pertussis.   Dissolve carbonate of potassa,
twenty grains, in  a gill  of water,  add to it  ten grains of  powdered
cochineal, sweeten  with  loaf sugar,  and give  an  infant a teaspoonful
four times a day ; to  a child two or three  years old, two teaspoonfuls;
four years and upward,  a tablespoonful or more.   To this preparation,
five to  fifteen drops of tincture  of belladonna  is  sometimes added.
Externally,  it is used in the form of bath, lotion, or ointment, as an
effectual remedy in obstinate cutaneous eruptions.   From eight to six-
teen ounces  may be used for a single bath; from two to three drachms
in a pint of water, for a lotion; or from ten to sixty grains with an ounce
of lard, as an  ointment.   Dose of the powder in solution, five to thirty
grains.
   Off. Prep.—Extractum Spigeliae  et Sennae Fluidum ; Liquor Potassae;
Potassae Acetas;  Potassae Bicarbonas;  Potassae Sulphas;  Potassae Tar-
tras ;  Potassii  Bromidum; Potassii Cyanuretum; Potassii  Iodidum;
Potassii Sulphuretum.
  Potassa  Carbonas Purus.   Pure Carbonate of Potassa.  Salt of
Tartar.
  Preparation.—Take of  Bicarbonate of Potassa a pound.  Put the  Bi-
carbonate,  previously powdered,  into  a capacious iron  crucible, heat
gradually until the water of crystallization is driven off, then raise  the
heat  to  redness, and maintain  that temperature  for half  an hour.
Having taken the crucible from the fire, and allowed it to cool, remove
its contents, dissolve them in  Distilled Water, filter the Solution, and 
Potassa.
1187
 complete the process by evaporating  and granulating as directed for
 Carbonate of Potassa.— U. S.
   History.—In  the above  process, by ignition of the bicarbonate of
 potassa, it is deprived of one equivalent of carbonic acid together with
 its water of crystallization, and the carbonate remains.  The bicarbonate
 being usually a very pure salt, the carbonate procured from it is like-
 wise as pure.
   Pure carbonate of potassa differs  from the carbonate in holding no
 impurities; its actions  are  the same.   It was  formerly  called Salt of
 Tartar, but,  the greater part of this salt at present found in the  shops,
 is the ordinary carbonate as purified  from pearlash.   It  may also be
 made as follows;  take of Bitartrate  of Potassa (cream of tartar), two
 pounds; Nitrate  of  Potassa,  a  pound.  Rub them  separately  into
 powder, then mix, and throw them into a brass vessel, heated nearly to
 redness, that they may undergo combustion.  From  the  residue  pre-
 pare  the purest carbonate of potassa, in the manner directed  for the
 carbonate.
   Properties and  Uses.—Precisely the  same as those of the Carbonate
 of Potassa.
   The Liquor Potassae Carbonatis, Solution of Carbonate of Potassa, is
 made by dissolving one pound of  Carbonate  of Potassa  in twelve fluid
 ounces of Distilled Water, and then filtering  the solution.   The dose is
 from ten to  sixty  drops, sufficiently diluted with water or other bland
 liquid.
   Potassa Chloras.   Chlorate of Potassa.
   Preparation. —Dissolve one equivalent of Caustic Potassa in  sufficient
 Water to form a Solution, containing  10^ per cent,  of the alkali (sp. gr.
 1.110), then mix  the solution with Hydrate  of Lime  (Quicklime), five
 and a half equivalents; heat the mixture gradually  to 122°, and subject
 it  to  a  rapid current of Chlorine  to saturation, the reaction caused by
 which raises the temperature to about  194°.  The product is then evapo-
 rated nearly  to dryness, the residue dissolved in Boiling Water, and the
 Solution filtered and set aside to crystallize.
   History.—This  is  the process of Prof. F. C. Calvert of Manchester,
 by which  260 parts  of chlorate  are obtained from 100 of anhydrous
 potassa,  while by  the old methods but 43 parts were procured.   In  the
 above process the  combination of  chlorine with the calcium, instead of
 the potassium, is determined by the temperature and the strength  of the
potassa solution; while the chlorine is converted into chloric acid by the
 oxygen  from  the  lime.  A higher or lower  density of the  solution of
potassa gives less  favorable  results.
   Chlorate of Potassa crystallizes  in four or six-sided rhomboidal platea,
 white, of a pearly luster, and permanent in the air.  It has a  cooling,
 saline taste like that of nitre.   It is soluble in two and a half parts of 
1188
Pharmacy.
 boiling water, and in sixteen parts of water at 60°.  Heat fuses it, and
 if carried to a little beyond its point of fusion, nearly 39 per cent,  of
 oxygen is disengaged, leaving a residuum of chloride of potassium.   It
 is due to this escape of oxygen that the combustion of burning fuel is
 enlivened when the salt is thrown upon it.   Mixed with a little sulphuric
 acid it becomes first yellow, and then red, and chlorous acid gas (quad-
 roxide of chlorine) is evolved, which has a yellow color, and is explosive
 when  heated.  When  triturated with a small piece of phosphorus or
 sulphur, a violent explosion ensues; mixed first with muriatic  acid, and
 then with water it becomes  possessed of bleaching power.  It consists
 of one equivalent of chloric  acid 75.42, and one of potassa 47.2=122.62,
 (ClOs+KO).
   From  faulty preparation, its  most  common  impurity is chloride of
 potassium.   This  may be detected by the  addition of nitrate of silver
 to its  solution, which  will  occasion a white precipitate  of chloride of
 silver, if  the impurity be  present.
   Properties and Uses.—Chlorate of potassa is considered a refrigerant
 and diuretic; and has been  used in cholera, and in malignant fevers for
 promoting the arterialization of the blood;  it is also said to moisten and
 clean the tongue.  According to Dr. O'Shaughnessy  and other physi-
 cians, it passes unchanged into the urine, and imparts  a bright  scarlet
 color to the venous blood.  It has been  used with considerable benefit
 in scurvy, syphilis, and liver complaint; and is strongly recommended
 in cancrum oris, given  in  solution, in divided doses, to the amount of
 from ten to sixty grains in twenty-four hours, according to the age  of
 the child.  It lessens the  fetor and salivation  attendant on  the disease,
 and promotes granulation.  Internally, and used as a mouth wash, it has
 been  recommended in  erysipelatous inflammation  of  the mouth and
 fauces, occurring in black  tongue.   The dose is from ten to thirty grains;
 and the mouth wash made  by dissolving a drachm of the salt in four
 fluidounces of water.
  Potassa  Sesquicarbonas.  Sesqui-carbonate of  Potassa.   Vegetable
 Caustic.
  Preparation.—Take  of Bicarbonate of Potassa one pound; Water a
sufficient  quantity.   Dissolve the Bicarbonate in the Water, strain and
then evaporate by means  of heat raised to a very few degrees above the
boiling point; when sufficiently concentrated set aside to cool.  Dry the
resulting sesquicarbonate  by a gentle heat.
  History.—This is the method  at present pursued in the preparation
of the Vegetable Caustic.  The bicarbonate  of potassa becomes partially
decomposed during the evaporating process, but whether it is converted
into a true sesquicarbonate  of potassa (2KO, 3CO2), or is  deprived of
half  its carbonic acid, remains yet to be  determined.
  Sesquicarbonate of Potassa, as prepared by the above process, is sold 
Potassa.
1189
in the form of a white powder, having a pungent, but not very powerful,
alkaline odor, a sharp, strongly alkaline taste, is permanent in dry air,
very soluble in water, but insoluble in alcohol.  It is incompatible with
the same  substances as the Carbonate of Potassa.
   The above preparation differs very materially from the original vegetable
caustic, which was prepared by making a  strong ley of hickory or oak-
wood  ashes, and evaporating  it, in  an iron  kettle, to dryness.  This
formed an  impure caustic potassa, of a dingy-gray or greenish color,
very caustic, but less so than  the hydrate of potassa, very deliquescent,
and  soluble in water.  It is more severe in its action than the sesquicar-
bonate, and has occasionally to  be employed in cases where  that exerts
but little or no beneficial influence.  As it  rapidly attracts moisture from
the atmosphere, it must, as soon as prepared, be placed in green glass
bottles with good corks or stoppers.
   Properties and Uses.—Each of these preparations are escharotic, but
do not, like the hydrate  of potassa, destroy or decompose the healthy
tissues; their action  appears  to be altogether exerted upon abnormal
growths and conditions of parts.  They are employed as local  applica-
tions to fistulas, cancers, fungous growths, indolent  ulcers,  unhealthy
conditions of mucous tissues,  as in ophthalmic affections, disease  of the
Schneiderian membrane, of  the  mouth  and throat,  urethra,  vaginal
walls, and cervix-uteri.  In solution, it has been injected into the uterus
in  dysmenorrhea,  uterine  leucorrhea, etc.,  without  any unpleasant
symptoms  arising.   In  these latter cases the  milder  sesquicarbonate
must be used, commencing with a weak solution, and  gradually increas-
ing in strength, until the maximum degree  that can be used, is obtained.
Upon healthy tissues these agents exert but very feeble action; and in
unhealthy conditions they bring about a normal  action without  exciting
an undue  degree of inflammation.   They  are peculiarly Eclectic  agents
of great value.
   Potassa Sulphas.   Sulphate of Potassa.
   Preparation.—Take of the  Salt which remains after the distillation of
Nitric Acid two pounds;  Boiling Water two gallons.   Ignite the Salt in
a  crucible until  the  excess of the Sulphuric Acid is  entirely expelled;
then  boil  it  in the two gallons of Water until a pellicle forms, and, the
liquor being strained, set it aside that  crystals may  form.  Pour off the
liquor from  the crystals and dry them.
   History.—When  a mixture of Nitre and Sulphate of Iron is  calcined
for the. purpose of obtaining nitric acid, the residue consists of sulphate
of potassa and sesquioxide of iron ; the former  may be separated from
the latter  by solution in  water, concentration, and crystallization.  The
sulphate may also be procured by other  processes, as by the action of
sulphuric  acid  on nitre  in the distillation of nitric  acid ; by the decom-
position which  ensues when   carbonate  of potassa  and sulphate of 
1190                        Pharmacy.
magnesia react upon each other, during the preparation of carbonate of
magnesia, etc.
  The salt which  remains after the distillation of nitric acid, is a super-
sulphate of potassa, and by the application of heat to remove the excess
of acid, it is brought into the neutral  state.   The  excess of acid may
also be removed by the addition of white marble, or slaked lime, either
of which  become  converted  into insoluble sulphate of  lime.  This ac-
complished, the  liquor or solution of the sulphate of potassa is strained,
evaporated, strained again, and allowed to cool, when the crystals form.
This salt also occurs in volcanic regions and in the juices of plants;  but
the medicinal article is always an artificial preparation.   It has at  dif-
ferent times been known under the names of Sulphate of Kali, Vitriolated
Tartar,  Sal-Polychrest, Sad de Duobus,  etc.
  Sulphate of potassa occurs in small, aggregated, transparent, white, very
hard crystals, whose primary form is the right rhombic prism or rhom-
bic octaedre, but which generally are short six-sided prisms terminated
by six-sided pyramids.  They have a sharp,  saline,  bitterish, and nau-
seous taste,  are permanent in the air, soluble slowly in about nine and a
half parts  of cold water, soluble in  nearly four times their weight of
boiling water, and insoluble in alcohol.   Heat causes a slight decrepi-
tation ;  and a strong red  heat fuses  them, but without change ; heated
with carbonaceous matter the sulphate is deoxidized, and sulphuret of
potassium formed.   A solution of sulphate of  potassa slightly acidulated
with nitric acid, yields a  white  precipitate with chloride of barium,  and
a yellow one with chloride of platinum.  It is incompatible with tartaric
acid which  unites with it to form bitartrate  of potassa, and with  the
soluble  salts of lime,  silver, strontia,  baryta,  and  lead, with which  it
forms insoluble  or  sparingly soluble sulphates.  It is  not subject to
adulteration.  It is  composed of one equivalent of  acid 40, and one of
potassa 47.2=87.2,  (S03+KO).
   Properties and Uses.—Sulphate  of potassa is a  mild  cathartic,  and
causes but little  pain, heat, or irritation during its operation.  In doses
of one or two ounces, it acts  as a powerful irritant, and has given rise to
fatal accidents.  It has been used as an aperient after delivery, for the
purpose of removing visceral  obstructions  of children attended with
defective digestion and nutrition, and  tumid abdomen, and in jaundice
and dyspeptic affections.  The dose  as an aperient is from a scruple to
half a drachm ; in larger doses, say  four or five drachms, it acts slowly
as a purge.  It  should always  be sufficiently diluted with water, when
administering it.
   Potassa Sulphas cum Sulphure.  Sulphate of Potassa with Sulphur.
   Preparation.—Take of Nitrate of Potassa, in powder, and of Sublimed
Sulphur, equal weights.  Mix them well together, and throw the mixture,
by small portions at a  time, into  a  red  hot crucible.  When  the 
Potassa.
1191
deflagration is over, allow the Salt to cool, and place it in a glass vessel
well stopped.
  History.—As the above named portions of the mixture are thrown into
the red-hot crucible, they melt,  and on  the  surface of the fused mass
floats the sulphur, having the appearance of a brown oil ;  it  burns with
a blue flame, throwing out in copious quantity sulphuric  acid  gas, and
becoming oxidated at the expense of the nitric acid of the nitre, which
is  totally decomposed, and enabled  to  furnish a  sufficient quantity of
oxygen for the above purpose.   The product of this deflagration is a
grayish-white  friable  substance, the nature of which  has  not been
ascertained.
  It has an acid and sulphurous taste, and an acid reaction with test-
paper ; it is much more soluble in water than sulphate of potassa, giving
off a sulphurous smell during its solution, which solution is yellowish.
Sulphureted hydrogen is not obtained on the addition of an acid to it, nor
is  sulphuret of lead thrown down by the salts of lead.   Its powder  is
pale yellowish-white; and it dissolves in eight times its weight of cold
water.   A white precipitate, insoluble in nitric acid, is occasioned by the
salts of barium, so  that sulphate of potassa is present,  and with which,
its  other properties coincide.  Even when prepared with equal  care, it
exhibits, in different specimens, some variety in its properties.
   Properties and Uses.—This preparation is considered a mild cathartic,
resembling very much in  its action, that of the sulphate of potassa.   It
was formerly much in vogue as a purgative in dyspepsia,  chronic cuta-
neous eruptions, etc.   The dose is  from half a drachm to a drachm,
and generally given with  some  other  gentle laxative, as bitartrate  of
potassa.
   Potassa Tartras.   Tartrate of Potassa.   Soluble Tartar.
   Preparation. —Take of Carbonate of Potassa sixteen ounces; Bitartrate
of  Potassa, (Cream of Tartar,) in powder,  three pounds  or a  sufficient
quantity; Boiling Water a gallon.  Dissolve the  Carbonate of Potassa in
the Water, then gradually add the  Bitartrate of Potassa, until efferves-
cence ceases, or until  the solution is  perfectly saturated, then  boil. Filter
the solution through  paper;  then evaporate it till a pellicle forms, and
set it  aside to crystallize.  Pour off the Water, dry the Crystals upon
bibulous paper, and keep them in closely stopped bottles.— U S.
   History.—Tartrate  of Potassa, also known by  the names of  Soluble
 Tartar, Sal Vegetabile, and  Tartarized Kali, was  known as early as  the
seventeenth century.   In the above process for obtaining it, the potassa
of the carbonate saturates the excess of acid of the bitartrate, while at
the same time the carbonic acid is given off with effervescence, and  at
the termination a neutral tartrate of potassa is formed.  As the carbon-
 ate of potassa  is more readily soluble  than the bitartrate, it should be
 dissolved first, and the latter added, (promoting the action  by constant 
1192
Pharmacy.
stirring,) until the saturation is completed, and which may be known by
the  cessation of effervescence.   As  the  solution should  be neutral, or
very slightly alkaline, should too much bitartrate have been added, the
solution  may be changed to its proper neutrality by a little  more of the
carbonate.   After saturation, the tartrate of lime, which  is  deposited in
white flocks, must be  separated by filtration, and  the evaporated solu-
tion then placed  in warm earthenware Aressels,  (not iron, as it is apt to
discolor  the salt,) to procure a gradual cooling, and after several days,
the crystals commence forming.   If  the  solution be somewhat alkaline,
crystallization ensues more favorably.
   Tartrate of potassa, when properly prepared,  is in the form of white,
transparent crystals, which are  right rhombic prisms, or irregular  six-
sided  prisms, terminated by two converging planes.  It has a  mildly
saline, bitterish taste, is neutral to test paper, becomes moist in damp air
without deliquescence, is soluble in about twice its weight of cold water,
and in much less of boiling water, and  is almost  insoluble in alcohol.
At a heat of-250°, its water of  crystallization  is driven off,  but  without
fusion, and  it becomes  anhydrous ;  at a  higher heat  it is decomposed,
fusing, SAvelling up, and  becoming finally converted into charcoal  and
carbonate of potassa.   The crystals  alone should be employed  for me-
dical use, and not the white granular powder of the shops, obtained by
constantly stirring the solution while  evaporating to  dryness.   It  is  sel-
dom adulterated.  It is incompatible  with  all the strong acids, and with
many acidulous salts.   Its solution is precipitated by the salts of baryta,
silver and lead, forming white tartrates of the metallic oxides, which are
soluble in dilute nitric  acid.   It is composed of one equivalent of  acid
66, and  one of potassa 47.2=113.2—the crystals  having no water of
crystallization, KO,  Gt H2 Oo.
   Properties and Uses.—Tartrate of potassa is a mild cooling purgative,
operating without much pain, and producing watery  stools.  Used in
febrile diseases, and occasionally combined with senna to obviate its
griping effects.  Dose,  from a drachm to an ounce.
   Potassii  Bromidum.   Bromide of  Potassium.
   Preparation.—Take of Bromine two ounces;  Iron Filings an ounce;
Carbonate of Potassa  two ounces and a drachm, or a sufficient quantity;
Distilled Water four pints.  Add first the Iron Filings, and afterward
the Bromine, to a pint  and  a half of the Distilled Water,  stirring the
mixture  frequently with  a spatula for half an hour.  Apply a  gentle
heat, and, when the liquor assumes a greenish color, add  gradually the
Carbonate of Potassa, previously dissolved in a pint and a half of the
Distilled  Water, until it ceases to produce a precipitate.   Continue the
heat for half an hour, and then filter.   Wash the  precipitate with  the
remaining pint of Distilled Water, boiling hot, and filter.  Mix  the fil-
tered liquors, and evaporate so  that  crystals may  form.  Lastly, pour
off the liquid, and dry the crystals on bibulous paper.— U. S. 
Potassa.
1193
   History.—In this process,  the addition of the iron  and bromine to the
 water, forms a solution of bromide of protoxide of iron, which is decom-
 posed by the subsequent  addition of the carbonate of potassa, the car-
 bonate  of protoxide  of iron being  precipitated, while the bromide of
 potassium is held in solution.  The  carbonate  of iron is separated from
 the solution by filtration,  and by the evaporation bromide of potassium
 is obtained in crystals.
   Bromide of Potassium crystallizes in cubes or rectangular four-sided
 tables, which  are permanent in  the air, of a pearly luster,  and anhy-
 drous; and possessing a pungent,  saline taste, somewhat like that of
 common salt.  It is very soluble in water, sparingly so in alcohol, decrep-
 itates when heated, and at a red-heat  fuses without becoming  decom-
 posed.   Its aqueous  solution has no action on litmus or turmeric, is not
 precipitated by  chloride  of  barium, but is decomposed by sulphuric,
 nitric, and muriatic acids,  which set free bromine, and the liquid becomes
 brown.   Mixed with  starch and then acted upon by  sulphuric acid, the
 bromine  is disengaged, and the liquid becomes yellow.  Nitrate of silver
 14.28 grains are required to completely precipitate ten grains of the bro-
 mide of potassium, the  precipitate being yelloAvish.  A few drops of a
 weak solution of chlorine  added to its solution, will indicate the presence
 of iodine, by imparting a  faintly blue or violet color to a piece of white
 paper moistened with the liquid.  It is  composed  of one equivalent of
 bromine  78.4, and one of potassium 39.2=117.0,  (K Br.)
   Properties and Uses.—Bromide of Potassium is considered an altera-
 tive  and  resolvent.   It  has been  recommended  in enlarged  spleen,
 scrofula,  secondary  and  tertiary  syphilis.  In the latter diseases, its
 effects are  slow  and unsatisfactory compared with those of  Iodide of
 Potassium; in large doses it  is said  to produce nausea, gastric  derange-
 ments, drowsiness, torpor, anaesthesia of the fauces, and  debility of the
 genital organs.   Externally, it has been used  in the form of ointment,
 in conjunction with its  internal use, or that of iodine,  and has  proved
 efficacious in bronchocele, scrofula, and  enlarged spleen.   The  dose of
 it is from three to ten grains, three times a day, in pill or solution.  The
 ointment is made by mixing  from two  scruples to two drachms of the
 bromide  with an ounce  of lard; of  which  from one-fourth to one-half
 may be rubbed over the affected part, once in twenty-four hours.
   Potassii Cyanuretum.  Cyanuret of Potassium.
   Preparation. — Take of Ferrocyanuret of  Potassium, dried, eight
ounces;  Carbonate  of Potassa, dried, three ounces.   Mix the  salts inti-
mately, and throw the mixture into a deep iron crucible previously heated
 to redness;  maintain  the  temperature till effervescence ceases, and  the
fused mass concretes,  of a pure white  color, upon a warm glass rod dipped
into it; then pour out the  liquid carefully into a shallow dish to solidify,
stopping  before  the  Salt  becomes contaminated with  the  precipitated 
1194
Pharmacy.
iron.   Break up the mass while yet warm, and preserve it in well stopped
bottles.— U  S.
   History.—In this process two equivalents of carbonate of potassa, and
two of ferrocyanuret of potassium react upon each other ; carbonic acid is
eArolved, iron is set free, and a  compound  is formed  consisting  of five
equivalents  of  cyanuret of  potassium,  and one  of cyanate of potassa.
The iron settles at the  bottom  of the fused liquid, which must be care-
fully poured off to avoid any contamination with the iron. The cyanate of
potassa is not present in sufficient quantity to injure the medicinal action
of the salt; and it may be  detected  by saturating the product with an
acid, which will evolve  carbonic acid  with effervescence, and give rise to
an ammoniacal salt.                                       (
   The  process  for preparing cyanuret of potassium,  according  to the
French Codex,  is to  half fill a coated stoneware or iron retort with the
ferrocyanuret, attach  a  tube to it for the purpose of  collecting  the gas-
eous products,  and apply heat, until the gases cease to be disengaged;
then raise the heat to a very high temperature which must  be maintained
for half an  hour.  After this calcination, a black substance will be found
in the retort, covered  with a fused layer of pure cyanuret of potassium,
resembling white enamel, which should be at once removed and  placed
into  a well stopped bottle.  The remaining mass is  an  impure black
cyanuret of potassium.
   Cyanuret of potassium, as prepared  by the above formula,  is amor-
phous, white, and opake, deliquescent in moist air, soluble in water, but
sparingly so in alcohol.   It  has  a  sharp, alkaline, bitter-almond taste,
and an alkaline reaction.  It is  always white when  pure, but  any con-
tamination with iron renders it yellow.  Exposed to the air it loses its
strength gradually either in mass or solution.  As found in commerce it
varies considerably in regard to purity ; the usual impurities are water,
carbonate,  cyanate, and formiate of potassa.  Nitrate of silver added
to its  solution precipitates cyanuret of silver, which is completely soluble
in ammonia.   Cyanuret of potassium is composed of  one equivalent of
cyanogen 26, and one of potassium 39.2=65.2,  (K Cy).
   Properties and Uses.—Cyanuret of  Potassium is  poisonous, acting
precisely like hydrocyanic acid.   Medicinally, it has been proposed as a
substitute for that acid, on account of its greater  uniformity of strength,
and its less liability to decomposition.   The dose is one-eighth of a grain,
dissolved in half a fluidounce of  distilled water, to which may be added
some  aromatic syrup,  or if it is desired to set free the  hydrocyanic acid,
half a fluidrachm of. lemon-syrup may  be  added.  Great care must be
employed in using this preparation.   Externally, four grains of the salt
to a fluidounce of distilled water, has  been efficaciously used in neu-
ralgic  and  other local  pains, applied by means  of lint or linen.  The 
Potassa.
1195
 solution dropped into  the  eye every other day, will, it is said, remove
 the olive colored stains of  the  conjunctiva, produced by the  nitrate of
 silver.
   Potassii Iodidum.   Iodide of Potassium.
   Preparation.—Take of Potassa six ounces;  Iodine, in powder, sixteen
 ounces ;  Charcoal, in fine powder, two ounces ; Boiling Water three pints.
 Dissolve  the  Potassa in the Water, add the  Iodine gradually, stirring
 after each addition until the solution becomes colorless, and continue the
 additions until the liquid remains slightly colored from excess of Iodine.
 Evaporate the solution  to  dryness, stirring in the Charcoal toward the
 close, so that  it may be intimately mixed with the dried Salt.   Rub  this
 to powder, and heat it to dull redness in an iron crucible,  maintaining that
 temperature for  fifteen minutes; then, after it has cooled,  dissolve out
 the saline matter with pure Water, filter  the solution,  evaporate,  and
 set aside to  crystallize.  An  additional quantity of Crystals may  be
 obtained  from the residual  liquid by evaporating and  crystallizing as
 before.— U. S.
   History.—In this process, a  slight  excess of iodine  is added  to  an
 aqueous solution  of potassa, which results in the formation of two salts,
 Iodate of Potassa and Iodide of Potassium.  The reaction of six equiv-
 alents of iodine with six of  potassa,  gives rise to the formation  of  five
 equivalents  of iodide of potassium, and one of iodate of potassa.  These
 salts are obtained together  by evaporating the solution to dryness ;  and
 to convert the iodate into iodide of potassium,  the dried mass is exposed
 to a dull-red heat. The addition of charcoal toward the  termination of
 the evaporation facilitates the deoxidation of the  iodate, by  exposure to
 a dull-red heat.   The iodide of potassium is then  dissolved  from  the
 mass, the solution filtered, evaporated, and set aside to crystallize.
   Iodide of Potassium, when pure, is in crystals or fragments of crystals,
 which are cubes or four-sided prisms, with a slight tendency to the rhom-
 bic form.   They are  colorless,  and opake, with a faint odor of iodine,
 and a sharp, saline taste.   In dry air they are permanent,  but slightly
 deliquescent in a moist one.  They have but  little influence  on litmus
 or turmeric.  They dissolve in about two-thirds their weight of cold
 water, and in  from six to eight  parts of alcohol.   Sulphuric  acid decom-
poses a solution of iodide of potassium, producing hydriodic  acid, Avhich
 rapidly decomposes, setting free iodine;  if starch be added, the liquid is
 changed to  a  blue color, after standing a short time ; but if any iodate
be present, the blue color appears at once, in consequence of the imme-
diate liberation of iodine.  Tartaric  acid  added freely to a concentrated
solution of iodine of potassium,  occasions a white crystalline precipitate,
 and if starch be added to the supernatant liquid, it  becomes first purple
and then blue.   Its solution is  colored brownish-red by the addition of
chloride of platinum, without occasioning a precipitate;  it  is  but little 
1196
Pharmacy.
affected by chloride of barium ;  and not at all by sulphate of iron, unless
carbonate of potassa be present, when a whitish or greenish-Avhite pre-
cipitate occurs,  which effervesces on the addition of a diluted acid.   A
low red-heat fuses it, giving a crystalline pearly mass on cooling ;  a full
red-heat volatilizes it without decomposition.  The solution of iodide of
potassium possesses the  property of dissolving a large quantity of iodine,
forming a liquid of a deep-brown color, containing the iodureted iodide.
Iodide of potassium consists of  one equivalent of iodine  126.3 and one
of potassium 39.2=165.5, (KI).
  It is exceedingly subject to adulteration, both from faulty manufacture,
and fraudulent admixture.   The most usual impurities are the iodate of
potassa, carbonate of  potassa, chlorides of sodium and potassium, and
water.  Iodate of potassa is generally present only as an accidental im-
purity ; it may be detected  by its insolubility in  alcohol;  also by the
rich  blue color produced at once by the addition of  tartaric acid and
starch solution.   When  pure, neither the iodide of potassium, nor the
iodate of potassa are thus affected, but  only when they become mixed.
Carbonate of potassa may be present in the proportion of from one  to
five per cent., and even ten,  without altering the crystalline  appearance
of the iodide ;  but it  increases  its  tendency to deliquesce.   When the
proportion is greater  than this the iodide becomes  granular  and highly
deliquescent.   This impurity may be detected by the insolubility of the
carbonate in alcohol; by the addition of limewater, which precipitates a
milky carbonate of lime; and by its  destroying the color of tincture of
iodine when it is added  to the  solution.  Chloride of sodium  or  potas-
sium  may be detected by the addition of nitrate of silver, which, if the
salt be pure, will  precipitate iodide of silver, which is hardly soluble  in
ammonia; but  if the precipitate be  soluble in ammonia it is a chloride
of silver, and the salt is rendered impure by the presence of a chloride.
If the ammonia be saturated with nitric  acid, it will give up the chloride
of silver as a white precipitate ; but if no chloride be present, the am-
monia,  as before said, takes up  a very minute  portion of iodide of silver,
and the subsequent addition  of  nitric acid, will hardly disturb the trans-
parency of the  solution.  The  presence of  water may be detected  by
heating the iodide in a glass  tube, upon which the water will condense
in the upper part of the  tube.   Bromide of  potassium  is also an adulte-
ration which  may be detected by bichloride of mercury, with which  it
causes no precipitate.  Or, it may be detected by  adding to an aqueous
solution of the iodide, successively and  in excess,  a solution of sulphate
of copper, and aqueous  sulphurous acid ; filter the  liquor, and treat  it
with ether and chlorine Avater.  Shake the whole together and allow it to
rest;  if the ether, which rises  to  the surface, be  tinged  of a reddish-
yellow color, bromine is present.   Iodide of  Potassium is often  incor-
rectly called by the name of Hydriodate of Potash. 
Potassa.
1197
   Properties and Uses.—In large doses Iodide of Potassium is an irritant.
In  small doses it is diuretic and alterative ;  it has been  detected in the
urine, in six minutes after being swallowed.  This may be accomplished
by adding a portion of starch to the cold urine, and then a feAv drops of
nitric acid ;  if the iodide be present, this will produce a blue color.  In
some constitutions Iodide of Potassium produces peculiar symptoms, such
as dryness and  irritation of  the throat, irritation of the mucous mem-
brane of the air passages, various cutaneous eruptions, excessive diure-
sis, cerebral excitement resembling that  caused by  alcoholic  liquors,
vascular injection of the conjunctiva and tumefaction of the eyelids, and
discharges from the vagina and urethra, simulating blennorrhea.  Upon
ceasing the use  of  the medicine,  these various symptoms  gradually
disappear.   Iodism is  occasionally caused  by it, or some of the symp-
toms  characterizing  that  influence.   It appears  to be more  especially
useful in goitre, strumous enlargement of the glands, strumous sores and
eruptions, strumous ophthalmia, syphilitic  affections, mammary tumors,
enlargement  of  the  liver,  amenorrhea,  leucorrhea,  mercurio-syphilitic
sore-throat,  mercurial  cachexy, and indeed  all  tubercular affections of
serous tissues.  It is extensively employed in the above forms of disease,
by Eclectics, in combination  with  the Compound Syrup of Stillingia, in
the proportion of four drachms of the Salt to a pint of the Syrup. When
taken for a length of time, and especially if used in rather large doses,
it will excite ptyalism,  and frequently an affection of  the mucous mem-
branes of the  air passages, very much resembling a cold  in  the head.
The dose of it is from  two to ten  grains  ; it should always be given in
solution and well diluted, and  should also  be prescribed in the simplest
possible form, on account of its numerous chemical relations with other
bodies, many of which decompose  it, and form insoluble iodides.
   Off. Prep.—Liquor  Iodinii Compositus; Pilulae Ferri Iodidi; Tinc-
tura Iodinii Composita  ; Unguentum Iodinii Compositum.
   Potassii Sulphuretum.   Sulphuret of Potassium.    Hepar.   Liver of
Sulphur.
  Preparation.—Take  of Sulphur  an ounce; Carbonate of Potassa two
ounces.  Rub the Carbonate of Potassa, previously dried, with the  Sul-
phur ; melt  the  mixture in a covered crucible over the fire ; then pour
it out on a marble slab, and as soon as cold, break it into pieces, and put
them into a well stopped bottle.— U. S.
  History.—By the above process a mixture is obtained of tersulphuret
of potassium with sulphate of potassa.  On  the application of heat to the
mixture, the carbonic acid of the carbonate is expelled.  We  may sup-
pose, in this  operation, that ten equivalents of sulphur react on  four
of potassa.  Of the potassa,  three  equivalents are decomposed and con-
verted into three of oxygen and three of potassium.   These latter three 
1198
Pharmacy.
combine with nine equivalents of the sulphur, and form three equivalents
of tersulphuret of potassium.   The  remaining equivalent of sulphur is
converted into sulphuric acid  by the action of the three equivalents of
oxygen, and  sulphate of potassa is  formed by the combination of this
gas with the  undecomposed equivalent of potassa.
  The best formula for  the preparation of sulphuret of potassium is that
of M. Henry; he  mixes one part of roll sulphur, in powder, with two
parts of pure  salt of tartar, and places  the mixture into flat-bottomed
matrasses, each of which should be only two-thirds filled.  These are
placed on a sand-bath, and  heat applied at first gentle,  but finally
increased, and continued until  the whole is thoroughly fused, when  it
is allowed to cool.  The necks of the matrasses  must be kept free  from
any obstruction.   The  resulting mass  is smooth, compact, and of a fine
yellow color;  it should  be placed in well stopped  bottles after having
been broken into pieces.
  Sulphuret of potassium is a hard, brittle substance, of a  liver-brown
color, having a nauseous, bitterish, and alkaline taste, and no odor when
dry.  When moistened with water it emits a very fetid smell, owing  to
the disengagement of sulphureted hydrogen.  When exposed to the air,
it gradually absorbs oxygen, and undergoes a series of changes, result-
ing  in the formation of sulphate of potassa and free  sulphur, and the
mass becomes inodorous,  and  white  on its surface.  It is soluble in
water, forming an orange-yellow solution, with a strong smell of sulphu-
reted hydrogen.   It is incompatible with the mineral  acids which pre-
cipitate sulphur, and free  sulphureted hydrogen, and with most metallic
solutions which are thrown down as sulphurets.   Winckler has found
specimens of it to consist of tersulphuret of potassium  53.3 parts, hypo-
sulphite of  potassa 29.5, sulphite of potassa 7, together with a small
quantity of  sulphate and carbonate.
  Properties and  Uses.  — Sulphuret of Potassium is  a local irritant,
producing in doses  of  a few drachms  dangerous  inflammation of the
alimentary canal with  tetanic  spasms;  sometimes it acts as an emetic
and cathartic.  In small  doses, and repeated, it is said to increase the
temperature of the surface, also the  frequency of the pulse, and to aug-
ment the secretions, particularly those from mucous membranes.  It is
likewise antacid, alterative, and antispasmodic, and has been  advanta-
geously employed in chronic  rheumatism and  gout, various cutaneous
affections, painter's  colic, chronic catarrh, asthma, and  hooping-cough.
Externally,  it has been very efficacious in scabies  and other cutaneous
diseases, in  the form of lotion, bath, or ointment.   For a lotion, or oint-
ment, fifteen to  thirty grains of the  sulphuret may be dissolved in one
ounce  of  water,  or mixed with an  ounce of lard—and for a bath the
same quantity may be  added  to each gallon of water.   The dose, inter-
nally, is from two to ten grains, three or four  times a day, in solution
with syrup,  or given in pill form with liquorice. 
Pulveres.
1199
                           PULVERES.
                             Powders.
  Medicines which  have no very unpleasant taste, no corrosive action,
which are not deliquescent, and which do not require to be given in
very large doses, are the most  conveniently administered in the  form
of powder.  When an  article  is  reduced to powder,  it has a  much
greater  surface exposed to the action of the air and light, than when in
the crude, aggregate  mass; and as many, if not all Powders, are more
or less injured by the action of these agents, it is always better to keep
them in well stopped  bottles, and  excluded  from the action of light, by
a coating of black varnish, or by other means.  Were druggists to pursue
this rule, they would  find it very advantageous in many respects.  Some
agents, notwithstanding even these precautions, lose their virtues rapidly
when in the state of powder; such should be pulverized in small quantities
at a time, and only as  they are required. As  a general rule, the finer the
Powder, or the longer it is triturated, the  more active it becomes.  And
in the various preparations of the Alkaloids,  and Resinoids, care must be
taken, in all instances, to triturate  for at least nearly half an hour, which
renders them  much more energetic  and  effectual in  their results.  M.
Dorvault thinks  that the  operation  of pulverization  effects  an  actual
change  in  the  chemical and therapeutical  properties of many  agents.
Sugar is less soluble  in water, and less sweet, when long pulverized or
triturated—and, he inquires, Is this to be referred to  an altered  electri-
cal condition of the sugar, as the phosphorescence developed during the
act of pulverization in the dark would lead us to suppose ?   Gum arabic
powdered, has not the  same taste, nor the  same  solubility, as when in
the entire state.  If a given quantity of water may be made to dissolve
forty parts of arsenious acid in the vitreous  state, the same quantity of
water can be  made to  dissolve only fourteen  parts after pulverization.
(Annals of Pharmacy, May, 1852.)   Changes of this  kind  may ensue
from the action of light, the oxygen of the  atmosphere,  its nitrogen, or
its electricity, etc., upon matter  reduced to such a state of  fineness that
nearly every part of it  is exposed to the peculiar agent which  effects
these changes.
   Simple powders are  those which consist  of a single  substance;  com-
pound powders, those  containing two or more ingredients mixed together.
As the  substances  entering into the  formation of a compound  powder
may be of various textures and densities, it is generally,  preferable to
pulverize each article separately, then mix and triturate them together
thoroughly.   Some articles, however, require the intervention of another
before they can be reduced to poAvder, as Camphor, which is pulverized
by the addition of a few drops of alcohol; or Camphor and Opium which
require  the addition of sugar or gum Arabic; others again, are powdered
with facility by the aid  of a harder substance.  Medicines that  contain 
1200
Pharmacy.
a large proportion of fixed oil, or which are deliquescent should never
be prescribed in powders, especially Avhen they are to be kept, as  the
latter  are  apt to injure  the preparation  by their moisture, while  the
former may destroy it in consequence of rancidity.   Articles which are
incompatible should  never  be united together, unless the  decomposing
compound is  required.  When volatile  or deliquescent substances  are
prescribed in powders, as camphor, carbonate of ammonia, or carbonate
of potassa, they should be divided in waxed papers, and inclosed in tin
foil,  a tin box, or a wide  mouthed vial before delivering them.   The
paper used for powders  of ordinary  character, should be very smooth,
or glazed, to prevent the powder from adhering to  it, and sufficiently
soft  and yielding to be opened or closed readily, without springing so as
to throw out any portion  of the  powder.  Some apothecaries fold up
their powders in foolscap paper, and these when  opened by the patient,
in consequence of their  stiffness, spill  or throw out a very  material
proportion of the  medicine.  When a powder  is prescribed  in bulk,
leaving it to the patient to apportion  the dose, unless otherwise desired,
it should always be put into a wide mouthed vial.
  The  old  absurd  and unscientific  style of combining  eight or ten
articles  in  one preparation  is fortunately  becoming  unpopular,  and
though  a few preparations  of the kind  are retained, yet the  major
amount  of  our present  compounds  consist of  but  two or three, and
never exceeding four substances; in the  former, the articles were  too
frequently thrown together without any guide or rule, or any regard to
compatibilities, and though benefit might be derived from these hetero-
geneous mixtures, it was always difficult to ascertain  upon which article
or articles the effect depended, or whether it was owing to a third agent,
the result of decomposition.
  In preparing powders, the proper plan is to dry the article, then beat
it in an iron mortar, and after a short trituration, sift it through  a  fine
sieve, and return the coarser parts to the mortar, and repeat this alter-
nate pulverization and sifting several times  until the process is completed.
When very active articles, such as strychnia, chloride of gold, atropia,
etc., are to be given in  the form of  powders—gum, sugar, sugar of
milk, starch, or marsh-mallow should be triturated with them,  in order
to facilitate their reduction to minute division.
  Light powders may be given in water,  gruel, milk, etc.; heavy ones
require syrup, molasses, honey, or one of the confections;  always bear-
ing in mind whether the vehicle be compatible with the active  ingredi-
ents of the powder.
  Pulvis Asclepia Compositus.   Compound Powder of Pleurisy Root.
  Preparation.—Take of Pleurisy  Root, and Spearmint, each in  powder,
and  Sumach Berries, of each, two ounces; Bayberry Bark and Skunk
Cabbage, of each,  in powder, one ounce; Pulverized Ginger half an
ounce.   Mix them. 
Pulveres.
1201
   Properties and Uses.—Very useful diaphoretic in coughs, colds, and
 as  a drink in  febrile  diseases.   Two drachms of the  poAvder may be
 infused in half a  pint of boiling water, sweetened, and drank in wine-
 glassful doses,  every hour or two.  Or in common colds, the half pint
 of  warm infusion may be taken at a draught, and repeated in an hour
 if necessary.— W. S. M.
   Pulvis Camphora Compositus.   Compound Powder of Camphor.
   Preparation.—Take of Tannic Acid, Kino, Camphor, each, in powder,
 one scruple; Opium,  in powder, half a scruple.  Mix well together, and
 divide into twenty powders.
   Properties and Uses.—These  powders  are  stimulant,  antispasmodic,
 anodyne, and astringent, and have proved highly successful in  the treat-
 ment of Asiatic cholera, cholerine, and severe cholera morbus.  They
 speedily check  the discharges, and relieve  the  pains or cramps.   The
 dose is one powder, to be given after each discharge from the bowels, or
 oftener if the urgency of the case require it.  The powders may be
 given  in  molasses,  quince syrup,  or blackberry jelly.  Where more
 stimulus is required, one  or two grains of capsicum may be  added to
 each dose.—J.  K.
   Pulvis Carbonis Ligni Compositus.   Compound Powder of Charcoal.
   Preparation. —Take of Charcoal two ounces; Rhubarb, in powder, one
 ounce; Bicarbonate of Soda half an ounce.  Mix together.
   Properties and Uses.—This  preparation will be found very  beneficial
 in  dyspepsia, attended with acidity  of the  stomach,  loss  of appetite,
 constipation  or diarrhea, and  distress at the stomach  after eating.  It
 will prove useful  in  all derangements of  the  digestive  functions where
 acidity of the stomach is present.   The dose  is a teaspoonful in water
 or Indian meal gruel, three or  four times a day.  If cream of tartar one
 ounce, be substituted for the Bicarbonate of Soda, it will form  an excel-
 lent laxative powder  for piles.—J. K.
   Pulvis Cypripedii Compositus.   Compound Powder  of Yellow Ladies
 Slipper.   Nerve Powder.
   Preparation.—Take  of  Yellow Ladies  Slipper Root, Pleurisy  Root,
 Skunk Cabbage Root,  and Scullcap, of each,  in  powder, one ounce.
 Mix them.
  Properties  and Uses.—This  powder is  useful to  allay irritability or
 excitability of the nervous system, to relieve spasms, and  to produce
 sleep  in restless, wakeful,  or excited  conditions.  When acidity of the
 stomach is present, it is common to add Bicarbonate of  Soda, an  ounce.
 The dose  is  from  half a  drachm to a drachm three times a day, or as
required; it is usually administered in tea  or water.—J. K.
  Pulvis Hydrastis Compositus.   Compound Powder  of Golden Seal.
  Preparation.—Take of Golden Seal, Blue Cohosh, and Helonias, each,
in powder, half an ounce.   Mix together.
          76 
1202
Pharmacy.
   Properties and  Uses.—This  powder is tonic and antispasmodic.  It
 will be found very efficient in  dyspepsia,  chronic  inflammation of the
 mucous membrane of the stomach, and will afford much relief in cases
 of distress of the stomach  after eating, and  in aphthous inflammations
 of the mouth.  It may  also be  administered to prevent a relapse, in
 bilious  colic.   The dose is from half a drachm to a drachm, three or
 four times a day, in water, tea,  or wine, as the case  may require.__J. K.
   Pulvis  Hydrastini Compositus.  Compound Powder of Hydrastin.
   Preparation.—Take of Hydrastin, Cornin, and Myricin, of each  one
 scruple.   Mix together and divide into twenty powders.
   Properties and Uses.—Stimulant, tonic, and exerting an influence on
 mucous membranes.   It will be  found useful in chronic gastritis, and
 some forms of dyspepsia, jaundice, etc.  The dose is one powder, every
 two,  three, or four  hours, as  the case may require.   It will also be
 found an excellent tonic  during  convalescence  from exhausting dis-
 eases.—R. S. N.
   Pulvis Ipecacuanha Compositus.  Compound Powder of Ipecacuanha.
   Preparation.—Take of Pleurisy Root, Blood Root, Ipecacuanha, Nitrate
 of Potassa, of each, in powder, one drachm.   Mix them.
   Properties and Uses.—This powder has both diuretic and diaphoretic
 effects upon the system;  it  is useful in febrile and inflammatory diseases,
 and especially in cases where, from idiosyncracy or other causes,  opium
 is inadmissible.  The dose  is ten or fifteen grains every hour or two.
   Pulvis  Ipecacuanha et Opii Compositus.  Compound Powder of
 Ipecacuanha and Opium.   Diaphoretic Powder.
   Preparation.—Take of Opium,  in powder, half a drachm;  Camphor,
 in powder, two drachms;  Ipecacuanha, in powder, one drachm; Bitartrate
 of Potassa one ounce.   Mix them.
   Properties  and Uses.—This  powder is  a valuable anodyne and dia-
 phoretic, and  is perhaps, superior  to any other preparation in its dia-
 phoretic effects upon  the system.   It is of great efficacy in  all  febrile
 and  inflammatory  diseases, diarrhea, dysentery, cholera morbus, gout,
 rheumatism, after-pains,  all cases of nervous irritability or excitement,
 and wherever an anodyne combined with a diaphoretic is required.  It
 promotes  perspiration without  increasing the heat of the  body.   The
 above is  the  original formula, but practitioners vary in preparing it
 according to their favorite  views;  thus  some  omit  the cream of tartar
 and  substitute nitrate of potassa,  or bicarbonate of soda, while  others
 omit  the  opium, substituting  in  its place  lactucarium, or  twice the
 quantity of cypripedin.   Dose,  three to five grains  every three or  four
 hours in febrile or inflammatory diseases;  and in some cases, ten grains,
three times a day.  Its  action may be materially  promoted  as  a dia-
phoretic by warm drinks, such  as  catnip, balm, or sage tea, lemonade, 
Pulveres.
1203
etc., which, however, should not be given immediately after the admin-
istration  of the powder, lest  vomiting be  provoked.   In rheumatism,
pneumonia,  cerebral affections,  hepatic  disease, etc., it is frequently
combined with small doses of podophyllin.
  In  preparing the powder, the Camphor must first  be reduced to
powder by trituration with a few drops  of alcohol, then add  a  small
portion of the Bitartrate of Potassa,  continue the trituration until the
Camphor has been still further divided, add the Opium in powder, then
the Ipecacuanha, and lastly,  the remainder of the Bitartrate, and tritu-
rate all together for fifteen or twenty minutes.—N. Smith.
  Pulvis Jalapa  Compositus.   Compound  Powder  of Jalap.   Anti-
bilious Physic.
  Preparation.—Take  of Alexandria Senna,  in  powder, two pounds;
Jalap, in powder, one pound;  Cloves  or Ginger,  in powder, two ounces.
Mix them.
  Properties and  Uses.—This forms  an  excellent purgative, useful in
nearly all cases  where such action is required.  It combines power with
mildness, and acts throughout the whole  alimentary canal, cleansing it
of all  abnormal  accumulations, and stimulating  the whole biliary appara-
tus  to healthy action.  It may be given to either  sex, and at all  ages;
and is used in all  febrile, inflammatory or chronic  diseases, being contra-
indicated in severe gastric or intestinal inflammation, and requires to be
used cautiously and in moderate doses, during pregnancy, menorrhagia,
and certain other diseases.  Dose, one drachm, put into a gill of boiling
water, and  allowed to stand till cold,  then  sweeten if desired, stir, and
drink the whole contents.  Milk, wine, cider,  lemonade or coffee, etc.,
may be substituted, in proper cases, for the water.  In  febrile diseases
its utility will be much increased  by adding about ten grains of  bitar-
trate of potassa to each dose.
  Pulvis Leptandrini Compositus.   Compound Powder of Leptandrin.
  Preparation.—Take of Leptandrin, in  powder, one drachm; Podo-
phyllin, in powder, half  a drachm; Sugar of  milk five drachms.   Mix,
and triturate well together.
  Properties and Uses.—This  preparation is a  cholagogue cathartic, of
immense benefit  in epidemic dysentery, in doses of eight grains, re-
peated every hour or two, until it operates freely; after which it  may
be  given two  or  three  times a  day.  It may likewise be used  with
advantage in typhoid, remittent, and intermittent fevers, with or without
the addition of sulphate of  quinia, also in all   biliary derangements.
The addition of three  grains of Santonin to each  dose, and given  twice
a day, forms an admirable anthelmintic.—/. K.
  Pulvis Lobelia Compositus.—Compound Powder of Lobelia.  Emetic
Powder. 
1204
Pharmacy.
  Preparation.—Take  of Lobelia, in powder, twelve  ounces; Bloodroot
and Skunk Cabbage, in powder, of each, six ounces; Ipecacuanha eight
ounces; Capsicum, in powder, two ounces.  Mix them.
  Properties and Uses.—This forms an  excellent emetic, and may be
used in all cases where an  emetic  is indicated; it  vomits  easily and
promptly,  without causing cramps, or excessive  prostration.  The  dose
is two drachms,  one  fourth of which (half a drachm) must be given
every fifteen minutes, in an infusion  of boneset.  Warm boneset drank
freely during the time of taking it, will very much facilitate its  operation;
and it will also be found that, in many cases, temperate water (at 60°)
will be equally as effective in assisting the induction of emesis as the infu-
sion, and much more agreeable.—J. K.
  Pulvis  Myrica Compositus.  Compound Powder of Bayberry. Ceph-
alic Powder.
  Preparation.—Take of  Bayberry Bark  and Bloodroot, of each, in
powder, one ounce.  Mix them.
  Properties and  Uses.  This  powder is used either alone or combined
with an  equal part of common  snuff, as a  snuff in catarrh,  headache,
polypus, etc.  In obstinate affections of the nasal mucous membrane,
it is frequently combined with Sesquicarbonate of Potassa one or  two
drachms, and Golden Seal, half an ounce.
  Pulvis  Nigrum.  Black Powder.  Emmenagogue Powder.
  Preparation. — Take of Flowers of Sulphur,  Myrrh,  Steel Filings,
Loaf Sugar, of each,  in fine powder, four ounces; White Wine two pints.
Mix together, and by means of a gentle heat, evaporate till nearly dry.
Remove from the fire, and when cold, pulverize and keep in well stopped
bottles.
  Properties  and Uses. — This  compound  has been used with much
success in the treatment of primary or idiopathic amenorrhea, chlorosis,
etc.  The dose is half a drachm, to be repeated three times a day; it may
be taken in syrup, or molasses, or  in the form  of pills.  It will also be
found an excellent remedy in several forms  of cutaneous disease.
  Pulvis  Podophylli Compositus.   Compound Powder of Mandrake.
  Preparation. — Take of  Blue Flag, Mandrake,  Bitter  Root, Swamp
Milkweed, each, in powder, one ounce;  Blood Root half an ounce.  Mix
together.
  Properties  and Uses.—This powder is cathartic and alterative, and is
very valuable in  cases of obstinate constipation, hepatic derangements,
dyspepsia, worms, and in scrofulous, rheumatic, and syphilitic affections.
The dose is half  a drachm or a drachm, repeated three times a day ; it
may be administered in water or tea.—J. K.
  Pulvis  Podophyllini Compositus.  Compound Powder of  Podophyl-
lin.  Hydragogue Powder. 
Pulveres.
1205
   Preparation.—Take of  Podophyllin four grains; Bitartrate  of Po-
 tassa three drachms.   Mix intimately together.
   Properties and Uses.—This is an active hydragogue, and is frequently
 employed in dropsy, obstructed menstruation, etc.   (It is employed in
 place of the old Compound Powder of Mandrake, which was composed
 of  equal parts  of Powdered  Mandrake  Root,  Cream of Tartar,  and
 Spearmint,  and which was  given in  doses  of a drachm.)  Dose,  one
 scruple ; administered every two hours,  until it operates  sufficiently.
 The addition of about one or two grains of Capsicum to each dose, will
 render it much more speedy in its operation.
   Pulvis  Quinia  Compositus.  Compound  Powder of Quinia.
   Preparation. — Take of Sulphate  of Quinia, Ferrocyanuret of Iron,
 each, one drachm.   Mix thoroughly together.
   Properties and  Uses.—This powder is tonic, febrifuge,  and  antiperi-
 odic.   It  is much employed  by Eclectic practitioners in  febrile  and
 inflammatory diseases, and in all diseases in which there is  the least  ten-
 dency to periodicity.   As a tonic it is either used alone,  or frequently
 in combination with other  tonics, as hydrastin, cornin, etc.   The dose is
 from three to six grains of the powder, repeated two, three or four times
 a day, according to symptoms.   It was introduced to the  profession as
 an  agent in the above  diseases,  by Prof.  I. G. Jones, of Columbus,
 Ohio.
  Pulvis Rhei  Compositus.   Compound Powder of Rhubarb.  Neutral-
 izing Powder.
  Preparation.—Take of  Rhubarb, Bicarbonate of Potassa, and Pep-
 permint Leaves, each,  in powder, one ounce.   Mix together.
  Properties and  Uses.—This powder is an  invaluable remedy in diar-
 rhea, cholera morbus, dysentery, summer complaint of children, acidity
 of stomach, heart-burn, and as a mild  cathartic during pregnancy.   The
 dose is  from half a drachm to  two  drachms, every  one, two,  or three
 hours, as may be required.  (See Syrup of Rhubarb and Potassa.)
  Pulvis Stypticus.   Styptic Powder.
  Preparation.—Take of Sulphate of Iron, in powder, two ounces; Alum,
 in powder,  one ounce.   Mix them, and calcine by a red  heat, as named
 for  Red or Styptic Powder, under the head of Sesquioxide  of Iron,
 which see.  When cold, pulverize the mass, and keep it in well stopped
 bottles.
  Properties and Uses.—This powder is  styptic, and is frequently em-
ployed in the treatment  of external  hemorrhages, and bleeding piles,
either alone, or in combination with stramonium ointment, poke ointment,
oil of fireweed, etc. Given internally, in doses of three grains, combined
with Capsicum one grain, it has proved effectual in passive  hemorrhages
from the lungs and uterus. 
1206
Pharmacy.
  Pulvis  Xanthoxylini  Compositus.   Compound  Powder of Xan-
thoxylin.
  Preparation. — Take of Xanthoxylin, Hydrastin, and Sulphate  of
Quinia, each, one  drachm;  Sugar of Milk a  sufficient quantity.  Mix
together, adding  just enough Sugar of  Milk to form a powder, and then
divide into sixty powders.
  Properties and Uses.—This is a most valuable  stimulating  tonic, and
alterative, and may be employed in all  cases requiring such actions.  As
in debility  of the  digestive functions, dyspepsia,  convalescence from
fevers,  diarrhea, and  dysentery, hepatic  torpor, periodical headache,
scrofula, and other  chronic diseases accompanied with excessive debility.
The dose is one  powder, to be repeated three or four times a day; it
may be given in water, milk, molasses, syrup, or wine, as symptoms may
ndicate.  One powder contains a  grain,  each, of xanthoxylin, quinia,
and hydrastin.—J.  K.
                              QUINIA.
                       Preparations of Quinia.
   Quinia is one of our most valuable remedies, and is obtained from the
Yellow Peruvian Bark ; the pure Quinia  is seldom used ; but its Salts
are  more  generally employed, especially those  a description of which
immediately follows.   The Acetate, Ferrocyanuret, Nitrate, Muriate, Lac-
tate, Citrate, Iodide, and Phosphate, have also been employed and recom-
mended ; but none of  them has yet gained a standard reputation.
   The Ferrocyanuret of Quinia is made by boiling together two parts of
Sulphate of Quinia, and three of Ferrocyanuret  of Potassium in a very
little Water, pouring off the liquor from a greenish-yellow substance of
an oily consistence which is  precipitated, washing the latter with  Dis-
tilled Water, then  dissolving it in strong Alcohol at 100° F., filtering
immediately, and afterward evaporating  the solution.  The Tannate of
Quinia may be prepared by precipitating the Infusion of  Bark, or Solu-
tion of  Quinia, by the Infusion of Galls or Solution of Tannic Acid, and
then washing and drying the precipitate.   The other above named Salts
of Quinia  may be prepared  by saturating  a  Solution  of the Acids
respectively with Quinia, and evaporating the solutions.   Either of these
Salts may be given in the same doses as the  Sulphate.  The Iodide of
Quinia is obtained by adding a Solution of twenty-four parts of Iodide of
Potassium in  eight of Water, by drops, to a strong  Solution of twenty
parts of Bisulphate of Quinia.  Wash the precipitate quickly, and dry
it in the shade.   It is tonic, alterative, and resolvent, and has been found
of efficacy in  scrofulous enlargements of the  glands, in  doses of from
half a grain to two grains.  Or it may be made by decomposing a Solu-
tion of one equivalent of Muriate  of Quinia with  a  Solution  of four
 quivalents of Iodide of Potassium.  When dry, Iodide of Quinia thus 
Quinia.
1207
prepared, has the properties of a resin, is easily reduced to a white, ino-
dorous powder, extremely bitter, and permanent  in the air.   It is very
soluble  in Water, Alcohol, or Ether, forming  clear  and  colorless solu-
tions, which deposit the Iodide of Quinia on evaporation.  Concentrated
Sulphuric and  Nitric Acids, and Chlorine,  decompose  it instantly, with
elimination of Iodine.
   Off. Prep.—Ferri et Quiniae Citras; Ferri et Quiniae Tartras ;  Quiniae
Murias ;  Quiniae Sulphas ; Quiniae et Morphiae Tartras ;  Quiniae et Sali-
ciniae Tartras ;  Quiniae Valerianas.
   Quinia  Sulphas.   Sulphate of Quinia.
   Preparation.—Take  of Yellow  Calisaya Bark, in coarse powder, four
pounds;  Muriatic Acid three fiuidounces ; Lime, in powder, five ounces ;
Water five gallons; Sulphuric Acid, Alcohol,  Animal  Charcoal, each, a
sufficient quantity.  Boil the Bark in one-third of the Water, mixed with
one-third of the Muriatic Acid, and strain through linen.  Boil the resi-
due  twice  successively, with the  same  quantity of Water and Acid  as
before, and strain.  Mix the decoctions, and, while the liquor is hot,
gradually add the Lime, previously mixed with two pints of Water, stir-
ring constantly until  the Quinia  is  completely precipitated.   Wash the
Precipitate with Distilled Water,  and, having pressed, dried, and pow-
dered it, digest it in Boiling Alcohol.   Pour off the liquor,  and repeat
the digestion several times, until the Alcohol is no longer rendered bitter.
Mix  the  liquors, and distil off the Alcohol, until a  broAvn, viscid mass
remains.   Upon this substance,  removed from the vessel,  pour  about
half  a gallon of Distilled Water, and, having heated the mixture to the
boiling point, add as much Sulphuric Acid as may be  necessary to dis-
solve the impure alkali.  Then  add an ounce and a half of Animal
Charcoal,  boil  for two minutes, filter the  liquor while hot,  and  set it
aside to crystallize.  Should the liquor, before filtration, be entirely neu-
tral,  acidulate it very slightly with Sulphuric  Acid ;  should it, on the
contrary,  change  the  color  of litmus paper to a  bright red, add more
Animal  Charcoal.  Separate the crystals from  the liquor, dissolve them
in Boiling Water  slightly  acidulated with  Sulphuric Acid, add a little
Animal Charcoal, filter, and set aside to crystallize.  Wrap the crystals
in bibulous paper, and dry them  with a  gentle  heat.  The Mother
Waters  may be made to yield  an additional, quantity of Sulphate  of
Quinia by precipitating the Quinia with Solution of Ammonia, and treat-
ing the precipitated alkali  with  Distilled Water,  Sulphuric  Acid, and
Animal Charcoal, as before.— U. S.
   History.—In  this  process  the Yellow Calisaya Bark is employed  in
preference, on account of its containing a greater proportion  of Quinia
than the other barks, and holding it in combination with less  Cinchonia.
As found in the bark, the quinia is united with kinic  acid, and very pro-
bably one or more coloring principles.  As water will not take up  all the 
1208
Pharmacy.
quinia of the bark, muriatic acid  is added in  excess, at least as far as
relates to the quinia, and a soluble muriate is formed, mixed with several
impurities.  After the several decoctions have been mixed and filtered,
lime is added, which decomposes  the  muriate of  quinia, combining with
its acid  to form muriate of lime, while the quinia, being insoluble, is
precipitated, leaving most of the  impurities in solution with the water;
any excess of lime is also thrown  down with the quinia.   The precipitate
is  next washed to  separate  from it all soluble impurities,  and  is  then
digested in alcohol which dissolves the quinia, and separates it  from its
insoluble impurities;  after which, by concentration, an impure, brown,
viscid quinia is obtained.  This is subjected to the action of boiling dis-
tilled water, acidulated with sulphuric acid, and the officinal sulphate or
disulphate of quinia is  formed.  The animal charcoal added at this period
of the process, facilitates the crystallization of the sulphate of quinia as
the solution cools, by  its carbonate  of lime neutralizing a portion of the
sulphuric acid.   The  solution must not be completely neutralized, but
hold the acid very  slightly in excess, lest the crystallization  ensue before
filtration is  completed.  The solution and  re-crystallization of  the  sul-
phate, is for the purpose of obtaining it colorless ; which frequently
cannot be effected until  after a third solution and re-crystallization.  In
drying the crystals a  gentle heat should  be employed, that they  may
not effloresce.   The  sulphate of cinchonia remains in solution in the
mother liquors.
  M. Calvert  states that there is no  certainty in  the  proportion of sul-
phate of quinia when  obtained from bark by the  solvent action of muri-
atic acid, and the precipitant influence of lime ; as a solution of  chloride
of lime,  as well as lime-water, dissolves quinia.   Consequently, all the
quinia is not precipitated, especially when the lime is  added in excess.
To obviate this, and obtain  a thorough precipitate of the quinia, he first
neutralizes  the  excess of acid  by carbonate of soda,  and then  precipi-
tates by  caustic  soda;  quinia not being soluble in this alkali.  The aver-
age product of quinia obtained from calisaya bark is from  one  to three
per cent.
  By the above process, sulphate of  quinia may be obtained from  any
of the Peruvian barks ; but, with the exception of the calisaya, all the
other varieties will afford a large proportion of  Sulphate of Cinchonia
held  in  solution by the mother waters, after the  crystallization of the
quinia.
  Sulphate  of Quinia is in  the  form of  a loose mass of interlaced,
filiform,  slightly flexible, silky crystals,  sometimes  grouped in small
stellated  tufts,  of a  snow-white  color,  inodorous, and  possessing a
pure, most  intense, bitter taste.   Exposed to the air,  they lose about
three-fourths of their  water of crystallization by efflorescence.  At the
temperature of 212°, they become luminous, especially when rubbed;
at about 240°, they ■  ielt, presenting  a waxy appearance; and  at a red 
Quinia.
1209
heat they are charred, and  gradually entirely dispersed.  Sulphate  of
quinia requires 740 parts of water at 54° F., to dissolve it,  forming an
opalescent solution;  and  30 parts at 212°, the latter  depositing it in
crystals, on  cooling.  It is  scarcely soluble in ether, but dissolves in
about sixty parts of alcohol of sp. gr. 0.835.  When the water is acidulated
with  sulphuric  acid, it  dissolves much more readily.   It is dissolved
with facility by the diluted acids, and even oxalic  and tartaric acids in
excess.   If to  a concentrated  solution  of  sulphate of quinia,  as  much
sulphuric acid be added as enters into its constitution,  (or an additional
equivalent) a neutral sulphate of quinia is obtained by concentration and
crystallization ; rhombic prisms are formed, consisting of one equivalent
of quinia, one of sulphuric acid, and eight of water.   These  are soluble
in their own water of crystallization at 212°, and in eleven parts of Avater
at 54° F.; they are also soluble in diluted,  and less so in absolute alco-
hol.   They constitute the proper sulphate of quinia, and were  formerly
incorrectly called  Bisulphate, or Supersulphate of Quinia.  The  officinal
sulphate, is a disulphate of quinia, which is the only one employed me-
dicinally.  It consists, in  the  form of crystals, of two  equivalents  of
quinia 324,  one of sulphuric  acid 40, and eight of water 72=436,
(2NC20 H12, O2 SOa).
   Sulphate of Quinia  is incompatible with the alkalies, their  carbonates,
and  alkaline earths which decompose it.   Its  aqueous  solution  has  a
peculiar blue tint  by reflected  light; potassa,  soda, or ammonia  added
to it, yields a white precipitate of quinia ; tannic acid, or  astringent infu-
sions containing tannic acid, furnish  a white precipitate of  insoluble
tannate of quinia.   The soluble salts of baryta  and  lead  occasion  preci-
pitates.   When a  fresh  solution of chlorine is  added  to it, and then
water of ammonia, an emerald-green  color  is obtained,  together with a
gradual deposition of a green color.  If a concentrated solution of ferro-
cyanuret of potassium be substituted for the ammonia, a  dark-red color
is produced, which after several hours, gradually becomes converted into
a green.  A solution of cinchonia is not thus acted upon.
   The high price  of Sulphate of Quinia has led to various adulterations.
The  most common of which  are: the fraudulent additions of  sugar, sul-
phate of lime, mannite,  starch, stearin, margarin, caffein,  salicin, sul-
phate of  cinchonia, etc.  Sulphate of  cinchonia  may  be  detected  as
follows, even in the smallest quantity : Take 38 grains of the suspected
sulphate of quinia, and introduce it into a flask with half an  ounce of
solution of ammonia; agitate  them well, and allow the mixture to repose
twenty-four hours.  Then by means of a  water-bath, heat it, until  the
excess of ammonia has been almost  completely driven  off; allow it to
cool, and  add  one ounce of pure  ether.   By agitation the quinia is
quickly  and completely dissolved, and  by  rest the  contents of  the flask
consists of two  transparent  liquids, the loAver  containing  sulphate  of
ammonia, the upper  quinia  dissolved in ether, if the salt be pure ;  but 
1210
Pharmacy.
if it contain sulphate of cinchonia,  there will be an intermediate stratum
betAveen the  two liquids of insoluble cinchonia.   Sulphate of Cinchonia
is best detected by dissolving  the salt in forty parts of boiling water,
which  on cooling will deposit most of  the sulphate of quinia, but retain
most of the salt of cinchonia—and  by concentrating the residual solution,
the latter is  obtained in short rhombic prisms, or pearly scales — forms
which  are never assumed by sulphate of quinia.
   Many of the above  adulterations may be ascertained by remarking
the degree of solubility of the sulphate in  different menstrua, as well as
its chemical actions Avith substances above described.   Sulphate of quinia
is entirely dissipated by exposure  to  a red-heat, and if any substance
remains behind it is sulphate of lime, or some mineral substance.  Fatty
matters, when  present, are  not wholly  soluble in  acidulated water ;
starch  and gum are not dissolved  by alcohol.  Sugar, or mannite, may
be known by the sweet taste imparted  to the residuum  remaining after
evaporation of the  watery solution, — this having been, previous to its
evaporation,  deprived of its quinia by precipitation with  an alkaline car-
bonate and filtration.   Salicin  is  discovered by  cold concentrated sul-
phuric acid  forming with the suspected salt a red instead of a colorless
solution.  If  this acid solution  is brown or black,  it indicates starch,
sugar,  fatty matters, or other organic  substances.   Pelletier states that
unless  the salicin exceeds one-tenth of  the amount, this  change of color
does not ensue ;  and consequently when less than  this proportion, the
salicin  must  be  separated as  follows : Add six  parts  of concentrated
sulphuric acid to one  part of the  suspected salt, and  to  the  resulting
brown  liquid, add  125 parts of water.  The  salicin separates, and  by
filtration may be obtained in the form  of  a  white bitter powder, which
becomes bright-red by contact with sulphuric acid.   Caffein is difficult
to detect, though it changes, the solubility of the salt in different  men-
strua.   A volatile ammoniacal  salt may be known  by  the ammoniacal
odor evolved upon the addition of potassa.   The purity of sulphate of
quinia  may be determined by  the  following method of the Edinburgh
College :  "A solution of ten grains in a fluidounce of distilled water and
two or three  drops  of sulphuric  acid, if decomposed by a solution of half
an ounce of carbonate of soda in two waters  (twice its weight of water),
and  heated  till the precipitate  shrinks and fuses, yields  on cooling a
solid mass, which when dry weighs 7.4 grains, and in powder  dissolves
entirely in solution of  oxalic acid."  Christison states that though this
test is  sufficient for most impurities, it will not  answer where the adul-
teration is caffein or sulphate of cinchonia.  He also gives the following
convenient test for determining its purity: "Twenty  parts of boiling-
water  acidulated with sulphuric acid dissolve it entirely  and without any
floating oily  globules appearing, if there be  no fatty  matter present; the
solution when cold, does not become blue with tincture  of iodine if free
of starch ; it does not precipitate with oxalic acid if free of lime ; and 
                               Quinia.                          1211

 when treated with solution of baryta so long as a precipitate forms, which
 precipitate is a mixture of quinia and  sulphate of baryta, the liquid has
 not a sweet taste, if free of sugar or mannite."
   Properties  and  Uses. — Sulphate of Quinia is febrifuge,  tonic, and
 antiperiodic.   Small doses frequently repeated,  strengthen  the  pulse,
 increase muscular  force, and  invigorate the tone of the nervous system.
 In some persons it induces headache,  sickness, or irregular action of the
 bowels—which effects are generally obviated by combining it Avith mor-
 phia, extract  of  stramonium,  or both  ; and these effects will be almost
 certain to follow if gastro-enteritic irritation pre-exists.  Large doses, as
 one scruple,  or half a drachm, produce many  unpleasant symptoms, and
 ought never to be used ;  among these may be named sickness and pain
 at  the  stomach, giddiness, flushed countenance, palpitation, a  sense of
 distension  in the head, intense weighty headache, ringing in  the  ears,
 vomiting, numbness in  the feet, deafness, blindness, and delirium.  The
 evil results  following large doses, or the injudicious administration of
 quinia has caused  many physicians to reject it altogether,  in their prac-
 tice.   This  is wrong.  Quinia  is a safe and very superior remedy, in
 proper  hands.  As Avell might we reject all  active and useful agents,
 because, when improperly used, they produce deleterious consequences.
 Again, the quinia, especially  that imported into this Western  Country
 for many years past, has  been much adulterated with agents  calculated
 to cause the mischief attributed to the  salt;  and, it must also be remem-
 bered, that  many of the symptoms  following the use of quinia, are the
 legitimate  results of disease  itself, as  an enlarged spleen, a deranged
 condition of the nervous system, etc., or are  the deplorable  consequences
 of a combined mercurial treatment, which has  been and still continues to
 be a fashionable practice in many portions of this section of the country.
 No sensible or well educated physician will ever object  to the proper
 employment of the pure sulphate of quinia.
  With many patients, the beneficial influence of this agent will not be
 observed until Cinchonism has been  produced, known by giddiness, a
 buzzing or ringing in the ears, slight headache, etc.; while with others it
 produces good effects independent of the production of these symptoms.
 When taken internally it is absorbed, and may be detected in the sweat
 and urine.
  Sulphate of Quinia in Eclectic practice is used in all febrile diseases,
 without regard to the violence of the fever,  or the degree of congestive
 enlargement of the liver or spleen; it  is usually given during the inter-
missions or remissions,  and in doses sufficient to affect the head, each
 day,—when for that day its administration is omitted ; but^should there
be no apparent remissions, it  is then given  daily to produce  the  same
influence upon the head, without, as before  said, regard to the violence
of the fever, etc.   Previous to  its administration, however, any symp- 
1212
Pharmacy.
toms of irritability, wakefulness, or restlessness, must first be subdued
It is frequently given in these cases, as well as  in  many other forms of
disease, in combination with ferrocyanuret of iron ;  and was first intro-
duced to the profession, as a safe and efficacious remedy in this class of
maladies by Prof. I. G. Jones.  In typhus and typhoid fever, it will be
found of much service, in conjunction with small doses of Leptandrin or
Podophyllin, sufficient to produce a daily alvine  evacuation.   In febrile
relapses, acute rheumatism, neuralgia, dyspepsia, debility, convalescence
from most acute and  chronic  diseases, dysentery,  and  in all  epidemic
diseases, and every disease characterized by periodicity, it may be given
with every expectation of success.  Combined with morphia, I have
used it successfully in epilepsy,  delirium tremens, and the convulsive
diseases of intemperate persons.   In  dysmenorrhea, in conjunction with
extract of stramonium or belladona, and cimicifugin, it proves almost a
specific.  It is generally contra-indicated during the presence of gastric
inflammation, or unusual irritation of the stomach ; though the addition
of morphia, in  such  cases, will  sometimes  prevent any hurtful conse-
quences.
  As a tonic, sulphate of quinia will be  found useful in all diseases
connected with  an enfeebled  state of the system, and especially in the
debility resulting from exhausting diseases;  in chlorosis, and in anemic
conditions it should be given in union with chalybeates.  Externally,
sulphate of quinia in solution, has formed a  valuable application to indo-
lent ulcers, buboes, chancres, and chronic mucous inflammations.  The
dose of it internally, is from half a grain to three grains, repeated every
one, two, three, or four hours, as the urgency of the case may require.
Large doses are  improper.
  A solution  of Sulphate of Quinia  may be made by adding twenty
grains of the  salt to one  fluidrachm of Elixir  of Vitriol, and when dis-
solved, add two fluidounces of water.  The dose of this solution is twenty
drops every hour, in about half an ounce of water, or syrup of ginger.
Another solution may be  made  by dissolving Sulphate of Quinia, Tar-
taric Acid, of each, twenty grains, in two  fluidounces  of Water.  The
dose is  as  above.  The acetate, nitrate, phosphate, ferrocyanate, citrate
and muriate of quinia, possess similar  properties,  but  are not usually
preferred in practice.
   Off.  Prep.—Pilulae  Quiniae  Sulphatis ;  Pilulae  Quiniae Compositae;
Pilulae Valerianae Compositae; Pulvis Quiniae  Compositus; Pulvis Xan-
thoxylini Compositus; Tinctura Quiniae Composita.
  Quinia et Morphia Tartras.  Tartrate of Quinia and Morphia.
  Preparation.—Take of pure crystallized  Tartaric Acid, dried,  one
hundred and fifty-six  grains; pure  Quinia one hundred  and sixty-two
grains;  pure  Morphia two hundred and  ninety-two grains; Water a suf-
ficient quantity.   Add the Acid and the Alkalies to the  Water, and  boil 
                               Quinia.                           1213

together.   When the whole is dissolved, evaporate at a low temperature,
till the Solution is  of the consistence of thick  syrup, then spread it in
layers on glass or porcelain plates, and dry in the shade.
  History.—This valuable, non-crystallizable, double-alkaloidal salt is the
discovery of my former colleague, Prof. J. Milton Sanders.  It is obtained
in beautiful transparent scales or plates, holding each alkaloid in its equiv-
alent proportion.  It is  inodorous, having a slightly bitter taste, and is
very soluble in water.
  Properties and Uses.—Tartrate  of Quinia  and Morphia is a sedative,
tonic, and febrifuge, and is  useful in all febrile diseases, especially where
there is great irritability or excitability of the nervous system, restless-
ness, watchfulness,  etc.; also in  delirium tremens, periodic spasmodic
diseases, epilepsy,  and wherever a sedative tonic effect is desired.   The
dose is from a fourth of a grain to a grain, every one, two, or four hours,
as the urgency of the  case  may require.
  Quinia  et Salicinia Tartras.  Tartrate of Quinia and Salicin.
  Preparation.—Take of pure Salicin four hundred and fifty-seven grains;
Tartaric Acid, crystallized  and dried, one hundred and fifty-six grains;
pure Quinia one hundred and sixty-two grains; Water a  sufficient quantity.
Add the Alkaloids to  the Water, and boil  together, until  they are dis-
solved.  Evaporate the solution at a low temperature, till it  is of the
consistence of thick syrup; then spread it in layers on glass or porcelain
plates, and dry in the shade.
  History.—This non-crystallizable, double-alkaloidal salt is likewise the
discovery  of Prof. J. Milton  Sanders.   It  is, like the  previous salt,
obtained in scales or pellicles, inodorous, bitter, and possessing in a high
degree the activity of both  its constituent  alkaloids.   It is soluble in
water.
   Properties  and  Uses—Tartrate of Quinia and Salicin  is a febrifuge,
tonic, and  antiperiodic.  It possesses an activity which does not belong
to its isolated  salts, and  may be used  in  all those cases where either
quinia or salicin would be indicated.   The dose is from one to five grains,
every one, two, or four hours.
   N. B.  Professor Sanders has also prepared the corresponding citrates
of the above salts, as well as the Ferrocitrates of  Quinia, Morphia, and
Salicine; prepared by substituting citric acid for the tartaric, and which
may be substituted for the corresponding tartrates, if desired, in the same
doses, and forms of disease.
   Quinia Valerianas.    Valerianate of Quinia.
   Preparation. — Take of Muriate  of  Quinia  seven  drachms  (Dublin
weioht);  Valerianate of Soda one hundred and  twenty-four grains; Dis-
tilled Water sixteen fiuidounces.   Dissolve the Valerianate of Soda in two
ounces of  the Water, and  the  Muriate  of Quinia in the remainder, and, 
1214
Pharmacy.
 the temperature of each solution being raised  to 120°, but not higher,
 let them be mixed, and let the mixture be set by for twenty-four hours
 when the Valerianate of Quinia will have become a mass of silky acicu-
 lar crystals.  Let these be pressed between folds of blotting paper, and
 dried without the application of artificial heat.—Dub.
   History.—In this process a double decomposition takes place between
 the two salts, producing a solution of chloride of sodium, and crystals of
 valerianate of  quinia.   This salt may also be made by either of the fol-
 lowing methods:  Add a slight  excess of Valerianic Acid to a Concen
 trated  Solution of Quinia,  in  strong Alcohol; dilute the solution with
 twice its weight of Water,  stir the mixture accurately, and evaporate  at
 a temperature  not  exceeding  122°  F.  After  the  evaporation of the
 Alcohol,  the Valerianate appears in  fine crystals, sometimes isolated,  at
 others  grouped together, and which increase from day to  day.  Or it
 may be procured by double decomposition of Sulphate of Quinia  and
 Valerianate of  Lime, each dissolved in weak Alcohol, and then eva-
 porated.
   Valerianate of Quinia is  in white, acicular  crystals, having a power-
 ful, repulsive odor of valerianic acid, which is  quite distinct from that
 of oil of valerian.   It is soluble in cold water, and more readily in hot,
 being deposited in fine crystals on  cooling.   In boiling water it fuses into
 oily globules, and becomes decomposed with dissipation of its valerianic
 acid; its solution should not be heated above  120°.   Alcohol  dissolves
 it.  It appears to lose its strength  gradually on exposure to the air; and
 is easily decomposed by mineral  and  other acids.
  Properties and  Uses.—Valerianate of Quinia  is tonic, febrifuge, and
 sedative, and may be employed similarly with the tartrate of quinia and
morphia.   It is  highly recommended by Prof. I. G. Jones in hemicrania,
and  in  febrile  or other diseases,  to relieve  restlessness, wakefulness,
or nervous irritability.   The dose  is from  half a grain to two grains,
every two, three, or four hours, according to the nature of the case.
   Off. Prep.—Pilulae Cimicifugae Compositae.
                               SODA.
                        Preparations of Soda.
   Soda Bicarbonas.  Bicarbonate of Soda.
   Preparation.—Take of  Carbonate  of Soda,  in crystals, a convenient
quantity; break the crystals in pieces, and put them into a wooden box,
having  a transverse  partition near the bottom, pierced with numerous
small holes, and a cover which  can be tightly fitted on.  To a  bottle
having  two tubulures, and half filled with water, adapt two tubes, one
connected with an  apparatus for  generating carbonic acid, and termin-
ating under the water in a bottle, the other commencing at the tubulure, 
Soda.
1215
 in which it is inserted, and entering the box by an opening near the bot-
 tom, beneath the partition.  Then lute all the joints, and cause a stream
 of carbonic acid to  pass  through the water into the box, until the car-
 bonate of soda is fully saturated.—Carbonic acid is obtained from marble,
 by the addition of Dilute Sulphuric acid.— U. S.
   History.—In this process, the crystals of Carbonate  of Soda, placed
 on a perforated diaphragm, are exposed to the action of  carbonic acid.
 During the progress of the operation, a considerable amount of water is
 set free, in consequence of the bicarbonate combining with less water of
 crystallization than the carbonate; hence the necessity of the diaphragm
 to allow  the water  to  drain  off, instead of dissolving the bicarbonate.
 When the process is finished, the crystals on the diaphragm will still
 retain their form, but become changed into an opake and porous sub-
 stance.  There are several other methods of preparing this salt, which
 it is unnecessary to relate here.
   Bicarbonate of Soda, according to its mode of preparation, is in small,
 white, opake, irregular  scales, or, in minute, colorless, indistinct crystals,
 or, when prepared by the above formula, in opake, porous masses, of a
 snow-white color, and composed of numerous,  aggregated, crystalline
 grains.  It is permanent  in the air, and possesses a saline, slightly alka-
 line, not unpleasant taste.   It  is soluble  in thirteen parts of temperate
 water, and in much  less at 212°, from the latter of which,  it is obtained
 in minute, hard, white grains, composed of radiated fibers, as it slowly
 cools.  When its solution is  heated a little above 120°,  carbonic acid
 gradually passes off from the  salt, which becomes converted into sesqui
 carbonate at 212°.   At a red-heat it is converted into an anhydrous
 carbonate, its water  of crystallization, and  an equivalent of carbonic
 acid being expelled.  Bicarbonate  of soda consists of one equivalent of
 soda 31.3, two of acid  44.24, and one of water 9=84.54.
  Bicarbonate of soda is seldom adulterated, its principal impurity being
 the  result of  faulty preparation;  in  consequence  of  Avhich, probably
 arising from  imperfect  saturation with  carbonic acid, a  greater or less
 proportion of carbonate of soda is found with  it.   The presence  of the
 carbonate may be known  by the decided  alkaline and  disagreeable taste
 imparted;  by the solution yielding a white precipitate with sulphate of
 magnesia; and by a solution  in forty parts of water,  giving a  reddish-
 brown precipitate with corrosive sublimate, even if only one per cent.
 of the carbonate be present,—this test causes a slight opalescence  only
 with the pure bicarbonate.  When  a solution of bicarbonate of soda is
 not precipitated by chloride of platinum, or when, after  supersaturation
 with  nitric acid, no precipitate is occasioned by chloride of barium  or
nitrate of silver, it shows  the absence of potassa salts, and of sulphates
 and chlorides.   Bicarbonate of soda is incompatible with acids, acidulous
salts   lime-water,  muriate of  ammonia, and earthy and metallic salts.
Sulphate of magnesia does not decompose it. 
1216
Pharmacy.
   Properties  and Uses.—Bicarbonate of Soda possesses properties simi-
 lar  to  the  bicarbonate of  potassa, though less actively diuretic;  it also
 resembles the carbonate of soda in its action, but is much less irritatino-
 and milder to the taste.  It is  an excellent  antacid and antilithic;'and
 has been used in calculous  diseases with  predominance  of uric acid.
 When the carbonate of soda  is given in these cases, its continued  use is
 liable to induce phosphatic deposits, after the removal of the uric acid,
 which is not the case with the bicarbonate, especially when taken in car-
 bonic acid water,  which has the power of maintaining the phosphates in
 solution, even after it has  caused the uric acid to disappear.  The same
 remark is applicable to the bicarbonate of potassa.  In doses of a grain,
 dissolved in milk  and water,  and repeated every five minutes, the bicar-
 bonate  of soda has  been  used,  with apparent advantage, in  infantile
 croup, promoting  the  expectoration of the false membrane.  The dose
 of this salt for an  adult is, from ten to sixty grains, in  a glass of carbonic
 acid  water, or common soda water.  Soda Powders, or Effervescing
 Powders are prepared by placing in one paper Tartaric Acid, twenty-five
 grains; and in another Bicarbonate of Soda  thirty grains.   When to be
 used, they  are  dissolved in separate portions of water, to which  some
 aromatic syrup may be added, and then mixed.   Effervescence imme-
 diately  ensues,  during which the liquid  is  to be-drank.   It  forms  a
 refrigerant  and slightly laxative  draught, which  is very agreeable and
 refreshing,  especially to persons with fe\rer.  The effervescence is  occa-
 sioned by the escape of carbonic acid, which is set free from the bicar-
 bonate by the tartaric  acid, which  unites with the soda, forming a tar-
 trate of soda.
  The  Yeast  or Baking Powders, which are now sold so extensively
 throughout  the country, are composed of 54.7 parts of crystallized bitar-
 trate of potassa, in powder ; 22.7 parts of soda-salaeratus, a salt between
 the carbonate and bicarbonate, as regards its  proportion of carbonic acid;
 and  22.7  parts of starch, of Avhich corn starch  is the best.  A  good
 baking powder may be made of two and  a  half  parts of bitartrate  of
 potassa, and one part, each, of bicarbonate of soda  and starch.
  Soda Carbonas Exsiccatus.   Dried  Carbonate of Soda.
  Preparation.—Take  of Carbonate of Soda a convenient quantity.  Ex-
 pose it to heat, in  a clean iron vessel, until it is thoroughly dried,  stirring
 constantly with an iron spatula ;  then rub  it into powder.— U S.
  History.—Carbonate of Soda consists of one equivalent of base, one of
acid, and ten of water; at a moderate heat it undergoes  the  watery
fusion, and  a higher heat  drives off all the  water  and leaves a white,
opake, porous, anhydrous carbonate, which  is easily  pulverizable.  It
consists of one equivalent of base, one of acid, and no water of crystal-
lization, Na O+CO2.   Dilute sulphuric acid  decomposes it, disengaging
40.7 per cent, of carbonic acid. 
                                  Soda.                          1217

   Properties  and Uses.—Dried or Anhydrous  Carbonate of Soda pos-
 sesses properties similar to the crystallized carbonate.  It is antacid and
 antilithic, and has been highly extolled in calculous affections depending
 on a morbid secretion of uric acid.  Being free from any water of crys-
 tallization it  readily admits of being  made  into  pills ;  from a similar
 cause its dose  is less  than the crystallized  salt.  From five to  fifteen
 grains may be administered for a dose, and repeated three times a day;
 it is best given in the form of pill with soap and aromatics.
    Off.  Prep.—Sodae Bicarbonas.
   Soda et Potassa Tartras.  Tartrate of Potassa and Soda.   Tarta-
 rized Soda.   Rochelle  Salt.
   Preparation.—Take  of Carbonate of Soda a pound; Bitartrate of Po-
 tassa sixteen ounces ;  Boiling Water five pints.  Dissolve the Carbonate of
 Soda in the Water, and gradually add the Bitartrate of Potassa.  Filter
 the solution,  and evaporate until  a pellicle forms; then set it aside  to
 crystallize.  Pour off the liquor, and dry the crystals on bibulous paper.
 Lastly, again evaporate the liquor  that it may furnish more crystals.—
 U. S.
   History.—This salt  was discovered  by Seignette, an apothecary of
 Rochelle in  1672, but  the mode of preparing it was not made known
 until in 1731  by Geoffroy.  It is  a double  salt  consisting of tartrate
 of soda combined with tartrate of potassa.   It has been  prepared in
 various ways, but is at  present made by neutralizing bitartrate of potassa
 with  carbonate of  soda; the  excess of tartaric acid in  the  bitartrate is
 saturated by the carbonate of soda, carbonic acid being given off  at the
 same time, with effervescence.
   Tartrate of potassa and soda is in the form of beautiful, colorless, and
 nearly transparent crystals, frequently  very large, and having the  shape
 of prisms  or  half prisms, with six, eight, or  ten  sides; their  primitive
 form  is  the right rhombic prism. It is permanent in the air, with the ex-
 ception of a slight efflorescence in very dry air,  has a mild, saline, slightly
 bitter, not disagreeable taste, dissolves in five times  its Aveight of  cold,
 and in much less  boiling water, and its solution is neutral to test-paper.
 Heat causes it to fuse in its water of crystallization, and when increased
 decomposes it, destroying the tartaric acid, and leaving a mixture of its
 two alkaline bases in the form of carbonates, with charcoal.  Chloride
 of barium, or a weak solution of nitrate of silver added to its solution,
 occasions no precipitate, unless sulphates or chlorides are  present.   It is
 incompatible with most  acids,  acidulous  salts, except the bitartrate  of
 potassa, acetate  and subacetate  of lead, the soluble salts of  lime and of
 baryta.   Acids  decompose it  by uniting with the soda, and  causing a
crystalline precipitate of bitartrate  of potassa.   It consists of one equiv-
alent of tartrate  of potassa 113.2, one of tartrate of soda 97.3, and eight
of water 72=282.5.   Or, two  equivalents of  tartaric acid  132, one of
            77 
1218
Pharmacy.
potassa 47.2, one of soda 31.3, and eight of water 72=282.5 (2t+
KO+Na 0+8 Aq).  It is not subject to adulteration.
  Properties and Uses.—Tartrate of Potassa and Soda is a mild, cooling
purgative,  and being more agreeable than most neutral salts, it is espe-
cially adapted to those  whose stomachs are delicate or  irritable.   The
dose is from two drachms to one  ounce, dissolved in eio-ht or ten parts
of water.   Given in  small doses, and frequently repeated, it is absorbed,
and instead of- purging, produces alkalinity of the urine.   Tavo drachms
of tartrate  of potassa and soda  added to two  scruples of bicarbonate of
soda, and put up in one (blue) paper, and  thirty-five grains of tartaric
acid placed in the other (white) paper,  forms  the gentle aperient known
as Seidlitz Powder.   Dissolve the contents of each paper, separately, in
half a tumbler of water, mix the two solutions, and drink  immediately
while it is  effervescing.
  Soda Phosphas.   Phosphate of Soda.
  Preparation.—Take of Bone, burnt  to whiteness and powdered, ten
pounds;  Sulphuric  Acid  six pounds;  Carbonate  of Soda a sufficient
quantity.  Mix the powdered Bone with the Sulphuric Acid in an earthen
vessel; then add a gallon of Water, and stir them well together. Digest
for three days, occasionally adding a little Water to replace that which is
lost by evaporation,  and frequently stirring the mixture.   At the  expi-
ration of this time, pour in a gallon of Boiling Water, and strain through
linen, gradually adding more Boiling Water, until the liquid passes nearly
tasteless.   Set by the strained liquor, that the dregs may subside, from
which pour off the clear Solution, and boil it  down to a gallon.  To this
solution, poured off from the dregs, and heated in an iron vessel, add,
by  degrees, the Carbonate of Soda previously dissolved  in Hot Water,
until effervescence ceases, and the phosphoric acid is completely neu-
tralized ;  then filter the liquor, and set it aside to crystallize.  Having
removed the Crystals, add to the  liquor, if necessary, a  small quantity
of  Carbonate of Soda,  so  as to render it slightly alkaline.  Then  alter-
nately evaporate and crystallize, so long as any crystals are produced.
Lastly, preserve the crystals in a well stopped bottle.— U.  S.
   History.—Bones  are composed chiefly of  carbonate of lime, gelatin,
and phosphate of lime, and  when burnt at a  full red-heat, the gelatin is
decomposed, its carbon becomes gradually consumed, and a white sub-
stance called bone-phosphate is left, consisting of phosphate of lime and
a small proportion of carbonate, etc.  When  this bone-phosphate is well
pulverized, and subjected to the action of sulphuric  acid, decomposition
of the carbonate of lime, with effervescence, takes place.   The phosphate
of  lime becomes partially decomposed, phosphoric acid is set free, and
all the lime  detached  from the two salts,  combines with the sulphuric
acid, forming a precipitate of sulphate  of lime.  The disengaged  phos-
phoric acid unites with that  portion of  the phosphate of lime which has 
Soda.
1219
not been  decomposed, and  a  solution of the superphosphate of lime is
the result.  Boiling water is now added for the purpose of separating
any sulphate of lime which may remain in the solution, and the whole is
strained ;  the sulphate,  which remains  on the strainer,  is washed as
long as it  yields any superphosphate, which may be known by the acid
taste of the water passed. The washings and strained solution of super-
phosphate of lime, being mixed together, and allowed to rest, a portion
of sulphate of lime is precipitated as the liquid cools, and from which it
is separated by decantation.    The liquid is then concentrated by evapo-
ration, which causes a still further deposit  of sulphate of  lime, which is
separated  by rest and decantation as before.  The concentrated solution
of superphosphate of lime is now  heated, and a hot solution of carbonate
of soda added to saturation.  The excess of  phosphoric  acid in the
solution combines with  the  soda  to form phosphate of soda, while the
carbonic acid is set free with effervescence; the superphosphate of lime
having  lost its excess of acid, is precipitated as the neutral phosphate.
The liquid being a solution of phosphate of soda, is now filtered to sepa-
rate the neutral  phosphate of lime,  after which  it is  evaporated  and
allowed to crystallize.   In order to insure a complete precipitation of the
neutral phosphate, as well as an  entire  disengagement of the carbonic
acid, both solutions, when added together, should be  boiling hot;  and
if the solution of phosphate of soda thus procured, be slightly alkaline,
the crystals will form more abundantly and with greater facility.
   An economical and expeditious mode for obtaining phosphate of soda,
has been given by M. Funcke, a  German chemist.   It  consists in diffus-
ing the powdered  bone-phosphate in water, adding enough dilute  sul-
phuric acid to decompose the whole of its  carbonate of lime, and when
effervescence has  ceased, to add  nitric acid,  which dissolves the phos-
phate of lime, and leaves the sulphate.   To this nitric solution, sulphate
of soda, equal in quantity  to  the bone  employed, is  added, and when
reaction ceases, the nitric acid may be  recovered by distillation.  By
this process, sulphate of lime and phosphate of soda are generated, which
may be separated from each other by the action of water,  and the phos-
phate crystallized in the ordinary manner.   Phosphate of soda crystal-
lizes in rhombic prisms terminated  by four  converging planes;  the
crystals are large, colorless,  and transparent, but soon  become opake on
account of their speedy efflorescence in the air.  They have a cooling,
mildly-saline taste, somewhat  like that of common salt, and have a slight
alkaline reaction.   Heat fuses them in their water  of crystallization, and
if continued the water passes off, leaving only one equivalent of water,
which  is obstinately retained  by every two equivalents of  soda.  At a
red-heat,  all the  water is expelled, and the salt melts  into a limpid
globule, which becomes opake on cooling ; in  this form it is the pyro-
phosphate of soda of  Clark, or the diphosphate of Turner.   Phosphate
of soda is soluble in four parts of cold, and two of boiling water.  It is 
1220
Pharmacy.
 not  apt to be adulterated, but  may contain carbonate of soda, from an
 excess being added during the process, and which may be known by the
 effervescence  occurring on the addition of an acid.   If any soluble sul-
 phate be present, chloride of barium will precipitate a mixture of sulphate
 and phosphate of baryta, and which nitric acid will not wholly dissolve;
 if the precipitate dissolves in nitric acid with effervescence, it is a carbo-
 nate of baryta, caused by the presence of carbonate of soda.   Nitrate of
 silver will produce a  yellow  precipitate  if a  chloride be present,  and
 which precipitate is a mixture of chloride and phosphate of silver, not
 entirely soluble  in nitric acid.   Phosphate of soda is incompatible with
 the soluble salts of lime, which precipitate phosphate of lime, with the
 magnesian salts, and with neutral metallic solutions.  It consists of  two
 equivalents of soda 62.6, one  of phosphoric acid 72, and twenty-five of
 water 225=359.6 (2 Na O+POs +25 HO).   If a solution of phosphate
 of soda  be evaporated at 90°, the  salt crystallizes with only fifteen,
 instead of twenty-five  equivalents of water.
  Properties  and  Uses.—Phosphate of Soda,  formerly known  a,s  Sub-
 phosphate  of  Soda, and  Sal Mirabile, is a mild, saline  cathartic, well
 adapted to children, and persons with  delicate stomachs.   The dose is
 from half an ounce to two  ounces, and is best given in gruel  or weak
 broth, to which it imparts a taste as if seasoned with common salt.
   Off. Prep.—Ferri Phosphas.
  Soda Valerianas.   Valerianate of Soda.
  Preparation.—Take of Bichromate of Potassa, in  powder, nine ounces,
 (Avoirdupois); Fusel  Oil four fluidounces, (Imperial measure); Com-
 mercial Oil of Vitriol  six fiuidounces and a half, (Imp. meas.); Water
 half a gallon,  (Imp. meas.) ;  Solution  of Caustic  Soda one pint, (Imp.
 meas.), or as  much as is sufficient.  Dilute  the Oil of Vitriol with ten
 fluidounces of Water, and dissolve the Bichromate of Potassa, in  the
remainder of the Water, with the aid of heat.   When both the  Solutions
 have  cooled  down to nearly  the temperature  of the atmosphere, place
them in a matrass, and having added the  Fusel Oil, mix well by repeated
 shaking, until the temperature of the mixture, which at  first rises to
 150°, has fallen to 80° or 90°.  The matrass having been now connected
 with a condenser, heat is to be applied so as to distil  over  about half a
gallon of liquid.    Let this, when exactly saturated with Solution of
 Caustic Soda, be separated  from a little  Oil that floats upon its surface,
and evaporated down until the escape of Aqueous Vapor having entirely
ceased, the residual salt is partially liquefied.   Now withdraw the heat,
and when the Valerianate of Soda has concreted, it is, while still warm,
to be divided into fragments, and preserved  in a well stopped  bottle.—
 Dub.
  History.—In this process, Valerianic Acid is formed by the oxidizing
action of chromic acid, or of the sulphuric acid and bichromate, on the 
Strychnia.
1221
fusel oil, and passes  over with water ;  the solution of caustic soda being
then added  to  it to  saturation forms a solution of valerianate of soda,
which is obtained in  the solid form by evaporation.  The oil that floats
on the surface of the solution of the valerianate, is valerianate of amylic
ether.   Fusel oil is converted into valerianic  acid by being deprived of
two  equivalents of hydrogen, while at the same time it  gains  two of
oxygen.   Valerianate of soda is a deliquescent salt, having, at first, a
styptic taste followed by sweetishness, a valerian odor, and is very soluble
in water.  It fuses  without loss of acid at 285°, and on cooling, becomes
a Avhite  solid ;  it consists of one  equivalent  of soda 31.3, and  one of
acid 93=124.3 (Na 0, Cio Hq Os).
   Properties and Uses.—Valerianate of Soda is not used as a medicine,
but for the preparation of the valerianates of iron, quinia, etc., by double
decomposition of the soda  salt with salts of the respective bases.   It
might be used with advantage in nervous and irritable  habits, attended
with acidity of the stomach.
   Off. Prep.—Quiniae Valerianas.
                          STRYCHNIA.
                             Strychnia.
  Preparation.—Take of Nux Vomica, rasped, four pounds ;  Lime, in
powder, six ounces ;  Muriatic  Acid three fiuidounces;  Alcohol, Diluted
Sulphuric Acid, Solution of Ammonia, Purified Animal Charcoal, Water,
of each,  a  sufficient quantity.   Digest the Nux Vomica in two gallons of
Water, acidulated  with  a  fluidounce of the Muriatic Acid, for twenty-
four hours  ; then boil for two hours, and strain with expression through
a strong linen bag.  Boil  the  residuum twice successively in the same
quantity  of Acidulated Water,  each time  straining as before.  Mix the
decoctions  and evaporate to the consistence of thin syrup ;  then add the
Lime previously mixed with a pint of Water, and boil  for ten  minutes,
frequently  stirring.  Pour  the  mixture into a  double  linen bag,  and,
having washed the precipitate well with Water, press, dry, and powder
it.  Treat the Powder repeatedly with Boiling Alcohol, until  deprived
of its bitterness ; mix the liquors, and distil off the Alcohol by means
of a water-bath.   Mix the residue with Water, and, having applied heat,
drop in sufficient Diluted Sulphuric Acid  to neutralize and dissolve the
Strychnia; then add  purified Animal  Charcoal, boil  for a few minutes,
filter, evaporate, and crystallize.   Dissolve the crystals in Water, and
add sufficient Solution of Ammonia to precipitate the Strychnia.  Lastly,
dry the precipitate on bibulous paper.— U. S.
  History.__In the above process the  nux vomica  is first  reduced to a
powder in  order to be  more readily acted upon, and this  may be  done 
1222
Pharmacy.
 by rasping the seeds, or by exposing them to steam until softened, and
 then slicing, drying, and grinding them.   The strychnia is then extracted
 by water acidulated with muriatic acid, which forms a solution of muri-
 ate of strychnia.   This is concentrated, and on the addition  of lime the
 salt is decomposed,—an impure strychnia is precipitated, while the chlo-
 ride  of calcium remains  in  solution.  The precipitate  is treated with
 boiling alcohol which takes up the strychnia, and which may be obtained
 in impure and colored crystals, by concentration of the alcoholic solution.
 To purify it, sulphuric  acid is added to the crystals forming a sulphate of
 strychnia, while at the same  time animal charcoal is employed to decolo-
 rize it.  In the last part of the process ammonia is added to the sulphate
 of strychnia, which decomposes it,  precipitating crystals  of  strychnia,
 while the sulphate of ammonia  remains in solution.  The brucia of the
 nux  vomica, accompanies the   strychnia   throughout the process, and
 remains in the solution  only when  the strychnia is obtained from the
 alcoholic solution.  As brucia  is more readily soluble  in cold alcohol
 than  strychnia, it would be an improvement upon the above process,  to
 continue the purification by two  or more solutions, and crystallizations in
 alcohol.  Or if it be  desired to  remove the  brucia almost entirely, the
 strychnia obtained may be dissolved in very diluted  nitric acid, then fil-
 tered and concentrated for crystallization.   The nitrate of brucia forms
 short, thick, dense prismatic  crystals, grouped together, and the nitrate
 of strychnia crystallizes in radiated  tufts  of long, light, silky, capillary
 needles.   On adding water to these, and gently agitating, the strychnia
 may  be  poured  off, leaving  the brucia.   The  salts  may then be dis-
 solved, separately, in water,  and decomposed by ammonia.   Strychnia
 is obtained in great proportion from  St. Ignatius' Bean, but on account
 of its scarcity, the nux vomica  seeds are employed.  It is also stated
 that  it may be  profitably procured  from  the bark  of the nux vomica
 tree.
  Strychnia crystallizes  in  elongated,  oblique, colorless  octaedres, or
 quadrilateral prisms with quadrilateral terminations ; when rapidly crys-
 tallized from the alcoholic solution, it is in the form of a white, granular
powder.   It is inodorous, with an intense bitterness which may be com-
municated to water containing only a 600,000th  part of it, is permanent
in the air, fusible like a resin, and is completely dissipated by a red-heat.
It is  soluble in fixed and volatile oils, in 6667 parts of water  at 50°, in
2000  at 212°, and in boiling alcohol; it  is insoluble in ether or pure alco-
hol, and is alkaline in its reactions.   The strychnia usually met with is
in the form of a grayish-white  powder.   Strychnia  consists of carbon,
hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen,  the proportions of which have been vari-
ously given; Liebig and  Gerhardt define  its composition to be Cw H24
 OiN2.
  If brucia be present in strychnia, the addition of nitric acid reddens it. A
concentrated solution  of pure strychnia in concentrated sulphuric acid, 
Strychnia.
1223
 becomes  of a splendid violet color on the addition of a minute quantity
 of solution of chromate of potassa.   Strychnia may be detected  in very
 minute quantity, by placing a drop of the suspected liquid on glass, and
 allowing the liquor to evaporate, then to the dry residuum add a  drop of
 concentrated sulphuric acid, or enough to moisten  it, and then add a
 drop of solution of ferrocyanide of potassium (red prussiate of potassa),
 and mix well together;  a fine deep violet color will be immediately pro-
 duced, which passes slowly into  a light brick-red color, and remains for
 several hours.  It may likewise  be detected in minute quantity, by rub-
 bing a little of the  alkali with  a few drops  of concentrated  sulphuric
 acid containing  one-hundredth of nitric acid,—the solution will be Avith-
 out color; but  if  peroxide of lead be added  in the smallest quantity, a
 magnificent  blue  color will be at once produced, and which  will pass
 rapidly into violet, then gradually to red, and finally into yellow.
   Brucia may be  obtained from  false  angustura bark, by a similar pro-
 cess to that of procuring strychnia  from nux vomica, with the exception
 that the  alcoholic extract of the precipitate occasioned by lime or mag-
 nesia,  should be  treated with oxalic acid, and then Avith a mixture of
 rectified alcohol and  ether, which takes  up  the  coloring matter,  and
 leaves the oxalate of brucia.  This is decomposed by magnesia, and the
 brucia separated  by alcohol, and  obtained in cr3Tstals by  spontaneous
 evaporation.  Brucia crystallizes  in  small,  delicate, pearly,  colorless
 scales, is inodorous, intensely bitter, permanent in the air, and fusible  a
 little above 212°.   It is soluble in alcohol,  in 850 parts of cold and  500
 of boiling  water, sparingly soluble in  volatile oils, and insoluble in ether
 and the fixed oils.  It has  an alkaline reaction, and like strychnia forms
 crystallizable salts with acids.   Nitric acid reddens  it, which becomes
 yellow by heat, and violet upon  the addition of protochloride of  tin.
  Prof. J. Milton  Sanders has prepared two salts of strychnia, the citrate
 and tartrate, which he considers  the most  efficient form of administra-
 tion, and as possessing more activity and safety than the  pure strychnia.
 He prepares the Citrate of  Strychnia by dissolving with a gentle  heat in
 a sufficient quantity of distilled water, one  hundred  and ninety-two
 grains  of dried  citric acid, and then adding three hundred  and forty-six
 grains  of pure strychnia.   By gentle evaporation the citrate may  be ob-
 tained  in crystals.  It is an acid salt, and its constitution is (C12 H» Oii +
 H2)  i  (Cu H22N2 O4).   That is,  one equivalent  of the  strychnia has
 displaced one equivalent  of the external  hydrogen of  the citric acid.
 As it is a tribasic acid, there are  still two equivalents of external  hydro-
 gen to  be displaced, ere  the acid be entirely neutralized.  The dose is
 from one-tenth to  one-twentieth of a grain, to be given cautiously till the
 desired effect is  produced.
  The  Tartrate  of Strychnia he obtains, by  dissolving  in  a sufficient
quantity of Distilled Water, one hundred and fifty-six grains of Tartaric
Acid, and then  adding three hundred  and forty-six  grains of Strychnia. 
1224
Pharmacy.
and evaporating as above.  It is also an acid salt with the composition indi-
cated by the formula (Cs H± Oio+H) +(Cm H22 N2 04).  The dose is
the same as the citrate.

  Properties and  Uses.—Nux Vomica and Strychnia act chiefly, if not
solely, by stimulating the spinal chord and medulla oblongata, and with-
out affecting the functions of the brain.  The slightest observable effects
from  small  doses  are  twitches of the  muscles of the  arms and legs,
occurring especially during sleep, accompanied with restlessness, some
anxiety,  acceleration  of  the pulse,  and generally slight perspiration.
Sometimes the  action of the bowels is increased, and the discharge  of
urine is either  augmented, or discharged more frequently—it  likewise
promotes the venereal appetite.  Large doses occasion very violent start-
ing of the muscles—even a tendency  to lockjaw, succeeded by stiffness,
weariness, pain or rending in the limbs.  In their  highest degree, these
effects amount  to violent tetanic spasms, occurring in frequent fits, with
brief intervals of repose, acute sensibility, and dreadful alarm.  Through
whatever form  or texture Strychnia is introduced into the body,  it exerts
this action more or less, operating with an energy proportioned to the
activity of absorption where it is applied.   It is not a  cumulative poison
like mercury or digitalis ;  nor does its  activity diminish  under the influ-
ence of habit, as with opium.   There is no  known antidote for it; mor-
phia is probably the best, as full opiate  doses will somewhat arrest these
effects.   Camphor  and sweet oil, have been advised  as antidotes, but
further investigations are  required before they  can confidently be relied
upon.   M. Duclos states that under the application  of negative electricity,
the poisonous effects of strychnia on animals subside, while under that
of the positive they are aggravated.   As  some patients are powerfully
affected by  the smallest doses of  this  agent, too much caution cannot be
employed in its administration.  I would  observe  here, that a short
time  since,  a favorite Newfoundland bitch, with  three pups about two
months old, were  poisoned by some evil-minded person, by strychnia
placed on meat.  One of  the pups died in the convulsed condition com-
mon to the  influence  of strychnia; the others  were attacked with spas-
modic twitchings which continued to  increase.  From some cause the
bitch vomited up her meat, a portion  of which  was eaten by two chick-
ens about six or eight weeks old.  To the bitch and the remaining  two
pups I  gave about a gill  of sweet oil to  each, followed by about four
grains of camphor to the  mother, and two  grains to the pups, in some
bread ; they recovered  and are doing well. Of  the chickens, one was
apparently dying, lying on the ground, wings outspread, mouth open,
and with frequent  spasmodic jerks, the other  trembled and spasmodi-
cally staggered around like  an intoxicated person; to each of these I
gave about a grain of camphor in butter, and  fastened them up, and in
an hour they  had both  fully recovered.   I mention  these facts that 
Syrupi.                         1225
further inquiries may be made as regards the antidotal power of camphor
in poisoning by strychnia.   To determine  whether strychnia was the
poison administered, the meat vomited by the dogs was carefully exam-
ined.  Both dogs and chickens were actively purged.
  The alcoholic extract of Nux Vomica and Strychnia, are more gene-
rally employed in medicine; and the action of the former is owing to the
strychnia  it  contains.   Strychnia  is used  in hemiplegia, paraplegia,
partial paralysis of particular joints or muscles, and of the bladder.  The
paralyzed muscles  are always first affected,  if they are thrown into
spasms  at  all.   If the  remedy  is to  succeed,  improvement begins
speedily.  It must not be used in  recent cases of palsy, or while general
reaction prevails;  neither when signs  exist either  of local irritation  in
the brain or spinal chord, or of determination of blood to the  head.   It
has been likewise used in neuralgia, epilepsy, ague, amenorrhea, dysen-
tery,  rheumatism, syphilitic osteocopi,  and obstinate constipation.  In
the treatment of gleet, urethral stricture, and  recent enlargement of the
prostate, I have found it a superior remedy, used internally and locally.
In dyspepsia, where there is a want of appetite, constipation, and a sen-
sation of epigastric weight after eating, I have found the combination
of one grain of the alcoholic extract of Nux Vomica, well triturated with
forty grains of ptelein, and divided into twenty pills, an excellent remedy;
likewise in dyspepsia connected with impotence, caused by masturbation
or venereal  excesses; the dose is  one  pill, repeated three times a day.
Strychnia will also be  found  advantageous  in many uterine diseases,
prolapsus uteri, etc.  The dose of strychnia is from one-twentieth of a
grain to one-tenth, two or three times a day; it may be  rendered more
soluble in alcohol or water,  by the addition  of a few drops of an acid,  as
the acetic, muriatic, nitric, or sulphuric.  Its best form of administration
is that of  pill.  Brucia exerts an influence upon the system very similar
to that occasioned by strychnia, but is less energetic;  its dose is from
one-eighth of a grain to half a grain, three or four times a day.   In the
administration of Brucia and Strychnia, or any of their salts, great caution
must be observed, and the patient  carefully  watched during its use.
   Off. Prep.—Pilulae Eupurpurini Compositae.

                              SYRUPI.
                              Syrups.
  Syrups  are liquid officinal medicines,  of a viscid consistence, produced
by the concentrated solution of Sugar alone  or Sugar mixed with Honey,
in Water, Wine, or Vinegar.  Syrups are either Simple  or Medicated ;
simple syrup is Avhere the solution of the sugar is made with water only;
it forms the  basis of a great many medicated syrups.
  Medicated syrups, are  those in  Avhich one  or more medicinal agents
enter  into the solution, and are commonly prepared  by incorporating 
1226
Pharmacy.
 Sugar with Vegetable, Aqueous or Spirituous solutions, expressed Juices
 etc.   When  the active  principles of the ingredients  used  are  dissi
 pated or decomposed by boiling, or where they are not readily soluble in
 water, they are frequently extracted by Diluted Alcohol, the  spirituous
 ingredient of which is either retained, or driven off, as may be required*
 occasionally they are prepared by  adding a Tincture of the  medicinal
 agent  or agents to  simple syrup, and evaporating the Alcohol.   The
 stability  of a  Syrup depends mainly on its composition and  consistence,
 the temperature, and the  amount of its  exposure  to the air ; and no
 ingredients should  be admitted into its  composition except the  active
 principle  required  and  simple  syrup.   As  most syrups  are  used in
 chronic diseases  during  the  absence of febrile  or  active inflammatory
 symptoms, the  addition  of the alcoholic tincture  is not objectionable,
 unless it be in large proportion ;  but syrups prepared for febrile  or in-
 flammatory difficulties should be  entirely  free from  any spirituous liquor
 whatever.
   The best and most economical plan in making syrups, is to employ
 only Refined  Sugar, as it saves the  trouble of subsequent clarification,
 beside being  less liable  to undergo  change.   The quantity of sugar
 required is about two parts to one of liquid; if  it be in  too small pro-
 portion, the syrup will be apt to ferment; if in too large, crystals of
 sugar will be  deposited.   The heat employed should be adapted to the
 character of  the active principle ; if it be A'olatile,  a gentle heat is re-
 quired, as well as in cases where  a high  temperature would decompose
 it.  If it be not injured by heat, concentration should be  conducted with
 a lively fire, and effected as quickly as possible, as  in many instances a
 long continued heat  will impair its efficiency.   The proper degree of
 concentration  is 30°  Baume's saccharometer, when boiling, and  35°
 when cold ; or specific gravity when boiling 1.261, and when cold about
 1.319.  After the syrup  has cooled, if a pellicle forms upon its surface,
 it has been concentrated  too much.   Syrups  which contain no volatile
 principle, or one not injured by heat, may frequently be restored to their
 original condition, after having undergone vinous fermentation, by again
 boiling them  to expel the alcohol and  carbonic  acid, and sufficiently
 concentrating them ;  and a syrup thus recovered is less  apt to undergo
 subsequent change, on account of the fermenting principles having been
 decreased or  consumed.   Various means have been devised for the pre-
 servation  of syrups :  a little sulphate of potassa, chlorate of potassa, or
 sugar of  milk, have  been recommended for this  purpose.   One flui-
 drachm of Hoffman's Anodyne  to  the  pint  of syrup   will effectually
check a tendency to  fermentation.   The  maintenance of a syrup in a
regular degree of temperature, say 55° to 60°, will tend very much to
lessen its liability to ferment.   As  a general rule  syrups intended to
be kept should be bottled while  hot, securely corked and sealed,  and
 after cooling  should be shaken that the moisture condensed on the cork 
Syrupi.
1227
may be mixed with the syrup, and not form a diluted  layer at the sur-
face.
  The syrups  used  in Eclectic  practice,  which have  been  prepared
according to the method of W. S. Merrell, are found to keep for  a long
time without undergoing change ; in relation to which he has furnished
the following remarks : — Most of the medical  syrups  should  be pre-
pared on the same principles as the Fluid Extracts, only they are  less
concentrated, ;md therefore proportionally less.   Alcohol should  not be
retained in their composition, for, as they are administered in larger doses,
the presence of spirit in them would be more appreciable and injurious.
  All the compounds that  have been proposed for syrups in the Eclectic
school of practice, such as the  Alterative, Scrofulous,  and  Pulmonary
syrups comprise substances AArhose  medical principles  are imperfectly
soluble in water, and should, therefore, be acted on by Alcohol.  I make
these preparations Avith the  same apparatus, and by the same process
as I make the  Fluid  Extracts,  thus retaining,  most perfectly, all the
aroma and volatile essences of the ingredients.   Physicians and apothe-
caries  who have not such apparatus, may substitute the process  laid
down under the formula for Alterative Syrup, which see.
  In all these preparations, the principle should be adopted of confining
the boiling and evaporation to  the weaker portion of the solution, so
that those delicate principles which  are evaporated or decomposed by
heat may be submitted to its action as little as possible.
  Syrupus (Syrupus Simplex).   Syrup (Simple Syrup).
  Preparation.—Take of refined Sugar  two pounds and a half; Water a
pint.  Dissolve the  Sugar in the Water with  the  aid  of heat, remove
any scum which may form, and  strain the  Solution while hot.— U. S.
  History.—Simple syrup,  when properly  made, is  sweet, inodorous,
thick, viscid, colorless and transparent.  When made  with sugar, not
well refined, it is apt to be turbid, and  may be  clarified by beating the
white  of  an egg to  a froth with three or  four ounces of water, adding
this to the syrup, with about five per  cent, of animal  charcoal  if any
peculiar flavor or color be present, boiling the whole for a short time so
that the albumen may coagulate, and removing the scum which rises to
the  surface, either by a skimmer, or by filtration through flannel; this
will clarify two gallons of  syrup.
  Properties and Uses.—Syrup is employed in various  mixtures, pills,
medicated syrups, and extemporaneous  prescriptions.
   qjt, prep.—Pilulae Ferri Compositae; Syrupus Acidi  Citrici ; Syrupus
Ferri Iodidi; Syrupus Ferri Phosphatis; Syrupus Ipecacuanha; Syrupus
Tolutanus.
  Syrupus Acidi Citrici.   Syrup of Citric Acid.  Lemon Syrup.
  Preparation.—Take of  Citric Acid, in powder, two drachms;  Oil of
Lemons four minims; Syrup two pints.   Rub the Citric Acid and  Oil of 
1228                        Pharmacy.
Lemons with a fluidounce of the  Syrup, then  add the mixture to the
remainder of the Syrup, and dissolve with a gentle heat.— U S.
  History.—This syrup is more  readily prepared than  lemon syrup,
keeps better, and is more uniform, though not quite so  well flavored.
Tartaric  acid, which is frequently substituted  for the  citric, is apt to
irritate the  stomach, and the syrup  prepared with it, does not  keep so
well.   A preparation  sold as Syrup of Lemons, and which is in no way
inferior to the above, is made by adding to  one gallon of  Water, half a
pound of Citric Acid,  one pound  of Ivory  Black, and  thirteen pounds
of Refined Sugar; boil together, filter,  and add one fluidrachm of Oil of
Lemon.
  Properties and Uses.—This syrup  added to water, or to  carbonic acid
water, forms an agreeable and refrigerant beverage for persons laboring
under febrile complaints, and in certain states  of the system.  From a
fluidrachm to half a fluidounce may be added to half a pint of  the fluid
in which it is to be  taken.
  Syrupus Allii.   Syrup of Garlic.
  Preparation.—Take of fresh  Garlic, sliced  and bruised, six ounces;
Diluted Acetic Acid a pint; Refined Sugar, in coarse powder, two pounds.
Macerate the Garlic in ten fluidounces  of  the Diluted  Acetic Acid, in a
glass vessel, for four days, and express the liquor.  Then mix the resi-
due with the  remainder of the Diluted Acetic  Acid, and  again express
until sufficient has passed to make the whole,  when filtered, measure a
pint.   Lastly, pour the filtered liquor on the Sugar contained in a quart
bottle, and agitate till it is dissolved.— U. S.
   Properties and Uses.—This syrup is useful in chronic catarrhal affec-
tions of  the lungs,  and is particularly  beneficial in the  cases of infants,
on  account of the stimulus it affords to the  nervous  system.  The dose
is a teaspoonful to  a  child  a year old.   The  active  matter of garlic is
more readily taken up by vinegar  than  water.   A syrup  of onions is
often prepared extemporaneously for coughs, by slicing one or  two
onions, and laying  the slices upon each other  with sugar between; this
is set by the fire in a saucer or  glass vessel,  and kept there, until the
 juice of the onion  and the sugar  have, by  the aid of the heat, formed
a syrup  in the vessel.   It may be given freely.
   Syrupus Aralia Compositus.   Compound Syrup of Spikenard.  Pul-
monary Balsam.
   Preparation.—Take of the Roots  of Spikenard, Elecampane, Comfrey,
and Bloodroot, of  the Leaves and Flowers of Horehound, and  of  the
Bark of Wild  Cherry, each, one pound.  1. Grind and mix the articles
together; place the whole six pounds  in a convenient vessel, cover them
with Alcohol  of 76  per  cent.,  and  macerate for three days.  Then
transfer the Avhole  to a displacement apparatus, and gradually add Hot
Water, until three  pints of the  Alcoholic tincture have been obtained, 
                               Syrupi.                         1229

 which retain and set aside.   2. Then continue the percolation, and of this
 second solution reserve so much as contains a sensible amount of Spirit,
 and distil or evaporate the Alcohol from it. 3. Continue the displacement
 by Hot Water, until the solution obtained is almost tasteless, and  boil
 down  this weaker infusion  until, when added to the second  solution
 after the evaporation of its Alcohol, it will make eighteen pints.  4. To
 these two solutions combined, add twenty-four pounds of Refined Sugar,
 and dissolve it by heat, carefully removing any scum which arises as it
 comes to the point of boiling; and if  it exceeds twenty-one pints, evapo-
 rate to that quantity with constant stirring.   Then remove from  the fire,-
 and when nearly cold, add  the three pints  of  Alcoholic Tincture first
 obtained and  set aside, and  make  three gallons of Syrup.   Each  pint
 will contain the virtues of four ounces of the ingredients.
   Properties and  Uses.—This is an elegant remedy for obstinate coughs
 of  long standing,  and  pulmonary  affections generally.   It  is  often
 employed advantageously in pulmonary and bronchial difficulties  com-
 bined  with  one-fourth part  of Fluid Extract of Queen's  Root.   The
 dose of the syrup is half a fluidounce three or four times a day.
   Syrupus Assafc3tida.   Syrup of  Assafetida.
   Preparation.—Take of Assafetida  an ounce ;  Boiling Water a pint;
 Sugar  two pounds.   Triturate the Assafetida in a mortar with a portion
 of the Boiling Water  until a uniform paste is  formed, then gradually
 add the remainder  of the Water, strain and add the Sugar, dissolving it
 with a gentle heat.
   History.—Good  assafetida contains nearly six per cent,  of  volatile
 oil, which would be dissipated were much heat employed in  the  solution
 of the sugar.   The object of employing boiling water instead  of  cold,
 is to have more of the gum-resin  taken up,  and which is permanently
 dissolved or suspended by the sugar.   This syrup is nearly  white Avhen
 first made, but gradually assumes a pinkish tinge; it is quite permanent,
 keeping  for  several  months without any  material  change, and  has
 the  advantage of  being  entirely  free from alcohol,  which  is  often
 objectionable.
  Properties and  Uses.—This is an excellent form for  the administration
 of assafetida, being less  stimulant than the tincture,  and more  prompt
 in its  action  than  the  pill.  The  dose  is one  or two tablespoonfuls,
 repeated three or four times a  day.  If used  in  enema,  two  to four
 fluidounces may be injected into the rectum at one time.  Other Anti-
 spasmodics may be combined with it, as fluid extracts of Black  Cohosh,
 Blue Cohosh,  Ladies Slipper  Root, Scullcap, Valerian, etc., according to
 indications.
  Syrupus Cinnamomi.  Syrup of  Cinnamon.
  Preparation.—Take of  Tincture of Cinnamon four fiuidounces; Water
three pints; Refined Sugar seven pounds and a half; Essence of Cinna- 
1230
Pharmacy.
mon (Tincture of the  Oil,) four fiuidrachms.  Mix the Tincture with
three pounds of the Sugar in a shallow dish, and evaporate the Alcohol
with the aid of a gentle  heat, or allow it  to evaporate spontaneously;
then add the remainder of the Sugar, and dissolve it in two pints  and  a
half of the  Water.  With the remaining half pint of Water,  beat up
the Avhites of two Eggs, add it to the Syrup, boil for one or two minutes,
strain  through a Canton  flannel bag, and when nearly cool  add  the
Essence of Cinnamon.
   Properties and Uses.—This syrup is a warm aromatic stomachic, car-
minative,  and  astringent.  It is  chiefly used as an adjuvant to  other
less  pleasant medicines, especially in the treatment  of diarrhea, dys-
entery, hemorrhages, and Avhere  astringents are indicated.   It may be
given in doses of one or two fluidrachms.
   Syrupus Cochlearia Compositus.   Compound Syrup of Horseradish.
   Preparation.—Take of the  recent Root of Horseradish,  grated, two
ounces; Boneset, Leaves  and Tops, one  ounce;  Canada  Snakeroot half
an ounce;  Boiling Water, Diluted Acetic  Acid, of each,  a  sufficient
quantity; Refined Sugar two pounds.   Infuse the Boneset and Canada
Snakeroot, in half a pint of the Boiling Water, and express with strong
pressure, adding  Boiling Water to the mass until half a pint  of infusion
is  obtained; then add the  Sugar and dissolve by gentle heat.
   Add the Horseradish to Dilute Acetic Acid, half a pint;  let it  stand
for two days, and then express, adding  Dilute Acetic Acid to the  mass
until half a  pint of the Acetous Solution is obtained.  Add this to the
above  Syrup, and agitate  until all the Sugar is dissolved.
   Properties and Uses.—This forms an efficient preparation for obstinate
colds,  catarrhs, hoarseness,  and chronic  irritation of the throat and
fauces.  The dose is from  one  to four  fluidrachms, every two  or three
hours.   The following compound, known as " Cough or Vegetable Elixir,"
has been found a most beneficial  agent  in  chronic pulmonary affections,
cough,  etc.   To  one gallon of good  cider vinegar, add half a pound,
each, of Balsam of Tolu and gum Arabic,  dissolve by heat, and add of
Refined Sugar six pounds; when  all is dissolved, remove from the fire,
and add of Tincture of Opium, eighteen fluidounces.   The dose of this
is  a teaspoonful three, four, or five times a day, or whenever the cough
is  severe.   Sometimes molasses  may be  substituted  for the sugar, or
honey.
   Syrupus Corydallis Compositus.  Compound Syrup of Turkey  Corn.
   Preparation.—Take  of  the  Root of Turkey  Corn, coarsely bruised,
two pounds; the Leaves of Twin-leaf one pound; Blue Flag Root one
pound; Sheep  Laurel Leaves  half  a pound.  1.  Mix the  articles
together; place the whole  four pounds and a half in a convenient vessel,
cover them with Alcohol of 76 per cent., and  macerate for three  days.
Then transfer the whole to a displacement apparatus, and gradually add 
Syrupi.
1231
Hot Water until two pints and four fluidounces of the Alcoholic Tincture
have been obtained,  which retain and set  aside.   2.  Then continue  the
percolation,  and of this second Solution reserve  so much as contains a
sensible amount of Spirit, and  distil or evaporate the Alcohol from it.
3.  Continue the displacement by Hot Water, until the Solution obtained
is almost tasteless, and boil down this weaker infusion until, Avhen added
to  the second Solution after the evaporation of its Alcohol, it will  make
thirteen pints and a half.  4.  To these  two Solutions  combined, add
eighteen pounds of  Refined Sugar, and  dissolve it  by heat, carefully
removing any scum which arises as it comes to the point  of boiling; and
if it  exceeds  fifteen pints  and  twelve fluidounces,  evaporate to that
quantity with constant stirring.   Then remove from the fire,  and wrhen
nearly cold add the two pints and four fluidounces of Alcoholic Tincture
first obtained and set aside, and make eighteen pints of Syrup.  It may
also  be flavored with  some agreeable aromatic essence, as  Sassafras,
Wintergreen, Prickly Ash Berries, etc.
  Properties and Uses.—This is a valuable alterative syrup, and is used
with much success in syphilis, scrofula, liver affections, and rheumatism.
The  iodide of potassium may be added to it, in the same manner as
usually pursued with the Compound Syrup of Stillingia,  to which this is
by no means, second.   The dose is a fluidrachm, three or four times a
day, in half a gill of water.—J. K.
  Some twenty years  since, a half-breed Indian,  called Ben Smith,
in  the State of New York, made a syrup, which gained considerable
reputation as a remedy in syphilitic diseases, and which sold rapidly for
three dollars per bottle; the following is the formula for its preparation:
Take of Indian Hemp, (Apocyn.  Cann.), Virginia Sarsaparilla, Inner
Bark of White  Pine, each, one pound; Mezereon four  ounces;  Sheep
Laurel half a pound; Water four gallons;  Sugar eight pounds.  Place
the Plants in the water, boil for a few minutes, and then gradually eva-
porate, until about tAvo gallons of decoction are left, then  strain, and add
the Sugar.   To each quart bottle of  this Syrup he added forty drops of
Nitric Acid, and twenty grains of  Tartar Emetic dissolved in a sufficient
quantity of Spirits.   The dose was a wineglassful three  times  a day.  I
have  never been  able  to ascertain  the true  botanical character of  the
Virginia Sarsaparilla.  This  syrup has  been  found as efficacious in
syphilis, when prepared without the tartar-emetic.
  Syrupus Ipecacuanha.  Syrup of Ipecacuanha.
  Preparation. — Take of Ipecacuanha, in poAvder, eight ounces Troy;
Alcohol, sp. gr. 0.835, Syrup, of each, a sufficient quantity.  Add  the
Ipecacuanha to twelve fiuidounces of the Alcohol, and allow it to stand
for twelve hours;  then add sufficient Alcohol to make  the mixture of the
consistence of Syrup, and introduce  the whole into a suitable  displacer,
in  Avhich it gradually settles down as the  Alcohol percolates;  a piece of 
1232
Pharmacy.
muslin is laid on the surface, and when it has settled down uniformly,
more Alcohol  is added until the filtered  liquid measures half  a gallon,
reserving the first half pint that comes through ; distil and evaporate the
remainder  to eight fluidounces, and  then add  the  reserved half pint.
This  forms a  Fluid Extract of  Ipecacuanha, of which two fluidounces
represent one ounce Troy, of the root.
   To four pints of Syrup add eight fluidounces of the above Fluid Ex-
tract  of Ipecacuanha,  and  evaporate the Mixture to three pints ; then
add four pints  of  Syrup, and  one  pint of Water, making one gallon of
Syrup of Ipecacuanha.
   History.—Owing to the presence probably of gum and coloring matter,
the Syrup  of Ipecacuanha,  as  generally prepared by diluted alcohol, is
very  liable to  fermentation ; but made according to the above formula
of Mr. Joseph Laidley, it contains but little, if any alcohol, possesses all
the medicinal virtues of the drug,  and keeps  as well as simple syrup,
without fermenting.  When the four pints of syrup are added to  the
fluid  extract, should it not be  perfectly clear, it may be rendered so by
mixing with water the  white of one  egg, adding it to the syrup, boiling
for a  few minutes and  straining.
   Properties and Uses.—This syrup is emetic and expectorant; it is used
principally in cases of  children.  As an emetic the dose for an adult is
one  or two fluidounces; for a  child one  or two years  old, one or  tAvo
fluidrachms — to be repeated every fifteen or twenty minutes till it ope-
rates.  When  used as  an  expectorant, an  adult may take one or  two
fluidrachms ; a child, from five to twenty minims.
   Mr. A. G. Dunn prepares a  "Saccharaled Alcoholic Extract of Ipecac-
uanha," which he considers superior to any other preparation of the drug;
it is made as follows : Bruise the Root of  Ipecacuanha four ounces, to a
coarse powder, and macerate for thirty days in Diluted Alcohol sixteen
fiuidounces, shaking it occasionally;  then filter and express.  The tincture
thus formed is to be evaporated to  two fluidounces, and then mixed with
Refined Sugar, eight ounces ; lastly, triturate in a stone mortar until it is
entirely dry.  This preparation has  the peculiar odor and taste of Ipe-
cacuanha, is of  a brownish-yellow color,  is soluble in  water, alcohol,
ether, mucilage of gum Arabic, etc.,  is of uniform strength, and agree-
able  to take.   The dose is the same as of the powdered root.
   Syrupus Lobelia.   Syrup of Lobelia.
   Preparation. — Take of Vinegar of  Lobelia two pints; Sugar four
pounds.  Dissolve with the aid of heat, not to exceed 180°, and continue
the heat for three hours, removing any scum which may form, and strain
while hot.
   Properties  and Uses.—This forms  a pleasant expectorant syrup, and
notwithstanding the volatile properties of  lobelia are dissipated  by heat,
this syrup  will  be  found sufficiently active for  practical purposes; the 
Syrupi.
1233
long-continued digestion removes the peculiar, disagreeable taste of the
lobelia.   It will  be found very useful  in  infantile cases of catarrh, per-
tussis,  croup, pectoral diseases, to produce  emesis, and to  brino- the
system under the relaxing influence of lobelia.   The dose is from one
fluidrachm to half a  fluidounce.—N T. Isgrigg.
  Syrupus Mitchella Compositus.   Compound Syrup  of Partridge-
Berry.  Mothers' Cordial.
  Preparation.—Take  of  Partridge-Berry one pound;  Helonias  Root,
High Cranberry Bark, Blue Cohosh Root, of each, four ounces.   Grind,
and mix the articles  together ; place the  whole  pound  and three  quar-
ters in a convenient vessel,  cover  them with fourth proof Brandy, and
macerate  for three days.   Then transfer the whole to a displacement
apparatus, and  gradually add Brandy, until three pints of  spirituous
tincture have  been  obtained, which reserve.  Then continue the  dis-
placement with Hot Water until the liquid passes tasteless, add to this two
pounds of Refined Sugar, and evaporate  by a gentle heat to five pints ;
remove from the fire, add  the reserved three pints of Spirituous Tincture,
and  flavor with  Essence of  Sassafras.   Strictly speaking, this is  not a
Syrup, but a sweetened Infusion, yet I place it here, as being nearly in
its appropriate class.
  Properties and  Uses. — This  preparation is a  uterine tonic and anti-
spasmodic.  It  may be used in all cases where  the  functions  of the
internal reproductive organs  are deranged, as in amenorrhea, dysmen-
orrhea, menorrhagia,  leucorrhea, and to overcome  the tendency to
habitual abortion.   The dose is from two to four fluidounces, three times
a day.   Pregnant females, especially those  of  a delicate, or nervous
system, will find it  an advantage to  take one or two  doses daily, for
several weeks previous to  parturition, as by the energy it imparts  to the
uterine  nervous  system, the  labor will be very much facilitated, beside
which,  it frequently removes the cramps to which some females are
liable during the latter weeks of utero-gestation.   The medicine appears
to exert a specific influence on the uterus.—J. K.
  A preparation called the "Parturient Balm," has also been used and
recommended  in the above  diseases, but I have  found it to be of less
efficacy; however, as some practitioners  employ it, I introduce the for-
mula for its preparation  at this  place :  Take of Blue Cohosh  Root,
Spikenard Root, each, four pounds;  Black Cohosh  Root, Partridge-
Berry Herb, Queen of the Meadow Root, of each, two  pounds ; Ladies
Slipper Root, Comfrey Root, of  each,  one pound.   Proceed to make a
Syrup, similar to the directions  given  for the Compound Syrup of Sar-
saparilla, reserving eight  pints of the  strongest tincture first obtained,
using sixty-four  pounds of Refined Sugar, and making eight gallons of
Syrup.   The dose of this  is from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful  three
or four times a day.
           78 
1234
Pharmacy.
   Syrupus Phytolacca Compositus.   Compound Syrup of Poke.
   Preparation.—Take of Poke Root, and Bark of American Ivy, (Am-
pelopsis  Quinq.), each coarsely bruised, one pound; Black  Cohosh Root
coarsely  bruised, and Sheep Laurel Leaves, each, half a pound.  1. Mix
the articles together ; place the whole three pounds in  a convenient
vessel, cover them with Alcohol of 76 per cent., and macerate for three
days.  Then transfer the whole to a displacement apparatus, and gradu-
ally add  Hot Water, until  one pint and a half of the Alcoholic tincture
passes, which retain and set  aside.  2. Then  continue the percolation,
and of this second solution reserve so much as contains a sensible amount
of Spirit, and distil  or evaporate the Alcohol from it.  3.  Continue the
displacement by Hot Water, until the solution obtained is almost tasteless,
and  boil down this weaker infusion until, when  added to the second
solution  after the evaporation of its Alcohol,  it will make nine pints.
4. To  these  two  solutions combined, add  twelve pounds of Refined
Sugar, and  dissolve it  by  heat, carefully  removing  any  scum which
arises as it comes to the point  of  boiling, and if it exceeds ten pints and
a half, evaporate to that quantity with constant stirring.  Then remove
from the fire, and when  nearly cold, add the pint and a half of Alcoholic
tincture first obtained and set  aside, and make  one gallon and a half of
Syrup.   Flavor with  some aromatic  essence, as  Sassafras,  Winter-
green, etc.
   Properties  and  Uses.—This syrup is an excellent alterative and anti-
syphilitic, and is beneficial in syphilis, scrofula,  and rheumatism.  If
required, Iodide of  Potassium may be added to it, as in the instance of
Compound Syrup of Stillingia.  The dose is a teaspoonful three or four
times a day, in half a gill of water.—J. K
   Syrupus Pruni Virginiana.   Syrup of Wild Cherry Bark.
   Preparation.— Take  of  Wild  Cherry  Bark,  in  coarse  powder, five
ounces ; Refined Sugar two pounds ; Water a sufficient quantity.  Moisten
the Bark thoroughly with Water, let it stand for twenty-four hours in  a
close vessel, then transfer it to a percolator, and pour Water gradually
upon it until a pint of filtered liquor is obtained. Add to this  the Sugar,
in a bottle, and agitate occasionally until it is dissolved.— U. S.
   Properties  and Uses. — This  forms  a  handsome  tonic  and  sedative
syrup, which  may be used in all cases where wild cherry bark is indi-
cated or  desired.  It may be  given in doses of half a fluidounce.
   Syrupus Rhei et Potassa Compositus.  Compound Syrup of Rhubarb
and Potassa.   Neutralizing  Cordial.
   Preparation. — Take  of best  India  Rhubarb, in coarse  powder, and
Bicarbonate of Potassa,  each, one pound;  Cinnamon, Golden Seal, of
each, half a pound; Refined  Sugar six pounds ; Fourth Proof Brandy
two gallons ;  Oil of Peppermint two fluidrachms.   Macerate  the Rhu- 
Syrupi.
1235
barb, Potassa, Cinnamon, and Golden Seal, in the Brandy for two days,
then express the tincture with strong pressure, and add to it the Oil of
Peppermint, previously dissolved in a little Alcohol.  Break up the cake
or compressed  residue from the  press, and place it in a displacement
apparatus, and  gradually add Warm Water, until  the  strength  of  the
articles is exhausted.  Evaporate this solution to eight pints, and while
the liquor is still hot dissolve in it the Sugar.  Continue the evaporation,
if necessary, until when added to the tincture first obtained, it will make
three gallons, and  mix the two solutions together.   Strictly Speaking,
this is not a  Syrup, but a sweetened Tincture.— W.  S. M
  Dr. Hill has  kindly furnished me with the formula by which he pre-
pares this syrup, and which many physicians prefer on account of its
pleasantness and efficacy.  It is as follows: Take of best India Rhubarb,
in coarse powder, and pure Carbonate of Potassa, each, two  ounces;
Golden Seal, Cinnamon, of each, one ounce ; Refined Sugar four pounds;
Brandy one  gallon;  Oil  of Peppermint twenty minims.  Macerate  the
Rhubarb, Golden Seal, and  Cinnamon, in half a gallon of the  Brandy
for six hours, with a gentle heat;  then transfer the mass to a percolator
and displace with the  remaining half gallon of Brandy.   The remaining
strength, if there be  any, can be obtained by adding  Water until  the
liquor comes off tasteless.  To this add the Carbonate of Potassa, Sugar,
and Oil of Peppermint, this  last having been previously rubbed with a
sufficient quantity of the  Sugar to absorb it  and mix  the two liquors.
The whole of the active  properties of  the ingredients may be obtained
with more certainty by using Alcohol 76 per  cent., instead of Brandy,
owing to the great want of uniformity in the quality of the latter.
  Properties and Uses.—This syrup is  an  agreeable laxative, antacid,
and tonic.  Tt may be used  in cases of obstinate constipation, acidity of
stomach, dyspepsia, and as a laxative in pregnancy and where piles  are
present.  It  is the  principal  remedy employed by Eclectics in diarrhea,
dysentery, cholera-morbus, cholera-infantum,  and in the same diseases
as the Compound Powder of Rhubarb.   The dose for an adult is a table-
spoonful, every  half hour, hour, or two hours,  according to the urgency
of the symptoms;  for a child in proportion to its age.
  Syrupus  Rumecis Compositus.   Compound  Syrup of Yellow Dock.
Scrofulous Syrup.
  Preparation.—-Take of Yellow  Dock  Root  two pounds; Bark of  the
Root of False Bittersweet one pound;  Bark of American Ivy,  (Ampe-
lopsis Quinq.), and Figwort,  (Scroph. Mariland.), of each, half a pound;
Refined Sugar sixteen pounds.  1.  Grind and mix  the   drugs together,
place the whole four pounds in  a convenient vessel, cover  them with
Alcohol of 76 per  cent., and macerate for two  days.  Then transfer  the
whole to a  common  displacement  apparatus, and  gradually add Hot
Water, until two pints have been obtained, which retain and set aside. 
1236
Pharmacy.
 2. Then continue the percolation, and of the second  solution reserve so
 much as contains a sensible amount of Spirit, and distil or evaporate the
 Alcohol from it.  3. Continue the displacement, by  Hot Water,  until
 the solution obtained is almost tasteless, and boil down this weaker  infu-
 sion till it begins to thicken, or until, when added to the balance remain-
 ing of the second portion, after the evaporation of the Alcohol, it will
 make twelve pints.  4. To these two solutions combined, add the Sugar,
 and dissolve by heat, carefully removing the  scum  which arises  as it
 comes to the point of boiling.  Then if it exceeds fourteen pints, evapo-
 rate to that quantity with  constant stirring;  remove  from  the  fire, and
 when nearly cold, add the two pints of Alcoholic tincture first obtained
 and set aside, and  make  two gallons of syrup.  Each pint will contain
 the virtues  of four ounces of the ingredients.   It may be flavored  with
 some aromatic essence.
   Properties and Uses.—This syrup is alterative and antiscrofulous, and
 is extensively and successfully used in  the  treatment of  scrofula, all
 scrofulous affections, and many cutaneous diseases.  Iodide of potassium
 is frequently added to it, in the  proportion of an ounce to the pint of
 syrup.  The dose is from one to four fluidrachms, three times a day, in
 about a gill of water; or when the iodide is added, one or two fluidrachms,
 in water.
   Syrupus  Sanguinaria.   Syrup  of Bloodroot.
   Preparation. — Take of Bloodroot, in  coarse powder, eight  ounces;
 Acetic  Acid four fiuidounces;  Water five pints; Refined  Sugar two
 pounds, Troy. Macerate the Bloodroot for three  days, in two fluidounces
 of the Acetic Acid, and a pint of the Water; then transfer to a perco-
 lator, and displace with the remainder of the Acetic Acid mixed with
 the balance of  the Water.  Evaporate by means of a water-bath, to
 eighteen fluidounces, add the Sugar, and form a syrup.
   History.—By  the above  process carefully conducted, the root will be
 exhausted, and a syrup of a deep ruby color obtained, opake in quantity,
 but transparent in thin strata, having a strongly acrid and bitterish taste.
   Properties and  Uses.—This  syrup  may be used in all cases where
 Bloodroot is applicable, in doses of from  ten to  sixty  drops.  An excel-
 lent cough mixture is composed of equal parts of Syrup of Squill, Syrup
 of Balsam  of Tolu,  Syrup of Ipecacuanha, Syrup of Bloodroot,  and
 Paregoric;  the  dose of which is  a teaspoonful whenever the cough is
 troublesome.  Syrups of Wild Cherry Bark, Bloodroot, Balsam of Tolu,
 and Fluid Extract of Stillingia, combined in equal proportions, have been
 found very useful in chronic bronchial and  catarrhal affections.
   Syrupus Sarsaparilla  Compositus.  Compound Syrup of Sarsapa-
rilla.  Alterative Syrup.
   Preparation.—Take of the  Hoots of Honduras Sarsaparilla,  Yellow
 Dock, Burdock,  and ground Guaiacum Wood, each, ten ounces ; Bark of 
Syrupi.
1237
the Root of Sassafras, of Southern Prickly Ash, Elder Flowers, Blue Flag
Root, of each, eight ounces.   1.  Grind and mix the articles together, place
the whole four pounds and a half in a convenient vessel, cover them with
Alcohol of 76 per cent., and macerate for two days.  Then transfer the
whole to a common displacement apparatus or percolator,  and gradually
add Hot Water, until two pints have been obtained, which retain and set
aside. 2. Then continue the percolation, and of the second solution reserve
so much as contains a sensible amount of Spirit and distil or evaporate the
alcohol  from it.   3.  Continue the displacement, by Hot Water,  until the
solution obtained is almost tasteless, and boil down this weaker infusion
till it begins to thicken, or until, Avhen added to the balance remaining
of the second portion, after the evaporation of the alcohol, it will make
twelve pints.  4. To these two solutions combined, add sixteen pounds
of Refined  Sugar, and, by heat, dissolve—carefully removing the scum
which arises as it comes to the  point of boiling.   Then, if it exceeds that
quantity, evaporate the Syrup  with constant stirring, to  fourteen pints,
remove  from the fire, and when nearly cold, add the two pints of tincture
first obtained, and make two gallons of Syrup.   Each pint will contain
the virtues  of four ounces of the ingredients.  It may be flavored with
essence of Wintergreen, Sassafras, or Prickly-Ash Berries, etc.
   Properties and  Uses.—This  forms a  valuable Syrup, which may be
used in  all cases where an alterative is indicated; in chronic hepatitis,
rheumatism, syphilis, scrofula, cutaneous  diseases, ulcers, white swell-
ing, rickets, necrosis, and every taint of  the  system.   Some physicians
add an  ounce of the Iodide of  Potassium to  every pint of Syrup.   The
dose is  from a teaspoonful  to a tablespoonful, three or four times a day,
in about a gill of water.
   Syrupus  Scilla.   Syrup of Squill.
   Preparation.—Take of Vinegar of Squill  a pint; Refined Sugar two
pounds.   Add the Sugar to the Vinegar  of Squill, dissolve with the aid
of heat, removing any scum which  may form, and strain the  solution
while hot.— U S.
   Properties and Uses.—Syrup of Squill is  used as an expectorant in
coughs  and catarrhs, and as an emetic in infantile cases of catarrh, and
other pectoral complaints.   It  is frequently given in combination with
Tincture of Lobelia, and other  emetic or  expectorant agents. The dose
of it is  about a fluidrachm.
   Syrupus  Senega.  Syrup of Seneka.
   Preparation.—Take of Seneka, in coarse powder, four ounces; Alco-
hol half a pint; Water a pint and a half;  Refined Sugar fifteen ounces.
Mix the Alcohol and Water, pour half a pint of the liquid on  the Seneka,
and allow the mixture to stand for twelve hours; then transfer it  to a
percolator, and gradually pour  upon it the remainder of the menstruum,
When the liquor has ceased to  pass, evaporate  it by means  of  a water- 
1238
Pharmacy.
bath to half a pint, filter, and, having added the  Sugar, dissolve Avith
the aid of heat, removing any scum which may form, and strain the solu-
tion while hot.— U. S.
  A still better plan for preparing this Syrup, is according to that laid
down for Syrup of Ipecacuanha, by first preparing an Alcoholic Fluid
Extract, and adding it to Simple Syrup; by this method the separation of
the gum and other matters which cause  a  tendency to fermentation, is
entirely avoided.
  Properties and Uses.—This  forms a stimulating expectorant, which is
often very useful in pectoral complaints.   It is frequently combined with
syrup of squill, tincture of lobelia, syrup of sanguinaria, etc.   Its dose
is one or two fluidrachms.
  Syrupus  Stillingia.   Syrup of Queen's  Root.
  Preparation.—Take of  Queen's Root three pounds ;  Prickly Ash Ber-
ries one pound and a half; Refined  Sugar  eighteen pounds.   1.  Grind,
and mix the articles together; place the whole four pounds and a half
in a convenient vessel, cover them with Alcohol of 76 per  cent., and
macerate for three days.   Then transfer the whole to  a displacement
apparatus,  and gradually  add Alcohol, until five pints of the Alcoholic
tincture have been obtained, which  retain and set aside.  2. Then con-
tinue  the percolation with Hot Water, until the liquor passes  almost
tasteless, add the Sugar to it, and evaporate by gentle heat until thirteen
pints  are obtained;  to which add the reserved  five pints of  Alcoholic
tincture, and  make  eighteen  pints of  Syrup.  It may be flavored with
Essence of  Sassafras, if required.
  Properties and  Uses.—This has been found highly beneficial in bron-
chial  and laryngeal affections, also in obstinate cases  of rheumatism,
and wherever  a stimulating alterative is required.  The dose is from a
fluidrachm to half a fluidounce, three, four, or five times a day, accord-
ing to the urgency of the symptoms.  It should be taken in water.
  Syrupus  Stillingia  Compositus.   Compound  Syrup of Queen's Root.
  Preparation.—Take of Queen's  Root, and Root of Turkey-Corn, each,
two pounds ; Blue Flag-root, Elder Flowers, and Pipsissewa Leaves, of
each, one pound; Coriander, and Prickly Ash  Berries, of  each, half a
pound.   1. Grind, and mix the articles together; place  the whole eight
pounds in a convenient vessel, cover them with Alcohol  of 76 per cent.,
and macerate  for three days.  Then transfer the whole to a displacement
apparatus, and gradually add Hot Water until four pints  of the Alcoholic
tincture have  been obtained, which  retain and set aside. 2.  Then con-
tinue the percolation, and of  this second solution  reserve  so much as
contains a sensible amount of Spirit, and  distil or evaporate the Alcohol
from it.  3. Continue the displacement by Hot Water, until the solution
obtained is almost tasteless,  and  boil down this weaker infusion until,
when added to the second solution  after  the evaporation of its Alcohol, 
Syrupi.
1239
it will make twenty-four pints.  4. To these two solutions combined, add
thirty-two pounds of Refined Suga*f,  and dissolve it  by heat, carefully
removing any scum which arises as it comes to. the point of boilino-; and
if it exceeds twenty-eight pints, evaporate to that quantity, with constant
stirring.   Then remove from the fire, and whenxpearly cold add the four
pints of  reserved Alcoholic tincture  and make  four  gallons of Syrup,
each pint of which  will be equal to  four ounces of the ingredients in
medicinal virtue.
  Properties and Uses.—This is a most powerful and effective alterative,
and is extensively used by Eclectic practitioners  in all syphilitic, scrofu-
lous, osseous,  mercurial, hepatic,  and glandular diseases ; or in every
case where an alterative is indicated.  It is most commonly given with
an  ounce of Iodide of Potassium  added to each  pint of the syrup.  The
dose is a fluidrachm, three or four times a day, in half a gill  of water;
but where the Iodide  is  omitted, the dose is from a fluidrachm to a
fluidounce, three or four times  a day, also in water.   This  is  considered
one of the most potent Eclectic remedies in all chronic diseases.
  Syrupus  Tolutanus.   Syrup of Tolu.
  Preparation. — Take  of Tincture of Tolu  a fluidounce  and  a  half;
Refined Sugar two  and a half pounds, Troy ; Water a pint.   Mix the
Tincture with  one pound of Sugar in a shallow dish, and evaporate the
Alcohol with  the aid of  a gentle heat, or allow it to  evaporate  sponta-
neously ;  then add the remainder of the Sugar, and  dissolve it in twelve
ounces of the Water.  With the remaining four ounces of Water, beat up
the white of one Egg, add it  to the Syrup, boil for one or two minutes,
and strain through  a Canton flannel bag.
  Properties and Uses.—This syrup is used in coughs, and to impart an
agreeable flavor  to mixtures; the  dose  is from half a fluidrachm, to
two, or even four fluidrachms.
  Syrupus Zingiberis.   Syrup of  Ginger.
  Preparation.—Take of Tincture of  the best Jamaica Ginger two fluid-
ounces; Refined Sugar five pounds; Water two pints.  Mix the Tincture
with two pounds of Sugar in  a  shallow dish, and evaporate the Alcohol
with the  aid of a gentle  heat, or  allow  it to evaporate spontaneously;
then add the  remainder  of  the Sugar, and  dissolve  it in tAventy-four
ounces of the  Water.   With the remaining eight ounces of the Water,
beat up the whites of two Eggs, add it to the Syrup, boil for one or two
minutes,  and strain  through a Canton flannel bag.
  Properties and Uses.—Syrup of Ginger is used as a warm  stomachic
addition  to purgative, tonic, or other infusions or mixtures, and to im-
part flavor to drinks.   The  dose  is  from  half a  fluidrachm, to  two,
three, or four fluidrachms. 
1240                        Pharmacy.
                            TINCTURE.
                              Tinctures.
   Tinctures are  officinal preparations, obtained either  by the solution,
maceration, digestion, or percolation of the principles of certain  sub-
stances in Alcohol, or by the simple mixture of Alcohol with an Acid or
Alkaline liquid.  They are  Simple tinctures when they contain  the active
principles of a single substance, and  Compound tinctures, when they con-
tain those of several.  Occasionally, Spirit of Ammonia  or Ether are em-
ployed  as  the solvents, furnishing Ammoniated tinctures, and Ethereal
tinctures.   Tinctures are also prepared by means of gin, brandy, wine,
etc., as the solvent; the former  are termed  Spirituous Tinctures, and
those with wine,  Vinous Tinctures, or Medicated Wines.  When the prin-
ciple to be dissolved is insoluble  in water, rectified spirit, (alcohol of
sp. gr. 0.835,) is preferred as the menstruum; when  it is  soluble  in
both alcohol and Avater, diluted or proof spirit is preferred.   The former
is applicable to resins, guaiacum, camphor, and the essential oils, in which
the presence of Avater  would  interfere with the solvent  power of the
alcohol; the latter is proper where the  articles  contain extractive, tan-
nin, gum united with resin, or  essential oil.
   In preparing Tinctures, as a general rule, the medicine should be in
the dry state,  and very  finely  pulverized ; it should first be  moistened
Avith the liquid, after Avhich the whole  quantity may be added.  There
are, however,  some exceptions to  this rule, as for  instance, where the
powder, by agglutination, presents an obstacle to the action of them en-
struum : in this case, the substance to be acted upon should be coarsely
bruised, sliced, or pulverized.   It is recommended  that, when several
substances of  various solubilities are employed, they be added succes-
sively to the spirit; those least  soluble first, those most so last; as other-
wise the liquid might become saturated with the ingredient for which it
has the strongest affinity, and  thus be rendered  incapable of  dissolving
a due proportion of the  others.
   Tinctures prepared by maceration  or digestion require to be kept in
well-stopped vessels in order to prevent the evaporation of alcohol; to
be frequently  shaken during the maceration or digestion, which should
be continued,  at ordinary temperatures,  for a  period of two  weeks: if
prepared by digestion a shorter time is required.   They may then be
expressed, if required, and  filtered, though some are  in the habit of
allowing the dregs  to remain, on  the  supposition that  it contributes to
maintain the uniformity of strength, and prevent any precipitation that
might otherwise ensue ; but this is an error.
   The preparation  of tinctures by percolation  or displacement, answers
very well  for  small  operations, but is scarcely adapted in  cases where
any large quantity of tincture is required, and is not so excellent a mode
for general purposes as that of maceration, unless skillfully executed by
persons experienced in the proper method of conducting it. 
Tinctura.
1241
  It has, likewise, been recommended to suspend in the solvent, imme-
diately  under its surface, the  solid matter in powder or bruised,  and
contained loosely in a bag, raising it occasionally above the surface of
the liquor,  allowing it to drain, and again immersing it.   It is said that
the period of maceration is much  shortened in this way.   As the upper
portion of liquid becomes heavier by impregnation with the substances
dissolved, it falls  to the bottom, and a constant current is thus estab-
lished, which continues until the liquid is saturated, or the solid substance
exhausted.
  Preserved vegetable juices, or the tinctures of the  expressed juices of
various  plants, are prepared by adding alcohol of 0.838 one part, to four
parts of the juice, after this  last  has stood for twenty-four hours,  and
then filtering another period of twenty-four  hours after the addition of
the alcohol.  This preserves the juice, and at the same time precipitates
the inert mucilaginous matter.
  Tinctures  should always be kept  in accurately stopped bottles, as,
otherwise, the evaporation of the  alcohol, by increasing their strength,
might be attended with serious consequences.

  I  am indebted to Mr.  Wm. S. Merrell, of this city,  an experienced
and  practical pharmaceutist, who  has kindly furnished me with  the  fol-
lowing observations on this subject:
  "A Tincture, in the pharmaceutical sense, is the solution  of some
medicinal substance in  Alcohol, either pure  or  diluted, and is mostly
employed to separate the  more active Medicinal principles of vegetables
from their woody fiber and other nearly  inert substances, as starch, gum,
and mucilage, which are not soluble in that menstruum, and present them
in a liquid  form.   The greater part of the more active proximate princi-
ples of vegetables are soluble in strong Alcohol, but many of them, espe-
cially in their native combinations, are also soluble in Water, and a few,
of an extractive or saline  character, are more  soluble in the latter than
in the former menstruum.  And  in most cases an admixture of Water
facilitates the process of tincturing, by softening the mucilage and other
principles not soluble in Alcohol, thus enabling the latter to penetrate the
substance,  and act more  readily.  In  these  cases, therefore,  a dilute
spirit, or mixture of alcohol and water, should be used ; and the proper
proportions of such mixture for tincturing the different articles of the
Materia Medica, becomes  an important lesson to be learned by the apoth-
ecary and the physician.
  In the tinctures recognized as officinal, in the U. S.  Dispensatory, the
streno-th of the solvent is, in most cases,  indicated with sufficient accu-
racy, but in the progress of  reform, a great number of  medicines have
been brought into use, in respect to which we have hitherto had no such
guide.  Some general  suggestions may, therefore, be useful to the  less
experienced practitioner. 
1242
Pharmacy.
   In all cases it is proper to use as dilute a spirit as is adequate to obtain
 the strongest practical  tincture,  provided it be sufficiently strong to pre-
 vent  fermentation, and preserve the solution from decomposition  and
 change; for the alcoholic stimulant,  in itself considered,  is in most cases
 undesirable.   The common alcohol  of  commerce, marked 76 per cent.,
 is sufficiently strong  for  almost  any  of  these  preparations.  It is strong
 enough to dissolve the resins,  such as guaiacum, tolu, etc., and also the
 essential oils, in the proportions  directed, and this is all that is required.
   The  dilute  alcohol of the  Dispensatory, is nearly represented by a
 mixture of the tAvo parts common alcohol,  of  76 per cent., and one part
 water, which is about the right strength for the majority of the vegetable
 tinctures.   Those roots, however, of which the medicinal virtues consists
 mostly  of  a resinoid, as  podophyllum,  leptandra, and many others, and
 also those  vegetables  containing much essential  oil, require a solvent
 somewhat stronger than this, and either the 76 per cent, alcohol, or that
 reduced but little below this standard, say to the strength of fourth proof
 SDirits,  should be used.
   On the other hand, medicines which are almost wholly of an extractive
 character,  as aloes, and others whose medicinal principles are soluble in
 water, require very dilute alcohol to tincture them, (see Art. Aloes, in
 U. S. Disp.,)  as the  only use of the spirit in this  case is to  precipitate
 and render insoluble the mucilage, and to prevent the tincture from
 spoiling.   Gum Kino should  be tinctured in dilute alcohol, and not in
 strong,  as  directed in the Pharmacopoeias; for if prepared in alcohol of
 officinal strength, it will rapidly gelatinize on standing, which will not
 be the case if  prepared with spirit somewhat diluted, and kept in well
 closed vessels.
   In the preparation  of tinctures from such vegetables as require dilute
 spirit, the process may be much  facilitated, if not rendered more perfect,
 by first wetting the  ground or powdered substance Avith the  proportion
 of water that  is admissible, say one-third.   Apply the  water hot, and
 after digesting a short time, sufficient to expand the ligneous fiber, and
 soften or dissolve  the gum, mucilage, etc.,  add the required proportion
 of Alcohol, which can thus readily reach and dissolve the active princi-
 ples soluble in it, while at the  same time, it precipitates the dissolved
 mucilage, etc.   For example:
   Tinctura Cimicifuga.   Tincture of Black Cohosh.
   R-  Black Cohosh  Root,...................four ounces.
      Boiling  Water,.......................eight fiuidounces.
      Alcohol, 76 per cent...................one pint and a half.
   Powder  or bruise the  root, and pour the  boiling water upon it, and let
it  digest for two hours;  then, Avhen sufficiently cool, transfer it to the
bottle in which it is to be kept, and add the alcohol.  Let it stand three
 days, frequently shaken, and filter for use. 
Tinctura.
1243
   [I differ somewhat with Mr. Merrell's method of preparing this tinc-
ture.   As the virtue exists  principally in the resin and oil, there is no
necessity for the addition of any Water to the preparation, and I have
obtained much better results from the tincture, Avith strong alcohol, as I
always prepare it, than from the diluted tincture.—A".]
   Acting  upon this  principle, I many years ago made what I consider
an improvement in the mode of preparing the tincture of opium, which
should be adopted by every physician and apothecary.  The directions
in the old Pharmacopoeias are, to slice the opium, and put it in the  bottle
with dilute alcohol, and  macerate Avith frequent shaking, for two Aveeks ;
but if the opium  be hard and  compact, many small lumps will not be
dissolved for a long time.  I have examined the dregs of laudanum after
standing six  months under the tincture, and haAre found in them still
unpenetrated pieces of pure opium.  The consequence of such a  mode
of preparation is, that the tincture will at first be  quite weak, and will
continue to increase in strength until near the last, when  it will be far
above  the  standard  strength, and liable  to produce  dangerous conse-
quences.  To  avoid this objection, the later editions of the U. S. Phar-
macopoeias direct that the opium be  first dried and powdered ; but this
adds one-fourth to the expense, if  the  opium be purchased ready pow-
dered, and takes  time, trouble  and labor, which the  physician cannot
often spare, to dry and powder it himself, and hence it is seldom  done.
   The whole difficulty may be avoided  by the following method :  Take
of good Turkey Opium, 1200 grains, (about 2| ounces avoirdupois. This
is the proportion required by the U.  S.  and most of the European Dis-
pensatories, although most of the laudanum sold in the shops is only the
strength of one ounce avoirdupois to the pint).  Slice the opium and pour
over it half a pint (3 viii.) boiling water, and work it with the pestle or
hand until it is dissolved into a perfect  emulsion, and  no lumps can be
felt in it, which is done in  a very few minutes; then pour  it into the
bottle, and with  two ounces more of  warm water rinse  your vessels,
pestle, and hands, and add this to the above, and then add twenty fluid-
ounces of common alcohol, 76 per cent.—Shake it well.  In this manner
a quart, or any other quantity of laudanum can be made in half an  hour,
and in twenty-four  hours it will be  of full and  uniform strength.  In
making each  subsequent  batch, the  dregs of the former one should be
poured out upon a paper filter in a funnel, and the alcohol for the new
batch be percolated  through it, thus preserving all the strength of this
costly drug.  I find that the Edinburgh College have in the latter edi-
tions of their Dispensatory, adopted a plan somewhat similar to the above,
but much more troublesome and wasteful.
   In the same manner we  may advantageously make the tinctures of
the gum-resins, as Myrrh, Assafetida, etc.; but in these cases a smaller
proportion of water must be employed, unless it be counterbalanced by 
1244
Pharmacy.
using the strong officinal alcohol, as the proper solvent for these gums
is a stronger spirit than that required for opium."
  Tinctura Aconiti Foliorum.   Tincture of Aconite Leaves.
  Preparation.—Take  of Aconite, dried  Leaves, four  ounces; Diluted
Alcohol  two  pints.  Macerate for  fourteen days,  express, and filter
through  paper.
  This Tincture may  also be  prepared by  thoroughly  moistening  the
Aconite, in powder, with Diluted  Alcohol, allowing  it  to stand  for
twenty-four hours, then transferring it to an  apparatus for displacement,
and gradually pouring upon it Diluted Alcohol until two pints of filtered
liquor are obtained.— U. S.
  Properties  and Uses.—Tincture of  Aconite Leaves possesses all  the
properties of Aconitum Napellus, and  may be used wherever the drug
is indicated, in doses of from ten to  thirty drops.  It should not be con-
founded  with  the tincture of the  root, which is a much more  powerful
preparation.
  Tinctura Aconiti Radicis.   Tincture of Aconite Root.
  Preparation.—Take of Aconite Root, in fine powder, a pound;  Alco-
hol two pints.  Macerate for  fourteen days, express strongly, and filter
through  paper.
  This Tincture may also be  prepared by macerating a pound of pow-
dered Aconite Root with a pint of Alcohol  for four  days, then placing
the mixture in a percolator, and adding Alcohol until two pints of filtered
liquor are obtained.— U. S.
  Properties  and Uses.—This  is a much stronger preparation  than  the
tincture of the leaves,  and care should be employed  not to use the two
tinctures indiscriminately.   It may be used for the same  purposes,  but
in smaller doses, commencing with three drops in a teaspoonful  of water,
and gradually increasing it to ten or twelve drops.
  Tinctura Aloes.   Tincture of Aloes.
  Preparation.—Take of Aloes,  in  powder,  one ounce; extract of Liq-
uorice three ounces; Alcohol  half a pint; Distilled Water a pint and a
half.   Macerate for  fourteen days and filter  through paper.
  Properties and Uses. — This is a cathartic and  tonic, but is seldom
used  on account of  its unpleasant taste ; aloes being  preferred in  the
form  of  pill.   As a cathartic, the dose is from half a fluidounce to a
fluidounce and a half.
  Tinctura Aloes et Myrrha.   Tincture of Aloes and Myrrh.  Elixir
Proprietatis.
  Preparation. — Take  of Aloes, in powder, three ounces; Saffron  two
ounces; Tincture of  Myrrh two pints.  Macerate for fourteen days, and
filter  through paper.
  Properties  and Uses.—This Tincture is tonic, purgative,  and emmena-
gogue ; it has been beneficially employed in  chlorosis, and other  abnor- 
Tinctura.
1245
mal conditions  of the female  system, connected with derangement of
the menstrual secretion, and with constipation.   It will likewise be found
useful as a  stimulating laxative, in cold, languid  habits, independently
of any menstrual difficulty.   The dose is one or two fluidrachms.
  Tinctura Aralia Spinosa.   Tincture of Prickly Elder.
  Preparation.—Take of Prickly Elder Bark, in powder, three  ounces ;
Diluted Alcohol one pint.  Macerate for fourteen days, express, and filter
through paper.
  This Tincture  may also be prepared  by thoroughly  moistening  the
powdered Bark with Diluted Alcohol, allowing  it to stand  twenty-four
hours,  then  transferring it to a percolator, and  gradually pouring upon
it Diluted Alcohol until one  pint of filtered liquor is  obtained.
  Properties and Uses.—This Tincture is tonic, stimulant, and alterative;
and  is efficacious in chronic rheumatism, pulmonary  affections, colic,
flatulence, cholera-morbus, and Asiatic cholera.   It is useful in syphilis,
in combination with the Tincture of Turkey-Corn.   During the  preva-
lence of cholera in 1849-50-51, it was added to emetic and  cathartic
medicines, for the purpose of  preventing any tendency toward excessive
discharges from the bowels.   It also serves as a local stimulating appli-
cation, when properly  diluted with strong  infusion  of Golden  Seal, in
cases of chronic  ophthalmia.   The dose  is from  ten  to sixty drops,
three or four times a day.
  Tinctura Arnica.  Tincture of  Leopard's-bane.
  Preparation.—Take  of Arnica flowers two ounces; Diluted Alcohol  a
pint.   Macerate for one week, express, and filter through paper.
  This  Tincture  may  also  be prepared  by thoroughly  moistening  the
flowers with Diluted Alcohol,  allowing the mixture to stand twenty-four
hours,  then  transferring it to a percolator, and  gradually pouring upon
it Diluted Alcohol, until one pint of filtered liquor is obtained.
  Properties and  Uses.—This Tincture is principally used  as a local
application  to sprains, bruises, wounds, etc.;  but it may also be used
internally in all cases where Arnica would be applicable.  The dose is
from ten to thirty drops.
  Tinctura Assafcetida.   Tincture of Assafetida.
  Preparation.—Take  of Assafetida  four  ounces;  Alcohol two pints.
Macerate for fourteen days,  and filter through paper.— U. S.
  Properties and  Uses.—This Tincture possesses all the virtues of assa-
fetida.   The dose is from thirty to sixty drops.   Added to water,  the
resin separates, and the solution becomes  milky.
   Off. Prep.—Enema Assafcetidae Composita.
  Tinctura Assafcetida Composita.  Compound Tincture of Assafetida.
  Preparation.—Take of Assafetida, Lupulin, Stramonium Seed . bruised,
Valerian Root,  in powder, each, one ounce;  Alcohol  three pints.  Mace-
rate for fourteen days, express, and filter. 
1246
Pharmacy.
  Properties  and  Uses.—This Tincture is used principally in epilepsy;
though it will be found useful in hysteria, chorea, and other derange-
ments  of  the nervous  system.   The dose  is  a fluidrachm, repeated
every two or three hours, in severe cases ; and in ordinary cases, three
times a day,  to be taken in water, tea, or wine.—J. K.
  Tinctura  Belladonna.   Tincture of Belladonna.
  Preparation.—Take of recently dried Belladonna Leaves four ounces;
Diluted Alcohol  two  pints.   Macerate for fourteen days, express,  and
filter through paper.
  This.  Tincture  may also  be  prepared by  thoroughly moistening  the
Belladonna, in powder, with Diluted Alcohol, allowing it to stand for
twenty-four hours, then transferring  it to a percolator, and gradually
pouring upon it Diluted Alcohol  until two pints of filtered  liquor are
obtained.— U. S.
  Properties  and  Uses.—This Tincture possesses all the virtues of Bel-
ladonna, when prepared from the recently dried leaves.  The dose is
from five to thirty drops. When made from the imported leaves, it is less
to be relied upon than the extract, on account of their uncertain strength.
  Tinctura Benzoini Composita.   Compound Tincture of Benzoin.
  Preparation. — Take  of  Benzoin three ounces; Purified  Storax  two
ounces;  Balsam  of Tolu one ounce; powdered  Aloes half  an  ounce;
Alcohol two  pints.   Macerate  for fourteen days, and  filter through
paper.
  Properties  and  Uses.—This preparation has been known under various
names,  as  Balsamum Traumaticum,  Baume de  Commandeur, Wade's
Balsam, Friar's Balsam, Jesuit's Drops, etc., and  which is  used as a
stimulating expectorant  in  chronic catarrhal affections, and  as a local
application to indolent  ulcers.   The  dose  is from thirty drops  to  two
fiuidrachms.   Turlington's Balsam, which  is a popular remedy in  this
country, is made of—Benzoin twelve ounces;  Storax four ounces; Soco-
trine Aloes one ounce;  Peruvian Balsam two ounces; Myrrh one ounce;
Angelica root half an ounce; Balsam of Tolu four ounces; Extract of
Liquorice four ounces;  Alcohol  eight pints.  Digest for ten days  and
strain.   It  is  an improper application to fresh wounds.
  Tinctura  Camphora.  Tincture of Camphor.
  Preparation. — Take  of  Camphor four ounces; Alcohol  two pints.
Dissolve the  Camphor in the Alcohol.— U. S.
  Properties  and Uses.—This Tincture is stimulant and antispasmodic.
It is used externally as  an anodyne embrocation in gouty and rheumatic
pains, chilblains, and  in the inflammation resulting from  sprains  and
bruises.  Internally, it  is used  for various  purposes, or  wherever a
stimulating or antispasmodic action is required.   The dose  is from  five
to sixty drops, first added to Sugar, and  then mixed with Water. 
Tinctura.
1247
  Tinctura  Camphora  Composita.  Compound Tincture of Camphor.
Rheumatic Tincture.   Rheumatic Drops or Liniment.
  Preparation.—Take of Camphor one pound; Oil of Origanum, Oil
of Hemlock,  of each, half a pound; Oil of Sassafras, Oil of Cajeput, of
each, two ounces; Oil of  Turpentine one ounce; Capsicum four  ounces;
Alcohol one gallon.   Macerate for fourteen  days, and filter.
  Properties  and Uses.—This  is exceedingly efficacious as an external
application, in almost every painful affection;  and is  of advantage in
chronic rheumatism, pains  in various parts  of the  system,  bruises,
sprains, chilblains, contusions, lameness, numbness, white swelling, and
other swellings,  etc.   In ordinary cases apply  two to  four  teaspoonfuls
to the affected part, and  rub it well by the fire; and apply warm flannel
over the region  of the affected part,  several times a  day.  Internally,
take twenty drops on Sugar;  but  in  severe  and obstinate  cases, after
bathing as above directed, apply an additional piece  of flannel,  which
must be kept  constantly wet  with the  drops, until  relieved.   When
applied to the teeth, wet  a small quantity of cotton,  and introduce it into
the decaying teeth; if the face is swollen bathe with it likewise.—J. K.
  Tinctura  Cannabis Indica.  Tincture of India Hemp.
  Preparation.—Take of  Purified Extract of India Hemp half a drachm;
Alcohol one fluidounce.  Dissolve the Extract in the Alcohol.
  Properties  and Uses.—This forms a  powerful sedative  narcotic,  which
has been  used in neuralgia, cholera, and  other  symptoms where the
India Hemp has been recommended, with much success.  The dose is
five drops, gradually  increased to  twenty or forty,  according to its in-
fluence.
  Tinctura Cantharidis.  Tincture of Spanish Flies.
  Preparation.—Take of Spanish Flies, bruised, an ounce; Diluted Alco-
hol two pints.  Macerate for fourteen days, express, and filter through
paper.
  This  Tincture  may also be  prepared  by thoroughly moistening the
Flies, in powder, with  Diluted Alcohol, allowing them to stand for
twenty-four hours, then transferring them to a percolator, and gradually
pouring upon them Diluted Alcohol until two pints of  filtered liquor are
obtained.— U. S.
  Properties  and Uses.—This is the best  form for the  internal adminis-
tration of Cantharides,  in chronic gonorrhea, gleet,  amenorrhea,  and
some urinary derangements.   Externally,  it is sometimes used as a rube-
facient, but care should  be  taken  to  avoid its vesicating action.  The
dose is from  twenty  to sixty drops, repeated three  or four times  a day.
  Tinctura Capsici.  Tincture of Cayenne Pepper.
  Preparation.—Take of Cayenne Pepper an ounce;  Diluted  Alcohol
two pints.  Macerate for  fourteen days, and filter through paper. 
1248
Pharmacy.
   This Tincture may also  be prepared by  thoroughly moistening the
 Cayenne  Pepper, in Powder,  with Diluted  Alcohol,  putting  it into  a
 percolator, and gradually pouring upon it Diluted Alcohol, until two pints
 of filtered liquor are obtained.— U. S.
   Properties and Uses.—Tincture of Cayenne Pepper is a  useful and
 permanent stimulant, and may be  administered in  low states  of  the
 system with great gastric  insensibility, as in typhus fevers and scarlatina
 maligna, likewise in the cases of drunkards.   Diluted with some muci-
 laginous fluid, it forms a useful gargle, and applied to the relaxed uvula
 by means of a camel's  hair pencil, it frequently affords  relief;  it is also
 an excellent application to the eye in cases of chronic ophthalmia.  It is
 frequently applied locally, with advantage, in cases of swellings, rheu-
 matic pains, partial paralysis, atrophied muscles,  etc.   The dose is from
 ten to  sixty drops in water,  three, four, or five times a day, according to
 the urgency of the case.
   Tinctura  Cardamomi.   Tincture of Cardamom.
   Preparation. — Take  of Cardamom,  bruised,  four  ounces;  Diluted
 Alcohol  two pints.   Macerate for  fourteen  days, express, and filter
 through paper.
   This Tincture may also be  prepared by  thoroughly moistening the
 Cardamom, in powder, with Diluted Alcohol, allowing it to stand for
 twenty-four hours,  then  transferring  it to a percolator, and gradually
 pouring upon it  Diluted  Alcohol  until  two  pints  of filtered liquor are
 obtained.— U.  S.
   Properties and Uses.—This  Tincture is aromatic and  carminative;
 and is  useful in mild colic, flatulency, nausea, gastric debility, etc.;  it is
 also advantageously added as an agreeable aromatic to tonic and pur-
 gative  mixtures, tinctures,  infusions, etc.   The  dose  is one  or  two
 fluidrachms.
  ' Tinctura  Cardamomi Composita.   Compound Tincture of  Cardamom.
   Preparation.—Take of Cardamom, bruised, six drachms; Caraway,
 bruised, two drachms; Cinnamon, bruised, five drachms; Raisins,  deprived
 of their seeds, five ounces; Cochineal, bruised, a drachm; Diluted Alco-
 hol two pints  and a half.   Macerate for  fourteen days, express,  and
 filter through paper.— U.  S.
   Properties and Uses.—This is a very agreeable aromatic tincture,  and
is used for the same purposes as the Tincture of  Cardamom, and in the
same doses.
   Tinctura Castorei.  Tincture of Castor.
   Preparation.—Take of  Castor, bruised, two ounces; Alcohol two pints.
Macerate for seven days, express,  and filter through paper.— U. S.
   Properties  and Uses.—This Tincture should always be prepared from
the Russian castor,  if possible; its properties  are the same as  the castor, 
Tinctura.
1249
in substance, and it may be given in doses of from  thirty minims to two
fluidrachms.
   Tinctura Castorei Ammoniata.  Ammoniated Tincture of Castor.
   Preparation.—Take of Castor, bruised, two ounces and a half; Assa-
fetida, in  small  fragments,  ten drachms;  Spirit of Ammonia, two pints
(Imperial Measure).  Digest for seven days  in a well closed vessel;
strain, and strongly express the residuum, and  filter.—Ed.
   Properties and Uses.—This is an active  stimulant and antispasmodic,
applicable to hysterical and  nervous  affections unattended with inflam-
matory symptoms, and severe spasm of the stomach.  It may be given
in doses of from half a fluidrachm  to two fluidrachms.
   Tinctura Catechu.   Tincture of Catechu.
   Preparation.—Take of Catechu three ounces; Cinnamon, bruised, two
ounces; Diluted Alcohol two pints.   Macerate for fourteen days,  express,
and filter through paper.— U. S.
   Properties  and  Uses.—This forms  an  astringent tincture, useful in
chronic diarrhea, dysentery,  etc.   The dose is from half a fluidrachm to
three fluidrachms, which may be  given in SAveetened water, some muci-
laginous liquid, or in Port wine.   On  long  keeping it sometimes gela-
tinizes, when it becomes unfit for use.
   Tinctura  Caulophylli  Composita.   Compound  Tincture  of Blue
Cohosh.
   Preparation. — Take of Blue Cohosh Root, in powder, two ounces;
Ergot, Water  Pepper, of each, bruised, one ounce;  Oil  of Savin half a
fluidounce; Alcohol one pint and a half.   Macerate for fourteen days,
express and filter.
   This Tincture may also be  prepared by thoroughly moistening the
plants with Alcohol, allowing  it  to stand for  twenty-four hours, then
transferring it to a percolator, and gradually  pouring upon it  Alcohol
until twenty-three fluidounces and a half of  filtered liquor are obtained,
to which add the Oil of Savin.
   Properties  and  Uses.—This  forms  an  emmenagogue tincture, very
useful in amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea,  and  other uterine affections.  The
dose is a fluidrachm two or three  times a day.
   Tinctura  Cimicifuga Composita.   Compound Tincture  of  Black
Cohosh.
   Preparation.—Take of the Saturated Tincture of Black Cohosh four
fiuidounces; Saturated Tincture of Bloodroot two fiuidounces;  Saturated
Tincture of Poke Root one fluidounce.  Mix together.
   Properties and Uses.—This is a valuable  alterative  and expectorant,
and appears to exert a specific influence  on the lungs, rendering the
breathino- easy, diminishing the frequency of the pulse, and the general
        °79 
 1250                        Pharmacy.

 excitability of the system.   It is used  in pulmonary affections, hemop-
 tysis, hepatic diseases,  dyspepsia,  laryngitis, etc.   The dose  is from
 half a fluidrachm to a fluidrachm every two  or three hours, according
 to the indications.  A very slight degree of nausea produced and main-
 tained by it,  will be found  to result in the most decided benefit.—J. K.
   Tinctura  Cinchona.   Tincture of Peruvian Bark.
   Preparation.—Take of Peruvian Bark, in powder, six ounces; Diluted
 Alcohol  two pints.  Macerate for fourteen   days,  express,  and  filter
 through  paper.
   This  Tincture may also be prepared by thoroughly moistening the
 Bark with Diluted Alcohol, allowing it to stand for forty-eight hours,
 then  transferring it  to  a  percolator,  and  gradually pouring upon  it
 Diluted Alcohol until two pints of filtered  liquor are obtained.— U S.
   Properties  and Uses.—This  Tincture  is  chiefly used as  an adjunct to
 other preparations of bark or  solutions  of quinia.   It may be given in
 the dose of  from  one to four  fluidrachms.   However, it is seldom used
 alone.
   Tinctura  Cinchona  Composita.  Compound Tincture of Peruvian
 Bark.
   Preparation.'—Take of Calisaya Bark, in powder, four ounces; Bitter
 Orange Peel, bruised, three, ounces;  Virginia Snakeroot, in moderately
 fine  powder, six drachms; Saffron, chopped, two drachms; Cochineal,
 bruised,  a drachm; Good French Brandy twenty fiuidounces.   Macerate
 for fourteen days, express, and filter through  paper.
   This Tincture may also be prepared from the same dry materials, by
 beating  them well  together,  moistening  them thoroughly  with  the
 Brandy,  allowing the mixture to stand for forty-eight hours, then trans-
 ferring it to  a percolator,  and gradually pouring upon it Brandy,  until
 twenty fluidounces of filtered liquor are obtained.
   History.—This preparation is generally known by the name of Huxham's
 Tincture  of Bark.  It is commonly prepared with Diluted Alcohol, instead
 of Brandy, but  I have  introduced  Brandy as the  solvent, more espe-
 cially on account of  the  preparation  made from  it, called Ferrated
 Tincture  of Peruvian Bark.
   Properties  and Uses.—This  tincture is an excellent stomachic cordial,
 and  may be  used wherever a mild tonic  of  this  character is desired.
 The dose is from one to four fluidrachms.
   Tinctura  Cinchona Ferrata.  Ferrated Tincture of Peruvian Bark.
   Preparation.—Take  of  the  Compound  Tincture of Peruvian Bark
one pint; Hydrated Sesquioxide of Iron, dried at  a temperature  not
exceeding 130° F.,four drachms; Ammonio-citrate of Iron two hundred
and fifty-six grains.   To the compound Tincture add the Hydrated Ses-
 quioxide, and digest, until all the  Cincho-tannin, whether pure, oxidized,
 or combined, is completely eliminated.  Then filter  and wash the Tan- 
                             Tinctura.                        1251

 nate and excess of  Oxide with  Boiling Alcohol to  remove any trace of
 Alkaloid which may have been  precipitated with the Tannin; this Alco-
 holic Solution may be  evaporated to dryness, the product dissolved  in a
 little Water acidulated with Citric Acid, and added to the filtered liquor
 along with the Ammonio-citrate of Iron.
   Properties and Uses.— This  forms  an exceedingly  agreeable,  and
 energetic invigorative, admirably  adapted in the  cases of  weak  and
 languid habits of children and females, Avhere the  body is in  a pallid or
 flaccid state, and very susceptible of fatigue or morbid action.  It does
 not  solely depend on  the quinia and iron it contains for its value as  a
 curative agent; the grateful and by no means inefficient adjuvants, the
 orange peel, snakeroot,  and other proximate principles  of cinchona,
 independent of quinia, are by no means to be overlooked, and cannot be
 replaced by salts of quinia and  iron alone, however scientific  their arti-
 ficial combinations may appear.   Each fluidounce contains sixteen grains
 of ammonio-citrate of iron.  The dose is one or two fluidrachms, three
 or four times a day.—Saml. Simes.
   Tinctura  Cinnamomi.   Tincture of Cinnamon.
   Preparation.—Take of  Cinnamon, bruised, three ounces ; Diluted Alco-
 hol two pints.   Macerate for fourteen days, express, and  filter.
   This Tincture may also be prepared  by thoroughly  moistening  the
 Cinnamon, in  powder, with Diluted  Alcohol, allowing  it to stand  for
 forty-eight hours, then transferring  it to a percolator, and  gradually
 pouring upon it Diluted  Alcohol until two pints  of filtered  liquor are
 obtained.— U S.
   Properties and Uses.—Tincture of Cinnamon is an aromatic astringent,
 and  may be used in  chronic diarrhea, menorrhagia, uterine hemorrhage,
 and  as an adjuvant to other astringent solutions.  The dose is from  one
 to four fluidrachms, in sweetened or mucilaginous liquid.
   Tinctura  Cinnamomi  Composita.   Compound Tincture of Cinnamon.
   Preparation. — Take 6f Cinnamon, bruised, an ounce;  Cardamom,
 Prickly Ash Berries, Ginger, of each, bimised, three drachms; Diluted
 Alcohol  two  pints.   Macerate  for  fourteen  days, express   and filter,
 through paper.
   This Tincture may be prepared from the same dry ingredients; in  the
 state of powder, by  moistening them thoroughly with  Diluted Alcohol,
 allowing  them to stand for forty-eight  hours, then  transferring them to
 a percolator, and gradually pouring upon them Diluted Alcohol until two
pints of filtered liquor are obtained.
  Properties  and  Uses.—This is a very warm and agreeable aromatic
tincture, useful in flatulence, gastric debility, spasm of the stomach, and
chronic diarrhea.  The dose is  one or two fluidrachms in  sweetened
water. 
1252
Pharmacy.
   Tinctura Cocci Cacti.   Tincture of Cochineal.
   Preparation.—Take of Cochineal, in fine powder, two ounces ;  Diluted
Alcohol ten fiuidounces. Macerate for fourteen days, express, and filter
through paper.
   Properties and Uses.—This Tincture is  calmative and  antispasmodic,
and may be given in  pertussis, asthma, hysteria, and nervous diseases,
in doses of from twenty drops to a fluidrachm.  It  is also employed for
coloring liquid preparations.
   Tinctura  Colchici Seminis.   Tincture of Colchicum Seed.
   Preparation.—Take of Colchicum Seed, bruised, four ounces; Diluted
Alcohol two pints.   Macerate for fourteen days, express, and  filter
through paper.
   This Tincture  may also  be prepared by thoroughly moistening the
Colchicum Seed, in powder, with Diluted Alcohol,  allowing it to stand
for twenty-four hours,  then transferring it to a percolator, and gradually
pouring upon it  Diluted Alcohol until two pints of filtered liquor are
obtained.— U S.
   Properties and Uses.—This Tincture may be used wherever colchicum
is indicated.   It is also employed as an external application in gouty,
neuralgic, and rheumatic  pains.  The dose is from thirty drops to two
fluidrachms.
   Tinctura  Colchici Composita.   Compound Tincture of Colchicum.
   Preparation.—Take of  Colchicum  Seed, bruised, two  ounces; Black
Cohosh Root,  in powder, three ounces; Diluted Alcohol two pints.  Mace-
rate for fourteen days, express, and filter through paper.
   This Tincture may also  be prepared by thoroughly moistening the dry
materials, in powder,  with  Diluted  Alcohol, allowing it to stand  for
twenty-four hours, then transferring  it to a percolator,  and gradually
pouring upon it Diluted Alcohol until two pints of  filtered liquor are
obtained.
   Or, it may be made by  adding together, equal parts of the Tinctures
of Colchicum  Seed, and Black Cohosh Root.
   Properties and Uses.—This forms an excellent agent in inflammatory
rheumatism and gout,  and has proved a superior remedy in phlegmasia
dolens, or the swelled leg  of parturient women.   The dose  is from ten
to sixty drops, or more, as circumstances indicate, every one, two, three,
or four hours.  Iodide of  potassium, fifteen grains to the ounce of  tinc-
ture, may frequently be added with advantage.—J. K.
   Tinctura Colomba.  Tincture of  Colombo.
   Preparation.—Take of Colombo, hruised, four ounces; Diluted Alcohol
two ounces.  Macerate for fourteen days, express, and filter through paper.
   This Tincture  may also be prepared by thoroughly moistening the
Colombo,  in powder,  with  Diluted  Alcohol, allowing it to stand for
twenty-four hours, then transferring it to  a percolator,  and gradually 
Tinctura.
1253
pouring  upon it Diluted Alcohol until  two pints  of filtered liquor are
obtained.— U. S.
   Properties  and Uses.—This Tincture forms a bitter tonic;  it may be
added to tonic infusions or decoctions, whenever it is required  to slightly
increase  their stimulant power.   The dose is from one to four fluidrachms.
   Tinctura  Corydalis.  Tincture of  Turkey- Corn.
   Preparation.—Take  of  the  Root of Turkey-Corn, in powder, three
ounces ;  Diluted Alcohol one pint.  Macerate for fourteen days, express,
and filter.
   This Tincture may also be  prepared by  thoroughly  moistening  the
Turkey-Corn, in powder, with Diluted  Alcohol, allowing it to stand forty-
eight hours,  then transferring  it to a  percolator, and gradually pouring
upon  it Diluted Alcohol until one pint  of filtered liquor is obtained.
   Properties  and  Uses.—This forms an efficient alterative-tonic, useful
in all cases where simple tonics are indicated,  and highly beneficial in
syphilitic, and scrofulous affections.  The  dose is from twenty drops to
two fluidrachms, three or four times a day.
   Tinctura  Digitalis.  Tincture of Foxglove.
   Preparation.—Take of Foxglove  four ounces;  Diluted Alcohol  two
pints.  Macerate for fourteen days, express,  and filter through paper.
   This Tincture may  also be  prepared by thoroughly moistening  the
Foxglove, in powder,  with  Diluted Alcohol, allowing  it to stand  for
twenty-four hours,  then transferring it to a percolator,  and  gradually
pouring upon it Diluted Alcohol until two  pints of filtered  liquor  are
obtained.— U. S.
   Properties  and Uses. —This preparation possesses the virtues of Fox-
glove, and affords a  convenient mode of administering that narcotic.
The dose is  from five to  twenty drops, two or three times a day, and
increased, if  necessary, with much care.
   Tinctura  Ergota.   Tincture of Ergot.
   Preparation.—Take of Ergot of Rye, in coarse powder, eight ounces ;
Diluted Alcohol twenty fiuidounces.    Macerate for fourteen  days,  ex-
press,  and then filter.
   This Tincture may also  be prepared by thoroughly  moistening  the
Ergot, in powder, with  Diluted Alcohol, allowing it to stand for twenty-
four hours, then transferring it to a percolator, and gradually pouring on
Diluted Alcohol until twenty fluidounces of filtered liquor are obtained.
   Properties  and Uses.—This Tincture may  be  used in  all cases where
the action of ergot is indicated or desired.   The dose is  one or two
fluidrachms.
   Tinctura.  Ferri Acetatis.   Tincture of Acetate of Iron.
   Preparation. — Take of  Sulphate  of Iron eight  ounces, avoirdupois;
Distilled Water half a pint, (ten fluidounces, Imperial measure); Pure 
1254
Pharmacy.
Sulphuric Acid  six fiuidrachms, (Imp. meas.); Pure Nitric Acid half a
fluidounce, (Imp.  meas.) ; Acetate  of Potassa eight ounces,  (avoird.) ;
Rectified Spirit half a gallon, (Imp. meas.).   To nine fluidounces of the
Water add the Sulphuric Acid, and  in the mixture, with the aid of heat,
dissolve the  Sulphate of Iron.  Add next the Nitric Acid, first diluted
writh  the  remaining fluidounce of Water, and evaporate the resulting
solution to the consistence of a thick syrup.   Dissolve this in one quart
(two pints, Imp. meas.), and the Acetate of Potassa in the remainder
of the Spirit, and, having mixed the solutions, and  shaken the  mixture
repeatedly in a large bottle, let the whole  be thrown upon a calico filter.
When any further liquid ceases to trickle through, subject the filter, with
its contents, to expression, and having cleared the  turbid tincture thus
procured  by filtration  through paper, let it  be added to  that already
obtained.   The specific gravity of this tincture is 0.891.—Dub.
  History.—In the first part of this process the sulphate of protoxide of
iron is converted, by the action  of  the sulphuric and nitric acids, aided
by heat, into  the tersulphate of  the sesquioxide.   This is dissolved in
half the spirit, and the acetate of potassa  in the remaining half, and  the
two  spirituous solutions being mixed, a double decomposition ensues;
sulphate of potassa, which is insoluble in  rectified spirit, is precipitated,
while the teracetate of  sesquioxide of iron remains in solution.  This,
when filtered, constitutes the present tincture of acetate of iron.  The
whole of the acetate of  potassa is decomposed, in  consequence of sul-
phate of iron being added in excess; and the filtration removes not only
the sulphate of potassa, but  also the excess  of the  iron salt, which is
insoluble in alcohol.
  Properties  and Uses.—This  is a deep-red,  transparent liquid, having
a strong  chalybeate taste.  It is tonic and astringent, and beside its
internal administration as a  chalybeate, it  forms  an excellent  vaginal
enema for leucorrhea,  when  properly diluted with water.   The dose of
it is from twenty drops to a teaspoonful, given in a sufficient quantity of
water.
  Tinctura  Ferri  Chloridi.   Tincture of Chloride of Iron.   Tincture
of Muriate of Iron.
  Preparation.—Take of Subcarbonate of Iron half a pound;  Muriatic
Acid, sp. gr. 1.16, a pint; Alcohol three pints.  Pour the Acid upon the
Subcarbonate of Iron, in a glass or porcelain vessel, mix  them, and
when effervescence has  ceased,  apply a  gentle heat, and continue it,
stirring occasionally, until the carbonate is dissolved; then filter the
solution, and mix it with the Alcohol.— U. S.
  History.—Tincture of Chloride of Iron is a liquid of a reddish-brown,
somewhat yellowish color, a  sour and exceedingly  styptic taste, and an
odor somewhat like that of muriatic ether;  On exposure to  the air, a
small deposit of sesquioxide  of  Iron may take place, rendering  the 
Tinctura.
1255
tincture proportionably feeble, but this can be easily obviated by adding
sufficient muriatic acid to dissolve the precipitate.  It is incompatible with
the alkalies, alkaline earths and their carbonates, astringent vegetable
infusions,  and the mucilage of gum  arabic.  When  the tincture is eva-
porated, the  resulting sesquichloride of iron is of a  dark orange color,
hardly crystallizable, deliquescent, and composed of two equivalents of
iron 56, and  three of chlorine 106.26=162.26.
  Properties  and Uses.—This chalybeate Tincture  is tonic, diuretic  and
astringent.  It is very useful in  scrofula, gleet, chronic gonorrhea, leu-
corrhea, dysury dependent on spasmodic stricture, and passive hemor-
rhage  from  the  uterus, kidneys or  bladder.  The dose  is from ten to
thirty drops,  two or three times a day, diluted with a sufficient quantity
of water.   In doses of from ten to twenty drops, in water, and repeated
every two hours, the Tincture  of Chloride  of  Iron  has been  found a
valuable agent in the treatment of erysipelas, usually effecting a cure in
from two to  six days,  and during  the  employment of which, the only
local applications necessary are  hair powder, and cotton wadding.  The
bowels to be  kept open.   Externally, it  has proved useful in destroying
venereal warts, as  a styptic in  cancerous and fungous ulcers, and  is
one of the best applications that can be applied to a venereal chancre.
In this last, it should be applied by means of a feather; and a piece of
lint moistened with it, should be kept in constant contact with the sur-
face of the ulcer.   As an application to chancre, it is the only one that
I have made for the last fifteen years, (except the nitric acid during its
pustular stage,) and is, in my opinion, decidedly the  best local remedy
for  this kind of  ulcer that can be used.   Occasionally it causes severe
pain, when it should be diluted with  as little water as possible, but in the
majority of instances after the first or second application, patients hardly
notice it.   It keeps the  chancre clean, its surface soft,  and changes the
poisonous character of the virus, so  that its absorption  is followed by no
bad result.  As the chancre soon  becomes so changed, by the  uses
of this  tincture, that it is frequently difficult to detect it from  the
healthy surrounding integuments, the practitioner must  be careful not to
be misled by this appearance and cease his internal treatment too soon.
Prof. R. S. Newton, to whom I made known this employment of the tinc-
ture, and  several others, have used  it with the most beneficial results.
  Tinctura  Gelsemini.   Tincture of Yellow Jessamine.
  Preparation.—Take of the fresh  Root of  Yellow Jessamine, cut into
small pieces, eight ounces; Alcohol  two pints.  Macerate  for fourteen
days, express and filter.   This  forms a saturated  tincture, beautifully
tinged with violet; it has  a peculiar odor somewhat resembling that of
new honey, and a faint, peculiar, not unpleasant taste.
  Properties  and Uses.—This Tincture possesses the active properties of
the root,  and may be  given as a  febrifuge in intermittent, remittent, 
1256
Pharmacy.
typhus, typhoid, and many other fevers ; it is likewise beneficial in neu-
ralgia, nervous headache, toothache, etc.   And combined with tincture
of cimicifuga, or tincture of  colchicum, it proves decidedly efficacious in
rheumatism and gout.  In rigidity of the os uteri, puerperal convulsions,
puerperal peritonitis, and painful dysmenorrhea, I consider this the very
best agent in the Materia Medica.  I have  employed it in all these vari-
ous conditions and with the most marked  success.  It is preferable to
lobelia as a relaxant, as it  does not  occasion  any nausea or vomiting.
To one young lady laboring under a most agonizing dysmenorrhea, I
administered a  teaspoonful  of  the tincture  every half hour for four
hours, before it  produced its  influence upon her,  after which, smaller
doses sufficed to maintain its effect, and  she suffered  no further pain
during the menstruation.  While it produces  a relaxation of the rigid os
uteri, it seems to  exert an  influence  on the uterine  contractility, pro-
moting  this action of  the organ.  However, I have only noticed this
latter effect in a  few instances; further investigations are required before
we can place any reliance on  this therapeutical action from its adminis-
tration during parturition.   The dose  of the tincture of gelseminum is
from  ten  drops  to a fluidrachm, according  to circumstances, and the
urgency of the case.   The  effects of an overdose may  be removed, by
holding aqua ammonia to the  nostrils, with the internal administration
of stimulants.
  Tinctura Gentiana Composita.   Compound Tincture of Gentian.
  Preparation.— Take of Gentian, Colombo,  Swamp Milkweed, Rhu-
barb, Prickly Ash Berries, Sassafras, each, in powder, one ounce; Good
French Brandy four pints.   Macerate for fourteen days  and filter.
  This  Tincture may also be  prepared  from the same dry materials, in
the state  of powder,  by moistening  them  thoroughly with Brandy,
allowing them to stand for forty-eight hours, then transferring them to a
percolator, and gradually pouring upon them  Brandy until four pints of
filtered liquor are obtained.
  Properties  and  Uses.—This is a mild aperient, stimulant, and tonic,
and is especially adapted  to children with  debilitated stomachs, or dis-
ordered condition  of  the  digestive organs, after  the administration of
anthelmintics for the removal of worms, and during convalescence from
exhausting diseases, as summer-complaint, diarrhea,  dysentery, fevers,
etc.   The dose is  from ten drops to a teaspoonful three or four times a
day, in sweetened  Avater.—J. K.
  Tinctura Guaiaci.   Tincture of Guaiacum.
  Preparation.—Take  of Guaiacum, in  powder, half a pound; Alcohol
two pints.   Macerate for fourteen days and filter through paper.— U. S.
  Properties and Uses.—This Tincture is used in gout, rheumatism, dys-
entery, amenorrhea,  and dysmenorrhea ; the dose  is from one to three 
Tinctura.
1257
fluidrachms, three or four times a day, given in mucilage, or SAveetened
water.  Dewees'  Tincture of  Guaiacum, (Tinctura  Guaiaci  Alkalina,)
recommended in suppression of the menses and dysmenorrhea, is made
as follows : Take of the best Guaiac, in poAvder, four ounces; Carbonate
of Soda or of Potassa, one  drachm and a half; Pimento, in poAvder, an
ounce ;  Diluted Alcohol a pound.  Digest for a few days.  Dose, a tea-
spoonful three times a day,  to be gradually increased, if necessary.
   Tinctura  Guaiaci Aromatica.   Aromatic  Tincture of  Guaiacum.
Greenhow's Cholera Mixture.
   Preparation. — Take of  Guaiacum, Cloves,  and  Cinnamon, each, in
powder, one ounce ; Brandy two  pints.  Macerate for fourteen days and
filter.
   Properties and Uses. — This Tincture is an excellent aromatic stimu-
lant,  astringent, and diaphoretic.   It was extensively used in  Cincinnati,
by the Eclectics,  during the  cholera of 1849-50-51, and with excellent
effect.  The late  Prof. T. V. Morrow, considered it  as  one of the  best
agents in  the treatment of that disease.   The dose is from a teaspoonful
to a tablespoonful, in sweetened  water, every fifteen  or  twenty minutes,
until relief is  obtained.  The addition of an ounce of Prickly Ash Ber-
ries to this tincture will materially enhance its value.
   Tinctura Hydrastis.   Tincture of Golden Seal.
   Preparation.—Take of Golden  Seal Root,  in powder, three ounces ;
Diluted Alcohol  one  pint.    Macerate for fourteen  days,  express  and
filter.
   This  Tincture  may also  be prepared by thoroughly moistening the
Golden Seal Root, in powder, with Diluted Alcohol,  allowing it to stand
for forty-eight hours, then  transferring it to a percolator, and gradually
pouring upon it  Diluted Alcohol until  two pints  of filtered liquor are
obtained.
   Properties and  Uses.—This Tincture is tonic, and will be found bene-
ficial  in chronic  gastric  affections, hepatic diseases, chronic diarrhea,
and general debility.  Diluted and applied locally, it  forms an efficacious
remedy in leucorrhea, and  ophthalmia.   The dose is from ten to sixty
drops, two or three times a  day, in water.
   Tinctura  Hydrastis Composita.  Compound Tincture  of Golden
Seal.
   Preparation.—Take of Golden Seal Root, Lobelia Seed, each, in pow-
der, two ounces ; Diluted Alcohol one pint.  Macerate for fourteen days,
express, and filter through paper.
   This  Tincture may also be prepared from the same dry materials, in
powder, by moistening them thoroughly with Diluted Alcohol, allowing
them  to stand for forty-eight hours,  then  transferring them  to a perco-
lator, and gradually pouring upon them Diluted Alcohol until  one  pint 
1258
Pharmacy.
of filtered liquor is obtained.   Or, it may be made  by adding together
equal parts of the Tinctures of Golden Seal, and Lobelia.
   Properties and Uses.—This is a valuable local  application to diseased
mucous  surfaces.   It is highly recommended by Prof. Z. Freeman, in
chronic catarrh, to be snuffed  up into-the nostrils, or applied by means
of a camel's hair pencil ; it is also useful in chronic ophthalmic diseases,
diluted with water.—Z.  F.
   Tinctura Hyoscyami.   Tincture of Henbane.
   Preparation.—Take of Henbane  Leaves four ounces; Diluted Alco-
hol two pints.   Macerate for fourteen days, express, and filter through
paper.
   This   Tincture may also be prepared by thoroughly moistenino- the
Henbane Leaves, in powder,  with Diluted Alcohol, allowing them to
stand for twenty-four hours, then transferring them  to  a percolator, and
gradually pouring upon  them Diluted Alcohol until two pints of filtered
liquor are obtained.— U. S.
   Properties and Uses.—This Tincture  is anodyne and soporific,  and
may be used as a substitute for  Opium in cases where this latter  drug
disagrees,  or where  its constipating effects are not desired.  Sometimes
the Tincture of Henbane purges; when  this is the case, a small portion
of laudanum may be added to it.   The dose is from half a fluidrachm
to a fluidrachm.
   Tinctura Hyperici.   Tincture of St. John's Wort.
   Preparation.—Take of the Blossoms  of St. John's Wort (recent) five
ounces;  Alcohol one pint.  Macerate for fourteen  days, express, and
filter.
  Properties and Uses.—This Tincture may be used  to  fulfill the indica-
tions  of  the plant;  but its principal use is  as  a  local  application to
wounds, bruises, ulcers, swellings, tumors, ecchymosis, etc.  The  dose
internally is from half a fluidrachm to a fluidrachm.   As a local applica-
tion it is equal to Arnica.
   Tinctura Iodinii. Tincture of Iodine.
   Preparation.—Take of Iodine  an ounce; Alcohol a pint.   Dissolve
the Iodine in the Alcohol.— U. S.
   History. — The  Tincture of Iodine should be kept in well stopped
bottles,  and not  exposed to the light, and it  is better to make up but
small quantities  at a time, as a  reaction  takes place  between the  iodine
and  alcohol, producing  chemical changes, especially if the tincture be
exposed  to the  action  of  light.   In preparing the tincture the  iodine
should be well  dried.   It  has a  deep brown color, becomes gradually
decomposed on standing, -or on the addition of water.
   Properties and Uses. —This preparation is seldom administered inter-
nally, on account of its liability to precipitation in the stomach, and 
Tinctura.
1259
consequent irritation produced by the crude iodine. When given, the dose
is ten drops, gradually increased to thirty,  tAvo or three times a day, to
be administered in sweetened water, or still better,  Avine, if not contra-
indicated.  Thirty drops are about  equal  to  one grain  of iodine.  Its
principal use is externally, in erysipelas, chilblains, and several cutane-
ous diseases—it has likewise been recommended as a local application in
local rheumatism, croup, bites of serpents, etc.   It may be applied by
means of a camel's hair pencil.
  Tinctura  Iodinii Composita.   Compound Tincture of Iodine.
  Preparation.—Take of  Iodine half an ounce ; Iodide of Potassium an
ounce ; Alcohol  a pint.  Dissolve the Iodine and the  Iodide of Potassium
in the Alcohol.— U. S.
  Properties and Uses.—This Tincture may be used internally for all the
purposes to which iodine is applicable.  Unlike  the Tincture of Iodine,
it is not  decomposed when  diluted with water.   The dose is five drops,
three times a day, gradually increased to thirty if necessary.
  Tinctura  Iridis.  Tincture of Blue Flag.
  Preparation.—Take of Blue Flag Root, in powder, three ounces ; Alco-
hol a pint.  Macerate for fourteen days, express, and filter.
  This Tincture may also be prepared by thoroughly moistening the Blue
Flag Root, in powder, with Alcohol, allowing them to stand for  forty-
eight hours,  then transferring them to a percolator, and gradually pour-
ing upon them Alcohol, until one pint of filtered liquor is obtained.
  Properties and Uses.—The Tincture of Blue Flag possesses  the same
alterative and cathartic properties  as the  root, and  may be used in all
cases as a substitute for the powder, in doses of from ten to sixty  drops,
according to the effect desired, two or three times a day. Six fluidrachms,
each,  of the  Tinctures of  Blue Flag,  and  Mandrake roots,  with two
fluidrachms of a saturated tincture of Nux Vomica, form  an efficacious
remedy  in obstinate  constipation, hepatic torpor, derangements  of the
spleen, sick headache, want of appetite, syphilitic affections, gleet, recent
stricture of the urethra, impotency from masturbation, recent disease of
the  prostate, etc.  The mixture may be given in doses of from ten to
fifteen drops, in water, two or three times a day.
   Tinctura Kalmia.  Tincture of Sheep Laurel.
   Preparation.—Take  of Sheep  Laurel Leaves three ounces; Diluted
Alcohol one pint.  Macerate for fourteen days, express, and filter.
   This  Tincture may  also be  prepared by thoroughly moistening the
Sheep Laurel Leaves,  in powder, with  Diluted  Alcohol, allowing it to
stand  for twenty-four hours, then transferring it to a percolator, and
gradually pouring upon it Diluted Alcohol  until  one pint of filtered
liquor is obtained. 
1260
Pharmacy.
   Properties and Uses.—This preparation is sedative  and alterative, and
may be successfully used in jaundice, syphilitic  diseases, palpitation of
the heart, etc., in doses of  ten drops, carefully and gradually increased
to thirty.   In obstinate  syphilitic affections, I frequently add a  portion
of this tincture to the Compound Syrup of Stillingia, Avith marked advan-
tage.  Externally, the tincture is beneficial in itch, and some other cuta-
neous affections.
   Tinctura  Kino.  Tincture of Kino.
   Preparation.—Take of Kino, in powder, three ounces and a half;  Dis-
tilled Water twelve fiuidounces ; Alcohol twenty  fiuidounces.  Macerate
for fourteen days,  and filter.
   This  Tincture may also  be prepared  by mixing with the powdered
Kino, an equal bulk of Sand, transferring the mixture to  a percolator,
and gradually pouring upon it the above proportions of Alcohol and Dis-
tilled Water, mixed together,  until two pints  of filtered liquor are
obtained.
   Properties and  Uses.—Tincture of Kino is astringent, and is  princi-
pally used in diarrhea, cholera morbus, cholera,  etc., in doses of one or
two fluidrachms ;  it is  frequently added  to  astringent mixtures.   It is
very liable to gelatinize on standing, and lose its  astringency, especially
if exposed to the action of  the  atmosphere ;  hence, it  should be made
frequently, in small quantities at a  time, and be  kept in well stopped
bottles.
   Tinctura  Krameria.  Tincture of Rhatany,
   Preparation.—Take of Rhatany, in powder, six ounces; Diluted Alco-
hol two pints.  Macerate for fourteen days, express,  and filter through
paper.
   This  Tincture may  also  be prepared by  moistening  the  Rhatany
thoroughly  with Diluted Alcohol, allowing it to  stand for forty-eight
hours, then transferring it to a percolator, and gradually pouring  upon it
Diluted Alcohol until two pints of filtered liquor  are obtained.— U  S.
   Properties and Uses.—This is useful in  chronic diarrhea, and other
cases where an  astringent is required.   It likewise forms an excellent
local application to the gums, where they are tender, spongy, and bleed.
The  dose is one or two  fluidrachms in  sweetened water, or wine, if not
contra-indicated, three or four times a day.
   Tinctura  Laricis Composita.   Tinctura  Pinus Pendula  Compo-
sita.   Compound  Tincture of Tamarac.  Bone's Bitters.
   Preparation.—Take of Tamarac Bark, Juniper Berries, of each, six
ounces; Prickly Ash Bark four  ounces; Wild  Cherry Bark, Seneca
Snakeroot, of each,  three ounces;  Tansy one  ounce ;  Whisky five pints;
Molasses a pint and a half; Hydro-alcoholic  Extract  of Mandrake an
ounce and a half;  Water a sufficient quantity.   Let the medicinal Herbs, 
Tinctura.
1261
Roots, and Barks, be coarsely pulverized and mixed together.  To the
mixture add three pints  of the Whisky, and let them stand twenty-four
hours ; then  place  the whole in a vapor  displacement apparatus, and
force  through the articles the steam,  or vapor of  the additional Whisky
two pints, after which the steam from Water sufficient to make the whole
amount of Tincture equal to twenty-four pints.   To this  add the Mo-
lasses, and the Hydro-alcoholio  Extract of Mandrake; which last must
be thoroughly dissolved.
  Properties  and Uses.—Although not properly a tincture, yet to avoid
a new class of pharmaceutic agents, bitters,  I place this compound among
the tinctures.  It  is an improvement upon the original Bone's Bitters,
and  is now generally preferred  by Eclectics.   It possesses nearly four
times the strength of that heretofore made, and  consequently must be
taken in a much smaller dose, a desideratum with all  medicines contain-
ing alcohol.   The whisky and juniper  berries  are  less expensive, and
more readily obtainable than the pure Holland Gin  recommended in the
original, and likewise render the preparation more actively diuretic; and
the substitution of the Extract of Mandrake, for the bitter, and to many
patients, unbearable taste of aloes, renders it much more valuable as a
cholagogue, alterative, and  aperient.   It forms  an excellent alterative
tonic  and aperient for dyspepsia, menstrual obstructions, and other dis-
eases where such a combination of action is indicated.  The dose is half
a fluidounce, three times a day, about an hour previous to each meal.
   Tinctura  Lavandula Composita.   Compound  S])irit  of Lavender.
   Preparation. — Take of  Oil  of Lavender three fiuidrachms;  Oil of
Anise one drachm and a half; Cloves, in powder, one ounce ; Mace three
drachms;  Red Saunders two ounces ;  Brandy four fiuidounces ; Jamaica
Rum one gallon.   Macerate for fourteen days, express, and filter through
paper.
   Properties and Uses.—This is far superior to, and makes a much more
agreeable compound than the formula of the U.  S. Pharmacopoeia.   It
forms a delightful preparation which is much employed as a remedy for
flatulence, hysteria, gastric  uneasiness,  nausea, and general  languor or
faintness. It is also used as an adjuvant and corrigent  of other medicines.
The dose is from thirty drops to a fluidrachm or two, given in sweetened
water, or on sugar.—/. K.
   Tinctura Leptandra.   Tincture of Blackroot.
   Preparation.—Take of Black Root, in powder, three ounces ;  Diluted
Alcohol one pint.   Macerate for fourteen days, express, and filter.
   This  Tincture  may also be prepared by thoroughly moistening the
Black Root, in  powder, with Diluted Alcohol, allowing it  to stand for
forty-eight hours, then transferring it to a percolator, and gradually pour-
ing upon it Diluted Alcohol until one pint of filtered liquor is obtained. 
1262
Pharmacy.
   Properties and Uses.—This  preparation is aperient and cholagogue,
and is employed in various derangements of the biliary organs; it is also
added to medicines for summer-complaint,  chronic diarrhea, remittent
fever,  etc.   The dose is from half a fluidrachm to two fluidrachms, two
or three times a day.
   Tinctura Lobelia.  Tincture of Lobelia.
   Preparation.—Take of Lobelia, (the herb), four ounces ; Diluted Al-
cohol two pints.   Macerate for fourteen days, express, and filter throuo-h
paper.
   This Tincture may also be prepared by adding Diluted Alcohol to the
Lobelia, in  powder, and allowing it to stand for twenty-four  hours,  or
until thoroughly moistened, then transferring the whole to a displacer,
and gradually adding to it  Diluted Alcohol until two pints  of filtered
liquor have passed.
   Properties and Uses.—This Tincture possesses the same properties as
Lobelia ; the dose is from thirty to sixty drops as a nauseant; and half
a fluidounce, or  more, as an emetic.  A tincture prepared of equal parts
of vinegar and  alcohol, instead of diluted alcohol, is  preferable to the
above, in cases  where it is not  to be kept for a length of time. Exter-
nally,  the tincture of lobelia is  beneficial  as a local application in tetter,
and similar cutaneous eruptions, stings of insects, and in the poisoning
by Rhus.
   Tinctura Lobelia Composita.  Compound Tincture of Lobelia.   Dr.
J. King's Expectorant Tincture.
   Preparation.—Take of Lobelia,  (herb), Bloodroot,  Skunk Cabbage
Root, Wild  Ginger  Root, and Pleurisy Root, each,  coarsely powdered,
one ounce ;  Water, (or Vinegar), one pint;  Alcohol three pints.  Mace-
rate for fourteen days, express,  and filter through paper.
   This Tincture may also be prepared from the same dry materials,  in
powder, by  thoroughly moistening them with Alcohol diluted  as above,
allowing them to stand for  forty-eight hours, then transferring them to
a percolator, and gradually pouring upon  them Alcohol diluted as above
with Water, (or Vinegar), until four pints of filtered  liquor have been
obtained.
   Properties and Uses.—This Tincture forms an excellent emetic for chil-
dren and infants, and may be safely used in croup, hooping-cough, bron-
chitis,  asthma, convulsions,  and in all cases where an emetic is required.
It will likewise  be  found beneficial as an expectorant,  or nauseant  in
coughs, pleuritic affections, asthma, pertussis, and whenever expectorants
are indicated.   It is among the  most valuable of Eclectic remedies.
  In croup, for children one year old, give half a tablespoonful  m a
tablespoonful of molasses, and  repeat it  every fifteen minutes, until  it
vomits; after which, a teaspoonful may be given every hour or two,  as
required—the vomit to be repeated two or three times a day.  A child 
                             Tinctura.                       1263

from  two to six months old, may take  from half to a teaspoonful for a
dose ;  less than two months old, from fifteen to twenty-five drops, to be
repeated every ten minutes, if vomiting is required.  Children from three
to six years old, may take  a tablespoonful, in molasses or warm water,
every ten minutes, until it vomits.   Warm boneset or thoroughwort tea,
ought  always to be given in order to facilitate its operation as an emetic.
  For cough, asthma, etc., to promote expectoration and remove  tight-
ness across the chest; and in all ordinary cases where an expectorant is
required,  adults may  take one or two teaspoonfuls in half a wineglassful
of slippery elm tea, three to five times  a day, or as often as required.
Children from one year old to ten, may take from half to a  teaspoonful
in the  same manner;  and for those less than one year, from ten to thirty
drops.  Should the above  doses vomit,  they should be lessened, except
when vomiting is desired.   The  stomach and bowels must be kept reg-
ular in all cases, by gentle medicines.
  Tinctura Lobelia et  Capsici  Composita.   Compound Tincture of
Lobelia and Capsicum.  Antispasmodic Tincture.
  Preparation.—Take of Lobelia, Capsicum, and Skunk Cabbage Root,
each,  in powder, two ounces;  Diluted Alcohol  two pints.   Macerate for
fourteen days, express, and filter.
  This Tincture may also be prepared  from the same  dry materials, in
powder, by thoroughly moistening them with Diluted Alcohol, allowing
them to stand for forty-eight hours, then transferring them to a percola-
tor, and gradually pouring upon them Diluted Alcohol until two pints of
filtered liquor are obtained.
  Or,  it may be made by combining together, equal parts of the satu-
rated tinctures of Lobelia, Capsicum, and Skunk Cabbage Root.
  Properties and Uses.—This Tincture is a powerful  antispasmodic  and
relaxant, and will be found highly efficacious in cramps, spasms, convul-
sions, tetanus, etc.  The dose is from half a teaspoonful to a teaspoonful,
every  ten or twenty  minutes, or as often as the  urgency of the case
requires.
  In convulsions and tetanus, it may be poured into the  corner of the
mouth, and repeated as  often  as  necessary ; generally, the effect is
almost instantaneous.   This valuable preparation should  always  be in
the possession of every physician.  In rigidity of the os uteri,  a teaspoon-
ful  administered by mouth, or by enema into the rectum,  and repeated
in fifteen or twenty minutes, will be found to' produce a state of softness
and dilatability without the necessity of using the lancet, so highly recom-
mended by a certain class of practitioners,  in such cases.
  Tinctura Lupulini.  Tincture of Lupulin.
  Preparation.—Take of  Lupulin four  ounces; Alcohol two pints.   Ma-
cerate  for fourteen days and filter through paper.— U. S. 
1264                        Pharmacy.
   Properties and Uses.—Lupulin is the active principle of hops, and as
the quantity of it varies in different specimens of hops, a tincture of it is
decidedly preferable  to one made of hops.  It may be employed with
advantage in  coughs, after-pains, and in all cases where opium is inad-
missible.   The dose is one or two fluidrachms in mucilage or sweetened
water.
   Tinctura Mentha Viridis.   Tincture of Spearmint.  Spirits of Mint.
   Preparation. — Take of the fresh Herb of Spearmint a sufficient quan-
tity to fill a glass jar,  and  cover with good Holland Gin.  Macerate for
seven days, express, and filter.
   Properties and Uses.—This Tincture is diuretic and  stimulant.  It may
be beneficially employed  in strangury, retention of  urine, gravel, and
various chronic nephritic diseases.  The dose is from two to four ounces,
three times a day; but in severe and painful cases it may be  repeated
every half hour or hour until relief is obtained.   Externally, it forms  an
excellent application  to hemorrhoids when in a state of inflammation;
cotton must be moistened with it, and applied to the part.
   Tinctura Myrrha.  Tincture of Myrrh.
   Preparation.—Take of Myrrh,  bruised, four ounces;  Alcohol three
pints.   Macerate for fourteen days and filter through  paper.— U. S.
   Properties and Uses.—Tincture of Myrrh is chiefly employed as a local
application  to stimulate foul  and indolent ulcers, and to promote the
exfoliation of bones;  and, diluted with water, it may  be advantageously
applied to spongy gums,  aphthous sore mouth, and  ulcerations of the
throat; occasionally it is employed internally as  an emmenagogue, and
stimulant expectorant, in doses of from half a fluidrachm to a fluidrachm.
   Tinctura Myrrha Composita.  Compound  Tincture of Myrrh.  Hot
Drops.
   Preparation.—Take of Myrrh, bruised, eight ounces;  Capsicum two
ounces;  Alcohol one gallon.  Macerate for fourteen days and filter.
   Properties and Uses.—Eclectics very rarely employ this preparation
internally;  occasionally, however, it is used in cases of nausea, gastric
distress, especially after a hearty meal, flatulence, etc., in doses of  from
half a fluidrachm to a fluidrachm in SAveetened  water.  Its internal em-
ployment is contra-indicated when inflammation is present.  Its principal
use is externally, when it  proves an excellent local application to sprains,
bruises, fresh wounds, cuts, rheumatism, offensive ulcers, etc.
   Tinctura Nucis Vomica.  Tincture of Nux Vomica.
   Preparation.—Take of  Nux Vomica,  rasped, two ounces;  Alcohol
eight fiuidounces. Macerate for fourteen days, express, and filter through
paper.
   This Tincture may also be prepared by thoroughly moistening the
Nux  Vomica, in powder, with  Alcohol, allowing it  to stand for forty- 
Tinctura.
1265
eight hours, then transferring it to  a  percolator,  and very gradually
pouring Alcohol  upon it until eight  fluidounces of filtered  liquor are
obtained.
  Properties and Uses.—This Tincture  possesses the properties of the
nux vomica, but as the seeds vary in  their quantity of active matter, it
is an inferior preparation to the tincture of strychnia, or alcoholic extract
of nux vomica.  Its extreme bitterness is a great objection to its  employ-
ment. It is occasionally employed in doses of from five to twenty drops ;
and as an external application in local paralysis.
  Tinctura Olei Anisi.  Tincture of Oil of Anise.  Essence of Anise.
  Preparation.—Take  of Oil of  Anise one  fluidounce;  Alcohol nine
fiuidounces.   Mix with agitation.—Dub.
  Properties and Uses.—This preparation is aromatic, antispasmodic, and
carminative,  and  may be employed in flatulency, cough, cramp of the
stomach, and to flavor  other preparations.  The  dose is from twenty to
sixty drops  for an adult, in sweetened water.   The following  forms a
very pleasant preparation for cough :  Take of Aqua Ammonia,  Tincture
of Opium, each,  one fluidounce ; Essence of Anise, half a fluidounce.
Mix. Dose, from twenty  to sixty drops.
  Tinctura  Olei Carui.  Tincture  of Oil  of Caraway.  Essence  of
Caraway.
  Preparation.—Take of Oil of Caraway  one fluidounce ; Alcohol nine
fiuidounces.   Mix with agitation.—Dub.
  Properties  and Uses. — This is  aromatic, carminative,  and antispas-
modic.  It may be used  in  flatulency, nausea, etc., and to flavor mix-
tures.  The dose is from twenty to sixty drops in sweetened water.
  Tinctura  Olei Cinnamomi.  Tincture of Oil of Cinnamon.  Essence
of Cinnamon.
  Preparation.—Take of Oil of Cinnamon one fluidounce; Alcohol nine
fiuidounces.   Mix with agitation.—Dub.
  Properties  and  Uses.—This Tincture possesses  the stimulant  and aro-
matic properties of cinnamon; and may be beneficially employed in
menorrhagia and uterine hemorrhage, in  which, a teaspoonful may be
taken in a wineglass  of sweetened water, every five, ten, or thirty min-
utes, according to the urgency of  the symptoms.
  Tinctura  Olei Mentha Piperita.  Tincture of Oil of Peppermint.
Essence of Peppermint.
  Preparation.—Take of Oil of Peppermint  two fiuidounces ; Alcohol a
pint.  Dissolve the Oil in the Alcohol.— U. S:
  Properties and  Uses.— Tincture of Oil of  Peppermint, more com-
monly known as Essence of Peppermint, is carminative and antispasmodic.
It may be used in nausea,  colic, flatulency, cramp or gripings of the
             80 
1266                        Pharmacy.
 bowels, etc.  The dose is from ten to thirty drops on sugar, or mixed
 with sweetened water.
   Tinctura  Olei Mentha  Viridis.   Tincture  of Oil of Spearmint.
 Essence of Spearmint.
   Preparation.—Take of Oil of Spearmint two fiuidounces;  Alcohol a
 pint.   Dissolve the Oil in the Alcohol.— U. S.
   Properties and Uses.—This preparation is antispasmodic, carminative,
 and diuretic, and may be employed similarly to the essence of pepper-
 mint.   The dose is from twenty to forty drops on sugar, or mixed with
 sweetened water.
   Tinctura Olei Sassafras.  Tincture of Oil of Sassafras.  Essence
 of Sassafras.
   Preparation. — Take of Oil of Sassafras  two fiuidounces ; Alcohol  a
 pint.   Dissolve the Oil in the Alcohol.
   Properties and Uses.—This Tincture is stimulant, carminative, diuretic,
 and alterative.  Its principal use is to flavor syrups and other fluid pre-
 parations.   The dose is from  ten to thirty drops on sugar, or mixed with
 sweetened water.
   Tinctura Opii.  Tincture  of Opium.   Laudanum.
   Preparation.—Take  of  good Turkey Opium,  sliced, twelve hundred
 grains; Boiling Water ten fiuidounces; Alcohol 76 p. ct., twenty fiuid-
 ounces.  Pour eight fluidounces of the Boiling Water on the Opium, and
 with the hand or pestle, reduce it to an emulsion; then pour it into the
 bottle  in which it is to be  kept, rinse the pestle or hand with the remain-
 ing two fluidounces of Warm Water, and add it to  the fluid in the bottle,
 together with the Alcohol. Agitate well, and set it aside ; in twenty-
 four hours it will be of full strength.  (See Mr.  Merrell's remarks on
 Tinctures,  page 1241-2.)
   Properties and Uses.—This  Tincture possesses the medicinal virtues of
 opium, and may be used in all  cases where the drug is indicated, in doses
 of from ten to forty drops.  Twenty-five drops are about equal to one
 grain of opium.
   If Diluted Acetic Acid be employed m the above formula instead of
 Water, it will form a much better tincture, and  one less  liable to vary in
 strength—the Tinctura Opii  Acetata, or Acetated Tincture of Opium,
 and which  may be given in the same doses as above.
   The following is offered to the profession by Eugene Dupuy, Pharma-
ceutist, of  NeAv York, as a substitute  for McMunn's Elixir of Opium, (a
trial of six years  has  been accorded to it, and none of the unpleasant
effects  attributed to Laudanum have as yet attended its administration):
Take of Opium ten drachms, make it into a thin pulp with a sufficient
quantity of water; then allow  the mixture to stand in a cool place forty-
eight  hours; after which  transfer it into  an elongated glass  funnel 
                              Tinctura.                        1267

 containing filtering paper, and add a superstratum of Water equivalent to
 the bulk of the whole mass.   When twelve ounces of liquid have filtered,
 add to  the  filtered  solution, Alcohol, 95 per cent., four ounces.  The
 solution is an  Aqueous  Solution of Opium,  nearly free from narcotina,
 preserved by alcohol, and contains about two-thirds of the substance of
 the Opium—the residue consisting chiefly of resin, narcotina, caoutchouc,
 ligneous matter, etc.
   For a  similar purpose, the following mode of preparation is  recom-
 mended in the American Journal of Pharmacy :
   Macerate  ten  drachms (Troy) of Opium,  in half a pint of Water, for
 two days, and express;  subject the dregs to two  successive macerations,
 using six fiuidounces of Water each  time, with expression;  mix and strain
 the liquors,  evaporate  them  to two fluidounces, and agitate the liquid
 with Sulphuric Ether four fiuidounces, several times during half an hour.
 Then separate  the Ether by means of a funnel, evaporate the solution
 of Opium to dryness, dissolve the Extract in half a pint of Cold Water,
 pour the Solution on  a filter, and after it has  passed  wash the filter with
 sufficient water to make twelve  fluidounces of filtered Solution, to which
 add four fluidounces  of  Alcohol.
   By this process the Ether removes all that the  Water has dissolved of
 the thebaina, the meconin, a  part of the codeia, the odorous principle,
 meconate of narcotine, and fatty matter.  The evaporation to dryness,
 and re-solution in Water, removes the ethereal  odor, and separates a
 portion of acid, resin, and extractive.
   Tinctura Opii Camphorata.  Camphorated Tincture of Opium.  Pare-
 goric Elixir.
   Preparation.—Take of Opium one drachm,  reduce  it to an emulsion in
 Boiling Water one fluidounce,  then add Benzoic Acid a. drachm ;  Oil of
 Anise, a fluidrachm; Clarified  Honey two ounces ;  Camphor two scruples;
 Alcohol 76 per ct., twenty-two fluidounces;  Distilled Water nine fluid-
 ounces.   Macerate for fourteen days, and filter through paper.
   Properties  and  Uses.—This is a pleasant anodyne and antispasmodic;
 used to allay cough, in asthma, pertussis, chronic catarrh, and  consump-
 tion;  to relieve nausea and slight pains in the stomach and bowels ; to
 check diarrhea, and to procure sleep.
   The dose for an adult, is one or two fluidrachms; for an infant, from
 five to ten or twenty drops.
   The nostrums  known  by  the  names  of Baieman's Drops,  and  God-
frey's Cordial,  two very dangerous articles in the hands of nurses and
many non-professional  persons, are generally   prepared as follows:
Baieman's Pectoral Drops, take Opium, in powder, Catechu, in powder,
Camphor, Red  Saunders, rasped, each, two ounces;  Oil of Anise  four
fiuidrachms;  Diluted  Alcohol four gallons.  Digest for ten  or twelve 
1268
Pharmacy.
days.  It is about equal  in  strength to the Camphorated Tincture of
Opium, one fluidounce being about  equal to two grains of Opium.
   Godfrey's  Cordial.  Dissolve Carbonate  of Potassa two ounces and  a
half,  in Water, twenty-six pints; add Molasses from the Sugar Refiners,
sixteen pints, and heat over a gentle fire till they simmer; take off the
scum which arises, and add a mixture of Laudanum  a pint and a half,
and Oil of Sassafras four fluidrachms.  A fluidounce  of this preparation
contains rather more  than a grain of opium.
   The coroner of Nottingham states, that  " Godfrey's Cordial is given
to children to a great extent;  and that  he  has no doubt whatever that
many  infants  are yearly destroyed  in that borough, but who  dying
gradually, never come under his notice officinally."  There can be no
doubt of the truth of this assertion.  At all  events we can say positively
that such  instances occur elsewhere.—(Dunglison's  Am. Med. Lib. and
Intell., Jan. 1840, p. 299.)
   Tinctura  Podophylli.  Tincture of Mandrake.
   Preparation.—Take of Mandrake  Root, in powder, three ounces; Alco-
hol one pint.  Macerate  for fourteen days, express, and filter.
   This Tincture may also be prepared by thoroughly moistening the
Mandrake, in powder, with Alcohol, allowing it to stand  for forty-eight
hours, then transferring it to a percolator, and gradually pouring upon it
Alcohol until one pint of filtered liquor is obtained.
   Properties and  Uses.—This  Tincture possesses the alterative, chola-
gogue, purgative, and other  properties  of  the  root,  and  may be  used
wherever  that is indicated.  The dose is  from ten to sixty  drops.
   Tinctura  Polygoni.   Tincture of Water  Pepper.
   Preparation. — Take of Water  Pepper,  the  fresh Herb, a sufficient
quantity, to fill a quart jar; then add Holland  Gin, or Proof Spirit, as
much as can be held in the jar.  Macerate for seven  days, express and
filter.
   This Tincture may  likewise be made from the dried herb, in powder,
six ounces to one pint and a  half of Proof Spirit, and macerating  for
fourteen days;  or by percolation.
   Properties  and Uses.—This Tincture has  been  used with efficacy in
amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, suppressed lochial discharge,  and  in mode-
rate menorrhagia.  The  dose is a teaspoonful three or four times a day.
   Tinctvjra Quinia Composita.   Compound Tincture of Quinia.  Ague
Bitters.
   Preparation.—Take of Quinia thirty grains; Cream  of Tartar  one
ounce ; Cloves, in powder, one ounce ; Whisky  one pint.   Macerate for
twenty-four hours, and filter.
   Properties  and  Uses. — This Tincture is  febrifuge, antiperiodic, and
tonic, and  is used in intermittent and  remittent fevers,  and other diseases
attended with symptoms of a periodical character.  In intermittent fever, 
Tinctura.
1269
the dose for an  adult  is half a fluidounce every hour during the inter-
mission, until two  or  three  hours previous to the return of the  next
expected chill, when the  dose should be given every half hour.  The
dose for children is one or two fluidrachms.—T. V. M.
   Tinctura Rhei.  Tincture of Rhubarb.
   Preparation.—Take of Rhubarb, bruised, three ounces;  Cardamom
Seeds, bruised, half an ounce; Diluted Alcohol two pints.  Macerate for
fourteen days, express, and filter through paper.
   This Tincture may also be prepared by thoroughly moistening the
Rhubarb  and Cardamom, in powder,  with  Diluted Alcohol, allowing
them to stand for forty-eight hours, then transferring them to a percola-
tor, and gradually pouring upon them Diluted Alcohol until two pints
of filtered liquor are obtained.
   Properties and Uses.—This Tincture is purgative, stomachic, and tonic.
It is  principally used  in flatulent colic, dyspepsia, constipation,  and  in
low forms of  fever.  The dose, as a purgative, is from half a fluidounce
to a fluidounce;  as a stomachic, one, two, or three fluidrachms.
   Tinctura Rhei  Composita.  Compound Tincture of Rhubarb.
   Preparation.—Take  of Rhubarb, bruised, four ounces;  Bitter Root,
Golden Seal, Gentian,  Prickly Ash Berries, of each, bruised, two ounces;
Sassafras, Cardamom  Seeds,  of each, one ounce; Diluted Alcohol five
pints.  Macerate for fourteen days, express, and filter.
   This Tincture may also be  prepared from the dry materials  in the
state  of powder, by thoroughly moistening them with Diluted Alcohol,
allowing them to stand for forty-eight hours, then transferring the mix-
ture to a percolator, and gradually adding  Diluted  Alcohol, until five
pints  of filtered  liquor  are obtained.
   Properties and  Uses.—Compound Tincture  of Rhubarb  is  laxative,
tonic, and stomachic; it is especially useful in debilitated conditions of
the digestive  organs,  hepatic  torpor, dyspepsia, constipation, and to
restore the  tone of the bowels after the removal of  worms, after diar-
rheas, dysenteries,  etc.  The  dose  is from  half a fluidounce to a fluid-
ounce, two or three times a day in sweetened water, or sufficient to  pro-
cure one, but  not over two alvine evacuations daily.—J. K.
  Tinctura Sanguinaria.  Tincture of Bloodroot.
  Preparation.—Take  of Bloodroot, in powder, six fiuidounces ; Diluted
Alcohol two pints.   Macerate  for fourteen days, express, and filter
through paper.
  This Tincture may  also be prepared by thoroughly moistening the
Bloodroot, in very fine powder, with Diluted Alcohol, allowing it to stand
for forty-eight hours, then transferring it to a percolator, and gradually
pouring upon it Diluted Alcohol until two  pints of filtered  liquor are
obtained.— U. S. 
1270
Pharmacy.
   Properties and  Uses.—In  the  dose of three or four fluidrachms, this
tincture will prove emetic ;  and from  ten  to sixty drops will  act as a
nauseant, expectorant, stimulant, and alterative.   As  all the medicinal
virtues of bloodroot are taken up by Alcohol, I do not see the necessity
of using this liquid diluted.  For several years past I have been accus-
tomed to  prepare this tincture with undiluted alcohol, which  I have
found to give a much better medicinal solution, and to be more satisfac-
tory in its effects.
   Tinctura Sanguinaria Acetata Composita.   Compound  Acetated
Tincture of Bloodroot.   Acetous Emetic Tincture.
   Preparation.—Take of Bloodroot, Lobelia, Skunk Cabbage Root, each,
in powder, two ounces ; Distilled Vinegar two pints ;  Alcohol two fiuid-
ounces.  Macerate the drugs and  Vinegar together, in a close glass
vessel, for fourteen days, then express,  filter, and to the filtered liquor
add the Alcohol.
   This Tincture may also be prepared from  the dry materials in powder,
by thoroughly moistening them with  Distilled Vinegar, allowing them to
stand for  forty-eight  hours, then transferring them to a percolator, and
gradually pouring  Distilled Vinegar upon them until two pints of filtered
liquor are obtained, to which add the Alcohol.
   Properties and  Uses.—This preparation is much used by Eclectics as
an emetic and expectorant, in all cases where such agents are required.
As an emetic, the  dose is  from one to  four fluidrachms, in some sweet-
ened aromatic infusion, to be repeated every ten or fifteen minutes until
vomiting is produced; as an expectorant the dose is from twenty to sixty
drops, every hour  or  two.  It also forms a useful external application to
erysipelas, tetter, and other forms of cutaneous disease.
   Tinctura Sanguinaria  Composita.  Compound Tincture of Bloodroot.
Emetic Tincture.
   Preparation.—Take of Bloodroot, Lobelia, Skunk Cabbage Root, each,
in powder, two ounces ; Diluted Alcohol two pints.  Macerate in a close
glass vessel for fourteen days, express, and  filter.
   This Tincture may also be prepared from  the dry materials in powder,
by thoroughly moistening them with  Diluted Alcohol, allowing them to
stand for  forty-eight  hours, then transferring them to a percolator, and
gradually pouring  Diluted  Alcohol upon them until two pints of filtered
liquor are obtained.
   Properties and  Uses.—This  Tincture is  used for the same purposes,
in the same manner and dose, as the preceding one.
   Tinctura Senna Composita.   Compound Tincture of Senna.    Elixir
Salutis.
   Preparation. — Take  of Alexandria Senna two ounces; Jalap,  in
powder, one ounce; Fennel Seeds, bruised, half an ounce ; Best French 
Tinctura.
1271
Brandy  two pints.  Macerate for  fourteen  days,  express,  and filter
through  paper.
   This Tincture may also be prepared from the dry materials in powder,
by thoroughly moistening them with Brandy, allowing them to stand for
forty-eight hours,  then  transferring them to a percolator, and gradually
pouring  Brandy  upon  them  until  two  pints of  filtered  liquor  are
obtained.
   Properties and  Uses.—This is an excellent purgative, especially for
children, as  it  acts mildly and pleasantly ; it is also useful in cases of
constipation  attended with flatulence.  The  dose  for an adult  is from
half a fluidounce to a fluidounce ; for a  child a year old, a fluidrachm.
It may be given in a little sweetened water.
   Tinctura Serpentaria Composita.   Compound Tincture of Virginia
Snakeroot.   Sudorific Tincture.
   Preparation.—Take of Virginia  Snakeroot, in powder, Ipecacuanha,
Saffron,  Camphor, and Opium, in powder, of each, two ounces ; Holland
Gin, or Diluted Alcohol six pints.   Macerate for fourteen days, express,
and filter through  paper.
   The above is the original, and undoubtedly the best form of preparing
this tincture, yet many Eclectics are opposed to  the Opium, and  substi-
tute  in its place Ladies Slipper Root eight ounces.
   Properties and  Uses.—This is a  powerful sudorific, and  is used in all
cases where  a  copious perspiration is required,  or where it is desired to
lessen pain, allay nervous  excitability,  procure sleep, and keep up  a
determination to the skin.   One teaspoonful in some warm herb tea,
repeated every hour, aided by warm infusions and bathing the feet, will
soon produce copious diaphoresis.   In pleurisy, a mueh larger dose may
be given.  In other cases it may be given in doses of from ten to sixty
drops.  It will be  found beneficial in after-pains, painful dysmenorrhea,
amenorrhea  from  recent exposure to cold, cramp  in the stomach, hys-
teria, in all fevers  and inflammatory diseases, etc.  The tincture  cannot
well  be made by percolation.
   Tinctura  Stillingia.   Tincture of Queen's Root.
   Preparation.—Take of the recent Queen's Root, cut into small  pieces
and bruised, three  ounces ; Alcohol one pint. Macerate for fourteen days,
express,  and filter.
   Properties and Uses.—This Tincture possesses the virtues of the root,
and may be used as a substitute for it in scrofulous, syphilitic, and rheu-
matic diseases.  It is likewise beneficial in laryngeal, bronchial, and all
pulmonary affections.  The  dose  is  from ten to  thirty, or even sixty
drops, to be administered in sweetened water.   It  may likewise  be
advantageously added to alterative syrups or tinctures. 
1272
Pharmacy.
  Tinctura Stramonii.   Tincture of Stramonium.
  Preparation.—Take of Stramonium Seed, bruised, four ounces; Diluted
Alcohol  two  pints.   Macerate  for  fourteen  days,  express,  and filter
through paper.
  This  Tincture may also  be prepared  by thoroughly moistening  the
Stramonium Seed, in powder, with Diluted Alcohol, allowing it to stand
for forty-eight hours, then transferring it  to a percolator, and  gradually
pouring upon it Diluted Alcohol  until two pints of filtered liquor  are
obtained.— U. S.
  Properties  and Uses. — This preparation may be used for all the pur-
poses for which Stramonium is given.  The dose is  from ten  to forty
drops, two or three times a  day, gradually increased, if required, until
it affects the  system.
  Tinctura  Strychnia  Composita.   Compound Tincture of Strychnia.
  Preparation.—Take of Strychnia, in  crystals, sixteen grains ; Distilled
Water, Alcohol, of each, seven fiuidounces and a half;  Acetic  Acid,
Compound Tincture of Cardamom, of each, half a fluidounce.   Dissolve
the Strychnia in the Alcohol and Acetic Acid mixed together, and then
add the remaining articles.
  Properties  and  Uses. — This Tincture  is useful in impaired spinal
energy, or spinal exhaustion, whether the result  of excessive study,
muscular effort, sexual indulgence, masturbation, etc.; it  is likewise
efficacious in paralysis, constipation debility of the generative  organs,
malarious diseases,  chronic splenitis, and recent diseases of the prostate
gland.   It is contra-indicated in irritation of the spinal  nerve.  Two
fluidrachms of the  tincture contain one  eighth of a grain of strychnia.
The dose is from ten to thirty drops, three times a day.
  Tinctura  Symplocarpi.   Tincture of Skunk Cabbage.
  Preparation.—Take of Skunk Cabbage Root, in powder, three ounces ;
Diluted  Alcohol one pint.   Macerate  for fourteen days,  express,  and
filter.
  This Tincture may also he  prepared by thoroughly moistening  the
Skunk  Cabbage Root, in powder, with Diluted Alcohol, allowing it to
stand for forty-eight hours, then transferring it to a percolator, and grad-
ually pouring upon  it Diluted Alcohol until one pint of filtered liquor
is obtained.
  Properties and Uses.—Tincture of Skunk Cabbage is antispasmodic,
and will be found useful in asthma, pertussis, hysteria, and other spas-
modic affections ; it is also beneficial in irritable, or excitable  conditions
of the nervous  system. The  dose  is from a fluidrachm to half a fluid-
ounce, repeated as often as  required.
  Tinctura  Tolutana.   Tincture of Tolu.
  Preparation.—Take of Balsam of Tolu three ounces ; Alcohol two pints.
Macerate until  the Balsam is dissolved; then filter through paper. 
Tinctura.
1273
   Properties and Uses.—This Tincture possesses the properties of balsam
of Tolu, and  may be used  in  cough,  and chronic catarrhal affections;
also as an  addition to cough  and expectorant mixtures.   The dose is
from half a  fluidrachm to one or two fluidrachms.
   Tinctura Toxicodendri.  Tincture  of Poison Oak.
   Preparation.—Take of fresh Leaves of Poison Oak four ounces ; Al-
cohol three fiuidounces.   Macerate for  fourteen days, express, and filter
under cover.
   Properties and Uses.—This Tincture may be used for all the purposes
for which the  poison oak is given, in the dose of from three to ten drops,
in water.   It  should be kept in vials well stopped, as its active principle
becomes dissipated on exposure.   It must be used with great care.
   Tinctura Valeriana Ammoniata.  Ammoniated Tincture of Valerian.
   Preparation.—Take of Valerian, bruised, four ounces; Aromatic  Spirit
of Ammonia two pints.   Macerate for  fourteen days, express, and filter
through paper.
   This Tincture may also be  prepared  by thoroughly moistening the
Valerian, in powder,  with Aromatic Spirit  of Ammonia, allowing it to
stand for twenty-four hours in a covered vessel, then transferring it to a
percolator,  and  gradually pouring upon it Aromatic Spirit  of Ammonia
until two pints of filtered liquor are obtained.
   Properties and Uses. — This  is used as an antispasmodic in hysteria,
and  other nervous affections, in the dose of one or two  fluidrachms,
given in sweetened water, milk or some mucilaginous fluid.
   The Aromatic Spirit of Ammonia  (Spiritus Ammoniae  Aromaticus),
is  antacid,  stimulant,  and  aromatic;  and  is  used  in  sick  headache,
hysteria, flatulent  colic, fainting, etc.,  in  doses  of from  thirty to  sixty
drops, or more, in  sweetened water.  It is made as  follows:  Take of
Muriate of  Ammonia five ounces;  Carbonate  of Potassa  eight ounces;
Cinnamon,  Cloves, of each, bruised,  two drachms; Lemon Peel four
ounces; Alcohol, Water, of each, five pints.  Mix them, and distil  off
seven pints  and a half.— U  S.
   Tinctura Viburni Composita.   Compound  Tincture of High  Cran-
berry Bark.
  Preparation.—Take of  High Cranberry Bark, in powder, two ounces;
Lobelia Seed, in powder, Skunk Cabbage Seed, bruised,  of each, one
ounce;  Stramonium Seed, bruised,  Capsicum, Bloodroot,  of each, in
powder, half an ounce; Alcohol, four pints.   Macerate for fourteen days,
express, and filter  through paper.
  This Tincture may also be prepared from the dry materials, in powder,
by thoroughly moistening them with Alcohol, allowing them to stand in
a covered vessel for forty-eight  hours, then transferring them to a perco-
lator, and  gradually  pouring upon  them Alcohol  until four pints  of
filtered liquor are obtained. 
1274
Pharmacy.
   Properties and Uses.—This Tincture is stimulant  and antispasmodic,
 and will be found efficacious in  asthma, hysteria, and  all nervous  and
 spasmodic diseases.   I have effected many cures  of  asthma (uncompli-
 cated), Avith this remedy.  The dose is from twenty to sixty drops, three
 times a day; or, during  a paroxysm, as often as required.—J. K.
   Tinctura Xanthoxyli.   Tincture of Prickly Ash.
   Preparation. — Take  of Prickly  Ash  Berries eight  ounces; Diluted
 Alcohol two pints.  Macerate for fourteen days, express and filter.
   This Tincture may also  be  prepared  by thoroughly moistening  the
 Prickly Ash Berries, in powder,  with  Alcohol, alloAving them to stand
 for forty-eight hours, then transferring them to a percolator, and gradu-
 ally pouring upon them  Alcohol, until  two pints  of  filtered liquor  are
 obtained.
   Properties and. Uses.—This Tincture possesses  all the virtues of the
 berries.  ( See Prickly Ash Berries, p. 971, Part II)  In cholera, the dose
 is from half a fluidounce to a fluidounce, repeated as  often as required,
 in ordinary cases, from one to four fluidrachms, given in water.  Prob-
 ably a tincture of the oil of the berries will effect  the same results.
   Tinctura Zingiberis.   Tincture of Ginger.
   Preparation.—Take of Ginger, bruised, eight ounces; Alcohol two pints.
 Macerate for fourteen days, express, and filter through paper.
   This  Tincture may also be  prepared by thoroughly  moistening  the
 Ginger, in powder, with Alcohol, allowing it  to stand for  twenty-four
hours, then transferring it to a percolator, and  gradually pouring upon
it Alcohol until two pints of filtered liquor are  obtained.— U S.
   Good Jamaica Ginger  should be used in preparing this Tincture.
   Properties and Uses.—Tincture of Ginger is an  aromatic carminative,
and may be added to tonic, purgative, and  aromatic preparations with
advantage.  It may be used in flatulency, torpor of the digestive organs,
and in debilitated conditions of the  alimentary  canal.   The dose is from
ten to sixty drops in sweetened water, milk, wine, or mucilage, as  the
indications will allow.  Its chief use is in  the  preparation of Syrup of
 Ginger.
                           TROCHISCI.
                              Troches.
  Troches or Lozenges are medicinal substances in powder,  destitute of
any very disagreeable  flavor, which, by means of sugar and mucilage
are incorporated into  small, dry, solid masses, usually of a  circular,
flattened shape.   As they are designed to  be held in the  mouth, and
dissolved gradually in  the saliva, they ought not, as a general rule, to he
composed of medicines which act feebly, or require to be given in large
quantities.   Gum Arabic and Tragacanth are both employed, but the 
                             Trochisci.                       1275

 latter is preferred on account of the greater  tenacity of its mucilage.
 The Dictionnuire des Drogues gives the following directions for preparing
 them:  The best gum tragacanth having been selected, it is made into
 a mucilage with cold water, and strained ; the sugar bavino- been mixed
 with the other powdered ingredients, is thoroughly incorporated with the
 mucilage, by rubbing upon a marble  slab, and is formed into a paste.
 This paste is then rolled out on the slab, its adhesion to the roller being
 prevented by powdering over it from time  to time, a mixture of suo-ar
 and starch; and uniformity of thickness is effected by a  frame of wood or
 iron,  upon  which the ends  of the  roller  are  placed.  The extended
 layer of paste is again covered with the mixture of sugar and starch,
 and the troches cut by means of a tin-plate punch, which gives them the
 required shape and size.   After exposure to the air  for twelve hours, on
 paper, the troches are placed on a sieve to  dry in  a  drying  room  or
 closet, and the  superfluous powder remaining on them is  removed  by
 means of the sieve.
   Lozenges are frequently composed  of extract of liquorice and  gum
 Arabic with sugar, which  renders them quite  tough, so as to  become
 unmanageable by long standing.   In such cases the  best mode  is to
 thoroughly  mix the articles  together, and  then add the sugar, in the
 form of a dense syrup, made with but two-thirds of the usual quantity
 of water required for simple syrup, mix it quickly, and while yet warm,
 roll the mass into long cylinders, and when nearly dry, cut them of the
 required size.
   Trochisci Acidi Citrici.  Troches of  Citric Acid.
   Preparation.—Take  of Citric Acid a drachm; Refined Sugar  eight
 ounces; Oil of Lemons twelve  minims;  Mucilage  of  Tragacanth, a suffi-
 cient quantity.   Pulverize  the Sugar and Acid,  add  the Oil, mix  them
 thoroughly and with  the  Mucilage beat them  into  a  proper mass for
 making Lozenges of twelve grains each.
   Properties and Uses.—This is an agreeable refrigerant and demulcent,
 and may be used in fevers, colds, influenza, and as a pleasant mode  of
 taking citric acid; they must not be used  too freely,  as  the stomach will
 thereby become deranged.
  Trochisci Acidi Tartarici.   Troches of Tartaric Acid.
  Preparation.—Take of Tartaric  Acid a drachm;  Refined Sugar four
ounces; Oil of Lemons ten minims ;  Mucilage of Tragacanth a sufficient
quantity.  Pulverize the Sugar and  Acid,  add the  Oil,  mix  them
thoroughly, and with the  Mucilage beat them  into a  proper mass  for
making Lozenges of ten grains each.
  Properties and Uses.—These lozenges are useful as a refrigerant and
demulcent  in  colds, fevers, etc.  Like the  preceding  preparation, the
stomach will become deranged by too freely using them. 
1276
Pharmacy.
   Trochisci Capsici.  Troches of Capsicum.
   Preparation.—Take  of Capsicum, in powder, half an ounce; Sugai
six ounces ;  Mucilage of Gum Tragacanth a sufficient quantity.   Mix the
Sugar and  Capsicum thoroughly together, and with the Mucilage beat
them into a proper mass for making tAvo hundred and forty lozenges.
   Properties and Uses.—These troches  will be found useful in dryness
and irritation of the  throat, relaxed uvula,  and in all cases where capsi-
cum is indicated.  Each troche  contains one grain of capsicum.
   Trochisci Capsici et Lobelia.  Troches of Capsicum and Lobelia.
   Preparation.—Take  of Capsicum, in  powder, half an ounce ; Oil  of
Lobelia twenty-four minims ; Sugar six ounces ; Mucilage of Tragacanth
a sufficient quantity.   Mix the Sugar and Capsicum thoroughly together,
add  the  Oil, and with  the Mucilage beat them  into  a proper mass for
making two hundred and forty lozenges.
   Properties and Uses.—These  troches  are stimulant and expectorant,
and may be employed wherever such a combination is desired.  Each
troche contains one grain of capsicum, and one-tenth of a minim of  oil
of lobelia.
   Trochisci Crotonis.   Troches of Croton Oil.
   Preparation.—Take of Croton Oil five minims ; Starch one scruple;
Sugar one drachm; Chocolate two drachms.  Mix the Oil with the solid
ingredients in powder, and add a sufficient  quantity of Water to  form  a
mass of proper consistence, for thirty lozenges.
   Properties and  Uses.—These lozenges  are  cathartic; each lozenge
contains one-sixth of a minim of croton oil.
   Trochisci Dioscoreini.   Troches of Dioscorein.
   Preparation.—Take of Dioscorein one ounce; Ginger half an ounce ;
Oil of Peppermint twenty-four minims;  Sugar six ounces;  Mucilage  of
Tragacanth  a sufficient quantity.   Mix the Sugar, Dioscorein and  Ginger
thoroughly together, add the Oil, and with the Mucilage beat them into
a proper mass for making two hundred and forty lozenges.
   Properties and Uses.—These troches  are useful in cases of colic, flat-
ulency, borborygmi,  and to cure as well as prevent  a return of bilious
colic.   Each troche contains two grains  of dioscorein.—J.  K.
   Trochisci Glycyrrhiza et  Opii.  Troches of Liquorice and Opium.
Wistar's Cough Lozenges.
   Preparation.—Take of Opium, in powder, half an ounce; Extract of
Liquorice, Sugar, Gum  Arabic, of each, in powder,  ten ounces;  Oil of
Anise a fluidrachm.    Mix the powders intimately,  add the  Oil, and
with  Water  form  them into a mass, to be divided  into troches weighing
each six grains.— U. S.   (See remarks on Troches,p.  1274.) 
Trochisci.
1277
  Properties  and Uses.—These  lozenges  are  demulcent and  anodyne,
and will  be found useful in allaying cough,  in  cases where  opium is
admissible.   Each  lozenge contains about  one-tenth  of  a  grain  of
opium.
  Trochisci  Glycyrrhiza Composita.  Compound Troches of Liquorice.
  Preparation.—Take of Muriate  of Ammonia, in powder, one drachm
and a half; Muriate of Morphia six grains ;  Gum Arabic, Sugar, Ex-
tract of Liquorice, of each,  in powder, seven drachms ; Oil of  Sassafras
thirty minims;  Oil of  Stillingia  twenty minims;  Tincture of Balsam of
Tolu  three fiuidrachms.   Mix the powders thoroughly together, then
add the Oils and Tincture, and with Water form them into a mass, to be
divided into one hundred and eighty troches.
  Properties  and  Uses.—These troches are very valuable in cough, irri-
tation  or tickling of  the throat, laryngitis, and bronchitis.   Each troche
contains the one-twentieth of a grain of morphia.—J K.
  Trochisci  Ipecacuanha.   Troches of Ipecacuanha.
  Preparation.—Take of Ipecacuanha, in powder, half an ounce ;  Sugar,
in powder, fourteen ounces ;  Arrow Root, in powder, four ounces; Muci-
lage of Tragacanth a  sufficient quantity.  Mix the powders intimately,
and with the  Mucilage form them into a mass, to be divided into troches
of ten grains each.— U. S.
  Properties  and Uses.—These troches are expectorant, and will be found
useful in catarrhal complaints.  Each troche contains about a quarter of
a grain of ipecacuanha.
  Trochisci  Magnesia.  Troches of Magnesia.
  Preparation.—Take of Magnesia four ounces ; Sugar a pound; Nut-
meg,  in powder, a drachm ;  Mucilage of Tragacanth a sufficient quantity.
Rub  the  Magnesia,  Sugar,  and   Nutmeg  together  until  they  are
thoroughly mixed ; then with the Mucilage form them into a mass, to be
divided into troches each weighing ten grains.— U. S.
  Properties  and Uses.—These  are  antacid  and laxative,  and may be
used  in cases  of acidity of stomach, especially  when attended by cos-
tiveness.
  Trochisci  Mentha Piperita.  Troches of Peppermint.
  Preparation. — Take of Oil of Peppermint a fluidrachm ;  Sugar, in
powder, a pound; Mucilage of Tragacanth a sufficient quantity.  Rub the
Oil with the Sugar until they are thoroughly mixed ; then with the Mu
cilage  form them into a mass, to be divided into troches each weighing
ten grains.— U. S.
  Properties  and Uses.—These are carminative and  antispasmodic, and
will be found useful in nausea, flatulence, griping from purgative medi-
cines, and  slight  gastric or intestinal pains.  If eaten  too freely they
cause derangement of the  stomach. 
1278
Pharmacy.
   Trochisci Podophyllini.   Troches of Podophyllin.
   Preparation. — Take of Podophyllin one scruple;  Leptandrin four
 scruples; Oil of Sassafras a fluidrachm; Sugar six ounces; Mucilage  of
 Tragacanth a sufficient quantity.   Rub the Sugar, Podophyllin, and Lep-
 tandrin together until they are thoroughly mixed, then add the Oil, and
 with the Mucilage beat them into a proper mass for four hundred and
 eighty lozenges.
   Properties and Uses.—Cholagogue, alterative, and purgative.  Patients
 laboring under constipation, hepatic torpor, dysentery, or other diseases
 in which the above combination is desired or indicated, may use several
 of these troches  a  day,  according to the effects which they produce.
 Each troche contains one-twenty-fourth of  a grain of podophyllin, and
 one-fifth of a grain of  leptandrin ; in ordinary cases, twelve troches used
 per  day, will maintain regularity of the  bowels.   If it be desired  to
 have these lozenges more active, two or three  scruples of podophyllin
 may be added for the  same number.
   Trochisci Rhei et Potassa.  Troches of Rhubarb and Potassa.
   Preparation.—Take of  Rhubarb, in powder, two  ounces;  Bicarbonate
 of Potassa  one ounce; Oil of Peppermint  a fluidrachm;  Sugar twelve
 ounces ;  Mucilage  of Tragacanth a sufficient quantity.  Rub the Rhubarb,
 Sugar, and  Potassa  thoroughly together, then add the Oil, and with the
 Mucilage beat them  into a proper mass for five hundred lozenges.
   Properties and Uses.—These troches may be  used by persons subject
 to, or laboring under diarrhea,  dysentery,  cholera-morbus,  acidity of
 stomach, heartburn, etc.  They will also prove  tonic in  small quantity.
 From six to twelve may be used daily.   Each troche contains nearly two
 grains of rhubarb.
   Trochisci Soda Bicarbonatis.   Troches of  Bicarbonate of Soda.
   Preparation.—Take of  Bicarbonate of Soda four ounces; Sugar, in
 powder,  a pound; Mucilage  of  Tragacanth a sufficient  quantity.  Rub
 the Bicarbonate of Soda with the  Sugar until they are thoroughly mixed;
 then with the Mucilage form them into a mass, to be divided into troches,
 each weighing ten grains.— U. S.
   Properties and   Uses.—These  are antacid and antilithic,  and will be
 found useful in uric acid gravel, heartburn,  and  acidity of stomach.
  Trochisci Stillingia Composita.   Compound Troches of Stillingia.
  Preparation.—Take of Oil of Stillingia one fluidrachm ;  Oil of Prickly
 Ash Berries, Oil  of Sassafras,  of each, four fluidrachms; Sugar ten
 ounces;  Mucilage of Gum Tragacanth a sufficient quantity.  Rub the Oils
 with the Sugar  until they are thoroughly mixed ; then with the Mucil-
 age form them into  a mass to be divided into four hundred  and eighty
lozenges. 
Unguenta.
1279
  Properties and  Uses.—These troches form a very agreeable remedy
for rheumatic, syphilitic, scrofulous, bronchial, and laryngeal affections,
and may be used someAvhat freely by patients thus afflicted.   Eight loz-
enges contain one  minim of oil  of  stillingia, and the quantity used per
day mus| be regulated according to their  influence on the stomach and
boAvels.  They will likewise be  found beneficial in chronic affections of
the mucous membranes.—J. K.
  Trochisci Zingiberis.   Troches of Ginger.
  Preparation.—Take of Good  Jamaica Ginger, in  powder, one ounce;
Sugar seven ounces ; Mucilage of Tragacanth a sufficient quantity.   Mix
the Sugar and Ginger thoroughly together;  then with the Mucilage form
them into a mass to be divided into lozenges of fifteen grains each.
  Properties and  Uses.—These form a grateful cordial stimulant, and
may be used in cases of flatulence,  debility of the stomach, etc.
                           UNGUENTA.
                             Ointments.
  Ointments are Fatty Substances, containing the properties of certain
medicines,  and are designed  for  external  use ;  they are softer than
cerates, being of a consistence resembling that of lard or butter, which
renders them  of  easy application  to  the skin,  by inunction.   They are
most commonly prepared with lard, which  should be entirely free from
salt and rancidity.  Lard may be prepared for  this purpose, by melting-
it in twice its quantity of Boiling Water, stirring the mixture constantly;
then setting it aside to cool, and separating the Lard when it has solidi-
fied.   This  forms Prepared Lard, (Adeps Suillus Prceparatus).   Sub-
stances entering into the formation of Ointments, and which are not sol-
uble in the fatty  matter, should be  very finely powdered previous to
incorporation with it; or if they are soluble in  alcohol or water, they
may frequently be advantageously triturated and softened with a small
quantity of  one of these  solvents, as with hard extracts, etc.   When
Ointments are long kept they are very apt to become rancid, hence, it is
usually preferable to prepare them in small quantities at a time,  or only
when required for use.  Either  Benzoic Acid, or Poplar Buds, if not
objectionable,  or  incompatible with the Ointment, will, when added to
it, prevent, in a great degree the tendency to rancidity.  Ten drops of
the Spirit of Nitric Ether, incorporated with an ounce of Ointment, will
remove the  disagreeable, fatty odor  of these preparations.   According
to Dr. C. W. Wright, Fats and Fixed Oils may be preserved free from
rancidity and  disagreeable odor for  a long time, by melting them with
powdered Slippery Elm, in the proportion of one drachm of the Bark to
a pound of the Fat; after ten or fifteen minutes' application of heat, the
Fat must be strained off.  The Elm Bark communicates an odor to the
Fat, that is scarcely distinguishable from that of the kernel of the hick-
ory-nut. 
1280
Pharmacy.
  Unguentum Acidi Muriatici.   Ointment of Muriatic Acid.
  Preparation. — Take of  Muriatic  Acid one fluidrachm;  Spermaceti
Ointment one ounce.  Mix together in a glass or porcelain mortar.
  Properties  and Uses. — This ointment is used  in  scald-head, to be
applied  night and morning, after  the  scabs have been removed by a
poultice.
  Unguentum Acidi Nitrici.   Ointment of Nitric Acid.
  Preparation.—Take of Olive Oil one pound;  Prepared Lard four
ounces;  Nitric Acid five and a half fiuidrachms.   Melt the Oil and Lard
together in a glass vessel, and when they begin to  congeal, add the acid,
stirring  the mixture constantly with a glass rod until it stiffens.
  Properties and Uses.—This ointment is used in syphilitic ulcers, erup-
tive affections, and fistula in ano.
  Unguentum Acidi Sulphurici.   Ointment of Sulphuric Acid.
  Preparation. — Take of  Sulphuric Acid one fluidrachm;  Prepared
Lard one ounce.  Mix together in a glass or porcelain mortar.
  Properties  and Uses.—Used  in ringworm, itch, and  other  cutaneous
diseases, also in  rheumatism and neuralgia.
  Unguentum Acidi Tannici.   Ointment  of Tannic Acid.
  Preparation.—Take of Tannic  Acid  two drachms; Lard two ounces.
Tritutrate  them well together.
  Properties  and Uses. — Astringent and antiseptic.   Useful in piles,
ulcers, some forms of cutaneous disease, and where such indications are
required.
  Unguentum Aconiti.  Ointment of Aconite.
  Preparation.—Take of Alcoholic Extract of Aconite one drachm; Lard
two drachms.  Soften  the Extract with  a small  quantity of Alcohol,  if
necessary, and mix with the Lard.
  Properties and Uses.—This  ointment is used in  violent neuralgic and
rheumatic pains.
  Unguentum Alkalinum.  Alkaline Ointment.
  Preparation.—Take of Carbonate of  Soda two drachms ; Tincture of
Opium one drachm; Lard one drachm.   Rub together  in a porcelain or
wedgewood mortar.
  Properties  and Uses.—This is used in several forms of cutaneous dis-
ease,  as lichen, lepra, psoriasis, ichthyosis, porrigo favosa, etc.
  Unguentum Alkalinum  Camphoratum.  Camphorated Alkaline Oint-
ment.
  Preparation.—Take of Carbonate of Potassa one scruple; Camphor six
grains ; Lard seven drachms.  Rub together in a mortar.
  Properties  and Uses.—This ointment is used in sycosis, and several
forms of cutaneous disease. 
Unguenta.
1283
  Unguentum  Ammoniacale.   Ammoniacal Ointment.   Pommade  de
Gondret.
  Preparation.—Take  of  Lard six drachms; Suet four drachms; Al-
mond Oil two drachms ; Stronger Solution of Ammonia twelve fluidrachms.
Melt the Lard,  Suet,  and Oil together, then add  the  Ammonia, and
shake the whole together in a close bottle.
  Properties and Uses.—This preparation is  rubefacient, and vesicant;
to procure its vesicating influence, it must be covered with  a compress
after inunction.
  Unguentum Aqua Rosa.   Ointment of Rose Water.  Cold Cream.
  Preparation.—Take of  Spermaceti ten drachms; Glycerin four flui-
drachms ; Oil  of Almonds two fluidounces: White Wax a drachm; Oil
of Roses three  drops.   Melt together,  by  means of a water bath, the
Spermaceti, Oil of Almonds,  and Wax; then add the Glycerin, in which
the Oil of Roses has been placed,  and stir  constantly until cold.
  Properties and Uses.—This is a delightful cooling ointment much em-
ployed as an application to irritated, chapped, and abraded  surfaces, as
chapped lips, hands, etc.   It was formerly  made of Rose Water a fluid-
ounce; Oil of Almonds two fluidounces ; Spermaceti half an ounce ; White
Wax a drachm.   But on account of its liability to rancidity, and the sepa-
ration of the water on exposure, the above  formula of Mr. Joseph Laid-
ley is preferred.
   Unguentum  Baptisia.   Ointment of Wild Indigo.
   Preparation.—Take of Wild Indigo Root twenty pounds ; Fresh Butter
ten pounds; Beeswax three pounds; Tallow  one pound and  a half;  Di-
luted  Alcohol  a sufficient quantity.  Macerate  the Root, in powder, in
Diluted  Alcohol for forty-eight hours ; then transfer it to a percolator,
and gradually pour upon  it Diluted Alcohol until the liquid passes nearly
tasteless.  Add the filtered liquor to the other ingredients, and carefully
digest with  heat, until the Alcohol and Water  have  evaporated ; then
strain the mixture.
   Properties and Uses.—This ointment is cleansing,  detergent, discu-
tient,  antiseptic, etc.  It is useful  in many cutaneous affections, erysip-
 elas, scrofulous, gangrenous, and  all other forms of ulcer, piles, etc.
   Unguentum Belladonna.  Ointment of Belladonna.
   Preparation.—Take of  Extract of Belladonna two drachms ;  Lard, or
 Simple Cerate one ounce.   Mix them.
   Properties and Uses.—This forms an anodyne application, and may be
 advantageously applied in local neuralgia,  to painful joints,  to dilate the
 pupil, and also the os uteri,  and to the denuded spine in violent tetanus,
 delirium tremens, and puerperal convulsions.
   The Unguentum  Atropiae, for similar purposes, is made by triturating
 Atropia, five grains, with Lard, three drachms.  It must be used with
 caution, and not be applied on abraded surfaces.
            81 
1282
Pharmacy.
  Unguentum Benzoini.   Ointment of Benzoin.
  Preparation.—Take of Benzoin, in coarse  powder, one ounce; Fresh
Lard twenty-five ounces.  Heat together for two or three hours in a water
bath, and then strain.
  Properties and Uses.—This forms an excellent basis for ointments, as
benzoin resists rancidity,  and the  decomposition of metallic  salts  and
oxides.   Poplar buds have the same effect.
  Unguentum Cantharidis.   Ointment of Spanish Flies.
  Preparation.—Take of Spanish Flies, in powder, two ounces;  Distilled
Water half a pint; Resin Cerate eight ounces.   Add the Flies to the
Water, boil down to one half, and strain ;  then mix the Cerate with the
strained liquor, and evaporate to the proper consistence.— U. S.
  Properties and Uses.—This is intended as a  dressing for blisters, to
keep up the discharge  from them, and not to produce vesication.  It is
rarely employed by Eclectics.
  Unguentum Cera Alba.   Ointment of White Wax.
  Preparation.—Take  of White Wax a pound; Lard four pounds.  Melt
together and strain.
  Properties and Uses.—Emollient and protective; also serves as a basis
for forming other ointments.
  Unguentum Cetacei.   Spermaceti Ointment.
  Preparation. — Take of Spermaceti  six  drachms;  White Wax  two
drachms ; Olive Oil  three fiuidounces.  Melt the articles together over a
slow fire,  and stir them constantly until cold.
  Properties and Uses.—This is a mild emollient ointment, employed as
a dressing for blisters,  wounds, and excoriated surfaces.  As it is apt to
become rancid  by keeping, it should be made in small quantities at a
time.
  Unguentum Cocculi.   Ointment of  Cocculus Indicus.
  Preparation.—Take  of the kernels of Cocculus Indicus two ounces;
Lard ten ounces.   Beat the kernels well in  a mortar, first alone, and then
with a little of the Lard; and then  gradually add the rest of the Lard.
  Properties and Uses.—This ointment is employed for the destruction
of vermin, and in the cure of scabies, and ringworm of the scalp.
  Unguentum Conii.   Ointment of Poison Hemlock.
  Preparation.—Take  of  fresh  Hemlock Leaves, Lard,  of each,  one
pound; Wax two ounces; Spirits  one pint.   Slowly simmer  together,
until the leaves become crisp, and. then express through linen.
  Properties and Uses.—This is a mild anodyne.  Useful as an applica-
tion  to  irritable piles,  painful glandular swellings, schirrous  tumors,
cancerous and other  painful ulcers.
  The addition of one drachm of the Extract to one ounce of Lard, makes 
Unguent A.
1283
a more efficient preparation, as the heat employed in the preparation of
the first formula, probably, impairs the virtue of the hemlock.
   Unguentum Creasoti.   Ointment of Creosote.
   Preparation.—Take of Creosote half a fluidrachm;  Lard one ounce.
Mix them.— U. S.
   Properties and Uses.—This ointment is used in some cutaneous dis-
eases, porrigo of the  scalp,  and as an antiseptic and stimulant to  indo-
lent or gangrenous ulcers.
   Unguentum Cucumis.  Ointment of Cucumber.
   Preparation.—Take of Green  Cucumbers (suitable for table  use),
seven pounds; Pure White Lard twenty-four ounces; Selected Veal  Suet,
cut  in pieces, fifteen ounces.  The unpared  Cucumbers,  after being
washed, are to be reduced to a pulp by grating, and the Juice expressed
and strained.   The Suet is to be heated over a salt-water bath, until the
fat is  fused out from the membranes; then  add the Lard, and  when
liquefied strain the mixture through muslin into a wide-mouthed earthen
vessel capable of holding a gallon, and  stir it until it commences to
thicken, when one  third of the  Cucumber Juice is  to be added and
beaten with the ointment, by means of a  wooden spatula,  until its odor
has been almost wholly extracted, and which will require several hours.
Then allow it to stand until the fluid separates, which must be removed
by decantation, and add another third of the Juice.   This must be beaten
in like manner until exhausted, then decanted, and finally the last third
added, and similarly treated.  The jar is then to be closely covered and
placed in a water-bath, where it must remain an hour, or until the fatty
matter entirely separates from the exhausted juice.  The green albu-
minous coagulum which floats upon the surface is then  to  be  skimmed
off, and the jar put aside in a cool place that the ointment may solidify.
The crude ointment is then to  be carefully separated from the watery
liquid  on which it floats, melted by a gentle heat, and strained—a part
into  a jar  and closely sealed for keeping—the remainder into a mortar,
and triturated with a little rose-water, until it is very white and creamy,
for present use. It is usual to keep this ointment in glass jars without
alloAving any unfilled  interstices, and to cover it with rose-water to pre-
vent the access of air.   Thus  prepared Cucumber  Ointment readily
keeps from season to season.
   Properties  and Uses.—This forms an emollient application, very use-
ful for chapped lips and hands, irritated and excoriated surfaces, etc.
  Unguentum Fuliginis.  Ointment of Woodsoot.
  Preparation.—Take of Woodsoot, in very fine powder, half an ounce;
Lard two ounces.  Triturate  them together.
   Properties and Uses.—Applied on cotton batting this ointment is very
useful in burns, and erysipelatous inflammations;  and is also beneficial
in tinea capitis, and several cutaneous diseases. 
1284
Pharmacy.
  Unguentum  Galla.   Ointment of Galls.
  Preparation.—Take of  Galls, in powder, an ounce; Lard seven ounces.
Triturate them  together.— U. S.
  Properties and Uses.—This  ointment is useful in prolapsus ani, piles,
flabby and indolent ulcers.  When the piles are irritable, half a drachm
of pulverized opium may be advantageously added.
  Unguentum Iodinii Compositum.  Compound Ointment of Iodine.
  Preparation.—Take of Iodine half a drachm; Iodide of Potassium a
drachm; Alcohol a fluidrachm;  Lard two ounces.   Rub  the Iodine and
Iodide of  Potassium first with the Alcohol, and then with the Lard until
they are thoroughly mixed.— U. S.
  Properties and Uses.—This preparation is used  as a local application,
in goitre, scrofulous, and other chronic enlargements and in opacities of
the cornea; the discoloration of the skin occasioned by its use gradually
disappears.  Applied twice a  day to enlarged tonsils, by means  of a
camel's hair pencil, it has caused the  enlargement  to disappear in the
course of two months.  It probably acts  through the medium of absorp-
tion.   It is better to prepare it only as it  is required for use.
  Unguentum Ipecacuanha.    Ointment of Ipecacuanha.
  Preparation.—Take of Ipecacuanha,  in powder, two drachms;  Olive
Oil two fiuidrachms;  Lard half an ounce.   Mix  together
  Properties and Uses.—Rubbed on  the  skin for a few minutes, once or
twice a day, this ointment produces an eruption.  It is used  as  a
counter-irritant in diseases of the throat, and in pulmonary affections is
applied to the chest.  When it is desired to make  it more  active, Croton
Oil a fluidrachm and a  half, may be  added to the above  formula.  If
rubbed on the surface for twenty or thirty minutes  at a time,  repeated
three or four times  a day,  and covered  with flannel after each applica-
tion, it will produce  vesicles in thirty-six hours.
  Unguentum Mezerei.   Ointment of Mezereon.
  Preparation.—Take of  Mezereon, sliced transversely, four ounces;
Lard fourteen ounces; White Wax two ounces.  Moisten  the Mezereon
with a little Alcohol, and beat in an iron  mortar until reduced to a fibrous
mass ; then digest it by means of a  salt-water bath, with the Lard and
Wax previously melted together, for twelve hours;  strain with  strong
expression, and allow the  strained  liquid to  cool slowly, so  that any
undissolved matters may subside. From these separate the medicated
ointment.— U. S.
  Properties and Uses.—This is used as a stimulating  application to
obstinate,  ill-conditioned, and indolent ulcers ;  likewise to  blistered  sur-
faces, in order to maintain the discharge.
  Unguentum Myrica.   Ointment of Bayberry.
  Preparation.—Take of  Bayberry Tallow, White Turpentine,  of each,
half a pound; Olive Oil four ounces.   Melt together and strain. 
Unguenta.
1285
   Properties and Uses.—This forms  an  excellent application to scrofu-
lous ulcers, and indolent ulcers generally.
   Unguentum Myrica  Compositum.  Compound Ointment of Bayberry.
   Preparation.—Take of Bayberry  Tallow, Sweet Gum, each,  half a
pound; Suet a pound.  Melt together and strain.
   Properties and Uses.—This ointment is very advantageous in scrofu-
lous ulcers, tinea-capitis, porrigo scutulata, itch, salt-rheum, and several
other forms of cutaneous disease; also in itch, piles, and fistulous ulcers.
In fistula  and  some cutaneous diseases the addition  of three or four
drachms of Sulphate of Zinc, in powder, will be found beneficial.—J. K.
   Unguentum Phytolacca.   Ointment of Poke.
   Preparation.—Take of the Leaves of Poke, collected just before the
ripening of the berries, four pounds ; Lard one pound ; Spirits  one pint;
Wax two ounces.  Mix,  and slowly simmer together until the Leaves are
crisp, and then express through linen.
   An ointment is sometimes  made by mixing one  drachm of the  Pow-
dered Poke Leaves  or Root,  or of the  Extract  of  Poke, with  one ounce
of Lard.
   Properties and Uses.—This is used as an application to ulcers, por-
rigo, tinea-capitis, and other cutaneous affections, and as a discutient to
various tumors.
   Unguentum Picis Liquida.   Ointment of Tar.
   Preparation. —Take of Suet  one pound;  Tar one pound.   Melt the
Suet, then  add the Tar, and stir constantly until cold.
   Properties and Uses.—This forms  a  stimulant application in various
scabby and scaly eruptions, particularly in psoriasis, and in that form  of
porrigo usually called tinea-capitis, or scald-head.   In this last named
disease, it should be applied night  and morning; and in  bad cases the
patient should constantly wear a cap, thickly spread with the  ointment
upon its internal surface.
   Unguentum Piperis Nigri.  Ointment of Black Pepper.
   Preparation.—Take of Prepared Lard a pound; Soot four ounces; Tar
one pint; Black  Pepper, in powder,  four ounces.   Melt the Lard and
Tar together, then add the Soot and  Pepper.
   Properties and Uses.—This is used in tinea-capitis, in the same man-
ner as the preceding ointment.
   Unguentum Plumbi Compositum.  Compound Lead Ointment.  Mayer's
Ointment.
   Preparation.—Take of Olive  Oil two pounds and a half; White Tur-
pentine half a pound; Beeswax, Unsalted  Butter, of each, four ounces;
Red Lead one pound; Honey twelve ounces ;  Powdered Camphor half a
pound.   Melt the  Olive Oil, White Turpentine,  Beeswax and Butter 
1286
Pharmacy.
together, and strain; then heat them to  nearly the boiling point, and
gradually add the Red Lead, stirring the mixture constantly until it be-
comes black or brown.   Then remove from  the fire, and when it has
become somewhat cool, add to it the Honey and Camphor, previously
mixed together.
  Properties and Uses.—This forms  a very beneficial  ointment  for all
kinds of ulcers, cuts, wounds, and several cutaneous diseases.  It is of
a more solid consistence than ointments are generally.  It is  highly
prized by the German population, who have held it for  a long time, as a
secret among themselves.  The profession are indebted to Mr. Jos. P.
Mayer, of Cincinnati, for a knowledge of it.
  Unguentum Potassii Cyanureti.   Ointment of Cyanuret of Potassium.
  Preparation.—Take  of Cyanuret of Potassium twelve grains;  Oil of
Almonds two drachms; Cold Cream  two ounces.  Triturate together.
  Properties and Uses.—This is  used as an  application to the sound
skin, in neuralgia.
  Unguentum Potassii Sulphureti. Ointment of Sulphuret of Potassium.
  Preparation.—Take of Sulphuret of Potassium three  drachms;  Carbo-
nate  of  Soda  three ounces; Lard  three ounces.  Triturate thoroughly
together.
  Properties and Uses.—This ointment is useful in ringworm, itch, and
other forms  of cutaneous disease.
  Unguentum Sabina.   Ointment of  Savin.
  Preparation.—Take  of fresh Savin Leaves, Yellow  Wax, each, eight
ounces; Lard two pounds.   Boil gently together until the leaves are crisp,
and strain.
  Properties and Uses.—This preparation is stimulant, and  is used for
maintaining discharges from ulcers,  blisters, etc.
  Unguentum  Scrophularia.   Ointment of Figwort.
  Preparation.—Take  of fresh Figwort Leaves  two pounds ; Lard one
pound; Tallow half a pound.   Boil together until the Leaves are crisp,
and then strain with expression.
  Properties and Uses.—This ointment is useful  in piles, painful tumors,
ulcers, and cutaneous diseases; Dr.  W. Stokes considers it a specific in
gangrenous  pemphigus.
  Unguentum  Simplex.  Simple Ointment.
  Preparation. — Take of White Wax a  pound;  Lard four pounds.
Melt them together, with a moderate heat, and stir them constantly till
they are cold.
  Properties and Uses.—This is  an emollient ointment, employed as a
mild dressing to ulcers, blisters, and excoriated surfaces, and frequently 
Unguenta.
1287
used as a vehicle for the application  of more active substances ;  it also
serves as a basis for several other ointments.
  Unguentum  Stramonii.  Ointment of Stramonium.
  Preparation.—Take of Extract of Stramonium Leaves a drachm; Lard
an ounce.   Rub the Extract with a little Water until uniformly soft, and
then with the Lard.— U. S.
  This ointment may likewise be made  as follows, but the preparation
is inferior to that made according to  the  formula just given:   Take of
fresh  Stramonium Leaves, cut in  pieces, one pound; Lard one pound;
Yellow Wax three ounces.  Boil together until the Leaves become crisp,
and then strain with expression.
  Properties and Uses.—This forms an anodyne ointment, which  will be
found  serviceable  in  irritable  ulcers, burns,  scalds, irritable  cutaneous
diseases, painful hemorrhoids,  and as a discutient to indolent tumors.
  Unguentum  Stramonii Compositum.   Compound  Ointment of Stra-
monium.   Discutient Ointment.
  Preparation.—Take of  the  Bark  of the Root  of Bittersweet, Stra-
monium Leaves, Cicuta Leaves, Deadly Nightshade, Yellow Dock Root,
each,  two ounces; Lard one pound; Venice Turpentine two ounces;  Spirits
a sufficient quantity.  Bruise the Roots and Leaves, cover them with
Spirits, and allow them  to digest with a  moderate heat for four hours,
then add the Lard and continue the  heat until the Leaves are crisped.
Lastly, strain and express through linen, add the  Turpentine, and  stir
constantly till cold.
  This ointment may likewise be made  by mixing together, two  ounces
each,  of the Ointments of  the articles  prepared separately, and  the
Turpentine.  The  Ointments to be  prepared as follows:  those  of  the
Yellow Dock Root, and Bittersweet  Bark,  to be made  by beating each
separate article in the recent state, with Lard, after the manner for pre-
paring Cucumber Ointment; the remaining Ointments,  each to be pre-
pared  from the extracts  of the  several articles,  after the  manner  for
preparing Stramonium Ointment.
  Properties and Uses.—This  ointment  is  exceedingly valuable  in dis-
cussing scrofulous, indolent, and all glandular tumors or swellings.  It
should be rubbed on the parts,  about thirty minutes at each application;
after which cover the part  with cotton, and secure it by a proper bandage.
  Unguentum Sulphuris.   Ointment of  Sulphur.
  Preparation.—Take of  Sulphur a pound; Lard two pounds;  Oil of
Bergamot two and a, half drachms.  Mix them.
  Properties and Uses.—Sulphur ointment is considered a specific  for
the itch.   It is  generally applied  every night till the disease  is  cured;
and usually but one-fourth of the body is covered at a time.   However,
it has been applied over the whole surface of the body, daily, without 
1288
Pharmacy.
any  unpleasant results.  It will also be  found useful in tinea-capitis,
crusta-lactea, and several other cutaneous diseases.
  Unguentum Sulphuris Compositum.  Compound Ointment of Sulphur.
  Preparation.—Take of Sulphur half a pound;  White  Hellebore, in
powder, one ounce; Nitrate of Potassa a drachm; Soft Soap half a pound;
Poke Ointment a pound and a  half;  Oil  of Bergamot two fiuidrachms.
Mix  the articles thoroughly together.
  Properties and  Uses.—This ointment is more irritating than the simple
sulphur ointment; but, notwithstanding it will be found efficacious in the
treatment of itch, especially when it proves very obstinate and unyield-
ing to the milder treatment.
  Unguentum  Tabaci.  Ointment of Tobacco.
  Preparation.—Take of fresh  Tobacco, cut in pieces, an ounce; Lard
a pound; Yellow Wax one ounce.   Boil  the  Tobacco in them over  a
gentle fire till it becomes friable; then strain through linen.
  Properties and Uses.—Tobacco  Ointment forms an anodyne applica-
tion,  useful in  various  cutaneous eruptions, especially  tinea-capitis, in
irritable ulcers, painful swellings, etc.   In using it, great care must be
taken not to produce its constitutional narcotic effects, by employing too
large quantities of it.  An  ointment made from the dried leaves  is of
but  little  value ;  one made by rubbing twenty drops of the empyreu-
matic oil of tobacco with an ounce of simple ointment, forms an active
preparation.
  Unguentum Veratri Albi.  Ointment  of  White Hellebore,
  Preparation.—Take of White Hellebore Root,  in powder, two ounces;
Oil of Lemons twenty minims; Lard  eight ounces.   Mix them.— U. S.
  Properties and Uses.  This  ointment,  being  less disagreeable  than
sulphur ointment,  is  sometimes employed in itch with benefit; but it
should  be  cautiously applied  to children.   The substitution of  Poke
Ointment for the Lard, will render it still more certain and effective.
  Unguentum Veratria.   Ointment of Veratria.
  Preparation.—Take of Veratria ten or  twenty grains;  Lard  an ounce.
Triturate the Veratria in a  little Olive Oil, and then add the Lard.
  Properties and Uses.—This  forms  a  powerful local  stimulant,  very
useful in  neuralgia, amaurosis, and  paralysis.   It must be employed
with care.
  Unguentum Zinci Oxidi.  Ointment of Oxide of Zinc.
  Preparation.—Take of Oxide of Zinc an ounce; Lard six ounces.   Mix
them.— U. S.
  Properties and  Uses.—This forms  a mild astringent ointment, useful
as a  local application in chronic ophthalmia where the vessels of the eye 
Unguenta —-Veratria.
1289
are relaxed, in several eruptions of the  skin, in sore  nipples, and in
cases of excoriation or ulceration.
  Unguentum Zinci Oxidi Compositum.   Compound Ointment of Oxide
of Zinc.
  Preparation.—Take of Olive Oil two pounds; Spermaceti twelve ounces;
White Wax four ounces ;  Oxide of Zinc seven ounces; Benzoic Acid two
drachms; Sulphate of Morphia forty-eight grains ;  Oil  of Roses  twenty
minims.   Rub  together in a mortar, until  no specks are seen, the  Oxide
of Zinc, Benzoic Acid, Sulphate  of Morphia, and Oil of Roses.   Melt
the Olive Oil, Wax, and Spermaceti together, and add  the above tritu-
rated mass to it, stirring constantly till nearly cold.
  Properties and Uses.—This forms a mild  stimulating and astringent
preparation, which is exceedingly  useful in acute and chronic ophthalmia,
opacities of  the cornea, nebula, granulations  of the lids, etc.   It is like-
wise  useful  in many cutaneous  diseases, and may be advantageously
employed as a dressing to wounds and indolent ulcers.
  It is somewhat similar  to  a preparation which has been  extensively
sold under the  name of "Pettit's  Ophthalmic Balsam or Eye Salve," and
the formula of which is  as  follows :  Take  of White Precipitate three
ounces; Oxide of Zinc four ounces;  Benzoic Acid two drachms; Sulphate
of Morphia forty-eight grains; Oil of Rosemary twenty drops.   Rub these
thoroughly together, in a  mortar, until they are well incorporated, and
then add them gradually to a warm compound made by melting together
Olive Oil two pounds; Spermaceti twelve ounces; White Wax four ounces;
stirring constantly till cold.
  A preparation of a similar character, known as Brown or  Ophthalmic
 Ointment, has  enjoyed considerable reputation in the east, in the treat-
ment of Ophthalmic diseases ; it is composed of Red Precipitate two and
a half drachms; Oxide of Zinc one drachm;  Fresh Butter three ounces;
White Wax  half an ounce; Camphor, dissolved in Olive Oil, one drachm.
Mix.   It is a French preparation.
  Unguentum  Zinci Sulphuratis.   Ointment of  Sulphate of Zinc.
  Preparation.—Take of  Sulphate of Zinc one scruple; Fresh Butter two
drachms.  Triturate together.
  Properties and Uses.—This Ointment is  very beneficial in eruptions of
the skin, fungous growths, gangrenous and indolent ulcers, fistula, hem-
orrhoids, ulcerations of the cornea, etc.  If it acts  too  severely it may
be rendered milder by the addition of butter in necessary quantity.
                           VERATRIA.
                              Veratria.
  Preparation.—Take of Cevadilla, bruised, two pounds; Alcohol three
gallons;  Sulphuric Acid, Solution  of  Ammonia, Purified Animal Char- 
1290
Pharmacy.
 roal, Magnesia, each, a sufficient quantity.  Boil the Cevadilla in a gallon
 of the Alcohol, in a retort Avith a receiver attached, for an hour, and pour
 off  the  liquor.   To  the residue add  another gallon  of  the  Alcohol,
 together with the portion recently distilled ;  again boil for an hour, and
 pour off the liquor.  Repeat the boiling a third time with the remaining
 Alcohol, and with that distilled  in  the previous operation.  Press the
 Cevadilla, mix  and strain  the liquors, and  by means  of a water-bath
 distil off the Alcohol.   Boil the residue three  or four times in Water
 acidulated with Sulphuric Acid,  mix and strain the liquors, and evapo-
 rate to the consistence of syrup.  Add Magnesia in slight excess, shake
 the mixture  frequently,  then express, and wash what remains.   Repeat
 the expression and washing two or three times,  and, having dried the
 residue,  digest it with a gentle heat several  times in Alcohol, and strain
 after each digestion.   Distil off the  Alcohol from the  mixed  liquors,
 boil the  residue for fifteen minutes in Water with a little Sulphuric Acid
 and Purified Animal Charcoal, and strain.  Having thoroughly washed
 what remains, mix the washings with the strained liquor, evaporate with
 a moderate heat to the consistence of Syrup, and then drop in  as much
 Solution  of Ammonia as may be necessary to precipitate the Veratria.
 Lastly, separate and dry the precipitate.— U. S.
   History.—By the  above  process,  a Tincture  of  Cevadilla  is  first
 obtained, which is subsequently evaporated  to  the  consistence of an
 extract, which contains the  veratria combined with  some vegetable acid.
 The  veratria is dissolved  from the extract by  the  acidulated water,
 which converts the greater  portion of it  into a sulphate; an excess of
 the native acid holding the  remainder  in solution.  The sulphuric  acid
 combines with the magnesia, when added, forming a sulphate  of mag-
 nesia, while the veratria is precipitated, again dissolved by alcohol, and
 purified by evaporation.   For further purification it is again dissolved in
 acidulated water,  acted  upon by animal  charcoal, and finally precipi-
 tated by ammonia.  A drachm  of  impure  veratria is, by  the above
 method,  obtained from a pound of cevadilla.
   The veratria  produced  by this process, though  sufficiently pure for
 medical purposes, is not wholly free from other principles;  M. Couerbe
 states that Sabadillia and Veratrin are also contained  in it.  They may
 be separated as follows  :   To the solution of the  impure  sulphate of
 veratria  obtained  by the above process,  add nitric acid, gradually, by
 drops, and decant the clear  liquor from the abundant precipitate which
 ensues.   To  this liquor add a weak solution  of potassa, which will also
produce  a  precipitate; wash this precipitate with cold water, and  dis-
solve it in boiling alcohol.    On evaporating  the alcohol,  the  product
yields the sabadillia to boiling water, which deposits it upon cooling; a
resini-gum of sabadillia, so named by M.  Couerbe remaining in solution.
After the action of the boiling water upon the product, if this be again
acted upon by ether, the  veratria will be dissolved, and may be obtained 
Veratria.
1291
 entirely pure by the spontaneous evaporation of the ether.  The remain-
 ing undissolved resinous substance is  called Veratrin by M.  Couerbe.
 Sabadillia is a white, crystallizable, most intensely acrid substance, fusible
 by heat, readily soluble in  hot Avater, but deposited upon  cooling, very
 soluble in  alcohol,  and wholly insoluble in ether.   It is capable of satu-
 rating the  acids.  Simon states it to be a compound of resinate of soda
 and resinate of veratria.
   Mr. Jas. Beatson, of the U. S. Naval Laboratory, N. Y., has given the
 following process for procuring veratria, which he considers superior to
 any other in  use  :  Seventy-three  pounds (avoirdupois)  of  sabadilla
 were rubbed upon a  coarse wire sieve, which separated the seed from
 the capsules,  and reduced  to  a coarse powder, in Swift's  drug  mill.
 Finding that a portion of the veratria was still  retained with the  mem-
 branous follicle, he also passed the capsules through  the mill, which,
 from their elasticity, were but coarsely comminuted ; the finer  portions
 he separated with a  coarse  sieve,  and mixed with the ground seeds,
 moistened  with alcohol, and allowed them to stand  for twelve hours.
 He then introduced them into a displacement apparatus, and exhausted
 them thoroughly Avith rectified  alcohol,  in the following manner :   Into
 the displacement apparatus he introduced thirty gallons of rectified alco-
 hol, and when a quantity had  percolated sufficient to fill his  still, he
 commenced  distillation—returning the recovered  alcohol into  the dis-
 placement  apparatus  and continuing the  percolation  and distillation,
 until the seeds were thoroughly exhausted—collected all the alcohol he
 could from the exhausted seeds, and continued the  distillation until the
 tincture, in the bottom of the still, was of a syrupy consistence, poured
 this, while  hot, into eight times its volume of cold Avater, threAv the whole
 upon a  calico filter, and  washed with cold water, until the  washings
 ceased to indicate  the  presence of veratria; mixed the washings with
 what passed first through the filter,and added liquor ammoniae in excess
 (about four pounds), which precipitated the veratria with a little of the
 coloring matter.  Washed the precipitate with cold Avater which removed
 the greater portion  of the  coloring matter.   Dried with a very gentle
 heat, and  Avhen the moisture was  completely  expelled, eleven and a
 quarter ounces of pure veratria were obtained, with but a faint shade of
 coloring matter.—Am. Jour. Pharm., Vol. xxvi, p.  2, 1854.
   Pure Veratria is white,  uncrystallizable, pulverulent, inodorous, ex-
 tremely acrid, fusible by heat, scarcely soluble in cold  water, soluble in
 a thousand parts of boiling water, which it renders sensibly acrid, freely
 soluble  in  alcohol,  less so  in  ether, neutralizing the acids,  forming
 crystallizable  salts  with several of them, especially the muriatic and
sulphuric.   The ordinary commercial veratria is  a grayish-brown or
grayish-white powder, of an overpowering, bitter, acrid taste, producing
 a sense of  tingling or numbness in the tongue, and  powerfully irritating
to the nostrils,  causing, when admitted into them, violent sneezing and 
1292
Pharmacy.
mucous discharge.   According to Couerbe the composition of sabadillia
is C20 H13 O5 N, and that of pure veratria C31 H22 Oe N.   Veratria  may
be used in the uncombined state, or united with acids, as in both forms
it produces essentially the same effects.
  Veratria is uncrystallizable, fusible, combustible,  entirely dissipated
by a  red heat, becomes intensely red upon contact  with  concentrated
sulphuric acid, forms a yellow solution with nitric acid, and its solution
in dilute acetic acid gives white precipitates with ammonia and the infu-
sion of galls.
  Properties and Uses.—Veratria is a powerful  irritant, capable of  pro-
ducing inflammation in the parts  to which it is applied, and extending a
peculiar action to the nervous system.   Rubbed  upon the skin it excites
a sensation of warmth, and a peculiar tingling, which, when the applica-
tion is continued for a considerable length of time, extends, according to
Turnbull, over the whole surface of the body.  Sometimes an evanescent
blush  is produced, and  still more rarely,  an eruption upon  the  skin;
but, according to the same  author, no  marks  of  inflammation are, in
general, evinced.   Upon the denuded cutis, however, veratria and its
salts are powerfully irritating, so much so as to  prevent their  advanta-
geous application in this way.  In the mouth and  fauces,  they produce
an almost insupportable  sense of acrimony; and  snuffed up the nostrils,
excite violent sneezing.  Magendie informs us that  when taken inter-
nally, in the dose of a quarter of a grain, they promptly produce abun-
dant alvine evacuations, and in larger doses, provoke more or less violent
vomiting.  Dr. Turnbull, on the contrary, says that he has very seldom
found them  to purge, even when largely administered, and  that not
unfrequently a state of constipation comes on during their employment,
requiring the use of aperient medicine.  According to this author,  their
first effect, when given in moderate doses, is a feeling of warmth in the
stomach, gradually extending itself over the abdomen and lower part
of the chest, and ultimately to the head and extremities.   If the medi-
cine  is continued,  this  feeling  of warmth is followed by  a  sense  of
tingling, similar to that produced  by  the  external use of  the medicine,
which manifests itself in different parts of the body, and sometimes over
the whole surface,  and  is  frequently accompanied by perspiration, and
some feeling of oppression.   Occasionally,  also, diuresis is produced.  A
still  further continuance of the medicine, or the use of large doses,
excites nausea and vomiting.  It occasions  no narcotic effects.
   The  diseases in which veratria has been employed are chiefly gout,
rheumatism, and neuralgia.  Dr. Turnbull has  found it useful, also, in
 dropsy, and in diseases of the  heart, particularly those of a functional
character.  He thinks he has also seen it do good in organic diseases of
this organ,  but chiefly by acting as  a diuretic, and thereby removing
effusion in the pericardium.  For internal use, the salts of veratria are 
Vina Medicata.
1293
preferred.   From  one-twelfth to one-sixth  of a  grain may be given in
the form of pill, and repeated every three hours till the effects  of the
medicine  are  experienced.   Dr. Turnbull prefers the tartrate, as less
disposed to irritate  the  stomach.  The sulphate or acetate, however,
may be used.   Any one of these salts may be  readily prepared by treat-
ing veratria with water, acidulated with the acid to perfect neutralization,
and then evaporating to dryness.
  But veratria is much more employed externally than by the stomach,
and is applicable, in this way, to all  the  complaints  already mentioned.
It may be used either dissolved in  alcohol, or rubbed up with lard,  or
other unctuous substance, in  the proportion of ten  to twenty grains  or
more to the  ounce.  Of the ointment  thus prepared,  Dr. Turnbull
directs a portion, of the size of a large nut,  to be rubbed upon the skin,
over the part affected, night and morning, from five  to fifteen minutes,
or until the more urgent symptoms are relieved.  Veratria may be used
in this way to the amount of from four to eight grains a day.   Care must
be taken that the cuticle is sound over the parts to which it  is applied.
When the skin is irritable, smaller quantities than  those above mentioned
must be used.— U.  S. Disp.
                       VINA  MEDICATA.
                         Medicated  Wines.
  By Medicated Wines we mean the tinctures of those medicinal agents
which are  insoluble in water, or which  do not require  as  stimulant a
solvent as  rectified or proof spirit, but which are capable  of yielding
their  virtues to wine, either pure or diluted.   As a general thing vinous
tinctures are much inferior to alcoholic, on account of their liability to
undergo decomposition, and the uncertainty of their strength,  and should,
therefore, be prepared in small quantities, without heat, and kept  in
well stopped bottles in a cool place.  Bitters and cordials have, heretofore,
been  among the prominent  medical agents peculiar to  Eclectic practice,
a few of which are yet  retained, and some of which we have placed
under the present head in order to avoid the introduction of  a new class
of pharmaceutical preparations ; yet, from  the consequences following a
course of treatment by bitters, viz : the cultivation of a taste or appetite
for  alcoholic stimulus, it  is  to be hoped, that  even these will eventually
be  dispensed with for means and preparations fully as efficacious, and
Avithout the evil results which sometimes occur from their use.
  Wines owe their solvent properties  to the alcohol which they contain,
as well as to acid which they usually hold in greater or less  proportion ;
and in the  selection of them for medical purposes, the purest qualities
only should be selected —those most commonly employed  are Sherry,
Madeira, and Teneriffe.   Sherry Wine is preferable to all others in pre-
paring medicated wines, as being less liable to change or decomposition; 
1294
Pharmacy.
probably native wine would answer, but it  has not been fully tested in
these preparations.
  Vinum  Cinchona Compositum.   Compound Wine of Peruvian Bark.
  Preparation.—Take  of Peruvian Bark two ounces; Wild Cherry Bark,
Sulphur, of each,  one ounce; Cinnamon, Cloves,  Nutmegs, of each, one
drachm ; Sherry Wine, or Native Wine four pints.  Macerate for seven
days and  filter.
  Properties and  Uses.—This is a valuable agent in intermittent fever,
and  in chronic diseases attended with symptoms of  a periodical charac-
ter.  The dose is two fluidounces, every one, two, or three hours, during
the intermission.   It is at present superseded  by  other preparations.
  Vinum  Colchici Radicis.  Wine of Colchicum Root.
  Preparation.—Take of Colchicum Root, well bruised, a pound; Sherry
Wine two  pints.   Macerate for fourteen days,  with  occasional agitation  ;
then express strongly and filter through paper.
  Wine of  Colchicum  Root may also  be prepared  by macerating as
above, then transferring to a percolator, and, after the liquor has ceased
to pass, pouring «o much Wine upon the residue that the filtered liquor
obtained may measure two pints.— U. S.
  Properties and  Uses.—The bulb of Colchicum  which is imported into
this country is very variable in strength, and the only method by which
an active vinous solution of it can be ensured, is to use it in large propor-
tion, as given in the formula, so as to be certain of procuring a saturated
preparation.  It is employed by some practitioners in gout, gouty rheu-
matism, and neuralgia, and will be found more decided in its influence,
if given in  connection with magnesia or its  sulphate.  In neuralgia it
maybe beneficially administered  in combination with solution of sulphate
of morphia.   Overdoses may occasion serious results.   The dose is from
ten minims to a fluidrachm, three or four times  a day, or oftener in severe
cases, until its peculiar effects have manifested themselves.
  Vinum  Colchici Seminis.   Wine of Colchicum Seed.
  Preparation.—Take of Colchicum Seed, bruised, four ounces;  Sherry
Wine two  pints.   Macerate for fourteen  days,  with occasional agitation  ;
then express, and filter through paper.— U. S.
  Properties and Uses.—The seeds of Colchicum  being of more uniform
strength, and not so liable to injury as the bulb, do not require therefore
to be  used  so largely in  proportion  to their  menstruum as the bulb.
This medicated wine may be employed for the  same purposes as  the
wine of the bulb,  or the tincture of the seeds.   In overdoses  it is capa-
ble of producing death.  The dose is one or two fluidrachms.  To obtain
their full medicinal activity the seeds  should always be bruised.
  Vinum  Ergota.  Wine of Ergot.
  Preparation.—Take of Ergot, bruised, two ounces ; Sherry Wine a pint. 
Vina Medicata.
1295
Macerate for fourteen days, with occasional agitation;  then express and
filter through paper.— U. S.
  Properties and  Uses.—This may be used during labor, as a parturient,
in doses of two or three fluidrachms ; in other instances it may be given
in doses of one or two fluidrachms, three or four times a day,  and gradu-
ally increased if desirable.
  Vinum  Hamatoxyli  Compositum.    Compound  Wine of Logwood.
Golden Tincture.
  Preparation.—Take of Logwood  Chips, Black Hellebore,  bruised, of
each, four ounces; Sherry Wine three pints.   Macerate for fourteen days,
express, and filter.
  Properties and  Uses.—This is cathartic, tonic, and emmenagogue, and
will be  found useful in chlorosis, amenorrhea, and some forms of dys-
menorrhea.   The dose is from half a fluidounce to two fluidounces, three
times  a day.
  Vinum  Hydrastis  Compositum.   Compound  Wine of Golden  Seal.
Wine  Bitters.
  Preparation.^—Take of  Golden Seal Root, Tulip Tree Bark, Bitter
Root,  of  each, bruised, one drachm; Capsicum half a drachm; Sherry
Wine four pints.   Macerate for fourteen days, with occasional agitation;
then express, and filter.—T. V. M.
  This vinous solution  may also be prepared from the same dry mate-
rials, by covering  them  with  Sherry Wine, allowing them to  stand for
one week, then transferring them  to a percolator, and  gradually adding
Sherry Wine until four pints of filtered liquor are obtained.
  Properties and  Uses.—This forms a pleasant bitter tonic solution ; it
may be administered in dyspepsia and other complaints, where tonics are
indicated.  It is sometimes improperly made of Malaga Wine.  Dose,
from half a fluidounce to two fluidounces, three times a day.
  A similar preparation is recommended by some authors.   Take of
Golden Seal Root, Tulip Tree Bark, Bitter Root, Orange Peel, each, one
drachm; Prickly Ash Berries,  in powder, half a drachm; add Boiling
Water half a pint; Pour the Boiling Water on the rest of the articles
mixed together, and let them stand in a closely covered vessel  for twenty-
four hours, and  add Malaga Wine one pint and a half.  (Good sweet
Native Wine would he better.)   Dose, same as above.
  Vinum  Ipecacuanha.  Wine of Ipecacuanha.
  Preparation.—Take of Ipecacuanha, bruised, or in powder, two ounces;
Sherry Wine  two pints.    Macerate for fourteen days, with occasional
agitation; then express and filter through paper.
  Wine of Ipecacuanha  may also be prepared by moistening the Ipeca-
cuanha, in coarse powder, thoroughly with Wine,  allowing it to stand 
1296
Pharmacy.
for  twenty-four hours, then  transferring it to  a  percolator,  and pour-
ing Wine  gradually  upon  it  until two  pints of filtered liquor  are
obtained.— U. S.
  Properties and Uses.—This wine possesses all the medical qualities of
the root, and as an emetic is sometimes preferred in infantile  cases.  It
may be used  also as an expectorant or diaphoretic.  Dose,  as an emetic
for an adult, a fluidounce;  for a child one or two years old, a fluidrachm,
repeated every fifteen minutes till  it operates; as an expectorant  and
diaphoretic, from ten to thirty drops.
  Vinum Phytolacca Compositum.   Compound  Wine of Poke.  Rheu-
matic Liquid.
  Preparation. — Take of Inspissated Juice of  Poke  Berries, White
Turpentine, of  each, four ounces; Sherry or Native Wine two gallons.
Macerate for  fourteen days, with occasional agitation, and filter.
  Properties  and Uses.—This is  an excellent  preparation for chronic
rheumatism, chronic gonorrhea, syphilitic pains, etc.  The dose is from
half a fluidounce to a fluidounce,  two or three times a day.
  Vinum Sambuci.   Wine of Elder.   Hydragogue Tincture.
  Preparation.—Take of Elder Bark, bruised, one pound; Sherry Wine,
or Native  Wine one gallon.   Macerate for fourteen days, express,  and
filter through paper.
  This medicated wine may also  be prepared by macerating powdered
Elder Bark, in  Wine, for twenty-four hours, then  transferring it to a per-
colator, and gradually adding Wine until one gallon of filtered liquor is
obtained.
  Properties and  Uses.—Wine  of Elder is useful in dropsical affections,
especially  ascites,  and  dropsy supervening upon scarlatina or other
exanthematous diseases.   Dose, two ounces, three or four times a day.
This preparation may be made for immediate use by digesting  the articles
with heat for an hour.
  Vinum Symphyti Compositum.   Compound  Wine of Comfrey.  Res-
torative Wine Bitters.
  Preparation.—Take of  Comfrey Root, Solomon's Seal Root, Spikenard
Root, of each,  bruised, one  ounce;  Chamomile Flowers, Colombo Root,
Gentian Root, of  each, bruised, half an ounce;  Sherry Wine four pints;
Boiling Water a sufficient  quantity.   Place  the  Herbs in a vessel, cover
with  Boiling Water,  and let the compound macerate for twenty-four
hours, keeping it closely covered; then add the Sherry Wine.   Macerate
for fourteen days, express, and filter.
   Malaga Wine, or Metheglin, which  are sometimes used in  this prepa-
ration, are  inferior to Sherry Wine, and more liable  to decomposition.
The addition of Sugar to  this Wine of Comfrey,  is very apt to disagree
with many persons, and thus destroy its efficacy. 
Vina Medicata.                     1297
  Properties and Uses.—This is  a most  valuable  tonic in all diseases
peculiar to females, especially leucorrhea,  amenorrhea, weakness  of the
back, etc.  The dose is from half a fluidounce to two fluidounces, three
or four times a day.
  A similar  preparation, made as follows, is also  recommended: Take
of Spikenard Root, Solomon Seal  Root, Gentian, Wild Cherry Bark and
Peach Root, of each, bruised, one ounce;  add Boiling Water four pints,
simmer slowly to one pint; then add Native Wine four pints.   Macerate
for  seven days, express,  filter, and  add Loaf Sugar two ounces.   Dose,
as above.
  I have  just seen some specimens of what are called " Concentrated
Remedies," purporting  to have been manufactured at some  establish-
ment in the city of New York; among  them were Cypripedin, Senecin,
Stillingin, Irisin, etc., each in the form of powder, together with several
other reputed concentrated powdered preparations.  Upon an examina-
tion, I  find several of these agents to be sugar of milk triturated, proba-
bly,  with  oils, oleo-resins, or  saturated tinctures.   There  certainly can
be no objection to the trituration of concentrated principles with sugar,
or sugar  of  milk, for, I believe, they are  frequently employed in this
manner by many Eclectics ; but when such triturations are represented
and  sold  at exorbitant  prices as the genuine  concentrated  principles
themselves, and at the same  time veiled with a semblance of science,
scientific research, and purity  of intention,  every honest mind will find,
in such a  course, much to condemn, and every well-wisher of Eclecticism
must object in the strongest terms.  The imposition is an insult to Eclec-
tics,  and to say the least of it, is by no means creditable to the reputation
or honesty of the manufacturers.   Such a course, if not eschewed and
censured, is  not only calculated to diminish the confidence of our own
practitioners  in the value of  concentrated medicines, but, when they are
employed or  tested by physicians of other schools, as we know to be fre-
quently the case, it must cause a  prejudice against  them as inactive or
worthless  agents, as well as give rise to no very exalted opinions of Eclectic
honesty, science or acuteness.   Remedies  for general professional use,
whose  method of preparation is kept from the profession,  should never
be countenanced by  its members, because it is impossible to know what
they really are, to determine  their positive value, or to  decide to what
extent  dishonesty and imposition may be  connected  with  them.  It  is
greatly to be desired, therefore, that all friends of  Eclecticism will be
upon their guard relative to this matter, and that they will likewise take
especial pains to caution those of  other schools, who have the liberality
and  manly independence to fairly  and impartially test  the value and
utility  of  our remedies, in order that Eclecticism may not be  misrepre-
sented or  falsified by any impositions of the sort.—/. K.
          82 
PART   IV,
APPENDIX.
                   EXPLANATION

 OF  THE  PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS OCCURRING IN  PHARMA-
                      CEUTICAL FORMULA.

  R. Recipe—Take.
  F. S. A. Fiat secundum artem—Let it be made or prepared according
to the rules of the art.
  M. Misce—Mix.
  M. S. D. Misce, signa, da—Mix the medicine, and deliver it after-
ward, with the requisite instruction, to the patient (or nurse) in writing.
  M. F. P. Misce fiat pulvis—Mix to form a powder.
  M. F. Mixt. Misce fiat mixtura—Mix to form a liquid mixture.
  M. F. Pil. Misce fiant pilulae—Mix to form pills.
  Div.  Divide—Divide.
  Sol. Solve—Dissolve.
  Fasc. j. Fasciculus—An armful.
  Man. j. Manipulus—A handful, a gripe.
  Pugil. j. Pugillus or  Pugillum—A pinch.
  Cyat. j. Cyathus—A glassful.
  Cochl. j.  Cochlear or Cochleare—A spoonful.
  Gutt. Gutta—Drop.
  No. 1,2, 3, etc. The number of pieces or parts.
  Ana, or aa. Of each.
  P. Ae. Partes aequales—Equal parts.
  Q. S. Quantum sufficit—As much as will suffice.
  Q. L. Quantum libet—As much as you like.
  Q. V. Quantum volueris—As much as  you like.
  lb. Libra—A pound.
  3- Uncia—An ounce.
  3. Drachma—A drachm or dram.
  5- Scrupulus—A scruple.
  Gr. Granum—A grain.
  Pil. Pilula—A pill.
      (1298) 
         Abbreviations in Pharmaceutical Formula.      1299

Pot. Potio—A potion.
Pulv. Pulvis—A powder.
Tine. Tinctura—A tincture.
Ext. Extractum—An extract.
Chart. Chartula—A small paper.
Collyr. Collyrium—An eye-water.
Collutor. Collutorium—A mouth wash.
Cong. Congius—A gallon.
0. Oct. Octarius—A pint.
f3- Fluiduncia—A fluidounce.
f3. Fluidrachma—A fluidrachm.
TT[. Minimum—A minim.
Decoct. Decoction—A decoction.
Garg. Gargarisma—A Gargle.
Haust. Haustus—A draught.
Infus. Infusum—An infusion.
Mass. Massa—A mass.
Mist. Mistura—A mixture.
Ss. Semis—A half.
                    A  VOCABULARY

 OF THE WORDS MOST FREQUENTLY OCCURRING IN THE PRE-
                  SCRIPTIONS OF PHYSICIANS.

                               A.
A, aa, or ana, of each ingredient; more properly expressed by the gen-
  itive case plural (singulorum) of each; for instance:
   R.—Aquae cinnamon, tinct. rhei. aa 3ij, means.
        Take of cinnamon-water, and tincture of rhubarb, of each two
          drachms.
Abdomen, the belly.  Gen. — inis,  of the  belly.   Dat.—ini, to  the
  belly.
Absente febre, while the fever is off.
Accurate (adverb)  accurately.  Accurate pensi,  Ace.  pen., weighed
  with  the utmost  exactness.   Accurate  misceantur, Ace.  mis., mix
  very completely.
Aciditas, sharpness.   Ad gratam aciditatem, make it just acid enough
  to be  palatable, and not too sour.
Acme, the hight of the fever  or any other disease.
Ad, to.   Ad duas vices, at twice taking.  Ad libitum,  as you like.
Adde, add.  Addantur, let there be added.   Addendus, to  be added.
  Addendo, adding. 
1300                       Appendix.
Admoveaair, i&t there be applied—antur, plural, when more than one
  is to be applied.
Adstante febre, while the fever is on.
JEger, a sick person, a patient.   ^Egra, a female patient.
Aggrediente febre, when the fever is coming on.
Aggressus, an attack.  Aggressus febris, the attack of a fever.
Agitato vase, shaking the vial.
Albus, white.
Aliquot, some.  Aliquoties, sometimes.
Alter, altera, alterum, the other.
Alternus,  alternate.   Alternis horis, every second hour.  Alternis die-
  bus, every alternate day.
Aluta,  leather.   Extende super alutam mollem, E. S. A. M., spread on
  soft leather.
Alvus, the belly, the bowels.  Adstricta alvo, when costive.
Amplus, large.   Cochleare amplum, a tablespoonful.
Ante, before.  Ut ante, as before.
Antemeridianus,  in  the forenoon;  any time before twelve  o'clock  at
  noon.
Apparatus, any sort of a preparation, instruments, or, in short, every-
  thing that is requisite to be had in readiness for performing any sort
  of operation.   Also, the more  delicate  term for a bladder and pipe
  for clysters.
Aperiens, opening, gently purging.
Applicetur, let there be applied.
Aqua,  water.  Aquae, of water.  Aqua bulliens, Aqua  fervens, boiling
  water.
Armatus,  armed.  Fistula armata, an apparatus for clysters; a pipe and
  bladder.
Auris, the ear.  Auri, to  the ear.   Aures, ears.  Auribus, to  the ears.
Aut, or.
                                 B
Bene, well.  Bene misceatur, B.  M., let it be well mixed.
Bibat,  let him drink.
Biduum, two days.   Omni bidud vel tridud,  every two or three days.
Bihorium,  the space of two hours.   Omni bihorio, every two hours.
Bis, twice: bis, terve, twice or thrice.
Bullio, to boil; bulliens, boiling.  Aquae bullientis, of boiling water.
Bulliant, let them boil.
                                 C.
Calefactus, made warm.
Capiat, let (the patient) take.  Capt. cochl. iij magn., three tablespoon-
  fuls to be taken.
Catharticus, purging. 
Abbreviations in Pharmaceutical Formula.       1301
 Caute, cautiously.
 Cerevisia, beer.   Cerevisia Londinensis, porter.   Cerevisia  Lagenaria,
   bottled porter or stout.
 Charta, paper.   Charta caerulea, blue paper.   Chartula, a little piece of
   paper.   Cola trans chartam, filter through paper.
 Cibus, food.
 Circa, about.   Circiter, about.
 Cito,  soon,  quickly.   Citissime (the superlative degree,) as quick as
   possible.
 Clausus, clausa, clausum, covered.   Vase clauso, in a covered vessel.
 Cochleare, a spoonful.  Cochlearia,  spoonfuls.   Coch.  magnum,  am-
   plum, a tablespoonful.   Co. infantulorum, coch. modicum, child's
   spoonful, a dessertspoonful.  Co. parvum,  a teaspoonful.
 Coctio, a boiling.  Sub finem coctionis, toward the end of the  boiling ;
   when almost boiled.
 Caeruleus,  blue.   Charta caerul., blue  paper.  Unguentum  caeruleum,
   mercurial ointment.
 Cola, (imperat. of Colo,) strain, to filter.
 Colatus, strained, filtered.   Colato liquori, to the strained liquor.
 Colatura, a straining.  Colaturae, to the strained liquor.
 Colatus, let be strained.   Colentur, let them  be strained.
 Collum, a neck.
 Comp., Compositus, compound.
 Continuo, to continue.   Continuantur remedia, go on with the same me-
   dicine as last prescribed.
 Contundo, to bruise.   Contusus, bruised.
 Contusio, a bruise, a contusion.
 Coquo, to boil.   Coque, boil.  Coque parum, boil a little while.
 Coquantur, let them be boiled.
 Cor, the heart.   Scrobiculus cordis, the pit of the stomach.
 Coxa, Coxendix, the hip.
 Cras, to-morrow; c. m. eras mane, early to-morrow morning; C. M. S.,
   eras mane sumendus, to be taken early to-morow morning.
 Crastinus (adj.,)  of to-morrow.  In  usum  crastinum, for to-morrow's
   use.
 Cribrum, a sieve.   Trans cribrum, through a sieve.
 Cujus, of which.  Cujus capiat, or sumat, of which (the patient is to)
   take.
 Cum, with.
 Cyathus, a cup.   Cyathus  vinarius, a wineglass.   Cyath.  theat, a  tea-
   cup full.
                                D.
Da, give.   Detur, dentur (plural,) let be given.
De, of.  De quo, or qua, of which.   De die, in a day. 
1302
Appendix.
Deauratus, gilt.  Deaurentur pilulae, let the pills be gilt.
Debilitas, weakness.
Decern, ten.   Decimus, the tenth.
Debitus, due.  Ad debitam spissitudinem, to a  proper degree of thick-
  ness, as to consistence.
Decubitus, lying down.  Hora decubitus, at bedtime.
Deglutio, to  swallow.   Deglutiatur, is  swallowed—etur,  let be swal-
  lowed.
Dein, deinde, then; afterward.
Dejectio, a depositing,  or putting down, also  a  going to  stool; as, post
  duas dejectiones alvi, after two motions.
Dejitio, to deposit.  Donee alvus bis dejiciat, until the patient shall have
  had two stools.
Dexter, the right.   Manus dextra, the right hand.  Auri dextro, to the
  right ear.
Dictus, spoken of, said.
Dies, a day.   Die in a day ; as bis die, twice a day.  Diebus, in days ;
  as, tertiis diebus, every third  day.  Alternis diebus, every alternate
  day.
Dilutum, diluted.
Dimidium, the half.  Dimidius,  a, um (adjective,)  half.
D. P., Directione propria, with its proper direction.
Diu, a long time.   Tere diu, rub for a long time.
Diuturnus, long-continued.   Diuturna trituratione, D. trit. by long con-
  tinued rubbing, or grinding in the mortar.  Diuturna coctione, by long
  boiling.
Dolor, pain.   Dolores, pains.  Doloris, of the pain.
Dolens, pained.  Parti dolenti, to the pained part.
Donee, until.   Donee liquescat., till  it melts.  Dum, whilst.
Durante dolore, while the pain continues.
                                 E.
Eadem, eandem, the same.   Eodem, in the same.
Effunde, pour out.
Effervescentia, the effervescence.
Effervescet, effervesces.
Ejusdem, of  the same, the genitive case  of idem.
Enema, a clyster.   Enemata, clysters.
Erit, shall be.
Evanesco, evanui, to disappear.   Evanuerit, shall have disappeared.
Exhibe, Exhibeatur, give.  Exhibendus, to be given.
Extendo, to extend, also to spread.   Extende super alutam, spread it on
  leather.
Extensus, a,  urn, spread. 
Abbreviations in Pharmaceutical Formula.       1303
                                 F.
 Fac, make.  Fac in pilulas xij, make into twelve pills.
 Farina, flour.  Farina seminis lini, linseed meal.
 Febris, a fever.   Febre durante, while the fever is on.
 Femur, a thigh.
 Femoribus, to the thighs.  Femoribus internis, to the inner sides of the
   thighs.
 Fervens, boiling.   Fervidus, fervida, hot.
 Ferventis,  of boiling.  R aq. ferventis, take of boiling water.
 Finis, the conclusion.  Sub finem coctionis, when  almost boiled enough.
 Fiat, make (the singular number).  Fiant, make (plural).
 Fontana, fountain.   Aqua fontana, spring water.
 Formula, prescription.
 Fotus, a fomentation.
 Fuerit,  shall have been; as,  donee alvus soluta fuerit, until  a motion is
   (or shall have been) procured.

                                 G.
 Gargarisma, a gargle.
 Gelatina, jelly.   Gelatina  ribesiorum, currant  jelly.  Gelatina quovis,
   any  sort of jelly.
 Globulus, a little ball.   Globuli  Gascoigni, Gascoign's ball.   Donee glo-
   buli  evanuerint, until the  globules (of quicksilver) totally disappear
   (so that they can not be seen  even with a microscope).
 Gradatim,  by slow degrees.
 Gratus, grata, gratum, agreeable, pleasant.  Ad gratum aciditatem,  so
   as to make it pleasantly acid without being too sour.   In quovis grato
   vehiculo, in any  agreeable vehicle.
 Gutta,  a drop.   Guttae, drops.   Guttas, drops.
 Guttatim, drop by drop.

                                 H.
Hac, this.  Hac nocte, this night.  Hanc,  this.  Sumat  hanc, let him
   take this.
Hactenus, hitherto, heretofore, up to the present day.
Harum, of these.   Harum pilularum sumat tres, of these pills let him
   or her take three.
Haustus, a draught.
Hebdomada, a week.
Heri, yesterday.  Ut heri, as yesterday.
Hesternus, of yesterday.  Hesterna nocte, last night.
Hirudo, a leech.  Hirudines, leeches.
His, in these, to these.  His adde, add to these. 
1304
Appendix.
 Hora, an hour.  Horae, of an hour.   Horae, (plural) hours.
 H. S. (hora somni,) at the hour of rest.
 H. S. S. (hora somni sumendus,) to  be taken at bedtime.  Hora decu-
   bitus, at the hour of going to rest, bedtime.
 Hora vespertina, in the evening.
 Horae unius spatio, in the space of one hour.
 Horae ^, horae quadrante, quarter of an hour.
 Horis intermediis,  at intermediate hours, when two medicines are to be
   taken.  Horis intermediis, means that  one  is to be given exactly at
   midtime from the other: suppose a draught is  ordered (to be  taken
   every six hours,) and a powder horis intermediis,  that is, every six
   hours intermediately, then a draught will be taken at six o'clock and
   at twelve, and a powder at three and at nine.
 Hujusmodi, of this sort,  like these.
 H. P. N, Haustus purgans noster, a formula of purging draught made
   according to a practitioner's own private Pharmacopoeia, and is pre-
   pared so  as to  keep  a long time without  spoiling, that we may not
   have the  trouble  of  preparing  it  every time a draught is wanted.
   Mitt. H. P.  N. 3ij ad ij Vices C. M. S.  Mitte Haustus purgantis nos-
   tri uncias duas, ad duas Vices eras mane sumendus; send two ounces
   of our purging  draught, to be  taken  to-morrow morning, at twice,
   that is half at first, and the  remaining half in an hour if the first
   does not operate.
                                 I.
Idoneus, proper, appropriate.
Idem, eadem,  the  same.  Ejusdem, of the same, the genitive case of
   Idem.
Imponatur, (sing.,) let there be put on—nantur (plural).
Imprimis, first.
In, in.  In die, in a day.
Indies (an adverb,) every day, daily.
Indicaverit, shows, indicates.
Infus. panis  tostus, toast  bread Avater.
Infusio, infusum, an infusion.
Infunde, infundatur, infuse.
Inter, between.
Injectio,  injection.
Inquietudo, restlessness.   Ungente inquietudine, if restless.
Injiciatur, throw in, throw up.   Injiciatur enema, let  a clyster be ad-
  ministered.
Injiciendus,  injiciendum,  to be administered.
Instar (an adverb,)  as big as.  Sumat molem instar  mucis moschataa,
  the bigness of a nutmeg to be taken.
Intermedius, intermediate. 
             Abbreviations in Pharmaceutical Formula.       1305
 Internis, the inner side.
                                  J.
 Jam, already.  Jampridem, jamdudum, some time ago, heretofore.
 Jugulum, the throat.
 Jusculum,  broth.   Jusculum  ovillum,  mutton  broth.   Jus.  bovinum,
   beef tea.
 Juxta, near  to.
                                  L.
 Lac, milk.   Lactis,  of milk.  Lacte, in milk.
 Laevigatus, levigated.
 Lana, flannel.  Lana nova, new flannel.
 Languor, faintness,  lowness.  In languoribus, in the fainting fits, when
   low and faint.
 Latus, the side.  Lateris, of the side.   Lateri, to  the  side.  Latus do-
   lens, the pained side.   Lateri dolenti, to the pained side.
 Latus, lata, latum (adjective,) broad.
 Lectus, a bed.  In lecto, in bed.
 Liber, a book.
 Libet (a verb impersonal,) it pleases.   Ad libitum, just as you please.
 Libra, a pound.  Libris, libras, pounds.
 Linteum, lint; also linen.
 Liquesco, to  liquefy, to melt.   Donee liquescat, till it melts.
 Liquidus, liquid.  Sedes liquidee, loose stools.  In quovis liquido, in any
   liquid.
 Londinensis, of  London.  Pharmacopoeia Londinensis,  the London Dis-
   pensatory.
 Lumborum, of the loins.
                                 M.
 Magnus, magna, magnum, large.   Magnum cochleare, a tablespoonful.
 Major, greater, larger.  Cochlearia duo majora, two tablespoonfuls.
 Maximus, the greatest.  Maxima cura, with  the greatest care.
 Maxime, chiefly.
 Malleolus, the ankle.  Malleolus internus, the inner ankle.
 Mane,  in the morning.   Mane  primo; valde mane,  very early in the
   morning.
 Manus, a hand.   Manu calefacta, with a warm hand.
Massa, a mass.  Massa pilularis, a mass fit for forming into pills.
Matutinus, in the morning or forenoon.
Mediocris,  middle-sized.   Pilulae mediocris,  middle-sized pills.  Coch-
   leare mediocre, a dessertspoonful, a papspoonful, or a child's spoonful.
   Mediocris also means indifferent, as to quality.
Medius, middle.  Media nocte, in the middle of the night. 
1306
Appendix.
Melior, melius, better.
Mica panis, crumb of bread.
Minatur, minaretur, threatens.  Minante, threatening.
Minimus, very small.   Cochleare minimum, a teaspoonful.
Minutum, * a minute.
Misce, mix.   Bene misceatur, let it be well mixed.
Mitte,  send.
Mittatur (singular,) let it be sent.   Mittantur (plural,) let them be sent.
Mittatur sanguis, take blood away; i.  e., bleed the patient.
Mistura, mixtura, a  mixture.
Mitigatio, mitigation, alleviation.   Donee dolor is mitigatio sit, until the
  pain is easier.
Mitigatus, a um,  mitigated, lessened.
Modicus, middle-sized.
Modus, a manner.   Modo praescripto, in the manner directed.
Moles, a  mass, a lump, a piece.   Sumat molem instar nucis moschatse,
  let him (or her) take the bigness or size of a nutmeg.
Mollis, molle, soft.
Molestus, troublesome.   Molestor,  to trouble, to be  troublesome.   Mo-
  lestante dolore, when the pain is  troublesome.   Molestante tussi, when
  the cough is troublesome.
Mora,  delay.  Sine mora,  without delay.
Mos, moris, manner.  More solito, in the  usual manner; also, in the
  same manner as I am in the habit of prescribing it to other  people.
Mortarium, a mortar.   Mortario aheneo, in the brass mortar.  Mortario
  marmoreo,  in the  marble mortar.  Mort. vitreo, in the glass mortar.

                                  N.
Narthecium, a gallipot.
Nates, the buttocks.
Ne, lest, also, do not;  as  ne tradas sine  nummo, N. T. S. N., do not
  deliver the  medicine without the  money.
Necnon, also.
Niger, nigra, nigrum, black.
Ni, nisi,  unless.
Nihil, nothing.
Nisus,  an endeavor, an  attempt, a straining, a motion, a straining to
  vomit, or go to stool.
Nimis, nimium, too much.
Nodulus, a little knot.  Nodulo ligati, tied up in a piece of clean rag.
  * The word minutum, for a minute, is very barbarous Latin; we believe there is no
such word;  but the right Latin for a minute, Sexagesima pars horae, is as long
and as tiresome  to write as "Semivitreous oxide of lead," for the simple word
" Litharge."—Griffith. 
Abbreviations in Pharmaceutical Formula      1307
Nomen, nominis, a name.  Signetur nomine proprio, S. N. P., write  its
  common name upon the label.
Novem, nine.
Nonus, the ninth.
Novus, nova, novem, new.
Novissime, very lately, the last of all.
Nocte, at night.  Noctes, nights.  Nocte maneque, night and morning.
  Alternis noctibus, every second night.
Nuper, lately.  Nuperrime, very lately.
Nucha, the nape of the neck.  Nuchae, to the nape.
N. M.,  Nux moschata, a  nutmeg.  Sumat magnitudinem nucis  mos-
  chatae, take the bigness of a nutmeg.
2.
3.
Numeri.	Numbers.	
r j. unus, una, unum, one.	7.	or vij. septem, seven.
unius, of one.		septimus, seventh.
ij. duo, duae, two.		septimana, or
duorum, of two		7 mana, a Aveek.
duobus, in two, to two.	8.	viij. octo, eight.
iij. tres, tria, three.		octavus, eighth
tribus, in three, to three.	9.	ix. novem, nine.
trium, of three.		nonus, ninth.
ter, three times.	10.	x. decern, ten.
iv. quatuor, four.		decimus, tenth.
quartus, a, um, fourth	11.	xj. undecim, eleven.
quater, four times.	12.	xij. duodecim, twelve.
v. quinque, five.	20.	xx. viginti, twenty.
quintus, fifth.	24.	xxiv. viginti quatuor,
vj. sex, six.		twenty-four.
sextus, sixth.		
6.
                               0.
Obstante, hindering, preventing.
Occasio, occasion, opportunity.
Octo, eight.
Octavus, eighth.  Octava quaque hora, every eighth hour.
Olim, some time ago.
Olla, a pot, a gallipot.
Omnis,  all.   Omni  mane, every morning.   Omni hora,  every hour.
  Omni bihorio, every two hours.  Omni nocte, every night.  Omni ^
  hora, Omni quadrante horae, every  quarter of an hour.  Tere omnia,
  rub all together.
Omnino, quite,  wholly, entirely.
Optime, very well, as well as possible.
Optimus, ma, mum, best. 
1308
Appendix.
Opus, need, occasion.  Si opus sit, or fuerit, if it be necessary.
Ovillum jusculum, mutton broth.
Ovum, an egg.  Vitell. ovi,  the yelk of an egg.   Ovorum, of eggs.
Panis biscoctus, biscuit.  Panis  nauticus, sea  biscuit.  Panis  tostus,
  toast  bread.   Infus. panis tostus, toast-bread water.   Panis triticus,
  wheat bread.
Pannus,  a rag.   Pannus linteus, a linen rag.   Pannus  laneus, Pannus
  e lana, a piece of flannel.
Paroxysmus, a paroxysm, a fit, a convulsion fit.
Pars, a part.  Partes, parts.  Parti dolenti, to the pained part.
Partitus, parted.   Partitus vicibus  means, that you are  not  to  give  a
  medicine  all  at  once, but divide the dose according to the directions
  most commonly  previously given; for example, if a  purging or emetic
  draught, half or a  third, (as the case may be,) to  be taken at first,
  and the other half or third at a certain distance of time, if the former
  quantity be not found sufficient to produce the desired effect.
Par\rus, little.  Cochleare parvum, a teaspoonful.
Parum, a little.  Parumper, a little.
Pauculum, pauxillum, paululum, a little.
Pectus,  the breast.  Pectoris, of the breast.
Pediluvium, a bath for the feet.
Per, by, or through.
Pergo, to go on with.  Pergat in usu medicinarum, continue the medi-
  cines  as before.
Pei  t    A  completed, perfected, quite done, gone  through with; as,
          >•    Peracta operatione emetici, after  the  emetic  has quite
Perfectus, )    done operating<
Perfricetur,  let it be rubbed.  Perfricandus, to be rubbed.
Pensus, weighed.  Accurate pensi, weighed exactly.
Perpetuus, perpetual.   Fiat perpetuum, keep it open,  (when it refers to
  a blister).
Pluvialis, also pluviatalis aqua, rain water.
Pharmacopoeia, the dispensatory.
Pollex, the thumb.  Pollex pedis, the great toe.
Pomeridianus, postmeridianus, in  the evening  or afternoon, time of the
  day.
P. R. N., Pro re nata, occasionally, according as circumstances may
  occur, according as the symptoms may require.
Poculum, a cup.
Pomum, an  apple.   Pomi, of an apple.
Pone, behind.  Pondere, by weight. 
           Abbreviations in Pharmaceutical Formulae.      1309

Porro, moreover.  Post, after.  Postea, then, afterward.
P. M., Post meridiem,  afternoon,  in the afternoon, after twelve o'clock
  at noon.
Potus, drink,  beverage of  any kind.
Postulet, postulent, may require, demand.
Praecipue, especially.
Praeparatus, prepared.
Preeparo, to prepare.   Praeparentur, let them be prepared.
Primus, ma,  mum, the first.  Primo,  first  of  all.  Primo mane, very
  early in the morning.
Prior, prius, the former, the first.
Priusquam, before that.
Pro, for.  Pro re nata,  P.  R. N., occasionally, etc.  Pro ratione, accord-
  ing to, or in proportion  to; as pro ratione aetatis, according to the age
  of the patient.
Proprius, a um, proper.   S.  N.  P.,  Signetur nomine proprio, mark it
  with its proper direction.
Pruritus, an itching.  Pruriens, itching.  Dolichos pruriens, cowhage.
Psora, the  itch.
Pulvis, a powder.  Pulveres, powders.   Pulveribus, in powders.
Pulvis subtilissimus, the very finest powder.
Purificatus, a um,  purified.
Pyxis, pyxidis, a pill-box, or lozenge-box.

                                Q.
Quadrans,  quadrantis,  quadrante,  quarter.   Omni quadrante horse,
  every quarter of an hour.
Quacum, with which.
Quamprimum,  as soon  as possible, without the least delay.
Quartus, a, um, the fourth.
Quaqua, every.  Quavis,  (fcem.)  with  any.
Quater, four times.  Quatuor, four.  Quarta pars, a fourth part.
----que, (at the end of any Latin word,)  and.
Quem, quam, quod, which,  (the accusative case).
Qui, quae,  quod, which, (the nominative case).
Quibus, to which,  with which.
Quibusdam, to or with  some.   Cum guttis quibusdam, with a few drops.
Quilibet, quaelibet, quodlibet, gen.  Cujuslibet, abl.  Quolibet, any.
Quiescat, goes to rest,  is easier.
Quinque, five.   Quintus, a,  um, the fifth.   Quinquies, five times.
Quinquina, (cinchona,) Peruvian  Bark.
q. s.—q. s.,  Quantum sufficiat, as much as may be sufficient.
Quorum, quarum, of which.  Quos,  quas, which.  Quocum, quacum,
  with which.   Quovis, with any. 
1310
Appendix.
                                 R.
Ratio, a reason, also a proportion.   Pro ratione setatis, according to the
  age  of  the patient.  Pro ratione doloris, according to the urgency of
  the pain.
Raucedo,  hoarseness.                                  ^t
Recipe, take.   Recipe, (taken substantively,) a prescription.
Regio, a region, (an anatomical term for certain parts of the body); as,
  regio epigastrica, the epigastric region; regio lumborum, the region of
  the loins;  appl. emplastr. regioni umbilicali, to the umbilical region,
  or parts in the neighborhood of the navel.
Redigo, to  reduce.  Redige,  reduce.  Redigetur,  may  be  reduced.
  Redigatur, let it be reduced.
Redactus, a,  um, reduced.  In pulv. redact., reduced to powder.
Refrixerit—pi.  int.—the subjunctive future of refrigesco, to cool.
Reliquus,  a, um, the rest, the remaining part.
Remedium,  a remedy.   Continuandur  remedia, go  on with the same
  remedies as before.
Repetatur, let be repeated, repeat.
Repetendus, to be repeated.
Respondeo, respondent, shall have answered.  Donee alvus  ad sedes ij
  vel iij responderit, until two or three stools shall have been procured.
Ribes, currants.  Gelatina ribesiorum, currant jelly.
Ruber, rubra, rubrum, red.
Rubus idaeus, raspberry.
Retinendus, to  be retained, or kept.

                                 S.

S. V. R.,  spiritus vinosus rectificatus, rectified spirit of wine.
S. V., Ten, or tenuis, proof spirit.
Saepe, often; saepius, oftener; saepissime, very often.
Saltern, at least.
Sanguis, blood,—inis, of blood.   Sanguinis missura, blood-letting.
Saphena vena,  the ankle vein.
Scapula, the  shoulder blade.   Inter scapulus, between the shoulders.
Scilicet, to wit, namely.
Scrobiculus cordis, the pit of the stomach.
Secundus, a, um, (adjective,) second.
Secundum, (preposition,) according to.
S. A., Secundum artem,  according to art;  that is, you are  to use your
  own ingenuity to do it in the most proper and scientific way.
Sed, but.
Sedes, a stool—plural, stools.
Semi, or  semis, half.  Semihora, half an hour.  Semidrachma, half a
  drachm. 
Abbreviations in Pharmaceutical Formulae.      1311
Sesqui, one and a  half; as, sesquihora, an hour and  a half.  Sesqui-
   nuncia, or sescuncia, an ounce and a half.  Sesquidrachma, a drachm
   and a half.  Remember well to attend to the difference between these
   two words, for many young men, by not Snowing that sesqui means
   one and a half, but confounding it with semi, have made bad mistakes.
Semper, always.
Semel, once.
Septem, seven.
Septimana, a week, seven days.   Septimus, seventh.
Sequens, following.
Serum lactis, whey.  In sero lactis  vinoso, in wine whey.
Serum is also the watery part of the blood which separates from the red
   part, or crassamentum, on standing until cold.
Sex, six; Sextus, sixth.
Si, if.   Sive, or, whether.
Signatura, a  label or direction.
Signetur, let it  be marked, directed, written upon.
S. N. P., Signetur nomine proprio, mark it with the name it is usually
   known by.
Simul,  together;  as, terantur simul,  let them be rubbed together.
   Simul ac, at the same time that.
Sine,  without.  Sine mora, without  delay.
Singultus, hiccup.
Singulus, a, um, each; in singulis, in each; singulorum, of each.
Sinister, tra,  trum, the left.  Auri sinistro, to the left ear.
Satis, thirst;  si  sitiat, if thirsty.
Solitus, accustomed.
Solus, alone; only.
Solutus, a,  um, dissolved, also loosened; as, donee  alvus soluta fuerit,
   until a stool is procured.
Solve, dissolve.
Somnus, sleep.   Hora somni, at bed-time.
Spina, the spine, the backbone; also, a thorn.
Spissus, thick.  Spissitudo, thickness of consistence.
Statim, directly, immediately.
Stent, let them  stand.  Stet, let it stand.
Sternutatorius pulvis, sneezing powder, snuff.
Stupa, tow.
Sub, subter,  under.  Sub finem  coctionis, when the boiling is almost
   finished.    Sub, prefixed to  a word, implies diminution, or a  process
   not completed; also, in many words has the same signification as  the
   termination ish  in English  words,  as subniger, blackish, not  quite
   black.  Subtepidus,  lukewarm.  For its meaning when  applied to
   terms of chemistry, as  subcarbonas, submurias, the pupil  must study
   his chemical  nomenclature. 
1312
Appendix.
Subactus, a, um, subdued, dissolved.
Subitus, a, um, Subitaneus, sudden.  Subito, (adv.,) suddenly.
Subtepidus, a little Avarm, J»kewarm.
Subige, dissolve it, make it  unite.  Subdue  quicksilver  with lard  or
  balsam of sulphur.
Subinde, frequently, now and then.
Subtilis, subtle, reduced to fine powder.  Pulv. subtilissimus, the very
  finest powder.
Succ. pom. ferment., cider.
Sumat, let him take.   Sumatur, sumantur, let it be taken,  take.
Sudor,  sweet.
Superbibo, to drink after taking anything; as, chamomile tea or warm
  water after an emetic;  or a cup of water, or any liquid medicine, to
  wash down a dose of any sort of pills.
Superinfundo, to pour  upon.
Supra,  above.   Supradictus, above mentioned.
Syncope, a fainting fit.

                                 T.
Tabellae, tabulae, lozenges.
Talis, such.   Sumat talem, let him take such a one as this.
Talus,  the ankle.
Tarn, so.  Tamen, yet.
Tactus, the touch.
Taenia, the tapeworm,
Tempus, temporis, time.
Tempora, the temples.  Temporibus, to  the temples.  Tempori dextro,
  to the right temple.  Tempori sinistro,  to the left temple.
Temperies, temperamentum, temperament, degree of heat.
Tenacitus,  tenacity.   Ad  debitam tenacitatem, of a proper degree  of
  tenacity or consistence.
Teneo, to hold.  Tenendus, to be held.
Tenuis, weak, thin, small, slender.
Tepefactus, warmed, made Avarm.
Ter, three times, thrice.   Ter quaterve, three or four times.
Teres,  teretis,  round, taper; also,  teres is  a name for  the  long and
  round worm infesting the human body, qu.  d. vermis teres.
Tergum, the back.  A tergo, behind.
Tero,  to rub.   Tere, (imperative,)  rub.   Terendus, to  be rubbed.
  Terantur, let them  be rubbed.
Tertius, tertia, tertium, the third.
Testacea, the prepared powders made of oyster shells, egg shells, crabs'
  claws, etc.
Thorax, the chest.  Thoracis, of the chest. 
           Abbreviations in Pharmaceutical Formulae.      1313

Thus, frankincense.
Tinea capitis, scald head.
Torrefactus, toasted.
Tres, tria, three;  tribus, in three, to three.
Triduum, three days.
Trituratio, a grinding.   Trituratus, triturated, ground.  Tritus, ground.
  Trituratur exactissima minutes decern, Trit. ex.  min. dec, T. E. M.
  D., triturate exactly ten minutes.  Trituratur  intime commisceantur,
  Trit. int. com., triturate  intimately or accurately together.
T. 0., Tinctura Opii, what is commonly called Laudanum.
T. 0. C,  Tintura Opii  Camphorata, Camphorated  Tincture of Opium,
  formerly called Paregoric Elixir.   This tincture is now called, by the
  London College, in the  late reform of the Pharmacopoeia, edit. 1809,
  Tinctura Camphorae Composita.
Trans, through.  Cola trans chartam, filter through filtering paper.
Tussis, a cough.  Tussi molestante, when the cough is troublesome.

                                U.
Ultimus, ultima, um, the last.  Ultimo praescript, which was  last  pre-
  scribed.
Umbilicus, the navel.
Una, (an adverb,) together.
Uncia, an ounce.   Unciam cum semisse,  an ounce and a half.
Undecim,  eleven.
Unus, una, unum, one.  Unius,  of one.  Uni, to one.
Urgente tussi, when the cough is troublesome.
Urgeo, to urge, to oppress, to  be troublesome, or painful.
Usus, use.  Pergat in  usu remediorum,  continue the use  of the medi-
   cine as  before.
Usque ad, up to, as far as.
Ut,  as,  that, so that;  in the same manner as.
Utendus,  to be used.
Utatur, let him make use  of.
Uterque, utraque, utrumque, both.  Utriusque, of both.  Utrique, to
   both, to either,  Admoveantur hirundines ij tempori utrique, apply
   two leeches to each temple.
Utriuslibet, of  whichever  of the two, or more, the patient likes best.
                                V.
Vaccinatio, the act of inoculating for the cowpock.
Variolae vaccinae, the cowpock.
Vaccinum lac,  cow's  milk.
Valde,  very, very much.
Valeo,  to avail;  si non valeat, if it does  not answer.
Variolae, the small-pox.
             83 
1314
Appendix.
Varicella, the chicken-pox.
Vas, a vessel.   Vasis, of a vessel.   Vase clauso, in a covered vessel.
  Agitato vase,  shaking the vessel.
Ve, vel,  or; either: -ve is  never at the beginning but  the end  of a
  word.
Vertebrae, the joints of the neck, back or loins ;  the vertebrae altogether
  form that column of bones which is called the spine.
Verus, true, real, genuine.
Vena, vein.  Vena saphena, the ankle vein.
Venaesectio, bleeding.   Fiat venaesectio, bleed him.
V. S. B., Venaesectio brachii, bleeding in the arm.  Fiat venaesectio in
  vena  saphena, bleed the patient in the  ankle vein,—or it may be
  understood, to bleed wherever you can find the best vein, at  the top
  of the foot, to get blood from.
Vespere, in the  evening.
Vespertinus,  in  the evening; as, hora vi'a,  vespertina, at six o'clock in
  the evening.
Vehiculum, a vehicle; that  is, whatever liquid,  or any other eatable or
  drinkable  we take  a medicine in, as barley water, whey, jelly, or
  panada,  etc.
Viginti, twenty.  Vicesimus, vigesimus, the twentieth.
Vinosus, vinarius,  of wine.  Cyathus vinarius, a wineglass.
Vices, turns; ad duas vices sumendus,  to  be taken at  twice:  that is,
  half to be  taken at  first, and the other half in some time after.
Vicibus partitis.  See Partitus, in P.
Vice, in  the  room  of.   Vix, scarcely, hardly.  Ut vix sentiatur, so  that
  it can scarcely be perceivable.
Vitellus, the  yelk of an egg.
V.  0. S., Vitelli Ovi Solutum, dissolved in the yelk of an egg.
Vitrum, a glass.  Vitreus, made of glass.
Vires, strength; si vires permittant, if the strength will bear it.
Vomitio, a vomiting.   Vomitione urgente, when the vomiting is  trouble-
  some.
Vultus, the countenance.
    COMPARISON OF THE DIFFERENT THERMOMETRY SCALES.

  The Thermometer always used in  this country is that of Fahrenheit;
it is also used in parts of Germany.
  In  this instrument the range between the  freezing and boiling points
of water is  divided  into 180°, and as the greatest  possible  degree of
cold was supposed to be that produced by mixing snow and salt together,
it was made the zero.   Hence, the freezing point became 32°, and the
boiling point 212°. 
Table  of Proportionate  Doses.
1315
  The Centigrade thermometer places the zero  at the freezing point of
Avater, and divides the range between the freezing and boiling points into
100°.  This scale  has long been used in Sweden, under the title of
Celsius's thermometer, and is generally adopted on the  Continent.
  Reaumur's thermometer, which was formerly used in France, divides
the space between the freezing and boiling points of water into 80°, and
places the zero at the freezing point.  It is now little employed.
  Le  Lisle's thermometer is used  in Russia.  The graduation begins at
the boiling point, and  increases toward the freezing point.   The boiling
point  is marked 0°, and the freezing point 150°.
  To  convert the degrees of Centigrade into those of Fahrenheit, mul-
tiply by 9, divide by five, and add 32.
  To  convert the degrees  of Centigrade into those of Reaumur, multi-
ply by 4, and divide by  5.
  To  convert the degrees of Fahrenheit into  those of Centigrade, deduct
32, multiply by 5,  and divide by 9.
  To  convert the degrees of Fahrenheit into those  of Reaumur, deduct
32, divide by 9,  and multiply by 4.
  To  convert the degrees  of Reaumur into  those of Centigrade, multi-
ply by 5, and divide by  4.
  To  convert the degrees of Reaumur into  those of Fahrenheit, multi-
ply by 9, divide  by 4, and add 32.

    TABLE  OF PROPORTIONATE DOSES FOR  DIFFERENT AGES.
				GAUBIUS' TABLE.				
							Examples.	
Under -| year,			l-15th	of a	full dose.	or	4	grains.
<<	1	«<	l-12th	It	tt	tt	5	tt
<i	2	n	l-8th	tt	tt	tt	H	tt
<<	3	n	l-6th	tt	tt	a	10	tt
«<	4	n	l-5th	ti	tt	a	12	a
a	7	tt	l-3d	tt	ti	a	20	n
<<	14	a	1-half	It	tt	a	30	a
tt	20	"	2-3ds	tt	a	n	40	tt
tt	21	" the full dose					1 drachm.	
<<	63	a	ll-12ths "		a	tt	55	grains.
<(	77	"	5-6ths	it	a	n	50	(<
<<	100	tt	2-3ds	tt	ti	tt	40	a
  The following is the more simple rule of Dr. Young:
  "For children under  12 years, the dose of most medicines must be
diminished in  the proportion of the age  to  the  age  increased by 12 ;
                                                              o
Thus, at 2 years,  the dose will be l-7th of that for adults, viz:
2+12
=}->   At 21 the full dose may be given."
  7 
1316
Appendix.
  To the above rule there are certain exceptions; thus castor oil requires
to be given in larger proportionate doses, while opium  and the narcotics
generally should be administered in smaller proportionate quantities.
  Sex, temperament, and idiosyncracy have also a modifying effect upon
the dose, and they should always be  kept in view in the administration
of medicines.  Females usually require smaller doses  than males; and
persons of sanguine temperament bear depletory medicines better than
the phlegmatic.

               TABLES OF WEIGHTS AND  MEASURES.

                  apothecaries' weight,  (v. s., l. e., d.)
Pound?.	Ounces.		Drachma.		Scruples.		Grains.
a 1 =	12	=	96	=	288	=	5760
	g 1	=	8	=	24	=	■ 480
			3 1	~—	3 B 1	=	60 gr. 20
		avoirdupois		WEIGHT.			
Pounds.		Ounces.		Drachms.		Troy Grains.	
ft) 1	=	16	=	256	=	7000	
		31	=	16 3 1	__	437.5 27.3437	
RELATIVE VALUE OF TROY (OR APOTHECARIES') AND AVOIRDUPOIS WEIGHTS.
Pound.	Pound. Ounces.		Grains.		
1 Troy,	= 0 13		72.5 (Avoirdupois)		
1 Avoirdupois, = 1 2			280 (Troy.)		
	apothecaries' OR WINE measure.		(U. S., D.)		
GaUon.	Pints. Fluidounces.		Fluidrachms.		Minims.
Cong. 1	= 8 = 128	=	1024	=	61440
	01 = 16	=	128	=	7680
	ft 1	=	8	=	480
			f3 1	=	til 60
	imperial measure.				
Gallon.	Pints. Fluidounces. Fluidrachms		Minims.	Imp.	Grains.
Cong. 1	= 8 = 160 = 1280	=	76800	t	70000
	0 1= 20 = 160	=	9600	=	8750
	fg 1 = 8	=	480	=	437.5
	f3 1	—	60	=	54.7
			n *	=	0.91
 
French Dectmal Weights and Measures.        1317
relative value of apothecaries' and imperial measures.
Apothecaries' Measure.
1  gallon
1  pint
1  fluidounce
1  fluidrachm
		Imperial Measure.	
Pints.	Fluidounces	;. Fluidrachms.	Minims.
6	13	2	23
	16	5	18
	1	0	20
		1	H
         Apothecaries' Measure.

Pints.   Fluidounces  Fluidrachms. Minims.

  1
  1
Imperial Measure.

                        Gallon.
   1 gallon       =       1
   1 pint         =
   1 fluidounce   =
   1 fluidrachm   =
relative value of apothecaries' weights and measures in distilled water at 60°
                             fahrenheit.
9	5	8
3	1	38
	7	41 58
		Pounds.	Ounces.	Drachms.	Scruples.	Grains.
1 gallon 1 pint 1 fluidounce 1 fluidrachm 1 minim	=	10 1 0 0 0	1 3 0 0 0	4 1 7 0 0	0 1 1 2 0	8.88 11.11 15.69 16.96 .9493
FRENCH DECIMAL WEIGHTS AND MEASURES REDUCED TO ENGLISH.
measures and •weights.
Milligramme
Centigramme
Decigramme
Gramme
Decagramme
Hectogramme
Killogramme
Myriagramme
 English Troy Grains.
         .0154
         .1543
         1.5434
        15.4340
       154.3402
      1543.4023
=   15434.0234
=   154340.2344
lb.	oz.	dr.	gr-
0	0	2	34.3
0	3	1	43.4
2	8	1	14
26	9	4	20
 
1318
Appendix.
		measures of length.					
	The metre being at 32		=>, and the foot at 62°.				
		English Dacb.es.					
Millimetre	=	.03937					
Centimetre	=	.39371					
Decimetre	=	3.93710	Miles.	Fur.	Yds.	Ft.	Inches.
Metre	=	39.37100	= 0	0	1	0	3.371
Decametre	=	393.71000	= 0	0	10	2	9.710
Hectometre	=	3937.10000	= 0	0	109	1	1.100
Kilometre	=	39371.00000	= 0	4	213	1	11.000
Myriametre	=	393710.00000	= 6	1	156	1	2.000
		measures of capacity.					
		English Cubic Inches.			Apothecaries' Measure.		
Millitre	=	.061028	=		16.2318	minims	
Centilitre	=	.610280	=		2.7053 fluidrachms.		
Decilitre	=	6.102800	=		3.3816 fluidounces.		
Litre	=	61.028000	=		2.1135	pints.	
Decalitre	—	610.280000	=		2.6419	gallons	
Hectolitre	=	6102.800000					
Kilolitre	=	61028.000000					
Myrialitre	=	610280.000000					
                  APPROXIMATE MEASUREMENTS.
            A teacup        is estimated to contain  fgiv, or a gill.
            A wineglass          "          "      fgij.
            A tablespoon (cochlear magnum) "      fgss.
            A teaspoon (cochlear parvum)   "      f3j.

 TABLE EXHIBITING THE NUMBER OF DROPS OF  DIFFERENT LIQUIDS EQUIYA-
                        LENT TO A FLUIDRACHM.
  Liquid medicines, in small  quantities, are  frequently estimated by
drops, which are often incorrectly considered equivalent  to  a minim, or
the sixtieth part of a fluidrachm.  The drop of water and of watery fluids
is, on an average, about this size; but this is by no means the case with
all liquids.  Even in the  same liquid the size of the drop varies, accord-
ing to the shape of the vessel, and of its mouth, from which it is dropped.
The following table was compiled by Mr. E.  Durand, of Philadelphia.
                              Drops.
Acid, acetic (crystallizable)........ 120
Acid, hydrocyanic (medicinal)......45
Acid, muriatic,....................54
Acid, nitric....................... 84
Acid, nitric, diluted, (1 to 7)........ 51
Acid, sulphuric.................... 90
                             Drops.
Acid, sulphuric, (aromatic)........120
Acid, sulphuric, diluted, (1 to 7)...  51
Alcohol (rectified spirit)........... 138
Alcohol, diluted (proof spirit)...... 120
Arseuite of potassa, solution of,....  57
Chloroform,................250 to 300 
Composition of Mineral Waters.
1319
                               Drops.
Vinegar of squill,.................78
Water, distilled,...................45
Water of ammonia (strong).........54
Water of ammonia (weak).......... 45
Wine (Teneriffe)................... 78
Wine, antimonial.................. 72
Wine of colchicum................75
Wine of opium....................  78
A TABLE EXHIBITING  THE  COMPOSITION OF THE PRINCIPAL NATURAL  MINERAL
                WATERS OF EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES.
  1.  Carbonated Waters, are such as  contain  an excess of  carbonic
acid, which gives them a sparkling appearance and the power of redden-
ing  litmus paper.   These waters  frequently contain the  carbonate of
iron, lime and magnesia, whieh are held in solution  by the excess of
carbonic  acid, and which are deposited when the water is boiled, or ex-
posed for some time to the air.
                                                               In a wine pint.
                                         Solid contents.
                                      Carbonate of Soda,      grains 1.5
                                      Carbonate of Magnesia,........4.5
                                      Carbonate of Lime,............  1.5
                                      Chloride of Sodium,...........  0.2
                                      Oxide of Iron,................  0.6
                                                       Total,......8.3
                                                               [Bergmann.

                                           Mont D'Or.—(France.)
                                        Four springs, the temperature of which
                                      respectively, is 107°, 109°,  113°, and
                                      52° F.
                                                 Madeleine Spring.      5
                                                            In a Parisian pint.
                                      Carbonic Acid,..........grains  4.64
                                      Carbonate of Soda,...........  6.75
                                      Sulphate of Soda,............2.04
                                      Muriate of  Soda,.............  5.18
                                      Alumina,...............•.....2.21
                                      Carbonate of Lime,...........  4.14
                                      Carbonate of Magnesia,.......:  1.36
                                      Oxide of Iron,................0.40
      Seltzer .— ( Germany.)
                         In a wine pint.
Carbonic acid,    cubic inches  17
   Solid contents.
Carbonate of Soda,      grains   4
Carbonate of Magnesia,.........  5
Carbonate of Lime,.............  8
Chloride of Sodium,...........  17
                    Total,....  29
                          [Bergmann.

      Pyrmont.—( Germany.)
         Temperature, 55° F.
                          In a wine pint.
Carbonic Acid,    cubic inches 26
    Solid contents.
Carbonate of Magnesia, grains 10.0
Carbonate of Lime,............  4.5
Sulphate of Magnesia,.........  5.5
Sulphate of Lime,.............  8.5
Chloride of Sodium,...........  1.5
Oxide of Iron.................  0.6
                               Drops.
Ether, sulphuric..................  15°
Oil of aniseed, cinnamon, cloves, pep-
  permint, sweet almonds, and olives 120
Tincture  of assafcetida,  foxglove,
  guaiac, and  opium.............  120
Tincture of chloride of iron.......  132
Vinegar, distilled.................   78
Vinegar of colchicum.............   78
Vinegar of opium (black drop).....   78
                  Total.....30.6
                          [Bergmann.

         Spa.—( Belgium.)
         Temperature 50° F.
                         Da a wine pint.
Carbonic Acid,    cubic inches. 13
                  Total,.... 26.72

         Vichy.—(France.)
   The  temperature   of  the  different
 springs, varies from  72°  to  114°  F.
 They all contain carbonic acid, carbon-
 ates of lime, magnesia, and soda, sul-
I phate of soda and muriate of soda. 
1320
Appendix.
Sweet Springs.—(Virginia.)
    Temperature, 73° F.
Carbonic Acid,
Sulphate of Magnesia,
Muriate of Soda,
Muriate of Lime,
Sulphate of Lime,
In a quart.
grs. 12 to 15
                             In a quart.
Carbonate of Magnesia,   ~)
Carbonate of Lime,      I grs. 18 to 24
Silicious Earth,          j
Iron,................... grains }£ to 1
                            [Rouelle.
  II.  Sulphureted Waters, or  such as contain sulphureted hydrogen,
are  distinguished  by  their  peculiar fetid smell, and by  their yielding
brown precipitates with the  salts of lead and silver.
 Aix-la-Chapelle.—( Germany.)

     Temperature, 110° to 143° F.
                          In a wine pint.
Sulphureted Hydrogen,  cu. in., 5.5
 Solid contents.
Carbonate of Soda,       grains 12
Carbonate of Lime,.............4.75
Chloride of  Sodium,.............5
                  Total,.......2175
                          [Bergmann.

Harrowgate, Old Well.—(Eng.)
  Gaseous contents.          In a wine gallon.
Sulphureted Hydrogen, cu. in. 14
Carbonic Acid,.................4.25
Nitrogen,........................  8
Carbureted Hydrogen,...........  4.15
                    Total,..... 30.40
  Solid contents.
Chloride of Sodium,     grains 752
Chloride of Calcium,........... 65.75
Chloride of Magnesium,........ 29.3
Bicarbonate of Soda,........... 12.8
                    Total,.... 859.75

   White Sulphur.—( Virginia.)
         Temperature, 62° F.
  Gaseous contents.          In a wine gallon.
Sulphureted Hydrogen,   cu.  in. 2.5
Carbonic Acid,.................  2
Oxygen,........................ 1.448
Nitrogen,....................... 3.552

                     Total,..... 9.5
  Solid contents.                  In a pint.
Sulphate of Magnesia,      grains 5.588
Sulphate of Lime,............... 7.744
  Solid contents.                 In a pint.
Carbonate of Lime,.............. 1.150
Chloride  of Calcium............. 0.204
Chloride  of Sodium,............. 0.180
Oxide of Iron,................a trace.
Loss,..........................   0.410
                       Total,.. 15.276
                  [Prof. W. B. Rogers.

    Red Sulphur.—( Virginia)
         Temperature, 54° F.
 Gaseous contents.       In an imperial gallon.
Sulphureted Hydrogen,     cu. in. 4.54
Carbonic Acid,.................. 8.75
Nitrogen,....................... 4.25
 Solid contents.           Da 32 cubic inches.
Sulphate of Soda,
Sulphate of Lime,
Sulphate of Magnesia,  >   grains 1.25
Carbonate of Lime,
Muriate of  Soda,
                  [Prof. W. B. Rogers.

   -Salt Sulphur.—( Virginia.)
       Temperature 49° to 56° F.
  Gaseous contents.             In 100 cu. in.
Sulph. Hydrogen,   cu.  in. 1.10 to 1.50
Nitrogen,....................... 2.05
Oxygen,........................ 0.27
Carbonic Acid,.................. 5.65
  Solid contents.
Sulphate of Lime,        grains 36.755
Sulphate of Magnesia,..........  7.883
Sulphate of Soda,..............  9.682
Carbonate of Lime,.............  4.445
Carbonate of Magnesia,.........  1.434
Chloride of Magnesium,........  0.116
Chloride of Sodium,............  0.683
Chloride of Calcium,...........  0.025 
Composition of  Mineral  Waters.            1321
  Solid contents.                              Gaseous contents.  (Amount not given.)
Peroxide of Iron, from Protosulph., 0.042 i Sulphureted Hydrogen,
An azotized organic matter, blend-
    ed with  sulphur, about,.....   4
Earthy Phosphates,............ a trace.
Iodine,.......................   "
                 [Prof. W. B. Rogers.

   Warm Springs.—( Virginia.)
         Temperature, 98° F.
  Gaseous contents.              In a gallon.
Sulphureted Hydrogen,    cu. in. 0.25
Nitrogen,........f............... 3.25
Carbonic Acid,................... 1.00
  Solid contents.
Muriate of Lime,..........grains 3.968
Sulphate of  Magnesia,........... 9.984
Carbonate of Lime,.............. 4.288
Sulphate of  Lime,............... 5.466
Soda,......................... a trace.
Carbonic Acid,
Oxygen,
Nitrogen.
[Prof. W. B. Rogers.
  Sharon Springs.—(New  York.)

            White Sulphur.
         Temperature, 48° F.
                       In a wine gallon
Sulphureted Hydrogen,  cu. in. 20.5
  Solid contents.
Bicarbonate of Magnesia,    grs. 24.0
Sulphate of Magnesia,.......... 34.0
Sulphate of Lime,.............. 85.4
Hydrosulphate of Magnesia and
    Lime,.....................  3.0
Chloride of Sodium and Magne-
    sium, .....................  2.7
                     Total,.... 23.706
                 [Prof. W. B. Rogers.

   Blue Sulphur.—( Virginia.)
     Solid contents.  (Amount not given.)
Sulphate of Lime,
Sulphate of Magnesia,
Sulphate of Soda,
Carbonate of Lime,
Carbonate of Magnesia,
Chloride of Magnesium,
Chloride of Sodium,
Chloride of Calcium,
Hydrosulphate of Soda and Magnesia,
Protosulphate of Iron,
Iodine,
Sulphur,
Organic Matters.

   III.  Chalybeate Waters are  characterized by their inky taste, and
by striking a blue-black color with an infusion of galls, and  a blue color
with ferrocyanuret of potassium.   The  iron is generally in  the  state of
carbonate of  the  protoxide, held  in solution in the water by excess of
carbonic acid.  By standing or boiling, the carbonic acid is driven off,
and  the protoxide, by absorbing  oxygen,  is precipitated as  a hydrated
sesquioxide, of an ochreous color.
                  Total,......  1.491

           Magnesia Springs.
         Temperature, 48° F.
                       In a wine gallon.
Sulphureted Hydrogen,   cu. in. 3.3
  Solid contents.
Bicarbonate of Magnesia,    grs. 30.5
Sulphate of Magnesia,.......... 22.7
Sulphate of Lime,.............. 76.0
Hydrosulphate of Magnesia and
    Lime,..................... 0.5
Chloride of Sodium and Magne-
    sium, .....................  3.0
Total,.
132.7
 Tunbridge Wells.—(England.)
 Solid contents.           In a wine gallon.
Chloride of Sodium,...... grains 2.46
Chloride of Calcium,...........0.39
  Solid contents.           In a wine gallon
Chloride of Magnesium,......... 0.29
Sulphate of Lime,............... 1.41
Carbonate of Lime,.............. 0.27 
1322
Appendix.
  Solid contents.            In a wine gallon.
Oxide of Iron,..................2.22
Manganese, Silica, etc.,.......... 0.44
Loss............................ 0.13

                      Total..... 7.61
                          [Scudamore.

      Brighton.—(England.)
                          In a wine pint.
Carbonic Acid,.......... cub. in. 2.5
  Solid contents.
Sulphate of Iron,...........grs. 1.80
Sulphate of Lime,.............. 4.09
Chloride of Sodium,............. 1.53
Chloride of Magnesium,......... 0.75
Silica,.......................... 0.14
Loss,........................... 0.19

                    Total,......   8.5
                              [Marcet.

     Cheltenham.—(England.)
           Chalybeate Spring.
                          In a wine pint.
Carbonic Acid,......... cub. in.  2.5
  Solid contents.
Carbonate of Soda,..........grs. 0.5
Sulphate of Soda,..............22.7
Sulphate of Magnesia,..........    6
Sulphate of Lime,.............. 2.5
Chloride of Sodium,............  41.3
Oxide of Iron,.................  0.8

                     Total,.....  73.8
                    [Brande <fe Parkes.

    Bedford.—( Pennsylvania.)
          Anderson's Spring.
         Temperature, 55° F.
                        In a wine gallon.
Carbonic Acid,......... cub. in. 74
  Solid contents.
Sulphate of Magnesia,       grs. 80
Sulphate of Lime,.............. 14.5
Chloride of  Sodium............. 10
Chloride of Calcium,...........  3
Carbonate of Lime,.............  8
Carbonate of Iron,.............  5

                     Total,.... 120.5
                          [Dr. Church.
  Or according to J. Cheston Morris-
One pint of the water evaporated at 240°
F., yields of solid residuum :—
Carbonate of Lime...........  2.120
Sulphate of Lime,........... 11.274
Sulphate of Magnesia,........  3.974
Sulphates  of Alumina and Iron,  1.280
Sulphate of Soda,............  3.092
Chloride of Sodium,..........  0.343
Free Sulphuric acid,..........  0.128
Organic Matter and Silica,.....  a trace

                    Total,.... 22.201
 Schooley's Mountain.—(N. J.)
         Temperature, 50° F.
 Solid contents.              In a wine pint.
Muriate of Soda........... grs.  0.43
Muriate of Lime,..............  2.40
Muriate of Magnesia,..........  0.50
Carbonate of Lime,............  7.99
Sulphate of Lime,.............  0.65
Carbonate of Magnesia,........  0.40
Silica,........................  0.80
Carbonate of Iron,.............  2.00
Extractive,....................  0.92
Loss,.........................  0.41

                      Total,.... 16.50
   Balston Spa.—(New York.)

          Sans Souci Spring.
         Temperature, 50° F.
  Solid contents.            In a wine Gallon.
Chloride of Sodium,.....grs., 143.733
Bicarbonate of Soda,..........  12.66
Bicarbonate of Magnesia,......  39.10
Carbonate of Lime,...........  43.407
Carbonate of Iron,............   5.95
Iodide of Sodium,............   1.30
Silica,.......................   1
                     Total.... 247.15
                              [Steel.
  IV. Saline Waters comprise those which contain a sufficient amount
of neutral salts to give them  a  marked, and generally a  purgative 
Composition  of Mineral Waters.
1323
operation. The salts most usually present are the sulphates and carbonates
of lime, magnesia, and soda,  and the chlorides of calcium, sodium, and
magnesium.  Iodine and bromine have been found in a few saline springs;
and some of them  contain carbonic  acid and iron, which  might entitle
them to  be classified, respectively, with the carbonated or  chalybeate
waters.
      Plombieres.—(France.)
      Temperature, 90° to 144° F.
  Solid contents.                 In a pint.
Carbonate of Soda,.......grains  2.16
Sulphate of Soda,...............2.33
Chloride of Sodium,............  1.25
Carbonate of Lime,.............  0.50
Silica,.........................  1-33
Animal  Matter,.................  1.50

                    Total,......9.07
                          [Vauqtjelin.

      Carlsbad.—(Bohemia.)

         Temperature, 165° F.
  Solid contents.             In a wine pint.
Carbonate of Lime,......grains   4.15
Sulphate of Soda,..............41.51
Chloride of Sodium,...........   5.33
Carbonate of Soda,.............  11-76
Lithia (Berzelius)..............a trace
                          [Bergmann.


       Seidlitz.—(Bohemia.)
  Solid contents.              In a wine pint.
Sulphate of Magnesia,.,  grains 180
Sulphate of Lime,............   5
Carbonate of Magnesia,........   2.5
Carbonate of Lime,.......---   0.8
Chloride of Magnesium,.......   4.5

                    Total,.... 192.8
                           [Bergmann.

     Cheltenham.—(England.)
            Saline Spring.
  SoHd contents.             In a wine pint.
Sulphate of Soda,.......  grains 15
Sulphate of Magnesia,.......... 11
Sulphate of Lime,..............  4.5
Chloride of Sodium,............50

                    Total,.....80.5
                    [Parkes & Brande.
        Bath.—(England.)
     Temperature, 100° to 10u° F.
                         In a wine pint,
Carbonic Acid,..........  cub. in. 1.2
  Solid contents.
Carbonate of Lime,.......... grs. 0.8
Sulphate of Soda,................ 1.4
Sulphate of Lime,............... 9-3
Chloride of Sodium,............. 3.4
Silica,..........................°-2
Oxide of Iron,.................a trace.

                       Total,..  15.1
                            [Phillips.

     Hot Springs.—( Virginia.)
      Temperature 98° to 106° F.
    Solid contents (the quantity not given.)
Carbonate of Lime,
Carbonate of  Magnesia,
Carbonate of  Iron,
Sulphate of Lime,
Sulphate of Soda,
Sulphate of Magnesia,
Free Nitrogen.
                 [Prof. W. B. Rogers.

     Saratoga.—(New  York.)
           Congress Spring.
  Gaseous contents         In a wine gallon.
Carbonic Acid,........cub. in. 311
Atmospheric  Air,.............   7

                  Total,____318
  Solid contents.
Chloride of Sodium,......grs. 385
Iodide of Sodium,............   3.5
Bicarbonate of Soda,..........   8.982
Bicarbonate of Magnesia,......  95.788
Carbonate of  Lime,............  98.098
Carbonate of  Iron,............   5.075
Silica,.......................   L5
Bromide of Potassium,........  a  trace.

                    Total,.... 597.943
                              [Steel. 
1324
Appendix.
   Saratoga.—(Iodine Spring.)
  Gaseous contents.          In a wine gallon.
Carbonic Acid,........cub. in. 336
Atmospheric Air,.............   4

               Total,........340
  Solid contents.
Chloride of Sodium,......grs. 187
Carbonate of Magnesia,.......   75
Carbonate of Lime,...........   26
Carbonate of Soda,...........   2
Carbonate of Iron,............   1
Iodine,......................   3.5
Total,.
......294.5
[Prof. Emmons,
  Saratoga.—(Pavilion Spring.)
  Gaseous contents.          In a wine gallon.
Carbonic Acid,........cub. in. 359.05
Atmospheric Air,.............   5.03
                Total,........
 Solid contents.
Chloride of Sodium,......grs.
Carbonate of Soda,............
Carbonate of Lime,........
Carbonate of Magnesia,........
Carbonate of Iron,..........
Sulphate of Soda,.............
Iodide of Sodium,............
Alumina,....................
Silica,.......................
Phosphate of Lime,...........
Bromide of Potassium,........
364.08

187.68
  4.92
 52.84
 56.92
  3.51
  1.48
  2.59
  0.42
  1.16
  0.19
a trace.
Total,.......
    [Dr. J. R.
 311.71
Chilton.
   Saratoga.—( Union Spring.)
  Gaseous contents.         In a wine gallon.
Carbonic Acid,.........cub. in. 314.16
Atmospheric Air,..............   4.62

                Total,........318.78

  Solid contents.
Chloride of Sodium,......grs. 243.620
Carbonate of Magnesia,........  84.265
Carbonate of Lime,...........  41.600
Carbonate of Soda,............  12.800
Carbonate of Iron,............   5.452
Iodide of Sodium, or Iodine,...   3.600
Silica and Alumina,...........   1.570
Bromide of Potassium,........ a trace.
Total,.......392.907
   [Dr. J. R. Chilton.
 Sea Water.—(English  Channel.)
                         In 1000 grains.
Water,................... grs.  964.744
Chloride of Sodium,...........   27.059
Chloride of Potassium,........   0.765
Chloride of Magnesium,.......   3.667
Bromide of Magnesium,.......   0.029
Sulphate of Magnesia,........   2.296
Sulphate of Lime,............   1.407
Carbonate of Lime,............   0.033
Total,........1000.000
          [Schweitzer.
  V. Acidulous Waters.   This division of Mineral Waters is intended
to comprise such as contain a free acid, other than carbonic acid.   They
are, comparatively, of rare occurrence.   The following is an  analysis of
Sulphuric Acid Springs, lately brought into notice :
Oak  Orchard Springs.—(N.  Y.)
                            In a gallon.
Free Sulphuric Acid,......grs. 82.96
Sulphate of Lime,............. 39.60
Protosulphate of Iron,.......... 14.32
Sulphate of Alumina,..........  9.68
Sulphate of Magnesia,..........  8.28
                           Da a gallon.
Silica,.........................  1-04
Organic Extractive Matters,......  3.28

                 Total,........16.032
                    Dr. J. R. Chilton.
   The Alum  Spring of Virginia, is also
stated to contain free sulphuric acid.
  VI. Siliceous Waters.   These Mineral Waters are  extremely rare;
and  in  those  hitherto  discovered, the  silica  appears to  have been 
Composition of  Mineral Waters.
1325
dissolved by means of Soda.   The  most  remarkable  of these are the
boiling springs of  Geyser, in  Iceland, of which the  following  is the
analysis, as given by Black.  (Edin. Phil. Trans, iii. 95.)

  Solid contents.                                                   In a gallon.
Soda,.............................................................grs.  5.56
Alumina,.............................................................  2.80
Silica,................................................................ 31.50
Muriate of Soda,...................................................... 14.42
Sulphate of Soda,.....................................................  8.57

                                                          Total,.... 62.85
  In addition to the above, the following qualitative analyses have  been
recently made:
Sulphur Spring. (Nashville, Tenn.)
Sulphureted Hydrogen,
Carbonic Acid,
Hydrochloric Acid,
Sulphuric Acid,
Magnesia as a Sulphate,
Soda, as a Hydrochlorate.
                      [Prof. Bowen.

Sam's  Creek Spring.—(Davidson
              County.)
Sulphureted Hydrogen,
Carbonic Acid,
Sulphate of Lime,
Hydrochlorate of Soda.
                      [Prof. Troost.

Tyree's Springs.—(Davidson Co.)
Sulphureted Hydrogen,
Carbonic Acid,
Sulphate of Lime,
Sulphate of Magnesia,
Carbonate of Lime,
Hydrochlorate of Soda.
                      [Prof. Troost.
   Shelby Chalybeate Spring.
           (Nashville.)
  Temperature of spring, 61°, while the
air was 90.°
Carbonic Acid, free,
Carbonate of Iron,
Carbonate of Magnesia,
Carbonate of Lime,
Chloride of Sodium,
Sulphate of Magnesia.
                 [Richard 0. Currey.


Bayley's Spring.—(Florence, Ala.)
Carbonic Acid, 324 cubic inches  in  a
  gallon,
Carbonate of Magnesia,
Carbonate of Soda,
Carbonate of Iron,
Carbonate of Potassa, according to Prof.
  Tuomey,
Iodine, at least 3 grains to the gallon,
Chloride of Sodium.
                 [Richard 0. Ccrret.
  These  last springs, at Florence, are noted for their efficacy in scrofu-
lous and dropsical diseases. 
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Hydrometrical Equivalents.           1327
HYDROMETRICAL EQUIVALENTS.
	100 parts	contain of	1000 parts				Per Cent, of
	Alcohol		contain of				Alcohol.
Sp, Gr. at 60° Pah.	Sp. Gr.	Water.	Standard	Sikes.	Baume.	Cartier.	Sp. Gr. 796
	796.		Ale. Sp.				by volume.
	By Weight.		Gr. 825.				Gay
							Lussac.
796	100	0			46.5	43.48	100
797	99.5	.5					99.75
798	99	1			46	43.06	99.50
799	98.67	1.33					99.25
800	98.33	1.67					99
801	98	2					98.75
802	97.67	2.33			45	42.14	98.50
803	97.33	2.67				42	98.28
804	97	3					98.15
805	96.67	3.33					98
806	96.33	3.67					97.80
806.5	96.17	3.83			44	41.21	97.70
807	96	4					97.60
808	95.5	4.5				41	97.40
809	95	5					97.29
809.5	94.89	5.10					97.10
810	94.67	5.33					97
811	94.33	5.67			43	40.34	96.75
812	94	6					96.50
813	93.67	6.33				40	96.25
814	93.33	6.67					96
815	93	7					95.75
816	92.5	7.5			42	39.40	95.50
817	92	8					95.25
818	91.67	8.33					95
818.6	91.5	8.5				39	94.90
819	91.33	8.67					94.75
820	91	9					94.50
821	90.5	9.5			41	38.46	94.25
822	90	10					94
823	89.67	10.33				38	93.75
824	89.33	10.67					93.50
825	89	11	1000	63 0. P.	40	37.55	93.25
826	88.5	11.5	993	62			93
827	88	12	988.5	61.5		37	92.6
828	87.67	12.33	984	61	39.5		92.3
829	87.33	12.67	979.5	60.5	39	36.63	92
830	87	13	975	60			91.7
831	86.5	13.5	970.5	69.5	38.5	36.17	91.35
832	86	14	966	59		36	91
833	85.67	14.33	961.5	58.3			90.65
834	85.33	14.67	957	58	38	35.72	90.3
835	85	15	953	57.5			90
836	84.67	15.33	949	57	37.5	35.26	89.7
837	84.33	15.67	944.5	56.5			89.35
837.6	84.25	15.75	942.5	56.3		35	89.20
 
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1330
Appendix.
Sp. Gr. at 60° Fah.	100 parts Alcohol Sp. Gr. 796. By W	contain of Water. eight.	1000 parts contain of Standard Ale. Sp. Gr. 825.	Sikes.	Baume.	Cartier.	Per Cent. < Alcohol, Sp. Gr. 79 by volume Gay Lussac.
926	46	54	521	6 U. P.	21	20.10	55
927	45.5	54.5	515.5	6.5			54.5
928	45	55	510	7			54
929	44.5	55.5	505	8			53.5
929.5	44.25	55.75	502.5	8.5	20.5	19.64	53.25
930	44	56	500	9			53
931	43.67	56.33	495.5	10			52.5
932	43.33	56.67	489	11			52
933	43	57	484	12	20	19.18	51.5
934	42.5	57.5	479	13		19	51
935	42	58	472.5	14			50.5
936	41.5	58.5	468	15	19.5	18.72	50
937	41	59	462	16			49.5
938	40.5	59.5	456	17			49
939	40	60	450	18	19	18.26	48.5
940	39.5	60.5	444	19			48
940.5	39.25	60.75	441	19.5		18	47.63
941	39	61	438	20			47.26
942	38.5	61.5	432	21	18.5	17.80	46.5
943	38	62	426.5	22			45.5
944	37.5	62.5	421	23			45
945	37	63	416	23.5	18	17.35	44.75
946	36.5	63.5	411	24			44
947	36	64	399	25		17	43.5
948	35.5	64.5	397	26	17.5	16.89	43
949	35	65	389.5	27			42.25
950	34.5	65.5	382	28			41.5
951	34	66	376	29.5	17	16.43	40
952	33.5	66.5	370	31			40.5
953	33	67	364	32.5			39.75
954	32.5	67.5	358	34			39
955	32	68	352	35	16.5	16.3	38.5
956	31.5	68.5	346	36		16	38
957	31	69	339.5	37.5			37.25
958	30	70	333	39			36.5
959	29.5	70.5	324	40.5	16	15.51	35.75
960	29	71	315	42			35
961	28.5	71.5	307.5	43.5			34.5
962	28	72	300	45	15.5	15	34
963	27	73	292.5	46.5			33
964	26.5	73.5	285	48			32
965	26	74	277.5	49.5	15	14.59	31
966	25.5	74.5	270	51			30
967	25	75	261.5	52.5			29
968	24	76	253	64			28
968.5	23.75	76.25			14.5	14.13	27.5
969	23.5	76.5	244.5	55.5	1		27
970	23	77	236	57			26
 
Hydrometrical Equivalents.               1331
Sp. Gr. at 60° Fah.	100 parts Alcohol J Sp. Gr. 796 | By W	contain of Water. sight.	1000 parts contain of Standard Ale. Sp. Gr. 825.	Sikes.	Baume'	Cartier.	Per cent, of Alcohol. Sp. Gr. 796 by volume. Gay Lussac.
971	22.5	77.5	227	58.5U.P.			25
972	22	78	218	60	14	13.67	24
973	21	79	209	62			23
974	20	80	200	64			22
975	19	81	195	66	13.5	13.21	21
976	18.5	81.5	190.5	68			20
977	18	82	183.5	70			19
978	17	83	175	72	13	12.76	18
979	16	84	163	73.5			17
980	15.5	84.5	150	75			16
981	15	85	143	76			15
982	14	86	135	77	12.5	12.30	14
983	13.5	86.5	128	78.5			13
984	13	87	120	80			12
985	12.5	87.5	112	81			11.25
986	12	88	105	82	12	11.84	10.5
987	11	89	98	83.5			9.75
988	10	90	90	85			9
989	9	91	82	87	11.5	11.38	8
990	8	92	75	89			7
991	7	93	67.5	90.5			6.5
992	6	94	60	92			6
993	5.5	94.5	52.5	93.5	11	10.92	6
994	5	95	45	95			4
995	4	96	37.5	95.5			3.5
996	3.5	96.5	30	96	10.5	10.46	3
997	3	97	22.5	97			2
998	2	98	15	98			1
999	1	99	7.5	99			.5
1000	0	100	0	100	10	10	0
Table of the Quantity of Liquid Muriatic Acid of sp. gr. 1.2, of Muriaiic Acid
 Gas, and of Chlorine, in 100 parts of Liquid Acid of different densities.
	Liquid				Liquid		
Sp. Gr.	Acid of Sp. gr. 1.2.	Acid Gas.	Chlorine.	Sp. Gr.	Acid of Sp. gr. 1.2.	Acid Gas.	Chlorine.
1.2000	100	40.777	39.675	1.1102	55	21.822	22.426
1.1910	95	38.738	37.692	1.1000	50	20.388	19.837
1.1822	90	36.700	35.707	1.0899	45	88.348	17.854
1.1721	85	34.660	33.724	1.0798	40	16.310	15.870
1.1701	84	34.252	33.328	1.0697	35	14.271	13.887
1.1620	80	32.621	31.746	1.0597	30	12.233	11.903
1.1599	79	32.213	31.343	1.0497	25	10.194	9.919
1.1515	75	30.582	29.757	1.0397	20	8.155	7.935
1.1410	70	28.544	27.772	1.0298	15	6.116	5.951
1.1308	65	26.504	25.789	1.0200	10	4.078	3.968
1.1206	60	24.466	23.805	1.0100	5	2.039	1.984
 
1332
Appendix.
Quantities of Anhydrous  and of  Liquid  Sulphuric Acid  contained in
 Mixtures of Oil  of Vitriol and  Water  at different Densities.  ( Ure.)
	Liq. Acid				
Specific	Sp. Gr.	Dry Acid in	Specific	jiq. Acid	Dry Acid in
Gravity.	1.8485 in 100.	100	Gravity.	in 100.	100.
1.8485	100	81.54	1.3884	50	40.77
1.8475	99	80.72	1.3788	49	39.95
1.8460	98	79.90	1.3697	48	39.14
1.8439	97	79.09	1.3612	47	38.32
1.8410	96	78.28	1.3530	46	37.51
1.8376	95	77.46	1.3440	45	36.69
1.8336	94	76.65	1.3345	44	35.88
1.8290	93	75.83	1.3255	43	35.06
1.8233	92	75.02	1.3165	42	34.25
1.8179	91	74.20	1.3080	41	33.43
1.8115	90	73.39	1.2999	40	32.61
1.8043	89	72.57	1.2913	39	31.80
1.7962	88	71.75	1.2826	38	30.98
1.7870	87	70.94	1.2740	37	30.17
1.7774	86	70.12	1.2654	36	29.35
1.7673	85	69.31	1.2572	35	28.54
1.7570	84	68.49	1.2490	34	27.72
1.7465	83	67.68	1.2409	33	26.91
1.7360	82	66.86	1.2334	32	26.09
1.7245	81	66.05	1.2260	31	25.28
1.7100	80	65.23	1.2184	30	24.46
1.6993	79	64.42	1.2108	29	23.65
1.6870	78	63.60	1.2032	28	22.83
1.6750	77	62.78	1.1956	27	22.01
1.6630	76	61.97	1.1876	26	21.20
1.6520	75	61.15	1.1792	25	20.38
1.6415	74	60.34	1.1706	24	19.57
1.6321	73	59.52	1.1626	23	18.75
1.6204	72	58.71	1.1549	22	17.94
1.6090	71	57.89	1.1480	21	17.12
1.5975	70	57.08	1.1410	20	16.31
1.5868	69	56.26	1.1330	19	15.49
1.5760	68	55.45	1.1246	18	14.68
1.5648	67	54.63	1.1165	17	13.86
1.5503	66	53.82	1.1090	16	13.05
1.5390	65	53.00	1.1019	15	12.23
1.5280	64	52.18	1.0953	14	11.41
1.5170	63	51.37	1.0887	13	10.60
1.5066	62	50.55	1.0809	12	9.78
1.4960	61	49.74	1.0743	11	8.97
1.4860	60	48.92	1.0682	10	8.15
1.4760	59	48.11	1.0614	9	7.34
1.4660	58	47.29	1.0544	8	6.52
1.4560	57	46.48	1.0477	7	5.71
1.4460	56	45.66	1.0405	6	4.89
1.4360	55	44.85	1.0336	5	4.08
1.4265	54	44.03	1.0268	4	3.26
1.4170	53	43.22	1.0206	3	2.446
1.4073	52	42.40	1.0140	2	1.63
1.3977	51	41.58	U 1.0074	1	0.8154
 
Specific Gravities.
1333
Quantities of Anhydrous  and of Liquid  Nitric Acid contained in Mix-
    tures of Nitric Acid  and  Water at different  Densities.   ( Ure.)
	Liq. Acid				
Specific	Sp. Gr.	Dry Acid in	Specific	Liq. Acid	Dry Acid in
Gravity.	1.5 in 100.	100.	Gravity.	in 100.	100.
1.5000	100	79.700	1.2947	50	39.850
1.4980	99	78.903	1.2887	49	39.053
1.4960	98	78.106	1.2826	48	38.256
1.4940	97	77.309	1.2765	47	37.459
1.4910	96	76.512	1.2705	46	36.662
1.4880	95	75.715	1.2644	45	35.865
1.4850	94	74.918	1.2583	44	35.068
1.4820	93	74.121	1.2523	43	34.271
1.4790	92	73.324	1.2462	42	33.474
1.4760	91	72.527	1.2402	41	32.677
1.4730	90	71.730	1.2341	40	31.880
1.4700	89	70.933	1.2277	39	31.083
1.4670	88	70-136	1.2212	38	30.286
1.4640	87	69.339	1.2148	37	29.489
1.4600	86	68.542	1.2084	36	28.692
1.4570	85	67.745	1.2019	35	27.895
1.4530	84	66.948	1.1958	34	27.098
1.4500	83	66.135	1.1895	33	26.301
1.4460	82	65-354	1.1833	32	25.504
1.4424	81	64.557	1.1770	31	24.707
1.4385	80	63-760	1.1709	30	23.900
1.4346	79	62.963	1.1648	29	23.113
1.4306	78	62.166	1.1587	28	22.316
1.4269	77	61.369	1.1426	27	21.519
1.4228	76	60.572	1.1465	26	20.722
1.4189	75	59.775	1.1403	25	19.925
1.4147	74	58-978	1.1345	24	19.128
1.4107	73	58.181	1.1286	23	18.331
1.4065	72	57.384	1.1227	22	17.534
1.4023	71	56.587	1.1168	21	16.737
1.3978	70	55-790	1.1109	20	15.940
1.3945	69	54.993	1.1051	19	15.143
1.3882	68	54.196	1.0993	18	14.346
1.3833	67	53.399	1.0935	17	13.549
1.3783	66	52.602	1.0878	16	12.752
1.3732	65	51.805	1.0821	15	11.955
1.3681	64	51-068	1.0764	14	11.158
1.3630	63	50.211	1.0708	13	10.361
1.3579	62	49.414	1.0651	12	9.564
1.3529	61	48.617	1.0595	11	8.767
1.3477	60	47.820	1.0540	10	7.970
1.3427	59	47.023	1.0485	9	7.173
1.3376	58	46.226	1.0430	8	6.376
1.3323	57	45.429	1.0375	7	5.579
1.3270	56	44.632	1.0320	6	4.782
1.3216	55	43.835	1.0267	5	3.985
1.3163	54	43.038	1.0212	4	3.188
1.3110	53	42.241	1.0159	3	2.391
1.3056	52	41.444	1.0106	2	1.594
1.3001	51	40.647	1.0053	1	0.797
 
1334                          Appendix.
Value  and  Atomic  Composition of Hydrochloric Acid at  Different
                             Densities.
DAVY. J			rilOMSON.	
(Temp. 40° Bar. 30.)				
Specific Gravity.	100 grains contain of	Specific Gravity.	Real Acid in 100 of	Atoms of Water
	Hydroc. Acid Gas.		Liquid.	to 1 of Acid.
1.21	42.43	1.203	40.66	6
1.20	40.80	1.179	37.00	7
1.19	38.38	1.162	33.95	8
1.18	36.36	1.149	31.35	9
1.17	34.34	1.139	29.13	10
1.16	32.32	1.128	27.21	11
1.15	30.30	1.119	25.52	12
1.14	28.28	1.112	24.03	13
1.13	26.26	1.106	22.70	14
1.12	24.24	1.100	21.51	15
1.11	22.30	1.096	20.44	16
1.10	20.20	1.090	19.47	17
1.09	18.18	1.086	18.59	18
1.08	16.16	1.082	17.79	19
1.07	14.14	1.087	17.05	20
1.06	12.12			
1.05	10.10			
1.04	8.08			
1.03	6.06			
1.02	4.04			
1.01	2.02			
Specific Gravity of Acetic Acid at different degrees of Dilution.
THOMSON.
Atoms of                  Atoms of                 Specific Gravity
 Acid.                    Water.                     at 60°.
1 +	1	=	1.06296
1 +	2	=	1.07060
1 +	3	=	1.07084
1 +	4	=	1.07132
1 +	5	=	1.06820
1 +	6	=	1.06708
1 +	7	=	1.06349
1 +	8	=	1.05974
1 +	9	=	1.05794
1 +	10	^	1.05439
 
Specific  Gravities.
1335
Quantities of Ammonia in Solutions of different Specific Gravities.	Strengths of Solutions of Ammonia of different Specific Gravities, and their respective boiling points.			
DAVY.	D ALTON.			
100 parts of Ammonia. Specific Gravity,	Specific Gravity.	Grs. of Am-monia in 100 grs. of liquid.	Boiling Point.	Vol. of Gas in one vol. of liquid.
8750 contain 32.50 8875 " 29.25 9000 " 26.00 9054 " 25.37 9166 " 22.07 9255 " 19.54 9326 " 17.52 9385 " 15.88 9435 " 14.53 9476 " 13.46 9513 " 12.40 9545 " 1156 9573 " 10.82 9597 " 10.17 9619 " 9.60 9612 " 9.50	850 860 870 880 890 900 910 920 930 940 950 960 970 980 990	35.3 32.6 29.9 27.3 24.7 22.2 19.8 17.4 15.1 12.8 10.5 8.3 6.2 4.1 2.0	26 38 50 62 74 86 98 100 122 134 146 158 173 187 196	494 456 419 382 346 311 277 244 211 180 147 116 87 57 28
Quantity of	Anhydrous Potassa con-		Quantities of Anhydrous Soda con-		
tained in	Solutions	of different	tained in Solutions		of different
Specific Gravities.			Specific Gravities.		
D A LTON.			D ALT ON.		
Specific	Potassa	Boiling point.	Specific	Dry Soda	Boiling Point.
Gravity.	Per cent.		Gravity.	per cent.	
1.68	51.2	329°	1.85	63.6	600°
1.60	46.7	290	1.72	53.8	400
1.52	42.9	276	1.63	46.6	300
1.47	39.6	265	1.56	41.2	280
1.44	36.8	255	1.50	36.8	265
1.42	34.4	246	1.47	34.0	255
1.39	32.4	240	1.44	31.0	248
1.36	29.4	234	1.40	29.0	242
1.33	26.3	229	1.36	26.0	235
1.28	23.4	224	1.32	23.0	228
1.23	19.5	220	1.29	19.0	224
1.19	16.2	218	1.23	16.0	230
1.15	13.0	215	1.18	13.0	217
1.11	9.5	214	1.12	9.0	214
1.06	4.7	213	1.06	4.7	213
 
1336
Appendix.
SPECIFIC GRAVITIES OF  SOME OF  THE  PREPARATIONS ORDERED  IN
                       THE PHARMACOPEIAS.
The London Pharmacopoeia directs the Specific Gravity to be taken at a temperature of 62° Fahr.
             The Edinburgh, Dublin and U. S. Pharmacopoeias, at 60° Fahr.


                                                             Sp. Gr;
    Acetum Destillatum........Edin.          1.005
    --------------........Dublin         1.005
    Acidum Aceticum    ........London        1.048
                                              U. S.         C1.063
    --------------........                I to
                                              Edin.         1*1.068
    --------------........Dublin         1.074
    --------------Dilutum.....Dublin         1.005
    -------Hydrochloricum......London, U. S.   1.160
    --------------........Edin.           1.170
    --------------........  Dublin          1.160
    -----------Dilutum.......Edin.           1.050
    --------------........U. S.           1.046
    ------------^_........Dublin         1.080
    -------Hydrocyanicum......Dublin           998
    -------Nitricum    ........London, U. S.  1.500
    --------------........Edin.          1.500
    --------------Dilutum.....London U. S.   1.080
    --------------........Edin.           1.077
    --------------........Dublin         1.280
    -------Phosphoricum Dilutum   .  .  .  London        1.064
    -------Sulphuricum.......London, U. S.   1.845
    --------------........Edin.           1.845
    --------------........Dublin          1.845
    -------Sulphuricum venale.....Dublin          1.850
    -------Sulphuricum Dilutum  .  .  .  .  London         1.110
    --------------........Edin. U. S.     1.090
     --------------........Dublin          1.084
     .Ether Nitrosus   .......     .  Dublin          0.900
    -----Sulphuricus......'.  .  London, U. S.   0.750
     --------------........Edin.           0.735
     --------------........Dublin          0.766
     Alcohol............London         0.815
     -----    ............U. S.           0.835
     -----............Edin.          0.796
     -----    ............Dublin         0.810
     -----Dilutum.........U. S.           0.935
     Aqua Destillata    .........L. E. D.        1.000
     ----  Ammonia?.........Edin.          0.960
     -----------.........Dublin         0.950
     -----------Acetatis.......Edin.          1.011
     -----------------.......Dublin         1.011
     ----Ammonias  Carbonatis......Dublin         1.090
     ---Barytas Muriatis    .......Dublin         1.230
     ----Calcis Muriatis........Dublin         1.202
     ----Potassae..........Edin.          1.072
     ---------...........Dublin         1.080
     ---------Carbonatis.......Dublin         1.320
     ----Potassii Sulphureti.......Dublin         1.117
     ---Sodae Carbonatis ........  Dublin         1.024 
Specific Gravities.
1337
                                                         Sp. Gr.
Liquor Ammonias.........London         0.960
------------■ Fortior.......London, U. S.   0.882
-----Plumbi Diacetatis......London         1.260
-----Potassae..........London         1.063
-----------Carbonatis......London         1.473
Oleum iEthereum.........London         1.05
-------------.........U. S.           1.096
Spiritus iEthereus Nitrosus......Dublin         0.850
------^Etheris Nitrici.......London, U. S.   0.834
__________________.......Edin.           0.847
-------------Sulphurici.....Edin.           0.809
------Ammonias.........London         0.860
_____________.........U. S.           0.831
-------------Aromaticus.....London        0.914
-------------Fcetidus......London        0.861
------Kectificatus........London        0.838
.______________         ......Edin.          0.838
______________ '.'.'.......Dublin         0.840
______Tenuior      ........London        0.920
______________            .....Edin.          0.912
______________[.......Dublin         0.919
Tinctura Ferri Sesquichloridi.....London        0.992
          FORMULA FOR  COOLING OR FREEZING MIXTURES.

                            (mr. walker.)

                    frigorific mixtures, without ice.

                                                        Degree of
       Mixtures.                  Parts. Thermometer sinks.       cold
                                                        produced.
Muriate of Ammonia,   ....  5^
Nitrate of Potassa......5V From + 50° to +10° = 40
Water,.........16)

Muriate of Ammonia,   ....  5^
Nitrate of Potassa......5 1 From _^_ 5qo to _j_  40 = 46
Sulphate of Soda......8 1
Water..........16J
Nitrate of Ammonia,    ....  1) -prom  , 50o to _t.  40 = 46
Water..........If

Nitrate of Ammonia,    ....  1)
Carbonate of Soda,.....1> From + 50° to -  7° = 57
Water,.........-"0

Sulphate of Soda,.....3> FrQm _^_ 50o to _ 300 = 80
Diluted Nitric Acid......2$

Sulphate of Soda......6"|
Nitrate of Ammonia,    ....  4 . FrQm _j_ 50o to —10° = 60
Nitrate of Potassa......2
Diluted Nitric Acid,.....4 J 
1338
Appendix.
       Mixtures.

Sulphate of Soda,
Nitrate of Ammonia,
Diluted Nitric Acid,


Phosphate of  Soda,
Diluted Nitric Acid,


Phosphate of  Soda,
Nitrate of Ammonia,
Diluted Nitric Acid,

Sulphate of Soda,
Muriatic  Acid, .   .

Sulphate of Soda, .
Sulphuric Acid,
Snow or pounded Ice,
Salt,......
Parts. Thermometer sinks.
5> From + 50^ to ■
4\
   Degree of
     cold
   produced.

14° = 64
I From +
50° to — 12° = 62
6} From -f 50° to
4>
H  From + 50° to


 I  From + 50° to
21° = 71



 3° = 53


 3° = 53
FRIGORIFIC MIXTUKES, WITH ICE.
Snow or pounded Ice,
Common Salt,  .  .   .
Muriate of Ammonia,

Snow or pounded Ice,
Common Salt,  .  .   .
Muriate of Ammonia,
Nitrate of Potassa,
Snow or pounded Ice,
Common Salt,  .  .
Nitrate of Ammonia,
Snow,......
Diluted  Sulphuric Acid,
 2}
 1)

24
10
 5
 5j

121
 5>
 5;

 3
 2
a,
S
to—  5°
to —12°
to —18°
to — 25°
Snow, .  .
Muriatic Acid,
Snow,.....
Diluted  Nitric Acid,
Snow,.....
Chloride of Calcium,
Snow,........
Cryst. Chloride of Calcium,,
Snow, .
Potassa,
  I  From+ 32° to


jH  From + 32° to—


2  From + 32° to —


jH  From + 32° to —


g|  From+ 32° to —


2  From + 32° to
— 23° = 55
27° = 59


30° = 62


40° = 72


50° = 82
— 51° — 84 
Effects of  Temperature.
1339
                   COMBINATION OF FRIGORIFIC MIXTURES.
                                                       Degree of
       Mixtures.                  Parts. Thermometer sinks.      cold
                                                        produced.
Phosphate of Soda,.....5)
Nitrate of Ammonia,.....3V From    0° to — 34° — 34
Diluted Nitric Acid......4)

Phosphate of Soda,.....3}
Nitrate of Ammonia,.....2V From — 34° to — 50° — 16
Diluted Mixed Acids,  ....   4)


^Tr^'a'i  ;  '  •   xr/-  a  :a '   It From   10°to-56° = 46
Diluted Sulphuric or Nitric Acid, .   6)


S}}?w'-T:  '• .;.....S From— 0° to —46° = 46
Diluted Nitric Acid,.....2£


Snow,..........U From —20° to —60° = 40
Diluted Sulphuric Acid,   .   .  .   1$


Snow...........3) From+ 20° to — 48°= 68
Chloride of  Calcium......±S


Snow...........^ From+ 10° to—54° = 64
Chloride of  Calcium,.....4^


Snow,..........2) From _|_ 15o t0 _ 68° = 33
Chloride of  Calcium,.....o)


Snow,..........1) From    ooto_663 = 66
Cryst. Chloride of Calcium,...  2^


Snow,.   .   .  •  • •  •  •  •  •  H  From —40° to —73° = 33
Cryst. Chloride of Calcium, .  .  .  6\


Snow,.   ........  •  U  From— 68° to — 91° = 23
Diluted  Sulphuric Acid, ....  10^
               EFFECTS  OF  TEMPERATURE.         ^^
                                                              below Zero.
Greatest  artificial  cold produced  by the  evaporation of a mixture of
  solid carbonic acid and ether, in vacuo,  by Faraday,................  160
Ditto, in the open  air, by Thilorier,................................  *35
Solid compound of alcohol and carbonic acid fuses,..................  131
Greatest artificial cold produced by Walker,.........................    91
Strongest nitric acid freezes.................................
Sulphuric ether congeals...................................           '
Liquid Ammonia  freezes.......................................
Mercury freezes,................................................
Proof spirit and brandy freeze,.................................... 
1340
Appendix.
                                                                  Degrees
                                                                 above Zero.
Solution of 1 salt in 3 water, freezes,...............................     4
Solution of 1 salt in 4 water, freezes,...............................     7
Mixture of 1 alcohol 3 water, freezes,..............................     7
Solution of salammoniac in 4 water,...............................     8
Oil of turpentine freezes,........................................    16
Strong wines freeze,.............................................    20
Fluoric acid freezes,.............................................    23
Oils of bergamot and cinnamon,...................................    23
Vinegar freezes,..........,......................................    28
Milk freezes,...................................................    30
Ice melts......................................................    32
Olive oil freezes,................................................    36
Glacial acetic acid solidifies,......................................    36
Medium temperature of the surface of the globe,....................    50
Medium temperature of England,.................................    52
Oil of  aniseed freezes,...........................................    64
Lard melts,..............................................from 90 to 97
Heat of human blood............................................    98
Phosphorus melts,..............................................    99
Stearine from hogs' lard melts,....................................  109
Spermaceti melts,...............................................  112
Tallow melts, (Thomson,)........................................    92
------------(Nicholson,).......................................  127
Bees' wax  melts,...............................................  142
Ambergris melts, (La Grange,)....................................  145
Potassium melts, (Fownes,)......................................  150
---------------(Daniell,).......................................  136
Bleached wax melts, (Nicholson,).................................  155
Sodium perfectly fluid,..........................................  200
Iodine fuses,  (Gay Lussac,)......................................  210
----------(Fownes,)...........................................  225
Sulphur fuses,..................................................  226
Camphor fuses..................................................  303
Tin fuses.......................................................  442
Bismuth fuses,.................................................  476
Lead fuses,....................................................  594
Zinc fuses,.....................................................  700
Antimony fuses,................................................  809
Red heat, (Daniell,).............................................  980
Heat of common fire, (Daniell,)................................... 1140
Brass fuses, (Daniell,)........................................... 1869
Silver  fuses, (Daniell,).......................................... 2233
Iron fuses..................................................... 3479

    TEMPERATURES AT WHICH CERTAIN  SOLIDS AND LIQUIDS ARE VOLATILIZED.
Liquid sulphurous acid boils, (anhydrous,)..........................    14
Ether boils,....................................................    98
Fuming sulphurous acid boils, (solution,)...........................  113 
Effects  of  Temperature.
1341
                                                                  Degrees
                                                                above Zero,
Bisulphuret of carbon boils,......................................  126
Liquid ammonia boils,..........................................  140
Pyroligneous spirit boils,.........................................  150
Alcohol boils,..................................................  176
-------------(Black,)..........................................  174
-------------sp. gr. 0.800, (Henry,)..............................  172
Water boils,...................................................  212
Phosphorus  distils,  (Pelletier,)...................................  219
Water saturated with sea salt boils.......................•...........  225
Nitric acid boils, (sp. gr. 1. 5,).....................................  187
White oxide of arsenic sublimes,..................................  283
Oil of turpentine boils, (Ure,)................................___  304
Petroleum boils, (Ure,)..........................................  316
Metallic arsenic sublimes,........................................  540
Phosphorus boils in  close vessels..................................  554
Sulphur boils,..................................................  570
Sulphuric acid boils, (Dalton,)....................................  590
-----------------(Black,)......................................  546
-----------------(Fownes,).....................................  620
Linseed oil boils,...............................................  600
Mercury boils,..................................................  662

                  BOILING POINTS OF SATURATED SOLUTIONS.
                                                                     Degr.
Alum,........................................................  220
Muriate of ammonia,...........................................  236
Oxalate of ammonia,............................................  218
Tartrate of ammonia.............................................  230
Chloride of barium..............................................  222
Nitrate  of baryta,..............................................  214
Acetate of copper,..............................................  214
Sulphate  of copper.............................................  216
Acetate of lead,...............................................  212
Chloride of calcium,............................................  220
Bichloride of mercury,..........................................  214
Bicyanide  of mercury,..........................................  214
Sulphate of nickel,.............................................  235
Chlorate of potass,...............................................  218
Nitrate  of potass,...............................................  238
Quadroxalate of potass,..........................................  220
Acetate of soda................................................  256
Nitrate  of soda,................................................  246
Biborate of soda,...............................................  222
Carbonate  of soda,.........................................  220
Phosphate of soda,.........................................  222
Nitrate  of strontia,.........................................  224
Sulphate  of zinc........................................ . . .  220
Boracic acid,.............................................  218 
1342
Appendix.
 TKMPIORATUKES  TO BE OBSERVED IN CERTAIN PHARMACEUTICAL  OPERATIONS.

  In the fermentation of saccharine solutions, the highest temperature  should
not exceed 86°.  (Thomson.)
  The lowest temperature at which they will ferment is 38°.  (Thomson.)
  The process of acetous fermentation is best conducted at a temperature of
above 86°.
  The temperature requisite to coagulate albumen varies with the state of dilu-
tion.  If the quantity of albumen be so great that the liquid has  a slimy
aspect, a heat of  145° to 150° suffices, but in a very dilute condition, boiling is
required.  (Fownes.)

              In  the London  and  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeias:

  When a boiling heat is directed, a temperature is meant of 212°, F.
  When a gentle heat is directed, a temperature is meant of from 90° to 100°.
  The specific gravities of substances ordered in the London Pharmacopoeia,
are to be taken at a temperature of 62°.
  A water-bath is  that by which any substance, contained in a proper vessel,
is exposed either to hot water, or the vapor of boiling water.  A sand-bath is
made of sand,  to be gradually heated, in which anything is placed contained in
a proper vessel.
  Syrups are to be kept in a place where the temperature never exceeds 55°.
  Vegetables,  shortly after they have been gathered, those excepted which
ought to be fresh,  are to be lightly strewed, and dried as quickly as possible,
with a  gentle heat  (90° to 100°); keep them  afterward in proper vessels,
excluded from the access of light and moisture.

                      In the Dublin  Pharmacopoeia:

  By the term superior heat, is  meant some degree between 200° and 212°.
  When a medium heat is directed, a temperature is meant between 100° and
200c.
  When an inferior heat is directed, a temperature is meant between  90° and
100°.
  In the process of digestion, an inferior heat is to be applied, unless it should
be otherwise directed.  In the process of maceration, a heat should be applied
between 60° and 90°.


          In the Dublin, Edinburgh, and U. S. Pharmacopoeias:

  Whenever mention occurs of the specific  gravity of any body, its tempera-
ture is supposed  to be at 60°. 
Chemical Elements,  etc.
1343
  CHEMICAL ELEMENTS, WITH THEIR SYMBOLS AND  EQUIVALENTS.

                                   Symbol.                        Equivalent.
Aluminium,.............................Al......................Phillips,  10
 ...      /c,.,.   N                                         Graham,  13.72
Antimony, (Stibium,)...................Sb........................Phillips,  65
 .    .                                                       Graham, 129.24
Ar8emo>.................................As.......................Phillips,  38
„  .                                                         Graham,  75.34
Barium,.................................Ba.................................68
Bismuth,................................Bi.................................  72
Boron,..................................B....................... Phillips,  20
„    .                                                       Graham,  10.91
Bromine,................................j$r................................. 78
Cadmium,...............................Cd................................  56
Calcium,................................Ca.................................  20
Carbon,.................................C.................................    6
Cerium,.................................Ce.................................  48
Chlorine,................................CI.................................  36
Chromium,..............................Cr.................................  28
Cobalt,..................................Co.................................  30
Columbium, j                         ~
  Tantalum,)  ................■..........Xa................................a85
Copper, (Cuprum,).......................Cu................................  32
Fluorine,................................F.................................  18
Glucinium,..............................G.........................Phillips,  18
                                                            Graham,  26.54
Gold, (Aurum,)..........................Au...................,...........200
Hydrogen,..............................H.................................    1
Iodine...................................1.................................126
Iridium, ................................Ir.................................  98
Iron, (Ferrum,)..........................Fe.................................  28
Latanium,...............................La................................---
Lead, (Plumbum,).......................Pb................................104
Lithium,................................L.................................    8
Magnesium,.............................Mg................................  12
Manganese,...............................Mn................................  28
Mercury, (Hydrargyrum,) • • • •  ...........Hg.......................Phillips, 202
                                                            Graham, 101.48
Molybdenum,............................Mo...............................  48
Nickel,...................................Ni.................................  28
Nitrogen or Azote,.......................N.................................  14
Osmium,................................Os................................100
Oxygen,........•........................0.................................    8
Palladium,..............................Pd.................................  54
Phosphorus,.............................P.........................Phillips,  16
                                                            Graham,  31.44
Platinum,...............................PI.................................  98
Potassium, (Kalium,)....................K.................................  40
Rhodium,...............................R.................................  52
Selenium,...............................Se.................................  40
Siliciumor)   ............................gi.......................  (Phillips,    8
Silicon,  j                                                   (Graham,  22.22
Silver,  (Argentum,)......................Ag................................103
Sodium, (Natrium,)-'.....................Na................................  24
Strontium,..............................Sr.................................  44
Sulphur,................................S..................................  16
Tellurium,..............................Te........................Phillips,  32
                                                            Graham,  64.25
Thorium,...............................Th...............................  60
Tin,  iStannum,).........................Sn................................  58
Tit.mium,...............................Ti.................................  24
Tungsten, (Wolfram,)....................W- ••■..................<..........100
Uranium,...............................U.................................217
Vanadium,..............................V..................................  68
Yttrium,................................Y.................................  32
Zinc,....................................Zn. •••••..................™-.;,7"  !2
Zirconium,...............................Zr........................Philips,  82
                                                            Graham,  33.67 
1344
Appendix.
THE  SOLUBILITY  OF  SALTS.
Name of Salt.
Acetate of.............
Arseniate of...........
Borate of..........
Camphorate of.........
Lactate of..............
Muriate of.............
Nitrate of.............
Oxalate of.............
Phosphate  of..........
Seleniate of.............
Sulphate of............
Sulphate of, and Potash
Sulphate of, and Soda...
Sulphite of............
Tartrate of............
Tartrate of, and Potash.
Tungstate of...........
Urate and Lithate of....
AMMONIA.
Acetate of............
Arseniate of...........
Binarseniate of........
Arsenite  of...........
Benzoate of............
Boletate  of...........
Borate of.............
Camphorate of........
Carbonate of (Sesqui).
Chlorate of..........
Chromate of.........
Citrate of............
Ferrocyanide of......
Formate  of..........
Hydriodate  of (or Io-
  dide of Ammonium)
Hydrocyanate of.....
Hydrosulphuret of...
Hypophosphite of....
Hyposulphite of......
Iodate of............
Lactate of...........
Meconate of..........
Molybdate of........
Muriate of (or Chloride)
  of Ammonium)    )
Nitrate of.......
Oxalate of.......
Phosphate of....
Biphosphate  of.
Phosphite of....
Purpurate of....
Pyrolithateof...
Sp. Gr,
3.9  to
3.97
1.245
1.645
1.71
1.6
1.52

1.58
1.582
1.8
Solubility in 100 parts Water
at Boiling point,
Undetermined
Insoluble
Uncrystallizable
0.05
Uncrystallizable
Very soluble........
Very soluble........
Uncrystallizable......
Insoluble
Insoluble
50
5.4              133.33
100
Insoluble
Uncrystallizable......
Uncrystallizable
Insoluble
Insoluble
33
Very soluble....
Soluble
Soluble
Uncrystallizable
Soluble
38
%%.............
1
33   {Ure)
20   {Brande)
Very soluble
Very soluble
Difficultly crystallizable
Very soluble
Soluble

Very soluble

Soluble
Very deliquescent
Soluble and deliquescent
Very soluble
Sparingly soluble
Uncrystallizable
66
Soluble
36
100
50                 100
4.5                40.84
25  {Brande)
Less soluble
Very soluble
0066        much more
Soluble
Solubility in  100 parts Alco-
         hol.
at Boiling point.
100 at 54)^°
 100
2.91
291
Readily soluble
0.416
7.5 at 80°
4.75 do
1.5  do
      7
S)  .900
    .872
    .834
  19.16 
Solubility  of  Salts.
1345
Name of Salt.
Sp. Gr.
Solubility in 100 parts Water.
at Boiling point.
Solubility in 100 parts Alco-
          hol.
at Boiling point-
Suberate of..,
Succinate of...
Sulphate of...,
Sulphite of..
Tartrate of..
Tun estate of.
ANTIMONY.
6.7
Acetate of..........
Benzoate of.........
Tartrate of.........
Potassio-tartrate of.,
BISMUTH.
9.83
Acetate of.....
Arseniate of..
Benzoate of...
Carbonate of..
Chloride of...
Nitrate of....
Phosphate of.
Sulphate of...
Acetate of............
Antimoniate of........
Antimonite of........
Arseniate of..........
Arsenite of...........
Benzoate  of............
Borate of.............
Camphorate of........
Carbonate of..........
Chlorate of...........
Chromate of..........
Citrate of.............
FeiTocyanuret of.......
Hydriodate of (or Io->
  dide of Barium)....)
Hydrosulphuret of.....
Hypophosphite of.....
Iodate of.............
Lactate of............
Lithate of...........
1.828
4.331
Muriate  of (or Chlo-
  ride of Barium) (An-
  hydrous)
Muriate of (or Chloride)
  of Barium) Ciyst.  $
Nitrate of.
Oxalate of....
Phosphate of.
          85
2.825
2.83
2.9
1.286
Very soluble
Very soluble
50  {Brands)
100  {Ure)
60.03
Soluble
  100

304.7
Soluble  {Ure)
Soluble  {Ure)
Very soluble  {Brande)
7                    50
Soluble
Insoluble
Soluble.......
Insoluble
Deliquescent
Decomposed
Soluble
Decomposed
5 at 50°
10 at 212°

       96
Insoluble
Slightly
Insoluble
Difficultly
Soluble
Very  sparingly
Very  sparingly
Very nearly insoluble
25
Very  sparingly
Difficultly soluble
.0005                 01

Very soluble

11
Very  soluble
 33
Soluble
Insoluble
36.8
43  {Brande)

 S 8.18 at 58.9°
 J35.18 at 214.97"
Nearly insoluble
Insoluble
 50

 1.6




68.5




 78
2.91
Sparingly
900
848
834
817
900
848
834 
1346                             Appendix.
Name of Salt.
Phosphite of...
Pyrocitrate  of.
Sulphate of....
Sulphite of....
Tartrate of....
Acetate of.............
Antimoniate of........
Arseniate of...........
Borate of.............
Carbonate of..........
Lactate of.............
Muriate, or Chloride of.
Nitrate of.............
Oxalate of.............
Sulphate of...........
Tartrate of...........
COPPER.
Sp. Gr.
4.3
1.694
7.834
Acetate of..........,
Antimoniate of......,
Arseniate of........,
Benzoate of..........
Borate of...........
Carbonate of........
Chlorate of.........
Chromate of.........
Citrate of............
Ferrocyanide of.....
Fluoride of.........
Formate of.............
Hyposulphite of........
Muriate, or Chloride of..
Dichloride of..........
Nitrate of..............
Oxalate of.............
         and Ammonia
         and Potassa
         and Soda
Phosphate of..........
Subnitrate of..........
Sulphate of.............
Disulphate of..........
Trisulphate of..........
Sulphite of Protoxide....
Sulphate of and Potassa
         and Ammonia
Ammonio Subsulphate.
Tartrate of...........
Bitartrate of...........
Tartrate of and  potassa
8.895

1.78
Solubility in 100 parts Water.
at Boiling point.
at 60°
0.25
 .006
Insoluble
Insoluble
Slightly
.02
Soluble
Soluble
Insoluble
Scarcely
Insoluble
.026  {Ure.)
Very soluble
Soluble......
Insoluble
4  {Brande)..
Soluble
Perchloride of...
Protochloride of.,
1.815
2.174
1.4158
2.20
              {Ure)
Insoluble
Insoluble
Slightly
Insoluble
Insoluble
Soluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
Soluble
12
Soluble
Soluble.............
Nearly insoluble
Deliquescent
Soluble ?
Soluble?
Soluble?
Insoluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
25
Insoluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
Soluble
Soluble
66.6
Soluble
Less soluble
Soluble
20
19.361
50
Solubility in 100 parts Alco-
          hol.
at Boiling point.
100 at 54>£Q

Insoluble
100 at 176°
Soluble
Soluble 
Solubility of  Salts.
1347
Name of Salt.
Sp. Gr.
Solubility in 100 parts Water.
at Boiling point.
Solubility in 100 parts Alco-
          hol.
at 60°
at Boiling point.
iron.
Acetate (Prot.).......
Acetate (Per.)........
Antimoniate of.......
Arseniate of (Prot.)..
Arseniate of (Per.)....
Benzoate of...........
Borate ,of.............
Citrate   (Proto)......
Citrate  (Bi proto)....

Citrate (Per.).........

Ferrocyanide  (Prus-
  sian Blue).........
Fluoride of...........
Gallate of Peroxide of..
Hyposulphite of........
Lactate of Protox. of...
Molybdate of Protox of.
Protochloride of........
Perchloride  of.........
Nitrate of Protoxide of.
Nitrate of Peroxide of..
Oxalate of Protoxide of.
Oxalate of Peroxide of.
Phosphate of.........
Phosphate of Peroxide of
Superphosphate of......
Succinate of Peroxide of
Sulphate of  (Cryst.).....
Sulphate  of (dry)......
Persulphate of..........
Hyposulphite of.........
Persulphate of and Po-
  tassa...............
Persulphate  of  and
  Ammonia..........$
Tartrate (Proto.) of.....
Tartrate (Per.) of.....
Tartrate of  and Potassa
7.788

1.368
2.6
1.880
2.64
Acetate (Cryst.)....
Acetate (Anhyd.).
Diacetate of.......
Antimoniate of...
Arseniate of......
Benzoate of.......
Borate of..........

Carbonate of.....
Citrate of...........
Chlorate of........
Chloride of........
Chloride of (fused).
Chromate of.......
Ferrocyanuret of....
Gallate of..........
Iodide of..........
Hyposulphite of....
Lactate of.........
11.35

2.345
2.57
Soluble
Uncrystallizable
Insoluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
Soluble
Sparingly soluble
 (Very soluble and un
 \  crystallizable

Insoluble

Insoluble
Insoluble
Soluble
Scarcely
Insoluble
Soluble
Very soluble...........
Uncrystallizable
Very soluble
Soluble
Scarcely
Insoluble
Nearly insoluble
Nearly insoluble
Insoluble
76.238  {Brands)   333.3
Uncrystallizable.
Uncrystallizable

Soluble
100 at 176°
Soluble
(6.4 to
j 6.75
1.823
5.13
6.
Soluble

0.25  (Dumas)
Soluble
Uncrystallizable.
Soluble
27  {Bostock)
29
Soluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
Insoluble

[ Insoluble

Nearly insoluble
Soluble
3.33  {Brande)

Insoluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
0.08
Soluble
Soluble   (Ure.)
4.5
0.5
12.5 (Brande)
Soluble 
13-rS                             Appendix.
Same of Salt.
Solubility in 100 parts Water.
Sp. Gr.
Superlactate of.
Malate of.......
Molybdate of...
Nitrate of......

Dinitrate of.....
Oxalate of.............
Phosphate of...........
Phosphite of...........
Succinate of............
Sulphate of.............
Sulphite of............
Tannate of............
Tartrate of............
           and Potassa.
Acetate of.
Antimoniate of.......
Arseniate of.........
Arsenite of..........
Benzoate of...........
Borate of............
Carbonate of (Anhyd.)...
Chlorate of..........
Chromate of.........
Citrate of............
Fluoride............
Hypophosphite of.

Hyposulphate of...
Hyposulphite of...
Iodate of.........
Iodide of calcium.
Malate of.........
Molybdate of.....
Muriate  (or  Chloride)
  of Calcium).......)
11.35
2.3908
1.005
2.7
3.15
Nitrate of.......
Oxalate of........
Phosphate  of....
Biphosphate of..
Subphosphate of.
Succinate of.....
Sulphate of......
Sulphite of......

Tartrate of......

Tungstate  of.....
LITH1A.
Acetate of.....
Bicarbonate of.
Borate of......
1.76
1.62
3.
Soluble
Scarcely
Insoluble
13
 (Scarcely at  60°,  but
 ( much more so at 212°
Insoluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
Not absolutely insoluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
Almost insoluble
Insoluble (Berzelius)
at Boiling point.
at 60s      at Boiling point.
1.9009
(Kirwan)
Soluble.
Insoluble
Insoluble
Difficultly soluble
Sparingly soluble
Very difficultly
Insoluble
Very soluble........
Soluble
Nearly insoluble
Insoluble
 J Solubility nearly equal
    at all temperatures
40.65   (Brands)     150
Very soluble
20                  100
Deliquescent
66                 1.53
Insoluble
 f 200 at 32°
 1 400 at 60°
1 almost any quantity at
 [220°
25.............
Insoluble
Insoluble
Soluble
Almost insoluble
Difficultly soluble
0.301 at 50°
12.5
 (Nearly insoluble at 60°
 \  but .16 at 212^
Insoluble
Solubility in 100 parts Alco-
          hol.
Soluble
161.66
Deliquescent
Slightly soluble
Soluble 
Solubility  of  Salts.
1349
Name of Salt.
Sp. Gr.
Carbonate of...........
Chloride of Lithium---
Chromate of...........
Citrate of..............
Nitrate of..............
Oxalate of.............
Binoxalate of..........
Phosphate of.........
Sulphate of...........
Tartrate of...........
           and Potassa
           and Soda...
Solubility in 100 parts Water.
at Boiling point.
Solubility in 100 parts Alco-
          hol.
Insoluble
Acetate of.....
Arseniate of...
Arsenite of...
Benzoate of...
Borate of----
Carbonate of.,
Chlorate of..
Very deliquescent
Very soluble
Very difficultly soluble
Very deliquescent
Very deliquescent
Less soluble
Insoluble
Soluble
Easily soluble
Easily soluble
Easily soluble
2.3

1.378
at Boiling point.
2.566
Chloride of Magnesium
Chromate of.........
Citrate of............
Iodide of Magnesium.
Malate of............
Molybdate of........

Nitrate of.............  1736
Very  soluble
Deliquescent
Difficultly soluble
Soluble
Insoluble
Very slightly
Very  soluble
1.6
200  (Brande).
Very soluble
Difficultly soluble
Soluble
3.56  (Brands)
6.66
Oxalate of...........
Phosphate of........
          and Ammonia
Succinate  of........
Sulphate of (dry)
Sulphate of (cryst.)...
          and  ammonia
          and  Potassa
          and  Soda...
1.55
8.35
100.
'50
 50 at 80°

 21.25
$  Sp'te.$  .
547
817

900
1.76
1.696
Sulphite of.........
         and Ammonia
Tartrate of.........
Tunestate  of........
1.38
Nearly insoluble
6.66
Sparingly soluble
Uncrystallizable
33.192            73.57
68.042           150.71
Soluble
Soluble
33.3
5
Difficultly soluble
Insoluble
Soluble
(Nearly  insoluble  in
)  pure alcohol 11 sp.
I  gr.             .840
1 at 80° (Kirwan)
MANGANESE.
Acetate of. ..••■•••• y '
Ammonio-chloride of..
Ammonio-sulphate of.
Antimoniate of......
Arseniate of.........
Benzoate of......> • • •
Carbonate of.........
Chromate of----
Nitrate of...........
Oxalate of...........
Phosphate of........
3....................
Soluble
Soluble
Moderately soluble
Insoluble
Deliquescent (Brande)
Insoluble
Soluble
Very soluble.........
Insoluble
Nearly insoluble
Soluble
Soluble 
1350                             Appendix.
Name of Salt.
MANGANESE.
Succinate of.
Sulphate of..
Sp. Gr.
2.877
Solubility in 100 parts Water.
at Boiliog point.
Hyposulphate of.
Sulphite of......
Tungstate of.....
Acetate of (Prot.).
Acetate of (Per.)..
Arseniate of......,
Benzoate of........
Borate of.........
Bichloride of.....
1   (Ure)
31    (Ure.)
50   (Brande)
Deliquescent
Insoluble
Insoluble
13.568
Chloride of...,
Chromate of....
Citrate of.......
Bicyanuretof..
Fluoride of...
Molybdate of..

Nitrate  (Prot.).
Nitrate (Per.)..........
Oxalate of (Proto.)......
Oxalate of  (Per.)......
Sulphate of (Proto.)...
Sulphate of (Per.).....
Sulphate of (Sub.).....
Tartrate of...........
         and Potassa
 2.66
 5.2
(Hasen-
 fratz)
 6.5
Crraham
 7.176
0.16  (Braconnot)
Readily soluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
6.25  (Brande)
33.3
Solubility in 100 parts Alco-
          hol
at Boiling point.
4.98
6.444
.00833 at 212°  (Dumas)
Insoluble
Insoluble
                     54
Soluble
Very sparingly
  Soluble  and decom-
    posed by excess.
Do.      do.
Scarcely
Insoluble
0.20               0.33
Decomposed
.005               0.33
Insoluble
Soluble
42.6               85.2
   10.74 at 50°
  Sp'ts. sp. gr. .915
   43.66 at 50°
  Spt's. sp. gr. .818
    (Graham)
8.666
Acetate of............
Arseniate of..........
Carbonate of.........
Chloride of..........
Nitrate of Protox.....
          and Ammonia
Oxalate of............
Phosphate of..........
Sulphate of.............
          and Ammonia
          and Potassa..
          and Iron......
Tartrate of.........---
PLATINUM.
Protochlorideof....
Perchloride of......
Protochloride of......)
     and AmmoniumJ
     and Potassium....
     and Sodium.....
Very soluble
Soluble   (Ure)
Insoluble
Soluble in hot water
50.....................
Soluble
Insoluble
Nearly insoluble
33.3             185.71
25
11.1
Soluble
Very soluble
23.000
Soluble
Soluble..............)    (Easily soluble, also in
Soluble

Soluble.........,

Soluble..........
Uncrystallizable.
 \  Ether

Insoluble
Insoluble
Very soluble 
Solubility  of  Salts.
1351
Name of Salt.
PLATINUM.
Bichloride of........)
     and Ammonium^
     and Potassium...
     and Sodium.....
     and Barium.....
Protonitrate of........
Pernitrate of..........
Protosulphate of.......

Persulphate of.........
Acetate of...........
Ammonio-oxalate of..
Ammonio-sulphate of.
Ammonio-tartrate of..
Antimoniate of.......
Antimonite of.........
Arseniate of.........
Binarseniate of.......
Arsenite of..........
Benzoate of...........
Bibenzoate of........
Borate of.............,
Camphorate of.......
Carbonate of.........
Bicarbonate of........
Chlorate of..........
Chromate.............
Bichromate...........
Citrate of.............
Columbate of........
Ferrocyanide of......
Iodide of Potassium..
Iodate of............
Molybdate of........
Chloride of Potassium.
Nitrate of..
Oxalate of...........

Binoxalate of........
Quadroxalate of.......
Phosphate of........
Diphosphate of.......
Biphosphate of.......
Hypophosphite of....

Hyposulphate of.....

Hyposulphite of......
             and Silver
Succinate of..........
Sulphate of....

Bisulphate of.
Sp. (Jr.


23.000
Solubility in 100 parts Water
at Boiling point
Very sparingly

Very sparingly
Soluble........
Soluble
Soluble
Soluble
Soluble

iVery soluble....
1.706
2.6
2.085
2.6
1.98
1.83
1.98
2.073
2.85
2.67
 100.............
 Soluble
 13
iVery soluble
 Slightly
 Soluble
 Uncrystallizable.
 18.86 at 40°____
 Uncrystallizable
 Very soluble
 10 '
 Soluble
 1
 100
 25
 6.03
 48
 10
25
                     83
           60 at 188>^c
              extremely
             much more
Very soluble
Uncrystallizable
33.3                100
143 at 65°  (G. Lussac)
7.14  (Brands)
Soluble

 (29.21  at 66.83° )
 $59.26  at 229.28°$  •"'

 ( 29.31 at 64°)
 ^236.45 at 207°V  ......
 /285.  at 238°!>
  |50  (Ure)    )
  30  (Brandetf  ......
10  {Brande)   (Ure 100)
                  66.66
Difficultly soluble
Soluble  in hot water
Very soluble
Very deliquescent
 (Difficultly  sol.  at  60°
 I  readily at 212
Deliquescent
Difficultly
Very soluble
 (10.57  at  54°
 $26.33  at 214°
 ( 50 at 40°
 5200 at 220°
Solubility in 100 parts Alco-
          hol.
at Boiling point.
Soluble
(Very soluble, also  in
}  Ether
.200
3.75
Insoluble
Insoluble
Sparingly
2.083
4.62 at 80°.
1.66.......
0.38.......
(2.76 at 80°>
Very soluble
S.gr
ofSp
J .900
1 .812
I. .834

2.C83

 (.900
 $.872

  2.91 
1352
Appendix.
Name of Salt.
Sp. Gr.
Solubility in 100 parts Water,
Sulphite of.......
Tartrate of.......
Bitartrate of......
Tartrovinate of...
Tungstate of......
Nitro-tungstate of.
Acetate of.............
Arseniate of...........
Arsenite of............
Borate of...........
Chlorate of............
Chromate  of...........
Citrate  of..............
Molybdate of..........
Chloride of (Fused)....
Nitrate of (Cryst.)____
Oxalate of.............
Phosphate of.........
Succinate of...........
Sulphate of............
Sulphite of...........,
Hyposulphite of......
           and Potassa
Tartrate of...........
          and  Potassa.
1.706

1.586
1.556
1.95
10.474
5.45
3.521
7.3
SODA.
Acetate of............

Arseniate of...........

Binarseniate of.......
          and Potassa
Benzoate of............
Biborate of...........
Carbonate of........
Bicarbonate of........
Chlorate of...........
Chromate of..........
Citrate of.............
Iodide of Sodium.....
Iodate of.............
Molybdate of.........
Muriate of (or Chloride
  of Sodium)........
Nitrate of.
Oxalate of..........,
Phosphate of.......,
          and  ammonia
Biphosphate of.....,
2.1
1.76
1.740
1.62
Solubility in 100 parts Alco-
          hol.
at Boiling poi:it.
100
100...................
1.05                6.66
10         any quantity
Uncrystallizable
               (Ure)  5
Very difficultly soluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
Difficultly soluble
25   (Chenevix)
Very slightly
Insoluble
Insoluble
Insoluble
100                 200
Insoluble
Insoluble
Soluble
1.15
Very little soluble
Soluble
Difficultly soluble
Soluble
Soluble
1.986
at Boiling poiDt.
0.416
 2.91
25
35
150
1.33
1.50
  10  (Thomson.)
  25  (Ure.)
Soluble
Soluble
Very soluble
8.033                50
50                  100
7.6
33.3............  ......
Very soluble..........
100 or more (Brande)
173
7.3....................
Soluble
Equally soluble at all
  temperatures.(_erz.)
  ' 33.3 at  60°)
   100  at123°$
    50  at  60° Berzel.
   73  at  32°)  Gay
   173  at 212°$  Lussac
    80  at  32° ^
    22.7 at  50° I  M
    55  at  61°fMar*
 1218.5 at 246° J
Sparingly soluble
25                   50
Soluble
Very soluble
Dumas
Sol. in sp. rect.
Sparingly
Insoluble
 (5.8 at 80°)
 h.6......\
 (0.5......)
 10.5 at 80°)
.o63*8".:;:::s
Sp.gr) -900
 of }  872
sP'tsA .834
      .958
S.gr. (900
 of  J 872
sPt«- (.834 
Solubility  of  Salts.
1353
Name of Salt.	Sp. Gr.	Solubility in 100 parts Water.	Solubility in 100 parts Alco-hol.
		At 60° at Boiling point.	at 60s at Boiling point.
SODA.			
			Very soluble
		Soluble ( 48.28 at 64° J322.12 at 91° (16.73 at 64°) n ?50.65 at 9M /"» (42.65 at 217°^ ****** 41.6 91 50 Soluble 25	
Sulphate of (cryst.)..... Sulphate of (dry)......	1.44		Insoluble
			Insoluble
			
Sulphate of & Ammonia Sulphite of............	2.95		
			Insoluble
Tartrate of............	1.980	56.37 (Thomson)...... 20 Soluble 25 50	Insoluble
and Potassa			(Sol. insp. rect.but spa-ringly in absolute alc'l
			
			
STRONTIA.		2 50 Very soluble Sparingly soluble Sparingly soluble 0.76 0.0651 at 212°	
			
			
			
			
			
	3.66		
			Soluble
	2.83	50....................	Soluble
		Insoluble (Brande) Soluble 25 Soluble 25 113 0.52 Insoluble Soluble Very soluble Soluble 0.026 at 212° 20 (Gay Lussac) 22.22 66.66 0.67 at 170	
			
			
			
			
			
			
			
			
			
			
			
			Insoluble
			
	1.837		
			
TIN.	7.3	Soluble Insoluble Insoluble Uncrystallizable Scarcely Soluble Insoluble Soluble Crystallizable Uncrystallizable Soluble Very soluble	
			
			
			
			
			
			
			
			
			
			
			
and Potassa			
 
1354                           Appendix.
N'ame of Salt.
5p. Gr.
Acetate of..............
Antimoniate of.........
Borate of..............
Chromate of.... ......
Citrate of...............
Chlorate of............
Chloride of............
Iodide of...............
Iodate of..............
Lactate of..............
Nitrate of.............
Molybdate  of..........
Oxalate of.............
Phosphate of...........
Succinate of...........
Sulphate of............
Sulphite of............
Hyposulphite of........
Sulphate of and Nickel
Tartrate of............
Tartrovinate of........
Trisulphate of.........
6.861
to 7.2
1.537
2.0
1.98
Solubility in 100 parts Mater.
at Boiling point.
Solubility in 100 parts  Alco
         hoi.
at Boiling point.
Very soluble
Very sparingly
Insoluble
Sparingly
Scarcely
Very soluble
Very soluble.....
Soluble
Difficultly soluble
2  (Ure)
Deliquescent
Insoluble
Nearly insoluble
Uncrystallizable
Soluble
140  (Dumas)
81.81 at 220°.....
Soluble..........
33.33
Difficultly soluble
Soluble...........
Soluble
100 at 54K°
Insoluble
Soluble
Sparingly soluble
SOLUBILITY   OF  ACIDS,   BASES,   ETC.
Arsenious
         Vitreous
         Opake..
Benzoic..........
Boracic...........
Citric............
Gallic............
Oxalic (Cryst.)....
Succinic (Cryst.)..
Tartaric..........
Brucia....
Cinchonia.
Morphia ..
Quinia —
Strychnia..
Camphor..
Sugar Pur.,
3.7385
3.699
1.0345
1.6
 0.9887
1.5tol.6
  1.78 (Graham)  9.68
  2.9  (Graham) 11.47
   .50
  3.9            33.3
133.33          20D
  5            33.33
 11.5
  4            33.33
150  (Brande) 200
     .1177         0.2
Insoluble          0.04
Nearly insoluble   1
Nearly insoluble   0.5
    0.04  (Graham) 0.15
    0.229
20 at 176° (Henry)
Soluble
74 at 166°
Soluble
75 at 176C
200...............|24>£atl76° 
Show  Colors for  Druggists' Shop Windows.      1355
    SHOW  COLORS  FOR  DRUGGISTS'  SHOP  WINDOWS.

                                 BLUE.
   No. 1.—Sulphate of copper gj, sulphuric acid gss, water gx.
   No. 2.—Ammonio-sulphate of copper, ammonio-nitrate of nickel (see No. 5)
 and water.
   No. 3.—Prussian blue gr. x., oxalic acid gr. xx., water gxyj.
   No. 4.—Dissolve nickel in diluted sulphuric acid, add ammonia in excess and
 dilute with water.
   No. 5.—Dissolve nickel in diluted  nitric acid,  add ammonia in excess  and
 dilute with water.
   No. 6.—To the green color made by formula No. 8 under that color,  add
 sufficient aqua ammonia to make it blue.

                                GREEN.
   No. 1.—Sulphate of copper gij, chloride of sodium giv, water gxx.
   No. 2.—Dissolve gj of  nickel in gvj of nitric acid, and add Ov of water.
   No. 3.—Dissolve nickel in dilute sulphuric acid, and dilute with water.
   No. 4.—Dissolve sulphate of copper in water and add bichromate of potassa
 until the required color is produced.
   No. 5.—Dissolve ammonio-sulphate of copper in water, and add bichromate
 of potassa until the required color is produced.
   No. 6.—Dissolve sulphate of copper in water, and add nitric acid until  the
 required color is produced.
   No. 7.—Dissolve  distilled verdigris  with  acetic   acid, and  dilute with
 water.
   No. 8.—Dissolve a copper cent  in nitric acid, and  add enough  of the solu-
 tion to water or proof spirit, to give it the right shade.

                                LILAC.
   No. 1.—Dissolve zaffre  (impure oxide of cobalt) in hydrochloric acid, filter
 and add carbonate of ammonia in  excess ; to this add ammonio-sulphate of
 copper until the required color is produced.
   No. 2.—Dissolve zaffre in hydrochloric acid, filter, and add carbonate of
 ammonia in excess ; to this add ammonio-nitrate  of nickel (see Blue, No. 5)
 until the required tint is produced.
                               ORANGE.
   No. 1.—Dissolve bichromate of potassa in water until the required tint is
 produced.
   No. 2.—The same as the last but adding some oil  of  vitriol or hydrochlo-
 ric acid.
                                 PINK.
   No.  1.—Dissolve gij of zaffre in gvj of hydrochloric acid, filter, add  solu-
tion of carbonate of ammonia in excess; then  add fgj of liquor potassse, and
dilute with water, to produce the required  color.
   No.  2.—Nitrate of cobalt may be used, with carbonate of ammonia, in  the
same way as the last. 
1356
Appendix.
                               purple.
  No. 1.—Sulphate of copper gj, carbonate of ammonia gjss, water Oijss.
  No. 2.—The last color, with a small quantity of the Pink No. 1.

                                  RED.
  No. 1.—Macerate  powdered cochineal in spirit of hartshorn, and dilute it
with water.
  No. 2.—Dissolve carmine in solution of ammonia, and dilute it with water.
  No. 3.—Wash the best  madder  two or three  times with  cold water, then
macerate it in solution of carbonate of ammonia, filter the solution, and dilute
it with water.
  No. 4.—Dissolve madder lake in  solution of carbonate of ammonia.
  No. 5.—Add  a sufficient quantity of tincture of iodine to  alcohol or proof
spirit to produce the desired color.   Should it fade renew the color by adding
more tincture of iodine.
                               violet.
  Ammonio-sulphate of  copper, diluted with water, and  enough of the pink
color No. 1 to produce the required tint.

                               YELLOW.
  No. 1.—Bichromate of potassa 3VJ, carbonate of potassa 31V, water gxyj.
  No. 2.—Add a sufficient  quantity of tincture of iodine  to alcohol or proof
spirit to make a bright straw color.
  N. B. Alcohol answers better for  colors than water or  proof spirit, as there
is seldom any precipitate or decomposition; beside, as it does not freeze in
winter, there  is no breaking of the  show-bottles, which is apt to ensue when
water is used. 
INDEX.
           A
Abbreviations, table of 1298
Abelmoschus esculen-
  tus............... 141
Abelmoschus moscha-
  tus............... 141
Abies Americana.... 588
Abies balsamea...... 142
Abies canadensis .... 143
Abies excelsa....... 144
Abies larix.......... 146
Abies nigra.........146
Abies picea......... 147
Abietis resina.......145
Absinthine......... 249
Absolute alcohol..... 188
Acacia.............147
Acacia Arabica...... 147
Acacia catechu......149
Acacia vera.........147
Aceta..............1004
Acetate  of ammonia,
  solution of........1018
Acetate of iron......1087
Acetate of lead......743
Acetate of morphia.. .1135
Acetate  of  morphia,
  solution of........1136
Acetate  of  oxide  of
  ethyle............1007
Acetate of potassa.. .1180
Acetate of quinia... .1206
Acetate of soda...... 886
Acetated tincture of blood-
  root compound.... 1270
Acetated  tincture  of
  opium............1266
Acetic acid.........155
Acetic   acid,   dilut-
  ed..........1005,1020
Acetic  acid, diluted,
  impure........... 151
Acetic ether.........1007
Acetous  emetic tinc-
  ture..............1270
Acetum............. 151
Acetum Britannicum. 151
Acetum destillatuml51,
                     1005
Acetum Gallicum---151
Act-turn lobelias.....1006
Acetum  sanguinariae. 1006
Acetum scillse.......1006
Acetum vini........ 151
Achillea millefolium.  153
Achillea ptarmica ...  155
Achilleic acid.......  154
Achilleine..........  153
Acid, acetic.........  155
Acid, achilleic.......  154
Acid,  aromatic  sul-
  phuric............  170
Acid, benzoic.......  157
Acid, carbonic ...;. .1021
Acid, carthamic.....302
Acid, caryophyllic.. .1151
Acid, chelidonic.....330
Acid, chromic.......  158
Acid, chrysophanic ..  803
Acid, cinchonic.....  357
Acid, cinnamic......1152
Acid, cinnamonic.... 1152
Acid, citric.........  159
Acid, colombic......373
Acid, copaivic.......397
Acid, crotonic.......  689
Acid, cyano-hydric ..  162
Acid,  diluted   ace-
  tic......... 1005, 1020
Acid, diluted  acetic,
  impure...........  151
Acid,  diluted  phos-
  phoric ............169
Acid,  diluted   sul-
  phuric............  171
Acid, elaidic........  668
Acid, erucic.........  876
Acid, eugenic.......1151
Acid, ferric.........  467
Acid, gallic.........  159
Acid, gambogic.....485
Acid, glacial phospho-
  ric............... 170
Acid, guaiacic.......513
Acid, hemidesmic ... 531
Acid, hydriodic.....161
Acid, hydrochloric... 161
Acid, hydrocyanic ...  162
Acid, hyperiodic___561
Acid, iodic..........561
Acid, iodous........ 561
Acid, kinic.........357
Acid, lactic......... 163
Acid, lactucic....... 587
Acid, meconic....... 714
Acid, muriatic...... 161
Acid, myrrhic.......271
Acid, myristicic.....649
Acid, myronic...... 877
Acid, nitric......... 165
Acid, nitro-hydrochlo-
  ric............... 167
Acid, nitro-muriatic  . 167
Acid, oxalic......... 168
Acid, palmic........ 681
Acid, parillinic...... 884
Acid, phosphoric,  di-
  luted ............. 169
Acid, phosphoric, gla-
  cial.............. 170
Acid, picrotoxic.....219
Acid, polygalic......757
Acid, prussic........ 162
Acid, pyroligneous... 156
Acid, quercitric.....791
Acid, quinic........357
Acid, rhabarbic...... 803
Acid, sabadillic.....950
Acid, smilasperic.... 531
Acid, succinic....... 916
Acid, sulphuric,  aro-
  matic ............ 170
Acid, tannic......... 172
Acid, tartaric....... 174
Acid, valerianic..... 946
Acid, veratric.......950
Acidum aceticum.... 155
Acidum aceticum em-
  pyreumaticum.....156
Acidum benzoicum .. 157
Acidum chromicum.. 158
Acidum citricum  .... 159
Acidum gallicum.... 159
Acidum hydriodicum. 161
Acidum  hydrochlori-
  cum ............. 161
Acidum  hydrocyani-
  cum.............. 162
Acidum lacticum  .... 163
Acidum nitricum___165
Acidum  nitro-hydro-
  chloricum......... 167
Acidum oxalicum  ... 168
Acidum phosphoricum
  dilutum.......... 169
Acidum    pyroligne-
  um............... 156
Acidum  sulphuricum
  aromaticum.......170
Acidum  sulphuricum
  dilutum.......... 171
Acidum tannicum  ... 172
           (1357) 
1358
Index.
Acidum tartaricum ..  174
Acidum valerianicum  946
Aconite............  175
Aconite liniment... .1112
Aconitina..........  177
Aconitum napellus..  175
Aconitum panicula-
  tum..............  175
Acorus calamus.....  178
Actaea alba.........  179
Actaea rubra........  179
Actaea spicata.......  179
Adder's tongue......453
Adder's violet.......509
Adeps..............  180
Adeps suillus praepa-
  ratus........180, 1279
Adhesive plaster___1039
Adhesive and strength-
  ening plaster.....1039
Adiantum pedatum..  181
_5sculaceae.........   33
jEsculus glabra.....  182
_Ssculus hippocasta-
  num.............  182
J^ther aceticus......1007
_3ther hydriodicus. .1008
jEther sulphuricus . .1011
jEtherea............1007
African kino........581
Agaric.............  183
Agaric, white.......  183
Agaric of the oak .. .  183
Agave Americana...  184
Agave Virginica ....  184
Agrimonia eupatoria.  185
Agrimony..........  185
Ague bitters........1268
Ague root..........  191
Air, fixed..........1021
Ajuga chamaepitys ..  185
Albany beech drops   780
Albumen ovi........700
Albumen, vegetable   935
Alcohol............  187
Alcohol, absolute....  188
Alcohol, amylic.....  190
Alcohol, amylicum ..  190
Alcohol, diluted___187
Alcohol  dilutum ....  187
Alcohol, methylic...  905
Alcoholic extract  of
  aconite...........1047
Alcoholic extract  of
  belladonna.......1050
Alcoholic extract  of
  henbane..........1056
Alcoholic extract  of
  nux vomica.......1060
Alcoholic extract  of
  poison-hemlock .. .1052
Alcoholic extract  of
  poke  ............1061
Alcoholic extract  of
  stramonium......1065
Alcoholic extract  of
  unicorn root......1047
Alcoholic potassa... .1179
Aldehyd.......151,1010
Alder, black........772
Alder, common......  195
Alder leaved dogwood  402
Alder, smooth.......  195
Alder, spotted......521
Alder, tag..........  195
Aleppo  scammony ..  393
Aletridin...........1047
Aletrin.............  192
Aletris  farinosa.....  191
Alexandria senna....  309
Algaceae............  137
Alkaline ointment.. .1280
Alkaline   ointment,
  camphorated......1280
Alismaceae..........  120
Alisma plantago.....  192
Alkaline wash......1124
Allium cepa........  194
Allium  sativum.....193
Allspice............  654
Allspice, wild......275
Almond............  212
Almond, cutting ....  719
Almond oil soap ....  850
Almonds,  bitter.....212
Almonds,  saponaceous
  cream of..........  213
Almonds, sweet.....212
Alnuine............  196
Alnus rubra........  195
Alnus serrulata.....195
Aloe, American......  184
Aloe, false..........  184
Aloe  Socotrina......  196
Aloe  spicata........196
Aloe, spiked........196
Aloe vulgaris.......  197
Aloes..............  196
Aloes, Barbadoes....  197
Aloes, Cape........  197
Aloesin............  199
Aloine.............200
Alpinia cardamomum  201
Alsine media.......909
Alterative syrup ... .1236
Althaea officinalis...  202
Althaea rosea.......203
Altingiaceae........  112
Alum..............204
Alum, burnt........205
Alum, dried........  205
Alumroot.......496, 533
Alum whey.........  205
Alumen............204
Alumen exsiccatum. •  205
Alumen ustum......  205
Alumina and potassa,
  sulphate of.......  204
Amaranth..........  205
Amaranthaceae......  100
Amaranthus hypochon-
  driacus..........205
Amaryllidaceae.....  123
Amber.............  916
Amber, oil of. ..916, 1164
Amber, oil of,rectifiedll64
Ambrosia artemisiae-
  folia.............207
Ambrosia elatior .... 207
Ambrosia trifida.... 206
Ambrosine......... 206
Amentaceae.........110
American agave..... 184
American Aloe.....184
American broomrape 696
American centaury.. 827
American Colombo... 473
American foxglove .. 498
American gentian... 494
American Greek-vale-
  rian.............. 754
American hellebore.. 951
American holly.....555
American ipecacuan-
  ha............... 463
American ivy....... 212
American larch......588
American mezereon.. 444
American poplar ... 762
American sanicle...  533
American sarsaparilla 237
American senna.....306
American silver fir.. 142
American valerian__424
Amidin............ 216
Ammonia.......... 209
Ammonia,  carbonate
  of................1015
Ammonia,  chloro-hy-
  drate of.......... 210
Ammonia, muriate of 210
Ammonia, prepara-
  tions of...........1015
Ammonia,  sesquicar-
  bonate of.........1015
Ammonia, solution of 1016
Ammonia, stronger so-
  lution of..........1018
Ammonia, water of. .1016
Ammoniac, gum .... 207
Ammoniacal ointmentl281
Ammoniacum.......207
Ammoniae  acetatis li-
  quor .............1018
Ammoniae carbonas. .1015
Ammoniae hydrochlo-
  ras...............  210
Ammoniae liquor... .1016
Ammoniae liquor for-
  tior.........____1018
Ammoniae  murias...  210
Ammoniated tincture
  of castor.........1249
Ammoniated tincture
  of valerian........1273
Ammonio-citrate of
  iron..............1088
Amorphous  soft sul-
  phur.............919
Ampelopsis quinque-
  folia............. 212
Amygdala amara.... 212
Amygdala dulcis.... 212
Amydalae oleum.....213 
Index.                            1359
Amygdalin..........213
Amygdaline soap___850
Amygdalus communis 212
Amygdalus Persica . 214
Amyle, hydrated ox-
  ide of............ 190
Amylic alcohol...... 190
Amylin............ 216
Amylum........... 215
Amyridaceae........  36
Anacardiaceae.......  29
Anacyclus pyrethrum 217
Anagallis arvensis... 217
Anamirta cocculus... 218
Andira inermis...... 219
Andromeda  angusti-
  folia............. 221
Andromeda arborea.. 220
Andromeda mariana. 221
Andromeda nitida... 221
Andromeda ovalifolia 221
Andromeda polifolia. 221
Andromeda  pulveru-
  lenta............. 221
Andromeda speciosa. 221
Anemone, meadow... 221
Anemone nemorosa.. 221
Anemone patens.....221
Anemone pratensis.. 221
Anemone pulsatilla.. 221
Anemone, wood.....221
Anemonine......... 221
Angelica archangelica 222
Angelica  atropurpu-
  rea..............  222
Angelica lucida.....222
Angelica, purple....  222
Angelica tree.......238
Angelica triquinati..  222
Angola weed........ 813
Angustura..........481
Angustura, false.....482
Anhydrous alcohol... 188
Animal charcoal..... 300
Anise............... 730
Aniseed, star........ 731
Anodyne liniment..  .1116
Anonaceae...........  15
Antennariadioicum.. 223
Antennaria margarita-
  ceum..........223,509
Antennaria plantagi-
  neum............. 223
Anthemis cotula....   624
Anthemis nobilis..... 223
Anthemis pyrethrum. 217
Anthoxantum  odorat-
  ura............... 931
Antibilious physic..  .1203
Antidyspeptic pills..  .1169
Antispasmodic clysterl043
Antispasmodic tinc-
  ture..............1263
Apiaceae............  51
Apis mellifica....... 625
Apium  petroselinum. 225
Apocynaceae........  96
Apocynin........... 227
Apocynum androsae-
  mifolium .........226
Apocynum cannabin-
  um...............227
Apothecaries' measurel316
Apothecaries' weight 1316
Appendix...........1298
Apple..............  787
Apple  Peru..........  429
Application of heat..  991
Approximate  measure-
  ments ............1318
Aqua..............  229
Aqua acidi carbonici.1020
Aqua ammoniae......1016
Aqua amygdalae ama-
  rae...............1021
Aqua calcis.........1022
Aqua camphorae.....1023
Aqua cinnamomi... .1023
Aqua destillata......1023
Aqua fceniculi.......1025
Aqua fortis.........  165
Aqua riorum aurantii. 1025
Aqua hedeomae pule-
  gioides...........1024
Aqua  menthae pipe-
  rita..............1024
Aqua menthae viridis 1024
Aqua picis liquidae. .1024
Aqua pimentae......1024
Aqua regia.........  167
Aqua rosae..........1025
Aqua sambuci.......1025
Aqua sapphirina....  420
Aquae medicata......1020
Aquifoliaceae........   77
Arabin.............  148
Araceae.............  118
Aralia hispida.......236
Aralia  nuaicaulis....  237
Aralia  racemosa.....238
Aralia  spinosa......238
Araliaceae...........   57
Arbor  vitae.........  929
Arbutin............241
Arbutus uva  ursi....  240
Archil..............  814
Arctium  lappa.......  239
Arctostaphylos  uva
  ursi..............240
Arctuvin...........  241
Areca catechu.......  150
Argel..............  309
Argenti nitras.......242
Aristolochia hastata..  245
Aristolochia hirsuta..  245
Aristolochia reticulata  245
Aristolochia serpenta-
  ria...............  244
Aristolochia tomento-
  sa................246
Aristolochiaceae.....   99
Armenian cement___209
Arnica montana.....247
Arnicina...........248
Aromatic spirit of am-
  monia ............1273
Aromatic  tincture  of
  guaiacum.........1257
Arrowroot.......... 620
Arrowroot plant..... 620
Arrow-wood........ 958
Arrow-wood, Indian. 454
Artanthe elongata... 733
Artemisia abrotanum. 250
Artemisia absinthium 249
Artemisia santonica.. 250
Artemisia vulgaris... 250
Artichoke, garden... 422
Artichoke, Jerusalem 423
Artificial camphor... 685
Artificial musk...... 643
Artificial seltzer water 1020
Artificial tannin..... 796
Artificial  system  of
  Linnaeus.......... 138
Arum triphyllum.... 252
Asagrae officinalis.... 950
Asarabacca......... 253
Asarin............. 254
Asarite............. 254
Asarone............ 254
Asarum camphor.... 254
Asarum Canadense.. 254
Asarum Europaeum.. 253
Asclepiadaceae......   97
Asclepias alba...... 256
Asclepias cornuti.... 256
Asclepias, flesh-color-
  ed ............... 255
Asclepias glabra.... 256
Asclepias incarnata.. 255
Asclepias pseudosar-
  sa................ 531
Asclepias pulchra... 256
Asclepias syriaca.... 256
Asclepias tuberosa... 257
Asclepidin.......... 258
Asclepione..........257
Ascletine...........258
Ash, black.......... 475
Ash, blue.........  476
Ash-colored  cantharis 295
Ash, flowering...... 693
Ash, white.......... 475
Ash, prickly........ 969
Asparagin.......... 259
Asparagus.......... 259
Asparagus officinale. 259
Asparamide......... 259
Aspen.............. 762
Asphaltum......... 720
Aspidium filix mas.. 260
Assafcetida..........263
Aster aestivus.......265
Aster cordifolius.... 265
Aster puniceus......265
Asteraceae..........   63
Astragalus aristatus.. 262
Astragalus Creticus.. 262
Astragalus gummifer. 262
Astragalus massilien-
  sis...............261
Astragalus  strobuli-
  ferus............. 262 
1360
Index.
Astragalus  tragacan-
  tha............... 261
Astragalus verus .... 261
Atropa belladonna ... 266
Atropia............. 267
Aurantiaceae........  30
Avena sativa........ 269
Avenae farina........ 269
Avens, European.... 500
Avens, water........499
Avens, white.........499
Avens, purple.......499
Avoirdupois weight. .1316
Axungia............ 180

            B
Baking powders.....1216
Balm............... 629
Balm of Gilead ..142,762
Balmony........;.. 331
Balm, parturient.....1233
Balsam, Canada..... 142
Balsam groundsel ... 869
Balsam of copaiba... 396
Balsam of fir........142
Balsam of Peru...... 650
Balsam of Tolu..... 652
Balsam, Pettit's oph-
  thalmic ...... ...1289
Balsam, poplar...... 761
Balsam, pulmonary .. 1228
Balsam, styptic...... 687
Balsam weed........ 557
Balsam, white....... 509
Balsamaceae......... 112
Balsaininaceae.......  27
Balsamito.......... 651
Balsamodendron myr-
  rha............... 270
Bamboo brier....... 882
Baneberry.......... 179
Baptisia alba........274
Baptisia serratifolia.. 274
Baptisia tinctoria.... 272
Baptisin............273
Barbadoes aloes..... 197
Barbadoes petroleum. 721
Barbadoes tar....... 721
Barberry........... 278
Barilla............. 890
Bark, cabbage tree... 219
Bark, Caribaean..... 356
Bark, pale.......... 353
Bark, Peruvian...... 347
Bark, pitaya........356
Bark, red........... 354
Bark, yellow........ 353
Barks, Carthagena 349,355
Barley.............. 537
Barosma crenata.....274
Barosma crenulata... 274
Basilicon ointment.. .1028
Bastard saffron...... 302
Bateman's drops.....1267
Bath, cold.......... 233
Bath, foot........... 235
Bath, head..........236
Bath, hip...........235
Bath, plunge........235
Bath, shallow....... 235
Bath, shower........236
Bath, sitz...........235
Bath, spirit vapor ... 903
Bath, vapor.........236
Bath, warm......... 232
Bayberry........... 644
Bayberry plaster.....1035
Bayberry wax.......645
Beadtree ........... 627
Bearberry ..........240
Bear's-bed.......... 761
Bear's-foot..........528
Bear's-oil........... 682
Beaver tree.......... 617
Bebeerin............ 656
Bebeeru............ 656
Beech drops........ 695
Beech drops, Albany. 780
Beef's gall..........465
Beef marrow soap ..  851
Beggar's lice........ 424
Beggar's tick........280
Belladonna.........266
Bellwort............943
Benjamin bush......276
Benne.............. 871
Benzoic acid........ 157
Benzoin............ 276
Benzoin odoriferum.. 275
Benzoinum.........276
Berberidaceae........  17
Berberina.......278,373
Berberis vulgaris .... 278
Beth root........... 932
Betulalenta......... 279
Betulaceae........... 110
Bicarbonate of  potas-
  sa  ...............1181
Bicarbonate of soda. 1214
Bicarbonate of soda,
  troches of.........1278
Bichromate  of  potas-
  sa  ...............1183
Bidens bipinnata .... 280
Bidens connata......280
Bidens frondosa..... 280
Bidens tripartita..... 280
Big-leaved ivy.....578
Bignonia    sempervi-
  rens.............. 488
Bilberry............944
Bin-oxalate of potassa 701
Birch, black........279
Birch, cherry........279
Birch, sweet........279
Birch, mahogany .... 279
Bird's nest.......... 639
Birth-root...........932
Bisulphate of potassa 1184
Bitartrate of potassa. 765
Bitter almond water. .1021
Bitter almonds......212
Bitter almonds, oil  of 213
Bitter candy tuft.... 553
Bitter cassava......570
Bitter cucumber..... 413
Bitter polygala......755
Bitter root..........226
Bitter quassia.......728
Bitters, ague........1268
Bitters, Bone's......1260
Bitters, wine........1295
Bitters, restorative
  wine.............1296
Bittersweet......... 895
Bittersweet, climbing 317
Bittersweet, false.... 317
Bitterweed..........206
Black alder......... 772
Black ash..........475
Blackberry.......... 819
Blackberry, low.....819
Black birch.........279
Black cantharis......295
Black cherry........ 266
Black cohosh........ 342
Black  currant......811
Black  currant, wild.. 812
Black drop.......... 717
Black haw.......... 959
Black hellebore......527
Black larch......... 588
Black liniment......1115
Black locust........812
Black mustard......875
Black oak.......... 790
Black oxide of    •
  iron..........467,1098
Black pepper........ 736
Black pitch......... 740
Black powder.......1204
Black pursely.......461
Black root ...'.......593
Black rosin......... 796
Black salve.........1036
Black Sampson......822
Black snakeroot. .342, 848
Black spruce........ 146
Black tea........... 928
Black walnut.......573
Black whortleberry .. 944
Black willow....... 837
Bladdernut......... 907
Bladderwrack....... 477
Blessed thistle...... 317
Bloodroot........... 843
Bloodroot, vinegar  of 1006
Blooming spurge .... 460>
Blood wort, striped... 534
Blue ash...........476
Blue bells.......... 754
Blue cohosh......... 312
Blue flag............ 567
Blue fringed gentian. 494
Blue gentian........494
Blue lobelia......... 609
Blue,  Prussian......1091
Blue violet......... 960
Blue vitriol.........419
Blue whortleberry ... 944
Blunt-leaved dock ... 823
Bog-bean........... 633
Boletus ignarius..... 183
Boletus laricis....... 183 
Index.
1361
Bone's bitters.......1260
Boneset.............456
Boraginaceae........  90
Borate of soda.......887
Borax.............. 887
Borax lotion.........1125
Borax lotion with mor-
  phia .............1125
Bordeaux turpentine. 684
Boswellia serrata .... 690
Boswellia thurifera .. 690
Botany bay kino.....581
Bougies............1029
Bouncing bet........ 852
Bowman's root.. .460, 501
Box ............... 282
Boxberry...........486
Box, dwarf......".... 283
Boxwood...........402
Brake, buckhorn.....698
Brake, rock.......760,778
Brake root.......... 760
Brake  winter........779
Bi an............... 935
Brandy,  domestic.... 189
Brandy mixture.....1131
Brassicaceae.........  21
Brayera   anthelminti-
   oa............... 281
Brazilian sarsaparilla 881
Brimstone, horse ... 918
Bristle-stem  sarsapa-
   rilla..............237
British gum.........216
British oil.......... 721
British vinegar...... 151
Broad-leaved dog-
   wood  ............402
Bromated aloine.....200
Bromide of potassiuml!92
Bronchial elixir.....1084
Brooklime...........957
Broom,  common.....426
Broom,  pine........731
Broomrape, American 696
 Brown gum-tree.....582
 Brown ointment.....1289
 Brucea ferruginea....  482
 Brucia.............1223
 Bryaceae  ...........  136
 Buchu..............274
 Buckbean........... 633
 Buckeye............ 182
 Buckhorn brake.....698
 Buckthorn..........797
 Buckwheat.........759
 Bugle.............. 185
 Bugleweed.......... 609
 Burdook............239
 Burgundy pitch.....144
 Burning bush.......454
 Burning fluid.......733
 Burnt alum......... 205
 Burnt sponge.......907
 Bush honeysuckle... 437
 Bush whortleberry... 944
 Butea frondosa......582
 Buttercup...........795
            86
Butterfly weed......257
Butternut ..........  572
Butterweed.........450
Button bush.........  322
Button snakeroot 452, 598
Buxussempervirens..  282
Buxus suffruticoaa...  283
Cabbage, meadow ...  922
Cabbage, skunk.....921
Cabbage tree bark ...  219
Caducous polygala ..  757
Caffein......,......378
Caffein, citrate of ....  380
Cahinca............  335
Calamine cerate.....1028
Calamus............  178
Calamus  draco......846
Calcined deer's  horn.  401
Calcined magnesia...  612
Calendula officinalis.  283
Calico bush.........  578
Calisaya bark.......353
Calx...............284
Camphene..........  685
Camphor...........286
Camphor, artificial...  685
Camphor, asarum....  254
Camphor liniment.. .1114
Camphor water......1023
Caniphora..........  286
Camphorated alkaline
  ointment..........1280
Camphorated mixture
  of oils............1130
Camphorated soap li-
  niment ...........1116
Camphorated tincture
  of opium.........1267
Canada balsam...... 142
Canada fleabane.....  450
Canada pitch........ 143
Canada  snakeroot ... 254
Canada thistle.......365
Canada turpentine... 142
Cancer root......... 695
Cancer wintergreen.. 487
Candytuft, bitter---553
Cane, sugar.........827
Canella............. 288
 Canellae............   37
 Canella  alba........288
 Canker-lettuce...... 786
 Canna ............. 289
 Canna coccinea......289
 Canna edulis........289
 Canna starch........289
 Cannabis sativa.....290
 Cantharidal collodion 385
 Cantharides......... 291
 Cantharidin......... 293
 Cantharis albida.....295
 Cantharis atrata.....295
 Cantharis cinerea---295
 Cantharis  marginata. 295
 Cantharis Nuttalli... 295
 Cantharis officinalis.. 291
Cantharis vesicatoria.  291
Cantharis  vittata---294
Caoutchouc.........  295
Caoutchouc liniment. 1114
Caoutchouc,  vulcan-
  ized..............  296
Caoutchoucine.......  296
Cape aloes..........  197
Caprifoliaceae........   58
Capsicin............298
Capsicum  annuum...  297
Capsicum  baccatum..  298
Capsicum  frutescens. 298
Capsicum minimum.. 298
Capsicum, oil of, ethe-
  real .............. 299
Capsicum, troches of. 1276
Capsicum and lobelia,
  troches of.........1276
Capsules of gelatin.. 503
Caracas sarsaparilla.. 882
Caraway............ 303
Carbo animalis......300
Carboligni.......... 301
Carbonate  of ammo-
  nia...............1015
Carbonate of iron, pre-
  cipitated .........1102
Carbonate of iron, sac-
  charine  ...........1087
Carbonate of lime.... 409
Carbonate of magnesia 613
Carbonate of potassa  1185
Carbonate  of potassa,
             ........1186
  pure.........
Carbonate of potassa,
  solution of.........1187
Carbonate of soda.... 889
Carbonate  of  soda,
  dried.............1216
Carbonic acid.......1021
Carbonic acid water.  .1020
Cardamom.......... 201
Caribean bark....... 356
Carmine............375
Carolina pink....... 901
Carotin............. 434
Carpenter's square... 859
Carpus Americana... 699
Carrageen........... 340
Carrageenin......... 340
Carrot cataplasm...  .1026
Carrot, wild......... 433
Carthagena barks
  ..........349, 350, 355
Carthamic acid...... 302
Carthamine.......... 302
Carthamus tinctorius. 302
Carum carui......... 303
Carvacrol...........1150
Carvene.............1150
Caryophyllaceae;.....  24
Caryophillic  acid....1151
Caryophillin.........305
Caryophyllus aroma-
  ticus.............. 304
Caryota urens.......835
Cascarilla...........412 
1362
Index.
Cascarillin.......... 413
Cassava............ 570
Qassia acutifolia..... 307
Cassia chamaecrista.. 307
Cassia, dwarf........307
Cassia elongata...... 307
Cassia fistula........ 305
Cassia lanceolata___308
Cassia Marilandica... 306
Cassia obovata....... 307
Cassia, purging...... 305
Cassina............. 557
Cassine.............311
Castile soap......... 850
Castillon's powders.. 836
Castor.............. 311
Castor oil............ 679
Castoreum.......... 311
Castorin............ 312
Cataplasm, carrot___1025
Cataplasm, charcoal. .1025
Cataplasm, cranberry 1026
Cataplasm, elm......1027
Cataplasm, flaxseed. .1026
Cataplasm, lobelia.. .1026
Cataplasm, poke-root. 1027
Cataplasm,  stramoni-
  um...............1027
Cataplasm, yeast ... .1026
Cataplasma carbouis.1025
Cataplasma dauci... .1026
Cataplasma fermenti.1026
Cataplasma lini......1026
Cataplasma lobeliae.  .1026
Cataplasma oxycocci 1026
Cataplasma phytolac-
  C83...............1027
Cataplasma stramonii .1027
Cataplasma ulmi__.1027
Cataplasmata.......1025
Cataplasms.........1025
Catechu............ 149
Cathartic clyster.....1042
Cathartin........... 310
Catmint............. 658
Catnip.............. 658
Cattail flag.......... 938
Caulophyllin........ 313
Caulophyllum  thalic-
  troides  ........... 312
Caustic,  lunar.......242
Caustic of Filhos---285
Caustic potassa......1178
Caustic, vegetable.... 1188
Caustic.  Vienna..... 285
Cayenne  pepper.....297
Ceanothine..........316
Ceanothus American-
  us................ 315
Cedar apples........ 577
Cedar, false white___929
Cedar, oil of.........1156
Cedar,  red.......... 577
Celandine, great.....329
Celastraceae.........  34
Celastrus scandens... 317
Cement,  Armenian... 209
Cement, diamond.... 209
 Centaurea  Benedicta. 317
 Centaury, American.. 827
 Cephaelis ipecacuanha 318
 Oephalanthus occiden-
  talis.............. 332
 Cephalic powder.....1204
 Cera alba..........323
 Cera flava........... 323
 Cerain.............. 324
 Ceramiaceae......... 137
 Cerasus serotina..... 773
 Cerasus  Virginiana.. 773
 Cerata..............1027
 Cerate, calamine.....1028
 Cerate, croton oil.... 1028
 Cerate,  resin........1028
 Cerate, savine.......1028
 Cerate, simple.......1029
 Cerate, spermaceti.. .1028
 Cerate, Turner's___1028
 Cerates.............1027
 Ceratum  calaminae.. .1028
 Ceratum cetacei......1028
 Ceratum  crotonis... .1028
 Ceratum resinae......1028
 Ceratum  sabinae.....1028
 Ceratum simplex.....1029
 Cerei...............1029
 Cereoli.............1029
 Cerevisiae fermentum..325
 Cerin............... 324
 Cetaceum........... 326
 Cetin............... 327
 Cetraria  Islandica... 328
 Cetrarin............. 328
Cevadilla............ 949
 Chalk............... 409
 Chalk, prepared.....409
 Chalybeate  waters... 236
 Chamomile.........223
 Chamomile, German. 224
 Chamomile, Roman.. 223
 Chamomile, Spanish. 217
 Chamomile, wild.... 624
 Champagne, imitation 966
 Charcoal............ 301
 Charcoal, animal.... 300
 Charcoal cataplasm. .1025
 Oheckerberry....486, 635
 Chelerythine........ 330
Chelidonic acid...... 330
Chelidonin.......... 330
Chelidonium majus.. 329
 Chelidoxanthin...... 330
Chelone  glabra......331
 Chemical    elements,
  with their symbols
  and equivalents... 1343
 Chenopodiaceae...... 100
 Chenopodium ambro-
  soides............333
 Chenopodium anthel-
  minticum......... 332
 Chenopodium botrys. 333
 Cherry birch........ 279
 Cherry, ground...... 724
 Cherry, Wild........ 773
 Cherry, winter....... 724
Chian turpentine  ... 732
Chickweed.......... 909
Chickweed, red......217
Chicory............. 342
Chimaphila  maculata 334
Chimaphila umbellata 333
China root.......... 882
Chiococca racemosa.. 335
Chlorate of potassa. .1187
Chloride of iron, tinc-
  ture of............1254
Chloride of sodium.. 893
Chlorinated soda, solu-
  tion of............1123
Chloroform.......... 335
Chloroformum....... 335
Chloro-hydrate of am-
  monia............. 210
Chocolate root.......499
Choice dielytra......405
Cholera   mixture,
  Greenhows'.......1257
Cholera pills........1170
Chondrin............ 502
Chondrus crispus.... 340
Christmas rose......528
Chromic acid........ 158
Chrysanthemum   leu-
  canthemum ....... 341
Chrysanthemum  par-
  thenium .......... 786
Chrysophanic acid... 803
Chulariose.......... 829
Churrus............. 290
Cichorium endivia... 342
Cichorium intybus... 342
Cicily, sweet........ 697
Cicuta maculata.....390
Cider...............789
Cimicifuga racemosa. 342
Cimicifugin......... 345
Cinchona........... 347
Cinchona acutifolia.. 351
Cinchona amygdalifo-
  lia............... 351
Cinchona asperifolia. 351
Cinchona australis... 351
Cinchona Boliviana.. 348
Cinchonacaduciflora. 351
Cinchona calisaya... 347
Cinchona carabayen-
  sis...............  351
Cinchona cava....... 351
Cinchona Chomeliana 351
Cinchona Condaminea 348
Cinchona cordifolia.. 349
Cinchonacrassifolia.. 351
Cinchona dichotoma  . 351
Cinchona glandulifera 351
Cinchona hirsuta...  . 351
Cinchona lanceolata.. 350
Cinchona lancifolia .. 349
Cinchona lucumaefolia 350
Cinchona macrocalyx 351
Cinchona macrocarpa 351 -•'
Cinchona magnifolia. 350*,'
Cinchona micrantha. 348
Cinchona Muzonensis 351 
Index.
1363
 Cinchona nitida.....350
 Cinchona oblongifolia 351
 Cinchona ovalifolia .. 350
 Cinchona ovata......350
 Cinchona pelalba___351
 Cinchona pubescens.  350
 Cinchona  purpuras-
   cens..............351
 Cinchona rotundifolia 351
 Cinchona scrobiculata 351
 Cinchona stenocarpa.  351
 Cinchona villosa.....351
 Cinchonaceae........   61
 Cinchonia..........  361
 Cinchonia, Kinate of.  358
 Cinchonia, sulphate of 362
 Cinchonic acid......357
 Cinnamic acid.......1152
 Cinnamonic acid.....1152
 Cinnamomum aroma-
   ticum............  363
 Cinnamomum  culila-
   wan..............  364
 Cinnamomum Lourei-
   rii...............  364
 Cinnamomum niti-
   dum.............  364
 Cinnamomum tamala  364
 Cinnamomum  Zeyla-
   nicum  ...........  363
 Cinnamon..........  363
 Cinnamon-colored fern 698
 Cinnamon water.....1023
 Cinnamyle..........1152
 Cinquefoil..........  771
 Cirsium arvense.....365
 Cissampelos  glaberri-
   ma...............  366
 Cissampelos pareira..  365
 Cissampelin........  366
 Cistaceae  ...........  23
 Cistus Canadensis ...  525
 Citrate of caffein ....  380
 Citrate of iron.......1088
 Citrate  of iron  and
  quinia............1089
 Citrate  of magnesia,
  solution of........1121
 Citrate of potassa, so-
  lution of..........1123
 Citrate of quinia ... .1206
 Citrate of strychnia. .1223
 Citric acid..........  159
 Citric acid, syrup of. 1227
 Citric acid, troches of 1275
 Citrus acida.........368
 Citrus aurantium....  366
 Citrus bigaradia.....  367
 Citrus limetta.......  369
 Citrus limonum  . ... 368
 Citrus vulgaris......367
 Claret wine.........964
 Clarified honey......  626
 Cleavers...........483
 Clematis dioica......  371
 Clematis vior'nar.* ...  371
 Clematis Virginiana.  370
Clematis vitalba.....  371
 Climbing bittersweet. 317
 Climbing staff-tree... 317
 Cloves............. 304
 Clover, red.......... 930
 Clover, white melilot. 931
 Clover, winter....... 635
 Clover, yellow melilot 931
 Clusiaceae..........,  37
 Clyster,  antispasmo-
   dic...............1043
 Clyster, cathartic___1042
 Clyster of aloes, com-
   pound............1042
 Clyster of assafetida,
   compound........1042
 Clyster of  black  co-
   hosh, compound.. .1042
 Clyster   of   lobelia,
   compound........1043
 Clyster of opium ... .1043
 Clyster of senna, com-
   pound  ...........1043
 Clyster of turpentine,
   compound........1043
 Clyster   of   Prickly
   Ash..............1044
 Clysters............1040
 Cnicin..............  318
 Cnicusarvensis......365
 Cnicus benedictus ...  317
 Cnidium  Canadense .  867
 Cnidium  palustre....  866
 Coakum  ...........  725
 Cobweb............  927
 Cocash.............  265
 Coccoloba uvifera....  582
 Cocculus  Indicus....  218
 Cocculus  palmatus..  372
 Coccus cacti.......   374
 Cochineal...........  374
 Cochleariaarmoracia.  376
 Cochlearia officinalis.  377
 Cockleburr..........  186
 Codeia.............  712
 Cod-liver  oil........  673
 Coffea Arabica......  377
 Coffee.............. 377
 Coffee, wild......... 933
 Cohosh, black ...... 342
 Cohosh, blue........ 312
 Cohosh, red......... 179
 Cohosh, white....... 179
 Colchicia........... 383
 Colchicum.......... 381
 Colchicum autumnale 381
 Colcothar ..........1102
 Cold bath........... 233
 Cold cream.........1281
■Colic root.......191,440
 Collection and preser-
  vation of plants ... 981
 Collinsonia  Canaden-
  sis ............... 384
 Collinsonia cordata .. 384
 Collinsonia ovata.... 384
 Collinsonia scabra... 384
 Collinsonia verna.... 384
 Collodion..........  384
 Collodion,   canthari-
   dal ..............  385
 Colocynth..........  413
 Colocynthin........  414
 Cologne............1162
 Colombo............  372
 Colombic acid......  373
 Colombin...........  373
 Colophony  .........  796
 Coltsfoot........254, 938
 Coltstail............  450
 Columbo, American..  473
 Comb flower........  822
 Comfrey............  920
 Comfrey, wild.......424
 Common alder......  195
 Common brake......  778
 Common liniment ...1113
 Common mallow.....  619
 Common nettle......  940
 Common polypody ..  760
 Common salt........893
 Common silk-weed ..  256
 Common soap.......  850
 Common  strengthen-
   ing plaster........1034
 Common water......229
 Common winter cher-
   ry  ...............  724
 Comparison of the dif-
   ferent thermometric
   scales............1314
 Compass weed......  874
 Compositae..........  63
 Composition of vege-
   tables ............ 994
 Compound   acetated
   tincture of   blood-
   root  .............1270
 Compound cajeput lij
   niment...........1114
 Compound  capsicum
   liniment..........1115
 Compound  capsicum
   plaster...........1034
 Compound cajeput
  mixture.........M128
 Compound clyster of
  aloes............  1042
 Compound  clyster of
  assafetida........, 1042
 Compound  clyster of
  black cohosh......1042
 Compound clyster of
  lobelia...........1043
 Compound clyster of
  senna............1043
 Compound clyster of
  turpentine........1043
Compound copaiva
  mixture..........1129
Compound, diuretic. .1111
Compound   electuary
  of senna..........1031
Compound ethereal lo-
  tion..............1125
Compound extract of
  colocynth.........1051 
1364
Index.
Compound  fluid ex-
  tract of gentian.... 1075
Compound  fluid ex-
  tract of lobelia___1078
Compound  fluid ex-
  tract of sarsaparilla 1080
Compound infusion of
  cranesbill.........1111
Compound infusion of
  golden seal........1111
Compound infusion of
  parsley...........1110
Compound infusion of
  sage.............1112
Compound infusion of
  trailing arbutus ...1111
Compound  lead oint-
  ment .............1285
Compound liniment of
  oil of  amber......1117
Compound liniment of
  ammonia.........1113
Compound liniment of
  oils..............1116
Compound liniment of
  stillingia.........1116
Compound liniment of
  turpentine........1117
Compound  liquorice
  mixture..........1130
Compound lobelia lo-
  tion..............1126
Compound  lotion of
  golden seal.......1126
Compound  lotion of
  zinc..............1128
Compound mixture of
  bloodroot.........1131
Compound mixture of
  camphor  .........1128
Compound mixture of
  oils..............1131
Compound  myrrh lo-
  tion..............1127
Compound  ointment
  of bayberry.......1285
Compound ointment
  of iodine.........1284
Compound  ointment
  of stramonium ....1287
Compound  ointment
  of sulphur........12S8
Compound ointment
  of oxide  of zinc...1289
Compound   pills  of
  aconite...........1169
Compound  pills   of
  aloes.............1169
Compound pills of as-
  safetida ..........1170
Compound pills   of
  black cohosh......1171
Compound  pills of
  camphor..........1170
Compound pills of
  copaiba ..........1172
Compound pills of
  dandelion........1177
Compound  pills  of
  eupurpurin.......1172
Compound  pills  of
  ferrocyanuret  of
  iron..............1173
Compound  pills  of
  gamboge.........1170
Compound  pills  of
  high-cranberry ... .1178
Compound  pills  of
  hyoscyamus......1174
Compound  pills  of
  iron..............1173
Compound  pills  of
  leptandrin........1175
Compound  pills  of
  motherwort.......1174
Compound  pills  of
  podophyllin......1175
Compound  pills  of
  poke.............1175
Compound  pills  of
  ptelein...........1176
Compound   pills  of
  quinia............1176
Compound  pills  of
  soap.............1177
Compound  pills  of
  water-pepper......1176
Compound  pills   of
  wild indigo.......1170
Compound  pills  of
  valerian..........1177
Compound  plaster of
  belladonna........1034
Compound powder of
  bayberry.........1204
Compound powder of
  camphor  ........ 1201
Compound powder of
  charcoal  .........1201
Compound powder of
  golden seal.......1201
Compound  powder of
  hydrastin ........1202
Compound powder of
  ipecacuanha......1202
Compound powder of
  ipecacuanha   and
  opium  ..........1202
Compound powder of
  jalap.............1203
Compound powder of
  leptandrin........1203
Compound powder  of
  lobelia...........1203
Compound  powder of
  mandrake.........1204
Compound  powder of
  pleurisyroot.......1200
Compound  powder of
  podophyllin......1204
Compound  powder of
  quinia............1205
Compound powder of
  rhubarb..........1205
Compound  powder of
  xanthoxylin.......1206
Compound powder of
  yellow  ladies slip-
  per ..............1201
Compound resin plas-
  ter...............1039
Compound soda lotionll27
Compound   solution
  of  iodine.........1120
Compound  spirit of
  lavender .........1261
Compound  syrup  of
  horseradish.......1230
Compound  syrup  of
  partridgeberry  .... 1233
Compound  syrup  of
  poke.............1234
Compound  syrup  of
  queen's root......1238
Compound  syrup  of
  rhubarb and potas-
  sa  ...............1234
Compound  syrup of
  sarsaparilla.......1236
Compound  syrup  of
  spikenard........1228
Compound  syrup  of
  turkey-corn.......1230
Compound  syrup  of
  yellow dock.......1235
Compound tar plaster 1035
Compound tincture of
  assafetida.........1245
Compound tincture of
  benzoin...........1246
Compound tincture of
  black cohosh......1249
Compound tincture of
  blue cohosh.......1249
Compound tincture of
  bloodroot........ 1270
Compound tincture of
  camphor..........1247
Compound tincture of
  cardamom........1248
Compound tincture of
  cinnamon.........1251
Compound tincture of
  colchicum........1252
Compound tincture of
  gentian...........1256
Compound tincture of
  golden seal.......1257
Compound tincture of
  high cranberry
  bark.............1273
Compound tincture of
  iodine............1259
Compound tincture of
  lobelia...........1262
Compound tincture of
  lobelia  and capsi-
  cum..............1263
Compound tincture of
  myrrh  .......... 1264
Compound tincture of
  Peruvian bark.....1250
Compound tincture of
  quinia............1268 
Index.
1365
Compound tincture of
  rhubarb..........1269
Compound tincture of
  senna............1270
Compound tincture of
  strychnia.........1272
Compound tincture of
  tamarac..........1260
Compound tincture of
  Virginia snakeroot. 1271
Compound troches of
  liquorice..........1277
Compound troches of
  queen's-root.......1278
Compound  wine  of
  comfrey..........1296
Compound  wine  of
  golden seal.......1295
Compound  wine  of
  logwood..........1295
Compound  wine  of
  Peruvian bark.....1294
Compound  wine  of
  poke.............1296
Compound wormseed
  mixture..........1129
Comptonia asplenifo-
  lia................386
Concentrated linimentlll6
Cone-disk sunflower. 821
Confectio rosae......1030
Confectio sennae.....1030
Confectio sennae com-
  posita  ............1031
Confection of roses.. 1030
Confection of senna. .1030
Confectiones........1030
Confections.........1030
Conia..............388
Coniferae........... 115
Conium maculatum .. 387
Conium mixture..... 389
Conserve of roses... .1030
Conserves..........1030
Contrayerva.........445
Convallaria multiflora 390
Convallaria racemosa 391
Convolvulaceae......   92
Convolvulus pandura-
  tus............... 391
Convolvulus  scammo-
  nia............... 393
Cold weed.......... 942
Cooling lotion.......1127
Cooling wash.......1125
Copaiba............ 396
Copaifera Beyrichii.. 396
Copaifera bijuga..... 396
Copaifera cordifolia.. 396
Copaifera coriacea ... 396
Copaifera Guianensis 396
Copaifera Jacquini .. 396
Copaifera Jussieui... 39G
 Copaifera Langsdorffi 396
 Copaifera laxa.......  396
 Copaifera Martii.....396
 Copaifera multijuga..  396
 Copaifera nitida.
396
Copaifera oblongifolia 396
Copaifera officinalis.. 396
Copaifera  Sellowii... 396
Copai vie acid........ 397
Copper,  crystallized
  acetate of.........419
Copper, diacetate of.. 419
Copper, subacetate of 418
Copper, sulphate of.. 419
Copperas...........1103
Coptis trifolia.......399
Cordial, Godfrey's ...1268
Cordial, mother's... .1233
Cordial, neutralizing. 1234
Coriander........... 400
Coriandrum sativum. 400
Corn, Indian ...____974
Corn, crow.......... 191
Corn, turkey........405
Cornaceae...........  57
Cornine............ 403
Cornu cervinae calcina-
  tum.............. 401
Cornus circinata..... 402
Cornus Florida_____ 402
Cornus  sericea...... 404
Corsican moss.......476
Corydallia.......... 406
Corydallis cucullaria. 406
Corydallis formosa... 405
Corylaceae.......... 108
Cossoo............. 281
Cotton.............. 510
Cotton, gun......... 384
Cough drops........1131
Cough mixture......1236
Cowhage............643
Cowparsnep.........532
Crampbark..........958
Crampbark, hydro-al-
  coholic  extract of. .1066
Cranberry, high.....957
Cranberry cataplasm. 1026
Cranberry, upland... 240
Cranesbill...........496
Crassulaceae,........  49
Crawley............ 780
Cream, cold.........1281
Cream of tartar...... 765
Cream of tartar, solu-
  ble............... 888
Creasote.............407
Creasotum..........407
Creta preparata......409
Crocus sativus......410
Croton  Eleuteria.....412
Croton  micans......413
Croton oil........... 688
Croton oil cerate.....1028
Croton oil liniment. .1115
Croton oil, troches of 1276
Croton pavana.......  689
 Croton tiglium......  688
 Crotonic acid........  689
 Crow corn...........  191
 Crowfoot.........496,794
 Cruciferae...........   21
 Crystal mineral......768
Crystallized  foliated
  earth of tartar....   886
Crystals of tartar..    765
Crystals of Venus..    419
Crystallized acetate of
  copper............  419
Cubebin............735
Cubebs.............  734
Cuckolds...........  280
Cucumber...........  416
Cucumber, bitter.....413
Cucumber ointment. .1283
Cucumber, squirting.  635
Cucumber tree.......  618
Cucumber, wild.....  635
Cucumis citrullus....  415
Cucumis colocynthis.  413
Cucumis melo.......  416
Cucumis sativus.....416
Cucurbitaceae........  48
Cucurbita  citrullus..  415
Cucurbita lagenaria.. 416
Cucurbita pepo......415
Cudbear............ 814
Culver's physic...... 593
Cumin  seed......... 417
Cuminum cyminum.. 417
Cunila  mariana.....417
Cupping,  dry.......520
Cupri subacetas..... 418
Cupri sulphas.......419
Cupuliferae.......... 108
Curcuma  angustifolia 621
Curcuma  longa......421
Curcumin........... 421
Currants, black...... 811
Currants, red........811
Currants, wild black.. 812
Cursed thistle....... 365
Cusparin............ 482
Custard apple....... 942
Cutch.............. 149
Cutting almond...... 719
Cyano-hydric acid... 162
Cyanuret of potassiumll93
Cycas circinalis...... 835
Cycas revoluta....... 835
Cydonia vulgaris.... 422
Cydonin............ 422
Cynanchum Monspeli-
   acum............. 394
Cyanchum oleaefolium 309
Cynara scolymus.....422
Cvnoglossum amplex-
  "icaule............. 424
Cvnoglossum  Morri-
  "soni............... 424
Cynoglossum  officin-
   ale ...............423
Cypripedium acaule.. 425
Cypripedium arietin-
   um.............. 425
 Cypripedium can did-
   um............... 425
Cypripedium parviflo-
   rum.............. 425
 Cypripedium  pubes-
   cens.............. 424 
1366
Index.
Cypripedium  specta-
  bile............... 425
Cytisin............. 247
Cytisus  laburnum... 247
Oytisus scoparius.... 426

            D
Daisy, ox-eye....... 341
Dandelion........... 925
Daphne  gnidium.... 428
Daphne laureola..... 428
Daphne mezereum... 427
Daphnin............ 428
Dasystoma  pedicula-
  ria............... 498
Datura  stramonium.. 429
Datura tatula........430
Daturia............. 431
Daucus  carota....... 433
Dead tongue......... 665
Deadly nightshade 266,898
Decocta.............1031
Decoctions..........1031
Deerberry........486,635
Deer's horn, calcined. 401
Delphinia........... 435
Delphinium consolida 434
Delphinium staphisa-
  gria ..............434
Determination of spe-
  cific gravities......986
Devil's bit.......529, 598
Dewberry........... 819
Dewees'  tincture  of
  Guaiacum.........1257
Dextrine............ 216
Dhak-tree  kino......581
Diacetate of copper.. 419
Diachylon...........1038
Diamond  cement.... 209
Diaphoretic powder.. 1202
Diastase..... I. ..216, 538
Dielytra  formosa..... 405
Diervilla Canadensis. 437
Diervilla trifida...... 437
Digitalin............ 439
Digitalis purpurea... 437
Diluted   acetic
  acid........1005, 1020
Diluted  alcohol...... 187
Diluted   phosphoric
  acid.............. 169
Diluted sulphuric acid 171
Dioscoreaceae........ 127
Dioscorea villosa..... 440
Dioscorein.......... 441
Dioscorein, troches of 1276
Diosma  crenata......274
Diospyros  Virginiana 443
Dirca palustris......444
Discutient  ointment. .1287
Dispensing of  medi-
  cines............. 992
Displacement, method
  of................ 991
Distillation, apparatus
  for................1069
Distillation in vacuo. .1068
Distilled oils........1139
Distilled vinegar. 151,1005
Distilled water..229, 1023
Dittany............. 417
Dittany,  mountain... 417
Diuretic  compound. .1111
Diuretic  drops.......1129
Diuretic  pills........1177
Division, mechanical. 987
Dock, blunt leaved... 823
Dock, great water.... 823
Dock, water......... 823
Dock, yellow........823
Dogfennel........... 624
Dogrose............. 814
Dogsbane........... 226
Dog's tooth violet.... 453
Dogwood............ 402
Dogwood,alder-leaved 402
Dogwood,   broad-
  leaved............ 402
Dogwood, pond...... 322
Dogwood,   round-
  leaved............ 402
Dogwood, swamp.... 404
Domestic brandy..... 189
Domestic gin........ 189
Dorema  ammoniacum 207
Dorstenia Brasiliensis 446
Dorstenla contrayerva 445
Dorstenia Drakena... 446
Dorstenia Houstonia. 446
Doses  of medicines,
  table of...........1315
Double spruce....... 146
Double tansy........924
Douche............. 234
Dow's physic....... 167
Draconin........... 847
Dracontiumfcetidus.. 921
Dragon root......... 252
Dragon's blood...... 846
Dragon's claw.......780
Dried alum.........205
Dried  carbonate   of
  soda.............1216
Dried sulphate of iron!105
Drimys Chilensis.... 447
Drimys Winteri......446
Drooping starwort  ... 529
Drops, table of%......1147
Drupaceae ....'......  44
Dry  cupping........520
Drying oils......... 667
Dulcamarin......... 896
Dwale  .............266
Dwarf box.......... 283
Dwarf cassia........307
Dwarf elder........236
Dwarf  nettle........ 941
Dwarf sumach......808
Dyer's oak.......... 792
Dyer's saffron.......302
Dysentery weed.....424

           E
Ebenaceae...........  78
Ecbalium elaterium.. 636
Echinospermum  Vir-
  ginicum..........424
Effects of temperaturel339
Egg  ............... 700
Elaidicacid......... 668
Elaidin............. 668
Elastic, gum........ 295
Elaterin............ 638
Elaterium.......... 637
Elatine............. 206
Elder.............. 841
Elder, dwarf........236
Elder, European..... 841
Elder flowers........ 841
Elder flower water.. .1025
Elder, prickly.......238
Elder, wild.........237
Elecampane......... 558
Electuary, lenitive.. .1030
Electuary of  senna . .1030
Electuary  of  senna,
  compound........1031
Electuary, pile......1031
Eleoptene........... 670
Elixir of  opium, sub-
  stitute   for   Mc
  Munn's...........1266
Elixir of vitriol..... 170
Elixir, paregoric.....1267
Elixir proprietatis .. .1244
Elixir salutis........1270
Elm cataplasm......1027
Elm, slippery.......939
Emetia.............320
Emetic powder......1203
Emetic tincture......1270
Emetic tincture,  ace-
  tous..............1270
Emetine............320
Emmenagogue pills. .1173
Emmenagogue   pow-
  der ..............1204
Emplastra..........1032
Emplastrum Belladon-
  nae ..............1033
Emplastrum   Bella-
  donnae compositum 1034
Emplastrum   capsici
  compositum.......1034
Emplastrum  extracti
  aconiti radicis.....1034
Emplastrum  myricae. 1035
Emplastrum   Picis
  compositum.......1035
Emplastrum plumbi .1037
Emplastrum  plumbi
  oxidi rubrum......1036
Emplastrum resinae. .1039
Emplastrum   resinae
  compositum......1039
Emulsin...........213
Enema aloes composi-
  ta  ...............1042
Enema   assafcetidae
  composita.........1042
Enema catharticum . .1042
Enema   cimicifugae
  composita........1042 
Index.
1367
Enema lobeliae  com-
  posita ............1043
Enema opii.........1043
Enema sennae compo-
  sita ..............1043
Enema  terebinthinae
  composita........1043
Enema xanthoxyli.. .1044
Enemata...........1040
Epigaea repens......447
Epilobium angustifo-
  lium.............448
Epilobium spicatum. 448
Epiphegus American-
  us   .............. 695
Epiphegus Virginiana 695
Epsom salts......... 615
Equisetaceae........ 134
Equisetum hyemale.. 448
Equiseturn laevigatum 449
Equisetum robustum. 449
Erechthites hieracifo-
  lius...............449
Ergot.............. 861
Ergot, oil of........864
Ergotin............. 864
Ericaceae...........  74
Erigeron annuum.... 451
Erigeron Canadense. 450
Erigeron  heterophyl-
  lum.............. 451
Erigeron Philadelphi-
  cum  .............451
Erigeron purpureum . 452
Erigeron pusilum.... 450
Erigeron strigosum .. 452
Erucic acid__...... 876
Eryngium  aquaticum 452
Eryngo, water.......452
Erysimum officinale.. 879
Erythronium  Ameri-
  canura............453
Erythroretin........ 803
Essence of anise..... 1265
Essence of caraway. .1265
Essence of cinnamon. 1265
Essence   of   pepper-
  mint .............1265
Essence of spearmint 1266
Essence of sassafras. .1266
Essential  oils...669, 1139
Essential  salt of le-
  mons ............. 702
Ether..............1011
Ether, acetic........1007
Ether, hydriodic.... .1008
Ether, pyroligneous.. 905
Ether, spirit of nitric. 1009
Ether sulphuric......1011
Ethereal oil of  xan-
  thoxylum ......... 971
Ethers.............1007
Ethvle, acetate of ox-
  ide of.............1007
Ethyle, hydrate  of ox-
,  ideof............. 187
Ethyle, oxide of.....1011
Eucalyptus mannifera 694
Eucalyptus  resinifera 582
Eugenic  acid........1151
Eugenin  ........... 305
Euonymine.........455
Euonymus  American-
  us................455
Euonymus atropurpu-
  reus..............454
Eupatorin...........457
Eupatorine..........458
Eupatorium  aromati-
  cum.............. 455
Eupatorium hyssopi-
  folium............460
Eupatorium leucolep-
  sis............... 460
Eupatorium perfolia-
  tum.............. 456
Eupatorium purpure-
  um...............457
Eupatorium teucrifoli-
  nm............... 459
Eupatorium verbenae-
  folium............ 459
Euphorbia corollata.. 460
Euphorbia hypericifo-
  lia ............... 461
Euphorbia ipecacuan-
  ha ............... 463
Euphorbia maculata.. 462
Euphorbiaceae....... 106
Euphorbium........464
Euphrasia officinalis. 465
Eupurpurin......... 459
European avens..... 500
European elder......841
European goldenrod. 900
European holly......556
European pennyroyal 523
European walnut...  . 573
Evaporating lotion. . .1125
Exostemma  Caribaea. 356
Exostemma  floribun-
  da............... 35G
Expectorant tincture,
  King's............1262
Explanation of abbre-
  viations ..........1298
Expression  ......... 989
Extract, fluid neutral-
  izing.............1079
Extract of aconite, al-
  coholic ...........1047
Extract of antibilious
  physic, fluid......1082
Extract of belladonna,
  alcoholic..........1050
Extract of  bitterroot,
  hydroalcoholic---1048
Extract of bittersweet 1054
Extract  of  black co-
  hosh, fluid........1071
Extract  of  black co-
  hosh,hydroalcoholicl051
Extract  of  blackroot,
  fluid.............1077
Extract  of  blackroot,
  hydroalcoholic  ... .1059
Extract of bloodroot,
  hydroalcoholic ... .1063
Extract of  blue co-
  hosh, hydroalcoho-
  lic ...............1050
Extract of blue flag,
  fluid..............1076
Extract of blue flag,
  hydroalcoholic.....1056
Extract of boneset.. .1054
Extract   of  buchu,
  fluid.............1071
Extract of burdock.. .1048
Extract of butternut..1058
Extract of chamomile 1048
Extract of chamomile,
  fluid.............1070
Extract of  cinchona,
  fluid.............1072
Extract of colocynth. .1051
Extract of colocynth,
  compound........1051
Extract of cotton bark 1054
Extract of cramp bark,
  hydroalcoholic ... .1066
Extract  of  cubebs,
  fluid.............1073
Extract of dandelion. 1066
Extract of dandelion,
  fluid.............1085
Extract of dogwood.. 1052
Extract of  dogwood,
  fluid.............1072
Extract of elecampane,
  hydroalcoholic.....1055
Extract of ergot, fluid 1074
Extract of gentian... .1054
Extract  of  gentian,
  fluid.............1075
Extract of  gentian,
  fluid  compound.. .1075
Extract of goldenseal,
  hydroalcoholic  .. .1056
Extract of  henbane,
  alcoholic..........1056
Extract of  henbane,
  fluid..............1076
Extract of high-cran-
  berry,   hydroalco-
  holic..............106U
Extract of ipecacuan-
  ha,  saccharated-al-
  coholic............1232
Extract of jalap......1057
Extract of  life root,
  fluid..............1081
Extract  of  lobelia,
  fluid----.........1077
Extract  of  lobelia,
  fluid compound... .1078
Extract of logwood.. .1055
Extract of lupulin... .1060
Extract of motherwort,
  hydroalcoholic ... .1059,
Extract of  nux-vom-
  ica, alcoholic......1060
Extract of  partridge
  berry.............1060 
1368                              Index.
Extract  of  pleurisy-
  root, hydroalcoholic 1049
Extract of poison-hem-
  lock, alcoholic.....1052
Extract of poke, alco-
  holic..............1061
Extract of prickly ash,
  fluid..............1086
Extract  of  queen's-
  root, fluid.........1084
Extract  of  queen's
  root, hydroalcoholic 1064
Extract of rhatany.. .1058
Extract of rhubarb.. .1063
Extract  of  rhubarb,
  fluid.............1079
Extract of rhubarb and
potassa, fluid........1079
Extract of sarsaparilla,
  fluid compound... .1080
Extract of scammony. 395
Extract  of  scullcap,
  fluid.............1080
Extract  of  scullcap,
  hydroalcoholic.....1064
Extract of senna, fluid 1081
Extract of  senna and
  jalap,  fluid........1082
Extract of senna and
  rhubarb, fluid.....1082
Extract  of shrubby
  trefoil,  hydroalco-
  holic.............1062
Extract of spigelia and
  senna, fluid.......1084
Extract  of  stramoni-
  um, alcoholic......1065
Extract  of sumach,
  fluid..............1080
Extract  of  trailing
  arbutus, fluid......1074
Extract of turkey corn,
  hydroalcoholic.....1053
Extract of unicorn root,
  alcoholic..........1047
Extract  of valerian,
  fluid..............1086
Extract  of  Virginia
  snakeroot, fluid...1083
Extract of water pep-
  per...............1062
Extract of water pep-
  per, fluid..........1078
Extract of water plan-
  tain, hydroalcoholicl06l
Extract of wild indigo,
  hydroalcoholic.....1049
Extract of yellow-dock,
  hydroalcoholic.....1063
Extract  of j'ellow  la-
  dies' slipper, fluid.1073
Extract  of yellow  la-
  dies' slipper, hydro-
  alcoholic .........1053
Extracta............1044
Extracta fluida......1067
Extracts............1044
Extracts, fluid.......1067
Extractum aconiti al-
  coholicum.........1047
Extractum aletris alco-
  holicum ..........1047
Extractum anthemidisl048
Extractum anthemidis
  fluidum...........1070
Extractum   apocyni
  hydroalcoholicum. .1048
Extractum arctii.....1048
Extractum   asclepiae
  hydroalcoholicum. .1049
Extractum   baptisiae
  hydroalcoholicum. .1049
Extractum belladonnae
  alcoholicum.......1050
Extractum   buchu
  fluidum...........1071
Extractum caulophylli
  hydroalcoholicum. .1050
Extractum cimicifugae
  fluidum........T..1071
Extractum cimicifugae
  hydroalcoholicum. .1051
Extractum   cinchonae
  fluidum...........1072
Extractum colocynthi-
  dis...............1051
Extractum colocynthi-
  dis compositum---1051
Extractum conii alco-
  holicum...........1052
Extractum   cornus
  Floridae...........1052
Extractum    cornus
  Floridae, fluidum.. .1072
Extractum   corydalis
  hydroalcoholicum. .1053
Extractum   cubebae
  fluidum...........1073
Extractum  cypripedii
  fluidum...........1073
Extractum  cypripedii
  hydroalcoholicum.. 1053
Extractum   Dulcama-
  ra?................1054
Extractum   epigaeae
  fluidum...........1074
Extractum   ergotae
  fluidum...........1074
Extractum eupatorii. .1054
Extractum gentianae.. 1054
Extractum  gentianae
  fluidum..........1075
Extractum  gentianae
   fluidum   composi-
  tum..............1075
 Extractum  glycyr-
  rhizae............. 507
 Extractum gossypii. .1054
 Extractum haematoxy-
  li.................1055
 Extractum helenii hy-
   droalcoholicum.....1055
 Extractum  hydrastis
  hydroalcoholicum. .1056
 Extractum hyoscyami
   alcoholicum.......1056
Extractum hyoscyami
  fluidum...........1076
Extractum   iridis
  fluidum...........1076
Extractum  iridis hy-
  droalcoholicum ....1056
Extractum jalapae... .1057
Extractum juglandis.. 1058
Extractum krameriae..l058
Extractum leonuri hy-
  droalcoholicum. .. .1059
Extractum  leptaiidrae
  fluidum...........1077
Extractum  leptandrae
  hydroalcoholicum. .1059
Extractum   lobeliae
  fluidum...........1077
Extractum    lobeliae
  fluidum   composi-
  tum..............1078
Extractum lupulinae. .1060
Extractum mitchellae.1060
Extractum nucis vom-
  icae alcoholicum... 1060
Extractum phytolaccae
  alcoholicum.......1061
Extractum plantaginis
  cordatae  hydroalco-
  holicum ..........1061
Extractum polygoni. .1062
Extractum   polygoni
  fluidum...........1078
Extractum  pteleae hy-
  droalcoholicum .... 1062
Extractum  rhei......1063
Extractum   rhei  flui-
  dum..............1079
Extractum  rhei et po-
  tassae fluidum.....1079
Extractum  rhus  flui-
  dum..............1080
Extractum   rumecis
  hydroalcoholicum .1063
Extractum sanguinariae
  hydroalcoholicum. .1063
Extractum  sarsaparil-
  lae fluidum composi-
  tum..............1080
Extractum  Scutellariae
  fluidum...........1080
Extractum  Scutellariae
  hydroalcoholicum. .1064
Extractum senecii flui-
  dum..............1081
Extractum sennae flui-
  dum  .............1081
Extractum  sennae  et
  jalapae fluidum___1082
Extractum  sennae  et
  rhei fluidum.......1082
Extractum serpeutariae
  fluidum..........1083
Extractum spigeliae et
  sennae fluidum... .1084
Extractum  stillingiae
  fluidum..........1084
Extractum  stillingiae
  hydroalcoholicum. .1064 
Index.
1369
Extractum  stramonii
  alcoholicum.......1065
Extractum taraxaci.. .1066
Extractum   taraxaci
  fluidum...........1085
Extractum  Valerianae
  fluidum...........1086
Extractum viburni hy-
  droalcoholicum. .. .1066
Extractum xanthoxyli
  fluidum...........1086
Eyebright.......461,465
Eye-salve, Pettit's.. .1289
Fabaceae............   38
Factitious scammony.  394
Fahnestock's  vermi-
  fuge..............1131
False aloe...........  184
False angustura.....  482
False bittersweet.....  317
False grape.........212
False gromwell......  691
False sarsaparilla....  237
False  sunflower.....  524
False unicorn root---  529
False valerian.......  868
False white cedar---  929
False wintergreen....  786
Farkleberry.........  944
Fel bovinum.........  465
Female fern.........760
Female regulator.....868
Fennel.............. 471
Fennel, dog......... 624
Fennel, sweet........471
Fennel water___665,  1025
Fern, cinnamon-color-
   ed................ 698
Fern,  female......... 760
Fern,  male.......... 260
Fern root...........760
Fern, royal flowering. 698
 Fern, sweet.......... 386
 Fern,  winter......... 779
 Ferrated  tincture  of
   Peruvian bark.....1250
 Ferri  acetas.........1087
 Ferri acetatis, tinctural253
 Ferri ammonio-citras  1088
 Ferri carbonas saccha-
   ratum.............1087
 Ferri chloridi, tinctural254
 Ferri citras..........1088
 Ferri et  morphiae tar-
   tras..............1089
 Ferri et quiniae citras. 1089
 Ferri et quiniae tartrasl090
 Ferri et  saliciniae tar-
   tras...............1090
 Ferri ferrocyanuretuml091
 Ferri iodidum.......1092
 Ferri  lactas.........1094
 Ferri  oxidum  hydra-
   him ____.........1095
Ferri pulvis.........1100
Ferri sesquioxidum. .1102
Ferri subcarbonas... .1102
Ferri sulphas........1103
Ferri sulphas exsicca-
  tum..............1105
Ferri sulphuretum.. .1105
Ferri tannas.........1107
Ferri valerianas......1107
Ferric acid.......... 467
Ferrocyanuret of iron. 1091
Ferrocyanuret  of  po-
  tassium ........... 769
Ferrocyanuret  of qui-
  nia...............1206
Ferro-tartrate of mor- •
  phia..............1089
Ferro tartrate  of qui-
  nia...............1090
Ferro-tartrate of sali-
  cin...............1090
Ferrum.............466
Fever-bush..........275
Fever-few..........  785
Fever-root.......780, 933
Fever-weed.......... 498
Few-flowered crawley 780
Fibrin, vegetable..... 935
Ficus carica......... 469
Ficus elastica........ 295
Ferri oxidum nigrum 1098
Ferri phosphas......1099
Fig.................  469
Figwort.............  859
Filices.............  134
Filix  mas...........260
Filtration by displace-
  ment .............  991
Fine leaved water hem-
  lock..............  665
Fireweed............  449
Firing.............  470
Five-finger.........~ 771
Five-leaf...........  212
Fit-plant...........  639
Fixed air............1021
Fixed oils...........  667
Flag, blue..........  567
Flag, cat-tail........938
Flag, sweet.........  178
Flaxseed...........  601
Flaxseed cataplasm. .1026
Fleabane, Canada---450
Fleabane,   Philadel-
   phia ............   451
Fleabane,   various
   leaved............451
Flesh colored asclepias 255
Flies, potato........ 294
Flies, Spanish.......291
 Flixweed........... 880
 Florentine orjis..--- 568
 Flowers of benzoin... 157
 Flowers of sulphur.. 917
 Flowering ash....... 693
 Flowering cornel---402
 Flowering raspberry. 821
 Fluid,  burning...... 733
 Fluid extract of anti-
   bilious physic.....1082
Fluid extract of black
  cohosh...........1071
Fluid extract of black
  root..............1077
Fluid extract of blue
  flag..............1076
Fluid extract of buchu 1071
Fluid extract of cham-
  omile ............1070
Fluid extract of cin-
  chona.............1072
Fluid extract of cubebsl073
Fluid extract of dan-
  delion............1085
Fluid extract of dog-
  wood............ 1072
Fluid extract of ergot 1074
Fluid extract of gen-
   tian..............1075
Fluid extract of gen-
  tian, compound... .1075
Fluid extract of hen-
  bane .............1076
Fluid extract of life-
   root..............1081
Fluid extract of lobe-
   lia...............1077
Fluid extract of lobe-
   lia, compound.....1078
Fluid extract of prick-
   ly ash............1086
 Fluid  extract   of
   queen's root.......1084
 Fluid extract of rhu-
   barb..............1079
 Fluid extract of rhu-
   barb and potassa... 1079
 Fluid extract of sarsa-
   parilla, compound. 1080
 Fluid extract of scull-
   cap ..............1080
 Fluid extract of senna 1081
 Fluid extract of senna
   and  jalap.........1082
 Fluid extract of senna
   and rhubarb.......1082
 Fluid extract of spige-
   lia and senna......1084
 Fluid  extract  of su-
   mach.............1080
 Fluid extract of trail-
   ing  arbutus.......1074
 Fluid extract of vale-
    rian ..............1086
 Fluid  extract  of Vir-
    ginia  snakeroot.. .1083
 Fluid extract of water
    pepper............1078
 Fluid extract of yellow
    ladies'-slipper.....1073
 Fluid  extracts.......1067
  Fluid  neutralizing ex-
    tract .............1079
  Fluid  preparations...  990
  Fly-trap............  853
  Fceniculum dulce....  472
  Fceniculum officinale.  471
  Foeniculum vulgare.. 471 
1370
Index.
 Foliated earth of tart aril 80
 Foot bath...........  235
 Formula  of  freezing
   mixtures..........1337
 Formyl, terchloride of  335
 Foxglove...........  487
 Foxglove, American..  498
 Fragaria Canadensis.  473
 Fragaria grandiflora..  473
 Fragaria vesca.......472
 Fragaria Virginiana. .  47.'!
 Frankincense.....145,  690
 Frasera Carolinensis.  473
 Frasera Walteri......473
 Fraxinus acuminata. .  475
 Fraxinus Americana..  475
 Fraxinus  excelsior....  694
 Fraxinus parviflora...  694
 Fraxinus  polygamie..  476
 Fraxinus  quadrangu-
   lata..............  476
 Fraxinus sambucifolia  475
 French   decimal
   weights and mea-
   sures .............1317
 French rose.........  816
 French vinegar......  151
 Friar's balsam.......1246
 Fringed polygala....  755
 Frog lily............  664
 Frost plant..........  525
 Frost weed..........  525
 Fruit sugar..........  829
 Fucus  helminthocor-
   ton...............  476
 Fucus vesiculosus....  477
 Fuligo  ligui.........  478
 Fuligo  splendens....  478
 Fuligokali..........  479
 Fumaria officinalis...  479
 Furaariacese.........  20
 Fumitory...........  479
 Fungaceae  .........  138
 Fusel oil............  190

            G
 Gaduin.............  674
 Gaduus morrhua......673
 Galbanum..........480
 Galbanum officinale..  480
 Galipea officinalis....  481
 Galium aparine......483
 Galium asprellum....  483
 Galium trifidum.....483
Galium verum.......483
Gall, beef's..........465
Gall, ox.............465
Gallic acid..........  159
Galls...............  792
Gambir or Gambeer..  149
Gamboge...........484
 Gambogia...........  484
Gambogic  acid.......485
Garcinia cambogia...  484
Garden angelica......222
Garden artichoke ....  422
Garden balsam......557
Garden endive.......342
Garden marygold.... 283
Garden nightshade... b98
Garden sorrel........ 702
Garget.............. 725
Garlic............... 193
Gas,   hydrosulphuric
  acid..............1106
Gaultheria hispidula. 487
Gaultheria   proctim-
  bens......•.......486
Gay feather..........598
Gelatin, capsules of.. 503
Gelseminum nitidum. 488
Gelseminum  seiuper-
  virens............483
Gentian.............492
Gentian, blue........ 494
Gentian,  blue-fringed 494
Gentian, horse....... 933
Gentian,  marsh......494
Gentian,  ochroleucous 494
Gentian, soapwort.... 494
Gentian, straw colored 494
Gentian,    yellowish-
  white.............494
Gentiana Catesbei ... 494
Gentiana crinita.....494
Gentiana lutea....... 492
Gentiana  ochroleuca. 494
Gentiana pneumonan-
  the............... 4.94
Gentiana saponaria .. 494
Gentianaceae.........  94
Gentianin...........493
Geoffroya  inermis.... 219
Geraniaceae..........  26
Geraniin............ 495
Geranium........... 496
Geranium maculatum 496
Gerauium  Robertian-
  um............... 498
Geranium,  spotted... 496
Gerardia  pedicularia. 498
German chamomile.. 224
Germander.......... 185
Geum rivale.........499
Geum urbanum...... 500
Geum  Virginianum.. 499
Giant Solomon's seal. 390
Giant whortleberry... 944
Gigartina  helmintho-
  corton ............476
Gill over  the ground. 659
Gillenia stipulacea  .. 501
Gillenia trifoliata.... 500
Gin, domestic.......' 189
Ginger.............. 979
Ginger, Indian...... 254
Ginger, syrup of.....1239
Ginger, tincture of .. .1274
Ginger, troches  of... .1279
Ginger, wild........254
Ginseng............703
Glacial   phosphoric
  acid.............. 170
Glauber's salt........892
Glechoma hederacea.. 659
Globe flower.........322
Glucose.............  829
Glue...............  502
Glue,liquid.........  165
Gluten..............  935
Glycerin............  501
Glycerin lotion......1125
Glycerina...........  504
Glycyrrhiza glabra.. .  506
Glycyrrhiza lepidota.  503
Glycyrrhizin........  507
Gnaphalium  margari-
  taceum............  509
Gnaphalium   polyce-
  phalnm...........  5^9
Godfrey's cordi.il .... 1268
Gplclen-rod, European  9>0
Golden-rod, hard-leaf.  990
Golden-rod, rigid ....  900
Golden-rod,   sweet-
  scented ...........  899
Golden seal.........  544
Golden .senecio......  868
Golden tincture......1295
Goldthread..........  399
Gombo..............  141
Gondret's  vesicating
  ointment..........12^1
Goodyera pubescens..  509
Goosegrass..........  483
Gossypium   Barba-
  dense.............  511
Gossvpiumherbaceum  510
Gourd.............. 416
Graminaceae.........  131
Grana moschata......  141
Grape.............. 962
Grape, false.........212
Grape sugar......... 829
Gravel weed.437, 447,  691
Gravel root.........457
Great celandine......329
Great rag-weed......206
Great stinging nettle. 940
Great water dock .... 823
Greek valerian....... 755
Greek  valerian,  Ame-
  rican ............. 754
Green salve.........1035
Green tea........... 927
Green vitriol.........1103
Greenhow's    cholera
  mixture............1257
Groats.............. 270
Grossulaceae.........  49
Ground cherry.......724
Ground holly........ 333
Ground ivy......... 659
Ground laurel.......447
Ground lily......... 932
Ground moss........ 761
Ground pine........  185
Ground raspberry.... 544
Ground squirrel-pea.. 571
Gruel, oatmeal....... 269
Guelder-rose tree .... 957
Guaiac.............. 514
Guaiaci resina....... 514
Guaiacic acid........513 
Index.
1371
 Guaiacin............  515
 Guaiacum...........  51
 Guaiacum arboreum..  51
 Guaiacum  officinale..  51
 Guaiacum sanctum...  513
 Gum ammoniae .....207
 Gum Arabic.........  147
 Gum Arabic, mucilage
   of................  149
 Gum, British........  216
 Gum elastic.........295
 Gum hemlock.......  143
 Gum, sweet.........603
 Gun cotton..........  384
 Gunjah.............  290
 Gunpowder.........  516
 Gutta percha........516
 Guttiferae...........   37

            H
 Hackmetack.........  588
 Haemastasis.........  521
 Haematoxylon Campe-
  chianum..........  518
 Haemodoraceae.......  126
 Haemospasis.........  520
 Haemospastic medica-
  tion ..............  520
 Haemostatic, Pagliari's  277
 Haircap  moss.......  761
 Hamamelaceae.......  51
Hamamel is Virginica.  521
Hard Carthagena
  bark..........349,  355
Hardhack........384,902
Hardleaf golden-rod..  900
Hardwater..........229
Hastate knotgrass....  759
Hawkweed..........   534
Hawkweed,   veiny-
  leaved ............  534
Hazelwort...........253
Head bath..........236
Heal all.........384,  859
Heart-leaved plantain  741
Heart liverleaf.......532
Hebradendron cambo-
  gioides...........  484
Hedeoma pulegioides.  522
Hedera Helix........523
Hederia.............  524
Hedge mustard......879
Hedysarum Alhagi...  694
Helenin.............  559
Helenium autumnale.  524
Helianthemum  Cana-
  dense.............  525
Helianthemum corym-
  bosum............  526
Helianthus annuus...  526
Helianthus  tuberosus  423
Hellebore, American.  951
Hellebore, black.....527
Hellebore, white.....948
Hellebore, swamp.,..  951
Helleborus  foetidus...  528
Helleborus  niger.....  527
Helleborus orientalis.  528
 Hordeum distichon...  537
 Hordeum vulgare....  537
 Horse brimstone.....918
 Horsecane..........  206
 Horsechestnut.......  182
 Horsefly weed.......  272
 Horse gentian ......  933
 Horsemint...........  639
 Horseradish.........376
 Horsetail............  448
 Horseweed. ..206, 384, 450
 Hot drops...........1264
 Hound's tongue......  423
 Houseleek...........  867
 Humulus lupulus....  540
 Hunn's drops........1128
 Hundred-leaved rose.  815
 Huntsman's cup.....853
 Hydragogue powder. .1204
 Hydragogue tincture. 1296
 Hydrangea..........  542
 Hydrangea arborescens 542
 Hydrangea, wild.....542
 Hydrangea vulgaris..  542
 Hydrastin...........  546
 Hydrastis Canadensis  544
 Hydrate of lime......  285
 Hydrate of oxide of
   ethyle............  187
 Hydrate of potassa. .1178
 Hydrated   oxide  of
   amyle............  190
 Hydrated oxide of iron 1095
 Hydrated peroxide of
   iron..............1095
 Hydrated sesquioxide
   iron..............1095
 Hydriodate  of  mor-
   phia..............1139
 Hydriodate of potassa 1196
 Hydriodic acid.. .161, 561
 Hydriodic ether.....1008
 Hydroalcoholic extract
   of bitter root......1048
 Hydroalcoholic extract
   of black cohosh.... 1051
 Hydroalcoholic extract
   of black root......1059
 Hydroalcoholic extract
   of blood root......1063
 Hydroalcoholic extract
   of blue cohosh.....1050
 Hydroalcoholic extract
   of blue flag........1056
 Hydroalcoholic extract
   of cramp bark.....1066
 Hydroalcoholic extract
  of elecampane.....1055
 Hydroalcoholic extract
  of golden seal.....1056
 Hydroalcoholic extract
  of high cranberry. .1066
Hydroalcoholic extract
  of motherwort.....1059
Hydroalcoholic extract
  of pleurisy root... .1049
Hydroalcoholic extract
  of queen's root....1064
 Helonias bullata.....530
 Helonias dioica......  529
 Helonias officinalis..  949
 Hematin............  519
 Hematoxylin........  519
 Hemidesmic acid....  531
 Hemidesmus  Indicus  530
 Hemlock dropwort...  665
 Hemlock, fine leaved
   water.............  665
 Hemlock, gum......  143
 Hemlock, oil of......  143
 Hemlock, parsley....  867
 Hemlock, poison.....387
 Hemlock, spruce.....  143
 Hemlock, water......390
 Hemp..............290
 Hemp, Indian.......  227
 Hemp, white Indian.  255
 Henbane............548
 Henbane, yellow.....  724
 Hepar.....,........1197
 Hepatica acutiloba...  532
 Hepatica Americana.  532
 Hepatica triloba.....  532
 Heracleum lanatum..  532
 Herb Christopher....  179
 Herb  Robert........498
 Herpetic wash.......1126
 Heuchera Americana. 533
 Heuchera caulescens. 534
 Heuchera pubescens.. 534
 Hevea Guianensis.... 295
 Hibiscus abelmoschus 141
 Hibiscus esculentus.. 141
 Hibiscus, marsh.....203
 Hibiscus moscheutos. 203
 Hibiscus palustris___ 203
 Hieracium venosum.. 534
 Hierochloa borealis... 931
 High angelica....... 222
 High cranberry......957
 High stalked crawley 781
 Hip bath............ 235
 Hip tree............ 814
 Hippocastanaceae.....33
 Hircin..:........... 872
 Hirudo decora....... 536
 Hirudo medicinalis... 536
 Hirudo officinalis.... 535
 Hoarhound.........  623
 Hoarhound,  water...  609
 Hoarhound,  wild....  459
 Hogweed...........  207
 Holly, American.....555
 Holly, European.....556
 Holly, ground.......  333
 Hollyhock...........  203
 Holly thistle.........  317
Honduras sarsaparilla 883
Honey..............625
Honey, clarified.....626
Honeysuckle, bush... 437
Hoodwort...........  860
Hop hornbeam......  699
Hops............... 540
Hordein............. 538 
1372
Index;
Hydroalcoholic extract
  of scullcap........1064
Hydroalcoholic extract
  of shrubby trefoil. .1062
Hydroalcoholic extract
  of turkey corn.....1053
Hydroalcoholic extract
  of water plantain. .1061
Hydroalcoholic extract
  of wild indigo.....1049
Hydroalcoholic extract
  of yellow  dock... .1063
Hydroalcoholic extract
  of  yellow  ladies'
  slipper...........1053
Hydrochlorate of am-
  monia ............210
Hydrochlorate of mor-
  phia..............1136
Hydrochloric acid... 161
Hydrocyanic acid.... 162
Hydrogen, sulphuret-
  ed ...............1106
Hydrosulphuric   acid
  gas...............1106
Hyoscyamia......... 550
Hyoscyamus niger... 548
Hypericaceae........  24
Hypericum  perfora-
  tum .............. 551
Hyperiodic acid..... 561
Hyssop............. 552
Hyssop, prairie.....785
Hyssopus officinalis.. 552

            I
Iberis amara........553
Ice plant........... 639
Ice vine............. 365
Iceland  moss........328
Ichthyocolla......... 553
Ictodes foetid us......921
Ilex aquifolium...... 556
Ilex opaca.......... 555
Ilex vomitoria....... 556
Ilicin.............. 556
Illicium anisatum.... 731
Imitation champagne 966
Impatiens balsamina. 557
Impatiens fulva...... 557
Impatiens pallida__. 557
Imperial measure... .1316
Impure  acetic acid... 151
Impure   dilute acetic
  acid.............. 151
Indelible ink........243
India senna......... 310
Indian arrow wood... 454
Indian corn......... 974
Indian cup-plant..... 873
Indian ginger....... 254
Indian hemp........227
Indian hemp, white.. 255
Indian physic.......500
Indian pipe......... 639
Indian posy......... 509
Indian rubber....... 295
Indian sarsaparilla... 530
Indian tobacco...... 606
Indian turnep.......252
Indigo, prairie.......274
Indigo, wild........272
Infusa.............1108
Infusion of cranesbill,
  compound.........1111
Infusion of goldenseal,
  compound.........1111
Infusion  of  parsley,
  compound.........1110
Infusion of sage, com-
  pound..........  .1112
Infusion of trailing ar-
  butus,  compound. .1111
Infusions...........1108
Infusum apii composi-
  tum..............1110
Infusum epigaeae com-
  positum...........1111
Infusum geranii com-
  positum ..........1111
Infusum   hydrastis
  compositum.......1111
Infusum  sal viae com-
  positum...........1112
Injections...........1040
Ink................ 158
Ink, indelible.......243
Ink, red.........375, 520
Ink  root............ 908
Inspissated juices... .1044
Inspissation.........1044
Inula helenium......558
Inulin.............. 559
Iodic acid...........561
Iodide of iron.......1092
Iodide of iron, solu-
  tion of...........1118
Iodide of morphia___1139
Iodide of potassium. .1195
Iodide of quinia.....1206
Iodine.............. 559
Iodine, compound so-
  lution of..........1120
Iodine,    compound
  ointment of........1284
Iodine,    compound
  tincture of.........1259
Iodine, tincture of.. .1258
Iodinium............ 559
Iodous acid......... 561
Ipecacuanha......... 318
Ipecacuanha,  Ameri-
  can ............... 463
Ipecacuanha, sacchar-
  ated alcoholic  ex-
  tract of...........1232
Ipecacuanha spurge.. 463
Ipecacuanha,  troches
  of................1277
Ipecacuanha, wild 463, 933
Ipomaea jalapa...... 564
Iridaceae............ 127
Iridin.............. 569
Iris Florentina....... 568
Iris  lacustris .......568
Iris  versicolor....... 567
Iris Virginica....... 568
Irish moss..........340
Iron................466
Iron, acetate of......1087
Iron, ammonio-citrate
  of................1088
Iron and morphia, tar-
  trate of...........1089
Iron and  quinia,  ci-
  trate of...........1089
Iron and quinia, tar-
  trate of...........1090
Iron and salicin, tar-
  trate of...........1090
Iron,   black   oxide
  of............467,1098
Iron by hydrogen___1100
Iron, citrate of.......1088
Iron, dried sulphate ofll05
Iron, ferrocyanuret of 1091
Iron filings......... 468
Iron,  hydrated  oxide
  of................1095
Iron, hydrated  perox-
  ide of.............1095
Iron, hydrated sesqui-
  oxide of.........1095
Iron, iodide of.......1092
Iron, lactate of.......1094
Iron, lactate of protox-
  ide of............1094
Iron,  magnetic  oxide
  of................ 467
Iron, phosphate of... 1099
Iron, powder of......1100
Iron, precipitated car-
  bonate of..........1102
Iron, preparations of. 1087
Iron, protoxide of.... 468
Iron, prussiate of___1091
Iron, red oxide of... .1102
Iron, reduced........1100
Iron,  saccharine car-
  bonate of..........1087
Iron,  sesquioxide
  of............468, 1102
Iron, solution of iodide
  of................1118
Iron, solution of nitrate
  of................1119
Iron, solution of perni-
  trate of...........1119
Iron, solution of terni-
  trate of  sesquioxide
  of................1119
Iron,  solution of  ter-
  sulphate of........1096
Iron, subcarbonate of. 1102
Iron, sulphate of.....1103
Iron, sulphate of pro-
  toxide of..........1103
Iron,  sulphuret of. ..1105
Iron, syrup of protoni-
  trateof...........1119
Iron, tannate of......1107
Iron, teroxide  of.....467
Iron,  tincture  of ace-
  tate of............1253 
Index.
1373
Iron, tincture of chlo-
  ride of............1254
Iron, tincture of muri-
  ate of.............1254
Iron, valerianate  of. .1107
Ironweed........... 956
Iron wood.......... 699
Irritating plaster___1035
Isinglass............ 553
Isonandra gutta..... 516
Ivory-black......... 300
Ivy.............523, 578
Ivy, big-leaved......578
Ivy, ground......... 659
Ivy, poison......... 809

           J
Jack in the pulpit... 252
Jacob's ladder.,..... 754
Jalap............... 564
Jalap,  resin of......1057
Jalap,  wild......... 391
Jamaica Kino....... 581
Jamaica pepper..... 654
Jamaica sarsaparilla. 88U
Jamestown weed.... 429
Janipha manihot.... 570
Jatropha curcas.....689
Jatropha elastica.... 295
Jatropha manihot.... 570
Jeffersonia diphylla.. 571
Jerusalem artichoke.. 423
Jerusalem oak.......332
Jessamine, white  .... 490
Jessamine, wild.....488
Jessamine, yellow .., 488
Jewel-weed.........557
Job's tears, wild..... 691
Joepye.............457
Juglandacese........ 107
Juglandin.......... 574
Juglans cinerea......572
Juglans nigra.......573
Juglans regia........573
Juniper............. 574
Juniperus communis. 574
Juniperus sabina.... 576
Juniperus Virginiana 577
Justice's weed.......460

           K
Kali, tartarized......1191
Kalmia angustifolia.. 580
Kalmia glauca....... 580
Kalmia latifolia......578
Kelp............560, 890
Kidney liver-leaf  .... 532
Kinate of  cinchonia.. 358
Kinate of quinia.....358
King's  expectorant
  tincture........1. .1262
Kinic acid..........357
Kino............... 580
Kino, African.......581
Kino, dhak-tree......581
Kino, Jamaica.......581
Kino, South American 581
Knotwoed,spotted.... 758
Kousso.............281
Krameriaceae........  23
Krameria triandria... 583

            L
Labarraque's disinfect-
  ing fluid..........1123
Labiatae............  84
Labrador tea........ 591
Lacmus............. 813
Lactate of iron......1094
Lactate of lime......1107
Lactate of protoxide of
  iron..............1094
Lactate of quinia... .1206
Lactic acid.......... 163
Lactin.............. 833
Lactuca  altissima.... 586
Lactuca  elongata .... 586
Lactuca sativa....... 585
Lactuca  scariola..... 586
Lactuca virosa. .*.... 585
Lactucarium......... 586
Lactucic acid........ 587
Lactucin............ 587
Ladies' slipper...... 557
Ladies'slipper, showy 425
Ladies' slipper, stem-
  less............... 425
Ladies' slipper, white-
  flowered ...........425
Ladies'  slipper,  yel-
  low  .............. 424
Ladies' thumb.......758
Lake  water......... 230
Lambkill........... 578
Lamiaceae...........  84
Lappa major........ 239
Lappa minor........ 239
Larch............... 146
Larch, American..... 588
Larch, black........588
Larix cedrus........ 694
Lard............... 180
Lard, prepared. .180, 1279
Large   flowering
  spurge............ 460
Large spotted spurge. 461
Larix Americana.....588
Larkspur...........434
Laudanum......... 1266
Laudanum.Rousseau's 717
Laudanum,   Syden-
  ham's  ............ 717
Lauraceae........... 102
Laurel.............. 578
Laurel, ground......447
Laurel, mountain  .... 578
Laurel, narrow-leaved 580
Laurel, sheep........ 578
Laurel, spurge....... 428
Laurel, swamp......580
Laurus benzoin......275
Laurus camphora.... 2"<6
Laurus sassafras.....589
Lavandula spica.....590
Lavandula vera......590
Lavender........... 590
 Lavender, sea.......  908
 Lead, acetate of......  743
 Lead plaster........1037
 Lead, red...........  745
 Lead, red oxide of...  745
 Lead, sugar of.......743
 Lead, superacetate of.  743
 Leather flower.......  371
 Leatherwood........444
 Lecanora tartarea....  813
 Ledum latifolium....  591
 Ledum palustre.....  591
 Leech..............  535
 Leguminosae........   38
• Lemon.............  368
 Lemon syrup........1227
 Lemon, wild........  746
 Lentive  electuary- • • .1030
 Lentisk........".....  739
 Leontice  thalictroides 312
 Leontodon  taraxacum 925
 Leonurus cardiaca...  592
 Leopard's bane......247
 Leptandra..........  593
 Leptandra Virginica .  593
 Leptandrin..........  595
 Letheon............1013
 Lettuce.............  585
 Lettuce, canker......  786
 Lettuce opium.......586
 Lettuce, strong-scent-
   ed................  585
 Lettuce, wild........586
 Leucanthemum  vul-
   gare ..............  341
 Lever wood.........  699
 Levigation..........  988
 Liatris cylindracea...  598
 Liatris graminifolia..  598
 Liatris odoratissima..  598
 Liatris scariosa......  598
 Liatris spicata.......  598
 Lichenacea?.........  137
 Lichenin...........329
 Life everlasting, pearl-
   flowered.......223, 509
 Life root............  868
 Lignum  colubrinum..  912
 Ligustrum vulgare...  599
 Liliaceae............  123
 Lilium candidura....  600
 Lily, ground........  932
 Lily, meadow.......  600
 Lily, white  .........  600
 Lily, white  pond ....  663
 Lily, yellow pond....  664
 Lime...............284
 Lime, carbonate of...  409
 Lime, hydrate of.....285
 Lime, lactate of......1107
 Lime, liniment of... .1114
 Lime, milk  of.......  285
 Lime, saccharate of..  832
 Lime-water..........1022
 Limes..............  368
 Linaceae............   25
 Lini oleum..........602
 Liniment, aconite...  1112 
1374
Index.
Liniment, anodyne . .1116
Liniment, black.....1115
Liniment, camphor.. .1114
Liniment, camphorat-
  ed soap...........1116
Liniment, caoutchouc. 1114
Liniment, common.. .1113
Liniment  compound,
  of ammonia......  1113
Liniment,  compound
  cajeput...........1114
Liniment,  compound
  capsicum.........1115
Liniment  compound,
  of oil of amber.....1117
Liniment  compound,
  of oils............1116
Liniment  compound,
  of stillingia.......1116
Liniment  compound,
  of turpentine......1117
Liniment, concentrat-
  ed...............1116
Liniment, croton oil. .1115
Liniment of ammonia 1113
Liniment of lime.....1114
Liniment of oils......1115
Liniment of opium.. .1116
Liniment,rheumatic. .1115
Liniment, white......1117
Liniment, verdigris. .1113
Liniment, volatile... .1113
Linimenta...........1112
Liniments..........1112
Linimentum aconiti. .1112
Linimentum  aconiti
  radicis............1112
Linimentum aeruginis 1113
Linimentum ammohiaelll3
Linimentum ammoniae
  compositum.......1113
Linimentum  cajuputi
  compositum.......1114
Linimentum  calcis.. .1114
Linimentum  campho-
  rae................1114
Linimentum   caout-
  chouci............1114
Linimentum   capsici
  compositum.......1115
Linimentum  crotonis.1115
Linimentum  nigrum. 1115
Linimentum  olei.....1115
Linimentum  olei com-
  positum ..........1116
Linimentum  opii.....1116
Linimentum  saponis
  camphoratum......1116
Linimentum stillingiae
   compositum.......1116
Linimentum   succini
   compositum.......1117
Linimentum  terebin-
  thinae  compositum. 1117
Linnaean  classes  and
  orders............  138
Linseed oil..........  602
Linum usitatissimum.  601
Lion's foot.......... 654
Liquidambar styraci-
  flua.............. 603
Liquid glue......... 165
Liquid physic, white 167
Liquid, rheumatic.-. .1296
Liquid storax....... 915
Liquids  from solids,
  separation of.. .989, 991
Liquids,   separation
  of.............989,991
Liquor ammoniae ... .1016
Liquor ammoniae  ace-
  tatis..............1018
Liquor ammoniae for-
  tior...............1018
Liquor ferri  iodidi... 1118
Liquor ferri  nitratis. .1119
Liquor iodini composi-
  tus...............1120
Liquor magnesia  ci-
  tratis.............1121
Liquor morphiae  ace-
  tatis..............1136
Liquor morphiae  hy-
  drochloras........1137
Liquor morphiae  sul-
  phatis............1139
Liquor potassae......1121
Liquor  potassae  car-
  bonatis ...........1187
Liquor potassae citra-
  tis...............1123
Liquor sodae chlorin-
  atae...............1123
Liquorice........... 506
Liquorice and opium,
  troches of.........1276
Liquorice,  compound
  troches of.........1277
Liquors.............1118
Liquores............1118
Liriodendrin........ 605
Liriodendron tulipife-
  ra................ 604
Litharge plaster.....1037
Lithospermum   pul-
  chrum............ 781
Lithospermum  Virgi-
  nianum........... 691
Litmus............. 813
Liver of  sulphur.....1197
Liverleaf, heart......532
Liverleaf, kidney  .... 532
Liverwort........... 532
Lobelia............. 606
Lobelia,  blue........ 609
Lobelia  cardinalis... 609
Lobelia cataplasm.. .1026
Lobelia inflata....... 606
Lobelia,  oil  of....... 606
Lobelia,  red......... 609
Lobelia syphilitica... 609
Lobelia,  vinegar of.. .1006
Lobeliaceae..........   74
Lobelina............ 607
Locust.............. 812
Locust, black........ 812
Locust, yellow....... 812
Logwood........... 518
Long-leaved pine--- 731
Long pepper........ 736
Loose strife......... 610
Loranthaceae........  58
Lotio aetheris compos-
  ita ...............1125
Lotio alkalina.......1124
Lotio boracis........1125
Lotio boracis cum mor-
  phiae .............1125
Lotio glycerini......1125
Lotio hydrastis com-
  posita ............1126
Lotio hydrastis et aco-
  niti..............1126
Lotio juglandis......1126
Lotio lobeliae compos-
  ita ...............1126
Lotio myrrhae compos-
  ita ...............1127
Lotio refrigerans.....1127
Lotio sassafras......1127
Lotio sodii composita 1127
Lotio zinci composita 1128
Lotion, borax.......1125
Lotion,   borax   with
  morphia..........1125
Lotion, cooling......1127
Lotion,   compound
  ethereal..........1125
Lotion, compound lo-
  belia .............1126
Lotion,   compound
  myrrh............1127
Lotion,  compound  of
  golden seal........1126
Lotion, compound so-
  da...............1127
Lotion,   compound
  zinc..........'....1128
Lotion, evaporating. .1125
Lotion, glycerin.....1125
Lotion of golden seal
  and aconite.......1126
Lotion, sassafras.....1127
Lotion, walnut......1126
Lotiones............1124
Lotions.............1124
Lousewort.......... 498
Low blackberry...... 819
Lovely bleeding.....205
Low mallow......... 620
Lozenges...........1274
Lozenges, Wistar's.. .1276
Lunar caustic........242
Lungwort........... 781
Lungwort, Virginian. 781
Lupulin............ 541
Lupulin, extract of . .1060
Lupulite............ 541
Lycoperdon proteus.. 340
Lycopersicon esculen-
  tum.............. 896
Lycopus  Europaeus.. 610
Lycopus  Virginicus. 609
Lyre-leaved sage..... 841 
Index.                            1375
Lythracese..........  46
Lythrum fialicaria. . . 610
Lyihruni verticiUatum 611
Lytta vesicatoria.  ... 291

           M
Mace............... 6411
Maceration.......... 931
Macrotin............ 345
Macrotys racemosa.. . 342
Mad-dog weed .. .192, 860
Madder............. 817
Madeira wine....... 9G4
Magnesia........... 612
Magnesia, calcined .. 612
Mat;-nesia,carbonate of 613
Magnesia, solution of
  citrate of..........1121
Magnesia, sulphate of 615
Magnesia, troches of. 1277
Magnesia usta....... 612
Magnesias carbonas.. 613
Magnesiae sulphas... 615
Magnetic oxide of iron 467
Magnolia........... 617
Magnolia acuminata.. 618
Magnolia glauca..... 617
Magnolia, sweet..... 617
Magnolia tripetala... 618
Magnolia umbrella... 618
Magnoliaceae........   14
Mahogany birch.....279
Maidenhair......... 181
Male fern........... 260
Mallow,  common .... 619
Mallow,  low........ 620
Mallow,  marsh.....202
Malva rotundifolia... 620
Malva sylvestris..... 619
Malvaceae...........   32
Man in the ground... 391
Man of the earth..... 391
Mandioca...........  570
Mandrake........... 746
Manna..............  693
Mannite............  695
Maple, vine.........  630
Maranta allouya.....  621
Maranta arundinacea.  620
Maranta Indica......  621
Maranta nobilis.....  621
Marantaceae.........  121
Marchantia  polymor-
  pha..............  532
Marble,  white.......  623
Margaric acid.......  849
Margarin........181, 668
Marjoram, sweet.....  693
Marjoram, wild......  692
Mar'mor album......  623
Marrubium vulgare.. 623
Mar-h gentian.......494
 Marsh hibiscus......203
 Marsh rosemary..... 908
 Marsh parsley....... 867
 Marsh smallage.....«oo
 Marsh tea........... 591
 Marsh trefoil........ 033
Marsh  water......... 231
Marshtnallow........ 202
Maruta cotula....... 624
Marvirold, garden---283
Ma.sterwort......222, 532
Munich.............739
Ma-ticin............ 740
Materia Medica...... 141
Maticin............. 734
Matico.............. 733
Matricaria chamomilla 224
Matricaria parthenium 786
May apple.......... 746
May flower.........447
May weed.......... 624
Mayer's ointment.. . .1285
McMunn's  elixir  of
  opium............1266
Meadow anemone.... 221
Meadow cabbage....  922
Meadow lily........ 600
Meadow saffron......381
Meadow sage........ 841
Meadow scabish.....265
Meadowsweet........ 902
Mealy star wort......191
Mealy tree.........._. 958
Measurement approxi-
  mate .............1318
Measures and weights 985
Mechameck......... 391
Mechanical division.. 987
Meconic acid........ 714
Meconin............ 713
Medicated waters... .1020
Medicated wines.....1293
Medicines,  preserva-
  tion  of............ 984
Mel................ 625
Mel JSgypticum.....1113
Mel despumatum.... 626
Melaleuca cajuputi.. .1148
Melanthaceae........ 128
Melanthiurn dioicum. 529
Melia  azedarach..... 627
Meliaceae...........   37
Melilot clover....... 931
Melilotus officinalis.. 629
Melissa officinalis--- 629
Meloe  vesicatorius... 291
Menisperine........ 630
Menispermaceae.....   16
Menispermin........ 219
Menispermum  Cana-
  dense ............ 630
Menispermum  coccu-
  lus...............218
Mentha piperita..... 631
Mentha pulegium---523
Mentha viridis...... 632
Menyanthes  trifoliata 633
Menyanthin......... 634
Mertensia Virginica.. 781
 Mesembryanthemum
   crystallinum...... 640
Method  of  displace-
   ment ............. 991
Methyle............. 905
Methylic alcohol.....  905
Mezereon...........  427
Mezereon, American.  444
Mild volatile alkali.. 1015
Milfoil.............  153
Milk of lime........  285
Milk pursely........  461
Milk, sugar of.......  833
Milk-weed...226, 256, 460
Milk-weed, swamp..  255
Mindererus, spirit of. 1018
Mineral, crystal......  768
Mineral tar..........  720
Mineral water...229, 1020
Mineral waters..229, 1319
Minium............  745
Mint, spirits of......1264
Mistletoe...........  961
Mistura cajuputi com-
  posita ............1128
Mistura   camphorae
  composita.........1128
Mistura   chenopodii
  composita.........1129
Mistura copaibae com-
  posita ............1129
Mistura  glycyrrhizae
  composita........1130
Mistura olei camphor-
  ata...............1130
Mistura olei compositall31
Mistura   sanguinaria
  composita........1131
Mistura spiritus vini
  Gallici...........1131
Misturae............1128
Mitchella repens .... 634
Mixture, brandy.....1131
Mixture,   compound
  cajeput...........1128
Mixture,   compound
  camphor..........1128
Mixture,   compound
  copaiba..........1129
Mixture, compound  li-
  quorice...........1130
Mixture,   compound
  wormseed........1129
Mixture, conium..... 389
Mixture, cough......1236
Mixture, neutral.....1123
Mixture of bloodroot,
  compound.........1131
Mixture of oils, cam-
  phorated ..........1130
Mixture of  oils, com-
  pound............1131
Mixture, worm......1129
Mixtures...........112S
Mocha senna........ 310
Molasses............ 830
Momordica  elaterium 635
Monarda didyma..... 639
Monarda  punctata. .. 639
Monarda squarrosa... 639
Monardin...........1160
Monkshood......... 175
Monotropa  uniflora.. 639 
1376
Index.
Moonseed...........  630
Moose wood.........  444
Morphia............1131
Morphia, acetate of.. .1135
Morphia, ferro-tartrate
  of................1089
Morphia,hydriodateofll39
Morphia,  hydrochlo-
  rate of............1136
Morphia, muriate of. .1136
Morphia, nitrate of. ..1139
Morphia, phosphate ofll39
Morphia, preparations
  of................1131
Morphia, solution of
  acetate of.........1136
Morphia, solution of
  muriate of........  1137
Morphia, solution of
  sulphate of........1139
Morphia, sulphate of. 1138
Morphia, tartrate  of.. 1139
Morphiae acetas......1135
Morphiae hydrochlorasl 136
Morphiae murias.....1136
Morphiae sulphas... .1138
Mortars............  987
Morus alba..........  640
Morus nigra.........  640
Morus rubra.........  640
Moschus............  642
Moss, Corsican.....„  476
Moss, ground........  761
Moss, hair-cap.......  761
Moss, Iceland.......  328
Moss, Irish..........  340
Moss, Tartarean.....  813
Mother of thyme.....  930
Mother's cordial.....1233
Motherwort.........  592
Mountain dittany....  417
Mountain laurel.....  578
Mountain pink.......  447
Mountain strawberry.  473
Mountain tea........486
Mouth root..........399
Mucilage of gum Ara-
  bic...............  149
Mucuna  pruriens....  643
Mucuna  prurita......  644
Mugwort............  250
Mulberry, red.......  640
Mullein.............  954
Muriate of ammonia..  210
Muriate  of iron, tinc-
  ture of............1254
Muriate of morphia.. .1136
Muriate  of morphia,
  solution  of........1137
Muriate of quinia---1206
Muriate of soda......893
Muriatic acid........  161
Musci..............  136
Musk..............  642
Musk, artificial......  643
Muskmelon.........  416
Mustard, black......875
Mustard, hedge......  879
Mustard, volatile oil of 876
Mustard, white.... v.  875
Mutton tallow.......  872
Myosotis Virginica...  424
Myrica Carolinensis..  646
Myrica cerifera......  644
Myrica gale.........646
Myrica Pennsylvanica 646
Myricaceae..........  110
Myricin.........324,  646
Myristica moschata..  647
Myristicaceae........  17
Myristicic acid......  649
Myristicin...........  649
Myronate of potassa..  877
Myronic acid........  877
Myrospermum  Perui-
  ferum ............  650
Myrospermum  tolui-
  ferutu.............  652
Myrosyne...........  878
Myroxylon   Peruifer-
  um..............650
Myroxylon  toluiferum  652
Myrrh..............  270
Myrrhic acid........271
Myrrhin............271
Myrtaceae...........  45
Myrtle wax..........  645
Myrtus pimenta.....653

           N
Nabalus albus.......  654
Nabalus serpentaria. .  655
Naphtha............720
Naphtha, wood......  905
Narcein............  713
Narcotin............  711
Narcotina...........  711
Narthex  assafetida..  263
Narrow leaf Virginia
  thyme............  785
Narrow-leaved  laurel  580
Native wine.........  966
Natural  orders   of
  plants............  11
Neats-foot oil........  672
Nectandra Rodiaei....  655
Nepeta  cataria......  658
Nepeta citriodora....  629
Nepeta glechorua. ...  659
Nephritic plant......  719
Neroli, oil of........  367
Nerve powder.......1201
Nerve root..........424
Net-leaf  plantain___509
Nettle,common......940
Nettle, dwarf........941
Nettle, great-stinging 940
Nettle-leaved vervain  955
Nettle, stingless.....  942
Neutral mixture.....1123
Neutralizing cordial.  1234
Neutralizing extract,
  fluid..............1079
Neutralizing powder. 1205
New Jersey tea......315
Nicotia.............  661
Nicotiana tabacum...  659
Nicotianin.......,..  662
Nicotina............  661
Nightshade, black...  898
Nightshade,common.  898
Nightshade,deadly266,898
Nightshade, garden..  898
Nightshade, woody..  895
Nitrate  of iron, solu-
  tion of............1119
Nitrate of morphia.. .1139
Nitrate of potassa  ...  766
Nitrate  of quinia___1206
Nitrate of silver.....242
Nitrate of soda.......  767
Nitre...............  766
Nitre, sweet spirit  of. 1009
Nitric acid..........  165
Nitric ether,   spirit
  of................1009
Nitro-hydrochloric
  acid..............  167
Nitromuriatic  acid..  167
Noah's ark..........  424
Norway pine........144
Norway spruce-fir....  144
Nuphar advena......  664
Nutmeg.............  647
Nux vomica.........  912
Nymphaceae........  18
Nymphaea odorata...  663

           O
Oak, black..........  790
Oak, dyer's..........  792
Oak, Jerusalem......332
Oak, poison........  808
Oak, red............789
Oak, white..........  789
Oat.................  269
Oatmeal............  269
Ochroleucous gentian  494
CEnanthe crocata.....  665
CEnanthe  phellandri-
  um...............  665
CEnotherabiennis....  666
Officinal directions...  981
1, benne.......... 871
1, British.......... 721
1, castor........... 679
1, cod-liver........ 673
1, croton.......... 688
1, flaxseed......... 602
1, fusel........... 190
1, neats-foot....... 672
1, olive........... 677
1, phosphoreted.... 723
1, potato-spirit  .... 190
1, rock............ 721
1, seneca.......... 721
1, vermifuge.. ...\ .1131
1 of almonds......212
1 of amber......., 916
1 of amber, rectified 1164
1 of anise.........1147
1 of bergamot......1148
1 of bitter almonds. 213
I of cajeput........1148 
Index.
1377
Oil of capsicum, ethe-
  real ..............299
Oil of caraway.......1150
Oil of cassia.........1152
Oil of cedar.........1156
Oil of chamomile,.. .1147
Oil of cinnamon.....1152
Oil of cloves........1150
Oil of copaiba.......1153
Oil of cubebs........1154
Oil of ergot......... 864
Oil of fennel........1155
Oil of fireweed......1154
Oil of fleabane......1154
Oil of hemlock...... 143
Oil of horsemint.....1160
Oil of juniper........1156
Oil of lavender......1157
Oil of lemons.......1157
Oil of lobelia........ 606
Oil of mustard, vola-
  tile............... 876
Oil of neroli........367
Oil of origanum.....1160
Oil of pennyroyal .. .1156
Oil of peppermint... 1159
Oil of pimento......1161
Oil of rosemary.....1162
Oil of roses.........1161
Oil of rue...........1162
Oil of sassafras..... .1163
Oil of savin.........1163
Oil of spearmint.....1159
Oil of spike........1157
Oil of star-aniseed.. .1147
Oil of stillingia..... 910
Oil  of  sweet  marjo-
  ram..........693,1160
Oil of tansy........1165
Oil of tar........... 740
Oil of thy me.... 930,1160
Oil of turpentine .... 684
Oil of valerian......1165
Oil of vitriol........ 171
Oil of winter-green. .1155
Oil of wormseed.....1151
Oil of xanthoxylum.. 971
Oil  of  xanthoxylum,
  ethereal.......... 971
Oil nut............. 572
Oils................ 667
Oils, distilled...669, 1139
Oils, drying......... 667
Oils, essential...669, 1139
Oils, fixed........... 667
Oils, volatile....669, 1139
Ointment, alkaline.. .1280
Ointment,   alkaline
  camphorated......1280
Ointment,ammoniacall281
Ointment, basilicon. .1028
Ointment, brown---1289
Ointment,  compound
  lead..............1285
Ointment,  discutient. 1287
Ointment, Mayer's.. .1285
Ointment of aconite. .1280
Ointment of bayberry. 1284
         87
Ointment of bayberry,
  compound___.... .1285
Ointment of benzoin.. 1282
Ointment of black pep-
  per...............1285
Ointment of cocculus
  indicus...........1282
Ointment of creosote. 1283
Ointment of cucum-
  ber...............1283
Ointment of cyanuret
  of potassium......1286
Ointment of figwort. .1286
Ointment of galls.... 1284
Ointment of  iodine,
  compound.........1284
Ointment of ipecacu-
  anha .............1284
Ointment of mezereon 1284
Ointment of muriatic
  acid..............1280
Ointment of nitric acidl280
Ointment of oxide of
  zinc..............1288
Ointment of oxide of
  zinc, compound... .1289
Ointment of  poison
  hemlock..........1282
Ointment of poke... .1285
Ointment of rose waterl281
Ointment of savin.... 1286
Ointment of Spanish
  flies..............1282
Ointment of stramoni-
  um...............1287
Ointment of stramoni-
  um, compound ... .1287
Ointment of sulphate
  of zinc...........1289
Ointment of sulphur. 1287
Ointment of sulphur,
  compound........1288
Ointment of sulphuret
  of potassium......1286
Ointment of  sulphu-
  ric acid...........1280
Ointment of tar......1285
Ointment of  tannic
  acid..............1280
Ointment of tobacco. .1288
Ointment of veratria. 1288
Ointment of white hel-
  lebore ............1288
Ointment  of  white
  wax..............1282
Ointment of wild indi-
  go. ..............1281
Ointment of woodsoot 1283
Ointment, ophthalmic 1289
Ointment, simple... .1286
Ointment, spermaceti 1282
Ointments..........1279
Okra............... 141
Old field-balsam.....509
Olea................ 667
Olea destillata......1139
Oleafixa............ 667
Olea volatilia,.......  669
Oleaceae............   98
Oleic acid...........  849
Olein...........180,668
Oleum amygdalae ...  213
Oleum anisi.........1147
Oleum anthemidis.. .1147
Oleum badiaui......1147
Oleum bergamii.....1148
Oleum bubulum___  672
Oleum buxi.........  283
Oleum cajuputi......1148
Oleum cari..........1150
Oleum carui........1150
Oleum caryophylli. .1150
Oleum chenopodii.. .1151
Oleum cinnamomi.. .1152
Oleum copaibae......1153
Oleum cubebae......1154
Oleum erechthiti ... .1154
Oleum erigeroni.....1154
Oleum fceniculi......1155
Oleum gaultheriae... .1155
Oleum hedeom83.....1156
Oleum juniperi......1156
Oleum juniperi  Vir-
  ginianae..........1156
Oleum lavandulae... .1157
Oleum limonis......1157
Oleum lini.........  601
Oleum menthae piperi-
  tae...............1159
Oleum menthae  viri-
  dis...............1159
Oleum monardae.....1160
Oleum morrhuae.....  673
Oleum olivae........  677
Oleum origani.......1160
Oleum pimentae.....1161
Oleum ricini........  679
Oleum rosae.........1161
Oleum rosmarini ... .1162
Oleum rutae........1162
Oleum sabinae.......1163
Oleum sassafras.....1163
Oleum succini.......916
Oleum succini rectifi-
  catum............1164
Oleum tanaceti......1165
Oleum tartari per de-
  liquum...........1185
Oleum terebinthinae..  684
Oleum thymi........  930
Oleum tiglii........  688
Oleum Valerianae... .1165
Olibanum..........*.  690
Olive oil............  677
Olivin..............  677
Onagraceae..........   47
One-berry...........  635
Onion..............  194
Onosmodium   Caroli-
  nianum..........  692
Onosmodium  hispid-
  urn...............  691
Onosmodium   strigo-
  sum  .............  692
Onosmodium Virgini-
  anum ............ 691 
1378
Index.
Ophthalmic  balsam,
  Pettit's...........1289
Ophthalmic ointment. 1289
Opium.............. 704
Opodeldoc........1116
Opuntiacochenillifera 374
Orange............. 366
Orange-flower water.. 1025
Orchidaceae......... 121
Orchil.............. 814
Orchilla weed....... 813
Orders of plants, natu-
  ral...............  11
Origanum........... 692
Origanum majorana.. 693
Origanum vulgare.... 692
Ornus Europaea...... 693
Ornus rotundifolia... 694
Orobanchaceae.......  81
Orobanche Americana 696
Orobanche uniflora... 696
Orobanche Virginiana 695
Orris, Florentine.....568
Oryza sativa........ 696
Osmorrhiza longisty-
  lus............... 697
Osmunda  cinnamo-
  mea.............. 698
Osmunda regalis..... 698
Osmunda spectabilis. 698
Ostrya Virginica..... 699
Otto of roses.........1161
Ova-ova............. 639
Ovum.............. 700
Oxalic  acid......... 168
Oxalidaceae.........  26
Oxalis acetosella..... 701
Oxalis stricta........ 702
Oxalis violaceae...... 702
Oxide of ethyle......1011
Ox balm............384
Ox gall............. 465
Ox-eye daisy....... 341
Poeonia officinalis....  702
Pagliari's  haemostatic 277
Pale bark...........353
Pale touch-me-not....  557
Palm soap...........  851
Palma Christi.......  680
Palmaceae...........  130
Palmic acid.........  681
Palmin...............  681
PariaX quinquefolium 703
Pansy..............  961
Papaveraceae........  19
Papaver somniferum. 704
Papaveriua.......... 714
Papaw..............  942
Pappoose  root....... 312
Paramorphia........  712
Paregoric  elixir......1267
Pareira brava....... 365
Pariglin............ 884
Parilla, yellow...... 630
Parillinic acid....... 884
Parsley............. 225
Parsley, hemlock....  867
Parsley, marsh......867
Parsley, poison......  387
Parthenium  integrifo-
  lium.............  719
Partridge-berry .. .486, 634
Partridge pea........  307
Parturient balm.....1233
Paul's  betony.......  609
Paste, Vienna.......285
Pea, sensitive.......  307
Pea, wild turkey.....405
Peach..............  214
Pear-leaf wintergreen 786
Pearl-ash............1185
Pearl-barley.........  538
Pearl-sago..........  835
Pearl-flowered   life
  everlasting.....223,509
Pellitory of Spain....  217
Pelosin ............  366
Pennyroyal.........,-.  522
Pennyroyal, European 523
Pennyroyal water... .1024
Peony..............  702
Pepper, black.......  736
Pepper, Cayenne ....  297
Pepper, Jamaica.....  654
Pepper, long........  736
Pepper, water.......  758
Peppermint.........  631
Peppermint,troches of 1277
Peppermint  water... .1024
Percolation......... 991
Periploca Indica..... 531
Persimmon......... 443
Peru, balsam of..... 650
Peruvian bark....... 347
Petroleum...........720
Petroleum, Barbadoes 721
Petroleum  rangoon.. 721
Petroselinum  sativum 225
Pettit's eye  salve---1289
Pettit's  ophthalmic
  balsam............1289
Petty-morrel......... 238
Peucedanum  monta-
  num............. 866
Phaeroetin.......... 803
Pharmacy.......... 981
Pharmaceutical equiv-
  alents, table of... .1343
Phellandrine........ 665
Phellandrium  aqua-
  ticum............. 665
Philadelphia  fleabane 451
Phloridzin.......... 788
Phoenix fariuifera.... 835
Phosgene........... 733
Phosphate  of iron...1099
Phosphate of morphia 1139
Phosphate of quinia. .1206
 Phosphate of soda.. .1218
 Phosphorated oil.....  723
 Phosphoric acid, dilu-
   ted...............  169
 Phosphorus.........  722
 Physaline..........  724
Physalis alkekengi.. 724
Physalis viscosa.... 724
Physeter macrocepha-
  lus............... 326
Physic, antibilious.. .1203
Physic, white liquid. 167
Phytolacca decandra. 725
Phytolaccaceae...... 102
Phytolaccin......... 727
Picraena excelsa...... 727
Picroglycion........897
Picrotoxic acid...... 219
Picrotoxin.......... 219
Pigeon-berry........ 725
Pile electuary.......1031
Pills................1165
Pills, antidyspeptic. .1169
Pills, cholera........H70
Pills,  diuretic.......1177
.Pills, emmenagogue. .1173
Pills of aconite, com-
   pound............1169
Pills  of  aloes, com-
   pound............1169
Pills  of  assafetida,
   compound.........1170
Pills of black cohosh,
   compound.........1171
Pills of camphor, com-
   pound............1170
Pills of carbonate of
   iron..............1172
Pills of copaiba......1171
Pills of copaiba, com-
   pound............1172
Pills   of  dandelion,
   compound........1177
Pills  of  eupurpurin,
   compound.........1172
Pills of ferro-cyanuret
   of iron, compound. .1173
Pills of gamboge, com-
   pound............1170
Pills of high cranber-
   ry, compound.....1178
Pills of hyoscyamus,
   compound........1174
 Pills of iodide of iron 1173
 Pills  of  iron, com-
   pound............1173
 Pills  of  leptandrin,
   compound........1175
 Pills  of  motherwort,
   compound........1174
 Pills of podophyllin,
   compound .......1175
 Pills  of poke, com-
   pound............1175
 Pills  of ptelein, com-
   pound ............1176
 Pills  of  soap, com-
   pound............3177
 Pills  of sulphate  of
   quinia............1176
 Pills   of  sulphate  of
   quinia, compound .1177
 Pills of valerian, com-
   pound............H77 
Index.
1379
Pills of water-pepper,
  compound.........1176
Pills of wild  indigo,
  compound........1170
Pills,Vallet's ferrugin-
  ous ..............1172
Pilulae..............1165
Pilulae  aconiti  com-
  positae............1169
Pilulae aloes  compos-
  itae...............1169
Pilulae   assafcetidae
  compositae........1170
Pilulae baptisiae com-
  positae............1170
Pilulae cambogiae com-
   fiositae............1170
   ulae    camphorae
  compositae........1170
Pilulae    cimicifugae
  composites........1171
Pilulae  copaibae......1171
Pilulae  copaibae com-
  positae............1172
Pilulse    eupurpurini
  compositae........1172
Pilulae ferri carbonatisll72
Pilulae ferri compositsell73
Pilulae  ferri  ferro-cy-
  anureti compositae. 1173
Pilulae ferri iodidi .. .1173
Pilulae   hyoscyami
  compositae........1174
Pilulae  leonuri com-
  positae............1174
Pilulae    leptandrini
  compositae........1175
Pilulae    phytolaccae
  compositae........1175
Pilulae  podophyllini
  compositae........1175
Pilulae  polygoni com-
  positae............1176
Pilulae  pteleini  com-
  positae............1176
Pilulae  quiniae  com-
  positae............1177
Pilulae   quiniae   sul-
    J)hatis............1176
    ulae  saponi compos-
   ita?...............1177
 Pilulae  taraxaci  com-
   positae............1177
 Pilulae Valerianae com-
   positae............1177
 Piluke viburni  com-
   positae............1178
 Pimento............  653
 Pimento  water.......1024
 Pimpernel, red.......218
 Pimpernel, scarlet....  218
 Pimpinella anisum...  730
 Pinacae.............  115
 Pine broom..........  731
 Pine drops..........  780
 Pine, ground........  185
 Pine, long-leaved,
 Pine,  Norway....
731
144
Pine, silver......... 147
Pine, princes'....... 333
Pine, yellow-pitch... 731
Pine apple strawberry 473
Pink, Carolina....... 901
Pink-root........... 900
Pink, mountain...... 447
Pink, winter........447
Pinus microcarpa.... 588
Pinus palustris......731
Pinus  pendula...... 588
Piper angustifolium.. 733
Piper cubeba........ 734
Piper longum........ 736
Piper nigrum........ 736
Piperaceae.......... 109
Piperin............. 738
Pipsissewa.......... 333
Pistachia lentiscus... 739
Pitania............. 356
Pitaya bark......... 356
Pitch, black......... 740
Pitch, Burgundy.....  145
Pitch, Canada.......  143
Pitch-pine,  yellow,..  731
Pix liquida.........740
Pix nigra...........  740
Plantaginaceae.......   80
Plantago cordata....  741
Plantago major......742
Plantain............  742
Plantain, heart leaved 741
Plantain, net leaf---509
Plantain, water.. .192, 741
Plantain, white......  223
Plants, collecting of..  981
Plants, natural  orders
   of................   H
Plants, preserving of.  981
Plaster, adhesive.....1039
Plaster,  bayberry... .1035
Plaster,    common
   strengthening ..... 1034
Plaster,    compound
   capsicum.........1034
Plaster,    compound
   resin.............1039
 Plaster, compound tar 1035
 Plaster, irritating... .1035
 Plaster, lead.........1037
 Plaster, litharge.....1037
 Plaster,  red oxide  of
   lead..............1036
 Plaster, resin........1039
 Plaster, sear-cloth... .1034
 Plaster of belladonna. 1033
 Plaster  of belladonna,
   compound........1034
 Plaster  of   extract  of
   aconite root.......1034
 Plasters.............1032
 Plasters, spreading of 1032
 Pleurisy root........  257
 Plurabaginaceae......   81
 Plum...............  775
 Plumbi  acetas.......  743
 Plumbi oxidi rubrum.  745
 Plunge bath.........  235
Podophyllin.....»... 748
Podophyllin,   troches
  of................1278
Podophyllum montan-
  um............... 748
Podophyllum peltatum 748
Pointed cleavers .... 483
Poison ash........... 809
Poison hemlock...... 387
Poison ivy.......... 809
Poison oak.......... 808
Poison  parsley......387
Poison  sumach......809
Poison vine......... 809
Poison wood........ 809
Poke............... 725
Poke root cataplasm. .1027
Polemoniaceae.......   92
Polemonium  ccerule-
  um...............  755
Polemonium reptans.  754
Polygara amara......755
Polygala, bitter......755
Polygala, caducous ..  757
Polygala chamoebuxus 757
Polygala,  fringed....  755
Polygala paucifolia...  755
 Polygala polygama.. 755
 Polygala rubella.....755
 Polygala sanguinea.. 757
 Polygala senega.....756
 Polygalaceae.........  22
 Polygalic acid.......757
 Polygalin........... 757
 Polygonaceae........ 101
 Polygonatum multiflo-
   rum..............390
 Polygonum arifolium. 759
 Polygonum fagopyrum  759
 Polygonum  hydropi-
   per...............  758
 Polygonum  persicaria  758
 Polygonum punctatum  758
 Polypod, rock.......760
 Poly podium vulgare.  760
 Polypody, common...  760
 Polytrichum  junipe-
   rum........,.....  761
 Pomaceae............   44
 Pomegranate........  782
 Pommade de Gondret 1281
 Pond dogwood......322
 Pond lily, white.....  663
 Pond lily, yellow....  664
 Poor man's weather-
    glass..............  218
 Poplar..............  604
 Poplar, American....  762
 Poplar, balsam......  761
 Poplar, tacamahac....  761
 Poplar, white---604, 762
 Poplar, yellow.......  604
 Poppy..............  704
 Populin.............763
 Populus balsamifera..  761
  Populus Candicans... 762
  Populus grandidentata 763
  Populus  tremuloides.  762 
1380
Index.
 Porcelia triloba......  942
 Porphyroxin........714
 Port wine...........  964
 Potash, hydriodate of 1196
 Potassa.............1178
 Potassa, acetate of. ..1180
 Potassa, alcoholic... .1179
 Potassa and soda, tar-
   trate of ...........1217
 Potassa,  bicarbonate
   of................1181
 Potassa, bichromate of 1183
 Potassa, binoxalate of 701
 Potassa, bisulphate of 1184
 Potassa, bitartrate of.  765
 Potassa, carbonate of. 1185
 Potassa, caustic......1178
 Potassa, chlorate of. .1187
 Potassa, cum calce...  285
 Potassa, hydrate of.. .1178
 Potassa, nitrate of....  766
 Potassa, preparations
   of................1178
 Potassa, pure  carbon-
  ate of.............1186
 Potassa, quadroxalate
  of................  702
 Potassa, sesquicarbon-
  ate of.............1188
 Potassa, solution of . .1121
 Potassa,   solution  of
  carbonate of.......1187
Potassa,  solution  of
  citrate of..........1123
Potassa, sulphate of. .1189
Potassa, sulphate  of
  with sulphur......1190
Potassa, sulphuret of. 1197
Potassa, tartrate of.. .1191
Potassa with lime.... 285
Potassae acetas ......1180
Potassae  bicarbonas. .1181
Potassae bichromas.. .1183
Potassae  bisulphas.. .1184
Potassae  bitartras.... 765
Potassae carbonas... .1185
Potassae carbonas pu-
  rus...............1186
Potassae chloras......1187
Potassae hydras......1178
Potassae nitras....... 766
Potassae sesquicarbon-
  as................1188
Potassae sulphas.....1189
Potassae sulphas cum
  sulphure..........1190
Potassae tartras......1191
Potassii bromidum.. .1192
Potassii cyanuretum.1193
Potassii ferrocyanuret-
  um............... 769
Potassii iodidum.....1195
Potassii sulphuretum. 1197
Potassium.......... 763
Potassium, bromide of 1192
Potassium, cyanuret ofll93
Potassium, ferrocyan-
  uret of............ 769
 Potassium, iodide of. .1195
 Potassium,  sulphuret
   of................1197
 Potato fly...........294
 Potato-spirit, oil.....190
 Potato, wild........391
 Potentilla Canadensis  77]
 Potentilla pumila....  771
 Potentilla reptans....  771
 Potentilla sarmentosa  771
 Potentilla simplex...  771
 Potentilla tormentilla  771
 Pothos fcetidus......  921
 Powder, antibilious. .1203
 Powder, black.......1204
 Powder, cephalic ... .1204
 Powder, diaphoretic. .1202
 Powder, emetic......1203
 Powder,  emmena-
  gogue.............1204
 Powder, hydragogue. .1204
 Powder, nerve.......1201
 Powder, neutralizing. 1205
 Powder  of  bayberry,
  compound........1204
 Powder  of  camphor,
  compound........1201
 Powder  of  charcoal,
  compound........1201
 Powder of golden seal,
  compound........1201
 Powder  of hydrastin,
  compound........1202
 Powder  of  ipecacu-
  anha, compound... 1202
 Powder  of  ipecacu-
  anha   and  opium,
  compound.........1202
Powder of iron......1100
Powder of jalap, com-
  pound............1203
Powder of leptandrin,
  compound........1203
Powder  of  lobelia,
  compound ...".__,1203
Powder of mandrake,
  compound........1204
Powder  of  pleurisy
  root, compound... .1200
Powder of podophyl-
  lin, compound.....1204
Powder  of   quinia,
  compound.........1205
Powder  of  rhubarb,
  compound........1205
Powder  of xanthoxy-
  lin, compound.....1206
Powder of yellow la-
  dies-slipper,   com-
  pound............1201
Powder,  styptic 1102,1205
Powdering,  methods
  of...........987,1200
Powders............1199
Powders, baking.....1216
Powder,  seidlitz.....174
Powders, soda....... 174
Powders, yeast......1216
 Prairie hyssop....... 785
 Prairie indigo.......274
 Prairie senna........307
 Precipitated carbonate
   of iron............1102
 Prenanthes albus..... 654
 Prenanthes  serpenta-
   ria ............... 655
 Preparations of ammo-
   nia...............1015
 Preparations of iron. .1087
 Preparations of mor-
   phia..............1131
 Preparations of potas-
   sa................1178
 Preparations  of  qui-
   nia...............1206
 Preparations of soda. .1214
 Prepared  chalk......409
 Prepared  lard.. .180,1279
 Preservation of  medi-
   cines ............. 981
 Preserved   vegetable
  juices.............1241
 Prickly ash......... 969
 Prickly ash berries... 971
 Prickly ash, Southern 238
 Prickly elder........ 238
 Pride  of China...... 627
 Pride of India....... 627
 Prideweed........... 450
 Prince's feather......205
 Prince's pine........333
 Prinos verticillatus-... 772
 Primulaceae.........  80
 Prim............... 599
 Primrose, tree....... 666
 Privet.............. 599
 Progress in Pharmacy 994
 Proof spirit..........  187
Protein.............  936
Protoxide of iron.....468
Provins rose.........  816
Prunes..............775
Prunus domesticus...  775
Prunus Virginiana...  773
Prussian blue.......1091
Prussiate of iron.....1091
Prussic acid.........  162
Pseudomorphia......715
Ptelein.............  777
Ptelea trifoliata......776
Pteris aquilina......  778
Pteris  atropurpurea..  778
Pterocarpus erinaceus 582
Pterocarpus marsupi-
  um...............  580
 Pterocarpus  santalin-
   us...............  779
Pterospora andromeda 780
Pterospora elatior....  781
Pterospora flaviculis.  781
Pterospora leucorrhiza  780
Pterospora pauciflora  780
Puccoon, red........  843
Puccoon, yellow..... 544
Puff-ball............ 340
Pulmonaria officinalis 781 
Index.
1381
 Pulmouaria  Virgin-
   ica ...............  781
 Pulmonary balsam.. .1228
 Pulveres............1199
 Pulverization of medi-
   cines.........987, 1200
 Pulvis  asclepiae
   compositus........1200
 Pulvis  camphorae
   compositus........1201
 Pulvis  carbo  ligni
   compositus........1201
 Pulvis  cypripedii
   compositus........1201
 Pulvis  hydrastini
   compositus........1202
 Pulvis  hydrastis
   compositus........1201
 Pulvis  ipecacuanhae
   compositus........1202
 Pulvis ipecacuanhae et
   opii compositus... .1202
 Pulvis  jalapae
   compositus........1203
 Pulvis  leptandrini
   compositus........1203
 Pulvis  lobeliae
   compositus........1203
 Pulvis  myricae
   compositus........1204
Pulvis nigrum.......1204
Pulvis nitratis.......  516
Pulvis  podophylli
  compositus........1204
Pulvis  podophyllini
   compositus.......1204
Pulvis pyrius.......  516
Pulvis  quiniae
  compositus........1205
Pulvis  rhei
  compositus........1205
Pulvis stypticus.....1205
Pulvis  xanthoxylini
  compositus........1206
Pumpkin...........  415
Punica granatum....  782
Punicin.............  784
Purple cone-flower...  822
Pure carbonate of po-
  tassa .............1186
Pure Prussian blue.. .1091
Pure water..........  229
Purging cassia.......  305
Purple angelica......  222
Purple avens---....  499
Purple stramonium..  430
Purple willow herb..  610
Pursely, black   .....461
Pussy willow........837
Pycnanthemum.....  785
Pycnanthemum  aris-
  tatum........• • • •  785
Pvcnanthemum  inca-
   num..........• • •  ,OD
Pycnanthemum  .pilo-
   sum............; ■  '°5
Pycnanthemum  Vir-
  ginicum..........  785
 Pyrethrum  partheni-
   um...............  785
 Pyritic sulpur.......  918
 Pyroglycerin........  505
 Pyrola rotundifolia..  786
 Pyrola umbellata....  333
 Pyroligneous acid....  156
 Pyroligneous ether...  905
 Pyroxilic spirit......  905
 Pyrus malus ........  787

            Q
 Quadroxalate of  po-
   tassa .............  702
 Quassia.............  727
 Quassia amara.......  727
 Quassia excelsa......  727
 Quassin............  729
 Queen of  the meadow  457
 Queen's delight......  910
 Queen's root.........  910
 Queen's root, troches
   of...............1278
 Quercin............  790
 Quercitric acid......  791
 Quercitrin..........  791
 Quercitron..........  790
 Quercus alba........789
 Quercus infectoria... .792
 Quercus pedunculata.  790
 Quercus rubra.......  789
 Quercus tinctoria....  790
 Quince.............  422
 Quinia..............1206
 Quinia, acetate of... .1206
 Quinia and  morphia,
  tartrate  of.........1212
 Quinia and  salicin,
  tartrate  of........1213
 Quinia, citrate of... .1206
 Quinia, ferrocyanuret
  of................1206
 Quinia, ferro-citrate ofl089
Quinia, ferro-tartrate
  of................1090
Quinia, iodide of.....1206
Quinia, kinate of.... 358
Quinia, lactate of... .1206
Quinia, muriate of.. .1206
Quinia, nitrate of... .1206
Quinia, preparations
  of................1206
Quinia, phosphate of 1206
Quinia, sulphate of.. .1207
Quinia, tannate of. . .1206
Quinia, valerianate of 1213
Quiniae et  morphiae
  tartras............1212
Quiniae et  salicinise
  tartras............1213
Quiniae sulphas.....1207
Quiniae valeriauas.. .1213
Quinic acid......... 357

           R
Raccoon berry....... 746
Ragged cup......... 873
Ragweed...........207
 Ragweed, great...... 206
 Ragwort............ 868
 Rain water.......... 229
 Raisins............. 967
 Ram's head......... 425
 Rangoon petroleum.. 721
 Ranunculaceae......  12
 Ranunculus acris.... 795
 Ranunculus bulbosus 794
 Ranunculus flammula 795
 Ranunculus repens... 795
 Ranunculus sceleratus 795
 Raspberry........... 819
 Raspberry, ground... 544
 Raspberry, rose-flow-
  ering ............. 821
 Rattle-bush......... 272
 Rattle-root.,........ 342
 Rattlesnake leaf..... 509
 Rattlesnake's   mas-
  ter........184,452,598
 Ratlesnake root..... 654
 Rattlesnake weed.... 534
 Rattlesnake,violet 453, 961
 Rectified oil of  am-
  ber................1164
 Rectified spirit...... 187
 Red bark........... 354
 Red Carthagena
  bark...........350, 355
 Red cedar........... 577
 Red chickweed...... 217
 Red clover.......... 930
 Red cockscomb......205
 Red cohosh......... 179
 Red currant......... 811
 Red ink.........375,520
 Red lead............ 745
 Red lobelia......... 609
 Red mulberry....... 640
 Red oak............ 789
 Red osier........... 404
 Red oxide of iron... .1102
 Red oxide of lead.... 745
 Red oxide of lead plas-
  ter...............1036
 Red pepper......... 297
 Red pimpernel......218
 Red puccoon........ 843
 Red raspberry......'. 819
 Red root............  315
 Red roses........... 816
 Red sandal wood.... 779
 Red saunders.......  779
 Red-stalked aster....  265
Red-sunflower......  822
Red willow.........404
Reduced iron....... .1100
Red mace...........  938
Resin...............  795
Resin cerate........1028
Resin of jalap.......1057
Resin of scammony.   394
Resin plaster........1039
Resina..............  795
Resina alba.........  795
Resina flava........795
Resina jalapae....... 1057 
1382
Index.
Restorative wine bit-
  ters...............1296
Rhabarbic acid....... 803
Rhamnaceae.........   35
Rhamnus  catharticus 797
Rbamnus frangula... 797
Rhatany............ 583
Rheum australe...... 799
Rheum Caspicum.... 800
Rheum compactum... 799
Rheum crassinervium 800
Rheum hybridum.... 800
Rheum leucorrhizum. 800
Rheum   Moorcraftia-
  num.............. 800
Rheum palmatum.... 798
Rheum  Rhaponticum 799
Rheum speciforme... 800
Rheum undulatum... 799
Rheum Webbianum.. 800
Rheumatic drops.....1247
Rheumatic liniment. .1115
Rheumatic liquid___1296
Rheumatic tincture. .1247
Rheumatic weed...... 265
Rheumatism root.... 571
Rhododendron crysan-
  thum............. 805
Rhododendron maxi-
  mum ............. 805
Rhododendron punc-
  tatum............. 805
Rhododendron,yellow 805
Rhubarb............798
Rhubarb and potassa,
  troches of.........1278
Rhubarb, Chinese.... 801
Rhubarb,    Dutch-
  trimmed.......... 801
Rhubarb, European.. 801
Rhubarb, French___802
Rhubarb, Persian.... 800
Rhubarb, Russian ... 800
Rhubarb, Turkey___800
Rhus copallinum .... 808
Rhus glabrum....... 806
Rhus pumilum......810
Rhus radicans ...... 809
Rhus toxicodendron.. 808
Rhus typhinum..... 808
Rhus venenata......809
Rhus vernix........807
Rhusine............ 809
Ribes floridum...... 812
Ribes nigrum....... 811
Ribes rubrum....... 811
Rice................ 696
Rich weed.......206,384
Ricini, oleum........ 679
Ricinus communis... 679
Rigid goldenrod.....900
River water......... 230
Robiniapseudo-acacia 812
Robin's rye.......-. • 761
Roccella fusiformis... 813
Roccella tinctoria.... 813
Rochelia Virginiana.. 424
Rochelle salt........1217
Roche's embrocation. 1165
Rock brake......760, 778
Rock oil............ 721
Rock polypod....... 760
Rock rose........... 525
Rock salt........... 893
Roll sulphur........917
Roman chamomile__223
Roman wormwood... 207
Rosacanina......... 814
Rosa centifolia......815
Rosa gallica.........816
Rosaceae............  41
Rosae oleum........  1161
Rose bay............448
Rose, Christmas.....528
Rose-colored silkweed 255
Rose, dog........... 814
Rose-flowering  rasp-
  berry............. 821
Rose, French........ 816
Rose, hundred-leaved 815
Rosemary........... 817
Rosemary, marsh.... 908
Rose, Provins....... 816
Rose, red........... 816
Roses, oil of.........1161
Roses, otto of........1161
Rosewater..........1025
Rosewillow.........404
Rosin............... 795
Rosin, black........796
Rosin soap.......... 851
Rosin weed......... 874
Rosin, white......... 795
Rosin, yellow....... 795
Rosmarinus officinalis 817
Round-leaved cornel. 402
Round-leaved   dog-
  wood ............. 402
Round-leaved pyrola. 786
Rousseau's  laudanum 717
Royal-flowering fern. 698
Rubbing wet sheet... 234
Rubia tinctorium.... 817
Rubiaceae...........  59
Rubus odoratus......821
Rubus  strigosus..... 819
Rubus  trivialis...... 819
Rubus  villosus...... 819
Rudbeckia laciniata.. 821
Rudbeckia  purpurea. 822
Rue................ 825
Rumex  acetosa...... 822
Rumex  acetosella.... 823
Rumex  aquaticus.... 823
Rumex  Britannica... 823
Rumex  crispus...... 823
Rumex  obtusifolius.. 823
Rumex vesicarius.... 702
Rush, scouring......448
Russian rhubarb.....800
Ruta graveolens..... 825
Rutaceae............  29
Rutulin.............839
Rye................ 861
Rye, Robin's........ 761
Rye, smut........... 861
Rye, spurred........  861

           S
Sabadilla...........  949
Sabadillia...........1290
Sabadillic acid.......  950
Sabbatia angularis...  827
Saccharate of lime...  832
Saccharated  alcoholic
  extract of ipecacu-
  anha..............1232
Sacchari fcex........830
Sacchari syrupus em-
  pyreumaticus.....  830
Saccharine  carbonate
  of iron............1087
Saccharum commune.  830
Saccharum  lactis....  833
Saccharum non-purifi-
  catum............  830
Saccharum   officinar-
  um...............  827
Saccharum  purum...  830
Saccharum Saturni...  743
Safflower............  302
Saffron.............  410
Saffron, bastard......  302
Saffron, dyer's......  302
Sagapenum.........  833
Sage...............  839
Sage, lyre-leaved ....  841
Sage, meadow.......  841
Sage, wild..........  841
Sago...............  834
Sago  meal..........835
Sago palm..........  834
Sago, pearl..........  835
Sagueris Rumphii___  834
Sagus inermis.......834
Sagus laevis......... 834
Sagus Ruffia........ 835
Sagus Rumphii...... 834
St. John's wort......551
Sal aeratus..........1182
Sal ammoniac.......210
Salde duobus.......1190
Sal diureticus.......1181
Sal enixum.........1184
Sal mirabile.........1220
Sal polychrest.......1190
Salprunelle.........766
Sal vegetabile.......1191
Salicaceae........... Ill
Salicin.............838
Salicin,  ferro-tartrate
  of................1090
Saline  mixture...... 167
Saline wash.........1127
Salix alba........... 836
Salix Babylonica .... 837
Salix caprea........ 837
Salix fragilis........ 837
Salix nigra.......... 837
Salix pentandra  .... 837
Salix purpurea......837
Salix Russelliana.... 837
Salseparin..........884
Salt................893 
Index.
1383
Salt, Glauber's......  892
Salt of sorrel........  701
Salt of tartar........1186
Salt petre...........  766
Salt-rheum weed.....  331
Salt, Rochelle.......1217
Salt, rock.....■......  893
Salts, Epsom........  615
Salve, black.........1036
Salve, green.........1035
Salve, Pettit's eye___1289
Salvia Bengalensis...  840
Salvia  horminum___840
Salvia lyrata........  841
Salvia officinalis.....  839
Salvia pomifera......  840
Salvia sclarea.......  840
Sambucus Canadensis  841
Sambucus  nigra.....841
Sampson snake-
  root...........265,  494
Sandal wood, red___  779
Sanguinaria Canaden-
  sis...............  843
Sanguinarin.........  845
Sanguinarina........  845
Sanguis  draconis....  846
Sanicle.............  848
Sanicula Marilandica.  848
Santalin............  779
Santonin............  250
Santonin,  brown   or
  impure...........  250
Sapindaceae.........   33
Sapo...............849
Sapo amygdalinus ...  850
Sapo auimalis.......851
Sapo durus.........  850
Sapo mollis.........  850
Sapo  terebinthinae...  851
Sapo  vulgaris.......  850
Sapo Windsor.......  851
Saponaceous cream of
  almonds..........  213
Saponaria officinalis.  852
Saponin............  852
Sapotaceae..........   79
Sarracenia..........  853
Sarracenia Drummon-
  dii...............  854
Sarracenia flava.....854
Sarracenia heterophyl-
  la................  854
Sarracenia psyttacina 854
Sarracenia purpurea..  853
Sarracenia rubra.....  854
Sarracenia variolaris.  854
Sarraceniaceae.......   19
Sarsaparilla.........880
Sarsaparilla,American 237
Sarsaparilla, Brazilian 881
Sarsaparilla,   bristle-
   stem .............  237
Sarsaparilla, Caracas.  882
Sarsaparilla, false---237
Sarsaparilla,  Hondu-
  ras ...............  8§3
Sarsaparilla, Indian..  530
Sarsaparilla,  Jamaica 880
Sarsaparilla,   Vera
  Cruz............. 881
Sarsaparillin........ 884
Sassafras..........589
Sassafras lotion  ....1127
Sassafras, oil of.  ...1163
Sassafras, swamp... . 617
Satureja hortensis... . 856
Satureja niontana... . 856
Saunders, red  ...... 779
Savin............... 576
Savin cerate.........1028
Savory, summer..... 856
Savory, winter....... 856
Saxifragaceae........  50
Scabious............ 450
Scammony.......... 393
Scammony, extract of 395
Scammony,  factitious 395
Scarlet berry........895
Scarlet pimpernel. ... 218
Scilla maritima...... 857
Scillitin............ 858
Scillitina........... 858
Scitamineae......... 117
Scoke.............. 725
Scouring rush....... 448
Scrofula weed....... 509
Scrofulous syrup.....1235
Scrophularia lanceo-
  lata ..........'.... 859
Scrophularia Marilan-
  dica .............. 859
Scrophularia nodosa.. 859
Scrophulariaceae.....  82
Scullcap............ 860
Scurvygrass......... 377
Scutellaria hyssopifo-
  lia.............. 861
Scutellaria integrifolia 861
Scutellaria lateriflora. 860
Scutelline........... 861
Sea-island cotton plant 511
Sea lavender........ 908
Sea-side grape....... 582
Sea  water...........236
Seawrack........... 477
Sear-cloth plaster... .1034
Secale cereale........861
Secale cornutum....  861
Seidlitz powders..... 174
Selinum  Canadense. . 867
Selinum  palustre.... 866
Semen abelmoschii... 141
Sempervivum   tecto-
  rum.............. 867
Seneca grass........931
Seneca snakeroot .... 756
Senecio aureus...... 868
Senecio balsamitae.... 869
Senecio, golden...... 868
Senecio gracilis...... 869
Senecio hieracifolius. 449
Senecio lahceolatus.. 869
Senecio obovatus.... 869
Senecin............. 870
Scnegin.............757
Seneka ,............ 756
Seneka oil........... 721
Seneka snakeroot... . 756
Senna.............. 307
Senna, Alexandria... 309
Senna, American.... 306
Senna and jalap, fluid
  extract of.........1082
Senna, India........ 310
Senna, Mocha........ 310
Senna, prairie....... 307
Senna, Tripoli....... 310
Sensitive pea........ 307
Separation   of  li-
  quids..........989-991
Separation   of mixed
  substances........ 989
Separation   of  solids
  from liquids ...989-991
Sesamum Indicum... 871
Sesamum orientale... 871
Sesquicarbonate   of
  ammonia.........1015
Sesquicarbonate of po-
  tassa.............1188
Sesquicarbonate of so-
  da...............1215
Sesquioxide   of
  iron,.........468, 1102
Sesquioxide of iron,
  hydrated.........1095
Seven barks........ 542
Sevum............. 872
Sexual system of Lin-
  naeus............. 138
Shallow-bath........ 235
Shave grass.........448
Sheep laurel___.___578
Sheep sorrel .___702, 823
Sheep  tallow........ 872
Shell-lac splints..... 905
Sherry wine......... 964
Shin-leaf........... 786
Shower-bath.........236
Showy ladies-slipper. 425
Shrubby trefoil...... 776
Sickle grass......... 759
Side-saddle flower... 853
Signs  and  abbrevia-
  tions, table of......129S
Silkweed, common... 256
Silkweed, rose-colored 255
Silkweed, swamp.... 255
Silky cornel......... 404
Silphium   gummife-
  rum.............. 874
Silphium laciniatum. 874
Silphium perforatum 873
Silver-fir............ 147
Silver-fir, American.. 142
Silver leaf........... 910
Silver, nitrate of.....242
Silver pine.......... 147
Simaruba........... 874
Simaruba excelsa.... 727
Simaruba officinalis.. 874
Simarubaceae........  28
Simple cerate........1029 
1384
Index.
Simple ointment.....1286
Simple syrup.......1227
Sinapis alba......... 875
Sinapis nigra....... 875
Sinapisin........... 878
Sipeerina........... 656
Siphonia cahuchu___ 295
Siphonia elastica.... 295
Sisymbrium officinale 879
Sisymbrium sophia.. 880
Sitzbath............ 235
Skunk cabbage......921
Skunk weed."....... 922
Slippery  elm........ 939
Sloe................ 959
Small cleavers......483
Small spikenard.....237
Smart-weed......... 758
Smilaceae........... 128
Smilacin............ 884
Smilacina racemosa.. 391
Smilasperic acid.....531
Smilax China.......882
Smilax medica....... 881
Smilax officinalis.... 880
Smilax papyraceae... 881
Smilax sarsaparilla.. 881
Smilax syphilitica... 880
Smooth alder........ 195
Smut rye............ 861
Snakehead.......... 331
Snakeroot........... 244
Snakeroot, black___342
Snakeroot, button 452, 598
Snakeroot, Canada... 254
Suakeroot,  Samp-
  son............265,494
Snakeroot, seneka ... 756
Snakeroot, Virginia.. 244
Snakeroot, white.....455
Snakewood......... 912
Snapping hazelnut... 521
Sneezewort......155, 524
Snowball........... 957
Snowball, wild...... 315
Snowberry.......... 335
Snowdrop, yellow.... 453
Snow water......... 229
Soap................ 849
Soap, amygdaline.... 850
Soap, beef-marrow... 851
Soap, Castile........ 850
Soap, common....... 850
Soap liniment, cam-
  phorated ..........1116
Soap, palm.......... 851
Soap, soft........... 850
Soap, Starkey's...... 851
Soap, tincture of..... 851
Soap, transparent.... 851
Soap, Windsor...... 851
Soapwort........... 852
Soapwort gentian.... 494
Socotrine aloes......196
Soda................1214
Soda, acetate of......886
Soda and potassa, tar-
  trate of...........1217
Soda ash............ 890
Soda, bicarbonate of. .1214
Soda, borate of...... 887
Soda, carbonate of.... 889
Soda, dried carbonate
  of................1216
Soda,  Labarraque's
  liquid............1123
Soda, muriate of.....893
Soda, nitrate of...... 767
Soda, phosphate of.. .1218
Soda  powders....... 174
Soda, preparations of 1214
Soda, sesquicarbonate
  of...............11215
Soda, solution of chlo-
  rinated............1123
Soda,  subphosphate
  of................1220
Soda, sulphate of.... 892
Soda, tartarized......1217
Soda, valerianate of.. 1220
Soda, vitriolated..... 892
Soda water.........1020
Sodae acetas......... 886
Sodae bicarbonas.....1214
Sodae boras.......... 887
Sodae carbonas ...... 889
Sodae carbonas exsicca-
  tus...............1216
Sodae et potassae tar-
  tras ..............1217
Sodae murias........ 893
Sodae phosphas......1218
Sodae sulphas....... 892
Sodae valerianas.....1220
Sodii chloridum..... 893
Sodium............. 885
Sodium, chloride of.. 893
Soft soap........... 850
Soft water...........229
Solanaceae..........  93
Solania............. 896
Solanum dulcamara.. 895
Solanum lycopersicon 896
Solanum nigrum.....898
Solanum Virginianum 898
Solenostemma argel.. 309
Solidago odora...... 899
Solidago rigida...... 900
Solidago virgaurea... 900
Solids from  liquids,
  separation of. .989—991
Solomon's seal....... 390
Solomon's seal, giant's 390
Solubility of salts... 1344
Soluble cream of tar-
  tar............... 888
Soluble tartar........1191
Solution of acetate  of
  ammonia.........1018
Solution of acetate  of
  morphia..........1136
Solution of ammonia. 1016
Solution of ammonia,
  stronger..........1018
Solution of carbonate
  of potassa........1187
Solution of chlorinated
  soda..............1123
Solution of  citrate  of
  magnesia.........1121
Solution of  citrate  of
  potassa...........1123
Solution of hydrochlo-
  rate of morphia... .1137
Solution of  iodide  of
  iron..............1118
Solution  of  iodine,
  compound.........1120
Solution of muriate  of
  morphia..........1137
Solution of nitrate  of
  iron..............1119
Solution of pernitrate
  of iron............1119
Solution of potassa  . .1121
Solution of sulphate
  of morphia........1139
Solution of  ternitrate
  of iron............1119
Solution of tersulphate
  of iron............1096
Solution of the impure
  hyponitrite of oxide
  of ethyle in alcoholl009
Solutions...........1118
Sonchus oleraceus... 449
Soot............... 478
Sorrel.............. 822
Sorrel, garden....... 822
Sorrel, salt of........ 701
Sorrel-sheep.....702,823
Sorrel-tree..........220
Sorrel, wood........ 701
South American  kino 581
South American salt-
  petre............. 766
Southern prickly ash 238
Southern wood......250
South sea tea........ 557
Sow thistle..........449
Spanish chamomile.. 217
Spanish flies........291
Spanish needles.....280
Spatterdock......... 664
Spearmint.......... 632
Spearmint water.....1024
Speckled jewels..... 557
Specific gravity...... 986
Specific   gravity   of
  acetic acid........1334
Specific gravity bottle 986
Speedwell........... 956
Speedwell, tall......593
Spermaceti.......... 326
Spermaceti cerate... .1028
Spermaceti ointment. 1282
Spice bush.......... 275
Spicewood.......... 275
Spider's web........ 927
Spigelia and  senna,
  fluid extract of___1084
Spigelia Marilandica. 900
Spike, oil of.........1157
Spiked aloe......... 196 
Index.
IoSo
Spikenard........... 238
Spikenard, small .... 237
Spindle tree.........451
Spiraea tomentosa.... 902
Spirit  of  ammonia,
  aromatic..........1273
Spirit  of  lavender,
  compound........1261
Spirit of Mindererus.1018
Spirit of nitre, sweet. 1009
Spirit of nitric ether.. 1009
Spirit of sea salt..... 161
Spirit of turpentine... 684
Spirit of wine....... 187
Spirit, proof......... 187
Spirit, pyroxilic.....905
Spirit, rectified...... 187
Spirit vapor bath.... 903
Spirits of mint......1264
Spiritus aetheris nitri-
  ci.................1009
Spiritus   ammoniae
  aromaticus........1273
Spiritus pyroxilicus.. 905
Splints, shell-lac___905
Sponge............. 906
Sponge, burnt....... 907
Spongia............ 906
Spongia  officinalis... 906
Spongia  usta........ 907
Spongy  Carthagena
  bark.............. 349
Spoonwood.........578
Spotted alder........521
Spotted geranium ... 496
Spotted knotweed ... 758
Spotted spurge......462
Spotted wintergreen.. 334
Spring water........230
Spruce beer......... 147
Spruce, double...... 146
Spruce, essence of.... 147
Spruce fir, Norway... 144
Spruce, hemlock..... 143
Spunk.............. 184
Spurge............. 463
Spurge, blooming..'.. 460
Spurge, ipecacuanha. 463
Spurge,  large-flower-
  ing............... 460
Spurge, large-spotted. 461
Spurge laurel.......428
Spurge  olive........427
Spurge, spotted...... 462
Spurred  rye.........861
Square stalk........ 859
Squaw-mint......... 522
Squaw  root......312,342
Squaw vine......... 635
Squaw weed.....265,868
Squill.............. 857
Squill, syrup of......1237
Squill, vinegar of---1006
Squirting cucumber.. 635
Staff vine........... 317
Stagger weed........ 405
Stalagmitis Cambogi-
  oides............. 484
Staphisain..........435
Staphylea trifolia___907
Star flower..........  265
Stargrass...........  191
Starch..............  215
Starch, canna.......  289
St.arkey's soap.......  851
Statice Caroliniana...  908
Statice limonium....  908
Stavesacre..........  434
Stearic acid.........  849
Stearin..........181,  668
Stearoptene.........  670
Steeple  bush........902
Stellaria media......909
Stemless ladies' slip-
  per...............  425
Stephensia elongata..  733
Stickwort...........  186
Stillingia, oil of......  910
Stillingia sylvatica...  910
Stillingin...........  911
Stimulating eye-water 1127
Stingless nettle......  942
Stink weed..........429
Stonemint..........417
Storax..............  914
Storax, liquid.......  915
Stramonium.........  429
Stramonium  cata-
  plasm ............1027
Stramonium, purple..  430
Strasburg turpentine.  147
Strawberry..........  472
Strawberry, mountain  473
Srawberry, pineapple.  473
Strawberry, wild ....  473
Straw-colored   genti-
  an................494
Strengthening   plas-
  ter..........1034, 1039
Striped bloodwort...  534
Stronger solution  of
  ammonia..........1018
Strong scented lettuce 585
Strychnia...........1221
Strychnia, citrate of. .1263
Strychnia, tartrate of. 1223
Strychnos nux vomica 912
Styptic balsam......687
Styptic powder. 1102,1205
Styracaceae..........   79
Styrax benzoin......276
Styrax officinale.....914
Subacetate of copper.  418
Subcarbonate of  iron. 1102
Sublimed  sulphur...  917
Subphosphate of soda 1220
Succinic acid........916
Succinum...........  916
Succory.............342
Succory, wild.......  342
Sudorific tincture ... .1271
Suet................  872
Sugar..............  827
Sugar, brown.......  830
Sugar cane..........  827
Sugar, grape........829
Sugar-house molasses 830
Sugar of ergot....... ^2!)
Sugar of lead.......   713
Sugar of milk....... 833
Sugar, purified.....830
Sulphate of  alumina
  and potassa....... 204
Sulphate of bebeerina 65ti
Sulphate of cinchonia 362
Sulphate of copper... 419
Sulphate of iron .... 1103
Sulphate of iron, driedllOS
Sulphate of kali.....1190
Sulphate of magnesia 615
Sulphate of morphia. 1138
Sulphate of morphia,
  solution of........1139
Sulphate of potassa.  .1189
Sulphate  of potassa
  with sulphur......1190
Sulphate of protoxide
  of iron............1103
Sulphate of quinia..  .1207
Sulphate of soda..... 892
Sulphate of zinc..... 974
Sulpho-sinapisin .... 878
Sulphur............ 917
Sulphur, flowers of.. 917
Sulphur, liver of.....1197
Sulphur lotum...... 917
Sulphur, ointment of. 1287
Sulphur   ointment,
  compound........1288
Sulphur, roll........ 918
Sulphur,  soft  amor-
  phous............ 919
Sulphur sublimatum. 917
Sulphur, sublimed... 917
Sulphur vivum......918
Sulphur volcanic___918
Sulphur,  washed.... 917
Sulphuret of iron...  .1105
Sulphuret  of potassi-
  um...............1197
Sulphureted  hydro-
   fen..............1106
   phuric  acid, aro-
  matic............. 170
Sulphuric  acid, dilut-
  ed  ............... 171
Sulphuric ether......1011
Sulphurous waters... 236
Sumach.............806
Sumach, dwarf......808
Sumach, poison..... 809
Sumach, swamp..... 810
Sumach, velvet......808
Summer savory...... 856
Sunflower..........526
Sunflower, false..... 524
Sunflower, red....... 822
Sunflower, swamp... 524
Sunflower syrup.....526
Superacetate of lead.. 743
Swamp beggar's-tick  280
Swamp dogwood.....404
Swamp hellebore.... 951
Swamp laurel....... 580 
1386
Index.
Swamp milkweed.... 255
Swamp sassafras..... 617
Swamp silkweed.... 255
Swamp sumach...... 810
Swamp willow-herb.. 611
Sweet almonds...... 212
Sweet birch.........279
Sweet cassava....... 570
Sweet cicely........ 697
Sweet fennel........471
Sweet fern.......... 386
Sweet flag.......... 178
Sweet gum.......... 603
Sweet magnolia..... 617
Sweet marjoram.....  693
Sweet principle of oils 504
Sweet scented clover. 931
Sweet scented golden-
  rod............... 899
Sweet scented   life-
  everlasting........ 509
Sweet spirit of nitre. .1009
Sweet violet......... 960
Sydenham's laudanum 717
Symphytum officinale 920
Symplocarpus fcetidus 921
Syrup..............1227
Syrup, alterative... .1236
Syrup, lemon........1227
Syrup of assafetida. .1229
Syrup of bloodroot.. .1236
Syrup of citric acid. .1227
Syrup of cinnamon. .1229
Syrup of garlic......1228
Syrup of ginger......1239
Syrup of horseradish,
  compound........1230
Syrup of ipecacuanha 1231
Syrup of lobelia.....1232
Syrup of partridge-ber-
  ry, compound.....1233
Syrup of poke, com-
  pound ............1234
Syrup of protonitrate
  of iron............1119
Syrup of queen's root. 1238
Syrup of queen's root,
  compound........1238
Syrup of rhubarb  and
  potassa, compound. 1234
Syrup of sarsaparilla,
  compound........1236
Syrup of seneka.....1237
Syrup of  spikenard,
  compound........1228
Syrup of squill......1237
Syrup of tolu........1239
Syrup of turkey-corn,
  compound........1230
Syrup of wild cherry
  bark..............1234
Syrup of  yellow dock,
  compound........1235
Syrup, scrofulous___1235
Syrup, simple.......1227
Syrup, sunflower. .*.. 526
Syrupi.............1225
Syrups.............1225
Syrupus---........1227
Svrupus acidi citrici. 1227
Syrupus alln.......1228
Syrupus araliae com-
  positus ...........1228
Syrupus assafcetidae. .122!)
Syrupus cinnamomi.. 1229
Syrupus  cochleariae
  compositus........1230
Syrupus  corydallis
  compositus.......1230
Syrupus ipecacuanhael231
Syrupus lobeliae.....1232
Syrupus  mitchellae
  compositus........1233
Syrupus  phytolaccae
  compositus........1234
Syrupus pruni Virgin-
  ianae.............1234
Syrupus rhei et potas-
  sae compositus.....1234
Syrupus rumecis com-
  positus ...........1235
Syrupus sanguinariae 1236
Syrupus sarsaparillae
  compositus.......1236
Syrupus scillae......1237
Syrupus senegae.....1237
Syrupus simplex.....1227
Syrupus stillingiae... 1238
Syrupus  stillingiae
  compositus........1238
Syrupus tolutanus...1239
Syrupus zingiberis.. .1239

           T
Tabacum........... 659
Table of doses for dif-
  ferent ages........1315
Table of drops......985
Table of drops  of oil
  in a fluidrachm... .1147
Table of mineral wa-
  ters...............1319
Table of pharmaceuti-
  cal equivalents... .1343
Table  of  signs and
  abbreviations......1298
Table of specific grav-
  ities..............1326
Table of specific grav-
  ity of volatile oils. 672
Table of weights and
  measures.........1316
Tacamahac.......... 761
Tacamahac poplar... 761
Tag alder........... 195
Tall ambrosia.......206
Tall cone flower..... 821
Tall speedwell......593
Tallow............. 872
Tamarac............ 588
Tamarind...........923
Tamarindus  Indica.. 923
Tamarix Gallica.....694
Tanacetum crispum.. 924
Tanacetum vulgare.. 924
Tannate of iroa.....1107
 Tannate of quinia.. .1206
 Tannic acid......... 172
 Tannin............. 172
 Tannin, artificial..., 796
 Tansy.............. 924
 Tansy, double....... 924
 Tapioca.........,... 570
 Tar................. 740
 Tar, Barbadoes...... 721
 Tar, mineral........ 720
 Tar, oil of.......... 740
 Tar plaster,compouudl035
 Tar water...........1024
 Taraxacin...........926
 Taraxacum dens-leo-
  nis............... 925
 Tartar, cream  of.....765
 Tartar, crystals of... 765
 Tartar, salt of.......1186
 Tartar, soluble......1191
 Tartarean moss...... 813
 Tartaric acid........ 174
 Tartaric acid,  troches
  of................1275
 Tartarized  kali......1191
 Tartarized soda......1217
 Tartrate of  iron  and
  morphia..........1089
 Tartrate of  iron  and
  quinia............1090
 Tartrate of  iron  and
  salicin............1090
 Tartrate of morphia.. 1139
 Tartrate of potassa.. .1191
 Tartrate of   potassa
  and  soda..........1217
 Tartrate of quinia and
  morphia..........1212
 Tartrate of quinia and
  salicin............1213
 Tartrate of strychnia. 1223
 Tea................ 927
 Teaberry........... 486
 Tea, black.......... 928
 Tea, green.......... 928
 Tea, Labrador....... 591
 Tea, marsh.........591
 Tea, mountain....... 486
 Tea, New Jersey..... 315
 Tea, South Sea...... 557
 Tela araneae......... 927
 Temperature,  effects
  of................1339
 Terchloride of formyle 335
 Terebinthina  Cana-
  QGDSIS             142
 Terebinthina, Chia.'.'. 732
 Terebinthina,   Ven-
  eta............146, 732
Terebinthinae oleum.  684
Ternitrate of iron, so-
  lution  of..........1119
Ternstromiaceae...... 31
Teroxide of iron.....467
Terra Japonica...... 149
Testa praeparata.....410
Tetterwort.......... 329
Thea Bohea.........928 
Index.
1387
 Thea Chinensis...... 927
 Thea viridis......... 928
 Thebain............ 713
 Thermometers,   com-
   parative value of the
   degrees of........1314
 Thifhbleweed........ 821
 Thiosinnamin....... 876
 Thistle, blessed...... 317
 Thistle, Canada.....365
 Thistle, cursed...... 365
 Thistle, holy........ 317
 Thorn apple.........429
 Thoroughwort...... 456
 Thridace............ 587
 Throat root......... 499
 Thuja occidentalis... 929
 Thus............... 145
 Thyme.............  930
 Thyme, mother  of... 930
 Thyme, narrow   leaf
   Virginia..........  785
 Thyme, wild........930
 Thymelaceae......... 104
 Thymus serpyllus...  9r30
 Thymus vulgaris___930
 Tickweed........... 522
 Tiglii oleum.........  688
 Tinctura aconiti folio-
   rum..............1244
 Tinctura  aconiti  ra-
  dicis............  1244
 Tinctura aloes.......1244
 Tinctura  aloes   et
  myrrhae...........1244
 Tinctura  araliae  spi-
  nosae.............1245
 Tinctura arnicae.....1245
 Tinctura assafoetidae. .1245
 Tinctura  assafoetidae
  composita........1245
 Tinctura belladonnae. 1246
Tinctura   benzoini
  composita........1246
 Tinctura camphorae.-.1246
 Tinctura   camphorae
  composita........1247
 Tinctura cannabis In-
  dicae.............1247
 Tinctura cantharidis. 1247
 Tinctura capsici.....1247
 Tinctura cardamomi. 1248
 Tinctura  cardamomi
  composita........1248
 Tinctura castorei.....1248
 Tinctura castorei am-
  moniata...........1249
 Tinctura catechu.....1249
 Tinctura  caulophylli
  composita........1249
 Tinctura cimicifugae. 1242
Tinctura  cimicifugae
  composita........1249
 Tinctura cinchonae.. .1250
Tinctura   cinchonae
  composita........1250
Tinctura cinchonae fer-
  rata..............1250 |
 Tinctura cinnamomi. 1251
 Tinctura  cinnamomi
   composita.........1251
 Tinctura cocci cacti. .1252
 Tinctura colchici com-
   posita ............1252
 Tinctura colchici  se-
   minis.............1252
 Tinctura colombae.. .1252
 Tinctura corydalis.. .1253
 Tinctura digitalis.. ..1253
 Tinctura ergotae.....1253
 Tinctura ferri acetatisl253
 Tinctura ferri chloridil254
 Tinctura gelsemini.. .1255
 Tinctura  gentianae
   composita........1256
 Tinctura guaiaci.....1256
 Tinctura guaiaci alka-
   lina..............1257
 Tinctura guaiaci aro-
   matica............1257
 Tinctura hydrastis... 1257
 Tinctura  hydrastis
   composita........1257
 Tinctura hyoscyami.. 1258
 Tinctura hyperici... .1258
 Tinctura iodini......1258
 Tinctura iodini com-
   posita ............1259
 Tinctura iridis......1259
 Tinctura kalmiae.....1259
 Tinctura  kino.......1260
 Tinctura krameriae.. .1260
 Tinctura   lavandulae
   composita........1261
 Tinctura  laricis com-
   posita ............1260
 Tinctura leptandrae. .1261
 Tinctura lobeliae.....1262
 Tinctura lobeliae com-
   posita ............1262
 Tinctura  lobeliae  et
   capsici  composita. .1263
 Tinctura lupulini___1263
 Tinctura menthae viri-
   dis...............1264
 Tinctura myrrhae... .1264
 Tinctura myrrhae com-
   posita.............1264
 Tinctura  nucis vomi-
   cae................1264
 Tinctura olei anisi.. .1265
 Tinctura olei carui...1265
 Tinctura  olei  cinna-
  momi.............1265
 Tinctura olei menthae
  piperitae..........1265
 Tinctura olei menthae
  viridis............1266
 Tinctura  olei   sassa-
  fras...............1266
 Tinctura opii........1266
Tinctura opii aceta'a.1266
Tinctura  opii   catu-
  phorata...........1267
Tinctura  pinus pen-
  dulae composita... .1260
 Tinctura podophylli. 1268
 Tinctura polygoni.. .1268
 Tinctura quiniae com-
   posita ............1268
 Tinctura rhei........1269
 Tinctura rhei compos-
   ita ...............1269
 Tinctura sanguinariae 1269
 Tinctura sanguinariae
   acetata composita. .1270
 Tinctura sanguinariae
   composita.........1270
 Tinctura sennae  com-
   posita............1270
 Tinctura serpentariae
   composita.........1271
 Tinctura stillingiae.. .1271
 Tinctura stramonii.. .1272
 Tinctura strychnia?
   composita..........1272
 Tinctura symplocarpi 1272
 Tinctura tolutana... .1272
 Tinctura toxicodendri 1273
 Tinctura Valerianae
   ammoniata........1273
 Tinctura viburni com-
   posita ............1273
 Tinctura xanthoxyli. .1274
 Tinctura zingiberis. .1274
 Tincturae...........1240
 Tincture, acetous eme-
  tic................1270
 Tincture, antispasmo-
   dic...............1263
 Tincture, emetic.....1270
 Tincture, golden.....1295
 Tincture, hydragogue 1296
 Tincture, King's  ex-
  pectorant  .........1262
 Tincture of  acetate  of
  iron..............1253
 Tincture  of  aconite
  leaves............1244
 Tincture  of  aconite
  root..............1244
 Tincture of  aloes___1244
 Tincture of  aloes and
  myrrh............1244
 Tincture of assafetida 1245
 Tincture of assafetida,
  compound........1245
 Tincture of belladonnal246
 Tincture of  benzoin,
  compound........1246
 Tincture of  black co-
  hosh .............1242
 Tincture of  black co-
  hash, compound.. .1249
 Tincture of black root 1261
Tincture of bloodroot. 1269
Tincture of bloodroot,
  compound........1270
Tincture of bloodroot,
  compound acetated. 1270
Tincture of  blue co-
  hosh, compound.. .1249
Tincture of blue-flag. 1259
Tincture of  camphor. 1246 
1388
Index.
Tincture of camphor,
  compound....... .1247
Tincture of cardamoml248
Tincture of cardamom,
  compound........1248
Tincture of castor... .1248
Tincture  of castor,
  ammoniated.......1249
Tincture of catechu. .1249
Tincture  of  cayenne
  pepper ...........1247
Tincture of chloride of
  iron..............1254
Tincture of cinnamon. 1251
Tincture of cinnamon,
  compound........1251
Tincture of cochineal 1252
Tincture of colchicum,
  compound........1252
Tincture of colchicum
  seed..............1252
Tincture of Colombo.. 1252
Tincture of ergot... .1253
Tincture of foxglove. 1253
Tincture of  gentian,
  compound........1256
Tincture of ginger.. .1274
Tincture  of golden
  seal..............1257
Tincture  of golden
  seal, compound... .1257
Tincture of guaiacum 1256
Tincture of guaiacum,
  aromatic..........1257
Tincture of guaiacum,
  Dewees'.......... 1257
Tincture of henbane.. 1258
Tincture of high cran-
  berry bark,  com-
  pound ............1273
Tincture  of India
  hemp.............1247
Tincture of  iodine.. .1258
Tincture  of  iodine,
  compound........1259
Tincture of kino.....1260
Tincture of leopard's
  bane.............1245
Tincture of  lobelia.. .1262
Tincture of lobelia and
  capsicum,  com-
  pound ............1263
Tincture  of lobelia,
  compond..........1262
Tincture of  lupulin. .1263
Tincture of mandrake 1268
Tincture of muriate of
  iron..............1254
Tincture of myrrh.. .1264
Tincture  of  myrrh,
  compound........1264
Tincture of nux vomi-
  ca................1264
Tincture of oil of anisel265
Tincture of oil of cara-
  way ..............1265
Tincture of oil of  cin-
  namon............1265
Tincture of oil of pep-
  permint...........1265
Tincture of oil of sas-
  safras ............1266
Tincture  of  oil  of
  spearmint.........1266
Tincture of opium... 1266
Tincture  of  opium,
  acetated..........1266
Tincture  of   opium,
  camphorated......1267
Tincture of Peruvian
  bark..............1250
Tincture of Peruvian
  bark,  compound..  .1250
Tincture of Peruvian
  bark, ferrated......1250
Tincture  of  poison-
  oak..............1273
Tincture of  prickly-
  ash...............1274
Tincture of prickly el-
  der...............1245
Tincture of  queen's
  root..............1271
Tincture  of  quinia,
  compound........1268
Tincture of rhatany.  .1260
Tincture of rhubarb.  .1269
Tincture of rhubarb,
  compound........  .1269
Tincture  of  senna,
  compound........1270
Tincture of sheep lau-
  rel ...............1259
Tincture of skunk cab-
  bage..............1272
Tincture of soap.....851
Tincture of  Spanish
  flies..............1247
Tincture of spearmint 1264
Tincture of stramoni-
  um...............1272
Tincture of St. John's
  wort..............1258
Tincture of strychnia,
  compound........1272
Tincture of tamarac,
  compound........1260
Tincture of tolu.....1272
Tincture  of  turkey-
  corn..............1253
Tincture of valeriau,
  ammoniated.......1273
Tincture of Virginia
  snake-root,  com-
  pound ............1271
Tincture of water pep-
  per.............1268
Tincture of yellow jes-
  samine ...........1255
Tinctures...........1240
Tinder............. 183
Tobacco............ 659
Tobacco, Indian..... 606
Tobacco ointment.. „ .1288
Tobacco, wild....... 606
Tolene.............. 653
Tolu, balsam of...... 652
Tomato............. 896
Toothache bush.....970
Toothache  tree...... 238
Tormentil........... 771
Tormentilla erecta... 771
Tormentilla officinalis 771
Touch-me-not....... 557
Touchwood......... 183
Tons les mois.......289
Tragacanth......... 261
Tragacanthin.......262
Trailing arbutus .... 447
Transparent soap.... 851
Tree, primrose......666
Trifolium pratense... 930
Trilliaceae.......... 130
Trillium erectum.... 932
Trillium   erythrocar-
  pum.............. 932
Trillium grandiflorum 932
Trillium nivale...... 932
Trillium pendulum.. 932
Trillium sessile...... 932
Triosteum angustifoli-
  um............... 934
Triosteum perfoliatum 933
Tripoli senna........310
Triticum hybernum.. 934
Troches............1274
Troches of bicarbonate
  of soda...........1278
Troches  of capsicum. 1276
Troches  of capsicum
  and lobelia....... 1276
Troches of citric acid. 1275
Troches of croton oil. 1276
Troches of dioscorein. 1276
Troches of giuger___1279
Troches of ipecacuan-
  ha................1277
Troches  of liquorice
  and  opium........1276
Troches  of liquorice,
  compound......... 1277
Troches of magnesia. 1277
Troches of peppermintl277
Troches  of podophyl-
  lin...............1278
Troches  of  queen's
  root, compound___1278
Troches  of  rhubarb
  and  potassa........1278
Troches  of  tartaric
  acid..............1275
Trochisci...........1274
Trochisci acidi citrici 1275
Trochisci acidi tarta-
  rici...............1275
Trochisci capsici___1276
Trochisci  capsici et
  lobeliae...........1276
Trochisci crotonis___1276
Trochisci dioscoreini.1276
Trochisci glycyrrhizae
  composita.....*,.. 1277
Trochisci glycyrrhiza
  etopii............1276 
Index.
1389
 Trochisci  ipecacuan-
   has...............1277
 Trochisci magnesiae. .1277
 Trochisci menthae pi-
   peritae............1277
 Trochisci podophylli-
   ni.................1278
 Trochisci rhei et  po-
   tassae.............1278
 Trochisci sodae bicar-
   bonatis...........1278
 Trochisci   stillingiae
   composita.........1278
 Trochisci zingiberis. .1279
 Trumpet weed.......457
 Tuber root..........257
 Tulip tree..........  604
 Turkey corn.........  405
 Turkey pea, wild....  405
 Turlington's balsam. .1246
 Turmeric...........  421
 Turmeric  root.......544
 Turner's cerate......1028
 Turnip, Indian......252
 Turpentine, Bordeaux 732
 Turpentine, Canada..  142
 Turpentine, Chian... 732
 Turpentine, European  684
 Turpentine, oil of....  684
 Turpentine, spirit  of. 684
 Turpentine,  Stras-
  burgh............. 147
 Turpentine,Venice 146,732
 Turpentine, white... 732
 Turtle-bloom........331
 Turtle-head......... 331
 Tussilago farfara---938
 Twin leaf........... 571
 Typha latifolia......  938
 Typhaceae..........120

           U
TJlmaceae...........   105
Ulmus fulva......... 939
Umbel..............424
Umbelliferae........  51
Umbrella tree........  618
Uncaria gambir......  150
Uncrystallizable sugar 829
Unguenta...........1279
Unguentum acidi mu-
  riatic!............1280
Unguentum acidi  ni-
   tnci..............1280
Unguentum acidi sul-
  phurici...........1280
Unguentum acidi tan-
  nic!..............1280
Unguentum aconiti.. .1280
Unguentum  alkalin-
  um..............--1280
Unguentum   alkalin-
  um camphoratum. .1280
Unguentum ammoni-
  acale.............1281
Unguentum   aquae
  rosae .../.....••* .1281
Unguentum baptisiae.. 1281
 Unguentum belladon-
   Ji3e...............1281
 Unguentum benzoini. 1282
 Unguentum canthari-
   dis...............1282
 Unguentum cerae albael282
 Unguentum cetacei.. 1282
 Unguentum cocculi. .1282
 Unguentum conii... .1282
 Unguentum creasoti.. 1283
 Unguentum cucumis. 1283
 Unguentum fuliginis. 1283
 Unguentum gallae...... 1284
 Unguentum   iodini
   compositum.......1284
 Unguentum  ipecacu-
   anhas.............1284
 Unguentum mezerei.. 1284
 Unguentum myricae. .1284
 Unguentum   myricae
   compositum.......1285
 Unguentum phytolac-
   cae................1285
 Unguentum picis li-
   quid33............1285
 Unguentum   piperis
   nigri.............1285
 Unguentum  plumbi
   compositum.......1285
 Unguentum  potassii
   cyanureti.........1286
 Unguentum  potassii
   sulphureti.........1286
 Unguentum resinae al-
   bae.........._.....1028
 Unguentum sabinae . .1286
 Unguentum scrophu-
   lariae.............1286
 Unguentum simplex.. 1286
 Unguentum stramonii 1287
 Unguentum stramonii
   compositum.......1287
 Unguentum sulphuris 1287
 Unguentum sulphuris
   compositum.......1288
 Unguentum tabaci.. .1288
 Unguentum veratri al-
  bi................1288
Unguentum veratriae.1288
Unguentum zinci ox-
  idi...............1288
Unguentum zinci ox-
  idi compositum___1289
Unguentum zinci sul-
  phatis............1289
Unkum............. 869
Unicorn root........ 191
Unicorn root, false... 529
Upland cranberry.... 240
Uraspermum Claytoni 697
Ursin..............241
Urtica dioica........940
Urtica pumila....... 942
Urtica urens........ 941
Urticaceae........... 112
Uva passa........... 967
Uva ursi............240
Uvaria triloba.......942
 Uvularia perfoliate... 943

            V
 Vaccinium arboreum. 944
 Vaccinium  corymbo-
   sum.............. 944
 Vaccinium dumosum. 944
 Vaccinium frondosum 944
 Vaccinium  Pennsyl-
   vanicum.......... 944
 Vaccinium  resinosum 944
 Vaccinium vitis Idaea 944
 Valerian............ 945
 Valerian, American.. 424
 Valerian,  American
   Greek............. 754
 Valerian, false....... 868
 Valerian, Greek...... 755
 Valerian, oil of......1165
 Valerian officinalis... 945
 Valerianate of iron... 1107
 Valerianaceae.......  63
 Valerianate of quinia 1213
 Valerianate of  soda. .1220
 Valerianic acid...... 946
 Vallet's   ferruginous
   pills..............1172
 Vanilla............. 947
 Vanilla aromatica.... 947
 Vanilla grass........931
 Vanillaceae......... 122
 Vapor bath..........236
 Vapor bath, spirit.... 903
 Variolaria dealbata.. 813
 Various-leaved  flea-
   bane ............. 451
 Vegetable albumen... 935
 Vegetable caustic.... 1188
 Vegetable charcoal... 301
 Vegetable fibrin.....935
 Vegetable juices, pre-
   served............1241
 Veiny-leaved   hawk-
   weed.............  534
 Velvet leaf..........  365
 Velvet sumach.......  808
 Venice turpentine 146, 732
 Vera Cruz sarsaparilla 881
 Veratria............1289
 Veratric acid........  950
 Veratrin............1290
 Veratrum album.....948
Veratrum angustifoli-
  um...............  952
Veratrum luteum.....  529
Veratrum officinale..  949
Veratrum   parviflo-
  rum..............  952
Veratrum  sabadilla..  949
Veratrum viride......951
Verbascum thapsus..  954
Verbena hastata.....  955
Verbena officinalis...  955
Verbena spuria.....*  955
Verbena urticifolia...  955
Verbenaceae.........  84
Verdigris...........  418
Verdigris liniment.. .1113 
1390
Index.
Vermifuge,   Fahne-
  stock's ...........1131
Vermifuge  oil.......1131
Vernonia fasciculata. 956
Vernonia  novebora-
  censis............ 956
Vernonia praelta..... 956
Vernonia tomentosa.. 956
Veronica agrestis___957
Veronica anagallis... 957
Veronica beccabunga. 957
Veronica officinalis.. 956
Veronica peregrina.. 957
Veronica scutellata... 957
Veronica Virginica... 593
Vervain............ 955
Vervain,  nettle-leav-
  ed................955
Viburine........... 958
Viburnum  dentatum. 958
Viburnum opulus.... 957
Viburnum oxycoccus. 957
Viburnum  prunifoli-
  um............... 959
Viburnum roseum,... 957
Vienna  caustic    or
  paste............. 285
Vina medicata.......1293
Vine, maple......... 630
Vinegar............ 151
Vinegar, British..... 151
Vinegar, distilled 151,1005
Vinegar, French..... 151
Vinegar of bloodroot 1006
Vinegar of lobelia... .1006
Vinegar of squill... .1006
Vinegar, wine....... 151
Vinegars...........1004
Vinum.............. 963
Vinum cinchonae com-
  positum...........1294
Vinum colchici radi-
  cis...............1294
Vinum colchici semi-
  nis...............1294
Vinum ergotae.......1294
Vinum  haematoxyli
  compositum.......1295
Vinum hydrastis com-
  positum...........1295
Vinum ipecacuanhae. 1295
Vinum  phytolaccae
  compositum....... 1295
Vinum sambuci......1296
Vinum symphyti com-
  positum...........1296
Viola odorata........ 960
Viola ovata......... 961
Viola  pedata........ 960
Viola tricolor....... 961
Violacea?............   23
Violet, bloom........ 960
Violet blue..........  960
Violet, dog's tooth... 453
Violet, rattlesnake 453,961
Violet, sweet........960
Violia.............. 961
Virginia snake-root... 224
Virginia thyme,  nar-
  row leaf........... 785
Virginian creeper. ... 212
Virginian lungwort. . 781
Virginian mouse  ear. 424
Virgin's bower...... 370
Viscum album....... 961
Viscum flavescens... 961
Viscum verticiUatum 961
Vitaceae.............   33
Vitellus ovi......... 700
Vitis vinifera....... 962
Vitriol, blue......... 419
Vitriol, elixir  of..... 170
Vitriol, green........1103
Vitriol, oil of........ 171
Vitriol, white........ 975
Vitriolated soda..... 892
Vitriolated tartar___1190
Vocabulary  of Latin
  terms used in medi-
  cine  .............1298
Volatile alkali, mild. 1015
Volatile liniment... .1113
Volatile oils___669, 1139
Volatile oil of   mus-
  tard ..............  876
Volcanic sulphur....  918
Vulcanized  caout-
   chouc ............296

           W
Wafer ash...........  776
Wahoo.............  454
Wake robin......252,  932
Walnut, black.......  573
Walnut, European...  573
Walnut lotion.......1126
Walnut, white.......572
Warm bath..........  232
Wash, alkaline......1124
Wash, cooling.......1125
Wash, herpetic......1126
Wash,  saline........1127
Washed sulphur.....917
Washes.............1124
Water..............  229
Water, artificial  Selt-
   zer...............1020
Water avens.........  499
Water beggar's tick..  280
Water, bitter almond. 1021
Water, camphor.....1023
Water,carbonic acid.. 1020
Water, cinnamon ... .1023
Water, distilled.229, 1023
Water  dock.........  823
Water  dropwort.....  665
Water, elder  flower. .1025
Water, eryngo.......  452
Water fennel___665, 1025
Water, hard.........  229
Water  hemlock......390
Water  hemlock, fine
   leaved............  665
Water  horehound.... 609
Water, lake.........230
Water, lime.........1022
Water, marsh........231
Watermelon.........  415
Water, mineral.-229, 1020
Water of ammonia.. .1016
Water, orange-flower. 1025
Water, pennyroyal.. .1024
Water pepper.......  758
Water, peppermint.. .1024
Water, pimento......1024
Water plantain.. .192, 741
Water, rain.........  229
Water, river.........230
Water, rose.........1025
Water, sea..........  236
Water  shamrock.....  633
Water, snow........229
Water, soda.........1020
Water, soft..........  229
Water,  spearmint... .1024
Water, spring....... 230
Water, tar...........1024
Water, well......... 230
Waters, chalybeate... 236
Waters,  medicated.. .1020
Waters, mineral, com-
   position of........1319
Waters,  sulphurous.. 236
Wax, bayberry...... 645
Waxberry........... 644
Wax, myrtle........ 64J
Wax, white......... 323
Wax-work.......... 317
Wax, yellow........ 323
Web, spiders........ 927
Weeping willow..... 837
Weights and measures 985
Weights and measures,
   tables of..........1316
Well water..........230
Wet sheet packing... 233
Wheat.............. 934
White agaric........ 183
White ash.......... 475
White avens........499
White balsam....... 509
White bay.......... 617
White cohosh....... 179
White clover........ 931
White-flowered ladies'
   slipper........... 425
White hellebore.....948
White Indian hemp.. 255
White jessamine.....490
White leaf.......... 902
White lettuce........ 654
White lily.......... 600
White liniment......1117
White liquid physic.. 167
White marble........ 623
White melilot clover. 931
White mustard...... 875
White oak.......... 789
White  plantain...... 223
White  poison-vine... 490
 White pond-lily..... 663
White poplar.....604,762
White rosin......... 795
 White snakeroot.....455 
\ 
 

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NLM011931573