Chapter XXVII: Part 27

=Chemical Composition=—A concentrated infusion of the leaves has a slightly acrid taste. It is abundantly precipitated by tannic acid, by neutral acetate of lead or caustic potash, and is turned greenish-black by perchloride of iron. Broughton of Ootacamund (India) has informed us (1872) that from a large quantity of the leaves he obtained a small amount of crystals,—insufficient for analysis. Dissolved and injected into a small dog, they occasioned purging and vomiting.

[1584] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_, part 29 (1878).

[1585] _Flora Indica_, ed. Carey, ii. (1832) 33.

[1586] Fleming, _Catalogue of Indian Plants and Drugs_, Calcutta, 1810. 8.

[1587] _Bengal Dispensatory_ (1842) 455.

[1588] _Catalogue of Madras Exhibition of 1855_,—list of Mysore drugs; also _Pharm. of India_, 458.

[1589] Drawn up from an ample specimen kindly presented to us, together with one of the root, by Mr. Moodeen Sheriff of Madras.

[1590] A figure of the leaves may be found in a paper on _Unto-mool_ by M. C. Cooke, _Pharm. Journ._ Aug. 6, 1870. 105; and one of the whole plant in Wight’s _Icones Plantarum Indiæ Orientalis_, iv. (1850) tab. 1277.

=Uses=—Employed in India, as already mentioned, as a substitute for ipecacuanha, chiefly in the treatment of dysentery. The dose of the powdered leaves as an _emetic_ is 25 to 30 grains, as a diaphoretic and expectorant 3 to 5 grains.

_Radix Tylophoræ_—This root is met with in the Indian bazaars, and has been employed, as before stated, as much or more than the leaf. It consists of a short, knotty, descending rootstock, about ⅛ of an inch in thickness, emitting 2 to 3 aerial stems, and a considerable number of wiry roots. These roots are often 6 inches or more in length by ½ a line in diameter, and are very brittle. The whole drug is of a pale yellowish-brown; it has no considerable odour, but a sweetish and subsequently acrid taste. In general appearance it is suggestive of valerian, but is somewhat stouter and larger.

Examined microscopically, the parenchymatous envelope of the rootlets is seen to consist of two layers, the inner forming a small nucleus sheath. The outer portion is built up of large cells, loaded with starch granules and tufted crystals of oxalate of calcium. Salts of iron do not alter the tissue.

LOGANIACEÆ.

=NUX VOMICA.=

_Semen Nucis Vomicæ_; _Nux Vomica_; F. _Noix vomique_; G. _Brechnuss_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Strychnos Nux vomica_ L., a moderate sized tree with short, thick, often crooked stem, and small, greenish-white, tubular flowers ranged in terminal corymbs. It is indigenous to most parts of India, especially the coast districts, and is found in Burmah, Siam, Cochin China and Northern Australia.

The ovary of _S. Nux vomica_ is bilocular, but as it advances in growth the dissepiment becomes fleshy and disappears. The fruit, which is an indehiscent berry of the size and shape of a small orange, is filled with a bitter, gelatinous white pulp, in which the seeds, 1 to 5 in number, are placed vertically in an irregular manner. The epicarp forms a thin, smooth, somewhat hard shell, which at first is greenish, but when mature, of a rich orange-yellow. The pulp of the fruit contains strychnine,[1591] yet it is said to be eaten in India by birds.[1592] The wood, which is hard and durable, is very bitter.

[1591] Roxburgh’s assertion that the pulp “_seems perfectly innocent_,” induced us to examine it chemically, which we were enabled to do through the kindness of Dr. Thwaites, of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Ceylon. The _inspissated pulp_ received from Dr. T., diluted with water, formed a very consistent jelly having a slightly acid reaction and very bitter taste. Some of it was mixed with slaked lime, dried, and then exhausted by boiling chloroform. The liquid left on evaporation a yellowish resinoid mass, which was warmed with acetic acid. The colourless solution yielded a perfectly white, crystalline residue, which was dissolved in water, and precipitated with bichromate of potassium. The crystallized precipitate dried, and moistened with strong sulphuric acid, exhibited the violet hue characteristic of strychnine.

To confirm this experiment, we obtained through the obliging assistance of Dr. Bidie of Madras, some of the white pulp taken with a spoon from the interior of the ripe fruit, and at once immersed _per se_ in spirit of wine. The alcoholic fluid gave abundant evidence of the presence of strychnine.

[1592] According to Cleghorn by the hornbill (_Buceros malabaricus_); according to Roxburgh by “many sorts of bird.” Beddome (_Flora Sylvatica_, Madras, 1872. 243) says the pulp is quite harmless, and the favourite food of many birds.

In Garnier, _Exploration en Indo-China_ ii. (Paris, 1873) 488, allusion is made to a tree similar to that under notice having fruits which are devoid of poison _before maturity_.

=History=—Nux Vomica, which was unknown to the ancients, is thought to have been introduced into medicine by the Arabians. But the notices in their writings which have been supposed to refer to it, are far from clear and satisfactory. We have no evidence moreover that it was used in India at an early period. Garcia de Orta, an observer thoroughly acquainted with the drugs of the west coast of India in the middle of the 16th century, is entirely silent as to nux vomica. Fleming,[1593] writing at the beginning of the present century, remarks that nux vomica is seldom, if ever, employed in medicine by the Hindus, but this statement does not hold good now.

The drug was however certainly made known in Germany in the 16th century. Valerius Cordus[1594] wrote a description of it about the year 1540, which is remarkable for its accuracy. Fuchs, Bauhin and others noticed it as _Nux Metella_, a name taken from the _Methel_ of Avicenna and other Arabian authors.[1595]

It was found in the English shops in the time of Parkinson (1640), who remarks that its chief use is for poisoning dogs, cats, crows, and ravens, and that it is rarely given as a medicine.

=Description=—Nux Vomica is the _seed_, removed from the pulp and shell. It is disc-like, or rather irregularly orbicular, a little less than an inch in diameter, by about a quarter of an inch in thickness, slightly concave on the dorsal, convex on the ventral surface, or nearly flat on either side, often furnished with a broad, thickened margin so that the central portion of the seed appears depressed. The outside edge is rounded or tapers into a keel-like ridge. Each seed has on its edge a small protuberance, from which is a faintly projecting line (raphe) passing to a central scar, which is the hilum or umbilicus; a slight depression marks the opposite side of the seed. The seeds are of a light greyish hue, occasionally greenish, and have a satiny or glistening aspect, by reason of their being thickly covered with adpressed, radiating hairs. Nux vomica is extremely compact and horny, and has a very bitter taste.

After having been softened by digestion in water, the seed is easily cut along its outer edge, then displaying a mass of translucent, cartilaginous albumen, divided into two parts by a fissure in which lies the embryo. This latter is about ³/₁₀ of an inch long, having a pair of delicate 5-to 7-nerved, heart-shaped cotyledons, with a club-shaped radicle, the position of which is indicated on the exterior of the seed by the small protuberance already named.

[1593] _Catalogue of Indian Med. Plants and Drugs_, Calcutta, 1810. 37.

[1594] _Hist. Stirpium_, edited by C. Gesner, Argentorat. 1561. lib. iv. c. 21.

[1595] Clusius and others held the opinion that the _Nux methel_ of the Arabs was the fruit of a _Datura_, and an Indian species was accordingly named by Linnæus _D. Metel_.

=Microscopic Structure=—The hairs of nux vomica are of remarkable structure. They are formed as usual of the elongated cells of the epidermis, and have their walls thickened by secondary deposits, which are interrupted by longitudinally extended pores; they are a striking object in polarized light. The albumen is made up of large cells, loaded with albuminoid matters and oily drops, but devoid of starch. In water the thick walls of this parenchyme swell up and yield some mucilage; the cotyledons are built up of a narrow, much more delicate tissue, traversed by small fibro-vascular bundles.

The alkaloids are not directly recognizable by the microscope; but if very thin slices of nux vomica are kept for some length of time in glycerin, they develop feathery crystals, doubtless consisting of these bases.

=Chemical Composition=—The bitter taste and highly poisonous action of nux vomica are chiefly due to the presence of _Strychnine_ and _Brucine_. Strychnine, C₂₁H₂₂N₂O₂, was first met with in 1818 by Pelletier and Caventou in St. Ignatius’ Beans, and immediately afterwards in nux vomica. It crystallizes from an alcoholic solution in large anhydrous prisms of the orthorhombic system. It requires for solution about 6700 parts of cold or 2500 of boiling water; the solution is of decidedly alkaline reaction, and an intensely bitter taste which may be distinctly perceived though it contain no more than ¹/₆₀₀₀₀₀ of the alkaloid. The best solvents for strychnine are spirit of wine or chloroform; it is but very sparingly soluble in absolute alcohol, benzol, amylic alcohol, or ether. The alcoholic solution deviates the ray of polarized light to the left.

Strychnine is not restricted to the fruit of the plant under notice, but also occurs in the wood and bark.[1596] It is moreover found in the wood of the root of _Strychnos colubrina_ L., and in the bark of the root of _Strychnos Tieute_ Lesch., both species indigenous to the Indian Archipelago.

The discovery of _Brucine_ was made in 1819 by the same chemists, in nux vomica bark, then supposed to be derived from _Brucea ferruginea_ Héritier (_B. antidysenterica_ Miller), an Abyssinian shrub of the order Simarubeæ. The presence of brucine in nux vomica and St. Ignatius’ Bean was pointed out by them in 1824. Brucine, dried over sulphuric acid, has the formula C₂₃H₂₆N₂O₄, but it crystallizes from its alcoholic solution with 4 OH₂. In bitterness and poisonous properties, as well as in rotatory power, it closely resembles strychnine, differing however in the following particulars:—it is soluble in about 150 parts of boiling water, melts without alteration a little above 130° C. In common with its salts, it acquires a dark red colour when moistened with concentrated nitric acid.

The proportion of strychnine in nux vomica appears to vary from ¼ to ½ per cent. That of brucine is variously stated to be 0·12 (Merck), 0·5 (Wittstein), 1·01 (Mayer) per cent.

A third crystallizable base, called _Igasurine_, was stated in 1853 by Desnoix to occur in the liquors from which strychnine and brucine had been precipitated by lime. Schützenberger’s investigations (1858) are far from proving the existence of “igasurine.”[1597]

[1596] It is remarkable that parasitic plants of the order _Loranthaceæ_ growing on _Strychnos Nux vomica_ acquire the poisonous properties of the latter.—_Pharm. of India_, 1868. 108.

[1597] For further information on igasurine, consult Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xvii. (1866) 589; Watts, _Dictionary of Chemistry_, iii. (1865) 243; _Pharm. Journ._ xviii. (1859) 432.

In nux vomica, as well as in St. Ignatius’ Beans, the alkaloids, according to their discoverers, are combined with _Strychnic_ or _Igasuric Acid_; Ludwig (1873), who prepared this body from the latter drug, describes it as a yellowish-brown amorphous mass, having a strongly acid reaction and a sour astringent taste, and striking a dark green with ferric salts. We have ascertained the correctness of Ludwig’s observations.

Nux vomica dried at 100° C. yielded us when burnt with soda-lime 1·822 per cent. of nitrogen, indicating about 11·3 per cent. of protein substances. By boiling ether, we removed from the seeds 4·14 per cent. of fat; Meyer[1598] found it to yield butyric, capronic, caprylic, caprinic and other acids of the series of the common fatty acids, and also one acid richer in carbon than stearic acid. Nux vomica also contains mucilage and sugar. The latter, which according to Rebling (1855) exists to the extent of 6 per cent., reduces cupric oxide without the aid of heat. When macerated in water, the seeds easily undergo lactic fermentation, not however attended with decomposition of the alkaloids. The stability of strychnine is remarkable, even after ten years of contact with putrescent animal substances.

=Commerce=—Large quantities of nux vomica are brought into the London market from British India.[1599] The export from Bombay in the year 1871-72 was 3341 cwt., all shipped to the United Kingdom.[1600] Madras in 1869-70 exported 4805 cwt.; and Calcutta in 1865-66, 2801 cwt. The quantity imported into the United Kingdom in 1870[1601] was 5534 cwt.

Nux vomica is stated by Garnier (_l.c._ page 429, note) to be largely exported from Cambodja to China.

=Uses=—Tincture and extract of nux vomica, and the alkaloid strychnine, are frequently administered as tonic remedies in a variety of disorders.

SEMEN IGNATII.

_Faba Sancti Ignatii_; _St. Ignatius’ Beans_; F. _Fèves de Saint Ignace_, _Noix Igasur_; G. _Ignatiusbohnen_.[1602]

[1598] _Jahresbericht der Chemie_, 1875. 856.

[1599] We have seen 1136 packages offered in a single drug sale (30 March 1871).

[1600] _Statement of the Trade and Navigation of Bombay for 1871-72_, pt. ii. 62.

[1601] No later returns are accessible.

[1602] The plant and seeds are known in the Bisaya language by the names of _pangaguason_, _aguason_, _canlara_, _mananaog_, _dancagay_, _catalonga_ or _igasur_; in the islands of Bohol and Çebu, where the seeds are produced, by that of _coyacoy_, and by the Spaniards of the Philippines as _Pepita de Bisaya_ or _Pepita de Catbalogan_ (Clain, _Remedios Faciles_, Manila, 1857. p. 610). The name _St. Ignatius’ Bean_ applied to them in Europe, is employed in South America to designate the seeds of several medicinal _Cucurbitaceæ_, as those of _Fenillea trilobata_ L., _Hypanthera Guapeva_ Manso and _Anisosperma Passiflora_ Manso.

=Botanical Origin=—_Strychnos Ignatii_ Bergius[1603] (_S. philippensis_ Blanco, _Ignatiana philippinica_ Loureiro), a large climbing shrub, growing in Bohol, Samar, and Çebu, islands of the Bisaya group of the Philippines, and according to Loureiro in Cochin China, where it has been introduced. The inflorescence and foliage are known to botanists only from the descriptions given by Loureiro[1604] and Blanco.[1605] The fruit is spherical, or sometimes ovoid, 4½ inches in diameter by 6¾ long, as shown by Ray and Petiver’s figure. It has a smooth brittle shell enclosing seeds to the number of about 24. G. Bennett,[1606] who saw the fruits at Manila sold in the bazaar, says they contain from 1 to 12 seeds, imbedded in a glutinous blackish pulp.[1607] According to Jagor[1608] the shrub is abundant near Basey, in the south-western part of the island of Samar, on the straits of San Juanico; its seeds are met with as a medicine in many houses in the Philippines.

=History=—It is stated by Murray[1609] and later writers that this seed was introduced into Europe from the Philippines by the Jesuits, who, on account of its virtues, bestowed upon it the name of Ignatius, the founder of their order. However this may be, the earliest account of the drug appears to be that communicated by Camelli, Jesuit missionary at Manila, to Ray and Petiver, and by them laid before the Royal Society of London in 1699.[1610] Camelli proclaimed the seed to be the _Nux Vomica legitima_ of the Arabian physician Serapion, who flourished in the 9th century; but in our opinion there is no warrant whatever for supposing it to have been known at so remote a period.[1611] _Sancti Ignatii_, is much esteemed as a remedy in various disorders, though he was well aware of its poisonous properties when too freely administered. In Germany, St. Ignatius’ Bean was made known about the same period by Bohn of Leipzig.[1612]

The drug is found in the Indian bazaars under a name which is evidently corrupted from the Spanish _pepita_. It is met with in the drugshops of China as _Leu-sung-kwo_, i.e. _Luzon fruit_.

=Description=—St. Ignatius’ Beans are about an inch in length; their form is ovoid, yet by mutual pressure it is rendered very irregular, and they are 3-, 4-, or 5-sided, bluntly angular, or flattish, with a conspicuous hilum at one end. In the fresh state, they are covered with silvery adpressed hairs: portions of a shaggy brown epidermis are here and there perceptible on those found in commerce, but in the majority the seed shows the dull grey, granular surface of the albumen itself.

Notwithstanding the different outward appearance, the structure of St. Ignatius’ Beans accords with that of nux vomica. The radicle however is longer, thicker, and frequently somewhat bent, and the cotyledons are more pointed. The horny brownish albumen is translucent, very hard, and difficult to split. The whole seed swells considerably by prolonged digestion in warm water, and has then a heavy, earthy smell. The beans are intensely bitter and highly poisonous.

[1603] _Materia Medica_, Stockholm, 1778. i. 146.—We omit citing the Linnean _Ignatia amara_, as it has been shown by Bentham that the plant so named by the younger Linnæus is _Posoqueria longiflora_ Aubl. of the order _Rubiaceæ_, a native of Guiana.

[1604] _Flora Cochinchinensis_, ed. Willd. i. (1793) 155.

[1605] _Flora de Filipinas_, ed. 2. 1845. 61.

[1606] _London Med. and Phys. Journ._ January 1832.

[1607] The only specimen of the fruit I have seen was in the possession of my late friend Mr. Morson. It measured exactly 4 inches in diameter, and when opened (15 January 1872) was found to contain 17 mature, well-formed seeds, with remnants of dried pulp.—D. H. I have seen another one in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris.—F. A. F..

[1608] _Reisen in den Philippinen_, Berlin, 1873. 213.

[1609] _Apparatus Medicaminum_, vi. (1792) 26.

[1610] _Phil. Trans._, xxi. (1699) 44. 87; Ray, _Hist. Plant._ iii. lib. 31. 118.

[1611] The Philippines were unknown to the Europeans of the Middle Ages. They were discovered by Magellan in 1521, but their conquest by the Spaniards was not effectually commenced until 1565. Previous to the Spanish occupation, they were governed by petty chiefs, and were frequented for the purposes of commerce by Japanese, Chinese, and Malays.

[1612] Martiny, _Encyklopädie der Rohwaarenkunde_, i. (1843) 576.

=Microscopic Structure=—The hairs of the epidermis are of an analogous structure, but more simple than in nux vomica. The albumen and cotyledons agree in structural features with those of the same parts in nux vomica.

=Chemical Composition=—Strychnine exists to the extent of about 1·5 per cent.; the seeds also contain 0·5 per cent. of brucine. Dried over sulphuric acid and burnt with soda-lime, it yielded us an average of 1·78 per cent. of nitrogen, which would answer to about 10 per cent. of albuminoid matter.

=Commerce=—We have no information as to the collection of the drug. The seeds are met with irregularly in English trade, being sometimes very abundant, at others scarcely obtainable.

=Uses=—The same as those of nux vomica. When procurable at a moderate price, the seeds are valued for the manufacture of strychnine.

RADIX SPIGELIÆ.

_Radix Spigeliæ Marilandicæ_; _Indian Pink Root_, _Carolina Pink Root_, _Spigelia_.[1613]

=Botanical Origin=—_Spigelia marilandica_ L., an herbaceous plant about a foot high, indigenous in the woods of North America, from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin and southward. According to Wood and Bache, it is collected chiefly in the Western and South-western States.

[1613] _Pink Root_ is sometimes erroneously latinized in price-lists, “_Radix caryophylli_.”

=History=—The anthelminthic properties of the root, discovered by the Indians, were brought to notice in Europe about the year 1754 by Linning, Garden, and Chalmers, physicians of Charleston, South Carolina. The drug was admitted to the London Pharmacopœia in 1788.

=Description=—Pink root has a near resemblance to serpentary, consisting of a short, knotty, dark brown rhizome emitting slender wiry roots. It is quite wanting in the peculiar odour of the latter drug, or indeed in any aroma; in taste it is slightly bitter and acrid. Sometimes the entire plant with its quadrangular stems a foot high is imported. It has opposite leaves about 3 inches long, sessile, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, smooth or pubescent.

=Microscopic Structure=—The transverse section of the rhizome, about ²/₁₀ of an inch in diameter, shows a small woody zone enclosing a large pith of elliptic outline, consisting of thin-walled cells. Usually the central tissue is decayed. In the roots, the middle cortical layer predominates; it swells in water, after which its large cells display fine spiral markings. The nucleus-sheath observable in serpentary is wanting in spigelia.

=Chemical Composition=—Not satisfactorily known: the vessels of the wood contain resin, the parenchyme starch; in the cortical part of the rhizome some tannic matters occur, but not in the roots. Feneulle (1823) asserts that the drug yields a little essential oil. The experiments of Bureau[1614] show that spigelia acts on rabbits and other animals as a narcotico-acrid poison.

=Uses=—Spigelia has long been reputed a most efficient medicine for the expulsion of _Ascaris lumbricoides_, but according to Stillé,[1615] its real value for this purpose has probably been over-estimated. This author speaks of it as possessing alterative and tonic properties. In England, it is rarely prescribed by the regular practitioner, but is used as a household medicine in some districts. It is much employed in the United States.

GENTIANEÆ.

RADIX GENTIANÆ.

_Gentian Root_; F. _Racine de Gentiane_; G. _Enzianwurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Gentiana lutea_ L., a handsome perennial herb, growing 3 feet high, indigenous to open grassy places on the mountains of Middle and Southern Europe. It occurs in Portugal, Spain, the Pyrenees, in the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, in the Apennines, the mountains of Auvergne, the Jura, the Vosges, the Black Forest, and throughout the chain of the Alps as far as Bosnia and the Danubian Principalities. Among the mountains of Germany, it is found on the Suabian Alps near Würzburg, and here and there in Thuringia, but not further north, nor does it occur in the British Islands.

=History=—The name _Gentiana_ is said to be derived from Gentius, a king of the Illyrians, living B.C. 180-167, by whom, according to both Pliny and Dioscorides, the plant was noticed. Whether the species thus named was _Gentiana lutea_ is doubtful. During the middle ages, gentian was commonly employed for the cure of disease, and as an antidote to poison. Tragus in 1552 mentions it as a means of diluting wounds, an application which has been resorted to in modern medical practice.

=Description=—The plant has a cylindrical, fleshy, simple root, of pale colour, occasionally almost as much as 4 feet in length by 1½ inches in thickness, producing 1 to 4 aerial stems.

The dried root of commerce is in irregular, contorted pieces, several inches in length, and ½ to 1 inch in thickness; the pieces are much wrinkled longitudinally, and marked transversely, especially in their upper portion, with numerous rings. Very often they are split to facilitate drying. They are of a yellowish-brown; internally of a more orange tint, spongy, with a peculiar, disagreeable, heavy odour, and intensely bitter taste. The crown of the root, which is somewhat thickened, is clothed with the scaly bases of leaves. The root is tough and flexible,—brittle only immediately after drying. We found it to lose in weight about 18 per cent.; by complete drying in a water-bath it regained 16 per cent. by being afterwards exposed to the air.

[1614] _De la famille des Loganiacées_, 1856. 130.

[1615] _Therapeutics and Materia Medica_, Philadelphia, ii. (1868) 651.

=Microscopic Structure=—A transverse section shows the bark separated by a dark cambial zone from the central column; the radial arrangement of the tissues is only obvious in the latter part. In the bark, liber-fibres are wanting; and in the centre there is no distinct pith. The fibro-vascular bundles are devoid of thick-walled ligneous prosenchyme; this may explain the consistence, and the short even fracture of the root. It is moreover remarkable on account of the absence both of starch and oxalate of calcium; the cells appear to contain chiefly sugar and a little fat oil.

=Chemical Composition=—The bitter taste of gentian is due to a substance called _Gentiopicrin_ or _Gentian-bitter_, C₂₀H₃₀O₁₂. Several chemists, as Henry, Caventou, Trommsdorff, Leconte and Dulk have described the bitter principle of gentian in an impure state, under the name of _Gentianin_, but Kromayer in 1862 first obtained it in a state of purity. Gentiopicrin is a neutral body crystallizing in colourless needles, which readily dissolve in water. It is soluble in spirit of wine, but in absolute alcohol only when aided by heat; it does not dissolve in ether. A solution of caustic potash or soda forms with it a yellow solution. Under the influence of a dilute mineral acid, gentiopicrin is resolved into glucose, and an amorphous, yellowish-brown, neutral substance, named _Gentiogenin_. Fresh gentian roots yield somewhat more than ⅒ per cent. of gentiopicrin; from the dried root it could not be obtained in a crystallized state. The medicinal Tincture of Gentian, mixed with solution of caustic potash, loses its bitterness in a few days, probably in consequence of the destruction of the gentiopicrin.

Another constituent of gentian root is _Gentianin_ or _gentisin_

{CH₃
C₁₄H₁₀O₅ or (OH)₂C₆H₃·CO·C₆H₂ {O \.
{O /

It forms tasteless yellowish prisms, sparingly soluble in alcohol, requiring about 5000 parts of water for solution. With alkalis it yields intensely yellow crystallizable compounds, which, however, are easily decomposed already by carbonic acid. Gentianin may be sublimed if carefully heated at 250° C. By melting it with caustic potash, acetic acid, phloroglucin, C₆H₃(OH)₃, and oxysalicylic acid, C₆H₃(OH)₂COOH, are produced, as shown in 1875 by Hlasiwetz and Habermann. The name of _gentianic acid_ or _gentisinic acid_ had been applied to the oxysalicylic acid obtained by the above decomposition before it was identified with oxysalicylic acid from other sources.

Gentian root abounds in pectin; it also contains, to the extent of 12 to 15 per cent., an uncrystallizable sugar, of which advantage is taken in Southern Bavaria and Switzerland for the manufacture by fermentation and distillation of a potable spirit.[1616] This use of gentian and its consumption in medicine have led to the plant being almost extirpated in some parts of Switzerland where it formerly abounded.

The experiments of Maisch (1876) and Ville (1877) have shown tannic matters to be absent from the root.

=Commerce=—Gentian root finds its way into English commerce through the German houses; and some is shipped from Marseilles. The quantity imported into the United Kingdom in 1870 was 1100 cwt.

[1616] Th. Martius, _Pharm. Journ._ xii. (1853) 371.

=Uses=—Gentian is much used in medicine as a bitter tonic. Ground to powder, the root is an ingredient in some of the compositions sold for feeding cattle.

=Substitutes=—It can hardly be said that gentian is adulterated, yet the roots of several other species possessing similar properties are occasionally collected; of these we may name the following:—

1. _Gentiana purpurea_ L.—This species is found in Alpine meadows of the Apennines, Savoy and Switzerland, in Transylvania, and in South-western Norway; a variety also in Kamtchatka.[1617] The root is frequently collected;[1618] it attains at most 18 inches in length and a diameter of about 1 inch at the summit, from which arise 8 to 10 aerial stems, clothed below with many scaly remains of leaves. The top of the root has thus a peculiar branched appearance, never found in the root of _G. lutea_, with which in all other respects that of _G. purpurea_ agrees. The latter is perhaps even more intensely bitter.

2. _G. punctata_ L.—Nearly the same description applies to this species, which is a native of the Alps of South-Eastern France, Savoy, the southern parts of Switzerland, extending eastward to Austria, Hungary and Roumelia.

3. _G. pannonica_ Scop.—a plant of the mountains of Austria, unknown in the Swiss Alps, has a root which does not attain the length or the thickness of the root of _G. purpurea_, with which it agrees in other respects. It is officinal in the Austrian Pharmacopœia.

4. _G. Catesbœi_ Walter (_G. Saponaria_ L.)—indigenous in the United States. Its root, usually not exceeding 3 inches in length by ⅓ inch in diameter, has a very thin woody column within a spongy whitish cortical tissue and a bright yellow epidermis. This root is less bitter than the above enumerated drugs; the same remark applies also to those European Gentianæ which like _G. Catesbœi_ are provided with blue flowers.

HERBA CHIRATÆ.

_Herba Chirettæ vel Chiraytæ_; _Chiretta or Chirayta_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Ophelia[1619] Chirata_ Grisebach (_Gentiana Chirayita_ Roxb.), an annual herb of the mountainous regions of Northern India from Simla through Kumaon to the Murung district in South-eastern Nepal.

=History=—Chiretta has long been held in high esteem by the Hindus, and is frequently mentioned in the writings of Susruta. It is called in Sanscrit _Kirāta-tikta_, which means the _bitter plant of the Kirātus_, the Kirātas being an outcast race of mountaineers in the north of India. In England, it began to attract some attention about the year 1829; and in 1839 was introduced into the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia. The plant was first described by Roxburgh in 1814.

[1617] Grisebach (_Die Vegetation der Erde_, i. 1872. 223) gives very interesting particulars relating to the area of growth of _Gentiana purpurea_, _G. punctata_ and _G. pannonica_. He is decidedly of the opinion that they are distinct species.

[1618] In Norway it is, strange to say, called sweetroot, “_Sötrot_,” according to Schübeler, _Pflanzenwelt Norwegens_, 1873-1875, p. 259.

[1619] Ὀϕέλλειν, to bless, in allusion to the medical virtues of the herb.—Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_, part 7 (1876).

Chiretta was regarded by Guibourt as the _Calamus aromaticus_ of the ancients, but the improbability of this being correct was well pointed out by Fée[1620] and by Royle, and is now generally admitted.

=Description=—The entire plant is collected when in flower, or more commonly when the capsules are fully formed, and tied up with a slip of bamboo into flattish bundles of about 3 feet long,[1621] each weighing when dry from 1½ to 2 lb. The stem, ²/₁₀ to ³/₁₀ of an inch in thickness, is of an orange-brown, sometimes of a dark purplish colour; the tapering simple root, often much exceeding the stem in thickness, is 2 to 4 inches long and up to ½ an inch thick. It is less frequently branched, but always provided with some rootlets. In stronger specimens, the root is somewhat oblique or geniculate; perhaps the stem is in this case the product of a second year’s growth and the plant not strictly annual. Each plant usually consists of a single stem, yet occasionally two or more spring from a single root. The stem rises to a height of 2 to 3 feet, and is _cylindrical in its lower and middle portion_, but bluntly quadrangular in its upper, the four edges being each marked with a prominent decurrent line, as in _Erythræa Centaurium_ and many other plants of the order. The decussate ramification resembles that of other gentians; its stems are jointed at intervals of 1½ to 3 or 4 inches, bearing opposite semi-amplexicaul leaves on their cicatrices. The stem consists in its lower portion of a large woody column, coated with a very thin rind, and enclosing a comparatively large pith. The upper parts of the stem and branches contain a broad ring of thick-walled woody parenchyme. The numerous slender axillary and opposite branches are elongated, and thus constitute a dense umbellate panicle. They are smooth and glabrous, of a greenish or brownish grey colour.

The leaves are ovate-acuminate, cordate at the base, entire, sessile, the largest 1 inch or more in length, 3-to 5-or 7-nerved, the midrib being strongest. At each division of the panicle there are two small bracts. The yellow corolla is rotate, 4-lobed, with glandular pits above the base; the calyx is one-third the length of the petals, which are about half an inch long. The one-celled, bivalved capsule contains numerous seeds.

The flowers share the intense bitterness of the whole drug. The wood of stronger stems is devoid of the bitter principles.

=Chemical Composition=—A chemical examination of chiretta has been made at our request under the direction of Professor Ludwig of Jena, by his assistant Mr. Höhn. The chief results of this careful and elaborate investigation may be thus described.[1622]

Among the bitter principles of the drug, _Ophelic Acid_, C₁₃H₂₀O₁₀, occurs in the largest proportion. It is an amorphous, viscid, yellow substance, of an acidulous, persistently bitter taste, and a faint gentian-like odour. With basic acetate of lead, it produces an abundant yellow precipitate. Ophelic acid does not form an insoluble compound with tannin; it dissolves in water, alcohol and ether. The first solution causes the separation of protoxide of copper from an alkaline tartrate of that metal.

[1620] _Cours d’Histoire nat. pharmaceutique_, ii. (1828) 395.

[1621] The other kinda of chiretta to be named presently are usually much shorter.

[1622] For full details, see _Archiv der Pharmacie_, 189 (1869) 229.

A second bitter principle, _Chiratin_, C₂₆H₄₈O₁₅, may be removed by means of tannic acid, with which it forms an insoluble compound. Chiratin is a neutral, not distinctly crystalline, light yellow, hygroscopic powder, soluble in alcohol, ether and in warm water. By boiling hydrochloric acid, it is decomposed into _Chiratogenin_, C₁₃H₂₄O₃, and ophelic acid. Chiratogenin is a brownish, amorphous substance, soluble in alcohol but not in water, nor yielding a tannic compound. No sugar is formed in this decomposition.

These results exhibit no analogy to those obtained in the analysis of the European gentians. Finally, Höhn remarked in chiretta a crystallizable, tasteless, yellow substance, but its quantity was so minute that no investigation of it could be made.

The leaves of chiretta, dried at 100° C., afforded 7·5 per cent. of ash; the stems 3·7; salts of potassium and calcium prevailing in both.

=Uses=—Chiretta is a pure bitter tonic, devoid of aroma and astringency. In intense bitterness it exceeds gentian, _Erythræa_ and other European plants of the same order. It is much valued in India, but is not very extensively used in England, and not at all on the Continent. It is said to be employed when cheap, in place of gentian, to impart flavour to the compositions now sold as _Cattle Foods_.

=Substitutes and Adulteration=—Some other species of _Ophelia_, namely, _O. angustifolia_ Don, _O. densifolia_ Griseb., _O. elegans_ Wight, _O. pulchella_ Don, and _O. multiflora_ Dalz, two or three species of _Exacum_, besides _Andrographis paniculata_ Wall., are more or less known in the Indian bazaars by the name of _Chiretta_[1623] and possess to a greater or less degree the bitter tonic properties of that drug. Another _Gentianacea_, _Slevogtia orientalis_ Griseb., is called _Chota Chiretta_, i.e. _small chiretta_. It would exceed due limits were we to describe each of these plants: we have therefore given a somewhat detailed description of the true chiretta, which will suffice for its identification. We have frequently examined the chiretta found in the English market, but have never met with any other than the legitimate sort.[1624] Bentley noticed in 1874 the substitution of _Ophelia angustifolia_, which he found to be by far less bitter than true chiretta.

CONVOLVULACEÆ.

SCAMMONIUM.

_Scammony_; F. _Scammonée_; G. _Scammonium_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Convolvulus Scammonia_ L., a twining plant much resembling the common _C. arvensis_ of Europe, but differing from it in being of larger size, and having a stout tap-root. It occurs in waste bushy places in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, the Greek Islands, extending northward to the Crimea and Southern Russia, but appears to be wanting in Northern Africa, Italy, and in all the western parts of the Mediterranean basin.

[1623] Moodeen Sheriff, _Suppl. to the Pharmacopœia of India_, 1869. pp. 138. 189.—Consult also _Pharmacopœia of India_, 1868. pp. 148-9.

[1624] Mr. E. A. Webb has pointed out a case of false-packing in which the roots of _Rubia cordifolia_ L. (_Munjit_) had been enclosed in the bundles of chiretta.

=History=—The dried milky juice of the scammony plant has been known as a medicine from very ancient times. Theophrastus in the 3rd century B.C. was acquainted with it; it was likewise familiar to Dioscorides, Pliny, Celsus, and Rufus of Ephesus, each of whom has given some account of the manner in which it was collected. Scammony used then also to be called _Diagrydion_, from the Greek word δάκρυ, tear. The mediæval Arabian physicians also knew scammony and the plant from which it is derived. The drug was used in Britain in the 10th and 11th centuries, and would appear to be one of the medicines recommended to King Alfred the Great, by Helias, patriarch of Jerusalem.[1625] It is repeatedly named in the medical writings in use prior to the Norman conquest (A.D. 1066), in one of which directions are given for recognizing the goodness of the drug by the white emulsion it produces when wetted.

The botanists of the 16th and 17th centuries, as Brunfels, Gesner, Matthiolus, Dodonæus, and the Bauhins, described and figured the plant partly under the name of _Scammonia syriaca_. The collecting of the drug was well described by Russell, an English physician of Aleppo (1752), whose account[1626] is accompanied by an excellent figure representing the plant and the means of obtaining its juice.

[1625] Such is the opinion expressed by the Rev. O. Cockayne. The letter of Helias to Alfred is imperfect, and mentions only balsam, petroleum, theriaka, and a white stone used as a charm. But from the reference to these four articles in another part of the MS., in connection with scammony, ammoniacum, tragacanth, and galbanum, there is ground for believing that the latter (Syrian and Persian) drugs were included in the lost part of the patriarch’s letter.—See _Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England_, edited by Cockayne (Master of the Rolls Series), vol. ii. pages xxiv. 289. 175, also 273. 281.

[1626] _Medical Observations and Inquiries_, i. (1757) 12.

Scammony was formerly distinguished by the names _Aleppo_ and _Smyrna_, the former sort being twice or thrice as costly as the latter; at the present day Aleppo scammony has quite lost its pre-eminence.

=Localities producing the drug=—Scammony is collected in Asia Minor, from Brussa and Boli in the north, to Macri and Adalia in the south, and eastward as far as Angora. But the most productive localities within this area are the valley of the Mendereh, south of Smyrna: and the districts of Kirkagach and Demirjik, north of that town. The neighbourhood of Aleppo likewise affords the drug. A little is obtained further south in Syria, from the woody hills and valleys about the lake of Tiberias and Mount Carmel.

=Production=—The scammony plant has a long woody root, which throws off downwards a few lateral branches, and produces from its knotty summit numerous twining stems which are persistent and woody at the base. In plants of three or four years old, the root may be an inch or more in diameter; in older specimens it sometimes acquires a diameter of three or four inches. In length, it is from two to three feet, according to the depth of soil in which it grows. When the root is wounded, there exudes a milky juice which dries up to a golden-brown, transparent, gummy-looking substance:—this is _pure scammony_.[1627]

The method followed in collecting scammony for use appears to be nearly the same in all localities. It has been thus described to us by two eye-witnesses, both long resident in the East.[1628] Operations commence by clearing away the bushes among which the plant is commonly found; the soil around the latter is then removed, so as to leave 4 or 5 inches of the root exposed. This is then cut off in a slanting direction at 2 to 4 inches below the crown, and a mussel-shell is stuck into it just beneath the lowest edge, so as to receive the milky-sap which instantly flows out. The shells are usually left till evening, when they are collected, and the cut part of the root scraped with a knife, so as to remove any partially dried drops of juice. These latter are called by the Smyrna peasants, _kaimak_ or cream, the softer contents of the shell being called _gala_ or milk.

[1627] Named probably from Σκάυυα, a _trench_ or _pit_, in allusion to the excavation made around the root.

[1628] The one was the late Mr. S. H. Maltass of Smyrna, whose interesting paper may be found in _Pharm. Journ._ xiii. (1854) 264; the other is Mr. Edward T. Rogers, formerly of Caiffa, now (1874) British Consul at Cairo.

Sometimes the scammony is allowed to dry in the shell, and such must be regarded as representing the drug in its utmost perfection. But scammony in shells is not brought into commerce, though a little of it is reserved by the peasants for their own use.

The contents of the shells and the scraped off drops are next emptied into a covered copper pot or a leathern bag, carried home, made homogenous by mixing with a knife, and at once allowed to dry. In this way a form of scammony is obtained closely approaching that dried in the shell. But it is a quality of exceptional goodness. Usually the peasant does not dry off the juice promptly, but allows his daily gatherings to accumulate; and when he has collected a pound or two, he places it in the sunshine to soften, and then kneads it, sometimes with the addition of a little water, into a plastic mass, which he lastly allows to dry. By this long exposure to heat, and retention in a liquid state, the scammony juice undergoes fermentation, acquires a strong cheesy odour and dark colour, and when finally dried, exhibits a more or less porous or bubbly structure, never observable in shell scammony.

Scammony is very extensively adulterated. The adulteration is often performed by the peasants, who mix foreign substances into the drug while it is yet soft; and it is also effected by the dealers, some of whom purchase it of the peasants in a half-dried state. The substances used for sophistication are numerous, the commonest and most easily detected being, according to our experience, carbonate of lime and flour. Woodashes, earth (not always calcareous), gum arabic, and tragacanth are also employed; more rarely, wax, yolk of egg, pounded scammony roots, rosin, or black-lead.

=Description=—The pure juice of the root, simply dried by exposure to the sun and air, is an amorphous, transparent, brittle substance, of resinous aspect, a yellowish-brown colour, and glossy fracture. Scammony possessing these characters is occasionally met with in the form of flattish irregular masses, about ½ to ¾ of an inch in thickness, very brittle by reason of internal fissures, yet with but few air-cavities. In mass, it is of a chesnut-brown, but in small fragments it is seen to be very pale yellowish-brown and transparent, with the freshly fractured surface vitreous and shining. When powdered it is of a very light buff. Rubbed with the moistened finger it forms a white emulsion. Treated with ether it yields 88 to 90 per cent. of soluble matter, and a nearly colourless residuum. This scammony, as well as the pure juice in the shell, is very liable to become mouldy; but besides this, it throws out, if long kept, a white, mammillated, crystalline efflorescence, the nature of which we have not been able to determine. But if scammony is kept quite dry, neither mouldiness nor efflorescence makes its appearance.

The ordinary fine scammony of commerce, known as _Virgin Scammony_, is also in large flat pieces or irregular flattened lumps and fragments, which in mass have a dark grey or blackish hue. Viewed in thin fragments, it is seen to be translucent and of a yellowish-brown. It is very easily broken, exhibits a shining fracture, gives an ashy-grey powder, and has a peculiar cheesy odour. Some of the pieces have a porous, bubbly structure, indicative of fermentation; the more solid often show the efflorescence already mentioned. Scammony has not much taste, but leaves an acrid sensation in the throat.

=Chemical Composition=—Scammony owes its active properties as a medicine to a resin shown (1860) by Spirgatis to be identical with that found in the root of the Mexican _Ipomœa orizabensis_, known in commerce as _Male Jalap_: this resin called _Jalapin_ will be described in the next article. The other constituents of pure scammony are not well known. One of them is the substance which, as already stated, makes its appearance as small masses of cauliflower crystals on the surface of pure scammony, when the latter is kept in air not perfectly dry.

Whether the odour observable in commercial scammony is due to a volatile fatty acid developed by fermentation, is a question still to be investigated.

=Commerce=—The export of scammony from Smyrna amounted in 1871 to 278 cases, valued at £8320; in 1872 to 185 cases, value £6100. According to a report of Consul Skene on the trade of Northern Syria,[1629] 737 cases of scammony were exported from the province of Aleppo in 1872,—six-sevenths of the quantity being for England. In 1873 Aleppo exported by way of Alexandretta to England 46,500 kilogrammes of scammony root and 900 kilogrammes of the resin, the latter being valued at 36,000 francs (£1444).

An establishment at Brussa, founded by Della Sudda, of Constantinople, is stated to export since 1870 a very good scammony resin extracted by alcohol.[1630]

=Uses=—Employed as an active cathartic, often in combination with colocynth and calomel.

=Adulteration=—Scammony is very often imported in an adulterated state, but the adulteration is so clumsily effected, and is so easily discoverable by simple tests, or even by ocular examination, that druggists have but little excuse for accepting a bad article.

[1629] Presented to Parliament, July 1873.

[1630] Dragendorff’s _Jahresbericht_, 1876. 158.

We have already named the substances used in the sophistication of scammony: of these, the most frequent are carbonate of lime and farinaceous matter. The first may generally be recognized by examining the fractured surface of the drug with a good lens, when the white particles of the carbonate will be perceived. If the surface is then touched (while still _sub lente_) with hydrochloric acid, effervescence will prove the presence of a carbonate. Other earthly adulterants can be discovered by incineration, or by examining the residue of the drug after treatment with ether. Starchy substances, the presence of which may be surmised by the scammony being difficult to break, are detectable by the microscope or by solution of iodine, a cold decoction of scammony not being affected by that reagent. Scammony that is ponderous, dull and clayey, not easily broken in the fingers, or which when broken does not exhibit a clean, glossy surface, or which does not afford at least 80 per cent. of matter soluble in ether, should be rejected. That which is made up in the form of hard, dark, circular cakes is widely different from pure scammony.

Scammony may be distinguished from _Resin of Scammony_ by its property of forming an emulsion when wetted. The resin is also more glossy and almost entirely soluble in ether.

Radix Scammoniæ.

The frauds commonly practised on the scammony of commerce have given rise to various schemes for obtaining the drug in a purer form, as well as at a more moderate price.[1631]

So far back as 1839, the Edinburgh College prescribed a _Resina Scammonii_, which was prepared by exhausting scammony with a spirit of wine, distilling off the spirit, and washing the residue with water. Such an extract was manufactured by the late Mr. Maltass of Smyrna, and occasionally shipped to London.

In consequence of a suggestion made by Mr. Clark, manufacturer of liquorice at Sochia near Scala Nuova, south of Smyrna, a patent was taken out (1856) by Prof. A. W. Williamson of London, for preparing this resin directly from the dried root by means of alcohol. The same chemist shortly afterwards devised an improved process, which consists in boiling the roots first with water and then with dilute acid, so as to deprive them of all matters soluble in those menstrua, and afterwards extracting the resin by alcohol.

Resin of Scammony, obtained either from scammony or from the dried root, is ordered in the _British Pharmacopœia_ of 1867, and is manufactured by a few houses. It is a brown, translucent, brittle substance of resinous fracture, entirely soluble in ether, and not forming an emulsion when wetted with water.

Scammony root is occasionally brought into the London market, sometimes in rather large quantity,[1632] but it is not generally kept by druggists, nor do we find it quoted in price-currents. Its collection is even opposed in some parts of Turkey by the local authorities.[1633]

[1631] Scammony was quoted in a London price current, April 1874, at 8_s._ to 36_s._ per lb., Resin of Scammony at 14_s._ per lb.

[1632] Thus 100 bales were offered in a drug sale, 3 July 1873.

[1633] Such was the case at Aleppo, as we know by a private letter from Mr. Consul Skene.—D. H.

The root consists of stout, woody, cylindrical pieces, often spirally twisted, 2 to 3 inches in diameter, covered with a rough, furrowed, greyish-brown bark. They are internally pale brown, tough and resinous, with a faint odour and taste resembling jalap. A good sample yielded us 5½ per cent. of resin; Kingzett and Farries (1877) showed the root to be devoid of an alkaloid.

RADIX JALAPÆ.

_Tuber Jalapæ_; _Jalap_, _Vera Cruz Jalap_; F. _Racine de Jalap_; G. _Jalape_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Ipomœa Purga_ Hayne (_Convolvulus Purga_ Wenderoth, _Exogonium Purga_ Bentham), a tuberous-rooted plant, throwing out herbaceous, twining stems, clothed with cordate-acuminate sharply auricled leaves, and bearing elegant salver-shaped, deep pink flowers. It grows naturally on the eastern declivities of the Mexican Andes, at an elevation above the sea of 5000 to 8000 feet, especially about Chiconquiaco and the adjacent villages, and also around San Salvador on the eastern slope of the Cofre de Perote. In these localities where rain falls almost daily, and where the diurnal temperature varies from 15° to 24° C. (60° to 75° F.), the plant occurs in shady woods, flourishing in a deep rich vegetable soil.

The jalap grows freely in the south of England, if planted in a sheltered border, but its flowers are produced so late in autumn that they rarely expand, and the tubers, which develope in some abundance, are liable to be destroyed in winter unless protected from frost.

The plant has been introduced on the Neilgherry Hills in the south of India; it succeeds there remarkably well,[1634] and might be extensively propagated if there were any adequate inducement.

=History=—The use as a purgative of the tuber of a convolvulaceous plant of Mexico, was made known by the early Spanish voyagers; and so highly was the new drug esteemed that large quantities of it reached Europe during the 16th century.

Monardes, writing in 1565, says the new drug was called _Ruybarbo de las Indias_ or _Ruybarbo de Mechoacan_, the latter name being given in allusion to the province of Michoacan whence the supplies were derived. Some writers have advanced the opinion that mechoacan root was the modern jalap, but in this we do not concur, for the description given of mechoacan and the place of its production do not apply well to jalap. Both drugs were moreover well known about 1610; they were perfectly distinguished by Colin, an apothecary of Lyons (1619), who mentions jalap (“_racine de Ialap_”) as then newly brought to France.[1635] They were however often confounded, or at least only distinguished by their difference of tint. Thus jalap, which at that period used to be imported cut into transverse slices,[1636] was termed, from its darker colour, _Black Mechoacan_; and on the other hand, the paler mechoacan was in later times known as _White Jalap_.

[1634] Thus at Ootacamund, Mr. Broughton, in a letter to one of us (15 January 1870), speaks of receiving “a cluster of tubers” weighing over 9 lb., and remarks that the plant grows as easily as yam.

[1635] Monardes, _Hist. des Medicamens_, trad. par Colin, ed. 2. 16.—The first edition of this work seems to be unknown.

[1636] Hill, _History of the Mat. Med._ Lond. 1751. 549.

Mechoacan root is now known to consist (at least in part) of the large thick tuber of _Ipomœa Jalapa_ Pursh (_Batatas Jalapa_ Choisy), a plant of the Southern United States and Mexico. As a drug it has been long obsolete in Europe, having given place to jalap, which is a more active and efficient purgative.

The botanical source of jalap was not definitely ascertained until about the year 1829, when Dr. Coxe of Philadelphia published a description and coloured figure, taken from living plants sent to him two years previously from Mexico.[1637]

=Manner of Growth=—Though we have cultivated the jalap plant for many years, we have had no opportunity of examining the seedling, but judging from analogy suppose that it has at first a small tap-root which gradually thickens after the manner of a radish. A root of jalap, called by some _tuber_ and by others _tubercule_, throws out in addition to aerial stems, slender, prostrate, underground shoots which emit roots at intervals. These roots while but an inch or two long become thickened and carrot-shaped, gradually enlarging into napiform tuber-like bodies, which emit a few rootlets from their surface and taper off below in long, slender ramifications. The thickened roots have no trace of leaf-organs; the aerial stems grow from the shoot from which they originated.

Fresh jalap roots (tubers) are externally rough and dark brown, internally white and fleshy.

=Collection=—Jalap is said to be dug up in Mexico during the whole year.[1638] The smaller roots are dried entire; the larger are cut transversely, or are gashed so that they may dry more easily. As drying by sun-heat would be almost impracticable owing to the wetness of the climate, the roots are placed in a net, and suspended over the almost constantly burning hearth of the Indian’s hut, where they gradually dry, and at the same time often contract a smoky smell. Much of the jalap that has of late arrived has been more freely sliced than usual, and has obviously been dried with less difficulty.