Chapter XLII: Part 42

_Aloë socotrina_ Lam. (_A. vera_ Miller), native of the southern shores of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, Socotra, and Zanzibar (?). It is the source of the _Socotrine_ and _Moka Aloes_. _A. officinalis_ Forsk. and _A. rubescens_ DC. are considered to be varieties of this plant. _A. abyssinica_ Lam. may probably contribute to the aloes shipped from the Red Sea.

_A. vulgaris_ Lam. _A. perfoliata_, var. π. _vera_ Linn., _A. barbadensis_ Mill., a plant of India and of Eastern and Northern Africa, now found also on the shores of Southern Spain, Sicily, Greece, and the Canaries; introduced in the beginning of the 16th century (or earlier) into the West Indies. It affords _Barbados_ and _Curaçao Aloes_. _A. indica_ Royle, a plant of the North-west Provinces of India, common in Indian gardens, appears to be a slight variety of _A. vulgaris_ Lam. _A. litoralis_ König, said to grow in abundance at Cape Comorin, is unknown to us. Dr. Bidie suggests that it is a form of the preceding, stunted by a poor saline soil and exposure to the sea breeze. Both _A. indica_ and _A. litoralis_ are named in the _Pharmacopœia of India_.

_Aloë ferox_ L., and hybrids obtained by crossing it with _A. africana_ Mill. and _A. spicata_ Thunberg, _A. perfoliata_ Linn. (_quoad_ Roxb.) and _A. linguæformis_ are reputed to yield the best _Cape Aloes_.

_A. africana_ Mill. and its varieties, and _A. plicatilis_ Mill. afford an extract which Pappe[2543] says is thought to be less powerful.

[2539] From the Syriac _Alwai_.

[2540] _Aloë arborescens_, _A. purpurascens_, and _A. vulgaris_ may be seen luxuriantly growing in Valencia, Granada, Gibraltar.

[2541] Dyer in _Gardeners’ Chronicle_, May 2, 1874, with figures.

[2542] Good figures of _Aloë africana_, _A. arborescens_, _A. ferox_, _A. purpurascens_, _A. socotrina_, and _A. vulgaris_ will be found in the work _Monographia generis Aloës et Mesembryanthemi_, auctore Jos. Principe de Salm-Reifferscheid-Dyck, Bonnae, 1836-1863. fol.

[2543] _Floræ Capensis Medicæ Prodromus_, ed. 2, 1857. 41.

_A. arborescens_ Mill., _A. Commelini_ Willd. and _A. purpurascens_ Haworth are stated to produce a portion of the _Cape Aloes_ of commerce.[2544]

Various species of _Agave_, especially _A. americana_ L., are largely grown, since the first half of the 16th century, in the south of Europe, and popularly called _Aloë_. All of them are plants of Mexico, while the true aloes are natives of the old world. Botanically the genus _Agave_ differs from _Aloë_, in that the former has the ovary _inferior_, while in the latter it is _superior_. From a chemical point of view there is also no analogy at all between Aloë and Agave.

=History=—Aloes was known to the Greeks as a production of the island of Socotra as early as the 4th century B.C., if we might credit a remarkable legend thus given in the writings of the Arabian geographer Edrisi.[2545] When Alexander had conquered the king of the Persians and his fleets had vanquished the islands of India, and he had killed Pour, king of the Indies, his master Aristotle recommended him to seek the island that produces _Aloes_. So when he had finished his conquests in India, he returned by way of the Indian Sea into that of Oman, conquered the isles therein, and arrived at last at Socotra, of which he admired the fertility and the climate. And from the advice which Aristotle gave him he determined to remove the original inhabitants and to put Greeks in their place, enjoining the latter to preserve carefully the plant yielding aloes, on account of its utility, and because that without it certain sovereign remedies could not be compounded. He thought also that the trade in and use of this noble drug would be a great advantage for all people. So he took away the original people of the island of Socotra, and established in their stead a colony of Ionians, who remained under his protection and that of his successors, and acquired great riches, until the period when the religion of the Messiah appeared, which religion they embraced. They then became Christians, and so their descendants have remained up to the present time (_circa_ A.D. 1154).

This curious account, which Yule[2546] says is doubtless a fable, but invented to account for facts, is alluded to by the Mahomedan travellers of the 9th century[2547] and in the 10th by Masudi,[2548] who says that in his time aloes was produced only in the island of Socotra, where its manufacture had been _improved_ by Greeks sent thither by Alexander the Great.

Aloes is not mentioned by Theophrastus, but appears to have been well known to Celsus, Dioscorides, Pliny and the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, as well as to the later Greek[2549] and the Arabian physicians. From the notices of it in the Anglo-Saxon leech-books and a reference to it as one of the drugs recommended to Alfred the Great by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, we may infer that its use was not unknown in Britain as early as the 10th century.[2550]

[2544] In the above revision of the medicinal species of _Aloë_ we have made free use of the observations on the same subject mentioned in the _Dictionnaire de Botanique_. We have also had the advantage of consulting W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., F.R.S., whose long familiarity with these plants in cultivation impart great weight to his opinion.

[2545] _Géographie d’Edrisi_, i. (1836) 47.

[2546] _Marco Polo_, ii. 343.

[2547] _Anciennes Relations des Indes et de la Chine de deux Voyageurs Mahométans, qui y allèrent dans le neuvième siècle_, traduites de l’Arabe, Paris, 1718. 113.

[2548] Tome iii. 36.—See Appendix.

[2549] Alexander Trallianus, in Puschmann’s edition (quoted in the Appendix), i. 578, speaks of Αλόης ὴπατίτιὸυς—_Aloë hepatica_.

[2550] See p. 439. note 1.

At this period and for long afterwards the drug was imported into Europe by way of the Red Sea and Alexandria. After the discovery of a route to India by the Cape of Good Hope the old line of commerce probably began to change.

Pires, an apothecary at Cochin, in a letter on Eastern drugs[2551] addressed to Manuel, king of Portugal, in 1516, reports that aloes grows in the island of Çacotora, Aden, Cambaya, Valencia of Arragon, and in other parts,—the most esteemed being that of Çacotora, and next is that of Spain; while the drug of Aden and Cambaya is so bad as to be worthless.

In the early part of the 17th century there was a direct trade in aloes between England and Socotra; and in the records of the East India Company there are many notices of the drug being bought of the “King of Socotra.” Frequently the king’s whole stock of aloes is mentioned as having been purchased.[2552]

Wellstead, who travelled in Socotra in 1833,[2553] says that in old times the aloë was far more largely grown there than at present, and that the walls which enclosed the plantations may still be seen. He adds that the produce was a monopoly of the Sultan of the island. At the present day the few productions of Socotra that are exported are carried by the Arab coasting vessels, coming annually from the Persian Gulf to Zanzibar, at which place they are transshipped for Indian and other ports. Dr. Kirk, who has resided at Zanzibar from 1866 to 1873, informs us that aloes from Socotra arrives in a very soft state packed in goatskins. From these it is transferred to wooden boxes, in which it concretes, and is shipped to Europe and America. To avoid loss the skins have to be washed; and the aloetic liquor evaporated.

Ligon,[2554] who visited the island of Barbados in 1647-50, that is about twenty years after the arrival of the first settlers, speaks of the aloë as if it were indigenous, mentioning also the useful plants which had been introduced. At that period the settlers knew how to prepare the juice for medicinal use, but had not begun to export it. Barbados aloes was in the drug warehouses of London in 1693.[2555]

The manufacture of aloes in the Cape Colony of South Africa was observed by Thunberg in 1773 on the farm of a boer named Peter de Wett, who was the first to prepare the drug in that country.[2556] Cape Aloes is enumerated in the stock of a London druggist in 1780, its cost being set down as £10 per cwt. (1_s._ 9½_d._ per lb.).

A new and distinct sort of aloes, manufactured in the colony of Natal, appeared in English commerce in 1870. It will be described further on.

_Lignum Aloes_—It is important to bear in mind that the word _Aloes_ or _Lign Aloës_, in Latin _Lignum Aloës_, is used in the Bible and in many ancient writings to designate a substance totally distinct from the modern _Aloes_, namely the resinous wood of _Aquilaria Agallocha_ Roxburgh, a large tree[2557] of the order Thymeleaceæ, growing in the Malayan Peninsula. Its wood constituted a drug[2558] which was, down to the beginning of the present century, generally valued for use as incense, but now esteemed only in the East.

[2551] See Appendix.

[2552] _Calendar of State Papers_, Colonial Series, East Indies, China and Japan, 1513-1616, Lond. 1862.

[2553] _Journ. of the Roy. Geograph. Soc._ v. (1835) 129-229.

[2554] _History of Barbadoes_, Lond. 1673. 98.

[2555] Dale’s _Pharmacologia_ (1693) 361.

[2556] Thunberg, _Travels in Asia, Europe and Africa_, ii. 49. 50.

[2557] Fig. in Royle, _Illustr. of the Himalayan Bot. etc._ (1839) tab. 36. See also _Dictionnaire de Botanique_.

[2558] Hanbury, _Science Papers_, 1876. 263; also Flückiger, _Die Frankfurter Liste_, Halle, 1873. 37. (_Archiv der Pharm._ cci. 511).—For full historical information see Heyd, _Levantehandel_, ii. (1879), 559.

=Structure of the Leaf=—The stout fleshy leaves of an aloë have a strong cuticle and thick-walled epidermis. Their interior substance is formed of very loose, large-celled, colourless pulp, traversed by vascular bundles, which, on transverse section, are seen to be accompanied by a group of large thin-walled cells[2559] containing the bitter juice which constitutes the drug under notice. These cells, on a longitudinal section, are seen to be considerably elongated, adjoining a single row of smaller, prismatic, truncated cells,[2560] by which the former are separated from the cortical layer. The prismatic cells contain a yellow juice, apparently different from that which yields aloes. The cortical tissue is filled with granules of chlorophyll, and exhibits between the cells groups of needles of calcium oxalate. Similar crystals are also found sparingly in the pulp.

The transparent pulp-tissue[2561] is rich in mucilage, which after dilution with water is precipitated by neutral acetate of lead, but is not coagulated by boiling.

The amount of bitter principles in the leaf probably varies with the age of the latter and with the season of the year. Haaxman mentions that, in Curaçao, the maximum is found when the leaves are changing from green to brown.

=Cultivation and Manufacture=—In Barbados,[2562] where _Aloë vulgaris_ is systematically cultivated for the production of the drug, the plants are set 6 inches apart, in rows which are 1 to 1½ foot asunder, the ground having been carefully prepared and manured. They are kept free from grass and weeds, but yams or pulse are frequently grown between them. The plants are always dwarf, never in the least degree arborescent; almost all of those above a year old bear flowers, which being bright yellow, have a beautiful effect. The leaves are 1-2 feet long; they are cut annually, but this does not destroy the plant, which, under good cultivation, lasts for several years.

[2559] The cells lettered _e_ in Berg’s figure C, plate iv. _f._ of his “_Offizinelle Gewächse_.”

[2560] The cells _d_, in Berg’s figure.

[2561] This central pulpy tissue is _quite tasteless_, and is actually used as food in times of scarcity in some parts of India.—Stewart, _Punjab Plants_, 1869. 232.

[2562] For the particulars we here give respecting Barbados aloes, we have cordially to thank Sir R. Bowcher Clarke, Chief Justice of Barbados, and also Major-General Munro, stationed (1874) at Barbados in command of troops.

The cutting takes place in March and April, and is performed in the heat of the day. The leaves are cut off close to the plant, and placed _very quickly_, the cut end downwards, in a V-shaped wooden trough, about 4 feet long and 12 to 18 inches deep. This is set on a sharp incline, so that the juice which trickles from the leaves very rapidly flows down its sides, and finally escapes by a hole at its lower end into a vessel placed beneath. No pressure of any sort is applied to the leaves. It takes about a quarter of an hour to cut leaves enough to fill a trough. The troughs are so distributed as to be easily accessible to the cutters. Their number is generally five; and by the time the fifth is filled, the cutters return to the first and throw out the leaves, which they regard as exhausted. The leaves are neither infused nor boiled, nor is any use afterwards made of them except for manure.

When the vessels receiving the juice become filled, the latter is removed to a cask and reserved for evaporation. This may be done at once, or it may be delayed for weeks or even months, the juice, it is said, not fermenting or spoiling. The evaporation is generally conducted in a copper vessel; at the bottom of this is a large ladle, into which the impurities sink, and are from time to time removed as the boiling goes on. As soon as the inspissation has reached the proper point, which is determined solely by the experienced eye of the workman, the thickened juice is poured into large gourds or into boxes, and allowed to harden.

The drug is not always readily saleable in the island, but is usually bought up by speculators who keep it till there is a demand for it in England. The cultivators are small proprietors, but little capable as to mind or means of making experiments to improve the manufacture of the drug. It is said, however, that occasionally a little aloes of very superior kind is made for some special purpose by exposing the juice in a shallow vessel to solar heat till completely dry. But such a drug is stated to cost too much time and trouble to be profitable.[2563] The manufacture of aloes in the Dutch West Indian island of Curaçao is conducted in the same manner.[2564]

The manufacture of aloes in the Cape Colony has been thus described to us in a letter[2565] from Mr. Peter MacOwan of Gill College, Somerset East:—The operator scratches a shallow dish-shaped hollow in the dry ground, spreads therein a goatskin, and then proceeds to arrange around the margin a radial series of aloë leaves, the cut ends projecting inwards. Upon this, a second series is piled, and then a third—care being taken that the ends of each series overhang sufficiently, to drop clear into the central hollow. When these preparations have been made, the operator either “loafs about” after wild honey, or, more likely, lies down to sleep. The skin being nearly filled, four skewers run in and out at the edge square-fashion, give the means of lifting this primitive saucer from the ground, and emptying its contents into a cast-iron pot. The liquid is then boiled, an operation conducted with the utmost carelessness. Fresh juice is added to that which has nearly acquired the finished consistence; the fire is slackened or urged just as it happens, and the boiling is often interrupted for many hours, if neglect be more convenient than attention. In fact, the process is thoroughly barbarous, conducted without industry or reflection; it is mostly carried on by Bastaards and Hottentots, but not by Kaffirs. “The only aloë I have seen used,” says Mr. MacOwan, “is the very large one with di-or tri-chotomous inflorescence,—_A. ferox_, I believe.” Backhouse[2566] also names “_Aloë ferox?_” as the species he saw used near Port Elizabeth in 1838.

[2563] Some extremely fine Barbados aloes in the London market in 1842 was said to have been manufactured in a vacuum-pan.

[2564] Oudemans, _Handleiding tot de Pharmacognosie_, 1865. 316.

[2565] Under date May 7, 1871, addressed to myself.—D. H.

[2566] _Visit to Mauritius and South Africa_, 1844. 157, also 121.

From another correspondent, we learn that the making of aloes in the Cape Colony is not carried on by preference, but is resorted to when more profitable work is scarce. The drug is sold by the farmers to the merchants of the towns on the coast, some of whom have exerted themselves to obtain a better commodity, and have even imported living aloe-plants from Barbados.

Nothing is known of the manufacture of the so-called _Socotrine_ or _Zanzibar Aloes_, or even with certainty in what precise localities it is carried on.

=General Description=—The differences in the several kinds of commercial aloes are due to various causes, such as the species of _Aloë_ employed and the method of extracting the juice. The drug varies exceedingly: some is perfectly transparent and amorphous, with a glassy conchoidal fracture; some is opaque and dark with a dull waxy fracture, or opaque and pallid; or it may be of a light orange-brown and highly crystalline. It varies in consistence in every degree, from dry and brittle to pasty, and even entirely fluid and syrup-like.

These diverse conditions are partially explained by an examination of the very fluid aloes that has been imported of recent years from Bombay. If some of this aloes is allowed to repose, it gradually separates into two portions,—the upper a transparent, black liquid,—the lower, an orange-brown crystalline sediment. If the whole be allowed to evaporate spontaneously, we get aloes of two sorts in the same mass; the one from the upper portion being dark, transparent and amorphous, the other rather opaque and highly crystalline. Should the two layers become mixed, an intermediate form of the drug results.

The _Hepatic Aloes_ of the old writers[2567] was doubtless this rather opaque form of Socotrine Aloes; but the term has come to be used somewhat vaguely for any sort of liver-coloured aloes, and appears to us unworthy to be retained. Much of the opaque, so-called _Hepatic Aloes_ does not however owe its opacity to crystals, but to a feculent matter the nature of which is doubtful.

The odour of aloes is a character which is much depended on by dealers for distinguishing the different varieties, but it can only be appreciated by experience, and certainly cannot be described.[2568]

[2567] As Macer Floridus in the 10th century, who writes:—

“Sunt Aloës species geminæ, quæ subrubet estque Intus sicut hepar cum frangitur, hæc _epatite_ Dicitur et magnas habet in medicamine vires, Utilior piceo quæ fructa colore videtur.”

[2568] Thus the pale, liver-coloured aloes of Natal is invariably associated with the transparent Cape Aloes, simply from the fact that the two drugs have a similar smell. Again, the aloes of Curaçao is at once recognized by its odour, which an experienced druggist pronounces to be quite different from that of the aloes produced in Barbados.

=Varieties=—The principal varieties of aloes found in English commerce are the following:—

1. _Socotrine Aloes_—also called _Bombay_, _East Indian_, or _Zanzibar Aloes_, and when opaque and liver-coloured, Hepatic Aloes. It is imported in kegs and tin-lined boxes from Bombay, whither it has been carried by the Arab traders from the African coast, the Red Sea ports, or by way of Zanzibar, from Socotra. When of fine quality, it is of a dark reddish-brown, of a peculiar, rather agreeable odour, comparable to myrrh or saffron. In thin fragments, it is seen to be of an orange-brown; its powder is of a tawny reddish-brown. When moistened with spirit of wine, and examined in a thin stratum under the microscope, good Socotrine Aloes is seen to contain an abundance of crystals. As imported, it is usually soft, at least in the interior of the mass, but it speedily dries and hardens by keeping.[2569] It is occasionally imported in a completely fluid state (_Liquid Socotrine Aloes_, _Aloë Juice_), and is not unfrequently somewhat sour and deteriorated.

Some fine aloes from Zanzibar, of which a very small quantity was offered for sale in 1867, was contained in a skin, and composed of two layers, the one amorphous, the other a granular translucent substance of light colour, which when softened and examined with a lens, was seen to be a mass of crystals. A very bad, dark, fœtid sort of aloes is brought to Aden from the interior. It seems to be the _Moka Aloes_ of some writers.

The quantity of aloes imported into Bombay in the year 1871-72 was 892 cwt., of which 736 cwt. are reported as shipped from the Red Sea ports and Aden.[2570]

[2569] The average loss as estimated in the drying of 560 lb., upon several occasions, was about 14 per cent.—Laboratory statistics, communicated by Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, London.

[2570] _Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the Presidency of Bombay for 1871-72_, pt. ii. 19.

2. _Barbados Aloes_—Characteristic samples show it as a hard dry substance of a deep chocolate-brown, with a clean, dull, waxy fracture. In small fragments it is seen to be translucent and of an orange-brown hue. When breathed upon, it exhales an odour analogous to, but easily distinguishable from, that of Socotrine aloes. It is imported in boxes and gourds. The gourds, into which the aloes has been poured in a melted state through a square hole, over which a bit of calico is afterwards nailed, contain from 10 to 40 lb. or more. Of late years, Barbados aloes having a smooth and glassy fracture has been imported; it is known to the London drug-brokers as “_Capey Barbados_.” By keeping, it passes into the usual variety having a dull fracture.

The export of aloes from Barbados in 1871, as shown by the _Blue Book_ for that colony, was 1046 cwt., of which 954 cwt. were shipped to the United Kingdom.

3. _Curaçao Aloes_—manufactured in the Dutch West Indian islands of Curaçao, Bonaire, and Aruba, is imported into this country by way of Holland, packed in boxes of 15 to 28 lb. each. In appearance it resembles Barbados aloes, but has a distinctive odour.

4. _Cape Aloes_—The special features of this sort of aloes are its brilliant conchoidal fracture and peculiar odour. Small splinters seen by transmitted light are highly transparent and of an amber colour; the powder is of a pale tawny yellow. When the drug is moistened and examined under the microscope, no crystals can be detected, even after the lapse of some days. Cape aloes has the odour of other kinds of aloes, with a certain sourish smell which easily distinguishes it. Several qualities are recognized, chiefly by the greater or lesser brilliancy of fracture, and by the tint of the powder.

From the _Blue Book_ for the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, published at Cape Town in 1873, it appears that the export of aloes in 1872 was 484,532 lb. (4326 cwt.); and that the average market value during the year was 3¾_d._, the lowest price, 1½_d._, being at Riversdale and Mossel Bay, and the highest, 11_d._, at Swellendam. The drug is shipped from Cape Town, Mossel Bay and Algoa Bay.

5. _Natal Aloes_—Aloes is also imported from Natal, and since 1870 in considerable quantity. Most of it is of an hepatic kind and completely unlike the ordinary Cape aloes, inasmuch as it is of a greyish-brown and very opaque. Moreover it contains a crystalline principle which has been found in no other sort of aloes.

The drug is manufactured in the upper districts of Natal, between Pietermaritzburg and the Quathlamba mountains, especially in the Umvoti and Mooi River Counties, at an elevation of 2000 to 4000 feet above the sea. The plant used is a large aloë which has not yet been botanically identified. The people who make the drug are British and Dutch settlers, employing Kaffir labourers. The process is not very different from that followed in making Cape aloes, but is conducted with more intelligence. The leaves are cut obliquely into slices, and allowed to exude their juice in the hot sunshine. The juice is then boiled down in iron pots, some care being taken to prevent burning, by stirring the liquid as it becomes thick. The drug while still hot, is poured into wooden cases, in which it is shipped to Europe.[2571] The exports from the colony have been as follows:—[2572]

1868 1869 1870 1871 1872
none 38 cwt. 646 cwt. 372 cwt. 501 cwt.

=Chemical Composition=—All kinds of aloes have an odour of the same character and a bitter disagreeable taste. The odour which is often not unpleasant, especially in Socotrine aloes, is due to a _volatile oil_, which the drug contains only in minute proportion. T. and H. Smith of Edinburgh, who contributed a specimen of it to the Vienna Exhibition of 1873, inform us that they obtained it by subjecting to distillation with water 400 lb. of aloes, which quantity they estimate to have yielded about an ounce. The oil is stated in a letter we have received from them, to be a mobile pale yellow liquid, of sp. gr. 0·863, with a boiling point of 266-271° C.

Pure aloes dissolves easily in spirit of wine with the exception of a few flocculi; it is insoluble in chloroform and bisulphide of carbon, as well as in the so-called petroleum ether, the most volatile portion of American petroleum. The sp. gr. of fine transparent fragments of aloes, dried at 100° C., and weighed in the last named fluid at 16° C., was found by one of us (F.) to be 1·364; showing that aloes is much more ponderous than most of the resins, which seldom have a higher sp. gr. than 1·00 to 1·10. In water aloes dissolves completely only when heated. On cooling, the aqueous solution, whether concentrated or dilute, becomes turbid by the separation of resinous drops, which unite into a brown mass,—the so-called _Resin of Aloes_.[2573] The clear solution, after separation of this substance, has a slightly acid reaction; it is coloured dark brown by alkalis, black by ferric chloride, and is precipitated yellowish-grey by neutral lead acetate. Cold water dissolves about half its weight of aloes, forming an acid liquid which exhibits similar reactions. The solution of aloes in potash or ammonia is precipitated by acids, but not by water.

[2571] We have to thank J. W. Akerman, Esq., of Pietermaritzburg, for the foregoing information as to the manufacture of this drug.

[2572] _Blue Books for the Colony of Natal for 1868, 1869, 1870, 1871, 1872._

[2573] The average yield of aqueous extract made by the pharmacopœia process from commercial Socotrine aloes containing about 14 per cent. of water, was found from the record of five experiments, in which 179 lb. were used, to be 62·7 per cent. Barbados aloes, which is always much drier, afforded on an average 80 per cent.

The most interesting constituents of aloes are the substances known as _Aloïn_. This name was originally applied to an aloïn which, as it appears to be found exclusively in Barbados aloes, is now termed _Barbaloïn_, in order to distinguish it from allied substances occurring in Natal and Socotrine aloes.

Barbaloïn was discovered by T. and H. Smith of Edinburgh in 1851,[2574] and was described (1851) by Stenhouse. From good qualities of the drug it can be obtained, according to Tilden,[2575] as a crystalline mass, to the extent of 20 to 25 per cent., but in others it appears to occur partly amorphous or in a chemically altered state. Barbaloïn is a neutral substance, crystallizing in tufts of small yellow prisms. These crystals represent _hydrated_ aloïn, and part with one molecule of water (=2·69 per cent.) by desiccation _in vacuo_, or by the prolonged heat of a water-bath. Barbaloïn, C₃₄H₃₆O₁₄ + H₂O, dissolves sparingly in water or alcohol but very freely if either liquid be even slightly warmed; it is insoluble in ether.

The solutions alter quickly if made a little alkaline, but if neutral or slightly acid, are by no means very prone to decomposition. By oxidation with nitric acid, barbaloïn yields, as Tilden (1872) has shown, about a third of its weight of chrysammic acid, besides aloëtic, oxalic, and picric acids. It easily combines with bromine to form yellow needles of _Bromaloïn_, C₃₄H₃₀Br₆O₁₄; _Chloraloïn_, C₃₄H₃₀Cl₆O₁₄ + 6H₂O, crystallizing in prisms, has likewise been obtained.

In examining Natal aloes in 1871, we observed it to contain a distinct crystalline body, much less soluble than the ordinary aloïn of Barbados aloes. We have accordingly named it _Nataloïn_.

Nataloïn exists naturally in Natal aloes, from which it can be easily prepared in the crude state, if the drug is triturated with an equal weight of alcohol at a temperature not exceeding 48° C. This will dissolve the amorphous portion, from which the crystals should be separated by a filter, and washed with a small quantity of cold spirit. From 16 to 25 per cent. of crude nataloïn in pale yellow crystals may be thus extracted. When purified by crystallization from methylic alcohol or spirit of wine, it forms thin, brittle, rectangular scales, often with one or more of their angles truncated. The formula assigned to nataloïn by Tilden, which is supported by the composition of the acetyl derivative he has succeeded in obtaining, is C₂₅H₂₈O₁₁.

At 15·5° C., 60 parts of alcohol, 35 of methylic alcohol,[2576] 50 of acetic ether, 1236 of ether, and 230 of absolute alcohol, dissolve respectively one part of nataloïn. It is scarcely more soluble in warm than in cold spirit of wine, so that to obtain crystals it is best to allow the solution to evaporate spontaneously. Water hot or cold dissolves it very sparingly. Nataloïn gives off no water when exposed over oil of vitriol, or to a temperature of 100° C. By the action of nitric acid, it affords both oxalic and picric acids, but no chrysammic acid. It appears not to combine with chlorine or bromine, and we have failed in obtaining from it any such body as bromaloïn.

[2574] Most beautiful specimens have been presented to each of us by these gentlemen.

[2575] _Pharm. Journ._ April 28, 1872. 845.—See also Nov. 5, 1870. 375.

[2576] The best crystals can be got by this solvent.

Liquid Socotrine aloes, imported into London about 1852, was noticed by Pereira to abound in minute crystals, which he termed the _Aloïn of Socotrine Aloes_, and regarded as probably identical with that of Barbados aloes. Some fine dry aloes from Zanzibar of very pale hue, in our possession, is in reality a perfectly crystalline mass.

Histed was the first to assert that the crystalline matter of Socotrine or Zanzibar aloes is a peculiar substance, according neither with barbaloïn nor with nataloïn. This observation was fully corroborated by our own experiments,[2577] made chiefly on the Zanzibar aloes just described, and we shall call the substance thus discovered _Socaloïn_. In this drug, the crystals are prisms of comparatively large size, such as we have never observed in Natal aloes. They cannot be so easily isolated as nataloïn, since they are nearly as soluble as the amorphous matter surrounding them. Histed recommends treating the powdered crude drug with a little alcohol, sp. gr. 0·960, and strongly pressing the pasty mass between several thicknesses of calico; then dissolving the yellow crystalline cake in warm weak alcohol, and collecting the crystals which are formed by cooling and repose.

Socaloïn forms tufted acicular prisms, which by solution in methylic alcohol may be got 2 to 3 millimetres long. It is much more soluble than nataloïn. At ordinary temperatures, 30 parts of alcohol, 9 of acetic ether, 380 of ether, 90 of water are capable of dissolving respectively one part of socaloïn; while in methylic alcohol, it is most abundantly soluble. Socaloïn is a hydrate, losing when dried over oil of vitriol 11 to 12 per cent. of water, but slowly regaining it if afterwards exposed to the air. Its elementary composition according to the analysis made by one of us (F.) is C₃₄H₃₈O₁₅ + 5 H₂O. We have not succeeded in obtaining any well-defined bromine compound of socaloïn.

The three aloïns, _Barbaloïn_, _Nataloïn_, and _Socaloïn_, are easily distinguished by the following beautiful reaction first noticed by Histed:—a drop of nitric acid on a porcelain slab gives with a few particles of barbaloïn or nataloïn, a vivid crimson,[2578] but produces little effect with socaloïn. To distinguish barbaloïn from nataloïn, test each by adding a minute quantity to a drop or two of oil of vitriol, then allowing the _vapour_ from a rod touched with nitric acid to pass over the surface. Barbaloïn (and socaloïn) will undergo no change, but nataloïn will assume a fine blue.[2579]

[2577] Flückiger, _Crystalline Principles in Aloes_,—_Pharm. Journ._ September 2, 1871. 195.

[2578] Rapidly fading in the case of barbaloïn, but permanent with nataloïn unless heat be applied.

[2579] These reactions may be sometimes got even with the crude drugs.

The researches of E. von Sommaruga and Egger in Vienna (1874) have been directed in particular to the aloïn of Socotrine aloes. The melting point of this aloïn was found to be between 118° and 120° C., that of barbaloïn being much higher. The authors conclude that the three form an homologous series, that their composition may probably be represented thus:—

Barbaloïn C₁₇H₂₀O₇
Nataloïn C₁₆H₁₈O₇
Socaloïn C₁₅H₁₆O₇

They derive in all probability from anthracene, C₁₄H₁₀.

The portion of aloes insoluble in cold water was formerly distinguished as _Resin of Aloes_, from the soluble portion which was called _Bitter of aloes_ or _Aloëtin_. From the labours of Kossmann (1863), these portions appear to have nearly the same composition. The soluble portions treated with dilute sulphuric acid, is said to yield _Aloëresic_ and _Aloëretic Acids_, both crystallizable, besides the indifferent substance _Aloëretin_. These observations have not to our knowledge been confirmed.

It has been shown by Tilden and Rammell[2580] that the _Resin of Aloes_ may by prolonged treatment with boiling water be separated into two bodies, which they distinguish as _Soluble Resin A._ and _Insoluble Resin B._ With the first it is possible to form a brominated compound, which though non-crystalline is apparently of definite composition. In the view of these chemists the _Resin A._ is a kind of anhydride of barbaloïn—Barbaloïn, 2(C₃₄H₃₆O₁₄) less H₂O = Aloe Resin A., C₆₈H₇₀O₂₇. The resin boiled with nitric acid yields a large amount of chrysammic acid, together with picric and oxalic acids, and carbonic anhydride. _Insoluble Resin B._ was found to have nearly the same composition as _Resin A._

[2580] _Pharm. Journ._ Sept. 21, 1872. 235.

Aloes treated with various reagents affords a number of remarkable products. Thus, according to Rochleder and Czumpelick (1861) it yields, when boiled with soda-lye, colourless crystals an inch long, which appear to consist of a salt of _Paracumaric Acid_, together with small quantities of fragrant essential oils and volatile fatty acids.

When boiled with dilute sulphuric acid, aloes yields paracumaric acid, from which by fusion with caustic potash, as also directly from aloes, Hlasiwetz (1865) obtained _Para-oxybenzoic Acid_ (p. 408). Weselsky (1872-73) has shown that accompanying the last two products, there is a peculiar, crystallizable acid, C₉H₁₀O₃, which he has named _Alorcinic Acid_.

By distillation with quicklime, E. Robiquet (1846) obtained _Aloïsol_, a yellowish oil, which Rembold (1866) proved to be a mixture of dimethylated phenol (_Xylenol_)

{(CH₃)₂
C₇H₃ {, with acetone and hydrocarbons.
{OH

Nitric acid forms with Barbadoes aloes, but still better, as Tilden has shown, with barbaloïn, _Aloëtic Acid_, C₁₄H₄(NO₂)₄O₂, _Chrysammic Acid_, C₁₄H₄(NO₂)₄O₄, and finally _Picric Acid_, together with _Oxalic Acid_. The first two of these acids are distinguished by the splendid tints of their salts, which might be utilized in dyeing.

Chlorine, passed into an aqueous solution of aloes, forms a variety of substitution-products, and finally _Chloranil_, C₆Cl₄O₂.

When somewhat strongly heated, aloes swells up considerably, and after ignition leaves a light, slow-burning charcoal, almost free from inorganic constituents. Ordinary Cape aloes, for example, dried at 100° C., leaves only 1 per cent. of ash.

=Commerce=—There were imported into the United Kingdom in the year 1870, 6264 cwt. of aloes. Of this quantity, South Africa shipped 4811 cwt.; and Barbados 970 cwt. The remainder was probably furnished by Eastern Africa.

The commercial value of the varieties of aloes is very different. In 1874, _Barbados Aloes_ was quoted in price-currents at £3 5_s._ to £9 10_s._ per cwt.; _Socotrine_ at £5 to £13; while _Cape Aloes_ was offered at £1 10_s._ to £2. In England, the first two alone are allowed for pharmaceutical preparations. Even the _Veterinary Pharmacopœia_[2581] names only _Aloë Barbadensis_. Cape Aloes is esteemed on the Continent, and chiefly consumed there.

=Use=—Aloes is a valuable purgative in very common use, it is generally given combined with other drugs.

=Adulteration=—The physical characters of aloes, such as colour of the powder, odour, consistence and freedom from obvious impurity, coupled with its solubility in weak alcohol, usually suffice for determining its goodness.

BULBUS SCILLÆ.

_Radix Scillæ_; _Squill_; F. _Bulbe ou squames de Scille_, _Ognon marin_; G. _Meerzwiebel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Urginea maritima_ Baker[2582] (_Scilla maritima_ L., _Urginea Scilla_ Steinheil). It is found generally in the regions bordering the Mediterranean, as in Southern France, Italy, Dalmatia, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, North Africa and the Mediterranean islands. In Sicily, where it grows most abundantly, Urginea ascends to elevations of 3000 feet. It is also very common throughout the South of Spain, where it is by no means confined to the coast; it occurs also in Portugal. In the Riviera of Genoa the peasants like to see it growing under the fig trees.

Two varieties of squill, termed respectively _white_ and _red_, are distinguished by druggists. In the first, the bulb-scales are colourless; in the second they are of a roseate hue. No other difference in the plants can be pointed out, nor have the two varieties distinct areas of growth.

=History=—Squill is one of the most ancient of medicines. Epimenides, a Greek who lived in the 30th Olympiad, is said to have made much use of it, from which circumstance it came to be called _Epimenidea_[2583]. It is also mentioned by Theophrastus, and was probably well known to all the ancient Greek physicians. Pliny was not only acquainted with it, but had noticed its two varieties. Dioscorides describes the method of making vinegar of squills; and a similar preparation, as well as compounds of squill with honey, were administered by the Arabian physicians, and still remain in use. The medical school of Salerno preferred the red variety of the drug, which on the whole is not frequently met with in mediæval literature.

[2581] By R. V. Tuson, London, 1869.

[2582] _Journ. of Linn. Soc._, Bot., xiii. (1872) 221.—The genus _Urginea_ has flat, discoid seeds, while in _Scilla_ proper they are triquetrous. The name _Urginea_ was given in allusion to the Algerian tribe Ben _Urgin_, near Bona, where Steinheil (1834) examined this plant.

[2583] Haller, _Bibliotheca botanica_, i. 12.

=Description=—The bulb of squill is pear-shaped, and of the size of a man’s fist or larger, often weighing more than four pounds. It has the usual structure of a tunicated bulb; its outer scales are reddish-brown, dry, scarious, and marked with parallel veins. The inner are fleshy and juicy, colourless or of a pale rose tint, thick towards the middle, very thin and delicate at the edges, smooth and shining on the surface. The fresh bulb has a mucilaginous, bitter, acrid taste, but not much odour.

For medicinal use, squill is mostly imported ready dried. The bulbs are collected in the month of August, at which period they are leafless, freed from their dry outer scales, cut transversely into thin slices, and dried in the sun. Thus prepared, the drug appears in the form of narrow, flattish or four-sided curved strips, 1 to 2 inches long, and ⅜ to ⅝ of an inch wide, flexible, translucent, of a pale dull yellowish colour, or when derived from the red variety, of a decided roseate hue. When thoroughly dried, they become brittle and pulverizable, but readily absorb water to the extent of about 11 per cent. Powdered squill by the absorption of water from the air, readily cakes together into a hard mass.

=Microscopic Structure=—The officinal portion of the plant being simply modified leaves, has the histological characters proper to many of those organs. The tissue is made up of polyhedral cells, covered on both sides of the scales by an epidermis provided with stomata. It is traversed by numerous vascular bundles, and also exhibits smaller bundles of laticiferous vessels. If thin slices of squill be moistened with dilute alcohol, most of the parenchymatous cells are seen to be loaded with _mucilage_, which contracts into a jelly on the addition of alcohol. In the interior of this jelly, crystalline particles are met with consisting of oxalate of calcium. This salt is largely deposited in cells, forming either bundles of needle-shaped crystals, or large solitary square prisms, frequently a millimetre long. In either case they are enveloped by the mucilaginous matter already mentioned. Oxalate of calcium as occurring in other plants has been shown in many instances to originate in the midst of mucilaginous matter. The fact is remarkably evident in _Scilla_, especially when examined in polarized light.

On shaking thin slices of the bulb with water, the crystals are deposited in sufficient quantity to become visible to the naked eye, though their weight is actually very small. Direct estimation of the oxalic acid (by titration with chamæleon solution) gave us only 3·07 per cent. of C₂CaO₄,3H₂O from white squill dried at 100° C., which moreover yielded only 2 to 5 per cent. of ash. It is these extremely sharp brittle crystals which occasion the itching and redness, and sometimes even vesication, which result from rubbing a slice of fresh squill on the skin. These effects, which have long been known, were attributed to a volatile acrid principle, until their true cause was recognized by Schroff.[2584]

[2584] We have found that the slimy juice of the leaves of _Agapanthus umbellatus_ Hérit., which is very rich in spicular crystals, also occasions when rubbed on the skin both itching and redness, lasting for several hours.

The mucilage also contains albuminous matters, hence the orange colour it assumes on addition of iodine. The vascular bundles are accompanied by some rows of longitudinally extended cells, containing a small number of starch granules. In the red squill the colouring matter is contained in many of the parenchymatous cells, others being entirely devoid of it. It turns blackish-green if a persalt of iron be added.

=Chemical Composition=—The most abundant among the constituents of squill are mucilaginous and saccharine matters. Mucilage may be precipitated by means of neutral and basic acetate of lead, yet there remains in solution another substance of the same class, called _Sinistrin_. It was discovered in 1879 by Schmiedeberg, who obtained it by mixing the powder of squill, either red or white, with a solution of basic acetate of lead in slight excess. The gummy matters thus forming insoluble lead compounds being removed, the liquid is deprived of the lead and mixed with slaked lime. An insoluble compound of sinistrin and calcium separates and yields the former on decomposing the well washed precipitate with carbonic acid. The small amount of calcium remaining in the filtrate is to be removed by adding cautiously to the warm solution the small quantity just required of oxalic acid. Lastly, sinistrin is thrown down by alcohol. It is a white amorphous powder, on exposure to air soon forming transparent brittle lumps. The composition of sinistrin is that of dextrin = C₆H₁₀O₅, both these substances being very closely allied, yet the aqueous solution of sinistrin deviates the plane of polarization to the left. The rotatory power appears not to be much influenced by the concentration or the temperature of the solution of sinistrin.

An alkaline solution of tartrate of copper is not acted upon by sinistrin. It is transformed into sugar by boiling it for half an hour with water containing 1 per cent. of sulphuric acid. The sugar thus produced is stated by Schmiedeberg to consist of lævulose[2585] and another sugar, which in all probability, when perfectly pure, must prove devoid of rotatory power.

The name sinistrin[2586] has also been applied to a mucilaginous matter extracted from barley (see Hordeum decorticatum); it remains to be proved that the latter is identical with the sinistrin of squill.

We have obtained a considerable amount of an uncrystallizable levogyre sugar by exhausting squill with dilute alcohol.[2587] Alcohol added to an aqueous infusion of squill causes the separation of the mucilage, together with albuminoid matter. If the alcohol is evaporated and a solution of tannic acid is added, the latter will combine with the _bitter principle_ of squill, which has not yet been isolated, although several chemists have devoted to it their investigations, and applied to it the names of _Scillitin_ or _Skuleïn_. Schroff, to whom we are indebted for a valuable monograph on Squill,[2588] infers from his physiological experiments the presence of a non-volatile acrid principle (_Skulein?_), together with scillitin, which latter he supposes to be a glucoside.

Merck of Darmstadt has isolated _Scillipicrin_, soluble in water; _Scillitoxin_, likewise a bitter principle, insoluble in water, but readily dissolving in alcohol; and _Scillin_, a crystalline substance, abundantly soluble in boiling ether. The physiological action of these substances and of _Scillaïn_ has been examined (1878) by Moeller, and by Jarmersted (1879); that of scillitoxin and scillaïn was found to be analogous to that of Digitalis.

[2585] This is the name applied to the lævogyrate uncrystallizable glucose produced, together with crystallizable dextro-glucose, by decomposing cane-sugar by means of dilute acids.

[2586] In 1834 first proposed, by Marquart, for inulin.

[2587] In Greece they have even attempted to manufacture alcohol by fermenting and distilling squill bulbs.—Heldreich, _Nutzpflanzen Griechenlands_, 1862. 7.

[2588] Reprinted from the _Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft der Aerzte zu Wien_, No. 42 (1864). Abstracted also in Canstatt’s _Jahresbericht_ 1864. 19, and 1865. 238.

=Commerce=—Dried squill, usually packed in casks, is imported into England from Malta.

=Use=—Commonly employed as a diuretic and expectorant.

=Substitutes=—There are several plants of which the bulbs are used in the place of the officinal squill, but which, owing to the abundance and low price of the latter, never appear in the European market.

1. _Urginea altissima_ Baker (_Ornithogalum altissimum_ L.), a South African species, very closely related to the common squill, and having, as it would appear, exactly the same properties.[2589]

2. _U. indica_ Kth. (_Scilla indica_ Roxb.), a widely diffused plant, occurring in Northern India, the Coromandel Coast, Abyssinia, Nubia, and Senegambia. It is known by the same Arabic and Persian names as _U. maritima_, and its bulb is used for similar purposes. But according to Moodeen Sheriff[2590] it is a poor substitute for the latter, having little or no action when it is old and large.

3. _Scilla indica_ Baker[2591] (non Roxb.), (_Ledebouria hyacinthina_ Roth), native of India and Abyssinia, has a bulb which is often confused in the Indian bazaars with the preceding, but is easily distinguishable when entire by being _scaly_ (not tunicated); it is said to be a better representative of the European squill.[2592]

4. _Drimia ciliaris_ Jacq., a plant of the Cape of Good Hope, of the order _Liliaceæ_. Its bulb much resembles the officinal squill, but has a juice so irritating if it comes in contact with the skin, that the plant is called by the colonists _Jeukbol_, i.e. _Itch-bulb_. It is used medicinally as an emetic, expectorant, and diuretic.[2593]

5. _Crinum asiaticum_ var. _toxicarium_ Herbert (_C. toxicarium_ Roxb.), a large plant, with handsome white flowers and noble foliage, cultivated in Indian gardens, and also found wild in low humid spots in various parts of India and the Moluccas, and on the sea-coast of Ceylon. The bulb has been admitted to the _Pharmacopœia of India_ (1868), chiefly on the recommendation of O’Shaughnessy, who considers it a valuable emetic. We have not been able to examine a specimen, and cannot learn that the drug has been the subject of any chemical investigation.

[2589] Pappe, _Floræ Medicæ Capensis Prodromus_, ed. 2, 1857. 41.

[2590] _Supplement to the Pharmacopœia of India_, Madras, 1869. 250.

[2591] Saunders, _Refugium Botanicum_, iii. (1870) appendix, p. 12.

[2592] _Suppl. to the Pharm. of India_, 250.

[2593] Pappe, _op. cit._ 42.

MELANTHACEÆ.

RHIZOMA VERATRI ALBI.

_Radix Veratri_, _Radix Hellebori albi_; _White Hellebore_; F. _Racine d’Ellébore blanc_; G. _Weisse Nieswurzel_, _Germer_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Veratrum album_ L.—This plant occurs in moist grassy places in the mountain regions of Middle and Southern Europe, as Auvergne, the Pyrenees, Spain, Switzerland, and Austria. In Norway it reaches, according to Schübeler (_l. c._ p. 556), the latitude of 71°. It also grows throughout European and Asiatic Russia as far as 61° N. lat., in Amurland, the island of Saghalin, Northern China, and Japan.

=History=—The confusion that existed among the ancients between _Melampodium_, _Helleborus_, and _Veratrum_, makes the identification of the plant under notice extremely unsatisfactory.[2594] It was perfectly described or figured by Brunfels, Tragus, and other botanists of the 16th century, and likewise well known to Gerarde (_circa_ A.D. 1600). Under the names of _Elleborus_ (or _Helleborus albus_) and _Veratrum_, it has had a place in all the London Pharmacopœias. In the British Pharmacopœia (1867) it has been replaced by the nearly allied American species, _Veratrum viride_ Aiton.

=Description=—White Hellebore has a cylindrical, fleshy, perennial rootstock, 2 to 3 inches in length, and ¾ to 1 inch in diameter, beset with long stout roots. When fresh it has an alliaceous smell. In the dried state, as it occurs in commerce, it is cylindrical or subconical, of a dull earthy black, very rough in its lower half with the pits and scars of old roots; more or less beset above with the remains of recent roots. The top is crowned with the bases of the leaves, the outer of which are coarsely fibrous. The plant has generally been cut off close to the summit of the rhizome, which latter is seldom quite entire, being often broken at its lower end, or cut transversely to facilitate drying. Internally it is nearly colourless; a transverse section shows a broad white ring surrounding a spongy pale buff central portion.

The drug has a sweetish, bitterish acrid taste, leaving on the tongue a sensation of numbness and tingling. In the state of powder, it occasions violent sneezing.

=Microscopic Structure=—When cut transversely, the rhizome shows at a distance of 2-4 mm. from the thin dark outer bark, a fine brown zigzag line (medullary sheath) surrounding the central part, which exhibits a pith not well defined. The zone between the outer bark and the medullary sheath is pure white, with the exception of some isolated cells containing resin or colouring matter, and those places where the rootlets pass from the interior. The latter is sprinkled as it were, with short, thin somewhat lighter bundles of vessels which run irregularly out in all directions. The parenchyme of the centre rhizome is filled with starch, and contains numerous needles of calcium oxalate. The rootlets, which the collectors usually remove, are living and juicy only in the upper half of the rhizome, the lower part of which is rather woody and porous.

=Chemical Composition=—In 1819 Pelletier and Caventou detected in the rhizome of _Veratrum_ a substance which they regarded as identical with veratrine, the existence of which had just been discovered by Meissner in cebadilla seeds. But according to the observations of Maisch (1870) and Dragendorff,[2595] the veratrine of cebadilla cannot be found either in _Veratrum album_ or _V. viride_.

[2594] Those who wish to study the question, can consult Murray’s _Apparatus Medicaminum_. vol. v. (1790) 142-146.

[2595] _Beitr. zur gerichtl. Chemie_, St Petersb., 1872. 95.

Simon (1837) found in the root the alkaloid _Jervine_, Tobien (1877) the _Veratroïdine_, discovered by Bullock (1876) in _Veratrum viride_. Tobien assigns to jervine the formula C₂₇H₄₇N₂O₈; that of veratroïdine is not yet settled. The latter is to some extent soluble in water.

Weppen (1872) has isolated from this drug _Veratramarin_, an amorphous, deliquescent, bitter principle. It occurs in minute quantity only, and is resolvable into sugar and other products. Veratramarin dissolves in water or spirit of wine, not in ether or in chloroform. The same observer has also isolated, to the extent of ½ per mille, _Jervic Acid_ in hard crystals of considerable size,[2596] of the composition C₁₄H₁₀O₁₂ + 2 H₂O. The acid requires 100 parts of water for solution at the ordinary temperature, and a little less of boiling alcohol. It is decidedly acid, and forms well-defined crystallizable salts, containing 4 atoms of the monovalent metals.

By exhausting the entire rhizome (roots included) with ether and anhydrous alcohol, we obtained 25·8 per cent. of soft resin, which deserves further examination. Pectic matter to the amount of 10 per cent. was pointed out by Wiegand in 1841.

According to Schroff (1860), in the rootlets the active principle resides in the cortical part, the woody central portion being inert. He also asserts that the rhizome acts less strongly than the rootlets, and in a somewhat different manner.

=Commerce=—The drug is imported from Germany in bales. The price-currents distinguish _Swiss_ and _Austrian_, and generally name the drug as “_without fibre_.”

=Uses=—Veratrum is an emetic and drastic purgative, rarely used internally. It is occasionally employed in the form of ointment in scabies. Its principal consumption is in veterinary medicine.

=Substitutes=—The rhizome of the Austrian _Veratrum nigrum_ L. is said to be sometimes collected instead of White Hellebore; it is of much smaller size, and, according to Schroff, less potent. That of the Mexican _Helonias frigida_ Lindley (_Veratrum frigidum_ Schl.) appears to exactly resemble that of _Veratrum album_.

RHIZOMA VERATRI VIRIDIS.

_American White Hellebore_,[2597] _Indian Poke_.