first is in oblong pieces, flattish on one side, and convex on the other; compact, hard, heavy, internally of a dull red colour, variegated with yellow and white, and when recently powdered appears yellow, but on being kept becomes gradually redder. The second is the most valuable, and is brought to us in roundish pieces, with a large hole through the middle of each; it is more soft and friable than the former sort, and exhibits, when broken, many streaks of a bright red colour. "The marks of the goodness of rhubarb are, the liveliness of its colour when cut; its being firm and solid, but not flinty or hard; its being easily pulverable, and appearing when powdered of a fine bright yellow colour; its imparting to the spittle, when chewed, a deep saffron tinge, and not proving slimy or mucilaginous in the mouth; its taste is subacrid, bitterish, and somewhat styptic; the smell lightly aromatic."

The purgative qualities of rhubarb are extracted more perfectly by water than by rectified spirit: the root remaining after the action of water is almost if not wholly inactive; whereas after repeated digestion in spirit, it proves still very considerably purgative. The virtue of the watery infusion, on being inspissated by a gentle heat, is so much diminished, that a drachm of the extract is said to have scarcely any greater effect than a scruple of the root in substance; the spirituous tincture loses less; half a drachm of this extract proving moderately purgative. "The qualities of this root are that of a gentle purgative, and so gentle, that it is often inconvenient by reason of the bulk of the dose required, which in adults must be from half a drachm to a drachm. When given in a large dose, it will occasion some griping, as other purgatives do; but it is hardly ever heating to the system, or shews the other effects of the more drastic

long chain of mountains in Tartary, which extend from Selin to the lake Kokonor near Tibet. At a proper age the roots are taken up, which according to Pallas, is in April or May; but in Bell's account, this is said to be done in the autumn: they are then to be cleaned, the smaller branches cut off, and the larger roots divided into pieces of a proper size; after this they are perforated and suspended to dry either upon the neighbouring trees, or in tents, or as some have reported, to the horns of sheep. The proper exsiccation of this root is certainly attended with considerable difficulty, and the cultivators of rhubarb in this country have not yet agreed in what mode this is to be best accomplished. The recent root in this process, according to the experiment of Sir William Fordyce, loses nearly nine-tenths of its weight." See Trans. of the Society for Encouragement of Arts, &c.

purgatives. The purgative quality is accompanied with a bitterness, which is often useful in restoring the tone of the stomach when it has been lost; and for the most part its bitterness makes it sit better on the stomach than many other purgatives do. Its operation joins well with that of neutral laxatives; and both together operate in a lesser dose than either of them would do singly.

"Some degree of stipticity is always evident in this medicine, and as this quality acts when that of the purgative has ceased, so in cases of diarrhoea, when any evacuation is proper, rhubarb has been considered as the most proper means to be employed. I must however remark here, that in many cases of diarrhoea, no further evacuation than what is occasioned by the disease is necessary or proper.— The use of rhubarb in substance for keeping the belly regular, for which it is frequently employed, is by no means proper, as the astringent quality is ready to undo what the purgative had done; but I have found that the purpose mentioned may be obtained by it, if the rhubarb is chewed in the mouth, and no more is swallowed than what the saliva has dissolved. And I must remark in this way employed it is very useful to dyseptic persons. Analogous to this, is the use of rhubarb in a solution, in which it appears to me that the astringent quality is not so largely extracted as to operate so powerfully as when the rhubarb was employed in substance." [Wilden. Woodv. Murray. Linn.

SECTION XXII.

Ipecacuanha.

Callicocea Ipecacuanha.-SCHREBER.

THE plant from which this valuable root is obtained was till lately unknown, notwithstanding that the drug has been in common use for considerably more than a century. It has been referred to several different genera, as those of Paris, euphorbia, conicera, viola, psycotria; Mutis and the younger Linnæus ascribed it to the last of these. Schreber asserted it to be the root of a small plant which he denominates Callicocea, a native of Brazil, and belonging to Jussieu's order of rubiaceæ. Woodville leaves the question undecided, and gives it no reference whatever. Schreber has now been ascertained to be correct. The plant was first accurately figured and described in Vol. 6 of the Transactions of the Linnæan Society,

by Professor Brotero of Coimbra, from observations made on living specimens in Brazil, by Dr. Gomes, and from dried specimens sent to Europe.

Piso divides this root into two sorts, the white and the brown, or according to Geoffroy, the Peruvian and Brazilian ipecacuanha *; bnt three sorts are evidently distinguishable in our shops, viz. ashcoloured or grey, brown, and white.

The ash-coloured is brought from Peru, and " is a small wrinkled root, bent and contorted into a great variety of figures, brought over in short pieces full of wrinkles and deep circular fissures, down to a small white woody fibre that runs in the middle of each piece : the cortical part is compact, brittle, looks smooth and resinous upon breaking: it has very little smell; the taste is bitterish and subacrid, covering the tongue as it were with a kind of mucilage. The brown is small, somewhat more wrinkled than the foregoing; of a brown or blackish colour without, and white within; this is brought from Brazil. The white sort is woody, has no wrinkles, and no perceptible bitterness in taste. The first, the ash-coloured or grey ipecacuanha, is that usually preferred for medicinal use. The brown has been sometimes observed, even in a small dose, to produce violent effects. The white, though taken in a large one, has scarce any effect at all+." Dr. Irving has ascertained by experiments, that this root contains a gummy and resinous matter, and that the gum is in much greater proportion, and is more powerfully emetic than the resin that the cortical part is more active than the ligneous, and that the whole root manifests an antiseptic and astringent power. He also found its emetic quality to be most effectually counteracted by means of the acetous acid, insomuch, that thirty grains of the powder taken in two ounces of vinegar, produced only some loose stools.

The first account we have of ipecacuanha is that published by Piso, in 1649; but it did not come into general use till thirty years afterwards, when Helvetius §, under the patronage of Louis XIV. employed it at the Hotel de Dieu, and introduced this root into com

Pison. ind. res. Med. et Nat. p. 231.

+ Edinb. New Dispens. p. 211.

See the Dissertation which obtained the prize medal of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh, for 1784.

§ See Recueil des Methodes, p. 280.

mon practice; and experience has proved it to be the mildest and safest emetic with which we are acquainted, having this peculiar advantage, that if it does not operate by vomit, it readily passes off by the other emunctories.

It was first introduced to us with the character of an almost infallible remedy, in dysenteries and other inveterate fluxes, as diarrhoa, menorrhagia, and leucorrhoea, and also in disorders proceeding from obstructions of long standing; nor has it lost much of its reputation by time. The use of ipecacuanha in these fluxes is thought to depend upon its restoring perspiration; for in these cases, especially in dysentery and diarrhoea, the skin is dry and tense; and while the common diaphoretics usually pass off by stool, small doses of this root have been administered with the best effects, proving both laxative and diaphoretic*. In the spasmodic asthma, Dr. Akenside † remarks, that where nothing contraindicates repeated vomiting, he knows no medicine so effectual as ipecacuanha. In violent paroxysms a scruple procures immediate relief. Where the complaint is habitual, from three to five grains every morning, or from five to ten every other morning, may be given for a month or six weeks.

This medicine has also been successfully used in hemorrhages. Several cases of menorrhagia are mentioned by Dahlberg §, in which one-third or half a grain was given every four hours till it effected a cure. These small doses are likewise found of great use in catarrhal and even consumptive cases, as well as in various states of fever. Dr. Cullen informs us ||, that he knew a practitioner who cured intermittents by giving five grains of ipecacuanha, or enough to excite nausea, an hour before the accession of the fit was expeeted; and that Dr. Thompson, formerly of Montrose, proposed to cure agues by the employment of emetics given at the time of accession, or at the end of the cold stage: and this practice has also been successful, and may indeed be executed by tartar emetic; but in trying

* Dr. Cullen attributes its good effects entirely to its purgative quality, M. M. vol. ii. p. 477.

Med. Trans. vol. i. p. 96.

See Gianella de admirabili Ipec. virtute in curandis febribus. Patav. 1754. Also Bergius (M. M. p. 103.) and others.

§ Vet. Acad. Handl. vol. xxxi. p. 316. a 1770.

|| L. c.

BITTER APPLE, CUCUMBER, or colocYNTH.

203

such practices, I have found, says he, the ipecacuanha more manageable than the other, and generally to be more easy to the patient."

Ipecacuanha, particularly in the state of powder, is now advantageously employed in almost every disease in which vomiting is indicated; and when combined with opium, under the form of pulvis sudorificus, it furnishes us with the most useful and active sweating medicine which we possess. It is also given with advantage in very small doses even when it produces no sensible operation. The full dose of ipecacuanha in substance is a scruple, though less doses will frequently produce an equal effect.

[Schreber. Piso. Trans. Lin. Soc.

SECTION XXIII.

Bitter Apple, Cucumber, or Colocynth.

Cucumis Colocynthis.

THE Colocynth, or coloquintida, is a species of cucumber. The root is annual, white, divided into long branches, which strike deeply into the ground; the stems trail, like those of the garden cucumber, a considerable length, and are beset with rough hairs: the leaves are of a triangular shape, obtuse, variously situated, hairy, on the upper surface of a fine green, beneath rough, and whitish : the flowers are yellow, solitary, and appear at the axillæ of the leaves; the calyx of the male flowers is bell-shaped, and divided at the brim into five tapering segments; the corolla is monopetalous, bell-shaped, and divided at the limb into pointed segments; the filaments are threc, two of which are bifid at the apex; they are all very short, and inserted into the calyx; the antheræ are linear, long, erect, and adhere together on the outer side; the calyx and corolla of the female flower are similar to those of the male; the three filaments are without antheræ: the germen is large; the style cylindrical, very short, furnished with three stigmata, which are thick, gibbous, bifid, and bent outwardly; the fruit is a round apple, of the size of an orange, divided into three cells, abounding with a pulpy matter, separated every where by cellular membrane, and including many ovate compressed seeds. The flowers appear from May till August.

Colocynth is imported for use to this part of Europe from Tur