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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"; but three sorts are evidently distinguishable in our shops, viz. ash. coloured 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 percep. tible bitterness in taste. The first, the ash-coloured or grey ipecacuan, 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 allt." 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 ipecacuan 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. em. ployed 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.

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 diarrhœa, menorrhagia, and leucorrhea, and also in disorders proceeding from obstructions of long standing; nor has it lost much of its reputation by time. The use of ipecacuan 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 ipecacuan. In vio. lent 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 expected; 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 suecessful, 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. 3754. Also Bergius (M. M. p. 103.) and others.

Vet. Acad. Handl, vol. xxxi. p. 316. a 1770. JL. 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."

Ipecacuan, particularly in the state of powder, is now advanta geously employed in almost every disease in which vomiting is indi cated; 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 ipecacuan 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 axilla 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 three, 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 in. cluding many ovate compressed seeds. The flowers appear from May till August.

key, but it is yet unknown here of what place this plant is a native, It seems to have been cultivated in Britain in the time of Turner, and the figure given in Woodville was drawn from a specimen of the plant produced by sowing the seed in a hot-bed. Though the plants thus raised put forth flowers readily, they are very rarely known to bear fruit. The spongy membranous medullary part of the fruit is directed for medicinal use: this," which to the taste is nauseous, acrid, and intensely bitter, on being boiled in water, ren, ders a large quantity of the liquor ropy and slimy ; even a tincture of it made in proof spirit is so glutinous as not to pass through a filter, and not easily through a common strainer. The watery decoctions inspissated, yield a large proportion, half of the weight of the colocynth, or more, of a mucilaginous extract; which purges strongly, but with much less irritation, and greater safety, than the colocynth itself, and appears to be the best preparation obtainable from this drastic drug."

This very powerful and irritating cathartic is the Koλoxuvis of the ancient Greeks, and the Alhandal of the Arabians. It was frequently employed by both in different diseases, though not without an apprehension of danger, from the violence of its effects, of which various instances are related. In doses of ten or twelve grains this substance purges with great vehemence, frequently producing violent gripes, bloody discharges, and even disordering the whole system. Many attempts, therefore, have been made to correct its virulence, by the addition of acids, astringents, and the like; but these seem to answer no other purpose than what might be equally effected by a reduction of the dose. "The best method of abating its virulence, without diminishing its purgative virtue, seems to be by triturating it with gummy farinaceous substances, or the oily seeds, which, without making any alteration in the colocynth itself, prevents its resinous particles from cohering, and sticking upon the membranes of the intestines, so as to irritate, inflame, or corrode them.

This drastic purgative has been recommended in various chronic complaints; but as several other cathartics have all the advantages of coloquintida, and may be used with more safety, its use is now seldom resorted to, especially alone.

[Lewis. Woodville. Schulz.

SECTION XXIV.

Columbo.

Calumba.-PHARM. LOND.

THE name of columbo-root seems to have had its origin in the supposition that it was brought to us from Ceylon: a supposition strengthened by its possessing the name of the principal town in that island. It being a staple export of the Portuguese, the place of growth was carefully concealed, and the plant itself unknown to botanists till very lately, when it was raised at Madras from a root brought to Dr. James Anderson of that place, from Mozambique. From a drawing in the possession of the Linnæan Society, the plant appears to belong to the natural order monospermum; but the genus cannot yet be determined, in consequence of the female flower not having hitherto been seen. It is brought from Columbo in knobs or circular pieces, brown, and wrinkled on the outer sur. face, yellowish within, and consisting of cortical, woody, and medullary lamina. Its smell is aromatic; its taste is pungent, and nauseously bitter.

Practitioners in the East Indies first borrowed the use of this root from the natives of those countries where it is produced, and found it of great service in most disorders of the stomach and bowels, and especially in the cholera, so fatal in hot climates. It stopped the vomiting in this complaint, more speedily and effectually than any other medicine; an effect attributed to its property of correcting the putrid disposition of the bile. With this intention its use has been recommended by Dr. Percival; and it has been successfully used in this country, not only in bilious complaints, but in various cases of dyspepsia.

We have given the botanical name with the spelling of the London College, who have changed Columba into Calumba. We see, however, no reason for this: Columbo is the usual pronunciation and orthography of the Ceylonese capital; and to depart from this node is to make an unnecessary deviation from the established chemical terms, derived from the same quarter, Columbium, and Columbite.

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