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_,