part 24

(1877).

[2071] Or Mesfioua, according to Ball, who also quotes the province Demenet.—_Journ. of the Linnean Soc._ Bot. xvi. (1878) 662.

[2072] Lib. iii. c. 86.

[2073] Lib. v. c. 1; lib. xxv. c. 38.

[2074] Smith, _Dict. of Greek and Roman Biography_, ii. (1846) 636.

Euphorbium is mentioned by numerous other early writers on medicine, as Rufus Ephesius, who probably flourished during the reign of Trajan, by Galen in the 2nd century, and by Vindicianus and Oribasius in the 4th. Aëtius and Paulus Ægineta, who lived respectively in the 6th and 7th centuries, were likewise acquainted with it; and it was also known to the Arabian school of medicine. In describing the route from Aghmat to Fez, El-Bekri[2075] of Granada, in 1068, mentioned the numerous plants “El-forbioun” growing in the country of the Beni Ouareth, a tribe of the Sanhadja; the author noticed the spiny herbaceous stems of the shrub abounding in the purgative milky juice.

Höst[2076] (1760-1768) stated that the plant, which he also correctly compared with Opuntia, is growing near Agader, south of Mogador.

The plant yielding euphorbium was further described at the beginning of the present century by an English merchant named Jackson, who had resided many years in Morocco. From the figures he published,[2077] the species was doubtfully identified with _Euphorbia canariensis_ L., a large cactus-like shrub, with quadrangular or hexagonal stems, abounding on scorched and arid rocks in the Canary Islands.

In the year 1749 it was pointed out in the (_Admiralty_) _Manual of Scientific Enquiry_, that the stems of which fragrants are found in commercial euphorbium, do not agree with those of _E. canariensis_. Berg carried the comparison further, and finally from the fragments in question drew up a botanical description, which with an excellent figure he published[2078] as _Euphorbia resinifera_. The correctness of his observations has been fully justified by specimens[2079] which were transmitted to the Royal Gardens, Kew, in 1870, and now form flourishing plants.

[2075] _Description de l’Afrique septentrionale_, traduite par M. de Slane, _Journal asiatique_, xiii. (Paris, 1859) 413.

[2076] _Nachrichten von Marokos und Fes_, Kopenhagen, 1781. 308.

[2077] _Account of the Empire of Morocco and the district of Suse_, Lond. 1809. 81. pl. 7.—The plate represents an entire plant, and also what purports to be a portion of a branch of the natural size. The latter is really the figure of a different species,—apparently that which has been recently named by Cosson _Euphorbia Beaumierana_.

[2078] Berg und Schmidt, _Offizinelle Gewächse_, iv. (1863) xxxiv. d.

[2079] They were procured by Mr. William Grace, and forwarded to England by Mr. C. F. Carstensen, British Vice-Consul at Mogador.

The drug has a place in all the early printed pharmacopœias.

=Collection=—Euphorbium is obtained by making incisions in the green fleshy branches of the plant. These incisions occasion an abundant exudation of milky juice which hardens by exposure to the air, encrusting the stems down which it flows; it is finally collected in the latter part of the summer. So great is the acridity of the exudation, that the collector is obliged to tie a cloth over his mouth and nostrils, to prevent the entrance of the irritating dust. The drug is said to be collected in districts lying east and south-east of the city of Morocco.

=Description=—The drug consists of irregular pieces, seldom more than an inch across and mostly smaller, of a dull yellow or brown waxy-looking substance, among which portions of the angular spiny stem of the plant may be met with. Many of the pieces encrust a tuft of spines or a flower-stalk or are hollow. The substance is brittle and translucent; splinters examined under the microscope exhibit no particular structure, even by the aid of polarized light; nor are starch granules visible.[2080] The odour is slightly aromatic, especially if heat is applied; but 10 lb. of the drug which we subjected to distillation afforded no essential oil. Euphorbium has a persistent and extremely acrid taste; its dust excites violent sneezing, and if inhaled, as when the drug is powdered, occasions alarming symptoms.

=Chemical Composition=—Analysis of euphorbium performed by one of us[2081] showed the composition of the drug to be as follows:—

Amorphous resin, C₁₀H₁₆O₂ 38 Euphorbon, C₁₃H₂₂O 22 Mucilage 18 Malates, chiefly of calcium and sodium 12 Mineral compounds 10 ------ 100

The amorphous resin is readily soluble in cold spirit of wine containing about 70 per cent. of alcohol. The solution has no acid reaction, but an extremely burning acrid taste: in fact it is to the amorphous indifferent resin that euphorbium owes its intense acridity. By evaporating the resin with alcoholic potash and neutralizing the residue with a dilute aqueous acid, a brown amorphous substance, the _Euphorbic Acid_ of Buchheim,[2082] is precipitated. It is devoid of the acridity of the resin from which it originated, but has a bitterish taste.

From the drug deprived of the amorphous resin as above stated, ether (ether or petroleum) takes up the _Euphorbon_, which may be obtained in colourless, although not very distinct crystals, which are at first not free from acrid taste. But by repeated crystallizations and finally boiling in a weak solution of permanganate of potassium, they may be so far purified as to be entirely tasteless. Euphorbon is insoluble in water; it requires about 60 parts of alcohol, sp. gr. 0·830, for solution at the ordinary temperature. In boiling alcohol euphorbon dissolves abundantly, also in ether, benzol, amylic alcohol, chloroform, acetone, or glacial acetic acid.

Euphorbon melts at 116° C. (113° to 114°, Hesse) without emitting any odour. By dry distillation a brownish oily liquid is obtained, which claims further examination. If euphorbon dissolved in alcohol is allowed to form a thin film in a porcelain capsule, and is then moistened with a little concentrated sulphuric acid, a fine violet hue is produced in contact with strong nitric acid slowly added by means of a glass rod. The same reaction is displayed by _Lactucerin_ (see Lactucarium), to which in its general characters euphorbon is closely allied.

[2080] By careful investigation a very few are found at last.

[2081] Flückiger in Wittstein’s _Vierteljahresschrift für prakt. Pharmacie_, xvii. (1868) 82-102.—The drug analysed consisted of selected fragrants, free from extraneous substances.

[2082] Wiggers and Husemann, _Jahresbericht_, 1873. 559.

Hesse (1878) assigns to euphorbon the formula C₁₅H₂₄O, and points out that its solutions in chloroform or ether are dextrogyrate.

As to the mucilage of euphorbium, it may be obtained from that portion of the drug which has been exhausted by cold alcohol and by ether. Neutral acetate of lead, as well as silicate or borate of sodium, precipitate this mucilage, which therefore does not agree with gum arabic.

If an aqueous extract of euphorbium is mixed with spirit of wine, and the liquid evaporated, the residual matter assumes a somewhat crystalline appearance, and exhibits the reactions of _Malic Acid_. Subjected to dry distillation, white scales and acicular crystals of _Maleic_ and _Fumaric Acids_, produced by the decomposition of the malic acid, are sublimed into the neck of the retort. A sublimate of the same kind may sometimes be obtained directly by heating fragments of euphorbium. Among the mineral constituents of the drug, chloride of sodium and calcium are noticeable; scarcely any salt of potassium is present.

=Commerce=—The drug is shipped from Mogador. The quantity imported into the United Kingdom in 1870 is given in the _Annual Statement of Trade_ as 12 cwt.

_Uses_—Euphorbium was formerly employed as an emetic and purgative, but as an internal remedy it is completely obsolete. We have been told that it is now in some demand as an ingredient of a paint for the preservation of ships’ bottoms.

CORTEX CASCARILLÆ.

_Cortex Eleutheriæ_; _Cascarilla Bark_, _Sweet Wood Bark_, _Eleuthera[2083] Bark_; F. _Ecorce de Cascarille_; G. _Cascarill-Rinde_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Croton Eluteria_ Bennett,[2084] a shrub or small tree, exclusively native of the Bahama Islands.

=History=—It is not improbable that cascarilla bark was imported into Europe in the first half of the 17th century, as there was much intercourse subsequent to the year 1630 between England and the Bahamas.[2085] These islands were occupied in 1641 by the Spaniards, who became at that time acquainted with the Peruvian bark or Cascarilla (see page 346), as we have shown at page 343. The external appearance of the bark of Eluteria being somewhat similar to that of Cinchona quills, the former began soon to be known under the name of _China nova_. This drug occurs along with true Cinchona bark, _China de China_, in the tariff of the year 1691 of the pharmaceutical shops of the German town Minden, in Westphalia. There can be no doubt that the cheaper kind of “China,” called China nova, was really the bark under examination, for in many other tariffs a few years later distinct mention is made of _Cortex Chinæ novæ seu Schacorillæ_; and Savary, in his “Dictionnaire de Commerce” (1723, 1750), confirms the fact, adding that it was first seen in the great fair of Brunswick.[2086] Another early statement concerning Cascarilla bark likewise refers to the duchy of Brunswick. Stisser, a professor of anatomy, chemistry, and medicine in the University of Helmstedt in Brunswick, relates that he received the drug under the name of _Cortex Eleuterii_ from a person who had returned from England, in which country, he was assured, it was customary to mix it with tobacco for the sake of correcting the smell of the latter when smoked. He also mentions that it had been confounded with Peruvian bark, from which however it was very distinct in odour, etc.[2087] Eleutheria bark was then frequently prescribed as a febrifuge in the place of Cinchona bark, then a more expensive medicine. Hence the name _cascarilla_, signifying in Spanish _little bark_, which was the customary designation of Peruvian bark, was erroneously applied to the Bahama bark, until at last it quite superseded the original and more correct appellation. That of _China nova_ was subsequently applied to a quite different bark (see page 364). The drug under notice was first introduced into the London Pharmacopœia in 1746 as _Eleutheriæ Cortex_, which was its common name among druggists down to the end of the last century. In the Bahamas the name _cascarilla_ is still hardly known, the bark being there called either _Sweet Wood Bark_ or _Eleuthera Bark_.

[2083] From Eleuthera, one of the Bahama Islands, so named from the Greek ἐλεύθερος, signifying _free_ or _independent_.

[2084] Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_,