CHARACTERS.-Root several-headed, branching, reddish-brown; stem about 50 cm. long, light-green, hairy; leaves about 15 cm. long, thin, petiolate, the upper ones smaller and sessile, lightgreen, on the lower side glaucous, lyrate-pinnatifid, the pinnæ ovate-oblong, obtuse, coarsely crenate or incised and the terminal one often three-lobed; flowers in small, long peduncled umbels with two sepals and four yellow petals; capsule linear, twovalved-and many seeded. The fresh plant contains a saffroncolored milk-juice, and has an unpleasant odor and acrid taste. COMPOSITION.—(1) Chelerythrine, CH17NO. (2) Sanguinarine, CHNO, (see p. 348). (3) Chelidonine, CH1NO. (4) Protopine, CH1NO, also contained in Opium and Sanguinaria. (5) Chelidoxanthin, Chelidonic and Chelidoninic Acids. Dose, 1 to 4 gm.; 15 to 60 gr.

ACTION.

Purgative; appears to possess a stimulating effect upon the hepatic secretions.

1. SINAPIS ALBA.-White Mustard.

The seed of Sinapis alba (Linné) (Fam. Crucifera). Habitat.-Asia and Southern Europe; cultivated.

CHARACTERS.-Subglobular, 1 to 2 mm. in diameter; testa yellowish, finely pitted; embryo yellowish, oily, with a curved hypocotyl and two complete cotyledons; inodorous; taste mildly pungent and acrid. The powder contains few or no starch grains.

COMPOSITION. The chief constituents are (1) A bland fixed oil, 20 to 25 per cent. (2) Sinalbin, C3H4N2S2O10, and Myrosin; the latter

is an Enzyme, and in contact with water converts Sinalbin, which is a Glucoside, into a fixed pungent body, very acrid, called Acrinyl Sulphocyanide, CH2ONCS, Glucose, and Sinapine Sulphate, C1H23NO5H2SO.

IMPURITY.-Starch.

Dose (emetic), 8 gm.; 120 gr.

2. SINAPIS NIGRA.-Black Mustard. The seed of Brassica nigra (Linné) Koch (Fam. Crucifera). Habitat.-Asia and Southern Europe; cultivated.

CHARACTERS. Subglobular, about 1.2 mm. in diameter; testa deep red brown, sometimes with a grayish tinge, finely pitted; embryo greenish-yellow, oily, with a curved hypocotyl and two conduplicate cotyledons; odor, while dry, slight; on moistening, powerfully irritating; taste strongly pungent and acrid.

COMPOSITION.-The chief constituents are— (1) The same fixed oil as the white seeds, about 35 per cent. (2) Sinigrin (which is Potassium Myronate, C10H18KO10NS, a potassium salt of myronic acid, which is a crystalline glucoside) and Myrosin, an enzyme which on contact with water converts Sinigrin into the official volatile Oil of Mustard (see below) (C,H,CNS, which is Allyl Sulphocyanide), Glucose, and Potassium Sulphate. The volatile oil is very pungent and highly volatile, and its development on the addition of water explains the pungency of ordinary mustard.

Dose, (emetic) 8 gm.; 120 gr.

Resembling black mustard seeds.-Colchicum seeds, which are larger and lighter.

Preparation.

Charta Sinapis.-Mustard Paper. Black Mustard, 100. Percolate the Mustard with a sufficient quantity of Petroleum Benzin. Remove the powder and dry; add this to the solution: Rubber, 10, Petroleum Benzin, 100, and Carbon Disulphide, 100; and with a brush apply to one side of a piece of rather thick, wellsized paper, and dry.

3. OLEUM SINAPIS VOLATILE.-Volatile Oil of Mustard. Allyl Sulphocyanide, CH,CNS. A volatile oil obtained from Black Mustard by maceration with Water and subsequent distillation, which should yield, when assayed, not less than 92 per cent. of Allyl Iso-thyocyanate, CSNC,H,= 98.40. It should be carefully kept in well-stoppered, ambercolored bottles, in a cool place, protected from light.

CHARACTERS.-A colorless or pale yellow, limpid, and strongly refractive liquid, having a very pungent and acrid odor and taste. Great caution should be exercised when smelling or tasting it. Sp. gr., 1.013 to 1.020. Solubility.—Miscible with Alcohol in all proportions, forming a clear solution.

IMPURITIES.-Alcohol, chloroform, petroleum, carbon disulphide, phenols and fatty oils.

Dose, 0.008 c.c.; % m.

Unofficial Preparation.

Linimentum Sinapis Compositum (U. S. P., 1890).-Compound Liniment of Mustard. Volatile Oil of Mustard, 30; Fluid Extract of Mezereum, 200; Camphor, 60; Castor Oil, 150; Alcohol, to 1000; by solution.

ACTION.

Externally, a rubefacient, counter-irritant, and nervous stimulant; the stimulation of the sensory nerves is followed by their paralysis, in consequence of which there results a local loss of sensibility. If the application is sufficiently prolonged it produces vesication, which is more severe and painful than that caused by cantharides. Internally, mustard is irritant and a non-depressant emetic.

USES.

Mustard plasters and papers are used to relieve pain in gastralgia, colic, neuralgia, chest affections, lumbago, and a great variety of other conditions; a mild, equable counterirritant effect may be maintained for hours by adding a small quantity of mustard to flaxseed poultices; hot mustard footbaths and sitz-baths are employed in incipient colds and various febrile conditions, and to promote the menstrual flow. Internally, principally as an emetic (given in lukewarm water); amenorrhoea; hiccough; chronic bronchial and gastric catarrh.

Unofficial Preparation.

ARMORACIA.

HORSE-RADISH.-The fresh root of the Cochlearia armoracia (Fam. Crucifera). Habitat.-Cultivated in the United States and

Britain. It is most active in the autumn and early spring, before the leaves have appeared.

CHARACTERS.-A long, cylindrical, fleshy root, enlarged at the upper end, where it is marked by the scars of fallen leaves, 12 to 25 mm. in diameter, and usually 30 cm. or more long. Pale yellowish or brownish-white externally; whitish and fleshy within. Taste very pungent. Inodorous unless bruised or scraped. Resembling Horse-Radish Root. -Aconite root, which is shorter, conical not cylindrical, darker, and causes tingling and numbness when chewed.

COMPOSITION.-The chief constituent is a substance which, by the action of an enzyme, yields a volatile oil, Butyl Sulphocyanide, C,H,CNS.

ACTION.

Similar to that of mustard; it especially stimulates the urinary secretion.

USES.

It is in general use as a condiment, and has been employed in Medicine as a counter-irritant.

STORAX.-A balsam prepared from the wood and inner bark of Liquidambar orientalis Miller (Fam. Hamamelacea). Habitat.-Asia Minor.

CHARACTERS.-A semi-liquid, grayish, sticky, opaque mass, depositing on standing a heavy, dark-brown stratum; transparent in thin layers, and having an agreeable odor and a balsamic taste. Solubility.-Insoluble in water, but completely soluble in an equal weight of warm Alcohol. COMPOSITION.-The chief constituents are-(1) Styrol, CH, or Cinnamene, a volatile oil. (2) Cinnamic Acid, CH,O2, colorless, odorless,

crystalline; this can be oxidized to Benzoic Acid, and is also found in Cinnamon and Balsams of Tolu and Peru. (3) Styracin, or Cinnamyl Cinnamate, C,H,(C,H,)O2. (4) Phenylpropyl Cinnamate, CH,(CH1)O2. (5) Ethyl Cinnamate, C,H,(C2H ̧)O. (6) Storesin, CHO3, in considerable quantity. (7) Vanillin, having a fragrant odor.

Storax is contained in Tinctura Benzoini Composita.

Dose, 1 gm.; 15 gr.

Unofficial Preparation.

Styronum. Styrone, CHO. Synonym.-Cinnamic Alcohol. A yellowish, oily, refractive, aromatic liquid, obtained by treating Styracin with concentrated Potash solution.

ACTION.

The same as that of the balsams of Tolu and Peru, and benzoin, and also resembles that of copaiba.

USES.

Ulcers and skin diseases requiring stimulation; as a parasiticide in scabies and pediculosis. Internally, as an expectorant and in gonorrhoea, gleet and catarrhal affections of the genito-urinary organs.

HAMAMELIS.

HAMAMELIDIS CORTEX.-Hamamelis Bark. Synonym.-Witchhazel Bark. The bark and twigs of Hamamelis virginiana Linné (Fam. Hamamelidacea).

CHARACTERS. In irregularly quilled or bent pieces, 1 to 2 mm. thick; outer surface grayish-brown, with numerous lenticels, or reddishbrown, with short transverse ridges or scars, or somewhat scaly in older bark; the thin, corky layer easily removed from the pale cinnamon-colored middle bark; inner surface pale cinnamon-colored, or sometimes yellowish, smooth, or finely striate; fracture of young bark short, of old bark tough in the bast layer; odor faint; taste astringent, somewhat bitter and pungent. Twigs flexible and tough, of irregular length, branching, or bearing nodes at internodes of 2 to 5 cm., externally varying from yellowish-brown to deep purplish-brown, lightly longitudinally wrinkled, and having scattered small circular whitish or pale lenticels; bark occupying about one-fifth of the radius; wood greenish