ACTION. In small doses it acts as a simple bitter; in larger doses it is a powerful intestinal stimulant, augmenting the biliary and intestinal secretions and accelerating the movements of both the large and small intestine; it produces abundant watery passages, and if the dose is excessive may set up severe enteritis; it is also a diuretic. USES. Colocynth is perhaps the most generally useful of the drastic cathartics, but it is of great importance that it should be administered in carefully regulated doses and properly combined with other remedies; on account of the griping it produces it should never be given by itself. In cerebral congestion it is employed as a revulsive. Unofficial Preparation. Elaterium (B. P.).—Elaterium. A substance deposited by the juice of the fruit of Ecballium Elaterium (Linné) A. Richard (Fam. Cucurbitacea). Synonym.-Squirting Cucumber. Habitat. -Western Asia, Northern Africa and Southern Europe; cultivated. CHARACTERS.-In light, friable, flat or slightly curved, opaque cakes about 21⁄2 millimetres (inch) thick; pale green, grayish green, or yellowish gray in color; fracture finely granular; odor faint and tea-like; taste bitter and acrid. Elaterium should yield from 20 to 25 per cent. of Elaterin. ELATERIN.-C20H2O5 = 345.60. A neutral principle obtained from Elaterium. SOURCE.-Exhaust Elaterium with Chloroform. Add Ether, wash the resulting precipitate with Ether; purify by re-crystallization with Chloroform. CHARACTERS.-Minute, white, hexagonal scales, or prismatic crystals, without odor, and having a slightly acrid, bitter taste; permanent in the air. Solubility.-In 262 parts of Alcohol, in 318 parts of Ether, and in 22 parts of Chloroform; insoluble in water. Dose, 0.005 gm. (5 milligm.); }ʊ gr. Preparation. Trituratio Elaterini.-Trituration of Elaterin. Elaterin, 10; Sugar of Milk, 90. Dose, 0.030 gm. (30 milligm.); 1⁄2 gr. ACTION. Cosely resembling that of colocynth, but much more energetic, elaterin being regarded as the most powerful hydragogue cathartic known. In properly regulated doses, however, it causes comparatively little pain or irritation, notwithstanding the free catharsis produced. USES. It is the most efficient of the hydragogue cathartics in general dropsy and in ascites; also used with advantage in uræmia. PEPO. PUMPKIN SEED.-The ripe seed of Cucurbita Pepo Linné (Fam. Cucurbitacea). Habitat.-Tropical Asia and America; cultivated. CHARACTERS.-Broadly ovate, flat, somewhat biconvex, about 20 mm. long and 2 mm. thick; externally whitish or yellowish-white, nearly smooth, with a shallow groove parallel to, and within I mm. of the margin; seed-coat consisting of a white coriaceous outer layer, and a membranaceous inner layer; embryo whitish, straight, with a conical hypocotyl and two plano-convex cotyledons; slightly odorous when contused; taste bland and oily. COMPOSITION.-(1) Fixed oil, 44 per cent. (2) An acrid Resin, considered to be the tæniafuge principle. (3) Two Proteids (Myosin and Vitellin). (4) Fatty Acids. Dose, 30 gm.; 1 oz. ACTION. It has no purgative action or other known physiological effects. USES. It is one of the most efficient and at the same time harmless tæniafuges, in which capacity it is exclusively employed. Unofficial Preparations. BRYONIA (U. S. P., 1890). Bryonia. Synonym.-Bryony. The root of Bryonia alba, and of Bryonia dioica Linné (Fam. Cucurbitacea). Habitat.-Central and Southern Europe. CHARACTERS.-In transverse sections about 5 cm. in diameter, the bark gray-brown, rough, thin, the central portion whitish or grayish, with numerous, small, projecting wood-bundles arranged in circles and radiating lines; fracture short; inodorous; taste disagreeably bitter. COMPOSITION.-The chief constituents are-(1) Bryonin, CaHO9, a bitter glucoside; (2) Resin; (3) Starch; (4) Gum. Dose, .60 to 4.00 gm.; 10 to 60 gr. Preparation. Tinctura Bryoniæ (U. S. P., 1890).-Tincture of Bryonia. Bryonia, 100; by maceration and percolation with Alcohol to 1000. Dose, 8 to 15 c.c.; 2 to 4 fl. dr. ACTION. It is an active hydragogue cathartic. USES. Formerly much employed, but has been superseded by jalap. LOBELIA.-The dried leaves and tops of Lobelia inflata Linné (Fam. Campanulacea), collected after a portion of the capsules have become inflated. Synonym.-Indian Tobacco. Habitat.-North America, in the fields and open woods. CHARACTERS.-Leaves alternate, the lower short-petioled, the upper sessile, ovate or oblong, 4 to 9 cm. long; irregularly serrate-denticulate, the divisions with a yellowish-brown, gland-like apex; pale green, pubescent; stems coarsely angled, often purplish, hairy, terminating in long racemes of small short-pedicelled flowers having an adherent 5toothed calyx and a small tubular corolla, cleft to the base on the upper side, the one-sided limb 5-lobed, and pale blue in the fresh state, the five stamens united; capsule inflated, 2-celled, containing numerous minute brownish, ellipsoidal, coarsely reticulate seeds; odor slight, irritating; taste strongly acrid. COMPOSITION. The chief constituents are-(1) Lobeline, an alkaloid, as a yellowish, oily liquid of pungent taste, having an odor resembling that of tobacco. (2) Lobelacrin (probably Lobeline Lobelate). (3) Lobelic Acid. INCOMPATIBLES.-Caustic alkalies, as they decompose Lobeline. Preparations. 1. Fluidextractum Lobeliæ.-Fluidextract of Lobelia. By maceration and percolation with Acetic Acid and Water, and evaporation. Dose, 0.5 c.c.; 8 m. 2. Tinctura Lobeliæ.-Tincture of Lobelia. Lobelia, 100. By percolation with diluted Alcohol to 1000. Dose (expectorant), 1 c.c.; 15 m; (emetic) 4 c.c.; 1 fl. dr. Unofficial Preparation. Infusum Lobeliæ.-Infusion of Lobelia. (1 part to 16.) ACTION. It is a powerful gastro-intestinal irritant. The pulse-rate is at first slowed and afterwards accelerated, and the bloodpressure, which is primarily depressed, subsequently rises beyond the normal; as a result of the vomiting produced, however, marked variations in the rate of the heart and in the arterial tension are apt to occur. Small doses stimulate and large doses paralyze the respiratory centre and the vagus terminations in the muscular coat of the bronchi or in ganglia in the lungs; under toxic amounts death occurs from respiratory failure, and convulsions or coma frequently result from the asphyxia. Lobelia is credited with diuretic and diaphoretic effects. USES. Externally, acute epididymitis; poison ivy eruption. Internally, asthmatic attacks; bronchitis; habitual constipation from atony of the muscular layer of the intestine; fæcal impaction; intussusception; strangulated hernia. GRINDELIA.-The dried leaves and flowering tops of Grindelia robusta Nuttall, and of Grindelia squarrosa (Pursh) Dunal (Fam. Com |