ration of the filtered solution with sulphuretted hydrogen and evaporation to dryness. The residue then yielded to ether an acrid resin, and left a colourless amorphous mass of intensely bitter taste, named by Kromayer Taraxacin. Polex (1839) obtained apparently the same principle in warty crystals; he simply boiled the milky juice with water and allowed the concentrated decoction to evaporate. The portion of the "Leontodonium" not dissolved by water, yields to alcohol a crystalline substance, Kromayer's Taraxacerin, C8H160. It resembles lactucerin and has in alcoholic solution an acrid taste. How far the medicinal value of dandelion is dependent on the substances thus extracted, is not yet known. Dragendorff (1870) obtained from the root gathered near Dorpat in October and dried at 100° C., 24 per cent. of Inulin and some sugar. The root collected in March from the same place, yielded only 1.74 per cent. of inulin, 17 of uncrystallizable sugar and 187 of Levulin. The last-named substance, discovered by Dragendorff, has the same composition as inulin, but dissolves in cold water; the solution tastes sweetish, and is devoid of any rotatory power. Inulin is often to be seen as a glistening powder when extract of taraxacum is dissolved in water. T. and H. Smith of Edinburgh (1849) have shown that the juice of the root by a short exposure to the air, undergoes a sort of fermentation which results in the abundant formation of Mannite, not a trace of which is obtainable from the perfectly fresh root. Sugar which readily underwent the vinous fermentation, was found by the same chemists in considerable quantity. The leaves and stalks of dandelion (but not the roots) were found by Marmé (1864) to afford the peculiar sugar named Inosite, C12H24012. The root collected in the meadows near Bern immediately before flowering, carefully washed and dried at 100° C., yielded us 5-24 per cent. of ash, which we found to consist of carbonates, phosphates, sulphates, and in smaller quantity also of chlorides. Uses-Taraxacum is much employed as a mild laxative and tonic, especially in hepatic disorders. Adulteration-The roots of Leontodon hispidus L. (Common Hawkbit) have occasionally been supplied by fraudulent herb-gatherers in place of dandelion. Both plants have runcinate leaves, but those of hawkbit are hairy, while those of dandelion are smooth. The (fresh) root of the former is tough, breaking with difficulty and rarely exuding any milky juice.2 The dried root of dandelion is exceedingly liable to the attacks of maggots, and should not be kept beyond one season. HERBA LACTUCE VIROSE. Prickly Lettuce; F. Laitue vireuse; G. Giftlattich. Botanical Origin-Lactuca virosa L., a tall herb occurring on stony ground, banks and roadsides, throughout Western, Central and 1 Gmelin, Chemistry, xv. (1862) 351. Scariola L., but in most works on botany they are maintained as distinct species. A A Southern Europe. It is abundant in the Spanish Peninsula and in France, but in Britain is only thinly scattered, reaching its northern limit in the south-eastern Highlands of Scotland. History-The introduction of this lettuce into modern medicine is due to Collin, a celebrated physician of Vienna, who about the year 1771 recommended the inspissated juice in the treatment of dropsy. In longstanding cases, this extract was given to the extent of half an ounce a day. The College of Physicians of Edinburgh inserted Lactuca virosa L in their pharmacopoeia of 1792, while in England its place was taken by the Garden Lettuce, L. sativa L. The authors of the British Pharmacopoeia of 1867 have discarded the latter, and directed that Extractum Lactuca shall be prepared by inspissating the juice of L. virosa. Description-The plant is biennial, producing in its first year depressed obovate undivided leaves, and in its second a solitary upright stem, 3 to 5 feet high, bearing a panicle of small, pale yellow flowers, resembling those of the Garden Lettuce. The stem which is cylindrical and a little prickly below, has scattered leaves growing horizontally; they are of a glaucous green, ovate-oblong, often somewhat lobed, auricled, clasping, with the margin provided with irregular spinescent teeth, and midrib white and prickly. The whole plant abounds in a bitter, milky juice of strong, unpleasant, opiate smell. Chemical Composition-We are not aware of any modern chemical examination having been made of Lactuca virosa. The more important constituents of the plant are doubtless those found in Lactucarium, to the article on which the reader is referred. Uses The inspissated expressed juice of the fresh plant is reputed narcotic and diuretic, but is probably nearly inert. LACTUCARIUM. Lactucarium, Lettuce Opium, Thridace;1 F. and G. Lactucarium. Botanical Origin-The species of Lactuca from which lactucarium is obtained are three or four in number, namely— 1. Lactuca virosa L., described in the foregoing article. 2. L. Scariola L., a plant very nearly allied to the preceding and perhaps a variety of it, but having the foliage less abundant, more glaucous, leaves more sharply lobed (?), much more erect and almost parallel with the stem. It has the same geographical range as L. virosa. 3. L. altissima Bieb., a native of the Caucasus, now cultivated in Auvergne in France for yielding lactucarium. It is a gigantic herb, having when cultivated, a height of 9 feet and a stem 1 inches in diameter. Prof. G. Planchon believes it to be a mere variety of L. Scariola L. 4. L. sativa L., the common Garden Lettuce.2 1 The term Thridace is also applied to Extract of Lettuce. The authors of the French Codex of 1866, name as the source of lactucarium, that form of the garden lettuce which has been called by De Candolle Latuca capitata. Maisch has obtained lactucarium from L. elongata Mühl. (Am. Journ. of Pharm. 1869. 148.) History-Dr. Coxe of Philadelphia was the first to suggest that the juice of the lettuce collected in the same manner as opium is collected from the poppy, might be usefully employed in medicine. The result of his experiments on the juice which he thus obtained from the garden lettuce (L. sativa L.), and called Lettuce Opium, were published in 1799.1 The experiments of Coxe were continued some years later by Duncan, Young, Anderson, Scudamore and others in Scotland, and by Bidault de Villiers and numerous observers in France. The production of lactucarium in Auvergne was commenced by Aubergier, pharmacien of Clermont-Ferrand, about 1841. Secretion-All the green parts of the plant are traversed by a system of vessels, which when wounded, especially during the period of flowering, instantly exude a white milky juice. The stem at first solid and fleshy but subsequently hollow, owes its rigidity to a circle of about 30 fibro-vascular bundles, each of which includes a cylinder of cambium. At the boundary between this tissue and the primary cortical parenchyme, is situated the system of milk-vessels, exhibiting on transverse section a single or double circle of thin-walled tubes, the cavities of which contain dark brown masses of coagulated juice. In longitudinal section, they appear branched and transversely bound together, as in the milk-vessels of taraxacum. The larger of these tubes, 35 mkm. in diameter, correspond pretty regularly in position with the vascular bundles. Each of the latter is also separated from the pith by a band or arch of cambium, in the circumference of which isolated smaller milk-vessels occur. The system of milk-vessels is therefore double, belonging to the pith on the one side, and to the bark on the other, the two being separated by juiceless wood. The milk-vessels of the bark are covered by only 2 to 6 rows of parenchyme cells of the middle bark, rapidly decreasing in size from within outwards, and these are protected by a not very thick-walled epidermis. Hence it is easy to understand how the slightest puncture or incision may reach the very richest milk-cells. The drops of milky juice when exposed to the air, quickly harden to small yellowish-brown masses, whitish within. Collection and Description-Lactucarium has been especially collected since about the year 1845, in the neighbourhood of the small town of Zell on the Mosel, between Coblenz and Trèves in Rhenish Prussia. The introduction of this industry is due to Mr. Goeris, apothecary of that place, to whom we are indebted for the following information and for some further particulars to Mr. Meurer of Zell. The plant is grown in gardens, where it produces a stem only in its second year. In May just before it flowers, its stem is cut off at about a foot below the top, after which a transverse slice is taken off daily until September. The juice, which is pure white but readily becomes brown on the surface, is collected from the wounded top by the finger, and transferred to hemispherical earthen cups, in which it quickly hardens Inquiry into the comparative effects of the Opium officinarum, extracted from the Papaver somniferum or White Poppy of Linnæus, and that procured from the Lactuca sativa or Common cultivated Lettuce of the same author.-Transact. of the American Philosophical Society, iv. (1799) 387. 1 2 Comptes Rendus, xv. (1842) 923. 3 Beautifully delineated by Hanstein in the work referred to at p. 352, note 2; see also Trécul, Ann. des Sciences nat., Bot. v. (1866) 69; Dippel, Entstehung der Milchsaftgefässe. Rotterdam 1865. tab. 1. fig. 17. so that it can be turned out. It is then dried in the sunshine until it can be cut into four pieces, when the drying is completed by exposure to the air for some weeks on frames. At Zell, 300 to 400 kilogrammes (661 to 882 Hb.) of lactucarium are annually produced; the whole district furnishes at best but 20 quintals annually. The price the drug fetches on the spot varies from 4 to 10 thalers per kilogramme (about 6s. to 14s. per b.) In the Eifel district where lactucarium was formerly collected, none is now produced. As found in trade, German lactucarium consists of angular pieces formed as already described, but rendered more or less shrunken and irregular by loss of moisture and by fracture. Externally they are of a dull reddish brown, internally opaque and wax-like, and when recent, of a creamy white. By exposure to the air, this white becomes yellow and then brown. Lactucarium has a strong unpleasant odour, suggestive of opium, and a very bitter taste. The lactucarium produced by Aubergier of Clermont-Ferrand is of excellent quality, but does not appear to differ from that obtained on the Mosel, except that it is in circular cakes about 1 inches in diameter, instead of in angular lumps. Scotch lactucarium, which was formerly the only sort found in the market, is still (1872) met with. Mr. Fairgrieve, who produces it in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, collects the juice into little tin vessels, in which it quickly thickens; it is then turned out and dried with a gentle heat, the drug being broken up as the process of drying goes on. It is thus obtained in irregular earthy-looking lumps of a deep brown hue, of which the larger may be about an inch in length. In smell, it exactly resembles the drug collected on the Continent.1 We are unacquainted with Russian Lactucarium which has been quoted at a very high price in some continental lists. Chemical Composition-Lactucarium is a mixture of very different organic substances, together with 8 to 10 per cent. of inorganic matter. It is not completely taken up by any solvent, and when heated merely softens but does not melt. By exhausting with boiling alcohol, it yielded us 58.7 per cent. of Lactucerin or Lactucone, C16H2O, depositing it in crystals which when duly purified have the form of slender colourless needles, fusing at about 185° C. to an amorphous mass. Lactucerin is an inodorous, tasteless, neutral substance, insoluble in water, but dissolving in ether and in oils both fixed and volatile, not quite so readily either in benzol, or in bisulphide of carbon. It appears to be closely allied to Euphorbon, with which it ought to be accurately compared. Cold alcohol as well as boiling water, take out of lactucarium about 0.3 per cent. of a crystallizable bitter substance, Lactucin, C11H12O3,H-0, which although it reduces alkaline cupric tartrate, is not a glucoside. Lactucin forms white pearly scales, readily soluble in acetic acid, but insoluble in ether. It loses its bitterness when treated with an alkali. From the mother-liquors that have yielded lactucin, Ludwig obtained Lactucic Acid, as an amorphous light yellow mass, becoming crystalline after long standing. Lastly lactucarium has further afforded in small T. and H. Smith for a recent sample of Mr. Fairgrieve's article. 1 We are indebted to Mr. H. C. Baildon for a specimen of Scotch lactucarium collected about the year 1844, and to Messrs. quantity, an amorphous substance named Lactucopierin, C44H4O21, apparently produced from lactucin by oxidation; it is stated by Kromayer (1862) to be soluble in water or alcohol, and to be very bitter. Of the widely diffused constituents of plants, lactucarium contains resin, albumen, gum, oxalic, citric, malic and succinic acids, sugar, mannite, and asparagin, together with potassium, calcium and magnesium salts of nitric and phosphoric acids. We obtained crystals of nitrate of potassium by concentrating the aqueous decoction of lactucarium. On distillation with water, a volatile oil having the odour of lactucarium, passes over in very small quantity. Uses The soporific powers universally ascribed in ancient times to the lettuce, are supposed to exist in a concentrated form in lactucarium. Yet numerous experiments have failed to show that this substance possesses more than very slight sedative properties, if indeed it is not absolutely inert.1 LOBELIACEÆ. HERBA LOBELIE. Lobelia, Indian Tobacco; F. Lobélie enflée; G. Lobeliakraut. Botanical Origin—Lobelia inflata L., an annual herb, 9 to 18 inches high, with an angular upright stem, simple or more frequently branching near the top, widely diffused throughout the eastern part of North America from Canada to the Mississippi, growing in neglected fields, along roadsides, and on the edges of woods, and thriving well in European gardens. History-Lobelia inflata was described and figured by Linnæus 2 from specimens cultivated by him at Upsala about 1741, but he does not attribute to the plant any medicinal virtues. The aborigines of North America made use of the herb, which from this circumstance and its acrid taste, came to be called Indian Tobacco. In Europe it was noticed by Schoepf3 but with little appreciation of its powers. In America it has long been in the hands of quack doctors, but its value in asthma was set forth by Cutler in 1813. It was not employed in England until about 1829, when with several other remedies, it was introduced to the medical profession by Reece.* Description-The leaves are 1 to 3 inches long, scattered, sessile, ovate-lanceolate, rather acute, obscurely toothed, somewhat pubescent. The edge of the leaf bears small whitish glands, and between them isolated hairs which are more frequent on the under than on the upper surface. They are usually in greater abundance on the lower and middle portions of the stem. 1 The stem of the growing plant exudes when wounded a small quan Stillé, Therapeutics and Mat. Med. i. (1868) 756. Garrod (Med. Times and Gazette, 26 March, 1864), gave lactucarium in drachm doses, repeated 3 or 4 times a day, without being able to perceive that it had any effect either as an anodyne or hypnotic. 2 Acta Soc. Reg. Scient. Upsal. 1746. 23.` Mat. Med. Americana, Erlangæ, 1787. 128. 4 Treatise on the Bladder-podded Lobelia, Lond. 1829. |