root, while physician to the General Hospital of Madras from 1776 to 1778. It was also used very successfully in the place of ipecacuanha by Anderson, Physician-General to the Madras army. In more recent times, the plant has been prescribed by O'Shaughnessy, who pronounced the root an excellent substitute for ipecacuanha if given in rather larger doses.2 Kirkpatrick 3 administered the drug in at least a thousand cases, and found it of the greatest value; he prescribed the dried leaf, not only because superior to the root in certainty of action, but also as being obtainable without destruction of the plant. The drug has been largely given by many other practitioners in India. Tylophora is also employed in Mauritius, where it is known as Ipéca sauvage or Ipéca du pays. It has a place in the Bengal Pharmacopoeia of 1844, and in the Pharmacopeia of India of 1868.

Description-The leaves are opposite, entire, from 2 to 5 inches long, to 2 inches broad, somewhat variable in outline, ovate or subrotund, usually cordate at the base, abruptly acuminate or almost mucronate, rather leathery, glabrous above, more or less downy beneath with soft simple hairs. The pedicel which is channelled, isto of an inch in length. In the dry state the leaves are rather thick and harsh, of a pale yellowish green; they have a not unpleasant herbaceous smell, with but very little taste.5

Chemical Composition-A concentrated infusion of the leaves has a slightly acrid taste. It is abundantly precipitated by tannic acid, by neutral acetate of lead or caustic potash, and is turned greenish-black by perchloride of iron. Broughton of Ootacamund (India) has informed. us (1872) that from a large quantity of the leaves he obtained a small amount of crystals,-insufficient for analysis. Dissolved and injected into a small dog, they occasioned purging and vomiting.

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 Tylophore-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 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 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

1 Fleming, Catalogue of Indian Plants and Drugs, Calcutta, 1810. 8.

Bengal Dispensatory (1842) 455. 3 Catalogue of Madras Exhibition of 1855, -list of Mysore drugs; also Pharm. of India, 458.

Drawn up from an ample specimen

kindly presented to us together with one of the root, by Mr. Moodeen Sheriff of Madras.

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 India Orientalis, iv. (1850) tab. 1277.

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 Vomica; Nux Vomica; F. Noix vomique; G. Brechnüsse.

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 bi-locular, 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 strychnine1 yet it is said to be eaten in India by birds.2 The wood, which is hard and durable, is very bitter.

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 d' 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 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.

3

The drug was however certainly made known in Germany in the 16th century. Valerius Cordus wrote a description of it about the year 1540, which is remarkable for its accuracy. Fuchs, Bauhin and others

66

were

1 Roxburgh's assertion that the pulp seems perfectly innocent," induced us to examine it chemically, which we 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 precipitate dried, and moistened with strong sulphuric

noticed it as Nux Metella, a name taken from the Methel of Avicenna and other Arabian authors.1

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 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.

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 develope 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 6000 of the alkaloid. The best solvents for strychnine are spirit of wine or chloroform; it

1 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.

C C

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.1 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. Its presence 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 H20. It readily neutralizes acids, forming crystalline salts. 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 100° C. In common with its salts, it acquires a dark red colour when moistened with concentrated nitric acid. By heating brucine with hydrochloric or sulphuric acid in sealed tubes, it is entirely decomposed, and then, according to Baudrimont (1869), yields among other products sugar.

The proportion of strychnine in nux vomica appears to vary from toper 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 discovered in 1853 by Desnoix, in the liquors from which strychnine and brucine had been precipitated by lime. Schützenberger has stated (1858) that the substance thus obtained consists of as many as nine distinct bases, not even belonging to one and the same homologous series, which he has distinguished by letters (a-Igasurine, b-Igasurine, &c.) They differ from each other in composition, in solubility, and in the proportion of water which they lose when heated to 130° C. Igasurine has the bitter taste and poisonous properties of the other strychnos alkaloids.2

According to Schützberger, even strychnine itself is not a definite substance, but is a mixture of three different bases. All these statements respecting igasurine and strychnine require in our opinion to be confirmed by further researches.

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.

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; they also contain mucilage and sugar. The latter, which

1 It is remarkable that parasitic plants of the order Loranthacea growing on Strychnos Nux-vomica, acquire the poisonous properties of the latter.--Pharm. of India, 1868. 108.

2 For further information on igasurine, consult Gmelin, Chemistry, xvii. (1866) 589; Watts, Dictionary of Chemistry, iii. (1865) 243; Pharm. Journ. xviii. (1859)

according to Rebling (1853) 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. The export from Bombay in the year 1871-72 was 3341 cwt., all shipped to the United Kingdom.2 Madras in 1869-70 exported 4805 cwt.; and Calcutta in 1865-66, 2801 ewt. The quantity imported into the United Kingdom in 1870s was 5534 cwt.

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. Fères de Saint-Ignace, Noix Igasur; G. Ignatiusbohnen.

5

Botanical Origin - Strychnos Ignatii Bergius (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 and Blanco. The fruit is spherical, or sometimes ovoid, 4 inches or more in diameter, and consists of a smooth brittle shell enclosing seeds to the number of about 24. G. Bennett,8 who saw the fruits at Manila sold in the bazaar, says they contain from 1 to 12 seeds, imbedded in a glutinous blackish pulp.9

History-It is stated by Murray 10 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

1 We have seen 1136 packages offered in a single drug-sale (30 March, 1871).

Statement of the Trade and Navigation of Bombay for 1871-72, pt. ii. 62.

No later returns are accessible.

The plant and seeds are known in the Bisaya language by the names of pangagunson, aguason, canlara, mananaog, dancagay, catalonga or igasur; in the islands of Bohol and Cebu, 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 Cucurbitaceae, as those of Feuillea trilobata L., Hypanthera Guapeva Manso and Anisosperma Passiflora Manso.

5 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 Rubiacea, a native of Guiana.

6 Flora Cochinchinensis, ed. Willd. i. (1793) 155.

7 Flora de Filipinas, ed. 2. 1845. 61. 8 London Med. and Phys. Journ., January 1832.

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, wellformed seeds, with remnants of dried pulp. As figured on the authority of Camelli, the fruit is ovoid, 6 inches long by 44 in diameter.-D. H.