The flowers share the intense bitterness of the whole drug. The wood of stronger stems is devoid of the bitter principles.

Chemical Composition-A chemical examination of chiretta has been made at our request under the direction of Professor Ludwig of Jena, by his assistant Mr. Höhn. The chief results of this careful and elaborate investigation may be thus described.1

Among the bitter principles of the drug, Ophelic Acid, C13H2o010, occurs in the largest proportion. It is an amorphous, viscid, yellow substance, of an acidulous, persistently bitter taste, and a faint gentianlike odour. With basic acetate of lead, it produces an abundant yellow precipitate. Ophelic acid does not form an insoluble compound with tannin; it dissolves in water, alcohol and ether. The first solution causes the separation of protoxide of copper from an alkaline tartrate of that metal.

A second bitter principle, Chiratin, C26H48O15, may be removed by means of tannic acid, with which it forms an insoluble compound. Chiratin is a neutral, not distinctly crystalline, light yellow, hygroscopic powder, soluble in alcohol, ether and in warm water. By boiling hydrochloric acid, it is decomposed into Chiratogenin, C13H24O3, and ophelic acid. Chiratogenin is a brownish, amorphous substance, soluble ir alcohol but not in water, nor yielding a tannic compound. No sugar is formed in this decomposition.

These results exhibit no analogy to those obtained in the analysis of the European gentians. Finally, Höhn remarked in chiretta, a crystallizable, tasteless, yellow substance, but its quantity was so minute that no investigation of it could be made.

The leaves of chiretta, dried at 100° C., afforded 7·5 per cent. of ash ; the stems 37; salts of potassium and calcium prevailing in both.

Uses-Chiretta is a pure bitter tonic, devoid of aroma and astringency. In intense bitterness, it exceeds gentian, Erythraea and other European plants of the same order. It is much valued in India, but is not very extensively used in England, and not at all on the Continent. It is said to be employed when cheap, in place of gentian, to impart flavour to the compositions now sold as Cattle Foods.

Substitutes and Adulteration-Four other species of Ophelia, namely O. angustifolia Don, O. densifolia Griseb., O. elegans Wight, and 0. multiflora Dalz., two or three species of Exacum, besides Andrographis paniculata Wall. (p. 424), are more or less known in the Indian bazaars by the name of Chiretta2 and possess to a greater or less degree the bitter tonic properties of that drug. Another Gentianacea, Slevogtia orientalis Griseb., is called Chota Chiretta, i.e. small chiretta. It would exceed due limits were we to describe each of these plants: we have therefore given a somewhat detailed description of the true chiretta, which will suffice for its identification. We have frequently examined the chiretta found in the English market, but have never met with any other than the legitimate sort.3

1 For full details, see Archiv der Pharmacie, 189 (1869) 229.

2 Moodeen Sheriff, Suppl. to the Pharmacopoeia of India, 1869. pp. 138. 189.-Consult also Pharmacopoeia of India, 1868. pp.

3 Mr. E. A. Webb has pointed out a case of false-packing in which the roots of Rubia cordifolia L. (Munjit) had been enclosed in the bundles of chiretta.

CONVOLVULACEÆ.

SCAMMONIUM.

Scammony; F. Scammonée; G. Scammonium.

Botanical Origin-Convolvulus Scammonia L., a twining plant much resembling the common C. arvensis of Europe, but differing from it in being of larger size, and having a stout tap-root. It occurs in waste bushy places in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, the Greek Islands, extending northward to the Crimea and Southern Russia, but appears to be wanting in Northern Africa, Italy, and in all the western parts of the Mediterranean basin.

History The dried milky juice of the scammony plant has been known as a medicine from very ancient times. Theophrastus in the 3rd century B.C. was acquainted with it; it was likewise familiar to Dioscorides. Pliny, Celsus, and Rufus of Ephesus, each of whom has given some account of the manner in which it was collected. The Arabian physicians also knew scammony and the plant from which it is derived. The drug was used in Britain in the 10th and 11th centuries, and would appear to be one of the medicines recommended to King Alfred the Great, by Helias, patriarch of Jerusalem.1 It is repeatedly named in the medical writings in use prior to the Norman conquest (A.D. 1066), in one of which, directions are given for recognizing the goodness of the drug by the white emulsion it produces when wetted.

The botanists of the 16th and 17th centuries, as Brufnels, Gesner, Matthiolus, Dodonæus, and the Bauhins described and figured the plant, partly under the name of Scammonia Syriaca. The collecting of the drug was well described by Russell, an English physician of Aleppo (1752), whose account 2 is accompanied by an excellent figure representing the plant and the means of obtaining its juice.

Scammony was formerly distinguished by the names Aleppo and Smyrna, the former sort being twice or thrice as costly as the latter; at the present day, Aleppo scammony has quite lost its pre-eminence.

Localities producing the drug-Scammony is collected in Asia Minor, from Brussa and Boli in the north, to Macri and Adalia in the south, and eastward as far as Angora. But the most productive localities within this area, are the valley of the Mendereh, south of Smyrna; and the districts of Kirkagach and Demirjik, north of that town. The neighbourhood of Aleppo likewise affords the drug. A little is obtained further south in Syria, from the woody hills and valleys about the lake of Tiberias and Mount Carmel.

Production-The scammony plant has a long woody root, which throws off downwards a few lateral branches, and produces from its knotty summit, numerous twining stems which are persistent and woody

1 Such is the opinion expressed by the Rev. O. Cockayne. The letter of Helias to Alfred is imperfect, and mentions only balsam, petroleum, theriaka, and a white stone used as a charm. But from the reference to these four articles in another part of the MS., in connexion with scammony, ammoniacum, tragacanth, and galbanum, there is ground for believing that the latter (Syrian and

Persian) drugs were included in the lost part of the patriarch's letter.-See Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England, edited by Cockayne (Master of the Rolls Series), vol. ii. pages xxiv. 289. 175, also 273. 281.

2 Medical Observations and Inquiries, i. (1757) 12.

at the base. In plants of three or four years old, the root may be an inch or more in diameter; in older specimens it sometimes acquires a diameter of three or four inches. In length, it is from two to three feet, according to the depth of soil in which it grows. When the root is wounded, there exudes a milky juice which dries up to a golden-brown, transparent, gummy-looking substance:-this is pure scammony.1

The method followed in collecting scammony for use, appears to be nearly the same in all localities. It has been thus described to us by two eye-witnesses, both long resident in the East.2 Operations commence by clearing away the bushes among which the plant is commonly found; the soil around the latter is then removed, so as to leave 4 or 5 inches of the root exposed. This is then cut off in a slanting direction at 2 to 4 inches below the crown, and a mussel-shell is stuck into it just beneath the lowest edge, so as to receive the milky sap which instantly flows out. The shells are usually left till evening, when they are collected, and the cut part of the root scraped with a knife, so as to remove any partially dried drops of juice. These latter are called by the Smyrna peasants, kaimak or cream, the softer contents of the shell being called gala or milk.

Sometimes the scammony is allowed to dry in the shell, and such must be regarded as representing the drug in its utmost perfection. But scammony in shells is not brought into commerce, though a little of it is reserved by the peasants for their own use.

The contents of the shells and the scraped-off drops are next emptied into a covered copper pot or a leathern bag, carried home, made homogeneous by mixing with a knife, and at once allowed to dry. In this way, a form of scammony is obtained closely approaching that dried in the shell. But it is a quality of exceptional goodness. Usually the peasant does not dry off the juice promptly, but allows his daily gatherings to accumulate; and when he has collected a pound or two, he places it in the sunshine to soften, and then kneads it, sometimes with the addition of a little water, into a plastic mass, which he lastly allows to dry. By this long exposure to heat, and retention in a liquid state, the scammony juice undergoes fermentation, acquires a strong cheesy odour and dark colour, and when finally dried, exhibits a more or less porous or bubbly structure, never observable in shell scammony.

Scammony is very extensively adulterated. The adulteration is often performed by the peasants, who mix foreign substances into the drug while it is yet soft; and it is also effected by the dealers, some of whom purchase it of the peasants in a half-dried state. The substances used for sophistication are numerous, the commonest and most easily detected being, according to our experience, carbonate of lime and flour. Woodashes, earth (not always calcareous), gum arabic, and tragacanth are also employed; more rarely, wax, yolk of egg, pounded scammony roots, rosin, or black-lead.

Description-The pure juice of the root, simply dried by exposure to the sun and air, is an amorphous, transparent, brittle substance, of

1 Named probably from Zкáμμa, a trench or pit, in allusion to the excavation made around the root.

2 The one was the late Mr. S. H. Maltass of Smyrna, whose interesting paper may be

found in Pharm. Journ. xiii. (1854) 264; the other is Mr. Edward T. Rogers, formerly of Caiffa, now (1874) British Consul at Cairo.

resinous aspect, a yellowish-brown colour, and glossy fracture. Scammony possessing these characters is occasionally met with in the form of flattish irregular masses, about to of an inch in thickness, very brittle by reason of internal fissures, yet with but few air-cavities. In mass, it is of a chestnut-brown, but in small fragments it is seen to be very pale yellowish-brown and transparent, with the freshly fractured surface, vitreous and shining. When powdered, it is of a very light buff. Rubbed with the moistened finger, it forms a white emulsion. Treated with ether, it yields 88 to 90 per cent. of soluble matter, and a nearly colourless residuum. This scammony as well as the pure juice in the shell, is very liable to become mouldy; but besides this, it throws out if long kept, a white, mammillated, crystalline efflorescence, the nature of which we have not been able to determine. But if scammony is kept quite dry, neither mouldiness nor efflorescence makes its appearance.

The ordinary fine scammony of commerce, known as Virgin Scammony, is also in large flat pieces or irregular flattened lumps and fragments, which in mass have a dark-grey or blackish hue. Viewed in thin fragments, it is seen to be translucent and of a yellowish-brown. It is very easily broken, exhibits a shining fracture, gives an ashy grey powder, and has a peculiar cheesy odour. Some of the pieces have a porous, bubbly structure, indicative of fermentation; the more solid, often show the efflorescence already mentioned. Scammony has not much taste, but leaves an acrid sensation in the throat.

Chemical Composition-Scammony owes its active properties as a medicine, to a resin shown (1860) by Spirgatis to be identical with that found in the root of the Mexican Ipomea Orizabensis, known in commerce as Male Jalap: this resin called Jalapin will be described in the next article. The other constituents of pure scammony are not well known. One of them is the substance which, as already stated, makes its appearance as small masses of cauliflower crystals on the surface of pure scammony, when the latter is kept in air not perfectly dry.

Whether the odour observable in commercial scammony is due to a volatile fatty acid developed by fermentation, is a question still to be investigated.

Commerce-The export of scammony from Smyrna amounted in 1871, to 278 cases, valued at £8320; in 1872 to 185 cases value £6100. According to a report of Consul Skene on the trade of Northern Syria,' 737 cases of scammony were exported from the province of Aleppo in 1872,-six-sevenths of the quantity being for England.

Uses-Employed as an active cathartic, often in combination with colocynth and calomel.

Adulteration-Scammony is very often imported in an adulterated state, but the adulteration is so clumsily effected, and is so easily discoverable by simple tests, or even by ocular examination, that druggists have but little excuse for accepting a bad article.

We have already named the substances used in the sophistication of scammony of these, the most frequent are carbonate of lime and farinaceous matter. The first may generally be recognized by examining the fractured surface of the drug with a good lens, when the white particles

1 Presented to Parliament, July 1873. '

of the carbonate will be perceived. If the surface is then touched (while still sub lente) with hydrochloric acid, effervescence will prove the presence of a carbonate. Other earthy adulterants can be discovered by incineration, or by examining the residue of the drug after treatment with ether. Starchy substances, the presence of which may be surmised by the scammony being difficult to break, are detectable by the microscope or by solution of iodine, a cold decoction of scammony not being affected by that reagent. Scammony that is ponderous, dull and clayey, not easily broken in the fingers, or which when broken does not exhibit a clean, glossy surface, or which does not afford at least 80 per cent. of matter soluble in ether, should be rejected. That which is made up in the form of hard, dark, circular cakes is widely different from pure scammony.

Scammony may be distinguished from Resin of Scammony by its property of forming an emulsion when wetted. The resin is also more glossy and almost entirely soluble in ether.

Radix Scammoniæ.

The frauds commonly practised on the scammony of commerce, have given rise to various schemes for obtaining the drug in a purer form, as well as at a more moderate price.1

So far back as 1839, the Edinburgh College prescribed a Resina Scammonii, which was prepared by exhausting scammony with spirit of wine, distilling off the spirit, and washing the residue with water. Such an extract was manufactured by the late Mr. Maltass of Smyrna, and occasionally shipped to London.

In consequence of a suggestion made by Mr. Clark, manufacturer of liquorice at Sochia near Scala Nuova, a patent was taken out (1856) by Prof. A. W. Williamson of London, for preparing this resin directly from the dried root by means of alcohol. The same chemist shortly afterwards devised an improved process, which consists in boiling the roots first with water and then with dilute acid, so as to deprive them of all matters soluble in those menstrua, and afterwards extracting the resin by alcohol.

Resin of Scammony, obtained either from scammony or from the dried root, is ordered in the British Pharmacopoeia of 1867, and is manufactured by a few houses. It is a brown, translucent, brittle substance of resinous fracture, entirely soluble in ether, and not forming an emulsion when wetted with water.

Scammony root is occasionally brought into the London market, sometimes in rather large quantity, but it is not generally kept by druggists, nor do we find it quoted in price-currents. Its collection is even opposed in some parts of Turkey by the local authorities.

The root consists of stout, woody, cylindrical pieces, often spirally twisted, 2 to 3 inches in diameter, covered with a rough, furrowed, greyish-brown bark. They are internally pale brown, tough and resinous, with a faint odour and taste resembling jalap. A good sample yielded us 5per. cent. of resin:

1 Scammony is quoted in a London pricecurrent, April, 1874, at 8s. to 36s. per lb.Resin of Scammony at 14s. per lb.

-

2 Thus 100 bales were offered in a drug sale, 3 July, 1873.

3 Such was the case at Aleppo, as we know by a private letter from Mr. Consul Skene.-D. H.