Two varieties of squill, termed respectively white and red, are distinguished by druggists. In the first, the bulb-scales are colourless; in the second they are of a roseate hue. No other difference in the plants can be pointed out, nor have the two varieties distinct areas of growth.

History Squill is one of the most ancient of medicines. Epimenides, a Greek who lived in the 30th Olympiad, is said to have made much use of it, from which circumstance it came to be called Epimenidea.1 It is also mentioned by Theophrastus, and was probably well known to all the ancient Greek physicians. Pliny was not only acquainted with it, but had noticed its two varieties. Dioscorides describes the method of making vinegar of squills; and a similar preparation, as well as compounds of squill with honey, were administered by the Arabian physicians, and still remain in use.

Description-The bulb of squill is pear-shaped, and of the size of a man's fist or larger, often weighing more than four pounds. It has the usual structure of a tunicated bulb; its outer scales are reddish-brown, dry, scarious, and marked with parallel veins. The inner are fleshy and juicy, colourless or of a pale rose tint, thick towards the middle, very thin and delicate at the edges, smooth and shining on the surface. fresh bulb has a mucilaginous, bitter, acrid taste, but not much odour.

The

For medicinal use, squill is mostly imported ready dried. The bulbs are collected in the month of August, at which period they are leafless, freed from their dry outer scales, cut transversely into thin slices, and dried in the sun. Thus prepared, the drug appears in the form of narrow, flattish or four-sided curved strips, 1 to 2 inches long, and to of an inch wide, flexible, translucent, of a pale dull yellowish colour, or when derived from the red variety, of a decided roseate hue. When thoroughly dried, they become brittle and pulverizable, but readily absorb water to the extent of about 11 per cent. Powdered squill by the absorption of water from the air, readily cakes together into a hard mass.

Microscopic Structure-The officinal portion of the plant being simply modified leaves, has the histological characters proper to many of those organs. The tissue is made up of polyhedral cells, covered on both sides of the scales by an epidermis provided with stomata. traversed by numerous vascular bundles, and also exhibits smaller bundles of laticiferous vessels. If thin slices of squill be moistened with dilute alcohol, most of the parenchymatous cells are seen to be loaded with mucilage, which contracts into a jelly on the addition of alcohol. In the interior of this jelly, crystalline particles are met with consisting of oxalate of calcium. This salt is largely deposited in cells, forming either bundles of needle-shaped crystals, or large solitary square prisms, frequently a millimetre long. In either case, they are enveloped by the mucilaginous matter already mentioned. Oxalate of calcium as occurring in other plants has been shown in many instances to originate in the midst of mucilaginous matter. The fact is remarkably evident in Scilla, especially when examined in polarized light.

On shaking thin slices of the bulb with water, the crystals are deposited in sufficient quantity to become visible to the naked eye, though their weight is actually very small. Direct estimation of the oxalic acid (by titration with chamæleon solution) gave us only 3:07 per cent. of

1 Haller, Bibliotheca Botanica, i. 12.

C2CaO1, 3H2O from white squill dried at 100° C., which moreover yielded only 2 to 5 per cent. of ash. It is these extremely sharp brittle crystals which occasion the itching and redness, and sometimes even vesication, which result from rubbing a slice of fresh squill on the skin. These effects which have long been known, were attributed to a volatile acrid principle, until their true cause was recognized by Schroff.1

The mucilage also contains albuminous matters, hence the orange colour it assumes on addition of iodine. The vascular bundles are accompanied by some rows of longitudinally extended cells, containing a small number of starch granules. In the red squill, the colouring matter is contained in many of the parenchymatous cells, others being entirely devoid of it. It turns blackish-green, if a persalt of iron be added.

Chemical Composition-The most abundant among the constituents of squill is Mucilage, which may be precipitated by neutral acetate of lead. Alcohol added to an aqueous infusion of squill, causes the separation of the mucilage together with albuminoid matter. If the alcohol is evaporated and a solution of tannic acid is added, the latter will combine with the bitter principle of squill, which has not yet been isolated, although several chemists have devoted to it their investigations and applied to it the names of Scillitin or Skuleïn. We have obtained a considerable amount of an uncrystallizable levogyre sugar, by exhausting squill with dilute alcohol.2 Schroff, to whom we are indebted for a valuable monograph on Squill,3 infers from his physiological experiments, the presence of a non-volatile acrid principle (Skulein ?), together with scillitin, which latter he supposes to be a glucoside.

Commerce-Dried squill, usually packed in casks, is imported into England from Malta.

Use-Commonly employed as a diuretic and expectorant.

Substitutes-There are several plants of which the bulbs are used in the place of the officinal squill, but which, owing to the abundance and low price of the latter, never appear in the European market.

1. Urginea altissima Baker (Ornithogalum altissimum L.), a South African species, very closely related to the common squill and having, as it would appear, exactly the same properties.*

2. U. indica Kth. (Scilla indica Roxb.), a widely diffused plant, occurring in Northern India, the Coromandel Coast, Abyssinia, Nubia, and Senegambia. It is known by the same Arabic and Persian names as U. maritima, and its bulb is used for similar purposes. But according to Moodeen Sheriff 5 it is a poor substitute for the latter, having little or no action when it is old and large.

3. Scilla indica Baker (non Roxb.), (Ledebouria hyacinthina Roth), native of India and Abyssinia, has a bulb which is often confused in the

1 We have found that the slimy juice of the leaves of Agapanthus umbellatus Hérit., which is very rich in spicular crystals, also occasions when rubbed on the skin both itching and redness lasting for several hours.

2 In Greece, they have even attempted to manufacture alcohol by fermenting and distilling squill bulbs.-Heldreich, Nutzpflanzen Griechenlands, 1862. 7.

3 Reprinted from the Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft der Aerzte zu Wien, No. 42 (1864). Abstracted also in Canstatt's Jahresbericht 1864. 19, and 1865. 238.

4 Pappe, Flora Medica Capensis Prodromus, ed. 2, 1857. 41.

5

Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia of India, Madras, 1869. 250.

6 Saunders, Refugium Botanicum, iii. (1870) appendix, p. 12.

Indian bazaars with the preceding, but is easily distinguishable when entire, by being scaly (not tunicated); it is said to be a better representative of the European squill.1

4. Drimia ciliaris Jacq., a plant of the Cape of Good Hope, of the order Liliacea. Its bulb much resembles the officinal squill, but has a juice so irritating if it comes in contact with the skin, that the plant is called by the colonists Jeukbol, i.e. Itch-bulb. It is used medicinally as an emetic, expectorant and diuretic.2

5. Crinum Asiaticum var. toxicarium Herbert (C. toxicarium Roxb.), a large plant with handsome white flowers and noble foliage, cultivated in Indian gardens, and also found wild in low humid spots in various parts of India and the Moluccas, and on the sea-coast of Ceylon. The bulb has been admitted to the Pharmacopoeia of India (1868), chiefly on the recommendation of O'Shaughnessy, who considers it a valuable emetic. We have not been able to examine a specimen, and cannot learn that the drug has been the subject of any chemical investigation.

MELANTHACEÆ.

RHIZOMA VERATRI ALBI.

Radix Veratri, Radix Hellebori albi; White Hellebore; F. Racine d'Ellebore blanc; G. Weisse Nieswurzel, Germer.

Botanical Origin-Veratrum album L.-This plant occurs in moist grassy places in the mountain regions of Middle and Southern Europe, as Auvergne, the Pyrenees, Spain, Switzerland and Austria. It also grows throughout European and Asiatic Russia, as far as 61° N. lat., in Amurland, the island of Saghalin, Northern China and Japan.

History-The confusion that existed among the ancients between Melampodium, Helleborus and Veratrum, makes the identification of the plant under notice extremely unsatisfactory.3

It was perfectly known to Gerarde (circa A.D. 1600); and under the names of Elleborus (or Helleborus) albus and Veratrum, it has had a place in all the London Pharmacopoeias. In the British Pharmacopoeia (1867), it has been replaced by the nearly allied American species, Veratrum viride Ait.

Description-White Hellebore has a cylindrical, fleshy, perennial rootstock, 2 to 3 inches in length, and to 1 inch in diameter, beset with long stout roots. When fresh it has an alliaceous smell. In the dried state as it occurs in commerce, it is cylindrical or subconical, of a dull earthy black, very rough in its lower half with the pits and scars of old roots; more or less beset above with the remains of recent roots. The top is crowned with the bases of the leaves, the outer of which are coarsely fibrous. The plant has generally been cut off close to the summit of the rhizome, which latter is seldom quite entire, being often broken at its lower end, or cut transversely to facilitate drying. Internally, it is nearly colourless: a transverse section shows a broad white ring, surrounding a spongy pale buff central portion.

1 Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia of India, Madras, 1869. 250.

2 Pappe, op. cit. 42.

3 Those who wish to study the question, can consult Murray's Apparatus Medicami num, vol. v. (1790) 142–166.

The drug has a sweetish, bitterish acrid taste, leaving on the tongue a sensation of numbness and tingling. In the state of powder, it occasions violent sneezing.

Microscopic Structure-When cut transversely, the rhizome shows at a distance of 2-4 mm. from the thin dark outer bark, a fine brown zigzag line (medullary sheath) surrounding the central part, which exhibits a pith, not well defined. The zone between the outer bark and the medullary sheath is pure white, with the exception of some isolated cells containing resin or colouring matter, and those places where the rootlets pass from the interior. The latter is sprinkled as it were, with short thin somewhat lighter bundles of vessels which run out irregularly in all directions. The parenchyme of the entire rhizome is filled with starch, and contains numerous needles of calcium oxalate. The rootlets, which the collectors usually remove, are living and juicy only in the upper half of the rhizome, the lower half of which is rather woody and porous.

Chemical Composition-In 1819, Pelletier and Caventou detected in the rhizome of Veratrum, a substance which they regarded as identical with veratrine, the existence of which had just been discovered by W. Meissner in cebadilla seeds. But according to the recent observations of Dragendorff, the veratrine of cebadilla cannot be found either in Veratrum album or V. viride.

Simon (1837) found in the root a second alkaloid, Jervine, C30H46N2O3, said to be distinguished from veratrine by the sparing solubility of its salts, especially its sulphate, in water. C. L. Mitchell (1874) has extracted jervine from both Veratrum album and V. viride. He obtained in the first instance the sulphate in the form of a granular powder: from this he separated the alkaloid as a light white substance, tasteless and inodorous, of feebly alkaline reaction, capable of crystallizing from alcohol. Its most characteristic reaction is said to be with strong sulphuric acid, which colours it first yellow, then green.

Weppen (1872) has isolated from this drug Veratramarin, an amorphous, deliquescent, bitter principle. It occurs in minute quantity only, and is resolvable into sugar and other products. Veratramarin dissolves in water or spirit of wine, not in ether or in chloroform. The same observer has also isolated to the extent of per mille, Jervic Acid in hard crystals of considerable size, of the composition, C14H10O12 + 2 H2O. The acid requires 100 parts of water for solution at the ordinary temperature, and a little less of boiling alcohol. It is decidedly acid, and forms well-defined crystallizable salts, containing 4 equivalents of metal. By exhausting the entire rhizome (roots included) with ether and anhydrous alcohol, we obtained 25.8 per cent. of soft resin, which deserves Pectic matter to the amount of 10 per cent. was further examination. pointed out by Wiegand in 1841.

According to Schroff (1860) the active principle of white hellebore resides in the cortical part of the rootlets, the woody central portion being inert. He also asserts that the rhizome acts less strongly than the rootlets, and in a somewhat different manner.

Commerce-The drug is imported from Germany in bales. The price-currents distinguish Swiss and Austrian, and generally name the drug as "without fibre."

1 Beitr. zur gerichtl. Chemie, St. Petersb., 1872. 95.

Uses-Veratrum is an emetic and drastic purgative, rarely used internally. It is occasionally employed in the form of ointment in scabies. Its principal consumption is in veterinary medicine.

Substitutes-The rhizome of the Austrian Veratrum nigrum L. is said to be sometimes collected instead of White Hellebore; it is of much smaller size, and according to Schroff, less potent. That of the Mexican Helonias frigida Lindl. (Veratrum frigidum Schl.) appears to exactly resemble that of Veratrum album.

RHIZOMA VERATRI VIRIDIS.

American White Hellebore,1 Indian Poke.

Botanical Origin-Veratrum viride Aiton, a plant in every respect closely resembling V. album, of which it is one of the numerous forms. In fact, the green-flowered variety of the latter (V. Lobelianum Bernh.), a plant not uncommon in the mountain meadows of the Alps, comes so near to the American V. viride that we are unable to point out any important character by which the two can be separated.2 The American Veratrum is common in swamps and low grounds from Canada to Georgia.

3

History The aborigines of North America were acquainted with the active properties of this plant before their intercourse with Europeans, using it according to Josselyn, who visited the country in 1638–1671, as a vomit in a sort of ordeal. He calls it White Hellebore, and states that it is employed by the colonists as a purgative, antiscorbutic and insecticide.

4

Kalm (1749) states that the early settlers used a decoction of the roots to render their seed-maize poisonous to birds, which were made "delirious" by eating the grain, but not killed; and this custom was still practised in New England in 1835 (Osgood).

The effects of the drug have been repeatedly tried in the United States during the present century; and about 1862, in consequence of the strong recommendations of Drs. Osgood, Norwood, Cutter, and others, it began to be prescribed in this country.

Description-In form, internal structure, odour and taste, the rhizome and roots accord with those of Veratrum album; yet owing to the method of drying and preparing for the market, the American veratrum is immediately distinguishable from the White Hellebore of European commerce. We have met with it in three forms :

1. The rhizome with roots attached, usually cut lengthwise into quarters, sometimes transversely also, densely beset with the pale brown

1 The name Green Hellebore is sometimes applied to this drug, but it properly belongs to Helleborus viridis L., which is medicinal in some parts of Europe.

2 Sims in contrasting Veratrum viride with V. album observes that the flowers of the former are "more inclined to a yellow green," the petals broader and more erect, with the margins, especially about the claw, thickened and covered with a white mealiness. Bot. Mag. xxvii. (1808) tab. 1096.-Regel

has described four varieties of Veratrum album L., as occurring in the region of the Lower Ussuri and Amurland, one of which, var. y., he has identified with the American V. viride.-Tentamen Flora Ussuriensis, St. Petersb. 1861. 153.

3 New England's Rarities discovered, Lond. 1672. 43; also Account of two Voyages to New England, Lond., 1674, 60. 76.

91.

Travels in North America, vol. ii. (1771)