Pharmacographia: A History of the Principal Drugs of Vegetable Origin, Met with in Great Britain and British India

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Macmillan and Company, 1879 - 803 pages

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Page 137 - Every fortnight the mountains are visited in this manner, the trees producing larger quantities as the season advances, until the middle of September, when the first shower of rain puts a close to the gathering that year.
Page 575 - They are at first green, then become red, and if allowed to ripen, yellow ; but they are gathered before complete maturity, and by drying in that state turn blackish-grey or brown. When one or two berries at the base of the spike begin to turn red, the whole spike is pinched off. Next day the berries are rubbed off with the hands, picked clean and dried for three days in the sun, or in bamboo baskets near a gentle fire. The plant is capable of growing to a height of 20 or 30 feet, but for the sake...
Page 176 - The gum is obtained by making an incision in the stem, near the root, and cutting through the pith, when the sap exudes in a day or two, and hardens in the opening, after which it is collected by the peasants.
Page 479 - Menthol occurs as colorless, acicular or prismatic crystals, having a strong and pure odor of peppermint and a warm, aromatic taste, followed by a sensation of cold when air is drawn into the mouth.
Page 137 - A third month elapses, and the operation is again effected, after which the gum is supposed to have attained a proper degree of consistency. The mountain sides are immediately covered with parties of men and boys, who scrape off the large, clear globules into a basket, whilst the inferior quality that has run down the tree is packed separately.
Page 367 - Copy of further Correspondence relating to the introduction of the Chinchona Plant into India, and to proceedings connected with its cultivation, from April 1863 to April 1866.
Page 119 - ... issues from them is received in the sponge with which they are in contact. Four or five squeezes are all the workman gives to each slice of peel, which done he throws it aside. Though each bit of peel has attached to it a small portion of pulp, the workman contrives to avoid pressing the latter.
Page 524 - Nees et Eberm, which, besides growing in Khasya, is found in the contiguous regions of Silhet, Sikkim, Nepal, and Kumaon, and even reaches Australia, probably affords some cassia bark in Northern India. Large quantities of a thick sort of cassia have at times been imported from Singapore and Batavia, much of which is produced in Sumatra. In the absence of any very reliable information as to its botanical sources, we may suggest as mother plants C.
Page 356 - The number, color, shape, and size, but chiefly the arrangement of these fibres, confer a certain character common to all the barks of the group under consideration. " The liber-fibres are elongated and bluntly pointed at their ends, but never branched, mostly spindle-shaped, straight, or slightly curved, and not exceeding in length 3 mm. They are consequently of a simpler structure than the analogous cells of most other officinal barks. They are about J to J mm.
Page 167 - Chian turpentine, as found in commerce and believed to be genuine, is a soft solid, becoming brittle by exposure to the air ; viewed in mass, it appears opaque and of a dull brown hue. If pressed while warm between two slips of glass, it is seen to be transparent, of a yellowish brown, and much contaminated by various impurities in a state of fine division. It has an agreeable, mild terebinthinous odor, and very little taste. The whitish powder with which old Chian turpentine becomes covered shows...

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