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 - 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. The gum when first taken from the tree is very soft, but hardens quickly. .... 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 552 - AD 1607), who speaks of them as used ''to season" beer or ale, explaining that notwithstanding their manifold virtues, they " rather make it a physical drinke to keepe the body in health, than an ordinary drinke for the quenching of our thirst.
Page 645 - Here they make small clearings, in which the admission of light occasions the plant to develop in abundance. The cardamom plants attain 2 to 3 feet in height during the following monsoon, after which the ground is again cleared of weeds, protected with a fence, and left to itself for a year. About two years after the first clearing the plants begin to flower, and five months later ripen some fruits, but a full crop is not got till at least a year after. The plants continue productive six or seven...
Page 137 - ... strip of bark for about five inches below the wound. This is left for a month when a fresh incision is made in the same place but deeper. A third month elapses and the operation is again repeated 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, while the inferior quality that has run down the tree is packed separately.
Page 483 - 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 139 - C" H^O*. We find that it is not soluble in alkalis, nor have we succeeded in converting it into a crystalline body by the action of dilute alcohol. It is not uniformly distributed throughout the tears; if they are broken after having been acted upon by dilute alcohol, it now and then happens that a clear stratification is perceptible, showing a concentric arrangement. "Olibanum contains an essential oil, of which Braconnot (1808) obtained 5 per cent., Stenhouse ( 1840) 4 per cent., and Kurbatow (18711874)...
Page 618 - Hard and brittle, yet gradually taking the form of the vessel in which it is kept ; opaque, varying in colour, but generally dull reddish-brown ; of a peculiar somewhat empyreumatic perfumed odour, and aromatic taste, without bitterness ; free from vesicles ; gives off no water when heated.
Page 428 - It consists of a short, knotty, descending rootstock, about -J- 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.
Page 337 - Though we are not prepared to concur in the workman's opinion, it is reasonable to suppose that his manner of treating the liquor favours the crystallization of the substance in a more concrete form than it might otherwise assume. The thickened mass, which is said by another writer to resemble soft, yellowish clay, is now placed in shallow, square boxes, and when somewhat hardened, is cut into cubes and dried in the shade. The leaves are boiled a second time, and finally washed in water, which water...
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.

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