/ 
15 
r>f this drug. 
k. ^1. 
f*' 
wliich fecms to depend entirely upon tlie purity pf 
the concrete. The fmell of Scammony is rather unpleafant^ and the 
tafte bitterilh and flightly acrid. The different proportions of gum 
and refm of which it confifts, have been variouily ftated 
? 
•=but 
as 
proof fpirit is the beft menllruuni for it, thef^ 
are fuppofed 
to be nearly in equal parts. 
; 
Scammony appears to have been well known to the Greek and 
Arabian phyfici 
Clans 
d 
) 
and was hot only employed internally as a 
purgative, but alfo as an external remedy for tumours, fcabies, tinea. 
fixed pains, &c. 
we 
find 
Althou2;h this dru": was fsldom 
it was very generally ufed, *" and an ingredient 
iven alone, yet 
> 
o 
m 
compounds which w^ere ; formerly held in very great repute 
many 
Hoffman, ^however, entertained an opinion, that Scammony was a 
dangerous medicine ; " Ego nunquam in praxi mea in ufu habui, 
; me femper ab iiliufmodi veiienis 
a 
(.(. 
h ab eb o 
nee in pollerum 
colliquativis abftinens. iJo^. in Schrod. p. 543." But fmce 
oer- 
a fafe though ftimulating- 
haave's time it has been confidered as 
cathartic, and frequently prefcribed uncombined with any other 
fubftance, yet neither producing tormina nor hypercatharfis. Like 
other 
re 
fm 
ous purgatives it is uncertain 111 its operation, which may 
be occafioned by the inteflines being more or lefs defended from the: 
adiion of thefe ftimulants, by the quantity of .natural mucus with 
which they are covered. 
-ff^ 
r 
c Boulduc Mem de I'Ac. de Sc. 1702. Geoffrey Mat. Med. 
F 
n 
^ Hippocrates, Diofcorides, Aetius, Mefue, &c. 
D 
Extract 
defecatum 
Extra^um Ipt 
>*^ 
vitriolatum. Scam fulphuratum, S 
lucidum fcammoniatum. Gelatlna 
Extra6i:. fcam glycyrrhizatum. Elixir Scammon. Scam, 
rofatum, Infufum 
Diacydonium 
Pul 
trlum Diabol 
f Among thcfe were the Pulvis de Tribus, or 
Bafilicus, Pulvis Comitis de Warwick, which was afterwards called 
becaufe Marcus Cornachini, profeffor of medicine at Pifa, recommend 
in a book, the title of which is, « Mcthodus qua omnes humanl cot 
" hiimoribus copia aut qualitate feccantibus geniti^j tuto^ clto, Ct munck 
Pul 
i 
'ports affe Si tones 
i 
The: 
f 
