526 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



According to other authors, however, caution is to be ex- 

 ercised in its administration, as in certain stages it may do 

 moi^ harm than good. Further and more extended experi- 

 ments will be required in order to determine precisely how 

 to apply this remedy, and, indeed, whether it has the virtues 

 attributed to it by its sanguine advocates. It is to be re- 

 marked that the ancients attached great therapeutic virtue 

 to the use of silphium, considering it as a true panacea. 11 

 B, July 1, 353. 



NEW SUBSTANCES OF THE MATERIA MEDICA. 



At the recent Pharmaceutical Congress held at Bristol, 

 England, an account was given by Mr. Groves, the president, 

 of sundry new drugs, some of which are probably destined to 

 occupy a prominent place in the Materia Medica. Most of 

 them were brought from South America, and as yet are but im- 

 perfectly understood. One of these is known as Butea^ which 

 is said to contain a basic substance, which combined wnth 

 sulphuric acid is white, almost like cinchona, and is exported 

 to Europe in great quantities to adulterate quinine. Erva de 

 Bato^Vi cinchonaceous plant, used in Brazil for killing rats and 

 mice, is another drug w^hich is said to exert an action upon 

 the heart similar to that of digitalis. Certain substances, 

 knowm as Goa^ Bahia, and Araroha potcders, and claimed 

 to have quite different effects, have lately been shown to 

 be one and the same thing, the plant having been exported 

 from Bahia to Goa, and thence introduced into Europe. The 

 essential principle of these powders, as recently separated, 

 has been called Chrysardhin^ and contains from eighty to 

 eighty-four per cent, of pure chrysophanic acid, long knowm 

 as a constituent of rhubarb roots. This is considered in Brazil 

 as almost a specific for certain forms of skin disease. Anoth- 

 er substance mentioned w^as Gurgun balsam^ an oleo-resinous 

 fluid, obtained by making incisions in the bark of Biptero- 

 carpus Imvis. This, for a time, w\as used principally as an 

 adulterant of copaiba, but is now believed to be a very val- 

 uable agent in the treatment of skin diseases, especially 

 leprosy ; indeed, it is said that Gurgun balsam renders this 

 disease quite tractable, sometimes curing it, and in most 

 cases alleviating it. It is applied in emulsions with lime- 

 water, internally and also as an ointment. It is also urged 



