APPENDIX, 487 
more permanent impression on the system. Its 
operation, in all cases in which I have admin- 
istered it, is slower than that of jalap, but it leaves 
the bowels longer in a lax and soluble condition. 
I once took twenty grains at four o’clock P. M. 
which gave me no disturbance till next morning, 
when its operation commenced and produced 
continual motions all that day and part of the 
next night together with severe tornina; this 
was the first dose of Podophyllum I had ever 
administered ; and its effects being so decided, I 
have since prescribed it in a multitude of cases, 
and for the most part with similar results. Like 
most other drastic catharties it is rendered milder 
by combining it with calomel, and hence, in most 
cases, this combination is to be preferred to 
giving it alone. It is more disagreeable to the 
stomach than common purgatiyes, and will 
oftener occasion emesis. In bilious affections it 
usually supercedes the necessity of an emetic 
previous to a cathartic, and hence two desirable 
effects are produced by one agent. 
I was employed one afternoon in a close room 
in powdering the Rad. podophylli, which, by. the 
next morning, occasioned a most violent inflam- 
mation of my right eye and eyelid; it yielded, 
however, to the antiphlogistic regimen in eight 
or ten days. 
25 
