CAPPARIS SPINOSA. 
esteem throughout Europe. In Italy the unripe fruit is prepared 
in the same way as the flower buds; both are highly acrid and 
burning to the taste. In the isles of the Mediterranean and near 
Toulon, the flower-buds of the Carer are gathered just before they 
begin to expand, which forms a daily occupation during six 
months, when the plants are in a flowering state. As the buds 
are gathered they are thrown into a cask among as much salt 
and vinegar as is sufficient to cover them, and as the supply of 
Capers is increased more vinegar is added. When the’ Caper ° 
season closes, the casks are emptied and the buds sorted accord- 
ing to their size and color, the smallest and greenest being 
reckoned the best, and put into small casks of fresh vinegar for 
commerce. They will in this state keep fit for use for five or 
six years. The best Capers are called Nonpareilles, and the 
second best Capucines. 
Cappares Spenesa contains a milky juice which is extremely 
acrid, and the whole plant possesses the properties of a drastic 
purge ; but the oil of the seed is the only part used in regular 
practice. This oil is colorless, inodorous and when recent nearly 
insipid, but it speedly becomes rancid, and acquires a dangerous 
acrimony. ‘The oil may be extracted by expression, or by the 
agency of alcohol or of either. In the first case the bruised seeds 
are pressed in a canvay or linen bag, and the oil which escapes 
is purified by decanting it’ from the whitish flocculent matter 
which it deposits upon standing, and by subsequent filtration. 
By the latter process the bruised seeds are digested in alcohol or 
macerated in ether, and the oil is obtained by filtering and 
evaporating the solution. 
This oil is a powerful purge, operating with much activity in 
a dose varying from five to ten drops. It was, some years since, 
much used by certain Italian and French Physicians who did 
not find it to produce inconvenient irritation of the stomach and 
bowels. Its want of taste and the smallness of the dose recom- 
mended it especially in the cases of infants. It was said to be 
less acrid and irritating than the Croton oil, over which it also 
had the advantage of greater cheapness, Some trials which 
have been made with it on this side of the Atlantic, have not 
xe tended to confirm these favorable reports. It was found un- 
- _ Certain in its cathartic effect, and very liable to vomit. (Scatter- _ 
good, Jour. of the Phil. Col. of Pharm. 1V.124). a 
t may be given in pill with the crumb 0 "bread, or in emul- aes 
