COL—COL — 
Filaments 6, tapering, white, much shorter than the monc- 
_ petallous corolla; anthers erect, pointed, yellow; germen 
radical, sending forth 3 slender styles, reflexed at the top, 
- in the bosom of the flower, and supporting simple pointed 
‘stigmas; capsule 3-lobed, 3-celled, containing numerous 
small globular seeds, resembling somewhat rape-seed, but 
longer, and not so dark. 
Mevicat Prorerttes ann Uses. Recent root, an acrid 
irritating poison—has produced death in several instances, 
. after great agony. Stoerck, Errhman, Marges, Murray, 
found it poisonous to oxen and dogs, in small doses—kill- 
tng them in afew hours, and leaving the stomach and 
- bowels. inflamed and gangrenous. Scudamore more re- 
cently attested its poisonous effects on dogs, given per 
orem, and by injection into the jugular vein. Haller, 
Krapf, and Kratochville, declare it innoxious—they pro- 
bably used the plant in its weak state; that is, when the 
bulb has been deprived of its power and acrimony, by 
having given its juices to the new bulb, and when it was 
itself decaying, as is the nature of bulbous roots; or per- 
haps they used the roots of other plants, resembling the 
roots of colchicum. Its poisonous property is now well 
Mee established, and admitted universally, 
exc a acrimony of Colchicum resides in a peculiar alkali, 
which can be separated from the other principles: M. 
- Pelletier has named it Veratria, or Veratrine, which see. 
The root of Colchicum, according to the analysis of MM. 
Pelletier and Caventou, yields—1, a fatty matter, com- 
posed of oil, adipocire, and a volatile acid; 2, yellow ex- 
tractive colouring matter; 3, acid gallate of veratrine ; 4, 
= te : gum; 5, fecula, with inulin and woody fibre.” It yields 
See very few ashes. 
1s: Introduced by Stoerck, as a remedy for dropsy—using 
< an infusion of 3 grains fresh root, in 4 0z. wine, as a diu- 
oie ee : used, afterward, the arymel colchici, to obviate the 
acrimony, by acetous preparation, Now used for gout 
pee and rheumatism. Has been made almost certain, by Scu- 
__ damore, to be the only article in the Lau Medicinale. His 
‘©xperiments prove the identity with that nostrum, and — 
ith Wilson’s tincture, and Reynolds’s specific. = = 
Rie Biversnd Home says, the wine and th: are milder _ 
without the sediment—Scudamore found the sediment 
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