4 



4 



RANUNCULACE.E. 



Choulaiit died in A.D. 923 or 932, mentions Mamiran, and it is also 

 noticed by Avicenna a little later as a drug useful in diseases of 



"1 



Ibn Bay tar called the 



the eye. Ma/x^/yoa likewise occurs in exactly the same way in the 

 writings of Leo, *' Philosophus ct Medicus. 



drug Mamivan and Uriih, and described it as a small j^ellow root like 

 turmeric, coming from China. Other writers of the middle ages allude 

 to it under the name of Memeren. 



H 



Mahomed, in the account of Cathay which he 



gave to 



Ramusio {circa A.D. 1550) says that the Martibvoni chini, by which we 

 understand the root in question, is found in the mountains of Succuir 

 (Suh-cheu) where rhubarb grows, and that it is a wonderful remedy 



In an official report published at Lahore 



for diseases of the eye, 



1862/ MainiranA-chiiii is 



in 



Yarkand. 



said to be brought from China to 



W 



The rhizome of Coptis is used by the Chinese under the names 

 Kmg-lien and Chiicn-lien^ It is enumerated by Cleyer** (1682) as 



bv Ef^roins ^ who 



received it from Canton. 



More recently it wa 



bourt'^ who thouo-ht it t 



78 



Or)h 



yl 



'pentinu 



an apocyneous plant widely removed from Coptis. Its root was recom- 

 mended in India by Maclsaac^ in 1827 and has been subsequently 

 employed with success by many practitioners. 



There is a rude figure of the plant in the Chinese herbal Fitn-tsao. 



Description 



Mish 



whence it is sent by way of Sudiya on the Bramaputra to Bengal is 

 a rhizome about the thickness of a quill occurring in pieces an inch 

 or two in length. It often branches at the crown into two or three 

 heads, and bears the remains of leafstalks and thin wiry rootlets, the 

 stumps of which latter give it a rough and spiny appearance. It i« 

 nearly cylindrical, often contorted, and of a yellowish brown colour. 

 The fracture is short, exhibiting a loose structure, with large bright 

 yellow radiating woody bundles. The rhizome is* intensely bitter,' hut 

 not aromatic even when fresh. 



It is found in the Indian bazaars in neat little open- work bags 

 formed of narrow strips of rattan, each containing about half an ounce. 

 We have once seen it in bulk in the London market/' 



Microscopic Structure— Cut transversely the rhizome exhibits an 

 inner cortical tissue, through which sclerenchymatous groups of cells 

 are scattered. The latter are most obvious on account of their bright 

 yellow colour. In the woody central column a somewhat concentric 



^ F. Z. Ermerins, Anecdota medica 

 Graeca, e codicibus MSS, expromsit. 

 Lugd. Bat. 1840. Leoiiis Pliilosophi 

 et Medici conspectus medicinae, lib. 

 hi. cap. L (K£0.«. Hfjol o09aX/iwi/ 



^ Yule, Cathay and the way thithevy 

 (Hakluyt Society) i. (1866) p. ccxvi. 



» Davies, Rtport on the trade of tlt^ coiau 

 tries on the N. W. loxindary of India, 

 Lahore, 1862. 



4 Otherwise written Ilonylane, Chonloh 

 f'hi/nleu, ChouUnej Soidine, &c. 



^ Specimen Mediclnce Sbnc<jPy Med. Simp- 



No. 27. 



^Mat, Med. ii. (1778) DOS. 



'^Ilht, des Drag. ii. (1849) 526. 



® Trans, of Med. and Phys. Soc. of Cai- 

 citlta, iii. (1827) 432. 



» Teeta ia the Hindustani tita, from the 

 Sanskrit tikta, ''bitter." (Dr. Rice.) 



^^ Two cases were oifered for sale as Ofoi 

 or Mishmee by Messrs. Gray and ClarK, 

 drug-brokers, 22th Nov. 1858. 



