12 



RANUNCULACE^. 



green with iron. When dried they yield on incineration 16-G per cent. 



of ash. 



Uses— In Britain the leaves and small shoots are only used in the 

 fresh state, the flowering herb heiiig purchased by the druggist in order 

 to prepare an inspissated ,]mee,—Extr actum Aconitl This preparation, 

 which is considered rather uncertain in its action, is occasionally pre- 

 scribed for the relief of rheumatism, inflammatory and febrile afFcctions, 

 neuralgia, and heart diseases. 



RADIX ACONITI INDICA. 



Bish, Bis or BUch, hulian Aconite Root, Nepal Aconite. 



Botanical Origin— The poisonous root known in India as Bish, 

 Jhs, or Bikh is chiefly derived from Acovituin fevox Wallich, a plant 

 gTowmg 3 to G feet high and bearing large, dull-blue flowers, native of 

 the temperate and sub-alpine regions of the Himalaya at an eleva- 

 tion of 10,000 to 14,000 feet in Garwhal, Kiimaon, Nepal and Sikkim.^ 

 mthe greater part of these districts, other closely allied and equally 



Ni 



um H 



Noi 



Asia and America. The roots of these plants are collected indiscrimin- 



ately according to Hooker and Thomson^ under the name 



of Bish 



_ History— The Sanskrit name of this potent drucr, Visha, signifies 

 smiply j>90isou, and Ativisha, a name which it also bears, is equiValent 

 to summum venenum!' Bish is mentioned bv the Persian physician 

 Alliervi m the 10th century as well as by Avicenna'^ and many other 

 Arabian writers on medicine,-one of whom, Isa Ben Ali, calls it the 



most rapid of deadly poisons, and describes the symptoms it produces 

 with tolerable correctness.^ ^ ^ 



Upon the extinction of the Arabian school of medicine this viruleiit 

 drug seems to have fallen into oblivion. It is just named by Acosia 

 (10/ 8) as one of the ingredients of a pill which the Brahmin pM^sicians 

 ff ?. ;.V?^f -.^-^."^^^y^entery.^ There is also a very strange reference to 

 k ^.i.}^ t ,V^' ^''T"" PJ^'-^^^acopa^a of Kather Ange, where ifc 

 nnnln, t ^ '''^^' ^^^"-^ '^°^^ poisonous when freshris perfectly 

 :r^^/'^'Z^J^^^!^!/l^^-P-^«^ -to Persia fi-oii Indi. 



food 

 aware that it was the root of an aconite. 



as a restorative ! 



An^e was 



i he Arabic name 5;.s7« or Persian Bh is 

 stated by Moocleen Sheriff in his Snpplo- 

 mmt to the Pharm.ncopma of India (p OfiS) 

 to be a more correct designation than 'liikh 

 whK\x seeins to be a corr.iption of doubtful 

 origin A\ e find that the Arabian writer 



o'^rx ^'^'"^^ gi^'es the word as Bhh (not 

 Bikh). 



p/^J^HQ^Vi" ?"-Ji"ey and Trinien, Med 

 PkuiUi (1877) pt. 27. 



» Flor Iml i. (1855) 54, 57; and Introd. 

 Essay, 3. 



* Abu Mansur Mowafik ben AIi* 47].^.,,; 



1. 



Liher Fnudamenlonim Pharmacologic, ^^ 

 (Vindob. 1830) 47. Seligmann's edition. 



^Valgrisi edition, 1564, lib. ii. tract. 2. 

 it, N. (p. 347). 



®lbn Baytar, Sonthein^.er's transL 

 (1840) 100. 



'^ Clnsins, ExofJra, 280. 



^Pharm, Perdca, 1G81, p. 17, 319, 358. 

 The word hi^ch is correctly given in Arabia 

 characters, so that of its identity there can 

 be nodisimte. (Pharm. i^erska, see appear 

 dix : Angelua.) 



