RADIX ACONITI INDICA. 



lii 



The poisonous pro])erties of Bish were particularly noticed by 

 Hamilton (late Buchanan) ^ who passed several months in Nepal in 



by Wallicl 



J 



/ 



as 



to the Socidte' de physique de Geneve in 1822.- VVallich himself 

 afterwards gave a lengthened account of it in his Plantw Asiaticcv 

 Rariores (1830).^ 



Description^Balfour, who also figures A. ferox,* describes the 

 plant from a specimen that flowered in the Botanical Garden of Edin- 

 burgh as— "having 2—3 fasciculated, fusiform, attenuated tubers, 

 some of the recent ones being nearly 5 inches long, and 1^ inches in 

 circumference, dark brown externally, white within, sending off sparse 

 lougish branching fibres." ' 



Aconite root has of late been imported into London from India in 

 considerable quantity, and been offered by the wholesale druggists as 

 A^',if,l A^u.^.M." It i3 of very uniform appearance, and seems derived 



Kepal Aconite. 



f< 



The druo- 



consists of simple tuberous roots of an elongated conical form, 3 to I 

 inches long, and i to If inches in greatest diameter. Very often the 

 roots have been broken in being dug up and are wanting in the lower 

 extremity : some are nearly as broad at one end as at the other. They 

 are_ mostly flattened and not quite cylindrical, often arched, much 

 shrivelled chiefly in a longitudinal direction, and marked rather sparsely 

 with the scars of rootlets. The aerial stem has been closely cut awav 

 and IS represented only by a few short scaly rudiments.** 



The roots are of a blackish brown, the prominent portions beino- 

 often whitened hy friction. In their normal state they are white and 

 farinaceous withm, but as they are dried by fire-heat and often even 

 scorched, their interior is generally horny, translucent, and extremely 

 compact and hard. The largest root we have met with weighed 555 



grains. 



In the Indian Bazaars, B'ash is found in another form, the tuberous 

 roots having been stee])ed in cow's urine to preserve them from insects.' 

 ihese roots which m our specimen « are nu)stly plump and cylindrical, 

 are flexible and moist when fresh, but become hard and brittle by keep- 

 ing, ihey are externally of very dark colour, black and horny within. 

 With an_ offensive odour resembling that of hyraceum or castor. Im- 

 mersed m water, though only for a few moments, they afford a deei) 



Such 



, - clrug is wholly uufit for uye in medicine, 



thougli not unsuitable, perhaps, fur the poisoning of wild beasts, a 

 purpose to which it is often applied in India ' 



' Account of the Kingdom of NepctL Ediii. 

 1819,98. . ^ ' 



2 Mm^ HdvUhiue d'llht Nai. Berne, i. 

 (1823) IGO. 



/ Yet strange to say confused the plant 

 with A. Napellm, an Indian form of wliich 

 ne figured as A.ftrox I 



^EdiiiL New PhiL Journ, xlvii. (1849) 

 366, pi. f). 



^ The first importation was in ] 809, wlien 

 ten bags containing 1,000 lbs., said to he 

 part of a much larger tjuantity actually in 



London, were offered for sale by a drug- 

 broker. 



** There is a rude Moodcut of the root in 

 Pharm. Jount. i. (1871) 434. 



^ A specimen of ordinary Bi<>h m my pos- 

 session for two or three years became much 

 infested by a minute and active insect of 

 the genus P.^ocua, — D. H. 



* Obligingly sent to me in 1807 by Messrs. 

 Jlogers & Co. of Bombay, who say it is the 

 only kind there procurable. — 1>. H. 



^According to Moodeeu Sheriff (>S'u;>^>/('- 



