SCAMMONIUM. 



io!) 



in waste bushy places in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, the Greek Islands, 

 extending, north ward to the Crimea and Southern Russia, Vnit appears 

 to be wanting in Northern Africa, Italy, and in all the western parts 

 of the Mediterranean basin. 



History — The dried jnilky juice of tlie scaiu in ony plant has been 

 known as a medicine from very ancient times. Thcophrastus in the 3r J 

 century B.C. was acquainted witli it; it was likewise familiar to 

 Dioscorides, Pliny, Celsus, and Rufus of Ephosus, each of whom has 

 given some account of the manner in which it was collected. Scam- 

 mony used then also to be called Dla/jrydion, from the Greek word 

 SuKpv. tear. The media3val Arabian ph; ' ' ' ' 



and the plant from wdiich it is derived. ' ^ 



m the 10th and 11th centuries, and would appear to be one of the 

 medicines recommended to King Alfred the Great, by Helias, patriarch 

 01 Jerusalem.^ It is repeatedly named in the medical writings in use 

 prior to the Norman conquest (a.d. 106G), in one of which directions 

 are given for recognizing the goodness of the drug by the wdiite 

 emulsion it produces when wetted. 



The botanists of the ICtli and I7th centuries, as Brunfels, Gosncr, 

 Matthiolus, Dodona^us, and the Bauhins, described and figured the 

 plant partly under the name of Scammonia syriaca. The collecting 



an English physician of 



scam 

 The drug was used in Britain 



Scammony was formerly distinguished by the names Aleiypo and 



L-mer sort being twice or thrice as costly as the latter ; 



oi the drug was w^ell described by Russell, 



Aleppo (1752), whose account ^ is accompanied by an excellent figure 

 representing the plant and the means of obtaining its juice. 

 Scammony \i " ' " 



^y^^yrna.ihaiox _ 



at the present day Aleppo scammony has quite lost its pre-eminence 



Localities producing the drug— Scammony is collected in Asia 

 -Mmor, from Brussa and Boli in the north, to Macri and Adalia in the 

 ^outh. and eastward as far as Angora. But the most productive 

 localities wdthin this area are tJie valley of the Mendereh, south 

 of Smyrna : and the districts of Kirkagach and Demirjik, north of that 

 town. ^ The neighbourhood of Aleppo likewise affords the drug. A 

 little is obtained further soutJi in Syria, from the woody hills and 

 valleys about the lake of Tiberias and Mount Carmel. 



Production— The scannnony plant has a long woody root, which 

 throws off downwards a few lateral branches, and produces from its 

 knotty summit numerous twining stems which are persistent and 

 ^^'oody at the base. In plants of three or four years old, the root may 

 be an inch or more in diameter ; in older specimens it sometunes 



In length, it is from tuo 



When 



up to a 



acquires a diameter of three or four inches. 



to three feet, according to the depth of soil in which it grows. 



l^he root is wounded, there exudes a milky juice which dries 



PpJ'^^i^ /^'^ ^^^ opinion expressed by the 

 A If , . <-?ckayue. The letter of FFelias to 

 71^ l^ V"i''''''^«'ct, and mentions only ha\- 

 l^am petroleum, thcri.-ika, and a white stoue 



sea as a charm. But from the reference 

 ^^^Hcio four articles in another part of tfic 

 -. •, m connection with scammony, ammo- 



acum, tragacanth, and g;dl)anixm, there 

 'S ground lor bolieviuti that ti.e latter 



(Syrian and Persian) drugs wore included 

 in tlie lost part of tlic j.atriarch's lett* )■. 

 —See Lfi'chdaui.% Wnrtcunmivj rr«'/ Sttti-- 

 craft of Korli/ En'./fan'/, edited hy Coc 

 kayne (Master of the UoUs Series), vol. ii. 

 pages xxir. 28!). n.'i, also 273. 28 1. 



* Medical Oh.sermfionn ami Iifjinruy, i. 



(1757) 12. 



