o()8 ' EUPHORBIACE^. 



extremely purgative. There is a tolerably correct figure of Bicinus m 

 the famous MS. Dioscorides which was executed for the Empress Juliana 

 Anicia in A.D. 505, and is now preserved in the Imperial Library at 

 Vienna. 



The castor oil plant was cultivated by Albertus Magnus, Bishop of 

 Ratisbon, in the middle of the 13th century .^ It was well known as a 

 garden plant in the time of Turner (1568), who mentions the oil as 

 Oleum cidnum vel ricininum.'^ Gerarde, at the end of the same century, 

 was familiar with it under the name of Ricinus or Kik. The oil he 

 says is called Oleum cicinum or Oleum de Clierua,^ and used externally 

 in skin diseases. 



After this period the oil seems to have fallen into complete neglect, 

 and is not even noticed in the comprehensive and accursite Pharmacologia 

 of Dale (1693). In the time of Hill (1751) and Lewis (1701) Palma 

 Christi seeds were rarely found in the shops, and the oil from them was 

 scarcely known.* 



In 1764 Peter Canvane, a physician who had practised many years 

 m the West Indies, published a "Dissertation on the Oleum Pahm 

 Chnsti, sive Oleum Ricini; or {as it is commonly call'd) Castor Oil;" 

 strongly recommending its use as a gentle pui-gative. This essay, which 

 passed through two editions, and was translated into French, was 

 followed by sevej'al others,^ thus thoroughly drawing attention to the 

 value of the oil. Accordingly we find that the seeds of Ricinus were 

 admitted to the London Pharmacopoeia of 1788, and directions given 

 for preparing oil from them. Woodville in his Medical Botany (1790) 

 speaks of the oil as having " lately come into frequent use." 



At this period and for several years subsequentl}^, the small supplies 

 of the seeds and oil required for European medicine were obtained from 

 Jamaica.' ^ This oil was gradually displaced in the maiket by that 

 produced in the East Indies: the rapidity with which the consumption 

 increased may be inferred from the following figures, representing the 

 value of the Castor Oil shipped to Great Britain from Bengal io 



i^?nof '''^'"^^ years, namely 1813-14, £610; 1815-16, £1269; 1819-20, 

 £/102. 



Description—The fruit of Ricinus is a tricoccous capsule, usually 

 provided with weak prickles, containing one seed in each of its three 

 cells. The seeds attain a length of ^V to j\, and a maximum breadth 

 of tV of an inch, and are of a compressed ellipsoid form. The apes of 

 tlie seed is prolonged into a short beak, on the inner side of which is a 



' De VegaahJUhus ed. Jesseii, 1867. 347. Lens, Did. de Mat. Mid. vi. (1S34) 05. 



3 ?, ™''.f ^T^"/'- P*-, ,"• ^1^- ' How small was the traffic in Cas or Oi 



4 TTiii T-r- . r.i ,. , that the stock iii 1777 of a London «ii" 

 ^'Vl j'^^'.'*- f/'^'e irat. J/ec/., Lond. 1751. sale druggist (Joseph Gurney Be^^an, pre 



ITfiTi?'"' ^'''- "^'^'^ ^'"'- ^^''^■' I-o^J- deccssor of Allen !and Hanburys ^v:^ - 

 ^Thptn.T , • Bottles (1 Bottler 18 to 20 ounces valu (I 



secHs ai^l r^'"f' p- " ^""^^^'^tlon with the at Sx. per bottle. The accounts of the saij| 



from Ja^jl ''■ ^'T-'"" ^^'' <=«"^*^ ^o us house %how at stocktaking ^n bS2, 2^ 



strnrrc St 'V^'^^ '«l'^"*h by some Bottles of the oil, which had cost 10^. g 



AmS rl/» ' i^ P^'""* ^'^^ «"^^ '^^ll^^ bottle. In 1 799 Jamaica exported -| 



( S aZ:'. T'^%'f"^ ^«""« f'^«t"« Ca.ks of Castor Oil and 10 C'^^lf.f'^' 



^^JSL!'^ h ^ '' "" V'"^*^^'^ «f ^^'^ (r-H"y. //-'■ of Jamaica, ml- 234 



WestIS '""*"'' ""^ "^* «f *^« • ' H.'h. Wilson, Bevieu; of the ix^g 



«Foral;<.t'nf „,v 1 , Commerce of bengal from 1M4 lo 



i-or a hst of which consult Merat et De Calcutta, 1830, tables pp. H- 1^- 



