CORMUS COLCHrcr. 70 1 



Description— The fresh corm is conical or inversely pear-shaped, 

 about 2 inches long by an inch or more wide, rounded on one side, 

 flattish on the other, covered by a bright brown, membranous skin, 

 within which is a second of paler colour. When eat transversely, it 

 appears white, firm, fleshy and homogeneous, abounding in a bitter, 

 starchy juice, of disagreeable odour. The dried slices are inodorous, 

 and have a bitterish taste. They should be of a good white, clean, 

 crisp and brittle,— not mouldy or stained. 



Microscopic Structure — The outer membrane is formed of fcan- 

 g^ntially-extended cells, with thick brownish walls ; the main body of 

 the corm, of large thin-walled^ more or less regularly globular cells, 

 loaded with starch, and interrupted by vascular bundles containing 

 spiral vessels. The original form of the starch granules is globular or 

 egg-shaped, but from mutual pressure and agglutination, many are 

 angular or truncated. A large proportion are more or less compound, 

 consisting of several granules united into one. In all, the hiluni is 

 very distinct, appearing in some as a mere point, but in most as a line 

 or star. 



Chemical Composition— The earms eontum Colchkin (see next 

 article), starch, sugar, gum, resin, tannin, and fat. When sliced and 

 «ned, they lose about 70 per cent, of water .^ By drying, the (pro- 

 bably) volatile body upon which the odour of the fresh corm depends, 

 . IS lost. 



Uses— Colchicum if? much prescribed hi cases of gout, rheumatism, 

 ufopsy, and cutaneous maladies. 



Other medicinal species of Colchicum. 



Under the name Ilerniocladylus;- the corms of other species of Co^ 

 chicxim of Eastern origin anciently enjoyed great reputation in medi- 

 cine- These corms are in structure precisely like those of ordinary 

 colchicum ; they are entire, but detJi-ired oi membranous envelopes, ot 

 a flattened, heart-sli.nped form, not wrinkled on the surfoce and often 

 very small in size. The starch grains they contain are similar to tiiose 

 of G autumnale, but in some specimens twice as large. 



There is a great uncertainty as to the species of Colchicim-^^^^ 

 furnish hennodactyk Prof. J E. Planchou, who has written an eU- 

 borate article on the subject,^ is in favour of G. vanegafiml..^ "^ "« 

 of the Levant. But one can hardly suppose this pknfc to be the sou ce 

 f the hermodactyls (Sumvja,i) of the Indian bazaars, which are stated 

 to be brought from Kashmii-. 



J This is the average obtained during ten .* ^3] ; .ee also Cooke in Pharm. Journ. 



years m drying 16 cwt., in the laboratory April 1, lo'l- y , ^ot., iv. (1855) 



of Messrs. AUen and Hanburys, London. '^"^ f''fTpZnn/ouv,,. xv. 18.56 



The Bitter Hermodactyl oiY^y\e is not 132 ; abstract m PU-> m. Joau. 



our opinion the produce of a Colchicum 465. 



