PHARMACOPCIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
the fragrant sandalwood of Timor and the inodorous red sandalwood. 
In this connection it should be remembered that Santalum rubrum, or 
red sanders, has none of the qualities of the Santalum album, or fra- 
grant sandalwood. And yet it is recorded that all the languages of 
India call it by the name red-colored sandalwood. In the Middle ages 
it was used in Europe for coloring purposes, being quoted in England, 
1326 and 1399, at three shillings per pound, and it was entered on 
the accounts of the Monastery of Durham, 1530, along with spices 
and groceries. It is used in pharmacy as a coloring agent, after the 
manner in which it was employed in domestic economy of the olden 
times for the same purpose. 
SANTONICA 
The “wormseeds” are widely distributed in the northern hemi- 
sphere of the Old World, many varieties thereof being familiar to bot- 
anists and. subject to much discussion. The unopened flowers of the 
head (wormseed) are collected in quantities on the vast plains or 
steppes in the northern part of Turkestan, the distributing point being 
the renowned fair of Nishni Novgorod, Russia, where, July 1 5th to 
August 27th, the celebrated exchanges of the products occur. Worm- 
seed, however, is found in the Oriental bazaars, being brought for 
native and domestic use from the sections of country named, or from 
Afghanistan or Caboul. Dioscorides (194) mentions several species 
of wormseed, stating that the small seeds were mixed with honey and 
employed by the people as a remedy for ascarides. Alexander Tralli- 
anus (11), in the sixth century, commended this drug as a remedy 
for intestinal worms. Saladinus (570), 1450, and afterwards several 
authors of the sixteenth century, as Ruellius (561) and Dodonzeus 
(195), refer to the remedy as a vermifuge for children. Its empirical 
use in domestic medication is maintained to the present time, and 
from this source its anthelmintic virtues were learned by the profes- 
sion. : , 
SARSAPARILLA 
The drug sarsaparilla is furnished by the root of a climbing plant 
of the genus smilax, which prevails over the northern part of South 
America, the whole of Central America, and the west coast of Mexico. 
Many varieties contribute the drug of commerce. Its qualities were 
made known in early European annals from the commendation of ex- 
plorers of the New World. Monardes ( 447) is authority for the 
statement that it was introduced to Seville about 1536 from “New 
Spain,” but that a different variety soon followed from Honduras. 
The “Chronicle of Peru,” by Pedro de Cieze de Leon (151), 1553, 
mentions sarsaparilla as growing in South America, where he observed 
it between 1533 and 1550. It was recommended as a cure for syphilis 
and acute rheumatism, the Spaniards calling it “an excellent medicine.” 
In: this connection it may be said that the name applied to it was 
zarza parilla, afterward becoming sarsaparilla. Like other remedies 
introduced in business channels for commercial purposes from the 
74 } 
