PHARMACOPGIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
now in use, but which probably yields a product different from the 
natural gum (see Manna). Scammony is a gift of the Orient, the 
beginning of its use being home medication. 
SCILLA 
This bulbous plant (Urginea maritima) is broadly distributed 
in the islands of the Mediterranean and the countries neighboring, in 
the south of Spain and Portugal, and in many instances is found far 
inland, even to an elevation as high as three thousand feet above sea 
level. It is one of the most anciently recorded remedies, being men- 
tioned by Epimenides (294), a Greek writer of the seventh century 
B. C., who made such use of it that it became known as epimenidea, 
Theophrastus (633) mentions it, Pliny (514) notes its two varieties, 
Dioscorides (194) describes the making of vinegar of squills, whilst 
preparations of squill with honey were familiar remedies in Arabian 
medication. The forms employed by the empiricists of those remote 
times seem not to have been improved upon by the pharmacy even of 
the present day; indeed, attempts to improve the aqueous or acetous 
squill simples of ancient home medication by alcoholic extracts and 
tinctures, have resulted in failure. 
SCOPARIUS 
This woody shrub, Cytisus scoparius, or common broom, prevails 
throughout Great Britain and Western and temperate Northern Eu- 
rope, but it seems not to climb to any great height on the mountains 
of the Alps. According to Ledebour (375) it is native to the eastern 
side of the Ural Mountains. Scoparius is mentioned in the earliest 
Italian and German herbals under the name genesta, and under the 
name broom it was used in Anglo-Saxon medicine as well as in the 
Welsh “Meddygon Myddfai” (507). (See Note, page 1.) The Lon- 
don Pharmacopeia, 1618, gave it a place, and Gerarde (262) states 
that Henry VIII used it as a remedy “against surfets and diseases 
thereof arising.” Broom also enjoyed a reputation in other directions, 
for example, being the emblem of “The Handsome” Geoffrey, or 
“Plantagenet,” Count of Anjou, ancestor of the Plantagenet kings of 
England, who wore the common broom of his country, the “planta 
genista,” in his helmet. Scoparius in the Pharmacopeia of the United 
States seems, like other established foreign drugs, to have heired its 
reputation and obtained its position from past records in medizeval 
European or Oriental times, instead of from any marked use it has 
enjoyed in American medicine. 
SCOPOLA 
The root of this plant, Scopola carniolica, is now official and may 
be substituted for belladonna in the making of the mydriatic alkaloids. 
Although of recent introduction in scientific pharmacy, it has an inter- 
esting botanical record, reaching back to Matthioli (414), who named 
it Solanum somniferum alterum. 
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