2 RANUNCULACEZ. 
Bachnag is said to be the’ best; it is of a yellowish brown 
colour, and in shape like a deer’s horn. Bish as a name for 4 
_ Aconite appears to haye been known to the-Hindus from the — 
- earliest ages, but the word appears to have been applied also to | 
any very poisonousroot. The nine virulent poisons mentioned by 4 
Sanskrit writers are certainly not all Aconites, as some of them — 
are described as growing in parts of India in which Aconites — 
are not found; thus it would appear that the Sanskrit Visha, — 
and its equivalent, Bish and Bikh,* in the modern ‘Indian. | 
languages, may be understood:to mean poison, and especially 
Aconite as being the most virulent poison known, The non- 
poisonous Aconites, which are known and used as medicines, 
have distinet vernacular names. " The author of the Makhzan- 
el-Adwiya and other Arabian and Persian writers describe — 
Bish as an Indian root, and appear to have copied their 
paste (ep) and spread upon the skin as a remedy for neuralgia 
and other painful affections, such as boils, &e. ; internally it is . 
| atism, but is generally mixed . 
» both mineral and vegetable; 
of purification by being boiled 
ust considerably diminish its 
8 forcough, asthma, and fevers a 
with a number of other drugs 
moreover, it undergoes a process 
in milk or cow’s urine, which m 
activity. In native prescription 
_ Aconite is combined’ with bo 
and croton seeds are added 
famous Indian pill for snake 
arsenic, yellow arsenic, r 
rs 
ES gt 
