om RANUNCULACEE 
as yellow with a brown tinge; the Chinese as yellow; the q 
Khorasén as greenish brown; the seed is said to be like © 
sesamum. The best kind is ike Chinese, which should be — k 
small, soeaase hard, and knotty; it is said to keep good for ] 
twenty years.” Whether the three kinds here described are — 
all varieties of Coptis, it is impossible to decide. Indian 4 
writers say that M4miran used as a collyrium clears the sight, — 4 
and as a snuff the brain, and that it relieves toothache. — 
Internally it is given in jaundice, flatulence, and visceral 
obstructions. Bernier, who visited Cashmere in the train 4 
the Emperor Aurangzebe, mentions Mamfrén as a medicine q 
very good for the eyes, which was brought into that country — 
by caravans from Thibet. It was first described by Wallich 
in 1836. (Trans. of Med. and Phys. Soc. of Calcutta, VIL, 
85.) It is worthy of notice that this drug, and extract 
of Barberry (Rusot), both containing a large quantity of 
conjunctiva. (Cf. Prof. Simpson in Phar. Jour. 1854, Vol. XU 
p. 413.) Lately Coptis root has been chiefly used as a tonic 
by Europeans in India; it has the advantage of acting gently 
on the bowels. Hetoudad observation of the action of Coptis 
root shows, that during recovery from malarial fever and 
atonic dyspepsia (the inward fever of the natives) it is 
valuable medicine, restoring the appetite and giving tone 
to the system. It may be administered in infusion (one ounce 
to a pint of boiling water) or in tincture (one ounce to a pin 
of rectified spirit) in doses of two drachms of the tincture o 
two ounces of the infusion; or the two preparations may 
be combined. 
Description.—Two distinct varieties of this drug are’met 
with in the Indian market. The kind most esteemed is a , 
yellowish rhizome, as thick as a crow-quill or larger, having a 
few spinous projections where rootlets have been broken off; 
_ the whole rhizome is jointed, but at the upper end the jolgte 
_ become much more marked, and a stem clasping petiole « 
he remains attached to each. The roots are ee, ~~ at 
