CUCURBITACER. ; 91 
_in powder, the dose being about one drachm in the 24 hours, 
and continued for eight or ten days together; this quantity 
"generally produces one or two loose motions every day. It is 
_ onions,and castor oil. In the Deccan and Mysore the root has 
_ a repute as a remedy for snake-bite; it is administered inter- 
nally and applied to the bitten pat: This plant is used in - 
India as a substitute for the Lif or Liifa of the Arabian and 
Persian physicians, the Bryonia dioica of more Western coun- 
tries, and the dpmedos Aeven of Dioscorides. The Arabic word 
_ Liifa is probably a corruption of «ven, 
The vernacular names are mostly compounds of Akas, “the 
sky,” and Gadda, “a tuberous root.’ The Marathi name 
signifies ‘‘ the linga of Siva,” and is an allusion to the shape 
of the fruit. ? 
Description.—The root is a turnip-shaped tuber, some- 
imes weighing as much as 5 to 6 pounds. Externally it is 
Howish white and marked with raised circular rings; the 
taste is bitter, mucilaginous, and subacid. When cut the 
tuber exudes a viscid juice, which soon hardens into an 
opalescent gum. 
Chemical composition.—The bitter principle of C. epigcaa 
can be removed from an aqueous extract, previously separated 
from mucilage by treatment with alcohol, by agitation with 
chloroform or amylic alcohol. It is a whitish amorphous mass 
soluble in water and spirit, and very slightly soluble in ether. 
_ Its solution is precipitated by tannin and not by either basic — 
or neutral plumbic acetate, It is coloured reddish-brown b : 
= sulphuric acid, and after several hours assumes a purplish hi 
_ owing to the gradual deposition of a black powder. The pu 
colour is not so well marked as that afforded by trict 0: 
thin and the bitter principle of Momordica Cymbalaria. I 
solves in nitric acid without colour, This 
same as bryos which 1 
ot ee ary 
ose al 
