388 APOCYNACEA, 
fuge. The people having been in the habit of using it from 
time immemorial in decoction against malignant, intermittent, 
and remittent fevers with the happiest result, the attention of 
our leading physiciavs was excited, and the active principle 
ditain has now become a staple article, and ranks equal in 
therapeutical efficiency with the best imported sulphate of 
quinine. Numberless instances of private and hospital practice, 
carried out by our best physicians, have demonstrated this 
fact. Equal doses of ditain and of standard quinine sulphate 
have had the same medicinal effects; besides leaving none of 
the disagreeable secondary symptoms, such as deafness, sleep- 
lessness, and feverish excitement, which are the usual con- 
comitants of large quinine doses, ditain attains its effects 
swiftly, surely, and infallibly. 
We use ditain generally internally in quantities of half a 
drachm daily for children, and double the dose for adults, due 
allowance being made, of course, for age, sex, temperament, &e. 
We derive very beneficial effects from its use, too, under the 
- form of poultices. Powdered dita bark, cornflour, each half a 
pound ; hot water sufficient to make a paste. Spread on linen ~ 
and apply under the armpits, and on the wrists and ankles, 
taking care to renew when nearly dry, and provided the 
desired effects should not have been obtained. The results 
‘arrived at by ditain in our Manilla hospitals and private 
practice are simply marvellous. In our military hospital and 
penitentiary practice, ditain has perfectly superseded quinine, 
and it is now being employed with most satisfactory results in 
the Island of Mindanao, where malignant fevers are prevalent.” 
~ Description -—The drug consists of irregular fragments 
of bark, to $ an inch thick, easily breaking with a short 
coarse fracture. The external layer is very uneven and rauch 
fissured, dark aye or brow y ge sometimes with black spots, 
it readily separ andle e interior substance and 
inner surface (liber) j is of a ae buff. A transverse section 
‘shows the Tiber to be. eet ekg bide numerous small medul- : 
lary rays. The bark has 
