APOCYNACH 4, 893 
remedy in chronic dysentery and diarrhoea. Plasters and oils, 
containing Conessi bark combined with astringents and aroma- 
tics, are also used by the Hindus. They are applied over the 
part of the abdomen which is most painful. 
Arabic and Persian writers describe the seeds under the 
name of Lisan-el-asaffr-el-murr, and Zaban-i-gungishk-i-talk 
(bitter sparrow’s tongue); they consider them to be carmina- 
tive and astringent, and prescribe them in chronic chest affec- 
tions, such as asthma, also in colic and -diuresis ; besides this 
they attribute lithontriptic, tonic and aphrodisiac properties to 
them, and combined with honey and saffron make them into 
pessaries which are supposed to favour conception. We may 
Mention incidentally that the use of medicated pessaries for 
this purpose is a common practice in India.* They are also 
used after delivery. According to the Makhzan, the bark is 
the Tiwaj (tvac?) of Persian writers, which the author of the 
_ Tuhfat identifies with Talisfar, by some supposed to be the 
Indian bark used in dysentery by the Greek physicians under 
the name of deep, : 
. The Portuguese physicians, Garcia and Christopher a Costa, 
describe the drug under the names of Coru, Curo, Cura and 
Corte de pala. Rheede, who calls the tree Codaga-pala, states 
that the bark is applied as a lép (plaster) in rheumatism, and 
that a hot decoction of it is used in toothache, and in the cure 
of bowel affections. Ainslie mentions the bark as having been 
lately admitted into the British Materia Medica, under the 
name of Conessi bark, 
Conessi bark, also known as Codaga pala, Corte de pala, and 
Tellicherry bark, enjoyed for a time considerable repute in 
_.Hurope. It has however fallen into disrepute, principally, 
_ according to Sir Walter Elliot, who regards it as one of the 
most valuable medicinal products of India, from the compara- 
tively inert bark of W. tinctoria having been confounded 
with it. Favourable reports of its use as a remedy in dysen- : 
_ tery will be found in the Pharmacopeia of India. For ad- - 
| * Similar pessaries were used hy the Greeks and Romanus, 
11.—50 | ey 
