422 APOCYNACEZ. 
Dr. A. J. Amadeo (Pharm. Journ., April 21st, 1888,) has the 
following account of its medicinal uses in Porto. Rico: In 
small Secos (8 to 12 grains) given in.emulsion the milk pro- 
duces abundant bilious watery stools. The bark is a fayourite 
remedy with the country people for gonorrhoea and gleet. 
wo ounces of the fresh powdered bark is placed in. 8. pints 
of eau sucrée and exposed to the sun for four days, being 
shaken ) , occasionally, “A> ‘wineglassful is administered four 
or. five ‘times a day, together with refreshing and mucilagi- 
nous drinks, and the uso of tepid baths. The action 
of the drug is at first purgative, afterwards diuretic. An 
extract of the bark may be used beginning with 3—4 grains 
daily to be gradually increased to‘ 14 or 15 grains, or a 
wine (1 oz. to 1 litre) may be given in liqueur glassfuls 
three times a day; The decoction of the bark is a olan 
antiherpetic. 
* Ohemical sbinjposDioninThe! inllky.5 juice collected by fe Vrij 
and evaporated to dryness at 100°, was found to yield 80:5 per 
cent. of residue, consisting chiefly of an organic calcium salt, a 
kind of caoutchouc, and resins. To isolate the calcium salt 
A. C. OQudemans exhausted the substance with petroleume - 
naphtha, and treated the residue with dilute acetic acid, which 
dissolved ‘the salt, while parts of ‘the plaut and a humus-like 
mass remained behind. On concentrating the solution, cal- 
cium salts of different forms separate out, all, esetsah con- 
See the same acid, Plumieric, C! °H1°0°, 
-'The'free acid is obtained by-converting the waliiaa dale inte 
potassium plumierate, eee the latter with sulphuric 
acid, and extracting the solution with etlier. It is readily 
soluble in alcohol and freely but slowly.in ether. In cold 
water it dissolves: but very sparingly, and from’a hot solution: it 
separates in microscopic crystals, or on slow evaporation. in - 
indistinct erusts.. Itmelts at 139°, and. decomposes at a 
temperature a few | degrees higher, giving off first. water and 
acetic acid, then an oily distillate having the odour of cinna- 
_anie aldehyde, while a small quantity of a crystalline ‘substance sa 
sublimes. When the oil is oxidised, a crystalline . ei ae iS 
