ALOE PERFOLIATA socotorina.. ORD. XLVI. Liliacee. } 
This cathartic quality of aloes does not, like most of the others of 
this class, reside in the resinous part of the drug but in the gum; 
for the pure resin has little or no purgative power. Boerhaave 
declares aloes to be an effectual and safe cathartic, but thongh we 
may have little to fear from its hypercathartic effects, yet in large 
doses it often produces much heat and irritation, particularly 
about the rectum, from which it sometimes occasions a bloody 
discharge: therefore, to those who are subject to piles, or of an 
hemorrhagic diathesis, or even in a state of pregnancy, its ex- 
hibition has been productive of considerable mischief: but on the 
contrary, by those of a phlegmatic constitution or suffering by 
uterine obstructions, and in some cases of dyspepsy, palsy, gout, 
and. worms, aloes may be employed as a laxative with peculiar, 
advantage. Its purgative effects are not always i in proportion to 
the quantity taken, and as its principal use is rather to obviate 
costiveness than to operate strongly, this ought to be no objection 
to its use. Respecting the choice of the different kinds of aloes, 
it may be observed that the socotorine, as already mentioned, con- 
tains ns more gummy matter than the hepatic, and hence is found to. 
purge with more certainty and greater irritation ; therefore is most 
proper where a stimulus is required, or for promoting the uterine 
discharge: while the hepatic is better calculated for the purpose of 
a common purgative ; and also by containing more resin answers 
better for external application considered as a vulnerary. : 
‘The dose of aloes is from half a scruple to half a dram, but it is 
seldom given alone. Several preparations of it are directed in the 
pharmacopeeias, as pilule ex aloe, pilule ex aloe cum myrrha,’ 
extractum colocynthidum compositum. Pharm. Lond, pilule’ 
aloeticz, pilule communes, v. Rufi, pilule ex colocynthide cum’ 
aloe, pilule stomachice, Pharm Ed. tinctura aloes, tinctura aloes 
composita, vinum aloes P. LZ. elixir aloes v. proprietatis, elixir 
aloes sive proprietatis vitriolicum, vinum aloeticum. P. £. the 
pulvis aloeticus or hiera picra, and other powders, 
No, SA vor al oF oe HE 
