AGANTHAOE^. 51 



the Makhzan-el-Adiciya describes it correctly, and says that the 

 wood is used to make toothpicks and gunpowder. Medicinally 

 the flowers are useful in hectic^ heat of blood, and gonorrhoea, 

 the root in cough, asthma, febrile disturbances, and gonorrha3a; 

 the fruit is sometimes hung round the necks of children to 

 keep them from catching cold. Ainslie states that '' In 

 Ceylon, the Malabar nut tree is said to grow to the height of 

 fourteen or fifteen feet, and is there called Wanapala. The 

 flowers, leaves, and root, but especially the first, are supposed to 

 possess antispasmodic qualities;, and are prescribed in certain 

 cases of asthma, and to prevent the return of rigor in intermit- 

 tent fever ; they are bitterish and sub-aromatic, and are adminis- 

 tered in infusion and electuary. In the last mentioned form 

 the flowers are- given to the quantity of about a teaspoonful 

 twice daily /^ {Mat. IncLyW.y p. 3.). Roxburgh remarks that 

 the wood is well fitted for making charcoal for gunpowder. 

 Strong testimony in favour of the remedial properties of the 

 drug was furnished to the authors of the P/mrmacoj)ceia of India 

 by Drs. Jackson and Dutt, who employed it with marked 



+ ^ 



success in chronic bronchitis, asthma, and other pulmonary 

 and catarrhal affections. Cases illustrative of its effects in 



r 



catarrh, bronchitis, and phthisis have been published by Mr. O. 

 C. Dutt. {Tndimi Annals of Med. ScL, 1865, Vol. X., p. 156.) 

 In Bengal the leaves are smoked in asthma; good evidence of 

 their value when thus used has been collected by Dr. G. Watt 

 in the "Diet, of the Ecowmic Products of IMiaJ' Dr. Watt has 

 also brought to notice the use of Adhatoda leaves in rice cul- 

 tivation in the Sutlej Valley. The fresh leaves are scattered 

 over recently flooded fields prepared for the rice crop, and the 

 native cultivators say that they not only act as a manure, but 

 also as a poison to kill the aquatic weeds that otherwise would 

 injure the rice. Experiments conducted by us show that the 

 infusion acts upon the cells of these plants m the same manner 

 as certain chemical reagents, by contracting their contents and 

 causing their disintegration ; it also proves poisonous to any 

 animalcules, frogs, leeches, &c., present in the water; on the 

 higher animals the leaves do not have this effect. 



