E UP HO RBI A C E^. 255 



made in a piece of tlie stem, closing the hole and exposing 

 the stem to the action of fire until it is charred. The milky 

 juice of -E. neriifolia is usually administered internally by 

 soaking other purgatives and aromatics in it, so that by 

 absorption of the j uice their purgative properties become 

 increased. A similar method is adopted when the Juice 

 is applied externally, a tent or issue pea being prepared with 

 some finely powdered drug and steeped in it. Ainslie tells us 

 that the native practitioners prescribe the juice as a purge and 

 deobstruent, in those visceral obstructions and dropsical affec- 

 tions which are consequent of long-continued intermittent 

 fever, the quantity given for a dose being about ^ of a pagoda 

 weight (20 grs.). Externally, mixed with margosa oil, it is 

 applied to limbs which have become contracted from rheuma- 

 tism. [Mat. Inch^ Yol. 11.^ p. 97.) In Bombay the root is mixed 



r 



with country liquor to make it more intoxicating, and the juice 

 is used to kill maggots in wounds, and is dropped into the ear 

 to cure earache, a practice common to many parts of India. 

 In the Concan the stem is roasted in ashes, and the expressed 

 juice, with honey and borax, given in small doses to promote 

 the expectoration of phlegm ; sometimes the juice of Adulsa 

 is added. For asthma, Miidar flowers, Aghada root, and Gol^aran 

 root are steeped in the juice, powdered and given with honey 

 and chebulic myrobalans. Dose about 4 grains. The author of 

 the Makhzan-el'Adwiya, under the name of Zakum (Euphorbia), 

 describes four Indian species, which are probably E. antiqiiorumy 

 E. neni/olia, E. Nivulia and E. Tirucallu The milky juice of 

 the first, he says, is mixed with the flour of Cicer arietimim, 

 roasted, and administered in pills as a remedy for gonorrhoea. 

 It has a strong purgative action. The juice of the second and 

 third species is heated and dropped into the ear for the cure of 

 earache ; heated with salt it is given as a remedy in whooping 

 cough, asthma, dropsy, leprosy, enlarged spleen, dyspepsia, 

 jaundice^ flatulence, colic, calculus, tumours, &c. The fourth 

 species yields a milky juice, having similar properties. Spren- 

 gel identifies E. neriifolia with the ^J 1*3,^^-* (Mahudaneh) of Ibn 

 Sina, also called Hab-el-muluk, a purgative seed of a reddish 



