344 VETICACEM 



thoy are not unpalatable. We have frequently used tliem for 

 the preparation of confection of senna with satisfactory results. 



Description. — A fig consists of a thick, fleshy, hollow 



receptacle of a pear-shaped form, on the inner face of which 

 grow a multitude of minute fruits. This receptacle, which is 

 provided with an orifice at the top, is at first green, tough and 

 leathery, exuding when pricked a milky juice ; on maturity 

 it hecomes soft and juicy, and the milky juice is replaced by a 

 saccharine fluid. The orifice is surrounded, and almost closed 

 by a number of scales, near which, and within the fig, the male 

 flowers are situated, but they are of ten wanting, or are not fully 

 develoj^cd. The female flowers stand further within the 

 receptacle, in the body of which they are closely packed ; they 

 arc stalked, have a five-leafed perianth and a bipartite stigma. 

 The ovary, which is generally one-celled, becomes when, ripe; a 

 minute, dry, hard nut, popularly regarded as a seed. {P/iarma- 

 cor/raj^hirf,) 



Chemical composition, — Exclusive of the achenes, which, 

 together with the cellular tissue, Bley (1831) found to consti- 

 tute about 15 per cent, of the weight of figs, he obtained 16 



per cent, of water, C2'5 per cent, of sugar (glucose), the re- 

 mainder being gum, fat, and saline constituents. The mean 

 of five analyses of dried figs reported by Konig affords the 

 the following percentage results : 



Water 31^20 



Albuminoids * 4*01 



Sugar 49-79 



Ash 



2-86 



The anhydrous figs contained '92 per cent, of nitrogen and 

 2'26 per cent, of sugar. 



A. Hansen in 1886 found that the latex of Ficiis Carica 

 contained principles capable of effecting four fermentative 

 changes ; they pf^ptonise albuminoids in the presence of either 

 alkalies or acids, act on starch like diastase, and coagulate the 

 casein of milk. The products of digestion are the same as with 

 i)epsin, although the two fevtnents are not identical. In 1890, 



