438 SCITAMINEM 



India and China to Aden. Ibu Sina and other early Arabian 

 , physicians also notice it shortly as a stomachic and stimulant- 

 Curious stories as to its source were current in those days ; Haj i 

 Zein states that in Yunan a kind of hawk is said by travcllem 

 to build its nest of the roots of the Khulanjan upon the sea-^hore, 

 and that the only way of obtaining the drug is to rob these 

 nests ; this the merchants do, and, after washi 

 them up into short pieces. 



Although this drug has been so long known^ its botanical 

 source was only discovered in 1870, when a description of the 



o 



of 



plant was communicated to the Linnean Society of Lend 

 Dr. H. F. Hance, made from specimens collected by M. 

 Taintor near Hoihow^ in the north of Hainan. {Journal 

 Linn. Soc, 1873, XIIL, 6.) 



Galangal is described by Serapion on the authority of Ishak 

 bin Amran as hot and dry in the third degree, useful to 

 phlegmatic persons, and in humidity of the stomach ; it 

 promotes digestion by its heat and the solution which it 

 occasions in the stomachy and thus relieves colic ; gives 

 fragrance to the breath, and warms the kidnej-s: it sets the 

 semen in commotion, and when a piece of it is held in the 

 mouth it occasions erections of the memhrum mile. Other 

 Arabian writers give a similar account of it. Indian Mahome- 

 tan writers, with reference to the name Pdn-kl-jar, say that the 

 drug may be the root of very old plants of Piper Betle, but 

 they are evidently in doubt about its being produced by that 

 plant. {Mahhzan, article '' Rhidanjan'') Mir 3Iuhammad 

 Husain describes Galangal as tonic, stomachic, carminative, 

 stimulant, and aphrodisiac. He tells us that if given to young 

 children it makes them talk early, and that a paste of the 

 powdered drug made with oil or water will remove freckles. 

 It is a stomachic tonic, used by native practitioners to reduce 

 the quantity of urine in diabetes. It is used to correct foul 

 breath when chewed, and the juice swallowed stops irritation 

 m the throat, {^Emermn.') Galangal is one of the ingredients 

 of Warburg's tincture. It is not used in Endish medicine, 



considerable 



o 



