162 ArrENMX. 



VALERIANEiE 



Valeriana Wallichii- 



AitcMson (^Notes on Prod, of W. Afghaiiistayi and N.-E. Persia^ 

 p, 96) states that gur-hdlchorak is a trade name for the roots of this 

 plant in Afghanistan. He remarks : — " A Kabul trader at Leh told 

 me that it was the same as giir-balchorak in the Peshawur trade? 

 and owing to a load of which he was once nearly driven mad in 

 conveying it from Kabul to Peshawur, by all the cats in the country 

 surrounding him at night, wherever he halted." Aitchison supposes 

 the name to be a contraction of Giirba-bdlchorah^ which would 

 signify "the cat valerian.'^ 



COMPOSITE. 



Solidago Virga-aurea- 



Dr. Mascarel is said {La France Medicale, Oct, 8, 1889) to have 

 used the plant very successfully in cases of dropsy. It has long been 

 used by country practitioners to produce diaphoresis. It grows 

 plentifully in the Northei-n parts of the United States, and resembles 

 SoUodora^ the " sweet-scented golden rod," or "blue -mountain tea." 

 In administering it for cardiac dropsy. Dr. Mascarel reduces the 

 dried plant — sterns^ leaves and flowers — to a coarse powder, and 

 gives it in doses of one tablespoonful, beaten wdth an enth-e egg 

 (yolk and white). He gives but one dose on the first day; but on 

 each of the following days he adds a tablespoonful, until seven or 

 eight doses are being taken during the twenty-four hours. The 

 diiu'esis is said to continue until oedema permanently disappears. 



Helenin in Tuberculosis. 



Helenin has now for some time been before the medical public as a 

 remedy in phthisis, but without any apparent progress in its use. 

 Dr. T. J. Bokenham has published an account of numerous expen- 

 ments made by him as to the real value of the substance, and so far 

 as can be gathered from the account given in the British Medical 

 Journal (Oct. 17, p. 838) it would appear that the crystalline bodies 

 occumng in Inula Helenium are difficult to separate on a large or 

 commercial scale, and that consequently alantic anhydride was the 

 only substance procurable commercially for his experiments. The 

 other crystallized bodies were, however, obtained in sufl&cient 



