162 APPENDIX. 
VALERIANEZ, 
Valeriana Wallichii. 
Aitchison (Notes on Prod. of W. Afghanistan and N.-E. Persia, 
p- 96) states that gur-bdlchorak 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 gur-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 Gurba-bilchorak, which would 
signify “the cat valerian.” 
COMPOSIT A. 
Solidago Virga-aurea. 
Dr, Mascarel is said (Za France —. 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 Northern parts of the United States, and resembles 
Sol-odora, the “‘ sweet-scented golden rod,” or “ blue-mountain tea,” 
In administering it for cardiac dropsy, Dr. Mascarel reduces the 
dried plant—stems, leaves and flowers—to a coarse powder, and 
gives it in doses of one tablespoonful, beaten with an entire 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 
diuresis 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 experi- 
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 
occurring 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 sufficient 
