NAT. ORDER.^ — LILIACE.E. 149 



to depend on llic exiernal color of the bulb, for when cut into, they are 

 all of a whitish color internally, and may be used indiscriminately ; 

 still the red rooted variety is by some supposed to be more efficacious 

 than the white, and is therefore g-enerally preferred for medicinal use ; 

 it is to the taste very nauseous, intensely bitter, and acrimonious, but 

 without any smell. Water, wine, proof spirit, and rectified spirit, ex- 

 tract the virtues bodi of the fresh and the dry root. Nothing- rises in 

 distillation with any of these menstma, the entire bitterness and pun- 

 gency of the Squill remaining concentrated in the inspissated extracts ; 

 the spirituous extract is in smaller quantity than the watery, and of a 

 proporlionably stronger, almost fiery taste. 



Alkalines considerably abate both the bitterness and acrimony of 

 the Squill ; vegetable acids make little alterations in either, though the 

 admixture of the acid taste renders that of the Squill more supportable. 

 These acids extract its virtues equally with watery or spirituous men- 

 strua. 



Medical Properties and Uses. The root of the Squill, which ap- 

 pears to have been known as a medicine in the early ages of Greece, 

 and has so well maintained its character ever since, as to be desei-ved- 

 ly in great estimation, and of very frequent use at this time, seems to 

 manifest a poisonous quality to several animals. In jiroof of this, we 

 have the testimony of many ancient as well as modern writers. Its 

 acrimony is so great that even if much handled it inflames die skin, 

 and if given in large doses, and frequently repeated, it not only excites 

 nausea, vertigo, and violent vomitings, but it has been known to pro- 

 duce strangmy, bloody urine, hipercatharsis, cardialgia, convulsions, 

 with fatal inflammation, and gangrene of the stomach and bowels. — 

 But as many of the more active articles of the Materia Medica, by in- 

 judicious administration, becomes equally deleterious, these effects of 

 the Scilla do not derogate from its medicinal virtues; on the contrary, 

 we feel ourselves fully warranted In representing this drug, under pro- 

 per management, and in certain cases and constitutions, to be a medi- 

 cine of great practical utility, and real importance in Uie cure of many 



