lT8 NAT. ORDER. — CEPU^LID^. 



authority of M. Gomez, wc must suppose to be yielded by the 

 Richardsotiia Brasiliensis. There is also a third variety, called black 

 Ipecacunn, which is a native of Peru, and is exported from Cartha- 

 gcnia to Cadiz. It is the root of the Psychotria cmetica. It is fusi- 

 form, striated, articulated, but not annulatcd. White Ipecacuan is 

 externally of a dirty white color, and turns brownish by drying, is 

 simple, or little blanched, five or six lines thick, three inches long 

 or upwards, attenuated at the extremities, variously contorted, with 

 transverse finnular rugosities, but larger than those of the brown 

 ipecacuan, its back is thick, white, internally softer than the brown, 

 the woody part white, hard and fine as a thread. The brown ipe- 

 cacuan is characterized by being contorted, wrinkled, and unequal 

 in thickness, having a thick, black, deeply fissured, transversely 

 covering a very small, central, woody part, so as to give the idea of 

 a number of rings strung upon a thread. Its color varies with dif- 

 ferent shades of brown and grey. In St. Domingo several species 

 of Ruellia are denominated false ipecacuan. 



Sensible and Chemical Properties. — The root of Ipecacuan is 

 inodorous, unless when reduced to powder, in which state it has a 

 faint and somewhat unpleasant smell. The taste is nauseous, bitter, 

 and slightly acrid. Boiling water takes up eight parts in twenty, 

 proof spirit about six and a half, and alcohol four parts. Various 

 experiments have been instituted by chemists to detect the particu- 

 lar constituent to which Ipecacuanha owes its emetic quality. Ac- 

 cording to the analysis of M. M. Pelleties and Magendie, the 

 components of Ipecacuanha, are : Oil, 2 : Wax, 6 : Gum, 10 : 

 Emetine, 16 : Starch, 40: Wood, 20 : Loss, 6 in 100. They also 

 found that the cephaelis Ipecacuanha, Viola emetica, and Psychotira 

 emetica contain a common principle which they named emetine ; to 

 obtain, they digested the powdered root in double its weight in 

 ether, in order to separate any fatty matter; the remainder was 

 heated with four times its weight of highly rectified alcohol, until it 

 ceased to become colored, even when aided by heat. The solution 

 was evaporated to dryness and re-dissolved in water, acetate of lead 



