COMPOSITE. 147 



supposed to be good for coughs, and at one time tlie colleges recognized under the 

 name of Extractum Laducce, a mere extract of the juice obtained by beating the 

 lettuce-leaves with a little water and evaporating the expressed juice. This was of 

 very little potency. Another preparation existed in the Paris Codex made from the 

 expressed juice of the stems alone; but Dr. Chi'istison tells us, in his "Dispensatory," 

 that all these preparations are far inferior to the lactucarium of Coxe and Duncan, 

 as improved by the processes of Dr Young and Dr. Probart. This is an inspissated 

 exudation, obtained by cutting across the stem not long before the flowers begin to 

 blow, sci-aping off the milky fluid that issues, cutting off a fresh slice as often as the 

 surface ceases to yield juice, and allowing the collected produce to dry spontaneously. 

 Dr. Christison thinks that the London College was wrong in confining itself to the Garden 

 Lettuce for the preparation of lactucai'ium, and states that Lactuca virosa yields this sub- 

 stance in much larger quantity and of superior quality. We find, however, on referring 

 to the British Pharmacopoeia lately published, that the preparation no longer exists as 

 an authorized medicine in any form. The idea that the Wild Lettuce is more narcotic and 

 dangerous in its qualities than the Garden Lettuce is without foundation, and the I'esults 

 obtained by competent chemists confirm this statement ; the fact being that in the Wild 

 Lettuce a much larger quantity of lactucarium exists than in the garden plant ; both, 

 however, being identical in action. Lactucarium, as prepared from the Garden Lettuce, 

 is commonly sold in roundish compact and rather hard masses, weighing several ounces, 

 of a wood-brown colour, of a strong peculiar odour, like that of opium, and of a 

 disagreeable bitter somewhat acrid taste ; that of the Wild Lettuce is sold in pieces of 

 a smaller size, rough and irregular, wood-brown in colour, with an ash-grey inflorescence, 

 so friable as to be easily crushed between the finger and thumb ; reddish-brown in 

 powder, and of a more acrid and bitter taste than the former kind. By the smell only 

 it may be mistaken for opium. It is but little soluble in water, and after long boiling 

 forms a brown turbid solution, which gives a green tint with sesquichloride of iron. 

 It therefore contains no meconic acid. Dr. Taylor says that, on examining a good 

 specimen, he found no traces of morphia. The investigations hitherto made in the 

 actions and uses of lactucarium are not precise and satisfactory. It appears, however, 

 to be a narcotic poison to the lower animals in moderate doses, for 10 or 20 grains are 

 suflScient to cause sleep in dogs, and the watery solution of 20 or 30 gi-ains occasions 

 coma and death if injected into a vein. The effects of medicinal doses on man have 

 been variously reported. Coxe thought it a stimulant of the circulation ; Frangois, 

 on the contrary, found it to retard and weaken the pulse, and to lessen animal heat. 

 Caventou observed it to occasion placid sleep or calm rest, without influencing any 

 other function but those of external relation, or causing any disagreeable subsequent 

 effect ; and Ganzel witnessed the same results from doses vai-ying between 10 and 60 

 grains. Dr. Christison considers it applicable in special diseases whenever a calmative 

 anodyne or hypnotic is desired, and in some cases preferable to opium. The high 

 price of the drug, and its very uncertain quality, may have been the reasons which 

 produced its erasure from the list of medicines in the late Pharmacopoeia. The 

 ancients were acquainted with the effects and virtues of the Lettuce, which seems to 

 have been the Qpilai, {thridax) of the Greek physicians. It is fabled that after the 

 death of Adonis, Yenus, inconsolable, sought sweet oblivion by reclining on a bed of 

 Lettuce, probably a figurative allusion to its anodyne properties. 



" And now let Lettuce with its healthful sleep 

 Make haste." 



