Dr. Aixslie's Observations on the Lepra Arabum. 301 



different genus altogether, and what was named by the late excellent 

 Dr. Klein, of Tranquebar, Exacum HyssopifoUum, and is in all probability 

 that which is said to be often confounded with the true asclepias gigantea, 

 in the upper provinces of India, and there called Akand* I have said, 

 that the dried milky juice of the asclepias gigantea was considered in 

 southern India as powerfully alterative ; and late accounts, which I have 

 received from that country, tend the more to convince me of it : I should 

 therefore venture a query, whether, as such, it might not be tried in cancer, 

 that most intractable of all maladies. The bark of the root of the asclepias 

 gigantea, as it appears in the bazaars of lower India, is of a pale colour, 

 and has a bitter, and somewhat nauseous and pungent taste : the natives 

 consider it as alterative ; also as a gentle stimulant, taken in decoction to 

 the quantity of two table-spoonfuls twice daily : and Rheede, in his Hortus 

 Malabaricus,\ where the plant is mentioned under the appellation of Ericii, 

 says, that a decoction of its root is given in intermittent fever, and in those 

 swellings of the limbs which women sometimes have after confinement. 

 The powder of the bark of the root of the asclepias giga?itea, called in 

 Bengal maddr powder, has been highly extolled of late as a valuable remedy 

 in lues venerea, leprosy, and cutaneous diseases in general. Mr. Playfair, 

 in a paper already mentioned, and which may be seen in the first volume 

 of the Edinburgh Medical Transactions, goes so far as to say that it is one 

 of the most useful medicines hitherto derived from the vegetable kingdom ; 

 and it would seem, by an excellent papert on " Elephantiasis as it appears 

 in Hindustan," by Mr. Robinson, that he also bears witness to its powerful 

 effects as a deobstruent and sudorific, in almost all cutaneous eruptions ; 

 the dose of this powder is from three grains to ten. 



Dr. Good, in his Study of Medicine,^ notices two other species of Ele- 

 phantiasis : one common in some parts of Italy, and termed Elephantiasis 

 Italica ; the other as occurring occasionally in Spain, which he calls Ele- 

 phantiasis Asturiensis; but, as I have already observed, respecting Mr. Robin- 



* In the Hortus Bengalensis, published by Dr. Carey, from Dr. Roxburgh's MS., Akand is 

 given as the Hindi name of asclepias gigantea. 



f See Hortus Malabaricus, part ii. page 55. 



% Sec Medico Chirurgical Transactions, vol. x. See also Dr. James Johnston's most valuable 

 work on the influence of tropical climates, page !i68. 



§ See work, vol. ii. page 836. 



2 II 2 



