432  Onthe Use of the Colchicum autumnale in Gout. 
chiefly resides ; this is remarkably the case with the wild cucum- 
ber or Elaterium. The sediment is a very drastie purge; the 
part that remains dissolved is comparatively mild in its operation 
upon the bowels.” This explanation of Professor Brande ap- 
plies to the Colchicum, and we are now enabled to separate the 
purgative qualities of the vinous infusion of Colchicum and Eau 
Medicinale, from those which prove a specific for the gout, in 
the simplest possible manner, by keeping them in large bottles, 
instead of small ones, and not going too near the bottom. 
Is also explains what is asserted by Prosper Alpinus *, that the 
Egyptian women eat the fresh bulbs, that they may grow fat ; 
an effect which was found to take place in the dog, while the 
dose was confined within such limits as not to act too violently 
upon the bowels. 
The bulbs of the Egyptian Colchicum, when long kept, weigh 
one drachm each; on being steeped in water they double their 
weight; so that the quantity of extractive matter contained in 
two or three recent bulbs, while combined with the mucilaginous 
matter, of which the bulbs are principally composed, is not likely 
to be sutiicient to do more than act as a brisk purgative, the 
occasional use of which tends to make people grow fat. 
Since this paper was read, the patient who is mentioned as 
having had the gout in January, has had another attack : it came 
on the 10th of July, and was removed in the same manner as the 
former, by the same dose of the medicine. The President of the 
Society also, convinced by the evidence contained in this and the 
former paper, that the Vinwm Colchici, in which there is no de- 
posit, must be a Jess hurtful medicine than the Eau Medicinale, 
thought it a duty to himself and the public to make trial of it; 
and on the 20th of July, when the gout in his left hand and the 
whole of the joints of that side of the body was very severe, al- 
lowed me to give him ninety drops of the Vinum Colchici, and 
found that the symptoms of gout were sooner and more com- 
pletely removed than they ever had been by the Eau Medicinale, 
of which he has an experience of seven years, having taken it 
regularly ever since the 17th of February 1510, and during that 
time kept a regular account of the doses, their effects, and the 
intervals between them. 
* Hist. Nat. Egypt. pars 1. lib. 3. cap, 14. 
LXRIl, Ex- 
