48 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



favor as to make it a novelty for a cantharis plaster to 

 be prescribed by a modern physician. The change 

 from extreme popularity to practical disuse has come 

 within the experience of this writer. 



CAPSICUM (Cayenne Pepper) 

 Official in all editions of the Pharmacopeia, from 1820 to 1910. 



This drug, Capsicum frutescens, is of American origin, 

 its home being in the West Indies, Mexico, and other 

 tropical countries of America, where, at the tune of the 

 discovery of America, it was used by every one as a 

 desirable pepper in preparing food. In domestic Ameri- 

 can medicine, capsicum has ever been an important 

 remedy, and was a very prominent drug in the Thom- 

 sonian school (638) of American medicine. Capsicum 

 was the principal ingredient of the famous "Number 6" 

 of Samuel Thomson, and thence was made official in 

 the U. S. Pharmacopeia as Compound Tincture of 

 Capsicum and Myrrh. It is now a member of most 

 materia medicas throughout the world. By far the 

 largest amount of capsicum is, however, consumed in 

 culinary directions. 



CARDAMOMUM (Cardamom) 

 Official in all the Pharmacopeias, from 1820 to 1910. 



Cardamamum, (Elettaria Cardamomum), has been 

 used from a remote period, being mentioned in the 

 writings of Susruta (622). It appears in the list of 

 Indian spices liable to duty in Alexandria, A. D. 176- 

 180. The Portuguese navigator Barbosa (39) first 

 definitely describes its origin as a product of the Mala- 

 bar Coast. Since its introduction from the Orient, 

 cardamom has been used, as it has been in its home 



