52 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



well-known Blackberry Cordial of Kentucky is largely 

 spiced with cloves and cinnamon, its blackberry part 

 being the juice of the ripe berries, its alcoholic part, 

 whisky. 



CASSIA FISTULA (Purging Cassia) 



Dropped from the 1910 Pharmacopeia. Not mentioned in 

 the New York edition of the 1830 U. S. P. Official in all other 

 editions. 



Galen (254a) mentions a cheap cassia called fistula, 

 but seemingly he refers not to this drug, but to a coarse 

 cinnamon, rolled up as a tube. The fruit now known 

 as Cassia Fistula was noticed by Joannes Actuarius (4), 

 of Constantinople, who minutely describes it, during 

 the 13th century. Cassia is also mentioned by writers 

 of the school of Salernum. It was a familiar domestic 

 remedy in England at the time of Turner (656), 1568, 

 and as it is cathartic, it naturally appealed to heroic 

 medicationists. Although carried in the Pharmacopeia, 

 it has never been much used in American medicine. 



CHIMAPHILA (Chimaphila, Pipsissewa) 



Mentioned first in the 1830 Pharmacopeia (Philadelphia). 

 Not mentioned in the 1830 edition, New York. Dropped from the 

 1910 edition. Official in all other editions of the U. S. P. 



Pipsissewa, Chimaphila umbellata, is a creeping, ever- 

 green vine native to northern latitudes of Europe and 

 Asia. It is found also in the United States in shady 

 woods, where it prefers loose, sandy soil. The Indians 

 of North America considered chimaphila of importance, 

 and used decoctions of it in nephritis, scrofulous and 

 rheumatic disorders. Mitchell (441), in his Inaugural 

 Address, 1803, University of Pennsylvania, gave chima- 

 phila particular attention, whilst in domestic medicine 

 it was in favor as a tea, in the sections of country where 



