132 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



tributed to the Proc. Amer. Pharm. Ass'n., 1895, pp. 

 262-265. As might be expected by any person con- 

 versant with the record of this perplexing drug, the 

 author was not satisfied with the results, closing his 

 paper with the frank sentence: "Should subsequent 

 work show that Keller's Cornutine is the active prin- 

 ciple of ergot, and that his method extracts all of this 

 substance from the drug, then the above results may 

 become of value; as it is, they can merely be regarded 

 as indications, and possess interest rather than value." 

 The problem of the ergot constituents or products 

 of manipulation lies outside the field of our history of 

 crude drugs. 



ERIODICTYON ("Yerba Santa") 



Introduced into U. S. P., 1890. Official in the two following 

 editions. 



This drug, Eriodictyon californicum (Eriodidyon 

 glutinosum), long employed by the Indians of Cali- 

 fornia, was introduced to medical print in 1875 by 

 Dr. J. H. Bundy (Ilia), of Colusa, California, his orig- 

 inal article appearing in the Eclectic Medical Journal 

 of that year, p. 453. Under the name "Yerba Santa," 

 Dr. Bundy records as follows: 



"This is a remedy that, to my knowledge, has never 

 been placed before the medical profession with any cer- 

 tainty or knowledge as to its therapeutic action or 

 power, nor do but few in any part of the country know 

 even of the existence of such a plant. I have been 

 carefully testing it for the past six months or more, to 

 find out if possible its specific or particular action upon 

 the human economy, and upon what particular part 

 or parts it has its influence. At last I have arrived at 



