138 PHARMACOPEIA!, DRUGS 



"The whole plant is exceedingly bitter, and has been 

 used for ages past by the natives and inhabitants in 

 intermittent fevers. ... I have stated a case of its effi- 

 cacy in those diseases in a letter to William Royston, 

 Esq., who inserted it in the Medical and Physical Jour- 

 nal, in which I stated the benefits derived from this 

 plant, by myself and others during my stay in the 

 neighborhood of Lake Ontario, when both the influenza 

 and lake fever (similar to the yellow fever) were raging 

 among the inhabitants." Pursh's Flora Americanos 

 Septentrionalis, 1914. 



FIG US (Fig) 



Official in every edition of the U. S. P., excepting the 1910 

 and the New York edition of 1830. (It appears in the Philadel- 

 phia edition of 1830). 



The fig tree, Ficus Carica, is native to Asia Minor and 

 Syria, extending into Africa and Oriental countries, the 

 Mediterranean islands, and elsewhere. It is now culti- 

 vated in the temperate countries of the entire world. 

 The fig tree and its leaves are repeatedly mentioned in 

 the Scriptures, where they are symbolical of peace and 

 plenty. Charlemagne, A. D. 812, ordered its cultivation 

 in Central Europe, and in the reign of Henry VIII, fig 

 trees, still standing in the garden of Lambeth Palace, 

 were brought to England, though the fig was unques- 

 tionably cultivated in England before that date. The 

 fig has been used from all times as a food and as a con- 

 fection, and it is repeatedly mentioned in the Arabian 

 Nights. From the Pharmacographia of Fliicklger and 

 Hanbury, we extract as follows: 



"Figs were a valued article of food among the ancient 

 Hebrews and Greeks, as they are to the present day in 

 the warmer countries bordering the Mediterranean. 



