GALLA 141 



dye for cotton, wool, and silk fabrics, and as a cathartic, 

 in which latter direction it is very effective. No written 

 professional record antedates its domestic use, and per- 

 haps as a "rheumatic remedy," it has in certain forms 

 of that ailment no domestic superior. This drug has 

 been practically displaced in America by Rhamnus 

 Purshiana. 



GALLA (Nutgall) 

 Official in every issue of the U. S. P., from 1820 to 1910. 



Oak galls, Quercus infedoria, are mentioned by Theo- 

 phrastus (633) and other ancient writers, and were 

 prescribed by Alexander Trallianus (11) as a remedy 

 in diarrhea. They are derived from varieties of the oak, 

 Smyrna being one of the export points. In that city 

 we have seen them in large quantities, in process of 

 sorting for exportation. In our study of Oriental 

 products in Smyrna, in 1906, we were not only much 

 interested in the process of sorting nutgalls, but were 

 impressed with the enormous amounts of acorn caps 

 then exported to Europe for tanning purposes. As an 

 astringent, galls have long been employed in decoction 

 in domestic practice hi the countries from which they 

 are obtained as excrescences on the oak. Fliickiger 

 and Hanbury (240) mention nutgalls as follows: 



"The earliest accurate descriptions and figures of the 

 oak and the insect producing the galls are due to Olivier. 

 Pliny mentions the interesting fact that paper saturated 

 with an infusion of galls may be used as a test for dis- 

 covering sulphate of iron, when added as an adulter- 

 ation to the more costly verdegris; this, according to 

 Kopp, is the earliest instance of the scientific applica- 

 tion of a chemical reaction. For tanning and dyeing, 



