CHEMISTRY OF KAMALA. 79 



structure. It gives no precipitate with the salts of lead or isss. 

 silver, and does not appear to form a compound with any other 

 substance. In drying it shrinks much, resembling hydrate of 

 alumina coloured with oxide of iron. The quantity obtained was, 

 however, too minute for a full investigation of its properties. 



From Professor Anderson's experiments, the composition of Analysis 

 Kamala may be thus stated : 



Eesinous colouring matters (including Eottlerine) . . 7819 



Albuminous matters 7*34 



Cellulose, &c 714 



Water 3'49 



Ash 3-84 



Volatile oil trace 



Volatile colouring matter ? 



100-00 



Kamala is used throughout India as a dye for silk, its colour 

 being extracted by boiling it in a solution of carbonate of soda. 

 I have a specimen of silk dyed with it, which is of a rich 

 orange-brown. The root of the tree is said to be also used in 

 dyeiug. In Indian medicine, Kamala is considered as " of a 

 warm nature," and is given as an anthelmintic in very small 

 doses. 1 It has also some repute as an application in certain 

 cutaneous complaints. Among the Arabs of Aden, it is admin- 

 istered internally in leprosy, and is used in solution to remove Uses, 

 freckles and pustules. 2 Dr. William Moore, of Dublin, 3 Physician 

 to the Institution for the Diseases of Children of that city, has 

 made some trials of it in Herpes circinatus, by rubbing the 

 powder over the eruption with a piece of moistened lint. Dr. 

 Moore states that two or three applications, accompanied with 

 the internal administration of alterative doses of rhubarb and 

 grey powder, sufficed for the removal of the disease. 



1 Irvine, Materia Medico, of Patna, Calcutta, 1848, p. 48. 



2 Vaughan in Pharm. Journ. and Trans. Vol. xii. p. 386. 



3 On the Value of the Kottlera tinctoria (Kameela) as a Local Application to 

 Herpes Circinatus, by Wm. Moore, M.B., &c. Dublin Hospital Gazette, 

 Nov. 15, 1857, p. 345. 



