92 OLIVE LEAVES VAUQUELINE. 



1854. s early as in the year 1811, M. Cazals, of Agde, pointed oat 



French obser- the good effects he had observed produced by the administration 



>ns ' of olive leaves in cases of intermittent fever, 1 and a chemical 



examination of them (as suggested by M. Cazals) was soon 



afterward made by M. Ferrat. 2 



Favourable results also attended some similar trials made in 

 France by Dr. Bidot, and in Spain by Drs. Be"guin and Faure. 

 Investigations j n 1828 a more elaborate investigation- of the subject was 



by Dr. Pallas. 



published by Dr. E. Pallas. 3 He states that olive leaves are 

 sometimes employed as a febrifuge by the physicians of Spain, 

 that during the war in that country in 1808 to 1813, the French 

 Officiers de Sante frequently prescribed them as a substitute for 

 cinchona bark. In several cases of intermittent fever in the 

 military hospital at Pampeluna, Dr. Pallas observed marked 

 beneficial effects from the use of the lark of the olive admi- 

 nistered in the form of an alcoholic extract. 



Vau<iueline. Dr. Pallas analyzed 4 the leaves as well as the young bark, and 

 found them to contain, among other less important constituents, 

 a crystallizable substance designated by him Vauqueline, and a 

 bitter principle, to which latter he ascribes most of the febrifuge 

 properties of the plant. As the young bark contained more of 

 these matters than either the leaves or the old bark, he concluded 

 that it was the preferable part for medicinal use. 



Vauqueline, according to this author, is a colourless, inodorous 

 solid, having a slightly sweet taste. It crystallizes in micaceous 

 plates, or sometimes in stellate prismatic crystals, which are 

 very soluble in water at all temperatures. It scarcely dissolves 

 in cold alcohol, though readily in boiling alcohol, from which it 

 precipitates as the solution cools. Its aqueous solution imparts 

 a faint blue to reddened litmus paper. Young olive bark afforded 

 Dr. Pallas nearly 2 per cent, of Vauqueline. 5 



1 Bulletin de Pharmacie, tome iii., p. 83. 

 1 Ibid., tome iii., p. 433. 



3 Journal Universel des Sciences Medicales, tome xlix., p. 257. Eecueil de 

 Memoires de Me'decine, de Chirurgie, et de Pharmacie Militaires, vol. xxiii. 

 (1827), p. 152 ; vol. xxvi. (1829), p. 159. 



4 Recueil, vol. xxiii., p. 152. 



5 Vauqueline would appear to be identical with the substance designated 



