NOTES ON CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 



245 



Siam, are from fths to |tlis of an inch long, of an oblong or ovoid 1860-62. 

 shape, very irregular, owing to mutual pressure in the fruit of 

 which they formed a part. They consist of a hard woody outer 

 shell (testa), to whose surface, portions of firm, dry pulp, or of 

 the rind of the fruit, are often adherent, sometimes so as to 

 unite two or three seeds into a mass. The albumen is oily and 

 incloses large, heart-shaped, leafy cotyledons. 



The plant affording these seeds is not well ascertained. It is 

 doubtless a species of Chaulmoogm : probably, judging from the chaulmoogra, 

 resemblance of the seeds, nearly allied to the Indian C. odorata, reputed 



* remedy for 



Roxb. The seeds of the latter plant are larger, and have a leprosy. 

 thinner and smoother testa than is the case with those found 

 in the Chinese shops. Both seeds have a reputation as a remedy 

 in skin complaints, especially in that most frightful of eastern 

 diseases, leprosy. Dr. Hobson, late of the Canton Hospital, 

 whose experiments appear to have been made with the seeds 

 of the Indian Chaulmoogra, reports respecting them, 1 that he 

 has found them to effect a cure in mild cases of leprosy, not of 

 long standing ; that the remedy (consisting of the powdered, oily 

 nucleus of the seed) was administered in one drachm doses 

 twice a day during a period of four mouths or more, and that 

 the expressed oil of the seeds was occasionally rubbed on the 

 affected surfaces. The first appearance of improvement observed 

 was in the eruption becoming less prominent, and red, minute 

 white scales appearing round the circumference of the patches, 

 and the central parts assuming the character of healthy skin. 

 Saline aperients are to be administered occasionally during the 

 course of treatment. 



i TV*' Leen-keaou ; Fruits of ForsytJiia suspensa, Vahl. 

 (Oleacece) ; Siebold et Zuccarini, Flora Japonica, p. 10, t. 3. 



As found in Chinese commerce, these are little boat-shaped, 

 brown capsules, \ to J of an inch long, with a thin longitudinal 

 partition. They constitute the valves of the fruit, which, in its 

 perfect state, is thus described by Endlicher : " Capsula ovata, 

 compressiuscula, sublignosa, corticata, bilocularis, loculicido- 



1 "On the Leprosy of the Chinese." Med. Times and Gazette, June 2, 

 I860, p. 558. 



Forsyfhia, 

 suspensa. 



