258 



NOTES ON CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 



1860-62 



Putdiuk. 



Chuen-woo. 



Tsaou-woo 



(1844), Botanique, p. 96, pi. 104 ; Mu-sian, Tatarinov, Cat. Med 

 Sinens., p. 40 ; M8-hiam t Cleyer, Med. Simp., No. 18 ; Costus 

 R 00 t or Putchuk. 



This root is collected in enormous quantities in the mountains 

 of Cashmere, whence it is conveyed to Calcutta and Bombay, 

 and there shipped for China. 



The drug has a pungent, aromatic taste, with an odour resem- 

 bling that of orris root. There is an excellent account of it, with a 

 figure, in Professor Guibourt's Hiztoirc des Drogues, tome iii. p. 25. 



)\\ ^ Cliuen-woo ; Eoot of? Aconitum sp. (Ranunculacece). 

 Conical or top-shaped tuberous roots (Fig. 13), 

 about l inch in length, covered with a 

 blackish-brown cuticle ; internally they are 

 white and amylaceous. They taste slightly 

 bitter, and leave a persistent sensation of 

 numbness and tingling on the tongue witli 

 some acridity in the throat. 



Ground to powder, and mixed with an equal 

 quantity of the root Tsaou-woo (next described) 

 and of the flowers Naou-yang-hwa, also in 

 powder, a compound is obtained which is re- 

 puted to produce local anaesthesia. This powder, moistened, is 

 to be applied to the surface of the part to be operated upon for 

 two hours previous to the operation, by which means, it is alleged, 

 insensibility to pain will be produced. 



fjjL ^ Tsaou-woo; Root of Aconitum Japonicum, Thunb. ; 



Tatarinov, Catal Med. Sinens., p. 5. Blackish tuberous roots 



analogous to the last, but smaller in size and less regular in form 



(Fig. 14). They are from T fi F of an inch to upwards of one inch in 



M ^Q& length, and from T % to ^ of an inch 



t &j/ fc&J in diameter ; oblong or ovoid, either 



fip^jr 3^ tapering or rounded at their ex- 



BP tremities, covered with a smooth or 



fe^| *vr f urrowe d blackish cuticle; inter- 



^&t vW na ^7> t- ne y are white and inodorous. 



FJO 14 They are used with the preceding 



FIG. 13. 



