CAKDIAC TONIC— DIUKETIC. 47^ 



Frohahle Use of Casca in Medicine. 



It is evident from the description we liave given above of 

 the physiological action of casca, that it is quite different froni 

 that of Calabar bean, the other ordeal poison employed on tJ'e 

 African coast, which has become such a useful remedy since l'js- 

 physiological action was first ascertained by the admirable 

 researches of Dr. T. E. Fraser. Unlike physostigmu, it has no- 

 action on the pupil, and no special action upon the spinal coiu. 

 Its action is exerted chiefly upon the stomach, circulatory 

 apparatus and kidneys. Its action on the stomach seems to be 

 rather a drawback than otherwise, as it would have been highly 

 advantageous to have had a druo; which would act like dioitalia 

 upon tlie heart without producing the sickness wliich sometimes- 

 obliges us to discontinue the use of the latter. As, liJve 

 digitalis, it strengthens the heart while slowing its pulsations,. 

 it will be useful in mitral disease, and its diuretic action will 

 prove serviceable in dropsy arising from this cause. At the 

 same time its more powerful action on the vessels leads us to- 

 liope that it will be useful in advanced cases of cardiac dropsy 

 when digitalis fails. This power of contracting the vessels also 

 indicates that it will prove a useful haemostatic, more powerful 

 than either diii^italis or er^ot, the virtues of which it seems to 

 combine. Mr. Monteiro having kindly promised to obtain for 

 us a large quantity of the bark, we trust we shall find that its 

 action in disease corresponds to the hopes we have formed. 



