ALOES TREE. lQd 



ter, and dissolve in pure spirit, proof spirit, and proof spirit diluted 

 with half its weight of water 5 the impurities only being left. They 

 dissolve also by the assistance of heat in water alone; but as the 

 liquor grows cold, the resinous parts subside. 



The hepatic aloes is found to contain more resin and less gum 

 than the socotorine, and this than the caballine. The resins of all 

 the sorts, purified by spirit of wine, have little smell : that obtained 

 from the socotorine has scarce any perceptible taste ; that of the 

 hepatic, a slight bitterish relish; and the resin of the caballine, a 

 little more of the aloetic flavour. The gummy extracts of all the 

 sorts are less disagreeable than the crude aloes : the extract of soco- 

 torine aloes has very little smell, and is in taste not unpleasant : that 

 of the hepatic has a somewhat stronger smell, but is rather more 

 agreeable in taste than the extract of the socotorine : the gum of the 

 caballine retains a considerable share of the peculiar rank smell of 

 this sort of aloes, but its taste is not much more unpleasant than 

 that of the extracts made from the two other sorts. 



Aloes is neither noticed by Hippocrates nor Theophrastus, but 

 Dioscorides mentions two kinds j and Avicenna tells us, that of 

 the different kinds the socotorine is the best. Celsus, however, 

 who frequently employed aloes, does not mention any peculiar 

 sort. 



Aloes is a well known purgative ; a property which it possesses 

 not only when taken internally, but also by external application. 

 This cathartic quality of aloes does not, like most of the others of 

 this class, reside in the resinous part of the drug but in the gum, 

 for the pure resin has little r no purgative power. Boerhaave de- 

 clares aloes to be an effectual and safe cathartic, but though we may 

 have little to fear from its hypercathartic effects, yet in large doses 

 it often produces much heat and irritation, particularly about the 

 rectum, from which it sometimes occasions a bloody discharges 

 therefore, to those who are subject to piles, or of an hemorrhagic 

 diathesis, or even in a state of pregnancy, its exhibition has been 

 productive of considerable mischief: but on the contrary, by those 

 of a phlegmatic constitution, or suffering by uterine obstruction?, 

 and in some cases of dyspepsey, palsy, gout, and worms, aloes may 

 be employed as a laxative with peculiar advantage. Its purgative 

 effects are not always iu proportion to the quantity taken, and as its 

 principal use is rather to obviate costiveness than to operate strong- 



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