242 EUPHORBIACE.E. 



Part Used. — The root o-f both species. Formerly official, but dismissed 

 from the Pharmacopoeia iu 1880. 



Constituents. — A perfectly satisfactory analysis of these plants is yet to 

 be made. That they contain an emetic principle is very evident, but it 

 has not yet been isolated. 



Preparations. — Commonly administered in powder. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — Both sj^ecies possess similar if not quite 

 identical properties, being actively emeto-cathartic ; in small doses, diajDho- 

 retic. More pleasant to the taste than ipecacuanha ; either of them may 

 be substituted for it in cases where emesis is desired, and cathartic action 

 is not objectionable. 



STILLINGIA. 



Stillingia sylvatica Linne. — Stillingia, Queen's Root. 



Description. — Flowers monoecious, collected in a terminal spike. Calyx 

 2- to 3-cleft or parted. Corolla absent. Stamens, 2 to 3 ; anthers adnate, 

 extrorse. Style single ; stigmas 3, diverging. Pod 3-lobed, 3-celled, 3- 

 seeded. Seed carunculate. 



An herbaceou-S perennial. Stems 1 to 3 feet high, erect, smooth, from 

 a very large tapering root. Leaves alternate, oblong-lanceolate, serrulate, 

 nearly sessile, commonly with two glands at the base. Fertile flowers few, 

 at the base of a dense sterile spike. The flowers are produced in summer. 



Habitat. — In sandy soil from Virginia southward. 



Part Used. — The root — United States Pliarmacopceia. 



Constituents. — Stillingia has a strong disagreeable odor, which is les- 

 sened by drying, and a bitter, acid, and pungent taste, which persists even 

 when the dried root has been exposed to the air for a long time. It has 

 yielded to analysis a volatile oil possessing the odor and taste of the crude 

 drug, and a resinous body Avhich also apjDcars to possess medicinal activity. 

 The so-called oil of stillingia, occurring as a commercial article, is said to 

 be an ethereal extract, not without medicinal proi:»erties, but in no way 

 resembling the true volatile oil. 



Preparations. — Extractum stillingise fluidum — fliiid extract of stillin- 

 gia. — United States Pliarmacopceia. It is also administered in decoction 

 and syrup. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — Stillingia, in large doses, is an active 

 emeto-cathartic ; in small doses, alterative. By that class of practitioners 

 who reject mercury in the treatment of syphilis, stillingia is very largely 

 employed as a substitute. In scrofula, chronic cutaneous and hepatic dis- 

 orders, it is also said to act beneficially. In general terms, it may be said 

 to have earned its present reputation and standing as a remedy in those 

 cases which, in former times, were considered most amenable to sarsapa- 

 rilla. Whether its reiDutation rests upon a more secure foundation than 

 did that of sarsaparilla, is a question not easy to decide. One thing, how- 



