COLCHICUM. 195 



Taken in doses of a drachm, gradually increased to an ounce 

 or more, twice a day, he found it to promote a copious dis- 

 charge of urine, without producing any inconvenience from its 

 acrimony. Many other practitioners who employed this oxy- 

 mel in dropsical complaints, also experienced its good effects, 

 especially in Germany* and France -f; in England it has been 

 less successful |, and is very generally thought a less efficacious 

 diuretic than the squill §. 



The disorders for which colchicum is most celebrated are 

 those of gout 1 1 and rheumatism, and that complicated form of 

 disease called rheumatic gout. In France it has long been 

 a favourite gout remedy ; and is supposed to be the essence of 

 M. Husson's far-famed " Eau Medicinale."^ Sir Everard 

 Home considered the following vinous infusion to be identical 

 with the " Eau Medicinale " ** ; and found that when freed 

 from its customary deposit, it acted Tin doses of sixty or seventy 

 drops) with much greater mildness, hence he extolled it as a 

 complete and successful remedy. 



SIR E. home's vinous INFUSION OF COLCHICUM. 



Take of Fresh bulbs of Colchicum, sliced, two ounces ; 



Sherry wine twenty-four ounces. 



Macerate with a gentle heat for six days. 



Dr. Wilson ft, dissatisfied with the preparation in general 

 use in 1815, proposed a secret tincture, which for some time, 

 (with other nostra,) was in great esteem. Both Dr. Wil- 

 liams Xt ^^^ Sir C. Scudamore §§ agree in condemning Wilson's 

 preparation. 



* Zack, Plenck, Collin, Krapf, Ehrmann, &c. 

 f Marges, Planchou, Du Monceau, &c. 



:{: Monro's Essay on Dropsy, p. 108. 



§ Woodville's Med. Bet. vol. iii. p. 485. 



II Quincy, speaking of the use of colchicum in gout, observes, " that it 

 stands so much in the esteem of some writers, as to be dignified with the 

 name of ^Anima Articulorum — the soul of the joints ;' because they believed 

 it to be very efficacious in preventing chalky concretions in these parts." — 

 Quincy''s Dispensatory, 11th edit. 1739. 



^ The exact components of " Eau Medicinale " are not known ; but its 

 effects do not differ from those of the wine and tincture of colchicum. — 

 Hooper's Med. Diet. 6th edit. p. 401. 



** See also Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journ. vol. xii. p. 501. 



ff Wilson on Gout, 1st edit. p. 42. 



:j::|: Di% Williams's Observations. 



§§ Sir C. Scudamore's Observations, p. 32. 



