MADDER. 90 



acid throws down the red colouring matter ; it may be purified by drying it 

 upon blotting paper, and by solution in alcohol ; to the filtered tincture a little 

 carbonate of potass is added, to separate sulphuric acid, and when poured off 

 from the precipitated sulphate of potass and evaporated, leaves the colouring 

 principle in the form of a confused crystalline mass. From this colouring 

 matter Colin and Robiquet have obtained a crystallizable substance, which 

 they call Alizarine*. 



Medicinal Properties and Uses. — The most marvellous 

 effects were attributed to the root of the Madder by the sages 

 of old. Hippocrates f, Dioscorides J, Galen §, and Pliny ||, 

 considered it capable of promoting the urine and menstruation, 

 curing dysentery and jaundice, and of expelling the foetus and 

 secundines. Notwithstanding there are many respectable author- 

 ities in favour of it as a diuretic, Dr. Cullen^f denies it that property 

 altogether. In jaundice, dysentery, and the atrophy of infants, 

 its efficacy is extremely problematical, although for the first- 

 named malady it was commended by Sydenham ** and Hoff- 

 mann -j-j", and was an important ingredient in the once celebrated 

 Decoctum ad icteros JJ. Its virtues, as an emmenagogue, rest 

 chiefly on the experiments of Dr. Home § §, who gave from a 

 scruple to half a drachm of the powder, or two ounces of the 

 decoction, three or four times a day ; subsequent trials lead us, 

 however, to conclude, that its reputed action on the uterine 

 organs rests on no better foundation than its imaginary influence 

 over jaundice. Different authors also speak of it in obstinate 

 coughs, chronic vomitings, and a variety of affections, in all 

 which but little confidence can be granted it. From the colour- 

 ing principle of this plant penetrating the osseous tissue and 

 identifying itself as it were with the ultimate secretions of the 



* Annales de Chim. et Phys. xxiv. 225. Quoted in Brande's Manual of 

 Chemistry, 1836, p. 936. 



f Lib. de victu acut., ed. Foes. p. 407- 



+ Lib. 3. cap. 160. 



§ De simpl. Lib. 6. p. 818, ed. Ricci. 



|| Lib. 24. cap. 11. p. 1108, ed. Dalech. 



% Mat. Med. vol. ii. p. 39. 



** Oper. L. B. 1741, p. 216, 218. 



ff Med. Syst. torn. iii. p. 542. 



++ Pharm. Edinb. 1735, p. 68. 



§ § Clinical Experiments, p. 388. 



H 2 



