VOL. XXI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 357 



thin, glossy cuticle or rind of a lurid green colour, under which lies another 

 covering of a stony hardness. Within this shell is contained a fleshy pulp, of 

 a yellow colour and bitter taste, in which are imbedded the nuts [seeds], the 

 true nuces vomicae of Serapion. These nuts when fresh have a shining silvery 

 down upon them ; they are not quite so large as a walnut, are of an unequal 

 size and diversified shape, and upwards of 20 of them are frequently found 

 packed together. They are called by the natives igasur and manaog (i. e. vic- 

 torious) ; by the Spaniards nucleos or pepitas de bysayas, or catbalogan ; by 

 others, fabas Sancti Ignatii. When dried they are rather larger tlian a filbert, 

 knotty [wrinkled], very hard, transparent, of a horny compactness, of an in- 

 tensely bitter taste, and of a colour inter album et glaucum. 



After this description of the plant and its fruit. Father Camelli proceeds to 

 give an account of its reputed virtues ; noticing in the first place its employ- 

 ment as an amulet and antidote ; then its use in dyspepsia, diarrhoea, and hy- 

 pochondriacal affections ; adding, that the common people of the Philippine 

 islands give it indiscriminately in all sorts of disorders, esteeming it to be a 

 true panacea. As in the preceding account, so here also, its power of stanch- 

 ing haemorrhages and curing the bites of venomous animals, is mentioned. 

 The common mode of using this nut, is to infuse it in hot water. Others 

 administer a small quantity of it in powder. Others cut the nut into 

 small pieces, and give one or two of those pieces for a dose. Others 

 wear a whole nut hanging from the neck, as an amulet. It generally 

 vomits, and sometimes purges; and in the instance of the Spaniards, almost 

 always excites convulsive motions, but not in the natives. It is administered 

 either in a morning upon an empty stomach, or an hour or two after taking 

 food, where the object is to produce vomiting; in which case lOgrs. are given, 

 along with other gentler emetics. In certain spasmodic affections, in apoplexy, 

 palsy, lethargy, epilepsy, asthma, malignant and suffocating catnrrh, tooth- 

 ach, &c. a small portion of the nut is put under the tongue and used as a sia- 

 lagogue. They give the powder in infusion or oil in tertian and quartan fevers ; 

 they also employ this remedy in suppressions of urine and the menses ; as well 

 as in cases of difficult parturition, and to promote the expulsion of the secun- 

 dines, and against worms. Likewise in surfeits, indigestion, diarrhoea, and 

 tenesmus; and lastly, in obstructions of the liver, spleen, &c. 



Account of Stones found in the Stomach, Kidney, and Gall-bladder. By Mr. 

 ffilliam Clerk, Surgeon. N" 250, p.' 95. 

 In 1690, a lady who had been drinking the waters at Moffet Wells, in 

 Annandale, Scotland, for a continual vomiting, and for the dolor nephriticus, 



