140 Botanic Drugs 



muscle of intestine, spleen, and uterus is stimulated 

 to contraction. There is no effect qn glandular 

 secretion. After several hours a secondary train of 

 symptoms appears, marked by central depression, and 

 the animal dies of respiratory failure. The drug causes 

 renal irritation, congested intestinal membranes, and 

 a stimulation of the hemopoietic function of the 

 bone marrow. Poisoning resembles in symptoms 

 that caused by the poisonous proteins of shell-fish. 



So, then, were colchicum a new drug, the pharma- 

 cologist would probably dismiss it as of no defined 

 therapeutic value. Certainly there is nothing in 

 its pharmacology explaining its demonstrated clin- 

 ical value in the treatment of gout. 



Dr. Robert P. Fischelis, in a paper read before 

 the Philadelphia Branch of the American Pharma- 

 ceutical Association, has this to say: 



"If for the first time in the history of medicine 

 colchicum corm was sent to our pharmacological 

 laboratory for report on its therapeutic value, the 

 report would probably state: 'Colchicum is in full 

 dosage a drastic cathartic. In poisonous doses it 

 produces a train of symptoms simulating those ob- 

 served in cholera. The m. 1. d. for the guinea pig is 

 -gm. per unit of weight. The leucocytic count is 

 diminished markedly during the first 24 hours of 

 the use of the drug and then undergoes as marked 

 an increase.' Observe that the one action of col- 

 chicum that has kept it so long in the pharmacopeia, 

 its almost specific value in gout and analogous con- 

 ditions, is not noted by the pharmacologist; indeed, 

 it is quite probable that he would report the drug 

 as having little value. 



"It is impossible to exaggerate the value of phar- 



