4 



RANUNCULACE^. 



Choulant died in A.D. 923 or 932, mentions Mamiran, and it is also 

 noticed by Avicenna a little later as a drug useful in diseases of 

 the eye. Ma/x>;/)a likewise occurs in exactly the same way in the 

 writings of Leo, "Philosophus et Medicus."^ Ibn Bay tar called the 

 drug Mamiran and Uruk, and described it as a small j'ellow root like 

 turmeric, coming from China. Other writers of the middle ages allude 

 to it under the name of Memeren. 



Hajji Mahomed, in the account of Cathay which he gave to 

 Ramusio {circa A.D. 1550) says that the 3Iambroni chini, by which we 

 understand the root in question, is found in the mountains of Succuir 

 (Suh-cheu) where rhubarb grows, and that it is a wonderful remedy 

 for diseases of the eye.^ In an official report published at Lahore 

 in 1862,* Maniiran-i-cfdni is said to be brought from China to 

 Yarkand. 



The rhizome of Goptis is used by the Chinese under the names 

 Hiuang-lien and Chuen-lien* It is enumerated by Cleyer ^ (1682) as 

 " radix pretiosa artiara," and was described in 1778 by Bergius * who 

 received it from Canton. 



More recently it was the subject of an interesting notice by Gui- 

 bourt '' who thought it to be derived from Ophioxylon serpentinurti L., 

 an apocyneous plant widely removed from Coptis. Its root was recom- 

 mended in India by Maclsaac* in 1827 and has been subsequently 

 employed with success by many practitioners. 



There is a rude figure of the plant in the Chinese herbal Fun-tsao. 



Description — Tita, as the drug is called in the Mishmi countiy, 

 whence it is sent by way of Sudiya on the Bramaputra to Bengal, is 

 a rhizome about the thickness of a quill occurring in pieces an inch 

 or two in length. It often branches at the crown into two or three 

 heads, and bears the remains of leafstalks and thin wiry rootlets, the 

 stumps of which latter give it a rough and spiny appearance. It is 

 nearly cylindrical, often contorted, and of a yellowish brown colour. 

 The fracture is short, exhibiting a loose structure, Avith large bright 

 yellow radiating woody bundles. The rhizome is intensely bitter," but 

 not aromatic even when fresh. 



It is found in the Indian bazaars in neat little open-work bags 

 formed of narrow strips of rattan, each containing about half an ounce. 

 We have once seen it in bulk in the London market." 



Microscopic Structure — Cut transversely the rhizome exhibits an 

 inner cortical tissue, through which sclerenchymatous groups of cells 

 are scattered. The latter are most obvious on account of their bright 

 yellow colour. In the woody central column a somewhat concentric 



^i''. Z. Ermerins, Anecdota medica 

 Graeca, e codicibus MSS. expromsit. 

 Lugd. Bat. 1840. Leonis Philosophi 

 et Medici conspectus medicinae, lib. 



iii. cap. I. (K£0.«. IIs^ol otpdaX/xwi/ 



aapKOKoXXii^, KpoKov, yXavKiw, /u a /u i; p « 

 Kul hcaixcjiopa). 



2 Yule, Cathay and the way thither, 

 (Hakluyt Society) i. (1866) p. ccxvi. 



* Davies, Report on the trade of the coun- 

 tries on the N. W. boundary of India, 

 Lahore, 1862. 



* Otherwise written Homjlane, Chonlin, 

 Chynlen, ChouUne, Souline, &c. 



° Specimen Medicince Siniae, Med. Simp. 

 No. 27. 



« Mat. Med. ii. (1778) 908. 



''Hut. des Drog. ii. (1849) 526. 



' Trans, of Med. and F/iys. Soc. of Cal- 

 cutta, iii. (1827) 432. 



" Teeta is the Hindustani tIta, from the 

 Sanskrit tikta, "bitter." (Dr. Rice.) 



^^ Two cases were offered for sale as Ole7i 

 or Mishmee by Messrs. Gray and Clark, 

 drug-brokers, 22th Nov. 1858. 



