LACTUCARroM. 397 



pith on the one side, and to the bark on the other, the two being sepa- 

 rated by juiceless wood. The milk vessels of the bark are covered by 

 only 2 to 6 rows of parenchyme cells of the middle bark, rapidly de- 

 creasing in size from within outwards, and these are protected by a not 

 very thick- walled epidermis. Hence it is easy to understand how the 

 slightest puncture or incision may reach the very richest milk-cells. 



The drops of milky juice, when exposed to the air, quickly harden to 

 small yellowish-brown masses, whitish within. 



Collection and Description — Lactucarium has been especially 

 collected since about the year 1845, in the neighbourhood of the small 

 town of Zell on the Mosel between Coblenz and Treves in Rhenish 

 Prussia. The introduction of this industry is due to Mr. Goeris, apothe- 

 cary of that place, to whom we are indebted for the following informa- 

 tion, and for some further particulars, to Mr. Meurer of Zell. 



The plant is grown in gardens, where it produces a stem only in its 

 second year. In May just before it flowers, its stem is cut off at about 

 a foot below the top, after which a transverse slice is taken off daily 

 until September. The juice, which is pure white but readily becomes 

 brown on the surface, is collected from the wounded top by the finger, 

 and transferred to hemispherical earthen cups, in which it quickly 

 hardens so that it can be turned out. It is then dried in the sunshine 

 until it can be cut into four pieces, when the drying is completed by 

 exposure to the air for some weeks on frames. 



At Zell, 300 to 400 kilogrammes (661 to 882 lb.) of lactucarium are 

 annually produced ; the whole district furnishes at best but 20 quintals 

 annually. The price the drug fetches on the spot varies from 4 to 10 

 thalers per kilogramme (about 6s. to 14s. per lb.) In the Eifel district, 

 where lactucarium was formerly collected, none is now produced. 



As found in trade, German lactucarium consists of angular pieces 

 formed as already described, but rendered more or less shrunken and 

 irregular by loss of moisture and by fracture. Externally they are of a 

 dull reddish brown, internally opaque and wax-like, and when recent, of 

 a creamy white. By exposure to the air, this white becomes yellow and 

 then brown. Lactucarium has a strong unpleasant odour, suggestive of 

 opium, and a very bitter taste. 



The lactucarium produced by Aubergier of Clermont-Ferrand is of 

 excellent quality, but does not appear to differ from that obtained on the 

 Mosel, except that it is in circular cakes about 1^ inches in diameter, 

 instead of in angular lumps. 



Scotch lactucarium, which was formerly the only sort found in the 

 market, is still (1872) met with. Mr. Fairgrieve, who produces it in the 

 neighbourhood of Edinburgh, collects the juice into little tin vessels, in 

 which it quickly thickens ; it is then turned out and dried with a gentle 

 heat, the drug being broken up as the process of drjdng goes on. It is 

 thus obtained in irregular earthy-looking lumps of a deep brown hue, 

 of which the larger may be about an inch in length. In smell, it exactly 

 resembles the drug collected on the Continent.^ 



We have also before us Austrian lactucarium, prepared at Waidhofen 



(1866) 69 ; Dippel, Entstehung der Milch- for a specimen of Scotch lactucarium col- 



aaflgefime, Rotterdam, 1865. tab. 1, Jig. lected about the year 1844, and to Messrs. ' 



17- T. and H. Smith for a sample of Mr. Fair- 



n e are mdebted to Mr. H. C, Baildon grieve's article. 



