698 MELANTHACE^. 



corrosive application to wounds; but it does not seem to have been 

 brought into European commerce, for neither Parkinson who described 

 it in 1640 as the Indian Caustwke Barley, nor Ray (1693) did more 

 than copy from Monardes. It was regarded in Germany a rare drug 

 even in 1726, but in the latter half of the last century it begun to be 

 recommended in France and Germany for the destruction of pediculi. 

 A famous composition for this purpose was the Poudre des Capvxiins, 

 consisting of a mixture of stavesacre, tobacco, and cebadilla, which was 

 applied either diy or made into an ointment with lard/ Cebadilla was 

 also administered combined into a pill with gamboge and valerian,^ for 

 the destruction of intestinal worms, but its virulent action made it 

 hazardous. 



Upon the introduction of veratrine into medicine about 1824< ceba- 

 dilla attracted some notice, and was occasionally prescribed in the form 

 of tincture and extract; but it subsequently fell into disuse, and is now 

 only employed for the manufacture of veratrine. 



Description — Each fruit consists of three oblong pointed follicles, 

 about I an inch in length, surrounded below by the remains of the 

 6-partite calyx, and attached to a short pedicel. The follicles are 

 united at the base, spread somewhat towards the apex, and open by 

 their ventral suture. They are of a light brown colour and papery 

 substance. Each usually contains two pointed narrow black seeds, -^ 

 of an inch in length, which are shining, rugose, and angular or con- 

 cave by mutual pressure. The compact testa encloses an oily albumen, 

 at the base of which, opposite to the beaked apex, lies the small 

 embryo. The seed is inodorous and has a bitter acrid taste; when 

 powdered, it produces violent sneezing. 



Microscopic Structure — A transverse section shows the horny 

 concentrically radiated albumen, closely attached to the testa. The 

 latter consists of an outer layer of cuboid cells, and three rows of smaller, 

 thin-walled, tangentially-extended cells, all of which have brown walls. 

 The tissue of the albumen is made up of large porous cells, containing 

 drops of oil, granules of albuminoid matter, and mucilage. Traces of 

 tannic acid occur only in the outer layers of the seed. 



Chemical Composition — Meissner, an apothecary of Halle, 

 Prussia, in 1819 discovered in cebadilla a basic substance, which he 

 termed Sabadilline; in publishing, in 1821, the description of it the 

 word " alkaloid" was introduced by Meissner at that occasion. The 

 name Veratrine^ was applied likewise in 1819 by Pelletier and Caven- 

 tou to a similar preparation. For many years this substance was 

 known only as an amorphus powder, in which state it frequently con- 

 tained a considerable proportion of resin; but in 1855 it was obtained 

 by G. Merck in large rhombic prisms. Cebadilla yields only about 3 

 per mille of veratrine. The alkaloid is easily soluble in spirit of wine, 

 ether or chloroform; these solutions, as well as the watery solutions of 

 its salts, are devoid of rotatory power. Veratrine, like the drug from 

 which it is derived, occasions, if inhaled, prolonged sternutation. 



^ Murray, Apparatus Medicaminum, v. ^ Peyrilhe, Cours. d'Hid. Nat. M6d. ii. 



(1790) 171 ; M^rat and De Lens, Diet, Mat. (1804) 490. 



M4d. vi. (1834) 862. ^ So called from Schlechtendal's name for 



the plant, Veratrum officinale. 



