239 CROTON TIGLIUM 



Medical Properties and Uses. Croton seeds when applied 

 externally act as a powerful local irritant, and when given inter- 

 nally, in doses of a grain, as a very active drastic purgative. 

 From their poisonous character when given in over doses they are 

 not now used in this country. It is said, however, that in India, 

 where the seeds are sometimes known under the name of 

 Jamalgata pills, they have been used with great success in 

 amenorrhoea ; and Professor Erasmus Wilson speaks highly of a 

 diluted tincture of croton seeds as a stimulant application in 

 certain cutaneous affections, more especially in eczema, lichen, 

 ichthyosis, and erythema. 



Croton oil when rubbed on the skin acts as a rubefacient and 

 counter-irritant, and when administered internally it operates as 

 a powerful hydragogue cathartic. It is a most useful, and 

 frequently a very valuable cathartic in any case in which it is 

 desired to act speedily and powerfully on the bowels, as in 

 obstinate constipation, in dropsy, in apoplexy, in paralysis, in 

 torpid conditions of the intestinal canal, &c ; and also in cases 

 where the patient cannot or will not swallow, when it may be 

 dropped on the tongue, as in some affections of the throat, 

 mania, &c. The official liniments of the British and Indian phar- 

 macopoeias when rubbed on the skin produce redness and a pustular 

 eruption. They act as useful stimulants when thus applied in 

 chronic rheumatism, neuralgia, glandular and other indolent swell- 

 ings, and in chronic bronchitis and other pulmonary affections. 



U. S. Disp., by W. and B., p. 624 ; Pharmacographia, p. 508 ; 

 Per. Mat. Med., vol. ii, part i, p. 409 ; Ph. Jl., vol. iv, 2nd series, 

 382 and 387 ; Per. Mat. Med., by B. and R, p. 525 ; Wilson, 

 Diseases of the Skin, p. 177. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE. 



Drawn from a specimen kindly sent by Dr. D. Moore from Glasnevin 

 Garden, Dublin, where it flowered in September, 1874 ; the fruit added from 

 examples in the Museum of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. 1. A 

 flowering branch. 2. Male flower. 3. Section of the same. 4. A female 

 flower. 5. Section of same. 6. Fruit. 7. Transverse section of the same. 

 8. Seed, ventral surface. 9. Vertical section of the same. 10. A stellate hair 

 from the inflorescence. (2 5 enlarged. 10 much magnified.) 



