ABRUS PRECATORIUS 89 



USES. The part of the plant most important in thera- 

 peutics is the seed, the size of a small pea, bright red with a 

 black spot, hard and shining. The Filipino children use them 

 to make rosaries and other decorations. In the distant past 

 the Filipinos used these seeds to weigh gold, a practice followed 

 even to-day by the Hindoos. The famous Susrutas, author of 

 the " Ayur Veda," recommends them internally for nervous 

 diseases ; modern therapeutics, however, limits their use to one 

 disease, though that is frequent and stubborn enough, namely 

 chronic granular conjunctivitis. 



Some physicians state that these seeds are poisonous and 

 others the contrary, but the fact that they are used as food 

 among the poor classes of Egypt, demonstrates their harmless- 

 ness in the digestive tract at least ; when introduced into the 

 circulation they undoubtedly exercise a toxic effect. We have 

 already mentioned that their use is limited nowadays to the 

 therapeutics of the eye ; the decoction of the seeds known in 

 Europe under the name of " Jaqueriti " so named in Brazil 

 produces a purulent inflammation of the healthy conjunctiva 

 and it is precisely this counter-irritant effect which makes it 

 useful in chronic granular conjunctivitis, the persistence of 

 which has defied the most heroic measures of therapeutics. 

 The French oculist, Dr. de Wecker, was the first to employ 

 jequirity for this purpose, in the form of a 24 hours 7 macera- 

 tion of the seeds, 10 grams to 500 grams of water. It is nec- 

 essary to use a product recently prepared and with this several 

 applications a day are made. It is now known that the in- 

 flammation of the healthy conjunctiva is not caused by germ- 

 life contained in the solution but by an inorganic ferment dis- 

 covered by Bruylans and Venneman and named jequiritin ; 

 they state that it is produced during the germination of the 

 seeds or of the cells in the powdered seeds. Warden and Wad- 

 dell, of Calcutta, have isolated an essential oil, an acid named 

 " abric " and an amorphous substance called abrin, obtained by 



8 



