PUNICA GRANATUM 121 



DECOCTION. (French Codex.) 



Fresh bark of pomegranate root 60 grams. 



Water 750 " 



Macerate 6 hours, boil over slow fire till reduced to 500 

 grams. Strain. Administer fasting, in 3 doses half an hour 

 apart. The evening before the patient should eat a light meal 

 and take a cathartic in order that the intestinal canal may con- 

 tain the smallest possible quantity of faecal matter. After tak- 

 ing the third dose of the decoction the patient should take a 

 mild purgative such as 30 grams of castor oil to expel the ta3nia. 

 This preparation has a most disagreeable taste. It is better to 

 give the " tannate of pelletierine," a compound of tannin and one 

 of the alkaloids that Tanret discovered in pomegranate root. 

 A sufficient dose of tannate of pelletierine is 30-40 centigrams in 

 wafer form, followed by a purge and with the other precautions 

 and preparatory measures mentioned above. It causes toxic 

 symptoms similar to those produced by curare, according to the 

 experimental studies of Dujardin-Beaumetz and Rocheniere. Its 

 action is upon the ends of the motor nerves. A dose of 40 

 centigrams may cause in man such symptoms of intoxication as 

 vertigo, inverted vision and muscular paralysis. Pelletierine 

 should not be administered to children, but Be>anger-Ferand 

 states that the tannate may be safely given them, as follows : 



Tannate of pelletierine 0.30 grams. 



Sweetened water 40.00 " 



A coffee-spoonful of this solution contains 0.03 gram of the 

 tannate, and this quantity may be given to a child, in a little 

 milk. If no symptoms supervene within one-half hour give 

 another similar dose and so on up to 3 or 4 doses or .12 gm. in 

 all. After the last dose give the purgative as a routine. It is 

 certainly imprudent to trust the administration of such a drug 

 to any one incapable of recognizing the symptoms of intoxica- 

 tion, and as no one but a physician can judge the effects of the 

 alkaloid he himself should remain with the patient until the 



