CALOTROPS GIGANTEA 167 



parts is proved by the death of several soldiers in Corsica from 

 having eaten meat roasted on a spit of oleander wood. 



BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION. A small tree, about 6 high. 

 Leaves coriaceous, lanceolate, entire, glabrous. Flowers in ter- 

 minal cymes, rose-color or white, single or double. Calyx 5- 

 parted. Corolla 1 5 petals, the inner ones larger, disposed in 3 

 groups of 5. Stamens 10, fixed on receptacle ; filaments short. 

 Style shorter than stamens. Two follicles, sharp-pointed, 

 channeled, containing many imbricated seeds each with an 

 awn. 



ASCLEPIADACE-E. 



Milkweed Family. 



Calotrops gigantea, R. Br. (Asdepias gigantea, Willd. and 



Blanco.) 



NOM. VULG. Kapal-kapal, Tag.; Swallow-Wort, Eng.; 

 MudaTj Indo-Eng. 



USES. This plant is official in the Pharmacopoeia of India as 

 an alterative, tonic, diaphoretic and emetic. J. J. Durant, hav- 

 ing observed that the natives used it for dysentery, experi- 

 mented with it quite successfully in that disease. For adults 

 he gradually raised the dose from 1.10 to 4 grams, preferring 

 smaller doses, however, for mild cases. To children he pre- 

 scribed 5-10 centigrams for each year of age, 3 or 4 times a 

 day. He remarked that the effects produced were identical 

 with those of ipecac administered in Brazilian fashion. 



The part of the plant used is the dry root powdered. The 

 usual dose is 1550 centigrams 3 times a day, gradually in- 

 creased ; as an emetic 2-4 grams. 



The milky juice that escapes from the stem on the slightest 

 abrasion is a drastic purgative, given commonly in dropsy, lum- 

 bricoids, etc. Pledgets of cotton impregnated with the juice 

 and packed in the cavities of carious teeth, relieve toothache. 



