SPIGELIA — PINKUOOT. 227 



Medical rrojyerlies and Uaes. — Golseinium is a very powerful drug 

 whoso therapeutic hmitatious are uot, as yet, accurately cletiued. In toxic 

 doses — aud, unfortunately, these have been only too i'r('(|uoutly adminis- 

 tered — it produces paralysis of both motion anil sensation, without, how- 

 ever, greatly atlecting the mind, except in rare instances. In fatal cases, 

 after motion is entirely destroyed, the respiration becomes progressively 

 more aud more labored, and finally ceases from paralysis of the respiratory 

 muscles. Occasionally death is preceded by convulsions and coma, but 

 usually the mind is clear nearly to the last. These severe cH'ects of the 

 drug, moreover, have not always borne a definite relation to th-^ size of 

 the dose administered. In other words, there seems to be an amount of 

 uncertainty about the action of the di-ug which, on the one hand, adds to 

 its dangei', and on the other, detracts from its value as a therapeutic agent. 

 In some cases, quite nnexpcctedly, poisonous effects have followed doses 

 supposed to be far within the limits of safety ; in others, much larger doses 

 have failed to 2:»roduce the therapeutic eiit'ects desired and expected. Re- 

 garding its therapeutic applications, rejecting, as we reasonably niiiy, all 

 its claims to specitic etlect in certain diseases, there seems to remain no 

 other just place for it except in febrile and inflammatoiy afVections of a 

 decided sthenic typo. That in such cases it n}ay moderate or subdue 

 febi'ile action, through it* powerfully depressant ellects, is very evident ; 

 but that the desired results can be obtained more readily and more snl'ely 

 by this drug than by several other better known and more certain agents, 

 certainly rerpiires demonstration. Itleanwhile the judicious physician will 

 suspend judgment, or, at least, expeximent with great caution. 



SPIGELIA.— PiNKUOOT. 



Spigelia Marilandica Linne. — Pinkront. 



Description. — Calyx deeply 5-parted, the lobes very slender, pointed, 

 persistent. Corolla live times as long as the calyx, tubular funnel-fovm, 

 somewhat inflated toward the summit, the border with 5 acute, spreading 

 segments. Stamens 5, very short, inserted in the mouth of the corolla 

 and alternate with the segments. Ovary small, ovate, free ; style longer 

 than the corolla, slender, jointed near the middle, hairy above. Capsule 

 double, consisting of 2, cohering, 1-celled, few-seeded carpels which sepa- 

 rate at maturity, and open loculicidally. 



An herbaceous perennial, with a short rhizome, beset with nunu.rous 

 fibrous rootlets. Stems several from the same rhizome, erect, ^ to H foot 

 high, simple. Leaves opposite, sessile, ovate, acuminate, entire, smooth, 

 with the margins and veins somewhat pubescent. Flowers spiked, in one- 

 sided cymes ; the sjiikes simple or forked, short, appearing in June and 

 July. The corolla is 1^ inch long, scarlet or mnison without, yellow 

 within, and very showy. 



