POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 621 



of infanticide, and suggested that an investigation should be made with 

 a view to the detection of this poison by chemical analysis. He, at the 

 same time, gave the results of some experiments on puppies. Mr. Mc- 

 Reddie infers from them that Mudar juice is acrid, but that it is not, as 

 it is supposed to be by the natives, a " narcotic poison.''' Speaking for 

 myself, I have net heard or read of the narcotic properties of any of 

 the parts or products of Calotropis gig'intea. It principally acts on 

 the prima, vice so far as I know, producing at times violent emesis and 

 drastic purgation, often far beyond calculation, and much to the detri- 

 ment and even danger to life of the person in whom the powder of the 

 root-bark is used as a cure for dysentery, and a vaunted safe substitute for 

 the root of Ipecacuanha. I would rathe ruse Ipecacuanha, now that we can 

 have it incur dispensaries sine emetine, than expose a dysenteric patient to 

 the risk of treatment of his complaint with such an uncertain substitute 

 as the powdered root of Calotropis gigantea. I say this from experience, 

 for eight years ago as Civil Surgeon of Thana, in medical charge of a 

 large Depot Jail and of the Civil Police and Military Hospitals there, I 

 obtained a large consignment of the powdered bark of Mudar and tried 

 it at the earnest desire of my late lamented friend and former teacher 

 of Materia Medica, Brigade-Surgeon Dymock, who was then our 

 Principal Medical Storekeeper in Bombay. My experience lead to an 

 utter discomfiture. Wherever I tried the powder of Mudar root-bark, 

 there was either violent emesis, or violent catharsis. The following 

 year, in my official annual indent on Dr. Dymock, I asked not " for 

 more." I have come to the conclusion that the vaunted position of 

 Mudar as a substitute for Ipecacuanha is untenable, at any rate accord- 

 ing to my clinical experience. But I stand corrected. Apropos of Dr. 

 Norman Chevers' remark, cited above, that the milky juice of Calotropis 

 gigantea is used for the purpose of murdering new-born, female infants, 

 I find that Surgeon-General Balfour of Madras has the following remark 

 regarding Calotropis procera, a near congener of Calotropis gigantea: — • 

 The acrid juice of C. procera, says he, " is used by Rajputs to poison 

 their infant daughters" (" Cyclopoedia of India," Vol. I, p. 553, 3rd ed.,. 

 London, 1885), Brigade-Surgeon J. B. Lyon, c.i.e., who has been to 

 me the chief inspirer of the papers on the Poisonous Plants of Bombay,, 

 which have so long occupied the pages of this journal, says thus 

 regarding Muclav ', — "It may be mentioned that Mudar (a name,.! may 



