502 JO URNAL, BOMB A Y NA TUBAL HISTOR Y SOCIE TY, Vol. X. 



Jaikisan Indraji says that the odour of the root is acrid, but this is 

 a mistaks. The root has no odour. It is the taste that is bitter 

 end acrid ; mucilaginous and slightly acid. 



Dr. Sakharam Arjun* and Dr. Virji Zina Eavalj dwell on its 

 medical properties only. They both make no reference to its poisonous 

 properties. 



To sum up, whether the poisonous element is Bryonin as Dr. Tukina 

 faysj or whether it is Bryonidin which causes inflammation of the 

 stomach and larger intestines as mentioned above in a quotation from 

 the Pharmaceutical Journal (1890-91, p. 496), there is scarcely any 

 doubt but that the root of the Bryony Genus may be safely 

 looked upon as a powerful irritant of the entire elementary canal, caus- 

 ing dangerous vomiting, accompanied with fainting, and almost fatal 

 hypercatharsis. 



O'Shaughnessy states that the powder of the root of the plant I am 

 describing, w^hich he, according to the nomenclature of his day, calls 

 Bryonia epigcea, is given by native practitioners as an aperient and 

 alterative in chronic dysentery and venerea! complaints. — (Ainslie, 

 vol. II, p. 158). I am afraid both Ainslie and O'Shaughnessy are trust- 

 ing to second hand informatioUj else Ainslie at any rate would not have 

 committed himself to the somewhat dangerous statement that such a 

 dangerous irritant of the primcBvice could, by any possibility, be a 

 remedy in chronic dysentery. In venereal complaints it may be a 

 possible remedy, hut on other physiological grounds^ which I need not 

 discuss here, it is by no means a safe remedy. 



In concluding thU notice, I may here note that the Sanskrit syn- 

 onym Kadamha given to Bryonia epigcea iij the Mangalore book, issued 

 under the title '^ Five Hundred Indian Plants,'''' J is positively wrong. 

 I can say with confidence that the Sanskrit plant known as Kadamha 

 does not belong to the A^. 0. Cucurhitacece, but to the iV. 0. Con- 

 volvulacece. Burnouf gives the botanical name of the Sanskrit 

 term Kadamha as Convolvulus repens. (Vide Sanskrit and French 

 Dictionartj page 136). The Kadamha of the Dekkan- and Konkan 

 belongs to N, 0. Ruhiacioi« 



* Bombay Drugs (Catalogue), 

 •f- P. 168, Ahmedabad Edition, 1889. AryarAiishadh. 



J Five Hundred Indian Plants : Their Uses in Medicine and the Arts, in Eanarese ; 

 p. 11, 1891. 



