June 22, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEV/S. 



587 



Natural l^tistor^. 



ARBORESCENT EUPHORBIA. 

 We borrow here from Cosmos a figure and a des- 

 cription of a gigantic African Euphorbia. Physicians 



certain pharmacological authorities propose to call the 

 drug Euphorhium. 



The juice, or the resin, of the euphorbia possesses re- 

 markably irritating properties, which have long been 

 known and employed in medicine. Euphorbius, the 

 physician of Juba, King of Mauritania, seems to have 



give the name "euphorbia " to a very irritating resin 

 secreted by three cactus-like trees, Euphorbia anti- 

 quorum, E. ojficinarum, and E. Canariensis. These trees 

 grow, the/first-mentioned in India, the second in the 

 deserts of Africa, and the third in the Canary Islands. 

 Botanists reserve the name euphorbia for the plants 

 which yield this resin. To put an end to this confusion 



been one 01 the first to make use of it, whence the 

 drug bears his name. The inhabitants of Central Africa 

 employ it as a poison to destroy their enemies. They 

 make incisions in the stem of the tree, from which flows 

 a milky juice. In this juice, after certain manipulations, 

 which serve to concentrate the liquid, they steep the 

 point or the edge of the weapon which they wish to 



