328 Remarks on the Use of Piperine. 



ference to the crude material. If their conclusions wen? 

 drawn from experiment they would most certainly be entitled 

 to credit and respect ; but where a determination is made 

 against admitted facts, without advancing new grounds 

 drawn from argument or reason, and where new discoveries 

 are denounced without even a single experiment or authori- 

 ty of any kind, I am sorry to say that such a course can be 

 attributed only to prejudice, and should accordingly be so 

 appreciated. 



There is another class of opposers, governed by envy : 

 this is a worse species than the former : they are, however, 

 of little importance as to influence. It has ever been a griev- 

 ous circumstance, that, in almost every department of sci- 

 ence, criticism is so easy a task, that the least informed and 

 most unintelligent will make bold opposition against the most 

 useful and important researches, and sometimes from no other 

 cause than that they themselves were not the authors. 

 Their efforts are, however, overbalanced by the happy conse- 

 quence, that sentiment and expression do not, in the least, 

 alter or modify the condition of matter ; and follies of this 

 nature, therefore, so far from effecting an injury or causing 

 the least impediment to the march of science, merely offer 

 an exposition of error, either to be dispersed by truth, or cor- 

 rected by the light of science. 



The object of the present communication is, to describe a 

 new principle recently discovered in black pepper, which has 

 been denominated piperine, and which is proved, from care- 

 ful experiments, to be a successful remedy in intermittent fe- 

 vers, and has been employed with advantage in typhus fever 

 and periodical headache ; and from the respectability of the 

 authorities given in its support, bids fair to become an impor- 

 tant addition to the materia medica. It may be given in 

 doses of from one to four grains. It has been employed in 

 doses of one grain every hour, in several cases of intermittent 

 fever, with as much success as the quinine. It is found to be 

 a valuable adjunct to that substance, equal parts acting with 

 more energy and success than the whole quantity of quinine. 



Black pepper, in its crude state, has long been known as 

 a valuable medicine, and is stated to be an excellent adjunct 

 to bark, in intermittents, and the author* observes that Mr. 



* Rennie's Supplement to the Pharmacopeias? of London, Edinburgh, Dublin, 

 and Paris. 



