N. 0. LILIAOEiE. 1293 



and scurvy. Externally as rubefacient, and, when roasted, as a 

 poultice. Considered by natives hot and pungent, useful in 

 flatulency. Said to prevent the approach of snakes and veno- 

 mous reptiles. (Baden-Powell.) 



They are also described as aphrodisiac. Eaten raw they are 

 emmenagogue. The juice rubbed on insect-bites is said to allay 

 irritation. The centre portion of a bulb, heated and put into 

 the ear, is good for ear-ache. The warm juice of the fresh bulb 

 is also used for this purpose. 



The seeds yield a colourless clear oil used in medicine. 



Onion tea will often relieve sleepless and irritable children 

 when opium and other narcotics have failed. Let the opium 

 go, and try onions first.— Family Doctor, June 19, 1886. 



The expressed juice of the bulbs, with salt dropped in the 

 eye, is said to be useful in night blindness. A poultice of bulb 

 is also used. (B. D. B.). 



" The bulb is crushed and the acrid smell is utilised emitted 

 like smelling-salts for fainting and hysterical fits." (S. M. Robb, 

 Ahmedabad). " Said to increase the peristaltic action of the 

 intestines, and is prescribed in obstruction. Used in jaundice, 

 haemorrhoids, and prolapsus ani, also in hydrophobia. As an 

 external application, onions are used in scorpion bites and to 

 allay irritation in skin diseases. They have antiperiodic pro- 

 perties attributed to them, and are said to mitigate cough in 

 phthisis, and mixed with vinegar, used in sore- throat." (Surg. 

 J. McConaghey, Sbabjahanpore.) Used as a decoction in 

 cough." (Surg. Ross, Delhi). Onion juice, mixed with mustard 

 oil in proportion, is used as a liniment to allay rheumatic pains. 

 (Watt's Dictionary). 



Onions yield # 005 per cent, of their weight of a dark-brown essential oil 

 which does not contain oxygen, has a sp-gr. at 8"7°=1 , 041, and exhibits a 

 rotation of 5° in a 100 mm. tube ; a small quantity of crystals separate on 

 cooling it in a freezing mixture. As it decomposes when distilled at the 

 ordinary pressure, it was fractionated under a pressure of 10 mm. 



The main portion of the oil consists of a compound, C^H^S, an oil of sp. gr. 

 1*0234 at 12°, which boils at 75-83° (10 mm.), and is converted into the compound 

 C 6 H 12 S 2 on treatment with potassium ; this new compound boils at 68-69° (10 

 mm.), and seems to be present in small quantity in the original oil. The 

 compound C 6 H 12 S 2 is converted by zinc-dust into a mono-sulphide, C d H 12 S 2 



