626 



DEUOS, NARCOTICS, ETC. 



medicinal properties. A. tuberosa is used as a mild cathartic, and 

 a remedy for a variety of disorders. Hydrastis canadensis, or 

 Canadian yellow root, is a valuable bitter, and furnishes a useful 

 yellow dye. Knowltonia vesicatoria is used commonly as a blister 

 in the Cape Colony. Banunculus sale^^afus (the B. indicus of 

 Roxburgh, and B. camosus of Wallich), common in India, is also 

 used by the natives for blistering purposes. 



A kind of sedge rush, common in swampy places in the West 

 India islands, the Adme cyperus, enjoys a reputation for the cure 

 of yellow fever. It is also stated to be cordial, diuretic and 

 cephalic, serviceable in the first stages of the dropsy, good in 

 vomitings, fluxes, &c. 



Dr. Impey, the residentiary surgeon of Malwa, has just confi- 

 dence in the indigenous drugs in use by the natives of the Ea.-t, 

 many of which are quite unknown in European practice. He be- 

 lieves that, in the Indian bazaars and the jungle, drugs having 

 precisely the same effect as those of Europe may be discovered, 

 and has recently drawn up a list of ninety substances, which are 

 perfect substitutes for an equal number of European medicines. 

 The class of tonics, in particular, is most amply supplied, and th^ 

 Englishman is not the only animal who sufiers from disorders of 

 the digestive organs. 



My friend Dr. Hamilton, of Plymouth, recently brought under 

 the notice of the profession the medical properties of the prickly 

 poppy or Mexican thistle {Argemone Meccicaha). It is indigenous 

 to and grows wild in the greatest profusion throughout the whole 

 of the Caribbean islands, and may be found at every season of the 

 year covered with its bright golden blossoms, and bearing its 

 prickly capsules in all their several stages of maturity. It is an 

 annual plant, attaining a height of about two feet, growing 

 abundantly in low and hot uncultivated spots. Its stem is round 

 and prickly, furnished with alternate branches and thorny leaves. 

 The seeds possess an emetic quality. The whole plant abounds 

 in a yellow milky juice, resembling gamboge in color, and not im- 

 probably possessing properties similar to the seeds. In Nevis the 

 oil is obtained from the bruised seeds by boiling, and sold by the 

 negroes in small phials, containing about an ounce each, under the 

 name of "thistle oil," at the price of a quarter of a dollar each. 

 The usual dose for dry bellyache is thirty drops upon a lump 

 of sugar, and its effect is perfectly magical, relieving the pain in- 

 stantaneously, throwing the patient into a profound and refreshing 

 sleep, and in a few hours relieving the bowels gently of the con- 

 tents. This oil seems fitted to compete in utility with the far 

 more costly and less agreeable oil of the croton. 

 I The seeds of the sandbox (Hura crepitans) when bruised, 

 operate powerfully as emetico-cathartic. It is probable that an 

 oil might be obtained from them similar in its operation to the 

 thistle oil. 



A cucurbitaceous fruit, one of the Luffas (called by Yon 



