74 



Observations on Mudar. 



[Jan. 



Roxburgh says, in his Flora Indica, the natives apply 

 the milky juice to various medical purposes, besides which, 

 they employ the plant itself, and the preparations thereof, to 

 cure all kinds of fits ; epilepsy, hysterics, convulsions, 

 spasmodic disorders, such as locked jaw, convulsions in 

 children, paralytic complaints cold sweats, poisonous bites, 

 and venereal complaints." Dr. Ainslie says of his P^ullerkoo 

 (pale asclepias gigantea), " the bark is warmish, and when 

 powdered and mixed with a certain portion of margosa oil, 

 is used as an external application in rheumatic affections ; 

 that the milky juice is considered alterative and aperient. 

 Of his Yercmn vayer (the root of the darker coloured kind) 

 that, this pale coloured bark is bitter and somewhat warm to 

 the taste ; a decoction of it is given occasionally as a gentle 

 stimulant in fevers, and in dyspeptic complaints. The 

 milky juice called Yerciim paul, the Tamul practitioners 

 reckon among their purges." As the Yercum is the darker 

 flowered variety of the Calotropis gigantea, corresponding 

 in that respect with C. procera, part of the virtues assigned 

 to it may perhaps properly belong to the Procera. 



The following remarks on the medical uses of Mudar, I 

 copied several years ago from a review in Johnson's Medico 

 Chirurgical Journal, of a paper on Elephantiasis by Mr. 

 Robinson of the Bengal medical service. Mr. R. in- 

 forms us, that Mr. Playfair of the Bengal medical 

 service, in speaking of the Mudar, emphatically describes 

 it as a vegetable mercury, specific in the cure of lues, le- 

 prosy, and cutaneous eruptions in general, the most power- 

 ful alterative perhaps known, an excellent deobstruent. In 

 all affections of the skin says he, * I have found it very effec- 

 tual, and in the Jagara or Leprosy of the joints, I have 

 never failed to heal up all the sores and often have produced 

 a perfect cure. In Elephantiasis, Mr. Robinson agrees with 

 Mr. Playfair that the Mudar is possessed of great virtues, he 

 can also bear witness to its powerful effects as a deobstru- 

 ent, and sudorific in almost all cutaneous eruptions arising 

 from obstructed perspiration, and in apathy of the extreme 

 vessels. It causes a sense of heat in the stomach, which 

 rapidly pervades every part of the system, and prodiices a 

 titillating feel upon the skin, from the renewed circulation 



