76 Ohservalions on Mudar. [Jan* 



coagulates and comes to the top, and is removed : the clear 

 oil which remains is supposed to be a powerful remedy against 

 paralysis of the limbs. Perhaps the friction required in its 

 application is of m.ore use than the medicine. In some of 

 the other combinations in which it is supposed to act a pro- 

 minent part ; it seems next to impossible to recognize its 

 presence, being previously exposed to the action of fire two 

 or three diiferent times, so that unless it contains a notable 

 quantity of saline matter, which is brought into a state of 

 activity by the process, there is every reason to believe it 

 altogether lost. It certainly does contain an alcaline ingre- 

 dient, which has received the name of Mudarine, butv/hether 

 it can be separated by such rude processes, I am unable to 

 determine. If there is any reliance to be placed on the infor- 

 mation above quoted from Roxburgh ; it affords an interest- 

 ing confirmation of a doctrine, becoming daily more firmly 

 established ; that spasmodic actions are produced by local 

 congestions on the nerves supplying the affected muscles, 

 which are removed by the powerful action of the medicine on 

 the extreme vessels as particularly pointed out by Mr. Robin- 

 son. To the testimonies now adduced I have only to add, that 

 I many years ago prescribed the C gigantea in a case of 

 Elephantiasis, but without producing any effect on the dis- 

 ease. After a few days use, it caused an intense itching 

 and drawing sensation on the skin, butnoother effectsofar at 

 least as I can recollect, and I have not now my notes of the 

 case to consult. 



x\s my object in this paper is rather to make known the 

 plants, for the sake of others who may wish to investigate 

 their properties, than to attempt to write a medical history 

 of them myself; I shall here leave the subject in the hands 

 of those w^ho have better opportunities of following it out, 

 to supply what I have left defective, and proceed to make a 

 few observations on the properties of the order generally, sofar 

 as they are yet known, particularly of those species, natives 

 of this country, with which we are more immediately interest- 

 ed. I do this as affording an example of the truth of a re- 

 mark, in the review of Mr. Royle's work in your last number, 

 that plants of the same natural order are generally found 

 to possess properties similar in kind. This rule, I think T 



