84 



[Jan. 



employed only the inner bark of the root, in powder ; and the com- 

 plaints in which it was attended with success (though in many in- 

 stances they had long remained intractable and had resisted other 

 medicines) were ulcers, even such as were attended with caries of the 

 bones, cutaneous eruptions, and nodes or a thickened state of the 

 periosteum. It was given in small doses, sometimes of one or two 

 grains, and was most etFectualwhen the patient had no febrile tendency 

 was not of a plethoric habit, and adopted a proper regimen. The author 

 relates, with a minuteness and accuracy which are as honorable to 

 himself as they are satisfactory to others, the symptoms and treat- 

 ment of nine cases in which Mudar was administered alone, and of 

 seven in which it was combined with sarsaparilla, which ' assists, 

 modifies, and directs,' its effects, and promotes the cure by preventing 

 or diminivshing the irritability of the constitution. It had been tried 

 with success in thirty-five cases by Mr. Egerton, Surgeon to the Eye 

 Infirmary at Calcutta ; and the ten cases, in which it was given by the 

 former without benefit, were of patients who were plethoric, inclined 

 to fever, or of an irritable habit. The author gives, also, the analysis 

 of the Madar powder, which can be procured from Mr. Mackenzie, 

 No. 78, Cornhill." 



Dr. Duncan observes, that " by almost all the writers on the sub- 

 ject, it is said to be the root of the Asclepias gigantea. But this is 

 a mistake. Dr. Francis Hamilton has, in his learned commentary on 

 the Second part of the Hortus Malabaricus, described the species of 

 the genus Asclepias; L. (CalotropiSjBrown), which he found in India. 

 They are three in number." 



" Calotropis gigantea is the Erica of the Hortus Malabaricus, the 

 Madorius of Rumphius, the Akhund of the Hindoos." 



" To the second he gives doubtfully the trivial name of procera, as 

 if uncertain whether it were the very species described by Welldenow, 

 which is indigenous in Persia. It would appear that he afterwards 

 considered them as distinct species, and gave to the Indian plant the 

 name of Calotropis mudarii. It is the Madar of the Hindoos. The 

 more detailed description inserted in Mr. Playfair's paper is also by 

 Dr. Hamilton." 



" But the most accurate botanical information concerning the plant 

 w^hich furnishes the Madar, as to its diagnosis from C. gigantea, is 

 contained in the printed circular notice of the proceedings of the Cal- 

 cutta Medical and Physical Society for March 1824. For a series of 

 these very interesting papers, I am indebted to the kind attention of 

 Dr. Adam, secretary to the society." The following extract from the 

 circular corresponds accurately with Dr. Wight's descriptions, and 

 although it may be still doubtful, whether the Mudar is the same 

 species as that to which the specific name of procera was originally 

 given, no ditficulty can hereafter be experienced, in ascertaining the 

 plants to which medicinal virtues have been ascribed. " Dr. Wallich 

 exhibited specimens, in full flower, of the varieties of Asclepias term- 

 ed by the Natives Mudar and Akhund^ and explained to the meeting 

 the characters which distinguish each. The former is the genuine 

 one described by Mr. Playfair, as useful in elephantiasis and other 

 cutaneous affections. It is a small plant, having a perennial root, but 

 an annual stem, while the ahkund, (both the purple and white flower- 

 ed,) attains comparatively a great height, and is altogether perennial. 

 The flowers of the Mudar form a cuplike corolla, while those of the 

 Akhu7id are reflected on themselves. The Mudar is not found indi- 

 genous below the Province of Bahar, and affects chiefly dry sandy 

 soils i while the other variety is common all over the country, and 



