1835.] Note. 85 



flourishes in great perfection in Bengal Proper^ Tliey have been 

 lately termed, (by Hamilton,) Ca/o^ropz^ mudari, diUd. Calotropis gi- 

 gantea. Dr. W. concluded by observing, that nothing can be more ais- 

 tract in habit, duration, and tiowcra, than these two plants : in medi- 

 cinal virtues, they are probably still more different." 

 " The confusion in which the subject illustrated by Dr. Wight is still 

 involved, appears from the fact, that Dr. "Whitelaw Ainsiie in the 

 last edition of his Indian Materia Medica represents the asciepias gi- 

 gantca as the true Mudar ; and in a paper on Elephantiasis published 

 in the tirst volume of the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, 

 which has been much admired for the accurate research displayed by 

 its author, the same mistake is repeated. As the transactions of the 

 parent Society are not generally accessible, and for the sake of Mr, 

 Colebrooke's notes, the following extract from the first volume is here 

 inserted. It is singular that the transactions of the Calcutta Medical 

 and Physical Society are twice referred founder the name of the 

 * Edinburgh Medical Transactions," a mistake which could not possi- 

 bly have originated with the author. " But of all the alterative and 

 deobstruent remedies employed by the native practitioners of India 

 in this complaint, none is of equal repute with the concrete milky 

 juice of the plant called by the Tamools Fercant ( Asciepias gigmitea ) \ 

 it exudes from the leaves and tender shoots on being pricked, and 

 has at first somewhat the appearance of cream; but on drying be- 

 comes a little darker coloured, and has a rather nauseous and acrid 

 taste : the dose is about a quarter of a gold pagoda weight, given 

 twice daily, together with a little sulphur, and, continued, for some 

 weeks. The plant is termed, in Sanscrit, ^rc«, also Vdnuca, and 

 Pratdpasa.^ In the Canarese language it is Vecddd ; in Hindustani 

 it is named ikra(i«r;t in Dukhini, .^/rr.? ; in Javanese, fFdduri ; and 

 in Ai-abic, U'sher, according to Avicenna (2H3), though it would 

 appear that in Arabia Felix, the Asciepias giganteaX has got 

 the appellation of Oschar, which, however, may be a corruptioii 

 cf the same word. In the Materia Medica of Hindustan, above 

 cited, wdiich I published at Madras in 181 3, will be found (page TiS) 

 some account of the yercam plant [Asciepias gigantea), and its use 

 amongst the Hindu doctors; also some notice of what has been by 

 some considered as a variety of the same plant, and termed in Tamooi 

 Vallerkd ; but I have since had reason to believe that this last is of a 

 different genus altogether, and what was named by the late excellent 

 Dr. Klein, of Tranquebar, Exacum hijssopifolium, and is in ail pro- 

 bability that which is said to be often confounded with the true A.sclc- 

 pias gigantea, in the upper provinces of India, and there called 

 Aka?id.^ I have said, that the dried milky juice of the ^^'c/epja-s' ^^e- 

 gantea was considered in southern India as powerfully alterative ; and 

 late accounts, which I have recived from that country, tend the more, 

 to convince me of it : I should therefore venture a query, whether, 

 as snrb, it might not be tried in cancer, that most intractable of all 



* 'i'iie Area or k a^uca, is cue rusy variety ; the Pratapasa ox Alarca, is the 

 TNhite sort.— H. T. C." 

 " t Jj'rom the Sanscrit, Manddra.—H. T. C." 

 I The reader wiii tiud farther notice of th^s plant in Spvingel's "Rei Herbari^s' 

 vol. "i. 25ii, 253 ; also in " Abu Hamfa abud Strap" cap. 5L> ; also in " Atpinus* 



" ^ In the Hortus Bengalensis, published by Dr. Carey, from Dr. lioxburgh's 

 M.S, Akaiid is given as the Hindi uaiue ot Aaciepias i/t(/antea," * 



