352 



Dr. Wallich on Cassia Lanceolata. 



[April 



If we may be allowed to pronounce an opinion after trying the effects 

 of the powder, and of the tincture, in 17 persons, this medicine is high- 

 ly deserving jf attention. The persons on whom the trials were made 

 were chiefly patients who were suffering from different degrees of debi- 

 lity, after the subsidence of acute diseases ; and one was a patient who 

 was of a scrofulous habit, and reduced to the lowest stage of debility, 

 by external suppuration of great extent. The effects of this medicine 

 as a bitter, and its influence in restoring appetite and increasing the di- 

 gestive powers, are very remarkable, and it may be said to possess all 

 the properties of our best bitter tonics. It has seldom appeared to have 

 the effect of constipating the bowels ; but in this and many other re- 

 spects, I consider further trials necessary to ascertain fully the medici- 

 nal properties of this drug.— Transactions of the Medical and Physical 

 Society of Calcutta, Vol. vm. Part 1. 



Calcutta, 5th June, 1835. 



Notes on Cassia Lanceolata, or the Plant which yields the true Senna 

 Leaves of the Calcutta Bazars — By N. Wallich, Esq., m. d. 



Cassia Lanceolata, Forskal, Flor. JEgypt. Arab. p. 85. — Lamarck, 

 Encycl. Bot. vol. 1. p. 646, t. 332, f. 3.— Colladon, Hist. Nat, et Med. 

 des Casses, p. 93, t. 15, f. C— De Candolle, Prodr. Syst. Nat. Regn. 

 Veg. vol. 2, p. 492.— Linnei Syst. Veg. cur. Sprengel, vol. 2. p. 339. — 

 Nees von Esenbeck and Ebermaier, Handb. der Med. Pharmac. Bot. 

 vol. 3. p. 205— Wallich, Cat. Herb. Ind. Or. n. 5318*. c. (in folio 204). 



Cassias species angustifolia et ligustrince prox. Herb. Madrasp. Wall, 

 loc. cit. a. — Cassia ligustrinoides, Herb. Wightian. Ibid b. 



Cassia acutifolia, De Lile in Descr. de L'Egypte, Hist. Nat. torn. 2. 

 Botanique, p. 219, f. 27, f. I. 



Senna officinalis, Gaertner de fruct. et semin. vol. 2, p. 312, t. 146. 



Cassia Senna, Roxburgh, Hort. Beng. p. 31.— Ainslie, Mat. Med. of 

 Hindoost. p. 43, (2d edition, vol. 1. p. 390 ; vol. ii. p. 249). 



Senna Leaves, Fleming, Cat. of Ind. Med. Plants and Drugs, in Asia- 

 tic Researches, vol. ii. p. 109. 



The above synonymy might easily have been enlarged to a much 

 greater extent, if my object had been to attempt a detailed history of 

 Senna, and of the two species of Cassia which are now known to pro- 

 duce that leaf. But I wish to limit these notes solely to an account of 

 the plant which yields the drug commonly sold in the bazars throughout 

 Hindustan, and more particularly those in Calcutta ; and with this 

 view I have confined myself to a quotation of such only, among the nu- 



* By mistake I wrote Forst. instead of Forsk, in this lithographic catalogue. 



