— 114 — 
4. Group of Stomachics, Digestants, and Carminatives. 
Between taste- corrigents and stomachic tonics there exists no clearly 
defined limit. Thus, Tappeiner for example includes the preparations 
from the rind of the bitter orange among the corrigents, whilst I am in 
the habit of dealing with them among the stomachics. Apart from the 
aethereo-oleosa, only the amara play an equally large part in the group 
of stomachic remedies. Many drugs belonging to the latter, however, 
contain not only essential oils, but also at the same time bitter remedies; 
these are called aromatico -amara. If it is desired to put the words 
stomachics, digestants, and carminatives into English, they should be 
translated as remedies which in some respect or other are useful for 
the gastro-intestinal canal with regard to the digestion. It is mostly a 
question of stimulating the appetite, increasing the gastro-intestinal 
secretion, and promoting the motions of the intestine. Even if we 
had no other indications for the aethereo-oleosa than those just mentioned, 
it would already be necessary, thanks to these, to work up yearly many 
tons of drugs, for the number of otherwise quite healthy persons who, 
partly from habit, partly from insufficient gastro-intestinal functions, take 
almost daily kitchen or chemist's preparations from bitter orange, worm- 
wood, ginger, calamus, cinnamon, caraway, aniseed, dill, parsley, 
coriander, etc. is quite enormous. It is scarcely necessary still to men- 
tion Schnaps, or liquors such as Boonekamp, Angostura bitter, Bene- 
dictine, Chartreuse, Curacao, etc., etc. Of course, all the essential oils 
contained in these are poisonous, unless only very small doses are 
taken. Thus we saw how recently in France before the Academy of 
Medicine, a very interesting debate^) took place on the toxic character 
of such liquors, when especially th ehabit of the Frenchmen of drinking 
absinthe was strongly attacked. According to Boudran, an adult person 
can only just tolerate the following quantities (in cc.) of essential oils, 
diluted: Oils of rosemary 56,7, fennel 33,3, peppermint 28,3, juniper 19,7, 
lemon 12,4, bitter almond 12,3, aniseed 10,0, caraway 9,5, wormwood 5,3, 
star-aniseed 4,9, cloves 3,3, cinnamon 3,3, and calamus 2,6. According 
to these figures, it would be necessary to caution even more strongly 
against the use of cdl^mu^'Schnaps than against absinthe. However, 
the method of examination employed by Boudran, according to which 
the action was deduced from the chemical behaviour towards potassium 
permanganate, is quite arbitrary, and in no way conclusive. For in- 
stance, in a case described by Benjamin 2), a person took for the 
purpose of suicide a dose of 150 grams oil of caraway, of which, 
according to Boudran, only 9,5 cc. are tolerated, and whose carvone 
^) Seance du 10 juin 1902. Compare Boudran, Bullet, des sc. pharmacol. 
1902, p. 236. — Syndicat central des Negociants en liqueurs et spiritueux de France 
et des Colonies. Reponse au Rapport du Dr. Laborde sur les liqueurs. 
^) Schmidts Jahrbiicher 278 (1903), 133. 
