RHAMNUS CATHARTICUS. 
129 
when ripe, containing four seeds, which are smooth, elliptical, flat 
on one side, and convex on the other. 
This species of buckthorn has derived its specific name from its 
cathartic quality, the fruit in doses of about twenty of the berries 
proves briskly purgative ; the inner bark is also a strong cathartic, 
and excites vomiting. It is said that the flesh of those birds which 
feed upon these berries is purgative.* 
Sensible and Chemical Properties. The odour of these 
berries is faint, and somewhat unpleasant ; and the taste bitter, 
nauseous and acrid ; they are very succulent, and the juice (before 
they are quite ripe) of a deep green, gradually becoming purple as 
they become thoroughly ripe. The watery infusion is purplish, with 
the smell and taste of the fruit ; sulphuric acid changes its colour to 
red ; nitric acid to a very deep red ; alum water to violet ; liquor 
potass to iron grey ; and sulphate of iron to black. The expressed 
juice is called by the French, Verd de Vessie, or sap green, which is 
prepared by adding a little lime water or alum, and gum arable, 
during the evaporation. 
Medical Properties and Uses. Buckthorn berries have 
been long received into the Materia Medica of the British colleges, 
but is seldom used in practice although it is in common use as a 
domestic medicine ; and given in the form of the Syrupus Rhamni 
of the Loudon and Edinburgh colleges, is a popular cathartic for 
children, especially among the poorer classes. Its disuse with the 
profession probably arises from its purgative effects, being generally 
accompanied with considerable thirst, dryness of the mouth and 
throat, and not unfrequently with severe griping. The berries in 
substance, and the expressed juice, were formerly much used as a 
hydragogue ;t the former in doses of twenty of the recent, or double 
that number of the dried, generally proves powerfully cathartic ; the 
expressed juice in doses of one fluid ounce produces similar effects. 
Off. The Berries. 
Off. Pp. Syrupus Rhamni, L. E. 
* Homberg, Mem. de I'Aoad. dis. Sc. de Paris, 1712, p. 9. 
t Boerhaaye, De virib. Med. p. 308. 
VOL. II. 
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