186 KRAMERIA TRIANDRA. 
differs from Kino, which becomes charrerl by heat, without produ- 
cing any change in its form. From the above experiments we may 
conclude, that the cortical part of the root contains resin, gum, 
fecula, some gallic acid, and tannin ; but Gmelin could not detect 
in it any gallic acid, and Peschier thinks it contains a peculiar acid, 
which he has called Krameric, and which forms crystallizable 
permanent salts with alkalies. The ashes of Ratany contain pure 
lime, carbonate of lime, carbonate of magnesia, sulphate of Hme, 
and silex. 
Medical Properties and Uses. Ratany root is powerfully 
astringent, tonic, and corroborant, and may be given with success in 
almost every case in which medicines of this class are indicated. In 
Peru it has been long and much esteemed as an efficacious remedy 
in dysentery, &c, Although this medicine is not in general use in 
this country, we are warranted in saying it is a valuable addition to 
our Materia Medica. We are told by Alibert, that it has been used 
with success in France in cases of leucorrhoea ; and Sir Henry Hal- 
ford has prescribed it with success in passive uterine haraorrhage. 
It has also been useful in the advanced stages of typhus fever, inter- 
mittents, diarrhoeas, chronic rheumatism, and in all diseases arising 
from a debilitated state of the digestive organs; and as a general 
tonic, it has been found in many cases equally beneficial, and more 
speedy in its effects, than the cinchona bark ; and also where the 
latter disagrees with the stomach, it will be found a valuable substi- 
tute. As a stiptic, it has been applied to wounds with good effects; 
it has also been employed as a detergent in ulceration of the gums, 
and for fixing the teeth, when they become loosened by the receding 
of the gums; and for this latter purpose, the tincture, diluted with 
an equal proportion of water, forms an admirable lotion ; or equal 
parts of Ratany root and powdered charcoal, used as a tooth pow- 
der, will be found equally efficacious. Ratany root may be given in 
substance, in doses of from ten to thirty grains, three or four times 
in the day. It may also be given in decoction, or infusion, or in the 
form of tincture or extract. The former is made by boiling two 
ounces of the bruised root in one pint of water ; of which from one 
to two ounces may be taken for a dose. The infusion is made by 
pouring eight ounces of boiling water upon half an ounce of the 
bruised root, and is taken in deses equal to the decoction. The tinc- 
ture, (which is the form it is generally exhibited in on the Continent) 
is prepared by digesting three ounces of the bruised Ratany root, 
two ounces of orange peel, half an ounce of serpentaria root, and 
one drachm of saffron, in two pints of rectified spirit of wine; 
