312 
MYRRH. 
saline substances. The watery infusion is of a reddish colour, cloudy, 
with the odour and flavour of the drug ; its colour is not altered by 
sulphate of iron, but a precipitate falls. The powdered berries 
should be kept in close stopped bottles, as it quickly looses its active 
properties if exposed to the atmosphere. 
Medical Properties and Uses. Cubebs are diuretic and 
aperient, and are used by the Indian practitioners as a grateful 
stomachic and carminative ; * we are told the Arabs also use them 
in seasoning their food, f They have been chiefly used in this 
country for the cure of gonorrhoea, in which they moderate the in- 
flammation and discharge, and in the majority of cases cut short the 
disease in a shorter time than any medicine we know of. We are 
told by Mr. JefiVey, that even when they fail, he found the symptoms 
afterwards yield readily to the balsam of copaiva. Cubebs have 
also been given with success m leucorrhoea, and in cases of inflam- 
mation of the mucous membrane of the intestinal canal. 
In some constitutions they are apt to nauseate, and also to increase 
the action of the arterial system, and to excite head-ache and giddi- 
ness. Cubebs are generally administered in the form of powder, in 
doses of from one scruple to one or two drachms, three or four times 
a day ; they may also be given in the form of tincture, prepared by 
digesting three ounces of the bruised seed in one pint of rectified 
spirit ; of which tincture one tea-spoonful may be taken in any con- 
venient vehicle three times a day. 
Ofi". Cubebs. 
MYRRH. 
This substance is the product of a non-descript tree ; and, as Dr. 
Ainslie very justly observes, ** it is a reproach to the science of me- 
dicine, that a tree which produces this gum resin, has not yet been 
satisfactorily ascertained more especially when we reflect that this 
substance has been used, both as a perfume and medicine, for up- 
* Ainslie' s Materia lodica, to], i. p. 98. 
t Martyn's Gard. Diet. Art. Piper. 
