Nat. order. — liliacete. 
149 
to depend on the external color of the bulb, for when cut into, they are 
all of a whitish color internally, and may be used indiscriminately ; 
still the red rooted variety is by some supposed to be more efficacious 
than the white, and is therefore generally preferred for medicinal use ; 
it is to the taste very nauseous, intensely bitter, and acrimonious, but 
without any smell. Water, wine, proof spirit, and rectified spirit, ex- 
tract the virtues both of the fresh and the dry root. Nothing rises in 
distillation with any of these menstrua, the entire bitterness and pun- 
gency of the Squill remaining concentrated in the inspissated extracts ; 
the spirituous extract is in smaller quantity than the watery, and of a 
proportionably stronger, almost fiery taste. 
Alkalines considerably abate both the bitterness and acrimony of 
the Squill ; vegetable acids make little alterations in either, though the 
admixture of the acid taste renders that of the Squill more supportable. 
These acids extract its virtues equally with watery or spirituous men- 
strua. 
Medical Properties and Uses. The root of the Squill, which ap- 
pears to have been known as a medicine in the early ages of Greece, 
and has so well maintained its character ever since, as to be deserved- 
ly in great estimation, and of very frequent use at this time, seems to 
manifest a poisonous quality to several animals. In proof of this, we 
have the testimony of many ancient as well as modern writers. Its 
acrimony is so great that even if much handled it inflames the skin, 
and if given in large doses, and frequently repeated, it not only excites 
nausea, vertigo, and violent vomitings, but it has been known to pro- 
duce strangury, bloody urine, hipercath arsis, cardialgia, convulsions, 
with fatal inflammation, and gangrene of the stomach and bowels. — 
But as many of the more active articles of the Materia Medica, by in- 
judicious administration, becomes equally deleterious, these effects of 
the Scilla do not derogate from its medicinal virtues ; on the contrary, 
we feel ourselves fully warranted in representing this drug, under pro- 
per management, and in certain cases and constitutions, to be a medi- 
cine of great practical utility, and real importance in the cure of many 
