COMrOSIT.E. 117 
supposed to be good for coughs, and at one time the colleges recognized under the 
name of Extractum Lactuat, a mere extract of the juice obtained by beating the 
lettuce-leaves with a little water and evaporating the expressed juice. This was of 
%. tv little potency. Another preparation existed in the Paris Codex made from tbe 
expressed juice of the stems alone; but Dr. Christison tells US, in his " Dispensatory," 
that all these preparations are tar inferior to the lactucarium of Coxe and Duncan, 
as improved by the processes of Dr. Young and Dr. Probart. This is an inspi tt( 1 
exudation, obtained by catting across the stem not long before the flowers be_;in to 
blow, scraping off the milky fluid that issues, cutting off a fresh slice as often as the 
surface ceases to yield juice, and allowing the collected produce to dry spontaneously. 
1 ft. Christison thinks that the London College was wi'ong in confining itself to the Garden 
Lettuce for the preparation of lactncarium, and states that Lacluca virosa yields this sub- 
stance in much larger quantity and of superior quality. We find, however, on referring 
to the British Pharmacopoeia lately published, that the preparation no longer exists as 
an authorized medicine in any form. The idea that the Wild Lettfice is more narcotic and 
rous in its qualities than the Garden Lettuce is without foundation, and the results 
ohtained by competent chemists confirm this statement ; the fact being that in the Wild 
Lettuce a much larger quantity of lactncarium exists than in the garden plant ; both, 
however, being identical in action. Lactucarium, as prepared from the Garden Lettuce, 
is commonly sold in roundish compact aud rather hard masses, -weighing several ounces, 
of a wood-brown colour, of a strong peculiar odonr, like that of opium, and of a 
disagreeable bitter somewhat acrid taste ; that of the Wild Lettuce is sold in pieces of 
a smaller size, rough and irregular, wood-brown in colour, with an ash-grey inflorescence, 
so friable as to be easily crushed between the finger and thumb ; reddish-brown in 
powder, and of a more acrid and bitter taste than the former kind. By the smell only 
it may be mistaken for opium. It is but little soluble in water, and after long boiling 
forms a brown turbid solution, which gives a green tint with sesquichloride of iron. 
It therefore contains no meconic acid. Dr. Taylor says that, on examining a good 
specimen, he found no traces of morphia. The investigations hitherto made in the 
actions and uses of lactucarium are not precise and satisfactory. It appears, however, 
to be a narcotic poison to the lower animals in moderate doses, for 10 or 20 grains are 
sufficient to cause sleep in dogs, and the watery solution of 20 or 30 grains occasions 
coma and death if injected into a vein. The effects of medicinal doses on man have 
been variously reported. Coxe thought it a stimulant of the circulation ; Francois, 
on the contrary, found it to retard and weaken the pulse, and to lessen animal heat, 
ntou observed it to occasion placid sleep or calm rest, without influencing any 
. function but those of external relation, or causing any disagreeable subsequent 
effect ; and Ganzel witnessed the same results from doses varying between 10 and GO 
is. Dr. Christison considers it applicable in special diseases whenever a calmative 
yne or hypnotic is desired, aud in some cases pi'eferable to opium. The high 
price of the drug, and its very uncertain quality, may have been the reasons which 
produced its erasiire from the list of medicines in the late Pharmacopoeia. The 
nts were acquainted with the effects and virtues of the Lettuce, which seems so 
been the dpiSa^ (thridax) of the Greek physicians. It is fabled that after the 
of Adonis, Venus, inconsolable, sought sweet oblivion by reclining on a bed of 
tuce, piobably a figurative allusion to its anodyne properties. 
'• And now let Lettuce with its healthful sleep 
Make haste." 
