516 
RESEARCHES ON ALOETINE. 
When thus transformed, I took it eight days after the first 
dose ; the purgative action was not long delayed, and it was 
arrested only when the digestive canal was completely 
evacuated. 
From all these facts, it results that aloetine is the chemical 
and crystallizable principle of the officinal juice of the aloes, 
that it does not possess the purgative property of aloes, and 
only recovers it when, by the action of the air or of heat, it 
has become amorphous and uncry stallizable. It occupies the 
same position as that which mannite does with regard to 
manna, and santonine to semen-contra, and it will also be 
the same with cathartine, the proximate principle of senna, 
when it has been properly isolated, for experiment has 
already taught us that a very long continued decoction of 
senna produces a liquor which is not so active as the simple 
infusion, having, however, exhausted the plant of all the parts 
soluble in water. 
The excessive bitterness of aloetine induced me to try its 
action in well- characterised intermittent fevers, and it seemed 
to me that it would be possible to increase its efficacy by 
associating it with a tonic, such as pulvis ferri (fer reduit). 
Five cases of intermittent fever are at present under treat- 
ment, and the first results obtained enable us to perceive the 
efficacy of the new febrifuge. The doses which have been 
given are from 10 to 20 centigrammes per day for children, 
and from 50 centigrammes to 3 grammes for adults. The 
compound powder contains 1 part of aloetine, and 2 parts of 
pulvis ferri. In all the patients the appetite was restored, 
and the fits diminished each time in intensity. As the cure 
is not complete, and as, in such cases, we cannot be too care- 
ful in drawing conclusions, I will now confine myself to 
taking date for this new febrifuge treatment, merely asking 
the Academy^s permission to communicate the result of my 
observations, when the season and circumstances enable me 
to apply this kind of experimentation on a scale of sufficient 
magnitude to prevent the possibility of doubt. 
In conclusion, it results from the facts contained in the 
present memoir that — 
In a therapeutical point of view — Aloetine, the proximate 
principle of officinal aloes, should not be regarded as a purga- 
tive, or, at least, as a very slow and doubtful one. 
The opaque variety of aloes with a waxy fracture, such as 
Barbadoes and hepatic aloes, are the best ; they purge effi- 
ciently, and without causing those intestinal pains which 
always accompany the administration of vitrous and trans- 
parent aloes, such as Socotrine aloes, Cape aloes, &c. 
