276 
Facts and Observations. 
ON CHIRETTA. 
It will be remembered that not long since Mr. T. Hurford, 
V. S. 15th Light Dragoons, directed the attention of the 
members of the veterinary profession to the combination of 
gentian with aloes as a purgative for the horse. 
Although there is nothing new in the union of the vege- 
table bitters with this extract, yet we feel convinced that full 
justice has not been done to Mr. Hurford, inasmuch as, in 
this country at least, we have conjoined the pulverised root 
of the European gentian, and not the powder of the chiretta 
or chireata plant, which is as generally employed in India as a 
bitter, as gentian is in Europe. This has arisen from the fact 
that at one time the chiretta was called gentiana chirayta and 
classed among the gentians, from which it has been lately 
removed by Mr. Don. 
It is met with in a dried state, tied up in bundles. The 
plant being taken up while in flower ; the flow T ers and roots 
are attached to the stems, which are two or three feet long, 
slender, and of a brownish colour. Every part of the plant 
abounds in a bitter principle, but more especially the root, 
which is readily abstracted both by water and spirit. By 
evaporation, an extract may be obtained from the watery 
infusion. 
It is a tonic and stomachic, and has been thought to pro- 
mote the secretion of bile ; the faecal matter becoming more 
yellow under its use. In India it is very commonly used 
by the practitioner of human medicine, who attributes to it 
the effect of overcoming costiveness, and considers it of 
great value in dyspepsia, from its possessing laxative pro- 
perties. 
The stems of this plant were analysed by M. M. Lassaigne 
and Boissel, and found to contain : resin, yellow, bitter mat- 
ter, brown colouring matter, gum, malic acid, malate of 
potash, chloride potassium, sulphate of potash, phosphate of 
potash, phosphate of lime, silica, and traces of oxide of iron. 
Of these, the available principle is the bitter extractive. 
