the use of the Colchicum autumnale in gout. 267 
He favoured me with the following explanation, which is 
highly satisfactory. “ There are certain vegetable bodies 
which, when infused in water, or diluted spirit, furnish a solu- 
tion which lets fall a sediment, in which their activity, as 
purgative medicines, chiefly resides ; this is remarkably the 
case with the wild cucumber or elaterium. The sediment is 
a very drastic- purge ; the part that remains dissolved is 
comparatively mild in its operation upon the bowels.” This 
explanation of Professor Brande applies to the Golchicum, 
and we are now enabled to separate the purgative qualities of 
the vinous infusion of Colchicum and Eau Medicinale, from 
those which prove a specific for the gout, in the simplest pos- 
sible manner, by keeping them in large bottles, instead of 
small ones, and not going too near the bottom. 
It also explains what is asserted by Prosper Alpinus,* 
that the Egyptian women eat the fresh bulbs, that they may 
grow fat; an effect which was found to take place in the dog, 
while the dose was confined within such limits as not to act 
too violently upon the bowels. 
The bulbs of the Egyptian Colchicum, when long kept, 
weigh one dram each ; on being steeped in water they double 
their weight ; so that the quantity of extractive matter con- 
tained in two or three recent bulbs, while combined with the 
mucilaginous matter, of which the bulbs are principally com- 
posed, is not likely to be sufficient to do more, than act as a 
brisk purgative, the occasional use of which tends to make- 
people grow fat. 
Since this Paper was read, the patient who is mentioned 
as having had the gout in January, has had another attack: 
* Hist. Nat. Egypt, pars. i. lib. 3. cap. 14. 
