BAl’TISIA TINCT011IA. 
9,1 K 
Dr. Thacher speaks highly of its efficacy as an external application in obstinate 
and painful ulcers.”* The author of a notice of this drug in the ‘ Lancet,’f 
says, “The primary action of a full dose is emetic or purgative, but in smaller 
doses is stimulant; and its special property is antiseptic, producing, it is said, a 
striking change in the type of fevers, relieving the symptoms designated perni¬ 
cious or malignant in scarlatina, typhus, and other fevers, inflammations and 
ulcerations of the mouth and throat. It is applied externally at the same time 
to foul ulcers and sloughing or gangrenous sores, and as an injection in fetid dis¬ 
charges from the mucous passages; in short, in all cases where there is a ten¬ 
dency to putrescence.” Mr. IS medley states,!: that he was induced to under¬ 
take the chemical examination of this substance, inconsequence of interrogations 
from an old country gentleman, who had for many years been in the habit of 
administering it both to his own family and neighbours in the form of a strong- 
decoction, as a most effectual cure in the early stages of dysentery. Tilden 
says,§ “ Internally it acts powerfully on the glandular and nervous systems, in¬ 
creasing all the glandular secretions, and arousing the liver especially to a nor¬ 
mal action.” 
Dr. Grover Coe,|| speaking of Baptism, the reputed Eclectic active principle, 
a resinous matter obtained from Baptisia tinctoria in a similar manner to 
that already described by us when writing upon Podophyllum and other of the 
.Mew American Pernedies,^F says that it possesses “ alterative, emetic, laxative, 
stimulant, emmenagogue, tonic, and antiseptic properties ; and that it may be 
employed in amenorriioea and defective menstruation, erysipelas, hepatic disor¬ 
ders, whenever an alterative is indicated, and in scarlatina and typhoid fevers, 
and in all diseases that have a putrescent tendency.” The above extracts will 
serve to call the attention of English practitioners to those diseases in which this 
drug has been more particularly administered or externally applied. Mr. Smed- 
ley* * § ** says, “The active properties of the root X.suppose to exist in the crystal- 
lizable principle,ft and those ascribed by the Eclectics to the resin are mainly 
owing to its containing a very small portion of this principle in combination.” 
Until this principle be isolated however, and its effects specially investigated, we 
can know nothing of a positive character about its action on the animal system. 
Administration, Preparations, and Doses.— Wild Indigo has been used 
both as an external application and for internal administration, principally in 
the forms of a decoction and the so-called concentrated preparation termed 
Baptism. 
T he mode of preparing the latter we have already alluded to above, but as now 
imported and used, it is a very uncertain and indefinite preparation. Smedley, 
in the paper already noticed by us, states that he obtained a yellowish resin by 
making a concentrated tincture of Wild Indigo with strong alcohol, and then add¬ 
ing to it a large quantity of water. In this manner of operating he obtained 
two drachms and two scruples of resin from two pounds of the so-called root. 
He adds “four grains of the resin, which by the Eclectics is styled baptism, were 
taken by myself, attendant with no other effect than occasioning much nausea.” 
The following formula may be used for preparing the decoction :—Decoction 
of Baptisia tinctoria, or Wild Indigo .—Take of Wild Indigo rhizome and 
* ‘United States Dispensatory/ lltk edit. p. 1374. f ‘Lancet/ vol. i. p. 190, 1863, 
T Amer. Journ. Piiarm. vol. x. 3rd ser. p. 312. 
§ ‘ Chemist and Druggist/ vol. iv. p. 191. 
|| ‘ Concentrated Organic Medicines/ p. 220. 
See papers by the author, on Aetna racemosa, Pharm. Journ. vol. ii. 2nd ser. p. 462; 
and on Podophyllum peltatum, vol. iii. p. 461. 
Amer. Journ. Pharm. vol. x. 3rd ser. p. 312. 
ff See ‘ Chemical Characteristics/ pp. 213, 214. 
