496 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
Wednesday , March 7th, 1866. 
MR. THOMAS HYDE HILLS, VICE-PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR. 
The following papers were read :— 
ON THE SEEDS OF PHARBITIS NIL, Choky. 
BY E. ,J. WARING, M.D., F.L.S., 
HER majesty’s INDIAN MEDICAL SERVICE. 
As some of the gentlemen present this evening may be aware, I have for 
several years, during a residence in India, directed much of my attention to 
the study of the medical plants and products of that country. In the course 
of my investigations, amidst much that is worthless and absurd, I have occa¬ 
sionally fallen in with drugs possessed of considerable activity, and worthy, in 
my opinion, of attention as therapeutic agents. 
It lias for a long period been a firm impression on my mind that some of 
these drugs might advantageously be introduced into practice, at any rate 
amongst medical men in the East,—some as efficient substitutes for European 
drugs, or rather of drugs imported from Europe ; whilst others, the larger 
number, might be had recourse to in cases of need, when from any cause the 
imported articles were not available. The advantages which it appears to me 
would accrue to the practitioner in India from the utilization of indigenous re¬ 
medies are threefold. 1. The cost of the drugs themselves would be compara¬ 
tively small, as it will be easily understood how much the price of an imported 
article is increased by the expenses attendant on freight, commission, Custom 
House duties, and so forth. 2 . The supply available would be more abundant 
and uniform 5 and b. I he drugs would for the most part be fresher and in 
better condition than articles can reasonably be expected to be after a long voy¬ 
age to India, and then for months or more subjected to the deteriorating 
influence of tropical heat. It was a train of reasoning analogous to the above, 
added to other reasons which it would be out of place" here to enter into, that 
led me, in the first instance, to propose the publication of a Pharmacopoeia of 
India which, I am happy to say, is now making good progress. 
It is to one of these indigenous Indian drugs I would this evening call the 
attention of the Society, viz. the seeds of Pharbitis Nil , Choisy, the Convolvulus 
Nil of Linnaeus, the Ijpomcea ccerulea of Roxburgh, the Hub-ul-neel of Arabian 
writers. 
Previous, however, to entering on the consideration of the properties and 
uses of this drug, I will offer a few general remarks on the Natural Order to 
which the plant yielding it belongs, viz. Convolxmlacece , as such a procedure 
will serve to illustrate and strengthen the position I take with reference to the 
drug itself. 
lirst, then, I would notice the fact that the prevailing or predominant cha¬ 
racteristic of medicinal plants belonging to this Natural Order, is the posses- 
sion of purgative properties, and all the drugs derived from it, as far as their 
medicinal properties have been ascertained with any degree of accuracv, are 
more or less purgative. De Candolle indeed has an Ipomcea emetica , a Mexican 
plant, which, from its specific name, may be supposed to be an emetic, but I can. 
find no account of it in any books to which I have access. Scammouy, the 
proc uce o C■ Scammonia, Linn., and Jalap, the produce of Exogonluni pur a a, 
-tJentham, may be taken as types of the purgatives derived from this Order. 
