PURGATIVE ACTION OE CERTAIN EUPHORBIACEOUS SEEDS. 
occurring in a labourer in the East India warehouses, recorded by Pereira (p. 
406), though there was great prostration of the vital powers, cold surface, col¬ 
lapse, in fact, with severe pain in the throat, head, and stomach, swelling and 
numbness of the tongue, dilated pupil, etc., yet there was no purging; and this is 
a very important fact to remember, in connection with the subject we are now 
considering. It is probable that the symptoms detailed arose from the action 
of a peculiar volatile principle, perhaps from crotonic acid, a principle discovered 
by Pelletier and Caventon, which, though inert according to Professor Red¬ 
wood, was found by Pereira to possess a strong nauseous odour, and to be very 
irritant to the eyes and nose. It is certain, we may remark en passant,, that 
the purgative action of the seed does not reside in this acid. 
It also appears certain that simple pressure, however powerful, fails to extract 
from the seeds the whole of the active principle, be that what it may ; as we find 
that it is the practice amongst the French pharmacologists to subject the resi¬ 
duum, after expression, to the action of alcohol, that the fluid so obtained pos¬ 
sesses active purgative properties, and that, after the alcohol has been removed 
by distillation, the remaining oil is added to that previously obtained by ex¬ 
pression. 
Before parting with these seeds, I may mention that when stationed in 
Burmah, I largely employed the prepared seeds as a purgative, and as such 
found them safe and effectual. For this purpose, the seeds, collected in the 
hospital yard, were boiled in milk (water would doubtless have done just as 
well), the cotyledons and investing shell were then carefully removed, and the 
seeds were then again twice successively boiled. To a drachm of the seeds thus 
prepared, were added two drachms of powdered catechu, and a few drops of oil 
of peppermint, and the mass so obtained was divided into two-grain pills. This 
is simply a modification of the process first advised by Dr. D. White in 1813 
(Ainslie, Mat. Med. of Hind. p. 292), and from the use of these pills, in some 
hundreds of cases, I can testify both to their safety and to their efficiency. Any 
excessive action, which however was rarely observed, was almost immediately 
checked by a draught of fresh lime-juice. My own trials with them were con¬ 
fined to natives (Burmese); but Dr. T. Marshall, Bombay Medical Service, em¬ 
ployed them on European soldiers, and he states that he found two pills (in each 
half a grain of the mass), given to a man of ordinary habit and undebilitated 
frame, produce a full purgation. He estimates this dose as equal in power to 
half a drachm of jalap (as it comes to India), or to six grains of calomel and an 
ounce of Epsom salts. 
Next in potency of action stand the seeds of the English Physic Nut, Curcas 
purgans , Adans., a common shrub in the tropical and warmer portions of both 
hemispheres. They are somewhat of the shape of croton seeds, but much larger, of 
a black colour, rough to the touch, and marked with minute cracks. That, in 
their crude state, they possess active acrid properties is evident from the follow¬ 
ing case, recorded by Dr. Marrett (Madras Med. Journ., July, 1861, p. 37), in 
which from fifteen to twenty of the seeds were swallowed. Within an hour 
and a half after ingestion, burning sensations in the throat and stomach com¬ 
menced, followed by profuse purging, vomiting, violent cramps of the extremi¬ 
ties, which subsequently extended to the muscles of the abdomen and back, and 
occasional twitchings of those of the back almost like those observed in tetanus. 
This was followed by deafness, and, although the patient seemed all the time 
to be quite sensible, he failed on recovery, which occurred after two days of in¬ 
tense suffering, to recall any of the events of his illness subsequent to the occur¬ 
rence of the purging, which was one of the earliest symptoms. Dr. G. Bennett 
(‘ Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia,’ p. 402) furnishes some interesting- 
information regarding the use of these seeds amongst the people of the Philip¬ 
pine Islands. His informant, a native doctor, described them as being an 
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