PURGATIVE ACTION OF CERTAIN EUPHORBIACEOIJS SEEDS. 555 
of the West Indies. Our knowledge of the properties of its seeds is compara¬ 
tively small; still we know sufficient to warrant the assertion that they possess 
irritant properties, very analogous to the foregoing. Mr. A. Robinson,, of 
.Jamaica, we are informed by Lunan (Ilort. Jamaic. vol. ii. p. 139), after eating 
a single fresh seed, became, in the space of five or six minutes, very, sick, and 
was purged, and vomited violently. When chewed, they cause, according to the 
same authority, great heat in the mouth and fauces. A circumstance which 
appears to modify their action is the length of time they have been collected. 
When old and dry, they lose the greater part, if not the whole of their acridity ; 
and Dr. Hamilton (Pharm. Journ. vol. ix. p. 13) informs us that in this state 
he has eaten several of them with perfect impunity. Another circumstance 
which modifies their action will be mentioned hereafter. They yield by expres¬ 
sion a purgative oil, but we know little of it beyond the fact. 
Coming to the milder Euphorbiaceous purgative seeds, we will notice first 
those of Anda Gomesii , Juss., a tree of Brazil. From time immemorial they 
have enjoyed a high repute amongst the Brazilians as a purgative. Piso (Hist. 
Nat. Bras., ed. 1648, p. 110) speaks of two seeds being the.proper, dose for 
an adult; but Martius (Mat. Med. Bras. p. 83) states that one is sufficient. By 
expression they yield a clear pale yellow oil, nearly destitute of odour and taste, 
with which Dr. Norris made some trials in the Pennsylvanian Plospital, and found 
that in doses of 50 drops it acted moderately on the bowels (Amer. Cyc. of 
Pract. Med. 1834, vol. i. p. 470). Subsequent trials with it in England by 
Mr. Ure (Pharm. Journ., vol. ix. p. 9) confirmed Dr. Norris’s statements as to 
its safety and efficacy ; but he found it rarely necessary to carry the dose beyond 
20 drops. Commenting on the cases in which he employed it, he remarks that 
it offered nothing unpleasant to the taste, produced none of the heat in the 
throat which croton oil creates, and seldom occasioned nausea or griping. St. 
Hilaire (Plant. Usuel. de Bresil, t. 54-5), who furnishes excellent figures of the 
plant and fruit, cites a passage from a paper by Gomes (from whom the plant 
derives its specific name) with reference to these seeds, which, on the whole, is 
in accordance wdth the above statements; but, from having witnessed the inges¬ 
tion of two or three of these seeds followed by abdominal pain, etc., he draws.the 
conclusion that, to be employed with safety, they should be perfectly ripe, 
dry, and well bruised. With these precautions, he adds, they will be found a 
cn'ffA o ii rl *4 cypppi} Til P rPTYlPfi V 
We nowcome to the best-known and most valuable of the group, Ricinus 
communis , Linn., the Castor Oil Plant, which extends from Southern Europe 
throughout the tropical regions of the globe. . The purgative nature of the seeds 
and their expressed oil was known to Dioscorides, who flourished about 50 b.c. ; 
and from that time to the present, nearly 1900 years, castor, oil has maintained 
a high place in the ranks of officinal purgatives. The seeds in their crude state, 
especially when recently collected, possess considerable acridity, two or three of 
them being sufficient to induce purgation. Orfila quotes a passage from t Ser¬ 
gius, in which a single seed produced violent vomiting and purging; an r. . 
Taylor mentions the case of two sisters, who took each from two to four seeds, and 
suffered severely in the same way, whilst another sister, who swallowed as many 
as twenty seeds, died in five days with all the symptoms of malignant cholera. 
Climate,"however, appears materially to affect their activity; and Professor Chns- 
tison 0 On Poisons,’ p. 590) states that he has known a person eat, without any 
ill effects, several seeds ripened in the open air in the neighbourhood of t/tin- 
burgh. They been have occasionally employed medicinally. M. Mialhe ((mil. 
de Therap. xxv. p. 42) found an emulsion containing from 3 to 7\ grains of the 
seeds act as an agreeable and efficient aperient, its action being unattended with 
nausea or vomiting. Testimony to a similar effect is borne, by Dr Gazin C 1 • 
Med. Indig., p. 824). The water distilled from the seeds is stated by Mr. beat- 
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