642 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [February 15, 1873. 
air, vibration, etc.; tlie poisonous particles may thus 
be received into the lungs; and although the quan¬ 
tity breathed at any one time may be small, it is 
certainly not advisable that merely for the sake of a 
green colour, persons should be exposed to breathe, 
day by day, arsenic in any proportion.” I must 
apologise for the want of originality in this com¬ 
munication, but as it is a subject of some importance 
I have been induced to forward it for publication. 
STRIATED IPECACUANHAS.* 
BY M. PLANCHOX. 
(Concluded from page 523.) 
The synonymy of the two kinds of striated ipeca¬ 
cuanha described in the former part of this paper is 
difficult to clear up, in consequence of the manner in 
which authors have confused the two species. But 
a consideration of the characters previously indicated 
has enabled me to do so pretty clearly. 
The first author whom I have found clearly re¬ 
ferring to a striated ipecacuanha is Lemery, who 
describes the third of his four species of ipecacuanha 
as “ espece grise cendree glycyrrliizee.”f Now this 
sort, according to the characters attributed to it 
(larger dimensions than those of the official species, 
and a sweetish taste recalling that of liquorice) can 
only answer to my “ major” striated ipecacuanha. 
It is the same sort as Mutis had sent to Europe as 
identical with “ Brazilian” ipecacuanha, and of which 
he had sent the mother plant to Linnseus. At the 
end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of 
the nineteenth this sort was to be met with rather 
frequently in collections of drugs if not in pharmacies. 
It is clearly the root of the Psychotria emetica which 
Richard describes in his inaugural thesisj under 
the name of striated ipecacuanha; whilst Herat and 
De Lens,§ and more lately Guibourt,|| confound it 
under the same name with the minor striated ipecacu¬ 
anha. 
This kind has occurred in commerce from time to 
time, but in the present day it has little chance of 
entering a pharmacy. Mr. Hanbury has sent me a 
specimen that was offered to the Pliarmacie Centrale 
in Paris in 1858 under the name of Ipecacuanha of 
St. Martha. M. Vogl has described it in a memoir 
under the name of Ipecacuanha glycyphltca* # and 
states that it was sent into the market of Bremen as 
Carthagena Ipecacuanha. Some fragments, which 
I owe to the kindness of Mr. Hanbury, came from 
some packages sent from Bogota in 1870 and offered 
in the London market. It was from these packages 
the specimens were taken that were analysed by Pro- 
* ‘ Journal de Pliarmacie et de Chimie,’ vol. xvii. p. 19. 
f * * Dictionnaire des Drogues Simples’ (1759)/p. 459. 
J £ Histoire Naturelle des Diverses Especes d’lpecacuanha 
du Commerce’ (Theses de la Faculte de Medecine de Paris, 
1820). 
§ Diet, de Matiere M5dicale (1831), vol. iii. p. 643. 
|| Guibourt’s figures (Hist. Nat. des Drogues Simples, 6th 
edit. vol. iii. p, 94) agree in part (the two larger specimens) 
with the “major” striated ipecacuanha, and in part (the 
specimen placed between the other two) with the “minor.” 
** Yogi, loc. cit. The authors of the ‘ Jahresbericht der 
Pharmacognosie,’ etc., are wrong in referring this Ipecacu¬ 
anha glycyphlcea to Cephaelis. All its characters, exterior 
and anatomical, agree with those of my “ major” striated 
ipecacuanha. 
fessor Attfield,* and which he called “ elastic striated 
ipecacuanha.” Lastly it was a short time previously 
that M. Dorvault received at the Pliarmacie Centrale 
the “violet” ipecacuanha which attracted my atten¬ 
tion and which agrees as nearly as possible with the 
roots of Psychotria emetica. 
It appears difficult to say when the “minor” 
striated ipecacuanha first appeared in commerce. 
But it is clear that this was the kind analysed by 
Pelletier in 1820,f since that chemist noticed 70 per 
cent, of woody fibre, gum and starch, and we know 
that only the “minor” contains starch. Now this 
species existed in the drug cabinet of the father of 
Pelletier under the name of “ Ipecacuanha des Cotes 
d’Or (Minas de Oro),” and Pelletier adds that he also 
recognized it in a mercantile house which had re¬ 
ceived it from Peru, via Cadiz. Moreover, it must 
have been present at that time in most collections. 
It was this sort that M. Guibourt used principally 
for illustration at the School of Pharmacy, and it is 
the only sort which I have found named as striated 
ipecacuanha at the Pliarmacie Centrale des Hopi- 
taux. M. Vogl| saw it in the collection at Vienna 
described as Ipecacuanha striata sen nigra. Profes¬ 
sor Attfield found it in tlie Museum of the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society of Great Britain, and analysed it 
under the name of “brittle striated ipecacuanha.”§ 
Finally, it has recently been described in detail by 
Mr. Poaldington in a paper on the use of the micro¬ 
scope in pharmacy. || 
It is remarkable that this latter sort has hitherto 
been considered by most authors to be the produce 
of the Psychotria emetica, to the exclusion of the 
former. Pelletier first, then successively Vogl, 
Tlienot, C. Menier and Pocklington have referred it 
to that origin. Professor Balfour,** also, after de¬ 
scribing the Psychotria emetica , attributed to the 
root of that species the chemical composition given 
by Pelletier, which we have seen could only have 
agreed with that of the “minor” striated ipecacuanha. 
The more active properties of the “ minor” sort, its 
greater richness in emetine, and also the fact of its 
having been analysed by Pelletier, have brought it 
into greater prominence and caused it to be looked 
upon as the true type of striated ipecacuanha, and 
consequently the botanical origin generally attributed 
to striated ipecacuanha has been specially applied 
to it. In no other way can the general error into 
which authors have hitherto fallen be explained. 
To sum up, there exist two sorts of striated ipeca¬ 
cuanha, of which the following appears to be the 
synonymy:— 
1. “ Major” Striated Ipecacuanha. — Roots of 
Psychotria emetica, L.— Ipecacuanha gris cendre 
glycyrrihize, Lemery (Diet. Drog. Simp. p. 
459). Ipecacuanha strie, Richard (These Inaug.). 
Ipecacuanha strie (partim), Herat and De Lens 
(Diet. Mat. Med. vol. iii. p. 043); Guibourt (Drog. 
Simp. 6th edit. vol. iii. p. 94). Ipecacuanha glycy¬ 
phlcea, Vogl (Zeits. d. CEstr. Apot.). Ipecacuanha 
strie, G. Durand (These, 19). Elastic Striated Ipeca¬ 
cuanha, Attfield (Pliarm. Journ. [2] vol. XI. p. 141). 
* Pharm. Journ. [2] vol. XI. p. 141. 
+ Journ. Pharm. et de Chim. vol. vi. p. 261. 
I ‘ Jahresberichte d. Pharmacognosie,’ 1867, p. 64. 
§ Pharm. Journ. [2] vol. XI. p. 141. 
|| “ The Microscope in Pharmacy” (Pharm/Journ. [3] vol. 
II. p. 921). 
** “ Remarks on Plants furnishing Varieties of Ipecacu¬ 
anha” (Pharm. Journ. [3J vol. II. p.970). 
