502 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [December 24 , 1 S 7 U. 
Mix, and shake them occasionally until dissolved, 
and add more gun cotton if not thick enough. This, 
in fact, resolves itself into the formula published by 
the author in 1862.* 
Before considering the vesicating preparation fur¬ 
ther, it may not be uninteresting to give the solubi¬ 
lity of cantliaridine in different solvents, bearing in 
mind the fact that such results were obtained with 
the crystallized active principle, and that in the fly 
it may be, and probably is, considerably modified by 
the other ingredients. 
Action of Solvents upon Cantliaridine. 
Water.—Insoluble. 
Alcohol, Ethylic and Metliylic.f—Fairly soluble 
in hot fluids, very insoluble hi the cold. 
Acetic Ether.f—Soluble. 
Ether.f—Soluble in 34 parts. 
Chloroform.—Very soluble in the cold. (As stated 
by Proctor, seems the best solvent.) 
Bisulphide of Carbon.—Nearly insoluble. 
Volatile oils.—Mostly solvents. 
Castor and fixed oils.—Very soluble. 
Fatty matter of the Fly.—Very soluble. 
Sulphuric Acid.f—Soluble. Reprecipitated by 
water. 
Glacial Acetic Acid.—Slowly dissolved in the cold, 
very soluble in warm acid. A saturated solution in 
glacial acid is reprecipitated by water. 
Acetic Acid P044.—Scarcely soluble. Dissolves 
by prolonged boiling and crystallizes out on cooling. 
Weak Soda, or Potash Solutions.—Nearly inso¬ 
luble. 
Strong Potash, or Soda.—Dissolves easily on 
warming and is not precipitated on diluting, but is 
precipitated on the addition of acids. 
Ammonia.—It is stated in Watts’s ‘ Dictionary,’ 
vol. i. p. 736, that “ ammonia has no action upon 
cantliaridine.” This statement is incorrect. Weak 
ammonia has no action upon it, but very strong 
liquor ammonia} dissolves it easily after some time, 
particularly if it is warmed, without a loss of the 
ammonia. 
The two last paragraphs might be made available 
for the concoction of good formula}, whilst the reac¬ 
tions observed with the acetic acids bear upon the 
preparations we have been discussing. 
KALI-KUTKI. 
(Picrorhiza Iturroa ). 
BY M. C. COOKE, M.A. 
For a very long time the Kali-kutki of Northern 
India was believed to be the black Hellebore, and 
under that name it has been quoted, over and over 
again, by one author after another, until it came to 
be accepted as fact. It is some years since we first 
became acquainted with this drug, and from that 
period have always maintained that it could not be 
the root of black Hellebore. It is probable that the 
error was originated by Ainslie, since he makes the 
statement in his ‘ Materia Medica ; ’ but upon what 
evidence the assertion was first made it is scarcely 
* Vide Pharmaceutical Journal, 2nd ser., Vol. Ill 
p. 506. 
f Tlie reactions are taken from these published observations 
of others, and not from the author’s experience. 
possible now to determine. Enough for us that Kali- 
kutki is not the root of black Hellebore. 
The authors of the Indian Pharmacopoeia seem to 
have been of opinion that there were two distinct 
drugs known in India, the Kootki of Northern India, 
and the Kali-kutki of the bazaars of the South. In 
the Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia of India, Mr. 
Moodeen Sheriff has disposed of this opinion in a 
few words, for he states that “the root sold in the 
bazaars of Calcutta, Hyderabad and Bombay, under 
the name of Kutki is identical with the Kali-kutki 
and Katuku-rogani, or “ Kada-groganie ” of Southern 
India. If the quantity is large, it varies much in 
size and appearance in each specimen, but the essen¬ 
tial characters are invariably the same.” 
The Kootki of the Indian Pharmacopoeia was there 
referred to Picrorhiza Tturroa of Royle ;* and tins is 
confirmed in the Supplement by Mr. M. Sheriff, who 
affirms his belief that it is correctly assigned. There 
is no doubt that this determination may be relied 
upon as accurate. 
The description which is given of the Picrorhiza 
iturroa }'is as follows:—(Nat. Ord. Scrophulariacea.) 
Root tliick. Stem very short. Leaves sub-radical 
oblong, serrato-crenate, narrowed at the base into 
the short petiole, slightly rugose, smooth, or with a 
few scattered hairs. Peduncles scapiform, many- 
flowered, aphyllous, or with a few small bracts* 
Flowers sessile, in a dense spike, bracts lanceolate. 
Calyces with a glandular pubescence 2-2 £ lines 
long, segments lanceolate, acute, subequal. Corolla 
shorter than the calyx, four-cleft to the middle. 
Stamens three times the length of the corolla. Cap¬ 
sules six lines long, acuminate, acute. Testa of the 
seed twice as long as the seed itself. 
To this description we may add that portions of 
dried plants from time to time, picked out from 
samples of the Kutki, corresponded in the following 
particulars, although neither flower nor fruit has 
yet been found under those circumstances :—“ Stem 
from 2 to 4 inches long; about the thickness of a 
large goose-quill; curved or bent; rough from many 
thin circular or semicircular scales ; reddish-brown 
externally and black internally; very bitter in taste, 
occasionally divided into two stems ; generally ter¬ 
minates in 2 or 3 small branches, which are seldom 
longer than an inch ; soft and swollen when soaked, ! 
wliich indicates its fleshy condition when fresh; 
leaves when moistened and opened, are obovatewith 
a very long, narrow and tapering base, which looks 
in the dry state like a petiole, sessile, serrate, an- 
guli-nerved and glabrous.”! There can be no 
doubt of the identity, though this evidence is rather 
circumstantial and incomplete. 
The native names which are given for this drug 
are as follows:—Kliarbage hindi, Arabic and Per¬ 
sian; Kutki, Hindustani and Bengali; Kali-kutki, , 
Duklini ; Katuku-rogana, Tamil; Katuka-rogani 
and Katuku-roni, Telugu; Katu-roliani, Sanskrit; 
and Kalu-rana, Cinglialese. Of course, the Kadaga- 
roganie of the Pharmacopoeia is only another mode 
of writing the Katuku-rogana of the Tamils. 
This drug, as we have usually seen it, was very 
much broken up, so that it consisted of fragments 
from an inch to two or three inches in length. Its 
* Royle’s £ Illustrations of the Botany of the Himalayas,’ 
p. 291, plate Ixxi. 
f ‘Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia of India’ (1869), 
p. 279. 
