1003 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[June 15, 1872. 
examined.* The wood zone is composed of pitted 
vessels and pitted-wood fibre, closely resembling 
each other in all save size. The walls of these are 
very thin, and in cross section the wood zone has a 
somewhat reticulated appearance. The pitting of 
the wood cells and vessels is minute, in the vessels 
oval and transverse to their long axis. The 
wood cells taper slightly towards their ends. No 
cell contents beyond colouring matter. The layers 
of the cortical zone present the usual character¬ 
istics. The cells are more regular than is frequently 
the case, and are somewhat cubical in shape. The 
inner layers of cells are starch receptacula. The 
starch granules range in size from an exceedingly 
minute, sharp-edged polyliedric granule to a medium 
size (sometimes very large) roundish but flattened 
granule. They all give a black cross with polarized 
light, but great care and practice in the use of high 
powers with polarized light are necessary to enable 
it to be seen in the smaller granules. Adulteration 
doubtful. 
(To he continued.) 
SUPPLIES OF OPIUM AND SCAMMONY 
FROM TURKEY. 
BY P. L. SIMMONDS. 
Continued from page 987. 
Scammony. —From an elaborate and carefully pre¬ 
pared notice of the scammonies of the Turkish em¬ 
pire, submitted to the jury at the Paris Exhibition in 
.1867, I am able to furnish some interesting and va¬ 
luable data as to the characters and varieties of 
.scammony shown from different localities, and the 
.results of careful examinations and analyses made 
•of them by Dr. Della Sudda (Fayk Bey). I will 
first, however, give the official return of the imports 
of scammony into the United Kingdom during 
five years. 
Imports of Scammony from Turkey. 
1866 . . 
Quantity. 
9,886 lb. 
Value. 
.£15,479 
1867 . . 
9,341 
13,843 
1868 . . 
7,367 
9,403 
1869 . . 
5,827 
6,991 
1870 . . 
25,592 
30,761 
Scammony is the produce of many species of con¬ 
volvulus, which require no culture, growing spon¬ 
taneously on the mountains and slopes of hills in 
nearly all the districts of Asia Minor. They prefer 
.a dry and stony soil, springing among the brambles 
and thickets, up which they twine. By the com¬ 
mencement of April the young shoots appear, and in 
May and June the plants are in their full vigour. 
July is the favourable time for collecting the juice, 
which is obtained from the roots, the stems being 
rejected as useless and inert. 
The roots are cylindrical, sometimes twisted round 
themselves like cords. The cortical plant is rugous, 
lightish red or ashy grey, adherent. The in¬ 
terior is compact, whitish, studded with concrete 
small drops of a light yellow colour, and riddled 
with round pores visible to the naked eye. In the 
* It is worth while to mention that the upper portion of 
roots frequently have both medulla and medullary rays 
when these are absent in the lower portions of the root. 
When, therefore, I speak of the absence of medulla, I refer to 
the root, excluding its uppermost portion. 
month of July the natives, furnished with spades, 
knives, mussel-shells and other receptacles, proceed 
to the mountains or localities favourable for their 
search. Arrived at a suitable locality, they commence 
with the spade to free the roots of all substances 
which surround them, brushwood, earth, stones, etc. 
to a depth of about three or four inches. When 
this is done, they cut the large roots at their junc¬ 
tion with the stem of the plant, and hollow it out so 
that the milky juice ascends and concretes in this 
receptacle, and is easily collected into the shells. 
In the smaller roots and in other places incisions 
are made, to allow the sap to exude and drop into 
the mussel-sliell, where it coagulates. Formerly it 
used to be dried and retained in these shells, and 
was called scammony “ de premiere rjoutte and 
this kind is even now occasionally met with in com¬ 
merce, but it has fallen into disuse, and the shells 
are only used as first recipients of the juice. 
What is known as scammony of the second drop 
is obtained by expression, which is carried on in the 
following manner:—The entire roots are taken up, 
cut into pieces and pounded, so as to obtain the 
juice easily. This when solidified, shaped into 
lumps and divided into irregular pieces, constitutes 
the principal part of the scammony of commerce. 
This process is becoming more general, and would 
not be objectionable if care were taken to remove 
the vegetable substances before solidification, and 
the fraudulent practice of adding flour or other 
adulterants, under the pretext of rendering it more 
pure and merchantable in appearance, were omitted. 
Authors differ much in their classification of scam¬ 
monies and the names given; some would distinguish 
them by the place of origin, some by the variety of 
plant from which they are obtained, while others 
would range them according to the characters and 
physical properties which they possess. Each give 
such good reasons for justifying their opinions, that 
it is difficult to know which to follow. But the 
Director of the Central Civil and Military Pharmacy, 
Constantinople, who has had large and favourable 
experience for studying the subject, tells us that he 
has seen the same convolvulus furnish at Aleppo (a 
locality much vaunted) a scammony inferior to. that 
of Pdiodes, of Mount Lebanon and of Amassiah ; 
that he has had under his hands scammonies of the 
same colour, the same appearance, presenting in a 
word identical physical characters, the one occupying 
the top and the other the base of the scale as regards 
the proportion of resin. In conclusion it may prove 
valuable to give a digest of his analyses of eighteen 
varieties of scammony and some few roots from 
different localities. 
1. Rhodes.—This scammony was in the form of a 
flat cake, very friable, with a brown and vitreous 
fracture, studded here and there with grey spots, 
whitens with the saliva, gives neither to the taste 
nor after taste any bitterness, burns at the lamp 
with flame, and continues to burn some time when 
removed, if not extinguished. Resin 7695 per cent. 
Residue starch and silica. 
2. Kianguiri.—Scammony in small, irregular frag¬ 
ments, of a deep brown, fracture conclioidal, does 
not blanch with the saliva, burns without flame at 
the light with a slight sputtering. Resin 70T5. 
Residue, starch and silica. 
3. Aleppo.—Scammony in fragments, rather large, 
of a greyish appearance on the exterior and a mixed 
brownish-grey in the interior, wliitens with the saliva, 
