632 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
*Ortie Blanche, Lamiuni album Linn. ; Labiees. The flower. The white 
dead-nettle is considered of sufficient importance to carry the asterisk, while 
pareira brava, with us considered rather an important article, is not. The 
student will observe that the Codex follows Auguste St. Ililnire, and assigns its 
(pareira brava) botanical name as Cocculus platypJiyllus or Albuta rufescens after 
Aublet. The P. B. Cissampelos Pareira Linn. 
^Patience Sauvage, Rumex acutus Linn.; Polygonacees. The root. Dock- 
root was formerly used as a remedy for itch, in the form of ointment, or made 
into a wash by boiling; in France it is considered depurative and antiscorbutic. 
*Pensee Sauvage. The flowering plant of the pansy, or heartsease, is also 
considered valuable in cutaneous disorders. 
PissenlitouDent-de-lion, Taraxacum JDens-leonis Desfontaines; Synantherees- 
chicoracees. The root and leaf. Taraxacum does not appear to be thought so 
much of in France as a remedy as with ourselves. There is but one preparation 
of it in the Codex, and that is an extract from the juice of the leaves,—the root, 
from which our preparations are made, being disregarded in reality; possibly this 
arises from the fact that the fresh leaves of dandelion are eaten as freely in 
salads as the garden endive with us. 
*QuinquinagrisIluanuco, Grey Bark oi the English, Cinchona micranthaB.V. 
^Quinquina Calisaya, Royal Yellow Bark, Cinchona Calisaya Weddell. 
^Quinquina Rouge, Red Bark. These three kinds of cinchona are required 
by the Codex to be kept. There are copious remarks attached to each, with 
descriptions, but this is a field of itself which I must leave each to explore for 
himself. This month’s ‘ Pharmaceutical Journal ’ contains some interesting 
information upon the bark remitted from India. 
^Reglisse, Glycyrrhiza glabra L.; Legumineuses-papilionacees. The root. 
Liquorice is much esteemed in France, and there are several preparations of it; 
sometimes the root or subterranean stem is used, and sometimes the commercial 
Italian or Spanish juice purified. For my own part, no extract of liquorice 
equals that prepared'from fresh English root. 
*Salsepareille du Mexique, and Salsepareille de Honduras, answering to our 
Jamaica and Honduras sarsaprillas, are the only kinds recognized in the Codex. 
The root is to be deprived of stumps or chumps. It seems to be a favourite 
medicine, as there are several preparations, 
^Scammonee d’Alep. Gum-resin obtained by incisions made in the root of 
Convolvulus Scammonia L.; Convolvulacees. 
Pi,emark. —Good scammony is grey externally, light, friable, with a charac¬ 
teristic and not disagreeable odour, making a bright fracture: in contact with 
water it is white, contains from 75 to 80 per cent, of resin, burns with flame in 
contact with a lighted candle, should not contain starch, and should not leave 
more than 7 or 8 per cent, of ash after burning. The cheesy odour and flavour 
mentioned in the P. B., and indeed by writers generally, is omitted ; possibly it 
is too mild to be observable. Assuredly it does not come out very strong by the 
side of Gruyere and some other cheese met with in France. 
^The. Thea Chinensis Sims ; famille des Ternstroemiacees. The leaf. 
Remark. —Two principal kinds of tea are met with in commerce, black and 
green. There are many varieties, but they depend for their peculiar qualities 
more upon the mode of preparation than upon any difference in the plant. The 
small canister upon the table contains a sample of one of these peculiar kinds ; it 
has a perfumed flavour, and a very small quantity added to ordinary tea is 
sufficient to flavour most deliciously the contents of a large teapot, I received 
it from a friend coming from China ; it is wrapped in paper, covered with what 
appear to be Chinese letters, but I am no adept in that language. 
^Vanille, Vanilla saliva Schiede ; Orchidees. The fruit. I could not pass 
this favourite flavouring without a word of recognition. The Mexican is 
