/ 
ON 3IOCHA OK BOMBAY ALOES. 1 19 
drug may occasionally call for an adjunct—the combination of purga¬ 
tives having been, in my humble opinion, too much neglected— 
yet there is none so safe and so certain in its operation as this. 
The kinds to be used have divided the opinions of veterinarians. 
At one period the Socotrine extract was alone advocated; then fol¬ 
lowed the Barbadoes, and next came the Cape. The first of these 
having ceased to be met with in the market, although other ex¬ 
tracts were substituted for it by the designing, necessity com¬ 
pelled the employment of one of the other two. Analysis at once 
pointed out which should be chosen; but from the frequent scarcity 
of the Barbadoes extract, and the high price it was in consequence 
sold at, attention was directed to that obtained from the Cape of Good 
Hope, where the same plant abounds as that which yields the So¬ 
cotrine. This, although containing less of the active principle, was 
found, if the dose was duly apportioned and the horse properly pre¬ 
pared, to effect all the desired purpose, unaccompanied by any drastic 
effects, and, therefore, it required no corrective to be conjoined with 
it. Hence the Cape extract has been employed during many years 
at the Royal Veterinary College, and in the army. In private 
practice, from the almost impossibility of previously preparing the 
animal, and the want of subsequent attention, this extract has not 
been generally preferred, although I am acquainted with many who 
use it. My opinions on this subject are elsewhere recorded, and, 
therefore, I proceed to observe, that lately my attention has been 
directed, by Messrs. Mayer, jun. and Snewing, to another kind of 
aloetic extract, which they have employed with decided success 
in their practice, and which I have since ascertained has been 
tried by others; but as no one, that I am aware of, has ventured 
to give publicity to it, I will do so. At the same time I would 
cordially thank those gentlemen for having communicated to me the 
result of their experiments; and if I am correct in what I am now 
about to adduce, and the same effects should be obtained by others 
as by me, the thanks of the united profession will be due to them. 
Would that there were a more ready communication between the 
members of the profession—an interchange of sentiments, and of 
practice ! for by it all would be sure to be benefitted. 
The extract of which I am now about to speak, is called in the 
market the Mocha or Bombay aloes. Its finer samples have been 
long sold by druggists as the Socotrine, and f doubt not that they 
are quite as good; being made in the various islands in the Straits 
of Babelmandel, from the alot spicata, the same plant as that which 
grows at Zocotra, where much care was taken in the prepara¬ 
tion of the extract, and hence its estimation. 1 have before said 
that the genuine Socotrine aloes is no longer to be met with in the 
market. 
VOL. XIII. 
