44 ON THE GUM OF THE RHUS METOPIUM, ETC. 
ART. VII. — ON THE GUM OF THE RHUS METOPIUM, AND ON 
THE ARISTOLOCHIA ODORATISSIMA, TRILOBATA, AND 
ANGUICIDA. 
By William Hamilton, M. B. 
The Rhus metopium is a small tree of some twenty-five 
feet in height, not unfrequent in the West Indies, and es- 
pecially in the forests of Jamaica, where the gum which 
exudes from its bark has been long known for its medicinal 
properties, although little employed by the regular prac- 
titioners. It is commonly known by the names of hog gum 
and hog-doctor tree, from an opinion which is generally 
entertained, and rests no doubt on observation, that the 
wild hogs, which abound in many parts of the island, cure 
themselves of any wounds which they may chance to have 
received, by rubbing themselves against the trees from 
which this gum exudes,* and thus smearing the excoriated 
part over with a coating of it. This circumstance, first 
observed no doubt by the negroes, naturally directed atten- 
tion to its vulnerary qualities, and led to its trial as a salve 
for healing sores. For this purpose it is boiled with the oil 
of the Ricinus communis, to which is occasionally added 
the expressed juice of some of the species of dolichos, known 
by the name of cat's claws (as the Dolichos filiformis,) 
when the object is to check the discharge from a running 
ulcer. 
The hog-gum first exudes from the wounded bark in the 
form of a pellucid juice of a yellowish-white colour, which 
becomes darker by exposure to the air, and gradually 
*For this purpose, taught by what in our ignorance we designate by the 
unmeaning appellation of instinct, the boars when they do not chance to meet 
with a tree already wounded and pouring forth its balsamic juice, rip up the bark 
with their tusks to obtain it. Is not this something closely bordering on 
reason 1 
