ON SUMBUL OR JATAMANSI. 
223 
or five. The sciatic nerve, which, in some of the cases, was laid 
bare, was found to have lost all sensibility, but to retain its motive 
power. Not one of the dogs died. 
M. Flourens then tried the effect of injecting it into the arteries. 
He threw into the right crural artery of several dogs from 2 to 21.2 
grammes (say 40 grains to 400) of chlorinated hydrochloric 
ether. 
At the moment of injection the animal gave a cry of pain. 
There succeeded sudden paralysis of the posterior extremity ; the 
sciatic nerve, laid bare, still retained its sensibility, but had lost 
all motive power. Chlorinated hydrochloric ether has, therefore, 
whether inhaled or injected, the same action as chloroform. This, 
injected into the arteries, immediately produces paralysis of the 
muscles, with tetanic rigidity ; as also do the volatile oils of tur- 
pentine, mint, rosemary, fennel, &c. On the contrary, the ordinary 
ethers, the fixed oils, oil of olives, oil of naphtha, sulphuric acid, 
ammonia, and camphor, produce muscular paralysis, with relaxa- 
tion of the fibres. 
Moreover, these experiments appear to separate muscular from 
nervous action ; for, on the one hand, tetanic rigidity exhibits it- 
self even when the motivity of the nerve is not lost; and, on the 
contrary, muscular relaxation occurs while the motivity of the 
nerve remains. There is thus a visible independence in the action 
of the nerve, and that of the muscle. — Med. News and Library, 
Jan. 1858, and Institute, Feb. 8th, 1851. 
THE SUMBUL OR JATAMANSI. 
[The characters of sumbul or musk-root, as given in the following remarks, 
accord very well with a specimen of the root in the Cabinet of the Phila- 
delphia College of Pharmacy. — Editor.] 
The sumbul, of the character and therapeutic virtues of which 
French physicians know as yet very little, appears to have been 
employed in India from quite a remote period. Pietro Delia 
Valle, who travelled in 1623, 1624 and 1625, through different 
portions of Asia, mentions it, to say that the sumbul is a root and 
