570 
Cascara  Sagrada. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Kov.,  1887. 
management,  and  not  very  liable  to  lose  their  effects  by  continuous 
use.  And  a  prominent  advantage  in  their  use  is  that  the  dose  maybe 
adjusted  in  each  individual  case  to  any  degree  of  activity  or  mildness 
without  leaving  a  persi-tent  reaction. 
These  peculiar  characteristics  have  long  been  known  as  belonging 
peculiarly  to  the  bark  of  Rhamnus  Frangula,  and  the  use  of  this  both 
in  Europe  and  this  country  long  antedated  the  use  of  cascara  sagrada. 
And  this  longer  and  better  known  variety  of  the  Buckthorn  family 
was  admitted  to  the  present  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  because  it 
was  supposed  to  be  the  better  medicinal  agent  of  the  two.  Its  sup- 
posed advantages  over  cascara  are  that  while  having  all  the  advantages 
of  cascara,  it  is  milder,  more  pleasant  and  more  manageable  in  effect 
and  more  agreeable  in  taste,  and  less  liable  to  disturb  stomachs  and 
intestines  which  are  sensitive  or  irritable.  When  properly  used  both 
are  simple,  mild,  agreeable  aperients,  but  the  buckthorn  the  more 
simple  and  agreeable  of  the  two,  and  required  in  somewhat  larger 
quantities  to  give  the  same  effect.  Hence  one  or  the  other  is  superfl  uous 
in  the  materia  medica,  and  it  becomes  important  to  know  which  should 
have  the  preference. 
In  order  to  assist  in  determining  which  is  the  better,  large  quantities 
of  the  two  barks  were  carefully  selected  of  uniform  good  quality,  and 
from  these  exactly  parallel  extracts  and  fluid  extracts  were  made,  and 
have  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  many  close  and  careful  observers, 
who  are  as  little  prejudiced  as  may  be  by  the  florid  advertising,  which 
one  of  the  agents  has  received.  By  the  parallel  observations  of  many, 
made  independently,  it  is  hoped  to  obtain  useful,  if  not  conclusive, 
testimony. 
Both  barks  are  very  plentiful  and  very  cheap,  and  good  qualities  are 
easily  obtainable  of  either  at  a  cost  of  not  more  than  eight  or  nine  cents  per 
pound  by  the  bale.  The  buckthorn  is  much  more  uniform  in  quality 
than  the  cascara,  and  the  inferior  qualities  of  this,  which  are  offered  at 
five  to  seven  cents  per  pound,  are  better  than  the  inferior  qualities  of 
cascara  at  similar  prices.  Both  come  long  distances,  and  the  freight  on 
the  buckthorn  from  Germany  is  less  than  upon  cascara  from  California, 
and  how  it  is  possible  to  pay  freights  and  two  or  three  profits  on  them 
and  sell  them  at  such  prices,  is  not  easy  to  comprehend.  The  very 
different  and  inferior  bark  of  the  trunks  and  larger  branches  are  rarely 
or  never  seen  in  buckthorn.  But  the  markets  are  full  of  such  bark  from 
the  cascara,  and  it  is  difficult  to  get  even  a  few  bales  of  the  smaller 
