VALUES  OF  SOCOTRINE  AND  BARBADOES  ALOES. 
137 
tion  communicated  by  T.  Atherton,  South  Groton,  Middlesex 
county,  Massachusetts. 
I  may  add,  that  Conium  maculatum  grows  wild,  abundantly 
and  luxuriantly,  in  many  towns  in  the  State  of  Connecticut ;  in 
some  places  so  thick,  in  patches,  as  to  be  mown  down  with  a 
scythe.  Judging  from  the  fact  that  it  is  regarded  as  a  pest 
rather  than  otherwise,  on  account  of  its  abundance,  its  poisonous 
properties  and  its  tenacity  of  life,  I  have  no  reasonable  doubt  but 
that  many  hundreds  of  pounds  of  ripe  seeds  may  be  procured 
this  fall,  within  a  radius  of  thirty  miles  of  my  own  locality,  and 
that  any  demand  arising  for  it  would  bring  into  market  vnthin 
a  twelve-month,  an  abundant  supply. 
I  will  pursue  the  subject  farther  if  deemed  necessary  Proc, 
Amer.  Pharm.  Asso.,  1860. 
ON  THE  RELATIVE  VALUES  OF  SOCOTRINE  AND  BARBADOES 
ALOES. 
By  Mr.  Richard  W.  Giles. 
The  therapeutic  importance  of  aloes  may  be  inferred  from 
the  circumstance  that  there  is  no  purgative  pill  in  our  present 
Pharmacopoeia  into  the  composition  of  which  it  does  not  enter. 
It  constituted  more  than  50  per  cent,  of  the  compound  extract 
of  colocynth  P.  L.  1836,  and  is  besides  a  chief  ingredient  in  the 
pill  popularly  known  to  the  humbler  classes  as  ^'Pil.  Coccise." 
In  any  other  form  than  that  of  a  pill  it  might  have  been  sup- 
posed that  its  extremely  nauseous  taste  would  have  prevented  its 
administration,  yet  we  find  the  compound  decoction  is  in  great 
demand  both  as  a  pharmacopoeial  preparation  and  as  an  old- 
fashioned  domestic  medicine,  with  many  modifications,  under 
the  name  of     Baume  de  Vie.'' 
In  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  1851  (for  the  first  time,  I  believe), 
Barbadoes  aloes  finds  a  place,  but  its  employment  is  only  di- 
rected in  one  instance — Pil  Aloes  c.  Sapone, — on  account  of 
which  it  is  probable  that  it  was  exclusively  introduced.  It 
would  seem  to  be  by  inadvertence  that  it  is  permitted  suh  silentio 
in  the  Enema  Aloes.  The  inquiry  to  which  I  desire  to  direct 
the  attention  of  the  Society  is,  whether  the  comparative  value 
of  the  two  descriptions  of  aloes,  viz.  Barbadoes  and  Socotrine 
