232 
WILD  SENNA. 
Turpith  Mane,  Senna  ofprovenee,  called  by  the  Spanish  Segulada, 
and  by  the  Greeks  of  Zante  s«w>)  belongs  to  the  Linnean  class 
Tetrandria,  order  Monogynia,  and  the  natural  family  Crlobularice 
of  De  Candolle.  It  occurs  in  the  region  of  the  Mediterranean 
as  a  perennial  shrub  of  from  1  to  2  feet  in  height.  After  a  com- 
parison with  a  botanical  specimen  in  the  herbarium  of  Professor 
Schnitzlein,  my  honored  tutor,  who  on  this  occasion  assisted  me 
With  his  usual  kindness,  I  found  that  the  smaller  of  the  leaves 
which  I  have  described,  were  attached  to  the  stalks  and  short 
twigs  of  the  lower  part  of  the  shrub,  while  the  tridentate  larger 
leaves  are  those  of  the  flowering  shoots. 
The  G-lobularia  was  known  in  the  middle  ages  as  a  purgative, 
and  was,  as  Geiger  states,  introduced  into  medicine  under  the 
idea  of  it  being  the  "  Axumt  of  Dioscorides,  a  plant  whose  fruit 
was  anciently  used  as  a  purgative.  Lobel,  Dalechamp,  and 
Bauhin  regarded  the  Globularia  as  so  violent  a  remedy,  that 
they  termed  it  Frutex  terribilis.  Clusius  figures  it  in  his  His- 
toria  under  the  name  Hippoglossum  Valentinum,  and  states  be- 
sides, that  in  Spain  it  is  called  Coronillade  Frayles,\.  e.  Qoronula 
fratrum  sive  monachorum.  Clusius,  Garidel,  and  especially 
later  writers,  as  Nissole  (1712)  and  Ramel  (1784)  have  en- 
deavored to  prove  its  harmlessness  as  a  simple  purgative,  and 
Ramel  has  even  lauded  it  as  a  febrifuge :  nevertheless,  both  De 
Candolle  and  Gilibert  (1806)  pronounce  it  a  violent  drastic. 
Loiseleur-Deslongchamps,  however,  after  a  trial  of  the  leaves 
upon  twenty  four  patients,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  remedy 
was  a  mild  evacuant,  preferable  even  to  Senna,  since  it  had  not 
the  repulsive  smell  and  taste  of  that  drug  ;  it  acted  less  violently, 
and  less  frequently  occasioned  griping.  The  doses  given  were 
from  48  to  100  grains  in  decoction. 
In  the  Dictionnaire  Universel  de  Matiere  Medicale  Merat  and 
De  Lens,*  Ooronilla  emerus  L.  is  given  as  the  origin  of  Sene 
Sauvage,  as  well  as  of  the  leaves  known  as  Sene  Bdtard,  or 
Faux  Baguenaudier,  That  the  leaves  which  I  received  were 
neither  those  of  Ooronilla  nor  of  Oolutea,  it  is  needless  further 
to  insist  upon.  It  shows,  however,  that  there  are  two  kinds  of 
Sene  Sauvage,  or  Wild  Senna,  viz.,  the  leaves  of  Ooronilla 
*  Tome  vi.,  p.  387. 
