ROTTLERA  TINCTORIA  AS  A  REMEDY  FOR  TAPE   WORM.  463 
aS  a  vermifuge  ;  this  latter  property  is  supposed  by  Dr.  Royle  to 
depend  upon  the  stellate  hairs  found  in  the  powder.  Dr.  Ander- 
son mentions  that  his  attention  was  first  called  to  the  medicinal 
properties  of  this  substance  by  Dr.  Gordon,  of  the  10th  Regi- 
ment, who  had  met  with  great  success  in  employing  it  as  a 
remedy  for  tape  worm.    Dr.  Anderson  afterwards  employed  it 
himself  for  the  expulsion  of  the  same  parasite  in  the  case  of 
several  men  of  his  own  regiment.    The  powder  is  of  a  dark 
brick-red  color,  with  a  peculiar  heavy  odor,  increased  on  its  being 
rubbed  between  the  fingers.    Its  physiological  action  is  very 
simple :  on  an  adult  the  powder  in  a  dose  of  3ij  or  gss,  besides 
purging,  very  often  causes  nausea  and  vomiting,  and  in  some 
cases  griping ;  its  action  on  the  bowels,  however,  is  very  varia- 
ble, producing  from  four  to  ten  or  fifteen  stools  even  when  a  dose 
of  ^iij  has  been  administered.    A  strong  ethereal  or  alcoholic 
tincture,  besides  acting  more  mildly,  is  followed  by  more  uniform 
effects.    Dr.  Anderson  found  that  an  amount  of  the  tincture 
sufficient  to  produce  the  full  anthelmintic  effect  of  the  drug  was 
never  followed  by  more  than  six  stools,  and  always  acted  with- 
out griping.    After  giij  of  the  powder  have  been  administered, 
the  worm  is  usually  expelled  in  the  third  or  fourth  stool.    It  is 
generally  passed  entire,  and  almost  always  dead,  and  in  about 
fifteen  cases  examined  by  Dr.  Anderson  he  was  unable  to  detect 
the  head.    The  vermifuge  properties  of  rottlera  tinetoria  have 
been  attested  in  a  large  number  of  cases.    Dr.  M'Kinnon  has 
mentioned  sixteen  successful  cases  in  a  paper  published  by  him, 
and  he  has  since  administered  the  powder  to  nearly  fifty  patients, 
out  of  whom  there  were  only  two  cases  in  which  no  worm  was 
expelled.    Dr.  Gordon  has  tried  the  remedy  in  thirty  cases  of 
tapeworm  with  uniform  success.    The  dose  of  the  powder  of  the 
kamila  which  seems  to  act  most  satisfactorily  is  £iiss  to  3iij  in 
an  adult;  and  *ss  of  the  alcoholic  tincture  is  the  dose  which  is 
followed  by  the  most  successful  effects. — American  Journal  of 
Med.  Sciences,  from  Indian  Annals  of  Med.  Sc.,  Oct.y  1856. 
