386  Resin  of  Podophyllum  and  Podophyllin.  {Xm-l™x;?m.tm' 
RESIN  OF  PODOPHYLLUM  AND  PODOPHYLLIN. 
J.  U.  Lloyd. 
(Continued  from  p.  245.) 
The  Name. — In  early  contributions  1 844  and  1 846,  concerning  plant 
products  employed  in  his  practice  under  the  name  Eclectic  prepara- 
tions,1 Prof.  John  King  first,  as  before  stated  (see  p.  242)  described  the 
substance  now  known  as  resin  of  podophyllum.  He  affixed  the 
term  resin,  to  this  as  well  as  to  other  similar  bodies  therein 
mentioned,  obtained  by  evaporation  of  an  alcoholic  tincture  and 
precipitation  in  water,  specifying  such  American  drugs  as  Cimici- 
fuga  racemosa,  Iris  versicolor,  etc.  Prof.  King,  however,  a  practi- 
tioner of  medicine,  was  not  in  position  to  place  such  substances 
before  the  profession,  and  this  by  his  solicitation  with  resin  of 
podophyllum  was  accomplished  by  the  late  W.  S.  Merrell  of  Cincin- 
nati, a  fact  supported  by  Prof.  King2  as  well  as  by  unwritten  informa- 
tion at  my  command. 
During  the  considerable  period  that  intervened  between  its 
discovery  (1835)  anc*  its  practical  introduction  (1846)  as  a  remedy, 
the  only  name  applied  to  it  in  journal  communications  had  been 
f(  resin  of  podophyllum,"  which,  as  before  shown,  originated  with 
King3.  However,  upon  placing  the  drug  before  the  Eclectic  medical 
profession  shortly  after  1846,  in  which  school  it  was  almost  exclu- 
sively employed  until  some  years  afterward,  Mr.  Merrell  affixed  to 
this  substance  the  term  podophyllin,  which  was  unquestionably  the 
first  application  of  the  word  to  a  commercial  drug,  and  thus  he  was 
the  promulgator  of  the  term  as  affixed  to  a  medicine.  The  drug 
sprung  rapidly  into  popularity,  and  its  commercial  name  was  so 
firmly  established  upon  the  appearance  of  King's  Dispensatory  in 
1852,  that  the  term  podophyllin  was  made  the  principal  title  for  this 
substance,  but  Prof.  King,  in  the  text  descriptive  of  the  root  podo- 
phyllum still  referred  to  it  as  a  "  resin  to  which  the  name  of  podo- 
phyllin has  been  given."4 
1  Philosophical  Medical  Journal,  of  New  York,  1844,  vol.  i,  p.  1600,  and 
the  Western  Medical  Reformed,  April,  1846. 
2  Discovery  of  Podophyllin,  by  J.  King,  M.D.,  College  Journal  of  Medical 
Science,  Dec,  1857,  P-  55- 
3  Preceding  1846  there  had  been,  so  far  as  I  can  find,  no  record  in  regular 
medicine  of  such  a  substance. 
4  Eclectic  Dispensatory,  1852,  King  and  Newton,  p.  313. 
