THE 
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
JANUAKY, 1848. 
ART. I.— AN ESSAY ON SCAMMONY, WITH AN EXAMINA- 
TION INTO THE QUALITIES OF THE DRUG FOUND IN THE 
MARKET, 
Read before the College of Pharmacy^ December 6th^ 1847. 
By Joseph CarsoNj M. D., &c. 
The subject of scammony at the present time is a deeply- 
interesting one. As one of the oldest articles of the Materia 
Medica, it commands attention. Its history is curious, and 
the value which is found attached to it in the earlier records 
of medicinCj prompts to the investigation of its present 
claims to regard and confidence. It is generally understood 
that the drug is of doubtful character, but few are aware 
that there is so great a reduction of its value, so great a 
dissimilarity of its physical and sensible properties, and so 
extensive a misconception of the true qualities v/hich per- 
tain to it. What is written in the works on Pharmacology 
may be familiar to those who investigate such subjects, but 
until the difficulty of procuring even tolerable specimens of 
the article is encountered, they can not be forcibly im- 
pressed with the remark of Dr. Christison, " that scarcely 
any of the descriptions in systematic books, especially in 
the English language, convey a correct idea of the scam- 
monies of the present day, at least of those to be met with 
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