392 
ON  MATICO. 
which  healed  the  sore  very  rapidly.  The  above  treatment  causes 
but  little  inconvenience  to  the  patient,  and  two  recent  cases  were 
located  upon  the  glans  penis,  and  treated  with  the  iodine  with 
perfect  success. 
I  have  frequently  removed  the  common  warts  from  the  hands 
and  face  by  the  same  means,  and  in  no  case  has  their  been  a 
scar  formed  from  the  use  of  the  iodine.    Yours  respectfully, 
Charles  V.  Monelle,  M.D. 
Baltimore,  Aug.  8th,  1858. 
MATICO. 
By  John"  J.  Stell. 
(An  Inaugural  Essay  presented  to  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  March,  1858.) 
The  plant  is  a  native  of  Peru  ;  a  description  of  it  can  be  found 
in  the  Flora  Peruviana,  under  the  name  of  Piper  Angustifolium. 
It  is  also  designated  as  Artanthe  elongata  in  the  Dublin  Pharma- 
copoeia, for  it  is  not  officinal  in  that  of  the  United  States. 
It  was  first  introduced  to  the  notice  of  the  medical  profession 
of  this  country  by  Dr.  Ruschenberger,  of  the  U.  S.  Navy,  as 
anti-hemorrhagic,  by  local  application.  It  is  said  that  its  effects 
are  similar  to  cubebs  in  diseases  of  the  mucous  membranes,  when 
taken  internally. 
Matico  has  been  analysed  by  Dr.  Hodges,  and  also  by  Mr.  T. 
S.  Weigand,  of  this  city ;  according  to  the  former  it  contains  chlo- 
rophylle,  a  soft  dark  green  resin,  brown  and  yellow  coloring 
matters,  gum,  salts,  lignin,  a  light  green  thickish  volatile  oil,  and 
a  peculiar  bitter  principle,  soluble  in  water  and  alcohol,  but  not 
in  ether,  which  he  calls  Maticin" — but  according  to  Mr.  Wei- 
gand the  so  called  Maticin  is  nothing  more  than  a  salt  of  potassa. 
One  would  very  naturally  suppose  that  matico,  being  of  the 
same  natural  order  as  pepper  and  cubebs,  it  would  be  of  analo- 
gous composition,  and  the  fact  that  it  contains  a  volatile  oil  and 
a  soft  acrid  resin,  which  may  be  compared  to  the  volatile  oil  and 
resin  of  pepper  or  cubebs,  would  lead  one  to  expect  to  find  a 
crystalline  substance  similar  to  piperine. 
It  was  with  the  sole  object  of  seeking  for  such  a  principle 
that  I  entered  into  an  examination  of  matico  ;  but  though  I  have 
made  repeated  experiments  with  it,  I  have  failed  to  obtain  any 
such  ubstance. 
