Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
May,  1875.  y 
What  is  Angelic  a- Root  ? 
197 
was  a  decided  indisposition  at  one  P.  M.,  on  the  part  of  all  concerned, 
to  eat  dinner,  and  there  was  continued  coughing,  with  soreness  of  chest, 
and  eyes  were  much  inflamed.  At  seven  P.  M.  four  of  the  parties 
were  unable  to  eat  supper,  and  one  of  them  went  to  bed  very  sick,  with 
eyes  much  swollen,  pain  throughout  the  body,  and  chill,  followed  by  high 
fever.  At  ten  P.  JVL,  free  vomiting  was  induced,  somewhat  to  the  re- 
lief of  the  patient,  but  entire  recovery  did  not  ensue  for  forty-eight 
hours. 
No.  2  was  very  ill  at  nine  P.  M.,  with  both  vomiting  and  purging, 
eyes  much  irritated,  and  patient  very  restless  during  night  and  until  noon 
of  following  day.  During  convalescence  of  forty-eight  hours,  purging 
continued  to  a  considerable  extent,  after  which  the  patient  recovered. 
A  child  of  the  writer,  six  years  of  age,  who  happened  in  the 
store  for  not  over  five  minutes,  at  the  time  the  drug  was  being  prepared, 
was  seized  with  a  cough  in  the  latter  part  of  the  day,  which  lasted  into 
the  night,  and  much  resembled  croup.  This  we  attributed,  as  in  the 
other  cases,  to  the  effects  of  the  drug.  A  marked  feature  in  all  the 
cases  was  a  very  decided  soreness  of  all  the  motor  muscles  of  the  body. 
Feeling  fully  convinced  that,  if  I  had  had  in  process  of  preparation, 
double  the  quantity  of  the  drug,  serious,  if  not  fatal  consequences  would 
have  resulted,  and  having  sadly  experienced  the  want  of  precautionary 
advice  in  the  United  States  Dispensatory,"  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  offer 
this  statement  for  your  consideration,  whether  it  is  not  well  enough  to 
have  recorded  in  our  journals  such  precautions  as  are  essential  to  the 
safe  handling  of  such  drugs,  as  are  so  slow  to  exert  poisonous  effects, 
and  hence  the  more  dangerous. 
WHAT  IS  "  ANGELICA-RCOT?" 
BY  ADOLPH  W.  MILLER,  M.  D.,  PH.  D. 
[Read  at  the  Phar?Jiaceiitical  Meeting,  April  7.0th.) 
When  a  pharmacist  orders  "  angelica-root,"  what  does  he  expect  to 
receive  As  the  answers  to  this  query  showed  the  existence  of  a 
wide  difference  of  opinion  among  botanical  druggists  and  others,  an  in- 
quiry into  the  subject  may  possibly  be  productive  of  greater  uniformity. 
The  attention  of  the  writer  was  first  directed  to  the  matter  in  a  rather 
mortifying  manner  by  a  compounder  of  liquors,  who  had  inadvertentlv 
obtained,  along  with  a  number  of  other  ingredients,  a  pound  of  ground 
American  angelica-root,  in  place  of  the  European,  which  he  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  using.     According  to  the  statement  of  this  party,  a 
