MEDICO-BOTANICAL NOTICES. 
19 
ART. IV.— MEDICO-BOTANICAL NOTICES. No. IX. 
Dioscorea villosa. — This plant, which in some parts of 
the country is known under the name of wild yarn, unlike 
the cultivated species, has a woody and contorted root, which, 
according to Mr. Riddell, ( Synop. Flora. West. States ) is 
possessed of valuable medical properties. He states, that a 
decoction prepared with it is unquestionably a highly useful 
remedy in bilious colic. This decoction is made by boiling 
an ounce of the powdered root in a pint of water, and half of 
which is to be administered at a time. He says that it acts 
with remarkable promptitude, and adds, that he has been in- 
formed that Dr. Neville, of Ohio, places much reliance on 
the tincture as an expectorant; it also acts as a diaphoretic, 
and in large doses as an emetic. 
Cocculus Indicus. — Within a very few years, the science 
of medical botany has done much in the elucidation of the 
origin of various articles of the vegetable materia medica. 
Thus, to Mr. Don we are indebted for a knowledge of the 
plants furnishing galbanum and ammoniac; to Dr. Coxe, for 
a settlement of the vexed question of the species of plant pro- 
ducing jalap; and to Mr. Hancock, for the light he has thrown 
on the subject of several important articles derived from South 
America, &c. &c. Notwithstanding, however, the number 
and value of these discoveries, this part of pharmacology is 
still in a very unsettled and confused condition, and offers a 
wide field for the labours of botanists. 
Among those articles involved in uncertainty and doubt, 
was the Cocculus indicus. M. A. Richard, however, in a short 
notice, published about the commencement of last year, has 
very satisfactorily removed the obscurity that existed with 
regard to its origin and species furnishing it. 
He observes, that Linnaeus referred it to the genus Menis- 
permum, under the name of M. cocculus Decandolle 
