290 
ON AN ARTICLE PURPORTING TO BE JALAP. 
appearance, and somewhat loose texture, marked by ash- 
colored concentric circles, composed of a harder and more 
compact substance indicating resin. One of the smaller tubers 
wanting this distinguishing character appears purely farina- 
ceous. The taste and smell of these different tubers are feeble, 
sweetish, peculiar, and closely associated, though very dis- 
tinct from jalap. 
The largest root divided transversely with a saw exhibits 
vertical cavities, proceeding from incisions made through the 
whole length of the exterior surface to facilitate drying. In 
No. 2 the incisions are perceptible, but it has no holes like 
the other. Although a slight disparity exists in the internal 
appearance of these several tubers, yet their identity, in point 
of taste and smell, conclusively proves them to be of a com- 
mon origin. The powder is grayish white, and does not ex- 
cite coughing or sneezing during pulverization. 
This drug was represented to your Committee as coming 
from Mexico. A considerable quantity of it is to be found 
in the house of a drug broker in New York, who offers it for 
sale as overgrown jalap root, at a price little inferior to that 
which the genuine commands. 
Your Committee are at loss to determine from what plant 
it derives its source, as it bears no very close resemblance to 
the various adulterations to which jalap, as found in com- 
merce, is known to be subject. It bears no analogy with the 
different specimens contained in the cabinets of our Professors 
of Materia Medica. Diligent inquiry among our druggists, 
(to whom it appeared novel,) led to no more satisfactory ac- 
quaintance with it, from which no doubt is left upon the 
minds of your Committee that the present is its first introduc- 
tion into an American market. 
It is evidently the produce of a Convolvulus, but of what 
particular species it is difficult to say. It does not respond 
to the description of the dried root of the C. panduratus, 
nor any of the known falsifications furnished by this genus. 
The same observation applies to two varieties of adulterations 
mentioned by Guibourt in his Histoire des Drogues. 
