boiling water. It contains also asparagin (C ̧H ̧N2O,H2O), a crystalline principle found in asparagus shoots and other plants.

Uses.-Marshmallow decoction is employed as a demulcent in inflammatory and irritated conditions of the mucous membranes of the respiratory, digestive and urinary organs, and poultices made of the bruised or powdered root are used externally. The syrup is officinal.

OLEUM SESAMI-OIL OF BENNE.

This is a FIXED OIL EXPRESSED from the SEED of Sesamum indicum (Nat. Ord. Pedaliaceæ), an annual plant, growing to the height of four or five feet, with ovate-lanceolate, lobed leaves, reddish-white axillary flowers, and an oblong capsule containing small oval yellowish seeds. It is a native of India, but is now raised throughout Asia and in Egypt and Italy, also in South Carolina and in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia. The seed contains a FIXED OIL, and the leaves yield to cold water a large quantity of mucilage resembling that of sassafras pith. This is a highly-esteemed demulcent drink, used in cholera infantum and infantile bowel complaints. The seeds are eaten as food by the negroes in Carolina, in broths, puddings, etc. The OIL, which is inodorous, of a bland, sweetish taste, and keeps well, may be used internally or externally as a substitute for olive oil.

CYDONIUM.

This is the SEED of Cydonia vulgaris or Quince tree (Nat. Ord. Rosaceae), a native of Europe, but cultivated in the United States for the fruit. The seed are ovate, angular, reddishbrown externally, white within, inodorous, insipid, and abound in mucilage. They are used, principally, externally, in solution (mucilago cydoni), two parts to water 100 parts; but may be given internally as a demulcent, in gastro-intestinal or bronchial inflammations,

Glycyrrhiza or Liquorice Root is the ROOT of Glycyrrhiza glabra (Nat. Ord. Leguminosa), a small herbaceous perennial plant, of the countries around the Mediterranean. It is imported from Sicily and Spain; and a portion of the Sicilian root is said to be the product of G. echinata. As found in the shops glycyrrhiza is in long wrinkled pieces, often worm-eaten, varying from a few lines to more than an inch in thickness, externally grayish-brown, internally yellowish, without smell, and of a sweet, mucilaginous, sometimes slightly acrid taste. The best pieces are of the brightest yellow internally. The powder is grayish-yellow, or, if it is powdered with the epidermis removed, pale sulphur-yellow. The Russian glycyrrhiza of commerce is said to be derived chiefly from G. glandulifera; the root has a reddish tint and a scurfy surface, which distinguish it from the smoother one of G. glabra. The constituents of glycyrrhiza are a peculiar transparent yellow, uncrystallizable sugar, termed glycyrrhizin (CH2O6) (which is scarcely soluble in cold water, but soluble in boiling water and alcohol, and is a glucoside, splitting up, when warmed with a dilute acid or upon being boiled, into glycyrretin and sugar), starch, asparagin, an acrid resin, etc.

Effects and Uses.-A decoction of glycyrrhiza is a useful demulcent in dysenteric, catarrhal, and nephritic affections; it is also added to decoctions of acrid substances, to cover their taste and acridity. It should be made of the root deprived of its cortical part, which is acrid and without demulcent virtues; by long boiling the acrid resin is extracted. The powder is used in making pills (see p. 32). A fluid extract is officinal, and is a useful addendum to cough mixtures and to disguise the taste of ammonium carbonate or chloride.

GLYCYRRHIZINUM AMMONIATUM (Ammoniated Glycyrrhizin) is prepared by macerating and then percolating glycyrrhiza with water of ammonia, precipitating with sulphuric acid, washing the precipitate and dissolving in water of ammonia and spreading on glass plates to dry. It may be used for the same purposes as the other preparations.

EXTRACTUM GLYCYRRHIZA (Extract of Glycyrrhiza-Extract of Liquorice) is made by the evaporation of a decoction of the half-dried root. It comes to this country chiefly from Leghorn and Messina, and in part, also, from Spain; a good extract is prepared, too, in New York and England. The crude extract, when good, occurs in black, flattened, cylindrical rolls, about an inch in diameter, which are dry, brittle, with a shining fracture, of a very sweet, peculiar, slightly acrid taste, and are quite soluble in water. It is, however, much sophisticated, and for internal use is generally refined by dissolving the impure extract in water and water of ammonia, without ebullition, straining the solution and evaporating; sugar is often mixed with it, and sometimes mucilage or glue. Refined liquorice (extractum glycyrrhiza purum) is in small cylindrical pieces, not thicker than a pipestem. Liquorice is a pleasant demulcent, much used as an addition to cough mixtures and lozenges and to acrid infusions and decoctions. Mistura glycyrrhiza composita (compound mixture of liquorice), commonly called brown mixture, consists of the pure extract, acacia, sugar, each 3 parts; paregoric, 12 parts; antimonial wine, 6 parts; sweet spirit of nitre, 3 parts; water, 70 parts; dose, f3ss. Liquorice enters into the composition of several troches already noticed.

LYCOPODIUM.

This is the SPORULES of Lycopodium clavatum or Club-moss, and other species of Lycopodium (Nat. Ord. Lycopodiacea), low, creeping perennials, found in dry woods of Europe and America. The stem is from 2 to 4 feet long, with numerous short ascending branches, having linear awl-shaped leaves; the sporules are found in reniform sporangia of the long peduncle which terminates the fertile branches.

It consists of a fine, yellow, inflammable powder; odourless, tasteless, and not wetted by water, and contains fixed oil and volatile bases.

It is used as a dusting powder, and, as it is not wetted by water, makes an excellent application for excoriated surfaces, intertrigo, etc. It is particularly useful to prevent the irri

tation caused by the urine or alvine dejections coming in contact with the tender or inflamed perinæum and nates, in infantile

cases.

It is also used in pharmacy to prevent the adhesion of pills.

CETRARIA.

Cetraria islandica, or Iceland Moss (Nat. Ord. Lichenes), is a foliaceous, erect lichen, from two to four inches high, found in the northern latitudes and mountainous districts of the new and old continents. It is obtained principally from Norway and Iceland, but is said to be abundant also in New England. As found in the shops it consists of irregularly-lobed and channelled coriaceous leaves, fringed at their edges with rigid hairs, of a brownish or grayish-white colour, darker on the upper surface, and sometimes marked with blood-red spots. It is almost odourless, and has a bitter, mucilaginous taste; its powder is whitish-gray. It gives up its virtues to boiling water, and consists chiefly of a kind of amylaceous matter (which is coloured blue by iodine, and is termed lichenin-C12H20O10), and a bitter principle termed cetrarin or cetraric acid (CHO); it contains, besides, other principles.

Effects and Uses.-Iceland moss is a demulcent tonic, and is also highly nutritious. It is adapted to cases requiring a light aliment combined with a mild and acceptable tonic; and from its demulcent properties has a soothing influence in inflammations of the various mucous membranes. It is chiefly used in chronic affections of the pulmonary and digestive organs, in the form of decoction (decoctum cetraria), which may be taken ad libitum. By maceration in water or a weak alkaline solution, Iceland moss may be deprived of its bitter principle; and it is then used as a mild nutritive demulcent.

CHONDRUS.

Chondrus crispus, Carrageen or Irish Moss (Nat. Ord. Algæ), is a marine alga found chiefly on the west coast of Ireland, and also on the coast of New England; it is prepared for use by washing, bleaching, and drying. It is also prepared from

Chondrus mammilosus. As found in the shops it consists of fronds from two to three or four inches long, mostly yellowish or dirty-white, but intermixed with purplish-red portions, nearly inodorous, and of a mucilaginous taste. It swells up in warm water, and is almost entirely dissolved when boiled. Its chief constituent is a peculiar mucilaginous principle, for which the term Carrageenin has been proposed; and it contains also some mucus, resins, etc.

Effects and Uses.—It is a very agreeable nutritive demulcent, useful in bowel complaints and pectoral affections. It may be given in the form of decoction (3ss to water Ojss boiled to Oj) flavoured with lemon-juice and sugar; or it may be made with milk or cream into blanc-mange, which forms an excellent light diet for the sick. By saturating two superimposed layers of wadding with a solution of chondrus, and drying them in a stove after they have been submitted to strong pressure, a sheet of the consistence of cardboard is produced, which, when soaked in hot water, makes an excellent poultice.

AMYLUM-STARCH.

This term is applied by the Pharmacopoeia to the FECULA of the SEED of Triticum vulgare, the well-known wheat (Nat. Ord. Graminaceae). It is a proximate principle, however, which pervades the vegetable kingdom, being found in various parts of plants, especially in seeds, tubers, and bulbous roots. It is obtained by bringing the substances in which it exists to a state of minute division, agitating or washing them with cold water, straining or pouring off the liquid, and allowing it to stand until the fecula which it holds in suspension has subsided. It occurs as a white, opaque, odourless, tasteless powder, or in columnar masses of a crystalline aspect, and produces a peculiar sound when compressed between the fingers. It is insoluble in alcohol, ether, and cold water. Examined under the microscope, starch is seen to consist of minute cells or granules, varying in size and shape in the different varieties of amylaceous substances. The envelope of these granules is insoluble in cold water, but is ruptured by heat, so that the interior