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Show 494 PURGING CASSIA. HIS TORY. This tree is indigenous in India and Aigypt, andis cultivated in Jamaica. It rises to about thirty feet high, and has long flower-spikes, with yellow papilionaceous blossoms. Its fruit is a cylindrical pod, scarcely an inch in diameter, a foot or more in length: the outside is a hard, brown bark, the inside is divided by thin transverse woody plates, covered with a soft black pulp, of a sweetish taste, with some degreeof acrimony. There are two sorts of this drug in the shops; one brought from the East Indies, the other from the West (Cassia Javanica?). The canes or pods of the latter are generally large, rough, thick-rinded, and the pulp nauseous; those of theformer are less, smoother, the pulp blacker, and of a sweeter taste: this sort is preferred to the other. Such pods should be chosen as are weighty, new, and do not make a rattling noise, from the seeds being loose within them, when shaken. The pulp should be of a bright shining black colour, and have a sweettaste, neither harsh, which happens from the fruit being gathered before it has grownfully ripe; nor sourish, which it is apt to become upon keeping ; nor at all mouldy, whichis frequently the case from its being kept in dampcellars, or moistened in order to increase its weight. Greatest part of the pulp dissolves both in water and in alcohol, and may be extracted from the pod by either. The shopsboil the bruised pod in water, and afterwards evaporate the solution to a due consistence. MEDICAL VIRTUE. The pulp of cassia, from its saccharine and extractive constituents, is a gentle laxative medicine, and is frequently given, in a dose of some drachms, in costive habits. Some direct a ess of two ounces, or more, as a cathartic, in inflammatory cases where the more acrid purgatives are improper ; but in these ings quantities it generally excites nausea, produces flatulence, and sometimes gripings of the bowels, especially if the cassia be not of a very good kind: these effects may be prevented by the addition of aromatics, and byexhibiting it in a liquid form. PREPARATIONS. Exectuary or Cassia. (Electuarium Cassiz Fistula. E.) Take of pulp of cassia fistularis, four parts ; pulp of tamarinds, PURGING CASSIA. Take of manna, each one part; syrup of pale roses, four parts : Having beat the manna in a mortar, dissolve it with a gentle heat in the syrup; then add the pulps, and eyaporate with a regularly continued heat to a proper consistence. Execruary or Cassia. (Electuarium Cassie. L. D.) Take of the fresh extracted pulp of cassia, half a pound; manna, two ounces ; pulp of tamarinds, one ounce 5 (syrup of roses, half a pound, L.) (syrup of orange-peel, half a pound, D.) Boil the manna, and dissolve it over a slow fire in the syrup; then add the pulps; and, with a continued heat, evaporate the whole to the proper thickness of an electuary. These compositions are very convenient officinals, to serve as a basis for purgative electuaries, and other similar purposes. The tamarinds give them a pleasant acidity, and do not, as might be expected, dispose themto ferment. After standing for four months, the composition has been found no sourer than when first made. This electuary is usefully taken by itself, to the quantity of two or three drachmsoccasionally, for gently loosening the belly in costive habits. |