OCR Text |
Show TPECACUAN, as it were with a kind of mucilage, This, according to Muti is obtained from the Psycotria emetica, andis that che tay used. 2d, The brown ipecacuanis small, and somewhat more wrin« kled than the foregoing; its bark is of a brown orblackish colour without, and white within; this is brought from Brazil, and is the root of a cephaélis, which is perennial, and grows in moist shadysituations. A complete monographyof it, and an excellent plate, were publ the sixth volumeof the Trausac.the Linnzan § y professor Brotero, who calls licocca ipecacuanha ; but the genus callicocca has been united penengy with that of cephaélis, to which we have therefore referred i lhe plate, of Brotero corresponds with that published i I Medical Botany, vol. iii. from a plant sent in spirits from Brazil by governorPhilips to sir Joseph Banks, but which unfortunately was not in flower, and also with the rude draught of Piso, whofirst examinedit. It has been sometimes observed, even in a small dose, to produce LP ECA CLAN, VIOLA IPECACUANHA. Iw the index of thatt incomparable work, the Edinburgh New L Dispensatory, by Dr. Duncan, amongst the violets I find viola ipecacuanha; and as the faculty are much divided about what produces the true ipecacuan, we shall retain it in this place, although the root may perhaps belong to different plants. Tpecac jan, in the language of South America, means v¢ ing root, andis applied to various vegetables which possess that property in any remarkable degree; he the confusion and contradictions which have long Fvaiekl concerning the plant which furnishes our officinal ipecacuan : but this confusion 1s increased by several varieties of ipecacuan being foundinthe shops. Ist, The ash-col 5 or oe ipecacuan, is a small wrinkled rox t, bent and contorted into ¢ great variety of figures, brought over in short }pieces, full of w hae anddeepcircular fissures quite down to a small white woodyfibre that rans in the mid dle of eac h piece: the cortical part is compact, brittle, Jooks smooth and resinous upon breaking: it has very little smell; the taste is bitterish and subacrid, covering the tongue violent effects. 3d, The white sort is woody, has no wrinkles, and no perceptible bitterness in taste. It is probably the root of a viola. Besides these, the name of ipecacuan is given to various species of Cynanchum, -Asclepias, Euphorbia, Dorstenia, and Ruellia, With regard to their comparative strengths, Decandolle says, that vomiting is produced by 2@ grains ofthe Cynanchum ipecacuanha, 24 ofthe Psycotria emetica, 60 to 72 of the Viola calceolaria, and one to three drachms of the Viola ipecacuanha, Ipecacuan wasfirst brought into Kurope about the middleof the last century, and an account of it published about the same time by Piso; but it did not come into general use till about the year 1636, when Helvetius, under the patronage of Lewis XIV, Introduced jt into practice. Neumann got from 7680 parts, 1440 alcoholic, and afterwards 1880 mater) extract; and inversely, 2400 wenbery and 600 alcoholic, TI find that thetincture of ipecacuan does not redden infusion of litmns, or precipitate solution of gelatine; that it 'S precipitated by water, by red sulphate of iron, and readily deyuires a green colour from excess of the chalybeate; and by t.galls.° According to Dr. Irvine, the watery soinfusi nore emetic than the alcoholic, the decoction than the disted yvater, and the cortical than the ligneous part. Others |