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Show §10 WILD OR SQUIRTING CUCUMBER. WILD OR SQUIRTING CUCUMBER. 81] plant are bitter, and strongly purgative*; bnt the dried juice, which remains afterfiltration, is to be covered witha linen cloth, or feculz of the fruit, known in the shops by the name of ela. terium, is the only part now medicinally employed, and has been distinguished into white and black claterium: the first is and dried with a gentle heat. prepared from the juice, which issues spontaneously, andthe jJatter from that which is obtained by expression t+. Slice ripe wild cucumbers, express the juice very gently, and Mr. Dick, surgeon to the artillery, in the tenth volume of the Edinburgh Medical Commentaries,tells us, that being in the set it aside for some hours, until the thicker part subsides. Exarerium. (Elaterium. D.) strain it through a veryfine hair sieve into a glass vessel. Then Re- ject the supernatant liquor, and drythe feculum, laid upon and Carnatic, with 300 men, who had been sent from Bengal, many covered with a linen cloth. of them were attacked with a dropsical disorder, for which he ordered them someof the common purging medicines ; but these’ producing no good effects, he had recourse to the elaterium mixed with extract of gentian, which he made up into pills, from the expressed juice. Such depositions have long been called fecula, and the denomination has been confirmed in modern times. Its application, however, appears to us to be too ex- This is not properly an inspissated juice, but a deposition containing a quarter of a grain of elaterium each; he began with tended ; for fecula is applied both to mild and ‘nutritious sub- ordering one of these to be taken every hour till they operated ; stances, such as starch, and to drastic, substances, such as that but finding that they often produced more violent effects than he intended, he ordered them to be taken only once in two hourstill they had the desired effect. These pills sometimes oc- casioned a vomiting, always a nausea, andoften a griping; and discharged such quantities of water both by stool and byurine, and gave suchrelief to the patients, that he could hardlyprevail with them to take any other medicine on the intermediate days. Finding success from this practice, he repeated the pills every third or fourth day, till all the swellings were gone, and then had recourse to corroborants to complete the cure. OFFICINAL PREPARATION, Insprssatep Juice or tHE Witp Cucumeger. ExATerium. of which we are nowtreating. Besides, if it possessed exactly the same chemical properties as starch, it would be converted into a gelatinous mass by the boiling directed by the Edinburgh college, aud would not separate; whereas the boiling is intended to promote the separation. Commonfiltration through paper does not succecd here: the grosser parts of the juice falling to the bottom forma viscid cake upon the paper, which the liquid cannot pass through. The separation is to be effected by draining the fluid from the top, by placing one end of some moistened strips of woollen cloth, skeins of cotton, or the like, in the juice, and laying the other end over the edge of the vessel, so as to hang downlowerthan the surface of the liquor. (Succus Spissatus Momordice Elaterii, vulgo Elaterium. E. ‘laterium. L.) Slice ripe wild cucumbers, express the juice very gently, and strain it through a very fine hair sieve (into a glass vessel, L.); then boil it a little, and set it by for some hours, until the thicker part has subsided. The thinner supernatant fluid is to be poured off, andseparated by filtering ; and the thickerpart, MEDICAL Hlaterium is a very violent hydragogue cathartic. In general, previous to its operation, it excites considerable sickness at the stomach, and frequently produces severe vomiting. + This drug was formerly prepared in several different ways, a circum- stance necessaryto be attendedto in the history of its medicinal effects. It is therefore seldom employedtill other remedies have beentriedin vain.. But in some instances of ascites it will produce a com- plete evacuation of water, where other cathartics have had no effect. Radicum vis cathartica major est quam foliorum, minor yero quam fructuum.—Geoff. USE. Two or three grains are, in general, a suflicient dose, although perhaps the best mode of exhibiting it is by giving it only to the extent of half a grain at a time, and repeating that dose every hour till it begins to operate. |