OCR Text |
Show BITTER CUCUMB R, made use of, is a nauseou cipally of earthy, gummou OR COLOQUINTIDA. acrid purge, consisting p inous parts; an ounce cons rummous Or mucilagirous taining about half an ounce four scruples of resinous prit ciples, according to ( artheu experiments ; who says that both the gummous and ‘resinous parts are purgative, but Geoffroy alleges, that the resinous the strongest: though resinous parts occasion more violent gripes, but that a gummous extract is more purgative. Mr. Boulduc got with water, from eight ounces of pulp, three ounces of a gummous extract; and from a like quantity of pulp, only half an ounce of resin with spirit. Colocynth irritates violently ; if given in IArge doses byitself, it often produces bloody stools, and is said sometimes to have inflamed and ulcerated the intestines; and to have even occasioned convulsions and death; insomuch that many have looked upon it as a dangerous medicine. The dose is from four to ten grains ; but it is seldom or never exhibited by itself, being commonly mixed with other purging medicines, as in the old pilule ex colocynthide simpliciores, which are very strong purgatives made of colocynth and scam. mony, each two ounces ; oil of cloves, two drachms ; and syrup of buckthorn. q. s.; given from fifteen grains to halfa drachm : as were likewi Moneecia. Essent, Gen. Cuar Order X. Syngenesia. Male flower—Calyx five-toothed: parted: Filaments three: five-parted : lt : Corolla five Female flower—Ca five-toothed: Corolla me CO sharp seeds. e ex colocynthide cumaloe, made with two ounces of socotrine alo das much scammony; an ounce of the pith of the colocynth; two drachms of oil of cloves; and as much syrup of buckthorn as made the whole up into a mass, which are milder, and given from a scruple to half a drachm. The colocynth was likewise an ingredient in the extractum TY yt] » smooth. catharticum, which Dp i : ‘ had been bruised, with one pint of proof spirit, and then di; 1 cena s, covered with hairs. Leaves variously sinuated, hairy, upper bright green beneath rough andhairy. Flowers single, from the ala of the leaves, yellow, cut into five segm tendrilled. of tt s the product of a plgnt of the and Turkey, Persia, pt, > ed] most of these eastern countries. nThe pulp, which} is thepa t Coloquintida, or bitter gourd kind, growing was made by mixing six drachms of colo- cynth, and half an otnceoflesser cardamoms husked, after they gesting them with a: e heat for four days; and afterwards by straining and pressing out the tincture, and dissolving in it an ounce and a half of socotrine aloes, and half an ounce of scammony, which had been previously reduced to a fine pow. der; and drawing off the spirit, aud inspissating the remaining Mass to a pilular consistence. ‘The common dose ofthis extract is from five grains to twenty. very brisk and a very safe cathartic; anc joined to mercurius dulcis will often procure a passage through the bowels after othei cines have been tried |