Haritάla.

Orpiment occurs in two forms, namely, in smooth shining gold-coloured scales called Vansapatri haritάla, and in yellow opaque masses called Pinda haritάla. Vansapatri haritάla is preferred for internal use as an alterative and febrifuge. Pinda haritala is chiefly used as a colouring ingredient in paints, and for sizing country paper. Most of the older Sanskrit Mss. are written on paper prepared with haritala, to preserve them from the ravages of insects, and this it does most effectually.*

* Babu Rajendralala Mitra gives the following interesting account of arse-nicised paper in his report on Sanskrit manuscripts, published in the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society, for March 1875.

"The manuscripts examined have mostly been written on country paper sized with yellow arsenic and an emulsion of tamarind seeds, and then polished by rub-ing with a conch-shell. A few are on white Kasmiri paper, and some on Palm-leaf. White arsenic is rarely used for the size, but I have seen a few codices sized with it, the mucilage employed in such cases being acacia gum. The surface of ordinary country paper being rough, a thick coating of size is necessary for easy writing; and the tamarind-seed emulsion affords this admirably. The paper used for ordinary writing is sized with [rice gruel; but such paper attracts damp and vermin of all kinds, and that great pest of literature, "the silver-fish" thrives luxuriantly on it. The object of the arsenic is to keep off this insect, and it serves the purpose most effectually. No insect or worm of any kind will attack arsenicised paper, and so far the Mss. are perfectly secure against its ravages. The superior appearance and cheapness of European paper has of late induced many persons to use it instead of the country arsenicised paper in writing puthis; but this is a great mistake, as the latter is not near so durable as the former, and is liable to be rapidly destroyed by insects. I cannot better illustrate this than by referring to some of the Mss. in the Library of the Asiatic Society. There are among them several volumes written on foolscap paper, which dates from 1820 to 1830, and they already look decayed, mouldering, and touched in several places by silver-fish. Others on John-letter paper which is thicker, larger and stouter, are already so far injured that the ink has quite faded, and become in many places illegible, whereas the Mss. which were originally copied on arsenicated paper for the College of Fort William in the first decade of this century, are now quite as fresh as they were when first written, I

Haritala is purified for internal use by being successively boiled in kάnjika, the juice of the fruit of Benincasa cerifera (kushmάnda), sesamum oil, and a decoction of the three myroba-lans, for three hours in each fluid. Some physicians, probably to save time, mix all these fluids together, and boil the orpiment in the mixture for three hours only. The dose of orpiment thus purified is from two to four grains.

Several methods of roasting orpiment are described. The Bhavaprakasa recommends that orpiment should be powdered and made into a ball with the juice of Boerhaavia diffusa (punarnavά) and placed in the centre of a pot full of the ashes of that plant. The pot should be now covered with a dish, luted with clay, and heated over a fire for twenty hours. When cool the ball of roasted orpiment is taken out from the pot and reduced to powder. Another process is as follows. Take of purified orpiment and yavakshara, equal parts, rub them together with the juice of Vitex Negundo (nirgundi), and roast the mixture in a closed crucible. The resulting compound from both these processes is described as a white camphor-like substance.

A specimen of roasted orpiment supplied to me by an up-country physician was analized and found to contain but a small proportion of white arsenic. Bengali physicians do not prepare this drug from a superstitious notion that the man who roasts orpiment dies very soon. They purchase it from Fakirs or religious mendicants. It is said that some specimens of roasted orpiment are highly poisonous, and contain a large proportion of white arsenic. The quality of the drug would no doubt vary according to the method in which it is prepared.

Orpiment is said to cure fevers and skin diseases, to increase strength and beauty, and to prolong life. In fever it is used in combination with mercury, aconite, etc. The following is an illustration.

have seen many Mss. in private collections which are much older, and still quite as fresh. This fact would suggest the propriety of Government records in Mofussil Courts being written on arsenicised paper instead of the ordinary English foolscap, which is so rapidly destroyed both by the climate and also by white-ants. To guard against mistake I should add here that the ordinary yellow paper sold in the bazars is dyed with turmeric, and not at all proof against the attack of insects."

Vetάla rasa.1 Take of purified mercury, sulphur, orpiment. aconite, and black pepper, equal parts. First rub the mercury and sulphur together, then add the other ingredients in fine powder, and make into two-grain pills. They are given with the juice of fresh ginger in remittent fever with affection of the brain.

Vidyάdhara rasa.2 Take of mercury, sulphur, prepared copper, iron pyrites, realgar and orpiment equal parts, rub them together and soak the mixture in a decoction of long pepper and in the milky juice of Euphorbia nereifolia (vajri). Make into pills about six grains each. These pills are given with honey in enlarged spleen and other enlargements of the abdominal viscera.

Tάlahesari rasa.3 - Orpiment forms the active ingredient of several pills for skin diseases, of which this is an example. Take of orpiment, realgar, iron pyrites (svarnamάkshika), mercury, borax, and rock salt, one part each, sulphur and burnt conch-shell two parts each, rub them together for a day with lemon juice, then add to the mass one-thirtieth part of its weight of aconite, and mix. Dose, five to ten grains with butter. After it, powdered seeds of Vernonia anthelmintica (vάkuchi), two drachms should be taken with honey and ghee. This medicine is useful in all sorts of chronic skin diseases. The above formula is taken from the Bhavaprakasa. Sarangadhara gives a similar prescription under the name of Mahάtalesvara.

Orpiment forms an ingredient of several external applications for skin diseases. Thus, take of orpiment, wood of Berberis lycium (daruharidrά), seeds of Raphanus sativus (mulaka), wood of Pinus Deodara and betle leaves, each two tolas, burnt conch-shell half a tola, beat them together with water into a thin paste. This paste is an useful application in psoriasis.1

The use of orpiment as a depilatory was known to the ancient Hindus. It enters into the composition of numerous formulae for the removal of hair. The following are examples.2 Take of conch-shell-lime, soaked in the juice of plantain tree, and of orpiment, equal parts, make them into a paste with the aid of water, and apply it to the part from which the hair is to be removed. Or take of conch-shell-lime two parts, orpiment one part, realgar half a part, sarjihdkshάra (impure carbonate of soda) one part, rub together with water, and apply.