Spec. Plant. Willd. iv. 531.

Cl. 21. Ord. 8. Moncecia Monadelphia. Nat. ord. Euphorbiaeeae. G. 1718. Male. Calyx cylindrical, five-toothed. Corolla fivepetalled. Stamens 10-15.

Female. Calyx many-leaved. Corolla none. Styles three, bifid. Capsule three-celled. Seed one. Species 43. C. Cascarilla, Don. Ed. Phil. Journ. C. Eleutheria,

Med. Pot. 3d edit. 633. t. 223. Shanes Jamaica, vol. ii.

t.174. Species 36. C. Tiglium. Purging Croton. Flor. Zeyl. 343. Rumph,

Amboyn. iv. p. 98. t. 42. Rheede Malab. ii. p. 61. t. 33. Ray,

Hist. Plant. 167. Ainslies Mat. Med. of Hindustan, 4to.

pp. 96. 291. Med. Pot. 3d edit. vol. v. p. 71.

1. Croton Cascarilla2?

Officinal. Cascarilla, Lond. Cascarillae cortex, Dub. Croton Eleutheriae cortex, Edin. Cascarilla bark.

Syn. Cascarille (F.), Cascarillrinde (G.), Kaskerilla (Dutch), Kaskarillo (Dan.), Kaskarilla (Belg.), Caskaril (Swed.), Cascariglia (I.), Chacarilla (S.), Cascarilha (Portug.), Szakaryla (Russ.).

This tree is a native of the Bahama islands, and has been found in Jamaica by Dr. Wright: it grows also in St. Domingo. It is a small tree, seldom exceeding twenty feet in height, and branching thickly towards the top. The more tincture is evaporated on the surface of water, these principles are separated, the resin remaining in the form of a pellicle on its surface, whilst the extractive is dissolved, colours the water, and forms, with the solution of muriate of tin, a brown flaky precipitate. Hence ether is a good test of these vegetable principles.

1 Experimental Essays, p. 88.

2 Notwithstanding the adoption of Mr. Don's opinion, it is doubtful whether the C. Cascarilla furnishes the bark. This is the wild rosemary of Jamaica; but Cascarilla comes from the Bahamas, tender branches, when broken, ooze out a thick balsamic liquor. The leaves are alternate on short petioles, ovate or cordate, lanceolate, and elongated towards the apex, which is blunt, entire, and, on the upper surface, of a bright green colour. The flowers are in axillary and terminal racemes. The petals are whitish, oblong, obtuse, and spreading. The male flower has ten subulate filaments, supporting erect compressed anthers; the female produces a roundish germen, crowned with three bifid spreading styles, with obtuse stigmas, The capsule is superior, trilocular, and contains a solitary shining seed.

Cascarilla bark is imported chiefly from Eleutheria, one of the Bahama islands, packed in chests and bales. It consists of pieces about six or eight inches long, scarcely one tenth of an inch thick, quilled, and covered with a thin epidermis, beset with lichens, particularly Graphides1, which give the bark a snowy whiteness on the surface.

Qualities.-Cascarilla bark has a pleasant spicy odour, and a bitter, warm, aromatic taste. The colour of the inside of the pieces is a reddish cinnamon hue, and their fracture close and short, of a dark reddish brown or purple colour. It is very inflammable, and is easily distinguished from all other barks by emitting, when burnt and extinguished, a fragrant smell, resembling that of musk, but more agreeable. Its active constituents are partially extracted by alcohol and water, and completely by proof spirit. Ether takes up one and a half in ten parts; and, when evaporated on the surface of water, leaves a thick pellicle of bitter resin; and, dissolved in the water, a small portion of almost colourless pungent extractive. According to Tromsuorff, who analyzed it, 4696 parts yielded the following products:-Mucilage and bitter principle 864, resin 688, volatile oil 72, water 48, and woody fibre 3024 parts.2 The ethereal tincture shows extractive also to be present, of a greenish yellow colour, very fragrant and pungent.

Proof spirit is its proper menstruum.

Medical properties and uses.-This bark is a valuable carminative and tonic. It was introduced into practice as such in 1690 by Professor Stisser; and was afterwards much used in Germany, particularly by the Stahleans, as a substitute for cinchona bark in the cure of intermittent and remittent fevers3; but although they over-rated its virtues, yet it is an excellent adjunct to the bark in these diseases: rendering it, by its aromatic qualities, more agreeable to the stomach, and increasing its powers. It is successfully employed in dyspepsia, asthma, and flatulent colic : the latter stage of dysentery, and diarrhoea, particularly when occurring after measles; and in the gangrenous thrush peculiar to children.1 The dose of the powdered bark is from grs. xij. to 3j. three or four times a day.

1 The species mentioned by M. Fee are, G. tortuosa, G. packnades, G. Cas-carillcc, G.lineola, G. Serpentina, G. Caribaea, G.Afzelii.

2 Annates de Chimie, xxii. 219.

3 It was formerly often sold for the Peruvian bark, and hence was called Kina kina aromatica. Cortex Peruvianus grisseus, China china faemina, China china spuria, Cortex china nova.

Officinal preparations.-Infusum Cascarillae, L. Tinctura Cas-carillae, L. D. Extractum Cascarillae, D.

2. Croton Tiglium.

Officinal. Tiglii oleum, Lond. Oleum ex seminibus ex-pressum, Dub. Oil of Croton, or Tiglium.

Syn. Huile de Croton (F.),-------Nervallum cottay unnay ( Tam.), lummal

Gota (Duk.), Nepala (Sans.), Naypulum vittilo noonay ( Tdingoo), Dund (Pers.), Batoo {Arab.), Beri {Malay).

The plant yielding the seed from which this oil is expressed is a native of the Molucca islands, and of the greater part of the peninsula of India. It has an arboreous stem, covered with a soft blackish bark. The leaves are alternate, ovate-acuminate, serrated and smooth, with two glands seated at the base; they are supported on petioles shorter than the expansion of the leaf. The flowers are in erect terminal racemes, with downy pedicels. The seeds, which are contained in trilocular capsules, are oblong, about the size of a large coffee-bean, four-sided, flattish on two sides, and convex on the other, with four elevated ridges, running at equal distances from the base to the apex of the seed. The shell of the seed is black; but covered with a soft pale yellowish brown epidermis. The seeds abound in oil.

Croton seeds are imported into this country in cases; and, owing to the rubbing of the epidermis, when the cases are not completely filled, have generally a mouldy appearance. In this state they were formerly known in Europe under the name of Molucca grains; but as they were discarded from medical practice on account of their very drastic effects, arising from the imprudent manner in which they were exhibited, they ceased to be an article of commerce, until 1820, when the expressed oil was introduced by Mr. Conwell as a purgative : 100 parts of the kernels of the seeds when bruised yield 60 of acrid oil, and 40 of farinaceous matter. The acrid principle resides chiefly in the testa or skin of the cotyledons and the corculum or embryon, and is mixed with the oil of the cotyledons in its expression. The goodness of the oil, therefore, depends on the seeds being shelled before they are bruised. In India the seeds are prepared for medicinal use by slightly roasting them, which enables the testa to be readily separated. One or two grains act as a powerful cathartic. One hundred parts of the seeds consist of 36 parts of testa and 66 of kernel.

The kernel yields 60 per cent. of oil.1

1 Underwood, Diseases of Children, 4th edit, i, 79.

Qualities.- Croton oil is of a pale reddish yellow colour. Its taste is hot and acrid; and it leaves an uneasy feeling in the mouth and throat, which continues for many hours. Even a minute portion of the kernel of the seed, when chewed, leaves a hot pungent sensation on the tongue, which remains for twenty-four hours. The oil is wholly soluble in ether and oil of turpentine. Alcohol takes up two parts out of three, and the solution possesses the acrimony and the cathartic properties of the oil, whilst the undissolved portion is devoid of acrimony, and inert when taken into the stomach. But much of what is taken up by the alcohol is fixed oil: and, from the experiments of Dr. Nimmo, croton oil is composed of 45 parts of an acrid principle, which is a compound of a resin and an acrid volatile acid, which M. Brandes has named Crotonic acid, and 55 of fixed oil, resembling the oil of olives.

Dr. Nimmo has suggested the following means of detecting adulterations of croton oil:-Pour into a phial, the weight of which is known, 50 grains of the oil; add alcohol, which has been digested on olive oil; agitate well; and, having poured off the solution, add more alcohol of the same kind until the dissolved portion is diffused in such a proportion of the alcohol that each half-drachm measure shall contain equal to one dose of the croton oil for an adult;-by placing the phial near a fire, to evaporate what remains of the alcohol in the bottle, if the remainder be to that abstracted by the alcohol as 55 to 45, the oil is genuine. If it be adulterated with any fixed oil the residuum will be larger; if with castor oil it will be smaller than in the genuine oil.2

Medical properties and uses.-Croton oil is a powerful hydragogue purgative, operating in a very short time after it is taken. It has been given with great advantage in cases of obstinate constipation, convulsions, mania, apoplexy, and other diseases which require, along with the complete evacuation of the intestines, the lessening the circulating mass. The small-ness of the dose in which this oil produces its effects requires the greatest caution to be observed in its administration, as it has

1 Nimmo. 2 Journ. of Science, vol. xiii. pp. 66-69occasionally induced the most dangerous hypercatharsis. In India, where it has long been used, ghee or butter, with orange or rice-water or cold butter-milk, and the external affusion of cold water, are employed to counteract its too violent effects, when these occur. It is also used in India as an emmenagogue with excellent effects; and as an external application in rheumatic affections.1 Diluted with two parts of olive oil, it produces an eruption of small pustules on the skin, and thence operates as a counter-irritant. In some instances the undiluted oil is used for this purpose.

Croton oil is generally administered in doses of from one to two, and in some cases five drops, made into pills with crumb of bread; or combined with mucilage of gum, sugar, and almond mixture, in the form of emulsion. Dr. Nimmo recommends the saturated alcoholic solution, in the dose of f3ss. rubbed up with simple syrup, and mucilage of gum, of each

ij., and iv. of distilled water.2