"Take of quince seeds, two drachms; water, a pint. Boil them over a gentle fire for ten minutes, then strain."

1 This title would lead to the inference, that the preparation is a decoction of the quince, and not of the seeds. It should have been Cydoniae Seminum. The old name Mucilago Seminis Cydonii Morli, P.L. 1788, was more correct than the present.

Quince seeds abound with mucus, which is extracted by boiling water. It is considerably viscid, transparent, nearly colourless, insipid, and inodorous. It is coagulated by alcohol, acids, and most of the metallic salts, which, therefore, are incompatible in formulas with it; and it must be used as soon as it is made, for it soon spoils, owing perhaps to its containing some of the other constituents of the seeds.

Medical properties and uses. - This is often preferred to the other mucilages as a local demulcent in tenesmus, and in aphthous affections and excoriations of the mouth. A diluted solution of it injected beneath the eye-lids is useful for obtund-ing the acrimony of the discharge in violent inflammations of the eye.