I.—PHÆNOGAMOUS OR FLOWERING PLANTS. (continued 21)

Liquid Socotrine aloes, imported into London about 1852, was noticed by Pereira to abound in minute crystals, which he termed the Aloïn of Socotrine Aloes, and regarded as probably identical with that of Barbados aloes. Some fine dry aloes from Zanzibar of very pale hue, in our possession, is in reality a perfectly crystalline mass.

Histed was the first to assert that the crystalline matter of Socotrine or Zanzibar aloes is a peculiar substance, according neither with barbaloïn nor with nataloïn. This observation was fully corroborated by our own experiments,[2577] made chiefly on the Zanzibar aloes just described, and we shall call the substance thus discovered Socaloïn. In this drug, the crystals are prisms of comparatively large size, such as we have never observed in Natal aloes. They cannot be so easily isolated as nataloïn, since they are nearly as soluble as the amorphous matter surrounding them. Histed recommends treating the powdered crude drug with a little alcohol, sp. gr. 0·960, and strongly pressing the pasty mass between several thicknesses of calico; then dissolving the yellow crystalline cake in warm weak alcohol, and collecting the crystals which are formed by cooling and repose.

Socaloïn forms tufted acicular prisms, which by solution in methylic alcohol may be got 2 to 3 millimetres long. It is much more soluble than nataloïn. At ordinary temperatures, 30 parts of alcohol, 9 of acetic ether, 380 of ether, 90 of water are capable of dissolving respectively one part of socaloïn; while in methylic alcohol, it is most abundantly soluble. Socaloïn is a hydrate, losing when dried over oil of vitriol 11 to 12 per cent. of water, but slowly regaining it if afterwards exposed to the air. Its elementary composition according to the analysis made by one of us (F.) is C₃₄H₃₈O₁₅ + 5 H₂O. We have not succeeded in obtaining any well-defined bromine compound of socaloïn.

The three aloïns, Barbaloïn, Nataloïn, and Socaloïn, are easily distinguished by the following beautiful reaction first noticed by Histed:—a drop of nitric acid on a porcelain slab gives with a few particles of barbaloïn or nataloïn, a vivid crimson,[2578] but produces little effect with socaloïn. To distinguish barbaloïn from nataloïn, test each by adding a minute quantity to a drop or two of oil of vitriol, then allowing the vapour from a rod touched with nitric acid to pass over the surface. Barbaloïn (and socaloïn) will undergo no change, but nataloïn will assume a fine blue.[2579]

The researches of E. von Sommaruga and Egger in Vienna (1874) have been directed in particular to the aloïn of Socotrine aloes. The melting point of this aloïn was found to be between 118° and 120° C., that of barbaloïn being much higher. The authors conclude that the three form an homologous series, that their composition may probably be represented thus:—

Barbaloïn C₁₇H₂₀O₇

Nataloïn C₁₆H₁₈O₇

Socaloïn C₁₅H₁₆O₇

They derive in all probability from anthracene, C₁₄H₁₀.

The portion of aloes insoluble in cold water was formerly distinguished as Resin of Aloes, from the soluble portion which was called Bitter of aloes or Aloëtin. From the labours of Kossmann (1863), these portions appear to have nearly the same composition. The soluble portions treated with dilute sulphuric acid, is said to yield Aloëresic and Aloëretic Acids, both crystallizable, besides the indifferent substance Aloëretin. These observations have not to our knowledge been confirmed.

It has been shown by Tilden and Rammell[2580] that the Resin of Aloes may by prolonged treatment with boiling water be separated into two bodies, which they distinguish as Soluble Resin A. and Insoluble Resin B. With the first it is possible to form a brominated compound, which though non-crystalline is apparently of definite composition. In the view of these chemists the Resin A. is a kind of anhydride of barbaloïn—Barbaloïn, 2(C₃₄H₃₆O₁₄) less H₂O = Aloe Resin A., C₆₈H₇₀O₂₇. The resin boiled with nitric acid yields a large amount of chrysammic acid, together with picric and oxalic acids, and carbonic anhydride. Insoluble Resin B. was found to have nearly the same composition as Resin A.

Aloes treated with various reagents affords a number of remarkable products. Thus, according to Rochleder and Czumpelick (1861) it yields, when boiled with soda-lye, colourless crystals an inch long, which appear to consist of a salt of Paracumaric Acid, together with small quantities of fragrant essential oils and volatile fatty acids.

When boiled with dilute sulphuric acid, aloes yields paracumaric acid, from which by fusion with caustic potash, as also directly from aloes, Hlasiwetz (1865) obtained Para-oxybenzoic Acid (p. 408). Weselsky (1872-73) has shown that accompanying the last two products, there is a peculiar, crystallizable acid, C₉H₁₀O₃, which he has named Alorcinic Acid.

By distillation with quicklime, E. Robiquet (1846) obtained Aloïsol, a yellowish oil, which Rembold (1866) proved to be a mixture of dimethylated phenol (Xylenol)

C₇H₃ (CH₃)₂

OH

Nitric acid forms with Barbadoes aloes, but still better, as Tilden has shown, with barbaloïn, Aloëtic Acid, C₁₄H₄(NO₂)₄O₂, Chrysammic Acid, C₁₄H₄(NO₂)₄O₄, and finally Picric Acid, together with Oxalic Acid. The first two of these acids are distinguished by the splendid tints of their salts, which might be utilized in dyeing.

Chlorine, passed into an aqueous solution of aloes, forms a variety of substitution-products, and finally Chloranil, C₆Cl₄O₂.

When somewhat strongly heated, aloes swells up considerably, and after ignition leaves a light, slow-burning charcoal, almost free from inorganic constituents. Ordinary Cape aloes, for example, dried at 100° C., leaves only 1 per cent. of ash.

Commerce—There were imported into the United Kingdom in the year 1870, 6264 cwt. of aloes. Of this quantity, South Africa shipped 4811 cwt.; and Barbados 970 cwt. The remainder was probably furnished by Eastern Africa.

The commercial value of the varieties of aloes is very different. In 1874, Barbados Aloes was quoted in price-currents at £3 5s. to £9 10s. per cwt.; Socotrine at £5 to £13; while Cape Aloes was offered at £1 10s. to £2. In England, the first two alone are allowed for pharmaceutical preparations. Even the Veterinary Pharmacopœia[2581] names only Aloë Barbadensis. Cape Aloes is esteemed on the Continent, and chiefly consumed there.

Use—Aloes is a valuable purgative in very common use, it is generally given combined with other drugs.

Adulteration—The physical characters of aloes, such as colour of the powder, odour, consistence and freedom from obvious impurity, coupled with its solubility in weak alcohol, usually suffice for determining its goodness.

BULBUS SCILLÆ.

Radix Scillæ; Squill; F. Bulbe ou squames de Scille, Ognon marin; G. Meerzwiebel.

Botanical Origin—Urginea maritima Baker[2582] (Scilla maritima L., Urginea Scilla Steinheil). It is found generally in the regions bordering the Mediterranean, as in Southern France, Italy, Dalmatia, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, North Africa and the Mediterranean islands. In Sicily, where it grows most abundantly, Urginea ascends to elevations of 3000 feet. It is also very common throughout the South of Spain, where it is by no means confined to the coast; it occurs also in Portugal. In the Riviera of Genoa the peasants like to see it growing under the fig trees.

Two varieties of squill, termed respectively white and red, are distinguished by druggists. In the first, the bulb-scales are colourless; in the second they are of a roseate hue. No other difference in the plants can be pointed out, nor have the two varieties distinct areas of growth.

History—Squill is one of the most ancient of medicines. Epimenides, a Greek who lived in the 30th Olympiad, is said to have made much use of it, from which circumstance it came to be called Epimenidea[2583]. It is also mentioned by Theophrastus, and was probably well known to all the ancient Greek physicians. Pliny was not only acquainted with it, but had noticed its two varieties. Dioscorides describes the method of making vinegar of squills; and a similar preparation, as well as compounds of squill with honey, were administered by the Arabian physicians, and still remain in use. The medical school of Salerno preferred the red variety of the drug, which on the whole is not frequently met with in mediæval literature.

Description—The bulb of squill is pear-shaped, and of the size of a man’s fist or larger, often weighing more than four pounds. It has the usual structure of a tunicated bulb; its outer scales are reddish-brown, dry, scarious, and marked with parallel veins. The inner are fleshy and juicy, colourless or of a pale rose tint, thick towards the middle, very thin and delicate at the edges, smooth and shining on the surface. The fresh bulb has a mucilaginous, bitter, acrid taste, but not much odour.

For medicinal use, squill is mostly imported ready dried. The bulbs are collected in the month of August, at which period they are leafless, freed from their dry outer scales, cut transversely into thin slices, and dried in the sun. Thus prepared, the drug appears in the form of narrow, flattish or four-sided curved strips, 1 to 2 inches long, and ⅜ to ⅝ of an inch wide, flexible, translucent, of a pale dull yellowish colour, or when derived from the red variety, of a decided roseate hue. When thoroughly dried, they become brittle and pulverizable, but readily absorb water to the extent of about 11 per cent. Powdered squill by the absorption of water from the air, readily cakes together into a hard mass.

Microscopic Structure—The officinal portion of the plant being simply modified leaves, has the histological characters proper to many of those organs. The tissue is made up of polyhedral cells, covered on both sides of the scales by an epidermis provided with stomata. It is traversed by numerous vascular bundles, and also exhibits smaller bundles of laticiferous vessels. If thin slices of squill be moistened with dilute alcohol, most of the parenchymatous cells are seen to be loaded with mucilage, which contracts into a jelly on the addition of alcohol. In the interior of this jelly, crystalline particles are met with consisting of oxalate of calcium. This salt is largely deposited in cells, forming either bundles of needle-shaped crystals, or large solitary square prisms, frequently a millimetre long. In either case they are enveloped by the mucilaginous matter already mentioned. Oxalate of calcium as occurring in other plants has been shown in many instances to originate in the midst of mucilaginous matter. The fact is remarkably evident in Scilla, especially when examined in polarized light.

On shaking thin slices of the bulb with water, the crystals are deposited in sufficient quantity to become visible to the naked eye, though their weight is actually very small. Direct estimation of the oxalic acid (by titration with chamæleon solution) gave us only 3·07 per cent. of C₂CaO₄,3H₂O from white squill dried at 100° C., which moreover yielded only 2 to 5 per cent. of ash. It is these extremely sharp brittle crystals which occasion the itching and redness, and sometimes even vesication, which result from rubbing a slice of fresh squill on the skin. These effects, which have long been known, were attributed to a volatile acrid principle, until their true cause was recognized by Schroff.[2584]

The mucilage also contains albuminous matters, hence the orange colour it assumes on addition of iodine. The vascular bundles are accompanied by some rows of longitudinally extended cells, containing a small number of starch granules. In the red squill the colouring matter is contained in many of the parenchymatous cells, others being entirely devoid of it. It turns blackish-green if a persalt of iron be added.

Chemical Composition—The most abundant among the constituents of squill are mucilaginous and saccharine matters. Mucilage may be precipitated by means of neutral and basic acetate of lead, yet there remains in solution another substance of the same class, called Sinistrin. It was discovered in 1879 by Schmiedeberg, who obtained it by mixing the powder of squill, either red or white, with a solution of basic acetate of lead in slight excess. The gummy matters thus forming insoluble lead compounds being removed, the liquid is deprived of the lead and mixed with slaked lime. An insoluble compound of sinistrin and calcium separates and yields the former on decomposing the well washed precipitate with carbonic acid. The small amount of calcium remaining in the filtrate is to be removed by adding cautiously to the warm solution the small quantity just required of oxalic acid. Lastly, sinistrin is thrown down by alcohol. It is a white amorphous powder, on exposure to air soon forming transparent brittle lumps. The composition of sinistrin is that of dextrin = C₆H₁₀O₅, both these substances being very closely allied, yet the aqueous solution of sinistrin deviates the plane of polarization to the left. The rotatory power appears not to be much influenced by the concentration or the temperature of the solution of sinistrin.

An alkaline solution of tartrate of copper is not acted upon by sinistrin. It is transformed into sugar by boiling it for half an hour with water containing 1 per cent. of sulphuric acid. The sugar thus produced is stated by Schmiedeberg to consist of lævulose[2585] and another sugar, which in all probability, when perfectly pure, must prove devoid of rotatory power.

The name sinistrin[2586] has also been applied to a mucilaginous matter extracted from barley (see Hordeum decorticatum); it remains to be proved that the latter is identical with the sinistrin of squill.

We have obtained a considerable amount of an uncrystallizable levogyre sugar by exhausting squill with dilute alcohol.[2587] Alcohol added to an aqueous infusion of squill causes the separation of the mucilage, together with albuminoid matter. If the alcohol is evaporated and a solution of tannic acid is added, the latter will combine with the bitter principle of squill, which has not yet been isolated, although several chemists have devoted to it their investigations, and applied to it the names of Scillitin or Skuleïn. Schroff, to whom we are indebted for a valuable monograph on Squill,[2588] infers from his physiological experiments the presence of a non-volatile acrid principle (Skulein?), together with scillitin, which latter he supposes to be a glucoside.

Merck of Darmstadt has isolated Scillipicrin, soluble in water; Scillitoxin, likewise a bitter principle, insoluble in water, but readily dissolving in alcohol; and Scillin, a crystalline substance, abundantly soluble in boiling ether. The physiological action of these substances and of Scillaïn has been examined (1878) by Moeller, and by Jarmersted (1879); that of scillitoxin and scillaïn was found to be analogous to that of Digitalis.

Commerce—Dried squill, usually packed in casks, is imported into England from Malta.

Use—Commonly employed as a diuretic and expectorant.

Substitutes—There are several plants of which the bulbs are used in the place of the officinal squill, but which, owing to the abundance and low price of the latter, never appear in the European market.

1. Urginea altissima Baker (Ornithogalum altissimum L.), a South African species, very closely related to the common squill, and having, as it would appear, exactly the same properties.[2589]

2. U. indica Kth. (Scilla indica Roxb.), a widely diffused plant, occurring in Northern India, the Coromandel Coast, Abyssinia, Nubia, and Senegambia. It is known by the same Arabic and Persian names as U. maritima, and its bulb is used for similar purposes. But according to Moodeen Sheriff[2590] it is a poor substitute for the latter, having little or no action when it is old and large.

3. Scilla indica Baker[2591] (non Roxb.), (Ledebouria hyacinthina Roth), native of India and Abyssinia, has a bulb which is often confused in the Indian bazaars with the preceding, but is easily distinguishable when entire by being scaly (not tunicated); it is said to be a better representative of the European squill.[2592]

4. Drimia ciliaris Jacq., a plant of the Cape of Good Hope, of the order Liliaceæ. Its bulb much resembles the officinal squill, but has a juice so irritating if it comes in contact with the skin, that the plant is called by the colonists Jeukbol, i.e. Itch-bulb. It is used medicinally as an emetic, expectorant, and diuretic.[2593]

5. Crinum asiaticum var. toxicarium Herbert (C. toxicarium Roxb.), a large plant, with handsome white flowers and noble foliage, cultivated in Indian gardens, and also found wild in low humid spots in various parts of India and the Moluccas, and on the sea-coast of Ceylon. The bulb has been admitted to the Pharmacopœia of India (1868), chiefly on the recommendation of O’Shaughnessy, who considers it a valuable emetic. We have not been able to examine a specimen, and cannot learn that the drug has been the subject of any chemical investigation.

MELANTHACEÆ.

RHIZOMA VERATRI ALBI.

Radix Veratri, Radix Hellebori albi; White Hellebore; F. Racine d’Ellébore blanc; G. Weisse Nieswurzel, Germer.

Botanical Origin—Veratrum album L.—This plant occurs in moist grassy places in the mountain regions of Middle and Southern Europe, as Auvergne, the Pyrenees, Spain, Switzerland, and Austria. In Norway it reaches, according to Schübeler (l. c. p. 556), the latitude of 71°. It also grows throughout European and Asiatic Russia as far as 61° N. lat., in Amurland, the island of Saghalin, Northern China, and Japan.

History—The confusion that existed among the ancients between Melampodium, Helleborus, and Veratrum, makes the identification of the plant under notice extremely unsatisfactory.[2594] It was perfectly described or figured by Brunfels, Tragus, and other botanists of the 16th century, and likewise well known to Gerarde (circa a.d. 1600). Under the names of Elleborus (or Helleborus albus) and Veratrum, it has had a place in all the London Pharmacopœias. In the British Pharmacopœia (1867) it has been replaced by the nearly allied American species, Veratrum viride Aiton.

Description—White Hellebore has a cylindrical, fleshy, perennial rootstock, 2 to 3 inches in length, and ¾ to 1 inch in diameter, beset with long stout roots. When fresh it has an alliaceous smell. In the dried state, as it occurs in commerce, it is cylindrical or subconical, of a dull earthy black, very rough in its lower half with the pits and scars of old roots; more or less beset above with the remains of recent roots. The top is crowned with the bases of the leaves, the outer of which are coarsely fibrous. The plant has generally been cut off close to the summit of the rhizome, which latter is seldom quite entire, being often broken at its lower end, or cut transversely to facilitate drying. Internally it is nearly colourless; a transverse section shows a broad white ring surrounding a spongy pale buff central portion.

The drug has a sweetish, bitterish acrid taste, leaving on the tongue a sensation of numbness and tingling. In the state of powder, it occasions violent sneezing.

Microscopic Structure—When cut transversely, the rhizome shows at a distance of 2-4 mm. from the thin dark outer bark, a fine brown zigzag line (medullary sheath) surrounding the central part, which exhibits a pith not well defined. The zone between the outer bark and the medullary sheath is pure white, with the exception of some isolated cells containing resin or colouring matter, and those places where the rootlets pass from the interior. The latter is sprinkled as it were, with short, thin somewhat lighter bundles of vessels which run irregularly out in all directions. The parenchyme of the centre rhizome is filled with starch, and contains numerous needles of calcium oxalate. The rootlets, which the collectors usually remove, are living and juicy only in the upper half of the rhizome, the lower part of which is rather woody and porous.

Chemical Composition—In 1819 Pelletier and Caventou detected in the rhizome of Veratrum a substance which they regarded as identical with veratrine, the existence of which had just been discovered by Meissner in cebadilla seeds. But according to the observations of Maisch (1870) and Dragendorff,[2595] the veratrine of cebadilla cannot be found either in Veratrum album or V. viride.

Simon (1837) found in the root the alkaloid Jervine, Tobien (1877) the Veratroïdine, discovered by Bullock (1876) in Veratrum viride. Tobien assigns to jervine the formula C₂₇H₄₇N₂O₈; that of veratroïdine is not yet settled. The latter is to some extent soluble in water.

Weppen (1872) has isolated from this drug Veratramarin, an amorphous, deliquescent, bitter principle. It occurs in minute quantity only, and is resolvable into sugar and other products. Veratramarin dissolves in water or spirit of wine, not in ether or in chloroform. The same observer has also isolated, to the extent of ½ per mille, Jervic Acid in hard crystals of considerable size,[2596] of the composition C₁₄H₁₀O₁₂ + 2 H₂O. The acid requires 100 parts of water for solution at the ordinary temperature, and a little less of boiling alcohol. It is decidedly acid, and forms well-defined crystallizable salts, containing 4 atoms of the monovalent metals.

By exhausting the entire rhizome (roots included) with ether and anhydrous alcohol, we obtained 25·8 per cent. of soft resin, which deserves further examination. Pectic matter to the amount of 10 per cent. was pointed out by Wiegand in 1841.

According to Schroff (1860), in the rootlets the active principle resides in the cortical part, the woody central portion being inert. He also asserts that the rhizome acts less strongly than the rootlets, and in a somewhat different manner.

Commerce—The drug is imported from Germany in bales. The price-currents distinguish Swiss and Austrian, and generally name the drug as “without fibre.”

Uses—Veratrum is an emetic and drastic purgative, rarely used internally. It is occasionally employed in the form of ointment in scabies. Its principal consumption is in veterinary medicine.

Substitutes—The rhizome of the Austrian Veratrum nigrum L. is said to be sometimes collected instead of White Hellebore; it is of much smaller size, and, according to Schroff, less potent. That of the Mexican Helonias frigida Lindley (Veratrum frigidum Schl.) appears to exactly resemble that of Veratrum album.

RHIZOMA VERATRI VIRIDIS.

American White Hellebore,[2597] Indian Poke.

Botanical Origin—Veratrum viride Aiton, a plant in every respect closely resembling V. album, of which it is one of the numerous forms. In fact, the green-coloured variety of the latter (V. Lobelianum Bernh.), a plant not uncommon in the mountain meadows of the Alps, comes so near to the American V. viride that we are unable to point out any important character by which the two can be separated.[2598] The American Veratrum is common in swamps and low grounds from Canada to Georgia.

History—The aborigines of North America were acquainted with the active properties of this plant before their intercourse with Europeans, using it according to Josselyn,[2599] who visited the country in 1638-1671, as a vomit in a sort of ordeal. He calls it White Hellebore, and states that it is employed by the colonists as a purgative, antiscorbutic and insecticide.

Kalm (1749) states[2600] that the early settlers used a decoction of the roots to render their seed-maize poisonous to birds, which were made “delirious” by eating the grain, but not killed; and this custom was still practised in New England in 1835 (Osgood).

The effects of the drug have been repeatedly tried in the United States during the present century; and about 1862, in consequence of the strong recommendations of Drs. Osgood, Norwood, Cutter, and others, it began to be prescribed in this country.

Description—In form, internal structure, odour and taste, the rhizome and roots accord with those of Veratrum album; yet owing to the method of drying and preparing for the market, the American veratrum is immediately distinguishable from the White Hellebore of European commerce. We have met with it in three forms:—

1. The rhizome with roots attached, usually cut lengthwise into quarters, sometimes transversely also, densely beset with the pale brown roots, which towards their extremities are clothed with slender fibrous rootlets.

2. Rhizome and roots compressed into solid rectangular cakes, an inch in thickness.

3. The rhizome per se, sliced transversely and dried. It forms whitish, buff, or brownish discs, ½ to 1 inch or more in diameter, much shrunken and curled by drying. This is the form in which the drug is required by the United States Pharmacopœia.

Chemical Composition—No chemical difference between Veratrum viride and V. album has yet been ascertained. The presence of veratrine, suspected by previous chemists, was asserted by Worthington[2601] in 1839, J. G. Richardson of Philadelphia in 1857, and S. R. Percy in 1864. Scattergood[2602] obtained from the American drug 0·4 per cent. of this alkaloid, which however, in consequence of some observations of Dragendorff (p. 694), we must hold to be not identical with that of cebadilla. As stated in a previous page jervine and veratroïdine are present as in the White Hellebore of Europe. Robbins[2603] further isolated Veratridine, a crystallized alkaloid possessed of a similar physiological action to that of veratrine, though in a less degree. Veratridine is readily soluble in ether; its solution in concentrated sulphuric acid is at first yellow, changing quickly to a pink-red, and, after several hours’ standing, assumes a clear indigo-blue colour, much the same as that displayed by veratrine if mixed with sugar (Weppen’s test, 1874). The resin of the drug may be prepared by exhausting it with alcohol and precipitating with boiling acidulated water, repeating the process in order to entirely eliminate the alkaloids. It is a dark brown mass, yielding about a fourth of its weight to ether. Scattergood obtained it to the extent of 4½ per cent. By exhausting the drug successively with ether, absolute alcohol and spirit of wine, we extracted from it not less than 31 per cent. of a soft resinoid mass. Worthington pointed out the presence of gallic acid and of sugar.

Uses—Veratrum viride has of late been much recommended as a cardiac, arteral and nervous sedative. It is stated to lower the pulse, the respiration and beat of the body, not to be narcotic, and rarely to occasion purging;[2604] but to what principle these effects are due has not yet been ascertained. By some observers, as Bigelow,[2605] Fée,[2606] Schroff,[2607] and Oulmont,[2608] it is alleged to have the same medicinal powers as the European Veratrum album.

SEMEN SABADILLÆ.

Fructus Sabadillæ; Cebadilla, Cevadilla; F. Cévadille; G. Sabadillsamen, Läusesamen.

Botanical Origin—Asagræa officinalis Lindley (Veratrum officinale Schlecht, Sabadilla officinarum Brandt, Schœnocaulon officinale A. Gray).—A bulbous plant, growing in Mexico, in grassy places on the eastern declivities of the volcanic range of the Cofre de Perote, and Orizaba, near Teosolo, Huatusco and Zacuapan, down to the sea-shore, also in Guatemala. Cebadilla is (or was) cultivated near Vera Cruz, Alvarado and Tlacatalpan in the Gulf of Mexico.

Another form of Asagræa, first noticed by Berg,[2609] but of late more particularly by Ernst of Caracas, who thinks it may constitute a distinct species, is found in plenty on grassy slopes, 3,500 to 4,000 feet above the sea-level, in the neighbourhood of Caracas, and southward in the hilly regions bordering the valley of the Tuy.[2610] It differs chiefly in having broader and more carinate leaves.[2611] Of late years it has furnished large quantities of seed, which, freed from their capsules, have been shipped from La Guaira to Hamburg.

History—Cebadilla was first described in 1517 by Monardes, who states that it is used by the Indians of New Spain as a caustic and corrosive application to wounds; but it does not seem to have been brought into European commerce, for neither Parkinson who described it in 1640 as the Indian Causticke Barley, nor Ray (1693) did more than copy from Monardes. It was regarded in Germany a rare drug even in 1726, but in the latter half of the last century it began to be recommended in France and Germany for the destruction of pediculi. A famous composition for this purpose was the Poudre des Capucins, consisting of a mixture of stavesacre, tobacco, and cebadilla, which was applied either dry or made into an ointment with lard.[2612] Cebadilla was also administered combined into a pill with gamboge and valerian,[2613] for the destruction of intestinal worms, but its virulent action made it hazardous.

Upon the introduction of veratrine into medicine about 1824 cebadilla attracted some notice, and was occasionally prescribed in the form of tincture and extract; but it subsequently fell into disuse, and is now only employed for the manufacture of veratrine.

Description—Each fruit consists of three oblong pointed follicles, about ½ an inch in length, surrounded below by the remains of the 6-partite calyx, and attached to a short pedicel. The follicles are united at the base, spread somewhat towards the apex, and open by their ventral suture. They are of a light brown colour and papery substance. Each usually contains two-pointed narrow black seeds, ³/₁₀ of an inch in length, which are shining, rugose, and angular or concave by mutual pressure. The compact testa encloses an oily albumen, at the base of which, opposite to the beaked apex, lies the small embryo. The seed is inodorous and has a bitter acrid taste; when powdered, it produces violent sneezing.

Microscopic Structure—A transverse section shows the horny concentrically radiated albumen, closely attached to the testa. The latter consists of an outer layer of cuboid cells, and three rows of smaller, thin-walled, tangentially-extended cells, all of which have brown walls. The tissue of the albumen is made up of large porous cells, containing drops of oil, granules of albuminoid matter, and mucilage. Traces of tannic acid occur only in the outer layers of the seed.

Chemical Composition—Meissner, an apothecary of Halle, Prussia, in 1819 discovered in cebadilla a basic substance, which he termed Sabadilline; in publishing, in 1821, the description of it the word “alkaloid” was introduced by Meissner at that occasion. The name Veratrine[2614] was applied likewise in 1819 by Pelletier and Caventou to a similar preparation. For many years this substance was known only as an amorphous powder, in which state it frequently contained a considerable proportion of resin; but in 1855 it was obtained by G. Merck in large rhombic prisms. Cebadilla yields only about 3 per mille of veratrine. The alkaloid is easily soluble in spirit of wine, ether or chloroform; these solutions, as well as the watery solutions of its salts, are devoid of rotatory power. Veratrine, like the drug from which it is derived, occasions, if inhaled, prolonged sternutation.

Again, in 1834, Conerbe described an alkaloid from cebadilla under the name of Sabadilline, and Weigelin (1871) another called Sabatrine.

From the investigations of Wright and Luff (1878) it appears that the above-mentioned statements must be resumed thus:—There are in cebadilla three alkaloids, namely Veratrine, C₃₇H₅₃NO₁₁, Cevadine, C₃₂H₄₉NO₉, and Cevadilline, C₃₄H₅₃NO₈, the second only being crystallizable.

Veratrin may be decomposed by means of caustic lye into a new alkaloid, verine, and dimethyl-protocatechuic acid,

C₆H₃ (OCH₃)₂

COOH

By the same treatment, cevadine yields an acid which appears to be identical with tiglinic acid (page 566), and an alkaloid called cevine.

Cebadilla yielded to Pelletier and Caventou a volatile fatty acid, Sabadillic or Cevadic Acid, the needle-shaped crystals of which fuse at 20° C. Lastly, E. Merck (1839) found a second peculiar acid termed Veratric Acid, affording quadrangular prisms, which can be sublimed without decomposition. It is yielded by cebadilla to the extent of but ⅙ per mille. It has been shown in 1876 by Körner to be identical with dimethyl-protocatechuic acid just mentioned (see also our article Tubera Aconiti, p. 9).

Commerce—The quantity of cebadilla (seeds only) shipped in 1876 from La Guaira, the port of Caracas, was 35,033 kilos., of which 25,966 went to Germany. No other sort is now imported.

Uses—Cebadilla is at present, we believe, only used as the source of veratrine. In Mexico, the bulb of the plant is employed as an anthelminthic, under the name of Cebolleja, but it is said to be very dangerous in its action.

CORMUS COLCHICI.

Tuber vel Bulbus vel Radix Colchici; Meadow Saffron Root; F. Bulbe de Colchique; G. Zeitlosenknollen.

Botanical Origin—Colchicum autumnale L.—This plant grows in meadows and pastures over the greater part of Northern Africa, Middle and Southern Europe, and is plentiful in many localities in England and Ireland. In the Swiss Alps, it ascends to an elevation of 5500 feet above the sea-level.

History—Dioscorides drew attention to the poisonous properties of Κολχικὸν, which he stated to be a plant growing in Messenia and Colchis.[2615]

This character for deleterious qualities seems to have prevented the use of colchicum both in classical and mediæval times. Thus Tragus (1552) warns his readers against its use in gout, for which it is recommended in the writings of the Arabians. Jacques Grévin, a physician of Paris, author of Deux Livres des Venins, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth of England, and printed at Antwerp in 1568, observes—“ce poison est ennemy de la nature de l’homme en tout et par tout.” Dodoens calls it perniciosum Colchicum; and Lyte in his translation of this author (1578) says—“Medow or Wilde Saffron is corrupt and venomous, therefore not used in medicine.” Gerarde declares the roots of “Mede Saffron” to be “very hurtfull to the stomacke.”

Wedel published in 1718, at Jena, an essay De Colchico veneno et alexipharmaco, in which, to show the great disfavour in which this plant had been held, he remarks,—“hactenus ... velut infame habitum et damnatum fuit colchicum, indignum habitum inter herbas medicas vel officinales....” He further states that, in the 17th century, the corms were worn by the peasants in some parts of Germany as a charm against the plague.

In the face of these severe denunciations, it is strange to find that in the London Pharmacopœia of 1618 (the second edition), “Radix Colchici,” as well as Hermodactylus, is enumerated among the simple drugs; and again in the editions of 1627, 1632 and 1639. It is omitted in that of 1650, and does not reappear in subsequent editions until 1788, when owing to the investigations of Störck (1763), Kratochwill (1764), De Berge (1765), Ehrmann (1772), and others, the possibility of employing it usefully in medicine had been made evident.

Development of the Corm[2616]—At the period of flowering, the corm is surrounded with a brown, closed double membrane or tunic, which is prolonged upwards into a sheath around the flowering stem; at the base of the corm is a tuft of simple roots. On removing the membranes, we find a large, ovoid, fleshy body (Corm No. 1), marked at its apex by a depressed scar, the point of attachment of the flower-stem of the previous year; it is on one side flattened, and traversed by a shallow longitudinal furrow, from the upper part of which arises a much smaller and rudimentary corm (No. 2), bearing a flower-stem. After the production of the flower in the autumn, Corm No. 2 increases in size, throwing up as spring advances its fruit-stem and leaves, and acquires, after these latter have come to maturity, its full development. Corm No. 1 on the other hand, having performed its functions, shrivels and diminishes in size, in proportion as No. 2 advances to maturity, and ultimately decays, leaving a rounded cicatrix, showing its point of attachment to its successor.

Collection—In England the corms are usually dug up and brought to market in July, at the period between the decay of the foliage and the production of the flower, or even after the latter has appeared. For some preparations, they are used in the fresh state. If to be dried, it is customary to slice them across thinly and evenly with a knife, and to dry the slices quickly in a stove with a gentle heat; the membranes are afterwards removed by sifting or winnowing.

Schroff has stated, as the result of his experiments,[2617] that the corms possess the greatest medicinal activity when collected in the autumn during or after inflorescence; that they ought to be dried entire, by exposure to the sun and air; and that if thus preserved, they lose none of their strength, even if kept for several years.

Description—The fresh corm is conical or inversely pear-shaped, about 2 inches long by an inch or more wide, rounded on one side, flattish on the other, covered by a bright brown, membranous skin, within which is a second of paler colour. When cut transversely, it appears white, firm, fleshy and homogeneous, abounding in a bitter, starchy juice, of disagreeable odour. The dried slices are inodorous, and have a bitterish taste. They should be of a good white, clean, crisp and brittle,—not mouldy or stained.

Microscopic Structure—The outer membrane is formed of tangentially-extended cells, with thick brownish walls; the main body of the corm, of large thin-walled, more or less regularly globular cells, loaded with starch, and interrupted by vascular bundles containing spiral vessels. The original form of the starch granules is globular or egg-shaped, but from mutual pressure and agglutination, many are angular or truncated. A large proportion are more or less compound, consisting of several granules united into one. In all, the hilum is very distinct, appearing in some as a mere point, but in most as a line or star.

Chemical Composition—The corms contain Colchicin (see next article), starch, sugar, gum, resin, tannin, and fat. When sliced and dried, they lose about 70 per cent. of water.[2618] By drying, the (probably) volatile body upon which the odour of the fresh corm depends, is lost.

Uses—Colchicum is much prescribed in cases of gout, rheumatism, dropsy, and cutaneous maladies.

Other medicinal species of Colchicum.

Under the name Hermodactylus,[2619] the corms of other species of Colchicum of Eastern origin anciently enjoyed great reputation in medicine. These corms are in structure precisely like those of ordinary colchicum; they are entire, but deprived of membranous envelopes, of a flattened, heart-shaped form, not wrinkled on the surface, and often very small in size. The starch grains they contain are similar to those of C. autumnale, but in some specimens twice as large.

There is a great uncertainty as to the species of Colchicum which furnish hermodactyls. Prof. J. E. Planchon, who has written an elaborate article on the subject,[2620] is in favour of C. variegatum L., a native of the Levant. But one can hardly suppose this plant to be the source of the hermodactyls (Sūrinjān) of the Indian bazaars, which are stated to be brought from Kashmir.

SEMEN COLCHICI.

Colchicum Seed; F. Semence de Colchique; G. Zeitlosensamen.

Botanical Origin—Colchicum autumnale L., see page 699. The inflated capsule, which grows up in the spring after the disappearance of the flower in the autumn, is three-celled, dehiscent towards the apex by its ventral sutures, and contains, attached to the inner angle of the carpels, numerous globular seeds, which arrive at maturity in the latter part of the summer.

History—Colchicum seeds were introduced into medical practice by Dr. W. H. Williams, of Ipswich, about 1820, on the ground of their being more certain in action than the corm.[2621] They were admitted to the London Pharmacopœia in 1824.

Description—The seeds are of globose form, about ⅒ of an inch in diameter, somewhat pointed by a strophiole, which when dry is not very evident. They are rather rough and dull; when recent of a pale brown, but become darker by drying, and at the same time exude a sort of saccharine matter. They are inodorous even when fresh, but have a bitter acrid taste; they are very hard and difficult to powder.

Microscopic Structure—The reticulated, brown coat of the seed consists of a few rows of large, thin-walled tangentially-extended cells, considerably smaller towards the interior, the outermost containing starch grains in small number. The thin testa is closely adherent to the horny greyish albumen. The cells of the latter are remarkable for their thick walls, showing wide pores; they contain granular plasma and oil-drops. The very small leafless embryo may be observed on transverse section close beneath the testa on the side opposite the strophiole.

Chemical Composition—The active principle of colchicum seed is termed Colchicin, but the chemists who have made it the subject of investigation are not agreed as to its properties. Thus Oberlin (1856) showed it to contain nitrogen, but without possessing basic properties. By treatment with acids, the amorphous colchicin yields a crystallizable body, Colchiceïn. Hübler (1864) prepared colchicin in the same way by which the so-called “bitter principles,” like dulcamarin (p. 451) are obtainable. He assigned to colchiceïn acid qualities and, strangely enough, the same formula he gave for colchicin itself, namely C₁₇H₁₉NO₅. Maisch[2622] as well as Diehl[2623] again obtained discrepant results. Colchicin of definite composition has not yet been isolated.

It would appear that in an aqueous or alcoholic extract of the seed an extremely small amount of an alkaloid is present, but that a basic substance is immediately formed on addition of mineral acids, or also oxalic acid. This suggestion is to some extent supported by the following facts:—

By adding the usual test solution for alkaloids, i.e. iodohydrogyrate of potassium (50 grammes of iodide of potassium, 13·5 of perchloride of mercury in one litre), to an aqueous solution of an alcoholic extract of the seeds, a very slight turbidity, or an insignificant precipitate is observed. Yet on addition of sulphuric, or nitric, or hydrochloric acid, an abundant precipitate of a beautiful yellow is at once produced. This experiment succeeds with a few seeds, either entire or powdered; it may be conveniently applied for the detection of colchicum in any preparation. We have ascertained that the yellow precipitate can be obtained also with the other parts of the plant. If the yellow compound is decomposed by sulphuretted hydrogen, the filtrate, after due concentration, now precipitates immediately on addition of the iodohydrogyrate, yet still more abundantly in presence of a mineral acid.

The seeds contain traces of gallic acid, much sugar and fatty oil. Of the last we obtained 6·6 per cent. by exhausting the dried seed with ether. The oil concreted at -8° C. Rosenwasser (1877) obtained 8·4 per cent. of the oil.

Uses—The same as those of the corm.

SMILACEÆ.

RADIX SARSAPARILLÆ.

Radix Sarzæ vel Sarsæ; Sarsaparilla; F. Racine de Salsepareille; G. Sarsaparillwurzel.

Botanical Origin—Sarsaparilla is afforded by several plants of the genus Smilax, indigenous to the northern half of South America, and the whole of Central America as far as the southern and western coast-lands of Mexico.

These plants are woody climbers, often ascending lofty trees by the strong tendrils which spring from the petiole of the leaf. Their stems are usually angular, armed with stout prickles, and thrown up from a large woody rhizome. The medicinal species inhabit swampy tropical forests, which are extremely deleterious to the health of Europeans, and can only be explored amid great difficulties. This circumstance taken in connexion with the facts that the plants are diœcious, that their scandent habit often renders their flowers and fruits (produced at different seasons) inaccessible, and that their leaves vary exceedingly in form,[2624] explains why we are but very imperfectly acquainted with the botanical sources of sarsaparilla.

It is not too much to assert that the sarsaparilla plant of no district in Tropical America is scientifically well known. The species moreover, to which the drug is assigned, have for the most part been founded upon characters that are totally insufficient, so that after an attentive study of herbarium specimens, we are obliged to regard as still doubtful several of the plants that have been named by previous writers.

Having made these preliminary remarks, we will enumerate the plants to which the sarsaparilla of commerce has been ascribed.

1. Smilax officinalis H.B.K.—This plant was obtained in the year 1805, by Humboldt, at Bajorque, a village since swept away by the stream, about in 7° N. lat., on the Magdalena in New Granada. The specimens, comprising only a few imperfect leaves, which we have examined in the National Herbarium of Paris, are the materials upon which Kunth founded the species. Humboldt[2625] states, that quantities of the root are shipped by way of Mompox and Cartagena to Jamaica and Cadiz.

In 1853 this plant was again gathered at Bajorque by the late De Warszewicz, who sent to one of us (H.) leaves and stems, accompanied by the root, which latter agrees with the Jamaica Sarsaparilla of commerce. But at Bajorque the root is no longer collected for exportation.

The same botanical collector, at the request of one of us, obtained in the year 1851, on the volcano and Cordillera of Chiriqui in Costa Rica, fruits, leaves, stems, and roots, of the plant there collected by the Indians as Sarsa peluda or Sarson. These specimens agree, so far as comparison is possible, with those of the Bajorque plant, while the root is undistinguishable from the Jamaica sarsaparilla of the shops. Other specimens of the same plant, gathered by the same collector in 1853, were forwarded to England with a living root, which latter however could not be made to grow.

Finally, in 1869, Mr. R. B. White obligingly communicated to us leaves and roots of a sarsaparilla collected at Patia in New Granada, which apparently belongs to the same species.

In the island of Jamaica, there has been cultivated for many years, and of late with a view to medicinal use, a sarsaparilla plant which appears to be Smilax officinalis. The specimens transmitted to us[2626] include neither flowers nor fruits; but the leaves and square stem accord exactly with those of the plant collected at Bajorque. The root is of a light cinnamon-brown, and far more amylaceous than the so-called Jamaica Sarsaparilla of commerce (see p. 710).

2. Smilax medica Schl. et Cham.—This species,[2627] which was discovered in Mexico by Schiede in 1820, is without doubt the source of the sarsaparilla shipped from Vera Cruz. According to our observations, it has a flexuose (or zigzag) stem, and much smaller foliage than S. officinalis; the leaves, though very variable, often assume an auriculate form, with broad, obtuse, basal lobes.

It grows on the eastern slopes of the Mexican Andes, and is the only species of that region of which the roots are collected. These, according to Schiede, are dug up all the year round, dried in the sun and made into bundles.

Doubt and confusion hang over the other species of Smilax which have been quoted as the sources of sarsaparilla. S. syphilitica H.B.K., with flowers in a raceme of umbels, discovered on the Cassiquiare in New Granada, and well figured by Berg and Schmidt from an authentic specimen, appears from Pöppig’s statements to yield some of the sarsaparilla shipped at Pará. But Kunth states that Pöppig’s plant, gathered near Ega, is not that of Humboldt and Bonpland. Spruce, who collected S. syphilitica (herb. No. 3779) in descending the Rio Negro in 1854, has informed us that the Indians in various places in the Amazon valley always strenuously asserted it to be a species worthless for “Salsa.”

S. papyracea, described by Poiret[2628] in 1804, and figured by Martius,[2629] is but very imperfectly known. It has foliage resembling that of S. officinalis, but, judging from Spruce’s specimens (No. 1871) collected on the Rio Negro, a multangular stem. It is probably the source of the Pará Sarsaparilla.

S. cordato-ovata Rich. is a doubtful plant, perhaps identical with S. Schomburgkiana Knth., a Panama species. Pöppig alleges that its root is mixed with that of the plant which he calls S. syphilitica.

S. Purhampuy Ruiz, a Peruvian species, said to afford a valuable sort of sarsaparilla, is practically unknown, and is not admitted by Kunth.[2630]

No new information on the several above mentioned species of Smilax is found in the review of this genus by A. and C. De Candolle,[2631] where 105 American species are enumerated.

History—Monardes[2632] has recorded that sarsaparilla was first introduced to Seville about the year 1536 or 1545, from New Spain; and a better variety soon afterwards from Honduras. He further narrates that a drug of excellent quality was subsequently imported from the province of Quito, that it was collected in the neighbourhood of Guayaquil, and was of a dark hue, and larger and thicker than that of Honduras.

Pedro de Cieza de Leon, in his Chronicle of Peru,[2633] which contains the observations made by him in South America between 1532 and 1550, gives a particular account of the sarsaparilla which grows in the province of Guayaquil and the adjacent island of Puna, and recommends the sudorific treatment of syphilis, exactly as pursued at the present time.

These statements are confirmed by the testimony of other writers. Thus, João Rodriguez de Castello Branco, commonly known as Amatus Lusitanus, a Portuguese physician of Jewish origin, who practised chiefly in Italy, has left a work recording his medical experiences and narrating cases of successful treatment.[2634] One of the latter concerns a patient suffering from acute rheumatism, for whom he finally prescribed Sarsaparilla. This drug, he explains, has of late years been brought from the newly found country of Peru, that it is in long whip-like roots, growing from the stock of a sort of bramble resembling a vine, that the Spaniards call it Zarza parrilla, and that it is an excellent medicine.

About the same period, sarsaparilla was described by Auger Ferrier,[2635] a physician of Toulouse, who states that in the treatment of syphilis, which he calls Lues Hispanica, it is believed to be better than either China root or Lignum sanctum. Girolamo Cardano of Milan, in a little work called De radice Cina et Sarza Parilia judicium,[2636] expresses similar opinions. After so strong recommendations, the drug soon found its way to the pharmaceutical stores; we find it quoted for instance in 1563, in the tariff of the “Apotheke” of the little town of Annaberg in Saxony.[2637] We have also noticed “Sarsaparilla” in the Ricettario Fiorentino of the year 1573.[2638] Gerarde,[2639] who wrote about the close of the century, states that the sarsaparilla of Peru is imported into England in abundance.

Collection of the Root—Mr. Richard Spruce, the enterprising botanical explorer of the Amazon valley, has communicated to us the following particulars on this subject, which we give in his own graphic words:—

“When I was at Santarem on the Amazon in 1849-50, where considerable quantities of sarsaparilla are brought in from the upper regions of the river Tapajóz, and again when on the Upper Rio Negro and Uaupés in 1851-53, I often interrogated the traders about their criteria of the good kinds of sarsaparilla. Some of them had bought their stock of Indians of the forest, and had themselves no certain test of its genuineness or of its excellence, beyond the size of the roots, the thickest fetching the best price at Pará. Those who had gathered sarsaparilla for themselves were guided by the following characters:—1. Many stems from a root. 2. Prickles closely set. 3. Leaves thin.—The first character was (to them) alone essential, for in the species of Smilax that have solitary stems, or not more than two or three, the roots are so few as not to be worth grubbing up; whereas the multicaul species have numerous long roots,—three at least to each stem,—extending horizontally on all sides.

“In 1851, when I was at the falls of the Rio Negro, which are crossed by the equator, nine men started from the village of St. Gabriel to gather Salsa, as they called it, at the head of the river Cauaburís. During their absence I made the acquaintance of an old Indian, who told me that four years ago he had brought stools of Salsa from the Cauaburís and had planted them in a tabocál,—a clump of bamboos, indicating the site of an ancient Indian village,—on the other side of the falls, whither he invited me to go and witness the gathering of his first crop of roots. On the 23rd March, I visited the tabocál, and found some half-dozen plants of a Smilax with very prickly stems, but no flowers or fruit. At my request the Indian operated on the finest plant first. It had five stems from the crown, and numerous roots about 9 feet long, radiating horizontally on all sides. The thin covering of earth was first scraped away from the roots by hand, aided by a pointed stick; and had the salsa been the only plant occupying the ground, the task would have been easy. But the roots of the salsa were often difficult to trace among those of bamboo and other plants, which had to be cut through with a knife whenever they came in the way. The roots being at length all laid bare—(in this case it was the work of half a day, but with large plants it sometimes takes up a whole day or even more)—they were cut off near the crown, a few slender ones being allowed to remain, to aid the plant in renewing its growth. The stems also were shortened down to near the ground, and a little earth and dead leaves heaped over the crown, which would soon shoot out new stems.

“The yield of this plant, of four years’ growth, was 16 lb.—half a Portuguese arroba—of roots; but a well grown plant will afford at the first cutting from one to two arrobas. In a couple of years, a plant may be cut again, but the yield will be much smaller and the roots more slender and less starchy.”

General Description—The medicinal species of Smilax have a thick, short, knotty rhizome, called by the druggists chump, from which grow in a horizontal direction long fleshy roots, from about the thickness of a quill to that of the little finger. These roots are mostly simple, forked only towards their extremities, beset with thread-like branching rootlets of nearly uniform size, which however are not emitted to any great extent from the more slender part of the root near the stock. When fresh the root is plump,[2640] but as found in commerce in the dried state it is more or less furrowed longitudinally, at least in the vicinity of the rhizome. When examined with a good lens both roots and rootlets may be seen in some specimens to be clothed with short velvety or shaggy hairs.

The presence or absence in greater or less abundance of starch in the bark of the root is regarded as an important criterion in estimating the good quality of sarsaparilla. In England the non-amylaceous or non-mealy roots are preferred, they alone being suitable for the manufacture of the dark fluid extract that is valued by the public. On the Continent, and especially in Italy, sarsaparilla, which when cut exhibits a thick bark, pure white within, is the esteemed kind.

The more or less plentiful occurrence of starch in the roots of Smilax is a character which has no botanical significance, and appears, indeed, to vary in the same species. If one examines Jamaica sarsaparilla by shaving off a little of the bark, one finds a large majority of roots to be non-amylaceous in their entire length; but others can be picked out which, though non-amylaceous for some distance from the rhizome, acquire a starchy bark, which is white internally in their middle and lower portions;—and there are still others which are slightly starchy even as they start from the parent rhizome, becoming still more as they advance. In Guatemala sarsaparilla, which is considered a very mealy sort, it is easy to perceive that the bark is hardly amylaceous in the vicinity of the rhizome, but that it acquires an enormous deposit of fecula as it proceeds in its growth.

Sarsaparilla varies greatly in the abundance of rootlets, technically called beard, with which the roots are clothed. This character depends partly on natural circumstances, and partly on the practice of the collectors who remove or retain the rootlets at will. Dr. Rhys of Belize has stated that the proportion of rootlets depends much on the nature of the soil, their development being most favoured by moist situations.

Dry sarsaparilla has not much smell, yet when large quantities are boiled, or when a decoction is evaporated, a peculiar and very perceptible odour is emitted. The taste of the root is earthy, and not well marked, and even a decoction has no very distinctive flavour.

Microscopic Structure[2641]—On a transverse section of the root, its fibro-vascular bundles are seen to be restricted to the central part, being all enclosed by a brown ring. Within this ring the bundles are densely packed so as to form a ligneous zone. The very centre of the section consists of white medullary tissue, through which sometimes a certain number of fibro-vascular bundles are scattered. A similar medullary parenchyme is met with between the brown ring or nucleus-sheath or the epidermis. On a longitudinal section the latter exhibits several rows of elongated cells, having their outer brown walls thickened by secondary deposits. The brown nucleus-sheath, on the other hand, consists of only one row of prismatic cells, their inner and lateral walls alone having secondary deposits. The vascular bundles contain large scalariform vessels and lignified prosenchymatous cells.

The parenchymatous cells, if not devoid of solid contents, are loaded with large compound starch granules; some cells also exhibit bundles of acicular crystals of calcium oxalate. In non-mealy sarsaparilla the vessels and ligneous cells sometimes contain a yellow resin.

The various sorts of sarsaparilla differ, not only in being mealy or non-mealy, but also as regards the thickness of the ligneous zone, which in some of them is many times thinner than the diameter of the central medullary tissue. In other kinds this diameter is very much smaller. Yet the nucleus-sheath affords still better means for distinguishing the sorts of this drug, if we examine its single cells in a transverse section. The outline of such a cell may be of a square or somewhat rounded shape, or it may be more or less extended. In this case it may be extended in the direction of a radius, or in the direction of a tangent. The secondary deposits may vary in thickness.

Sorts of Sarsaparilla—In the present state of our knowledge no botanical classification of the different kinds of sarsaparilla being possible, we shall resort to the arrangement adopted by Pereira and place them in two groups,—the mealy, or those of which starch is a prevalent constituent, and the non-mealy, or those in which starch exists to a comparatively small extent.

(A.) Mealy Sarsaparillas.

1. Honduras Sarsaparilla—This drug is exported from Belize. It is made up in hanks or rolls about 30 inches long and 2½ to 4 inches or more in diameter, closely wound round with a long root so as to form a neat bundle. The hanks are united into bales by large pieces of hide, placed at top and bottom, and held together with thongs of the same, further strengthened with iron hoops.

The roots are deeply furrowed, or sometimes plump and smooth, more or less provided with beard or rootlets. In a very large proportion of their length they exhibit when cut a thick bark loaded with starch; yet in those parts which are near the rhizome the bark is brown, resinous, and non-amylaceous. They are of a pale brown, sometimes verging into orange. But the drug is subject to great variation, so that it is impossible to lay down absolutely distinctive characters.

The annual imports into the United Kingdom of sarsaparilla from British Honduras during the five years ending with 1870 averaged about 52,000 lb.

2. Guatemala Sarsaparilla—This sort of sarsaparilla, which first appeared in commerce about 1852, resembles the Honduras kind in many of its characters, and is packed in a similar manner. But it has a more decided orange hue; the roots as they start from the rhizome are lean, shrunken, and but little starchy, but they become gradually stouter (³/₁₀ inch diam.), and acquire a thick bark, which is internally very white and mealy. There is a tendency in the bark of this sarsaparilla to crack and split off, so that bare spaces showing the central woody column are not unfrequent.

According to Bentley,[2642] who examined specimens of the plant, this drug is derived from Smilax papyracea; we are not prepared to agree in this opinion.

3. Brazilian, Para or Lisbon Sarsaparilla—Though formerly held in high esteem Brazilian sarsaparilla is not now appreciated in England, and is rarely seen in the London market.[2643] It is packed in a very distinctive manner, the roots being tightly compressed into a cylindrical bundle, 3 feet or more in length and about 6 inches in diameter, firmly held together by the flexible stem of a bignoniaceous plant, closely wound round them, the ends being neatly shaved off.

(B.) Non-mealy Sarsaparillas.

4. Jamaica Sarsaparilla—To the English druggist this is the most important variety; it is that which appears to have the greatest claim to possess some medicinal activity, and it is the only sort admitted to the British Pharmacopœia. Although constantly called Jamaica sarsaparilla, it is well known that it only bears the name of Jamaica through having been formerly shipped from Central America by way of that island.[2644] At the commencement of the last century, Jamaica was an emporium for sarsaparilla, great quantities of which, according to Sloane,[2645] were brought thither from Honduras, New Spain and Peru. Its actual place of growth, according to De Warszewicz (1851), is the mountain range known as the Cordillera of Chiriqui, in that part of the isthmus of Panama adjoining the republic of Costa Rica: here the plant grows at an elevation of 4000 to 8000 feet above the level of the sea. The root is brought by the natives to Boca del Toro on the Atlantic coast for shipment.

The drug consists of roots, 6 feet or more in length, bent repeatedly so as to form bundles of 18 inches long, and 4 in diameter, which are secured by being twined round (but less trimly and closely than the Honduras sort) with a long root of the same drug. The rhizome is entirely absent, but the fibre or beard is preserved, and is reckoned a valuable portion of the drug. The roots are deeply furrowed, shrunken, and generally more slender than in the Honduras kind; the bark when shaved off with a penknife is seen to be brown, hard and non-mealy throughout. Yet it is by no means uncommon to find roots which have a smooth bark rich in starch. In colour, Jamaica sarsaparilla varies from a pale earthy brown to a deeper more ferruginous hue, the latter tint being the most esteemed.

The sarsaparilla referred to at p. 704 as grown in the island of Jamaica, is a well prepared drug, yet so pale in colour and so amylaceous, that it finds but little favour in the English market. There were exported of it from Jamaica in 1870, 1747 lb.,[2646] in 1871, 1290 lb.

5. Mexican Sarsaparilla—The roots of this variety are not made into bundles, but are packed in straight lengths of about 3 feet into bales, the chump and portion of an angular (but not square) thorny stem being frequently retained. The roots are of a pale, dull brown, lean, shrivelled, and with but few fibres. When thick and large, they have a somewhat starchy bark, but when thin and near the rhizome, they are non-amylaceous.

6. Guayaquil Sarsaparilla—An esteemed kind of sarsaparilla has long been exported from Guayaquil (p. 705). Mr. Spruce has informed us that it is obtained in most of the valleys that debouch into the plain on the western side of the Equatorial Andes, but chiefly in the valley of Alausi, where, in 1859, he saw plants of it at the junction of the small river Puma-cocha with the Yaguachi. The plant appears to be very productive, an instance being on record of as much as 75 lb. of fresh roots having been obtained from a single stock.[2647]

Guayaquil sarsaparilla differs considerably from the sorts previously noticed. It is rudely packed in large bales, and is not generally made into separate hanks. The rhizome (chump) and a portion of the stem are often present, the latter being round and not prickly. The root is dark, large and coarse-looking, with a good deal of fibre. The bark is furrowed, rather thick, and not mealy in the slenderer portions of the root which is near the rootstock; but as the root becomes stout, so its bark becomes smoother, thicker and amylaceous, exhibiting when cut a fawn-coloured or pale yellow interior.

The quantity exported from Guayaquil in 1871 was 1017 quintals, value £3814.[2648]

Chemical Composition—Galileo Pallotta, at Naples, in 1824, first attempted to obtain from sarsaparilla a peculiar principle, which he believed to be an alkaloid, and termed Pariglina, or as now written Parillin. He exhausted the crude drug with boiling water and mixed the decoction with milk of lime, whereby a greyish precipitate was produced. This was dried, and treated with hot alcohol which extracted the parillin. Pallotta says the substance slightly reddens litmus, but does not explicitly state whether he got it in crystals or not. Berzelius in 1826 replaced the name pariglina by Smilacin. The same substance was obtained, more or less pure, by Thubeuf in 1831 and called Salseparin; Batka in 1833 termed it Parillinic acid. We have isolated parillin[2649] by exhausting Mexican sarsaparilla with boiling alcohol, 0·835 sp. gr., and evaporating the tincture to ⅙ of the weight of the root. By diluting 2 parts of the residue with 3 parts of cold water, a yellowish deposit of crude parillin is formed and may be separated after a few days by decantation. The deposit is then mixed with about half a volume of strong alcohol, now filtered and washed with dilute alcohol, about 0·965 sp. gr. It may further be purified by repeated recrystallization from dilute alcohol and the use of a little charcoal. The yield is about 0·19 per cent. of perfectly white crystallized parillin; a little more may be removed from the washings, but with much difficulty. These liquids and the mother-liquors may be concentrated and boiled with a little sulphuric acid in order to afford parigenin.

Parillin forms brilliant scales, or can be obtained in thin prisms from boiling alcohol 0·965 sp. gr. Parillin is almost insoluble in cold water, but dissolves in 20 parts of boiling water. On cooling, the latter solution affords no crystals; an abundance of them are however produced on addition of alcohol. Parillin is also soluble in 25 parts of alcohol, 0·814 sp. gr., at 25° C., and much more abundantly in boiling alcohol, from which it partly separates in crystals on cooling. In both absolute alcohol or water, parillin is less soluble than in dilute alcohol. Hence aqueous solutions are precipitated by absolute alcohol, and parillin, on the other hand, separates from alcoholic solutions on addition of cold water. With chloroform, parillin yields a viscid solution which affords no crystals.

The alcoholic solutions of parillin have a somewhat acrid taste, and are devoid of rotatory power.

By dilute mineral acids, parillin is resolved into Parigenin and sugar; the liquid gradually acquires a dingy brown or greenish hue and fluorescence, which is most obvious if parillin dissolved in chloroform is decomposed by hydrochloric gas. Parigenin is easily isolated; it is insoluble even in boiling water, but crystallizes in white scales from alcohol.

The composition of parillin and parigenin is not settled; the former belongs to the class of saponin. Yet parillin differs from saponin as contained in Saponaria or Quillaja[2650] by not being sternutatory; its solutions froth when shaken.

The presence in sarsaparilla of starch, resin, and calcium oxalate, as revealed by the microscope, has been already pointed out. Pereira[2651] examined the essential oil, which is heavier than water and has the odour and taste of the drug; 140 lb. of Jamaica sarsaparilla afforded of it only a few drops.

The nature of the dark extractive matter which water removes from the root in abundance, and the proportion of which is considered by druggists a criterion of goodness, has not been studied.

Commerce—The importation of sarsaparilla into the United Kingdom in 1870 (later than which year we have no returns) amounted to 345,907 lb., valued at £26,564.

Uses—Sarsaparilla is regarded by many as a valuable alterative and tonic, but by others as possessing little if any remedial powers. It is still much employed, though by no means so extensively as a few years ago. The preparations most in use are those obtained by a prolonged boiling of the root in water.

TUBER CHINÆ.

Radix Chinæ; China Root; F. Squine; G. Chinawurzel.

Botanical Origin—Smilax China L., a woody, thorny, climbing shrub, is commonly said to afford this drug. The plant is a native of Japan, the Loochoo islands, Formosa, China, Cochin China, also of Eastern India, as Kasia, Assam, Sikkim, Nepal. The chief authority for attributing the China root to this plant is Kämpfer, who saw the latter in Japan and figured it.[2652]

S. glabra Roxb. and S. lanceæfolia Roxb., natives of India and Southern China, have tubers which, according to Roxburgh, cannot be distinguished from the China root of medicine, though the plants are perfectly distinct in appearance from S. China. Dr. Hance,[2653] of Whampoa, received a living specimen of China root, which proved to be that of S. glabra. The three above-named species all grow in the island of Hongkong.

History—The use of this drug as a remedy for syphilis was made known to the Portuguese at Goa by Chinese traders about a.d. 1535. Garcia de Orta, who makes this statement, further narrates that so great was the reputation of the new drug, that the small quantities first brought to Malacca were sold at the rate of 10 crowns per ganta, a weight of 24 ounces.

Possibly the drug found its way to Europe even before that year, for we find a careful description of it in the posthumous works[2654] of Valerius Cordus and Walther Ryff[2655] states in 1548 that the root was brought a few years ago to Venice.

The reported good effects of China root on the Emperor Charles V. who was suffering from gout, acquired for the drug a great celebrity in Europe, and several works[2656] were written in praise of its virtues. But though its powers were soon found to have been greatly overrated, it still retained some reputation as a sudorific and alterative, and was much used at the end of the 17th century in the same way as sarsaparilla. It still retains a place in some modern pharmacopœias.

Description—The plant produces stout fibrous roots, here and there thickened into large tubers, which when dried become the drug China root. These tubers, as found in the market, are of irregularly cylindrical form, usually a little flattened, sometimes producing short knobby branches. They are from about 4 to 6 or more inches in length, and 1 to 2 inches in thickness, covered with a rusty-coloured, rather shining bark, which in some specimens is smooth and in others more or less wrinkled. They have no distinct traces of rudimentary leaves, which however are perceptible on those of some allied species. Some still retain portions of the cord-like woody runners on which they grew; the bases of a few roots can also be observed. The tubers mostly show marks of having been trimmed with a knife.

China root is inodorous and almost insipid. A transverse section exhibits the interior as a dense granular substance of a pale fawn colour.

Microscopic Structure—The outermost cortical layer is made up of brown, thick-walled cells, tangentially-extended. They enclose numerous tufts of needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate, and reddish-brown masses of resin. The bark is at once succeeded by the inner parenchyme which contrasts strongly with it, consisting of large, thin-walled, porous cells which are completely gorged with starch, but here and there contain colouring matter and bundles of crystals. The starch granules are large (up to 50 mkm.), spherical, often flattened and angular from mutual pressure. Like those of colchicum, they exhibit a radiate hilum: very frequently they have burst and run together, probably in consequence of the tubers having been scalded. The vascular bundles scattered through the parenchyme, contain usually two large scalariform or reticulated vessels, a string of delicate thin-walled parenchyme, and elegant wood-cells with distinct incrusting layers and linear pores.

Chemical Composition—The drug is not known to contain any substance to which its supposed medicinal virtues can be referred. We have endeavoured to obtain from it Parillin, the crystalline principle of sarsaparilla, but without success.

Commerce—China root is imported into Europe from the South of China—usually from Canton. The quantity shipped from that port in 1872, was only 384 peculs (51,200 lb.); while the same year there was shipped from Hankow, the great trading city of the Yangtsze, no less than 10,258 peculs (1,367,733 lb.), all to Chinese ports. For the year 1874, these figures were: Hankow 9393 peculs, valued at 53,194 taels (one tael about 5s. 10d.), Kewkiang 3627 peculs, Ningpo 2905 peculs,[2657] and for 1877 Hankow 12,075 peculs, Kewkiang 3942 peculs.

Uses—Notwithstanding the high opinion formerly entertained of the virtues of China root, it has in England fallen into complete disuse. In China and India it is still held in great esteem for the relief of rheumatic and syphilitic complaints, and as an aphrodisiac and demulcent. Polak asserts that the tubers of Smilax are consumed as food by Turcomans and Mongols.[2658]

Substitutes—Several American species of Smilax furnish a nearly allied drug, which at various times has been brought into commerce as Radix Chinæ occidentalis. It was already known to the authors of the 16th century; we met with it in 1872, and before, in the London market, as an importation from Puntas Arenas, the port of Costa Rica on the Pacific coast.

Of the exact species it is difficult to speak with certainty: but S. Pseudo-China L. and S. tamnoides L. growing in the United States from New Jersey southwards; S. Balbisiana Knth., a plant common in all the West Indian Islands; and S. Japicanga Griseb., S. syringoides Griseb. and S. Brasiliensis Spreng., are reputed to afford large tuberous rhizomes which in their several localities replace the China root of Asia, and are employed in a similar manner.[2659]

GRAMINEÆ.

SACCHARUM.

Sugar, Cane-Sugar, Sucrose; F. Sucre, Sucre de canne; G. Zucker, Rohrzucker.

Botanical Origin—Saccharum officinarum L., the Sugar Cane. The jointed stem is from 6 to 12 feet high, solid, hard, dense, internally juicy, and hollow only in the flowering tops. Several varieties are cultivated, as the Country Cane, the original form of the species; the Ribbon Cane, with purple or yellow stripes along the stem; the Bourbon or Tahiti Cane, a more elongated, stronger, more hairy and very productive variety. Saccharum violaceum Tussac, the Batavian Cane, is also considered to be a variety; but the large S. chinense Roxb. introduced from Canton in 1796 into the Botanic Gardens of Calcutta, may be a distinct species; it has a long, slender, erect panicle, while that of S. officinarum is hairy and spreading, with the ramifications alternate and more compound, not to mention other differences in the leaves and flowers.

The sugar cane is cultivated from cuttings, the small seeds very seldom ripening. It succeeds in almost all tropical and subtropical countries, reaching in South America and Mexico an elevation above the sea of 5000-6000 feet. It is cultivated in most parts of India and China up to 30-31° N. lat, the mountainous regions excepted.

From the elaborate investigations of Ritter,[2660] it appears that Saccharum officinarum was originally a native of Bengal, and of the Indo-Chinese countries, as well as of Borneo, Java, Bali, Celebes, and other islands of the Malay Archipelago. But there is no evidence that it is now found any where in a wild state.

History[2661]—The sugar cane was doubtless known in India from time immemorial, and grown for food as it still is at the present day, chiefly in those regions which are unsuited for the manufacture of sugar.[2662]

Herodotus, Theophrastus, Seneca, Strabo, and other early writers had some knowledge of raw sugar, which they speak of as the Honey of Canes or Honey made by human hands, not that of bees; but it was not until the commencement of the Christian era, that the ancients manifested an undoubted acquaintance with sugar, under the name of Saccharon.

Thus Dioscorides[2663] about a.d. 77 mentions the concreted honey called Σάκχαρον found upon canes (ὲπὶ τῶν καλάμων) in India and Arabia Felix, and which in substance and brittleness resemble salt. Pliny evidently knew the same thing under the name Saccharum; and the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, a.d. 54-68, states that honey from canes, called σάκχαρι, is exported from Barygaza, in the Gulf of Cambay, to the ports of the Red Sea, west of the Promontorium Aromatum, that is to say to the coast opposite Aden. Whether at that period sugar was produced in Western India, or was brought thither from the Ganges, is a point still doubtful.

Bengal is probably the country of the earliest manufacture of sugar; hence its names in all the languages of Western-Asiatic and European nations are derived from the Sanskrit Sharkarā, signifying a substance in the shape of small grains or stones. It is strange that this word contains no allusion to the taste of the substance.

Candy, as sugar in large crystals is called, is derived from the Arabic Kand or Kandat, a name of the same signification. An old Sanskrit name of Central Bengal is Gura, whence is derived the word Gula, meaning raw sugar, a term for sugar universally employed in the Malayan Archipelago, where on the other hand they have their own names for the sugar cane, although not for sugar. This fact again speaks in favour of Ritter’s opinion, that the preparation of sugar in a dry crystalline state is due to the inhabitants of Bengal. Sugar under the name of Shi-mi, i.e. Stone-honey, is frequently mentioned in the ancient Chinese annals among the productions of India and Persia; and it is recorded that the Emperor Tai-tsung, a.d. 627-650, sent an envoy to the kingdom of Magadha in India, the modern Bahar, to learn the method of manufacturing sugar.[2664] The Chinese, in fact, acknowledge that the Indians between a.d. 766 and 780 were their first teachers in the art of refining sugar, for which they had no particular ancient written character.

An Arabian writer, Abu Zayd al Hasan,[2665] informs us that about a.d. 850 the sugar cane was growing on the north-eastern shore of the Persian Gulf; and in the following century, the traveller Ali Istakhri[2666] found sugar abundantly produced in the Persian province of Kuzistan, the ancient Susiana. About the same time (a.d. 950), Moses of Chorene, an Armenian, also stated that the manufacture of sugar was flourishing near the celebrated school of medicine at Jondisabur in the same province, and remains of this industry in the shape of millstones, &c., still exist near Ahwas.

Persian physicians of the 10th and 11th centuries, as Rhazes, Haly Abbas, and Avicenna, introduced sugar into medicine. The Arabs cultivated the sugar cane in many of their Mediterranean settlements, as Cyprus, Sicily, Italy, Northern Africa, and Spain. The Calendar of Cordova[2667] shows that as early as a.d. 961 the cultivation was well understood in Spain, which is now the only country in Europe where sugar mills still exist.[2668]

William II., King of Sicily, presented in a.d. 1176 to the convent of Monreale mills for grinding cane, the culture of which still lingers at Avola near Syracuse, though only for the sake of making rum. In 1767, the sugar plantations and sugar houses at this spot were described by a traveller[2669] as “worth seeing.”

During the middle ages England, in common with the rest of Northern Europe, was supplied with sugar from the Mediterranean countries, especially Egypt and Cyprus. It was imported from Alexandria as early as the end of the 10th century by the Venetians, with whom it long remained an important article of trade. Thus we find[2670] that in a.d. 1319, a merchant in Venice, Tommaso Loredano, shipped to London 100,000 lb. of sugar, the proceeds of which were to be returned in wool, which at that period constituted the great wealth of England. Sugar was then very dear: thus from 1259 to 1350, the average price in England was about 1s. per lb., and from 1351 to 1400, 1s. 7d.[2671] In France during the same period it must have been largely obtainable, though doubtless expensive. King John II. ordered in 1353 that the apothecaries of Paris should not use honey in making those confections which ought to be prepared with the good white sugar called cafetin,[2672] a name alluding to the peculiar shape of the loaf which was not uncommon at that time.[2673]

The importance of the sugar manufacture in the East was witnessed in the latter half of the 13th century by Marco Polo;[2674] and in 1510 by Barbosa and other European travellers; and the trading nations of Europe rapidly spread the cultivation of the cane over all the countries, of which the climate was suitable. Thus its introduction into Madeira goes back as far as a.d. 1420; it reached St. Domingo in 1494,[2675] the Canary Islands in 1503, Brazil in the beginning of the 16th century, Mexico about 1520, Guiana about 1600, Guadaloupe in 1644, Martinique in 1650,[2676] Mauritius towards 1750, Natal[2677] and New South Wales, about 1852,[2678] while from a very early period the sugar cane had been propagated from the Indian Archipelago over all the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

The ancient cultivation in Egypt, probably never quite extinct, has been revived on an extensive scale by the Khedive Ismail Pasha. There were 13 sugar factories, making raw sugar, belonging to the Egyptian Government at work in 1872, and about 100,000 acres of land devoted to sugar cane. The export of sugar from Egypt in 1872 reached 2 millions of kantars, or about 89,200 tons.[2679]

The imperfection of organic chemistry previous to the middle of the 18th century, permitted no exact investigations into the chemical nature of sugar. Marggraf of Berlin[2680] proved in 1747 that sugar occurs in many vegetables, and succeeded in obtaining it in a pure crystallized state from the juice of beet root. The enormous practical importance of this discovery did not escape him, and he caused serious attempts to be made for rendering it available, which were so far successful that the first manufactory of beet-sugar was established in 1796 by Achard at Kunern in Silesia.

This new branch of industry[2681] was greatly promoted by the prohibitive measures, whereby Napoleon excluded colonial sugar from almost the whole Continent; and it is now carried forward on such a scale that 640,000 to 680,000 tons of beet root sugar are annually produced in Europe, the entire production of cane-sugar being estimated at 1,260,000 to 1,413,000 tons.[2682]

Among the British colonies, Mauritius,[2683] British Guiana,[2684] Trinidad,[2685] Barbados,[2686] and Jamaica,[2687] produce at present the largest quantity of sugar.

Production—No crystals are found in the parenchyme of the cane, the sugar existing as an aqueous solution, chiefly within the cells of the centre of the stem. The transverse section of the cane exhibits numerous fibro-vascular bundles, scattered through the tissue, as in other monocotyledonous stems; yet these bundles are most abundant towards the exterior, where they form a dense ring covered with a thin epidermis, which is very hard by reason of the silica which is deposited in it.[2688] In the centre of the stem the vascular bundles are few in number; the parenchyme is far more abundant, and contains in its thin-walled cells an almost clear solution of sugar, with a few small starch granules and a little soluble albuminous matter. This last is met with in larger quantity in the cambial portion of the vascular bundles. Pectic principles are combined with the walls of the medullary cells, which however do not swell much in water (Wiesner).

From these glances at the microscopical structure of the cane, the process to be followed for obtaining the largest possible quantity of sugar becomes evident. This would consist in simply macerating thin slices of the cane in water, which would at once penetrate the parenchyme loaded with sugar, without much attacking the fibro-vascular bundles containing more of albuminous than of saccharine matter. By this method, the epidermal layer of the cane would not become saturated with sugar, nor would it impede its extraction,—results which necessarily follow when the cane is crushed and pressed.[2689]

The process hitherto generally practised in the colonies,—that of extracting the juice of the cane by crushing and pressing,—has been elaborately described and criticised by Dr. Icery of Mauritius.[2690] In that island, the cane, six varieties of which are cultivated, is when mature composed of Cellulose, 8 to 12 per cent.; Sugar, 18 to 21; Water, including albuminous matter and salts, 67 to 73. Of the entire quantity of juice in the cane, from 70 to 84 per cent. is extracted for evaporation, and yields in a crystalline state about three-fifths of the sugar which the cane originally contained. This juice, called in French vesou, has on an average the following composition:—

Albuminous matters 0·03

Granular matter (starch?) 0·10

Mucilage containing nitrogen 0·22

Salts, mostly of organic acids[2691] 0·29

Sugar 18·36

Water 81·00

100·00

There is also present in the juice a very small amount of a slightly aromatic substance (essential oil?) to which the crude cane sugar owes a peculiar odour which is not observed in sugar from other sources. The first two classes of the above enumerated substances render the juice turbid, and greatly promote its fermentation, but they easily separate by boiling, and the juice may then be kept a short time without undergoing change. In many colonies the yield is said to be far inferior to what it should be; yet the juice is obtained in a state allowing of easier purification, when its extraction is not carried to the furthest limit.

In beet root as well as in the sugar cane, cane-sugar only was said to be present; Icery however has proved that in the cane some uncrystallizable (inverted) sugar is always present. Its quantity varies much, according to the places where the cane grows, and its age. The tops of quick-growing young canes yielded a vesou containing 2·4 per cent. of uncrystallizable sugar; 3·6 of cane sugar; and 94 of water. Moist and shady situations greatly promote the formation of the former kind of sugar, which also prevails in the tops, chiefly when immature. Hence that observer concludes that at first the uncrystallizable variety of sugar is formed, and subsequently transformed into cane-sugar by the force of vegetation, and especially by the influence of light. Perfectly ripened canes contain only ¹/₇₅ to ¹/₅₀ of all their sugar in the uncrystallizable state.

Description and Chemical Composition—Cane-sugar is the type of a numerous class of well-defined organic compounds, of frequent occurrence throughout the vegetable and animal kingdoms, or artificially obtained by decomposing certain other substances; in the latter case, however, glucose or some other sugar than cane-sugar is obtained. cane-sugar, C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁, or C₁₂H₁₄(OH)₈O₃, melts, without change of composition, at 160° C., several other kinds of sugar giving off water, with which they form crystallized compounds at the ordinary temperature.

cane-sugar forms hard crystals of the oblique rhombic system, having a sp. gr. of 1·59. Two parts are dissolved at 15° C. by one part of water,[2692] and by much less at an elevated temperature; a slight depression of the thermometer is observable in the former case. One part of sugar dissolved in one of water, forms a liquid of sp. gr. 1·23; two of sugar in one of water, a liquid of sp. gr. 1·33. Sugar requires 65 parts of spirit of wine (sp. gr. 0·84) or 80 parts of anhydrous alcohol for solution; ether does not act upon it.

A ray of polarized light is deviated by an aqueous solution of cane sugar to the right, but by some other kinds of sugar to the left, as first shown by Biot. These optical powers are highly important, both in the practical estimation of solutions of sugar, and in scientific studies connected with sugar or saccharogenous substances. The optical as well as chemical properties of sugar are altered by many circumstances, as the action of dilute acids or alkalis, or by the influence of minute fungi. Yeast occasions sugar to undergo alcoholic fermentation. Other ferments set up an action by which butyric, lactic or propionic acid are produced.

cane-sugar is of a purer and sweeter taste than most other sugars. Though it does not alter litmus paper, yet with alkalis it forms compounds some of which are crystallizable. From an alkaline solution of tartrate of copper, cane-sugar throws down no protoxide, unless after boiling.

If sugar is kept a short time in a state of fusion at 160° C., it is converted into one molecule of Grape Sugar and one of Levulosan; the former can be either isolated by crystallization or destroyed by fermentation, the latter being incapable of crystallizing or of undergoing fermentation.

cane-sugar which has been melted at 160° C. is deliquescent and readily soluble in anhydrous alcohol, and its rotatory power is diminished or entirely destroyed. It is no longer crystallizable, and its fusing point has become reduced to about 93° C. Yet before undergoing these evident alterations, it assumes an amorphous condition if allowed to melt with a third of its weight of water, becoming always a little coloured by pyrogenous products. In the course of time, however, this amorphous sugar loses its transparency and reassumes the crystalline form. Like sulphur and arsenious acid, it is capable of existing either in a crystallized or an amorphous state.

If sugar is heated to about 190° C. water is evolved, and we obtain the dark brown products commonly called Caramel or Burnt Sugar. They are of a peculiar sharp flavour, of a bitter taste, incapable of fermenting and deliquescent. One of the constituents of caramel, Caramelane, C₁₂H₁₈O₉, has been obtained by Gélis (1862) perfectly colourless. When the heat is augmented, the sugar at last suffers a decomposition resembling that which produces tar (see p. 621), its pyrogenous products being the same or very analogous to those of the dry distillation of wood.

Varieties of Cane-sugar—The experiments of Marggraf referred to at p. 717, note 9, showed that cane-sugar is by no means confined to the sugar cane; and it is in fact extracted on an extensive scale from several other plants, of which the following deserve mention:—

Beet Root—The manufacture of cane-sugar from the fleshy root of a cultivated variety of Beta maritima L., is now largely carried on in Continental Europe and in America, and with admirable results.

Of fresh beet root, 100 parts contain on an average 80 per cent. of water, 11 to 13 of cane-sugar, and about 7 per cent. of pectic and albuminous matters, cellulose and salts. Of the total amount of juice which the root contains, eight-ninths are extracted; and by the best process now in practice, 8 to 9 parts of sugar from every 100 parts of fresh root. The yield of crystalline sugar is still on the increase, owing to continual improvements in the mechanical and chemical parts of the process.

Palm—Several species are of great utility for the production of the sugar called by Europeans Jaggery.[2693] This substance is obtained by the natives of India in the following manner:—The young growing spadix, or flowering shoot, of the palm is cut off near its apex; and an earthen vessel is tied on to the stump to receive the juice that flows out. This vessel is emptied daily; while to promote a continuous flow of sap, a thin slice is cut from the wounded end. The juice thus collected, if at once boiled down, yields the crude brown sugar known as jaggery. If allowed to ferment, it becomes the inebriating drink called Toddy or palm wine; or it may be converted into vinegar. The spirit distilled from toddy is Arrack.

Of the sugar-yielding palms of Asia, Phœnix silvestris Roxb., which is supposed to be the wild form of the date palm, is one of the more important. The coco-nut palm, Cocos nucifera L.; the magnificent Palmyra palm, Borassua flabelliformis L.; and the Bastard Sago, Caryota urens L., also furnish important quantities of sugar. In the Indian Archipelago, sugar is obtained from the sap of Arenga saccharifera Mart., which grows there in abundance as well as in the Philippines and the Indo-Chinese countries. It is also got from Nipa fruticans Thunb., a tree of the low coast regions, extensively cultivated in Tavoy.

De Vry[2694] has advocated the manufacture of sugar from the palm as the most philosophical, seeing that its juice is a nearly pure aqueous solution of sugar: that as no mineral constituents are removed from the soil in this juice, the costly manuring, as well as the laborious and destructive processes required to eliminate the juice from such plants as the sugar cane and beet root, are avoided. And finally, that palms are perennial, and can many of them be cultivated on a soil unsuitable for any cereal.

Maple—In America, considerable quantities of sugar identical with that of the cane are obtained in the woods of the Northern United States and of Canada, by evaporating the juice of maples. The species chiefly employed are Acer saccharinum Wangenh., the Common Sugar Maple, and its variety (var. nigrum) the Black Sugar Maple. A. Pennsylvanicum L., A. Negundo L. (Negundo aceroides Moench.) and A. dasycarpum Ehrh. are also used; the sap of the last is said to be the least saccharine.

As the juice of these trees yields not more than about 2 per cent. of sugar, it requires for its solidification a large expenditure of fuel. The manufacture of maple sugar can therefore be advantageously carried on only in countries remote from markets whence ordinary sugar can be procured, or in regions where fuel is extremely plentiful. In North America it flourishes only between 40° and 43° N. lat. We are not aware of any estimate of the total production of maple sugar. The Census of Pennsylvania of 1870 gave the following figures as referring to its manufacture in that State:—

1850 1860 1870

2,326,525 lb. 2,768,965 lb. 1,545,917 lb.[2695]

Sorghum—Another plant of the same order as Saccharum is Sorghum saccharatum Pers. (Holcus saccharatus L.) a native of Northern China,[2696] which has of late been much tried as a sugar-yielding plant both in Europe and North America; yet without any great success, as the purification of the sugar is accomplished with peculiar difficulty. As in the sugar cane, there are in sorghum crystallizable and uncrystallizable sugars, the former being at its maximum amount when the grain reaches maturity. The importance of the plant however is rapidly increasing on account of the value of its leaves and grain as food for horses and cattle, and of its stems which can be employed in the manufacture of paper and of alcohol.

Commerce—The value of the sugar imported into the United Kingdom is constantly increasing, as shown by the following figures:—

1868 1870 1872

Unrefined £13,339,758 £14,440,502 £18,044,898

Refined £1,156,188 £2,744,366 £3,142,703

The quantity of Unrefined Sugar imported in 1872 was 13,776,696 cwt., of which about 3,000,000 cwt. were furnished by the Spanish West India Islands, 2,700,000 cwt. by the British West India Islands, 1,800,000 cwt. by Brazil, 1,100,000 cwt. by France, and 960,000 cwt. by Mauritius.

Of Refined Sugar the imports from France and Belgium into the United Kingdom were—

1874 1875 1876

133,800 102,300 92,044 tons.

Uses—Refined sugar is employed in pharmacy for making syrups, electuaries and lozenges, and is useful not merely for the sake of covering the unpleasant taste of other drugs, but also on account of a preservative influence which it exerts over their active constituents.

Muscovado or Raw Sugar is not used in medicine. The dark uncrystallizable syrup, known in England as Molasses, Golden Syrup, and Treacle,[2697] and in foreign pharmacy as Syrupus Hollandicus vel communis, which is formed in the preparation of pure sugar by the influence of heat, alkaline bodies, microscopic vegetation, and the oxygen of the air, is sometimes employed for making pill masses. The treacle of colonial sugar alone is adapted for this purpose, that of beet root having a disagreeable taste, and containing from 19 to 21 per cent. of oxalate, tartrate and malate of potassium, and only 56 to 64 of sugar.[2698] The treacle of colonial sugar usually contains 5 to 7 per cent. of salts.