OF MADRAS.
79
diaphoretic, decidedly more efficacious than Palv. Jacobi Vera or James'
powder, and a few other antipyretic medicines mentioned above.
It, therefore, demands an especial notice of the medical profession.
The root and root-bark are sold together in the bazaars of Madras,
but the former can be easily removed, it being generally in a very
small proportion. The root-bark occurs in hollow pieces, varying in
length from 2 to 5 inches, and in thickness from ¾ to 1½ lines. It
is more or less flexuous, often partially quilled, and covered_ with a yel-
-lowish corky epidermis. It possesses no particular odor, but is bitter
in taste. In the fresh state it is aromatic and pungent and has an odor
of citron.
Of all the preparations of this drug above described, the tincture
and decoction are the most useful, and the rest (the extract and powder)
are inferior and unsatisfactory in their action. I make the tincture and
decoction very strong, and this, together with the very large doses in
which I use them in my practice, is apparently the chief cause of their
great success in my hands.
Six drachms of the tincture or twelve ounces of the decoction of
T. aculeata are equal to one bottle of Warburg's tincture; and if either
of them is used in two doses during the presence of simple continued
fever or a paroxysm of ague, it produces the same good effect as the
latter drug (Warburg's tincture), namely, a copious perspiration and
relief of the febrile condition; and, again, if the tincture or decoction
is repeated in the same dose during the interval of ague, every fourth
or fifth hour, for two or three days, it prevents the return of paroxysm
as successfully as very large doses of quinine. To render the cure more
perfect and complete, the tincture or decoction should be continued in
smaller doses for four or five days more. The beneficial influence of
the tincture or decoction of T.aculeata in remittent fever is precisely the
same, and the only difference is that it sometimes relieves the exacer-
bation and checks its return at once; and at others, it first converts
the remittent into intermittent fever and then cures the latter in the
same way as explained above. Out of the many severe and very obsti-
nate cases of malarious, jungle and other fevers, which yielded to this
drug, there were several in which quinine with arsenic was first tried
and failed. As the dose of the tincture of T.aculeata is much smaller
than that of its decoction, and as it can also be prepared and kept always
ready for use, it is preferable to the latter; but there is no difference
whatever between the medical properties of both preparations.
The root-bark of T.aculeata is not only much cheaper than quinine
and Warburg's tincture, but is also one of the cheapest drugs in
Southern India, its price being only about 2 annas per pound. In
addition to this, its advantages over quinine are that it, unlike the
latter, can be freely and successfully administered in the absence as
well as in the presence of fever; and that however long and frequently
it may be employed, it never produces ringing in the ear, deafness and
some other disagreeable symptoms which are so commonly observed in
the use of quinine.
The analogy between the medical properties of the root-bark of
T.aculeata and those of the root of Berberis Asiatica and some other
species of Berberis is very great. The former, however, has one advan-
tage over the latter, which is its procurability in every large bazaar of