OF MADRAS.
103
and rub the fresh leaves with hot or cold. water in a stone mortar till
they are reduced to a soft and pulpy mass. Solution: Bruise and rub
the kernel of the nuts with cocoanut oil, water or some other liquid, in
a mortar till it becomes well mixed and thin. The oil is either applied
by itself or in combination with other drugs, as chaulmugra oil, h&c.
Of the flowers—Infusion: Take of the flowers, three ounces; hot water,
one pint or just sufficient to cover the flowers; infuse in a covered
vessel for an hour and strain. Of the gum—Mucilage, which is pre-
pared in the same way as the corresponding preparation of the Indian
Gum Arabic under the head of Preparation, in the article Acacia
Arabic. Of the toddy—There is no preparation of the sap or margosa
toddy, it being always used alone.
Doses.—Of the decoction of the root-bark, bark or young fruit, from
one and a half to three fluid. ounces; of the tincture of the root-bark
or stem bark, from one to three fluid drachms; and of the powder
of any of the above drugs, from one to two drachms; three or four
times in the twenty-four hours. Of the infusion of flowers, from one
and a half to three fluid ounces; of the mucilage of the gum, from one
to two fluid ounces; and of the toddy, from two to four fluid ounces;
three or four times in the twenty-four hours.
European Drugs for which they may be substituted.—The root-bark,
hark and young fruit, for cinchona-bark and gentian; the oil, nuts and
leaves, four carbolie acid; the flowers, for elder flowers, and coriander,
aniseed and dill oils; the ppm, tie acacia and feronia gums; and the
toddy, for elm lark, diluted phosphoric acid, Jamaica sarsaparilla and
chaulmugra and codliver oils.
Remarks—No less than nine parts of the margosa or nm tree are
employed in medicine, and I am not aware of any other plant which
produces so many drugs.
The bark of this tree " varies much in appearance according to the
size and age of the tree producing it. The bark from the trunk of a
tree, above three or four years of age, is covered with a thick scaly
epidermis, and varies in thickness from one-fourth to half an inch.
That from the snout branches is smooth, of a dullish purple color,
marked by longitudinal lines of ash-colored epidermis, from one-eighth
to one-twelfth of an inch apart. The inner layer of the bark, of a
whitish color in the fresh state, is powerfully bitter, far more so than
the outer dark-colored layer, which, however, possesses a greater amount
of astringency." (Pharm of India pp. 53 and 54.) " On making a
transverse section three distinct layers may be observed:—firstly the
saberous coat exhibiting a brown parenchyma interwoven with small
bands of corky tissue, —secondly a dark cellular layer, ands then the
foliaceous liber. The dry bark is inociorous and has a slightly astrin-
gent bitter taste." (Pharmacographia, p. 136.) There is no differ-
ence between the physical characters of the bark and those of the root-
bark, or, if there is any at all, it is only this, namely, the latter is
generally thinner, less scaly, more bitter in taste and much stronger in
its actions than the former.
The sun-dried slices of the young fruit are pale-green externally
and dullish-white internally, and bitter in taste. The Margosa-oii is
reddish or brownish yellow, very bitter, nauseous and slightly acrid