CONVOLVULUS SCAMMONIA.-SYRIAN BINDWEED, OR SCAMMONY. CLASS V. PENTANDRIA.-ORDER I. MONOGYNIA. NATURAL ORDER, CONVOLVULACE.E.-THE BINDWEED TRIBE. Fig. (a) represents the corolla removed to show the stamens; (b) the germen and style. THIS species, which amongst all the generic mutations that have been made still remains a convolvulus, much resembles our great Bindweed (C. sepium), it is a native of Turkey, Syria, Greece, Persia, and Cochinchina. According to Dr. Russell, it grows in abundance on the mountains between Aleppo and Latachea, from whence the greater part of the Scammony of commerce is obtained. It is a perennial plant, and is reported to have been cultivated in England by Gerarde in 1597. The root is fleshy, tapering, from three to four feet in length, and from three to four inches in diameter, covered with a light grey bark, branched at the lower part, and abounding with a milky juice. It sends up several slender, cylindrical, somewhat villous stems, which entwine themselves round the plants in their neighbourhood, or spread themselves on the ground, and frequently extend to the length of fifteen or twenty feet. The leaves are arrow-shaped, alternate, smooth, pointed, of a bright green colour, with a tooth on the inner side of each, and supported on long pedicels. The flowers grow upon slender erect stems, of about six inches long, divided near the top into two small pedicles, an inch or two in length, each supporting a yellow bell-shaped flower, with its margin turned outwards and undivided. These flowers begin to be sent off from the stalk within about two feet from the root, and so continue through the whole length of the plant. The segments of the calyx are emarginate; bracteas awl-shaped, spreading remote from the flower. The form and structure of the other parts of the flower do not differ materially from the other species of convolvulus. The capsule is two-celled, containing two small pyramidal seeds. MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES.-Scammony was employed as a drastic purgative by Hippocrates and other Greek physicians; and although Etius, Mesue, and many of the Arabians, aver that it ought never to be used, Rhazes appears to have formed an opinion in accordance with what modern experience teaches: he allows it to be taken cautiously, and adds, "bilem rubeam vehementer expellit." Those of the ancients who did employ it, prescribed it for gout, rheumatism, and many other chronic diseases; and they were also in the habit of ordering an acetous decoction of it to be mixed with meal, and applied in the form of a poultice to painful affections of the joints. Celsus expressly recommends it for worms, and practitioners of the present day frequently adopt his advice. Van Swieten ordered it to be given some hours before the accession of a fit of the ague; and it was supposed to change, or modify the particular disposition that led to the paroxysm, by the action that it excited; but it is a violent and unjustifiable method, and now very properly forgotten. Scammony is considered to be a valuable drastic purgative in cases of dropsy, torpor of the intestinal canal, hypochondriasis and mania; and when aloes produce unpleasant effects on the hæmorrhoidal vessels, it may generally be substituted with advantage; but it sometimes excites the intestinal canal too violently, the ancients, aware of this, attempted to modify its action by sulphur; while the moderns employ sugar, gum, or almonds; or what is preferable, combine it with other purgatives. Scammony is an important article in the materia medica of empirics; and a combination of scammony, cream of tartar, and antimony, being recommended by Robert Dudley, Earl of Warwick, to Marcus Cornachinus, of Pisa, the latter wrote a work in favour of it, which passed through several editions; by which means its virtues became so notorious, that in France it is called Poudre Cornachine, Poudre des Tribus, or Poudre des Trois Diables. DOSE.-Scammony may be given in doses of from five to ten grains; but in smaller quantities when combined with other cathartics. OFF. PREP.-Confect Scammoneæ, L. D. Extractum Colocynthidis Comp. L. D. Scammony (says Dr. Russell) grows naturally on all that chain of mountains which extend from Antioch to Mount Lebanon, and on that part of Mount Taurus which is near to Maraash. I have also seen it in the plains between Latachia and Tripoly Syria, wherever there was any cover for it from the intense heat. From these places it is chiefly collected and brought to Aleppo; but as I have also seen some plants of it on the Mountain Amanus, I imagine it might probably be found on most of the hills in Syria, that produce any verdure; but the plundering disposition of the inhabitants renders it very unsafe to venture amongst them in search of it. The time of collecting the scammony is in the beginning of June. The people employed in it are only a few peasants, who travel over the country on purpose at that season. For as the plant grows entirely without culture, the scammony is the property of any person who will be at the pains to collect it. In many villages, about which it grows in the greatest plenty, the peasants either do not know it, or are unwilling to take the trouble of gathering it. The method of collecting it is this:-having cleared away the earth from the upper part of the root, they cut off the top in an oblique direction, about two inches below where |