ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.
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{iodide of starch) in the decoction both of Honduras and Lisbon sarsa-parilla. Sesquichloride of iron slightly deepens the decoction (in dif'ferent degrees in different specimens), and in some causes a flocculentprecipitate, which subsides slowly. A strong decoction of Honduras sar-saparilla forms a copious precipitate {starch) on the addition of alcohobCommerce. —The following are the quantities of sarsaparilla on whichduty (sixpence per lb.) was paid for the last four years {Trade List f° r1835-6-7-8):—
For 1835 . 122,413 lbs. I For 1837 . 101,298 lbs.
1836 . 125,140 I 1838 . 121,888
The countries from which sarsaparilla w'as imported in 1831 are th« sstated in a parliamentary return {Statement of the Imports and Export’for 1831):—
Italy and the Italian Islands .
British West Indies.
_ 16,110 lbs.
_ 107
.... 71
_ 29,122
Total import.
Retained for home consumption ...
.... 107,410
Physiological Effects, (a.) On vegetables .— Not ascertained.
(6.) On animals .—Not ascertained. , ,j
(c.) On man .—-Imperfectly determined; no experiments havingmade to ascertain its physiological effects. ug .
To the taste, sarsaparilla is slightly acrid, and somewhat nause_ ^Diaphoresis is by far the most common effect of its internal use. ’ ^the skin is kept cool, diuresis is not unusual. But in estimatingdiaphoretic or diuretic power of sarsaparilla, we must take into consi jtion the amount of liquid in which the medicine is usually taken?the other medicines which are frequently conjoined with it: ^many instances the diaphoresis or diuresis is referable rather tothan to sarsaparilla. , ^
In several cases I have given the powder of this root in very vdoses, in order to ascertain its effects. Nausea, vomiting, and te 1rary loss of appetite, were alone observed. . pt,
l)r. Hancock {Trans. Med-.-Bot. Soc. 1829) says, that on one pat* ^an African, an infusion of four ounces of Rio Negro sarsa acte ^a narcotic, producing nausea, great prostration of strength, torpor, *unwillingness to move. The pulse was scarcely altered, unless it' •,a little retarded. Though the effects here stated agree, to a c e * aSextent, with those ascribed to smilacin, they cannot he regardethe ordinary effects of this root. .
In some conditions of system, especially those of a cachectic .sarsaparilla acts as a powerful and valuable alterative tonic. * ^ 0 „,
tinued use is often attended with improvement of appetite and digeaugmentation of strength, increase of flesh, the production of ahealthy tone of mind, and the palliation, or, in some cases, coin V llg ,disappearance, of various morbid symptoms, as eruptions, ulcera