1164

ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

odour, and a nauseous, bitter taste. Its colour should be bright 3l ^fresh. If largely mixed with extraneous matter, if it be much broke**very dusty, it should be rejected. Boiling water extracts about at*of its weight. Proof spirit yields a brown—alcohol or ether a S lVtincture.

1. Alexandrian Senna (Senna Alexandrina; Folia Senna Aw ,drince ).—Called by the French Sene de la Palthe (i. e. Tribute jjbecause it is obliged to be sold to the Egyptian government, who r( |^ rit to Europeans. It is imported in bales from Alexandria and 0Mediterranean ports. It consists of the leaflets of two or more *V eof Cassia ( C. aculi/olia, C. obovata, and, I think, sometimes, C. a jpica) mixed always with the leaves of Cynanchum Argel (see p. asometimes with those of Tephrosia Apollinea. The flowers and n*of these plants are usually present in greater or less quantity. , e jdrian senna is collected in Nubia and Upper Egypt , and is con' e )down the Nile to the great depot at Boulak .

For the following particulars I am indebted to the writings of Delile pF v e c-i'Egypte, vol. iii. p. 315,1799, and FI. Aigypt.), Rouillure {Ann. Chim. lvi. *6* .thartHtoux {Phil. Mag. xv. 55, and Voyage dans la Haute Egypte, 1808), and Bure(Travels in Nubia , pp. 22 and 49, 2nd ed.) cro ps

Senna is collected by the Arabs of the tribe of Abaddeh. They may take tw° _annually,—the most productive one is that after the rail) in August and Septenib er > ^ ^second takes place about the middle of March. When cut the plants are spreadthe rocks, and dried in the sun (Nectoux). j n tli®

Assouan is the first entrepot for senna. It receives all that is gathered ^neighbourhood. Esneh is another entrepot . It receives the acute-leaved SUI ’ ll ^ iive yAbyssinia, Nubia, and Sennaar, from whence it arrives by the caravans wbicb .|j urc j.negroes to Egypt, and blunt-leaved senna, gathered in Upper Egypt (tt 01 * j s a tDaraou, between Assouan and Esneh , is also an entrepot; but the great depot e( )Boulak, the port of Cairo . Herd the monopoly of senna is farmed out by M a " seI uiaAli to Rosetti, an Italian, for about (£3,500 per annum (Burckhardt). I* 1 ® t |,earrives at Boulak from Assouan, not only by the Nile , but also by way of ,^ oSS ! s( J (re-Red Sea , and Suez. As, however, the latter is a more expensive route, it i s 110 va iisquently followed (Nectoux). Lastly, some senna is carried to Boulak by the C . 0 uglitfrom Mount Sinai. The following are said by Rouillure to be the quantitiesfrom these places:—

Quintals.

Acute-leaved Senna.

Obovate ditto.

Ethiopic ditto.

From Assouan.

7,000 to 8,000

500 to 600

From Esneh .

• • •

800

2,000

From Suez&MountSinai

....

1200 to 1500

....

Total of each kind..

7,000 to 8,000

2,500 to 2,900

2,000

So that the total amount of all kinds is, according to this statement, 13,500 to U’quintals. ntio ,|S

The mixture of the different leaves takes place at the entrepots. Nectoux P 1 ® sa y sthose of K6neh, Esneh, Daraou, and Assouan , where it is effected. R° u,,, “Ld 3°°that at Boulak , 500 parts of acute leaves are mixed with 300 of obtuse leavesof Argel leaves. Furop e '

From Boulak the senna is sent to Alexandria, and from thence is shipped to

Alexandrian senna has a greyish-green colour, an odour which eJlwhat resembles that of tea, and a viscid taste. It presents aappearance, and on examination is found to consist of the leaves, uSand fruits of the above-mentioned plants mixed with various extia