THE LOFTY BITTER-WOOD TREE.

1197

»i?. nces )> evaporating' and treating 1 the residue with alcohol, which takes up the quas-

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By repeated solution and evaporation

aim uuaiui^ me icjuiuu

ill ’i & ^rown colouring matter, and some salts.

\yL. c °hol with a little ether the quassite is obtained pure. Quassite occurs in small,)„ , e > prismatic crystals, which are fusible, odourless, intensely bitter, readily solublehy s C0 ' 10 U but very slightly so in water or ether. Its solubility in water is increasedhu| S ^ Vera l sa ^ s ant ^ vegetable principles. Its watery solution is precipitated (white) bytajJ 111 *’ but not by iodine, chlorine, corrosive sublimate, salts of iron, acetate, or diace-Co ° l eai b It is a neutral body, though soluble in sulphuric ami nitric acids. Itdn« ,S j S car b° n 66.912, hydrogen, 6.827, and oxygen 26 261; or C 10 H 6 O 3 ( Wiggers,1 “■ Pharm. xxi. 40; Brit. Ann. of Med. for 1837, p.36I).

1 bysiological Effects, (a.) On animals. —From recent experiments■^ a PP e a.rs that quassia wood acts on animals as a narcotic poison. Dr.right (Med. Plants of Jamaica ) tells us that no insect will live near

jj-riiet work made of it. It has been long known that an aqueousn U ? l0n °f this substance was an excellent fly-poison; but Hard, one of'Oner’s pupils, has lately shown that it also possesses poisonous pro-']’! les with respect to the larger animals (Buchner, Toxikol. s. 266).

lUs Pc found tliat a rabbit, into a wound of whose thigh a grain of thel iv , l0 hc extract of quassia had been introduced, lost his power andold lriess ’ an d died on the third day. A second experiment made on ana . er an d stronger animal was attended with the same results. No pain,! >ea i'cd to be experienced, nor were there any marks of irritation or

^nation observable after death. Kurtz (G. A. Richter, Ausf.°f f^nitte/l. Suppl. Bd. s. 42. 1832) mentions that complete paralysisb r . 1(i Pind extremities of a dog affected with the mange ( Fettrciude ), wash 0 l &ht on by washing the ulcers with decoction of quassia: in sevenri*> however, it disappeared.

p^ese experiments seem to show that the bitter principle of quassia(,*** properties somewhat like those of the Amer of Welther.

•Ha i - ° n man. —In the usual medicinal doses, quassia operates as a sto-W 11C . atl P tonic—that is, it is bitter to the taste, promotes the appetite,ass ists the digestive functions. It is devoid of all irritant, stimulant,tj . J^ringent properties; and has been, therefore, sometimes taken as aot he of the simple or pure bitters. It is more powerful than, but inti ou '. Aspects analogous to, gentian in its operation. “We can finds}, in this wood,” says Dr. Cullen (Mat. Med.)e s A e hitter—and he goes on to observe that heCa u , ent substance, capable of doing all that any pure and simple bitter1) °’ h ,l t no more.

phiy 0 ^ 8 P act as a narcotic on man, as on other animals ? I have em-li a q > and seen others administer quassia most extensively, but neverWe’ r< i llI1( ^ s P )r suspecting any effect of the kind alluded to. Yet some.served effects which certainly seem to favour the notion that

but a pure andbelieves it to be an

3 a ai

ktt 1; q t a Pessesses a specific influence over the cerebro-spinal system. In

(7r a ^ ® n dowed witli extreme susceptibility, I have seen, says Barbiera riUs 6 , de Mat. Med. i. 250. 2nd ed.), involuntary movements of thele SS, produced by the aqueous infusion of quassia. KrausOr ... }f e H. s. 412. 183D savs that the continued use of ouassic

y°pia (dimness of sight); and Kurtz asserts that the long-con-hip u Use °f quassia has brought on amaurosis.c h(; ( .p s lr, ariy other substances, quassia mixed with dead animal mattergelj yy Putrefaction ; and hence it is termed antiseptic. Ebeling (Schle-les - Mat. Med. t. ii.) many years ago, performed some experiments

s. 412. 1831) says that the continued use of quassia brings