GRAMINEÆ…

GRAMINEÆ

SACCHARUM.

Sugar, Cane-Sugar, Sucrose; F. Sucre, Sucre de canne; G. Zucker, Rohrzucker.

=Botanical Origin=—Saccharum officinarum L., the Sugar Cane. The jointed stem is from 6 to 12 feet high, solid, hard, dense, internally juicy, and hollow only in the flowering tops. Several varieties are cultivated, as the Country Cane, the original form of the species; the Ribbon Cane, with purple or yellow stripes along the stem; the Bourbon or Tahiti Cane, a more elongated, stronger, more hairy and very productive variety. Saccharum violaceum Tussac, the Batavian Cane, is also considered to be a variety; but the large S. chinense Roxb. introduced from Canton in 1796 into the Botanic Gardens of Calcutta, may be a distinct species; it has a long, slender, erect panicle, while that of S. officinarum is hairy and spreading, with the ramifications alternate and more compound, not to mention other differences in the leaves and flowers.

The sugar cane is cultivated from cuttings, the small seeds very seldom ripening. It succeeds in almost all tropical and subtropical countries, reaching in South America and Mexico an elevation above the sea of 5000-6000 feet. It is cultivated in most parts of India and China up to 30-31° N. lat, the mountainous regions excepted.

From the elaborate investigations of Ritter,[2660] it appears that Saccharum officinarum was originally a native of Bengal, and of the Indo-Chinese countries, as well as of Borneo, Java, Bali, Celebes, and other islands of the Malay Archipelago. But there is no evidence that it is now found any where in a wild state.

=History=[2661]—The sugar cane was doubtless known in India from time immemorial, and grown for food as it still is at the present day, chiefly in those regions which are unsuited for the manufacture of sugar.[2662]

Herodotus, Theophrastus, Seneca, Strabo, and other early writers had some knowledge of raw sugar, which they speak of as the Honey of Canes or Honey made by human hands, not that of bees; but it was not until the commencement of the Christian era, that the ancients manifested an undoubted acquaintance with sugar, under the name of Saccharon.

Thus Dioscorides[2663] about A.D. 77 mentions the concreted honey called Σάκχαρον found upon canes (ὲπὶ τῶν καλάμων) in India and Arabia Felix, and which in substance and brittleness resemble salt. Pliny evidently knew the same thing under the name Saccharum; and the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, A.D. 54-68, states that honey from canes, called σάκχαρι, is exported from Barygaza, in the Gulf of Cambay, to the ports of the Red Sea, west of the Promontorium Aromatum, that is to say to the coast opposite Aden. Whether at that period sugar was produced in Western India, or was brought thither from the Ganges, is a point still doubtful.

[2660] Erdkunde von Asien, ix. West-Asien, Berlin, 1840. pp. 230-291.

[2661] The learned investigations of Heyd, Levantehandel, ii. (1879) 665-667, afford exhaustive information about the medicinal history of sugar.

[2662] The production which the English translators of the Bible have rendered Sweet Cane, and which is alluded to by the prophets Isaiah (ch. xliii. 24) and Jeremiah (ch. vi. 20) as a commodity imported from a distant country, has been the subject of much discussion. Some have supposed it to be the sugar cane; others, an aromatic grass (Andropogon). In our opinion, there is more reason to conclude that it was Cassia Bark.

[2663] Lib. ii. c. 104.

Bengal is probably the country of the earliest manufacture of sugar; hence its names in all the languages of Western-Asiatic and European nations are derived from the Sanskrit Sharkarā, signifying a substance in the shape of small grains or stones. It is strange that this word contains no allusion to the taste of the substance.

Candy, as sugar in large crystals is called, is derived from the Arabic Kand or Kandat, a name of the same signification. An old Sanskrit name of Central Bengal is Gura, whence is derived the word Gula, meaning raw sugar, a term for sugar universally employed in the Malayan Archipelago, where on the other hand they have their own names for the sugar cane, although not for sugar. This fact again speaks in favour of Ritter’s opinion, that the preparation of sugar in a dry crystalline state is due to the inhabitants of Bengal. Sugar under the name of Shi-mi, i.e. Stone-honey, is frequently mentioned in the ancient Chinese annals among the productions of India and Persia; and it is recorded that the Emperor Tai-tsung, A.D. 627-650, sent an envoy to the kingdom of Magadha in India, the modern Bahar, to learn the method of manufacturing sugar.[2664] The Chinese, in fact, acknowledge that the Indians between A.D. 766 and 780 were their first teachers in the art of refining sugar, for which they had no particular ancient written character.

An Arabian writer, Abu Zayd al Hasan,[2665] informs us that about A.D. 850 the sugar cane was growing on the north-eastern shore of the Persian Gulf; and in the following century, the traveller Ali Istakhri[2666] found sugar abundantly produced in the Persian province of Kuzistan, the ancient Susiana. About the same time (A.D. 950), Moses of Chorene, an Armenian, also stated that the manufacture of sugar was flourishing near the celebrated school of medicine at Jondisabur in the same province, and remains of this industry in the shape of millstones, &c., still exist near Ahwas.

Persian physicians of the 10th and 11th centuries, as Rhazes, Haly Abbas, and Avicenna, introduced sugar into medicine. The Arabs cultivated the sugar cane in many of their Mediterranean settlements, as Cyprus, Sicily, Italy, Northern Africa, and Spain. The Calendar of Cordova[2667] shows that as early as A.D. 961 the cultivation was well understood in Spain, which is now the only country in Europe where sugar mills still exist.[2668]

William II., King of Sicily, presented in A.D. 1176 to the convent of Monreale mills for grinding cane, the culture of which still lingers at Avola near Syracuse, though only for the sake of making rum. In 1767, the sugar plantations and sugar houses at this spot were described by a traveller[2669] as “worth seeing.”

During the middle ages England, in common with the rest of Northern Europe, was supplied with sugar from the Mediterranean countries, especially Egypt and Cyprus. It was imported from Alexandria as early as the end of the 10th century by the Venetians, with whom it long remained an important article of trade. Thus we find[2670] that in A.D. 1319, a merchant in Venice, Tommaso Loredano, shipped to London 100,000 lb. of sugar, the proceeds of which were to be returned in wool, which at that period constituted the great wealth of England. Sugar was then very dear: thus from 1259 to 1350, the average price in England was about 1_s._ per lb., and from 1351 to 1400, 1_s._ 7_d._[2671] In France during the same period it must have been largely obtainable, though doubtless expensive. King John II. ordered in 1353 that the apothecaries of Paris should not use honey in making those confections which ought to be prepared with the good white sugar called cafetin,[2672] a name alluding to the peculiar shape of the loaf which was not uncommon at that time.[2673]

[2664] Bretschneider, Chinese Botanical Works, 1870. 46.

[2665] Ritter, l.c. 286.

[2666] P. 57 of the book quoted in the Appendix.

[2667] Le Calendrier de Cordoue de l’année 961, par R. Dozy, Leyde, 1873. 25. 41. 91.

[2668] There are several in the neighbourhood of Malaga.

[2669] Riedesel, Travels through Sicily, Lond. 1773. 67.

[2670] Marin, Commercio de’ Veneziani, v. 306.

[2671] Rogers, Hist. of Agriculture and Prices in England, i. (1866) 633. 641.

[2672] Ordonnances des rois de France, ii. (1729) 535.

[2673] Several other varieties of sugar occurring in the mediæval literature are explained in the Documente (quoted at page 404, footnote 7) p. 32.

The importance of the sugar manufacture in the East was witnessed in the latter half of the 13th century by Marco Polo;[2674] and in 1510 by Barbosa and other European travellers; and the trading nations of Europe rapidly spread the cultivation of the cane over all the countries, of which the climate was suitable. Thus its introduction into Madeira goes back as far as A.D. 1420; it reached St. Domingo in 1494,[2675] the Canary Islands in 1503, Brazil in the beginning of the 16th century, Mexico about 1520, Guiana about 1600, Guadaloupe in 1644, Martinique in 1650,[2676] Mauritius towards 1750, Natal[2677] and New South Wales, about 1852,[2678] while from a very early period the sugar cane had been propagated from the Indian Archipelago over all the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

The ancient cultivation in Egypt, probably never quite extinct, has been revived on an extensive scale by the Khedive Ismail Pasha. There were 13 sugar factories, making raw sugar, belonging to the Egyptian Government at work in 1872, and about 100,000 acres of land devoted to sugar cane. The export of sugar from Egypt in 1872 reached 2 millions of kantars, or about 89,200 tons.[2679]

The imperfection of organic chemistry previous to the middle of the 18th century, permitted no exact investigations into the chemical nature of sugar. Marggraf of Berlin[2680] proved in 1747 that sugar occurs in many vegetables, and succeeded in obtaining it in a pure crystallized state from the juice of beet root. The enormous practical importance of this discovery did not escape him, and he caused serious attempts to be made for rendering it available, which were so far successful that the first manufactory of beet-sugar was established in 1796 by Achard at Kunern in Silesia.

This new branch of industry[2681] was greatly promoted by the prohibitive measures, whereby Napoleon excluded colonial sugar from almost the whole Continent; and it is now carried forward on such a scale that 640,000 to 680,000 tons of beet root sugar are annually produced in Europe, the entire production of cane-sugar being estimated at 1,260,000 to 1,413,000 tons.[2682]

Among the British colonies, Mauritius,[2683] British Guiana,[2684] Trinidad,[2685] Barbados,[2686] and Jamaica,[2687] produce at present the largest quantity of sugar.

[2674] Yule, Book of Ser Marco Polo, ii. (1871) 79. 171. 180. &c.

[2675] Letters of Christ. Columbus (Hakluyt Society) 1870. 81-84.

[2676] De Candolle, Géogr. botanique, 836.

[2677] The value of the sugar exported from Natal in 1871 reached the astonishing amount of £180,496 and £135,201 in 1876.

[2678] Yet owing to the gold discoveries, the propagation of the cane in Australia was little thought of until about 1866 or 1867, when small lots of sugar were made.

[2679] Consul Rogers, Report on the Trade of Cairo for 1872, presented to Parliament.

[2680] Expériences chymiques faites dans le dessein de tirer un véritable sucre de diverses plantes qui croissent dans nos contrées, par Mr. Marggraf, traduit du latin—Hist. de l’Académie royale des sciences et belles-lettres, année 1747 (Berlin 1749) 79-90.

[2681] And also that of milk sugar, which was then much used on the Continent to adulterate cane-sugar.

[2682] Produce Markets Review, March 28, 1868.

[2683] 2,255,249 quintals (one quintal = 108 lb. avdp.) in 1876.

[2684] 120,030 hhds (one hogshead = 1,792 lb.) in 1876.

[2685] 114,968,384 lb. in 1876.

[2686] 38,013 hhds. in 1876.

[2687] 29,074 hhds. in 1876.

=Production=—No crystals are found in the parenchyme of the cane, the sugar existing as an aqueous solution, chiefly within the cells of the centre of the stem. The transverse section of the cane exhibits numerous fibro-vascular bundles, scattered through the tissue, as in other monocotyledonous stems; yet these bundles are most abundant towards the exterior, where they form a dense ring covered with a thin epidermis, which is very hard by reason of the silica which is deposited in it.[2688] In the centre of the stem the vascular bundles are few in number; the parenchyme is far more abundant, and contains in its thin-walled cells an almost clear solution of sugar, with a few small starch granules and a little soluble albuminous matter. This last is met with in larger quantity in the cambial portion of the vascular bundles. Pectic principles are combined with the walls of the medullary cells, which however do not swell much in water (Wiesner).

From these glances at the microscopical structure of the cane, the process to be followed for obtaining the largest possible quantity of sugar becomes evident. This would consist in simply macerating thin slices of the cane in water, which would at once penetrate the parenchyme loaded with sugar, without much attacking the fibro-vascular bundles containing more of albuminous than of saccharine matter. By this method, the epidermal layer of the cane would not become saturated with sugar, nor would it impede its extraction,—results which necessarily follow when the cane is crushed and pressed.[2689]

The process hitherto generally practised in the colonies,—that of extracting the juice of the cane by crushing and pressing,—has been elaborately described and criticised by Dr. Icery of Mauritius.[2690] In that island, the cane, six varieties of which are cultivated, is when mature composed of Cellulose, 8 to 12 per cent.; Sugar, 18 to 21; Water, including albuminous matter and salts, 67 to 73. Of the entire quantity of juice in the cane, from 70 to 84 per cent. is extracted for evaporation, and yields in a crystalline state about three-fifths of the sugar which the cane originally contained. This juice, called in French vesou, has on an average the following composition:—

Albuminous matters 0·03 Granular matter (starch?) 0·10 Mucilage containing nitrogen 0·22 Salts, mostly of organic acids[2691] 0·29 Sugar 18·36 Water 81·00 ------ 100·00

[2688] Stems of American sugar cane, dried at 100° C., yielded 4 per cent of ash, nearly half of which was silica.—Popp, in Wiggers’ Jahresbericht, 1870. 35.

[2689] The plan of obtaining a syrup by macerating the sliced fresh cane, has been tried in Guadaloupe, but abandoned owing to some practical difficulties in exhausting the cane and in carrying on the evaporation of the liquors with sufficient rapidity. Experiments for extracting a pure syrup by means of cold water from the sliced and dried cane, seem to promise good results.—See a paper by Dr. H. S. Mitchell in Journ. of Soc. of Arts, Oct. 23, 1868.

[2690] Annales de Chimie et de Physique, v. (1865) 350-410.—See also, for Cuba, Alvaro Reynoso Ensayo sobre el cultivo de la caña de Azúcar, Madrid, 1865. 359.—For British Guiana, Catal. of Contributions from Brit. Guiana to Paris Exhib. 1867. pp. xxxviii.-xli.

[2691] Aconitic Acid (p. 11) has been met with by Behr (1877) in West Indian molasses.

There is also present in the juice a very small amount of a slightly aromatic substance (essential oil?) to which the crude cane sugar owes a peculiar odour which is not observed in sugar from other sources. The first two classes of the above enumerated substances render the juice turbid, and greatly promote its fermentation, but they easily separate by boiling, and the juice may then be kept a short time without undergoing change. In many colonies the yield is said to be far inferior to what it should be; yet the juice is obtained in a state allowing of easier purification, when its extraction is not carried to the furthest limit.

In beet root as well as in the sugar cane, cane-sugar only was said to be present; Icery however has proved that in the cane some uncrystallizable (inverted) sugar is always present. Its quantity varies much, according to the places where the cane grows, and its age. The tops of quick-growing young canes yielded a vesou containing 2·4 per cent. of uncrystallizable sugar; 3·6 of cane sugar; and 94 of water. Moist and shady situations greatly promote the formation of the former kind of sugar, which also prevails in the tops, chiefly when immature. Hence that observer concludes that at first the uncrystallizable variety of sugar is formed, and subsequently transformed into cane-sugar by the force of vegetation, and especially by the influence of light. Perfectly ripened canes contain only ¹/₇₅ to ¹/₅₀ of all their sugar in the uncrystallizable state.

=Description and Chemical Composition=—Cane-sugar is the type of a numerous class of well-defined organic compounds, of frequent occurrence throughout the vegetable and animal kingdoms, or artificially obtained by decomposing certain other substances; in the latter case, however, glucose or some other sugar than cane-sugar is obtained. cane-sugar, C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁, or C₁₂H₁₄(OH)₈O₃, melts, without change of composition, at 160° C., several other kinds of sugar giving off water, with which they form crystallized compounds at the ordinary temperature.

Cane-sugar forms hard crystals of the oblique rhombic system, having a sp. gr. of 1·59. Two parts are dissolved at 15° C. by one part of water,[2692] and by much less at an elevated temperature; a slight depression of the thermometer is observable in the former case. One part of sugar dissolved in one of water, forms a liquid of sp. gr. 1·23; two of sugar in one of water, a liquid of sp. gr. 1·33. Sugar requires 65 parts of spirit of wine (sp. gr. 0·84) or 80 parts of anhydrous alcohol for solution; ether does not act upon it.

[2692] It is commonly stated that three parts can be dissolved in one of cold water; but this is not the fact.

A ray of polarized light is deviated by an aqueous solution of cane sugar to the right, but by some other kinds of sugar to the left, as first shown by Biot. These optical powers are highly important, both in the practical estimation of solutions of sugar, and in scientific studies connected with sugar or saccharogenous substances. The optical as well as chemical properties of sugar are altered by many circumstances, as the action of dilute acids or alkalis, or by the influence of minute fungi. Yeast occasions sugar to undergo alcoholic fermentation. Other ferments set up an action by which butyric, lactic or propionic acid are produced.

Cane-sugar is of a purer and sweeter taste than most other sugars. Though it does not alter litmus paper, yet with alkalis it forms compounds some of which are crystallizable. From an alkaline solution of tartrate of copper, cane-sugar throws down no protoxide, unless after boiling.

If sugar is kept a short time in a state of fusion at 160° C., it is converted into one molecule of Grape Sugar and one of Levulosan; the former can be either isolated by crystallization or destroyed by fermentation, the latter being incapable of crystallizing or of undergoing fermentation.

Cane-sugar which has been melted at 160° C. is deliquescent and readily soluble in anhydrous alcohol, and its rotatory power is diminished or entirely destroyed. It is no longer crystallizable, and its fusing point has become reduced to about 93° C. Yet before undergoing these evident alterations, it assumes an amorphous condition if allowed to melt with a third of its weight of water, becoming always a little coloured by pyrogenous products. In the course of time, however, this amorphous sugar loses its transparency and reassumes the crystalline form. Like sulphur and arsenious acid, it is capable of existing either in a crystallized or an amorphous state.

If sugar is heated to about 190° C. water is evolved, and we obtain the dark brown products commonly called Caramel or Burnt Sugar. They are of a peculiar sharp flavour, of a bitter taste, incapable of fermenting and deliquescent. One of the constituents of caramel, Caramelane, C₁₂H₁₈O₉, has been obtained by Gélis (1862) perfectly colourless. When the heat is augmented, the sugar at last suffers a decomposition resembling that which produces tar (see p. 621), its pyrogenous products being the same or very analogous to those of the dry distillation of wood.

=Varieties of Cane-sugar=—The experiments of Marggraf referred to at p. 717, note 9, showed that cane-sugar is by no means confined to the sugar cane; and it is in fact extracted on an extensive scale from several other plants, of which the following deserve mention:—

Beet Root—The manufacture of cane-sugar from the fleshy root of a cultivated variety of Beta maritima L., is now largely carried on in Continental Europe and in America, and with admirable results.

Of fresh beet root, 100 parts contain on an average 80 per cent. of water, 11 to 13 of cane-sugar, and about 7 per cent. of pectic and albuminous matters, cellulose and salts. Of the total amount of juice which the root contains, eight-ninths are extracted; and by the best process now in practice, 8 to 9 parts of sugar from every 100 parts of fresh root. The yield of crystalline sugar is still on the increase, owing to continual improvements in the mechanical and chemical parts of the process.

Palm—Several species are of great utility for the production of the sugar called by Europeans Jaggery.[2693] This substance is obtained by the natives of India in the following manner:—The young growing spadix, or flowering shoot, of the palm is cut off near its apex; and an earthen vessel is tied on to the stump to receive the juice that flows out. This vessel is emptied daily; while to promote a continuous flow of sap, a thin slice is cut from the wounded end. The juice thus collected, if at once boiled down, yields the crude brown sugar known as jaggery. If allowed to ferment, it becomes the inebriating drink called Toddy or palm wine; or it may be converted into vinegar. The spirit distilled from toddy is Arrack.

[2693] A word of Sanskrit origin, corrupted from the Canarese sharkari.

Of the sugar-yielding palms of Asia, Phœnix silvestris Roxb., which is supposed to be the wild form of the date palm, is one of the more important. The coco-nut palm, Cocos nucifera L.; the magnificent Palmyra palm, Borassua flabelliformis L.; and the Bastard Sago, Caryota urens L., also furnish important quantities of sugar. In the Indian Archipelago, sugar is obtained from the sap of Arenga saccharifera Mart., which grows there in abundance as well as in the Philippines and the Indo-Chinese countries. It is also got from Nipa fruticans Thunb., a tree of the low coast regions, extensively cultivated in Tavoy.

De Vry[2694] has advocated the manufacture of sugar from the palm as the most philosophical, seeing that its juice is a nearly pure aqueous solution of sugar: that as no mineral constituents are removed from the soil in this juice, the costly manuring, as well as the laborious and destructive processes required to eliminate the juice from such plants as the sugar cane and beet root, are avoided. And finally, that palms are perennial, and can many of them be cultivated on a soil unsuitable for any cereal.

Maple—In America, considerable quantities of sugar identical with that of the cane are obtained in the woods of the Northern United States and of Canada, by evaporating the juice of maples. The species chiefly employed are Acer saccharinum Wangenh., the Common Sugar Maple, and its variety (var. nigrum) the Black Sugar Maple. A. Pennsylvanicum L., A. Negundo L. (Negundo aceroides Moench.) and A. dasycarpum Ehrh. are also used; the sap of the last is said to be the least saccharine.

As the juice of these trees yields not more than about 2 per cent. of sugar, it requires for its solidification a large expenditure of fuel. The manufacture of maple sugar can therefore be advantageously carried on only in countries remote from markets whence ordinary sugar can be procured, or in regions where fuel is extremely plentiful. In North America it flourishes only between 40° and 43° N. lat. We are not aware of any estimate of the total production of maple sugar. The Census of Pennsylvania of 1870 gave the following figures as referring to its manufacture in that State:—

1850 1860 1870 2,326,525 lb. 2,768,965 lb. 1,545,917 lb.[2695]

Sorghum—Another plant of the same order as Saccharum is Sorghum saccharatum Pers. (Holcus saccharatus L.) a native of Northern China,[2696] which has of late been much tried as a sugar-yielding plant both in Europe and North America; yet without any great success, as the purification of the sugar is accomplished with peculiar difficulty. As in the sugar cane, there are in sorghum crystallizable and uncrystallizable sugars, the former being at its maximum amount when the grain reaches maturity. The importance of the plant however is rapidly increasing on account of the value of its leaves and grain as food for horses and cattle, and of its stems which can be employed in the manufacture of paper and of alcohol.

[2694] Journ. de Pharm. i. (1865) 270.

[2695] Consul Kortright, in Consular Reports presented to Parliament, July 1872, p. 988.

[2696] Introduced into Europe in 1850, by M. de Montigny, French Consul at Shanghai.—Sicard, Monographie de la Canne à sucre de la Chine, dite Sorgho à sucre, Marseille, 1856; Joulie, Journ. de Pharm. i. (1865) 188.

=Commerce=—The value of the sugar imported into the United Kingdom is constantly increasing, as shown by the following figures:—

1868 1870 1872 Unrefined £13,339,758 £14,440,502 £18,044,898 Refined £1,156,188 £2,744,366 £3,142,703

The quantity of Unrefined Sugar imported in 1872 was 13,776,696 cwt., of which about 3,000,000 cwt. were furnished by the Spanish West India Islands, 2,700,000 cwt. by the British West India Islands, 1,800,000 cwt. by Brazil, 1,100,000 cwt. by France, and 960,000 cwt. by Mauritius.

Of Refined Sugar the imports from France and Belgium into the United Kingdom were—

1874 1875 1876 133,800 102,300 92,044 tons.

=Uses=—Refined sugar is employed in pharmacy for making syrups, electuaries and lozenges, and is useful not merely for the sake of covering the unpleasant taste of other drugs, but also on account of a preservative influence which it exerts over their active constituents.

Muscovado or Raw Sugar is not used in medicine. The dark uncrystallizable syrup, known in England as Molasses, Golden Syrup, and Treacle,[2697] and in foreign pharmacy as Syrupus Hollandicus vel communis, which is formed in the preparation of pure sugar by the influence of heat, alkaline bodies, microscopic vegetation, and the oxygen of the air, is sometimes employed for making pill masses. The treacle of colonial sugar alone is adapted for this purpose, that of beet root having a disagreeable taste, and containing from 19 to 21 per cent. of oxalate, tartrate and malate of potassium, and only 56 to 64 of sugar.[2698] The treacle of colonial sugar usually contains 5 to 7 per cent. of salts.

[2697] How the word Treacle came to be transferred from its application to an opiate medicine to become a name for molasses, we know not. In the description of sugar-making given by Salmon in his English Physician or Druggist’s Shop opened, Lond. 1663, treacle is never mentioned, but only “melussas.”

[2698] Landolt, Zeitschr. für analyt. Chem. vii. (1868) 1-29.

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HORDEUM DECORTICATUM

Hordeum perlatum, Fructus vel Semen Hordei; Pearl Barley; F. Orge mondé ou perlé; G. Gerollte Gerste, Gerstegraupen.

=Botanical Origin=—Hordeum distichum L.,—the Common or Long-eared Barley is probably indigenous to western temperate Asia, but has been cultivated for ages throughout the northern hemisphere. In Sweden its cultivation extends as far as 68° 38’ N. lat.; on the Norwegian coast up to the Altenfjord in 70° N. lat.; even in Lapland, it succeeds as high as 900 to 1350 feet above the level of the sea. In several of the southern Swiss Alpine valleys, barley ripens at 5000 feet, and in the Himalaya at 11,000 feet. In the Equatorial Andes, where it is extensively grown, it thrives up to at least 11,000 feet above the sea. No other cereal can be cultivated under so great a variety of climate.

According to Bretschneider,[2699] barley is included among the five cereals which it is related in Chinese history were sowed by the Emperor Shen-nung, who reigned about 2700 B.C.; but it is not one of the five sorts of grain which are used at the ceremony of ploughing and sowing as now annually performed by the emperors of China.

Theophrastus was acquainted with several sorts of barley (Κριθή), and among them, with the six-rowed kind or hexastichon, which is the species that is represented on the coins struck at Metapontum[2700] in Lucania, between the 6th and 2nd centuries B.C.

[2699] On Chinese Botanical Works, etc., Foochow, 1870. 7. 8.

[2700] Metapontum lay in the plain between the rivers Bradano and Basento in the gulf of Taranto.

Strabo and Dioscorides in the 1st century allude to drinks made from barley, which according to Tacitus were even then familiar to the German tribes, as they are known to have been still earlier to the Greeks and Egyptians.

Barley is mentioned in the Bible as a plant of cultivation in Egypt and Syria, and must have been, among the ancient Hebrews, an important article of food, judging from the quantity allowed by Solomon to the servants of Hiram, king of Tyre (B.C. 1015). The tribute of barley paid to King Jotham by the Ammonites (B.C. 741) is also exactly recorded. The ancients were frequently in the practice of removing the hard integuments of barley by roasting it, and using the torrefied grain as food.

=Manufacture=—For use in medicine and as food for the sick, barley is not employed in its crude state, but only when deprived more or less completely of its husk. The process by which this is effected is carried on in mills constructed for the purpose, and consists essentially in passing the grain between horizontal millstones, placed so far apart as to rub off its integuments without crushing it. Barley partially deprived of its husk is known as Scotch, hulled or Pot Barley. When by longer and closer grinding the whole of the integuments have been removed, and the grain has become completely rounded, it is termed Pearl Barley. In the British Pharmacopœia it is this sort alone which is ordered to be used.

=Description=—Pearl Barley is in subspherical or somewhat ovoid grains about 2 lines in diameter, of white farinaceous aspect, often partly yellowish from remains of the adhering husk, which is present on the surface, as well as in the deep longitudinal furrow with which each grain is indented. It has the farinaceous taste and odour which are common to most of the cereal grains.

=Microscopic Structure=—The albumen which constitutes the main portion of the grain is composed of large thin-walled parenchyme, the cells of which on transverse section are seen to radiate from the furrow, and to be lengthened in that direction rather than longitudinally. In the vicinity of the furrow alone the tissue of the albumen is narrower. Its predominating large cells show a polygonal or oval outline, whilst the outer layer is built up of two, three or four rows of thick-walled, coherent, nearly cubic gluten-cells. This layer, about 70 mkm. thick, is coated with an extremely thin brown tegument, to which succeeds a layer about 30 mkm. thick, of densely packed, tabular, greyish or yellowish cells of very small size; this proper coat of the fruit in the furrow is of rather spongy appearance.

In some varieties of barley the fruit is constituted of the above tissues alone and the shell, but in most the paleæ are likewise present. They consist chiefly of long fibrous, thick-walled cells, two or four rows deep, constituting a very hard layer. On tranverse section, this layer forms a coherent envelope about 35 mkm. thick; its cells when examined in longitudinal section show but a small lumen of peculiar undulated outline from secondary deposits.

The gluten-cells varying considerably in the different cereal grains, afford characters enough to distinguish them with certainty. In wheat, for instance, the gluten-cells are in a single row, in rice they form a double or single row, but its cells are transversely lengthened.

The inner tissue of the albumen in barley is filled up with large irregularly lenticular, and with extremely small globular starch granules, the first being 20 to 35 mkm., the latter 1, 2 to 3 mkm. in diameter, with no considerable number of intermediate size. The concentric layers constituting the large granules may be made conspicuous by moistening with chromic acid.

The layer alluded to as being composed of gluten-cells is loaded with extremely small granules of albuminous matters (gluten), which on addition of iodine are coloured intensely yellow. These granules, which, considering barley as an article of food, are of prominent value, are not confined to the gluten-cells, but the neighbouring starch-cells also contain a small amount of them: and in the narrow zone of denser tissue projecting from the furrow into the albumen, protein principles are equally deposited, as shown by the yellow coloration which iodine produces.

The gluten-cells, the membrane embroynnaire of Mège-Mouriès, contain also, according to the researches on bread[2701] made by this chemist (1856), Cerealin, an albuminous principle soluble in water, which causes the transformation of starch into dextrin, sugar, and lactic acid. In the husks (épiderme, épicarpe and endocarpe) of wheat, Mège-Mouriès found some volatile oil and a yellow extractive matter, to which, together with the cerealin, is due the acidity of bread made with the flour containing the bran.

=Chemical Composition=—Barley has been submitted to careful analyses by many chemists, more especially by Lermer.[2702] The grains contain usually 13 to 15 per cent. of water; after drying, they yield to ether 3 per cent. of fat oil, with insignificant proportions of tannic and bitter principles, residing chiefly in the husks. Lermer further found in the whole grains, 63 per cent. of starch, 7 of cellulose, 6·6 of dextrin, 2·5 of nitrogen, a small amount of lactic acid, and 2·4 of ash.

[2701] He actually examined wheat, not barley; we assume the chemical constitution of the two grains to be similar.

[2702] Wittstein, Vierteljahresschr. für prakt. Pharm. xii. (1863) 4-23.

The analysis of Poggiale (1856) gave nearly the same composition, namely, water 15, oil 2·4, starch 60, cellulose 8·8, albuminous principles 10·7, ash 2·6.

The protein, or albuminous matter consists of different principles, chiefly insoluble in cold water. The soluble portion is partly coagulated on boiling, partly retained in solution: 2·5 per cent. of nitrogen, as above, would answer to about 16 per cent. of albuminous matters. Their soluble part seems to be deposited in the starch-cells, next to the gluten-cells, which latter contain the insoluble portion.

The ash, according to Lermer, contains 29 per cent. of silicic acid, 32·6 of phosphoric acid, 22·7 of potash, and only 3·7 of lime. In the opinion of Salm-Horstmar, fluorine and lithia are indispensable constituents of barley.

The fixed oil of barley, as proved in 1863 by Hanamann, is a compound of glycerin with either a mixture of palmitic and lauric acids, or less probably with a peculiar fatty acid. Beckmann’s Hordeinic Acid obtained in 1855 by distilling barley with sulphuric acid, is probably lauric acid. Lintner (1868) has shown barley to contain also a little Cholesterin (p. 420).

Lastly, Kühnemann (1875) extracted from barley a crystallized dextrogyrate sugar, and (1876) an amorphous lævogyrate mucilaginous substance Sinistrin (see p. 692); according to that chemist, dextrin is altogether wanting in barley.

Barley when malted loses 7 per cent.; it then contains 10 to 12 per cent. of sugar, produced at the expense of the starch; before malting, no sugar is to be found.

=Uses=—Barley as a medicine is unimportant. A decoction is sometimes prescribed as a demulcent or as a diluent of active remedies. An aqueous extract of malt has been employed.

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OLEUM ANDROPOGONIS

Oleum Graminis Indici; Indian Grass Oil.

=Botanical Origin=—Among the numerous species of Andropogon[2703] which have foliage abounding in essential oil, the following furnish the fragrant Grass Oils of commerce:—

1. Andropogon Nardus L.,[2704]—a noble-looking plant, rising when in flower to a height of 6 or more feet, extensively cultivated in Ceylon and Singapore for the production of Citronella Oil.

2. A. citratus D.C.,[2705] Lemon Grass,—a large coarse glaucous grass, known only in a cultivated state, and very rarely producing flowers. It is grown in Ceylon and Singapore for the sake of its essential oil, which is called Lemon Grass Oil, Oil of Verbena or Indian Melissa Oil; it is also commonly met with in gardens throughout India and is not unfrequent in English hothouses. In Java it is called Sireh.

3. A. Schœnanthus L.,[2706] a grass of Northern and Central India, having leaves rounded or slightly cordate at the base, yielding by distillation the oil known as Rúsa Oil, Oil of Ginger Grass or of Geranium.

[2703] Major-General Munro has at our request investigated the botanical characters of the fragrant species of Andropogon, and examined a numerous suite of specimens in our possession. The synonyms in foot-notes are given upon his authority.

[2704] A. Martini Thwaites, Enum. Plantarum Zeylaniæ nec aliorum.—Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s Med. Plants, part 28 (1878).

[2705] A. citratum A.P. De Candolle, Catalogus Plantarum Horti Botanici Monspeliensis, 1813; A. Schœnanthus Wallich, Plant. Asiat. rariores, iii. (1832) tab. 280; Roxburgh, Flora Indica, i. (1820) 278, quoad observationes, sed non quoad diagnosis.

[2706] Ventenat, Jardin de Cels, 1803. tab. 89; A. Martini Roxb. Flor. Ind. i. (1820) 280; A. pachnodes Trinius, Species Graminum, iii. (1836) tab. 327; A. Calamus aromaticus Royle, Illustrations of Bot. of Himalayan Mountains, 1839. tab. 97.

=History=—The aromatic properties of certain species of Andropogon were well known to Rheede, Rumphius, and other early writers on Indian natural history; and an oil distilled from the Sireh grass in Amboyna was known as a curiosity as early as 1717.[2707]

But it is only in very recent times that the volatile oils of these plants have become objects of commerce with Europe. Lemon grass oil is mentioned by Roxburgh in 1820 as being distilled in the Moluccas; and it was first imported into London about the year 1832. Citronella oil is of much more recent introduction. Ginger grass oil, called in Hindustani Rúsa ka tel, is stated by Waring[2708] to have been first brought to notice by Dr. N. Maxwell in 1825.

=Production=—Citronella and Lemon grass are cultivated about Galle and at Singapore, the same estate often producing both. The grasses are distilled separately, the essential oils being regarded as entirely distinct, and having different market values. In Ceylon they are cut for distillation at any time of year, but mostly in December and January.

On the Perseverance Estate at Gaylang, Singapore, belonging to Mr. John Fisher, an area of 950 acres is cultivated with aromatic grasses and other plants, for the production of essential oils. The manufacture was tried on a small scale in 1865, and has been so successful that an aggregate of 200 lb. of various essential oils is now produced daily. These oils are stated to be Citronella, Lemon Grass, Patchouly, Nutmeg, Mace, Pepper, and Oman (p. 302): and mint is now being cultivated.[2709]

Ginger grass oil is distilled in the collectorate of Khandesh in the Bombay Presidency. That produced in the district of Namár in the valley of the Nerbudda, is sometimes called Grass Oil of Namar. We have no particulars of the distillation, which however must be carried on extensively.

=Description=—The Indian grass oils are lighter than water, devoid of rotatory power when examined by polarized light, and do not alter litmus paper. They are all extremely fragrant, having an odour like a mixture of lemon and rose. Lemon grass, which in colour is a deep golden brown, has an odour resembling that of the sweet-scented verbena of the gardens, Lippia citriodora H.B.K. Ginger grass oil, the colour of which varies from pale greenish yellow to yellowish-brown, has the odour of Pelargonium Radula Aiton. The colour of citronella oil is a light greenish yellow. The manufacture of Winter of Ceylon, and of Fisher of Singapore, have a reputation for excellence, and are generally indicated by name in drug sale catalogues.

=Chemical Composition=—Stenhouse[2710] examined in 1844 oil of ginger grass given to him by Christison as Oil of Namur (or Nimar). The sample was of deep yellow, and apparently old, for when mixed with water and subjected to distillation, it left nearly one half its bulk of a fluid resin, the oil which passed over being colourless. After rectification from chloride of calcium, it was shown to consist of a hydrocarbon mixed with a small proportion of an oxygenated oil. The latter having been decomposed by sodium, and the oil again rectified, a second analysis was made which proved it isomeric with oil of turpentine.

[2707] Ephemerides Naturæ Curiosorum, cent. v.-vi. (1717), appendix 157.

[2708] Pharmacopœia of India, 1868. 465.

[2709] Straits Settlements Blue Book for 1872, Singapore, 1873. 465.

[2710] Mem. of Chem. Soc. ii. (1845) 122.

A genuine grass oil from Khandesh, derived as we suppose from the same species, which was examined by one of us (F.), yielded nothing crystalline when saturated with dry hydrochloric acid; but when the liquid was afterwards treated with fuming nitric acid, crystals of the compound, C₁₀H₁₆, HCl, sublimed into the upper part of the vessel. We have observed that the oils both of lemon grass and citronella yield solid compounds, if shaken with a saturated solution of bisulphite of sodium.

Citronella oil was found by Gladstone (1872) to be composed chiefly of an oxidized oil, which he called Citronellol, and which he separated by fractional distillation into two portions, the one boiling at 202-205° C., the other 199-202° C. The composition of each portion is indicated by the formula C₁₀H₁₆O.

Wright’s researches (1874) tend rather to show the prevailing part of citronella oil to consist of the liquid C₁₀H₁₈O, boiling near 210°, which he calls Citronellol. It unites with bromine, and the resulting compound, upon heating, breaks up according to the following equation:—

C₁₀H₁₈OBr₂ = OH₂ · 2 HBr · C₁₀H₁₄. Cymene.

=Commerce=—The growing trade in grass oil is exemplified in a striking manner by the following statistics. The export of Citronella Oil from Ceylon in 1864 was 622,000 ounces, valued at £8230. In the Ceylon Blue Book, the exports for 1872 are returned thus:—

To the United Kingdom 1,163,074 ounces} British India 5,713 ” } 1,595,257 United States of North America 426,470 ” } ounces.[2711]

In 1875 the oil shipped from Ceylon to the United Kingdom was valued at 42,871 rupees, that sent to other foreign countries at 45,871 rupees, to British possessions 660 rupees (one rupee equal to about 2_s._).

Oil of Lemon Grass, which is a more costly article and less extensively produced, was exported from Ceylon during the same year to the extent of 13,515 ounces, more than half of which quantity was shipped to the United States. There are no analogous statistics for these two oils from Singapore, where, as stated at p. 726, they are now largely manufactured.

By the official Report on the External Commerce of Bombay, published in 1867, we find that during the year ending 31 March, 1867, Grass Oil [i.e. Ginger Grass or Rúsa Oil] was exported thence to the amount of 41,643 lb. This oil is shipped to England and to the ports of the Red Sea.

=Uses=—Grass oils are much esteemed in India as an external application in rheumatism. Rúsa oil is said to stimulate the growth of the hair. Internally, grass oil is sometimes administered as a carminative in colic; and an infusion of the leaves of lemon grass is prescribed as a diaphoretic and stimulant. In Europe and America the oils are used almost exclusively by the soapmakers and perfumers.[2712]

[2711] In addition to which, there were “842 dozens and 33 packages” of the same oil shipped to the United States. One ounce equal to 31·1 grammes.

[2712] The foliage of the large odoriferous species of Andropogon is used in India for thatching. It is eaten voraciously by cattle, whose flesh and milk become flavoured with its strong aroma.

But the most remarkable use made of any grass oil is that for adulterating Attar of Rose in European Turkey. The oil thus employed is that of Andropogon Schœnanthus L. (see p. 725); and it is a curious fact that its Hindustani name is closely similar in sound to the word rose. Thus under the designation Rusa, Rowsah, Rosa, Rosé, Roshé,[2713] it is exported in large quantities from Bombay to the ports of Arabia, probably chiefly to Jidda, whence it is carried to Turkey by the Mahommedan pilgrims. In Arabia and Turkey, it appears under the name Idris yàghi, while in the attar-producing districts of the Balkan it is known, at least to Europeans, as Geranium Oil or Palmarosa Oil. Before being mixed with attar, the oil is subjected to a certain preparation, which is accomplished by shaking it with water acidulated with lemon juice, and then exposing it to the sun and air. By this process, described by Baur,[2714] the oil loses a penetrating after-smell, and acquires a pale straw-colour. The optical and chemical differences between grass oil thus refined and attar of rose are slight and do not indicate a small admixture of the former. If grass oil is added largely to attar, it will prevent its congealing.

=Adulteration=—The grass oil prepared by the natives of India is not unfrequently contaminated with fatty oil.

Other Products of the genus Andropogon.

=Herba Schœnanthi vel Squinanthi=, Juncus odoratus, Fœnum Camelorum.

The drug bearing these names has had a place in pharmacy from the days of Dioscorides down to the middle of the last century, and is still met with in the East. The plant which affords it, formerly confounded with other species, is now known to be Andropogon laniger Desf., a grass of wide distribution, growing in hot dry regions in Northern Africa (Algeria), Arabia, and North-western India, reaching Thibet, where it is found up to an elevation of 11,000 feet. Mr. Tolbort has sent us specimens under the name of Kháví, gathered by himself in 1869 between Multán and Kot Sultán, and quite agreeing with the drug of pharmacy. The grass has an aromatic pungent taste, which is retained in very old specimens. We are not aware that it is distilled for essential oil.

=Cuscus or Vetti-ver=[2715]—This is the long fibrous root of Andropogon muricatus Retz, a large grass found abundantly in rich moist ground in Southern India and Bengal. Inscriptions on copper-plates lately discovered in the district of Etawah, south-east of Agra, and dating from A.D. 1103 and 1174, record grants of villages to Brahmins by the kings of Kanauj, and enumerate the imposts that were to be levied. These include taxes on mines, salt pits and the trade in precious metals, also on mahwah (Bassia) and mango trees, and on Cuscus Grass.[2716]

[2713] 50 cases, containing about 2250 lb., imported from Bombay, were offered as “Rose Oil” at public sale, by a London drug-broker, 31 July, 1873.

[2714] See p. 267.

[2715] Cuscus, otherwise written Khus-khus, a name adopted by the English in India, is probably from the Persian Khas. Vetti-ver is the Malyalim name of the plant.

[2716] Proc. of Asiat. Soc. of Bengal, Aug. 1873. 161.

Cuscus, which appears occasionally in the London drug sales, is used in England for laying in drawers as a perfume. In India it serves for making tatties or screens, which are placed in windows and doorways, and when wetted, diffuse an agreeable odour and coolness. It is also used for making ornamental baskets and many small articles, and has some reputation as a medicine.

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RHIZOMA GRAMINIS

Radix Graminis; Couch Grass, Quitch Grass, Dog’s Grass; F. Chiendent commun ou Petit Chiendent; G. Queckenwurzel, Graswurzel.

=Botanical Origin=—Agropyrum repens P. Beauv. (Triticum repens L.), a widely diffused weed, growing in fields and waste places in all parts of Europe, in Northern Asia down to the region south of the Caspian, also in North America; and in South America to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.

=History=—The ancients were familiar with a grass termed [Greek Agrôstis] and Gramen, having a creeping rootstock like that under notice. It is impossible to determine to what species the plant is referable, though it is probable that the grass Cynodon Dactylon Pers., as well as Agropyrum repens, was included under these names.

Dioscorides asserts that its root taken in the form of decoction, is a useful remedy in suppression of urine and vesical calculus. The same statements are made by Pliny; and again occur in the writings of Oribasius[2717] and Marcellus Empiricus[2718] in the 4th, and of Aëtius[2719] in the 6th century, and are repeated in the mediæval herbals,[2720] where also figures of the plant may be found, as for instance in Dodonæus. The drug is also met with in the German pharmaceutical tariffs of the 16th century. Turner[2721] and Gerarde both ascribe to a decoction of grass root diuretic and lithontriptic virtues. The drug is still a domestic remedy in great repute in France, being taken as a demulcent and sudorific in the form of tisane.

[2717] De virtute simplicium, cap. i. (Agrostis).

[2718] De medicamentis, cap. xxvi.

[2719] Tetrabibli primæ, sermo i.

[2720] As in the Herbarius Pataviæ printed in 1485, in which it is said of Gramen—“aqua decoctionis ejus ... valet contra dissuriam ... et frangit lapidem et curat vulnera vesicæ et provocat urinam....”

[2721] Herball, part 2, 1568. 13.

=Description=—Couch-grass has a long, stiff, pale yellow, smooth rhizome, ⅒ of an inch in diameter, creeping close under the surface of the ground, occasionally branching, marked at intervals of about an inch by nodes, which bear slender branching roots and the remains of sheathing rudimentary leaves.

As found in the shops, the rhizome is always free from rootlets, cut into short lengths of ⅛ to ¼ of an inch, and dried. It is thus in the form of little, shining, straw-coloured, many-edged, tubular pieces, which are without odour, but have a slightly sweet taste.

=Microscopic Structure=—A transverse section of this rhizome shows two different portions of tissue, separated by the so-called nucleus-sheath. The latter consists of an unbroken ring of prismatic cells, analogous to those occurring in sarsaparilla. In Rhizoma Graminis, the outer part of the tissue exhibits a diffuse circle of about 20 liber bundles, and the interior part about the same number of fibro-vascular bundles more densely packed. The pith is reduced to a few rows of cells, the rhizome being always hollow, except at the nodes. No solid contents are to be met with in the tissue.

Chemical Composition—The constituents of couch-grass include no substance to which medicinal powers can be ascribed. The juice of the rhizome afforded to H. Müller[2722] about 3 per cent. of sugar, and 7 to 8 per cent. of Triticin, C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁, a tasteless, amorphous, gummy substance, easily transformed into sugar if its concentrated solution is kept for a short time at 110°C. When treated with nitric acid, it yields oxalic acid. The rhizome affords also another gummy matter containing nitrogen, and quickly undergoing decomposition; the drug moreover is somewhat rich in acid malates. Mannite is probably occasionally present as in taraxacum (p. 394), for such is the inference we draw from the opposite results obtained by Stenhouse and by Völcker. Starch, pectin and resin are wanting. The rhizome leaves 4½ per cent. of ash.

=Uses=—A decoction of the rhizome has of late been recommended in mucous discharge from the bladder.

=Substitutes=—Agropyrum acutum R. et S., A. pungens R. et S., and A. junceum P. Beauv., by some botanists regarded as mere maritime varieties of A. repens, have rootstocks perfectly similar to this latter.

Cynodon Dactylon Pers., a grass very common in the South of Europe and the warmer parts of Western Europe, also indigenous to Northern Africa as far as Sennaar and Abyssinia, affords the Gros Chiendent or Chiendent pied-de-poule of the French. It is a rhizome differing from that of couch-grass in being a little stouter. Under the microscope it displays an entirely different structure, inasmuch as it contains a large number of much stronger fibro-vascular bundles, and a cellular tissue loaded with starch, and is therefore in appearance much more woody. It thus approximates to the rhizome of Carex arenaria L., which is as much used in Germany as that of Cynodon in Southern Europe. The latter appears to contain Asparagin (the Cynodin of Semmola[2723]), or a substance similar to it.

[2722] Archiv der Pharm. 203. (1873) 17.

[2723] Della Cinodina, nuovo prodotto organico, trovato nella gramigna officinale, Cynodon Dactylon.—Opere minori di Giovanni Semmola, Napoli, 1841.—Abstracted in the Jahresbericht of Berzelius, Tübingen, 1845. 535.

II.—CRYPTOGAMOUS OR FLOWERLESS PLANTS.

=Vascular Cryptogams.=

LYCOPODIACEÆ.

SPORÆ LYCOPODII.

Lycopodium; Semen vel Sporulæ Lycopodii; F. Lycopode; G. Bärlappsamen, Hexenmehl.

=Botanical Origin=—Lycopodium clavatum L.—This plant, the Common Clubmoss, is almost cosmopolitan. It is found on hilly pastures and heaths throughout Central and Northern Europe from the Alps and Pyrenees to the Arctic reunions, in the mountains of the east and centre of Spain, throughout Russian Asia to Amurland and Japan, in North and South America, the Falkland Isles, Australia and the Cape of Good Hope. It occurs throughout Great Britain, but is most plentiful on the moors of the northern counties.

The part of the plant employed in pharmacy is the minute spores, which, as a yellow powder, are shaken out of the kidney-shaped capsules or sporangia, growing on the inner side of the bracts covering the fruit-spike.

The manner in which those sporæ are able to reproduce the mother plant is not yet satisfactorily ascertained.[2724]

=History=—The Common Clubmoss was well known as Muscus terrestris or Muscus clavatus, to the older botanists, as Tragus, Dodonæus, Tabernæmontanus, Bauhin, Parkinson and Ray, by most of whom its supposed virtues as a herb have been commemorated. Though the powder (spores) was officinal in Germany, and used as an application to wounds in the middle of the 17th century,[2725] it does not appear to have been known in the English shops until a comparatively recent period. It is not included by Dale[2726] in the list of drugs sold by London druggists in 1692, nor enumerated in English drug lists of the last century; and it never had a place in the London Pharmacopœia.

[2724] The few particulars may be found in the excellent description of Lycopodium in Luerssen’s “Medicinisch-pharmaceutische Botanik,” i. (Leipzig, 1878) 635, with figures.

[2725] Schröder, Pharmacopœia Medico-chymica, ed. 4, Lugd. 1656. 538.—Flückiger, “Documente” (quoted p. 404) 63. 68.

[2726] Pharmacologia, Lond. 1693.

=Description=—Lycopodium is a fine, mobile, inodorous, tasteless powder of pale yellow hue, having at 16° C. a sp. gr. of 1·062. It floats on water and is wetted with difficulty, yet sinks in that fluid after boiling. By strong titration it coheres, assumes a grey tint, and leaves an oily stain on paper; it may then be mixed with water. It is immediately moistened by oily and alcoholic liquids, chloroform, or ether. It loses only 4 per cent. of moisture when dried at 100° C. When slowly heated, it burns away quietly, but when projected into flame, it ignites instantly and explosively, burning with much light, an effect exhibited by some other pulverulent bodies having a peculiar structure, as fern spores and kamala.

=Microscopic Structure=—Under the microscope lycopodium is seen to be composed of uniform cells or granules, 25 mkm. in diameter, each bounded by four faces, one of which (the base) is convex, while the others terminate in a triangular pyramid, the three furrowed edges of which do not reach quite to the base. These tetrahedral granules are marked by minute ridges, forming by their intersections, regular five- or six-sided meshes. At the points of intersection, small elevations are produced, which, under a low magnifying power, give the granules a speckled appearance. Below this network lies a yellow, coherent, thin, but compact membrane, which exhibits considerable power of resistance, not being ruptured either by boiling water or by potash lye. Oil of vitriol does not act upon it in the cold, even after several days; but it instantly penetrates the grains and renders them transparent, while at the same time numerous drops of oil make their appearance and quickly exude.

=Chemical Composition=—One of the most remarkable constituents of lycopodium spores is a fixed oil, which they contain to the astonishing amount of 47 per cent. Bucholz pointed out its existence in 1807, but obtained it only to the extent of 6 per cent. Yet if the spores are thoroughly comminuted by prolonged trituration with sand, and are then exhausted with chloroform or ether, we find that the larger proportion above mentioned can be obtained. The oil is a bland liquid, which does not solidify even at -15° C.

By subjecting lycopodium or its extract to distillation with or without an alkali, Stenhouse obtained volatile bases, the presence of which we can fully confirm; but they occur in exceedingly small proportion. The ash of lycopodium amounts to 4 per cent.; it is not alkaline; it contains alumina, and one per cent. of phosphoric acid, constituents likewise found in the green parts of the plant.

=Production and Commerce=—To obtain lycopodium, the tops of the plant are cut as the spikes approach maturity, taken home, and the powder shaken out and separated by a sieve. It is collected chiefly in July and August, in Russia, Germany and Switzerland. The quantity obtained varies greatly by reason of frequent failures in the growth of the plant.

France imported in 1870, 7262 kilo. (16,017 lb.) of lycopodium, chiefly from Germany. The consumption in England is probably very much smaller, but there are no data to consult.

=Uses=—Lycopodium is not now regarded as possessing any medicinal virtues, and is only used externally for dusting excoriated surfaces and for placing in pill boxes to prevent the mutual adhesion of pills. It is also employed by the pyrotechnist.

=Adulteration=—The spores are so peculiar in structure, that they can be distinguished with certainty by the microscope from all other substances. It is only the species of clubmoss that are nearly related to L. clavatum,[2727] that yield an analogous product, and this may be used with equal advantage.

The pollen of phænogamous plants, as of Pinus silvestris, looks at first sight much like lycopodium, but its structure is totally different and very easily recognized by the microscope.

Water, even on boiling, is unable to dissolve anything from lycopodium; slight traces of sulphate of calcium are not seldom met with in the filtrate. Yet an undue proportion of gypsum will be detected by the following methods:—

Starch and dextrin, which are sometimes fraudulently mixed with the spores, are easily recognized by the well-known tests. Inorganic admixtures, as gypsum or magnesia, may be detected by their sinking in bisulphide of carbon, whereas lycopodium rises to the surface; or by incineration, a good commercial drug leaving about 4 per cent. of ash.

FILICES.

RHIZOMA FILICIS.

Radix Filicis maris; Male Fern Rhizome, Male Fern Root; F. Racine de Fougère mâle; G. Farnwurzel.

=Botanical Origin=—Aspidium Filix mas Swartz (Polypodium L. Nephrodium Michaux). The male fern is one of the most widely distributed species, usually growing in abundance and, in temperate regions, ascending as high as the arborescent vegetation. It occurs all over Europe from Sicily to Iceland, in Greenland, throughout Central and Russian Asia to the Himalaya and Japan; is found throughout China, and again in Java and the Sandwich Islands, as well as in Africa from Algeria to the Cape Colony and Mauritius. In North America it is wanting in the Eastern United States, being principally replaced by the nearly allied Aspidium marginale Sw. and A. Goldieanum Hook.; but it is met with in Canada, California and Mexico, as well as in New Granada, Venezuela, Brazil, and Peru.

=History=—The use of the rhizome of ferns as a vermifuge was well known to the ancients,[2728] as Theophrastus, Dioscorides and Pliny all giving curious descriptions of the plant. The remedy would appear to have been administered also during the middle ages, for it was again noticed by Valerius Cordus,[2729] and had a place in German pharmaceutical tariffs of the sixteenth century as well as in Schröder’s Dispensatory.[2730] Yet Tragus[2731] remarks that, at least in Germany, the root was little used. It was in fact subsequently nearly forgotten until revived by the introduction of certain secret remedies for tapeworm, of which powdered male fern rhizome, combined with drastic purgatives, was a chief constituent.

[2727] Especially L. annotinum, L. complanatum and L. inundatum.

[2728] Murray, Apparatus medicaminum, v. (1790) 453-471.

[2729] Lib. 4, cap. 156 of the work quoted in the Appendix.

[2730] Medicin-chymische Apotheke, Nürnberg, 1656. 20.

[2731] P. 547 of the work quoted in the Appendix.

A medicine of this kind was prepared by Daniel Mathieu, a native of Neuchâtel, born in 1741, who established himself as an apothecary in Berlin. His treatment for the parasite was so successful that it attracted the notice of Frederick the Great, who purchased his nostrum for an annuity of 200 thalers (£30), besides conferring upon him the dignity of Aulic Councillor.[2732]

Great celebrity was also gained for the method of treating tapeworm practised by Madame Nuffler or Nuffer, the widow of a surgeon at Murten (Morat), likewise in Switzerland, who in 1775 obtained for the secret from Louis XIV., after an inquiry by savans of the period, the sum of 18,000 livres. Her method of treatment consisted in the administration of—1. Panada made of bread with a little butter. 2. A clyster of salt water and olive oil. 3. The “spécifique”—simply powdered fern root. 4. A purgative bolus of calomel, gamboge, acammony, and Confectio hyacinthidis,—given in the foregoing order.[2733]

J. Peschier,[2734] a pharmacien of Geneva, recommended as a substitute for the bulky powder of the root, an ethereal extract, an efficient preparation, which though proposed in 1825, was scarcely used in England until about 1851; at present it is the only form in which male fern is employed. Peschier already observed a crystallized deposit in his extract.

=Description=—The fresh rhizome or caudex is short and massive, 2-3 inches in diameter, decumbent, or rising a few inches above the ground, and bearing on its summit a circular tuft of fronds, which in their lower part are thickly beset with brown chaffy scales. Below the growing fronds are the remains of those of previous seasons, which retain in their firm, fleshy bases, vitality and succulence for years after their upper portion has perished. From among these fleshy bases, spring the black, wiry, branching roots.[2735] The rhizome is rather fleshy, and easily cut with a knife, internally of a bright pale yellowish green; it has very little odour and a sweetish astringent taste. For pharmaceutical use, it should be collected in the late autumn, winter or early spring, divested of the dead portions, split open, dried with a gentle heat, reduced to coarse powder, and at once exhausted with ether. Extract obtained in this way is more efficient than that which has been got from rhizome that has been kept some time.

[2732] Cornaz, Les familles médicales de la ville de Neuchâtel, 1864. 20.

[2733] Traitement contre le Ténia ou ver solitaire, pratiqué à Morat en Suisse, examiné et éprouvé à Paris. Publié par ordre du Roi, 1775. 4°, pp. 30. 3 plates, one representing the plant, its rhizome and leaves.—Also English translation by Dr. Simmons, London, 1778. 8°.

[2734] Bibliothèque Universelle, xxx. (1825) 205; xxx. (1826) 326.

[2735] For a full account of the growth and structure of that rhizome see Luerssen, Medicinisch-pharmaceutische Botanik, i. (1878) 504. 561.

=Microscopic Structure=—On transverse section of the rootstock, the tissue shows rounded, somewhat polyhedral cells with porous walls; the outer cells are brown and rather smaller, but do not exhibit the regular flattened shape, usual in many suberous coats. Within this cortical layer, there is a circle of about 10 large vascular bundles, besides a large number of smaller ones scattered beyond the circle. The leaf-bases exhibit a somewhat different structure, their vascular bundles, usually 8, forming but one diffuse circle.

The cells of the parenchyme contain starch, greenish or brownish granules of tannic matter, and drops of oil. In the green, vigorously vegetating parts of the rootstock there are numerous smaller and larger intercellular spaces, into which a few stalked glands project, as shown by Prof. Schacht of Bonn in 1863. These globular glands originate from the cells bordering the intercellular spaces. After their complete development, and the appearance of starch in the adjacent parenchyme, they exude a greenish fluid, which when thin slices of the rhizome are kept some time in glycerin, solidifies in acicular crystals.[2736] Such glands appear to be wanting in most of the allied ferns, such as Aspidium Oreopteris Sw. and Asplenium Filix fœmina Bernh. They have been observed by one of us (F.), in the small rhizome of A. spinulosum Sw. Similar glands, but not exuding a green liquid, occur between the paleæ below the vegetating cone of the rootstock.

=Chemical Composition=—Of the numerous examinations which have been made of this drug, those of Bock (1852), of Luck (1860), and of Kruse (1876), may be especially mentioned. Besides the universally distributed constituents of plants, there have been found in the rhizome 5 to 6 per cent. of a green fatty oil, traces of volatile oil, resin, tannin (Luck’s Tannaspidic and Pteritannic Acids) and crystallizable sugar, which according to Bock is probably cane sugar.

The medicinal ethereal extract, of which the rhizome yields about 8 per cent., deposits a colourless, granular, crystalline substance, noticed by Peschier as early as 1826, and subsequently designated by Luck, Filicic Acid. Grabowski (1867) assigned it the formula C₁₄H₁₈O₅. We learn from Prof. Buchheim that he regards filicic acid as the source of the medicinal efficacy of the drug. By fusion with potash, filicic acid is converted into phloroglucin and butyric acid. The green liquid portion of the extract consists mainly of a glyceride called Filixolin, from which Luck obtained by saponification two acids, the one volatile, Filosmylic Acid, the other non-volatile, termed Filixolic Acid.

Malin (1867) showed that the tannic acid of male fern may be decomposed by boiling dilute acids into sugar and a red substance, Filix-red, C₂₆H₁₈O₁₂, analogous to Cinchona-red.

Schoonbroodt[2737] performed some interesting experiments with fresh fern root, showing that it contains volatile acids of the fatty series, among which is probably formic; but also a fixed acid, accompanied by an oil of disagreeable odour. The liquid distilled from the dried root did not evolve a similar odour, nor did it contain any acid body. A small quantity of essential oil was obtained by means of ether from the alcoholic extract of the fresh but not of the dried rootstock. The rhizome of male fern yields 2 to 3 per cent. of ash, consisting mainly of phosphates, carbonates, and sulphates of calcium and potassium, together with silica.

[2736] The chemical nature of this body remains to be ascertained. The crystals are probably Filicic Acid, accompanied by chlorophyl and essential oil.

[2737] Journal de Médecine de Bruxelles, 1867 and 1868—also in the Jahresbericht of Wiggers and Husemann, 1869. 21.

=Uses=—The ethereal extract has been prescribed for all kinds of intestinal worms; but recent experience goes to prove that its effects are chiefly exhibited in cases of tapeworm. It is equally and thoroughly efficacious in the three kinds respectively termed Tænia solium, T. medio-cannellata and Bothriocephalus latus.

=Substitution=—The rhizomes of Asplenium Filix fœmina Bernh., Aspidium montanum Vogl. (A. Oreopteris Sw.) and A. spinulosum Sw. may scarcely be mistaken for that of A. Filix mas. The best means of distinguishing them is afforded by transverse sections of the leaf-bases. In Filix mas, the section exhibits 8 vascular bundles,—in the other ferns named, only 2,—a difference easily ascertained by examination under a lens. Practically, no other indigenous fern than A. Filix mas affords a rhizome of sufficient bulk so as to be remunerative. We are not acquainted with that of the American Aspidium marginale Swartz, the section of which shows 6 vascular bundles; its extract is stated by Cressler (1878) to be perfectly active.

=Thallogens.=

LICHENES.

LICHEN ISLANDICUS.

Iceland Moss; F. Lichen ou Mousse d’Islande; G. Isländisches Moos.

=Botanical Origin=—Cetraria islandica Acharius.[2738]—It is abundant in high northern latitudes, as Greenland, Spitzbergen, Siberia, Scandinavia and Iceland, where it grows even in the plains. It is found in the mountainous parts of Great Britain, France, Italy, and Spain, in Switzerland (in elevations of nearly 10,000 feet), and in the Southern Danubian countries. It also occurs in North America and in the Antarctic regions.

=History=—In the North of Europe, this lichen has long been used under the general name of Mosi, Mossa or Mus,[2739] as an article of food. It is the Muscus crispæ Lactucæ similis of Valerius Cordus,[2740] and was also mentioned by Ole Borrich, of Copenhagen (1671), who called it Muscus catharticus, under the notion that in early spring it possesses purgative properties.[2741] The pharmaceutical tariff of the same city, of the year 1672, likewise quotes Muscus catharticus islandicus.[2742] Its medicinal employment in pulmonary disorders was favourably spoken of by Hjärne in 1683,[2743] but it is only since 1757 that it has come into general use as a medicine, chiefly on the recommendation of Linnæus and Scopoli.

=Description=[2744]—The plant consists of an erect, foliaceous, branching thallus, about 4 inches high, curled, channelled or rolled into tubes, terminating in spreading truncate, flattened lobes, the edges of which are fringed with short thick prominences. The thallus is smooth, grey, or of a light olive-brown; the under surface is paler and irregularly beset with depressed white spots. The apothecia (fruits), which are not very common, appear at the apices of the thallus, as rounded boss-like bodies, ²/₁₀ to ³/₁₀ of an inch across, of a dark, rusty colour. The colour and mode of division of the thallus vary greatly, so that many varieties of the plant have been distinguished.

[2738] Cetraria from cetra, an ancient shield of hide, in allusion to the circular apothecia.

[2739] These names are generally applied in Scandinavia and Iceland to the smaller cryptogams, as lichens, true mosses, lycopodium, etc.

[2740] Hist. stirpium, quoted in the Appendix.

[2741] Bergius, Materia Medica, Stockholm, ii. (1778) 856.

[2742] Flückiger, Documente, quoted at page 404.

[2743] Murray, Apparatus Medicaminum, v. (1790) 510.

[2744] For an exhaustive account and figures see Luerssen (quoted at p. 734) p. 176.

In the dry state, Iceland moss is light, harsh and springy; it absorbs water in which it is placed to the extent of a third of its weight, becoming soft and cartilaginous; it ordinarily contains about 10 per cent. of hygroscopic water. It is inodorous, but when wetted has a slight seaweed-like smell; its taste is slightly bitter.

=Microscopic Structure=—A transverse section exhibits, when strongly magnified, a broad loose central layer of long, thick-walled branching walls of hyphæ, containing air, and enclosing wide hollow spaces. This middle layer encloses a certain number of larger cells called gonidia, coloured with chlorophyll. The gonidia are not destroyed either by strong sulphuric acid, or by boiling them with potash. They assume however a deep violet colour when treated with caustic potash and then left for 24 hours in a solution of iodine in potassium iodide.

The tissues on either side of this central layer consists of very thickly felted hyphæ, without intervening spaces, and does not appear to contain any particular substance. This compact and tenacious tissue passes into a thin cortical layer consisting of cells very closely bound together. Under the influence of reagents this layer becomes very evident: thus when moistened with strong sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, it separates from the rest of the tissue as a coherent membrane, and rolls itself backward. On boiling with water the inner tissue swells up, the cell-walls being partly dissolved. Thin slices of the lichen are coloured reddish or pale blue by iodine water,—more distinctly blue, if previously treated with sulphuric acid. The colour spreads uniformly over the inner tissue, but no starch granules can be detected; the cortical layer is merely coloured brown by iodine. The white spots on the outer surface of the thallus are resolved by pressure under a plate of glass into minute round transparent granules, not coloured by iodine, and thick branched cells like those of the central layer.

The short thick prominences on the edge of the thallus, frequently terminate in one or more sac-like cavities (spermogonia) containing a large number of simple bar-shaped cells (spermatia), only 6 mkm. long; they are enveloped in transparent mucus, and may be expelled by pressure under glass. It has been shown by Stahl (1874) that they represent the fertilizing corpuscles or seaweeds of the class Florideæ.

The observations of De Bary (1866) and Schwendener (1867-70) confirmed and much extended by the researches of Bornet[2745] (1873-74), have shown that the gonidia of lichens are referable to some species of Alga, and are capable of an independent existence; that the relations of the hyphæ to the gonidia are of such a nature as to exclude the possibility of either of those bodies being produced by the other; and further that the theory of parasitism is the only one capable of explaining these relations in a satisfactory manner. Under this singular theory, lichens are compound organisms, formed of an alga, and of a fungus living upon it as a parasite.

[2745] Recherches sur les gonidies des Lichens.—Ann. des Sciences nat. Bot. xvii. (1873) 45-110; 11 plates; also xix. (1874) 314-320.—For a complete abstract of these and all the more recent investigations on this subject, see Luerssen (l.c.) 186 et seq.

=Chemical Composition=—Boiling water extracts from Iceland moss as much as 70 per cent. of the so-called Lichenin, or Lichen-starch, a body which is perfectly devoid of structure. The decoction (1: 20) gelatinizes on cooling, and assumes a reddish or bluish tint by solution of iodine. This property of lichenin is plainly seen, when the drug is first exhausted by boiling spirit of wine containing some carbonate of potassium; and then boiled with 50 to 100 parts of water, and the decoction precipitated by means of alcohol. The lichenin thus obtained in a purer state, must be deprived of alcohol by cautiously washing it with water. Powdered iodine will now immediately impart to it while still moist an intense blue. Its composition, C₁₂H₂₀O₁₀, agrees with that of starch and cellulose; and it must be regarded as a modification of the latter, being likewise soluble in water and in ammoniacal solution of copper. Lichenin is not a kind of mucilage, because it yields but insignificant traces of mucic acid, if treated with concentrated nitric acid; and also because it contains no inorganic constituents.[2746] The very trifling proportion of mucic acid it furnishes may depend upon the presence, in small amount, of an independent mucilaginous body.

According to Th. Berg (1873), lichenin consists of what he continues to call so, and another constituent, the latter only being coloured by iodine, possessing (dextrogyre) rotatory power, and also being insoluble in ammoniacal solution of copper. Berg’s lichenin is not soluble in cold water, but readily dissolves in hot water, and again separates on cooling. The other constituent on the contrary is abundantly soluble in cold, and very sparingly in hot water. The drug yielded to Berg 20 per cent. of “true” lichenin and 10 per cent. of the other substance.

The chlorophyll of the gonidia is not soluble in hydrochloric acid, and hence is distinguished by Knop and Schnedermann as Thallochlor; its quantity is extremely small.

The bitter principle of Cetraria, called Cetraric Acid or Cetrarin, C₁₈H₁₆O₈, crystallizes in microscopic needles, is nearly insoluble in cold water, and forms with alkalis, yellow, easily soluble, bitter salts. The lichen also contains a little sugar, and about 1 per cent. of a peculiar body, Licheno-stearic Acid, C₁₄H₃₄O₃, the crystals of which melt at 120° C. The Lichenic Acid found by Pfaff in 1826 in Iceland moss, and formerly regarded as a peculiar compound, has been proved identical with fumaric acid.

In common with many lichens, cetraria contains Oxalic Acid and is said to yield also some tartaric acid. The ash, which amounts to 1-2 per cent., consists to the extent of two-fifths of silicic acid combined chiefly with potash and lime.

=Collection and Commerce=—Iceland moss is collected in many districts where the plant abounds at least for local use, as in Sweden, whence some is shipped to other countries. It is also gathered in Switzerland, especially on the mountains of the Canton of Lucerne, and in Spain.[2747] None is exported from Iceland.

[2746] The various mucilages and gums yield from 4 to 20 per cent. of ash, but lichenin yields none.

[2747] Cat. of Spanish Productions,—London Exhibition, 1851.

=Uses=—It is given in decoction as a mild tonic, combined with more active medicines. It is very little employed in Iceland, and only in seasons of scarcity, when it is sometimes ground and mixed with the flour used in making the grout or grain soup. Occasionally it is taken boiled in milk. It is not given, as has been asserted, to domestic animals.

An interesting application of Iceland moss has recently been tried in Sweden. Sten-Stenberg treats it with sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, when 72 per cent. of grape sugar are formed, which may be converted into alcohol.[2748]

FUNGI.

SECALE CORNUTUM.

Ergota; Ergot of Rye,[2749] Spurred Rye; F. Seigle ergoté; G. Mutterkorn.

=Botanical Origin=—Claviceps purpurea Tulasne, a fungus of the order Pyrenomycetes, of which ergot is an immature form, it being the sclerotium (termed in the British Pharmacopœia compact mycelium or spawn) developed within the paleæ of numerous plants of the order Gramineæ.

Ergot is obtained almost exclusively from rye, Secale cereale L.; but the same fungus is produced on grasses belonging to many other genera, as Agropyrum, Alopecurus, Ammophila, Anthoxanthum, Arrhenatherum, Avena, Brachypodium, Calamagrostis, Dactylis, Glyceria, Hordeum, Lolium, Poa, and Triticum. Other organisms of diverse form, but of doubtful specific distinctness, are developed in Molinia, Oryza, Phragmites, and other grasses. In the order Cyperaceæ (e.g., Scirpus), peculiar ergots are known.

=History=—Although it is hardly possible that so singular a production as ergot should be unnoticed in the writings of the classical authors, we believe no undoubted reference to it has been discovered.[2750] The earliest date under which we find ergot mentioned on account of its obstetric virtues is towards the middle of the 16th century, by Adam Lonicer of Frankfort, who describes its appearance in the ears of rye, and adds that it is regarded by women to be of remarkable and certain efficacy.[2751] It is also very clearly described in the writings of Johannes Thalius, who speaks of it as used “ad sistendum sanguinem.”[2752] In the next century it was noticed by Caspar Bauhin, who termed it Secale luxurians,[2753] and by the English botanist Ray,[2754] with allusion to its medicinal properties.

Rathlaw, a Dutch accoucheur, employed ergot in 1747. Thirty years later Desgranges of Lyons prescribed it with success; but its peculiar and important properties were hardly allowed until the commencement of the present century, when Dr. Stearns of New York succeeded in gaining for them fuller recognition.[2755] Ergot of rye was not, however, admitted into the London Pharmacopœia until 1836.[2756]

[2748] Dingler’s Polytechnisches Journal, 197 (1870) 177; also Chemisches Centralblatt, 1870. 607.

[2749] From the French ergot, anciently argot, a cock’s spur.

[2750] Consult Pliny’s Nat. Hist. book 18. ch. 44.

[2751] Kreuterbuch, ed. 1582. 285 (not in the edition of 1560).

[2752] Sylva Hercynia, Francof. 1588. 47.

[2753] Pinax Theatri Botanici, Basil. 1623. 23.

[2754] Hist. Plant. ii. (1693) 1241.

[2755] Stillé, Therapeutics and Mat. Med. ii. (1868) 609.

[2756] From 1825 to 1828 the wholesale price of ergot of rye in London was from 36_s._ to 50_s._ per lb., that is to say, from twelve to fifteen times its present value.

The use of flour containing a considerable proportion of ergot, gives rise to a very formidable disease, distinguished in modern medicine as Ergotism, but known in early times by a variety of names, as Morbus spasmodicus, convulsivus, malignus, epidemicus vel cerealis, Raphania, Convulsio raphania[2757] or Ignis sancti Antonii.

Some of the malignant epidemics which visited Europe after seasons of rain and scarcity during the middle ages have been referred with more or less of probability to ergot-disease.[2758] The chronicles of the 6th and 8th centuries note the occurrence of maladies which may be suspected as due to ergotized grain. There is less of doubt regarding the epidemics that prevailed from the 10th century and were frequent in France, and in the 12th in Spain. In the year 1596 Hessen (Hessia) and the adjoining regions were ravaged by a frightful pestilence, which the Medical Faculty of Marburg attributed to the presence of ergot in the cereals consumed by the population. The same disease appeared in France in 1630, in Voigtland (Saxony) in the years 1648, 1649, and 1675; again in various parts of France, as Aquitaine and Sologne, in 1650, 1670, and 1674. Freiburg and the neighbouring region were visited by the same malady in 1702; other parts of Switzerland in 1715-16; Saxony and Lusatia in 1716; many other districts of Germany in 1717, 1722, 1736, and 1741-2.[2759] The last epidemic in Europe occasioned by ergot appears to be that which, after the rainy season of 1816, visited Lorraine and Burgundy, and proved fatal to many people of the poorer class. Ergot disease is sometimes observed in Abyssinia at the present day,[2760] and a few cases of it have even been lately recorded in Bavaria.[2761]

=Formation=—The true nature of ergot has long been the source of a great diversity of opinion, not set at rest by the admirable researches of L. R. Tulasne, from whose Mémoire sur l’Ergot des Glumacées,[2762] the following account is for the most part extracted.

[2757] Pereira, Elem. of Mat. Med. ii. (1850) 1007.

[2758] Consult Häser, Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin und der Volkskrankheiten, 1845. i. 256. 830, ii. 94; C. F. Heusinger, Recherches de Pathologie comparée, Cassel, i. (1853) 543-554; Mérat et De Lens, Dict. Mat. Med. iii. 131, vii. 268.

[2759] Tissot of Lausanne, Phil. Trans. lv. (1766) 106.—See also Dodart, Mém. de l’ Acad. R. des Sciences, x., années 1666-1699 (Paris, 1730) 561; Hist. de la Soc. Roy. de Méd., année 1776. 345; and Mém. de Méd. et de Phys. méd. année 1776. 260-311. 417.

[2760] Th. von Heuglin, Reise nach Abessinien etc. Jena, 1868. 180.

[2761] Wiggers and Husemann, Jahresbericht for 1870. 582.

[2762] Ann. des Sciences nat., Bot., xx. (1853) 1-56 and 4 plates.—More recent observations will be found in St. Wilson’s paper, Trans. of the Bot. Society of Edinburgh, xli. (1876) 418-434 with figures; and especially in Luerssen (quoted at p. 735) 156, et seqq.

The formation of ergot often affects only a few caryopsides in a single ear; sometimes, however, more than twenty. In the former case, the healthy development of the other caryopsides is not prevented, but if too many are attacked, the entire ear decays. The more isolated ergots generally grow larger, and attain their greatest size on rye which springs up here and there among other cereals.

The first symptoms of ergot-formation is the so-called honey-dew of rye, a yellowish mucus, having an intensely sweet taste, and the peculiar disagreeable odour frequently belonging to fungi. Drops of this mucus show themselves here and there on the ears in the neighbourhood of diseased grains, and attract ants and beetles of various kinds, especially the yellowish-red Rhagonycha melanura Fabr., but not bees. On this account the beetle in question has been supposed to be instrumental in the development of ergot, and it may possibly be so, but only by transporting the saccharine mucus from one plant to another.

The honey-dew of rye contains neither oil-drops nor starch. After dilution with water, it produces a rapid and abundant separation of cuprous oxide from an alkaline solution of cupric tartrate. Dried over sulphuric acid, it solidifies into a crystalline mass. After a few days the drops of honey-dew dry up and disappear from the ear. The grain at this period becomes completely disintegrated, and devoid of starch.

The ergotized soft ovaries are covered with, and penetrated by a white, spongy, felted tissue, the mycelium of the young fungus. It is made up of slender, thread-like cells, the hyphæ, the outer layer of which consists of radially-diverging cells, the basidia. The whole mycelium forms by its crevices and folds a number of cavities opening externally; from its outer layer, which is also called the hymenium or spermatophorum, an immense number of agglutinated, elongated granules, the conidia, are separated. These cells, the products of the basidia, are not more than four mkm. in length, and give the floral organs the appearance of being covered with a whitish dust. The honey-dew likewise contains an abundance of conidia, but it is only on dilution that they are precipitated and become easily perceptible; the formation of the honey-dew is intimately connected with that of the conidia themselves. Ergot in this primary or mycelium stage was regarded as an independent fungus by Léveillé (1827), who named it Sphacelia segetum. According to Kühn (1863), it may even be directly by germination of the conidia within the ears of rye.

The mycelium penetrates and envelops the caryopsis, with the exception of the apex, and thereby prevents its further growth, destroying especially the epicarp and the embryo. At the base of the caryopsis, there is formed by tumefaction and gradual transverse separation of the thread-cells of the mycelium, a more compact kernel-like body (the future ergot) violet-black without, white within, which gradually but largely increases in size, and ultimately separates from the mycelium as the loose tissue of the latter dries and shrinks up after the completion of its functions. By this growth, the remains of the caryopsis, still recognizable by their hairs and by the rudiments of the style, as well as by the surviving portions of the mycelium-tissue, become visible above the paleæ on the apex of the mature ergot, now projecting prominently from the ear. Very rarely the ergot is crowned by a fully developed seed; in the commercial drug, the apex is usually broken off.

It is evident that in the process of development just described, the very tissue of the caryopsis of the rye does not undergo a transformation, but that it is simply destroyed. Neither in external form, nor in anatomical structure does ergot exhibit any resemblance to a caryopsis or a seed, although its development takes place between the flowering time and that at which the rye begins to ripen. It has been regarded as a complete fungus, and as such was named by De Candolle (1816) Sclerotium Clavus and by Fries Spermædia Clavus.

No further change in the ergot occurs while it remains in the ear; but laid on damp earth, interesting phenomena take place. At certain points, small orbicular patches of the rind fold themselves back, and gradually throw out little white heads. These increase in size, whilst the outer layers of the neighbouring tissue gradually lose their firmness and become soft and rather granular, at the same time that the cells, of which they are made up, become empty and extended. In the interior of the ergot, the cells retain their oil drops unaltered. The heads assume a greyish-yellow colour, changing to purple, and finally after some weeks stretch themselves towards the light on slender shining stalks of a pale violet colour. The stalks often attain an inch in length, with a thickness of about ½ a line. They consist of thin, parallel, closely-felted cell-threads, devoid of fat oil. Ergot is susceptible of this further development only so long as it is fresh, that is to say, at most until the next flowering time of rye. Within this period however, even fragments are capable of development. There are sometimes also produced colourless threads of mould which belong to other fungi, as Verticillium cylindrosporum Corda, and which frequently overgrow the Claviceps.[2763]

[2763] Ergot of rye collected by myself in August, placed upon earth in a garden-pot and left in the open air unprotected through the winter, began to develop the Claviceps on the 20th March, and on another occasion on the 20th April, at which date some sowed in February also began to start, Sharp frost appears to retard the vegetation; thus, after the cold winter of 1869-70, Claviceps, even in the greenhouse, did not make its appearance before the 11th May. The earliest instance of fully developed ergots which I ever observed, occurred on the 11th of June; more frequently they are seen only in the beginning of July.—F. A. F.

At the point where the stalk joins the spherical or somewhat flattened head, the latter is depressed and surrounds the stalk with an annular border. After a short time there appear on the surface of the head, which is ⅒ of an inch in diameter, a number of brownish warts, in which are the openings of minute cavities, the conceptacula or perithecia. On transverse section, they appear arranged radially round the circumference of the head. In each cavity are a large number of delicate sacs, only 3-5 mkm. thick, and about 100 mkm. long, the thecæ or asci, each containing, as is usual in fungi, 8 spores. These are simple thread-shaped cells, filled with a homogeneous solid mass.

The thicker ends of the spore-sacs (asci) open while still within the perithecium; the spores issue united in a bundle, and are emitted from the aperture of the perithecium. In consequence of their somewhat glutinous consistence, they remain united even after their extrusion, and form white silky flocks; their number in the 20 or 30 heads sometimes produced from a single ergot, often exceeds a million. The heads themselves die in two or three weeks after they have begun to make their appearance. They represent the true fructification of the fungus. This state of the plant appears to have been first noticed in 1801 by Schumacher, who called it Sphæria; it was subsequently known as Cordiceps, Cordyliceps, Kentrosporium, etc., until Tulasne proved it to be the final stage of development of ergot.

The three different forms of this structure, namely, the mycelium, the ergot, and the fruit-bearing heads, are therefore merely successive states of one and the same biennial fungus, which have been appropriately united by Tulasne under the name of Claviceps purpurea. The middle stage forms the sclerotium, which occurs in a large number of the most various fungi, and is a special state of rest of these plants. The direct proof that the mycelium is produced from spores of the fruit-head sown on ears of rye, was supplied by Kühn in 1863. It has already been mentioned that the same organism is produced from conidia; whence it appears that a twofold formation of ergot is possible, as is frequently the case in other fungi.

=Description=—Spurred rye, as found in commerce, consists of fusiform grains, which it is convenient to term ergots. They are from ⅓ to 1½ inch in length, and ½ to 4 lines in diameter; their form is subcylindrical or obtusely prismatic, tapering towards the ends, generally arched, with a longitudinal furrow on each side. At the apex of each ergot, there is often a small whitish easily detached appendage, while the opposite extremity is somewhat rounded. The ergots are firm, horny, somewhat elastic, have a close fracture, are brittle when dry, yet difficult to pulverize. The whitish interior is frequently laid bare by deep transverse cracks. The tissue is but imperfectly penetrated by water, even the thinnest sections swelling but slightly in that fluid.

Ergot of rye has a peculiar offensive odour, and a mawkish, rancid taste. It is apt to become deteriorated by keeping, especially when pulverized, partly from oxidation of the oil, and partly from the attacks of a mite of the genus Trombidium. To assist its preservation, it should be thoroughly dried, and kept in closed bottles.

=Microscopic Structure=—In fully developed ergot, no organs can be distinguished. It consists of uniform, densely felted tissue of short, thread-like, somewhat thick-walled cells, which are irregularly packed, and so intimately matted together that it is only by prolonged boiling of thin slices with potash, and alternate treatment with acids and ether, that the individual cells can be made evident. Without such treatment, the cells even in the thinnest sections, show a somewhat rounded, nearly isodiametric outline. This pseudo-parenchyme of ergot exhibits therefore an aspect somewhat different from that of the loosely felted cells (hyphæ) of other fungi. Ergot nevertheless is not made up of cells differing from those of fungi generally. If thin longitudinal slices of the innermost tissue are allowed to remain in a solution of chromic acid containing about 1 per cent., they will distinctly show the hyphæ, which are however considerably shorter than those of other fungi. They contain numerous drops of fat oil, but neither starch nor crystals. It is remarkable that this nearly empty and not much thickened parenchyme should form so compact and solid a tissue.

The cell-walls of the tissue of ergot are not coloured blue, even after prolonged treatment with iodine in solution of potassium iodide; or when the tissue has been previously treated with sulphuric acid, or kept for days in contact with potash and absolute alcohol at 100° C. In this respect the cellulose of fungi differs from that of phanerogamic plants.

Of the outermost rows of cells in ergot, a few only are of a violet colour, but they are not otherwise distinguishable from the colourless tissue,—or at most by the somewhat greater thickness of their walls.

=Chemical Composition=—The composition of ergot has been elaborately investigated by Wiggers as early as 1830. The drug contains about 30 per cent. of a non-drying, yellowish oil, chiefly consisting of olein, palmitin, and small proportions of volatile fatty acids, especially acetic and butyric, combined with glycerin. The large amount of oil is remarkable; the fungi, dried at 100°, usually contain not more than 5 per cent. of fat, mostly much less; they are on the other hand much richer in albumin than ergot of rye. The oil of the latter, as extracted by bisulphide of carbon, is accompanied by small quantities of resin and cholesterin (see p. 420). It is erroneous to attribute to this oil the poisonous properties of ergot, although it has been shown by Ganser[2764] to display irritating properties when taken in doses of about 6 grammes. But the effects observed appear dependent on the presence in it of resin.

According to Wenzell (1864), ergot of rye contains two peculiar alkaloids, which he designated Ecboline and Ergotine,[2765] and claimed to be the active principles of the drug. They were, however, got merely as brownish amorphous substances.

The two bases of ergot are, according to Wenzell, combined with Ergotic Acid, the existence of which has been further admitted by Ganser. It is said to be a volatile body yielding crystallizable salts.

A crystallized colourless alkaloid, Ergotinine, C₃₅H₄₀N₄O₆, has been isolated (1877-1878) by Tanret, a pharmacien of Troyes. He obtained it to the amount of about 0·04 per cent., some amorphous ergotinine moreover being present. Tanret exhausts the powdered drug with boiling alcohol, which by evaporation affords a fluid resin and an aqueous solution, besides a fatty layer. Some ergotinine is removed from the resin by shaking it with ether, and mixed with the main liquid. This is acidulated and purified by means of ether. Lastly, the ergotinine is extracted by adding a slight excess of carbonate of potassium and shaking with ether, and recrystallizing from alcohol. The solutions of ergotinine turn very soon greenish and red; they are fluorescent. Sulphuric acid imparts to it a red, violet, and finally blue hue.

Dragendorff and several of his pupils, since 1875, have isolated the following amorphous principles of the drug under notice:—(1) Sclerotic acid (doubtful formula C₁₂H₁₉}NO₉), said to be a very active substance, chiefly in subcutaneous injections. About 4 per cent. of colourless acid may be obtained from good ergot of rye. (2) Scleromucin, a mucilaginous matter, which may be precipitated by alcohol from aqueous extracts of the drug. Scleromucin when dried is no longer soluble in water. (3) Sclererythrin, the red colouring matter, probably allied to anthrachinon and the colouring substances of madder, chiefly to purpurin. (4) Sclerojodin, a bluish-black powder, soluble in alkalis. (5) Fuscosclerotinic acid. (6) Picrosclerotine, apparently a highly poisonous alkaloid. Lastly (7) Scleroxanthin, C₇H₇O₃ + OH₂; and (8) Sclerocrystallin, C₇H₇O₃, have been obtained in crystals; their alcoholic solution is but little coloured, yet assumes a violet hue on addition of ferric chloride.

Tanret also observed in ergot of rye a volatile camphoraceous substance.

Ergot, in common with other fungi,[2766] contains a sugar termed Mycose, closely allied to cane-sugar, and probably identical with Trehalose (see p. 417). Mycose crystallizes in rhombic octohedra, having the composition C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ + 2H₂O. Mitscherlich obtained of it about one-tenth per cent. It appears that the sugar exuded in the first stage of growth of the fungus,—the so-called rye honey-dew,—is in its principal characters different from mycose. Instead of the latter, Mitscherlich, as well as Fiedler and Ludwig, sometimes obtained from ergot Mannite.

[2764] Archiv der Pharm. cxliv. (1870) 200.

[2765] The name Ergotine has also been given to a medicinal extract of ergot, prepared after a method devised by Bonjean, a pharmacien of Chambéry, vide Journ. de Pharm. iv. (1843) 107; Pereira, Elem. of Mat. Med. ii. (1850) 1012.

[2766] See Müntz in Comptes Rendus, lxxvi. (1873) 649.

Schoonbroodt also found in ergot Lactic Acid. Several other chemists have further proved the presence of acetic and formic acids.

Starch is entirely wanting in ergot at all times. The drug yields about 3 per cent. of nitrogen, corresponding probably to a large amount of albuminoid matter. Ganser, however, obtained only 3·2 per cent. of albumin soluble in water.

When ergot or its alcoholic extract is treated with an alkali it yields, as products of the decomposition of the albuminoid matters, ammonia or ammonia-bases, according to Ludwig and Stahl, Methylamine,—according to others, Trimethylamine. Manassewitz, as well as Wenzell, state that phosphate of trimethylamine is present in an aqueous extract of ergot, but Ganser ascertained that no such base pre-exists in ergot. We have found that the crystals which abound in the extract, after it has been kept for some time, are an acid phosphate of sodium and ammonium with a small proportion of sulphate.[2767]

=Production and Commerce=—Ergot of rye is to be met with in all the countries producing cereals; we have seen it in the high valleys of the Alps, and Schübeler states that it grows in Norway, as far north as 60° N. lat.

The drug is chiefly imported into London from Vigo in Spain and from Tenerife; it is also shipped from Hamburg and France. Dr. de Lanessan, writing to one of us from Vigo in 1872, remarks that vast quantities of rye are grown in Galicia, and that owing to the humidity of the climate the grain is extensively ergotized,—in fact the parasite is present in one ear out of every three. At the time of harvest the ergots are picked out, and the rye is thus rendered fit for food.

Southern and Central Russia furnish considerable supplies of the drug. In the central parts of Europe, ergot does not everywhere occur in sufficient abundance to be collected, and it greatly diminishes as the state of agriculture improves. We have noticed that ergot from Odessa was of a slaty hue and in much smaller grains than that from Spain.

=Uses=—Ergot is principally used on account of its specific action on the uterus in parturition.

=Other Varieties of Ergot=—Ergot of Wheat (Triticum vulgare), which is in shorter and thicker ergots than that of rye, is picked out by hand in some parts of Italy and France, from grain intended to be used for the manufacture of vermicelli and other pastes; and such ergot is sold to druggists. Carbonneaux Le Perdriel[2768] has endeavoured to show that it is less prone to become deteriorated by age than that of rye, and that it never produces the deleterious effects sometimes occasioned by the latter.

[2767] The red colour of an alcoholic solution may serve for the detection of small quantities of ergot in flour. The reaction with potash, and evolution of the characteristic odour of herring brine may assist in the same object. Extraction of the fatty oil with carbon bisulphide may also be recommended as a test, inasmuch as good cereal grains contain but a very small percentage of fat.

[2768] De l’Ergot de Froment et de ses propriétés méd. (thèse) Montpellier, 1862.

The same writer asserts that Ergot of Oat is sometimes collected and sold either per se, or mixed with that of rye. It differs from the latter in the ergots being considerably more slender.

Ergot of the North African grass Arundo Ampelodesmos Cirillo, known as Diss, has been collected for use, and according to Lallemant[2769] is twice as active as that of rye. It is from 1 to 3 inches long by only about ⅒ of an inch broad, generally arched, or in the large ergots twisted spirally. We find it to share the structural character of the ergot of rye; it is in all probability the same formation, yet remarkably modified.

ALGÆ (FLORIDEÆ).

CHONDRUS CRISPUS.

Fucus Hibernicus; Carrageen,[2770] Irish Moss; F. Mousse d’Irlande, Mousse perlée; G. Knorpeltang, Irländisches Moos, Perlmoos.

=Botanical Origin=—Chondrus crispus Lyngbye (Fucus crispus L.), a sea weed of the class Florideæ, abundant on rocky sea-shores of Europe from the North Cape to Gibraltar; not frequent however in the Baltic, and altogether wanting in the Mediterranean, but largely met with on the eastern coasts of North America.

=History=—Chondrus crispus was figured in 1699 by Morison,[2771] yet only Todhunter at Dublin introduced it to the notice of the medical profession in England in 1831, and shortly afterwards it attracted some attention in Germany. It was never admitted to the London or British pharmacopœia, and is but little esteemed in medicine.

=Description=—The entire plant is collected: in the fresh state it is soft and cartilaginous, varying in colour from yellowish-green to livid purple or purplish-brown, but becoming, after washing and exposure to the sun, white or yellowish, and when dry, shrunken, horny and translucent.

The base is a small flattened disc, from which springs a frond or thallus 4 to 6 inches or more in length, having a slender subcylindrical stem, expanding fan-like into wedge-shaped segments, of very variable breadth, flat or curled, and truncate, emarginate or bifid at the summit.

The fructification[2772] consists of tetraspores or cystocarps, rising but slightly from the substance of the thallus, and appearing as little wart-like protuberances.

In cold water, carrageen swells up to its original bulk, and acquires a distinct seaweed-like smell. A quantity of water equal to 20 or 30 times its weight, boiled with it for ten minutes, solidifies on cooling to a pale mawkish jelly.

[2769] Etude sur l’Ergot du Diss, Alger et Paris, 1863; Journ. de Pharm. i. (1865) 444.

[2770] Carrageen in Irish signifies moss of the rock. We learn from an Irish scholar that it would be more correctly written carraigeen.

[2771] Plantar. hist. universal. Oxon. iii. tab. 11.

[2772] See Luerssen (quoted at p. 734) i. 124 et seq.

=Microscopic Structure=—The tissue of Chondus crispus is made up of globular or elongated, thick-walled cells. The superficial layers on both sides of the lobes constitute a kind of peel, easily separable in microscopic sections. The interior or medullary part exhibits a much less densely packed tissue formed of larger cells. The larger cavities of this tissue contain a granular mucilaginous matter, assuming a slight violet tinge on addition of iodine. In water however, the cell-walls swell up so as to form a gelatinous mass, in which separate cells can at last be scarcely distinguished.[2773] In the fresh state, its cells also contain granules of chlorophyll imbued with a red matter, termed Phyco-erythrin. But by washing and exposure to the air, these colouring substances are removed or greatly altered, and are no longer visible in the commercial drug.

=Chemical Composition=—The constituents of carrageen are those generally found in marine algæ, especially as regards the mucilage. This latter is insoluble in an ammoniacal solution of copper (Schweizer’s test); by the action of fuming nitric acid, it yields, in common with gum, an abundance of mucic acid. The mucilage of carrageen, like many similar bodies, obstinately retains inorganic matter; after it had three times been dissolved in water, and as many times precipitated with alcohol, we found it still to yield the same quantity of ash as the raw drug itself, that is to say, more than 15 per cent. The mucilage, perfectly dried, is a tough horny substance, of a greyish colour; it quickly swells up in water, forming a jelly which is precipitable by neutral acetate of lead.

By boiling carrageen for a week with water containing 5 per cent. of sulphuric acid, Bente (1876) obtained crystals of lævulinic acid, C₅H₈O₃, and an amorphous sugar. The former is also afforded by cellulose of pine wood and by paper.

According to Blondeau,[2774] the mucilage of carrageen contains 21 per cent. of nitrogen and 2·5 of sulphur, a statement which we are able to point out as erroneous. We find in it no sulphur, and only 0·88 per cent. of nitrogen. The drug itself yielded us not more than 1·012 per cent. of nitrogen.

When thin slices of the plant are treated with alcoholic potash, and then after washing left for 24 hours in contact with a solution of iodine in potassium iodide, they acquire a deep blue; yet, starch granules are not found in this seaweed. Lastly in connexion with carrageen may be mentioned Fucusol, an oily liquid isomeric with furfurol, obtained by boiling seaweeds with dilute sulphuric acid.

=Commerce=—The plant is collected on the west and north-west coast of Ireland: Sligo is said to be a great depôt for it. Carrageen of superior quality is sometimes imported from Hamburg.

[2773] Alcohol, glycerin or a fatty oil are the liquids most suited for the microscopic examination of this drug.

[2774] Journ. de Pharm. ii. (1865) 159.

The largest quantities of carrageen, sometimes half a million pounds a year, are gathered near Minot Ledge lighthouse, Scituate, Plymouth county, on the coast of Massachusetts, where a systematic process of preparing it for the market is adopted.[2775]

=Uses=—The mucilaginous decoction and jelly which carrageen affords are popular remedies in pulmonary and other complaints; but as nutriment such preparations are much over-estimated.[2776]

Carrageen is sometimes used for feeding cows and calves; and under the name of Alga marina, for stuffing mattresses. It is largely used for industrial purposes, like other mucilaginous matter. Its mucilage serves for thickening the colours employed in calico-printing, and as size for paper and for cotton goods. In America it is used for fining beer.

=Substitutes=—Gigartina mammillosa[2777] J. Agardh (Chondrus mammillosus Grev.) is collected indiscriminately with Ch. crispus. It is distinguished from the latter chiefly by having the flat portion of the thallus beset with elevated or stalked tubercles, bearing the cystocarps; but it has the same properties. G. acicularis Lamouroux, a species common on the coasts of France and Spain, and having slender cylindrical branches, is occasionally collected along with Chondrus crispus. Dalmon (1874) who has examined it, asserts it to be less soluble in boiling water than true carrageen. Small quantities of other seaweeds are often present through the negligence of the collectors.

FUCUS AMYLACEUS.

Alga Zeylanica; Ceylon Moss,[2778] Jaffna Moss.

=Botanical Origin=—Sphærococcus lichenoides Agardh. (Gracillaria lichenoides Grev., Plocaria candida Nees), a light purple or greenish seaweed, belonging to the class Florideæ, occurring on the coasts of Ceylon, Burma, and the Malay islands.[2779]

=History=—Ceylon moss has long been in use among the inhabitants of the Indian Archipelago and the Chinese. It is probably one of the plants described by Rumphius[2780] as Alga coralloides. In recent times it was brought to the notice of European physicians by O’Shaughnessy.[2781]

=Description=—The plant, which as found in commerce is opaque and white, having been deprived of colour by drying in the sun and air, consists of cylindrical ramifying stems or filaments, ⅒ of an inch in diameter and from 1 to 6 or more inches in length. The main stems bear numerous branches, simple or giving off slender secondary or tertiary ramifications, ending in a short point. When moistened, the plant increases a little in volume, becomes rather translucent, and frequently exhibits whitish globular or mammiform fruits (cystocarps). It is somewhat friable, and after drying at 100° C. may easily be powdered. It is devoid of taste and smell, in this respect differing from most sea weeds.

[2775] Bates in Amer. Journ. of Pharm. 1868. 417; also Pharm. Journ. xi. (1869) and viii. (1877) 304.

[2776] A person must eat a pound of stiff jelly made of the powdered seaweed before he would have swallowed half an ounce of dry solid matter.

[2777] Fig. in Luerssen (quoted at p. 734) 126.

[2778] For convenience we accept the popular name of moss, though it is no longer in accordance with the signification of the word in modern science (see p. 737, note 2).

[2779] The Pharmacopœia of India (1868) names Sphærococcus confervoides Ag. (Gracillaria Grev.), a plant of the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean, not uncommon on the shores of Britain, as furnishing a portion of the drug under notice. Specimens which we have examined are widely different in structure from S. lichenoides, and are apparently devoid of starch.

[2780] Herb. Amboin. vi. lib. xi c. 56.

[2781] Indian Journ. of Med. Science, Calcutta, March, 1834; Bengal Dispensatory, 1841. 668.

=Microscopic Structure=—The transverse section shows a loose tissue made up of large empty cells, enclosed by a cortical zone 30 to 70 mkm. thick. This zone consists of small cells, loaded with globular starch granules, from less than 1 up to 3 mkm. in diameter, so densely packed as to form what seems at first sight a single mass in each cell. In the larger cells the granules are attached to the walls; they do not display in polarized light the usual cross. The thick walls of the cells show a stratified structure, especially after having been moistened with chromic acid; on addition of a solution of iodine in an alkaline iodide, they assume a deep brown, but the starch granules, which also abound in the cystocarps, display the usual blue tint.

=Chemical Composition=—The drug, as examined by O’Shaughnessy, yielded in 100 parts of vegetable jelly 54·5, starch 15·0, ligneous fibre (cellulose?) 18·0, mucilage 4·0, inorganic salts 7·5.

Cold water removes the mucilage, which, after due concentration, may be precipitated by neutral acetate of lead. This mucilage, when boiled for some time with nitric acid, produces oxalic acid and microscopic crystals of mucic acid (beautifully seen by polarized light), soluble in boiling water and precipitating on cooling. With one part of the drug and 100 parts of boiling water a thick liquid is obtained which affords transparent precipitates with neutral acetate of lead or alcohol, in the same way as carrageen. With 50 parts of water, a transparent tasteless jelly, devoid of viscosity, is produced; in common with the mucilage, it furnishes mucic acid, if treated with nitric acid. Micro-chemical tests do not manifest albuminous matter in this plant.

Some chemists have regarded the jelly extracted by boiling water as identical with pectin, but the fact requires proof. Payen[2782] called it Gelose, and found it composed of carbon 42·77, hydrogen 5·77, and oxygen 51·45 per cent. Gum Arabic contains carbon 42·12, hydrogen 6·41, and oxygen 51·47 = C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁. Payen’s gelose imparts a gelatinous consistence to 500 parts of water; it is extracted by boiling water from the plant previously exhausted by cold water slightly acidulated.[2783]

The inorganic salts of Ceylon moss consist, according to O’Shaughnessy, of sulphates, phosphates, and chlorides of sodium and calcium, with neither iodide nor bromide. Dried at 100° C., it yielded us 9·15 per cent. of ash.

=Uses=—A decoction of Ceylon moss made palatable by sugar and aromatics, has been recommended as a demulcent, and a light article of food for invalids. In the Indian Archipelago and in China, immense quantities of this and of some other species of seaweed[2784] are used for making jelly and for other purposes.

[2782] Comptes Rendus, xlix. (1859) 521; Pharm. Journ. i. (1860) 470. 508.

[2783] Gelose even in the moist state is but little prone to change, and the jelly made by the Chinese as a sweetmeat which consists mainly of it, will keep good for years.

[2784] Consult Martius, Neues Jahrb. f. Pharm. Bd. ix. März 1858; Cooke, Pharm. Journ. i. (1860) 504; Holmes, Pharm. Journ. ix. (1878) 45.

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