- sessing some of the properties of acids, the other some of the properties
of bases; and the latter they consider the active principle, and have accordingly named Jalapine.[1] Mr. Hume of London some time ago procured from the crude drug a powdery substance, to which he gave the same name, and which he conceived to be the active principle. His analysis has not been generally relied on by chemists; but it is not improbable that his principle differs little from that of the German chemists.
The action of jalap has been examined scientifically by M. Felix Cadet de Gassicourt, who found that it produced no particular symptom when injected into the jugular vein of a dog in the dose of twenty-four grains, or when applied to the cellular tissue in the dose of a drachm. But when rubbed daily into the skin of the belly and thighs it excited in a few days severe dysentery; when introduced into the pleura it excited pleurisy, fatal in three days; when introduced into the peritonæum it caused peritonitis and violent dysentery, fatal in six days; and when introduced into the stomach or the anus, the animals died of profuse purging in four or five days, and the stomach and intestines were then found red and sometimes ulcerated. Two drachms administered by the mouth proved fatal.[2] Scammony, which is procured from another species of the same family, the Convolvulus scammonea, has been found by Orfila to be much less active. Four drachms given to dogs produced only diarrhœa.[3] Of Poisoning with Savin.
The leaves of the Juniperus sabina, or savin, have been long known to be poisonous. They have a peculiar heavy, rather disagreeable odour, and a bitter, acrid, aromatic, somewhat resinous taste. They yield an essential oil, which possesses all their qualities in an eminent degree.
A dog was killed by six drachms of the powdered leaves confined in the stomach. It appeared to suffer pain, died in sixteen hours, and exhibited on dissection only trivial redness of the stomach. Two drachms introduced into a wound of the thigh caused death after the manner of the other vegetable acrids in two days; and besides inflammation of the limb there was found redness of the rectum.[4]
Savin is a good deal used in medicine for stimulating old ulcers and keeping open blistered surfaces; which may be done without danger, although it cannot be applied to a fresh wound without risk of diffuse inflammation. Both the powder and the essential oil are of some consequence in a medico-legal point of view, as they have been often used with the intent of procuring abortion. The oil is generally believed by the vulgar to possess this property in a peculiar degree. Doubts, however, may be entertained whether any such
