the hair and make it black ; a decoction of the root is used to have the same properties ; a powder made from the roasted and decorticated seeds is called Rahisee in Arabic and Arwah-i- kunjad in Persian ; it is used as an emollient both externally and internally (Dymock).
The Editor for many years employed the oil as a substitute for olive oil, in the preparation of Linimentum calcís, and found it answer well. The poorer natives use it much for dietetical purposes. The seeds have powerfully emmenagogue properties assigned to them, and it is believed by the natives and Indo- Britons that, if taken largely, they are capable of producing abortion. In amenorrhœa, the employment of a warm sitz bath containing a handful of the seeds, bruised, has been reported to the Editor, on good authority, to be an efficient mode of treatment. The alleged emmenagogue properties of these seeds deserve further investigation. The leaves (Sesami folia or Benne leaves) are officinal in the secondary list of the U. S. Pharmacopœia ; they abound with thick viscid mucilage, which is readily imparted to water, and an infusion of them is much used in the Southern States of North America in all affections requiring demulcents. One or two full-sized fresh leaves, infused or agitated in half a pint of cold water, will soon render it sufficiently viscid for this purpose. If the dried leaves be used, hot water should be substituted for the cold. The leaves also serve for the preparation of emollient poultices (U. S. Disp,, p. 714). How far the leaves of the Indian grown plant may be used in this way remains to be determined (Ph. Ind.).
" I have employed," Dr. Evers says, " the mucilage, obtained from the leaves of the Indian plant, in the treatment of sixteen cases of dysentery, and in all recovery followed. From six to seven days was the time necessary for such treatment. I confess, however, that my cases were not of the virulent type seen towards the end of the rainy season. The drug acts simply as a demulcent, and does not, in my opinion, exert any specific influence on the disease ; furthermore, it is necessary to combine an opiate with it, to relieve the tenesmus, so that probably the opium added has as much to do in checking the disease as the
