788 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.
The following is from the second report of the Indigenous Drugs Committee (p. 19.) : —
Way to use it.— Administer in doses of 10—60 minims (of the tincture.) (i) in cases of fever as an antiperiodic. (ii) in convalescence after fever as a tonic, (iii) in cases of diarrhoea and dysentery.
Remarks.— The natives of India have considerable faith in Alstonia bark. They use it in fevers and in dysentery : they also use it in skin diseases, ulcers, etc., and for a number of other complaints. Possibly it may be found better as a tonic after quinine than in the place of quinine.
Dr. Dymock has found the tincture of the bark to act in certain cases as a very powerful galactogogue ; in one case, the use of the drug was purposely discontinued at intervals and on each occasion the flow of milk was found to fail (Phormacographia Indica, Volume II, page 387).
The following statements are made in the report on the Continental Exhibition presented to the American Pharmaceutical Association {Transac- tions, 1877) about the use of this drug and its alkaloid, ditain, in Manilla :— " Equal doses of ditain and of standard quinine sulphate have had the same medicinal effects ; besides having none of the disagreeable secondary symptoms such as deafness, sleeplessness and feverish excitement, which are the usual concomitants of large quinine doses, ditain attains its effects swiftly, surely and infallibly. *****. The results arrived at by ditain in our Manilla Hospitals and private practice are simply marvellous. In our Military Hospital and penitentiary practice, ditain has perfectly superseded quinine." (Pharmacographia Indica, Volume II, page 388.)
Experiments have already been made for the Indigenous Drugs Committee, but are not conclusive ; an<i more evidence must be collected. Captain Stewart, I. M.S., who used one drachm doses, reported that in mild cases of fever it was as effective as quinine. Drs. W. D. Innes and Ditta Mall Dhingra did not find it as good as quinine in fever cases. Major Hare and Dr. C. Bancroft found it serviceable in dysentery.
The first Report of Proceedings of the Central Indigenous Drugs Com- mittee of India (published Calcutta 1901) contains records of results of observations by Medical Officers serving in different provinces of India. The consensus of their observations seems to show that the drug is useful in diarrhoea and dysentry, but that its effect as a febrifuge is not lasting. Ac- cording to Lieut.-Colonel H. A. P. Nailer, Acting District Medical and Sani- tary Officer of Tanjore, who used the drug in 14 cases of ague,
" In all of which it caused the temperature to fall steadily to normal in a short time : no perspiration was induced, but the urine was observed to be increased and high colored. In one case of pyrexia, 104°, it reduced the temperature to 96° in three days. The drug was then omitted, when the temperature rose to 104°. The drug was again administered, when tempera- ture again fell to 96°. It was then stopped and Quinine in 5 gr. doses was
