Southall's Organic materia medica : being a handbook treating of some of the more important of the animal and vegetable drugs made use of in medicine, including the whole of those contained in the British pharmacopoeia.

  • Southall, W. (William)
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Southall's Organic materia medica : being a handbook treating of some of the more important of the animal and vegetable drugs made use of in medicine, including the whole of those contained in the British pharmacopoeia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    80/338 (page 52)
    ARUM.—Cuckoo-pint.—The tuberous root of Arum maculatum. N.O.—Aroideae. Habitat.—Indigenous. Characters.—Ohlong in shape, about the size of a pigeon's egg; brownish externally, white within, and, when fresh, fleshy and yielding a milky juice, which is almost insipid to the taste at first, but soon produces a burning and pricking sensation which lasts for some time. This acridity is lost during the process of drying. Chetnistry.—Starch, sugar, gum, resin, albumin, fat and extractive matter. There is also present a volatile acrid principle, which is soluble in ether. Saponin has also been found, and it is supposed that a volatile alkaloid is present in the tuber. Uses, etc.—The source of the so-called Portland arrowroot, now obsolete. In the fresh state the tubers act as an irritant when applied externally. Note.—The American Arum, Arum triphyllum (Dragon root, Indian turnip), has similar characters and properties to the above. 3. RHIZOMES.—RHIZOMATA. General Morphology of Rhizomes.—The rhizome is an oblique or prostrate stem growing perennially on or under the ground, and producing aerial shoots either at the apex from terminal buds or laterally from axillary buds. The roots or rootlets arise on the under surface normally at the points from which the aerial stems are given off—these points being termed the nodes. Rhizomes are frequently thickened by the presence of contained food material, e.g., ginger, etc., and in such cases each year's growth is usually marked by scars left after the fall of the aerial stems or branches, at the end of the active period of growth. Rhizomes are mo7iopodic or sympodic according to whether they grow by means of a terminal or an axillary bud. A corm is a subterranean fleshy stem of rounded or depressed figure, some buds of which produce fresh corms, whilst others put up aerial stems which produce leaves and flowers. Corms are either naked (e.g., cyclamen) or tunicated {e.g., crocus, colchicum). A bulb consists of an underground stem reduced to a flat plate and giving off aerial growths and fresh bulbs from its upper surface and rootlets from below. The aerial bud is surrounded by fleshy scale-like leaves which contain the food material which in the corm resides in the cauline or stem portion {e.g., squill, tulip). The bulb is said to be scaly when the fleshy leaves are small, thick and imbricate, whilst in the case of the tunicated bulb the leaves are of varying thickness and form concentric layers, the outer ones being thin and papery. General Histology of the Rhizome.—The histological characters of the rhizome are similar to those of the stem. In the dicotyledons an external jacket of flattened cork cells (replacing the epidermis of the young rhizome) forms the outer layer (periderm) of the bark. Internally to this a layer