If an aqueous extract of euphorbium is mixed with spirit of wine, and the liquid evaporated, the residual matter assumes a somewhat crystalline appearance, and exhibits the reactions of Malic Acid. Subjected to dry distillation, white scales and acicular crystals of Maleic and Fumaric Acids, produced by the decomposition of the malic acid, are sublimed into the neck of the retort. A sublimate of the same kind may sometimes be obtained directly by heating fragments of euphorbium. Among the mineral constituents of the drug, chloride of sodium and calcium are noticeable; scarcely any salt of potassium is present.
Commerce—The drug is shipped from Mogador. The quantity imported into the United Kingdom in 1870 is given in the Annual Statement of Trade as 12 cwt.
Uses—Euphorbium was formerly employed as an emetic and purgative, but as an internal remedy it is completely obsolete. We have been told that it is now in some demand as an ingredient of a paint for the preservation of ships’ bottoms.
CORTEX CASCARILLÆ.
Cortex Eleutheriæ; Cascarilla Bark, Sweet Wood Bark, Eleuthera[2083] Bark; F. Ecorce de Cascarille; G. Cascarill-Rinde.
Botanical Origin—Croton Eluteria Bennett,[2084] a shrub or small tree, exclusively native of the Bahama Islands.
History—It is not improbable that cascarilla bark was imported into Europe in the first half of the 17th century, as there was much intercourse subsequent to the year 1630 between England and the Bahamas.[2085] These islands were occupied in 1641 by the Spaniards, who became at that time acquainted with the Peruvian bark or Cascarilla ([see page 346]), as we have shown at [page 343]. The external appearance of the bark of Eluteria being somewhat similar to that of Cinchona quills, the former began soon to be known under the name of China nova. This drug occurs along with true Cinchona bark, China de China, in the tariff of the year 1691 of the pharmaceutical shops of the German town Minden, in Westphalia. There can be no doubt that the cheaper kind of “China,” called China nova, was really the bark under examination, for in many other tariffs a few years later distinct mention is made of Cortex Chinæ novæ seu Schacorillæ; and Savary, in his “Dictionnaire de Commerce” (1723, 1750), confirms the fact, adding that it was first seen in the great fair of Brunswick.[2086] Another early statement concerning Cascarilla bark likewise refers to the duchy of Brunswick. Stisser, a professor of anatomy, chemistry, and medicine in the University of Helmstedt in Brunswick, relates that he received the drug under the name of Cortex Eleuterii from a person who had returned from England, in which country, he was assured, it was customary to mix it with tobacco for the sake of correcting the smell of the latter when smoked. He also mentions that it had been confounded with Peruvian bark, from which however it was very distinct in odour, etc.[2087] Eleutheria bark was then frequently prescribed as a febrifuge in the place of Cinchona bark, then a more expensive medicine. Hence the name cascarilla, signifying in Spanish little bark, which was the customary designation of Peruvian bark, was erroneously applied to the Bahama bark, until at last it quite superseded the original and more correct appellation. That of China nova was subsequently applied to a quite different bark ([see page 364]). The drug under notice was first introduced into the London Pharmacopœia in 1746 as Eleutheriæ Cortex, which was its common name among druggists down to the end of the last century. In the Bahamas the name cascarilla is still hardly known, the bark being there called either Sweet Wood Bark or Eleuthera Bark.
The plant affording cascarilla has been the subject of much discussion, arising chiefly from the circumstance that several nearly allied West Indian species of Croton yield aromatic barks resembling more or less the officinal drug. Catesby in 1754 figured a Bahama plant, Croton Cascarilla Bennett, from which the original Eleuthera Bark was probably derived, though it certainly affords none of the cascarilla of modern commerce. Woodville in 1794, and Lindley in 1838, both investigated the botany of the subject, the latter having the advantage of authentic specimens communicated by the Hon. J. C. Lees of New Providence, to whom one of us also is indebted for a similar favour. The question was not however finally set at rest until 1859, when J. J. Bennett by the aid of specimens collected in the Bahamas by Daniell in 1857-8, drew up lucid diagnoses of the several plants which had been confounded, and disentangled their intricate synonymy.[2088]
Description—Cascarilla occurs in the form of tubular or channelled pieces of a dull brown colour, somewhat rough and irregular, rarely exceeding 4 inches in length by ½ an inch in diameter. The chief bulk of that at present imported is in very small thin quills and fragments, often scarcely an inch in length, and evidently stripped from very young wood. The younger bark has a thin suberous coat easily detached, blotched or entirely covered with the silvery white growth of a minute lichen (Verrucaria albissima Ach.), the perithecium of which appears as small black dots. The older bark is more rugose, irregularly tessellated by longitudinal cracks and less numerous transverse fissures. Beneath the corky envelope the bark is greyish-brown.
The bark breaks readily with a short fracture, the broken surface displaying a resinous appearance. It has a very fragrant odour, especially agreeable when several pounds of it are reduced to coarse powder and placed in a jar; it has a nauseous bitter taste. When burned it emits an aromatic smell, and hence is a common ingredient in fumigating pastilles.