Extractum (Succus Spissatus. E.D.) Conii. L. Much of this extract, as it is found in commerce, has not been prepared with equal fidelity, nor with due attention to the season when the plant is in its greatest perfection; Dr. Fothergill says, “I know from repeated experiments, that the extract which has been prepared from hemlock, before the plant arrives at maturity, is much inferior to that which is made when the plant has acquired its full vigour, and is rather on the verge of decline: just when the flowers fade, the rudiments of the seeds become observable, and the habit of the plant inclines to yellow, is the proper time to collect it;” the plants which grow in places exposed to the sun should be selected, as being more virose than those that grow in the shade: still however with every precaution, it will always be uncertain in strength. Orfila found that an extract prepared by boiling the dried powder in water, and evaporating the decoction, was inert; in fact, the whole of the activity of the plant resides in a resinous element insoluble in water, and for which I have proposed the name of Conein. Extract of hemlock, when judiciously prepared, is a very valuable sedative; I state this from ample experience, and when combined with Hyoscyamus, and adapted by means of mucilage and syrup, to the form of a mixture, it affords a more effectual palliative than any remedy with which I am acquainted, for coughs and pulmonary irritation. Form. 19. is that from which I have derived the greatest benefit in such cases. See also Form. 2, 3, 4, 19, 57. Since the fourth edition of the present work, I requested my friend Dr. John Davy to make trial of its efficacy in the Military Hospital at Chatham, and I here introduce his report upon the subject;—“My experience of the effects of the Extractum Conii perfectly agrees with that of Dr. Paris, as stated in the fourth edition of the Pharmacologia, and I am of his opinion that when properly prepared, and administered, it is a very valuable sedative; I have given it to the extent daily of from a scruple to a drachm, in chronic catarrh, and in phthisis pulmonalis, either alone or in conjunction with the Extract of Hyoscyamus, and it has afforded more relief than any other medicine that I have tried. From two or three trials of it in pneumonia, I am disposed to think it may be very serviceable in certain forms of this disease, in which venesection is contra-indicated by extreme debility; and also in measles. In the trials alluded to, I commenced giving it in the large dose of a drachm, daily, suspended in water containing in solution a grain of Antimonium Tartarizatum. In a very few instances, where I have from the commencement given it in a large dose, as from ʒj to ʒiss, it has occasioned hallucination of ideas, which in two cases was attended with excitement of the sensorium and increased action of the heart, and in one case, with diminished activity of both. The Extract of Conium, prepared by Mr. Barry, is the most powerful one I have ever used, indeed, until I tried it, I had no just idea of the virtues of Conium as a medicine; but I am now disposed to give credit to Stöerk’s account of its efficacy in various chronic diseases; and I have no doubt but that this valuable medicine has fallen into comparative disrepute and disuse from the bad quality of the extract commonly employed.” Dr. Maton has found that the value of this extract is greatly increased by including the seeds in its preparation. Dose, grs. v to ℈j; or more, twice or thrice a day; in a full dose it produces giddiness, a slight nausea, and a tremor of the body; a peculiar heavy sensation is also experienced about the eyes; and the bowels become gently relaxed: unless some of these sensations are produced, we are never sure that the remedy has had a fair trial of its effects. Patients will generally bear a larger dose at night than at noon, and at noon than in the morning.
Extractum Elaterii. L. This substance spontaneously subsides from the juice of the wild cucumber, in consequence I presume of one of those series of changes which vegetable matter is perpetually undergoing, although we are hitherto unable to express them by any known chemical law. It is therefore not an extract, either in the chemical or pharmaceutical acceptation of the term, nor an inspissated juice, nor is it a fecula,[[502]] as it has been termed; the Dublin College has perhaps been more correct in simply calling it Elaterium, the name given to it by Dioscorides.
It occurs in commerce in little thin cakes, or broken pieces, bearing the impression of the muslin upon which it has been dried; its colour is greenish, its taste bitter, and somewhat acrid; and when tolerably pure, it is light, pulverulent, and inflammable.
The early history of this medicinal substance is involved in great perplexity, each author speaking of a different preparation by the same name; for instance, the Elaterium of Dioscorides must have been a very different substance from that of Theophrastus; and, wherever Hippocrates mentions the term, he evidently alludes to any violent purgative. “Hippocrati Elaterium medicamentum est quod per alvum expurgat.” (Bod: in Theophrast.) This will, in some degree, reconcile the discordant testimonies of different authors with regard to the powers of Elaterium; for example, Dioscorides states its dose to be from grs. ii to ℈j—in Ætius, Paulus, and Actuarius, it is recommended to the extent of ʒss—in Mesue from ℈ss to ℈j—in Bontius (Med: Ind:) from ℈j to ʒss—Massarias exhibits it in doses of gr. vj—Fernelius and Sennertus to ℈j—Herman from grs. v vj—Quincy to grs. v—and Boerhaave does not venture to give more than gr. iv—while the practitioners of the present day limit their dose from gr. ½ to grs. ij. Dr. Clutterbuck, with a laudable intention to discover some method of procuring this article at a cheaper rate, and at the same time of establishing some process which might ensure a preparation of more uniform strength, has lately performed a series of interesting and instructive experiments,[[503]] the results of which prove in a satisfactory manner “that the active principle of this plant is neither lodged in the roots, leaves, flowers, nor stalks, in any considerable quantity: nor is it to be found in the body of the fruit itself, or in the seeds, but in the juice around the seeds; the substance which spontaneously subsides from this liquor, obtained without pressure, is genuine Elaterium, the quantity of which, contained in the fruit, is extremely small, for Dr. Clutterbuck obtained only six grains from forty cucumbers.” This gentleman communicated the detail of these experiments to the President of the College of Physicians, who requested me, as professor of Materia Medica, to report upon them. I accordingly deemed it to be my duty to enter upon a series of new experiments, which I have lately completed, with the able assistance of Mr. Faraday, in the laboratory of the Royal Institution. The results of which will shew, that although Dr. Clutterbuck found that an eighth part of a grain of elaterium seldom failed to purge violently, yet, strange as it may appear, that not more than one grain in ten of elaterium, as it occurs in commerce, possesses any active properties, and that this decimal part is a vegetable proximate principle, not hitherto noticed, to which I shall give the name of Elatin. I shall subjoin the detail of my experiments, and I think it will appear that their results will authorise me to express the chemical composition of Elaterium in the following manner.
| F. | Water | ·4 | ||
| I. { | B. | Extractive | 2·6 | |
| B.DJ | Fecula | 2·8 | ||
| C. | Gluten | ·5 | ||
| K. | Woody matter | 2·5 | ||
| H. | Elatin | { 1·2 | ||
| G. | Bitter Principle | |||
| 10 | grains. |
Proximate Analysis of Elaterium.
Experiments. Series 1st.
A.
Ten grains of Elaterium, obtained from a respectable chemist, and having all the sensible properties which indicated it to be genuine, were digested for twenty-four hours with distilled water, at a temperature far below that of boiling; four grains only were dissolved.
B.