Qualities. This root is nearly inodorous; its taste slightly bitter, sweetish, sub-astringent, and mucilaginous; as it contains no volatile ingredient, it may be given in decoction, but on account of its astringency, it must not be conjoined with a chalybeate. Chemical Composition. According to M. Morin, the Male Fern root owes its anthelmintic property to a fatty substance, capable of being saponified; of a nauseous odour quite like that of the root; of a very disagreeable taste, heavier than water, and distilling with water, and when burnt, giving a dense aromatic smoke. The root, moreover, contains gallic and acetic acids; uncrystallizable sugar; tannin; starch; a gelatinous matter insoluble in water and alcohol; lignine; and various salts. M. Morin considers the fatty matter as formed of a fixed and a volatile oil, but farther experiments are required to make the characteristic principle of this root better understood. (Ann. de Chim. xxvi. 219.) Dose, as an anthelmintic,[[511]] ʒj to ʒiij, followed by a cathartic; its use however is superseded by more powerful and certain vermifuges. The root is sometimes boiled in ale to flavour it.
GALBANI GUMMI RESINA. L.E.D.
Galbanum.
Qualities. Form, variegated masses, of a yellowish brown colour; Odour, fetid; Taste, bitter and acrid. Chemical Composition. It is one of those vegetable products to which the name of gum-resin has been given, see Elemi. The latest analysis of galbanum by M. Meisner, affords the following results, Resin 65·8; Gum 22·6; Cerasin 1·8; Malic acid 0·2; Volatile oil 3·4; Vegetable Debris 2·8; loss 3·4. Solubility. Water, wine, and vinegar, by trituration, take up one-fourth of its weight, and form a milky mixture, which deposits its charge by rest; a permanent suspension, however, may be effected by the intermedium of egg or of gum arabic, for which purpose the galbanum will require half its weight of gum. Alcohol takes up one-fifth of its weight, and a golden yellow tincture results, which has the sensible qualities of the galbanum, and becomes milky on the addition of water, but no precipitate falls. A mixture of two parts of rectified spirit and one of water, will dissolve all but the impurities. By distillation, galbanum yields half its weight of volatile oil, which at first has a blue colour. Med. Uses. It is antispasmodic, expectorant, and deobstruent, and in a medical classification, might be placed between ammonia and assafœtida. Forms of Exhibition. No form is preferable to that of pill. Officinal. Prep. Pil. Galbani comp. L. Pil. Assafœtid. comp. E. (B) Pil. Myrrh. co. D. Tinct. Galb. D. Empl. Galb. D. Emplast. Galb. co. L. Emplast. Assafœtid. E. (B) Emplast. Gummos. E.
GALLÆ. L.E.D.
(Cynips Quercus folli Nidus.) Gall Nuts.
Qualities. Form, excrescences, nearly round and of different magnitudes, smooth on the surface, but studded with tuberosities; they are heavy, brittle, and break with a flinty fracture. Odour, none; Taste, bitter and very astringent. Solubility. The whole of their soluble matter is taken up by forty times their weight of boiling water. Alcohol, by digestion, dissolves .7, and æther .5 of their substance. The watery infusion possesses all the properties of the gall-nut, and reddens vegetable blues. Chemical Composition. Is at present involved in some obscurity; it contains tannin, gallic acid, a concrete volatile oil, and perhaps extractive and gum. M. Braconnot has also lately discovered in the gall-nut a new acid, which he calls Ellagic acid, from the word galle reversed, a nomenclature which it must be confessed is at least free from the objections urged against that which is founded upon chemical composition. (See Annales de Chimie, vol. ix. p. 187, new series; also Children’s Essay on Chemical Analysis, p. 276.) Incompatible Substances. The infusion and tincture of galls possess habitudes with which it is very important for the medical practitioner to be acquainted, not only for the purpose of directing their exhibition with success, but because the elements which impart to them their characteristic traits, viz. Gallic Acid and Tannin,[[512]] are very widely diffused through the products of the vegetable kingdom, and will be found to be constantly active in their chemical, medicinal, and pharmaceutical relations. Metallic salts, especially those of iron, produce precipitates with infusion of galls, composed of tannin, gallic acid, and the metallic oxide; of these compounds the tanno-gallate of iron is the most striking, being of a black colour; those of sub-acetate and acetate of lead are greyish; tartarized antimony produces a yellowish; sulphate of copper a brown; sulphate of zinc reddish black; nitrate of silver, a deep olive; and nitrate of mercury, a bright yellow precipitate; the oxy-muriate of mercury produces only an opacity. Sulphuric acid throws down a yellowish curdy precipitate, muriatic, a flaky and white one, and nitric acid merely modifies the colour of the infusion, although it destroys its astringency; the solution of ammonia occasions no precipitate but renders the colour deeper, the carbonate however throws down a precipitate; the carbonates of the fixed alkalies produce a yellowish flaky, and lime water a copious green precipitate. The tannin in the infusion of galls is precipitated by a solution of isinglass or of any other animal jelly, by that of starch, and by many metallic oxides. Medicinal Uses. Galls are most powerfully astringent. The native practitioners of India not only administer them as astringents in dysentery, but as tonics in cases of intermittent fever. Forms of Exhibition. In that of powder; and in combination with other astringents (Form. 51,) or with aromatics and bitters. As a local remedy the gall-nut enters into gargles and injections; for blind piles, an ointment composed of 2½ parts of finely powdered galls, and a small portion of opium, with three parts of simple ointment as an excipient, offers a very valuable resource. (Form. 55.) In some cases of hemorrhoids, prolapsus ani, and fluor albus, the application may be made in the form of a fomentation, for which purpose two drachms of bruised galls should be macerated for an hour in a pint of boiling water, which, when cold, may be used in the usual manner. Dose, for internal exhibition, grs. x–℈ij, or more. Officinal Prep. Tinct. Gallarum. E.D. Observation. Those which are small, protuberant, bluish, and heavy, are the best, being such as have been collected before the larvæ within them had changed to the state of fly, and eaten their way out; a white, or a red hue indicates an inferior quality, and are those from which the insect has escaped. Aleppo galls are the most valuable, as being the most astringent.
GENTIANÆ RADIX. L.E.D.
(Gentiana Lutea, Radix.) Gentian Root.
Qualities. Form, wrinkled pieces of various length and thickness; Odour, not particular; Taste, intensely bitter, but not nauseous. Chemical Composition, resin, a small portion of oil, bitter extractive, and a proportion of tannin; it contains also mucilage, in consequence of which the infusion frequently becomes ropy. Since the last edition of this work, the continental chemists have announced the existence of an alkaline principle, which they call Gentia or Gentiania, and which is said to concentrate within itself all the virtues of the Gentian root; it does not appear to be in the least poisonous; M. Majendie has injected it into the veins without any obvious effects, and has himself swallowed two grains without experiencing any sensation but that of extreme bitterness, followed by gentle warmth in the region of the stomach.[[513]] The root, moreover, contains saccharine matter, for when fermented with water, it yields a spirit which is extensively used by the Swiss. Solubility. The virtues of this root are extracted by water and alcohol; proof spirit is perhaps its most perfect menstruum. See Infus. Gentian. comp. Med. Uses. It is tonic and stomachic, and its use for such purposes is of ancient date;[[514]] in dyspepsia, hysteria, and in all cases where a vegetable bitter is indicated, it will be found a serviceable remedy. Dose, in substance, from grs. x to ʒj. Officinal Preparations. Extract: Gentian. L.E.D. Infusum Gentianæ comp. L.E.D. Tinct. Gentian. comp. L.E.D.[[515]] Vinum Gentianæ compositum. E.