PHARMACOPGEIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS.

SUMBUL

Musk root, Ferula sumbul, was first introduced into Russia asa Substitute for musk, and was known in Germany in 1840 as a Russianproduct. Its history is to the effect that in 1869 a Russian traveler,Fedschenko (240), discovered the plant producing it in the northernpart of the Khanat of Bukhara, 40 0 N. Lat. Sumbul has no authenticPosition in so-called "scientific" medicine other than that it crept intothe British Pharmacopeia in 1867 as a substance that had been rec-ommended as a Substitute for musk in cholera.

TAMARINDUS

The tamarind (Tamarindus indica) is a handsome tree indig-enous to tropical Africa. ft is also found throughout India, Java,and Yemen, and has been naturalized in South America as well as inadjacent tropical islands, such as the West Indies; also in Mexico,we having gathered it in La Paz, Power California. The ancientGreeks and Romans seem not to have known the tamarind. If knownto the Egyptians, it was neglected by their authors, although SirGardner Wilkinson (688) states that tamarind stones were found inthe tombs of Thebes, a statement not confivmed, however, by speci-mens of the Contents of tombs in the British Museum. The ancientSanskrit writings mention tamarind, and the fruit was known to theArabians as Indian dates, under which name it was mentioned by earlyauthors, such as Avicenna (30) and others, including Alhervi (2), ofPersia. Credit is given the Arabians for the distribution of the drugand its uses, it passing from them, with other Eastern products, intoEurope through the famous school of Salernum. Tamarinds havebeen used in their native countries in the making of a cooling drinkmuch relished by persons afflicted with fevers, in which direction theyhave been also employed in medicine throughout the civilized world.It would be better if the modern physician were more familiär with thegrateful home-made drink that tamarinds afford the parched suffererfrom fever.

TARAXACUM

The dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is a plant familiär to all,being found throughout the whole of Europe, Central Asia, and NorthAmerica, even to the Arctic regions. Although the word taraxacumis usually considered to be of Greek origin, there is no authentic recordthat the plant was known to the classical writers of Greece and Rome.The herbal, 1488, of Johann von Cube (173) gives it a position underthe name Dens leonis. It is mentioned by Rhazes in the tenth andby Avicenna (30) in the eleventh centuries, and it was used in Welshmedicine in the thirteenth Century. In domestic mediarval medicationand as an ingredient of many populär American "bitters" and "bloodpuriners" taraxacum was employed extensively. It yet enjoys a highreputation as a home remedy.

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