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Materia Medica.

Part II.

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I

awl-shaped appendage, with a groove or furrow to receive thestyle after it has passed between the lobes of the anthera, andwhich terminates with the stigma, a little beyond the extremi-ty of the filament; but in the plants of the Cardamom, orproper aiuomum tribe, the anthera-bearing filament termi-nates in an appendage of three or more lobes, and differs alsoin other respects, as will be more particularly noticed underthe genus Amomum.

Ginger is a perennial plant, indigenous in the East Indies,but now cultivated in the West India islands. It is cultivatedthere very much in the same manner as potatoes are here,and is fit for digging once a-year, unless for preserving insyrup, when it should be dug at the end of three or fourmonths, at which time it is tender and full of sap.

Ginger is distinguished into two sorts, the black and thewhite. The former is rendered fit for preservation by meansof boiling water, the latter by insolation; and as it is neces-sary to select the fairest and roundest sorts for exposure to thesun, white ginger is commonly one-third dearer than black.

Black ginger consists of thick and knotty roots, internallyof an orange or brownish colour, externally of a yellow-grey.White ginger is less thick and knotty, internally of a reddish-yellow, and externally of a whitish-grey or yellow. It is firmand resinous, and more pungent than the black. Pieces whichare worm-eaten, light, friable, or soft, and very fibrous, areto be rejected.

Preserved ginger should be prepared in India from thevoung and succulent roots. When genuine, it is almost tran-sparent. That manufactured in Europe is opaque and fi-brous.

Ginger has a fragrant smell, and a hot, biting, aromatictaste. Neumann obtained by distillation with water from 7680parts of white ginger, about 60 of a volatile oil, having thesmell and distinguishing flavour of the ginger, but none of itspungency. The watery extract was considerably pungent, andamounted to 2720, after which alcohol extracted 192 of a verypungent resin. Alcohol applied first extracted 660 of pungentresin, and water afterwards 2160 of a mucilaginous extract,with little taste, and difficultly exsiccated. The black gingercontained less soluble matter than the white.

Medical use. —Ginger is a very useful spice in cold flatulentcolics, and in laxity and debility of the intestines; it does notheat so much as the peppers, but its effects are more durable.It may also be applied externally as a rubefacient. Lately,the powder of ginger, taken in very large doses in milk, wassupposed to be almost specific in the gout.