Part II.
Materia Medica.
253
it in the insidious remitting fever of children, which oftenlays the foundation for hydrocephalus.
Spongia officinalis. Ed. Land.CI. Zoopkgta. Ord. Spo??gia.Sponge.
Off.— Sponge.
Spongia officinalis. Ed.
Spongia. Lond. Dub.
Sponge is principally found in the Mediterranean and RedSeas. It was long supposed to be a vegetable production, butit is now universally allowed to belong to that remarkable classof animals called Zoophytes, winch are negatively characte-rized by Cuvier, as having no vertebra;, no sanguiferous ves-sels, no spinal marrow, and no articulated limbs. The spongesbelong to that division of the zoophytes, which are attachedto a solid trunk, and are particularized by their base beingspongy, friable, or fibrous.
Sponge is a soft, light, very poi'ous and compressible sub-stance, absorbing by capillary attraction a large proportion ofany fluid in which it is immersed.
Medical use. —From these properties, it is an useful sub-stance in the practice of surgery. When applied to ulcerswhich are accompanied with a copious discharge, it absorbsthe thinner and more acrid fluid, and leaves the ulcers cover-ed with the thicker and blander matter. It is also useful insuppressing hsemorrhagies, when properly applied by com-pression, by favouring the coagulation of the blood at themouths of the vessels. It also forms a convenient tent for di-lating wounds and fistulous ulcers, especially when preparedby immersing it in melted wax, and keeping it compresseduntil it cools. On the melting of the wax by the heat of thepart to which it is applied, it gradually expands, and affordsan uniform and gently dilating pressure.
Burnt sponge is nothing else than charcoal mixed with alittle muriate of soda and phosphate of lime.
Stalagmitis cambogioides. Ed. Lond. Dub.
Willd. g. 1888, sp. 1. Folygamia Monoccia ___Nat. ord.
Tricocae.
Off. —The gum-resin.Gambogia. Ed. Dub.Cambogia. Lond.
The tree which furnishes the gamboge is of middling size,and grows wild in the kingdom of Siam and in Ceylon. In