176

Materia Medica.

part n.

lities, particularly the odour, on which much of the efficacyof the drug depends, are much injured by keeping. 1 It be-comes brittle by exposure to the air; but is not easily reducedto powder. It yields all its virtues to ether and to alcohol.It is diffused by trituration in water, forming a milky opaquemixture. The ethereal tincture, when evaporated on water,leaves a thick pellicle of brown fetid resin, and gives the watera milky appearance. In distillation either with water or alco-hol assafcetida yields an essential oil, on which its odour de-pends. The proportions of its components are gum 60, resin30, and essential oil 10 parts in 100; but Brugnatelli affirmsthat the part which has been regarded as gum is extractive. l

Medical jyroperties and uses. — This gum r^sin is stimulant,antispasmodic, expectorant, emmenagogue, and anthelmintic.It is more efficacious than any of the other fetid gums; pro-ducing its effects in a shorter space of time; and is thereforebeneficially given as an antispasmodic in cases of hysteria, hy-pochondriasis, dyspepsia, flatulent colic, tympanitis, and innervous diseases; its expectorant powers have been founduseful in asthma, and hooping-cough; and it ranks high as aremedy in chlorotic affections. We are informed that in In-dia it is a successful native specific against the Guinea 3 worm.Its use is contra-indicated when the inflammatory diathesis ispresent; and owing to its stimulant quality, it is often com-bined with antimonials and nitre. It is used locally, in theform of enema in worm cases, flatulent colic, and in the con-vulsions attending dentition: and sometimes it is applied as aplaster for discussing tumours.

The dose is from grs. v. to 9j, formed into pills, or diffusedin water.

Officinal preparations. Mistura Assafcetida. L. D. Tinct. Assa-fcetida. L. E. D. Spiritus Ammonias Jbetidus. L. D. Pilules Assa-fcetida composite. E. Pilulce Aloes et Assafcetida. E.

FICUS. Spec. Plant. Willd. iv. 1131.CI. 23. Ord.2. Polygamia Dioecia. Nat. Ord. Scabridae Linn. Ur-ticae Juss.

. 1931. Common receptacle turbinate, fleshy, converging, conceal-ing the florets, either in the same or a distinct individual.Male. Calyx three-parted. Corolla 0. Stamens three.Female. Calyx five-parted. Corolla 0. Pistil one. Seeds co-vered by a permanent, closed, somewhat fleshy calyx.* Leaves lobedSpecies 1. K Carica.* The Fig-tree. Med. Bot. 2d. ed. 714. t. 244.

1 Kcempfer sa\s: " Affirmare ausim druchmam unam, recens effusam, majoremspargere foetortm quam centum libraj vetustioris, quern siccum veuundant aromatariinostrates." Amcen. Exotica, p. 535.

2 Compendia di, Mat. Med. p. 41. Pavia, 181}'.

I Edin. Med. Journ, ii. 30*. 4 £</*» Grsecoruin.