as a laxative medicine to some pulmonary affections than other diseases. The oil is serviceable in some cases in which jalap, rhubarb and castor-oil are indicated, and also in some bronchial and catarrhal affections. The use of the root is attended with benefit in some chronic cases of skin diseases.
"There is a great difference in opinion as to the action and dose of the oil of Argemone MexiCana. Some say that thirty minims of it act as an efficient cathartic, while others consider it to be quite inert and incapable of producing any-purgative effect in "ounce doses." I have got this oil prepared three or four times in my own presence, and tried it in many cases. The former opinion is quite correct, and with regard to the latter, it is necessary to say that the oil, so far from being inert in "ounce doses," is unsafe in more than forty minim doses, and produces a dangerous hypercatharsis when the dose is increased to one drachm. If the oil is fresh, its average dose is twenty-five minims; and, if old, thirty-five. It is a good drastic or hydragogue cathartic in such doses, and generally produces from 5 to 12 motions. Ics advantage over jalap, rhubarb, castor-oil, &c, is the smallness of its doses; and over the croton oil, its freeness from unpleasant, nauseous and acrid taste. Its disadvantages as a purgative are, firstly, that its action is not uniform even in its average dose which produces more than fifteen or sixteen motions at one time, and only three or four at another; and, secondly, that it is generally accompanied by vomiting at the commencement of its operation. Though the latter is not severe, yet it has a very unpleasant effect in a purgative medicine. Hypercatharsis from the use of this oil is not generally attended with great debility and other dangerous symptoms, frequently observed under a similar condition from croton oil and some other purgatives." (Moodeen Sheriff's Materia Medica of Madras).
In the Concan, the juice with milk is given in leprosy. * * * An extract made from the whole plant has been found to have an aperient action, and the milky juice to promote the healing of indolent ulcers. I have not noticed any bad effects from its application to the eyes. Its use as an external application to the eyelids in conjunctivitis was probably introduced into
