GELSEMIUM, a drug consisting of the root of geesemium sempervirens, a climbing shrub of the natural order Loganiacem, _haying a .milky juice, opposite, lanceolate, shin ing leaves, and axillary clusters of froM one to five large, funnel-shaped; very fragrant yellow flowers, whose perfume has been compared to that of the wall-flower. The fruit is composed of two separable jointed follicles, containing numerous flat-winged seeds. The stem often runs underground- for a considerable distance, and indiscriminately with the root it is used in medicine. The plant is a native of the United States, growing on rich clay soil by the side of streams near the coast, from Virginia to the s. of Florida. In the United States it is commonly known as the wild, yellow, or Carolina jessamine, although in no way related to the true jessamides, which belong to the oleaceae. It was first described in 1640 by John Parkinson, who grew it in his garden from seed sent by Tradeseaut front Virginia; at the present time it is but rarely seen, even iu botanical gardens, in Great Britain. The medicinal prbperties of the root were discovered by accident, the infusion having been administered instead of that of some other root, with the result of curing the fever for which it was taken. It was then experimented upon by the American eclectic practitioners. In 1852, prof. W. Proctor called the attention of the medical profession to its valuable properties; and in 1864, it was placed on approval in the secondary list, and in 1873, so rapidly had it risen iu favor, in the primary list of remedies of acknowledged value in the United States pharmacopmia. It has latterly attracted considerable attention in England as a remedy for certain forms of facial neuralgia, especially those arising from decayed teeth, or involving branches of the fifth nerve. In the United States it More particularly valued for controlling nerv ous irritability in fevers of a malarial type, in which it is said to excel every other known agent. The physiological action of the drug has been carefully examined by Batholow, Ott, and Ringer and Murrell, from whose investigations it appears that it has a paralyz ing action on the motor centers, affecting successively the third, fifth, and sixth nerves, its fatal action being due to its causing paralysis of the respiratory muscles, and thus producing death by asphyxia. In large doses it produces alarming symptoms, which
occasionally terminate fatally. These appear to vary in different cases, but the more prominent are pain in the. forehead and iu the eyeballs, giddiness, plosis, a feeling of lightness in the tongue, slurred pronunciation, labored respiration, wide dilation of the pupils, and impossibility of keeping an erect posture. The mind in most cases remains clear until shortly before death. The earliest and most prominent symptom of a fatal or dangeronsdose is the drooping of the eyelids, which indicates the immediate adminis tration of stimulants, for when the paralysis of the tongue which ensues extends to the epiglottis, deglutition becomes impossible, and the epiglottis is apt, unless the sufferer be placed in a forward position, to flap back and close the windpipe. The antidotes which have been found most successful are carbonate of ammonia, brandy, aromatic spirits of ammonia, and morphia. It has been found that death may be averted by keeping up artificial respiration until the poison is eliminated by the kidneys. [Encyc.:Brit.,9th ed.j GEM, a term often used to signify a precious stone of small size, such as may be used for setting in a ring, or for any similar purpose of ornament; but sometimes by miner alogists in a sense which they have themselves arbitrarily affixed to it, for the purpose of scientific classification, as the. designation of an order or family of minerals, generally hard enough to scrateltquartz, insoluble in acids, infusible before the blow-pipe, without metallic luster, but mostly brilliant and beautiful. Among them are included some of the minerals which, in popular language, are most generally known as gems—ruby, sapphire, spinel, topaz, beryl, emerald, tourmaline, hyacinth, zircon, etc.—and some other rarer minerals of similar character; but along with these are ranked minerals, often coarser varieties of the•same species, which are not gems in the ordinary sense of the word, as emery and common corundum, whilst diamond and some other precious stones, much used as gems, arc excluded. See GEMS.