COLD ABSCESS. See ABSCESS. COLITIS. See INTESTINES. COLOBOMA. See IRIS AND LENS.
is the dried, de corticated fruit, freed from seeds, of Ci trulltts coloona, a perennial plant re sembling the watermelon; it is also known as "bitter apple" and "bitter cu cumber." Though grown in gardens in England since 1551, the plant is a native of the deserts and places of southern and western Asia, and of Africa; it is like wise cultivated, medicinally, in Greece, Spain, Italy, and Japan. Two varieties of fruit are recognized pharmacologic ally: one termed "peeled Turkey" colo cynth, imported chiefly from Smyrna, Trieste, and Spain, and "unpeeled moga dor," from different parts of India, Africa, and, to some extent, from the Persian Gulf and the Levant.
The fruit is globular, about the size of a small orange, yellow and smooth when ripe, and usually gathered just as the latter process is beginning, when it is peeled and dried quickly, either in the sun or by artificial heat. As found in the shops, it is in white balls that are very light and spongy; about three fourths of its weight is claimed by the seeds, which are not employed medici nally, though sometimes used in small proportions for purposes.of adulteration. The British Pharmacopceia demands a test that shall prove the colocynth to be wholly bil-free as evidence that such. adulteration has not taken place, since such is a seed-product solely. Colocynth is inodorous, nauseatingly bitter, and yields a glucoside termed "colocynthi din" and a resin known as "citrullin," or "colocynthitin," tbe latter not being-, identical, however, with the colocynthitis of 1Valz.
Preparations and pulp, powdered, 2 to 10 g-,rains.
Colocynth extract, compound (colo cynth, 16; aloes, 50; cardamom, 6; scam mony resin, 14; soap, 14; and alcohol, 10 parts), 5 to 20 grains.
Colocynth extract, fluid, 2 to 5 minims.
Colocynth extract, solid, 1 to 3 grains.
Colocynth pills, compound (compound cathartic pills), 1 to 3 pills.
Colocynth pills, compound, with hen bane, 1 to 5 pills.
Colocynth tincture (10 per cent.), 30 to 60 minims.
Colocynthidin, 1/6 to V, grain. Colocynthin resinoid (concentration), lito to 1/ic, grain.
Colocynthitin (citrullin), Ve to 1/2 grain.
Powdered colocynth is now but spar ingly used, the extract serving a much better purpose.
Compound colocynth, or cathartic, pills, are made in two ways. First by making a mass of compound extract of colocynth, 130; powdered extract of jalap, 100; calomel, 100; and gamboge, 25; to make 100 pills. Second, by beat ing together colocynth-pulp, 4; Barba does aloes, 8; scammony resin, 8 parts; and potassium sulphate and oil of clove, of each, 1 part. It is often used in form of powder in closes of from 5 to 10 grains, and is easily identified by the odor of cloves. The so-called "vegetable" com
pound cathartic pill drops the calomel and gamboge, and substitutes leptandrin, resin of podophyllin, henbane, and oil of peppermint.
Colocynth pill with hyoscyamus is made by mixing 2 parts of the compound colocynth pill (second formula just given), witb 1 part of solid extract of henbane. It is not so liable to gripe as is the pill colocynth compound, and the dose is the same as the latter: 5 to 10 gra_ins.
The glucoside colocynthidin, which is identical with the colocynthin of Merck, appears as a yellow powder soluble in water and alcohol, and is frequently used in enema by mixing from 4 to 16 minims of a 4-per-cent. solution in glycerin and ale.
The concentration colocynthin is ob tained by evaporation from an alcoholic tincture as a chocolate-colored powder soluble in alcohol only.
colocynthitin is a tasteless crys tal powder; but citrullin, which often obtains this title, is a yellowish, amor phous powder, soluble in alcohol, glyc erin, and ether, and finds more use in veterinary practice than elsewhere, though it is sometimes employed for its cathartic effect, preferably by supposi tory or in enema, in general medicine.
Physiological Action. —Colocyn th preparations and derivatives stimulate the secretions throughout the prima vix, and in full doses are apt to produce con siderable irritation of the large intestine, causing profuse watery evacuations. If given in excessive doses, fatality may be induced by provoking inflammation, leading, perhaps, to ulceration. The drastic effects of the drug and its tend ency to cause griping- are readily over come by prescribing partly with other purgatives and partly with carminatives, more particularly extracts of henbane or belladonna or monobromated camphor.
The drug is likewise actively cholagogic, and to some degree diuretic.
Colocynth Poisoning.—This is, fortu nately, very rare, less than a score of cases appearing in literature. Christison de scribes a case in which a teaspoonful and a half of the powder killed a man, and Euseman mentions an instance where 40 grains proved fatal, though another case of his recovered after 3 drachms had been ingested. The toxic symptoms are hypercatbarsis, and evidences of power ful gastro-intestinal irritation. The treatment consists of administering evac uants, demulcents, opiates, and stimu lants.
Therapentics.—This drug is chiefly employed. for its stimulating effect upon the liver and the intestines, or when a rapid, efficient, drastic purgative action is desired. It renders the bile more fluid and watery, at the same time increasing the secretion of biliary matter. GASTRO-INTESTINAL, DROPSICAL, AND