ALOES, iinz. A drug of great antiquity, for we find Dioscorides, a writer on materia medica of the first or second century, making mention of aloe as a substance obtained from a plant and possessing cathartic properties. It is obtained from numerous sources, including Bombay. Ara bia. Socotra. Madagascar, the Cape of Good Hope, and the West Indies. The drug is the in spissated juice of various species of Aloe (q.v.). All these are characterized more or less by pro ducing large, thick, fleshy leaves, stiff and brittle, pointed, and generally terminating in a strong spine, filled with a mucilaginous pulp internally, and containing in the proper vessels of their ex terior portion an intensely bitter juice, which yields the medicinal substance of aloe. It is ob tained, sometimes in the form of tears, by in cision, spontaneous exudation, and inspissation upon the plant; sometimes by spontaneous evap oration of the juice, which drops or exudes by pressure from the leaves when cut away near the base; sometimes by evaporating the same juice with the aid of heat: and lastly, by evaporating the juice and the decoction of the leaves. Owing to the great difficulty of determining the true botanical source of any given sample, the follow ing names are made use of in commerce to denote the various kinds of aloes found in the market: Soeotrine, Clear, Cape, East Indian, Barbadoes, and Caballine aloes. The only varieties officially recognized by the Pharmaeopceia of the United States are: (I) Socotrine aloes (Aloe soco trine), so called from its supposed source, the island of Socotra, near the mouth of the Arabian Gulf. This is the most esteemed of all the varieties used in medical practice. It is a product of Aloe Perryi, a plant from the cast coast of Africa, the island of Socotra, and Ara bia. (2) Barbadoes aloes (.-floc Barbadensis) is
prepared in the West Indies from Aloes sera and other varieties of aloes. Browne's Natural His tory of Jamaica states that the largest and most succulent leaves are placed upright in tubs, that the juice may dribble out. This, evaporated, is sold as Socotrine aloes; but the common aloes is obtained by expressing the juice of the leaves. boiling it with water, evaporating, and pouring it into gourds; whence this kind is often called gourd aloes. All kinds of aloes hare a hitter taste. Aloes is in a great measure soluble in water, and more so in hot than cold water. Aloes contains an active principle, aloft', and a resin. The varieties of aloIn, named barbaloin, socaloin, and nataloin, are obtained respectively from Barbadoes, Socotrine, and Natal aloes. When employed in small closes, aloes exerts a tonic, and in larger doses a cathartic action. It is considered by sonic authorities to stimulate the liver, increasing the flow of bile. Others hold that it acts chiefly upon the large intestine. whose contractions it stimulates. It also causes congestion of the pelvic organs. Its action upon the bowels is slow, requiring ten to twelve hours. Both taken singly, and also in combination with other cathartics, aloes is perhaps the most impor tant and the most extensively used of vegetable remedies of its class. Aloes is an ingredient of a number of laxative pills mentioned in the States Pharmaconceia, and is the important. con stituent in most of the much advertised patent medicines. When given to a nursing woman it is usually believed to purge the child at the breast. I.'or illustration see ACACIA.