Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/356

276 remove the peculiar burning sensation in the soles of the feet, so common amongst natives" (Dr. John Lancaster.)

" Used in chronic gonorrhœa, when the pulp of the fresh fruit is mixed with milk and administered with cubeb powder. Supposed to act as diuretic and astringent on the mucous membranes of the generative organs" (Dr. Fitzpatrick.)

" The leaves are very efficacious when pounded into a pulp without any admixture of water, and applied cold in the form of a poultice to unhealthy ulcers" (Asst. -Surgeon A. C. Mukerji.)

" The fresh juice of the leaves acts as a mild laxative in cases of fever and catarrh, and has probably the effect of remedying these conditions" (Asst. -Surgeon Doyal Ch. Shome).

" The decoction of the leaves is used as a febrifuge and expectorant " (Asst.-Surgn — N. L. Ghose.)

"The juice of the fresh leaves has a laxative action." (Surgn. K. D. Ghose.)

" The root is said to be an antidote against poisonous snakebite." (Surgn, Meadows.) Watt's Dictionary.

In the Pharmacopœia of India, the half-ripe fruit is officinal.

The value of Bael in intestinal affections, though noticed by Rheede (Hort. Malab., vol. iii, p. 37), Burman (Flor. Ind. Ed. 1768, p. 109), and other old writers, attracted little notice till 1853, when Sir Ranald Martin (Lancet, 1853, vol. ii., p. 53) called the attention of the profession to it. Dr. J. Shortt and Dr. J. Newton, as the result of their respective personal experience, report very favourably of its action in dysentery. According to Dr. J. A. Green, a sherbet of the ripe fruit, taken every morning, proves serviceable in the dyspepsia of Europeans, when accompanied by obstinate constipation and flatulence. He adds that the unripe fruit baked for six hours is a powerful astringent, and as such is used by the natives in dysentery. Dr. B. Bose advocates the daily use of a sherbet of this fruit during cholera epidemics as a prophylactic. At such seasons it is doubtless of service to regulate the bowels carefully, avoiding either constipation or purgation. Dr. G. Bidie (Madras Quart.