Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/467

Rh In Goa, the nut is used internally in asthma after having been steeped in butter-milk, and is also given as vermifuge. In the Concan, a single fruit is heated in the flame of a lamp and the oil allowed to drop into a quarter-seer of milk ; this draught is given daily in cough, caused by relaxation of the uvula and palate. The juice of the root-bark is also used medicinally on account of its acrid properties (Dymock). The bruised nut is applied to the os uteri by the native women to procure abortion (Ph. Ind). Basiner found that within 12 hours the brown oil of the nut raised a black blister ; this should be carefully protected from touch, as the fluid causes eczematous vesicles on any part of the body it may come in contact with. He has also noticed painful micturition, the urine being reddish brown and bloody, and painful stools, as a sequel to the external application of the oil (Am. J. of Pharm., 1882, Dymock).

" I have used the black, thick and acrid oil of the marking-nut, prepared either by expression or with the aid of heat, or the nut itself in the form of electuary, pretty extensively in my practice, and found it so efficacious in acute rheumatism that it may be considered a specific in that disease. The drug is also of great service in asthma, and more or less beneficial in secondary syphilis, hæmorrhoids, neuralgia, epilepsy, anæsthesia, paralysis, lepra, psoriasis and a few other cutaneous affections. Externally, the oil is a very cheap and pretty useful counter-irritant, but requires great care and caution in its employment. It should not be applied much or continuously to any part, but always in the form of parallel lines by means of a long needle or wire. In very severe cases, these lines may be crossed with other parallel lines in an opposite direction. In either case, when the blister is risen, it should be pricked and the serum allowed to dribble away ; and then the use of poultices for two or three clays renders the part very clean and fit to be dressed with simple dressing, carron oil or plantain leaves. The nut is more useful in haemorrhoids in the form of fumigation than the internal administration of its oil or electuary ; but unfortunately its smoke is attended with bad effects in some constitutions. Out of the two severe and painful