L. C. Hopkins. — Guide to Kuan-Hua
À Translation of the Kuan-Hua Chih
Nan CE Sf À FA) with an Es-
say on Tone and Accent in Pekinese and a glossary of Phrases. 8°. pp. 221.
Shanghai, 1889.
Moellendorf, Essay on the Manchuliterature (Journal. Chin. Br. R. A.S.
Vol. 24. N0. 1). Shanghai, 1890.
List of Chinese medicines. Shanghai,
A. ©. Maclay. — Mito-Yashiki; a Tale of old Japan. Crown 8°. Shanghai,
H. G. Underwood. — Concise Dictionary of the Korean Language in 2 parts (Eng1.-Kor. and Kor.-Engl.). Post 8°. pp. 293. Shanghai, 1890.
— Introduction to the Korean spoken Language in 2 parts (1. Grammatical Notes; Il. English-Korean Phrasebook). Post 8°. pp. 425. Shanghai,
BY
A. G. VORDERMAN,
Physician of the town of Batavia !), corresponding member of the Royal Academy of sciences in Amsterdam. Ernst & Co., Batavia and Noordwijk 1890. Translated from the Dutch, with the authors permission, by G. SCHLEGEL.
(Concluded from page 328.)
With the aid of the microscope, I only could recognize a thin layer of cellular texture as outer-skin; for the rest, the texture consists of large polyhedral parenchyme-cells, overfilled with amylum. The amylumgrains are larger than those of riceflour, and have a pearshaped, oval form, showing concentrie layers disposed around an excentric central spot. This nucleus often affects the form of a horizontal cross, but sometimes also that of a trivium.
Here and there we see scalary-vessels. The above-described bulbi
come from Sze-chuen, and are rather dear.
1) Now Inspector of the civil medical service in Java and Madura.
30 A. G. VORDERMAN.
A cheaper sort of Æoopeh (Ningpo) is much larger, the bulbi being as large as marbles. With this species the two component scales are always nearly equal in size, and a smell, resembling that of root of althea, is perceptible.
The motherplant, being probably different for both above-mentioned species, belongs to the family of the Uvularie.
Horrmanx and Scauzres (1. c. p. 61) mention as such Uvularia ciprhosa Thb. and Porter Smirx (1. c. p. 225) mentions the Uvu-
laria grandiflora.
[9] Raizoma copripis.
JA hong ‘<Æ hûn JI| Cchoan jE chià° 6 boë “fi ni ff ni JI| Cchoan Sf ni S ni
Of this root, which is nearly always found in a pulverized state in the suflating-powders applied to diphtheritis of the throat, six varieties or species are found in the medicinal trade according to the local Chinese experts. One of these is imported from Japan, having, in the eyes of the Chinese physicians, the least value. The other come from China. But all of them possess a high procentic proportion of berberine.
It are woody roots of a dark ochre-yellow color, of the thickness of a swan-quil or thinner, more or less twisted and sometimes branched. The thickness varies also in one and the same root, because sometimes knotty parts are attached by a joint to a thinner smooth part. Their length varies from 4 cmt. to 1 dem. This last size is, however, an exception. The knotty surface is rough and
prickly, a consequence of broken-oif fine, hard side-rootlets, or also
by the leafscales near the extremity, and sometimes also by the remains of root-peduncles.
Of these different species, [ had four species in my possession. Their taste is very bitter.
The first-named species Æüng-boé ni" is the Coptis-root with the phenixtail, a small bunch of stalks being preserved offering to the eyes of the Chinese some resemblance to the tail of this mythical bird. Not only the nether part of the stems have been preserved, but also leafscales and leafbuds.
These stems are 2 to 3 mm. thick and about one dem. long, furrowed and of a greenish yellow color.
The upper end, where the stems sprout is, generally, somewhat branched and knobby, being rough and prickly, in consequence of the broken-off side-rootlets. The section resembles that of the other species. This root comes from Sze-chuen and costs here 20 rupees
the catty.
The second species comes from Vun-nan and is called Æün ni. It only costs eight rupees the catty. The fine stems are wanting in this species, having been cut off when the root was gathered. The root itself is thicker, measuring from 0,5 to 1 ctm. It is brokenoff in short pieces, whilst the number of broken- off side-rootlets 1s small. Sometimes smoother parts are found between the knobby parts, being thinner and attached by joints to the other part of the root, wanting the remains of the side-rootlets.
Very often they are bifurcated or trifureated at their extrennty.
The third species resembles to my view exactly the last one, but it comes from Sze-chuen and is called Cchoan nî'; it has about
the same value. Dr. Gresnorr found 6,5 ‘/ of berberine in it.
352 A. G. VORDERMAN.
The 4th species has less value, and also comes from Sze-chuen. It has many branches, generally 4 to 5, but sometimes whole bunches consisting of 10 to 12 branches; besides, it is coarser and thicker. The side-rootlets between the branches have not been or have been incompletely removed. In this species the rough and knobby parts are equally often separated by a smoother and thinner part, being, however, less in diameter than suchlike parts in the foregoing species.
In all Chinese apothecary’s shops some of these species are to be found either pulverised to à beautifully coloured greenish yellow powder, or in the form of thin slices cut lengthwise. The Chinese excell in giving to their simplicia of the vegetable kingdom an agreable exterior.
Thus, sometimes, dried and rolled up bark is cut up into diagonal slices, affecting an elegant C-form. The Coptis-root, as found sliced in their shops, immediately draws attention by the fine design formed by the crooked parts of the root. Within the dark-brown barkring, the golden color of the wood contrasts strikingly, whilst
this is interrupted again, here and there, by the dark pith.
The microscopical examination gave the following result.
Upon the transverse section is seen the corklayer, consisting of brown-coated, oval, crooked cells broadened into a tangential direction. Here and there fissures have penetrated from the outside into the texture, and at those places the cells are particularly dark-colored. Next follows a thick layer of oval cells running parallel with the cells of the corklayer, having bright light-yellow coats, containing a granular, light-yellow tinted mass. In this layer are found in many places very bright, refractive lithic cells, orange-colored, having thick walls provided with dotted tubes, isolated in groups of 8 to 6. Some contain an orange-brown mass. The pith-rays radiating from
the woody body, which consists of oval cells arranged in à radial
order totally resembling those of the barklayer, are amylous and merge gradually into the barklayer, making a bent around the outerrim of the woodrays. The circular cambiumlayer consists of small cells containing a bright mass. At the places where the pithrays merge into the bark, it is interrupted, and it borders the woodrays which affect the form of rounded-off triangular bodies tapering towards the centrum. These last are composed of fine orange-colored wood-fibres, whilst bunches of vessels are found on the outside. A central air-pipe, created by the decay of the pith, is present, whilst also air-channels are found in a radial direction in the pithrays.
The rhizoma coptidis from China and from the MWishimee mountains (situated in the eastern part of Assam) is already known since long in British-India as coming from the Coptis teeta (Wallich). Dr. Pererra has discovered that it was already preseribed in antiquity under the designation of »Mahmirah”. It is imported from Assam into Bengal in a dried state in rattan baskets ‘). AinsLy (L. c. p. 400) equally mentions this drug, as coming from China, by its Chinese name »$Sou lien” or »Chyn lien”. We leave the identification of this produet with the AÆhizoma coptidis teetae to the charge of Mr. Warine. The rhizoma is still used officinally in British-India in form of powders, tincture and infusion. FLÜck16ER and Hangury (L c. p. 7) also devote a chapter to this drug. Lately the attention of the public was again drawn to this drug by Tos. Carisry in London, who imports the Japanese Rhizoma anemonifoliæ ?). Mr. Carisry already announced 16 in 1878 as a new medicine containing 8‘: procent of berberine *). Its Japanese name is »Oh-ren”.
Porrer Smrrm (1. c. p. 126) mentions this drug under the wrong
1) WamriNG, I. c. p. 4 and 435.
2) Tuos. Cxristy, 1. c. N°. IV, p. 58.
3) Ibid, N°. II, p. 15.
diagnosis of Justitia, but he directs the attention to the many varieties or analogous species made use of in China.
According to the experience gained in British-India, its physiological action is that of a powerful tonicum amarum.
Consequently, it is preseribed in cases of debility after fever, or during the period of reconvalescense after other enervating diseases, as e. g. with atonic dyspepsia. Its former reputation was that of a febrifuge and as a remedy against conjunctivitis. The midwifes in China administrate a mixture of this rhizoma with borax to suckling infants, in order to prevent apthic excrescences in the mouth. For the same end, the tongue of Chinese babies is, shortly after birth, besmeared with cinnabar, which is remarkable as these three in-
gredients exactly enter into the remedies applied against diphtheritis.
[10] Rarzoma ALPINI&.
if F Sià kan.
According to Porter Sutra (1. ce. p. 167) the roots of Pardanthus Chinensis (Kerr) are used in (Chinese therapeuties under this designation. The Chinese characters agree with those given by HorrMANN and Soauzres (1. ce. p. 41) for this plant.
However, Porrer Suit is not quite sure of his diagnosis, for he contends that rhizomes of other plants, belonging to the family of the /rideæ, are found, under this name, in Chinese apothecary’s shops. À Chinese physician here in Batavia, fully acquainted with native medicinal herbs, described the Sià kan as »langkwas ootan”, a wild species of Alpinia, indigenous in China, consequently a Zingiberacea. When comparing the here-mentioned drug from the
Batavian Chinese apothecary's shops with the roots of Pardanthus
chinensis, very often met with in gardens as a cultivated plant !), we remark immediately that the Chinese drug is no radix tuberosa ?) but, most surely, à ramified rhizoma, resembling in form that of Alpinia galanga, found in this place, upon which sprout here and there leafstalks perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, and cut away. Moreover, the section of the dried rhizoma is not chromatic yellow, as P. Surrx says to be the color of Pardanthus chinensis, but white, just as that of the langkwas.
It results from the foregoing that Sià kan, given here in Batavia as an ingredient of the remedy used against diphtheritis, cannot be referred to Pardanthus chinensis, but is to be referred to a species of A/pinia.
The rootstick is never imported integral from China, but always in slices, offering the greatest diversity in form on account of the many ramifications of this organ. The section is greyish-white, mealy, and the outer surface shows an orange-colored cuticle. The texture consists mainly of a large-celled parenchyme, containing small, round, amylous grains, which are not oval as those of the native langkwas. The parenchgme of the rind is separated from the other by a grain-sheath. The corky layer consists of flat, brown-
coated cells, in which are found, here and there, dark grains.
[11] Rapix SCUTELLARIÆ VISCIDULÆ.
à # ui khim.
Uïî" khîm is à horny, nearly cylindric, quillshaped halfroot,
having at its broadest extremity three to four rootheads, upon which
1) Miquez, L. c. III, p. 579.
2) Figured in the Hortus Malabaricus by RHEEDE, XI, tab. 37.
the scars of the removed stalks are visible. The sharp lower extremity is somewhat bent to one side, being ochre-yellow and somewhat puckered in a longitudinal direction. The sideroots have been removed, and the lower extremity is cut-off diagonally.
Its length is on the average 1 dem. and the pedunele is about 2 ctm. broad.
Its taste is very bitter.
The cross section shows a brown or brownish-sreen barkring, occupying one eïghth of the breadth of the diameter near the lower end, and a yellowish woody kernel containing a spongious pith, deepened to a brownish-black color in most of the roots.
With a magnifying glass, broad, angular and narrow pithrays are recognizable in the woody kernel; the first contain air-tubes, rather wide near the cambiumlayer, but narrowing gradually towards the centre.
With the microscope we detect upon the circumference rather large irregular bark-cells, containing a brown, granular or brittle mass. Next follows a layer of oval, tangentially broadened cells, with a yellow, granular filling, traversed, here and there, by selerotic chyme-fibres. Then follows the inner-rind with small cells affecting athwart a round, and lengthwise an oval form. These cells are regularly disposed in a radial series, between which are, also, found sclerotic chyme-fibres.
The cambiumlayer is recognizable by the small tangentially lengthened bright cells.
The woody kernel consists of a concentric series of bunches of vessels, united by a few wood-fibres, and between which are found the same series of radiating rounded-off cells as those of which the pith-rays consist. The vessel-bunches occur as scattered groups of yellow striped or dotted vessels.
The pith, nearly always decayed, consists of a porous mass, in
which brown-coated spiral or scalary vessels are recognizable, between which brown, granular lumps occur as remains of the texture.
In Chinese apothecary's shops this root is always to be had in slantwise cut slices, often showing distinctly the brownish-green tint of the bark-ring.
The thus-prepared root costs here one rupee the catty.
TararINov gives as its botanical origin the Scutellaria viscidula,
a Labiäte *) plant found all over China.
[12] Ranix GINSENG NIGRA.
# Z hièn som.
Horny, flat, thin slices, of a black color and opaque. They are nearly inodorous and have an insipid taste. They have an oblong form with rounded-off eorners, and their greatest dimension 1s generally some centimeters. They have à fine yellow-brown outerrim; and, here and there, light-colored dots of solid woody texture are appearant. With the ovalround slices the rim generally appears somewhat puckered. It are parts of root, eut or sliced athwart, slantwise or lengthwise, which have been dried afterwards in the sun. By the desiccation the kernel in the cross-cut parts contract more than the bark-ring, which is the reason that this shows a more or less puckered rim.
The integer root is found in Chinese apothecary's shops as à flattened fleshy body, tapering towards both extremities with coarse, tortuous furrows running lengthwise, and a greyish-yellow outer-skin. When macerated in water, it swells, many of the furrows disappear,
and it gets a fleshy consistency; whilst the water used for macerating
1) SouserRaN and Dasry, L. c. p. 180; Porter Smiru, L. c. pag. 194.
358 A. G. VORDERMAN.
turns to a dark-brown color. Only in extremely thin sections, the structure is microscopically to be detected.
The microscopie examination of the transverse section gave the following results.
The outer-skin consists of dark-yellow cells, between which are seen triangular and quadrangular lithic cells, with yellow walls and dotted canals. Next follows a layer of rather large cells with darkbrown walls lengthened in a tangential direction, and which may be considered as the outer-rind merging gradually into the innerrind, which consists of thin-coated parenchyme-cells, between which bark-rays occur near the cambium, consisting of cells regularly arranged in a central direction. The rather broad cambiumlayer shows upon the transverse section black dots pretty regularly disposed. The woody body, about five times as broad as the rind, consists of very broadened pith-rays and very narrow wood-rays in which are found black bunches of vessels till the centre.
Its botanical origin is unknown.
SouBerrAN !) supposes that it is to be referred to a species of Rehmannia, probably because Porrer Suiru (1. c. pag. 104) compares the description of the motherplant (taken from Chinese accounts) with a ÆRehmannia in a botanical and pharmaceutic sense. The latter mentions as the place where it grows Noan hwui (Z f&4) and the northern and northwestern provinces of China. |
The motherplant is said to have a quadrangular stem, reaching upward from 3 to 6 feet in height, and provided with wooly, serrate leaves; whilst there exist two varieties, one with white and
the other with purple flowers.
1) SougzRAN and Dargy, I. ec. pag. 193.
[13] Ranrx CasaANI FLAVI.
[l] Æ À soa” tao kin.
Flat, oval, woody root-slices of a solid consistency, with a dark brownish bark-ring and à light-colored greyish-yellow woody body.
The integer root is found in the larger Chinese apothecary’s shops, and varies in thickness between a quill and a little finger, whilst its length varies between 50 and 40 ctm. Generally, 4 or 5 sprout simultaneously from a knobby, woody stem-peduncle. The roots are globular, darkbrown with lengthwise wrinckles and warty spots placed transversely. They taper at their extremity and divide themselves there in side-rootlets. Out of the stem-peduncle small sideroots equally sprout, still retaining round broken-off parts of the stem. When sliced transversely, the bark-cylinder is found to occupy one fourth of the diameter.
By the microscope we detect 8 to 10 rows of oblong brownish cells of the corky layer prolonged in a tangential direction, followed by a clear parenchyme whose polyhedrie cells are filled with a fine, granular amylum, between which libriform fibres run.
The cambiumlayer is succeeded by the woody body, whose woodrays converge towards the centre in a point; they are twice as thick as the intervening pith-rays, and consist of thick-coated wood-fibres with groups of vessel-bunches regularly disposed, appearing collectively as concentric rings to the number of seven. Upon the transverse section these vessels appear to be thick-coated, yellow and dotted.
The largest are placed near the periphery, whilst they gradually diminish in volume towards the centre. In the lengthwise section scalary vessels are detected. The pith-rays lying between the woodrays are narrow, and contain 4 to 5 cells in their width; they are
prolonged in the direction of the axis, and filled with a fine-grained
amylum. In shriveled parts of this texture are found small yellow lumps of resin.
This root has à very bitter taste. It is said, however, that it is greedily eaten by mice.
The motherplant is called by Brerscaneier (L. c. p. 147) Cajanus flavus, and declared to be a synonyme of Cytisus cajan — à Leguminose, whilst Porrer Suira (1. c. p. 132) translates the Chinese characters by a species of Lespedeza, upon the authority of TararINov. SOuUBEIRAN (1. c. p. 275) describes the root very summarily, but specially mentions the Cytisus cajan, having, according to him, a sweettasting root, on page 280 of his work. The Cajanus flavus or C. indicus has already been drawn and described by Rumparus in Vol. V, p. 377 as a bean of Bali. Here in Java, the plant, which attains the hight of à small tree, is called Æatjang gudé.
[14] Raprx PLATYCODONTIS GRANDIFLORIS.
FE AD kit king.
Yellowish-white parts of plant consisting of a quill-root attached to the nether part of the stem. They vary in length from 9 to 12 ctm., of which one fourth is occupied by the length of the stem. The latter is distinctly separated from the root by a transversal nip, and has a mean diameter of 7 to 10 ctm. Beside lengthwise furrows and grooves, scars Of leaf-sheaths are visible.
The upper part of the root is about 1‘ to 2 ctm. broad, rounded-off, and, gradually becoming thinner, it tapers to a point. The nether part and the side-roots are removed. More or less deep, undulating grooves run lengthwise. The whole is very light and porous, and seems to have undergone in China a manipulation,
consisting mainly in the removal of the darkbrown-colored outerskin,
of which, here and there, small parcels are still found in the grooves. Macerated in water, it swells a little, without coloring the water.
Upon the section is seen a white, fleshy outer-rind, with airholes running in à radial direction, and an inner-rind of denser texture, having near the cambiumlayer a yellowish tint. The woody kernel is white, pithy; and radiating narrow striae represent the profile of the woodvessels.
Under the microscope the outer-rind appears like a texture consisting near the outer-skin of oblong, angular cells, placed in à tangential direction, which last gradually fuse into bands, in which the length of the cells is disposed in a radial direction. Between these last cells are found the above-mentioned airholes running in a radial direction, in the form of fissures. The inner-rind consists of regularly placed angular, nearly square, cells, between which are found rind-bunches.
The cambiumlayer is seen as à narrow band of small cells prolonged in a tangential direction, which band has the breadth of two cells. The texture of the pithy wood-kernel, bordering upon this, consists mainly of the same cells as those of the inner-rind, converging in rays towards the centre, and around which are disposed the vessels, partially of a looser texture, whose cells are larger and more irregular, and which are placed between these rays.
The vessels gradually augment in size as they approach the kernel. It are yellow-coated scalary vessels.
I think, besides, to have discovered lacteal ducts. The motherplant is the Platycodon grandiflorum Drec., a Campanulacea *). Por- Ter Suirx (l. c. p. 173) says that the plant is found in Szechuen,
Hoopeh, Honan and Shansi; but it also grows wild near Hongkong *).
1) ITorFMANN et SCHULTES, 1. c. p. 44.
2) For, Ho-Kar and Cow, China Review XVIII.
362 A. G. VORDERMAN.
[15] Rao1x LIQUIRITIAE.
H 5 &) kam-cch6 hün.
The Glycerhiza echinata and G. glabra are both cultivated in China on account of the medicinal value of their roots.
The first species occurs in Tatary and North-China, the last is more generally spread all over China !). The pharmacognostic difference between the roots of both species has been distinctly pointed out by Bere in his »Anatomischer Atlas zur pharmaceutischen Waarenkunde” Tab. VI. I saw the root of liquorice of Glycerhiza echinata vrepeatedly in Chinese apothecary's shops. In native therapeuties this remedy, imported from China, is largely made use of. It bears the name of Kaju manis tjina (Chinese sweet-wood).
Some varieties of the article are found here, mainly distinguished by the length and the thickness of the roots, and differing accordingly in price.
With one of these, the root has a thickness of 4 to 5 ctm. Generally they are imported in large bunches, tied together, from 1 to 1! meter length.
Dr. Biesker published in 1844, in the first year of the » Natuuren geneeskundig archief van Med. Indië”, a small contribution towards the knowledge of the therapeutics and pharmaceutics of the Chinese in general, and particularly of those in Batavia. In this paper the author pretends a. 0. that the Chinese prepare from the root of liquorice an extract exactly similar to our Spanish liquorice, serving for the same purpose, and forming an ingredient of nearly all their pills.
An investigation, specially made by me, proved that the Chinese
doctors and apothecaries are totally ignorant of the extract to be
1) BrerscanenEr, Earl. Europ. Research. p. 145.
made from the root of liquorice; that this extract is not found in their materies medica, and that the vehicle used by them for prepariug their pills consists of inspissated honey, turned black by evaporation. If one sees, however, a Chinese apothecary prepare his pills, the idea of spanish liquorice arises involuntarily, because the stuff he uses to make his pills supple looks like it and also tastes sweet; but by information and control of our extractum liquiritiae, it was proved that the root of liquorice was quite innocent
of this preparation.
[16] Ranrx To TING HONG.
Kk T J Toa ting hông.
This article is imported from China im coarse chips, as fragments of thick roots. I could not discover the Chinese name of the motherplant, and the Chin. characters placed above only render the name of the medicine. The first ch. means »large”, the second »nail” and the third »swelling” !).
The fragments oceur as larger or smaller slantwise chipped-off pieces of root, to which the rind adheres. This last is thin and of a darker color on the woody texture, out of which the article mainly consists; whilst the outer-skin has more or less a yellowish color, sullied here and there by clay-earth, and is split transversely in some places, so that the texture of the outer-skin, having a bright orange-color, shows itself in these clefts. The woody part is light liver-colored, easily to be splitted, but for the rest hard and having fine fibres.
1) JE means ,jaundice” or icterus”. G. S.
Under the microscope we discover at the rind à corky layer, consisting of thickset cells prolonged in à radial direction, having an orange color, and bordered in the exterior fissures by small round cells, whilst it is sharply separated in the interior from the rindtexture, which consists of irregular cells, between which are found a good many accumulations of amorphous matter. Near the woody cylinder pith-rays are to be seen in the rind-texture. When making sections, the rind is easily detached from the woody cylinder.
This last consists mainly of thick-coated, hight-yellow tinted libriform near the pith-rays; appears recularly square upon the crosscut surface, and betwixt it trianangular or pentagonal.
The pith-rays, having only the thickness of oue cell, run nearly parallel, whilst their respective distance rather varies. The cells of which they consist are dotted, and here and there are found small lumps of amylum, whilst in many places are found dark-colored grains (resin?). Between the pith-rays run many airvessels, being somewhat oval in profile. The root has a slightly bitter taste.
At a Chinese apothecary’s shop in Senen, I found a falsified article. The surrogate was of smaller dimensions, spongious, besides lighter colored, and provided externally with a minium-red epidermis, easily loosened. Upon examination, it proved to consist of the roots
of the Javanese Taxotrophis roxburgü.
[17] Cortex PreROCARPT FLAVI.
Ft #9 ui peh.
Thin, flat, square pieces of bark of à beautiful citrine color, about 9 etm. long and 4 ctm. broad. Their thickness is about 1 mm. Sometimes a few darker-colored longitudinal striae are observed
upon these slices.
They are obtained by paring the inner-rind of the Pterocarpus flavus (Papilionaceae) in a tangential direction.
This tree, growing in China, à. o. in the province of Hoopeh, was already described by Rumpxrus in the 3d Part, 13th Chapter of his »Amboinsch kruidboek”, page 183 under the designation of Malaparie-tree, as growing in some of the Moluccos.
In his time already, the yellow bark was used as à medicine, and formed a. o. one of the ingredients of a Bandanese recipe against Beri-Beri.
The bark is imported here from China in large flat pieces of 5 dem. length, 1 dem. breadth and ctm. thickness. Besides for officinal use, it is also used for dying silks yellow. The outside has been decorticated, 1s coarse, has a yellowish-brown color and is spotted, because here and there some spots of the bark-texture have been left. The innerside is brownish and free from these inegalities; the edges are of a beautiful yellow. The bark swells when macerated in water, coloring it yellow and imbittering its taste, whilst vegetable mucus passes into the water.
Under the microscope the following is to be seem: In some places are found remains of a corky layer, the cells of which are thick-coated. The cross-section shows on one side a rather regular network of parallel running, opaque, more or less meandering series of striae, and, on the other side, parallel running, yellow-colored, more or less meandering striae. These two series cross each other, sometimes in straight angles, sometimes in acute angles. The yellow striae consist of crosscut scelerotic chyme-vessels running in a concentrical direction, whilst the opaque ones consist of bark-fibres. The angle where they intersect each other is nearly rectangular near the cambiumlayer, and acute near the corky layer. The texture found between this network of striae is formed by irregular, erooked
parenchyme-cells. Upon the longitudinal and tangential sections the
366 A. G. VORDERMAN.
yellow sclerotie chyme-vessels are distinctly seen in their longitudinal direction; whilst the crosseut barkfibres appear like nearly square form-elements, colorless, and refracting the light very strongly. Besides, multifarious cambiform and sieve-vessels are found, whilst
here and there granular, brown grains of resin are visible.
[18] Focra MENTHAE ARVENSIS.
#5 1 # P6k-hô hiôh.
To the medicinal herbs, which have come into notice of late, belong most surely those species of Mentha of which the well-known Poko-oil is prepared, out of which at present the solid stearopts are prepared in the form of Menthol.
The Chinese plant, which furnishes this oïl, is the HMentha arvensis L. It is also found in Java, where Blume gave it the name of Mentha Javanica; so that these two names are synonymes !).
It does not appear from the botanical works if the Mentha described by Blume is indigenous to Java or if it has been imported from China.
I am inclined to believe the last. Here in Batavia this plant is cultivated in gardens by Chinese and natives, and the last also make use of it in the composition of some of their medicaments under the name of daun poko. The dried leaves are imported from China and are found in all Chinese apothecary’s shops under the first-mentioned name. It is remarkable that menthol is now applied locally in diseases of the throat by European physicians, and that in some Chinese recipes for affections of the throat the leaves of
Mentha are mentioned.
1) BRETSCHNEIDER, Earl. europ. research. into the flora of China, p. 167; and BRet-
SCHNEIDER, Botanicon sinicum, p. 57.
Everybody here in ./ava knows the smell of Poxo-oil. It resembles that of the European peppermint-oil, but yet is different from it by a particular essence. The bruised leaves of the Javanese species of Mentha is equally recognizable by 1t.
Miquez describes these leaves as: »folia elliptico-lanceolata vel elliptica, acuta serrata, basi in petiolum angustata supra asperula, subtus glabra !).
This description is also applicable to the dried leaves imported
from China.
[19] Forra Bameusaes.
DR 4j E tam tik hiôh.
À preparation found in Chinese apothecary’s shops and considered there as bambooleaves, though it consists of the coarse-cut leaves and stems of a Graminea. In the above-mentioned name the second character means »bamboo.” I doubt, however, if it comes from a species of bambusa, though Porrer Smitx cites it under this name on page 31, line 24 of his work. In some shops the entire dried plant is found. It is about 4 dem. long, and is provided with a small rhizoma out of which the different unbranched stems sprout, whilst underneath are found some crooked rootlets. The stems consist of 6 to 8 knotted joints. From each joint a leaf sprouts, of which the leafsheath encireling the stem reaches till or past the next joint, and which is provided or not with a short stalk. The leaves have an even edge, are narrow lanceolate with a very sharp extremity and a less sharp basis.
In à dried state the color is ochre-yellow and the leaves are then
more or less shriveled. Though I am unacquainted with the system-
1) Miquez, Flora van Ned. Indie, II, 967.
368 A. G. VORDERMAN.
atie name of this plant, I yet have entitled it, in accordance with the Chinese, as a species of bamboo. À decoction of this medicament is prescribed by Chinese against accumulation of phlegm in the
windpipe, because it is said by them to possess expectorative properties.
[20] Frores PYRETHRI SINENSIS.
1 2ÿ 4€ ph kiok hoa.
The dried, white flowers of the Pyrethrum sinense, SaB., belonging to the Composita ‘), and well-known in this place as an oruamental plant. Porrer Suirx (1. e. p. 62) calls the motherplant Chrysanthemum album. It is also mentioned as an ornamental plant by Miquez in his Flora Indiae Batavae Vol. II. p. 86. Here in Java it is cultivated as well by Chinese as by Europeans and natives in their yards, and bears the name of Seruni putih.
Old Ruwpxius already described it in his well-known » Amboinsch kruidboek”, lib. VIII, p. 259. He compared its flowers to those of the roman camomile.
The smell of the fresh bruised flowers is camphorate and aromatic. They retain this smell even in their dried state. The flowers found in Chinese apothecary’s shops are imported in a dried state from China. The Chinese ascribe to them tonic and sedative properties, and use an infusion of them as an eyebath in cases of conjunctivitis.
RumPaius was already acquainted with this.
1) Horrmann et SCHULrEs 1. c. p. 48.
[21] InFLorEsCENTIA REHMANNIAE CHINENSIS.
S #h Jih h€ ko cché.
According to the Chinese characters, these efflorescences agree with the name borne by the Rehmannia chinensis Tiscx, and which has been verified by Horrmanx and Scauzres (1. c. p. 49) in a dried specimen in the Leiden herbarium.
Porrer Smirx (1. c. p. 184), however, only mentions the root of this plant as officinal in the Chinese apothecary’s shops; and does not speak of the dried efflorescences.
They consist of the dried calyxes with the rudiments of fruit implanted regularly as an ear upon a central stem, and separated from each other by rather large spathes. The ears have a length of about 4 ctm. and are formed by 8 to 9 rows of parts of flower.
The corolla is absent and the color purplish.
[22] Frores CAPRIFOLIAE CHINENSIS.
4h 4x, sin hoa.
The dried, unopened, young blossoms of the Caprifolium chinensis, a species of Chinese honeysuckle !). The Chinese call them gold-and silver-flowers, after the yellow and white color which the flowers of one and the same plant bear. It are small, tubular corols, enlarged like a club near the unopened extremity. The swollen extremity encloses the stamina and the stigma of the pistil. It is about
28 mm. long and the tubular corolla is in the middle not larger
1) Miquez, L. c. II, p. 127,
370 A. G. VORDERMAN.
than 2 to 3 mm. The color has turned light yellowish brown by desiccation.
They are often defiled with small branches and leaves. Their texture consists principally of flat cells with turbid contents, between which, on parallel distances, are found bunches of spiral vessels, running out in a longitudinal direction. On the outside are found fine, pointed haïrs containing one cell. The pollengrains are round with yellow contents. The Chinese ascribe to them a resolving effect in inflammatory swellings, and a purifying effect in aphtic excrescences !).
The drug is very cheap and only costs 75 cents the catty.
[23] Capsurzar FoRSYTHIAE SUSPENSA&.
SR f# liên kiaô.
The valves of the pigeonholed boxfruit of Forsythia suspensa VAHL, an Oleacea of China ?), are used in Chinese therapeutics, whilst the aromatic smelling seeds contained in them are thrown away. Por- TER Sir (1. ce. p. 98) calls attention to this fact, and I saw the same thing done here by a Chinese wholesaletrader in drugs. I ought to mention, however, that the fresh decoction of the valves has an undeniable aromatic resinous fragrance.
It are small, lightbrown, boatshaped, oval valves, tapering towards both extremities, rough and warty outside, and smooth inside. Upon the outer part a longitudinal groove runs from the sharp extremity to the blunt basis. This groove corresponds with the middle partition, placed in the length of the capsular cover, and whereat, near the extremity, is discovered on both sides a shrinked-in um-
bilical cord.
1) Porter SMITH, 1. c. pag. 50 and 138.
2) HorFManN et SoHULTrES, 1. c. pag. 24.
The two halves of the fruit are similar. When sold, they are already separated, and the small seeds have been removed.
The length of these valves is about 1,5 ctm. with a greatest breadth, in the middle, of 1 ctm.
With the aid of a microscope an outerskin-texture may be seen upon the outside, consisting of one layer of light-colored, round and sinuous cells, upon which follows, as mesocarpium, a broad band of irregular sinuous cells, with brown cell-coats; whilst here and there are found ventholes, and occasional small yellow lumps, as of resin, are found in the texture. The endocarpiumlayer, whose thickness is ‘4 of the coat of the fruit, consists of clear, oblong, thick-coated cells, being filled with a spoolshaped yellow turbid mass; whilst their longitudinal axis is placed parallel near the inner cir-
cumference of the transverse section of the fruit.
[24] Concrgriones BamBusae.
K Ÿj #1 tien tiok-hông-
What the Chinese call by this name, is called in PBritish-India »Tabasheer” and in Java and Sumatra »Singkara”. It are concrements often found in old bamboocanes.
Very much in demand as à medicament in China, it is imported there from British-India and our Archipelago. Those obtained at Batavia are for the greater part brought from Bantam and the Preanger, Or, also, from Bencoolen and Palembang.
This product differs in appearance according to its being gathered in Java or in Sumatra.
The javanese product consists of angular or rounded-off lumps of
an irregular form, on an average of the size of a pea; but they
372 A. G. VORDERMAN.
are sometimes mixed with larger pieces, which, as circular disks, owe their form to the dimensions of the inner part of the bamboocane in which they grow. Such pieces, of the size of half a rupee, are externally dull, rough and covered by a greyish-yellow powdery crust, whilst their interior shows the same physical properties as the smaller lumps. They break easily, and they are upon the cleavage shivery or vitreous. The color of the lumps varies between milkwhite, opal-like bluish-white. light-yellow and bluish-black. Some lumps have alternating layers of a light and a dark color.
The concrements are very light, easily friable, whilst they are easily cut into thin slices when macerated in water. On occount of their hygroscopie properties, they cleave to the tongue. Taste or smell is not to be detected. Thrown into the water, they sink to the bottom of the vessel, whilst the air they contain escapes in bubbles. After this their color changes. Many dull-colored or opaque lumps become then totally or partially transparent.
By the microscope [ detected:
1 large cells with puckered coats, sometimes isolated.
2Y shivery, transparent, flat pieces of different forms.
8Y oblong pieces of vegetable textare, composed of round or square cells, having a darkbrown colored coat, and
4Y meandering brownish mycelium-filaments having a hyaline coat
and containing spherical brown rudiments.
The second sort comes from Sumatra (Bencoolen or Palembang). Whilst the Javanese Singkara is characterized by the manifold shades in color of the lumps, the Sumatran species differs in consisting of small, irregular, chalkwhite grains, among which are found some smaller ones. They, also, look different upon the cleavage, this last not being bright, but dull. A few brown or blue-black pieces are
intermingled with these, whilst others have externally a black patina.
This difference in physical properties in due to the mode of gathering.
The Javanese species is gathered from the split bamboocanes, whilst the Sumatra species is collected out of the ashes from bamboogroves burnt for the purpose of fallowing the ground.
Mr. Rosr van ToNNiINGEN examined in 1857 a specimen of Tabasheer from PBantam, and wrote a paper about the results of his examination !).
According to this chemist, we find in 100 parts:
silicious acid LS (lat EM 60 887 OXIdeMOM TONNES T1, Au ER 0,424 lime EE SN SAC MATE CNE 0,244 TO RUE, LNSRSR EE RE pe 4,806 Organic substances . . . 0,507 water and atmospheric air . . 7,652
Professor THomPson of Glascow, found in the tabasheer of British-
India the following components: ?)
silicious acid LR IN SOON oxide of iron Se SURESNES 0,90 ANSE NL A ANA 0,40 HORS RE Tr PAIN RER 110 water and atmospheric air . É 4,87 waste matter sie ARR master 2,338
In British- India the drug is considered by the natives to be a stimulans and an aphrodisiacum, whilst it has in Java the reput-
ation of stanching blood.
In the »Jahresbericht über die Fortschritte der Pharmacognosie,
Pharmacie und Toxicologie” of Dr. H. Broxurrs, 1886, pag 53,
1) Natuurk. Tijds. v. Ned.-Indiëé, Deel XIII. 2) Records of Gcn. Science, Febr. 1836.
3714 A. G VORDERMAN.
is found a communication of TH. Porecrk concerning a chemical
analysis of this drug.
[251 CampHoRA CRuDA.
F1 2 JÉpéh chiu”-lé.
Camphor is imported in large quantities from China in common wooden casks. The preparation is rather impure, has the well-known smell, somewhat more penetrating than that of the refined camphor from European apothecary’s shops, and is found in à fine granular state or in larger or smaller lumps.
On account of their smutty white color, those lumps resemble somewhat snowballs made of dirty snow, as Porter Suit already remarked. This camphor costs here only 75 cents the thael, whilst the best borneol or Sumatran camphor costs eight and a half rupee the thael.
Whilst the Chinese consider this last as possessing poisonous properties, they often use the ordinary camphor internally. For
its preparation vide Oupemaxs, Pharmacognosie pag. 560 seg.
[26] Borneor.
JE chià" #f boê À toz #f} boê jf hoa ff boë Fr p‘ièn } p‘ièn }j p‘ièn The camphor of Sumatra, borneol, is a medicament highly
prized by Chinamen.
It is found in flat, white, totally or partially transparent crystal-
line sherds of different form and size, the largest being about 1 ctm. To some of them woody texture is appended.
Its small is peculiar and different from the Formosan camphor. Hangury compares it with that of common camphor with an aftersmell of patchouli. The crystals have a higher specific weight than the ordinary camphor, whilst they have, also, a different chemical composition. In opposition to ordinary camphor, borneol is friable between the fingers.
Like the former, borneol is very volatile. Many chinese apotbecaries, who have no daily sale of throat-powder (nd”-aû sdn), only add the borneol when the powder is delivered. Just for that reason, a laringial powder containing this ingredient, which nearly all contain, cannot be preserved undamaged for a long time, as the substance separates itself in the form of small fine crystals, and is deposed against the stopper of the bottle in which it is contained.
The Chinese of this place generally have some sorts on hand differing somewhat in price, but only different according to the larger or smaller size of the crystalline fragments, and in their being or not being defiled with wood-fibres. The borneol is obtaiued in Sumatra and the Batak lands by felling and splitting the tree by which it is produced, the Dryabalanops camphora (Dipterocarpeæ) when the crystalline mass deposed between the wood-fibres is gathered.
Dr. Kräsi, who made during some time researches in Paros, told me that the Battas buy at present the cheap Formosa camphor, and adulterate their camphor with it. Sometimes, too, they mix their camphor, before bringing it into market, with erumbled ricegrains , so that some Chinese engrossers have already petitioned the local magistrates to put a stop to these adulterations which cause them much damage.
The prices for the above-mentioned varieties of borneol are for
the first-mentioned eight and a half rupee the thael, for the second
376 A. G. VORDERMAN.
five and a quarter of a rupee, and for the third eight rupees the thael.
One of the means the Chinese use to test the genuineness of borneol is to place a small fragment upon the cornea of one of the persons present, willing to have this done. When this fragment
immediately evaporizes, the stuff is genuine.
[27] CARBO VEGETABILIS E PRUNIS PARÂTUS.
HX & À t'on o boë.
The dried fruit of the Prunis mume ($. and Z.)!), a species of prune found in China, is found here in Chinese apothecary's shops as black, shriveled bodies, in which the pruneform is yet distinguishable, but only having the size of a duteh cherry.
The dried fruitflesh is acidulous, and has the same color and consistency as that of the french »prunes-d'Ente”.
These or other prunes often form an ingredient in the species used for the preparation of arak obat (tonic wine).
In order to prepare the vegetable carbon, the stones of the dried prunes are first removed, and then put upon a coalfire in a stone crucible. This crucible is covered with a saucer, and only when the emission of whitish vapors between saucer and crucible has ceased, the drug is removed and cooled down. It then represents a porous, black charred mass, which is pulverized in a mortar to a fine powder. The Chinese also make use of this coal for toothpowder, when
they admix a little borneol to it.
1) Horrmann et ScHuLTEs, L. c. p. 46
[28] Exrracrum Lient Acacrz.
Ki 25 À ji-té boâh.
This drug is found in Chinese apothecary's shops as an ingredient of some laringial powders, in the form of a very fine lightbrown powder, partially soluble in water and alcohol, and having a bitter, astringent, sweetish taste, being nearly inodorous. It is translated by the Chinese in Malay by »Gambir tjina”, i. e. Chinese gambir.
The lumps of which the powder is prepared, are found as flat cakes, upon which sometimes dried leaves adhere to one of the surfaces, apparently placed there in order to prevent the cakes from sticking together. These leaves were, in a specimen examined by me, pointed like an oval, cordiform at their basis, with a serrate, prickly edge. The cakes are of a dull blackish-brown color and easily friable; upon the fracture are seen here and there pores dark chocoladebrown and bright, sometimes scaly. The bitter astringent taste with sweetish aftertaste is also remarked when smelling at the pulverized mass, when fine particles reach the cavity of the mouth by the nares.
The drug consists of the ertractum ligni acaciw, the Pegu cutch, also known in our own apothecary’s shops. Viewed under the microscope, the powder appears to consist of acute-angular, larger or smaller fragments of a yellowish-brown color and transparent, between which are found fine grains and small raphids of oxahcacid lime.
Their soluble part, remaining after the treatment with water and alcohol, shows a great many of these small raphids, but always isolated and never bunched together.
Besides, small, cireular bodies, consisting of a single cell, colored
3178 A. G. VORDERMAN.
redbrown, are constantly found in it, as also fragments of vegetable texture, among which vessels with encircling speckles.
According to Porrer Suirx (1 c. p. 55) it is applied externally against prolapsus recti, toothache and different sorts of ulcerations. Wiziiams (1 c. p. 90) confounds some sorts of cutch in his des-
cription.
[29] SPuMA PIGMENTI INDICI.
- hi 5 À hui ccheng tai.
As is well-known, the Chinese in dying their clothes blue with indigo, never make use of the dry dye-stuff, but always of a blue pap prepared from it. This pap is packed up in open bamboohampers and is forwarded from the place where it is prepared to the blue-dyers. Before it can serve, however, for dyeing, it has to undergo a special treatment. For this tapei-ketan is necessary. This stuff is prepared by mixing boiled glutinous rice (Oryza glutinoza) with a yeast called ragi !), and to leave these ingredients for three days and nights together, by which fermentation is produced, secreting carbonic acid.
The tapei-ketan is thoroughly mixed with a little lime among the indigo-pap and afterwards the whole is put into large vats, to which the required quantity of water is added. The whole mass, which ought to be stirred repeatedly, forms then à darkblue liquid, wherewith the stuffs to be dyed are imbibed. Before doing this, the liquid ought to be left alone for some days, whilst signs of
slow fermentation are perceived.
1) VorDERMAN, Catalogus van eenige Chineesche en Inlandsche Voedingsmiddelen van Batavia. Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Ned.-Indië. Deel XXV af. 2, p. 28 sub 220.
This is to be seen by a blue spume or froth gradually thrown up, a spongious mass floating on the surface like islets, and consisting, besides of carbonic-acid lime, of indigodye-stuff between which a great many of indigo-bacilles are agglomerated.
The dried spume represents the officinal Ccheng-tat. It is found
in Chinese apothecary’s shops as à fine darkblue powder.
[30] TrocHiscr ARI CUM FELLE.
RÉ ÆL tâm sing.
Hard, small, flat cakes, having a rough and granular surface, whilst the fractured surface is bright resinous. Their color is brown and their taste bitter. It is an article fabricated in China and imported : in small parcels wrapped up in paper. Upon this paper the name of the maker and of the medicament are printed.
Another form, dearer and reputed to be more effectual, comes from Æwangtung. It consists of greyish-yellow cylindrical rolls, long 6 to 7 ctm., thick 2 ctm. Both forms are generally tarnished yellowish or white, and show some longitudinal desiccation fissures, whilst they look exactly as if they had been kneaded of paste which has afterwards hardened.
Both species are prepared from the bulbs of Arum pentaphyllum, a Chinese Aroïdea, and from oxgall.
They are only prepared in China during the wintermonths, as it can not be done during the summer, because the gall would then deteriorate, The root-bulbs are pounded, steamed above boïling water and then kneaded to a paste with oxgall, when it is left seven days to dry. The paste is then again mixed with gall, and steamed, which manipulation has to be repeated again seven times before the
medicament is ready.
380 A. G. VORDERMAN.
The tubera ari, l4m sing F4 Æ, are on hand in Chinese apothecary’s shops, but Chinese experts warn with a certain anxiousness against the use of the unprepared bulbs.
These are flat-round, externally light yellowish-brown, as if dusted with flour, and often mouldy upon the outside. Moreover they are as hard as stone, and have above, upon the flat side, a central impression. Very often some small sidebulbs are implanted near the edge, each also showing a central impression. The outer-skin appears like a retiform design of small impressions. Upon the section they are white, interspersed with brown spots.
The epidermis consists of large flat cells, immediately bordered by large, polygonal parenchyme-cells, overfilled with amylum. Here and there yellow resinous lumps are found. The extraordinary great number of needles of oxalic-acid lime, sometimes united into packets and bunches, is remarkable; they, also, run through the texture contained in large crystalline tubes. These bunches have an umbered tint. The sharp-stimulating effect of this bulb upon the skin and the tongue is especially due to the presence of these raphids. The amylum-corpses are six to eight times larger than those of rice, round or nearly round, and internally shrivelled by desiccation.
I also found retiform and scalary vessels. When preparing these bulbs to tdm sing, a good deal of raphids are lost, as the microscopical examination of the prepared trochisci shows. These cakes, macerated in water, cause the liquid to turn to à greenish-yellow color, whilst they themselves crumble together as a greyish insoluble paste. In this paste the same vegetable organs can be pointed out as in the bulbs; but the amylum, recognizable by the reaction of jodium, appears like à fine granular mass.
The water in which the cakes have been macerated, gives a
reaction of gall-tincture.
[31] RADIX LIQUIRITIAE CUM MELLE PRAEPARATA.
Æ h chià cché.
À certain quantity of honey is boiled in a pot. When the honey has been boiled for some time, water is added to it and slices of the root of liquorice are thrown into the mixture, which is again boiled until the liquid has nearly evaporated and there only remains a thick residu of treacle.
The thus prepared medicament appears like a conglomeration of root-of-liquorice changed to a darkbrown color and sticking together
by means of a black, gluey substance. Its taste is, of course, very sweet.
[32] Furrco.
Ë 3% pek cché song.
Soot is found in Chinese apothecary's shops as a coal-black, very light powder. It has the particular well-known smell, and is found sometimes united into large grains, but generally defiled with fibres. It is very difficult to mix it with water. In China it is gathered from the fire-places where it has been deposed, and afterwards the coarser impurities are simply removed. The species of soot used in the preparation of Chinese ink is gathered in another way, and undergoes afterwards a special purification.
Chemically the above-named preparation consists of carbon mixed with empyreumatic substances, whilst it appears under the microscope as black, irregular grains, much differing in size, between which are found fine, granular detritus and brown semi-transparent
shapeless fragments.
8382 A. G. VORDERMAN.
[33] Sucornuu.
1Ë 3Ë£ FH chià” h6 phek.
Rounded-off, angular, bossy pieces, sometimes flat, of different shape and of the size of a filbert or smaller; internally they are orange-brown and translucent, externally powdered greyish-yellow, as if decayed. Sometimes fragments are found colored partially red and partially yellow. They kindle easily, and when partially burnt, emit a resinous, not disagreable, fragrance. They are soluble in alcohol, but remain unchanged is water. When pulverized, it resembles colophonium. According to the Chinese doctors of this place, it must be a kind of fossil resin, with which it agrees in all its properties. À Chinese apothecary showed me here as a curiosity a large piece which had assumed the form of a fungous excrescence, and which, though of a brownish-yellow color, was yet translucent. The decayed layer was cleared from the bossy surface, and the whole fastened upon a small board, and preserved as a curiosity. According to Dr. Wizrrams (1 c. pag. 140) this product is called false amber, and consists of a fossil resin, not only frequently found along the shores of some islands of our archipelago, but, Hikewise also, along the Chinese shores, though sparingly. The east-coast of Africa 1s also said to furnish its contingent of this article, from whence it is imported via British-India to China.
One of the dealers in medicines of this place showed me the best sort of Ad phek. The lumps of which it consisted were of a light-yellow color, whilst many occurred among them having been worked-up, resembling brokeu-off oval beads with a perforating central canal, in one word, possessing all the properties of the fragments of amber for officinal use found in our Dutch apothecary's shops.
The medicament ought therefore to be considered as such.
Porter SmirH treats of this drug in his work (1. c. pag. 12).
SOUB£IRAN only says very little of it in his book, pag. 5.
[34] Borax vENALIS usTus.
HX 3} #h thoùn pêng-se.
À fine, white, very light powder, obtained by pulverizing carbonized borax. Î once was present at the manipulation the borax undergoes in à Chinese apothecary’'s shop. The crude chinese borax was first pulverized and then strewn in pinches with the fingers into à nearly redhot iron pot, placed upon a coal-fire. Whilst expulsing watery vapors, during which process part of the mass swelled to hquid globules, it increased in volume. The contents were now scraped together with an iron spatula, mixed together and left so long upon the fire until the hissing noise occasioned by the elimination of the crystalline water had ceased.
The pot was now taken from the fire, and the contents, which were speedily cooled-down, were spread upon a piece of paper. Some parts, which had been charred black, were eliminated, and the white, brittle porous mass was used for medicinal purposes. The crade borax of which the Chinese make use is found in their apothecary's shops as flat cake-shaped pieces of a rough crystalline structure, underneath coarse mealy white, and bordered on the upperside by a layer of coarse brownish crystals. It comes from 7hibet, where some brackish lakes or pools depose the borax as incrustations by the slow evaporation of their waters.
These incrustations, dissolved in water and again evaporated in tubs in which cords have been stretched, form the cakes described above. The local Malay name of this drug, which is much used
here by goldsmiths, is »pidjer”’.
384 A. G. VORDERMAN.
In cases of neglected wounds or in aphtic affections of the mouth, a purifying effect is ascribed to it. In a carbonized state it forms the principal element of the ingredients of the laringial powders. Wisrrams (L c. p. 167) asserts that Chinese borax is also exported to Æurope. Dr. Cretier, chemist of the mine-department of Neth.- India, tested a specimen of carbonized borax, as found in laringial powders, as to the percentage of water. He still found in it 20% of crystalline water. But I have already said in the first part of this paper, how slovenly some Chinese apothecaries carbonize borax.
The military apothecary Orrow tested another specimen of carbonized borax, prepared in a proper way in a Chinese apothecary's shop. He still found in it 13,25°% of crystalline water, whilst the crystallized borax of which it was prepared, contained, according
to this chemist, 46,950 of water.
[35] SuLpHAs sODAB CRYSTALLISATUS. JT H}jj }) goân bing huün.
Sulphate of soda is found in Sze-chuen and Shan-tung in an impure State, together with salpetre, and represents in a crude state a preparation called p'ok siao (À) #3). |
The impure product, when gathered, is dissolved in water and then erystallized. The good crystals are picked-out and are refined in the following way, according to Porrer Smrru. Ten catties of these crystals are dissolved in one picul of water, and this solution is exposed during one night to the moonlight. The next day this solution is boiled with an addition of white lobak (turnips), and then again exposed one night to the moonlight. The liquid is
now again boiled with an addition of root of liquorice, and after-
wards the lye is heated in a vessel closed with clay; and, having been filtered, it is exposed to the open air during three days. The salt of the filtered liquid represents the above-mentioned preparation, and forms larger or smaller crystals of Glauber’s-salt, covered with a white precipitate and looking very unsightly. The Chinese, however, know very well to distinguish salpetre from sulphate of soda, as à Chinese doctor proved to me. He took a piece of salpetre, put this upon a support, and lighted a match. The carbonized, still glowing end of the match was pushed against the crystal, so that the carbon adhered to the salpetre, and next he blew with all his might with the glowing end of the extinguished match against the carbon. The result was à very small explosion.
The same test applied to sulphas natricus gave no explosion. I mention this because Porïrer SMITH says in his article on native sulphate of soda: »The sulphate of soda and nitrate of potash crystallize, very readily, into large regular crystals, indistinguishable to the Chinese” ete. Even if the Chinese do not know to distinguish the crystals at sight, yet they know to do this in another way
by means of the above-mentioned reaction.
[36] SuLPHAS CALCIS CRYSTALLISATUS NATIVUS.
# Ki A hiên cheng sék.
À pretty good engraving of this mineral is to be found in the Chinese materia medica Pen ts'au kang muh. Vorrer SMITH mentions it under its old name Selenite on page 195 of his work, and mentions as places where it is found the provinces of Shansi, Pehchely and Kiangsu.
It occurs as small, flat, hexagonal crystals of a slate-grey color,
386 A. G VORDERMAN.
more or less disintegrated, the largest of which have a length of1 ctm., and are easily cleavable.
Dr. VERBEEK in PBuitenzorg had the kindness to identify for me these crystals as a special form of gypsum. Crystallized gypsum is also imported from China in large blocks; and, after having been calcined, it is used here in preparing the Chinese leguminous curds
from white soyabeans (katjang këdëlei putih; Phaseolus mas) !).
[37] Aceras cupricus.
1E # chià” täng cche”.
The basic oxide of copper is prepared in China by oxidizing metallice copper by vinegar.
It is found in apothecary’'s shops as a cCoarse-srained powder of a light greenish-blue color, and recognizable by its acetous smell. Viewed by the microscope, it appears as clear-blue fragments of crystals, between which are found a fine-grained mass and à great quantity of colorless bars of different size and thickness.
Sometimes it is found as a component part of Chinese laringial sufflating-powders for the throat, but in smali quantities. Likewise in the powder of Si Ma In, where it is badly mixed, so that the small particles of verdigris are easily detected by means of a magnifying-glass.
According to Porter SuirH, the Chinese also use it as a purgative in liver-complaints, and externally for killing pediculi, against
syphilitie ulcers and bites of snakes.
1) See note 9 of the T'oung-pao (Vol. I, pag. 273).
[38] CINNABER NATIVUM.
HE ER Ph hui tsu se.
This drug is found in two varieties in the Chinese apothecary's shops. The most in demand, costing here eight rupees the catty, is the native cinnabar, as it is found in different places in China as a mineral, e. g. in Szechuen, Kwangtung, Kwangsi and Hunan. 1 has the form of irregular, bright garnet-red fragments having a more or less pronounced silvery gloss, and varies in size between a pinhead and a hempseed. The other variety is made artificially and forms the well-known flat cakes, above and underneath darkred, with a silvery gloss and smooth, whilst they show upon the lateral cleavage a concatenation of needle-shaped crystals in a direction perpendicular to the upper surface. This variety costs here five rupees the catty. When pulverized, they give a beautiful red powder of a high specifie weight. The above-named cakes are made in China by mixing two parts of red sulphur with one part of live mercury and heating the mixture in a retort. That part which is precipitated as a cake against the cover, is the cinnabar fsu se; that which is deposed upon the sides is the Chinese vermilion, the crystals of which are carefully pulverized and repeatedly washed, when they are used as coloring-matter.
It is remarkable that the Chinese consider this coloring-matter, called gîn tsu (ÆR BR), as very poisonous, whilst they deny poisonous properties to the cinnabar. Both powders, vermilion and cinnabar, are wrapped, like the borneol, in black-coloured glossy paper-wraps when delivered in small quantities in Chinese apothecary's shops. AÂs a tale is current among Chinese concerning the property of the water of a certain well in Æunan, insuring a long life to
the drinker of it, and as this well springs from a layer containing
388 A. G VORDERMAN.
cinnabar, newborn children in China are, according to Porrer Smirn, regaled immediately after birth with a small dose of cinnabar. This author (1 c. p. 63) believes that this is done perhaps in view of a vague idea about hereditary syphilis, the more so, because this
drug is said by the Chinese to possess antisyphilitical properties.
[39] AuruM FOLIATUM.
ÿt & #4 hông kim pôh.
Gold is found in some parts of China in the earth, but in a quantity insufficient for the wants of the population. To supply these, it is imported from California, Australia and Borneo.
Goldleaf is made in China in great quantities for technical use, and is exported as such to British-Tndia and the Zndian Archipelago *).
It is found in small parcells of tiny leaves of 21/; ctm. square; they are somewhat thicker than the western goldleaf, and are separated one from the other by square pieces of Chinese paper.
According to Chinese ideas, gold is a means against salivation, also against that resulting from an internal use of mercury.
It is sometimes used as a component ingredient of the sufflatingpowders against diphtheritis of the throat, and its use is based upon its supposed effect against salivation.
Batavia, August 1, 1889.
1) WizzraMs, 1. c. pag. 175.
