Observations on the nature and preparation of the elaterium / [Henry Clutterbuck].

  • Henry Clutterbuck
Date:
[1819]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the nature and preparation of the elaterium / [Henry Clutterbuck]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    laid aside ; of late years it has been restored to use; but in a limited degree, and by no means in proportion to its utility. It was at first employed as a cathartic merely ; but in later times as a remedy for dropsy. Simon Pauli says, that from the extreme violence of its operation, it should not be used till milder means have failed. Lister# and Hoffman both assert, that it produces often great heat and pulsation at the very extremities of the fingers. Others say, that it affects the head; which I have often observed to be the case. Dr. Cullen seems hardly to have used it at all; for he says, in his Materia Medica, Vol. II. page 544, that he had never known it employed by itself, and only as added, in a grain or two, to other purgatives. He adds, that if Lister’s observa¬ tion of its heating the body is well founded, he should not think of employing it at all. The elaterium was also occa¬ sionally employed as an errhine. The wild cucumber plant has several synonimes; as cucumis agrestis; syhestris; and asininas. The Linnaean name, which our college employs, is momordica elaterium. The preparation from this, which we use under the name ot elaterium, is, in the late editions of the Pharmacopoeia, called an extract, but with no propriety ; for it is not prepared in the manner of other extracts, nor is it at all the same with extract (chemically speaking), for this implies solubility in water, which the elaterium does not possess. It is likewise often called a fcccula, a name applied to starch; but as starch is soluble in hot water, it has no analogy with elaterium. From the observations above made, it evidently approaches to the nature of a resin. Lewis (in his Materia Medica, page 262,) says all the parts of the plants are strongly purgative: this opinion he appears to have borrowed from Geoffroy, who says, (as quoted by Woodville,) “ radicum vis cathartica major est quam foliorum; minor vero quam frucluum.,> Lewis observes further, that in Holland an extract from the root in wine is exhibited for the elaterium, and found equally efficacious. The trials which I have made, and which are described above, show' that the different parts of the plant, and even the fruit itself, with the exception of the contained juice, possess very little of a purgative property, and are not at all adequate substi¬ tutes for the elaterium. The cucumber altogether, dried and powdered, is said, by Boulducf, to be a good hydragogue: this is probable; but from what is stated above, the dose must be large. * In Appendix to Opera Mortoni, page 25. f Hist, de TAcademie Royale des Sciences de Paris, 1719> P* 46.
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