On a new kind of matico : with some remarks on officinal matico / by Professor Bentley.

  • Robert Bentley
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a new kind of matico : with some remarks on officinal matico / by Professor Bentley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    of matico.” la Englaad it lias not been generally much esteemed as a medicinal agent for internal administration, and its action even when locally employed to ai’rest bleeding, has been regarded by some writers of eminence, as simply me- chanical,—the peculiar structure of the leaves of which it is composed, being supposed to divide the blood, and thus promote its coagulation.* The com- mittee appointed by the Medical Council to frame the forthcoming ‘ British Pharmacopoeia ’ have however, and as I think properly so, thought matico of suf- ficient importance to be introduced into the list of Materia Medica to be pub- lished in that volume, and have also given a formula for the preparation of “ Tincture of Matico.” In the States of North America, matico lias been much employed of late years, and highly extolled for its power of arresting internal hmmorrhage ;f and has been introduced into the Primary List of the Materia INIedica of the new United States Pharmacopoeia, which has been just issued. The fact of matico having thus been, or about to be, introduced into the new United States and British Pharmacopoeias, makes everything relating to it of especial importance at the present time, and hence, 1 have thought it a desirable subject to be introduced to the notice of this meeting. From the great demand for matico which has recently arisen, in consequence principally of its extensive use in the States of North America, through the war which is now unfortunately desolating that enormous tract of country, it has become scarce and of high price; and indeed, at the present time, true ma- tico—that which is to be officinal in the new British Pharmacopoeia—is scarcely to be obtained in any quantity in this country. This scarcity of true matico, and the impossibility of immediately supplying the demand, has probably led to the recent large importation of the leaves of another plant under the same name; and the object of this paper is, more especially, to direct attention to, and to de- scribe that substance. ]\Iy attention was first called to this matico about six weeks since, in conse- quence of receiving from a well-known herbalist, in extensive business in lAindon, a san)ple of a drug which had been recently imported, and which consisted of dried broken leaves, some small pieces of branches, and a few spikes of flowers. I was requested to inform him as to its nature, and the name of the plant which yielded it. Upon examination, I saw directly, from the odour and botanical characteristics of the drug, that it had been derived from a plant of the Order PiPERACE/E, and most probably from a species of the same genus as that yield- ing the officinal matico. Further examination clearly exhibited that my first conjecture was correct, and that it had been obtained from a species of Artanthe. Upon further inquiry I found that some genuine matico, and some of the pre- sent drug also under the name of matico, had recently arrived in the ‘ St. Thomas,’ from Colon, a port situated at the terminus of the Panama railroad, on the Atlantic side. The drug had been consigned to a merchant in this city, and was afterwards offered for sale as matico, by a highly respectable firm of brokers. The respectability of all the parties concerned in this country, and elsewhere, who had knowledge of the transaction, and the public man- ner in which the drug had been offered for sale, showed that no fraud was intended, but that it was supposed to be, either true matico; or a substance allied to, and analogous in its properties to that drug, and probably known in the district from whence it had been forwarded under the same name. Having now got a clue to the botanical and geographical source of the new drug, I went to the British Museum, where every opportunity was kindly afforded me by Mr. Carruthers of consulting the necessary books upon, and the * Pereira’s * Materia Medica and Therapeutics,’ 4tli edit. vol. ii. part 1, p. 397, and ood andBache’s ‘United States Dispensatory,’ lltliedit. ]>. 494. f Carson’s American Fdition of Pereira’s‘ Alateriii Aledica.’