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.

    8/12 (page 6)
    tion of protochloride of tin, a plentiful reddish-brown precipitate; solution of chloride of calcium produced no evident effect at first, but slowly an evident whitish liglit floating precipitate was formed ; solution of sulphate of lime also had no marked effect at first, but ultimately caused a slight whitish precipitate ; solution of chloride of lime at first heightened the colour, which afterwards slowly lessened again, and a plentiful whitish precipitate was formed ; tincture of galls caused an opaque muddy appearance, and a very slight precipitate ; hydrochloric acid caused an abundant, whitish, more or less floating precipitate • nitric acid, a plentiful, brownish, light precipitate; and sulphuric acid tax abund- ant brownish, light precipitate. No very evident effects were produced by the addition to the infusion of either blue or red litmus papers; or by that of turmeric paper ; nor by acetic acid ; nor by any of the following solutions:— Solution of potash, chromate of potash, ferrocyanide of potassium, anthnoniate ofpotash, carbonate ofp>otash, potasslo-tarirate of antimony, gelatine, ammonia, oxalate of ammonia, sulphate of soda, and bichloride of mercury. An infusion of officinal matico was made at the same time as the above, of the same strength, and in other respects like it; and when it was submitted to the action of the various reagents just mentioned, the effects produced were in all cases almost identical with those caused in the infusion of the new kind of matico. I have given the action of the reagents in full, as the list is more ex- tended than any hitherto published. The reactions obtained by Dr. Hodges, so far as he investigated them, agree essentially with my own. From the similar action of the various reagents upon the two kinds of matico, I may fairly conclude that their composition must be nearly identical; and there can be little doubt therefore that, the medicinal properties of the new matico are also due to the presence of an essential oil and resin. The presence of the volatile oil is at once made evident by submitting the leaves previously ma- cerated in cold water, to distillation. Some of the product then obtained, which has been distilled for me by Mr. Tilden in our laboratory, is now on the table, and as may be noticed, it possesses the peculiar odour of the dried leaves. It is evident from the above that the best form of administration would be an alcoholic extract or tincture. Medicinal Properties and Uses.—AVith regard to the medicinal proper- ties of this new kind of matico, I think we may safely conclude, from its che- mical, botanical, and physical resemblances to that of true matico, that they must be also nearly identical, at least when administered internally, to it. Its local action, when applied externally to arrest hsemorrhage, would be doubtless, to some extent, less powerful than that of true matico, as its structure would not act mechanically to the same extent as it; indeed, those who believe that true matico in such cases acts simply from its peculiar structure dividing the blood and thus promoting its coagulation, would attribute little, if any, value to this kind of matico ; but I am convinced, from my own experiments, and from the recorded observations of others, as well as from various communications on the subject that I have received from practitioners in this and other parts of the world, that the power which true matico possesses of arresting haemorrhage, when locally applied, cannot be due simply to its mechanical action. That this new kind of. matico does possess valuable medicinal properties is also probable from the fact of various parts of the plant yielding it, namely, the Artanthe adunca, having had, and at the present time being considered to have, a great reputation in various diseases in the different districts in which it is a native. The earliest notice that I can find of its medicinal properties and uses is in Sloanc’s ‘ Natural History of Jamaica,’* where the following abstract, taken by him from Tiso’s ‘ Natural History of * Sloanc’s Nat. Hist. Jam. vol. i. p. 136.