Haematoxylum. Logwood. The wood of Haematoxylum cam-pechianum; Lin. Syst., Decandria monogynia: a native of Campeachy; grows in the West India Islands and in India.

Description. It occurs in billets, consisting of the heartwood only, which is heavier than water, of a dark red colour; little odour, but of a very astringent taste. It is cut into chips, which have a feeble agreeable odour, and a sweetish taste; a small portion chewed imparts to the saliva a dark pink colour.

Prop. & Comp. Water and alcohol dissolve the colouring and astringent principles: the solutions are deepened in colour by alkalies, and rendered rather turbid by acids. It contains hoema-toxyline (C32Hh O12 + 2 HO or 6 HO) crystallizing in reddish yellow four-sided needles, with six equivalents of water, or granular crystals with two equivalents; soluble in alcohol and ether, but sparingly so in water. There are also present tannin, resin, and the ordinary constituents of wood. Haematoxyline is occasionally found crystallized in the crevices of the wood.

Off. Prep. Decoctum HaeMAtoxyli. Decoction of Logwood. (Logwood in chips, one ounce; cinnamon in powder, sixty grains; distilled water, one pint. Reduced by boiling to sixteen fluid ounces.) [Logwood rasped, a troy ounce; boil with a pint of water for fifteen minutes, strain, and add sufficient water through the strainer to make the decoction measure a pint. U. S.]

Extractum Haematoxyli. Extract of Logwood. (Logwood chips, one pound; boiling distilled water, one gallon. Prepared by maceration and evaporation to a proper consistence.)

Therapeutics. Logwood is chiefly employed as an astringent in affections of the alimentary canal, as diarrhoea, chronic dysentery, and some forms of atonic dyspepsia: it is often given to children. The urine of patients taking logwood exhibits a pink colour when that fluid becomes alkaline from any cause; in strongly acid urine the colour may not be seen, but the addition of ammonia readily produces the coloration.

Dose. Of decoctum haematoxyli, 1 fl. oz. to 2 fl. oz.; of extractum haematoxyli, 10 gr. to 30 gr.

Senna Alexandrina. Alexandrian Senna. The leaf of Cassia lanceolata and Cassia obovata.

Senna Indica. Tinnevelly Senna. The leaf of Cassia elongata; Lin. Syst., Decandria monogynia: growing chiefly in Southern India. [Senna, Senna. The leaflets of Cassia acutifolia of Cassia obovata and of Cassia elongata. U. S.]

Description. There has been some considerable difficulty and confusion about the plants yielding senna, arising from different plants having been called by the same name, and different names given to the same plant. Dr. Royle thinks that the species, cassia officinalis, may include the varieties, C elongata, C. lanceolata, and C. acutifolia; besides which there are other species, cassia obovata, cassia ovata, and cassia Forskalii. The leaflets of the three varieties of senna are of a greenish colour, with a faint peculiar odour and sweetish taste; they are all unequally oblique at the base. The leaves of Cassia lanceolata are lanceolate, about an inch in length; those of Cassia obovata, rather shorter and obovate; those of Elongata (Tinnevelly) about 2 inches long, lanceolate and acute.

Alexandrian senna usually consists of leaflets of cassia officinalis (var. lanceolata), and of cassia obovata, with pods and broken leaf-stalks; together with the leaves of cynanchum arghel, and sometimes, but not in English commerce, with those of colatea arborescens, and coriaria myrtifolia. Alexandrian senna has been stated to have about the following proportions of ingredients: five parts of the leaflets of cassia officinalis (var. lanceolata), three parts of cassia obovata, and two parts of cynanchum arghel. As now sold, it is usually picked and the arghel separated; it should be carefully freed from the flowers, and pods, and leaf-stalks, and from the leaves, flowers, and fruit of solenostemna {Cynanchum) arghel.

Cynanchum arghel leaves are distinguished by being about one inch long, equal at the base, no lateral nerves on the under surface: pale in colour, thick and coriaceous in consistence. This addition to senna is important as the arghel is supposed to gripe and nauseate.

The leaflets of colatea arborcscens, or bladder senna, are ovate, and equal at the base; and those of coriaria myrtifolia have a strongly marked lateral nerve on each side of the mid-rib.

The leaflets of tephrosia apollinea, distinguished by having parallel transverse veins, and being silky on the under surface, have sometimes been met with in Alexandrian senna.

Indian senna may be divided into Tinnevelly senna and the ordinary East India variety: the former is by far the finest, the leaflets being large and thin, from one to two inches in length, of a greenish colour, and generally entire; unequally oblique at the base; this variety only is officinal; in the latter, the leaflets are smaller, browner in colour, and many of them broken: stalks and pods are also frequently met with. All the Indian sennas are obtained from one variety of cassia officinalis, viz., C. elongata.

Another variety of commercial senna is called Tripoli senna: when good, it consists chiefly of leaflets of C. aethiopica, a variety of cassia ovata, mixed with cassia obovata.

Prop. & Comp. Senna has a faint odour and nauseous taste; it imparts its virtues to water, either hot or cold; also to alcohol: it contains Cathartine, which can only be separated as a yellowish-red deliquescent substance, not crystallizable, with a trace of volatile oil, and the ordinary constituents of leaves. The cathartine is stated by some not to be the active principle.

Off. Prep. Confectio Sennae. Confection of Senna. (Senna, in fine powder, seven ounces; coriander, in fine powder, three ounces; figs, twelve ounces; tamarinds, nine ounces; cassia pulp, nine ounces; prunes, six ounces; extract of liquorice, three quarters of an ounce; refined sugar, thirty ounces; distilled water, twenty-four fluid ounces.)