It is imported in chests containing from one to two cwt, and on the inside of the lid of each chest is a paper, inscribed with the name of John Brown, the month and year of its exportation; and stating that it is the produce of Amboyna.

1 This plant belongs to the first order of the twelfth class of the Linnaen system. It is a lofty tree, exceeding an English oak in size; and bearing yellowish flowers in umbellated clusters. The calyx is hemispherical, perfectly entire in the margin, and afterwards becomes the capsule; on the top, just within the margin, stands a pointed calyptra, of the same colour as the calyx, and as long. This calyptra, which is the essential mark of the genus, is analogous to the corolla in other plants, but neither splits nor divides; on removing it, a great number of red stamens appear, standing in a conical mass, very resinous, aromatic, and bearing small red anthers. In the centre is a simple style terminated by a blunt stigma, and rising from a transversely cut trilocular germen. The quantity of juice obtained from incisions made into the wood of the trunk amounts, sometimes, to sixty gallons from one tree. See White's Voyage, 231.

2 Medical Obs. and Inquiries by a Society of Physicians in London, i. 238. 243.

3 Edinburgh New Dispensatory, 5th edit. 292.

4 System of Mat. Med. and Pharmacy, ii. 304.

Qualities.-1. Kino which was given to me as a specimen of true African kino is inodorous, and insipid when first taken into the mouth; but after some time it imparts a slight degree of roughness, with a scarcely perceptible sweetness, to the palate; feels gritty between the teeth when chewed, and does not colour the saliva. It is in very small, irregularly shaped, shining, deep ruby-brown coloured fragments, and intermixed with small twigs and minute bits of wood, which are white in the inside. It is pulverulent, affording a dark chocolate or reddish brown powder. Water at 60° dissolves the larger moiety of it, and gives a brick red, rather turbid infusion, which does not become clear after standing twenty-four hours. Alcohol dissolves nearly two thirds of it, the tincture having a very deep brown colour: what remains undissolved is nearly colourless. Ether takes up about one third; and the tincture, which is of a beautiful claret-colour, when evaporated on the surface of water, leaves a pellicle of brittle brown resin; while a sweetish, red-coloured extractive matter remains dissolved in the water.

2. Botany Bay kino is in large, irregular dark-brown masses, or in fragments covered with a reddish brown powder: it is inodorous; tastes bitterish, and more austere than the African; it is equally brittle, breaking with a glassy fracture, and affording a brown-coloured powder; but it is not uniform in appearance, some of the fragments being of a lighter hue. Water at 60° dissolves more than of the former variety, and the infusion is brown and transparent. Alcohol dissolves rather more than two thirds of its weight, but the tincture is not so deep-coloured as that of the former variety. Ether takes up one twentieth; a pale brownish straw-colour only is imparted to it; and when evaporated on water, the resinous pellicle is scarcely perceptible, and very little extractive is deposited.

S. The kino said to have been brought from Jamaica, but of which none is now to be procured, is in bitterness and roughness nearly equal to the last variety, but these qualities are accompanied with a slight degree of acidity. It is in brittle masses, sometimes retaining the shape of the vessel in which it was dried, of an almost black colour, having a shining, resinous fracture, in which appear small air bubbles. The powder is of a reddish brown colour. With alcohol and ether it affords results very similar to those of the first variety. Water dissolves a greater portion of it than of the other two kinds, and forms an infusion intermediate in colour and transparency; approaching in colour to the first, and in clearness to the second variety.

4. East India or Amboyna, kino is inodorous, very rough, and slightly bitter when first taken into the mouth; but it afterwards impresses a degree of sweetness on the palate. It is in small, uniform, deep brown, shining, brittle fragments, which appear like portions of a dried extract broken down, being perfectly uniform in their appearance. It is easily pulverized, affording a powder of a lighter brown colour than the fragments. Water dissolves two thirds of it, forming a deep brown clear solution; whilst the portion that remains undissolved is long suspended, if mixed with a fresh portion of water.1 Alcohol dissolves the greater part of this variety, forming a deep claret-coloured tincture, which is not rendered turbid on the addition of water. Ether takes up a portion of it, and forms a yellowish red tincture, which when evaporated on water, leaves no resinous pellicle.

All the varieties, according to Vauquelin, contain a species of tannin, but no gallic acid. They dissolve in solutions of pure potassa and of ammonia, and no precipitation takes place on the addition of water. Some chymical change, however, is effected; and the astringent property of the kino is completely destroyed,-a fact which ought to be kept in remembrance in prescribing this remedy.

The tables in page 600 show the result of some experiments with several chymical re-agents on the watery infusions of these three varieties of kino.2 They point out the distinctive features of the four varieties I have enumerated; but they have no pretensions towards advancing the knowledge of the chymical properties of kino.

1 In India, an aqueous solution of kino is employed for dyeing the colour termed Nankeen on cotton and other clothes.- Virey, Bullet, de Pharm. torn. iv. p. 364.

The specimens subjected to these experiments, I have reason to think, were perfectly genuine. The African kino was brought home twenty years ago.

From these experiments there appears to be a considerable difference between three of the four varieties of kino known in commerce, but the first and the fourth appear to be nearly the same. The most remarkable differences are, the small portion of resin which that from Botany Bay and Amboyna contains; the blue colour of the precipitate of the Jamaica variety by the persulphate of iron; and the effect of the solution of potassa in rendering that from Africa transparent, while it precipitates the second and the third varieties. The predominant principles, in all the varieties, are tannin and extractive matter; and the portion of resin, in the first and third varieties, enables ether to take up their colouring matter and some extractive, whilst the second variety is scarcely affected by it. Dr. Duncan1 and Vauquelin2 observed, that although heat increases the solvent power of water over kino, yet that a substance insoluble either in water or in alcohol always remains. Vauquelin also found that the solutions form a precipitate with tartarized antimony and the salts of iron.

The best menstruum is diluted alcohol.

1 Nicholsons Journal, vi. 234.

2 Annates de Chimie, xlvi. 321. Vauquelin states generally, that the salts of iron precipitate kino green; but Dr. Duncan justly observes, that by the red sulphate it is precipitated black: the sulphate only precipitates it green.

Table I. Precipitates Formed In The Aqueous Solution Of Kino, By Gelatine And Solutions Of Some Metallic Salts

Table II. Precipitates Formed By Solution Of Potassa And Acids

Medical properties and uses.-Kino is a powerful astringent. Like catechu, it is employed in obstinate chronic diarrhoeas, lientery, uterine and intestinal haemorrhages, and fluor albus; but, as it is supposed to be less certain in its qualities than catechu, it is less used. It has also been used for the cure of intermittents; and it is said to increase the power of cinchona. Externally, it has been applied as a styptic, and to give tone to and diminish the ichorous discharge of flabby ill-conditioned ulcers. The alkalies, as already stated, destroy its astringent qualities.

It may be exhibited internally in substance, or in the form of watery solution, or of tincture. The dose in substance is from grs. x. to 3ss.; that of the solution of jss., and of the tincture f 3 j. In ordering the solution or the tincture, it is necessary to recollect that solutions of isinglass, sulphate of iron, nitrate of silver, bichloride of mercury, acetate of lead, tartarized antimony, the alkalies, and the strong acids, are incompatible in prescriptions with kino.

Officinal preparations.-Pulvis Kino comp., L. D. Tinctura Kino, L.E.D. Electuarium Catechu comp., D. E.