This gum resin is imported from Barbary, in drops, or irregular tears; its fracture is vitreous; it is inodorous, but yields a very acrid, burning impression on the tongue. Its acrid constituent resides exclusively in that portion which is soluble in alcohol. This poison has been sometimes administered imprudently as a purgative when it has produced vomiting, and bloody stools. _Lamotte_ speaks of a clyster prepared with it, which proved fatal. It acts as a caustic upon the textures with which it comes in contact, and thus destroys life by a local action; indeed its nature is so acrid that when applied to the hair, or to warts, it causes them to fall off. _Scopoli_ mentions the case of a person who, having the eye-lids closed, allowed them to be rubbed with the juice of this plant; in consequence of which inflammation followed, and the sight was lost. In pulverizing the gum-resin, the parmaceutist should take the precaution of previously moistening it with vinegar, or the powder will rise, excoriate his face, and excite violent inflammation of the eyes. There are many species[410] of _Euphorbium_, or _spurge_, which are highly poisonous; and, being indigenous, they have frequently proved the cause of mischief; during the last summer the author was consulted on the occasion of a family of children having been seized with a violent inflammation of the eyes, and eruption on the face, when the phenomenon was very satisfactorily traced to the action of the _Euphorbia peplus_, which was growing very luxuriantly in the garden where the children had been playing. SAVINE. _Juniperus Sabina._ (Diæcia Monadelphia—_Nat. Ord._ Coniferæ.) This shrub is a native of the south of Europe and the Levant; but has been long cultivated in our gardens. The leaves and tops of the plant have a strong, heavy, disagreeable odour, and a bitter, hot taste, with a considerable degree of pungency; qualities which depend upon the presence of an essential oil. Upon the animal system it acts as a very powerful stimulant, and has been received into the list of the materia medica, as an active emmenagogue; while it has long enjoyed, amongst the vulgar, the reputation of being capable of producing abortion.[411] Upon this point we have only to observe, that it does not exert any specific action on the uterus; but as a violent medicine, acting upon the general system, it might, in common with other stimulants, produce so much disturbance as to be followed by abortion. The experiments of _Orfila_ have shewn that savine exerts a local action, but that its effects depend principally on its absorption, through which medium it acts on the nervous system, the rectum, and the stomach. ACONITE. _Monkshood._ _Aconitum Napellus_ (Polyandria Trigynia—_Nat. Ord._ Multisiliquæ, _Linn._ Ranunculaceæ, _Juss._)