(Momordica Elaterium.)
_Wild_, or _Squirting Cucumber_.
This plant appears from the testimony of Dioscorides and other writers,
to have been employed by the ancient physicians with much confidence and
success. All the parts of the plants were considered as purgative,
although not in an equal degree; thus Geoffroy, “_radicum vis cathartica
major est quam foliorum, minor vero quam fructuum_.” This question has
very lately been set at rest by the judicious experiments of Dr.
Clutterbuck,[493] which prove that the active principle of this plant
resides more particularly in the juice which is lodged in the centre of
the fruit, and which spontaneously subsides from it; when this substance
is freed from extraneous matter, it possesses very energetic powers, and
appears to me to be entitled to consideration as a distinct proximate
principle, which I shall venture to call _Elatin_. See _Extractum
Elaterii_.