[1] As lieutenant-governor, Newbold serves for the unexpired portion
of the term to which Kirkwood was elected; Kirkwood resigned on the
1st of February 1877, having been chosen United States senator.
IOWA CITY, a city and the county-seat of Johnson county, Iowa, U.S.A.,
on Iowa river, about 120 m. E. of Des Moines. Pop. (1890) 7016; (1900)
7987, of whom 1355 were foreign born; (1905) 8497; (1910) 10,091. It is
served by two branches of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroad,
and by the Iowa City & Cedar Rapids Interurban railway (electric), of
which it is a terminus. The ground on which the city is built forms an
amphitheatre surrounded for the most part by hills and bluffs. Iowa City
is the seat of the state university of Iowa, of Iowa City Academy, of
the library of the State Historical Society and of the state Sanatorium
for the Treatment of Tuberculosis. The university, organized in 1847,
and occupying the old State Capitol grounds, is an integral part of the
public school system of the state, and is under the control of a board
of regents, consisting of the governor, the superintendent of public
instruction and eleven members, elected--one from each congressional
district--by the General Assembly. The university's preparatory
department was opened in 1855 and continued until 1879; the first
collegiate session was in 1856-1857, but during 1858-1860 the collegiate
department was closed. The institution embraces a college of liberal
arts (1860), with a school of political and social science
(1900)--which offers courses in commerce, administration, modern history
and practical philanthropy--and a school of education, first opened in
1907, to train secondary and college teachers and school principals and
superintendents; a college of law (1868); a college of medicine (1870),
including a training school for nurses (1897); a college of homoeopathic
medicine (1877), including a nurses' training school (1894); a college
of dentistry (1882); a college of pharmacy (1885); a graduate college; a
college of applied science (1903), with courses in civil, electrical,
mechanical, mining, municipal and sanitary engineering and courses in
chemistry; a summer school for teachers and librarians and a university
extension department. Affiliated with the university is a school of
music. The university's income is derived from the proceeds of invested
funds and lands originally given by the United States, from permanent
appropriations by the state and from the proceeds of a one-fifth mill
tax to be used for buildings alone. In 1907-1908 the institution had 28
buildings (including the old State Capitol, built in 1840), a teaching
and administrative force of nearly 200 members and 2315 students, of
whom 1082 were in the college of liberal arts; the university library
had about 65,000 volumes (25,000 were destroyed by fire in 1897), and
the university law library, 14,000 volumes; and the total income of the
university was about $611,000. In 1908 the library of the State
Historical Society of Iowa, housed in the Hall of the Liberal Arts of
the university, numbered about 40,000 volumes. Iowa City has a
considerable variety of small manufacturing establishments. In 1839 Iowa
City was selected as the site for the seat of government of the newly
created Territory of Iowa. The legislature met for the first time in
1841 and continued to hold its sessions here until 1857, when Des
Moines, on account of its more central position, was made the capital.
IPECACUANHA.[1] The root used in medicine under this name is obtained
from _Psychotria_ (or _Uragoga_) _Ipecacuanha_, a small shrubby plant of
the natural order Rubiaceae. It is a native of Brazil, growing in clumps
or patches in moist shady forests from 8 deg. to 22 deg. S., and is also
found in New Granada and probably in Bolivia. The drug of commerce is
procured chiefly from the region lying between the towns of Cuyaba,
Villa Bella, Villa Maria and Diamantina in the province of Matto Grosso,
and near the German colony of Philadelphia, north of Rio Janeiro.
Ipecacuanha, although in common use in Brazil, was not employed in
Europe previous to 1672. In France within a few years after that date it
formed the chief ingredient in a remedy for dysentery, the secret of the
composition of which was purchased by the French Government for 1000
louis d'or, and made public in 1688. The botanical source of ipecacuanha
was not accurately known until 1800. The root appears to be possessed of
very great vitality, for in 1869 M'Nab, of the Botanical Gardens of
Edinburgh, discovered that so small a portion as 1/16 of an inch of the
annulated root, placed in suitable soil, would throw out a leaf-bud and
develop into a fresh plant, while Lindsay, a gardener in the same
establishment, proved that even the leaf-stalk is capable of producing
roots and buds; hence there is but little probability of the plant being
destroyed in its native habitat. The great value of the drug in
dysentery, and its rapid increase in price from an average of 2s.
9(1/2)d. per lb. in 1850 to about 8s. 9d. per lb. in 1870, led to
attempts to acclimatize the plant in India, which, however, have not
hitherto proved to be a commercial success, owing to the difficulty of
finding suitable spots for its cultivation, and to its slowness of
growth. Like other dimorphic plants, ipecacuanha ripens seeds best when
cross-fertilized, and presents various forms. Two of these were
described by the late Professor F. M. Balfour of Edinburgh, one
distinguished by having a woody stem, firm elliptic or oval leaves, with
wavy margins and few hairs, and the other by an herbaceous stem, and
leaves less coriaceous in texture, more hairy and not wavy at the
margins. This diversity of form is most apparent in young plants, and
tends to disappear with age.
[Illustration: Ipecacuanha Plant (about 1/3 nat. size). 1, 2, Flowers
cut open, showing short-styled (1) and long-styled (2) forms; 3, Flower
after removal of corolla, showing the inferior ovary (o), the small
toothed calyx (c), and the style (s) with its forked stigma; 4, Ovary
cut lengthwise showing the two chambers with the basally attached
ovules; r, annulated root.]
Ipecacuanha root occurs in pieces about 2 or 3 lines in thickness, of a
greyish-brown or reddish-brown tint externally, having a ringed or
annulated surface (see _r_ in fig.), and exhibiting a white or greyish
interior and a hard wiry centre. It has a faint rather musty odour, and
a bitterish taste. It is usually mixed with more or less of the slender
subterranean stem, which has a very thin bark, and is thus easily
distinguished from the root. The activity of the drug resides chiefly in
the cortical portion, and hence the presence of the stem diminishes its
value. The variety imported from Colombia and known as Cartagena
ipecacuanha differs only in its larger size and in being less
conspicuously annulated. Ipecacuanha owes its properties to the presence
of rather more than 1% of the alkaloid emetine, which, with the
exception of traces, occurs only in the cortical portion of the root. It
is a white amorphous substance, with the formula C20H30NO5. It has a
bitter taste, no odour, and turns yellow when exposed to air and light.
There are also present a volatile oil, starch, gum, and a glucoside,
which is a modification of tannin and is known as ipecacuanhic acid. The
dose of the powdered root is 1/4 to 2 grains when an expectorant action
is desired, and from 15 to 30 grains when it is given as an emetic,
which is one of its most valuable functions. The Pharmacopoeias contain
a very large number of preparations of this substance, most of which are
standardized. A preparation from which the emetine has been removed, and
known as "de-emetized ipecacuanha," is also in use for cases of
dysentery.
When applied to the skin, ipecacuanha powder acts as a powerful
irritant, even to the extent of causing pustulation. When inhaled it
causes violent sneezing and a mild inflammation of the nasal mucous
membrane, resembling a common cold in the head. It has feeble antiseptic
properties. Small doses of ipecacuanha act as a stimulant to the
secretions of the mouth, stomach, intestine and liver. The drug,
therefore, increases appetite and aids digestion. Toxic doses cause
gastro-enteritis, cardiac failure, dilatation of the blood-vessels,
severe bronchitis and pulmonary inflammation closely resembling that
seen in ordinary lobar pneumonia. In this respect and in its action on
the skin, the drug resembles tartar emetic. Ipecacuanha is very
frequently used as an expectorant in cases in which the bronchial
secretion is deficient. Its diaphoretic properties are employed in the
_pulvis ipecacuanhae compositus_ or Dover's powder, which contains one
part of ipecacuanha powder and one part of opium in ten.
Other plants to which the name of ipecacuanha has been popularly
applied are American ipecacuanha (_Gillenia stipulacea_), wild
ipecacuanha (_Euphorbia Ipecacuanha_), bastard ipecacuanha (_Asclepias
curassavica_), Guiana ipecacuanha (_Boerhavia decumbens_), Venezuela
ipecacuanha (_Sarcostemma glaucum_), and ipecacuanha des Allemands
(_Vincetoxicum officinale_). All these possess emetic properties to a
greater or less degree.
The term _poaya_ is applied in Brazil to emetic roots of several
genera belonging to the natural orders Rubiaceae, Violaceae and
Polygalaceae, and hence several different roots have from time to time
been sent over to England as ipecacuanha; but none of them possesses
the ringed or annulated appearance of the true drug. Of these the
roots of _Ionidium Ipecacuanha_, _Richardsonia scabra_ and _Psychotria
emetica_ are those which have most frequently been exported from
Brazil or Colombia.