CASE — LAXATIVES AND PURGATIVES — YELLOW THE PRINCIPAL COLOR, OR RED IN DRASTIC PURGATIVES – Edwin Babbitt

Podophylhtm or May Apple. “Yellowish green petioles.” “The fruit is lemon yellow, diversified by brownish spots.” “The powder is light yellowish gray.” “An active and certain cathartic. In some cases it has given rise to nausea and vomiting.” “A hydragogue and cholagogue.” The office of a cholagogue is to cause a flow of bile, which is of itself a yellow or yellow green fluid that has a laxative effect as it passes into the duodenum and lower bowels.

  1. Senna, (Cassia Marilandica). “Flowers beautiful golden yellow; the calyx is composed of five oval yellow leaves; the stamens are ten, with yellow filaments and brown anthers.” “An efficient and safe cathartic.”
  2. Colocynth (colocynthis). “Flowers are yellow.” “Fruit yellow when ripe.” “Contains a white spongy medullary matter.” “A powerful hydragogue cathartic.” “stimulant, diuretic, laxative.”
  3. Gluten, phosphate of lime, etc., which constitute the hard yellow portion of grains near the external portion, are somewhat laxative.
  4. Figs (Ficus). “The best are yellowish or brownish.” “Figs are nutritious, laxative and demulcent.”
  5. Magnesia (MgO). The yellow-green principle strongest in the spectrum of magnesium. “Antacid and laxative.”
  6. Magnesium Carbonate (MgCO3). The yellow strong in both carbon and magnesium. “Laxative.”
  7. Castor Oil (Oleum Ricini). “Yellowish.” “A mild cathartic.”
  8. Olive Oil (Oleum Olivæ). “Pale yellow or greenish yellow.” “Nutritious and mildly laxative, given in case of irritable intestines.”
  9. Sulphur is “pale yellow * * laxative, diaphoretic,” etc.
  10. Magnesium Sulphate (Epsom salt, MgSO4), has the strong yellow principle of magnesium and sulphur, but is toned down by the cool blue of oxygen, so it is called “a mild and safe cathartic,” a “refrigerant,” etc.
  11. Eggs (Ovum). “The yolk in its raw state is thought to be laxative.”
  12. Prunes (Prunum). Yellowish brown or orange brown. “Laxative and nourishing.”
  13. Peaches have a yellowish pulp. Gently laxative.
  14. Cape Aloes (Aloe). “Powder greenish yellow.” “Cathartic.”
  15. Many more similar examples could be given, but these are quite sufficient to establish the potency of yellow as connected with the nerves of the bowels. I will quote the following, however, to show that when we appeal more to the red principle with drugs we reach the coarser elements of blood and thus produce a more severe and drastic effect than when dealing more exclusively with the finer elements of the nerves:—
  16. Gamboge when broken “is of a uniform reddish orange, which becomes a beautiful bright yellow.” “Gamboge is a powerful drastic hydragogue cathartic, very apt to produce nausea and vomiting, when given in the full dose.”
  17. Black Hellebore (Helleborus niger). “The flower stem is reddish toward the base,” has “rose like flowers.” The petals are of a white or pale rose color with occasionally a greenish tinge.” The root is “externally, black or deep brown, internally white or yellowish white, producing on the tongue a burning and benumbing expression, like that which results from taking hot liquids into the mouth.” “Black Hellebore is a drastic hydragogue cathartic possessed also of emmenagogue powers. The fresh root applied to the skin produces inflammation and even vesication.” A good example of the burning qualities of black and red.
  18. Croton Oil (Oleum Tiglii), “varies from a pale yellow to a dark reddish brown. Its taste is hot and acrid—it is a powerful hydragogue cathartic, in large doses apt to excite vomiting and severe pain.”
  19. Senna (Cassia acutifolia, etc.). “The leaflets are yellowish green color, the flowers are yellow, the fruit grayish brown.” “The infusion is of a deep reddish brown color. When exposed to the air a short time, it deposits a yellowish insoluble precipitate. It is a prompt and safe purgative. An objection sometimes urged against it is that it is apt to produce severe griping pain.”
  20. Rhubarb (Rheum). “Good rhubarb is yellow, with a slight reddish brown tinge;”—”unites a cathartic with an astringent power, the latter of which does not interfere with the former, as the purgative effect precedes the astringent; * * appears to affect the muscular fibres more than the secretory vessels. It sometimes occasions griping pains in the bowels.”

Why it is that a substance like potassium tartrate, and other saline substances may have the rubific element of potassium, and yet be but a “mild refrigerant cathartic,” is easily explained by noticing the amount of oxygen (C4H4K2O6) which moderates and cools the thermal and expansive qualities of the other substances, and acts somewhat as it does in acids. It seems that the text is listing various substances that have laxative or purgative properties, and highlighting the role of the color yellow in their composition and effects. The author is also noting that when the red principle is more prominent, the substances tend to have a more drastic and severe effect on the body.

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