existent, and highly to be desired in
numberless cases of apoplexy. The dose recommended for hypodermic
injection is fifteen minims of a 1% solution in glycerin.

The British Pharmacopeia contains a compound extract of colocynth, which
no one ever uses; a compound pill--dose 4 to 8 grains--in which oil of
cloves is included in order to relieve the griping caused by the drug;
and the Pilula Colocynthidis et Hyoscyami, which contains 2 parts of the
compound pill to 1 of extract of hyoscyamus. This is by far the best
preparation, the hyoscyamus being added to prevent the pain and griping
which is attendant on the use of colocynth alone. The official dose of
this pill is 4 to 8 grains, but the most effective and least
disagreeable manner in which to obtain its action is to give four
two-grain pills at intervals of an hour or so.

In minute doses colocynth acts simply as a bitter, but is never given
for this purpose. In ordinary doses it greatly increases the secretion
of the small intestine and stimulates its muscular coat. The
gall-bladder is also stimulated, and the biliary function of the liver,
so that colocynth is both an excretory and a secretory cholagogue. The
action which follows hypodermic injection is due to the excretion of the
drug from the blood into the alimentary canal. Though colocynth is a
drastic hydragogue cathartic, it is desirable, as a rule, to supplement
its action by some drug, such as aloes, which acts on the large
intestine, and a sedative must always be added. Owing to its irritant
properties, the drug must not be used habitually, but it is very
valuable in initiating the treatment of simple chronic constipation, and
its pharmacological properties obviously render it especially useful in
cases of hepatitis and congestion of the liver.

Colocynth was known to the ancient Greek, Roman and Arabic physicians;
and in an Anglo-Saxon herbal of the 11th century (Cockayne, _Leechdoms_,
&c., vol. i. p. 325, London, 1864), the following directions are given
as to its use:--"For stirring of the inwards, take the inward neshness
of the fruit, without the kernels, by weight of two pennies; give it,
pounded in lithe beer to be drunk, it stirreth the inwards."

COLOGNE (Ger. _Koln_, or officially, since 1900, _Coln_), a city and
archiepiscopal see of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, a
fortress of the first rank, and one of the most important commercial
towns of the empire. Pop. (1885) 239,437; (