a concreted vegetable juice of a species of convolvulus, partly of the resin, and partly of the gum kind. See CONVOLVULUS.

The best scammony comes from Aleppo, in light spongy masses, easily friable, of a shining ash-colour verging to black; when powdered, of a light grey or whitish colour: an inferior sort is brought from Smyrna, in more compact ponderous pieces, of a darker colour, and full of sand and other impurities. This juice is chiefly of the resinous kind; rectified spirit dissolves six ounces out of five, the remainder is a mucilaginous substance mixed with dross; proof-spirit totally dissolves it, the impurities only being left. It has a faint unpleasant smell, and a bitterish, somewhat acrimonious taste.

Scammony is an efficacious and strong purgative. Some have condemned it as unsafe, and laid sundry ill Scammony qualities to its charge; the principal of which is, that its operation is uncertain, a full dose proving sometimes ineffectual, whilst at others a much smaller one occasions dangerous hypercatarhesis. This difference, however, is owing entirely to the different circumstances of the patient, and not to any ill quality or irregularity of operation of the medicine: where the intestines are lined with an excessive load of mucus, the scammony passes through without exerting itself upon them; where the natural mucus is deficient, a small dose of this or any other resinous cathartic irritates and inflames. Many have endeavoured to abate the force of this drug, and correct its imaginary virulence, by exposing it to the fume of sulphur, dissolving it in acid juices, and the like; but this could do no more than destroy as it were a part of the medicine, without making any alteration in the rest. Scammony in substance, judiciously managed, stands not in need of any correction; if triturated with sugar or with almonds, it becomes sufficiently safe and mild in operation. It may likewise be conveniently dissolved by trituration, in a strong decoction of liquorice, and then poured off from the fires; the college of Wurtemberg assures us, that by this treatment it becomes mildly purgative, without being attended with gripes, or other inconveniences; and that it likewise proves inoffensive to the palate. The common dose of scammony is from three to twelve grains.