in the materia medica, a gummi-resinous substance, which exudes from a large oriental tree, (Euphorbia officinarum). It is brought to us immediately from Barbary, in drops of an irregular form; some of which, upon being broken, are found to contain little thorns, small twigs, flowers, and other vegetable matters; others are hollow, without any thing in their cavity: the tears in general are of a pale yellow colour externally, somewhat white withinside: they easily break between the fingers. Lightly applied to the tongue, they affect it with a very sharp biting taste; and upon being held for some time in the mouth, prove vehemently acrimonious, inflaming and exulcerating the fauces, &c. Euphorbium is extremely troublesome to pulverise; the finer part of the powder, which flies off, affecting the head in a violent manner. The acrimony of this substance is so great as to render it absolutely unfit for any internal use: several correctors have been contrived to abate its virulence; but the best of them are not to be trusted to: and as there seems to be no real occasion for it, unless for some external purposes, we think, with Hoffman and others, that it ought to be expunged from the catalogue of internal medicines. And accordingly it has now no place in the London or Edinburgh pharmacopoeias. But it is still retained in most of the foreign ones, and is sometimes used as a sternutatory.