ethics, is that passion which is produced by love, regarding its object as present, either immediately or in prospect, in reality or imagination. This passion has been found to increase the perspiration and urine of human bodies.

Joyner. See Joiner.

Ipecacuanha, in the materia medica, a West-Indian root, of which there are principally two kinds, distinguished by their colour, and brought from different places; but both possessing the same virtues, though in a different degree. The one is ash-coloured or grey, and brought from Peru; the other is brown, and is brought from the Brazils; and these are indifferently sent into Europe under the general name of ipecacuanha.

These two sorts have been by some supposed to be the roots of two different plants: but, according to others, this is a mistake; the only difference being that one grows in a different place, and in a richer and moister soil, and is better supplied with juices than the other. The plant they belong to is a species of Psychotria.

The ash-coloured ipecacuan is a small wrinkled root, bent and contorted into a great variety of figures, brought over in short pieces full of wrinkles, and deep circular fissures, quite down to a small white woody fibre that runs in the middle of each piece: the cortical part is compact, brittle, looks smooth and resinous upon breaking: it has very little smell; the taste is bitterish and subacid, covering the tongue as it were with a kind of mucilage. The brown sort is small, and somewhat more wrinkled than the foregoing; of a brown or blackish colour without, and white within. The first sort, the ash-coloured or grey ipecacuan, is that usually preferred for medicinal use. The brown has been sometimes observed, even in a small dose, to produce violent effects. A third sort, called the white from its colour, has also been distinguished. It is woody, has no wrinkles, and no perceptible bitterness in taste. This, though taken in a large dose, has scarce any effect at all. It is supposed to belong to a species of Viola. Mr Geoffroy calls this sort baffled ipecacuan, and complains that it is an imposition upon the public. Geoffroy, Neumann, Dale, and Sir Hans Sloane, inform us, that the roots of a kind of apocynum (dogs-bane) are too frequently brought over instead of it; and instances are given of ill consequences following from the use of it. But if the marks above laid down, particularly the ash colour, brittleness, deep wrinkles, and bitterish taste, be carefully attended to, all mistakes of this kind may be prevented.

Ipecacuan was first brought into Europe about the middle of last century, and an account of it published about the same time by Piso; but it did not come into general use till about the year 1686, when Helvetius, under the patronage of Louis XIV, introduced it into practice. This root is one of the mildest and safest emetics with which we are acquainted; and has this peculiar advantage, that if it should not operate by vomit, it passes off by the other emunctories. It was first introduced among us with the character of an almost infallible remedy in dysenteries, and other inveterate fluxes, as menorrhagia and leucorrhoea, and also in disorders proceeding from obstructions of long standing: nor has it lost much of its reputation by time. In dysenteries, it almost always produces happy effects, and often performs a cure in a very short space of time. In other fluxes of the belly, in beginning dysenteries, and such as are of a malignant kind, or where the patient breathes a tainted air, it has not been found equally successful: in these cases it is necessary to continue the use of this medicine for several days, and to join with it opiates, diaphoretics, and the like. This root, given in substance, is as effectual, if not more so, than any of the preparations of it: the pure resin acts as a strong irritating emetic, but is of little service in dysenteries; while an extract prepared with water is almost of equal service in these cases with the root itself, though it has little effect as an emetic. Geoffroy concludes from hence, that the chief virtue of ipecacuan in dysenteries depends upon its gummy substance, which lining the intestines with a soft mucilage, when their own mucus has been abraded, occasions their exfoliations to heal, and defends them from the acrimony of the juices: and that the resinous part, in which the emetic quality resides, is required, where the morbid matter is lodged in the glands of the stomach and intestines. But if the virtues of this root were entirely owing to its mucilaginous or gummy part, pure gums, or mucilages, might be employed to equal advantage. Water, assisted by a boiling heat, takes up from all vegetables a considerable portion of resinous along with the gummy matter: if the ipecacuan remaining after the action of water be digested with pure spirit, it will not yield half so much resin as at first: so that the aqueous extract differs from the crude root only in degree, being proportionably less resinous. refinous, and having less effect, both as an emetic, and in the cure of dysenteries. The virtues of ipecacuan, in this disorder, depend upon its promoting perspiration, the freedom of which is here of the utmost importance, and an increase of which, even in healthful persons, is generally observed to suppress the evacuation by stool. In dysenteries, the skin is for the most part dry and tense, and perspiration obstructed; the common diaphoretics pass off without effect through the intestinal canal; but ipecacuan, if the patient after a puke or two be covered up warm, brings on a plentiful sweat. After the removal of the dysentery, it is necessary to continue the use of the medicine for some time longer, in order to prevent a relapse; for this purpose, a few grains divided into several doses, so as not to occasion any sensible evacuation, may be exhibited every day; by this means the cure is effectually established. And indeed small doses given, even from the beginning, have been often found to have better effects in the cure of this disease than larger ones. Geoffroy informs us from his own experience, that he has observed ten grains of the powder to act as effectually as a scruple or two; and therefore confines the dose between five and ten grains: it has lately been found, that even smaller doses prove sufficiently emetic. The only official preparation of this root is a tincture made in wine, which accordingly has now the appellation of vinum ipecacuanhae, both in the London and Edinburgh pharmacopoeias.

Many ingenious experiments have been made on the subject of ipecacuan by Dr Irving, for which he obtained the prize medal of the Harveian Society at Edinburgh for 1784. He has ascertained, that while this root contains a gummy resinous matter, yet that the gummy exists in a much greater proportion than the resinous part; that the gummy part is much more powerfully emetic than the resinous; that although the cortical part of the root be more active than the ligneous, yet that even the pure ligneous part possesses a considerable emetic power; and that the whole of the root possesses considerable influence, both as an antiseptic and astringent. To determine whether the emetic power of ipecacuan was of a volatile or fixed nature, Dr Irving subjected it to distillation. The water obtained by distillation was found to have very little influence; but the decoction which remained in the still, not only operated violently as an emetic, but produced rigors, cold sweats, and other alarming symptoms. By long continued boiling, the activity of the root itself is almost totally destroyed; but Dr Irving found, that the emetic property of ipecacuan was most effectually counteracted by means of the acetic acid, inasmuch that thirty grains of the powder taken in two ounces of vinegar produced only some loose stools.

Ipecacuan, particularly in the state of powder, is now advantageously employed in almost every disease in which full vomiting is indicated; and when combined with opium under the form of the pulvis sudorificus, it furnishes us with the most useful and active sweating medicine which we possess. It is also often given with advantage in very small doses, so as neither to operate by vomiting, purging, nor sweating.

The full dose of the powder is a scruple or half a dram, and double that in form of watery infusion. The full dose is recommended in the paroxysm of spasmodic asthma, and a dose of three or four grains Iphigenia every morning in habitual asthmatic indisposition. A dose of ¼ or ½ grain rubbed with sugar, and given every four hours or oftener, is recommended in uterine hemorrhage, cough, pleurisy, hemoptysis, &c., and has often been found highly serviceable.