To the professional zeal and liberality of my lamented friend Dr Adam, late Secretary to the Medical Board at Calcutta, I am indebted for many interesting specimens of the Materia Medica of Hindostan. Among these was a large supply of the powder of the bark of the Mudar or Mudhar, the Calotropis Mudarii of Dr Hamilton, which, with a nearly allied species, had been formerly referred to the genus Asclepias, under the trivial name of gigantea.

The high reputation which the Mudar Powder enjoyed among the natives of India, as a specific for the cure of various cutaneous diseases, induced Mr Playfair, Mr Robinson, and Dr Vos, to investigate its action as a medicine. These gentlemen gave favourable reports of its effects in India, in cutaneous diseases, syphilitic affections, and tape-worm.