ELATERIUM

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) This substance, commonly called extract of elaterium, is obtained from the fruit of the Momordica elaterium, or squirting cucumber, which, if gathered a little before it ripens and the juice gently expre ed, deposits a green sediment, which is collected and dried. In the dose of from one eighth of a grain to a grain, good elaterium operates as a drastic purge, bringing away from the bowels a large quantity of watery secretion; it is seldom prescribed except with a view of diminishing the collection of fluid in cases of dropsy. Elaterium. In Botany, a term invented by Richard to denote that kind of fruit which is found in Euphorbia, consisting of three or more carpels, consolidated when young, but bursting with elasticity when ripe. [s. 399]