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ease is otherwise with the other two Calagualas, since, after be- 
ing well bruised, they require a long digestion to enable the 
water to extract from them the little viscous and other princi- 
ples of which they consist, being naturally ligneous and very 
hard when dry: the roots of the Huacsaro are so, even when - 
newly: taken from the earth. 
The effects of the Calaguala, when used fresh, are perceived 
to be more prompt and efficacious than when dry ; but, when 
used in the latter state, it does not lose its virtue, as experience 
has shown in Peru. Every experienced physician well knows, that 
many dried vegetables, collected and preserved with care and 
attention, produce equal effects as when used fresh, but operat- 
ing less quickly. There are many plants which, after drying, 
provided due skill and care have been used in preserving them, 
impart to water or other liquids all their principles with greater 
facility than when they are fresh, and consequently produce bet- 
ter effects. I have no doubt that the root of the Calaguala, ad- 
ministered in powder as is the practice with some, will be equally 
effectual as when taken in infusion or decoction; yet I shall 
prefer using the infusion or saline extract, well elaborated, so 
long as the experience and observations of eminent professional 
men do not decide otherwise, | 
From the account I have just given, it must be inferred that 
the virtues of the genuine Calaguala are not so imaginary as 
some physicians have supposed, who, influenced by groundless 
reasonings and statements, have judged so unfavourably of a 
medicine, which for a series of years, in Peru, has been proved 
to produce the results already stated; wherefore, in my opinion, 
a too credulous physician is equally to blame with the incredu- 
lous; since the former ought to require more than a superficial 
knowledge of the virtue of a simple or compound, in order not 
