5^3 
coloured or grey, brown, and white. The afh-coloured is brou 
ght 
into 
from Peru, and * is a fmall wrinkled root, bent and contorted 
a great variety of figures, brought over in fhort pieces full of wrhi 
Ides and deep circular fiftures, down to a fmall white woody fib 
that runs in the middle of each piece : the cortical part is compact, 
brittle, looks fmooth and refinous upon breaking : it has very little 
fmell ; the tafte is bitterifh and fubacrid, covering the tongue as it 
were with a kind of mucilage. The brown is fmall, fomewhat more 
wrinkled than the foregoing ; of a brown or blackifh colour without, 
and white within ; this is brought from Brazil (and correiponds with 
our fpecimen). The white fort is woody, has no wrinkles, and no 
perceptible bitternefs in tafte. The firft, the afh-coloured or grey 
~_ ecacuan, is that ufually preferred for medicinal ufe. The brown 
has been fometimes obferved, even in a fmall dole, to produce vio- 
lent effects. The white, though taken in a large one, has fcarce any 
e'fFed at all." b Dr. Irving has ascertained by experiments, that 
this root contains a gummy and refmous matter, and that the gum 
is in much greater proportion, and is more powerfully emetic than 
the refin : that the cortical part is more active than the ligneous, 
and that the whole root manifefts an antifceptic and aftringent power. 
He alfo found its emetic quality to be moft effectually counteracted 
by means of the acetous acid, infomuch that thirty grains of the 
powder taken in two ounces of vinegar, produced only fome loofe 
ftools. 
The firft account we have of Ipecacuan is that publifhed by Pifo, 
in 1 649 ; but it did not come into general ufe till thirty years after- 
wards, when Helvetius, d under the patronage of Louis XIV. em- 
ployed it at the Hotel de Dieu, and introduced this root into com- 
mon practice ; and experience has proved it to be the mildeft and 
fafeft emetic with which we are acquainted, having this peculiar 
advantage, that if it does not operate by vomit, it readily paffes off 
by the other emundtories. 
* Edin. New Difpenf. p. 21 1. 
See the DifTertation which obtained the prize medal of the Harveian Society of 
Edinburgh, for 1784. 
No. 41. 
* See Recueil des Methodes> p. 280. 
