safford: lignum nephriticum 505 



bourt, in his Histoire abregee des drogues (1820), identified it 

 with the West Indian cat's-claw (Mimosa unguis-cati L.). 



The first to indicate its true botanical classification was Dr. 

 Leonardo Ohva, Professor of Pharmacology in the University of 

 Guadalajara. In his Lecciones de Farmacologia^ he^ identified 

 it with Varennea polystachya DC. {Viborquia polystachya Ortega; 

 Eysenhardtia amorphoides H.B.K.). Subsequent authorities, 

 however, did not accept his identification. Dr. Fernando 

 Altamirano (1878), while recognizing the identity of the coaili 

 of Hernandez with the tree called by the modern Mexicans palo 

 dulce and referring it to Viborquia polystachya Ortega, was not 

 aware that the latter was the same as Eysenhardtia amorphoides 

 H.B.K., and he followed Alfonso Herrero in referring hgnum 

 nephriticum to Guilandina moringa, a mistake which may be 

 traced at once to Linnaeus. In describing the uses of coatli 

 wood by the modern Mexicans, he states that the country people 

 make drinking-troughs of it for their fowls, to guard against 

 certain epidemics to which the latter are subject; or, if the vessel 

 from which they drink is of some other substance, they put a 

 piece of the wood in the water and allow it to remain there. The 

 water assumes a blue color, he says; but Mariano Barcena, who 

 experimented with it, observed that the blue color was the result 

 of the refraction of light, and the water, instead of yielding a blue 

 coloring matter like indigo, yielded a yellowish brown dye-stuff.^ 



Sargent, in his Silva of North America, gave an amended 

 description of the genus Eysenhardtia, in which he for the first 

 time established the combination Eysenhardtia polystachya, but 

 it is evident that he was unaware that this species had anything 

 to do with lignum nephriticum, or that its wood yielded a fluores- 

 cent infusion. Concerning it he simply says: ''The wood of 

 some species is hard and close-grained and affords valuable fuel. 

 The genus is not known to possess other useful properties.*^ 



The third edition of the Nueva Farmacopea Mexicana (1898) 



^2: 429. 1854. 



^ Altamirano, Fernando, "Leguminosas indigenasmedicinales," in La Natural- 

 eza, 4: 97-98. 1879. 



« Sargent, C. S. The Silva of North America, 3: 30. 1S92. 



