GUAIACUM OFFICINALE. 
The specific gravity of guaiac is 1,2289. It is sometimes adul- 
terated with common resin and manchinal gum. The former 
is detected by the turpentine emitted when the suspected guaiac 
is thrown on hot coals; and the latter by adding to the alco- 
holic solution a few drops of sweet spirit of nitre, and diluting 
with water the guaiac is precipitated, but the adulteration floats _ 
in white strie. 
Both the wood and the guaiac are stimulant, diaphoretic, 
diuretic, and purgative. The wood was introduced into Europe 
by the Spaniards, as a remedy for lues venera, in 1508, by 
Gonsalvo Ferrand, and gained much cvlebrity from curing 
Ulrich Van Hutten, but it had long before been used for the same 
purpose by the natives of St. Domingo, and it is not certain that 
Van Hutten’s case was one of pure syphilis, as he had been suf- 
fering from the disease from the age of nine years. It obtained 
so much reputation, however, that the exhibition of mercury was 
discontinued for a considerable time, and even in the eighteenth 
century its specific powers over this disease were maintained 
by Boerhaave, but frequent disappointments, and more correct 
observations have shown that it possesses no powers of eradi- 
cating the venereal virus, and that it is useful only after a suc- 
cessful mercurial course, for repairing the strength and vigor of 
the system, ‘“‘and where a thickened state of the ligaments, or 
of the periosteum, remains, or where there are foul, indolent 
ulcers, or in suspending the progress of some of the secondary 
symptoms for a short time, as ulcers of the tonsils, erruptions 
and nodes, The decoction of the wood has been found more 
useful in cutaneous diseases, scrofulous affections of the mem- 
branes and ligaments, and in ozena, The guaiac itself is an 
efficacious remedy in chronic rheumatism, and arthritic affec- 
tions, as well as those diseases for which the decoction of the 
_ wood is usually given, and in every respect it may be regarded 
as the active ingredient of the wood. Its sensible effects are a 
grateful sense of warmth in the stomach, dryness of the mouth, 
and thirst, with a copious flow of sweat, if the body be kept 
externally warm, or if the guaiac be united with opium and 
_ antimonials, but when the body is freely exposed, instead of 
producing: diaphoresis, it augments considerably the secretion of 
Brine. ix may be exhibited either in substance: or in tincture. 
