30 TREATMENT OF THE SUBJECT-MATTER. 
trade products of that time, and is far superior to similar publi- 
cations of a later date. 
A less comprehensive, but nevertheless remarkable book, is 
that of the Venetian Pasi or Paxi, ‘‘ Taripha,” * of the year 1503. 
10. Sources of information are not wanting for judging of the 
supply of commodities, and also of preparations which were to 
be met with in the fifteenth century in German pharmacies. 
The “‘ Frankfurter Liste’ and the ‘‘Nérdlinger Register” ex- 
hibit quite a series of drugs * which, at that time, were actually 
kept in stock; and the inventory of a pharmacy in Dijon of the 
year 1439 is also known. 
The conquest of Constantinople by the Turks on the 29th of 
May, 1453, as also the discovery of a sea passage to India in 
. May, 1498, are events which, by its causes and results, led to 
the gradual but almost complete downfall of the Levant trade, 
and especially to the exhaustion of the resources of Venice. The 
discovery of America completed the enormous revolution. The 
age of great discoveries could at first gain no greater number of 
new, important drugs from the vegetable kingdom of Asia, 
which had already been the source of supply for so longa period. 
The discovery of a sea passage around the Cape of Good Hope, 
however, resulted in a much more abundant importation of 
familiar commodities of that character. Furthermore, the 
scientific world now finally received more exact intelligence relat- | 
ing to the celebrated products of India. For this information, — 
thanks are primarily due to a Portuguese physician, Garcia de 
- Orta (Garcias ab Horto), who resided for thirty years in Goa, 
India. His discourses upon Indian drugs, which appeared at 
Goa in the year 1563, form a highly agreeable contrast to the 
mostly confused and altogether too meagre notices of the Arabs 
and of Marco Polo, the great traveller, whose reports are other- 
wise so valuable. 
The most substantial advancement of pharmacognostical 
1 Plickiger, ‘ Pharmakognosie,’ "ps 3,08 
_ * See page 3, note 1. 
3 Schweizerische Wochenschrift fir Pharmacie, 1873, Nos. 6, My 8. 
