( 22^ ) 



vvitliout inipropriet}', be deemed farinaceous or mealy parts ; for, 

 as I have faid, their globular fonn was changed to that of flat and 

 circular, but of different dimcnfions. This experiment I often re- 

 peated, and always found the event alike. 



Having never before, found thefe colle6lions of particles fur- 

 rounded by a membrane in any other wood, but only in certain feeds, 

 I v/as not content with the examination of this root, Pareira Brava, 

 but applied myfelf to the infpe6tion of other roots, fuch as that of 

 the China root*, in which, I not only found the fame kind of 

 fubflance. or particles, as in the Pareira Brava, but, the particles 

 were fo very large, that I could very plainly perceive in them, the 

 fame kind of chi^ik, furrow, or creafc, as I Jiave in another place 

 mentioned, to have obferved in the grains and meal of v.heat. And, 

 as to all thefe mealy particles,, in both the fubjcc^s I have mentioned, 

 I could perceive them, when brought to the fire, uniformly alter 

 their figures, from a globular, to a flat and circular (liape. 



Now, fince it appears, that the particles in tlie lafl-men- 

 tioned root, have in them thefc chinks or creafes, and, that wlieu 

 wetted and afterwards dried, they change their figures as bel'ore re- 

 lated, we may reafonubly conclude, that the very minute particles 

 which abound in the Pareira Brava, have alfo tlic fame kind of 

 chink, or furrow, though fuch furrow is to us invifible. 



Let us now fuppofe thel'e very minute i)articles, which I call 

 mealy ones, contained in th.e root of the Pareira Brava, to be admi- 

 niftere:! as a medicine, and by the heat and moiihire t)f the 

 body to be diffolved : let us farther fuppofe tiiat the particles, fo dif-« 

 lolved, are, by the contijiual motion and agitation of tiie l)ody, in or- 

 der, th.at they may perform tlieir office of relloring health, commi- 

 nuted and broken into other particles of inconceivable tenuity 



« This rootis very tn'nutily dtfcribed in Dr. Aftruc's TroatTeon the Vo ercai Difsare. 



