562 



EUPHORBIACE^. 



drug occurs along with true Cinchona bark, China de China, in the 



of the pharmaceutical shops of the German 



tariff 



town Minden, in Westphalia. There can be no doubt that the cheaper 

 kind of "China/' called China nova, was really the bark under exami- 

 nation, for in many other tariffs a few years later distinct mention is 

 made of Cortex Chinas nov(B sen SchacorillcB;^ and Savary, in his 

 " Dictionnaire de Commerce" (1723,1750), confirms the fact, adding 

 that it was first seen in the great fair of Brunswick/ Another early 

 statement concerning Cascarilla bark likewise refers to the duchy of 

 Brunswick. Stisser, a professor of anatomy, chemistry, and medicine 

 in the University of Helmstedt in Brunswick, relates that he received 

 the drug under the name of Cortex Eleuterii from a person who had 

 returned from England, in which country, he was assured, it ^\^as 

 customary to mix it with tobacco for the sake of correcting the smell 

 of the latter when smoked. He also mentions that it had been 

 confounded with Peruvian bark, from which however it was very 

 distinct in odour, etc.^ Eleutheria bark was then frequently prescribed 

 as a febrifuge in the place of Cinchona bark, then a more expensive 

 medicine. Hence the name cascarilla, signifying in Spanish little 

 harhy which was the customary designation of Peruvian bark, was 

 erroneously applied to the Bahama bark, until at last it quite super- 

 seded the original and more correct appellation. That of China nova 

 was subsequently applied to a quite different bark (see page 864). 

 The drug under notice was first introduced into the London Pharma- 

 copceia in 1746 as Eleutheria^ Cortex, which was its common name 

 among druggists down to the end of the last century. In the Bahamas 

 the name cascarilla is still hardly known, the bark being there called 

 either Simet Wood Baric or Eleuthera Bark 



The plant affording cascarilla has been the subject of much dis- 

 cussion, arising chiefly from the circumstance that several nearly allied 

 West Indian species of Croton yield aromatic barks resembling more 



Catesby in 1754 figured a Bahama plant, 



Croton Cascarilla Bennett, from which tlie orirjinal Elmihem Bark 



ilia 



or less the officinal dru^r. 



was 



of mo 



3 



probably derived, though it certainly affords none of the cascarilla 

 lodern commerce. Woodville in 1794', and Lindley in 1<S38, both 

 investigated the botany of the subject, the latter having the advantage 

 of authentic specimens communicated by the Hon. J. C. Lees of New 

 Providence, to whom one of us also is indebted for a similar favouj- 

 The question was not however finally set at rest until 1859, when J. J- 

 Bennett by the aid of specimens collected in the Bahamas by ranielj 

 in 1857-8, drew up lucid diagnoses of the several plants which had 

 been confounded, and disentangled their intricate synonymy ' 



Description— Cascarilla occurs in the form of tubular or chaimcHef 



have we seen the paper oij^^^'^l 

 uarcia Salat, "Uiiica quajstmncula, mq ^ 

 examinatnr ijulvis de Buil^^SO./wjJ^jjji^. 

 car'illa, in curatione tertianfr, „ . 



ii. (1772) GS8, and several later authors, 



but appears to be extremely rare. .^, 



3 Journal of Froceedinj.^ of Linn. doc. 



, '^"^'kiger, Pkariii. Joarn., vi. (1876) 

 It^' ^"'^ "l>ocumente" quoted there, pp. 



74-77, etc. 



=* Stisser (J. A.) Aclorum Laboratorii 



VrnT'^^ '*^^^*""'" ifcundum, Helmestadi, 

 lbJ3. c. IX. Stisser is said to have men- 

 tioned Cascarilla bark in his pamphlet 

 if>o^ inachinia fumiductoriis," Hamburg, 

 IbSb, but we found this to be incorrect. 



Nor 



Garci 



(1860) Bot. 29. 



