PHARMACOPGIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
cinchona. Introduced into Spain under the name Jesuit bark, or 
powder, as well as cinchona, it passed thence into other European 
countries, being largely distributed by the Jesuit Fathers. 
Acrimonious discussions, too numerous and too personal to attempt 
to record, followed the inroads of this once rankly empirical drug, 
which, however, was possessed of qualities sufficient to establish it 
finally in the favor of “regular medication.” It was introduced into 
England about 1656, commanding then a price many times above that 
of opium. 
CINNAMOMUM CASSIA 
Probably this is the first spice sought in the commerce of the 
Orient or from the Indian Ocean, its early record being lost in an- 
tiquity. It is mentioned as a precious spice in the Psalms, Proverbs, - 
Ezekiel, Revelation, etc., and by the ancient historians Theophrastus 
(633), Herodotus (314a), Galen (254a), Dioscorides (194), Pliny 
(514), Strabo, and others. No distinction was then drawn between 
cinnamon and cassia, the difference being considered one of quality 
only. Cinnamon and cassia are mentioned as ranking in value with 
gold, ivory, and frankincense, and as being among the most costly of the 
offerings in the temple of Apollo in Miletus, B. C. 243. No mention 
is made in any old historical document of its being derived from Cey- 
lon. It is accepted as being mentioned in the Chinese herbals from 
2700 B. C. to 1200 B. C. Many varieties of the tree are found in 
India, as well as in Ceylon, in which country, however, no mention 
of cinnamon is made prior to the thirteenth century. Cassia and 
cinnamon were employed as spices and remedies, especially by the 
aborigines, and in the religious services of the early peoples of the 
countries mentioned. The aromatic drugs drifted into Europe as ex- 
ceedingly rare and valuable products some time before the date of the 
East India Company. Cassia was one of the ingredients of the em- 
balming mixtures used by the Egyptians (see Myrrh). 
COCA (THE DIVINE PLANT OF THE INCAS)* 
Erythroxylon coca is a tree native to the eastern slopes of the 
Andes, where, especially in Bolivia, large plantations are cultivated. 
The leaves have been highly valued, from the earliest records, by the 
natives of Peru, Chili, and Bolivia, by whom the tree was called “The 
Divine Plant of the Incas.” In 1569, Monardes (447), of Seville, pub- 
lished an article on the drug, reproduced, 1577, in London. (Dowdes- 
well (196a).) This is among the first references to the drug in print, 
own to us, and it was followed by the botanical description, by Clusius 
(153), in 1605. 
he history of coca, in its many phases, is most exhaustively pre- 
sented by several travelers and authors, a large illustrated work of 
near 600 pages by W. Golden Mortimer, M.D., under the title Peru. 
History of Coca, being of exceeding interest (4514). 
seu Published October, 1910, 
in the Practical Druggist and Pharmaceutical Review of Re- 
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