PHARMACOPGIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
Nicolaus Poll (517), 1517; Leonard Schmaus (578), 1516; and Ulrich 
von Hutten (332), 1518, by whom it is given a place. Oviedo (487), 
who landed in America in 1514, observed the tree, which was called 
by the natives Guayacan. This drug, and its resin as well, was used 
empirically in domestic (native) medicine before its introduction to 
the profession. : 
Resin of Guaiacum is a product obtained from slow combustion, 
wherein, by a crude method, a horizontal guaiacum log, raised from 
the ground, is slowly burned, the resin collecting in grooves that are 
cut in the logs. It is used more extensively than is the wood. 
GUARANA 
Guarana, a dried paste from the crushed seeds of Paullinia cupana, 
was introduced into France from South America by a French officer 
in 1817, as a product of an unknown plant, this paste being made and 
used by the tribe of Indians (Guaranis) from whom it took its name. 
In 1826 Martius (409) identified the plant, which is called Paullinia 
sorbilis in deference to Simon Paulli (493). In 1840, (Am. Journ. 
Pharm., pp. 206-208), Dr. Gavrelle presented a specimen of guarana to 
the Paris Society of Medicine, the same being analyzed by M. de 
Chastetus, who discovered “a crystallizable matter, which possessed the 
chemical properties of caffeine.” In 1888 Professor H. H. Rusby 
(564) (Amer. Jour. of Pharm., p. 267) authoritatively described the 
manner in which the natives prepared Guarana from the seed, and in 
their crude way produced the smoked sausage-like rolls familiar in 
commerce. The date of its discovery by the Indian tribes whose prep- 
aration and use of the substance as “a stimulating substance” led to its 
European notice, is lost to record. 
HAEMATOXYLON 
Logwood (Hematoxylon campechianum, L.) is the wood of a 
tree used throughout the civilized world as a dye stuff, in which direc- 
tion we find it is most largely consumed. The tree is native to Central 
America, being abundant in Campeachy, Honduras, and other sections 
of that country. Fliickiger (239) accepts that the wood was intro- 
duced into England in the latter half of the sixteenth century, because 
in 1581 its use was abolished by act of Parliament, for the reason that 
it was considered a poor substitute for better dyes, and was viewed in 
the light of a sophisticant. Eighty years later, probably because a 
better study of the drug had rendered its use practicable, logwood was 
again permitted to enter England. According to De Laet (368), 1633, 
one of the names by which it was commonly known, peachwood, was 
derived from the town of Campeachy, whence the wood was exported 
in quantities to Europe. The accounts of travelers and sailors at the 
time of the great excitement produced by the discovery of the abun- 
dant sources of wealth in the new world, almost universally men- 
tioned logwood. This is evident from the record found in such 
narratives as appear in sailors’ descriptions of ‘their voyages, in Cham- 
bers Miscellany, and elsewhere. 
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