PHARMACOPCIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
he named Quassia amara. The drug was brought to the notice of the 
medical profession by Linnzus’ lectures on materia medica, as well 
as through a dissertation written under his direction, in 1763 (385), by 
one of his pupils, Carolus M. Blom. Be it known, however, that 
more than a little questioning exists as to the exact plant employed by 
the slave Quassi. As pointed out by Dr. Wright, the leaves pictured 
in the Linnzan Dissertation belonged to another species than the 
Quassia amara, an error corrected by the younger Linnzus. 
In this connection it may be stated that Philippe Fermin, a French 
physician and traveler in Surinam, spelled the name of the slave Coissi, 
questioning somewhat the fact of his having discovered the uses of 
the remedy, which Fermin states had been used in Surinam as early 
as 1714. In this connection it may be noted that, according to Murray, 
a spice dealer of Amsterdam, Albert Seba, is said to have had in his 
collection a specimen of a bark of a tree named quasci as early as 1730. 
Be this as it may, the drug known as quassia under the empirical in- 
troduction given by the natives of Dutch Guiana became known to 
European civilization, and in 1788 became official in the London Phar- 
macopeia. Concerning the origin of the drug, the German Pharmaco- 
peia, 1872, demanded that it be the wood of Quassia amara. In the 
second edition, 1882, the Picrena excelsa was admitted concurrently 
therewith, the latter being the official quassia of the present Pharma- 
copeia of the United States. 
QUERCUS 
The bark of the oak, Quercus alba, is strongly astringent and 
has ever been used in domestic medicine where an astringent material 
is applicable, as for example, in dysentery, hemorrhages, etc. In the 
form of a poultice, a decoction, and as a tincture it has a domestic rec- 
ord, probably in common with other species of oak in all countries. 
The medical profession has added little, if anything, to the domestic 
uses of the drug, as recorded by Rafinesque (535), Porcher (520), 
Cutler (178), and the early American dispensatories and works on 
materia medica. 
QUILLAJA 
Soapbark, Quillaja saponaria, named by Molina (444), in 1782, 
in his “History of Chili,” is the bark of a South American tree, having 
similar qualities to other soap weeds or barks, derived from various 
plants and trees, and used by the natives of different countries as a 
substitute for soap, or rather as a material for purposes similar to those 
of soap. Among the first contributions to the literature of saponaria 
is that of Henry, Jr., and Boutron Charlard, Amer. Jour. of Pharm., 
1841, xii, p. 209, in which the now well-known acrid, frothing qualities 
of the drug are mentioned, the statement being that the name originated 
from the Chilean term quilloan, meaning, to wash. In the American 
Medical Intelligencer, Sept. 15, 1840, Dr. Ruschenberger, of the United 
States Navy (Am. Jour. Phar., 1841, p. 211), contributes an article 
on this bark, which, according to his observations in Chili, 1827, was 
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