CISSAMPELOS PAREIRA, ORD. VIII. Sarmentacec. 169 
been introduced, but from their extreme minuteness and dryness 
it was found to be impracticable: the general appearance of the ’ 
plant is however so characteristic as in some measure to <A 
sate for this deficiency, 
The medicinal use of the roots of this plant was first learned from 
the Brazilians, who infused them in water, which they drank freely 
in all obstructions in the urinary passages ;* and towards the end 
of the last century these roots were brought into Europe by the 
Portuguese, who recommended them to physicians as the most 
effectual remedy hitherto discovered in all calculous and gravelly 
complaints; and various accounts of their efficacy were soon 
after published.“ This root “ has no remarkable smell; but to the 
taste it manifests a notable sweetness of the liquorice kind, together 
with a considerable bitterness, and a slight roughness covered by 
the sweet matter. It gives out great part both of the bitter and 
sweet substance to watery and spirituous menstrua: in evaporating 
the watery decoction a considerable quantity of resinous matter 
separates, which does not mingle with the remaining extract, nor 
dissolve in water, but is readily taken up by spirit; whence spirit 
appears to be the most perfect dissolvent of its active parts. Both 
the spirituous tincture and extract are in taste stronger than the 
watery.” 
The. facts adduced on the utility of radix pareire brave in 
nephritic and calculous cases, are principally those by a 
© According to. Browne it is still used with this intention by the negroes at 
Jamaica. Vide lc 
4¢¢ Parisios per Regs Galliz legatum, Amelot, a. 1688, pervenit (Hist. de l’ Acad. 
des Scien, de Paris, 1710, p. 56.) tumque yarii medici Galli ejus usum fecere, interque 
nos Helvetius, quiin Traité des maladies les plus frequentes et des remedes specifiques, 
ejus mentionem aliquoties honorificam injicit’ In Germania nondum initio seculi 
famam excitaverat, sed multum ibidem ad ejusdem existimationem contulit Lochnerus 
(Schediasma de Pareira brava Norimb, 1719. Ed. 2. in 4.) casibus potims distincte 
prolatis, quam luxuriantis eruditionis ornamentis, quibus obyelantur.” Vide Murrey 
ae Med. 2. 7. 345. ; 
° Lewis Mat. Med. p. 480.° 
No. 15. Qu 
