572 ORD. XXXII. Gruinales. QuaSsIA SIMARUBA, 
says it communicates to boiling water, I have not observed in the 
decoction of any of the specimens which I have examined.’”* 
The bark was first sent from Guiana to France in 1713 to the 
Count de Porchartrain, then Secretary of State, as a remedy of 
great efficacy in dysentery. In the years 1718 and 1723 an 
epidemic flux prevailed very generally in France, which resisted 
call the medicines usually employed in such cases; small doses of 
ipecacuanha, mild purgatives, and all astringents were found to 
aggravate, rather than to relieve, the disease: |] under these cir- 
«cumstances, recourse was had to the cortex Simarubz, which proved 
remarkably successful, and first established its medical character in 
Europe. Dr. Wright says, “ most authors who have written on 
the Simaruba, agree, that in fluxes it restores the lost tone of 
the intestines, allays their spasmodic motions, promotes the 
** secretions by urine and perspiration, removes that lowness of 
*€ spirits attending dysenteries, and disposes the patient to sleep ; 
** the gripes and tenesmus are taken off, and the stools are changed 
“* to their natural ‘colour and consistence. In a moderate dose it 
occasions no disturbance or uneasiness, but in large doses it pro- 
«* duces sickness at the stomach and vomiting. 
* Modern physicians have found from "eipertende that this 
“* medicine is only successful in the third stage of dysentery, 
“* where there is no fever, where too the stomach is no way hurt, 
and where the gripes and tenesmus are only continued by a 
¢ Lewis Mat. Med. p. 606. f See Wright, 1. c. 
t.Jesnite patri Soled/ collegio Parisino adscripto anno 1713, quedam hujus 
corticis specimina miserunt, ille in dysenteria gravi, que anno 1718, Parisiis 
furebat, jussu Regia, fuit tentatus, bonos inde observates effectus, anno 1723, 
veiterata experimenta uberius confirmarunt, variis itaque in lecis in usum tractus 
efficaciam -suam in sistenda dysenteria ubivis probavit Degner, Schwenk, Tissot, 
Grashuis, Beennicken, Werlhoff, testibus, efficacem quoque in alvi fluxu chronico 
& lienteria Schwenk, Tissot, Beennicken Jussieu sunt experti, in hemorrhagia 
uteri Du Buisson & Jussieu; has ejus virtutes nen modo a vi adstringente, qua 
pollet, pendere, sed illam ipsam materiem quoqus herum morborum corrigere 
#& e corpore educere, Schwenk & Jussieu ex eo probant, quod sub ejus usu 
excretiones aquose promoveri obseryentur. Spielman Mat. Med. p. 228. 
a 
