EPECACUANHA. Sil 
tongue as it were with a kind of mucilage. ~The brown is small; 
somewhat more. wrinkled than the foregoing; of a brown or 
blackish colour without, and white within; this is brought from 
Brazil (and. corresponds with our specimen), The white sort is 
woody, has no wrinkles, and no perceptible bitterness in taste. 
The first, the ash-coloured or grey Ipecacuan, is that usually pre- 
ferred for medicinal use. The brown has been sometimes ob- 
served, even in a small dose, to produce violent effects... The 
white, though taken in a large one, has ‘scarce any effect at all.’”* 
Dr. Irving has ascertained by experiments, * that this root contains 
a gummy and resinous matter, and that the gum is in much greater 
‘proportion, and is more powerfully emetic than the resin: that 
the cortical part is more active than the ligneous, and that the 
whole root manifests an antiseptic and astringent power. He 
also found its emetic quality to be most effectually counteracted 
by means of the acetous acid, insomuch that thirty grains of the 
powder taken in twoounces of vinegar, se anlys some loose 
stools. bs 
» The first account we cies C 
Piso, in 1649; but it did not ¢ 
years afterwards, when Helvetius,* er the patrodede of Louis 
XIV. employed it at the Hotel de Dieu, and introduced this root 
into common practice; and experience has proved it to be the 
mildest and safest emetic with which we are acquainted, having 
this peculiar advantage, that if it does not operate by vomit, it 
readily passes off by the other emunctories. 
It was first introduced to us with the character of an almest’in- 
fallible remedy, in dysenteries and other inyeterate fluxes, as 
‘diarrhoea, menorrhagia, and leucorrhoea, and also in disorders 
proceeding from obstructions of long standing: nor has it lost 
: | : » Edin. New Dispens. p. 211. 
* See the Dissertation Which obtained the prize medal of the Harveian Society of 
Edinburgh, for 178. 
* See Recueil des Methodes, p. 280. 
- 
