X. A Botanical and Medical Account of the 

 SlXJASSIA SIMARUBA, or Tree which produces 

 the Cortex Simaruba. By WILLIAM WRIGHT, M. D. 

 F. R. S. LoND. & Edin. and Phyfician-general in Ja- 

 maica *. 



An Hiftorical Account of the Simaruba Bark. 



TH E firft knowledge we had of the cortex fimaruba was 

 in the year 17 13. Some of it was fent to France to 

 M. LE CoMPTE 0E Porchartrain, the Secretary of State, 

 as the bark of a tree, called by the natives Simarouba, which 

 they employed with good fuccefs in dyfentery. 



In 1741, M. Geoffroy, in fpeaking of this bark, fays, 

 " Eft cortex radicis arboris ignotae, in Guiana nafcentis, et ab 

 " incoUs fimarouba nuncupatae : coloris eft ex albo flavefcentis, 

 " nullo odore praeditus, faporis fubamari, lentifcentibus fibris 

 " conftans, candido, leviflimo, infipidoque, radicum, ftipitum, 

 " tnincique ligno haerens, a quo facile feparatur." 



In 1753 and 1760, Linn^us makes the fimaruba to be a 

 fpecies of piftacia, or the terebinthinus major, betuls cortice, 

 frudtu triangulari of Sloan. Jam. 289. t. 99. 



In 1756, Dr Patrick Browne publifhed his Civil and 

 Natural Hiftory of Jamaica. At page 345. he defcribes the 

 terebinthinus, or birch and turpentine tree. The bark of 



Vol. II. k the 



* This paper was read before the Philofophical Society of Edinburgh, Auguft 6. 

 1778. It is now printed by order of the Committee for publication of the Tranfaflions 

 of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 



