Febrifuge Bark of El Malambo. Tl 
Humboldt describes his Cuspa, which, he says, must by no 
means be confounded with the Cuspare (Cusparia febrifuga) of 
Angostura, as a tree of not more than fifteen or twenty feet in 
height, with alternate, oval, entire leaves destitute of stipules, 
and differing in this respect from all the trees of the family 
of Rubiaceae, to which the Cinchonas and Exostemas belong, 
and yielding a very thin pale-yellow bark, possessing more 
bitterness, but at the same time less disagreeable, and agree- 
ing better with the stomach than that of the true cinchona, 
and possessing great febrifuge powers. This description by 
no means corresponds with the Malambo bark, which is 
rather thick, of a cinereous colour, agreeable to the smell, 
and of a bitterness not only less, but totally different in taste 
than the bark of any of the cinchonas. It also appears, from 
the account of Don Ignacio de Pombo, to be a powerful and 
valuable antispasmodic; and the fact of its having, from the 
first period of its introduction into Cuba, completely checked 
the mortality previously so frequent among the blacks, from 
the attacks of a spasmodic disorder to which they were sub- 
ject, ‘desde que tien este specifico casi na muere ninguna 
de el,” is an important recommendation, which merits further 
investigation. 
Possibly it might even be found of service in arresting the 
progress of vaachetsa, some of whose most distressing 
symptoms are evidently of a spasmodic character. Spasm, 
the term applied by the prior to the complaint so prevalent, 
and formerly so fatal, among the negroes of Cuba, is so 
vague a denomination as to leave us in a state of uncertainty 
as to the true character of the complaint; but tetanus, to 
which negroes are often subject, is probably the disorder to 
which he refers, and is one which bears considerable analogy 
to hydrophobia; and itis this circumstance which suggested 
to me the possibility of this bark being useful, if only as a 
palliative, in this latter and still more melancholy affliction. 
_ Leannot sufficiently regret that my information does not 
enable me to furnish anything in the shape of positive infor- 
mation, beyond the statements furnished by the prior and the 
na apothecary, whose exaggerated description is 
only calculated to provoke a smile. Should circumstances 
ever permit of my visiting the regions which produce it, I 
hope to be able to lay before the Society more precise intel- 
ligence respecting it, accompanied by a botanical description 
and specimens, 
Posrscuirr. I have no distinct recollection of having 
ever communicated to your lordship a striking instance of the 
