170 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



are described, a white and a brown species, the latter 

 evidently being the true ipecacuanha plant. An illus- 

 tration is added, which Me*rat considers quite a credit- 

 able reproduction of the true ipecacuanha. The entire 

 chapter was reprinted, with French translation, by 

 Merat (422), and inserted in his "Dictionnaire," as a 

 testimony of the extreme exactness of the description 

 given by Piso (511). 



Ipecac root first came to Europe in 1672 through the 

 agency of Le Gras (422), who sought to introduce it 

 into medical practice. Keeping a stock supply in the 

 care of an apothecary by the name of Claquenelle in 

 Paris, he associated himself with J. A. Helvetius (309), 

 a physician of German descent, who had graduated 

 under the medical Faculty at Rheims. However, the 

 venture was at first a failure, owing to the employment 

 of too large doses. 



In 1680 a merchant by the name of Gamier in Paris, 

 well acquainted with the medicinal virtues of the root, 

 sent for a supply, obtaining 150 pounds from Spain. 

 Through this gentleman, directly or indirectly, Hel- 

 vetius (309) secured a new lot of the drug, which he 

 skillfully managed to exploit by extensively advertising 

 it as "radix anti-dysenterica," the origin of which, how- 

 ever, he kept a secret. Finally the fame of the remedy 

 came to the notice of Minister Colbert, who ordered 

 that it be given an official trial in the Paris municipal 

 hospital. 



In 1688 Helvetius (309) obtained the sole license for 

 the sale of the drug, which proved to be an efficient, or 

 at least popular, remedy among the members of an 

 aristocratic patronage, including no less a personage 

 than the dauphin. Through the combined influences 



