QUERCUS 261 



remedy, which Fermin states had been used in Surinam 

 as early as 1714. It may also be noted that, according 

 to Murray, a spice dealer of Amsterdam, Albert Seba, 

 is said to have had in his collection a specimen of a bark 

 of a tree named quasci as early as 1730. Be this as it 

 may, the drug known as quassia under the empirical 

 introduction given by the native of Dutch Guiana be- 

 came known to European civilization, and in 1788 

 became official in the London Pharmacopeia. Con- 

 cerning the origin of the drug, the German Pharma- 

 copeia, 1872, demanded that the wood employed be 

 that of Quassia amara. In the second edition, 1882, 

 that of Picrcena excelsa was concurrently admitted. 

 Either species furnishes the official quassia of the pres- 

 ent Pharmacopeia of the United States. 



QUERCUS (White Oak) 



Official, from 1820, until the 1910 edition, from which it is 

 dropped. 



The bark of the oak, Quercus alba, is strongly astrin- 

 gent, and has ever been used in domestic medicine 

 where an astringent material is applicable, as for ex- 

 ample, in dysentery, hemorrhages, etc. In the form of 

 a poultice, a decoction and as a tincture, it has a domes- 

 tic record, probably common to other species of oak, 

 in all countries. The medical profession has added 

 little, if anything, to the domestic uses of quercus, as 

 recorded by Rafinesque (535), Porcher (520), Cutler 

 (178), and the early American dispensatories and works 

 on materia medica. From the first edition of Professor 

 King's American Dispensatory, 1852, we extract as 

 follows : 



"Externally, a decoction of quercus forms an excellent 



