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BOTANICAL AND MEDICAL ACCOUNT 



OF THE 



QUASSIA SIMARUBA, 



OR TREE WHICH PRODUCES THE CORTEX SIMARUBA. 



[This paper was originally read before the Philosophical Society of 

 Edinburgh, August 6. 1778. It was afterwards printed in the 

 second volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh, Part II. page 73.] 



An Historical Account of the Simaruba Bark. 



Xhe first knowledge we had of the Cortex simaruba, was in 

 the year 1713. Some of it was sent to France to M. i.e 

 Compte de Porchartrafn, the Secretary of State, as the 

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

 employed with good success in dysentery. 



In 1741, M. Geoffroy, in speaking of this bark, says, 

 " Est cortex radicis arboris ignotae in Guiana nascentis, et ab 

 incolis Simaruba nuncupatae: colons est ex albo-flavescentis, 

 nullo odore preditus, saporis subamari, lentiscentibus fibris 

 constans, candido, levissimo, insipidoque, radicum, stipitum, 

 truncique ligno haerens, a quo facile separatur.'" 



In 1753 and 1760, Linn.eus makes the simaruba to be a 

 species of pistacia, or the Terebinthinus major, betulse cortice y 

 fructu triangulari, of Sloan. Jam. 289- t. 99. 



