PAREIRA BRAVA. 



385 



Brava, Balsam Capevce and y e true Brasile and Brasiletto woods, 

 all which will be very acceptable discoveries. . . . " T 



The first author to give an account in print of Pareira Brava 

 seems to be Pomet, whose Histoire des Drogues was completed in 

 1692. 2 He describes the drug as then recently seen in Paris, 

 and he figures the specimen given him by Tournefort. 



Geoffroy, in his excellent Tractatus de Materia Medica? a 

 work he did not live to complete, calls the drug by its Brazilian 

 name of Butua, or Pareira Brava of the Portuguese, and de- 

 scribes it as a root, woody, hard, contorted, externally of dark 

 colour, rough, with many wrinkles, some long, some running 

 round it transversely, like that of Thymeloea (Daphne gnidium, 

 L.), internally of a dull, yellowish hue, knit together, as it were, 

 with many woody fibres, so that when cut transversely it ex- 

 hibits several concentric circles, intersected by numerous rays 

 of fibres passing from the centre to the circumference ; inodor- 

 ous, somewhat bitter, with a certain degree of sweetness like 

 liquorice, as thick as the finger, or sometimes as a child's arm. 

 He adds that the Brazilians and Portuguese most highly extol 

 its virtues as a diuretic, lithoritriptic, vulnerary, stomachic, 

 cordial, and alexipharmic, 4 and in fact, regard it as a complete 

 panacea. 



The question now arises, Can the drug which was introduced 

 with so much of laudation be clearly identified ? 



As already stated, Pomet has figured it, and his engraving 

 is excellent. But Sloane has left us better materials. In his 



1873. 



Fomet. 



Geoffroy. 



Question of 

 Identification. 



1 Sloane MS., 3340, p. 306. 



2 As proved by the letters of approbation which preceded it. But it was 

 not published until 1694. 



3 Tom. ii. (1741) 21. 



4 Hill judiciously remarks that this is going too far in its praise, and yet 

 omitting some of its real virtues. " It is certainly a diuretic," says he, " of 

 no inferior kind, and has done great service in nephritic cases ; and in pleuri- 

 sies and in quinsies has been attended with more success than almost any 

 medicine we know of singly. In suppressions of urine scarce anything is 

 more efficacious or more instantaneous in its effect, but it is folly to infer 



from this that it will dissolve the stone In cases of ulceration of the 



kidneys or bladder, when the urine is purulent and voided with great 

 difficulty, there is scarce anything equal to this root as a remedy." Hist, of 

 Mat. Med. 1751, p. 600. 



C C 



