36 FOTHERGILL AS A PHYSICIAN CHAP. 



plant for cultivation to the West Indian Islands, where he 

 thought it would flourish ; this seems to have been done, 

 for these islands are now the chief source of the drug. 1 



Winter's Bark is the product of a, beautiful evergreen tree, 

 Drimys Winteri Forst., of the Magnolia order, which grows 

 on the shores of the Straits of Magellan. It was first obtained 

 by Winter, one of Drake's captains, in 1578, and was used by 

 him as a remedy for scurvy. But it was a rare drug : Canella 

 and other barks were generally substituted for it. Fpthergill 

 obtained some of the genuine bark in 1768, with a branch of 

 a tree. Ehret drew it for him ; Solander described it, and 

 Dr. M. Morris analysed its properties those of an astringent 

 tonic with an aromatic bitter taste. It is said to be still 

 much used in Brazil in cases of diarrhoea and debility. Fother- 

 gill tried to introduce the tree into England, and offered 

 100 to the captain who should bring a living plant. It now 

 flourishes in some parts of Ireland. 2 



Fothergill took some pains to obtain Sassafras, the product 

 of a handsome North American tree, a species of laurel with 

 curious variable leaves, and used it as a warm aromatic 

 diaphoretic. It is an ingredient of the compound decoction 

 of sarsaparilla. He also exerted himself to ensure the proper 

 drying and preparation of Turkey rhubarb, which had been 

 naturalised in England by Dr. John Hope of Edinburgh, 

 with whom he had corresponded for many years. 3 That 

 violent purgative Elaterium, now almost disused, was extracted 

 by a secret process from the squirting cucumber. Fothergill 

 took much pains to search this out, and at length by patient 

 experiment discovered the method of preparing the drug. 



In the growing science of chemistry, too, he took a 

 keen interest, and was able to make a more intelligent 

 use of mineral salts and acids in his practice than had 

 been usual. 4 He sought to apply chemical principles to 



1 An Account of the Tree producing the Terra Japonica, with a good drawing 

 and botanical description. Med. Obs. & Inq. v. 148; Works, ii. 191, iii. 

 p. xlvii ; Fluckiger and Hanbury, p. 240. The drug was classed among Terra 

 Medicamentoscz in the Lend. Pharm. of 1721. See also Letter from A. Keir, 

 Bengal, 1753, in MSS. Alston. 



8 Some Account of the Cortex Winteranus, etc., read 1773 ; Med. Obs. 

 & Inq. v. 41 ; Works, ii. 163, iii. p. xlvii note ; Fluck. & Hanb. p. 17. Sir 

 F. W. Moore, Keeper of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, kindly informs 

 me that there are plants in these gardens, some of them out of doors, and that 

 the Winter's Bark flowers freely each year in Wicklow as a hardy tree, 30 feet 

 in height. 



3 Works, iii. pp. 1, Ixi ; Mem. Lettsom, iii. 260. 



4 One of his earliest papers, contributed to the Edinburgh Medical Essays 

 and Observations in 1736, discusses the methods of obtaining saline substances 



