150 MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



pact, and of a darker colour : it is very brittle and resinous. The 

 innermost layer is more woody and fibrous, and of a brighter red. 

 In powdering this bark, the middle layer which seems to contain 

 the greatest proportion of resinous matter, dues not break so readily 

 as the rest ; a circumstance to be attended to, lest the most active 

 part should be left out of the fine powder. This red bark to the 

 taste discovers all the peculiar flavour of the Peruvian Bark, but 

 much stronger than the con mon officinal sort. An infusion in cold 

 water is intensely bitter, more so than the strongest decoction of 

 common bark. Its astringency is in an equal degree greater than 

 that of the infusion of common bark, as is shewn by the addition of 

 martial vitriol. The spirituous tincture of the red bark is also pro- 

 portionally stronger than that of the pale. The quantity of matter 

 extracted by rectified spirit from the powder of the former, was to 

 that from the latter as three to two in one experiment, and as 229 

 to 130 in another ; and yet on infusing the two residuums of the 

 first experiment in boiling water, that of the red bark gave a liquor 

 considerably bitter, and which struck a black with martial vitriol ; 

 while that yielded by the other, was nearly tasteless and void of 

 astringency. 



Respecting the medicinal properties we have several respectable 

 authorities, shewing, that as the red bark possesses the same virtues 

 with the common, in a much higher degree, so it has been found 

 of more efficacy in the cure of iutermittents : and hence it is thought 

 to be that which, according to Arrot, the Spaniards called Cascarilla 

 colorada, and was probably the kind originally brought to Europe, 

 and which proved so successful in the hands of Sydenham, Morton 

 and Lister ; for it appears from the testimony of the oldest practi- 

 tioners, that the bark first employed here was of a much deeper 

 colour than the common bark. The Cinchona caribaea is described 

 and figured by Jacquin and Dr. Wright ; it grows in Jamaica, 

 where it is called the Sea Side Beech. According to Dr. Wright, 

 the bark of this tree is not less efficacious than that of the Cinchona 

 of Peru, for which it will prove an useful substitute ; but by the 

 experiments of Dr. Skeete it appears to have less astringent power. 

 The Cinchona floribunda, or bark tree of St. Lucie, a figure of 

 which we find in Phil. Trans, also in Rozier's Observations sur la 

 Physique, affords a bark which is likewise said to have been used 

 with advantage; but notwithstanding all that has been written to 



