CASCAR1LLA. 155 



is referred to the same synonyma of Sloane and Browne ; yet it is 

 remarkable, that neither of these authors notices the medicinal use? 

 of its bark, although so long known as a medicine in great estima. 

 tion in every part of Europe. 



According to Lewis, the Cascarilla bark is imported into Eu* 

 rope " from the Bahama islands, particularly from that which is 

 called Elatheria, in curled pieces, or rolled up into short quills 

 about an inch in width ; covered on the outside with a rough whitish 

 matter, and brownish on the inner side, exhibiting, when broken, a 

 smooth close blackish brown surface. This bark, freed from the outer 

 whitish coat, which is insipid and inodorous, has a liyht agreeable 

 smell, and a moderately bitter taste, accompanied with a consider- 

 able aromatic warmth ; it is very inflammable, and yields, whilst 

 burning, a remarkably fragrant smell, somewhat resembling that 

 of musk. Its virtues are partially extracted by water, and totally 

 by rectified spirit. Distilled with water it yields a greenish essential 

 oil, of a very pungent taste, and of a fragrant penetrating smell, 

 more grateful than that of the Cascarilla itself, and obtained in the 

 proportion of one dram from sixteen ounces of the bark. The 

 agreeable odour which this bark produces during its burning, indu- 

 ced many to smoke it mixed with tobacco, before it became known 

 as a medicine in Europe, which was not till towards the latter end 

 of the last century ; when it was recommended by Professor Stisser, 

 who found it to be a powerful diuretic and carminative, and who 

 used it with success in calculous, asthmatic, phthsical, scorbutic, 

 and arthritic complaints. After this it was sold at Brunswick as a 

 species of the Peruvian bark, and many physicians in Germany 

 experienced its good effects in fevers of the intermittent, remittent, 

 and putrid kind. But while the facts establishing this febrifuge 

 power of the Cascarilla are supported by authors of great respecta. 

 bility, they are yet so little regarded, that this medicine is now 

 very rarely prescribed in fevers, either in this country, or on the 

 neighbouring continent. In intermittents, however, there can be 

 no doubt but this bark, or indeed any other medicine possessing 

 tonic and aromatic qualities, may frequently effect a cure. The 

 German physicians have also given much credit to the Cascarilla 

 as an astringent, and recommended it in haemorrhages, and vari- 

 ous alvine fluxes, in which several instances of its utility are re- 

 corded. 



