420 THE UNIVERSE. 



In many trees, instead of the bark being saturated with 

 medicinal juices, it secretes aromatics which are highly 

 prized. This is the case with the cinnamon-trees, which 

 are an element of prosperity for places where, like Ceylon, 

 they are cultivated to a certain extent. 



Along with these we must not omit to name a tree which 

 selects the fruit instead of the bark as a store-house for its 

 aroma ; it is the nutmeg-tree. It grows beneath the sun of 

 India, and its nuts, an important article of commerce, are 

 frequently used in the preparation of our food. 



Pepper, made known to us by a daring innovator of the 

 name of Le Poivre, governor of the Isle of France, pre- 



has traced the history of the discovery of the most powerful medicine we pos- 

 sess : 



44 In 1638, Count Chinchon being vice-regent of Peru for the crown of Spain, 

 his august spouse was attacked with a severe fever. The corregidor of Loxa, 

 filled with gallantry for the wife of his immediate superior, sent him word that 

 the Indians of the neighborhood knew of a bark which cured their fevers, and 

 might possibly have the same effect upon a person of so exalted a condition, and 

 begged of him, should his resources fail, at all events to try this medicine of the 

 savages. The vice-queen getting worse and worse, the corregidor was called to 

 Lima in order himself to regulate the dose and mode of preparation of his med- 

 icine. But it may be easily imagined that no one was imprudent enough to ad- 

 minister so extraordinary a powder to the noble patient without some precau- 

 tions; they therefore decided to try it on some of the common people in anima 

 vilij and it was only after they had cured with the corregidor's bark some poor 

 Spanish beggars, shattered with fever, that the vice-queen took it and was cured. 



" The inhabitants of the town of Lima, being astonished at this, sent a deputa- 

 tion to the convalescent, beggihg her to send to Loxa for a stock of the bark, a 

 request which was compiled with. The countess herself distributed the remedy to 

 all who required it, and from this time it began to be known by the name of the 

 countess's powder. Some months afterwards she gave up the task, handing over 

 what remained to the Jesuit fathers, who, to their praise be it said, continued to 

 give it gratuitously, and hence it acquired the name of Jesuits' powder, which it 

 long bore both in America and Europe." 



