358 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1729. 



generally used when it can be had. It is said by authors to grow in Peru, from 

 whence it comes by the way of Spain, it being brought from Peru to Porto- 

 Bello, and from thence into Europe, by the Spanish galleons. Some parcels 

 are likewise probably sent from Porto-Bello to Jamaica ; as it comes sometimes 

 from that island. This species grows also plentifully in Martinico, where for 

 many years past it has been used by the inhabitants. 



The white sort is said by Piso to grow in Brasil ; and if we may believe Father 

 Labat, it is likewise found in Martinico, 



These are the 4 kinds of true ipecacuanha which have hitherto come to Dr. 

 D.'s knowledge ; but he has met with two other roots to which that name has 

 been falsely ascribed, which from their outward colour he calls white and red- 

 dish brown. 



The white sort agrees pretty much both in colour and surface with the true 

 white, but it is not near so knotty. It is likewise considerably larger in size, 

 straighter and softer to the touch. 



The brown sort is of a deeper colour than the true brown, and many pieces 

 have some mixture of red (from whence it has been sometimes called red ipeca- 

 cuanha) and the inner substance of the cortex inclines to a reddish yellow. The 

 pieces are much longer than any of the former sorts, some of them measuring 

 16 inches, and they are of a size between the black and grey. The fissures are 

 at greater distances from each other than in the true brown, and the spaces be- 

 tween them much smoother. 



Both these false kinds were brought from Maryland in 1725, by one M. 

 Seymour a surgeon, who said they grow there in great plenty, being called 

 ipecacuanha by the inhabitants, and used as a vomit by those of inferior 

 rank. 



Sir Hans Sloane informed the Doctor that this false brown kind was the same 

 that was formerly sent to him from Virginia for the true ipecacuanha, and which 

 he afterwards discovered to be the root of a poisonous apocynum described by 

 him in his Natural History of Jamaica ; in which island it is very common, and 

 likewise in New Spain, as appeared to him by the specimens sent him by his 

 correspondent Dr. Burnet. 



In his introduction to the 2d volume of that excellent history, he has 

 obliged us with a very full and distinct account of what he had learned from his 

 friends abroad, concerning the pernicious effects of the several parts of this 

 plant, and of the great pains he was at to prevent its being brought into use in 

 this country, which was then very much to be apprehended. Helvetius's name 

 will always be mentioned with honour for the great share he had in rendering the 

 use of the true ipecacuanha common in Europe ; and Dr. D. cannot think that 

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