662 EUPHORBIACEyE. 



drug occurs along with true Cinchona bark, China de China, in the 

 tariff of the year 1G91 of the pharmaceutical shops of the German 

 town Minden, in Westphalia. There can be no doubt that the cheaper 

 kind of " China," called China nova, was really the bark under exami- 

 nation, for in many other tariffs a few years later distinct mention is 

 made of Cortex Chinee novae seu Schacorillce; and Savary, in his 

 " Dictionnaire de Commerce" (1723,1750), confirms the fact, adding 

 that it was first seen in the great fair of Brunswick.^ Another early 

 statement concerning Cascarilla bark likewise refers to the duchy of 

 Brunswick. Stisser, a professor of anatomy, chemistry, and medicine 

 in the University of Helmstedt in Brunswick, relates that he received 

 the drug under the name of Cortex Eleuterii from a person who had 

 returned from England, in which country, he was assured, it was 

 customary to mix it with tobacco for the sake of correcting the smell 

 of the latter when smoked. He also mentions that it had been 

 confounded with Peruvian bark, from which however it was very 

 distinct in odour, etc.^ Eleutheria bark was then frequently prescribed 

 as a febrifuge in the place of Cinchona bark, then a more expensive 

 medicine. Hence the name cascarilla, signifying in Spanish little 

 ba.rk, which was the customary designation of Peruvian bark, was 

 erroneously applied to the Bahama bark, until at last it quite super- 

 seded the original and more correct appellation. That of China nova 

 was subsequently applied to a quite different bark (see page 364). 

 The drug under notice was first introduced into the London Pharma- 

 copoeia in 1746 as Eleutherice Cortex, which was its common name 

 among druggists down to the end of the last centur}'-. In the Bahamas 

 the name cascarilla is still hardly known, the bark being there called 

 either Sweet Wood Bark or Eleidhera Bark. 



The plant affording cascarilla has been the subject of much dis- 

 cussion, arising chiefly from the circumstance that several nearly allied 

 West Indian species of Croton yield aromatic barks resembling more 

 or less the officinal drug. Catesby in 1754 figured a Bahama plant, 

 Croton Cascarilla Bennett, from which the original Eleuthera Bark 

 was probably derived, though it certainly affords none of the cascarilla 

 of modern commerce. Woodville in 1794, and Lindley in 1838, both 

 investigated the botany of the subject, the latter having the advantage 

 of authentic specimens communicated by the Hon. J. C. Lees of New 

 Providence, to whom one of us also is indebted for a similar favour. 

 The question was not however finally set at rest until 1859, when J. J. 

 Bennett by the aid of specimens collected in the Bahamas by Daniell 

 in 1857-8, drew up lucid diagnoses of the several plants which had 

 been confounded, and disentangled their intricate synonymy.' 



Description — Cascarilla occurs in the form of tubular or channelled 



iFluckiger, Pharm. Joum., vi. (1876) Nor have we seen the paper of Vincent 



1022, and "Documente" quoted there, pp. Garcia Salat, "Unica quaestiuncula, in qua 



74-77, etc. examinatur pulvis de Burango, vulgo QfH- 



^ Stisser (J. A.) Adortim Laboratorii carilla, in curatione tei-tiana?," Valentiaj. 



Chemici specimen secundum, Helmestadi, 1692. It is quoted by Haller, Bibl. Bol. 



1693. c. ix. Stisser is said to have men- ii. (1772) 688, and several later authors, 



tioned Cascarilla bark in his pamphlet but appears to be extremely rare. 

 " De machinis fumiductoriis," Hamburg, * Journal of Proceedings of Linn. Soc. iv. 



1686, but we found this to be incorrect. (1860) Bot. 29. 



I 



