QUASSIA. 



523 



esteemed medicines wliich the discovery of Ame- 

 rica has bestowed on the human race. It was of 

 course entirely unknown to the ancients, and 

 was first used with success and extensively in 

 Britain, by Sydenham, Martin, and Lister. 



Quassia (quassia amara). Decandria, Mon- 

 ogynia, of Linnseus. This tree attains a medium 



height, sends off many strong branches, and is 

 not unlike the common ash in its general appear- 

 ance, inhabiting the same countries. Its nanie, 

 as will be more particularly mentioned hereafter, 

 has immediate reference to the medicinal value 

 of the strong bitter which pervades all parts 

 of the tree, but more especially the bark. The 

 wood is light, and of a white colour. The bark 

 is thin and grayish. The leaves are placed alter- 

 nately upon the branches, and consist of two 

 pairs of opposite pinnae, with an odd one at 

 the end. All the leaflets are of an elliptical shape, 

 entire, veined, smooth, pointed, sessile, on the 

 upper side of a deep green colour, on the under 

 paler. The common foot-stalk is articulated, 

 and winged, or edged on each side with a leafy 

 membrane, which gradually expands towards the 

 base of the pinnse. The flowers are all herma- 

 phrodite, of a bright red colour, and terminate 

 the branches in long spikes. The bractese, or 

 floral leaves, are lance-shaped or linear, coloured, 

 and placed alternately upon the peduncles. The 

 calyx is small, persistent, and five toothed ; the 

 corolla consists of five lance-shaped equal petals, 

 at the base of which is placed the nectary or five 

 reddish coloured scales. There are ten filaments 

 with simple anthers. The germen is ovate, 

 divided into five parts, and supports a slender 

 style with a tapering stigma. The capsules are 

 five, two-celled, and contain globular seeds. This 

 tree is a native of South America, particularly 

 of Surinam, and also of some of the West India 

 islands. It was named quassia by Linnaeus, 

 from a negro called Quassi, who employed it 

 with great success in Surinam, as a secret remedy 

 in the malignant endemic fevers of that country. 

 In consequence of a valuable consideration, this 

 secret was disclosed to Daniel Rolander, a Swede, 

 who brought specimens of the quassia to Stock- 



holm in the year 1756, and since then the effects 

 of this drug have been very generally tried in 

 Europe ; and numerous testimonies of its effi- 

 cacy have now confirmed its value as a tonic and 

 febrifuge. 



The root, bark, wood, and even the leaves and 

 flowers, all possess the peculiar bitter- principle. 

 The wood of the trunk and roots is that part 

 now generally brought to this country. The 

 bark, however, is more intensely bitter than the 

 wood, and seems the most powerful as a medi- 

 cine. Quassia has no sensible odour, its taste is 

 that of a pure bitter, more intense and durable 

 than that of any other known substance. It 

 impai-ts this bitter to water more completely 

 than to alcohol, or any other liquid ; and the 

 infusion is not blackened by any of the salts of 

 iron. The medicinal virtues of quassia are those 

 of a tonic, stomachic, antiseptic, and febrifuge. 

 It has been found very effectual in restoring the 

 tone of the stomach, producing appetite for food, 

 assists digestion, expelling flatulency, and remov- 

 ing habitual costiveness produced from debility 

 of the intestines, and that inaction of them con- 

 sequent upon a sedentary life. 



Dr Lettsom says, " In debility succeeding 

 febrile diseases, the Peruvian bark is most gene- 

 rally more tonic and salutary than any other 

 vegetable bitter hitherto known ; but in hysteri- 

 cal attacks, to which the female sex is so prone, 

 the quassia affords more vigour and relief to the 

 system than the other. In debility arising from 

 intemperance, and in laxity of the bowels, it is 

 also very efficacious." But he adds, "With 

 respect to its superiority to the Peruvian bark, 

 as a tonic and febrifuge, I by no means subscribe 

 to the Linnaean opinion. It is indeed very well 

 known, that there are certain peculiarities of 

 the air, and of the human constitution, unfavour- 

 able to the exhibition of the Peruvian bark, even 

 in the most clear intermissions of fever, and 

 writers have repeatedly noticed it, but this is 

 comparatively rare. About midsummer, 1785, 

 I met with several instances of low remittent 

 and nervous fevers, wherein the bark uniformly 

 aggravated the symptoms, though given in inter- 

 mission, the most favourable to its success, and 

 wherein quassia, or snake root, was successfully 

 substituted. In such cases I mostly observed, 

 that there was great congestion of the liver, and 

 the debility at the same time discouraged copious 

 evacuations. And in many fevers, without 

 evident remissions to warrant the use of the 

 bark, whilst at the same time increasing debility 

 began to threaten life, these two medicines, 

 quassia and snake root combined, upheld the 

 vital powers, and promoted a critical intermission 

 of the fever, by which an opportunity was 

 aff^orded to eff^ect a cure by means of the Peru- 

 vian bark. 



The usual way in which quassia is prepared 



