32 



ble each other, that it is easy to confound them 

 at first sight. But before we examine the ques- 

 tion, whether we shall one day discover, in the 

 real cinchona, in the cuspa of Cumana, the 

 cortex angusturae, the Indian swietenia, the wil- 

 lows of Europe, the fruits of the coffee tree and 

 uvaria, a matter uniformly diffused, and exhibit- 

 ing, (like starch, caoutchouc, and camphor) 

 the same chemical properties in different plants, 

 we may ask in general, whether, in the present 

 state of physiology and medicine, a febrifuge 

 principle ought to be admitted. Is it not pro- 

 bable, rather, that this particular derangement 

 in the organization, which is known under the 

 vague name of the febrile state, and in which 

 both the vascular and the nervous systems are 



1809. Renard ueber inland. Surrogate der Chinarinde, 

 Mainz, 1809, Decandolle, sur les Propriety medioales des 

 Plantes, 1816, p. 73, 129, 138, 142, 165, 171, 179. Ro- 

 gers, on the Properties of the Liriodendron tulipifera, 

 Philad. 1802.) It is the bark of the roots, that is used in 

 the tulip tree, as in the quassia. Eminent febrifuge virtues 

 have equally been found at Loxa, in the cortical part of the 

 roots of the cinchona condaminea j but it is happy for the 

 preservation of the species, that the roots of the real cin- 

 chona are not employed in pharmacy. Chemical researches 

 are yet wanting upon the very powerful bitters contained 

 in the roots of the zanthoriza apiifolia, and the actaea 

 racemosa : the latter have sometimes been employed 

 with success against the epidemical yellow fever in New 

 York. 



