MATERIA MEDICA. 3 or 
farmers of the cuftoms. Of thefe the Europeans 
buy yearly as much as they want. But it is not 
every European that can buy, nor can any nation 
purchafe what quantity it thinks proper. They 
are obliged to make three lots, one for Marseilles , 
another for Leghorn , and a third for Venice , and 
each lot is to be purchafed by one merchant. Senna 
therefore is a commodity which, next to Nutmeg 
and Cinnamon, of which the Dutch are the foie 
pofleflors, is more monopolized than any other. 
The Egyptians may alfo fet what value they pleafe 
On this drug, as it is wanted in all parts of the 
World, and grows no where fo good as here. They 
fend to Marfeilles yearly 600 Boats, each con- 
taining 10 Quintals, each Quintal at 20 Sequins, 
ttiore or iefs ; a Sequin conliifs of x too Medins. 
Myrobalani Officinales. 
The writers on Materia Medica know very lit- 
tle of the Myrobalans, which are but little tiled at 
prefenr, and lhould not obtain a place in the ffiops. 
but they are Hill in ufe with the Egyptians and 
Arabians, who drink the decoction of all the My- 
robalans as a purge, efpecially in Upper Egypt. 
This medicine operates as a corroborant as well as 
a cathartic, and might therefore anfvver very well 
as a fuccedaneum for rhubarb, when this laft can- 
not be had ; but it is of no value as long as we 
have rhubarb. The Arabian Phyficians firffc 
Produced the Myrobalans, which at prefent are 
°nly ufed by them and their countrymen. Bota- 
tyfts know Bill lefs of this fruit, which grows in 
‘idia near Malabar, and on the confines of Ben- 
E a l whence it is brought with other fimples to 
Mecca, and over the Red Sea to Cairo. A tree 
of 
