6 
SPURIOUS  winter's  bark. 
trials  of  this  bark,  and  the  administration  of  it  at  his  hands  has 
been  very  satisfactory.  (See  article.) 
This  bark  was  examined  by  Mercadieu  in  1825,  who  found  it 
contain  no  crystallizable  alkaloid.  Brandes,  in  the  year  follow- 
ing, who  failed  also  to  detect  any  crystallizable  alkaloid,  but  re- 
cognized the  bitter  principle  on  which  its  active  properties  de- 
pend, a  resin,  concrete  fatty  oil,  &c. 
Mr.  Howard  made  some  trials  to  prepare  the  bitter  principle 
in  a  pure  state.  The  bark  was  exhausted  by  alcohol,  the  tinc- 
ture evaporated  to  dryness,  and  the  bitter  principle  removed 
from  this  extract  by  cold  water,  and  upon  the  evaporation  of  the 
water  the  bitter  principle  was  obtained  in  dark  brown,  almost 
black,  lustrous  but  non-crystalline  scales  of  an  intensely  bitter 
taste. 
I  shall  now  attempt  to  sum  up  what  information  I  have  gleaned 
that  has  any  bearing  upon  the  bark  in  question  ;  and  the  query 
might  be  made,  what  has  the  Malambo  bark  described  by  Ure 
and  Hamilton,  and  the  Copalchi  by  Stark  to  do  with  it  ?  My 
object  is  by  the  similarity  of  the  medicinal  value,  their  origin 
and  proximate  constituents  to  prove  the  identity  of  the  Malambo 
with  the  Copalchi  bark  described  by  Stark  and  Pereira  in  his 
work  upon  Materia  Medica,  as  Corky  Copalchi,  the  product  of 
Croton  suberosum. 
And,  having  done  this,  to  show  that  the  bark  I  have  mentioned 
in  the  beginning  is  identical  with  the  Malambo,  consequently 
the  Copalchi. 
Now  let  us  examine  first,  the  statements  concerning  the  medici- 
nal value  and  uses  of  the  Malambo  and  Copalchi  barks,  as  men- 
tioned by  Drs.  Ure,  Hamilton  and  Stark ;  they  are  so  similar 
that  I  think  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  their  identity. 
In  Dr.  Ure's  paper,  it  is  stated  that  the  Malambo  has  been 
successfully  used  in  intermittent  fevers,  in  convalescence  from 
continued  fevers,  and  in  a  variety  of  chronic  ailments  where 
tonics  and  stimulants  were  indicated,  and  that  in  New  Grenada 
it  was  held  in  high  esteem  by  the  natives  as  a  febrifuge  and 
stomachic. 
Dr.  Hamilton,  in  his  paper  upon  the  same,  fully  endorses  the 
statement  of  Ure,  and  quotes  from  Spanish  authority  to  the 
same  effect,  &c. 
