224 ON CORTEX ADSTRINGENS BRASILIENSIS . 
ART. XL.— CORTEX ADSTRINGENS BRASILIENSIS. 
From the valuable work of Dr. Dunglison, entitled "New 
Remedies," we extract the following account of a bark which 
has the appellation at the head of this article. The name 
here adopted, however, can only be considered as temporary, 
as it is exceedingly indefinite, and little comports with the pre- 
cision of scientific description. The vegetable from which it is 
derived, being not yet. positively determined, the plan of as- 
suming a conventional designation for it, appears to us to 
have been justifiable, on the ground, that nothing with regard 
to its origin has been assumed, which, by proving in the course 
of discovery to be erroneous, would have to undergo correc- 
tion, and thus lead to subsequent perplexity. This has so 
often occurred with respect to the source of numerous articles 
of the vegetable materia medica, that precautionary measures 
cannot be too much insisted on. If in the course of time the 
true botanical history of the plant yielding the bark be pre- 
sented by authority of sufficient respectability, a correct name 
may be affixed to it, in accordance with settled principles of 
nomenclature. J. C. 
Cortex Mstringens Brasiliensis. 
" This bark was introduced into Germany, in the year 
1818, by Schimmelbusch, a merchant, who carried it from 
Brazil, where it had long been used internally as well as ex- 
ternally, as an excellent astringent.* According to Von 
Martius,t it is the bark of the acacia jurema, but this is not 
certainly determined.^: Merrem§ affirms, that the genuine 
bark is in more or less flat pieces, at times in half, or com- 
* Von Schlectendal, in Encyclop. Worterb. der medicin. Wisserischaft. 
B viii. S. 538. Berlin, 1832. 
f Reise, ii. 788. 
\ Riecke, Die neuern Arzneimittel, S. 146. 
§ Ueber den Cortex adstringens Brasiliensis. Koln, 1828. 
