PHARMACOLOGICAL HISTORY OF QUASSIA. 35 
ART. VI. — SOME FACTS CONTRIBUTING TO THE PHAR- 
MACOLOGICAL HISTORY OF QUASSIA. By M. Planche. 
If, in the study of bodies, either natural or manufactured, 
which are employed to produce some salutary change in the 
economy, a greater degree of interest should attach to their 
active principle, there is no reason that facts of a secondary 
nature should be neglected, as these possess utility in the 
pharmaceutic history of such bodies; among the number of 
which quassia may be ranked. 
The want of agreement which exists between different 
naturalists and pharmacologists, upon the botanical species, 
to which the quassia of the shops is to be attributed, entails 
a like uncertainty as regards that which has been experimented 
upon by chemists. Until some well informed and disinterested 
observer has studied, upon the very localities, the two 
species in question, the Quassia amara and Quassia excelsa, 
until the difference that exists between the wood of both has 
been established, we must remain in the uncertainty of pro- 
babilities. Happily, the decision of the question is of little 
importance to therapeutics, as the medical properties of both 
are the same. 
Taking things, then, as they exist, and only having in 
view, to point out some facts relating to the quassia of com- 
merce, and some of its preparations, we ought, in the first 
place, to state, that the article met with, at the present time, 
resembles, as to color, texture, and taste, that which existed 
forty years ago. We allow at the same time, because we have 
observed it, that in this interval the billets of quassia brought 
into the market have varied in size, and even in color, but 
have always preserved the same bitterness peculiar to the 
substance, as well as all the chemical properties ascribed to it 
by Thompson. Thus, we have seen, in 1S17, logs of quassia 
which were not less than three feet in length and eight or nine 
inches in diameter, presenting interiorly veins of yellow and 
gray, with patches of some extent of a pale yellow color, 
