450 
On  Pareira  Br  am. 
\  Am.  Jour.  Peakm.. 
\     Oct.  1, 1873. 
long  ago  as  1710  ;*  and  it  is  only  since  the  drug  has  been  supposed* 
to  be  derived  from  Cissampelos  that  authors  have  identified  it  with> 
Piso's  Caapeba, 
Pareira  Brava  was  certainly  first  brought  to  Europe  by  the  Portu- 
guese. It  first  attracted  general  attention  in  1688,  when  Michel* 
Amelot,  Marquis  de  Gournay,  a  privy  councillor  of  Louis  XIV,  and 
a  very  distinguished  political  personage,  brought  it  with  him  froro^ 
Lisbon,  whither  he  had  been  sent  as  ambassabor  by  the  French  king. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  drug  was  considered  to  possess  extra- 
ordinary properties.  Rouille,  the  successor  of  Amelot  in  the  Lisbon^ 
embassy,  also  took  home  with  him  to  Paris  some  Pareira  Brava ;  and 
in  1710  we  find  it  claiming  the  notice  of  the  French  Academy,  f  who- 
requested  Etienne-Frangois  vGeoffroy,  Professor  of  Medicine  and 
Pharmacy  in  the  College  of  France,  to  investigate  its  virtues.  Jean- 
Claude- Adrien  Helvetius,  a  physician  of  great  merit,  who  though  a: 
young  man  was  consulted  hy'l  Louis  XIV  in  his  last  days,  and  was 
afterwards  attached  to*the  court  of  Louis  XV,  tried  the  new  drug- 
still  earlier.J  and  gave  strong  testimony  in  its  favor. 
Both  Geoffroy  and  Helvetius  were  correspondents  of  Sir  Hans 
Sloane,  that  diligent  promoter  of  science  whose  immense  collections 
gave  origin  to  the  British  Museum, — and  among  the  Slonian  MSS.  I 
have  found  a  letter  of  Helvetius§  addressed  in  1715  to  Monsieur  Duy- 
venvoorde,  ambassador  from  the  States  General  to  George  L,  a  por- 
tion of  which  I  will  here^quote : — 
"I  am  extreamly*pleased^sr  that  you  have  apply 'd  yorself  to  me 
for  my  advice  about  the  use  of  the  Pareira  Brava  which  has  been  re- 
comended  to  you,  because  I  can  give  you  a  very  good  account  of  it 
haveing  been  one  of  the  first  that;  introduced  it  in  France.  I  have- 
made  abundance  of  lucky  experiments  about  it  which  have  made  this- 
medicine  very  well  known  to"  me,  wherefore  I  assure  you,  you  can  do- 
nothing  better  than  to  make  tryall  of  it.  .  .  The  Pareira  Brava, 
is  a  root  which  comes  to  us  from  Brazil  by  the  way  of  Lisbon,  but 
which  the  war  has  rendered  pretty  scarce ;  however  it  is  to  be  found 
*  Hist,  de  VAcad.  Royale  des  Sciences,  annee  1710,  56. 
t  Id. 
X  Helvetius,  Traitc  des  Maladies  les  plus  frcquentes  et  des  remedes  specifiquc^- 
'pour  les  guerir,  Paris,  1703,  98. 
§  Sloane  MS.,  No.  3340,  p.  291. — The  letter^  has  already  been  published  in,- 
Phil.  TVans.,  No.  346,  Nov.  and  Dec,  1715,  p.  365. 
