452 
On  Pareira  Brava. 
f  Am.  Joub.  Phabm. 
t     Oct.  1, 1873. 
its  virtues  as  a  diuretic,  lithontriptic,  vulnerary,  stomachic,  cordial, 
and  alexipharmic,*  and,  in  fact,  regard  it  as  a  complete  panacea. 
The  question  now  arises — Can  the  drug  which  was  introduced  with 
so  much  of  laudation  be  clearly  identified  ? 
As  already  stated,  Pomet  has  figured  it,  and  his  engraving  is  ex- 
cellent. But  Sloane  has  left  us  better  materials.  In  his  collection 
of  materia  medica,  now  in  the  British  Museum,  there  are  many  well- 
preserved  specimens  of  the  drug  obtained  from  different  persons  and 
at  different  periods,  and  all  of  one  kind  ;  and  in  his  voluminous  man- 
uscript catalogues  and  his  other  papers,  are  entries  throwing  light  on 
their  origin. 
The  first  notice  I  have  found  is  a  letter  from  Lisbon,  dated  October 
17th,  1699,  addressed  by  Joseph  Geston  to  John  Ellis,f  in  which  the 
writer  says : — 
"  By  order  of  my  brother,  Wm.  Geston,  I  send  you  here  enclosed 
six  sticks  of  Pareira  Brava,  or  Parra  Brava.  The  use  of  it,  I  am 
informed,  is  in  powder,  one  scruple,  and  to  the  strongest  patient  one 
octave  [drachm]  in  Rhenish  wine.  ...  Its  vertues  are  for  the 
stone,  gravell,  obstruction  of  the  urine,  and  for  the  colick, — a  very 
excellent  remedy." 
Though  this  letter  is  not  addressed  to  Sloane,  nor  is  he  mentioned 
in  it,  yet  from  its  occurrence  among  his  correspondence  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  specimens  to  which  it  relates  were  intended  for 
him. 
The  entries  in  his  manuscript  catalogues,  which  are  in  his  own  hand 
writing,  are  these: — 
"  652.  Pareira  Brava. — From  Brasile,  pretended  to  be  good  for 
the  stone." 
"4039.  Pareira  Brava. — A  root  used  in  the  stone." 
"6708.  The  Pareira  Brava,  of  a  brown  color,  from  Brazil,  said 
to  be  the  best  sort. — From  Monsr-  Geoffroy." 
*  Hill  judiciously  remarks  that  this  is  going  too  far  in  its  praise,  and  yet 
omitting  some  of  its  real  virtues.  "  It  is  certainly  a  diuretic,"  says  he,  "of  no 
inferior  kind,  and  has  done  great  service  in  nephritic  cases  ;  and  in  pleurisies 
and  quinzies  has  been  attended  with  more  success  than  almost  any  medicine  we 
know  of  singly.  In  suppressions  of  urine  scarce  anything  is  more  efficacious  or 
more  instantaneous  in  its  effect,  but  it  is  folly  to  infer  from  this  that  it  will  dis- 
solve the  stone.  ...  In  cases  of  ulceration  of  the  kidneys  or  bladder,  when 
the  urine  is  purulent  and  voided  with  great  difficulty,  there  is  scarce  anything 
equal  to  this  root  as  a  remedy." — Hist,  of  Mat.  Med.  1751,  p.  600. 
f  Sloane  MS.,  4045,  fol.  240. 
