THE ROOT OP COHATE, A NEW DIURETIC MEDICINE. 187 
substance which he considers as the native principle of the 
root. 
In comparatively examining the results of different treat- 
ments by water, with and without heat, by alcohol, and by 
ether, the decoction alone seemed to combine all the quali- 
ties indispensable to an efficacious medicine, as regards both 
the possibility of being administered easily, and the advan- 
tage of being charged with all the active principles of the 
root. It is, moreover, the popular mode followed for the 
employment of this remedy in Havannah, where the decoc- 
tion is taken as a draught. 
According to the statement of several persons who have 
witnessed the use of this root in the island of Cuba, cohate 
enjoys diuretic properties, which seem to be more promi- 
nent in it than they ordinarily are in the roots of other vege- 
tables of the same family; it is also highly extolled as a re- 
medial agent in oedematous affections ; it is even regarded 
as the only remedy which can be efficaciously employed for 
the negroes coming from the coast of Africa, who are, for 
the most part, dropsical at the time of their arrival ; and its 
employment is so general, especially in the habitations, that 
the colonies are constantly provided with it, and cultivate it 
on purpose. 
M. Arnozan mentions that, some years ago, a woman 
who was engaged, near Bordeaux, in the cultivation and 
collection of medicinal plants for pharmaceutical purposes, 
received a certain quantity of this recent root in order to fry 
to cultivate it. The attempt was not successful ; but the 
woman, who knew the therapeutical properties of cohate, 
administered a draught of it to a dropsical person, who ex- 
perienced great benefit from it. This patient continued to 
use it for three years, and always with evident advantage. 
Since the communication made by M. Arnozan to the 
Societe de Medicine de Bordeaux on the properties of cohate, 
Dr. Pereira has given a draught prepared with 2 grammes 
of this plant to 2 quarts of water reduced to half, to a man 
