THE 
AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
NOVEMBER,  1866. 
AN  ESSAY  ON  SASSAFRAS  OFFICINALE  * 
By  William  Procter,  Jr. 
The  Sassafras  is  in  many  respects  one  of  the  most  interesting 
of  American  trees,  but  has  attained  its  reputation  rather  from 
the  medicinal  qualities  of  its  bark  and  roots,  than  from  the  state- 
liness  of  its  proportions  or  the  excellence  of  its  timber. 
Sassafras  was  discovered  by  the  Spaniards  early  in  the  sixteenth 
century  ;  Hernandes,  in  his  account  of  the  plants  of  New  Mexico, 
describes  it  as  occurring  in  the  Province  of  Mechoacan,  as  early 
as  1538.  The  followers  of  De  Soto  also  discovered  it  in  Florida 
about  the  latter  period ;  they  called  it  cinnamon  wood,  from  its 
odor,  and  hoped  it  would  prove  as  valuable  as  the  spice  of  Ceylon. 
Sassafras  was  also  described  at  an  early  period  by  the  Jesuits 
and  others  in  Canada,  and  by  them  introduced  into  France,  and 
soon  became  generally  known  in  Europe  for  its  sudorific  and 
alterative  properties. 
Sassafras  is  one  of  the  most  widely  distributed  trees  of  North 
America,  being  found  in  Canada,  in  all  the  United  States  east  of 
the  prairies  beyond  the  Mississippi,  and  in  Mexico.  In  the  north 
beyond  42d  degree  of  latitude  near  the  Atlantic,  it  is  only  a 
shrub  in  size,  but  it  exists  as  a  tree  in  upper  Canada  20  to  30 
feet  high.  In  the  Middle  States  it  attains,  in  favorable  positions 
in  good  soil,  a  height  of  30  to  40  feet,  and  a  diameter  of  from  12 
to  18  and  even  24  inches,  but  such  trees  are  now  rare.  Further 
south,  especially  in  Virginia  and  Carolina,  it  attains  a  greater 
*  Read  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Pharm.  Association,  Detroit, 
in  answer  to  Query  18. 
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