OBSERVATIONS ON THE CUICHUNCHUL1 
ART. XXI. — OBSERVATIONS ON THE PLANT NAMED GUI 
CHUNCHULLI, AND ITS USE AS A REMEDY IN THE 
DISORDER CALLED MAL DE SAN LAZARO, OR COCO- 
BAY. By E. N. Bancroft, M. D., Fellow of the Royal College of 
Physicians of London. 
The attention of the public throughout Columbia has of late 
been excited by accounts published in various journals relat- 
ing to a plant named Cuichunchulli,* which is stated to have 
afforded very great benefit in the disorder there usually called 
Mai de San Lazaro, and here Cocobay, and even to have ef- 
fected its cure; and as this is one of the most deplorable 
diseases that can afflict the human race, and is also deemed one 
of the least tractable, I feel persuaded that no apology will be 
requisite for bringing to the notice of this meeting some au- 
thentic reports on the subject, together with such additional 
information concerning both the plant itself, whose botanical 
characters I have been able to ascertain, and its properties, as 
it has been in my power to collect from different quarters or 
by personal observation. 
It appears that a Jesuit of Quito, named Velasco, a native 
of Riobamba, in that province, who was afterwards expelled 
with the rest of his brethren from the Spanish Dominions, and 
subsequently allowed to retire to Italy, had occupied himself 
in writing a history of Quito, which however he was deterred 
from publishing by reason of the unremitting'persecution kept 
up against the whole order of Jesuits, particularly by the 
Court of Spain. At his death the work came into the hands 
of another Ex- Jesuit, executor to Velasco, but, from similar 
* This is the nearest approach that can be made in Spanish Orthogra- 
phy to the proper, i. e. Indian mode of pronouncing the word, but it 
is faulty in the penultimate syllable. It should be sounded as consisting 
of five syllables, and spelt for English pronunciation Coo-y-choon-jool-ye, 
for French, Cou-y-tchoune-djouilli, and for Italian, Cu-y-ciun-giu-gli. 
