which are sixteen or eighteen years old, and about twelve feet high, with large spreading tops." To this it may be added, that a healthy tree of this species, now in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, inuch larger and older than those mentioned by Miller, was not known to flower till a few summers ago; which prevents us from having before a perfect specimen of it. The pulp of the tamarind, with the seeds, connected together by numerous tough strings or fibres, are brought to us freed from the outer shell, and commonly preserved in syrup. According to Long, tamarinds are prepared for exportation at Jamaica, in the following manner. "The fruit or pods are gathered (in June, July, and August) when full ripe, which is known by their fragility or easy breaking on small pressure between the finger and thumb. The fruit, taken out of the pod, and cleared from the shelly fragments, is placed in layers in a cask; and boiling syrup, just before it begins to granulate, is poured in, till the cask is filled: the syrup pervades every part quite down to the bottom, and when cool the cask is headed for sale." He observes, that the better mode of preserving this fruit is with sugar, well clarafied with eggs, till a transparent syrup is formed, which gives the fruit a much pleasanter flavour: but as a principal medicinal purpose of the pulp depends upon its acidity, which is thus counteracted by the admixture of sugar, it would there. fore be of more utility if always imported here in the pods. The fruit produced in the East Indies is more esteemed than that of the West, and easily to be distinguished by the greater length of the pods, and the pulp being dryer, and of a darker colour. This fruit, the use of which was first learned of the Arabians, contains a larger proportion of acid, with the saccharine matter, than is usually found in the fructus acido-dulces, and is therefore not only employed as a laxative, but also for abating thirst and heat in various inflammatory complaints, and for correcting putrid disorders, especially those of a bilious kind; in which the cathartic, antiseptic, and refrigerant qualities of the fruit have been found equally useful. When intended merely as a laxative it may be of advantage to join it with manna, or purgatives of a sweet kind, by which its use is rendered safer and more effectual. Three drams of the pulp are usually sufficient to open the body; but to prove moderately cathartic, one or two ounces are required. It is an ingredient in the well known medicine called lenitive electuary. "Tournefort relates, that an essential salt may be obtained from tamarinds, by dissolving the pulp in water, and setting the filtered solution, with some oil upon the surface, in a cellar for several months; that the salt is of a sourish taste, and difficultly dissoluble in water; and that a like salt is sometimes found also naturally concreted on the branches of the tree. The salt, Beaumé observes, may be obtained more expeditiously, by clarifying the decoction of the tamarinds with whites of eggs, then filtering it, and evaporating it to a proper consistence, and setting it to cool: the salt shoots into crystals of a brown colour, and very acid taste; but in dissolv ing and crystallizing them again, or barely washing them with water, they lose almost all their acidity, the acid principle of the tamarinds seeming not to be truly crystallizable." [Lewis. Tournefort. Woodville. Cullen. SECTION VI. Jesuits Bark. Peruvian Bark, Cinchona.-LINN. SIX species have been discovered as belonging to this genus, all of which are employed for the same medical purpose. We shall enumerate them chiefly from Zea*, since the arrangement of Linnæus, as improved by his learned editors Gmelin and Turton is imperfect, and that of Wildenow less elegant. 1. C. cordifolia. Heart-leaved cinchona on yellow-bark. 2. C. lancifolia. bark. 3. C. oblongifolia. 4. C. angustifolia. 5. C. caribæa, Lance-leaved cinchona, quilled or common Oblong-leaved cinchona, or red bark. Caribæan cinchona. 6. C. floribunda. St. Lucia cinchona. The first three species were originally named as we have given them above by Dr. Mutis, 1792, in a publication, entitled, Papel Periordis de Santa Fe, who from a residence of more than forty years in South America, had the best opportunities hitherto obtain. ed by any botanist of investigating this important tribe, and whose observations, as we have just glanced at already, are more fully Annales de Hist. Nat. vol. ii, 196, Madrid 1800, detailed in his pupil Zea's communications to the Madrid Annals of Natural History: in consequence of which they have been introduced under the same names into the recent pharmacopoeia of the London college. The cinchona officinalis of Linnæus proves to have been termed from specimens of the tree producing the yellow baik, which were sent to him by Mutis, and through mistake confounded with the true Peruvian or quilled bark received by him from Condamine, in compliment to whose earliest and very accurate description, the tree has been named by Humboldt and Bon. pland* cinchona Condaminea. From Condamine we shall copy the description of the tree, whose account of it was drawn up from long, careful and accurate observation. It is a native of Peru, growing most abundantly on a long chain of mountains extending to the north and south of Loxa, where its trunk frequently exceeds in the bulk the body of a man. According to Mr. Arrot, the soil in which these trees thrive best, is gene. rally a red clayey or rocky ground, and especially on the banks of small rivers descending from the high mountains. This author also informs us, that the properest season for cutting off the bark is from September to November, and the manner of conducting this we shall relate below in Mr. Arrot's own words t. On the trees * Plantes Equinoxiales, tom. i. p. 33. "The properest season for cutting the bark is from September to November, the only time in the whole year of some intermission from the rain in the mountains. Having discovered a spot where the trees most abound, they first build huts for the workmen, and then a large hut wherein to put the bark in order to preserve it from the wet; but they let it lie there as short a time as possible, having beforehand cut a road from the place where the trees grow, through the woods, sometimes three or four leagues, to the nearest plantation or farm-house in the low country, whither, if the rain permits them, they carry the bark forthwith to dry. These preparations being made, they provide each Indian (they being the cutters) with a large knife, and a bag that will hold about fifty pounds of green bark: every two Indians take one tree, whence they cut or slice down the bark, as far as they can reach from the ground; they then take sticks about half a yard long each, which they tie to the tree. with tough withs at proper distances, like the steps of a ladder, always slicing off the bark as far as they can reach before they fix a new step, and thus mount to the top, the Indian below gathering what the other cuts: this they do by turns, and go from tree to tree until the bag is full, which, when they have plenty of trees, is generally a day's work for one Indian. As much care as possible must be taken that the bark is not cut wet; should it so happen, it is being entirely stripped of their bark they soon perish; and as the number of these trees to which access could be had, was said to be not very considerable, it has been supposed that a sufficient quantity of bark to supply the demand, could not long be procured. Condamine, however, asserts that the young trees do not die by losing their bark, but send out fresh shoots from the base, and as those which are suffered to become old have time to disseminate and propagate, we trust the fear of exhausting this valuable medicine is wholly groundless. We seem to have no satisfactory account at what time, or by what means, the medicinal efficacy of the Peruvian bark which is now so well established, was first discovered. Some contend that its use in intermittent fevers was known to the Americans long before the Spaniards possessed Peru, but that they concealed this knowledge from the Europeans; and, on the contrary, it is asserted by others, that the Peruvians never supposed it to be fit for any medicinal use, but thought that the large quantities exported thence was for the purpose of dyeing, and they actually made some trials of its effects in this way. Condamine says, that according to an ancient tradition, the Americans owe the discovery of this remedy to the lions, which some naturalists pretend are subject to a kind of intermitting fever, of which they were observed to be cured by instinc tively eating the bark of the cinchona. But Geoffroy states, that the use of the bark was first learned from the following circumstance-Some cinchona trees being thrown by the winds into a pool of water, lay there till the water became so bitter that every body refused to drink it. However, one of the neighbouring inha bitants being seized with a violent paroxysm of fever, and finding no other water to quench his thirst, was forced to drink this, by which he was perfectly cured. He afterwards related the circum. stance to others, and prevailed upon some of his friends who were ill of fevers to make use of the same remedy, with whom it proved to be carried directly down to the low country to dry; for otherwise it loses its colour, turns black, and rots; and if it lie any time in the hut without being spread, it runs the same risk: so that while the Indians are cutting, the faules if the weather permits ought to be carrying it down to the place appointed for drying it, which is done by spreading it in the open air, and frequently turning it." equally successful. The use of this excellent medicine, however, was very little known till about the year 1638, when a signal cure having been performed by it on the Spanish viceroy's lady, the Countess del Cinchon, at Lima, it came into general use, and hence was distinguished by the appellation pulvis comitissæ, or the Countess's powder; also called, cortex china china, or chinchina; kina kina, or kinkina; and quina quina, or quinquina. On the recovery of the Countess she distributed a large quantity of the bark to the Jesuits, in whose hands it acquired still greater repu tation, and by them it was first introduced into Europe, and thence called cortex, or pulvis jesuiticns, pulvis patrum; and also Cardinal de Lugo's powder, because that charitable prelate bought a large quantity of it at a great expense for the use of the religious poor at Rome. “This bark is brought to us in pieces of different sizes, some rolled up into short thick quills, and others flat: the outside is brownish, and generally covered in part with a whitish moss: the inside is of a yellowish reddish or rusty iron colour. The best sort breaks close and smooth, and proves friable between the teeth: the inferior kinds appear when broken of a woody texture, and in chewing separate into fibres. The former pulverizes more easily than the latter, and looks, when powdered, of a light brownish colour resembling that of cinnamon, or somewhat paler. It has a slight smell, approaching as it were to mustiness, yet so much of the aromatic kind as not to be disagreeable. Its taste is considerably bitter, astringent, very durable in the mouth, and accompanied with some degree of aromatic warmth, but not sufficient to prevent its being ungrateful." Besides this bark, that of several other species of cinchona have been recommended for medical use by different authors, especially the cortex peruvianus ruber, or red bark; also that of the cinchona caribea, or the Jamaica bark; that of cinchona floribunda produced at St. Lucie; and that of two or three other species discovered at Santa Fe. The first of these " is in much larger and thicker pieces than the common, most of the pieces are concave, though not rolled together like the quilled bark. They break short, like the best common bark, and appear evidently composed of three layers. The outer is thin, rugged, frequently covered with a mossy substance, and of a reddish brown colour. The middle is thicker, more com |