1196
ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.
pepsia, anorexia, and intermittents. It is a remedy, however, whichseldom used.
Infusum Simarvbje, L. E. D. (Simaruba bark, bruised,
[3ss. D.] ; Boiling [distilled, L.] Water , Oj. [Oss. D.] Macerate ^two hours in a lightly covered vessel, and strain [through li lieI ' ■calico, £.]).—Tonic; in large doses emetic. Dose, as a tonic,
tofjij-
Picra'na excel'sa, Lindley, E.— The Lofty Bitter-Wood Tree.
Quassia excelsa, Swartz, L. D. —Ficrania amara, Wright. —Quassia polygama, Lindsay.
Sex. Syst. Decandria, Monogynia.
(Lignum, L. V. —Wood chiefly of Picnena excelsa, seldom of Quassia amara, EO
History. —The wood of this tree has been introduced as a subsid'dfor that of Quassia amara, w r ith which it has often been confounded.
Botany. Gen. Char. — Flowers polygamous. Sepals 5, minute-tals 5, longer than the sepals. Stamens 5, about as long as the p e jjrather shaggy; anthers roundish. Ovaries 3, seated on a round, tu ' ^receptacle. Style 3-comered, bilid: stigmas simple, spreading. Fm 1globose, 1-celled, bivalved drupes, which are distant from each ot 1and placed on a broad hemispherical receptacle (Lindley).
Sp. Char .— The only species. . a j C
A tall, beautiful timber tree, sometimes 100 feet high. Leaveswith an odd one; leaflets 4- 8 pairs, opposite, stalked, oblong, (g)nate, unequal at the base. Racemes towards the ends of the branch .axillary, very compound. Flowers small, pale yellowish green, i!ufl.size of a pea, black, shining, round (Lindsay, Trans. Roy. Soc. &iii. 205.)
Description.— Quassia wood ( lignum quassia), —sometimes c aJamaica quassia wood ( lignum quassia jamaicensis) in order to cguish it from the wood of Quassia amara,—is imported from J aIlia ' , ;,)
_ -I lJ*
billets of various sizes (sometimes a foot in diameter, and severallength), covered externally with a smooth brittle bark. The " 0 j oll r,white, but by exposure to the air becomes yellowish ; it has no 0but a most intensely bitter taste. Floors made of quassia woodfor many years their bitterness. An efflorescence of nitrate of P°frequently observed on it (Blanche, Journ. de Pharm. xxiii. 542). e>Adulteration. —Quassia wood has recently been somewhat sc jand, in consequence, its chips have been adulterated with the c l jj g .other woods ; but the intense bitterness of the genuine wood readi vtinguislies it. e-neat*^
Composition. —Though quassia wood has been the subject ot r 1 , jschemical investigation, 1 am unacquainted with any complete aUof it. But from the experiments of Bfaff (Syst. d. Mat. Med. it- - v0 ypothers, the following appear to be the principal constituents ot ' ' five,tile oil a minute trace, a bitter principle (quassite), gummy ex . a tepectin, woody fibre, and various salts (as oxalate, tartrate, andof lime, chlorides of calcium and sodium, an ammoniacal salt, anof potash). • i( , atc r
Quassite ; Bitter Principle of Quassia ; Quassin .—Obtained by adding } l ^ e tto a concentrated aqueous decoction of quassia (to separate the pectin an