General therapeutics and materia medica (volume 1): adapted for a medical text book . s-tison states, that hehas often tried toobtain it fromwholesale dealersin London; butnone of the billetssent to him corres-ponded with truequassia. The quassia nowmet with in the4. Drupe. shops, is the woodof a different species— Quassia excelsa or Picrcena excelsa, Lofty Bit-terwood Tree, Bitter J2sh—a tall beautiful tree, nearly 100 feet in height,which inhabits Jamaica, and other West India islands. The wood isgenerally in cylindrical billets of various sizes; is very tough ; yellow-ish ; without odour, a
General therapeutics and materia medica (volume 1): adapted for a medical text book . s-tison states, that hehas often tried toobtain it fromwholesale dealersin London; butnone of the billetssent to him corres-ponded with truequassia. The quassia nowmet with in the4. Drupe. shops, is the woodof a different species— Quassia excelsa or Picrcena excelsa, Lofty Bit-terwood Tree, Bitter J2sh—a tall beautiful tree, nearly 100 feet in height,which inhabits Jamaica, and other West India islands. The wood isgenerally in cylindrical billets of various sizes; is very tough ; yellow-ish ; without odour, and of an intensely bitter taste, and is kept in theshops either split into small pieces or rasped. It is said to be sometimesadulterated with other woods; but these are detected by their not pos-sessing the intense bitterness of the genuine article. When subjected toanalysis it affords traces of volatile oil; a bitter principle termed quas-site or quassin; gummy extractive ; pectin ; woody fibre, and varioussalts. The crystalline principle called quassite, which was discovered. 1. Male flower. 2, Quassia expanded. 3. Fertile flower. SIMARUBA. 39 by Wiggers in some of the quassia woods, is not—it has been said—contained in the true quassia, although this last has a large amount ofbitter principle. Dr. Christison affirms, that he has not been able toobtain it. The virtues of quassia are yielded to alcohol and water. Quassia possesses the medical properties of the simple bitters, and isadapted for all the cases in which the class are indicated ; hence, it islargely prescribed, and especially in asthenic conditions of the digestiveorgans. It is often used in place of hops in the preparation of beer,although prohibited by the statutes of certain countries. It does not,however, communicate any noxious property to the beer ; but does notpreserve it as well as hops, or make as agreeable a beverage. Likeother bitters, it is best given in the form of infusion. It i
Size: 1337px × 1869px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubjectmateriamedica, booksubjectmedicinebo
