Hematoxylon, or logwood of Honduras, is abundant,
and is the substance with which the natives
tan and give a brown colour to their fishing-nets,
It is a production of Sumatra.
The plants of the Indian islands afford none
which are of established reputation in our Materia
Medica, but many exist which produce powerful
effects on the animal frame, and which may be
found ultimately possessed of medicinal virtues.
The virtues of the American plantswere early ascertained
from the residence of Europeans, and their
intelligent inquiries, but of those of the Indian
islands, we continue at this moment almost as ignorant
as at our first acquaintance with these countries.
The little that has been written by European
writers is vague and unsatisfactory, and the
ignorant and careless empiricism of the natives
deserves to be wholly disregarded. Of the medical
effects of the plants of the Indian islands,
we can, indeed, hardly be said to know more
than that some of them are powerfully narcotic,
others cathartic, emetic, or diuretic, while some
act most powerfully, in some cases almost fatally,
when applied even to the external skin. Another
class affords a most subtle poison when introduced
into the circulation of the blood. Those of milder
operation exist also, and some are found which are
astringents, or bitters, or combine these qualities
with an agreeable aroma.
I do not know that specific virtues in the cure
of any disorder have ever been ascribed to any
of the plants of the Indian islands, unless I except
the recent and valuable discovery of the effects of
the Cubed, {Piper cubeba,) in the cure of Go«
norrhoea. The cubeb, called in the Javanese language
Kumulcus, and in Malay Lada bdrekor,
or pepper with a tail or process, is, like the
common black pepper, the production of a
vine. It is a native of the island of Java, and
grown there only. The cubeb has a very peculiar
aromatic odour, and singular taste, without
being very acrid. Taken in the dose of
about three drachms, repeated six or eight times
a-day, in the manner in which Peruvian bark, is exhibited,
it stops, without producing any sensible
effect on the constitution, the discharge of gonorrhoea,
and all the inflammatory symptoms, in
from twenty-four to seventy-two hours. If the
medicine be interrupted on the first disappearance
of the symptoms, they recur, and, therefore, it is
necessary to persevere in its use for some days after
the appearance of disease is gone. Taken in
large quantity the cubeb proves mildly cathartic, and
has in some instances been alleged to create swelled
testicle. The use of this plant as a remedy in
gonorrhoea was unknown to the natives of the Indian
islands, or to the Europeans residing among
them; and it is equally remarkable, that it was
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