Sarsaparilla, and sarsaparilla so called : a popular analysis of a popular medicine, its nature, properties, and uses, how to insure its success as a remedy, the most approved forms, and the various phases of disease in which it may be advantageously employed / by Linnaeus Smilax.

  • Smilax, Linnaeus, active 1854.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sarsaparilla, and sarsaparilla so called : a popular analysis of a popular medicine, its nature, properties, and uses, how to insure its success as a remedy, the most approved forms, and the various phases of disease in which it may be advantageously employed / by Linnaeus Smilax. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    produce of the Parana and Paraguay (smilax Paraguensis.) \The Figure is from a specimen.'] Besides these there arc said to be some other species, as smilax cordato-ovata (Persoon), smilax obliquata (Poiret), smilax Purhampy (Ruiz), and smilax Cumanensis (the azo- corito of the natives of Cuinana, a city of Venezuela.) Cumana and the Caraccas supply much of the sarsaparilla we receive from the Spanish main. Many of these -without doubt are identical, and may fre- quently afford roots of similar appearance as well as pro- perties ; their gradations in growth and amount of medicinal principle being dependent upon natural causes already assigned, the degree of latitude in which the plant is found, and the consequent variation of climate, likewise elevation of the country, amount of moisture, heat, &c., and more especially the earthy elements constituting the soil in which the plant is found. O') The best sarsaparillas are all of Colombian, Brazilian, Peru- vian, or Paraguan growth, with which the Central American and Mexican kinds bear no comparison, being for the most part from a different species. The finer sorts are usually found growing in a rich red loam, and these have their sensible properties more marked than any other, and also preserve certain peculiarities of structure, colour, taste, and odour (especially upon burning), that strikingly distinguish them from inferior kinds. (7) The powerful influence of soil upon such productions and the medicinal activity of their pharmaceutical products is well known to the medico-botanical enquirer. Plants possessing an odoriferous principle in a rich soil, part with it in a sandy one. And somewhat similar results arise from situation; the same plant found growing in one locality has proved narcotic, in another cathartic, and in a third inert. A species of mushroom (agaricus piperatus), eaten in Prussia and Russia, proves poisonous in France.