Copy 1
A treatise on foreign vegetables. Containing ... such as are now commonly used in the practice of physick ... / Chiefly taken from the Materia medica of S.F. Geoffroy. By R. Thicknesse.
- Étienne François Geoffroy
- Date:
- 1749
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A treatise on foreign vegetables. Containing ... such as are now commonly used in the practice of physick ... / Chiefly taken from the Materia medica of S.F. Geoffroy. By R. Thicknesse. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Arti c, XI. Of Jalap. Jalaps Jalapium, et Mechoacanna nigra Off. Jalap is an oblong Root, in Figure fomething refembling a Top or Turnips thick, denfe, heavy, and cut tranfverfly into Pieces, of a dark Colour without, and brown or afh-coloured within, refmous, hard to be broken, and in Tafte fomewhat acrid and nau~ feou'S. The bell is denfe, of a brown Colour, hard to be broken, refmous, and inflammable. It was a Stranger to the Greeks and Arabians, be¬ ing brought into Europe with the other Riches of America. It took its Name from Xalapa, a Town of New-Spain, from whence it was fir ft imported to us. Authors have hitherto been undetermined con¬ cerning the Plant to which it belongs ^ fome fup- pofing it to be the Bryonia, Mechoacanna nigricans, C. B. P. Some the Solatium Mexicanum magno fore, C. B. P. and others the Convolvulus Americanus Ja¬ lapium diSlus, Rail Hift. The celebrated Tmrnefort, after Father Plumier and Ligonius, affects that the Plant, whole Root is the officinal Jalap, is like the Jdapa officinarum fruffu rugofo, In ft. R. H. which is a Species of the Mirabilis Peruviana or Marvel of Peru. [But this is a Miftake ; for Mr. Houfton, who brought the Jalap-Plant over with him from A- merica, fhewed it to M. Bernard de Juffieu, redd¬ ing at that Time in London, who difcovered it to be a true Species of the Convolvulus.] The Root of Jalap contains a large Quantity of alkaline Salt, with a fmall Proportion of acid, joined with fome Sulphur and Earth. Tliefe Principles Being mixed together conftitute a Gum and a Refin *, whic are both obtainable in great Plenty from the dry Root, For twelves Ounces of Jalap in](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30529529_0001_0049.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
