SOME OBSERVATIONS Made upon the Brasillian Root, CALLED Ipepocoanha: Imported from the INDIES: SHOWING Its Wonderful Virtue against VOMITING and LOOSENESS.  
Written by a Physician in the Country to the Precedent of the College of Physicians in London.  
London Printed, etc. 1682.   

SOME OBSERVATIONS Made upon the Brasillian Root: SHOWING Its Wonderful Virtues against Vomiting and Looseness. In a LETTER, etc.  
SIR,  
I Being frequently importuned by Esq Boyl to make Experiments upon Indian Simples, and to give an Account of my Observations and Success to some London Physicians, and knowing you to be very Curious in Medicine, I take this Opportunity to Communicate to you what wonderful Virtue I have found in the Root called Hypepocoanha, which hath done such Wonders in France and Flanders in the Cure of Dysenteries and Lyenterial Fluxes, Diseases proving very fatal both to Fleets and Armies, as well as unto Cities and Countries.  
This Famous Root hath an admirable Quality to blunt those Acidities which irritate Nature, and stimulate the Expulsive Faculty, it stays all violent Excretions of the Guts; and this it doth not by astringency but by its Cleansing Quality, expelling those Venomous Particles which were lodged in the Intestines, and afterwards by its Balsamic Properties heals and comforts the Bowels, and repairs those Breaches which the Enemy hath made.  
I knew an Old Gentleman who fell into a Malignant Distemper for many Days, and was brought so low, he could not turn in his Bed, and had considerable Quantities of Blood mingled with his Stools, a black Thrush in his Mouth, with an intermittent Pulse, after all other Methods proved insufficient, I gave him the Tincture, Spirit and Extract of this Root in all his Liquid Alliment, and he found wonderful Relief, and recovered Health and Strength.  
A young Man who was miserably afflicted with frequent returns of Pains in the Bowels, and upon every change of his Meat or Drink was put into a Scouring, so that all his Nourishment was lost, and he could not sleep, being disturbed by frequent Motions to Stool, and it had washed away all his Flesh, and reduced him to a mere Skeleton. I gave him the Medicines made with the Root, and nothing else, and his Distemper abated, and his Strength returned, and he is now alive and in good Health.  
The Reason why I reduce most Indian Drugs into the form of Tinctures, Spirits and Extracts, is to preserve their Virtues, which else are apt to perish and Decay by Time and change of Climate.  
This Root is not without the Approbation of good Authorities of Travellers and Physicians. A famous Doctor in Scotland wrote me a Letter of some great Cures he had wrought with it amongst Children, who were brought unto the brink of the Grave by Looseness and Gripe in the Guts; it hath carried off all that Green Choler wherewith they are extremely molested, and thereby prevented many Distempers caused thereby.  
I knew a Gentlewoman who was brought into a very weak Condition by a Disentery or Looseness, she had taken many Glisters made with very proper Ingredients, her Physicians thought she had an Ulcer in her Bowels, which might be the Occasion of her frequent Relapses; I gave her Drops drawn out of this sovereign Root, sometimes in Wine and Water, and sometimes in Milk and Water, and she quickly recovered, and hath had no returns of her Distemper many Months.  
I could give twenty more Instances of Cures wrought by this Remedy, but these I think are sufficient for any Physician to make trial of it when the vulgar Methods fail; but some Men will not think it for their Interest to approve of what they don't prescribe themselves; but I take you to be a Man of more Honesty and Candour, and design more to do good than to get Money.  
I very well remember that Sir Charles Scarborough told me that a Physician in France had done great Cures with it, and kept it as a Secret a long time, and when it came to be known to be so effectual against all sorts of Fluxes, the Secretary of State to that Kingdom gave order that all the Physicians and Surgeons belonging to the Hospitals and Army should be furnished with it.  
Piso and Margrave have given particular Descriptions of it, and I am told that the Germans Ephemerids gives an Account of it as an infallible Medicine. See the 20th. Volume.  
FINIS.