SOME OBSERVATIONS Made upon the ROOT CALLED Casmunar, IMPORTED FROM The EASTINDIES: SHOWING Its Nature and Virtues above any other as yet written of, in Curing Apoplexies, Convulsions, Palsies, Lethargies, Tremble, fits of the Mother, Giddiness in the Head, and all Distempers of the Brain and Nerves.  
Published by a Doctor of Physic in Gloucestershire.  
LONLON, reprinted in the Year 1693.   

SOME OBSERVATIONS Made upon the ROOT called Casmunar, Imported from the East-Indies.  
THis rare and excellent Root being sent me by my Brother, who is Factor to the East India Company, and it being so wonderfully commended, and approved of by the Brachmanes, for its great Cures, I could not choose but publish it to the World, for the Advantage of Mankind.  
The Brachmanes are a sort of Indian Physicians, much celebrated not only by the Natives, but by Foreign Merchants that reside there, the English preferring them before their own Country Doctors, when they labour under any Distempers. They are of the Sect of the Pythagoreans, and as they eat no Flesh, but are nourished by the Produce of the Earth, so they rather choose to cure Diseases by Plants than Minerals. They have Great skill in Herbs, and know their Natures, as if they had been instructed by Adam or Solomon.  
This Root is warm but not hot, of a very temperate Quality; it consists of very fine, subtle, spirituous parts, and hath a peculiar Odour, distinct from any that I ever smelled to: It exceedingly recreates the Vital and Animal Spirits, and by its Taste and Colour may easily be known to be Aperative and Cephalick, comforting the Brain and Nerves, and putting the Animal Spirits into Order, when they have been in a Tumult by any Passion or Convulsive motions.  
When persons are in Convulsive fits, Nature seems to be as it were in an Earthquake, and in its last Agony; and by the frequent Returns of such fits, those Endowments which distinguish us from Brute Creatures, are in a great measure lost: our Understanding, that great Light, is darkened, and our Memory that excellent Repository is broken, and like a Sieve lets through whatever is put into it.  
A Gentlewoman who had a Concussion of her Head, caused by a Fall down Stairs, with great Debility of her Spirits, was Cured by this Root, to her and my great admiration; and although whilst her Vapours were upon her, she would not be persuaded but that she was dying; yet afterwards she would smile at those Gentlewomen who talked so, and would name herself as an Example of so great Folly.  
Perhaps it is the best Medicine in the World for Women in Childbed, or any who have received prejudice by Frights, they quickly restore them to the use of their Senses, and make them lively and cheerful.  
A Shopkeepers Wife at Gloucester, who had dreadful Fits of the Mother, with unusual Symptoms, and great Oppressions, almost strangled with suffocating Vapours in her Throat, was cured, that they have not returned, nor I see no suspicion of it. But I must say, that I have ever found the Spirit, the Tincture, and the Extract drawn out of this Root, far more effectual than any Composition whatsoever.  
It's very lamentable to observe, three thousand in a Year tumbled into their Graves by these Distempers, as we find by the Bills of Mortality.  
When our Compassionate Saviour was upon Earth, he demonstrared his Divine Power in the Cure of these Distempers more than in any other; because labouring under these Diseases, we are neither fit for the service of God or Man, nor are capable of the Exercise of Reason or Faith.  
I could tell you of a Learned Divine, whose Disorder in his Head was so great, caused by Cephalick Distempers and Vertiginous Fumes, that he could not preach, being attended with frequent Convulsive Motions in all his Nerves, yet by the use of the Drops drawn out of this Root, was perfectly cured.  
Many young Children have been miraculously restored by it from Convulsion Fits, both in the Brain and Bowels: For as Dr. Willis well observes, The Griping in the Guts is but an affection of the Nerves in those parts, and no Remedies so efficacious in that Disease, as those that strengthen the same.  
I cannot choose but recommend it to all Nurses, to drop into their children's Victuals, it being so exceeding temperate and pleasant, that I have known them take it, when they have refused all other Forms of Medicines.  
By this wonderful Root some Children when they have been Toothing, were cured only by Rubbing their Gums with the Electuary: Others by the Nurse's taking the Drops in all her Drink, for which Cause it's called by some the children's Guardian.  
I know a young Gentleman, who being subject to Convulsions from his Cradle, and could have no relief from the best Remedies in vulgar use, but was to the grief of his Relations cast sometimes into the Fire, and sometimes into the Water, by the Force of this Disease; and at last by the using of these Drops every New and Full Moon, was restored, and Married a Wife, and none of his Children ever had fits.  
A poor Old Woman also who was many years afflicted with Fits of the Mother, that the Common People thought her Possessed, her Symptoms of Skreeching, and strange Motions and Distortions were so terrible; yet by the Use of this Remedy found great Advantage, and recommended it to all she knew.  
I am credibly informed by an Eminent Chirurgeon who came from the Indies, that the Inhabitants in those Countries Anoint their bodies with a mixture of the Powder of this Root, and only by that External Application cure many Distempers, and live to a great Age.  
An able Physician of my Acquaintance boils the sliced Root in all his Broth, as a great Secret against Gripe in his Guts and Bowels proceeding from the Wind Colic, and finds Admirable Advantage.  
I am well assured that there is an Hospital in Italy, for the Cure of Lunatical persons, where the Doctors use this Root with wonderful success, it mightily Relieving all Discomposures of the Brain.  
To see Persons foaming at mouth, Tearing their Hair, beating their Breasts, Weeping, and Wailing, and Gnashing their teeth, is a Melancholy Prospect, and may well move pity: And therefore none but the Devil or his Agents can Envy mankind the Knowledge of so useful a Remedy.  
Let none despise this Root because it is a simple uncompounded thing, for I remember the Great Lord Bacon reckons it amongst one of the Deficients in Physic, that we study Art more than Nature, and Elaborate Methods more than simple Medicines. Whereas nine parts in ten of the known World trust to the latter more than the former.  
A Captain of a Ship who is Extremely troubled with Griping in his Guts, and Cramps in his Bowels, constantly procures Ease, only by Chewing a bit of this Root and Swallowing his spital.  
I know a modest discreet young Gentleman, that on a sudden when he is Writing, o● Talking with a Friend, or at Meals, shall be surprised with Dreadful Convulsive Motions, as if he were blown up with a train of Gunpowder; and he finds that the very Odour of this Root carried about him, and often applied to his Nostrils, prevents many fits, better than Spirit of Sal Armoniac, Amber, or Hartshorn, which are too strong for him.  
Twenty Drops of the Tincture are to be taken every Morning in Tea, the same Quantity of the Spirits every Afternoon in Mum, and also twenty Drops of the Extract at Night in Chocolate, for Men or Women; half the Quantity for Children.  
FINIS.