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 Physitians, and knowing you to be very Curious in Me­dicine, I take this Opportunity to Communi­cate [Page 4] 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 Venemous Particles which were lodged in the Intestines, and afterwards by its Balsamick 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 [Page 5] 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 recover'd 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 Scowring, 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 meer Skelli­ton. 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.

[Page 6]This Root is not without the Approbati­on of good Authorities of Travellers and Phy­sitians. 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 Loos­ness and Gripings in the Guts; it hath carri­ed off all that Green Choller wherewith they are extreamly molested, and thereby prevent­ed many Distempers caused thereby.

I knew a Gentlewoman who was brought into a very weak Condition by a Disentery or Loosness, she had taken many Glysters made with very proper Ingredients, her Physitians 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.

[Page 7]I could give twenty more Instances of Cures wrought by this Remedy, but these I think are sufficient for any Physitian to make tryal 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 Candor, and de­sign more to do good than to get Money.

I very well remember that Sir Charles Scar­borough told me that a Physitian 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 Physitians and Chyrurgeons belonging to the Hospitals and Army should be furnisht 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.