put the antidote in the fame place where grows the poison. "Some weeks before I left Gondar I had been very much tormented with this disease, and I had tried both ways of treating it, the one by hot medicines and aftringents, the other by the contrary method of diluting. Small dofes of ipecacuanha under the bark had for several times procured me temporary relief, but relapfes always followed. My ftrength began to fail, and, after a fevere return of this disease, I had, at my ominous manfion, Horcacamoot, the valley of the fhadow of death, a very unpromifing profpect, for I was now going to pafs through the kingdom of Sennaar in the time of year when that disease most rages. "Sheba, chief of the Shangalla, called Genjar, on the frontiers of Kuara, had at this time a kind of embaffy or meflage to Ras el Feel. He wanted to burn fome villages in Atbara belonging to the Arabs Jeheina, and wished Yafine might not protect them: they often came and fat with me, and one of them hearing of my complaint, and the apprehenfions I annexed to it, feemed to make very light of both, and the reafon was, he found at the very door this fhrub, the ftrong and ligneous root of which, nearly as thick as a parfnip, was covered with a clean, clear, wrinkled bark, of a light-brown colour, and which peeled eafily off the root. The bark was without fibres to the very end, where it split like a fork into two thin divifions. After having cleared the infide of it of a whitifh membrane, he laid it to dry in the fun, and then would have bruifed It between two ftones, had we not hewn him the easier and more ex peditious way of powdering it in a mortar. "The firft dofe I took was about a heaped tea-fpoonful in a cup of camel's milk; I took two of these in a day, and then in the morning a tea-cup of the infufion in camel's milk warm. It was attended the firft day with a violent drought, but I was prohibited from drinking either water or bouza. I made privately a drink of my own; I took a little boiled water which had stood to cool, and in it a fmall quantity of fpirits. I after ufed fome ripe tamarinds in water, which I thought did me harm. I cannot fay I found any alteration for the first day, unless a kind of hope that I was growing better, but the fecond day I found myself fenfibly recovered. I left off laudanum and ipecacuanha, and refolved to trust only to my medicine. In looking at my journal, I think it was the 6th or 7th day that I pronounced myself well, and, though I had returns afterwards, I never was reduced to the neceffity of taking one drop of laudanum, although before I had been very free with it. I did not perceive it occafioned any extraordinary evacuation, nor any remarkable fymptom but that continued thirft, which abated after it had been taken fome time. In the course of my journey through Sennaar, I faw that all the inhabitants were well acquainted with the virtues of this plant. I had prepared a quantity pounded into powder, and used it fuccefsfully everywhere. I thought that the mixing of a third of bark with it produced the effect more speedily, and, as we had now little opportunity of getting milk, we made an infufion in water. I tried a fpirituous fpirituous tincture, which I do believe would fucceed well, I made fome for myself and fervants, a fpoonful of which we used to take when we found fymptoms of our disease returning, or when it was raging in the place in which we chanced to refide. It is a plain, fimple bitter, without any aromatic or refinous taste. It leaves in your throat and palate fomething of roughness resembling ipecacuanha. This fhrub was not before known to botanifts. I brought the feeds to Europe, and it has grown in every garden, but has produced only flowers, and never came to fruit. Sir Jofeph Banks, Prefident of the Royal Society, employed Mr. Millar to make a large drawing from this fhrub as it had grown at Kew. The drawing was as elegant as could be wifhed, and did the original great juftice. To this piece of politeness Sir Jofeph added another, of calling it after its difcoverer's name, Brucea Antidyfenterica: the present figure is from a drawing of my own on the fpot at Ras el Feel. "The leaf is oblong and pointed, smooth, and without collateral ribs that are vifible. The right fide of the leaf is a deep green, the reverse very little lighter. The leaves are placed two and two upon the branch, with a fingle one at the end. The flowers come chiefly from the point of the ftalk from each fide of a long branch. The cup is a perianthium divided into four fegments. The flower has four petals, with a strong rib down the center of each. In place of a piftil there is a fmall cup, round which, between the fegments of the perianthium and the petala of the flower, four feeble ftamina arife, with a large ftigma of a crimfon colour, of the fhape of a coffeebean, and divided in the middle." The hiftory of birds and beafts occupies the next place; and the rule which is followed here, is to give the preference to fuch of each kind as are mentioned in fcripture, and concerning which doubts have arifen. As for the fishes and other marine productions of the Red Sea, Mr. Bruce obferves, that his induftry has been too great for his circumftances, and that he has by him above 300 articles from the Arabian gulph alone, all of equal merit with thofe fpecimens which he has laid before the public. He adds, that his moderate fortune, already impaired by the expence of the journey, will not, without doing injuftice to his family, bear the additional one of publishing the numerous articles he is in poffeffion of. THE CONTENTS. ** HISTORY OF EUROPE. CHA P. I. Retrospective view of the affairs of France towards the clofe of the year 1789. N 3 and 1 and at the fame time dictators to the national afembly. Inftances from a make |