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BOIS DE SOIGNIES

Volume 3 · 216 words · 1797 Edition

forest of Soignies, in the Austrian Netherlands and province of Brabant, about three miles south-east of Brussels.

Bois de Coffi, the name given to a South American tree growing about Surinam, held in the highest estimation by the Indians in that part of the world, and now recommended to the physicians in Europe by Dr Fermin. Boissard Fermin in a treatise lately published at Amsterdam. The root is esteemed an excellent stomachic, restoring the appetite, and assiting digestion; but it is chiefly celebrated as an infallible remedy against even the most inverterate intermittents. It is said also to be used with great safety and advantage in every species of remittent and continued fever, with patients of all ages, sexes, and conditions, even during pregnancy, and in the puerperal state. Before employing it, however, it is absolutely necessary to administer either a purgative or emetic. The best method of exhibiting it is in decoction: half an ounce of the bark of the root must be boiled in a close vessel with six pints of water till one half be consumed; the decoction is then strained off, and a cupful taken every two hours till the fever is entirely extinguished. Six or seven days after a cure is thus performed, it is generally necessary to repeat the purgative.