A casual circumstance, it is said, discovered that excellent febrifuge,
the Jesuit's Bark. An Indian in a delirious fever was left by his
companions, as incurable, by the side of a river, to quench his burning
thirst while dying. He naturally drank copious draughts of the water,
which, having long imbibed the virtues of the bark, that floated
abundantly on the stream, quickly dispersed the fever of the Indian. He
returned to his friends, and explained the nature of his remedy; and the
sick crowded about the margin of the holy stream (as they imagined it)
till they had quite exhausted its virtues. The sages of the tribe found
out at length, however, whence the efficacy of the stream arose. The
Indians discovered it first, in 1640, to the lady of a Viceroy of Peru,
who by its use recovered of a dangerous fever; and in 1643 it was known
at Rome.
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