The first account of Indian materia medica and the first textbook on tropical medicine written by a European. It includes a classic account of Asiatic cholera, the first account of this disease by a European. This is the second book known to have been printed in India, of which copies survive. Garcia de Orta sailed for India in 1534 as Chief Physician aboard the armada of the Viceroy Martim Afonso de Sousa. He worked and carried out his research at Goa, where he died in 1568. His book was first printed by João de Endem at his press in St. John's College, Goa, and completed on April 10, 1563. For an account of its author, see L. H. Roddis, Ann. med. Hist., 1929, 1, 198-207. Digital facsimile of the 1563 edition from Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal at this link.