The sulphate of quina is now prepared according to a process of the London College. (See Part, iii.)

It has been supposed by Robiquet that the colouring matters of the barks act in some degree as acids : these are red cinchonic, and the yellow colouring matter. The former is insipid, inodorous, insoluble in water, very soluble in hot alcohol, nearly insoluble in ether. It precipitates tartar emetic, but not gelatine. It is thrown down by diacetate of lead. The yellow colouring matter is nearly tasteless, is soluble in water, alcohol and ether, precipitates neither tartar emetic nor gelatine: but it is precipitated by diacetate of lead. The red soluble matter is tannic acid.

Medical properties and uses.-Cinchona bark is a powerful and permanent tonic, possessing also antiseptic powers; and is, undoubtedly, superior to all other remedies in counteracting febrile action, and restoring strength and vigour to morbidly weakened habits.

The stories which are related regarding the discovery of its febrifuge powers appear to be founded on fiction, and are unworthy of notice. The Peruvians, it has been supposed, were acquainted with its powers before the conquest of their country by the Spaniards, and from them the knowledge of it might have been acquired by their conquerors: and this supposition is supported by Ruiz and Pavon: but Humboldt renders it improbable, and says, that the use of the cinchona bark "is entirely unknown to the Indians in Loxa, Guaneabamba, and far around."2 They even regard it as poisonous; and "in Malacatis only, where many bark-peelers live, they begin to put confidence in the cinchona bark."3

1 Ann. de Chimie, xxvii. p. 323.

2 Humboldt on the Cinchona Forests; in Lambert's Illustrations of the Genus Cinchona. Lond. 1821. 4to. p. 22.

3 Humboldt says that the present people of South America have the most inveterate prejudices against the employment of the different kinds of cinchona; and

The most probable history of the discovery of the febrifuge virtues of cinchona is the following tradition, mentioned by Humboldt, in his Dissertation on the Cinchona Forests. The Jesuits, at the felling of the wood, had taken notice of the considerable bitterness of the cinchona, and "there being always medical practitioners among the missionaries, it is said they had tried an infusion of the cinchona in the tertian ague, a complaint which is very common in that part of the country;" and having found it succeed in curing the disease, began to employ it as a febrifuge.

It was probably brought into Europe in 1632; at least so asserts Sebastian Badius, a Genoese physician, on the authority of D. Jos. Villerobel1; but it was, nevertheless, little known by Europeans, until the Countess of Cinchon, wife of Don Geronimo Fernandez de Cabrera Bobadella y Mendoza, Count of Cinchon, viceroy of Peru, who had been cured by it in 1638, recommended it, on her return to Spain, in 1640. Its fame soon spread, and it was taken to Italy in 16492, and through the means of Cardinal de Lugo and the Jesuits was distributed over the Continent.3 It was in repute in England in 1658: but owing to its high price4, and some prejudices formed against it, it was very little used, till Talbot, an Englishman, again brought it into vogue by the many cures he performed with it in France, under the name of the English remedy.5 His secret of preparing and exhibiting it was purchased by Louis XIV. and made public. These circumstances throw light on the origin of some of the names by which it has been known; as Cortex and Pulvis Comitissae; Cortex and Pulvis de Lugo; Pulvis Jesuiticus or Pulvis Patrum; Arbol de la Cascarilla; Cascarilla della Oja; China, Corteza de Loxa; in the very country where this valuable remedy grows, they try to cut off the fever by infusions of Scoparia dulcis, and hot lemonades prepared with sugar and the small wild lime, the rind of which is equally oily and aromatic.

Personal Narrative, vol. v. p. 164. Trans.

1 Sebastianus Badius, Anastasis corticis Peruviani, seu kina kina defensio contra Chifletium et Plempium. Genuae, 1663.

2 The earliest printed treatise on the medical properties of Peruvian bark, with the exception of the Schedion, an Italian handbill printed in 1649, recommending it, and giving directions for exhibiting it, is that of Joannes Jacobus Chifletius, entitled "Pulvis Febrifugus Orbis Americani." 4to. pp. 30. Anno 1653. Chi-fletius was physician to the Archduke Leopold William.

3 Morton gives the above account on the authority of Bollus, a Genoese merchant, who had lived long in Peru, "autor fide dignus." Be Febribus Intermit. c. vii.

4 It was sold at first by the Jesuits for its weight in silver; and at Brussels, in 1658, twenty doses of the powder were sold for sixty florins, to be sent to Paris (Strumii Feb. Peruv. Vind. Antwerp. 1659); yet Condamine relates that, in 1690, several thousand pounds of it lay at Piura and Payta for want of a purchaser. Memoires Acad. Roy. 1738.

5 Talbot is noticed by Fontaine in his Poeme du Quinquina, for having cured the Prince of Condo and the minister Colbert with the bark.

Cortex China de China, and Gentiana Indica. It was called also, Palo de Calenturas, Lignum Febrium, Fieberholz, Bois des Fievres, Cortex Antiquartius, Corteccia delta Febbre, le Poudre de Talbot, and fever wood, on account of its effects; and, from the place whence it was brought, Peruvian Bark.

It was introduced into practice for the cure of intermittent fever. It was much opposed at first1, but soon acquired great reputation; and it still retains the reputation it acquired as a remedy for that disease; although, owing to peculiar idiosyncrasies and other accidental causes, it has occasionally failed in this country in agues, which were afterwards removed by other remedies, particularly arsenious acid. Some of these failures may, perhaps, have arisen from the kind of bark employed : for notwithstanding the generally received opinion, that all the kinds of bark may be indifferently used, one for another, yet there is some reason for the assertions of the Spanish and the American physicians, that they vary in other respects besides their degree of activity. By them the pale bark, calisaya, quina, naranjada2, is considered as directly febrifuge, and the best adapted for the cure of the ague; the yellow bark, quina amarilla, as only indirectly so, and better fitted for slow fevers and chronic debilities: while the red, colorada, quina roxa, is only fit to be used in cases of gangrene3, as its use is apt to be followed with disgustful nausea, severe vomiting, and insupportable colic. The physiological influence of Cinchona is that of a topical stimulant, and a general tonic.