THE DISCOVERY OF QUININE.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2775, 5 January 1878, Page 4

THE DISCOVERY OF QUININE.

The discovery of the medical properties cf cinchona bark is enveloped in great obscurity. All that we know about it for certain is (his : Before the jear 1638—that i,s to say, 150 years subsequent to the, discovery of America—not even the Spaniards were acquainted with the febrifuge qualities of cinchona bark; but in this year or thereabouts, the Countess del Chinchon, the wife of the Spanish Viceroy of Peru, was cured of a Tiolent intermittent fever- by drinking an infusion of the bark, and this led to its introduction into Europe. Were the natives themselves acquainted ■with it? Humboldt answers this question very positively in the negative, and - refers the discovery to the Jesuit missionaries, who, being in the habit of tasting tlie bark of every tree they hewed down, at length discovered the precious febrifuge. Other authors of repute contend that tho virtues of ciuchona bark were known to the Indians long before- j the advent of the Spaniards; but the question again arises how they first j became acquainted with its properties. 'Jo account for this the ridiculous tale has been invented that certain animals, while laboring under fever, happened to gnaw the bark of one of the cinchona trees and were cured forthwith. Far more probable is it that some cinchona trees having been laid prostrate by the tempests in a pool of water, and the latter becoming charged with the medicinal principle, some person laboring under fever drank of this water, was cured, and published" the result. But, however, this may be, it is cerbiin that tho remedy first became' popularised in Europe through the agency of Count del Chinchon, Viceroy of JPeru, whose wife, as wo huve said was cured of intermittent fever by its administration. The new remedy, however, was badly received in France and Italy; The faculty set their faces against it. Physicians who dared prescribe its use were persecuted', and it was only the patronage of Louis XIV. which ultimately rendered it popular in France. This monarch, suffering from intermittent fever, was cured by an English empiric named Talbot by means of. a secret remedy. This was no other than cinchona bark. Louis XIV purchased the secret for the sum of '18,000 livres,. and bestowed yearly a pension of 2000 livres on the Englishman, besides giving him letters of nobility.. Three years subsequently the remedy was published. It was a highly concentrated vinotis tincture of cinchona bark. Cinchona trees grow in tho densest forests of Peru. The task of discovering them, removing their bark, and convej'ing the latter to the place of export,'is troublesome, difficult, and dangerous. In these forests there are no roads. Frightful* precipices intersect the path of the cascarillero, or bark gatherer, across which it is .difficult to pass, even while unembarrassed by a load. tSo soon as the treasure of bark has been secured these difficulties and dangers proportionately increase, so that the comparatively low price at- which cinchona may be procured is in itself a matter of surprise.— Cassell's New Popular Educator*