BOTANY. 335 



SUBSTITUTES FOR QUININE. 



THE present high price of quinine, and the threatened extinction of 

 the supply of cinchona, have led to the publication, in the French jour- 

 nals, of various propositions for substitutes. Among these, arsenic 

 deservedly enjoys most favor, especially since the publication of 

 Boudhrs papers upon its employments, his report being confirmed by 

 many practitioners, though demurred to by others. Valuable a medi- 

 cine as it is, however, we fear that, as a general, rule, it is very inferior 

 to quinine as a febrifuge in certainty and rapidity of action, and the 

 less liability to relapse, said to be consequent upon its employment, is 

 anything but proved. A medicine recently introduced by Dr. Band, 

 under the name of hydro-ferrocyanate of potassa and urea, has excited 

 considerable attention. The Academy appointed a commission to 

 investigate its claims, and 30 cases of ague were treated by it, who had 

 had recourse to various means without success. Of these, 26 were 

 cured, confirming M. Band's favorable statement, founded' on 200 cases 

 that had been treated by himself and others. 



M. Ossian Henry has assisted M. Band in the production of this sub- 

 stance on a large scale, but its exact composition has not been made 

 known. From a complex organic product like this, the transition is 

 great to so simple a one as common salt ; and yet, according to M. 

 Piony, given in doses of from four to eight drachms per diem, it effects 

 very "rapidly what no other succedaneum of quinine that he has tried 

 does, a diminution of the size of the spleen. Recommended to the 

 Academy, M. Piony promptly cured six out of eight cases in which he 

 employed it. 



Another practitioner of high repute, M. Gendron, has published an 

 account of the great efikcy of an indigenous solanaceous plant, the 

 alkekenge, found among vines and shady places in France, Spain, and 

 Italy. Of forty cases it failed only in five or six. It seems almost 

 trenching on the ludicrous to repeat that two practitioners, residing, 

 one at Naples and the other in Sardinia, are quoted in the " Revue 

 Medicale " as recommending, as based upon sufficient experience, 

 spider's web, forty grains being given in divided doses. Dr. Ruspini 

 states, also, that economy would result from the substitution of a neu- 

 tral sulphate for the present bibasic salt ; for he and other practitioners 

 have found such neutral sulphate or per-sulphate as useful as the 

 bibasic in a half or quarter the dose a fact easily understood in con- 

 sequence of its great solubility. Computing, with Chevallier, the 

 annual consumption of yellow cinchona hi France at 140,000 kilo- 

 grammes, valued at 3,300,000 francs, the substitution of the neutral 

 salt would reduce the quantity to 55,580 kilogrammes, and the price to 

 1,333,920 francs. Although quinine still holds its vantage ground, the 

 importance of these investigations, as to the discovery of possible sub- 

 stitutes and the greater economizing of present supplies, are impressed 

 upon us by the unfavorable report of M. Weddel, after five years' inves- 

 tigation of the sources of supply, and the high price which places the 

 article beyond the reach of the poorer classes, and the rapidly increas- 

 ing adulteration it is subjected to. 



