Academy of Sciences at Paris. 389 



A strong and active effect on the animal system, and medical 

 properties which do not exist in other substances, or at least 

 only in a minute degree, indicate that the cinchona contains a 

 particular principle which, judging from analogy, should possess 

 alkaline properties. This drew our attention, and, passing at 

 present all points except the mere properties of this principle, 

 we hasten to detail what these are, and how the substance 

 exists in the plants which contain it. 



From analysis of the grey bark* {cinchona condamincea,) we 

 found it composed of — 



1. Cinchonin united to kinic acid. 



2. Green fatty matter. 



3. Red colouring matter slightly soluble (cinchonic red.) 

 4. soluble (tannin.) 



5. Yellow colouring matter. 



6. Kinate of lime. 



7. Gum. 



8. Starch. 



9. Lignin. 



The first of these substances, and the only one on which we 

 shall dwell at present, is the cinchonine. In saying that it 

 is combined with the kinic acid, is to say that it is a sa- 

 lifiable base, or an alkali, and this is fully established by our 

 experiments. We should, however, state that cinchonine 

 was discovered by M. Gornis of Lisbon, but he neither ascer- 

 tained its alkaline nature, nor studied its combination with 

 acids. Its principal properties escaped him, and to this, aided 

 by the circumstance, that in a more recent memoir M. Lauber 

 regarded it as a pure crystalline resin, is owing the slight 

 degree of attention that has been given to it by chemists. 



The following are the properties belonging to cinchonine, as 

 we have observed them. It is white, transparent, and crystal- 

 lizes in needles ; it has but little taste, requiring 7000 parts 



• Common Peruvian bark ? 



