Schntyic Intelligence — 4rl9. 191 



During the war of Independence, t{ie barji trade reQeive4 its death- 

 blow, and for tlio space of several years, scarcely more than a few 

 hundredweights of bark were exported from Peru. The Montanas 

 of Huanuco, which once furnished all the apothecaries of Europe with 

 the "divine medicine," are beginning again to yield supplies. From 

 the roots of the felled trees a vigorous after-growth has commenced. 

 In the Montanas of Huamalies a kind of bark is found, the nature of 

 which is not yet defined by botanists ; and from the Montanas of Uru- 

 bamba comes the highly esteemed Cascarilla de Cuzco, which con- 

 tains an alcaloid, named Cusconm*. Possibly the medicinal bark 

 may again become a flourishing branch of trade for Peru, though it 

 can never again recover the importance which was attached to it a 

 century ago. During my residence in Peru, a plan was in agitation 

 for establishing a quinine manufactory at Huanuco. The plan, if 

 well carried out, would certainly be attended with success. There is 

 in Bolivia an establishment of this kind conducted by a Frenchman ; 

 but the quinine produced is very impure. The inhabitants of the 

 Peruvian forests drink an infusion of the green bark, as a remedy 

 against intermitting fever. I have fqund it in many cases much 

 more efficacious than the dried kind, for less than half the usual dose 

 produces, in a short time, convalescence, and the patient is secure 

 against returning febrile attacks. — Travels in Peru, hy Dr J. J, 

 Fow Tschudi, p. 398. 



ARTS, 



13. On Shell Cameos. — Society of Arts, April 21 y 1847. Dr 

 Roget, V.P. in the chair. — Mr Gray " On the Manufacture of Shell 

 Cameos." The author commenced by stating that the ancients 

 formed cameos by engraving figures in low relief on different kinds of 

 siliceous stones ; and generally selected for that purpose those which 

 had layers of different colours, so thfit the figures were of divers 

 colours. Such cameos are now made in Southern Europe and in 

 France, where this art has lately been attempted to be revived; but 

 the hardness of the materials requires so much labour that they are 

 too expensive to come into general use. Numerous attempts have 

 been made to substitute various materials, such as porcelain and glass, 

 for the ancient cameos, but their great inferiority has caused them 

 to be neglected. The best and now most used substitutes are shells ; 

 several kinds of which afford the necessary difference of colour, and 

 are, at the same time, soft enougj^ to be worked with ease, and hard 

 enough to resist wear. The shells used are those of the Flesh-eating 

 univalve, which are peculiar as being formed of three layers which 

 are often of difierent colours, as they afford Jiim the means of reliev- 



* From Cuzco, the ancient resi4ence of the Incaa. It Yf^s ^jscpvered by the 

 French chemists Corriol and Pelletier, in the Cascarilla which is shipped in 

 Arica ; hence this nlcaloid is also called Aricin. 



