ILLUSTRATIONS (2). QUINA OB CINCHONA BARK. 423 



Quina (Cinchona) bark was first brought to Lima, and uni- 

 versally recommended as a medicine. In Loxa, I have heard 

 it affirmed that the salutary properties of the tree were long 

 previously, though not generally, known in the mountainous 

 regions. Immediately after my return to Europe, I expressed 

 doubts whether the discovery had really been made by the 

 natives in the vicinity of Loxa, for the Indians in the neijHi- 

 bouring valleys, where intermittent fevers are very prevalent, 

 have an aversion to the Quina bark.* The story which sets 

 forth that ! the natives learned the virtues of the Cinchona 

 from the lions, "who cure themselves of intermittent fever by 

 gnawing the bark of the Quina tree,"f appears to be merely 

 a monkish fiction, and wholly of European origin. No such 

 disease as the lion's fever is known in the New Continent ; 

 for the so-called great American lion {Fells concolor) and the 

 small mountain lion (the Puma, whose footmarks I have seen 

 on the snow) are never tamed, consequently never become 

 the subjects of observation. Nor are the various species of 

 the feline race, in either continent, accustomed to gnaw the 

 bark of trees. The name " Countess's Powder" (Pulvis Comi- 

 tissce) originated in the circumstance of the bark having been 

 dealt out as a medicine by the Countess de Chinchon. But 

 this name was subsequently metamorphosed into "Cardinal's" 

 or "Jesuit's" Powder, because Cardinal de Lugo, Procurator- 

 General of the Order of the Jesuits, made known the medicine, 

 whilst he was on a journey through France, and recommended 

 it the more urgently to Cardinal Mazarin, as the brethren of 

 the Order were beginning to carry on a profitable trade in 

 the South American Quina bark, which they contrived to 

 obtain through their missionaries. It is scarcely necessary to 

 mention that Protestant physicians suffered themselves some- 

 times to be influenced by religious intolerance and hatred of 

 the Jesuits, in the long controversy that was maintained, 

 respecting the good or evil effects of the fever bark. 



(3) p. 393— " Aposentos de Mulalo" 

 The Aposentos are dwellings or inns. They are called in 



* See my Treatise on the Quina Woods, inserted in the Magazin 

 der Gesellschaft naturforscl lender Freunde zu Berlin, Jahrg. i. 1807, 

 s. 59. 



t Histoire de VAcad. des Sciences, annee 1738. Paris, 1740, p. 233. 



