April i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



719 



When the valuable series of specimens of Madras 

 cinchona bark was presented to the Museum of the 

 Pharmaceutical Society by the Indian Government, 

 through Dr. Bidie, it appeured to be important that 

 analyses should be made, iu order that the specimens 

 might be rendered thereby more useful for reference, 

 antl that the analyses might be available for compar- 

 ison with others which might be made subsequently 

 on the plantations. Therefore having learnt from Mr. 

 Holmes, the Curator of the Society's Museum, that 

 portions could bo spared from the Museum specimens 

 without destroying their value for reference, I under- 

 took to carry out the examination. Unfortunately, 

 the emallnees of some of the samples precluded the 

 possibility of dividing them. Only eleven specimens, 

 however, out of the forty-nine received were too small 

 to be divided. The preceding table gives the results 

 obtained. The footnotes are taken from remarks written 

 on the Herbarium specimens by Dr. Bidie. The speci- 

 mens No. 39 to 43, marked "India," are barks which 

 were forwarded last year from Darjeeling by Dr. King. 



These specimens of bark illustrate very well the 

 iuHuence of hybridization in masking the character- 

 istic features of the bark of particular species of Ci)t- 

 chona, and the diUicuIty of forming an opinion as to 

 the source of samples as well as their value iu ngard 

 to amount of alkaloid. 



I learn from Mr. Holmes that a comparison of the 

 samples of G, officinalis bark indicates that the only one 

 which could be easily recognized is No. 4. In this 

 sample the bark presents an extraordinary develop- 

 ment of the suberous or corky layer, which is divided 

 into angular pieces about half an inch squnre, each 

 piece exhibiting a stratified appearance. It is totally 

 difl'erent from Nob. 17 and 18, in which the suberous 

 la,yer, although very much developdd, presents, a rougli 

 granular appearance more like toasted bread-crumts 

 and is very friable. The corky C. officinalis also 

 possesses more quinidine (0'43) than the other varieties, 

 and a gond percentage (4 08) of qumine. No. 4 is 

 evidently the bark referred to by Dr. Trimen in his 

 report "On the Nilgiri Plantations," as being the 

 "crispa" of Mclvor and Beddome, of which a vigor- 

 ous propagation was going on by seed. If it can be 

 shown, therefore, by futher analyses on the plantations 

 that these percentages are tolerably constant, this 

 variety would appear in every way to be specially 

 suited for pharmacy. 



On examination of the several specimens of renewed 

 bark of 0, officinalis, Mr. Holmes is of opinion that 

 it would not he possible to recognize by physical 

 characters bark rich in alkaloids from a poor one, and 

 that however valuable such bark may be to the quinine 

 manufacturer, it would not be expedient for pharmaceut- 

 ical use, unless a guarantee as to alkaloidal strength 

 were supplied to the retail pharmacist. It is also of 

 interest to note that in Nos. 2, 6 and 8 the sniiUer 

 amount of quinine found by .analysis is a'lsociated with 

 an increased amount of cinchonidine. The fact that 

 No. 2 was obtained from coppice shoots adds weight 

 to the supposition that the age of the tree may have 

 something to do with the yield of cinchonidine ; while 

 the fact that the renewed (No. 6) and the natural 

 (No. 8) Urilusinija varieties yield less quinine than the 

 anrjiistifolia and Condaminea points to the latter as 

 being the bett-r varieties, i.e., so far at least as can 

 be gathered from a limited number of analyses. The 

 bark of C. Pahudiana might easily be mistaken by 

 an unpractised eye for that of C. officinalii, and it 

 seems desirable that tuch an inferior bark should be 

 eliminated from the plantations as speedily as possible, 

 lest by cross-fertilization it should deteriorate the 

 sfed of more valuable species. The same remark .ap- 

 plies to the corky barks, Nos. 17 and 18, which, 

 although very different in appearance fromC. Pahudi. 

 anil, are produced by a tree which bag on its young 



shoots and capsules the peculiar coarse hairiness of 

 that species, although in a less degree, forming a 

 feature by which it is easily distiuguished. 



The specimens of the bark of C. ang/ica, from the 

 Nilghiris, are not easily recognizable by physical 

 characters, and Mr. Holmes considers that they bear 

 evidence of the hybridiztion of the plants with C. 

 succinibra, particularly No. 23, which gives I "90 of 

 cinchonine. This, he thinks, is further contirmed by 

 the large leaves, resembling in size, shape and ven- 

 ation those of C succiruhra. The capsules also more 

 nearly approach in size those of that species, being 

 much larger than those of C. Calisaya. 



With respect to the barks from Darjeeling, No. 

 39 to 43, Mr. Holmes is of opinion that the samples, 

 judging from their physical appearance, were evidently 

 collected from several different varieties of each sijecies, 

 and therefore the analyses cannot reveal anything 

 special concerning them. 



Judging from its physical characters the Ledger 

 b.irk, No. 42, is good typical Calisaya bark, and does 

 not at all resemble the thick bark with scattered 

 warts which was recognized by Mr. Howard as Ledger 

 bark, and of which snmplts pre.'iented by him exist in 

 the Museum of the Society. Taken in conjunction 

 witli the analysis, the charao'ers of the No. 42 bark 

 indicate that it approaches niost nearly to the Boliviana 

 variety of Calisaya. 



The Niighiri C'nif/sa^a, No. 21, appears to be ident- 

 ical with that of Darjeeling. The herbarium specimen 

 of the latter is marked 2,000 feet, an elevation that is 

 hardly high enough to develop the alkaloidal richness 

 ot the Calisaya to its utmost degree. 



In Dr. Trimen's recent report on the cinchonas of 

 the Nilghiris he lays great stress on the importance 

 of analysis as a guide m the selection of plants for 

 cultivation, and he expresses liis conviction that in 

 the present state of our knowledge, selection based 

 on analysis is the most promising direction for the 

 improvement of the trees as alkaloid yieldirs. From 

 this point of view he recouimends the isolation of trees 

 with high analysis, together with other precautions 

 (o prevent cross fertilization, care iu collecting seed, 

 analysis of a selection of the resulting plants and 

 destruction of all that do not I'each the standard of 

 their parent. It is by the continuation of this mode 

 of procedure in the cinchona districts of the Madras 

 Presidency that Dr. Trimen considers the interests of 

 the great industry of cinchona growing in India can 

 alone be efficiently promoted. 



The attempt to draw deductions from the figures 

 of the analyses now published of a limited number 

 of specimens must, of course, be regarded as subject 

 to correction by results of further fxaininutions of a 

 larger series of similar botanical specimens and barks 

 that, may come under future notice ; but it may be 

 hoped that, the facts brought out by :inalyses of these 

 specimens may prove of some value to the pharmaceut- 

 ical public aud to the energetic Directors of the plant- 

 ations in India aud elsewhere, — Pharmaceutical Journal. 



The Falsification of Quinine in Paris. — We re] 

 ported at some length iu July last the trial of Henri 

 Constant Lacombe bel'ore the Tribunal Correctionel de 

 Paris, who was charged and convicted of the crime 

 of having supplied to the Pharmacie Centrale des 

 Hepitaux a fraudulent mixture of cinchonidiue with 

 quinine. Lacombe was sentenced to imprisonment for 

 oue year, a tine of oOf., and to pay for the insertion 

 of the judgment in twelve journals. We afterwards 

 stated that Lacombe had appealed. The Ga:(tte des 

 Trihiinaux of January 20, 1H84, reports that the Cour 

 dc Cassation has rejected the appeal, and Lacombe, 

 therefore, now enters upon his puuiehmeut. — Chemist 

 and Drwjgkl. 



