January i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



497 



LIQUID EXTEACT OF CINCHONA. 



TO THE EDITOK OF THE " PHAKMACEdTICAL JOUESAL. " 



Sin, — I have but now met with and read the i)aper by 

 Dr. Paul, " On the Liquid Extract of Cinchona, " reported 

 iu your issue of March 10, 188.3. I have followed the 

 discussion, and as I was the writer or " a.'isisted " at the 

 authorship of the piipur read before the College of Phys- 

 ciaus by Mr. Eattley in 1838 and alluded to by Dr. Paul, 

 I wish to add that I think Mr. Battley attamed the 

 object in view, viz., that of " separating and seciu-ing 

 nearly the whole of the medicinal properties of the bark." 

 Mr. Battley was aware that there was some quinme left 

 in the residuum, but the preparation was a most elegant 

 one, "leaving unchanged the medicinal qualities of the 

 substance acted upon, separating and remo\iug therefrom, 

 as far as possible, evei'y matter not possessing remedial 

 virture." It was very highly esteemed by Dr. Farre and 

 other distinguished physicians of that day as offering a 

 means of administering bark under circumstances when 

 the patient could not take xiuinine, and I have little doubt 

 that if the successor of the late Richard Battley continues, 

 as is presumable, the same process, the preparation will long 

 hold its own against all comers. In justice to another, 

 it is not for me to recapitulate the operations, but I may 

 say that the finest cordifolia bark proem-able was used, 

 that the water employed was cold, that it was not a mere 

 digestion and evaporation, but a process of manipulation 

 and elimination, and that no spirit was added at the com- 

 pletion ; the result being that it was as uniform a product 

 as could be made. Analysis could not determine the mode 

 of manufacture ; criticism did not deter its use. It grew 

 rapidly in professional favour, and was approved by the 

 highest autuoriiit-s, and if pharmacists could have kept 

 to this one iii jst valuable medicine, instead of purchasing 

 cheaper and much inferior imitations, much time andmucli 

 fighting would have been spared, and the profession would 

 not have been baulked in the use of an adoiittedly valu- 

 able remedy, still admitted to take high rank. Mr. Batt- 

 ley never advertised it, yet it found its way both in pub- 

 lic and private throughout the country and abroad. 



One of the speakers at the meeting observered that 

 " the pharmacy of cinchona bark is m a great muddle. " 

 He s;iys that " he had always looked on the fluid extract 

 of cinchona contained in the Pharmacopreia as a continu- 

 ation of a preparation which was originally brought before 

 the College of Physicians by Richard Battley about the year 

 1830." The fraracrs of the Pharmacopteia have much aided 

 this state of things. Did they apply, before completing 

 their work, to those who were acquainted with the matter 

 in all its details? Did they? In the year 1830 I was 

 working with Mr. Battley in his laboratory, and I can 

 certify that the extractum cinchouDS liquidum of the British 

 Pharmacopceia has no more relation to the " liquor ciu- 

 chonre" introduced by Richard Battley, as then and there 

 prepared, than has the extractum opii liquidum to the 

 "liquor opii sedati\'us" of the same discoverer. I would 

 not have intrudeil these observations, but having been a 

 party to the work of 1830 and 183.8, by the late Richard 

 Battley, I tenture to do so. 



VT. E. Heathpield. 



COFFEE AS A HOUSEHOLD ARTICLE. 

 Official and reliable cyijhers prove ; — 

 1st. That the production of Brazil-Coffee has alway been 



increasing ; 

 2nd. That the use of it abroad has likewise increased ; 

 3rd. That smce 1879—1880 the price of Brazilian Coffee 



has been constantly faUing. 

 What is the reason of this important and persistent 

 devi.ation? Do the Brazil coffees suffer from foreign 

 competition ? Statistics do not seem to confirm this. On 

 the contrary ; every day the Santos and St. Paulo coffees 

 supercede the St. Domingo ; to these alone are the 

 Brazilian parcels superior, above all other supjilies. So 

 the cause of this decline in prices must be sought 

 elsewhere, and this is evidently in- the i/reat Jispariti/ 

 lietwren supply and demand. There is no longer an equi- 

 librium between the cou.sumption and the produce. 



How to get out of this difficulty. There is only one 

 way — to open new Jchovcliis and to reduce the duties. 

 04 



We hope that Government will at length apprehend 

 all the advantages to health and general welfare, which 

 would result from abolishing duties on a commodity so 

 indispensable as coffee. 



The excessive produce, the important extension given 

 year -by year to the coffee-culture, to the detriment of 

 other cultures in South America, are also a cause of 

 this crisis. Therefore the culture must not be dimiuished, 

 but all obstacles must be removed that stand in the way 

 of an increased consumption. Since Middle Europe and 

 America use annually about 700,000,000 K. (i. of coffee, 

 and these regions might consume more than three or four 

 times that quantity, it would seem more rational and more 

 advantageous to promote a larger consumption than to 

 restringe the produce, 



Statistics confirm that the use of coffee is most consider- 

 able where the duties are lowest; in other words: the 

 higher the duties imposed upon coffee are in a country, 

 the less the use of it is encoiu-ged. 



Let us take a few figures and look at 1879. 

 In Netherland the use of coffee is the most considerable, 

 in proportion, for it amounts to 812 G. K. per inhabitant. 

 In Netherland there is no import duty on coffee. Yet 

 in Java there are still export duties. 



In Belgium, where coffee is only subject to an import 

 duty of fr. IS'SO per 100 K. G., the consumption per in- 

 habitant is 5-40 K. G. ,. ^ 



In the United States, where coffee is subject to no 

 import duty, aud m Switzerland where the duty is only 

 3 francs per 100 K. G., the consumption is respectively 

 3'50 aud 3-60 per inhabitant. 



In other countries the consumption is considerably less. 

 In Germany, where the coffee is burdened with 50 francs 

 per 100 K. G"., it is only 2-47 K. G. per head. 



In Austria where 16 florins per 100 K. G. is exacted, 

 the cousumption is still less, viz., r05 K. G. 



In France, where the duty is almost equal to a prohib- 

 ition— 150 francs per 100 K. G. the population uses only 

 1-46 K. G. per head. A Frenclimau imbibes consequently 

 six times less coffee than a Dutchman, and nearly foiu- 

 times less then a Belgian. A Swiss, or an inhabitant of 

 the United States, uses two and h.alf times more coffee 

 than a Frenchman, and a German uses double the quantity. 

 General rule : where alcoholic drinks produce much dele- 

 ritim tremens, there are few O'ftfe-lioiiics in a good sense. 

 Where absinthe or gin begins, there is an end of coffee. 

 Temperance Societies ought to be foremost in insisting 

 on a diminution of import duties, which are so oppressive 

 iu France and elsewhere.— H. Jou. S,mT>.— India Mercuri/. 



QUININE AND OTHER CINCHONA ALKALOIDS 

 AND THEIR SALTS. 



Of the Cinchona alkaloids the U. S. P., 1870. included 

 three: cinchonine sulphate, quinine sulphate, and quinine 

 valerianate. No less than eight more have now been ad- 

 ded ; cinchonidine sulphate, cinchonine, quinidine sulphate, 

 quinine, quinine bisulpbate. q liui ip hydrobromate, quinine 

 hydrochlorate, and chinoidin. The P. G., on the contrary, 

 has dismissed quinine, quinine tannate, quinine valerianate, 

 cinchonine and cinchonine sulphate, .and retains only quin- 

 ine sulphate, bisulphate and hydrochlorate, and chinoidin. 

 It may be stated here that the method adopted in the 

 P. G. for testing the strength of the bark iu total alkal- 

 oids is the modification of Prollius's recommended by 

 De Vrij. (Flmrm. Jourii., [3], xii., 765). The following are 

 the principal features in the characters and tests of the 

 individual alkaloids and their salts given in the two works :— 



Chimidiimm, U. S. P. (new) ; P. G.— This rather indefinite 

 substance has pretty well dropped out of use in this 

 country, — where indeed it has never been received with 

 any favour, — but it has remained in use in Germany 

 and some other countries, and has now been added to 

 the U. S. P., where it is described as "a mixture 

 of alkaloids, mostly amorphous, olitaiued as a bye- 

 product in the manufacture of the crystallizable alkaloids 

 from cinchona." It is stated to be almost insoluble ^ in 

 water, freely soluble in alcohol, chloroform and dilute acids, 

 and partially soluble in ether and iu benzol. WTien trit- 

 urated with boiling water, the li(|uid, after filtration, should 

 be clear aud colourless, and should remain so on the addition 



