318 Dr. Hancock on Quinine. < 



contain little or no quinine, it appears to be by far the most 

 efficacious medicine, when genuine, or when found to possess 

 the true cinchonic aroma, bitterness, and astringency ; for there 

 are very different qualities of bark met with under this name, 

 it being (although referred to C. lancifolia) derived indif- 

 ferently from several other species*. It is this, the pale bark 

 {Cascarilla fina of the Spaniards), which is ordered in the Phar- 

 macopoeias, and preferred by the most judicious British as 

 well as Spanish and American practitioners, — by all, indeed, 

 who form their estimate from extensive experience, unbiassed 

 by the prevailing mania after the new remedies, as they are 

 called. By such, however, we find the contrary maintained, 

 both at home and abroad, and that the yellow bark must be 

 best, because it yields the vaunted alkaloid quinine, whilst the 

 other affords little or none. 



In France, the quinine is cried up as vastly superior to the 

 analogous alkaloid cinchonine, — an opinion which will, of course, 

 be more or less disseminated here. It must be remembered 

 that the quinine was a French discovery, and an extraordinary 

 lucrative one ; whilst the other nearly identical element (which 

 may be with more propriety termed a discovery) was jyreviously 

 made by a British physician, as noticed before. 



We observe the following notice of cinchonine in a late 

 French work: — u Ses vertus etant inferieurs, diton, de quatre 

 ou cinq fois a celles de la quinine, on ne s'en sert guere en me- 

 dicine, non plusque des composes dont elle fait la base." — 

 Pharm. Univ. 1828, p. 414. 



I shall only observe here, that the well known and esta- 



* Whoever would acquire the best information respecting the botanical 

 history of this important genus, should consult especially the Flora Peruv., 

 and that valuable and splendid work, Lambert's Illustrations of the 

 genus Cinchona. This munificent botanist has described and figured 

 numerous species of this genus. The herbarium, presenting a still greater 

 number of distinct and well-defined species, of which Mr. L. had the 

 good fortune to become the purchaser, together with those derived from 

 various other sources, form altogether a collection which, in the hands 

 of so liberal a possessor and patron of science, may be regarded as a 

 public treasure of great value, as it is freely opened for the inspection of 

 men of science. Dr. A. T. Thomson has also a noble collection of spe- 

 cimens of this genus, which will not a little enhance the value of his 

 instructive lectures on the important science of medical botany, at the 

 New London University. 



