320 Dr. Hancock on Quinine. 



M Mutis, conceiving that fermentation is the best method for 

 extracting the active part of cinchona, had proposed to make a 

 beer of it, by fermenting 1 part of the bark in powder, with 

 8 parts of honey or sugar, and 80 or 100 of water. And 

 Alibert, having persuaded a brewer to make some beer with 

 cinchona, administered it to convalescents weakened by pro- 

 tracted intermittents, with the best effects." — London Disp., 

 p. 247. To the utility and efficacy of this method I can bear 

 testimony. 



Here I may observe, that certain eminent writers on Phar- 

 macy have asserted, that the Angostura bark (Galipea officin.) 

 does not cure intermittents. See " Edin. Disp.,' 1 M Brande's 

 Manual of Pharmacy," &c. — Possibly, in the usnal mode of 

 employment, this may be correct ; but, from adequate experi- 

 ence, I can assert, that a preparation analogous to that men- 

 tioned below, as employed at Angostura, is the most successful 

 remedy both for remittents and intermittents — and those, too, 

 of the most malignant and dangerous kinds, in which the cin- 

 chona, alone, is well known to be worse than useless. In such 

 cases, therefore, the former is much to be preferred. 



During three years that I sojourned in the Orinoko, I had 

 frequent opportunities of witnessing the superior efficacy of 

 this preparation, not only for convalescents, but in the most 

 obstinate bilious and malignant intermittent and continued 

 fevers which raged in that country in 1816 and 1817. The 

 cinchona, being extremely scarce, we had recourse to the 

 native bark, just alluded to, Kina de Caroni, so called, in 

 the military hospital, of which I had charge, having, in all, 

 nearly 200 patients, besides great numbers in the town of 

 Angostura. 



The Cervesa de Kina (bark beer) was prepared by the natives 

 in large jars, placed in the sun, with sugar or molasses, apiece 

 of bread, and yeast at times, to hasten the fermentation. It 

 seemed to me, that the caroni bark thus prepared equalled the 

 cinchona in the cure of common intermittents, and certainly 

 much excelled it in malignant fevers and dropsies, diseases 

 which were surprisingly prevalent and fatal throughout the pro- 

 vince in 1817, combining at once the miseries of war, famine, 

 and pestilence. This, perhaps, Was also partly owing to the 



