Dr. Hancock on Quinine. 325 



In this acidulated infusion, we obtain all the elements of the 

 bark, excepting the woody fibre, and perhaps a small portion 

 of resin ; whereas, in the process for preparing quinine, the 

 tannin of the bark, which gives it a light styptic or astringent 

 taste, goes past with the liquor or decoction, together with 

 much of the native proper bitter of the bark, as found 

 by experiment, the gummy extractive, resinoid colouring 

 matter, and kinate of lime, while the essential oil, in which 

 the aromatic principle resides, is necessarily dissipated in the 



It has been found that the bark, exhausted of its soluble parts in the 

 preparations of extracts, decoctions, &c, still yields nearly an equal 



Sortion of the alkali, or quinine. (See ** Dr. Johnson's Med. Chir. 

 ournal" for October, 1825.) 



Dr. Paris, vol. ii. p. 249, has cited the " Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal," 

 {vide next page,) and in some measure seems to have given into the 

 error there noticed. " With respect to their physiological action, it may 

 be stated, that they (the alkaloids) would appear to concentrate in them- 

 selves the characteristic properties of the vegetables to which they belong ; 

 and yet, although their effects are much greater than those of the unde- 

 composed vegetables, the same quantity of alkali is not so powerful in 

 its pure form, as in its natural state of combination. Thus 1 gr. of mor- 

 phia produces no more effect than 2 grs. of Turkey opium, which does 

 not contain more than a sixteenth part of the alkali. To explain this 

 loss of efficacy which usually attends our attempts at concentration, the 

 reader is referred to the observations which have been already offered 

 upon this subject in the first volume of this work, page 283." 



If, then, 1 gr. of morphia be only equal to 2 of crude opium, and if 

 16 grs. must be expended to procure the grain of morphia ! the concen- 

 tration certainly does not appear so very striking, nor the effects so much 

 greater than in the undecomposed vegetable. It appears, then, that a 

 sort of Hibernian gain alone, is the result of the tedious process for 

 procuring morphia ! 



A case is related, in a recent number of the " Bull. Univ." of a person 

 having swallowed 24 grs, of acetate of morphia and recovered, although 

 no medical aid was afforded for ten hours, and it was probably superfluous, 

 as its sedative or narcotic effects must then have been spontaneously 

 subsiding. This shews how far the vaunted concentration and pretended 

 power is to be depended on : had it been of crude opium the case would, 

 doubtless, have ended differently. Such facts deserve to be duly reflected 

 on by the more cool, judicious and philosophic chemist, amidst the 

 popular mania after morphia, quinine, &c. 



The discovery of new vegetable elements, now forms an epocha, equal 

 to the recent tide of discovery of new metals and minerals. A most ad- 

 mirable phraseology has been adopted by certain sagacious discoverers. 

 — " Huttenschmid y a decouvert deux substances nouvelles, in Cortex 

 Geoffroyae probablement de nature alcaline, a aux quelles il a donnc les 

 noms de Jamaicine et de Surinamine. — Pharm. Univ. vol. i. p. 606. — All 

 the colonies, islands, &c. will thus furnish a most elegant and appro- 

 priate nomenclature for the new principles to be discovered ! 



