32G Dr. Hancock on Quinine. 



boiling. How, then, could it ever have been imagined for a 

 moment, that a single insulated principle could possess the 

 exalted virtues arising from a combination of the various active 

 elements of Peruvian bark* ? 



The results derived from the use of this preparation, in 

 intermittents, in many cases of general debility, &c. give me 

 reason to consider it as the most effectual and certain pre- 

 paration that can be devised, either as a febrifuge, or general 

 tonic, and I may say corrector and alterative in loss of appe- 

 tite, weakened state of the stomach and digestive organs, and 

 their concomitant evils, as nervous weakness, spasms, gout, 

 dropsies, ulcerations, scrofula, tubercular consumption, leuco- 

 phlegmasia, &c. in such cases, it forms a most valuable remedy, 

 taken alternately with the muriated tincture of iron. In those 

 chronic maladies, it would often be of advantage to increase 

 the quantity of the acid. 



From the trials I have more lately made with it, I am fully 

 convinced, that this preparation is a far more effectual febrifuge 

 than the same quantity of the best bark taken in substance or 

 powder. It always sits easy on the stomach, and is never 



* Such reflections could not have been adverted to by the learned editor 

 of the " Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal," when he expressed himself at a 

 loss to account for the inferiority of these alkalies to the entire or un- 

 decomposed vegetables. ** In employing the alkalies instead of the 

 vegetables, not only is the expense augmented by the process for their 

 preparation, but they actually do not possess nearly the same degree of 

 energy as they do in their natural state of combination ; that is, if an 

 ounce of any vegetable matter contains 30 grs. of an alkali, those 30 grs. 

 are not so powerful in their pure state as when they are united with other 

 principles, to form an ounce of the undecomposed vegetable." To these 

 judicious remarks, he strangely adds, " We have no means of conjecturing 

 whence this proceeds." Vol. xviii. p. 162 ; and at page 155, it is remarked, 

 that " These vegetable alkalies are endowed with a powerful influence upon 

 the animal economy, and it is a law, hitherto universal, that they con- 

 centrate in themselves all the physiological properties of the vegetables, 

 to which they belong ! It is worthy of remark, however, that although 

 their effect is much greater than that of the undecomposed vegetables, the 

 same quantity of alkali is not so powerful in its pure form as in its 

 natural state of combination." Nothing could be more just than the 

 last sentence, whilst it is a direct contradiction to the preceding one. It 

 is curious to observe the conflicting opinions which arise from false 

 premises : or does this originate in an undue deference to the Magni 

 Nominis Umbra— an overweening confidence in annunciations emanating 

 from men of high celebrity ? 



