Aug, 2, me.] THE i'ROPiCAL AGRlCUtTUHISlt 



105 



NATAL TEA. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE "COLONIES AND INDIA.'' 



Sir, — You have from time to time kindlj- published 

 my commuuications relative to tea culture in Natal, 

 in order that people in this country interested in one 

 of the burning questions of the day (i.e., what to do 

 with our boys) might be informed of the opening 

 for capital and labour existing in the Colony to which 

 I belong. 



In the issue of your journal last week you furnished 

 particulars of the public sale of a small consignment 

 of tea from Natal, averaging l.":. 7d. per lb. in bond, 

 and this price was realized in the teeth of the broker's 

 report that the tea was over-fired or burnt, aud|irregularly 

 fermented, being details of faulty manufacture which 

 experience will remedy. 



The tea itself contains the elements of good ([uality, 

 only needing the guidance of an expert or experience 

 in the manipulation to do it full justice. 



From Messrs. Gow. Wilson & Stanton's Indian 

 and Java tea report of the Hth inst, I quote the 

 following as an idea of the current price of Indian 

 teas in London: — Fanning, red to brown, strong i-oiigh 

 liquor, 7^d.; Broken Tea, fair brownish to blackish, 

 strong liquor, SgJ..; Pekoe Souchong, fair blackish greyish, 

 useful licjuor, lOjcJ.; Pekoe, fair greyish to blackish, 

 some tip, useful liquor, ll^d- 



It is evident from the foregoing that Natal planters 

 have a cheering prospect to stimulate them to use every 

 exertion to produce quality rather than quantity, for 

 the deduction is that good tea will return a good 

 price, as the great bulk of the tea which reaches this 

 market is of very inferior quality or strength. 



There was opened yesterday at the Colonial and 

 Indian Exhibition a new tea pavilion for the sale of 

 Natal tea by the cup, which was largely patronised, 

 and the quality of tea supi>lied afforded great satisfac- 

 tion, freely expressed by the public. 



In the Natal Court tea from various estates is shown 

 (a parcel of a ton from one) ; photographs of plantations 

 are on view, and every information can be afforded, — 

 I am, &c., Morton Crreeu, Brixton Hill, June 15. 1886. 



HYDROQUININE. 



Some years since {Pliarm. Joiini.., [oj, xii., 005j 

 in a paper describing several alkaloids found in 

 the mother-liquors obtained in the manufacture 

 of quinine. Dr. Hesse gave some account of one 

 containing two atoms of hydrogen more than 

 <iuinine, to which he gave the name " hydroquinine." 

 In many respects it resembles quinine, dissolving 

 readily in alcohol and ether and forming a crystal- 

 line hydrate when precipitated from the solution of 

 its salts by ammonia. Its rotatory power is less than 

 that of quinine. The solution in excess of sulphuric 

 acid has a blue fluorescence, and with chlorine and 

 ammonia the alkaloid gives the same reaction as 

 quinine. The therapeutic action of this alkaloid has 

 recently been studied by Seifert, who finds that it 

 is an antipyretic superior to salicylic acid and kairine, 

 reducing the pulse and the temperature with abund- 

 ant transpiration. The dose is about the same as 

 that of quinine and its continued use is not attended 

 with disagreeable effects. There is reason to believe 

 that the presence of this alkaloid in commercial 

 quinine sulphate may have been the cause of the 

 exaggerated estimates of the amount of cinchonidine 

 in that article, as will appear from a paper on this 

 subject by Dr. O. Hesse that will be published in 

 this Journal next week. ISIeanwhile it may be men- 

 tioned that M. .\rmet de Lisle has addressed to the 

 Academic de Medicine a formal protest against the 

 statement made by Dr. de Vrij that the quinine 

 sulphate of his manufacture contains 12'448 per cent. 

 of cinchonidine sulphate. Another circumstance which 

 appears to throw considerable doubt on Dr. de Yrij's 

 results is the amount of water of crystallization which 

 he gives for quinine sulphate of Knglish manufactures 

 viz., 10-85 and 5'72 pcjr cent. Jn any case it seems 

 very remarkable that he should regard such a small 

 amount of water of crystallizatiou rs beiug the reasou 

 U 



why a particular make of quinine sulphate commands 

 a higher price than others. The Pharmaceutische 

 Zeitunrf also calls attention to the fact that according 

 to Dr. de Vrij's statements the quinine sulphate inade 

 in Germany would not hold the first rank as to 

 quality, and it is suggested that German manufacturer 

 of this article should take steps to furnish such an 

 explanation as is desirable in regard to this subject. 

 — Pharmaceutical Journal. 



THE CINCHONA MARKET AND PEODUCTION 



IN CEYLON. 



Our readers will without doubt have taken due 

 note of the last local sale, on Thursday, of 72,829 

 lbs. of cinchona bark with the analysis and the 

 prices realized. We cannot but regard the con- 

 tinued fall in bark, both locally and in the 

 London market, as eminently unsatisfactory, not 

 only so at the moment as it affects producers 

 who are forced to realize their crops, but more 

 particularly as being entirely without the slightest 

 gleam of hope for a better condition of the market 

 in the immediate future. Some of the bark at the 

 sale to which we refer, analyzing 2 per cent of (juinine, 

 appears to have realized about 21 cents per unit, a 

 figure to which we" think we are justified in apply- 

 ing the word miserable. Shortly after the great rush 

 for cinchona planting had fairly begun, there were 

 many who were unable to see where a market could 

 be found for the enormous production of quinine 

 which seemed to be quite possible in the future, and 

 who confidently foretold the consequences which would 

 follow in its train. But the opinions of many eminent 

 specialists were put forward in contradistinction to 

 this, ;i,nd planters were told that quinine could be 

 used for brewing beer, for fixing dyes, for tanning; 

 and for a variety of purposes from which at that 

 time its excessive cost debarred its general use. It 

 was boldly asserted that a reduction in price by 50 

 per cent would leave an ample margin for immense 

 jirofits to growers, and that such a reduction would 

 induce the use of quinine as a medicine to an extent 

 far beyond the imagination of the men of that daj-. 

 The Chinese, for instance, were to cease the use of 

 opium, and exist on quinine as a preventive to the 

 ague-fevers so common along the principal rivers of 

 (!hina, and which had mainly induced the habit of 

 opium-smoking. "We were told on one occasion by an 

 eminent medical authority that, as there was only a 

 certian portion of the world's surface that would grow 

 cinchona, were every acre of that portion planted up 

 with trees, it would not supply all the quinine for 

 which a market could be found when the drug fell in 

 price, something to about half the extent it has 

 done since. How far such dreams have been realized 

 it is not necessary for us to point out. The hope 

 and fears of many years' experience of the cultivation, 

 the loss of millions of trees by canker and wet, the 

 devastation of plantations consequent on the necessi- 

 ties of impecunious producers, and the thousand and 

 one causes which have resulted in the paraly.sis of 

 the cinchona industry — overweighted as it has been 

 by super-abundant supplies — the old fields of supply 

 in Mouth America being all but abandoned, in conse- 

 quence of the reduction in value of bark causing 

 collection to be unremuuerative — in spite of all these 

 things, the prospects of cinchona growers in Ceylon and 

 the East Indies exhibit no sign of being bettered. It 

 i? at any moment sufficient to overwhelm the existing 

 markets of Europe and America. Over and over again 

 have we been told that the supply from Ceylon must 

 shortly be reduced; it was impossible that any year 

 in the future could show such an output of birk as 

 we had seen in the past. It has been asserted that 

 a variety of causes had reduced the acreage of trees 

 in Ceylou so seriously that a very important reduction 

 must of necessity be shown in the export of the 

 l)resent season, and as a consequence we might look 

 with certainty for a rise in the value, which would 

 altogether alter the appearance of the market. With 

 gucb prosijects as these the hopes of producers have 



