^i 



fHi tiopiCAL AmicuLrmmf, [Uua, 1, ime. 



•sea 



sage. The correspondent had his own doubts as to 

 the accuracy of the Morniny Fost's chemistry, and 

 thi-se doubts were ccn'mued after some conversation 

 in tliis office, a conversation which left its impress 

 on the message ultimately sent. Still, as we said, there 

 are quarters wliere, naturally enough, the reports find 

 credence. Within the past few days we notice that 

 a w ll-kai wu pharmacist of the Hague, Mr. J. Th. 

 Mouton, who has interested himself iu the Amsterdam 

 Quinine Workp, writes to the Dutch papers, begging 

 1 hem to point out that there is no truth in the dis- 

 covery, or he says the efforts to raise fresh capital for 

 the Amsterdam Quinine "Works will fail, owiug to the 

 fear that the discovery isgeuuine. 



Lastly, there have been gentlemen of the company 

 promoting persuasion, who, neither believing nor dis- 

 believing the assertions made ; thought there might 

 be enough faith on the earth to get a limited entcr- 

 pri-e floated on the strength thereof. We have heard 

 several times that preliminary steps had been taken, 

 tha some more samples were in course of aualysis, 

 that a prospectus was nearly ready, and so on ; but 

 hitherto no company has been actually registered. 



The most definite report stated that everything 

 was now ready, and that Messrs. Burroughs, Well- 

 come & (Jo., having satisfied them'^elves of the gen- 

 uineness of the discovery, were taking it up, andthat 

 the manufacture was to be carried on at their factory 

 at Wandsworth. To ascertain how much truth this 

 statement contained we called on Mr. Burroughs, whose 

 information was given somewhat as follows : — 



" Mr. Cresswell Hewett was introduced to us by 

 another medical man with samples of quinine, which it 

 was professed he had made. We uuderstood that he 

 asked 20,000?. for his secret. This sum we told him 

 we were willing to pay. He said he could make a 

 ton a week. We told him a pound would be sufficient, 

 but that we stipulated we should see him make it. 

 Then he wanted 1,000/. a year salary. We told him 

 he should have that too, and we olTered to deposit 

 L'1,000?., payable to his order as soon as he had sati- 

 tied us that his process was a genuine one. Ho went 

 to see our factory and agreed that the arrangements 

 were suitable, but he said he would have to go to the 

 Contiuint to get some apparatus. We reminded him 

 that h ■ had declared he had made his samples in his 

 own roims, and declined to advance money for Oon- 

 tinen al appar itus. Ultimately he came on to our 

 gclici tors, and wanted to make other stipulations. We 

 were will.Dg to agree to most of his conditions, but 

 we fi mly declined to advance him any money for 

 expenses or salary till he had shown us his process 

 at work. He left us, I suppose to find some one more 

 pliable." — iheuiist and Draggist, Oct. 23rd. 



AMERICAN OPINION ON THE QUININE 

 MARKET. 



A representative of the Antcrican Drug Reporter 

 called last week upon Mr. L. Eugelhorn, the mnn )ger 

 01 the New York branch of 0. F. Bohringer & Sons, the 

 quinine manufacturers of Mannheim, Germ;ny, to as- 

 certain if he found any new developments iu the quinine 

 market during his two mouths .-tay abroad which would 

 give encouragement to operators here. After speaking 

 about the e.xpusure of tbe Lindou chemist's tactics in 

 the artificial quinine f aud, mention ol which is made in 

 OU-V editorial colnmna, Mr. Eigelboru proceeded to dis- 

 cuss the su' ject in ham! as follows;— 



"The barl5 ahipments were somewhat reduced during 

 the past three mouths, and the trade thought that it 

 was the beginning of a new era in prices, but the large 

 shipments for the last auction rather dispelled this idea 

 ami made future calc■u'aticn^ uncertain; they were too 

 heavy to e.xpect in the near future such a decrease in 

 barks as to justify any considerable advance in the 

 price of quinine. The principal a'gument for higher 

 prices lies iu the fact that a very large percentage of 

 tlid receipts at Loudon are root barks, thus showing 

 a desire on the part of the planters to substitute more 

 remunerative products, such as tea and coffee for the 

 profith ss cinchona barks, The time is certainly ap- 

 proaching when a shortage of barks will cause an im- 

 i)ortant change iu the (juiojue market, but that eveut is 



yet too distant for any reliable opinion to be expressed 

 on the probabilities. Considering the present cost of 

 making quinine, based upon ruling prices for bark, I mwst 

 consider the present prices for (juinine as cheap, and it is 

 to be presumed that those who purchase now and can 

 afford to carry their stocks will ultimately make some 

 money on them. As to the profits of mauufacturers, I 

 would say that after striking an average for the year they 

 will find themselves behind. The bark shipments have 

 been a surprise to the manufacturers ; they increase 

 when least expected and the price of quinine is conse- 

 quently forced down while that of bark is not, as the 

 latter has never gone below od to ;3id per unit ; .since 

 last October the shipments of bark have increased 2.> 

 per cent over the similar period of last year. Owing 

 to the cheapness of quinine, the consumption of cin- 

 chonidia has decreased somewhat, hut its production 

 as a by-product of the Ceylon barks has increased largely, 

 and is estimated at five times greater than the con- 

 sumption, (vhich caused prices to drop very low. For 

 instance there was a sale of 20,000 ounces of ciuchonidia 

 in this city last Wednesday at Ic per ounce ; one year 

 ago we sold ciuchonidia at 30c a.id today our price is 

 lUc. About ten years ago that article was scarcely 

 known as manufacturers of quinine did not know how 

 to make ciuchonidia, but now it is a by-product with 

 all of them. Retu'-ning to the question of profit in 

 making (juinine it may interest to you learn that, as 

 we are informed, some manufacturers are so thoroughly 

 disgusted with the business that they would willingly 

 receive proposals from some one to buy them out. 

 The Amsterdam factory is closed for good after en- 

 tailing heavy losses on account of small capacity, as it 

 costs considerably more to operate a small work. 

 But one more fact remains to be told and that is con- 

 cerning the production of quinine, which has not in- 

 creased to the proportion of increase in consumption 

 which is gaining every year." — Drug Reporter, Sept. 

 15th. 



ANOTHER OPINION ON THE QUININE 

 MARKET. 



iiMr. .J. Hasslacher, of the firm of Roessler & Uas- 

 slacher, agents for the Gold and .Silver brand of quinine, 

 is not inclined to entertain tbe opinion so generally ex- 

 pressed about cinchona bark aud quinine prospects. 

 As he has been spending some time abroad looking over 

 the field, and arrived home last week, are preseutative of 

 the "Reporter " monopolized a portion of his time since 

 then to inquire about the situation from his standpoint. 

 He did not believe that quinine would ever reach the 

 prices of former times ; but it was more than probable 

 that prices would continue to fluctuate on a low basis ; 

 competition is too close for manufacturers to realize 

 any large margin on their product, aud the price of 

 barks is not likely to be much higher, for the reason 

 that a plentiful supply may always be e-xpected, ex- 

 cept in case of war or some other uuforseen circum- 

 stance. Mr. Hasslacher was asked : 



" Are you not a believer in the reports about dis- 

 couraged planters substituting tea and coffee for cin- 

 chona barks, on account of the low price of the latter P 



" No, decidedly no; ever Huce the cultivation of 

 barks commenced we have heard the same, story 

 r<-peated each year, and atill they go on growing more 

 barkfi than ever. The production of barks will keep 

 on increasing, instead of decreasing^ notwithstanding re* 

 ports to the contrary, and tbe alleged fact that large ship- 

 ments of roots are made to the London market. Plan- 

 ters have never been satisfied and never will, but the>-e 

 must be money \\\ the business or they would not 

 continue it. Whenever shipments of bark are light 

 then we are informed as the cause that an important 

 shortage exists and that other crops are taking its 

 place ; but the trade is surprised in the following few 

 days or weeks by a deluge of barks, evidently held to 

 await the result of the preconcerted arrangements to 

 bull the market by unreliable rumors. No, the trade 

 in quiniue will not .'•oon be benefited i)y any radical 

 change in the bark situation, and I would advise 

 speculators to let it alone — I mean those capitalists 

 who buy aud bold for a rise in the market, uot (b9 



