Dec. I, 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



40} 



legitimate traders in the article who contract ahead 

 for supplies to meet regular wants, in anticipation of 

 prices being against them in the future. Speculation, 

 in the true sense of the term, is damaging to legiti- 

 mate business and should he discouraged. The posi- 

 tion of quinine today is not what it was several 

 years ago, and manufacturers have to confront a change 

 which is against their interests and to the benefit of 

 the consumers. Instead of bark shipments being perio- 

 dical and uncertain, made so by the crude method of 

 gathering, the devastating wars, floods. &c., we can 

 now rely on weekly shipments and a stock in London 

 from which to draw upon, besides having no distur- 

 bance to trade or transportatien. 



" Tiiere is littrle money in the quinine business 

 to manufacturers, but it can be produced cheaper 

 abj-oad than here. We have enlarged our factory, 

 as the increased consumption caused princi- 

 pally by the low market, makes it necessary to in- 

 crease our capacity. During the fiscal year closed 

 last June, our quinine factory created a sinking fund 

 and declared a dividend of five per cent. This is a 

 good showing for an off-year when prices never ruled 

 so low. There is one important fact which has not 

 yet appeared in print ; in Germany the retail price 

 of quinine is fixed by law, and consumers have been 

 compelled to pay the same price established several 

 j-ears ago against their strong protest. Physicians 

 state that the consumption of quinine in Germany 

 would be much larger if the price was lower, and 

 they are now agitating a change in tho law to have 

 the retail price fluctuate with the wholesale rate and 

 allow the public to reap the benefit instead of the 

 pharmacists, who realize a large margin of profit at 

 present The feeling is so stronar on this question 

 that a change is looked for, and quinine manufac- 

 turers are of course helping the movement along. The 

 so-called substitutes for quinine are not injuring the 

 sale of the article abroad, as the substitutes are only 

 used for reducing the temperature and not for destroy- 

 ing the germs of the fever, like quinine does." — Drt'j/ 

 lieporttr, Sept, 30th. 



♦ 



AETIFICIAL QUININE. 



It happened rather curiously last week that just 

 as our editorial note, dealing with the somewhat un- 

 fortunate observations of the Oil, Paint, and Div<i He- 

 'porti'i-, was passing throi;gh the press, we should re- 

 ceive a communication upon one of the very subjects 

 our contemporary appears to be so anxious about. 

 Even yet, however, the denoiteincnt longed for by the 

 Ueimrter has not — as its readers would probably say 

 — eventuated. Mr. CresswellHewett's artificial quinine 

 has, up to the present time, neither demonstrated its 

 own veracity by being turned out by hundredweights 

 per diem at .a cost of 3d per ounce, nor has the 

 entire scheme resolved itself into thin air, or some- 

 thing even thinner still, by exploding altogether as 

 so many company concerns of the " limited '' class 

 did in the beginning, are doing at the present mo- 

 ment, and probably ever will do to the end of our 

 national existence. Although we cannot oblige our 

 trauFatlantic critic with the percussional sensation 

 so ardently desired, we publish today an important 

 narrative which he may probably regard as a small 

 instalment of that dcnoupment which our contemporary 

 appears to consider as the only fit and proper solu- 

 tion of the whole mystery. 



The salient points of this quinine story are capable 

 of being summed up in a very few words, although, 

 the last of such words — by a good many— has not 

 yet been spoken. Let ns state the chief facts of the 

 case and see how we stand : — Observing an announce- 

 ment in several papers nearly two months ago to 

 the effect that a certain Mr. Cresswell Hewett had 

 discovered a method of preparing quinine by synthesis, 

 at a cost of less than Hd per ounce. Dr. Burton, of 

 Bncklersbnvy, at once caused negotiations to be opened 

 v.ith the alleged discoverer, through the intermediary 

 of a friend, in the first instance, as is usual in such 

 cases. C)n his ofl'ors being accepted, Dr. Burton de- 

 clared himself, and, according to the account furnished 

 to our representative as given in another cohimn, he 



has all along been desirous of pushing the matter for- 

 ward to a satisfactory issue, andcf fulfilling his part of 

 the arrangement said to have been concluded as between 

 vendor and purchaser. Eepresenling not only himself, 

 but several other gentlemen, including Mr. Bland, 

 Messrs. Burroughs, Wellcome and Co., &c., it has been 

 stated to us by Dr. Burton that, not only were the 

 general, but also the financial, arrangements absolutely 

 completed and the sum of .£21,000 could have been 

 handed to Blr. Hewett within seven days after he had 

 really produced a couple of pounds of sulphate of 

 quinine which should stand all reasonable tests, chemi- 

 cal and therapeutical. 



That the latter proviso is fully as important as 

 the former, cannot be doubted when we consider the 

 large number of substances known to modern chemists 

 whose composition is absolutely identical, but whose 

 properties are widely different in one or more res- 

 pects. Thus, for example, there appear to be a whole 

 host of bodies with the common formula of GlOHltJ' 

 but perhaps in no two instances do even the phy- 

 sical characteristics of these substances agree. Their 

 specific gravity, boiling-point, index of refraction, &c., 

 are all unlike, to say nothing of the variations ap- 

 parent in their odour, taste, and pharmacology. Some- 

 times these dift'ereiues may be reconciled by a study 

 of the particular way in which the elements they 

 contain are grouped together; in other instances, 

 the bodies split up precisely the same marner,and 

 no light is afforded from this direction. Quite recently 

 the readers of our " Science Notes " may have noticed 

 that an Italian enquirer has ascertained that there 

 are two distinct modifications of the vegetable prin- 

 ciple known as Asparagine. Both kinds agree in 

 moat respects ; in appearance, in composition, and 

 in general properties they UMy be deemed absolntely 

 indfintical, but it is possible that they differ thera- 

 peutically to some extent, and it is certain that their 

 optical properties are diametrically opposed. Hence 

 we can only fall back upon an old and crude method 

 of distinguishing them and say that a solution 

 of rt-Asparagine rotates a ray of polarized light one 

 way, and yi-Asparagine twists it just as much, but 

 in precisely the opposite direction. 



It may therefore be the same with quinine, and in 

 our readiness to welcome the " Queen of Specifics," 

 produced— if this can really be done— artificially, at 

 a nominal cost, for the benefit of suffering humanity, 

 there can be no more important clause in any agree- 

 ment pertaining to what we consider as G'20 H21 N2 02 

 than that which, as in the draft we publish today, 

 provides that the substance must be miuUcalhi, as well 

 as chemically and physically, indistinguishable from 

 " Howard's Quinine." 



To return to our narrative ; so confident does the 

 inventor appear to have been of his success that he 

 actually accompanied the intending purchasers of this 

 secret to a factory at Wandsworth— t'.ie very same 

 by the way, that was described and illustrated in 

 the.se pages some time ago — where he selected the 

 room and some part of the appliances needed for the 

 production of the test sample. After this there was 

 practically no progress made, or information obtained 

 until the publication of our supplement of last week 

 and the determination of Dr. Burton and his coadjutors 

 to leave no stone unturned to discover the truth, and 

 to bring the question to a climax of one sort or 

 another, by npplying for an injunction in defence of 

 their alleged rights. Meanwhile a Mr. J. F. Buntino-, 

 described as a surveyor, of Ponders End, speaks witJi 

 calm confidence of the pros))ects of the Atlas Quinine 

 Company and of what his "principal " is going to 

 do. In the interests of either or both parties to this 

 curious emhrn^ilio, of the public, aud of truth, we shall 

 bo happy to do anything in our power which may 

 facilitate the investigation. 



We shall next week publish a special analytical 

 report upon an authentic sample of the " Hewett 

 Quinine, " and it is not improbable that our observ- 

 ations tliereon may tend slightly to illuminate some 

 points which today appear to beniore or less obscure, 

 — Biitisli and Colonial Dmnfiist. 



