3 8o 



THF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[November i, 1884. 



lar,est profits have been obtained, as in the case 

 of belts and boundaries planted with cinchonas as 

 rapid growing ornamental trees before their market- 

 able value was understood ; while where plantations 

 have been systematically and expensively cultivated, 

 the result has too often been a failure. 



Mistakes however are in a fair way to be recti- 

 fied ; and there can be no doubt of the permanent 

 establishment of the Cinchona Industry in the three 

 Eastern countries referred to, while experiments are 

 being made chiefly under the direction of Ceylon 

 planters in a variety of other quarters. It is there- 

 fore very evident that henceforward the East rather 

 than the West is to bo looked to for the world's sup- 

 ply of cinchona bark. 



What is the result in reference to the supply of the 

 alkaloids, extracted from the already increased crop of 

 bark, so valuable to a large proportion of the popul- 

 ation of the globe? This is the point to which at- 

 tention has more particularly to be directed, the pre- 

 ceding remarks being merely by way of introduction 

 to the question of Consumption It has been said that 

 the degree of civilization attained by a country may 

 be gaugKl by its consumption of sulphuric acid. With 

 as much force we might refer to its "bill of health" 

 as having a direct relation to its con-umption of 

 quinine and other cinchona alkaloids ! 



The importance of " bark " to certain countries can 

 not be over-estimated, and no one can deny the 

 truth of the statement by a Confederate officer that the 

 final collapse of the armies of the Southern States 

 was due more to the complete exhau-tion of their 

 supply of cinchona bark than to almost any other 

 cause. In America the use and value of quinine is, 

 in fact, much more generally understood than it is 

 in England, and the consumption is large in pro- 

 portion. It may be said that the malarious swampy 

 plains common in the Southern States have no par 

 allel in Britain ; but we would beg to pomt out 

 that, at least in the ''Pen" districts, the people 

 would be the better of a good deal more quinine 

 or other cinchona bark alkaloids than they at present 

 ever see. It is perhaps not generally known that, as 

 a substitute, opium in the form of laudanum is largely 

 consumed by people depressed with the effects of 

 malaria or ague in lowlying districts in the Eastern 

 counties of Eugland, and we have heard that the 

 quantity of this drug sold by apothecaries in the Fen 

 districts and about Gravesend would rat her astonish 

 those who think that the use of opium is _ confined 

 to the Chinese. 



It is of special importance to point out the close 

 relation between opium and quinine : how, in fact, 

 the proper use of the one may be considered the 

 remedy or preventive for the improper use of the 

 other ; and if, as seems likely, England, through India 

 and Ceylon, is destiued to give suffering millions 

 in Asia, notably China relief through cheap quinine- 

 pliilanthropists who denounce the opium iniquity may 

 take comfort that compensation is in a lair way to come 

 from the same Government. Cheap quinine would 

 undoubtedly obviate the necessity for the use of 

 opium over large districts in China where now the 

 consumption is extending. We found that American 

 missionaries in returning to China almost universally 

 bring back packets of quinine pills for distribution 

 as about the greatest material blessing they can be-ttow 

 ou the Chinese people under their care. It is most 

 striking to learn from Mr. Colquhoun (in his 

 " Across Chryse "), how often, during his journey 

 across Southern China, the quesion was 

 put to him at remote stations : — " Have you auy 

 remedy for the taste (or craving) for the black smoke 

 poison" (opium) ; and on this being answered in the 

 negative, — "Have you quinine I" and how, again and 

 again, mandarins and people valued a pinch of the 



febrifuge far more than his most strikiug gifts of 

 Birmingham manufacture. We trust we have said 

 enough to shew the importance to a large p qmlat on 

 all round the globe of cheap quinine : not only for 

 hum in beings but for horses and cattle would pre- 

 parations from ciuehona bark be. very beneficial if 

 made available at a cheap rate. The great object 

 now is to stimulate consumption in proportion to the pre- 

 valent moderate prices. It is possible that even medical 

 men throughout the United Kingdom may not know 

 the change which is c mitig over the cinchona bark 

 trade. Certainly their patients and all sufferers 

 from fever ought to learn the present position of the 

 quinine market, because retailers of drugs have the 

 habit of adhering to the old-fashioned prices long 

 after such rates are out of all proportion to the wholesale 

 quotations. Below, will be found the detailed return 

 of prices to which we have referred : the abstract 

 extending over the past sixteen years. 



