CINCHONA CUPREA. 51 
quantities in the London market, and was eagerly purchased. The 
first imports, according to Paul,‘ occurred as early as June 1879, 
and soon thereafter, notwithstanding the unusual appearance of the 
“Cuprea,” its value was determined to the effect that it contained 
about 2 per cent. of sulphate of quinine and only a small amount of 
the associate alkaloids. De Vrij obtained from the same altogether 
as much even as 5.9 per cent. of alkaloids (Letter of September 23, 
1$82). In May, 1880, large supplies of this bark were already to 
be seen in London,’ and the subsequent imports directly assumed 
unsuspected dimensions. 
Cinchona cuprea occurs in quite flat or channeled pieces, more 
rarely in quills of scarcely half a meter (20 inches) in length, and 
at the most from 5 to 7 millimeters (+ to } inch) in thickness ; but 
by far the predominating amount consists of small fragments, and 
conveys altogether the impression that it can only be derived from 
a tree of small dimensions. The light brown, longitudinally wrin- 
kled or warty cork is usually scraped off, so that the smooth outer 
surface is formed of the tissue of the outer bark, to which pertains the 
previously mentioned color of copper vessels. The outer surface also 
often shows impressions of the incisions of a sharp knife, whichare oc- 
casionally but a few millimeters distant from each other, and extend 
in a parallel direction, probably for the purpose of removing the 
cork, and presumably in order to render prominent the more pleas- 
ing color of the inner tissue. This is indeed so peculiar, in dis- 
tinction to former Cinchona barks, that it must attract the attention 
of any one who has made himself familiar with the appearance of 
true Cinchona barks; the copper-colored bark deviates to a still 
greater degree from all true Cinchona barks by its great hard- 
ness. It is also impossible to confuse it with the Cinchona nova 
surinamensis, for the reason that the Cinchona cuprea yields the 
red tar of Grahe’s test (p. 68). 
Specimens of this Cinchona cuprea were furnished, in 1879, toa 
German house (Lengerke & Co.) in Bucaramanga, in the Colum- 
bian state of Santander, and were sent by them to New York and 
London for the purpose of examination, The favorable result of 
the analyses then led to the collection of this bark on a large scale 
in the forests of the mountains which, above Bucaramanga, ascend 
from the main valley of the Magdalena river to the chain of La 
Paz, and form the water-shed between this stream and its tributary, 
the Suarez. e se 
The tree which furnishes the Cinchona cuprea begins to make 
1 Pharm. Fourn. X1 (September, 1880) 259. one ae 
2 Pharm. Fourn X (1880), 954. 
