HISTORY OF THE CINCHONA BARKS TO THE YEAR 1737. 85 
In Germany, “ China Chine” is met with in the pharmaceutical 
tariffs of Leipsic and Frankfort for the year 1669. According to 
the latter, one “quint” (one-eighth of an ounce) cost 50 kreuzers 
(about 38 cents), whereas the same amount of opium was quoted 
at 4 kreuzers, camphor at 2 kreuzers, and balsam of Peru at 8 
kreuzers. 
It is conceivable that at that time other barks possessing a bitter 
taste might be mistaken for Cinchona bark. An indeed very re- 
markable example of this kind is afforded by the Cascarilla bark* 
from Croton Eluteria, a small tree belonging to the family of 
Euphorbiacee. This drug from the West Indies, which possesses 
a bitter, but at the same time, however, a strongly aromatic taste, 
made its appearance in Germany toward the close of the seven- 
teenth century, under the name of Chzna nova; but, as it appears, 
soon passed into oblivion, and at the beginning of this century the 
same name was again bestowed upon an entirely different bark, 
namely, that of Cascarilla magnifolia (mentioned on p. 48). It 
may, indeed, be accepted that in the meantime still other barks 
were frequently confused with or used to adulterate the Cinchona 
barks.” 
The further distribution of Cinchona was advanced in a high 
degree by Robert Talbor, a physician who emanated from a phar- 
macy in Cambridge, and who, in 1672, made himself known 
through the publication of “ Pyretologia, a rational account of the 
cause and cure of agues,’ in which also “ Jesuits’ Powder” is spoken 
of. In 1678 Talbor was appointed physician to King Charles II, 
and also made a knight; in 1679 he treated the King at Windsor 
with Cinchona, and received then also not less favor at the French 
Court. It is remarkable that Talbor knew how to envelop his 
cures with such secrecy that he was able to make his chief remedy, 
cinchona bark, contribute in the most successful manner to his 
personal profit. As, in 1681, after Talbor’s death, King Louis XIV 
caused the composition of the remedy to be made known, cinchona 
bark was revealed as its chief constituent, and now attracted the 
renewed attention of physicians.* | 
Aworthy successor of Talbor, Nicolas Blegny,’ likewise physi- 
1 Flickiger, Pharmakognosie, second edition, p. 573. 
2 Compare Fliickiger, Pharmakognosie, 2d edition, under Quassia, p. 461; Pharma- 
cographia, 2d edition, p. 1066—Quina de Caront, ee 
3 Mérat et De Lens, Dictionnaire de Matiétre médicale, V (1833), 627. 
4 More complete information regarding Talbor is contained in Pharmacographia, 24 
edition, pp. 344 and 766. . ai: 
8 Compare further regarding the character of this swindler, who followed the occupa- 
tion of physician and apothecary in Paris, until, in 1686, he was placed in the I 
Grave, Etat de la Pharmacie en France. Mantes, 1879, p. 179. Le 
