266 - ORD. XIV. Contorte. CINCHONA OFFICINALIS, 
lions, which some naturalists pretend are subject to a kind of inter- 
mitting fever, of which they were observed to be cured by in- 
-stinctively eating the bark of the Cinchona. But Geoffroy states, 
that the use of the bark was first learned from the following cir- 
cumstance :—Some cinchona trees being thrown by the winds into 
a pool of water, lay there till the water became so bitter that every 
body refused to drink it. However, one of the neighbouring in- 
habitants being seized with a violent paroxysm of fever, and finding 
no other water to quench his thirst, was forced to drink this, by 
which he was perfectly cured. He afterwards related the circum- 
stance to others, and prevailed upon some of his friends who were 
ill of fevers to make use of the same remedy, with whom it proved 
equally successful.“ The use of this excellent medicine, however, 
was very little known till about the year 1638, when a signal cure 
having been performed by it on the Spanish viceroy’s ‘ody, the _ 
ae del Cinchon, at Lima, it came into general use, and hence 
was distinguished by the appellation pulvis comitisse, or the 
Countess’s powder ; also called, cortex china china, or chinchina : 
kina kina, or kinkina; and quina quina, or quinquina. On the 
recoyery of the Countess she distributed a large quantity of the 
bark to the Jesuits, in whose hands it acquired still greater repu- 
tation, and by them it was first introduced into Europe,* and 
thence called cortex, or pulvis jesuiticus, pulvis patrum ; and also 
* Cardinal de Lugo’s powder, because that charitable prelate bought 
a large quantity.of it at a great expense for the use of the religious 
oor of Rome. 
“ This bark is brought to us im pieces of different sizes, some 
rolled up into short thick quills, and others flat: the outside is 
brownish, and generally covered in part with a whitish moss: the. 
inside is of a yellowish reddish or rusty iron colour. The best sort 
breaks close and smooth, and proves friable between the teeth: the 
8 Mat. Med. Traité, p. 78, 
© Louis the fourteenth, when Dauphin, was said to be one of the first in Europe 
who experienced its eREicy. 
